From: Roger Dingledine
First, copy torrc.sample to torrc (in the default configuration this means copy /usr/local/etc/tor/torrc.sample to /usr/local/etc/tor/torrc), -and edit the middle part. Create the DataDirectory, +and edit the bottom part. Create the DataDirectory, and make sure it's owned by the uid/gid that will be running tor. Fix your system clock so it's not too far off. Make sure name resolution works. Make sure each process can get to 1024 file descriptors (this should be already @@ -268,7 +268,7 @@ you can go to the hidden wiki to see hidden services in action.
To set up a hidden service, copy torrc.sample to torrc (by default it's -in /usr/local/etc/tor/), and edit the bottom part. Then run Tor. It will +in /usr/local/etc/tor/), and edit the middle part. Then run Tor. It will create each HiddenServiceDir you have configured, and it will create a 'hostname' file which specifies the url (xyz.onion) for that service. You can tell people the url, and they can connect to it via their Tor client,