export http_proxy: where does the proxy setting get stored?

Solution 1:

To my knowledge, the file:

/etc/environment

Is the correct place to specify system-wide environment variables that should be available to all processes. See https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EnvironmentVariables for details. Note that this is not a script file but a configuration file.

Solution 2:

You can reset the proxy back to its default (blank) by using the same command but not specifying any parameters as shown below:

export http_proxy=""

Solution 3:

You can use unset command to remove the environment variable.

unset http_proxy

Solution 4:

The only place manually running export foo="something" in a terminal is stored, is in the environment for the shell running inside that terminal. It does not get propagated to the rest of the system, and only further commands run within that terminal will see that value.

You can use the same command with the correct values to set it in that terminal, or you can close that terminal, and set the proxy settings in the System Settings, then log out and back in, so that they are used by that majority of your applications.