Status Socket

Basic information about running Onionbalance can be obtained by querying so called status socket.

Status socket is a Unix socket file created by Onionbalance. It is automatically closed by Onionbalance after reading it to the end.

Example:

socat - unix-connect:/var/run/onionbalance/control | json_pp -json_opt pretty
{
   "services" : [
      {
         "instances" : [
            {
               "descriptorReceived" : "2020-06-16 19:59:28",
               "introPointsNum" : 3,
               "introSetModified" : "2020-06-16 19:59:28",
               "onionAddress" : "vkmiy6biqcyphtx5exswxl5sjus2vn2b6pzir7lz5akudhwbqk5muead.onion"
            }
         ],
         "onionAddress" : "bvy46sg2b5dokczabwv2pabqlrps3lppweyrebhat6gjieo2avojdvad.onion.onion",
         "publishAttemptFirstDescriptor" : "2020-06-16 20:00:12",
         "publishAttemptSecondDescriptor" : "2020-06-16 20:00:12"
      }
   ]
}

The overall format of the status socket output is clear from the above example. Note that ` “introPointsNum” : 3, ` and introModified for an instance is optional, uploaded* and publishAttempt* for a service may be null.

Meaning of non-self-explanatory fields:

  • introSetModified is the intro set last modified timestamp.

  • introPointsNum is the number of introduction points on the descriptor.

  • publishAttemptFirstDescriptor and publishAttemptSecondDescriptor are the last publish attempt timestamps for first and second descriptors.

  • descriptorReceived is the received descriptor timestamp.

Configuration

Status socket filesystem location can be configured either by status-socket-location in the YAML config file or by ONIONBALANCE_STATUS_SOCKET_LOCATION environment variable (environment takes precedence).

If neither is given, the socket file is not opened.

Example config file:

# Onionbalance Config File
status-socket-location: /home/user/test.sock
services:
- instances:
  - address: vkmiy6biqcyphtx5exswxl5sjus2vn2b6pzir7lz5akudhwbqk5muead.onion
    name: node1
  key: bvy46sg2b5dokczabwv2pabqlrps3lppweyrebhat6gjieo2avojdvad.key