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I just got finished a few weeks ago setting up my torrc to require connections to U.S. ExitNodes. I just used Vidalia to get into the "Tor Configuration File", and edited that. Worked great. Now I've downloaded the new Tor bundle (3.5) and, whoah, Vidalia is gone, and my ExitNodes are no longer constrained in the same way. This new version of Tor pulls random international ExitNodes. Until I figure out how to change ExitNodes in the new Tor, I'm going to stick with the old one, which still works properly.

I gather the new Tor isn't looking at the original torrc. How, in the new Tor do I access the new configuration file?

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  • ben, please apologize my ignorance, could you please tell me the difference from using it on port 9050 from the original 9150 , what changes ? thanks
    – user6926
    Mar 13, 2015 at 13:07

2 Answers 2

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Tor Browser Bundle uses the Data/Tor/torrc file inside its own directory.

From Tor Project FAQ:

If you installed Tor Browser Bundle, look for Data/Tor/torrc inside your Tor Browser Bundle directory.

Core Tor puts the torrc file in /usr/local/etc/tor/torrc if you compiled Tor from source, and /etc/tor/torrc or /etc/torrc if you installed a pre-built package.

You should be able to set your exit node country to U.S. by adding the following to torrc file:

ExitNodes {us}

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  • Well, where exactly is the torrc file now in Mac OS 10.6? In the last version, it was in /Applications/TorBrowser_en-US.app/Library/Vidalia/torrc. Took a while to find that.
    – user618
    Dec 21, 2013 at 17:59
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    OK, found it (I think). It's in /Applications/TorBrowserBundle.ed-US.app/Data/Tor/torrc. That Data directory is part of the Tor package. Thanks!
    – user618
    Dec 21, 2013 at 18:38
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Tor browser now uses ./Data/Tor/torrc-defaults. In ./Data/Tor/torrc, there's the warning:

This file was generated by Tor; if you edit it, comments will not be preserved
The old torrc file was renamed to torrc.orig.1 or similar, and Tor will ignore it

This is somewhat confusing, because in the manual, I see:

--defaults-torrc FILE

Specify a file in which to find default values for Tor options. The contents of this file are overridden by those in the regular configuration file, and by those on the command line. (Default: @CONFDIR@/torrc-defaults.)

But actually, that's the case in the Tor browser. It's just that "the regular configuration file" aka ./Data/Tor/torrc is "generated by Tor", and doesn't preserve edits.

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  • Indeed and the best way to override these settings is to compile/install tor separately and then change the browser proxy setting to use that default SOCKS5 port of 9050 instead of the TBB one of 9150, then change the default/home page from about:tor to https://check.torproject.org/ because the about page only checks that the default config is active and not that you know what you're doing really and they can get out of the way.
    – Ben
    Oct 30, 2014 at 7:54

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