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

[Tor Bug Tracker & Wiki]

#31707: Better handling and UX for missing and expired guard descriptors
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     Reporter:  teor     |      Owner:  (none)
         Type:  defect   |     Status:  new
     Priority:  Medium   |  Milestone:  Tor: unspecified
    Component:  Core     |    Version:  Tor: 0.3.3.1-alpha
  Tor/Tor                |   Keywords:  fast-fix, log, tor-guard, tor-
     Severity:  Normal   |  bridge, tor-client, BugSmashFund, 042-should
Actual Points:           |  Parent ID:  #21969
       Points:           |   Reviewer:
      Sponsor:           |
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 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.

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