Application request when we haven't used client functionality lately

Question

Just glanced at my logs and noticed 50+ messages like this from tor. What exactly do these messages mean? I don't think I was using tor at the time the messages occurred. What might've invoked them?

Nov 17 10:03:34 hostname Tor[17074]: Application request when we haven't used client functionality lately. Optimistically trying directory fetches again.
Nov 17 10:03:34 hostname Tor[17074]: Application request when we haven't used client functionality lately. Optimistically trying directory fetches again.
Nov 17 10:03:34 hostname Tor[17074]: Application request when we haven't used client functionality lately. Optimistically trying directory fetches again.
Nov 17 10:03:34 hostname Tor[17074]: Application request when we haven't used client functionality lately. Optimistically trying directory fetches again.
Nov 17 10:03:34 hostname Tor[17074]: Application request when we haven't used client functionality lately. Optimistically trying directory fetches again.
Nov 17 10:03:34 hostname Tor[17074]: Application request when we haven't used client functionality lately. Optimistically trying directory fetches again.
Nov 17 10:03:34 hostname Tor[17074]: Application request when we haven't used client functionality lately. Optimistically trying directory fetches again.
Nov 17 10:03:34 hostname Tor[17074]: Application request when we haven't used client functionality lately. Optimistically trying directory fetches again.
Nov 17 10:03:34 hostname Tor[17074]: Application request when we haven't used client functionality lately. Optimistically trying directory fetches again.
Nov 17 10:03:34 hostname Tor[17074]: Application request when we haven't used client functionality lately. Optimistically trying directory fetches again.
Nov 17 10:03:34 hostname Tor[17074]: Application request when we haven't used client functionality lately. Optimistically trying directory fetches again.
Nov 17 10:03:34 hostname Tor[17074]: Application request when we haven't used client functionality lately. Optimistically trying directory fetches again.
Nov 17 10:03:34 hostname Tor[17074]: Application request when we haven't used client functionality lately. Optimistically trying directory fetches again.
Nov 17 10:03:36 hostname Tor[17074]: We now have enough directory information to build circuits.
Nov 17 10:03:37 hostname Tor[17074]: Tor has successfully opened a circuit. Looks like client functionality is working.
Nov 17 10:03:37 hostname Tor[17074]: Tor has successfully opened a circuit. Looks like client functionality is working.


# lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Release:    16.04
Codename:   xenial

# tor --version
Tor version 0.3.1.8 (git-868c1b2b1eb7225a).

Answer 1

I believe this happens when it can not parse the following two files:

• GEOIP IPv4 file at C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\[username]\geoip
• GEOIP IPv6 file at C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\[username]\geoip6

Answer 2

It happens when your tor instance is either not yet synchronized to the network - or it was a DisableNetwork=1 situation when it was instructed to disconnect from the network but do not terminate. Tor Browser has this odd behavior - disconnecting tor instance if idle. This is not a bug - but I do recommend you to just use a dedicated tor instance