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Modules in Tor

This document describes the build system and coding standards when writing a module in Tor.

What is a module?

In the context of the tor code base, a module is a subsystem that we can selectively enable or disable, at configure time.

Currently, tor has these modules:

  • Relay subsystem (relay)
  • Directory cache system (dircache).
  • Directory Authority subsystem (dirauth)

The dirauth code is located in its own directory in src/feature/dirauth/.

The relay code is located in a directory named src/*/*relay, which is being progressively refactored and disabled.

The dircache code is located in src/*/*dircache. Right now, it is disabled if and only if the relay module is disabled. (We are treating them as separate modules because they are logically independent, not because you would actually want to run one without the other.)

To disable a module, pass --disable-module-{dirauth,relay} at configure time. All modules are currently enabled by default.

Build System

The changes to the build system are pretty straightforward.

  1. Locate in the configure.ac file this define: m4_define(MODULES. It contains a list (white-space separated) of the module in tor. Add yours to the list.

  2. Use the AC_ARG_ENABLE([module-relay] template for your new module. We use the "disable module" approach instead of enabling them one by one. So, by default, tor will build all the modules.

    This will define the HAVE_MODULE_<name> statement which can be used in the C code to conditionally compile things for your module. And the BUILD_MODULE_<name> is also defined for automake files (e.g: include.am).

  3. In the src/core/include.am file, locate the MODULE_RELAY_SOURCES value. You need to create your own _SOURCES variable for your module and then conditionally add the it to LIBTOR_A_SOURCES if you should build the module.

    It is then very important to add your SOURCES variable to src_or_libtor_testing_a_SOURCES so the tests can build it.

Finally, your module will automatically be included in the TOR_MODULES_ALL_ENABLED variable which is used to build the unit tests. They always build everything in order to test everything.

Coding

As mentioned above, a module should be isolated in its own directories, suffixed with the name of the module, in src/*/.

There are couples of "rules" you want to follow:

  • Minimize as much as you can the number of entry points into your module. Less is always better but of course that doesn't work out for every use case. However, it is a good thing to always keep that in mind.

  • Do not use the HAVE_MODULE_<name> define outside of the module code base. Every entry point should have a second definition if the module is disabled. For instance:

    #ifdef HAVE_MODULE_DIRAUTH

int sr_init(int save_to_disk);

#else /* HAVE_MODULE_DIRAUTH */

static inline int
sr_init(int save_to_disk)
{
  (void) save_to_disk;
  return 0;
}

#endif /* HAVE_MODULE_DIRAUTH */

    The main reason for this approach is to avoid having conditional code everywhere in the code base. It should be centralized as much as possible which helps maintainability but also avoids conditional spaghetti code making the code much more difficult to follow/understand.

  • It is possible that you end up with code that needs to be used by the rest of the code base but is still part of your module. As a good example, if you look at src/feature/shared_random_client.c: it contains code needed by the hidden service subsystem but mainly related to the shared random subsystem very specific to the dirauth module.

    This is fine but try to keep it as lean as possible and never use the same filename as the one in the module. For example, this is a bad idea and should never be done:

    • src/feature/dirclient/shared_random.c
    • src/feature/dirauth/shared_random.c

  • When you include headers from the module, always use the full module path in your statement. Example:

#include "feature/dirauth/dirvote.h"`

The main reason is that we do not add the module include path by default so it needs to be specified. But also, it helps our human brain understand which part comes from a module or not.

Even in the module itself, use the full include path like above.