syntax for SOCKS proxy in apt.conf

Question

I want to add SOCKS proxy settings to /etc/apt/apt.conf. What is the syntax for it? Is it same as http and ftp syntax?

Thanks.

Answer 1

A possible solution can be to use tsocks, an application that can redirect the network traffic through a socks proxy. Install tsocks package, modify /etc/tsocks.conf to set address and port number of your socks proxy, and run:

$ sudo -s
# tsocks apt-get update
# tsocks apt-get dist-upgrade
# exit
$

or

$ sudo -s
# . tsocks -on
# apt-get update
# apt-get dist-upgrade
# . tsocks -off # not really necessary, given the exit
# exit
$

You can think to a number of options, to simplify and automate its use.
Don't forget the leading dot, the Manpage has more deatails on this.

Edit: a shorter way to use it:

$ sudo tsocks apt-get update
$ sudo tsocks apt-get dist-upgrade

Answer 2

Using the next config line works for me:

Acquire::socks::proxy "socks5://server:port";

To keep apt.conf clean and avoid problems at Linux upgrade I created a new file (/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/12proxy) and added the config file to it.

Answer 3

Or tou can put in your /etc/apt/apt.conf something like this:

Acquire::socks::proxy "socks://user:pass@host:port/";

Answer 4

I couldn't find anything on Acquire::socks::proxy in the apt.conf manual of Ubuntu Xenial. You could fix this by running a local http proxy that supports upstream socks proxy, for example Polipo. You need to configure Polipo as follows:

proxyAddress = "::1"
proxyPort = 8118
socksParentProxy = "sockshost:socksport"
socksProxyType = socks5

and then set the http proxy in your apt.conf file:

Acquire::http::proxy "http://127.0.0.1:8118/";
Acquire::https::proxy "https://127.0.0.1:8118/";