This post is about setting the http_proxy environment variable in Red Hat 5. Newer versions of the OS allow the variable to be set in either of two ways, that is:

# export http_proxy=http://192.168.1.100:8080
# export http_proxy=192.168.1.100:8080

Both will work. A subsequent call to yum will read the http_proxy environment variable and act on it, using the named proxy to obtain a network connection to the relevant repository. I have tested this successfully on Red Hat 5.7.

Yum Failures

Older versions of Red Hat 5 are more fussy. RHEL 5.4 will allow the first form above (export http_proxy=http://192.168.1.100:8080), but use the second form and yum will barf extravagantly, leaving you with a lengthy Python trace back. Continue reading →