Hello to the community! my first question is that is there a solution for rapid development of tbb? i was wondering that each time a contributor wants to change something in the tbb or add extra functionality, they have to go through the build process which i just guess would be very time consuming. i was wondering that is there any containerized environment for this? any docker ecosystem available or other solutions that might help? my second question is about the changes that i want to implement. i am interested into the graphical settings page about bridges and tor process that currently tbb is exposing to the end users. if we want to add more functionality into this settings page, where should we start to change? and is there any possibility that we may have some control over the underlying tor process as well, for instance controlling it's launching or it's torrc configuration; because as i see, there must be a link between the graphical interface of tbb and the underlying tor process so that is the way we can control bridges for instance. similar to this i was planning to add more graphical options to the interface for controlling other configuration aspects of the tor process through it's torrc or other workarounds. in the past i have achieved this by writing a browser extension that benefits from native messaging for communication to the tor process; but this is not really performance friendly and an intuitive experience for the end users.i am not satisfied with the result. so i was interested on mirroring these functionalities inside tbb. i really appreciate your insights and thoughts on the matter, have a great day, Sarpedon.
Hey Sarpedon,
The tor-browser-build project ( https://gitweb.torproject.org/builders/tor-browser-build.git/ ) can be used to build tor-browser for all the various environments, and you can updated the /projects/firefox/config file to point to your own git repo and commit for development. Unfortunately this is not particularly fast, but it's really the only way to go if you need builds for platforms other than Linux.
Alternatively, you can just build tor-browser ( https://gitweb.torproject.org/tor-browser.git/ ), and copy the relevant bits over an existing tor-browser install. This is the workflow I use during development on Linux and is generally pretty straight forward to use once you have scripts setup to do the deploying.
It's theoretically possible to get this sort of incremental build setup working for other platforms (ie building windows bins in a linux dev environment), but it's a pain and would require delving into the tor-browser-build firefox build and config scripts. I've done it before for our older windows build target (before we switched to clang and friends) and can give you some tips on how to do that if necessary.
The Tor Browser Hacking Guide should be a good resource as well, though it is a living document so might be out of date:
https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/doc/TorBrowser/Hacking
If you're interested in updating/improving/adding to the about:preferences#tor pane, than you can start by looking at this commit which added the page:
https://gitweb.torproject.org/tor-browser.git/commit/?h=tor-browser-68.2.0es...
In general, the relevant things there are in:
/browser/components/torpreferences/* /browser/modules/TorProtocolService.jsm /browser/modules/TorStrings.jsm
What sort of improvements are you looking to add? If you're interested in submitting a patch, you should open a ticket that tracks whatever feature you're looking to add. There we can give you early code and design/UX feedback to improve the odds of us accepting your patch :)
best, -Richard
On 11/9/19 4:04 PM, sarpedon montecarlo wrote:
Hello to the community! my first question is that is there a solution for rapid development of tbb? i was wondering that each time a contributor wants to change something in the tbb or add extra functionality, they have to go through the build process which i just guess would be very time consuming. i was wondering that is there any containerized environment for this? any docker ecosystem available or other solutions that might help? my second question is about the changes that i want to implement. i am interested into the graphical settings page about bridges and tor process that currently tbb is exposing to the end users. if we want to add more functionality into this settings page, where should we start to change? and is there any possibility that we may have some control over the underlying tor process as well, for instance controlling it's launching or it's torrc configuration; because as i see, there must be a link between the graphical interface of tbb and the underlying tor process so that is the way we can control bridges for instance. similar to this i was planning to add more graphical options to the interface for controlling other configuration aspects of the tor process through it's torrc or other workarounds. in the past i have achieved this by writing a browser extension that benefits from native messaging for communication to the tor process; but this is not really performance friendly and an intuitive experience for the end users.i am not satisfied with the result. so i was interested on mirroring these functionalities inside tbb. i really appreciate your insights and thoughts on the matter, have a great day, Sarpedon.
tor-dev mailing list tor-dev@lists.torproject.org https://lists.torproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tor-dev
Hi Richard, this is great! I appreciate all the insights you gave me. about the build setup i would definitely go with your suggestion. maybe it would be possible to also use these build scripts inside a docker composer for a reload on demand during development. and about windows, it is a requirement for my situation , but i just saw some build scripts regarding windows in the tbb repo you mentioned; i would be happy to hear from you about tips and tricks regarding windows!
basically what i am about to implement are as below:
[image: image.png]
[image: image.png]
[image: image.png]
above screen shots are from the browser extension that i have already implemented and want to integrate with the tbb.
1) padding is the time period which i send random packets to random destinations for generating fake browsing pattern.
2) rotation is a fancy name for MaxCircuitDirtiness
3) idle timeout is a custom clock which will close the tbb automatically in case of no interaction from the user
4) use proxy & use bridge is already available inside tbb
5) entry, middle and exit countries will fill the torrc with user selected options
based on the commit you mentioned for "about:preferences#tor pane", i believe that commit is the right place i should start coding.
Best Regards, Sarpedon
On Wed, Nov 13, 2019 at 9:33 PM Richard Pospesel richard@torproject.org wrote:
Hey Sarpedon,
The tor-browser-build project ( https://gitweb.torproject.org/builders/tor-browser-build.git/ ) can be used to build tor-browser for all the various environments, and you can updated the /projects/firefox/config file to point to your own git repo and commit for development. Unfortunately this is not particularly fast, but it's really the only way to go if you need builds for platforms other than Linux.
Alternatively, you can just build tor-browser ( https://gitweb.torproject.org/tor-browser.git/ ), and copy the relevant bits over an existing tor-browser install. This is the workflow I use during development on Linux and is generally pretty straight forward to use once you have scripts setup to do the deploying.
It's theoretically possible to get this sort of incremental build setup working for other platforms (ie building windows bins in a linux dev environment), but it's a pain and would require delving into the tor-browser-build firefox build and config scripts. I've done it before for our older windows build target (before we switched to clang and friends) and can give you some tips on how to do that if necessary.
The Tor Browser Hacking Guide should be a good resource as well, though it is a living document so might be out of date:
https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/doc/TorBrowser/Hacking
If you're interested in updating/improving/adding to the about:preferences#tor pane, than you can start by looking at this commit which added the page:
https://gitweb.torproject.org/tor-browser.git/commit/?h=tor-browser-68.2.0es...
In general, the relevant things there are in:
/browser/components/torpreferences/* /browser/modules/TorProtocolService.jsm /browser/modules/TorStrings.jsm
What sort of improvements are you looking to add? If you're interested in submitting a patch, you should open a ticket that tracks whatever feature you're looking to add. There we can give you early code and design/UX feedback to improve the odds of us accepting your patch :)
best, -Richard
On 11/9/19 4:04 PM, sarpedon montecarlo wrote:
Hello to the community! my first question is that is there a solution for rapid development of tbb? i was wondering that each time a contributor wants to change something in the tbb or add extra functionality, they have to go through the build process which i just guess would be very time consuming. i was wondering that is there any containerized environment for this? any docker ecosystem available or other solutions that might help? my second question is about the changes that i want to implement. i am interested into the graphical settings page about bridges and tor process that currently tbb is exposing to the end users. if we want to add more functionality into this settings page, where should we start to change? and is there any possibility that we may have some control over the underlying tor process as well, for instance controlling it's launching or it's torrc configuration; because as i see, there must be a link between the graphical interface of tbb and the underlying tor process so that is the way we can control bridges for instance. similar to this i was planning to add more graphical options to the interface for controlling other configuration aspects of the tor process through it's torrc or other workarounds. in the past i have achieved this by writing a browser extension that benefits from native messaging for communication to the tor process; but this is not really performance friendly and an intuitive experience for the end users.i am not satisfied with the result. so i was interested on mirroring these functionalities inside tbb. i really appreciate your insights and thoughts on the matter, have a great day, Sarpedon.
tor-dev mailing list tor-dev@lists.torproject.org https://lists.torproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tor-dev
tor-dev mailing list tor-dev@lists.torproject.org https://lists.torproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tor-dev
and about windows, it is a requirement for my situation , but i just saw some build scripts regarding windows in the tbb repo you mentioned; i would be happy to hear from you about tips and tricks regarding windows!
So tor-browser-build lets us make all our build targets (windows, mac, android, etc) on a Linux host (I'm 99% sure those of us using it are all using Debian or Debian derivatives).
If you are stuck using windows for whatever reason there may be a few options (though none of them are particularly good):
It *may* be possible to get tor-browser-build working in the new Windows Subsystem for Linux in Windows 10, but to my knowledge no has tried it. Maybe you can just clone the repo, apt-get the dependencies and go.
Another option for you would be running a Debian VM in HyperV/VirtualBox/etc and running tor-browser-build there, but that first build will definitely take awhile.
Yet another option would be to acquire the tor-browser-build build artifacts necessary to build Windows firefox, and setup a Debian build environment (via your preferred virtualization method) and replicate the firefox project's build process.
- padding is the time period which i send random packets to random
destinations for generating fake browsing pattern.
I'm not sure what this is supposed to accomplish, and my first instinct is that this is a very bad idea. See https://2019.www.torproject.org/projects/torbrowser/design/#idm660 for discussion around why we don't use randomization as a strategy to avoid fingerprinting. I highly doubt we would want anything like this in Tor Browser
- rotation is a fancy name for MaxCircuitDirtiness
I feel like this is a sort of knob that only 'advanced' users should/would use, an as such keeping it in the torrc and not exposing it in the user-facing preferences page is probably best. We generally want to avoid leaving foot-guns laying around.
- idle timeout is a custom clock which will close the tbb automatically
in case of no interaction from the user
Could be a neat off-by-default option to have in the 'Privacy & Security' page (as it is not tor-specific). I'm not sure if we'd accept this feature but I think a case could be made.
- use proxy & use bridge is already available inside tbb
Indeed
- entry, middle and exit countries will fill the torrc with user
selected options
This one actually intrigues me a little bit. There are certainly situations where on a per-site basis controlling which country your exit is can be useful (for avoiding IP-based censorship, 'this video not available in your country' nonsense). As it is the current 'hit new circuit until it works' workflow is not the best.
I don't see any particular benefit exposing this level of control over guard and middle relays, nor do I think the exits should be a global setting. The level of control exposed as you have in these screenshots seems like another foot-gun.
best, -Richard
On 11/14/19 1:55 AM, sarpedon montecarlo wrote:
Hi Richard, this is great! I appreciate all the insights you gave me. about the build setup i would definitely go with your suggestion. maybe it would be possible to also use these build scripts inside a docker composer for a reload on demand during development. and about windows, it is a requirement for my situation , but i just saw some build scripts regarding windows in the tbb repo you mentioned; i would be happy to hear from you about tips and tricks regarding windows!
basically what i am about to implement are as below:
image.png
image.png
image.png
above screen shots are from the browser extension that i have already implemented and want to integrate with the tbb.
- padding is the time period which i send random packets to random
destinations for generating fake browsing pattern.
rotation is a fancy name for MaxCircuitDirtiness
idle timeout is a custom clock which will close the tbb automatically
in case of no interaction from the user
use proxy & use bridge is already available inside tbb
entry, middle and exit countries will fill the torrc with user
selected options
based on the commit you mentioned for "about:preferences#tor pane", i believe that commit is the right place i should start coding.
Best Regards, Sarpedon
On Wed, Nov 13, 2019 at 9:33 PM Richard Pospesel <richard@torproject.org mailto:richard@torproject.org> wrote:
Hey Sarpedon, The tor-browser-build project ( https://gitweb.torproject.org/builders/tor-browser-build.git/ ) can be used to build tor-browser for all the various environments, and you can updated the /projects/firefox/config file to point to your own git repo and commit for development. Unfortunately this is not particularly fast, but it's really the only way to go if you need builds for platforms other than Linux. Alternatively, you can just build tor-browser ( https://gitweb.torproject.org/tor-browser.git/ ), and copy the relevant bits over an existing tor-browser install. This is the workflow I use during development on Linux and is generally pretty straight forward to use once you have scripts setup to do the deploying. It's theoretically possible to get this sort of incremental build setup working for other platforms (ie building windows bins in a linux dev environment), but it's a pain and would require delving into the tor-browser-build firefox build and config scripts. I've done it before for our older windows build target (before we switched to clang and friends) and can give you some tips on how to do that if necessary. The Tor Browser Hacking Guide should be a good resource as well, though it is a living document so might be out of date: https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/doc/TorBrowser/Hacking If you're interested in updating/improving/adding to the about:preferences#tor pane, than you can start by looking at this commit which added the page: https://gitweb.torproject.org/tor-browser.git/commit/?h=tor-browser-68.2.0esr-9.5-1&id=bea7e61c120f207e7e1a65041b44dc1998e3656a In general, the relevant things there are in: /browser/components/torpreferences/* /browser/modules/TorProtocolService.jsm /browser/modules/TorStrings.jsm What sort of improvements are you looking to add? If you're interested in submitting a patch, you should open a ticket that tracks whatever feature you're looking to add. There we can give you early code and design/UX feedback to improve the odds of us accepting your patch :) best, -Richard On 11/9/19 4:04 PM, sarpedon montecarlo wrote: > Hello to the community! > my first question is that is there a solution for rapid development of > tbb? i was wondering that each time a contributor wants to change > something in the tbb or add extra functionality, they have to go through > the build process which i just guess would be very time consuming. i was > wondering that is there any containerized environment for this? any > docker ecosystem available or other solutions that might help? > my second question is about the changes that i want to implement. i am > interested into the graphical settings page about bridges and tor > process that currently tbb is exposing to the end users. if we want to > add more functionality into this settings page, where should we start to > change? and is there any possibility that we may have some control over > the underlying tor process as well, for instance controlling it's > launching or it's torrc configuration; because as i see, there must be a > link between the graphical interface of tbb and the underlying tor > process so that is the way we can control bridges for instance. similar > to this i was planning to add more graphical options to the interface > for controlling other configuration aspects of the tor process through > it's torrc or other workarounds. > in the past i have achieved this by writing a browser extension that > benefits from native messaging for communication to the tor process; but > this is not really performance friendly and an intuitive experience for > the end users.i am not satisfied with the result. so i was interested on > mirroring these functionalities inside tbb. > i really appreciate your insights and thoughts on the matter, > have a great day, > Sarpedon. > > _______________________________________________ > tor-dev mailing list > tor-dev@lists.torproject.org <mailto:tor-dev@lists.torproject.org> > https://lists.torproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tor-dev > _______________________________________________ tor-dev mailing list tor-dev@lists.torproject.org <mailto:tor-dev@lists.torproject.org> https://lists.torproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tor-dev
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I bring this up in this thread because of its timeliness. Please excuse me if you are offended, no offense intended. This is email is fundamentally a feature request.
Sarpedon, I had not yet gotten as far as you towards GUI customization of torrc options. And I’ve not yet thought through the whole flow so as to be able to write a decent trac ticket.
I would love to see one line added to the Tor Browser Button: SIGHUP Tor. Obviously the verbiage would have to be user friendly.
The main reason for this is due to having changed the torrc (files) and wanting to reload tor.real but not wanting to quit Tor Browser then re-open it.
I think a 'restart tor daemon' (with user-friendly language) in about:preferences#tor under 'Advanced' could be a potentially useful addition.
On 11/15/19 11:13 AM, Drew@FoundingDocuments.org wrote:
I bring this up in this thread because of its timeliness. Please excuse me if you are offended, no offense intended. This is email is fundamentally a feature request.
Sarpedon, I had not yet gotten as far as you towards GUI customization of torrc options. And I’ve not yet thought through the whole flow so as to be able to write a decent trac ticket.
I would love to see one line added to the Tor Browser Button: SIGHUP Tor. Obviously the verbiage would have to be user friendly.
The main reason for this is due to having changed the torrc (files) and wanting to reload tor.real but not wanting to quit Tor Browser then re-open it.
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-
Drew＠FoundingDocuments.org -
Richard Pospesel -
sarpedon montecarlo