[Yum] yum access ftp repos without a proxy, http with proxy

[Gene Smith]

Les Mikesell wrote:
> Gene Smith wrote:
>> I have a new situation at work were the proxy server refuses to allow 
>> *.rpm files to be downloaded because they are "streaming media". 
>> However, direct connect to the internet is allowed (bypassing the 
>> proxy) only when ftp is used. So I can set firefox to use the proxy 
>> only for http and do direct connect with ftp. This allows rpm files to 
>> be downloaded in firefox if they are on ftp servers.
>>
>> However, I don't know the correct method to configure yum to do the 
>> same thing. There is "proxy" setting that I have set in yum.conf. It 
>> appears to cause both http and ftp to use the proxy. Is there a way to 
>> tell yum to use the proxy only for http access and to use no proxy 
>> when ftp connection is attempted?
> 
> It observes the standard environment settings if you don't set a proxy 
> in the config file:
> export http_proxy=http://your.proxy:port
> export ftp_proxy=http://your.proxy:port (if it is squid and can proxy 
> ftp through http)
> or omit the ftp_proxy setting to go direct.

OK. I only have http_proxy set and it seems to work in yum for http 
access (retrieves the mirror list). So I guess I really don't need
proxy=...
again in yum.conf.

> 
>> I see a possibility of setting
>> proxy=_none_

Yes, don't need this

>> which could be placed right before baseurl=ftp://.... if a list of 
>> explicit urls are used, or maybe after mirrorlist=http://... if a list 
>> of mirrors is requested. (http connections require the proxy.)
>>
>> I don't have a way to test this now since my current distro (fedora 8) 
>> seems to only be archived on 3 http servers and not on ftp.

Actually, this is wrong. There are ftp servers out there for f8.

When I go to http://mirrors.fedoraproject.org/publiclist/Fedora/8/
it shows two ftp sites listed although my mirrorlist url set in yum.conf 
only returns http sites and in US:
http://mirrors.fedoraproject.org/mirrorlist?repo=fedora-8&arch=i386

# repo = fedora-8 arch = i386 country = US
http://archive.kernel.org/fedora-archive/fedora/linux/releases/8/Everything/i386/os/
http://kdeforge.unl.edu/mirrors/fedora-archive/fedora/linux/releases/8/Everything/i386/os/
http://archive.fedoraproject.org/pub/archive/fedora/linux/releases/8/Everything/i386/os/

But there is actually good ftp site here:
ftp://archive.kernel.org/fedora-archive/fedora/linux/releases/8/Everything/i386/os/
and another in Germany that aren't show at my mirrorlist url.

So if I get rid of the my mirrorlist and adapt the above ftp url as a 
baseurl it works with yum using direct connect ftp.

So I guess the new question is: how do you I set a mirrorlist url to 
also return ftp sites and not just http? And how do I ask for sites in 
all countries having ftp sites be returned, not just US?

>> (I can use 
>> an external socks server with ssh -D option to download f8 rpms via 
>> http using firefox but yum does not support socks connections from 
>> what I understand.)
> 
> Can you get to an external http proxy via ssh port-forwarding?
> 
> ssh -L:port:remote_address:port  -l login remotehost
> Then in another window while the ssh connection is up:
>  export http_proxy=http://localhost:port
>  yum update

I could if such a site exists. But I don't have one or know of one. But 
since FTP is basically working, I think I am OK. I see that f-11 
mirrrolist url does return a mixture of ftp and http sites, but mostly 
http. So if I upgrade to it I should be able to get updates.