SBT ignores http.nonProxyHosts

Question

I am trying to get sbt not to use a proxy when publishing an artifact. It seems that all the documentation points to the installation of the following when running sbt:

-Dhttp.nonProxyHosts="localhost|*.xxx"

but does not work. This post tells you how to set up a proxy server but not ignore it. Also tried installing:

SBT_OPTS='http.nonProxyHosts="localhost|*.xxx"'

and

JAVA_OPTS='http.nonProxyHosts="localhost|*.xxx"'

And also escaped the pipe ("localhost \ | * .xxx"). Found issue not resolved on sbt github page.

Any hints appreciated. Thanks.

Edited - here is the complete command:

java -Dhttp.nonProxyHosts="localhost\|*.xxx"  -jar {PATH_TO_SBT_JAR}/sbt-launch.jar clean packagedArtifacts publish