[tor-relays] tor-instance-create users: beware all your instances are always started

tor relay torelay3 at mailbox.org
Sat Aug 6 23:01:26 UTC 2016


This is only relevant for debian users.

If you assume you can manage your instances with the usual systemctl commands like
systemctl disable/enable tor at myinstance
beware that they have no effect.

Note: systemctl start/stop works as expected.

This is important to know especially if you have multiple configurations and want to enable/disable some of them to avoid running them concurrently.

I don't know the reasoning behind that design decision but all your instances are enabled due to [1],
you cannot use the well known systemctl disable command like
systemctl disable tor at myinstance
to disable a specific instance.
If you want to disable them you can use the 'mask' command:
systemctl mask tor at myinstance
this is less convenient because this way you wont be able to run
systemctl start tor at myinstance (on a masked unit)
or move configuration files away (also less convenient than native disable/enable)



[1] https://gitweb.torproject.org/debian/tor.git/tree/debian/systemd/tor-generator


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