Note: Setting a Proxy for GitHub Desktop

Preface

When cloning projects with GitHub Desktop, I only got a few tens of KB/s. A 30MB repo took forever.
So I looked for a solution. I thought it would be simple, but it took way longer than expected.

So I’m writing it down.

• First I looked in GitHub Desktop settings. Nothing.

• Searched online (in English first). Found a few approaches, but they were all about http/https proxies: How Can I Configure GitHub Desktop/Windows to Work with a Proxy?
  What I needed was a socks5 proxy. Not exactly the same, but I tried random settings anyway. Didn’t work.

• Random attempts: replace http with socks, and run:

  git config —global socks.proxy socks://127.0.0.1:1080
  git config —global socks.proxy socks5://127.0.0.1:1080
  git config —global socks5.proxy socks://127.0.0.1:1080
  git config —global socks5.proxy socks5://127.0.0.1:1080

• None worked.

• It’s actually very simple, but I’m too noob…

• Then I realized: foreigners need proxies inside corporate intranets, which is different from our situation. I should search for Chinese tutorials.

• And yep, there are plenty.

• Found this: X先生说：通过 SS 代理加快 GitHub Clone 速度
  

  • In the first black box: http://127.0.0.1:1080
  • Turns out this is all you need. Tears of no skill

My Solution

Open C:\\users\\username\\.gitconfig, and append:

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[http]
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  proxy = <http://127.0.0.1:1080>

Then GitHub Desktop will use your local proxy.

08/18 update
I ran into another issue a couple days ago: cloning git:// didn’t work. After half a day of trial and error, my config is now:

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[http]
2
  proxy = socks5://127.0.0.1:1080
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[https]
4
  proxy = socks5://127.0.0.1:1080
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[git]
6
  proxy = socks5://127.0.0.1:1080

(again, tears of no skill

References

• How Can I Configure GitHub Desktop/Windows to Work with a Proxy?
• X先生说：通过 SS 代理加快 GitHub Clone 速度