How To Config the "torrc" file

Question

Your instructions say to Tor's configuration file is named 'torrc'.

Locate the file on your system, open it with a text editor and add the following lines:

ORPort 443
Exitpolicy reject *:*
Nickname ididntedittheconfig
ContactInfo human@...

The thing is, you don't say "where" to insert these lines, and there's really no specifics as to how exactly to edit the file....can you elaborate on this please, and be concise...I'd like to set-up and establish a good working relay....thank you for your time

Answer 1

This helped me greatly, it is the template...

https://github.com/torproject/tor/blob/master/src/config/torrc.sample.in

Answer 2

The torrc file is just a flat text file, any text editor (like vim, gedit or notepad.exe) should suffice.

Open the file in the text editor and add the lines, or edit the lines if the options already exist with different definitions.

Where the file resides by default depends on the operating system and where you are receiving tor from. The location is determined by whoever built the tor binary. Infact depending on how it's installed or distributed (e.g. win32) you may not have a torrc file at all to work with or you may want to specify a different location. In those cases you can create a new text file and insert the appropriate configuration options and then specify an explicit location with the -f command line switch, e.g. tor -f /usr/local/etc/torrc or tor -f C:\tor\torrc to point it to your new file. The file needn't be called torrc but it is the standard naming convention.

There are guides on the Tor Project website for OSX, Windows and Linux/UNIX.

Answer 3

Just for clarification in case anyone comes across this even though it is from 2016.

Any user added configuration to torrc can just go at the bottom of the file.

There is no need to make a new file and tell tor to look at it. In fact this may cause more problems or confusion for the user if they are new to using tor.

Also this is not about the browser in case anyone thinks so and goes poking around in /etc or wherever and messes something up looking for files that don't exist becuase they are using the Tor Browser not tor.