Bug 28094 – Suggestion about description of proxy in make.conf(5)

• Product: [OLD] Docs-user
• Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

[Description Mamoru KOMACHI (RETIRED) 2003-09-06 20:42:06 UTC]

Hi.  I was asked at a local mailing list about how to write proxy
setting in a /etc/make.conf and found that HTTP_PROXY and FTP_PROXY
don't work anymore.  This is because Portage defaults to use wget(1)
and wget seems to look only http_proxy and ftp_proxy (cf. fetch(1)
uses HTTP_PROXY and FTP_PROXY).  As most people don't change the
default downloader Portage manual should mention about it at least.
Gentoo Linux FAQ says: 

"How do I use emerge from behind a firewall?

Edit the PROXY settings in /etc/make.conf. If that doesn't work, edit
/etc/wgetrc and edit http_proxy and ftp_proxy appropriately."

so it might be good to have a similar description in /etc/make.conf.

However, I can think of another solution.  Portage could automatically
set http_proxy and ftp_proxy respectively if HTTP_PROXY and FTP_PROXY
(and propably PROXY) are set in /etc/make.conf (it is good for
backward compatibility in /etc/make.conf).  We can write a lower case
environmental variables like http_proxy and ftp_proxy directly to
/etc/make.conf but it doesn't look nice (and they only work for wget).

[Comment 1 Sven Vermeulen (RETIRED) 2003-09-07 02:39:45 UTC]

You have to define HTTP_PROXY and http_proxy if you want to be certain. I don't like the idea of making some Upper->Lower case stuff in /etc/make.conf; a better way would be to define http_proxy and then set HTTP_PROXY="$http_proxy".

Also, a more Gentoo-like approach to environment variables would be to create a /etc/env.d/85proxy file in which you define the variable(s). 

[note: the number is arbitrary]

[Comment 2 Sven Vermeulen (RETIRED) 2003-11-14 11:11:42 UTC]

It is also not recommended to have portage automatically create new variables (HTTP_PROXY != http_proxy). Perhaps some odd user wants HTTP_PROXY set with one value, and http_proxy with another, or keep http_proxy unset but have HTTP_PROXY declared.

[Comment 3 Sven Vermeulen (RETIRED) 2003-11-16 05:14:15 UTC]

Okay, it doesn't look like /etc/make.conf is going to be edited as it isn't the recommended way to place variables anyway (/etc/env.d). I'm marking this as WONTFIX (as it would otherwise just linger along until it isn't even valid anymore).