[tor-bugs] #31707 [Core Tor/Tor]: Better handling and UX for missing and expired guard descriptors

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#31707: Better handling and UX for missing and expired guard descriptors
-------------------------------------------------+-------------------------
 Reporter:  teor                                 |          Owner:  (none)
     Type:  defect                               |         Status:  new
 Priority:  Medium                               |      Milestone:  Tor:
                                                 |  unspecified
Component:  Core Tor/Tor                         |        Version:  Tor:
                                                 |  0.3.0.1-alpha
 Severity:  Normal                               |     Resolution:
 Keywords:  log, tor-guard, tor-bridge, tor-     |  Actual Points:
  client                                         |
Parent ID:  #21969                               |         Points:
 Reviewer:                                       |        Sponsor:
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Description changed by teor:

Old description:

> Split off #31657:
>
> Replying to teor:
> > How do we reliably detect pathological cases?
> > Suppress the message, until it occurs a few times within a short
> timeframe?
>
> dgoulet:
>
> That's a good question I don't have an answer for.
>
> Unfortunately, I don't think that's the kind of message that occurs
> multiple times, looking at #30746 (and friends) this seems to be able to
> cause havoc with just a single repeatition.
>
> I'm not sure why this is the case, since `router_have_minimum_dir_info()`
> seems to be called all the time and that should eventually call
> `entry_guards_get_err_str_if_dir_info_missing()` which is the source of
> the log message... Things are kinda messy between these two functions
> tho, so it's kinda hard to understand what's the issue.
>
> Perhaps we can merge this patch for now since it does not seem to make
> the situation worse, and we can think in the future how to improve the
> UX? If you agree, feel free to toggle this into merge_ready since the
> patch LGTM.

New description:

 Split off #31657:

 Replying to teor:
 > How do we reliably detect pathological cases?
 > Suppress the message, until it occurs a few times within a short
 timeframe?

 dgoulet:

 That's a good question I don't have an answer for.

 Unfortunately, I don't think that's the kind of message that occurs
 multiple times, looking at #30746 (and friends) this seems to be able to
 cause havoc with just a single repeatition.

 I'm not sure why this is the case, since `router_have_minimum_dir_info()`
 seems to be called all the time and that should eventually call
 `entry_guards_get_err_str_if_dir_info_missing()` which is the source of
 the log message... Things are kinda messy between these two functions tho,
 so it's kinda hard to understand what's the issue.

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Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/31707#comment:2>
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