Ubuntu – the all_proxy environment variable used for

environment-variablesPROXY

When I type

set | grep -i proxy

I see all environmental variables which refers to proxy settings. I understand the meaning of http_proxy and ftp_proxy but what is all_proxy used for and where can I change it ?

It has been added to my environment variables when I used gnome-network-properties application. Why socks is specified there as a protocol?

all_proxy=socks://my_proxy:port/

Best Answer

I found a post in a mailing list which says:

We already export http,ftp,https proxy environment variables. Some environments, GNOME for instance, place the socks proxy in ALL_PROXY and all_proxy. Export it as well.

Here is the post http://lists.o-hand.com/poky/2431.html

So it's for the SOCKS proxy in gnome.