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PROXYMNGR(1)					     PROXYMNGR(1)



NAME

       proxymngr - proxy manager service


SYNOPSIS

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


DESCRIPTION

       The proxy manager (proxymngr) is responsible for resolving
       requests	 from  xfindproxy  (and	 other	similar clients),
       starting new proxies when appropriate, and  keeping  track
       of all of the available proxy services.	The proxy manager
       strives to reuse existing proxies whenever possible.

       There are two types of  proxies	that  the  proxy  manager
       deals with, managed and unmanaged proxies.

       A  managed  proxy is a proxy that is started ``on demand''
       by the proxy manager.

       An unmanaged proxy, on the other hand, is  started  either
       at  system  boot time, or manually by a system administra-
       tor.  The proxy manager is made aware  of  its  existence,
       but  no	attempt	 is  made  by  the proxy manager to start
       unmanaged proxies.

       The command line options that can be specified to  proxym-
       ngr are:


       -config Used  to	 override  the	default	 proxymngr config
	       file.  See below for more details about the config
	       file.


       -timeout
	       Sets  the  number of seconds between attempts made
	       by the proxy manager to find an	unmanaged  proxy.
	       The default is 10.


       -retries
	       Sets  the  maximum  number  of retries made by the
	       proxy manager to find an an unmanaged proxy.   The
	       default is 3.


       -verbose
	       Causes various debugging and tracing records to be
	       displayed as requests are received and proxies are
	       started.






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Proxy Manager Config File
       The  proxy  manager  maintains  a local configuration file
       describing the proxy services available.	 This  configura-
       tion  file  is  installed  in /usr/X11R6.3/lib/X11/proxym-
       ngr/pmconfig during the installation  of	 proxymngr.   The
       location	 of  the  configuration	 file  can be overwritten
       using the -config command line option.

       Aside from lines starting with an  exclamation  point  for
       comments,  each	line  of the configuration file describes
       either an unmanaged or managed proxy service.

       For unmanaged proxies, the format is:

	      <service-name> unmanaged <proxy-address>

       service-name is the name of the unmanaged  proxy	 service,
       and  must  not  contain	any spaces, for example ``XFWP''.
       service-name is case insenstive.

       proxy-address is the  network  address  of  the	unmanaged
       proxy.	The format of the address is specific to the ser-
       vice-name.  For example, for  the  ``XFWP''  service,  the
       proxy-address might be ``firewall.x.org:100''.

       If  there  is  more than one entry in the config file with
       the same unmanaged service-name, the  proxy  manager  will
       try  to use the proxies in the order presented in the con-
       fig file.

       For managed proxies, the format is:

	      <service-name> managed <command-to-start-proxy>

       service-name is the name of the managed proxy service, and
       must  not  contain  any spaces, for example ``LBX''.  ser-
       vice-name is case insensitive.

       command-to-start-proxy is  the  command	executed  by  the
       proxy  manager  to  start a new instance of the proxy.  If
       command-to-start-proxy contains spaces, the complete  com-
       mand  should  be surrounded by single quotes.  If desired,
       command-to-start-proxy can be used to start a proxy  on	a
       remote  machine.	  The  specifics  of the remote execution
       method used to do this is not specified here.



EXAMPLE

       Here is a sample configuration file:


	      ! proxy manager config file
	      !
	      ! Each line has the format:



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PROXYMNGR(1)					     PROXYMNGR(1)


	      !	   <serviceName> managed <startCommand>
	      !	       or
	      !	   <serviceName> unmanaged <proxyAddress>
	      !
	      lbx managed /usr/X11R6.3/bin/lbxproxy
	      !
	      ! substitute site-specific info
	      xfwp unmanaged firewall:4444




PROXY MANAGER DETAILS

       When the proxy manager gets a request from xfindproxy  (or
       another	similar client), its course of action will depend
       on the service-name in question.

       For a managed proxy service, the proxy manager  will  find
       out if any of the already running proxies for this service
       can handle a new request.  If not, the proxy manager  will
       attempt to start up a new instance of the proxy (using the
       command-to-start-proxy found in the config file).  If that
       fails, an error will be returned to the caller.

       For  an	unmanaged  proxy  service, the proxy manager will
       look in the config file to find all unmanaged proxies  for
       this service.  If there is more than one entry in the con-
       fig file with the same unmanaged service-name,  the  proxy
       manager will try to use the proxies in the order presented
       in the config file.  If none of the unmanged  proxies  can
       satisfy	the request, the proxy manager will timeout for a
       configurable amount of  time  (specified	 by  -timeout  or
       default	of  10)	 and reattempt to find an unmanaged proxy
       willing to satisfy the request.	The number of retries can
       be  specified  by the -retries argument, or a default of 3
       will be used.  If the retries fail, the proxy manager  has
       no  choice but to return an error to the caller (since the
       proxy manager can not start unmanaged proxy services).



BUGS

       proxy manager listen port should be configurable.

       -timeout and -retries is not implemented in proxymngr.

       proxymngr does not utilize the  ``options''  and	 ``host''
       fields  in  the	proxy  management  protocol  GetProxyAddr
       request.


SEE ALSO

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


AUTHOR

       Ralph Mor, X Consortium



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