[tor-dev] Question on Tor Design (current and maybe past and future)

[ng0]

Hi,

can one of the core developers tell me if there exists
a current summary of the design of Tor?

I've started looking into OR for GNUnet and as far as I know
from the papers in the anonbib and one 2013 presentation
slides I've read so far, Tor went through many changes
over the years.
I'm interested in what you use today, where you are
heading (or what you are considering for the future)
and maybe reasons why past designs were changed.

Best regards,
ng0

[Jonathan Marquardt]

Post by ng0
can one of the core developers tell me if there exists
a current summary of the design of Tor?

I’m not one of the core developers, but I know where the design documents are
anyway:

https://www.torproject.org/docs/documentation.html.en#DesignDoc

A good start would probably be to read the original design document from 2004
and after that the two "Eight key design changes" blog posts.

[ng0]

Hi,

Post by Jonathan Marquardt

Post by ng0
can one of the core developers tell me if there exists
a current summary of the design of Tor?

I’m not one of the core developers, but I know where the design documents are
https://www.torproject.org/docs/documentation.html.en#DesignDoc

Oh, obvious location. I have the specs git and the anonbib, so I
thought I had to skip through all of them to get some up to date
idea.

Post by Jonathan Marquardt
A good start would probably be to read the original design document from 2004

That's obvious, and goes without stating that I've read at least
this one before asking (and I didn't ask about old designs).

Post by Jonathan Marquardt
and after that the two "Eight key design changes" blog posts.

Okay, which year were they written in?

After sending this post I realized my sentence structure
suffered a bit of an early morning post. Maybe this is
a bit more precise (while still keeping it short):

A summary of the currenty (late 2017) design of Tor,
a reflection on past designs and why they were
disregarded/changed,
and where you are heading at the moment.


I'm used to websites and content you can display in the
webbrowser not being up to date all the time, and my
assumption was that I would have to dig through all
the papers and blog posts, meeting notes and come to
a conclusion on my own - or ask you to get some
insiders view on this.

[ng0]

Post by ng0
Hi,

Post by Jonathan Marquardt

Post by ng0
can one of the core developers tell me if there exists
a current summary of the design of Tor?

I’m not one of the core developers, but I know where the design documents are
https://www.torproject.org/docs/documentation.html.en#DesignDoc

Oh, obvious location. I have the specs git and the anonbib, so I
thought I had to skip through all of them to get some up to date
idea.

Post by Jonathan Marquardt
A good start would probably be to read the original design document from 2004

That's obvious, and goes without stating that I've read at least
this one before asking (and I didn't ask about old designs).

Post by Jonathan Marquardt
and after that the two "Eight key design changes" blog posts.

Okay, which year were they written in?

Nevermind the question on the blogposts, I've just read the
DesignDoc anchor.

Post by ng0
After sending this post I realized my sentence structure
suffered a bit of an early morning post. Maybe this is
A summary of the currenty (late 2017) design of Tor,
a reflection on past designs and why they were
disregarded/changed,
and where you are heading at the moment.
I'm used to websites and content you can display in the
webbrowser not being up to date all the time, and my
assumption was that I would have to dig through all
the papers and blog posts, meeting notes and come to
a conclusion on my own - or ask you to get some
insiders view on this.
--
GnuPG: A88C8ADD129828D7EAC02E52E22F9BBFEE348588
GnuPG: https://dl.n0.is/dist/keys/
WWW: https://we.make.ritual.n0.is
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[Roger Dingledine]

Post by ng0

Post by Jonathan Marquardt
and after that the two "Eight key design changes" blog posts.

Actually, there's a bonus third of those blog posts. I just added it to
https://www.torproject.org/docs/documentation.html.en#DesignDoc

Post by ng0
A summary of the currenty (late 2017) design of Tor,

Your best shot there is the specs:
https://spec.torproject.org/
https://gitweb.torproject.org/torspec.git/tree/

Post by ng0
a reflection on past designs and why they were
disregarded/changed,

You might find the proposals useful here:
https://gitweb.torproject.org/torspec.git/tree/proposals

Post by ng0
and where you are heading at the moment.

And for this one you want a combination of current trac tickets, grouped
by milestone:
https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/report/12
and the roadmaps that they're talking about on tor-project:
https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-project/2017-November/001564.html

Post by ng0
I'm used to websites and content you can display in the
webbrowser not being up to date all the time, and my
assumption was that I would have to dig through all
the papers and blog posts, meeting notes and come to
a conclusion on my own - or ask you to get some
insiders view on this.

There is for sure a lot in flux, as usual for moving projects.

--Roger

[grarpamp]

Post by Jonathan Marquardt
https://www.torproject.org/docs/documentation.html.en#DesignDoc
https://spec.torproject.org/
https://gitweb.torproject.org/torspec.git/tree/
https://gitweb.torproject.org/torspec.git/tree/proposals
https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/report/12
https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-project/2017-November/001564.html

There was someone in dev / talk maybe ~2 years ago that
wrote up a rather complete overview that got a lot of +1 from
people, think it ended up in pdf format. You could search
back for pdf links and maybe find it.