1PROXYMNGR(1)                General Commands Manual               PROXYMNGR(1)
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NAME

6       proxymngr - proxy manager service
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SYNOPSIS

9       proxymngr [-config filename] [-timeout seconds] [-retries #] [-verbose]
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DESCRIPTION

12       The  proxy  manager  (proxymngr)  is responsible for resolving requests
13       from xfindproxy (and other similar clients), starting new proxies  when
14       appropriate,  and keeping track of all of the available proxy services.
15       The proxy manager strives to reuse existing proxies whenever possible.
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17       There are two types of proxies that the proxy manager deals with,  man‐
18       aged and unmanaged proxies.
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20       A  managed  proxy is a proxy that is started ``on demand'' by the proxy
21       manager.
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23       An unmanaged proxy, on the other hand, is started either at system boot
24       time, or manually by a system administrator.  The proxy manager is made
25       aware of its existence, but no attempt is made by the proxy manager  to
26       start unmanaged proxies.
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28       The command line options that can be specified to proxymngr are:
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30       -config Used  to override the default proxymngr config file.  See below
31               for more details about the config file.
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33       -timeout
34               Sets the number of seconds between attempts made by  the  proxy
35               manager to find an unmanaged proxy.  The default is 10.
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37       -retries
38               Sets the maximum number of retries made by the proxy manager to
39               find an an unmanaged proxy.  The default is 3.
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41       -verbose
42               Causes various debugging and tracing records to be displayed as
43               requests are received and proxies are started.
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Proxy Manager Config File

46       The  proxy  manager maintains a local configuration file describing the
47       proxy services available.  This  configuration  file  is  installed  in
48       /usr/lib/X11/proxymngr/pmconfig  during  the installation of proxymngr.
49       The location of the configuration file can  be  overwritten  using  the
50       -config command line option.
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52       Aside  from lines starting with an exclamation point for comments, each
53       line of the configuration file describes either an unmanaged or managed
54       proxy service.
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56       For unmanaged proxies, the format is:
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58              <service-name> unmanaged <proxy-address>
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60       service-name  is  the name of the unmanaged proxy service, and must not
61       contain any spaces, for example ``XFWP''.  service-name is case  insen‐
62       sitive.
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64       proxy-address  is the network address of the unmanaged proxy.  The for‐
65       mat of the address is specific to the service-name.  For  example,  for
66       the    ``XFWP''   service,   the   proxy-address   might   be   ``fire‐
67       wall.x.org:100''.
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69       If there is more than one entry in the config file with the same unman‐
70       aged service-name, the proxy manager will try to use the proxies in the
71       order presented in the config file.
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73       For managed proxies, the format is:
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75              <service-name> managed <command-to-start-proxy>
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77       service-name is the name of the managed proxy  service,  and  must  not
78       contain any spaces, for example ``LBX''.  service-name is case insensi‐
79       tive.
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81       command-to-start-proxy is the command executed by the proxy manager  to
82       start  a new instance of the proxy.  If command-to-start-proxy contains
83       spaces, the complete command should be surrounded by single quotes.  If
84       desired,  command-to-start-proxy  can  be  used  to  start a proxy on a
85       remote machine.  The specifics of the remote execution method  used  to
86       do this is not specified here.
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EXAMPLE

89       Here is a sample configuration file:
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91              ! proxy manager config file
92              !
93              ! Each line has the format:
94              !    <serviceName> managed <startCommand>
95              !        or
96              !    <serviceName> unmanaged <proxyAddress>
97              !
98              lbx managed /usr/bin/lbxproxy
99              !
100              ! substitute site-specific info
101              xfwp unmanaged firewall:4444
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PROXY MANAGER DETAILS

104       When the proxy manager gets a request from xfindproxy (or another simi‐
105       lar client), its course of action will depend on  the  service-name  in
106       question.
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108       For  a managed proxy service, the proxy manager will find out if any of
109       the already running proxies for this service can handle a new  request.
110       If  not,  the  proxy manager will attempt to start up a new instance of
111       the proxy (using the command-to-start-proxy found in the config  file).
112       If that fails, an error will be returned to the caller.
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114       For an unmanaged proxy service, the proxy manager will look in the con‐
115       fig file to find all unmanaged proxies for this service.  If  there  is
116       more than one entry in the config file with the same unmanaged service-
117       name, the proxy manager will try to use the proxies in the  order  pre‐
118       sented  in  the config file.  If none of the unmanaged proxies can sat‐
119       isfy the request, the proxy manager will  timeout  for  a  configurable
120       amount  of  time (specified by -timeout or default of 10) and reattempt
121       to find an unmanaged proxy willing to satisfy the request.  The  number
122       of retries can be specified by the -retries argument, or a default of 3
123       will be used.  If the retries fail, the proxy manager has no choice but
124       to return an error to the caller (since the proxy manager can not start
125       unmanaged proxy services).
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BUGS

128       proxy manager listen port should be configurable.
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130       -timeout and -retries is not implemented in proxymngr.
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132       proxymngr does not utilize the ``options'' and ``host'' fields  in  the
133       proxy management protocol GetProxyAddr request.
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SEE ALSO

136       xfindproxy (1), xfwp (1), Proxy Management Protocol spec V1.0
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AUTHOR

139       Ralph Mor, X Consortium
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143X Version 11                    proxymngr 1.0.1                   PROXYMNGR(1)
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