[Bug]: Import from CDN fails when behind corporate proxy

[humberto-garciacaballero]

Kind of Issue

Runtime - command-line tools

Tool or Library

cspell

Version

9.4.0

Supporting Library

No response

OS

macOS

OS Version

No response

Description

When trying to import dictionaries from CDN as described in the cspell documentation, cspell fails to load them if the machine is connected through a corporate proxy.

Here as screenshot showing the problem:

When running cspell with the configuration that can be seen above (i.e., two imported dictionaries), it results in an error trying to read the config files. However, if I try to curl the same resource, the request resolves correctly. Important to notice that I have configured the proxy URL through the env variables http_proxy and https_proxy. If I do not configure the proxy in this way, the curl request will fail too.

An alternative would be to install the dictionaries locally using NPM, but I am trying to keep the setup of my project as simple as possible so not needing NPM would be preferable.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Make sure you are behind a proxy
2. Copy the content to the cspell.json file.
3. Run the following command: cspell --config cspell.json

Expected Behavior

If a proxy has been configured in the system, the import from the CDN should go through as for curl, that is, by reusing the http_proxy and https_proxy env variables.

Additional Information

No response

cspell.json

{
    "$schema": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/streetsidesoftware/cspell/main/cspell.schema.json",
    "version": "0.2",
    "files": [
        "**/*.md"
    ],
    "language": "en",
    "dictionaries": [
        "medical terms"
    ],
    "import": [
        "https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/@cspell/dict-medicalterms/cspell-ext.json"
    ]
}

cspell.config.yaml

Example Repository

No response

Code of Conduct

• I agree to follow this project's Code of Conduct

[Jason3S]

Please let me know if the discussion in #4035 helps.

The TLDR; - see if this works:

NODE_TLS_REJECT_UNAUTHORIZED=0 cspell **/*.md

In that case, #4035 can help with the CA.

See also:

• NodeJS - NODE_TLS_REJECT_UNAUTHORIZED
• NodeJS - NODE_USE_ENV_PROXY

I think it would be useful to document the solution on cspell.org.

[humberto-garciacaballero]

Hi @Jason3S, thanks for the pointers!

I have tested with NODE_TLS_REJECT_UNAUTHORIZED=0, NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS=/.../ca.crt and NODE_USE_ENV_PROXY=1. The only one that seems to fix my problem is the last one, that is, NODE_USE_ENV_PROXY=1. I guess the other did not have any effect presumably because my OS loads the CA certs automatically and node is able to recognize them.

Totally agree with you on documenting this, I can provide some help reviewing the content to see if it matches with what I have learned from facing this issue on my own.

On another matter, since I am using the vscode extension too, do you know if there is some way to set this? The only options that come to mind right now are setting the env variable globally or just before starting vscode, but I wonder if you may have some other suggestion. I could ask in the vscode extension repo if you think that is a better place for this question.

Thanks again for your help, much appreciated!

[Jason3S]

Here are a couple of links:

• Network Connections in Visual Studio Code
• Extension proxy support · Issue #12588 · microsoft/vscode

[Jason3S]

@humberto-garciacaballero,

Were you able to get it to work?

[humberto-garciacaballero]

Hi @Jason3S, the only way I got it working with the extension was by setting the aforementioned NODE_USE_ENV_PROXY=1 and the proxy env variables. In macos, setting these globally worked just fine. In windows, I had to set them in the console and launch vscode directly from that console session as I had no permission to write global env variables, that is, something like this:

$env:NODE_USE_ENV_PROXY="1";$env:http_proxy="http://XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX:XXXX";$env:https_proxy="http://XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX:XXXX"; code .

I guess we can close the issue now unless you want to do some further investigation.

Thanks!