Possible Proxy Issue

[stoffel2]

Premise

"AM"/"AppMan" is just a tool to provide applications easily and quickly and is only responsible for integrating the AppImages into the system and installing the various programs available, respecting the following order (refer to the option "-d" to download the installation script without installing it):

• creation of the base directories and the removal script
• download of the package
• creation of the version file and the update script
• possibly, extraction of the icons and .desktop files, if needed

The malfunction of the installation scripts will then be taken into account. On the contrary, any malfunction related to individual applications is the responsibility of the related developer or packager. Refer to the option "-a" to know the sources of each program listed here, so you can contact them to report the bug.

---

Please, describe the bug

I am working behind a proxy on a debian 13 system.

I have set the proxy in /etc/wgetrc and /etc/profile.d/proxy.sh but when I use "appman -l" I get an empty list.

Is there perhaps another proxy location appman might be using to download the DB?

Chris

[ivan-hc]

The only proxy in use is this one

AM/APP-MANAGER

Line 1396 in 5c126c7

[ -z "$ALT_GH" ] && ALT_GH="https://api.gh.pkgforge.dev"

...but it has nothing to do with -l. It is used in -i, -u (for the apps) and -t only.

This is how AM updates its main list (the one of apps in the AM database only)

AM/APP-MANAGER

Line 677 in 5c126c7

curl -Ls "$APPSLISTDB" 2>/dev/null | grep "^◆" > "$AMDATADIR/$ARCH-apps"

Where APPSDB is this

AM/APP-MANAGER

Line 543 in 5c126c7

export APPSLISTDB="$AMREPO/programs/$ARCH-apps"

...and AMREPO is this

AM/APP-MANAGER

Line 6 in 5c126c7

AMREPO="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ivan-hc/AM/main"

About $ARCH, only x86_64, aarch64 and i686 are supported for now

https://github.com/ivan-hc/AM/tree/main/programs

From how much time you have this issue?

[stoffel2]

It was the curl call (Line 677) that was the problem. I created a user .curlrc file with the proxy entry. In this case I am on a Debian VM which relies on a proxy-server for access to the internet.

Thanks!

[ivan-hc]

It was the curl call (Line 677) that was the problem. I created a user .curlrc file with the proxy entry. In this case I am on a Debian VM which relies on a proxy-server for access to the internet.

Thanks!

This one?

AM/APP-MANAGER

Line 677 in 753bb71

curl -Ls "$APPSLISTDB" 2>/dev/null | grep "^◆" > "$AMDATADIR/$ARCH-apps"

It is the one that reads the apps list (for x86_64 is this one) and prints it to the local list.

Is there something I can do?

[stoffel2]

yea, that seems to be where you use curl to get the list of apps. Unfortunately, Debian has several programs that each have their own proxy settings (i.e. apt, get, curl, ....), and that don't seem to care if you have set a proxy env variable set.

You could just add a line to your setup instructions saying that if you are behind a proxy-server you need to enter it in your .curlrc file for appman to be able to download the list. There might be a better way of doing this, I'm not an expert.

[ivan-hc]

I'm on Debian, but I don't use proxies... and seems strange to me this behavior.

Would it be different if you replace curl -Ls with wget -q -O -?

[stoffel2]

It is in fact a pain, even the browsers seem to have their own proxy settings. I have no idea why, and there does not seem to be any effort to change that in Debian.

It would help if you only used wget and not both wget and curl. Then only one proxy would have to be set (for wget). But still, it might not be an issue for very many. I'd just mention that the proxy must be set in wget and curl.

[ivan-hc]

Can your settings imported in AM trough variables?

[ivan-hc]

Can your settings imported in AM trough variables?

I mean, it would ideally to allow AM using your settings somehow.

[stoffel2]

Sure, for instance if an env proxy variable was defined, you could pass it to curl. But I think it would be easier to have the user deal with the proxy settings, telling them that they need to set the proxy variables for wget and curl would resolve the issue. It is easy to find out how to do that:

wget: https://stackoverflow.com/a/11211812/29051306

curl: https://stackoverflow.com/a/35815181/29051306

[ivan-hc]

I don't know much about this stuff.

Anyway, to warn the user about the issue, I need a check for this problem that would come up.

I dedicated a whole section in the main script for all troubles a user would have in various situations. Each header says what the function does 👇

AM/APP-MANAGER

Lines 408 to 492 in 1ed6860

	################################################################################################################################################################
	# SECURITY
	################################################################################################################################################################
	# SAFETY CHECKS
	_am_dependences_check() {
	# Check for essential commands required by the application
	missing_deps=""
	AMDEPENDENCES="cat chmod chown curl grep sed wget"
	for name in $AMDEPENDENCES; do
	if ! command -v "$name" >/dev/null 2>&1; then
	missing_deps="$name $missing_deps"
	fi
	done
	# Exit if any essential command is missing
	if [ -n "$missing_deps" ]; then
	echo "$DIVIDING_LINE"
	printf $" ${RED}💀 ERROR! MISSING ESSENTIAL COMMANDS\033[0m: %s\n\n Install the above and try again! \n" "${missing_deps[*]}"
	echo "$DIVIDING_LINE"
	printf $"%bList of the %b core dependences\033[0m:\n\n%b\n" "${Green}" "$AMCLIUPPER $AMVERSION" "$AMDEPENDENCES" | _fit
	echo "$DIVIDING_LINE"
	printf $"If this message appears it is because you are missing some dependency and if its the first time its because something new has been introduced.\n\n" | _fit
	printf $" See %bhttps://github.com/ivan-hc/AM#core-dependences\033[0m for more information\n" "${LightBlue}"
	echo "$DIVIDING_LINE"
	exit 1
	fi
	}
	_check_fedora_mess() {
	if wget --version | head -1 | grep -qi ' 2.\|wget2 '; then
	printf $"\n%bWARNING: your distro maintainer ships \"wget2\" as \"wget\" \033[0m\n\n" "${RED}" | _fit
	[ -f /etc/redhat-release ] && printf $"Please install \"%bwget1\033[0m\" and \"%bwget1-wget\033[0m\" (use %b--allowerasing\033[0m if you have to)\n\nSee https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2358792\n\n" "${Gold}" "${Gold}" "${Green}" | sed "s/^/ /g"
	fi
	}
	_check_ubuntu_mess() {
	if command -v unshare >/dev/null 2>&1 && ! unshare --user -p /bin/true >/dev/null 2>&1; then
	echo "$DIVIDING_LINE"
	printf $"\n %b⚠️ WARNING: ACCESS TO USER NAMESPACES IS RESTRICTED! \033[0m\n\n" "${RED}"
	echo $" Some apps may not run, you need to enable access to user namespaces, see"
	printf " %bhttps://github.com/ivan-hc/AM/blob/main/docs/troubleshooting.md#ubuntu-mess\033[0m\n" "${LightBlue}"
	echo $" to know more."
	echo ""
	echo "$DIVIDING_LINE"
	fi
	}
	_am_dependences_check
	_check_ubuntu_mess
	# Function to check online connections (uses github.com by default, as the database and CLI itself are stored/hosted there)
	_online_check() {
	if ! wget -q --tries=10 --timeout=20 --spider https://github.com; then
	printf $"\n %b is offline, please check your internet connection and try again\n\n" "$AMCLI"
	exit 0
	fi
	}
	# BLACKLIST FILES
	appimagelauncher_msg="Your installation of AppImageLauncher may have been done via DEB, RPM, or AUR, which interrupts the natural operation of \"systemd-binfmt\" in addition to launching the aforementioned daemon. To avoid problems with \"$AMCLIUPPER\" and any other AppImages helper, it's preferable to use \"only\" the standalone AppImage of AppImageLauncher, whose official updated release can also be installed via \"$AMCLIUPPER\". But as long as you have the currently installed version, you can't use this CLI."
	_blacklisted_file() {
	printf $"\n %b💀WARNING! Detected \"%b\"\033[0m\n\n" "${RED}" "$blacklisted_file"
	echo $"It will prevent \"$AMCLIUPPER\" from working correctly with AppImages, especially when extracting, integrating and updating them." | _fit
	echo ""
	if echo "$blacklisted_file" | grep -q appimagelauncherd; then
	echo "$appimagelauncher_msg" | _fit
	echo "" && echo $" Please remove \"AppImageLauncher\", reboot and retry!"
	else
	echo $" Please remove \"$blacklisted_file\", reboot and retry!"
	fi
	echo ""
	exit 0
	}
	if command -v appimaged &>/dev/null; then
	blacklisted_file=$(command -v appimaged)
	_blacklisted_file
	elif command -v appimagelauncherd &>/dev/null; then
	blacklisted_file=$(command -v appimagelauncherd)
	_blacklisted_file
	fi
	################################################################################################################################################################

[Samueru-sama]

I would really try to use wget instead of curl as much as possible.

here I don't think there is even a problem given that there is no progress bar here right?

[ivan-hc]

I would really try to use wget instead of curl as much as possible.

here I don't think there is even a problem given that there is no progress bar here right?

It is not a problem at all.

curl vs wget is a "clash between parties" after all. I also prefer wget, but the more commonly used is curl in many cases.

Obviously there are distros that want do things more complicated (see Ubuntu that plans to remove wget and Fedora that has already done the mess)

[stoffel2]

There seem to be a few threads comparing wget and curl, they seem to have different uses. If there is no need for curl per se, I'd say don't use it.

My suggestion: use wget to install your script, as well as to update your DB, When the user behind a proxy tries to install, they will realize that they need to set the proxy for wget, and the DB download will also work.

[ivan-hc]

But curl -Ls is used also inside the installation scripts

[stoffel2]

But curl -Ls is used also inside the installation scripts

? Sorry, but I don't understand.