Setting Up a Proxy on Linux

Linux offers multiple ways to configure proxies — from system-wide environment variables to application-specific settings.

Environment Variables

The most common approach is setting environment variables. Most command-line tools and many applications respect these:

export http_proxy=http://username:password@proxy-host:port
export https_proxy=http://username:password@proxy-host:port
export no_proxy=localhost,127.0.0.1

For SOCKS5 proxies:

export ALL_PROXY=socks5://username:password@proxy-host:port

To make these settings persistent, add them to your shell config (~/.bashrc, ~/.zshrc, or ~/.profile):

echo 'export http_proxy=http://username:password@proxy-host:port' >> ~/.bashrc
echo 'export https_proxy=http://username:password@proxy-host:port' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

System-Wide Configuration

For system-wide proxy settings (affects all users), edit /etc/environment:

http_proxy=http://username:password@proxy-host:port
https_proxy=http://username:password@proxy-host:port
no_proxy=localhost,127.0.0.1

GNOME Desktop

If you're using GNOME (Ubuntu, Fedora, etc.):

1. Open Settings → Network → Network Proxy.
2. Select Manual.
3. Enter the proxy host and port for HTTP, HTTPS, or SOCKS.
4. Close the settings — changes apply immediately.

APT Package Manager (Debian/Ubuntu)

To route APT through a proxy, create or edit /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/proxy.conf:

Acquire::http::Proxy "http://username:password@proxy-host:port";
Acquire::https::Proxy "http://username:password@proxy-host:port";

Verifying the Proxy

Test that your proxy is working:

curl -x http://username:password@proxy-host:port https://api.ipify.org

This should return the proxy's IP address instead of your own.

Tips

• Use no_proxy to exclude local addresses and internal services from going through the proxy.
• For Docker containers, configure proxy settings in ~/.docker/config.json or pass them as environment variables in your docker run command.
• Many development tools (npm, pip, git) have their own proxy configuration — check their documentation if environment variables don't work.