How to configure a proxy server for both HTTP and HTTPS in Maven's settings.xml?

Question

I\'m using Maven 3.1.1 behind a proxy server. The same proxy handles both HTTP and HTTPS traffic.

I can\'t seem to tell maven using s

Answer 1

My tests with Eclipse Maven show that the protocol in settings.xml is referring to the protocol of the proxy server, not the protocol of the URL request. It also shows that Maven only uses the first active proxy server listed, and ignores the rest.

Here's my evidence:

1. The documentation says that

active: true if this proxy is active. This is useful for declaring a set of proxies, but only one may be active at a time.

protocol, host, port: The protocol://host:port of the proxy, separated into discrete elements."

2. The source code is even clearer:

    /**
     * Get the protocol of the proxy server.
     * @return the protocol of the proxy server
     */
    public String getProtocol()
    {
        return protocol;
    }

3. Real world tests (using Eclipse Maven):

a. 1st proxy is a bogus ftp, 2nd is real http, 3rd is real https. Result: FAIL.

If the protocol were for the URL request, then Maven would've looked up the real http/https proxies and worked perfectly fine. Instead, it used the 1st proxy even though it was "ftp", and failed.

    
        
            bogus_ftp
            true
            ftp
            123
            bogus.proxy.com
        
        
            real_http
            true
            http
            123
            real.proxy.com
        
        
            real_https
            true
            https
            123
            real.proxy.com
        
    

b. 1st proxy is real http, 2nd is bogus https. Result: SUCCESS.

This shows that it only used the 1st proxy. Otherwise, it would have used the 2nd proxy for https requests, hit the bogus proxy server, and failed.

    
        
            real_http
            true
            http
            123
            real.proxy.com
        
        
            bogus_https
            true
            https
            123
            bogus.proxy.com
        
    

c. Both are http, but 1st proxy is bogus, 2nd is real. Result: FAIL.

This shows that maven doesn't use multiple proxies, even for the same protocol. Otherwise, it would have tried the 2nd real proxy and succeeded.

    
        
            bogus_http
            true
            http
            123
            bogus.proxy.com
        
        
            real_http
            true
            http
            123
            real.proxy.com