How to Install Squid (Caching / Proxy) on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

Squid is a caching and forwarding web proxy. It is most often used in conjunction with a traditional LAMP stack (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP), and can be used to filter traffic on HTTP, FTP, and HTTPS, and increase the speed (thus lower the response time) for a web server via caching.

Requirements

• These instructions are intended specifically for installing Squid on a single Ubuntu 14.04 LTS node.
• I’ll be working from a Liquid Web Core Managed Ubuntu 14.04 LTS server, and I'll be logged in as root.

Step #1 Install Squid

As a matter of best practice we'll update our packages:

apt-get update

Then let's install Squid and any required packages:

apt-get install squid

Step #2: Verify and Checking the Version of the Squid the Installation

Squid should start immediately after the installation. Use the following command to view information on the command:

squid3 -h

Use the following command to check the version number of Squid and the configuration options it was started with:

squid3 -v

Your results should appear similar to:

Squid Cache: Version 3.3.8
Ubuntu
configure options: '--build=x86_64-linux-gnu' '--prefix=/usr' '--includedir=${prefix}/include' '--mandir=${prefix}/share/man' '--infodir=${prefix}/share/info' '--sysconfdir=/etc' '--localstatedir=/var' '--libexecdir=${prefix}/lib/squid3' '--srcdir=.' '--disable-maintainer-mode' '--disable-dependency-tracking' '--disable-silent-rules' '--datadir=/usr/share/squid3' '--sysconfdir=/etc/squid3' '--mandir=/usr/share/man' '--enable-inline' '--enable-async-io=8' '--enable-storeio=ufs,aufs,diskd,rock' '--enable-removal-policies=lru,heap' '--enable-delay-pools' '--enable-cache-digests' '--enable-underscores' '--enable-icap-client' '--enable-follow-x-forwarded-for' '--enable-auth-basic=DB,fake,getpwnam,LDAP,MSNT,MSNT-multi-domain,NCSA,NIS,PAM,POP3,RADIUS,SASL,SMB' '--enable-auth-digest=file,LDAP' '--enable-auth-negotiate=kerberos,wrapper' '--enable-auth-ntlm=fake,smb_lm' '--enable-external-acl-helpers=file_userip,kerberos_ldap_group,LDAP_group,session,SQL_session,unix_group,wbinfo_group' '--enable-url-rewrite-helpers=fake' '--enable-eui' '--enable-esi' '--enable-icmp' '--enable-zph-qos' '--enable-ecap' '--disable-translation' '--with-swapdir=/var/spool/squid3' '--with-logdir=/var/log/squid3' '--with-pidfile=/var/run/squid3.pid' '--with-filedescriptors=65536' '--with-large-files' '--with-default-user=proxy' '--enable-linux-netfilter' 'build_alias=x86_64-linux-gnu' 'CFLAGS=-g -O2 -fPIE -fstack-protector --param=ssp-buffer-size=4 -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wall' 'LDFLAGS=-Wl,-Bsymbolic-functions -fPIE -pie -Wl,-z,relro -Wl,-z,now' 'CPPFLAGS=-D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2' 'CXXFLAGS=-g -O2 -fPIE -fstack-protector --param=ssp-buffer-size=4 -Wformat -Werror=format-security'

Step #3: Will Squid Start at Boot?

Yes!

initctl show-config squid3

You should receive a result similar to:

squid3
start on runlevel [2345]
stop on runlevel [!2345]

This means that Squid will start on runlevels 2, 3, 4, and 5.