1 .TH TOR 1 "May 2005" "TOR"
3 tor \- The second-generation onion router
6 [\fIOPTION value\fR]...
9 is a connection-oriented anonymizing communication
10 service. Users choose a source-routed path through a set of nodes, and
11 negotiate a "virtual circuit" through the network, in which each node
12 knows its predecessor and successor, but no others. Traffic flowing down
13 the circuit is unwrapped by a symmetric key at each node, which reveals
16 Basically \fItor\fR provides a distributed network of servers ("onion
17 routers"). Users bounce their TCP streams -- web traffic, ftp, ssh, etc --
18 around the routers, and recipients, observers, and even the routers
19 themselves have difficulty tracking the source of the stream.
22 Display a short help message and exit.
25 FILE contains further "option value" pairs. (Default: @CONFDIR@/torrc)
27 Other options can be specified either on the command-line (\fI--option
28 value\fR), or in the configuration file (\fIoption value\fR).
29 Options are case-insensitive.
31 \fBBandwidthRate \fR\fIN\fR \fBbytes\fR|\fBKB\fR|\fBMB\fR|\fBGB\fR|\fBTB\fP
32 A token bucket limits the average incoming bandwidth on this node to
33 the specified number of bytes per second. (Default: 2 MB)
35 \fBBandwidthBurst \fR\fIN\fR \fBbytes\fR|\fBKB\fR|\fBMB\fR|\fBGB\fR|\fBTB\fP
36 Limit the maximum token bucket size (also known as the burst) to the given number of bytes. (Default: 5 MB)
38 \fBMaxAdvertisedBandwidth \fR\fIN\fR \fBbytes\fR|\fBKB\fR|\fBMB\fR|\fBGB\fR|\fBTB\fP
39 If set, we will not advertise more than this amount of bandwidth for our
40 BandwidthRate. Server operators who want to reduce the number of clients
41 who ask to build circuits through them (since this is proportional to
42 advertised bandwidth rate) can thus reduce the CPU demands on their
43 server without impacting network performance.
45 \fBControlPort \fR\fIPort\fP
46 If set, Tor will accept connections from the same machine (localhost only) on
47 this port, and allow those connections to control the Tor process using the
48 Tor Control Protocol (described in control-spec.txt). Note: unless you also
49 specify one of \fBHashedControlPassword\fP or \fBCookieAuthentication\fP,
50 setting this option will cause Tor to allow any process on the local host to
53 \fBHashedControlPassword \fR\fIhashed_password\fP
54 Don't allow any connections on the control port except when the other process
55 knows the password whose one-way hash is \fIhashed_password\fP. You can
56 compute the hash of a password by running "tor --hash-password
59 \fBCookieAuthentication \fR\fB0\fR|\fB1\fP
60 If this option is set to 1, don't allow any connections on the control port
61 except when the connecting process knows the contents of a file named
62 "control_auth_cookie", which Tor will create in its data directory. This
63 authentication methods should only be used on systems with good filesystem
64 security. (Default: 0)
66 \fBDataDirectory \fR\fIDIR\fP
67 Store working data in DIR (Default: @LOCALSTATEDIR@/lib/tor)
69 \fBDirFetchPeriod \fR\fIN\fR \fBseconds\fR|\fBminutes\fR|\fBhours\fR|\fBdays\fR|\fBweeks\fP
70 Every time the specified period elapses, Tor downloads a directory.
71 A directory contains a signed list of all known servers as well as
72 their current liveness status. A value of "0 seconds" tells Tor to choose an
73 appropriate default. (Default: 1 hour for clients, 20 minutes for servers.)
75 \fBDirServer \fR\fIaddress:port fingerprint\fP
76 Use a nonstandard authoritative directory server at the provided
77 address and port, with the specified key fingerprint. This option can
78 be repeated many times, for multiple authoritative directory
79 servers. If no \fBdirserver\fP line is given, Tor will use the default
80 directory servers: moria1, moria2, and tor26.
83 On startup, setgid to this user.
85 \fBHttpProxy\fR \fIhost\fR[:\fIport\fR]\fP
86 If set, Tor will make all its directory requests through this host:port,
87 rather than connecting directly to any directory servers.
89 \fBHttpsProxy\fR \fIhost\fR[:\fIport\fR]\fP
90 If set, Tor will make all its OR (SSL) connections through this host:port,
91 via HTTP CONNECT, rather than connecting directly to servers.
93 \fBHttpsProxyAuthenticator\fR \fIusername:password\fP
94 If defined, Tor will use this username:password for Basic Https proxy
95 authentication, as in RFC 2617. This is currently the only form of
96 Https proxy authentication that Tor supports; feel free to submit a
97 patch if you want it to support others. You may want to set FascistFirewall
98 to restrict the set of ports you might try to connect to, if your Https
99 proxy only allows connecting to certain ports.
101 \fBKeepalivePeriod \fR\fINUM\fP
102 To keep firewalls from expiring connections, send a padding keepalive
103 cell on open connections every NUM seconds. (Default: 5 minutes.)
105 \fBLog \fR\fIminSeverity\fR[-\fImaxSeverity\fR] \fBstderr\fR|\fBstdout\fR|\fBsyslog\fR\fP
106 Send all messages between \fIminSeverity\fR and \fImaxSeverity\fR to
107 the standard output stream, the standard error stream, or to the system
108 log. (The "syslog" value is only supported on Unix.) Recognized
109 severity levels are debug, info, notice, warn, and err. If only one
110 severity level is given, all messages of that level or higher will be
111 sent to the listed destination.
113 \fBLog \fR\fIminSeverity\fR[-\fImaxSeverity\fR] \fBfile\fR \fIFILENAME\fP
114 As above, but send log messages to the listed filename. The "Log"
115 option may appear more than once in a configuration file. Messages
116 are sent to all the logs that match their severity level.
118 \fBMaxConn \fR\fINUM\fP
119 Maximum number of simultaneous sockets allowed. You probably don't need
120 to adjust this. (Default: 1024)
122 \fBOutboundBindAddress \fR\fIIP\fP
123 Make all outbound connections originate from the IP address specified. This
124 is only useful when you have multiple network interfaces, and you want all
125 of Tor's outgoing connections to use a single one.
127 \fBPIDFile \fR\fIFILE\fP
128 On startup, write our PID to FILE. On clean shutdown, remove FILE.
130 \fBRunAsDaemon \fR\fB0\fR|\fB1\fR\fP
131 If 1, Tor forks and daemonizes to the background. (Default: 0)
133 \fBSafeLogging \fR\fB0\fR|\fB1\fP
134 If 1, Tor replaces potentially sensitive strings in the logs
135 (e.g. addresses) with the string [scrubbed]. This way logs can still be
136 useful, but they don't leave behind personally identifying information
137 about what sites a user might have visited. (Default: 1)
139 \fBStatusFetchPeriod \fR\fIN\fR \fBseconds\fR|\fBminutes\fR|\fBhours\fR|\fBdays\fR|\fBweeks\fP
140 Every time the specified period elapses, Tor downloads signed status
141 information about the current state of known servers. A value of
142 "0 seconds" tells Tor to choose an appropriate default. (Default: 30
143 minutes for clients, 15 minutes for servers.)
146 On startup, setuid to this user.
150 The following options are useful only for clients (that is, if \fBSOCKSPort\fP is non-zero):
152 \fBAllowUnverifiedNodes\fR \fBentry\fR|\fBexit\fR|\fBmiddle\fR|\fBintroduction\fR|\fBrendezvous\fR|...\fP
153 Where on our circuits should we allow Tor servers that the directory
154 servers haven't authenticated as "verified"? (Default: middle,rendezvous.)
156 \fBClientOnly \fR\fB0\fR|\fB1\fR\fP
157 If set to 1, Tor will under no circumstances run as a server. The default
158 is to run as a client unless ORPort is configured. (Usually,
159 you don't need to set this; Tor is pretty smart at figuring out whether
160 you are reliable and high-bandwidth enough to be a useful server.)
162 \fBEntryNodes \fR\fInickname\fR,\fInickname\fR,\fI...\fP
163 A list of preferred nodes to use for the first hop in the circuit, if possible.
165 \fBExitNodes \fR\fInickname\fR,\fInickname\fR,\fI...\fP
166 A list of preferred nodes to use for the last hop in the circuit, if possible.
168 \fBExcludeNodes \fR\fInickname\fR,\fInickname\fR,\fI...\fP
169 A list of nodes to never use when building a circuit.
171 \fBStrictExitNodes \fR\fB0\fR|\fB1\fR\fP
172 If 1, Tor will never use any nodes besides those listed in "exitnodes" for
173 the last hop of a circuit.
175 \fBStrictEntryNodes \fR\fB0\fR|\fB1\fR\fP
176 If 1, Tor will never use any nodes besides those listed in "entrynodes" for
177 the first hop of a circuit.
179 \fBFascistFirewall \fR\fB0\fR|\fB1\fR\fP
180 If 1, Tor will only create outgoing connections to ORs running on ports that
181 your firewall allows (defaults to 80 and 443; see \fBFirewallPorts\fR). This will
182 allow you to run Tor as a client behind a firewall with restrictive policies,
183 but will not allow you to run as a server behind such a firewall.
185 \fBFirewallPorts \fR\fIPORTS\fP
186 A list of ports that your firewall allows you to connect to. Only used when
187 \fBFascistFirewall\fR is set. (Default: 80, 443.)
189 \fBLongLivedPorts \fR\fIPORTS\fP
190 A list of ports for services that tend to have long-running connections
191 (e.g. chat and interactive shells). Circuits for streams that use these
192 ports will contain only high-uptime nodes, to reduce the chance that a
193 node will go down before the stream is finished.
195 \fBMapAddress\fR \fIaddress\fR \fInewaddress\fR
196 When a request for address arrives to Tor, it will rewrite it to newaddress before processing it. For example, if you always want connections to www.indymedia.org to exit via \fItorserver\fR (where \fItorserver\fR is the nickname of the server), use "MapAddress www.indymedia.org www.indymedia.org.torserver.exit".
198 \fBNewCircuitPeriod \fR\fINUM\fP
199 Every NUM seconds consider whether to build a new circuit. (Default: 30 seconds)
201 \fBMaxCircuitDirtiness \fR\fINUM\fP
202 Feel free to reuse a circuit that was first used at most NUM seconds
203 ago, but never attach a new stream to a circuit that is too old. (Default: 10 minutes)
205 \fBNodeFamily \fR\fInickname\fR,\fInickname\fR,\fI...\fP
206 The named Tor servers constitute a "family" of similar or co-administered
207 servers, so never use any two of them in the same circuit. Defining a
208 NodeFamily is only needed when a server doesn't list the family itself
209 (with MyFamily). This option can be used multiple times.
211 .\" \fBPathlenCoinWeight \fR\fI0.0-1.0\fP
212 .\" Paths are 3 hops plus a geometric distribution centered around this coinweight. Must be >=0.0 and <1.0. (Default: 0.3) NOT USED CURRENTLY
214 \fBRendNodes \fR\fInickname\fR,\fInickname\fR,\fI...\fP
215 A list of preferred nodes to use for the rendezvous point, if possible.
217 \fBRendExcludeNodes \fR\fInickname\fR,\fInickname\fR,\fI...\fP
218 A list of nodes to never use when choosing a rendezvous point.
220 \fBSOCKSPort \fR\fIPORT\fP
221 Advertise this port to listen for connections from SOCKS-speaking
222 applications. Set this to 0 if you don't want to allow application
223 connections. (Default: 9050)
225 \fBSOCKSBindAddress \fR\fIIP\fR[:\fIPORT\fR]\fP
226 Bind to this address to listen for connections from SOCKS-speaking
227 applications. (Default: 127.0.0.1) You can also specify a port
228 (e.g. 192.168.0.1:9100). This directive can be specified multiple times
229 to bind to multiple addresses/ports.
231 \fBSOCKSPolicy \fR\fIpolicy\fR,\fIpolicy\fR,\fI...\fP
232 Set an entrance policy for this server, to limit who can connect to the SOCKS ports. The policies have the same form as exit policies below.
234 \fBTrackHostExits \fR\fIhost\fR,\fI.domain\fR,\fI...\fR\fP
235 For each value in the comma separated list, Tor will track recent connections
236 to hosts that match this value and attempt to
237 reuse the same exit node for each. If the value is prepended with a '.', it is
238 treated as matching an entire domain. If one of the values is just a '.', it
239 means match everything. This option is useful if you frequently connect to
240 sites that will expire all your authentication cookies (ie log you out) if
241 your IP address changes. Note that this option does have the disadvantage of
242 making it more clear that a given history is
243 associated with a single user. However, most people who would wish to observe
244 this will observe it through cookies or other protocol-specific means anyhow.
246 \fBTrackHostExitsExpire \fR\fINUM\fP
247 Since exit servers go up and down, it is desirable to expire the association
248 between host and exit server after NUM seconds of inactivity. The default
249 is 1800 seconds (30 minutes).
253 The following options are useful only for servers (that is, if \fBORPort\fP is non-zero):
255 \fBAddress \fR\fIaddress\fP
256 The IP or fqdn of this server (e.g. moria.mit.edu). You can leave this
257 unset, and Tor will guess your IP.
259 \fBContactInfo \fR\fIemail_address\fP
260 Administrative contact information for server.
262 \fBExitPolicy \fR\fIpolicy\fR,\fIpolicy\fR,\fI...\fP
263 Set an exit policy for this server. Each policy is of the form
264 "\fBaccept\fP|\fBreject\fP \fIADDR\fP[\fB/\fP\fIMASK\fP]\fB:\fP\fIPORT\fP".
265 If \fB/\fP\fIMASK\fP is omitted then this policy just applies to the host
266 given. Instead of giving a host or network you can also use "\fB*\fP" to
267 denote the universe (0.0.0.0/0). \fIPORT\fP can be a single port number,
268 an interval of ports "\fIFROM_PORT\fP\fB-\fP\fITO_PORT\fP", or "\fB*\fP".
270 For example, "reject 127.0.0.1:*,reject 192.168.1.0/24:*,accept *:*" would
271 reject any traffic destined for localhost and any 192.168.1.* address, but
272 accept anything else.
274 This directive can be specified multiple times so you don't have to put
277 See RFC 3330 for more details about internal and reserved IP address
278 space. Policies are considered first to last, and the first match wins. If
279 you want to _replace_ the default exit policy, end your exit policy with
280 either a reject *:* or an accept *:*. Otherwise, you're _augmenting_
281 (prepending to) the default exit policy. The default exit policy is:
284 .IP "reject 0.0.0.0/8" 0
285 .IP "reject 169.254.0.0/16" 4
286 .IP "reject 127.0.0.0/8"
287 .IP "reject 192.168.0.0/16"
288 .IP "reject 10.0.0.0/8"
289 .IP "reject 172.16.0.0/12"
292 .IP "reject *:135-139"
295 .IP "reject *:4661-4666"
296 .IP "reject *:6346-6429"
298 .IP "reject *:6881-6999"
303 \fBMaxOnionsPending \fR\fINUM\fP
304 If you have more than this number of onionskins queued for decrypt, reject new ones. (Default: 100)
306 \fBMyFamily \fR\fInickname\fR,\fInickname\fR,\fI...\fP
307 Declare that this Tor server is controlled or administered by a group
308 or organization identical or similar to that of the other named servers.
309 When two servers both declare that they are in the same 'family', Tor clients
310 will not use them in the same circuit. (Each server only needs to list the
311 other servers in its family; it doesn't need to list itself, but it won't hurt.)
313 \fBNickname \fR\fIname\fP
314 Set the server's nickname to 'name'.
316 \fBNumCPUs \fR\fInum\fP
317 How many processes to use at once for decrypting onionskins. (Default: 1)
319 \fBORPort \fR\fIPORT\fP
320 Advertise this port to listen for connections from Tor clients and servers.
322 \fBORBindAddress \fR\fIIP\fR[:\fIPORT\fR]\fP
323 Bind to this IP address to listen for connections from Tor clients and
324 servers. If you specify a port, bind to this port rather than the one
325 specified in ORPort. (Default: 0.0.0.0)
327 \fBRedirectExit \fR\fIpattern target\fP
328 Whenever an outgoing connection tries to connect to one of a given set
329 of addresses, connect to \fItarget\fP (an \fIaddress:port\fP pair) instead.
331 pattern is given in the same format as for an exit policy. The
332 address translation applies after exit policies are applied. Multiple
333 \fBRedirectExit\fP options can be used: once any one has matched
334 successfully, no subsequent rules are considered. You can specify that no
335 redirection is to be performed on a given set of addresses by using the
336 special target string "pass", which prevents subsequent rules from being
339 \fBShutdownWaitLength\fR\fINUM\fP
340 When we get a SIGINT and we're a server, we begin shutting down: we close
341 listeners and start refusing new circuits. After \fBNUM\fP seconds,
342 we exit. If we get a second SIGINT, we exit immediately. (Default:
345 \fBDirPostPeriod \fR\fIN\fR \fBseconds\fR|\fBminutes\fR|\fBhours\fR|\fBdays\fR|\fBweeks\fP
346 Every time the specified period elapses, Tor uploads its server
347 descriptors to the directory servers. This information is also
348 uploaded whenever it changes. (Default: 20 minutes.)
350 \fBAccountingMax \fR\fIN\fR \fBbytes\fR|\fBKB\fR|\fBMB\fR|\fBGB\fR|\fBTB\fP
351 Never send more than the specified number of bytes in a given
352 accounting period, or receive more than that number in the period.
353 For example, with AccountingMax set to 1 GB, a server could send 900 MB
354 and receive 800 MB and continue running. It will only hibernate once one
355 of the two reaches 1 GB.
356 When the number of bytes is exhausted, Tor will hibernate until some
357 time in the next accounting period. To prevent all servers from
358 waking at the same time, Tor will also wait until a random point in
359 each period before waking up. If you have bandwidth cost issues,
360 enabling hibernation is preferable to setting a low bandwidth, since it
361 provides users with a collection of fast servers that are up some of
362 the time, which is more useful than a set of slow servers that are
365 \fBAccountingStart \fR\fBday\fR|\fBweek\fR|\fBmonth\fR [\fIday\fR] \fIHH:MM\fR\fP
366 Specify how long accounting periods last. If \fBmonth\fP is given,
367 each accounting period runs from the time \fIHH:MM\fR on the
368 \fIday\fRth day of one month to the same day and time of the next.
369 (The day must be between 1 and 28.) If \fBweek\fP is given, each
370 accounting period runs from the time \fIHH:MM\fR of the \fIday\fRth
371 day of one week to the same day and time of the next week, with Monday
372 as day 1 and Sunday as day 7. If \fBday\fR is given, each accounting
373 period runs from the time \fIHH:MM\fR each day to the same time on the
374 next day. All times are local, and given in 24-hour time. (Defaults to
377 .SH DIRECTORY SERVER OPTIONS
379 The following options are useful only for directory servers (that is, if \fBDirPort\fP is non-zero):
381 \fBAuthoritativeDirectory \fR\fB0\fR|\fB1\fR\fP
382 When this option is set to 1, Tor operates as an authoritative
383 directory server. Instead of caching the directory, it generates its
384 own list of good servers, signs it, and sends that to the clients.
385 Unless the clients already have you listed as a trusted directory, you
386 probably do not want to set this option. Please coordinate with the other
387 admins at tor-ops@freehaven.net if you think you should be a directory.
389 \fBDirPort \fR\fIPORT\fP
390 Advertise the directory service on this port.
392 \fBDirBindAddress \fR\fIIP\fR[:\fIPORT\fR]\fP
393 Bind the directory service to this address. If you specify a port, bind
394 to this port rather than the one specified in DirPort. (Default: 0.0.0.0)
396 \fBDirPolicy \fR\fIpolicy\fR,\fIpolicy\fR,\fI...\fP
397 Set an entrance policy for this server, to limit who can connect to the directory ports. The policies have the same form as exit policies above.
399 \fBRecommendedVersions \fR\fISTRING\fP
400 STRING is a command-separated list of Tor versions currently believed
401 to be safe. The list is included in each directory, and nodes which
402 pull down the directory learn whether they need to upgrade. This
403 option can appear multiple times: the values from multiple lines are
406 \fBDirAllowPrivateAddresses \fR\fB0\fR|\fB1\fR\fP
407 If set to 1, Tor will accept router descriptors with arbitrary "Address"
408 elements. Otherwise, if the address is not an IP or is a private IP,
409 it will reject the router descriptor. Defaults to 0.
411 \fBRunTesting \fR\fB0\fR|\fB1\fR\fP
412 If set to 1, Tor tries to build circuits through all of the servers it
413 knows about, so it can tell which are up and which are down. This
414 option is only useful for authoritative directories, so you probably
415 don't want to use it.
417 .SH HIDDEN SERVICE OPTIONS
419 The following options are used to configure a hidden service.
421 \fBHiddenServiceDir \fR\fIDIRECTORY\fP
422 Store data files for a hidden service in DIRECTORY. Every hidden
423 service must have a separate directory. You may use this option multiple
424 times to specify multiple services.
426 \fBHiddenServicePort \fR\fIVIRTPORT \fR[\fITARGET\fR]\fP
427 Configure a virtual port VIRTPORT for a hidden service. You may use this
428 option multiple times; each time applies to the service using the most recent
429 hiddenservicedir. By default, this option maps the virtual port to the
430 same port on 127.0.0.1. You may override the target port, address, or both
431 by specifying a target of addr, port, or addr:port.
433 \fBHiddenServiceNodes \fR\fInickname\fR,\fInickname\fR,\fI...\fP
434 If possible, use the specified nodes as introduction points for the hidden
435 service. If this is left unset, Tor will be smart and pick some reasonable
436 ones; most people can leave this unset.
438 \fBHiddenServiceExcludeNodes \fR\fInickname\fR,\fInickname\fR,\fI...\fP
439 Do not use the specified nodes as introduction points for the hidden
440 service. In normal use there is no reason to set this.
442 \fBRendPostPeriod \fR\fIN\fR \fBseconds\fR|\fBminutes\fR|\fBhours\fR|\fBdays\fR|\fBweeks\fP
443 Every time the specified period elapses, Tor uploads any rendezvous
444 service descriptors to the directory servers. This information is also
445 uploaded whenever it changes. (Default: 20 minutes.)
451 Tor catches the following signals:
454 Tor will catch this, clean up and sync to disk if necessary, and exit.
457 Tor clients behave as with SIGTERM; but Tor servers will do a controlled
458 slow shutdown, closing listeners and waiting 30 seconds before exiting.
459 (The delay can be configured with the ShutdownWaitLength config option.)
462 The signal instructs Tor to reload its configuration (including closing
463 and reopening logs), fetch a new directory, and kill and restart its
464 helper processes if applicable.
467 Log statistics about current connections, past connections, and
471 Switch all logs to loglevel debug. You can go back to the old loglevels
475 Tor receives this signal when one of its helper processes has exited,
479 Tor catches this signal and ignores it.
482 If this signal exists on your platform, Tor catches and ignores it.
487 The configuration file, which contains "option value" pairs.
489 .I @LOCALSTATEDIR@/lib/tor/
490 The tor process stores keys and other data here.
497 .BR http://tor.eff.org/
500 Plenty, probably. Tor is still in development. Please report them.
502 Roger Dingledine <arma@mit.edu>, Nick Mathewson <nickm@alum.mit.edu>.