Hi,
something (else) struck me while writing the design paper: T(A)ILS
really should support bridges. Someone already did a great part of the
design and implementation thinking (todo/bridge_support), without much
feedback IIRC. Here is some, random thoughts, sorry for the mess.
I must admit I'm a bit reluctant to the homebrew script approach. I
would prefer if we could do this by using and possibly improving
existing tools.
While comparing a homebrew script vs. Vidalia the following is stated
there: "The vidalia approach is easier to implement but leaves the
burden of finding the Vidalia settings and typing shit to the user." I
just had a look to Vidalia preferences, and am not sure we can design
a better UI. Of course the bridges configuration is not on the main
Vidalia preferences screen, but it is quite easy to find IMHO. I also
don't know what "typing shit" is referred to there; AFAIK Vidalia does
only asks the user to type anything when using manual input of
bridges. The "warn before connecting to bridges.torproject.org" part
could be added to upstream Vidalia I guess, possibly opt-in.
How does Vidalia set these settings? I have not looked further than
the author of these current implementation notes. Hints: it may depend
on the Vidalia/Tor operation mode (standalone Tor managed by Vidalia,
system-wide Tor daemon); I think I remember Vidalia manages its own
~/.vidalia/torrc when it manages Tor itself; this solution hasn't the
issue of configuration being reset when Tor restarts (should be
checked, btw), and could be investigated as well. User privilege
isolation could be hard to get, though.
"Since these settings disappear if Tor restarts, this is potentially
dangerous." -> I am not sure. At this point we already have
"ReachableAddresses reject *:*" in torrc and Tor is not supposed to
connect to the network yet. Having to re-type bridge addresses is
painful, sure... unless Vidalia remembers such settings and re-applies
the configuration on startup (could be added if not implemented yet).
=> "keep system-wide Tor, Vidalia talks to it over control port"
seems OK. No messing with torrc, (almost) everything is here
already but the boot menu toggleable option.
Well, someone (possibly me) should play a bit more with this Vidalia
stuff.
2cts, blah.
Cheers!
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