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.

score 67 · Answer 1 · edited Feb 11 '19 at 14:31

67

Acquire::http::proxy "socks5h://server:port";

This works for me on Ubuntu 18.04. As the man page says, socks5h, not socks5, is supported by apt, which means socks5 proxy with DNS resolving ability.

edited Feb 11 '19 at 14:31

Melebius

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answered Feb 11 '19 at 02:49

苏永刚

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This is correct and indeed seems to work on Ubuntu 18.04. Although one might want to include _Acquire::https::proxy_ and _Acquire::ftp::proxy_ as well (with the same value). – Hamy Mar 01 '19 at 14:19
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adding proxy rule `Acquire::https::proxy "socks5h://server:port";` to a `apt.conf.d` file (like `/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/12proxy`) works just fine. I would suggest to stick to **https** unless otherwise is necessary. – ResilientBit May 09 '19 at 06:35
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Also for a proxy server requiring authentication, this line is modified as `Acquire::http::proxy "socks5h://user:pass@server:port";`. The above rule works just fine in Ubuntu 18.04. Here `socks5h` enforces DNS resolution at the proxy server. – ResilientBit May 09 '19 at 06:44
Anyone knows if this works in Ubuntu 16.04? – a06e Jun 18 '19 at 12:54
doesn't work on 14.04 – razieh babaee Jul 06 '19 at 12:55
(the option name itself is case insensitive, so you can type `acquire::http::proxy`) – imkzh Mar 27 '22 at 13:07
I wonder what needs to be done on Debian to make it work too? – Nikita Kipriyanov Apr 10 '23 at 06:42

score 37 · Accepted Answer · edited Feb 17 '14 at 16:10

37

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

edited Feb 17 '14 at 16:10

Florian F

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answered Apr 15 '11 at 11:14

enzotib

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It seems tsocks is not installed by default, so I need to run `sudo tsocks apt-get install tsocks`. Hahahahahaha... – fikr4n Apr 12 '16 at 07:21
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You can use curl to download `tsocks`, install it and then use :) – neutrinus May 20 '16 at 20:38
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Also: As of apt 1.3~rc1 (Debian version, not sure exactly which Ubuntu version, though my guess is not until Zesty), you can use `Acquire::http::Proxy "socks5h://hostname:port/"`. See the changelog at https://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=apt/apt.git;a=blob;f=debian/changelog;hb=f5e9be1da89725f9bf1915bdf86fdc4a77edf917 – derobert Feb 21 '17 at 22:12
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Well... that's funny. To make apt-get work you need to... `apt-get something`! – Equidamoid Jul 05 '17 at 17:48
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a little correction to @derobert line: `Acquire::socks::Proxy "socks5h://hostname:port/";` does the trick. Http does **not** - try it with Tor and you'll see a standard response "Tor is not a http proxy", so the `http` goes replaced by `socks` - and it works! – Alexey Vesnin Aug 20 '17 at 11:30

score 12 · Answer 3 · edited Sep 29 '15 at 23:16

12

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.

edited Sep 29 '15 at 23:16

kos

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answered Nov 15 '14 at 17:20

Bit-Man

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what's the begin number mean in the foler – LF00 Dec 29 '16 at 02:14
It's just the script execution order – Bit-Man Dec 30 '16 at 11:48
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This is wrong. This doesn't work. – dedunu Sep 07 '18 at 02:08
What failed to you @dedunumax? Any error? Any clue? – Bit-Man Sep 07 '18 at 15:35
Nothing happens. – dedunu Sep 07 '18 at 17:52
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It should be Acquire::http::proxy and also socks5**h** for dns resolution on proxy side – ZAB May 29 '19 at 20:50

score 7 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 23 '16 at 06:19

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/";

This is a great solution, it worked for me smoothly on Ubuntu 14.04. Thank you — the.1337.house, Apr 21 '20 at 10:22

score 5 · Answer 5 · answered Dec 01 '12 at 12:34

5

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

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

answered Dec 01 '12 at 12:34

mrkbbk

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This doesn't seem to work in Ubuntu 12.04 – Shnatsel Oct 16 '13 at 17:38
Works in 13.10. – isaaclw May 02 '14 at 04:11
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I'm pretty sure this is wrong syntax, it means "proxy all URLs that begin with socks:// through socks://user:pass@host:port/". Really, it should be this: `Acquire::http::proxy "socks://user:pass@host:port/";` – Hans-Christoph Steiner Jul 18 '14 at 16:03
@Hans-ChristophSteiner: This makes a connection to the indicated host and port, but the connection does not use the socks protocol. It looks like a http proxy protocol, but I did not check with an actual http proxy. – Seth Robertson Apr 16 '15 at 00:02
At this point, I'm sure that `Acquire::socks` is for setting the proxy for URLs that start with `socks://`. So that means you don't need a proxy to access the internet, and `apt` is not using any proxy for `ftp://`, `http://`, or `https://`.. `apt` only supports HTTP proxies, i.e. `Acquire::http::proxy "http://localhost:8118`. – Hans-Christoph Steiner Sep 08 '15 at 19:38

score 2 · Answer 6 · answered Jul 10 '19 at 21:02

In Debian, you can read the manpage apt-transport-http(1) and look for supported URI schemes. As was answered before, put

Acquire::http::proxy "socks5h://server:port";

in

/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/12proxy

You can read more about the APT-config in general in apt.conf(5) and read the examples in /usr/share/doc/apt/examples/configure-index.gz mentioned at the end of the manpage.

This can be combined with ssh -D <LOCAL PORT> <USER>@<HOST> to create a SOCKS proxy to a different system so that apt can then use the proxy as if everything originated on <HOST>.

If you use ssh -D 0.0.0.0:<LOCAL PORT> <USER>@<HOST> or ssh -D [::]:<LOCAL PORT> <USER>@<HOST> (for IPv6) to enable other systems to use the SOCKS proxy on all interfaces. This can be a security risk or breach of (corporate) policy. Make sure you know what you are doing.

syntax for SOCKS proxy in apt.conf

6 Answers6

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