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up vote 3 down vote favorite

I am using Ubuntu 14.04 . I want to change the http proxy settings from the command line. This should be equivalent to changing in the GUI(All Settings->Network->Network Proxy) and clicking the button Apply System Wide. I don't want to restart/logout the system as I am planning to change the settings dynamically from a script(bash).

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askubuntu.com/questions/175172/…. In the comment of the answer, it says to do sudo service network manager restart. –  Ramesh Aug 26 at 15:57
    
@Ramesh it doesn't work. I already went through that question. –  ma08 Aug 26 at 15:59

1 Answer 1

up vote 4 down vote accepted

From what I understand, setting proxies system-wide via that GUI does three things:

  1. Set the corresponding values in the dconf database.
  2. Set the values in /etc/environment.
  3. Set the values in /etc/apt/apt.conf.

1 and 3 take effect immediately. /etc/environment is parsed on login, so you will need to logout and login for that to take effect. (Note that this is login proper, not merely running a login shell.) The following script should be equivalent (assuming http/https proxies):

#! /bin/bash
HTTP_PROXY_HOST=proxy.example.com
HTTP_PROXY_PORT=3128
HTTPS_PROXY_HOST=proxy.example.com
HTTPS_PROXY_PORT=3128

gsettings set org.gnome.system.proxy mode manual
gsettings set org.gnome.system.proxy.http host "$HTTP_PROXY_HOST"
gsettings set org.gnome.system.proxy.http port "$HTTP_PROXY_PORT"
gsettings set org.gnome.system.proxy.https host "$HTTPS_PROXY_HOST"
gsettings set org.gnome.system.proxy.https port "$HTTPS_PROXY_PORT"

sudo sed -i.bak '/http[s]::proxy/Id' /etc/apt/apt.conf
sudo tee -a /etc/apt/apt.conf <<EOF
Acquire::http::proxy "http://$HTTP_PROXY_HOST:$HTTP_PROXY_PORT/";
Acquire::https::proxy "http://$HTTPS_PROXY_HOST:$HTTPS_PROXY_PORT/";
EOF

sudo sed -i.bak '/http[s]_proxy/Id' /etc/environment
sudo tee -a /etc/environment <<EOF
http_proxy="http://$HTTP_PROXY_HOST:$HTTP_PROXY_PORT/"
https_proxy="http://$HTTPS_PROXY_HOST:$HTTPS_PROXY_PORT/"
EOF

Even though it requires a re-login for PAM to apply /etc/environment everywhere, in a current shell you can still extract the values in that file:

export http_proxy=$(pam_getenv http_proxy)
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Thanks for the answer, is there any way without using logout? –  ma08 Aug 26 at 19:51
    
The browsers(Chrome and Firefox) basically. –  ma08 Aug 26 at 19:54
    
Yes, ok I will check your script and tell you what's going on. –  ma08 Aug 26 at 19:59
    
Chrome and firefox are not picking up the changes. Even in the netowrk settings it is not reflected. –  ma08 Aug 26 at 20:12
1  
Thank you, your script works and that answer in the link helped to get over that error. I should have done the debugging myself. Thanks a lot. –  ma08 Aug 26 at 20:39

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