Proxy auto-config

A proxy auto-config (PAC) file defines how web browsers and other user agents can automatically choose the appropriate proxy server (access method) for fetching a given URL.

A PAC file contains a JavaScript function “FindProxyForURL(url, host)”. This function returns a string with one or more access method specifications. These specifications cause the user agent to use a particular proxy server or to connect directly.

Multiple specifications provide a fall-back when a proxy fails to respond. The browser fetches this PAC file before requesting other URLs. The URL of the PAC file is either configured manually or determined automatically by the .

Modern web browsers implement several levels of automation; users can choose the level that is appropriate to their needs. The following methods are commonly implemented:

The Proxy auto-config file format was originally designed by Netscape in 1996 for the Netscape Navigator 2.0 and is a text file that defines at least one JavaScript function, FindProxyForURL(url, host), with two arguments: url is the URL of the object and host is the host-name derived from that URL. By convention, the PAC file is normally named proxy.pac. The uses wpad.dat.

To use it, a PAC file is published to a HTTP server, and client user agents are instructed to use it, either by entering the URL in the proxy connection settings of the browser or through the use of the WPAD protocol. The URL may also reference a local file as for example: file:///etc/proxy.pac.

Even though most clients will process the script regardless of the MIME type returned in the HTTP reply, for the sake of completeness and to maximize compatibility, the HTTP server should be configured to declare the MIME type of this file to be either application/x-ns-proxy-autoconfig or application/x-javascript-config.

...
Wikipedia