[tor-relays] Hostname in DirAuthority config

[Andrew Smith]

OK, thanks for the clarification and raising the ticket.

To answer the why - for starters I'm trying to run a local tor network for
fun and to learn more about tor.

Why am I trying to put a hostname in there? Because the system I'm setting
up the network in may not have static IPs. As I understand it I need to
maintain a DirAuthority line with a hard coded IP for each and every
directory authority I run myself. If I can use a DNS name, this will mean I
end up updating the torrc with DirAuthority lines a lot less. With IPs I am
forced to change every torrc in my network every time an IP changes.

There are certainly ways around this (I could have a script populate torrc
based upon DNS, for example) but it would make my life easier if I didn't
have to.

Thanks


On 6 February 2017 at 23:10, teor <teor2345 at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> > On 7 Feb 2017, at 03:31, Andrew Smith <me at andrewmichaelsmith.com> wrote:
> >
> > Hi
> >
> > I'm experimenting running my own tor network. To achieve this I'm
> setting DirAuthority in torrc.
> >
> > But it seems that I cannot use a hostname for my DirAuthority.
>
> Why are you trying to do this?
> If you share your goal, we might be able to help you with a workaround
> or alternate strategy.
>
> For example, if you use a hostname in the "Address" field, your
> authority will look it up, add the IPv4 to its descriptor, and then
> other authorities, relays, and clients will use that address.
> (After the network has bootstrapped using the original address.)
>
> > For example:
> >
> > DirAuthority da1 orport=7000 no-v2 v3ident=xxx da1:7000 xxx
> >
> > Results in the error:
> >
> > Unrecognized flag 'da1:7000' on DirAuthority line
> >
> > If I replace "da1" with an IP address there is no error. Is this
> expected behaviour?
>
> It is the implemented behaviour, and has been since at least 2006
> (tor-0.1.2.2-alpha). The code responsible is:
>
>   while (smartlist_len(items)) {
>     char *flag = smartlist_get(items, 0);
>     if (TOR_ISDIGIT(flag[0]))
>       break;
>
> Which means that only IPv4 addresses are guaranteed to work here.
>
> > I'm running tor v0.2.8.12. The documentation calls this an "address" (as
> opposed to other parts which refer to an "IP") which made me think a
> hostname would work.
>
> The "Address" torrc option takes a hostname, as do some other options
> (I think the HiddenServicePort target is another.)
>
> Thanks for the bug report, we'll fix the man page:
> https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/21405
>
> T
>
> --
> Tim Wilson-Brown (teor)
>
> teor2345 at gmail dot com
> PGP C855 6CED 5D90 A0C5 29F6 4D43 450C BA7F 968F 094B
> ricochet:ekmygaiu4rzgsk6n
> xmpp: teor at torproject dot org
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>
>
>
>
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-- 
Andy Smith
http://andrewmichaelsmith.com | @bingleybeep
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