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#### 3.10.2 SOCKS parent proxies

The variable `socksParentProxy` specifies the hostname and port number of a SOCKS parent proxy; it should have the form ‘`host:port`’. The variant of the SOCKS protocol being used is defined by `socksProxyType`, which can be either ‘`socks4a`’ or ‘`socks5`’; the latter value specifies “SOCKS5 with hostnames”, and is the default.

The user name passed to the SOCKS4a proxy is defined by the variable `socksUserName`. This value is currently ignored with a SOCKS5 proxy.

The main application of the SOCKS support is to use Tor to evade overly restrictive or misconfigured firewalls. Assuming you have a Tor client running on the local host listening on the default port (9050), the following uses Tor for all outgoing HTTP traffic:

    $ polipo socksParentProxy=localhost:9050