I’m trying to establish a connection to a PostgreSQL database over a SOCKS5 proxy in Python using the PySocks library. Here’s the approach I’m currently using:

import socks
import socket

# Configure socks proxy
socks.set_default_proxy(socks.SOCKS5, proxy_host, proxy_port, username=proxy_username, password=proxy_password)
socket.socket = socks.socksocket

# Establish the database connection as usual

This method successfully routes my PostgreSQL connection through the SOCKS5 proxy. However, it modifies the global default socket object, which affects all network connections made by the process, forcing them to go through the SOCKS5 proxy. This is not desirable as I only want the PostgreSQL connection to be routed through the proxy, not all network activity.

Questions:

1. Is there a way to configure the PostgreSQL connection to use a SOCKS5 proxy directly in Python, without altering the global socket settings?
2. If modifying the global socket is unavoidable, are there any best practices or alternative methods to limit the proxy settings to just the database connections?
3. Could anyone provide an example of achieving this using psycopg2 or another PostgreSQL library that might support this configuration?

I appreciate any guidance or suggestions on how to address this issue!