I am at present using Fedora Core 4 on my work computer and CentOS 5 on my home computer. I am in a univ where I need to go through a proxy server with a username/password to connect to the outside world. On both systems, I have configured network proxies when logged in as a user through the Desktop/Preferences/Network Proxies. I have also added my username/password in the Details option.

I find that yum has been configured by default and works fine. However, when I am trying to use a software for VHDL simulation that has a licence manager that connects to the internet, the software says it can't connect. Only when I export http_proxy=usernameassword@proxy_server that it works.

Q: Where is the proxy info stored for the proxy setting that I have entered through the settings in Desktop/Preferences/Network Proxies? Why is it not used for any software trying to connect to the net?

I could always add export http_proxy=usernameassword@proxy_server in my .bash_profile but I am curious to know the answer.

Thanks in advance.

it's not used as your applications are working at a very different level. in the GUI world, that's a gnome setting, buried in ~/.gconf2 i assume, which is to all intents and purposes, a registry. you need a fair few hooks and libraries to get into that data, and something like a VHDL app isn't going to be coded for that in mind (and possibly was written a decade ago..!) the shell variables and much simpler to get to though, and much more standard.

Yup, I found the settings in .gconf in an xml file. Also, my password is stored as clear text! I avoid adding my http_proxy in .bash_profile since it is stored in clear text. But this isn't any better. Thats why I export the environment variable only when needed. I guess I'll stick to that.

Thanks.