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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.

Ubuntuser
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6 Answers6

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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.

Melebius
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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
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
Florian F
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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
14

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.

kos
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Bit-Man
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7

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/";
Mos
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4

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

Acquire::socks::proxy "socks://user:pass@host:port/";
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
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    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
3

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.

AdamKalisz
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