[ubuntu-us-mi] /etc/cron.daily/apt and proxy

[Robert Citek]

In Ubuntu 8.10, why is this chunk of code in /etc/cron.daily/apt?

<code>
# set the proxy based on the admin users gconf settings
admin_user=$(getent group admin|cut -d: -f4|cut -d, -f1)
if [ -n "$admin_user" ] && [ -x /usr/bin/sudo ] && [ -z "$http_proxy"
] && [ -x /usr/bin/gconftool ]; then
use=$(sudo -u "$admin_user" gconftool --get
/system/http_proxy/use_http_proxy)
host=$(sudo -u "$admin_user" gconftool --get /system/http_proxy/host)
port=$(sudo -u "$admin_user" gconftool --get /system/http_proxy/port)
if [ "$use" = "true" ] && [ -n "$host" ] && [ -n "$port" ]; then
export http_proxy="http://$host:$port/"
fi
fi
</code>

The two issues I have with it:

1) it ignores any Acquire::http::Proxy setting in a /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/ file
2) it does not handle the case where the proxy is defined by an
Automatic proxy configuration file.

Regards,
- Robert

[Jay R. Wren]

Good point!

I recently ran into this issue, since it sudo's as the admin user, which is
by default the first user of the admin group. I didn't like this much on a
server machine, so I simply added root as the first user in the admin group.
Its hacky for sure, but at least this cron job isn't sudoing to my account
every night.

The goal is to get http proxy settings which are set via the ubuntu
administration menu, presumably by the default admin user.

There are a lot of assumptions IMO. but if the http_proxy environment
variable is set, it will be used instead, so you could just set the
http_proxy environment variable. You'd have to set it either in that
/etc/cron.daily/apt or in /etc/crontab. it doesn't look like crontab reads
any profile or environment before starting.

--
Jay

--------------------------------------------------
From: "Robert Citek" <robert.citek at gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, May 18, 2009 10:50 AM
To: "Ubuntu Michigan Local Community Team" <ubuntu-us-mi at lists.ubuntu.com>
Subject: [ubuntu-us-mi] /etc/cron.daily/apt and proxy

Post by Robert Citek
In Ubuntu 8.10, why is this chunk of code in /etc/cron.daily/apt?
<code>
# set the proxy based on the admin users gconf settings
admin_user=$(getent group admin|cut -d: -f4|cut -d, -f1)
if [ -n "$admin_user" ] && [ -x /usr/bin/sudo ] && [ -z "$http_proxy"
] && [ -x /usr/bin/gconftool ]; then
use=$(sudo -u "$admin_user" gconftool --get
/system/http_proxy/use_http_proxy)
host=$(sudo -u "$admin_user" gconftool --get
/system/http_proxy/host)
port=$(sudo -u "$admin_user" gconftool --get
/system/http_proxy/port)
if [ "$use" = "true" ] && [ -n "$host" ] && [ -n "$port" ]; then
export http_proxy="http://$host:$port/"
fi
fi
</code>
1) it ignores any Acquire::http::Proxy setting in a /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/ file
2) it does not handle the case where the proxy is defined by an
Automatic proxy configuration file.
Regards,
- Robert
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