There is no documentation for the function 


in
http://docs.python.org/search.html?q=getproxies&check_keywords=yes&area=default

But the docstring shows:
ul.getproxies?
Type:           function
Base Class:     <type 'function'>
String Form:    <function getproxies at 0x01096EF0>
Namespace:      Interactive
File:           c:\programme\pythonxy\python\lib\urllib.py
Definition:     ul.getproxies()
Docstring:
    Return a dictionary of scheme -> proxy server URL mappings.

Returns settings gathered from the environment, if specified,
or the registry.