[OTR-dev] Clever logging for weechat_otr plugin (+ log management discussion)

[Daniel .koolfy Faucon]

On Thu, 14 Mar 2013 12:10:02 -0400
Ian Goldberg <ian at cypherpunks.ca> wrote:

> On Wed, Mar 13, 2013 at 12:35:51PM +0100, Daniel .koolfy Faucon wrote:
> > - pidgin-otr as a checkbox to disable logging of OTR conversations,
> > but it's not checked by default.
> 
> Wait; didn't this change in 4.0.0?  If I remember correctly, the
> default is now not to log, *and* whenever an OTR session starts, it
> *tells* you whether it's logging or not.
> 
> [And if you're wondering why I wouldn't be the one to know this for
> sure, well, it's just been that kind of month.]
> 
>    - Ian


You are correct, I realized that my pidgin-otr experience and testings
were pre-4.0.0.
The pidgin-otr 4.0.0 behaves in a way that makes a lot of sense, and
for that reason I decided to conform weechat-otr to the logging
behavior of pidgin-otr 4.0.0

Here are the relevant changes made to weechat-otr:

https://github.com/mmb/weechat-otr/pull/10

https://github.com/mmb/weechat-otr/pull/11

I'm leaving the pull requests open a few days for comments (and bug
discovery on the second, just in case.) after which I will merge them
upstream. (I am now the maintainer of the weechat-otr project)

With those, the behaviour of weechat-otr will be as follows:

- OTR sessions are NOT logged by DEFAULT.

- The user can override this policy to allow for systematic logging of
  OTR sessions (if the client is set to log. If logs are disabled
  anyway, they are left in that state)

- Every time an OTR session starts with the OTR logging policy ENABLED,
  a warning message is displayed to the user to warn him of the danger
  of this practice, and tell him how to disable this policy if he wants
  to.

- Additionally, there is an /otr log [start|stop] command which allows
  the user to enable/disable the logging of an ongoing OTR
  conversation. When the state changes a message is displayed to the
  user to be sure no confusion is possible. /otr log without argument
  will tell the user whether the conversation is logged or not.

- Whatever happens during the OTR session (be it because of OTR logging
  policies or manual enabling/disabling of logging during a particular
  session), upon finishing the OTR session, the previous logging
  settings of weechat are restored to avoid any confusing interference
  with anything non-OTR.

- As previously stated, logs within an OTR session are disabled in a
  way that leaves no trace the OTR conversation ever took place. That
  is if it was disabled by the global OTR logging policy. This is not
  possible if the user manually disabled logging in the middle of an
  OTR conversation, obviously.


I hope this configuration fits all (or most) points of views expressed
in this thread, with maximum flexibility and security for non-techies
too.


Now that pidgin-otr and weechat-otr pretty much do the same in the
Logging Department, would it be reasonable to contact the Jitsi project
to implement something similar? (and possibly start thinking about
doing the same for irssi-otr?)

-- 
Daniel ".koolfy" Faucon

Tel: France : (+33)(0)658/993.700
PGP Fingerprint : 485E 7C63 8D29 F737 FEA2  8CD3 EA05 30E6 15BE 9FA5
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