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@@ -1,3 +1,135 @@ +Changes in version 0.2.3.1-alpha - 2011-05-0? + + Tor 0.2.3.1-alpha adds some new experimental features, including support + for an improved network IO backend, IOCP networking on Windows, + microdescriptor caching, "fast-start" support for streams, and automatic + home router configuration. There are also numerous internal improvements + to try to make the code easier for developers to work with. + + o Major features + - Tor can now optionally build with the "bufferevents" buffered IO + backend provided by Libevent 2. To use this feature, make sure you + have the latest possible version of Libevent, and pass the + --enable-bufferevents flag to configure when building Tor from source. + Using this feature will make our networking code more flexible, let us + stack layers on each other, and let us use more efficient zero-copy + transports where available. + - As an experimental feature, Tor can use IOCP for networking on Windows. + Once this code is tuned and optimized, it promises much better + performance than the select-based backend we've used in the past. To + try this feature, you must build Tor with Libevent 2, configure Tor + with the "bufferevents" buffered IO backend, and add "DisableIOCP 0" to + your torrc. There are known bugs here: only try this if you can help + debug it as it breaks. + - The EntryNodes option can now include country codes like {de} or IP + addresses or network masks. Previously we had disallowed these options + because we didn't have an efficient way to keep the list up to + date. Fixes bug 1982. + - Exit nodes now accept and queue data on not-yet-connected streams. + Previously, the client wasn't allowed to send data until the stream was + connected, which slowed down all connections. This change will enable + clients to perform a "fast-start" on streams and send data without + having to wait for a confirmation that the stream has opened. (Patch + from Ian Goldberg; implements the server side of Proposal 174.) + - Tor now has initial support for automatic port mapping on on the many + home routers that support NAT-PMP or UPnP. (Not yet supported on + Windows). To build the support code, you'll need to have libnatpnp + library and/or the libminiupnpc library, and you'll need to enable the + feature specifically by passing "--enable-upnp" and/or + "--enable-natpnp" to configure. To turn it on, use the new + PortForwarding option. + - Caches now download, cache, and sever multiple "flavors" of the + consensus, including a flavor that describes microdescriptors. + - Caches now download, cache, and serve microdescriptors -- small + summaries of router descriptors that are authenticated by all of the + directory authorities. Once enough caches are running this code, + clients will be able to save significant amounts of directory bandwidth + by downloading microdescriptors instead of router descriptors. + + o Minor features: + - Make logging resolution configurable and change default from 1 + millisecond to 1 second. Implements enhancement 1668. + - We log which torrc file we're using on startup. Implements ticket 2444. + - Ordinarily, Tor does not count traffic from private addresses (like + 127.0.0.1 or 10.0.0.1) when calculating rate limits or accounting. + There is now a new option, CountPrivateBandwidth, to disable this + behavior. Patch from Daniel Cagara. + - New --enable-static-tor configure option for building Tor as statically + as possible. Idea, general hackery and thoughts from Alexei Czeskis, + John Gilmore, Jacob Appelbaum. Implements ticket 2702. + - If you set the NumCPUs option to 0, Tor will now try to detect how many + CPUs you have. This is the new default behavior. + - Turn on directory request statistics by default and include them in + extra-info descriptors. Don't break if we have no GeoIP database. + - Relays that set "ConnDirectionStatistics 1" write statistics on the + bidirectional use of connections to disk every 24 hours. + - Add a GeoIP file digest to the extra-info descriptor. Implements + enhancement 1883. + - Add a new 'Heartbeat' log message type to periodically log a message + describing Tor's status at level Notice. This feature is meant for + operators who log at notice, adn want to make sure that their Tor + server is still working. Implementation by George Kadianakis. + + o Minor bugfixes (on 0.2.2.25-alpha): + - When loading the microdesc journal, remember its current size. + In 0.2.2, this helps prevent the microdesc journal from growing + without limit on authorities (who are the only ones to use it in + 0.2.2). Fixes a part of bug 2230; bugfix on 0.2.2.6-alpha. + Fix posted by "cypherpunks." + - The microdesc journal is supposed to get rebuilt only if it is + at least _half_ the length of the store, not _twice_ the length + of the store. Bugfix on 0.2.2.6-alpha; fixes part of bug 2230. + - Authorities now clean their microdesc cache periodically and when + reading from disk initially, not only when adding new descriptors. + This prevents a bug where we could lose microdescriptors. Bugfix + on 0.2.2.6-alpha. + + o Minor features (controller) + - Add a new SIGNAL event to the controller interface so that + controllers can be notified when Tor handles a signal. Resolves + issue 1955. Patch by John Brooks. + - Add a new GETINFO option to get total bytes read and written. Patch + from pipe, revised by atagar. Resolves ticket 2345. + - Implement some GETINFO controller fields to provide information about + the Tor process's pid, euid, username, and resource limits. + + o Build changes + - Our build system requires automake 1.6 or later to create the + Makefile.in files. Previously, you could have used 1.4. + This only affects developers and people building Tor from git; + people who build Tor from the source distribution without changing + the Makefile.am files should be fine. + - Our autogen.sh script uses autoreconf to launch autoconf, automake, and + so on. This is more robust against some of the failure modes + associated with running the autotools pieces on their own. + + o Minor packaging issues: + - On OpenSUSE, create the /var/run/tor directory on startup if it is not + already created. Patch from Andreas Stieger. Fixes bug 2573. + + o Code simplifications and refactoring: + - A major revision to our internal node-selecting and listing logic. + Tor already had at least two major ways to look at the question of + "which Tor servers do we know about": a list of router descriptors, + and a list of entries in the current consensus. With + microdescriptors, we're adding a third. Having so many systems + without an abstraction layer over them was hurting the codebase. + Now, we have a new "node_t" abstraction that presents a consistent + interface to a client's view of a Tor node, and holds (nearly) all + of the mutable state formerly in routerinfo_t and routerstatus_t. + - The helper programs tor-gencert, tor-resolve, and tor-checkkey + no longer link against Libevent: they never used it, but + our library structure used to force them to link it. + + o Removed features: + - Removed some old code to work around even older versions of Tor that + used forked processes to handle DNS requests. Such versions of Tor + are no longer in use as servers. + + o Documentation fixes: + - Correct a broken faq link in the INSTALL file. Fixes bug 2307. + + Changes in version 0.2.2.25-alpha - 2011-04-29 Tor 0.2.2.25-alpha fixes many bugs: hidden service clients are more robust, routers no longer overreport their bandwidth, Win7 should crash |