Bug#54524: http_proxy and web clients.

[Nicolás Lichtmaier <nick@debian.org>]

> All programs must read proxy information from /etc/proxy (whatever
> format you want to make this, it could even be a base-like syntax for
> setting the http_* environment variables).
> 
> However, if the defacto standard user environment variables
> have been configured, then these must be used instead.
> 
> The only downside to this is that it is going increase complexity.
> However, I think a library could be implemented that hides this
> complexity, eg much like liblockfile.
> 
> However, I think this would satisfy the concerns I can see from both
> sides of the fence. ie it allows the system administrator to set up
> site wide defaults, while allowing users to override this if desired.

 It's a bit complex, and requires modifications to every program that uses
HTTP, but the modifications are simple, and it would be a nice thing to
have.
 In most HTTP clients would be just adding a call to a function that sets
the env vars according to this file...

 I don't know much about debconf, but couldn't this variables stored in that
database?