Bug 72720 – Manpage make.conf(5): Wrong capitalization for variables http_proxy and ftp_proxy

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

[Description Flophouse Joe 2004-11-28 06:36:31 UTC]

The make.conf(5) man page indicates that proxy servers should be specified in the environment variables "HTTP_PROXY" and "FTP_PROXY".

But wget, the default FETCHCOMMAND, expects variables called "http_proxy" and "ftp_proxy".  Unless these variables are named in lower-case, wget will not attempt to access the proxy servers.

(This same capitalization problem has crept up (and been corrected) in a few other places; see the following bugs: 1664, 6049, 13922 .)

Pasted into the "additional information" section is a trivial patch to portage-2.0.51-r3/man/make.conf.5 that corrects the case of these variables.

(It also removes mention of the variable "PROXY" because (a) the name of the variable that wget expects is "proxy" and (b) this variable just takes a "yes" or "no" value that controls whether wget connects through the proxy; the same effect can be obtained by commenting out any references to "http_proxy" and "ftp_proxy".)

Please note that this fix, like the others listed above, assumes that you're using the default FETCHCOMMAND of wget, or that whatever FETCHCOMMAND you're using expects the http_proxy and ftp_proxy environment variables to be named in lower-case.

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1. Read the "Proxies" section of the wget info page ( http://www.gnu.org/software/wget/manual/wget-1.8.1/html_chapter/wget_8.html ).
2. Notice from the above that wget expects environment variables called "http_proxy" and "ftp_proxy" to find proxies.
3. Read the manpage for make.conf(5) (as shipped with, for example, portage-2.0.51-r3).  Notice that make.conf(5) calls for the variables "HTTP_PROXY" and "FTP_PROXY".
4. Append "HTTP_PROXY" and "FTP_PROXY" lines to your /etc/make.conf and fetch sources with "emerge -f".  Notice that wget doesn't access your proxies.
5. Replace the HTTP_PROXY and FTP_PROXY lines in /etc/make.conf with http_proxy and ftp_proxy and fetch sources again.  Now wget *does* access your proxies.
Actual Results:  
With the variables "HTTP_PROXY" and "FTP_PROXY" defined in /etc/make.conf, wget
ignores your specified proxies.

Expected Results:  
wget expects variables called "http_proxy" and "ftp_proxy".  These variables
must be named in all lower case in order for wget to attempt to contact your
proxies.

diff -Nuar portage-2.0.51-r3-original/man/make.conf.5
portage-2.0.51-r3-modified/man/make.conf.5
--- portage-2.0.51-r3-original/man/make.conf.5  2004-10-05 00:29:38.000000000 -0400
+++ portage-2.0.51-r3-modified/man/make.conf.5  2004-11-28 08:47:18.815892136 -0500
@@ -229,11 +229,12 @@
 locations are used to download files before the ones listed in
 the \fIebuild scripts\fR. Merging 'mirrorselect' can help.
 .TP
-\fBHTTP_PROXY FTP_PROXY\fR = \fI[host:port]\fR
+\fBhttp_proxy\fR = \fI[host:port]\fR
+.TP
+\fBftp_proxy\fR = \fI[host:port]\fR
 These vars are used if the sources must be downloaded from the
 internet by \fBwget\fR(1).  They are only required if you use a
-proxy server for internet access.  Either define \fIPROXY\fR or
-\fIPROXY_FTP\fR and \fIPROXY_HTTP\fR.
+proxy server for internet access.
 .TP
 \fBMAKEOPTS\fR
 Use this variable if you want to use parallel make.  For example, if you

[Comment 1 Xavier Neys (RETIRED) 2004-11-28 06:43:37 UTC]

Reassigning to Portage team.

[Comment 2 SpanKY 2004-11-29 07:23:39 UTC]

fixed in cvs, thanks