FAQ entry for where Tor's data directory is

I just took a peek in our faqs to see if there was a "Where is my data directory?" entry I could link to. We don't seem to have one, and tor's man page says "Store working data in DIR (Default: @LOCALSTATEDIR@/lib/tor)". I have no clue what that macro expands to, nor would I expect users to. :)

If we can't clarify the manual page then this seems like something we should include in our FAQ since it in turn defines the path of our authentication cookie among other things.

changed milestone to %WebsiteV3

added FAQ component::webpages/website milestone::WebsiteV3 owner::mttp priority::very low resolution::fixed severity::normal status::closed type::enhancement website-content labels

Sounds good to me; it could go right under https://www.torproject.org/docs/faq#torrc

The answer is that for TBB it's Data/Tor/, and for most system packages it's /var/lib/tor/

(What other systems have different answers?)

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Cc: N/A to mttp

I have a $USER/.tor directory and a /var/lib/tor directory, but the latter has newer information. I'm wondering if it's normal to have both directories.

The sample torrc file's explanation of the DataDirectory entry says "By default, we store things in $HOME/.tor on Unix". Is this still accurate? (Because it sounds like you just said something else.)

It's /usr/local/var/lib/tor if you compile from source, right?

How do you feel about adding a section division at the bottom of the web man page with some typical values for @CONFDIR@ and @LOCALSTATEDIR@?

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Owner: N/A to mttp
Status: new to assigned

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Status: assigned to needs_information

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Milestone: N/A to WebsiteV3
Sponsor: N/A to N/A
Severity: N/A to Normal
Reviewer: N/A to N/A
Keywords: N/A deleted, website-content added

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Keywords: website-content deleted, FAQ added

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I created a PR with a sentence in the #torrc section: https://github.com/torproject/webwml/pull/23

It is also mentioned under #ConfigureRelayOrBridge:

Second (complex option), you can edit your torrc file (in Data/Tor/torrc) And #torrc had: If you installed Tor Browser on Windows or Linux, look for Browser/TorBrowser/Data/Tor/torrc inside your Tor Browser directory.

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Status: needs_information to needs_review

The data directory answer doesn't cover all the possible data directory locations. For example, it's missing the macOS TBB location. Please provide the data directory location for every torrc location mentioned in the torrc section.

You also added the $HOME/.tor data directory location, but there's no corresponding torrc location.

But if you duplicate all the TBB information, it might get out of sync.

It might be better to update each torrc alternative so that it covers the data directory as well.

For example:

• If you installed Tor Browser on Windows or Linux, the torrc file is in the data directory, which is Browser/TorBrowser/Data/Tor inside your Tor Browser directory.
• Otherwise, if you are using Tor without Tor Browser … package. For most systems, the data directory is /var/lib/tor/.

Please also consistently use code tags throughout the answer, rather than using var tags for new content.

Edit: undo autocorrect

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Status: needs_review to needs_revision

You convinced me to do this right but I needed a procastination commit first - don't waste your time with it :) (same PR, link above)

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Status: needs_revision to needs_review

It's really hard for me to review your commits, because you have made too many changes per commit.

Please:

• do your indenting using a script, so I can verify the results
• split the following changes into one commit each
  • linked first occurrence of torrc in every answer to #torrc
  • replaced absolute links to torproject.org with relative ones
  • added TODO to questions in html comments

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Status: needs_review to needs_revision

this got merged, please reopen if you are not fine with this.

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Resolution: N/A to fixed
Status: needs_revision to closed

closed

moved to tpo/web/trac#11289 (closed)