[tor-relays] MyFamily

[denny.obreham at a-n-o-n-y-m-e.net]

This has probably been addressed before but why isn't the MyFamily value just a single, unique ID?

If I have the relays with the fingerprints "John", "Jane", and "Alice" and I want to add "Bob", wouldn't it be simpler (and more logical) to add the unique MyFamily "Smith" to each torrc file than listing all fingerprints?

What do you do when you have 50 relays and want to add or remove a relay? You must modify 50 torrc files and restart all 50 relays? That seems tedious and unnecessary. I'm trying to find a way to automate this process and I can wrap my head around the complexity of the problem, especially with multiple servers.

I could just use the fingerprint of my first relay as MyFamily (to ensure uniqueness) and then add it to every other torrc file I create in the future. Even if I remove the first relay from the network, the MyFamily value is still valid as a unique "family" name.

I don't know the particular procedure, but even the process of blacklisting relays based on MyFamily, when selecting a relay, seems tedious. For example, the entry relay has 50 family members and the middle relay has 50 other family members, so I have to compare the potential exit relay "first" name to 100 "first" names instead of comparing its "family" name to two "family" names.

Is this too complicated to implement or am I missing something?

Denny