Re: somewhat OT: http_proxy format (was: tor controller hangs / doesn't reply)

[Scott Bennett <bennett@xxxxxxxxxx>]

     On Wed, 3 Jun 2009 13:31:53 -0500 Drake Wilson <drake@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>Quoth Scott Bennett <bennett@xxxxxxxxxx>, on 2009-06-03 08:17:10 -0500,
>providing neither a References nor an In-Reply-To header:
>>      On Wed, 03 Jun 2009 09:01:09 -0400 Sambuddho Chakravarty
>> <sc2516@xxxxxxxxxxxx> top-posted (grrr...):
>> >I am using :-
>> >
>> > http_proxy=http://localhost:8118
>> >
>>      Well, you probably need to fix that first.  Both ftp_proxy and
>> http_proxy are supposed to be set to the *proxy*, not to a URL.  (See
>> fetch(3) for more information.)
>
>I believe that this idea does not reflect current practice, at least
>on GNU/Linux systems, and that Sambuddho's usage is correct for Bourne
>shell, modulo a possibly-missing "export" command.  (Not that current
>practice is particularly well-defined in this case.)
>
>>From the GNU Wget 1.11.4 manual, node "Proxies", at

    [great list of examples snipped  --SB]

>(This doesn't reference http_proxy specifically, but I interpret it to
>mean that all *_proxy environment variables (except no_proxy) use
>URLs, which is consistent with the rest of the page.)
>
>I can't find a copy of the aforementioned fetch(3) page anywhere on
>the Web or on any system to which I have access.

     Try here:

http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=fetch&apropos=0&sektion=3&manpath=FreeBSD+7.2-RELEASE&format=html

(Beware of URL linewrap.)
     I referred to the fetch(3) man page in FreeBSD because the individual man
pages for fetch(1) and wget(1) didn't specify that information when I first
needed to know it, but rather referred to fetch(3).  man pages are naturally
different for different operating systems, though.
>
>Much of this software is common on other Unix-like systems, and to my
>knowledge their environment variable semantics are not changed there.
>The consensus for users appears to be that you should set *_proxy
>variables to URLs with the scheme and host component required and the
>port and authentication components optional.  The consensus for

     I don't think I ever tried it that way.  (If I ever did try it that way,
it must not have worked, or I wouldn't have changed it.)  My vague recollection
is that I had no idea initially of how to get fetch(1) and wget(1) to use
proxies, so I tracked it down to the fetch(3) page via both the fetch(1) and
wget(1) pages.  At some point, I'll try it that way to see whether it works
on my system, too.

>programs appears to be that you should accept *_proxy variables in
>either URL format or in raw host[:port] format with the equivalent URL
>scheme defaulting to that for the protocol for which the variable is
>set.
>
     Accepting both ways does seem like the best way to do it.  I apologize
for inadvertently giving out information that apparently is not universally
applicable across operating systems as though it were.


                                  Scott Bennett, Comm. ASMELG, CFIAG
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