299330 - Unable to set Proxy config programatically

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(Firefox :: Settings UI, enhancement)

Description

[Steve Parker]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.7.8) Gecko/20050517 Firefox/1.0.4 (Debian package 1.0.4-2)
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.7.8) Gecko/20050517 Firefox/1.0.4 (Debian package 1.0.4-2)

I use different proxies depending on the network environment I boot into.
For example, an init script detects that I'm in the office, so I need DNS
configure this way, WiFi off, etc; if I'm at home, then DNS needs to be
configured another way, and WiFi should be started in a certain way.

It would be great to use a simple piece of sed to update FF's prefs.js to
specify "Use this proxy / Use that proxy / Use no proxy".

It could well be my ignorance; I cannot find anywhere in prefs.js (or elsewhere)
that "Direct internet connection" / "Manual Proxy Settings" are defined:
grep -i proxy prefs.js
only finds the default manual Proxy settings; not whether or not they are enabled.

Is there a big On/Off button I have missed? I can go
Edit/Prefs/General/Connection Settings manually, each time I boot into a new
environment, but being able to automate this would save a heck of a lot of hassle.

Not necessarily an API, just a prefs.js setting of:
user_pref("network.proxy.useproxy", "foo");
where "foo" is "none", "auto", "manual", and maybe even "manual1", "manual2",
etc... in such a way that the prefs.js can be set with sed (or similarly
automagically before the user logs in to the environment.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Boot into a network which requires a proxy
2. Change Proxy settings (Edit/Prefs/General/Connection Settings/OK/OK)
3. Shutdown
4. Boot into a network which requires a different proxy
5. Change Proxy Settings (see (2)
6. Shutdown
7. Boot into yet another config .... etc.


Actual Results:  
The last-used Proxy settings are maintained across a reboot (That's a Good Thing).
There is no (obvious) method to script a change depending upon the network
environment found on boot.

Expected Results:  
Allow a script such as:
sed s/user_pref("network.proxy", "on")/"user_pref("network.proxy", "off")/1
$USER/prefs_template.js > $USER/prefs.js
to change the proxy depending on the enviroment found.

Comment 1

[Jo Hermans]

This is not a support forum, this bugzilla is used to file bugs. And besides, I
found the answer in less than a minute, just by setting some value, and then
looking in about:config

for a PAC file :
network.proxy.type = 2
network.proxy.autoconfig_url = http://www.example.com/proxy.pac

for a manual setting :
network.proxy.type = 1
network.proxy.http = proxy.example.com
network.proxy.http = 8080

for a direct connection :
network.proxy.type = 0

for auto-detect :
network.proxy.type = 4