1 Filename: 102-drop-opt.txt
2 Title: Dropping "opt" from the directory format
8 Implemented-In: 0.2.0.x
12 This document proposes a change in the format used to transmit router and
13 directory information.
15 This proposal has been accepted, implemented, and merged into dir-spec.txt.
19 The "opt" keyword in Tor's directory formats was originally intended to
20 mean, "it is okay to ignore this entry if you don't understand it"; the
21 default behavior has been "discard a routerdesc if it contains entries you
24 But so far, every new flag we have added has been marked 'opt'. It would
25 probably make sense to change the default behavior to "ignore unrecognized
26 fields", and add the statement that clients SHOULD ignore fields they don't
27 recognize. As a meta-principle, we should say that clients and servers
28 MUST NOT have to understand new fields in order to use directory documents
31 Of course, this will make it impossible to say, "The format has changed a
32 lot; discard this quietly if you don't understand it." We could do that by
33 adding a version field.
37 * We stopped requiring it as of 0.1.2.5-alpha. We'll stop generating it
38 once earlier formats are obsolete.