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I sometimes need to set a specific ExitNodes country code in the torrc file. I am using Mac OS X 10.6.7. Prior to Tor 6.0 the torrc file for TorBrowser.app on a Mac was located in the app's bundle, i.e.,

TorBrowser.app/TorBrowser/Data/Tor/torrc

I would edit that file to specify the desired ExitNodes command. Note, torrc was initially created by the app during first execution. After that I could edit it.

In Tor 6.0 the app bundle organization is different and there is no torrc in the bundle. So how does one now specify a specific ExitNodes country code? If it's still a torrc file where does Tor 6.0 look for that file on a Mac?

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  • I have no idea about Macs or OS X but I think this ticket (#13252) is the one where the changes were made, it might indicate how it's handling the torrc file placement now.
    – cacahuatl
    Jun 2 '16 at 0:37
  • I had previously looked over ticket (#13252). Lots of comments about torrc-defaults in there.
    – xyzzy
    Jun 2 '16 at 3:52
  • Why can't I enter a new line into these comments I cannot format what I want to say?
    – xyzzy
    Jun 2 '16 at 3:58
  • I did manage to set a ExitNodes in torrc-defaults file. But torrc-defaults has this comment: # This file is distributed with Tor Browser and should not be modified (it # may be overwritten during the next Tor Browser update). To customize your # Tor configuration, shut down Tor Browser and edit the torrc file. So this implies I should not be editing it and indeed use a torrc file. Perhaps I'm jumping the gun and I need to wait for next Tor version to create torrc as implied in those comments. But then the question will still remains where will it expect torrc to be placed?
    – xyzzy
    Jun 2 '16 at 4:04
  • The torrc file will be "reformatted" the set options won't be lost, "comments" will be. torrc-defaults will be preserved but isn't the one you should edit. there is normally a torrc file along side it but I don't know OSX, just that the layout was restructured.
    – cacahuatl
    Jun 2 '16 at 17:58
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I turns out that a folder named TorBrowser-Data is created in the same folder containing the Tor6 app (not sure why I didn't notice that before). It not only contains the torrc file but also the profile. So now that satisfies most of my concerns in that the both the torrc and the profile are no longer within the app bundle.

Of course while this is no problem for me on Snow Leopard it may be problematic for 10.11 if the user places the Tor6 app in /Applications. A better location for TorBrowser-Data IMO should be in, say, ~/Library/Application Support, i.e., the same place Firefox places its Firefox folder which contains its profiles. But then if that were done a better name for "TorBrowser-Data" should be just "Tor". :-)

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  • I just updated my copy of TBB on Mac OS. Previously, because torrc was in the bundle, only the user that installed it could run it. But when I launched it (from admin which also installed and updated it) it did create ~/Library/Application Support/TorBrowser-Data/Tor with lots of files including torrc. However, when I launched it from another account, it created that directory with only torrc in it, and then it crashed. The "log to send to the support team" was empty.
    – WGroleau
    Jun 3 '16 at 9:33
  • @WGroleau, what you said gave me an idea. I moved TorBrowser-Data into ~/Library/Application Support. Then created a symlink named TorBrowser-Data in the Tor6 folder to ~/Library/Application Support/TorBrowser-Data. It works! So I followed my suggestions and renamed ~/Library/Application Support/TorBrowser-Data to ~/Library/Application Support/Tor and changed the TorBrowser-Data symlink to point to that. It still works. So I guess I have all I want at the moment; the data properly in Application Support in a folder named "Tor". This is fine with me since I don't use /Applications for this app.
    – xyzzy
    Jun 4 '16 at 6:13
  • In earlier versions, the way I avoided having a complete copy of the bundle for every user was to make ~/bin/TorBrowser.app/...../Tor/torrc and then make all the other paths in ~/bin/TorBrowser.app be symlinks back to the app in /Applications.
    – WGroleau
    Jun 4 '16 at 10:20

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