1 <!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook V3.1//EN" [
2 <!entity % dummy "IGNORE">
3 <!entity supported SYSTEM "supported.sgml">
4 <!entity newfeatures SYSTEM "newfeatures.sgml">
5 <!entity p-intro SYSTEM "privoxy.sgml">
6 <!entity seealso SYSTEM "seealso.sgml">
7 <!entity buildsource SYSTEM "buildsource.sgml">
8 <!entity contacting SYSTEM "contacting.sgml">
9 <!entity history SYSTEM "history.sgml">
10 <!entity copyright SYSTEM "copyright.sgml">
11 <!entity license SYSTEM "license.sgml">
12 <!entity p-authors SYSTEM "p-authors.sgml">
13 <!entity config SYSTEM "p-config.sgml">
14 <!entity p-version "3.0.7">
15 <!entity p-status "stable">
16 <!entity % p-authors-formal "INCLUDE"> <!-- include additional text, etc -->
17 <!entity % p-not-stable "IGNORE">
18 <!entity % p-stable "INCLUDE">
19 <!entity % p-text "IGNORE"> <!-- define we are not a text only doc -->
20 <!entity % p-doc "INCLUDE"> <!-- and we are a formal doc -->
21 <!entity % p-readme "IGNORE">
22 <!entity % user-man "IGNORE">
23 <!entity % config-file "IGNORE">
24 <!entity % p-supp-userman "IGNORE"> <!-- Omit some from supported.sgml -->
25 <!entity my-copy "©"> <!-- kludge for docbook2man -->
26 <!entity % draft "IGNORE"> <!-- WIP stuff -->
27 <!entity my-app "<application>Privoxy</application>">
30 File : $Source: /cvsroot/ijbswa/current/doc/source/user-manual.sgml,v $
33 This file belongs into
34 ijbswa.sourceforge.net:/home/groups/i/ij/ijbswa/htdocs/
36 $Id: user-manual.sgml,v 2.36 2007/08/26 16:47:14 fabiankeil Exp $
38 Copyright (C) 2001-2007 Privoxy Developers http://www.privoxy.org/
41 ========================================================================
42 NOTE: Please read developer-manual/documentation.html before touching
43 anything in this, or other Privoxy documentation.
44 ========================================================================
51 <title>Privoxy &p-version; User Manual</title>
55 <!-- Completely the wrong markup, but very little is allowed -->
56 <!-- in this part of an article. FIXME -->
57 <link linkend="copyright">Copyright</link> &my-copy; 2001 - 2007 by
58 <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/">Privoxy Developers</ulink>
62 <pubdate>$Id: user-manual.sgml,v 2.36 2007/08/26 16:47:14 fabiankeil Exp $</pubdate>
66 Note: the following should generate a separate page, and a live link to it,
67 all nicely done. But it doesn't for some mysterious reason. Please leave
68 commented unless it can be fixed proper. For the time being, the
69 copyright/license declarations will be in their own sgml.
82 This is here to keep vim syntax file from breaking :/
83 If I knew enough to fix it, I would.
84 PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE! HB: hal@foobox.net
90 The <citetitle>Privoxy User Manual</citetitle> gives users information on how to
91 install, configure and use <ulink
92 url="http://www.privoxy.org/">Privoxy</ulink>.
95 <!-- Include privoxy.sgml boilerplate: -->
97 <!-- end privoxy.sgml -->
100 You can find the latest version of the <citetitle>Privoxy User Manual</citetitle> at <ulink
101 url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/">http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/</ulink>.
102 Please see the <link linkend="contact">Contact section</link> on how to
103 contact the developers.
107 <!-- Feel free to send a note to the developers at <email>ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net</email>. -->
113 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
114 <sect1 label="1" id="introduction"><title>Introduction</title>
116 This documentation is included with the current &p-status; version of
117 <application>Privoxy</application>, v.&p-version;<![%p-not-stable;[,
118 and is mostly complete at this point. The most up to date reference for the
119 time being is still the comments in the source files and in the individual
120 configuration files. Development of a new version is currently nearing
121 completion, and includes significant changes and enhancements over
122 earlier versions. ]]>.
125 <!-- include only in non-stable versions -->
128 Since this is a &p-status; version, not all new features are well tested. This
129 documentation may be slightly out of sync as a result (especially with
130 CVS sources). And there <emphasis>may be</emphasis> bugs, though hopefully
135 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
136 <sect2 id="features"><title>Features</title>
138 In addition to the core
139 features of ad blocking and
140 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookie</ulink> management,
141 <application>Privoxy</application> provides many supplemental
142 features<![%p-not-stable;[, some of them currently under development]]>,
143 that give the end-user more control, more privacy and more freedom:
145 <!-- Include newfeatures.sgml boilerplate here: -->
147 <!-- end boilerplate -->
152 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
155 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
156 <sect1 id="installation"><title>Installation</title>
159 <application>Privoxy</application> is available both in convenient pre-compiled
160 packages for a wide range of operating systems, and as raw source code.
161 For most users, we recommend using the packages, which can be downloaded from our
162 <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ijbswa/">Privoxy Project
168 On some platforms, the installer may remove previously installed versions, if
169 found. (See below for your platform). In any case <emphasis>be sure to backup
170 your old configuration if it is valuable to you.</emphasis> See the <link
171 linkend="upgradersnote">note to upgraders</link> section below.
174 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
175 <sect2 id="installation-packages"><title>Binary Packages</title>
177 How to install the binary packages depends on your operating system:
180 <!-- XXX: The installation sections should be sorted -->
182 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
183 <sect3 id="installation-pack-rpm"><title>Red Hat and Fedora RPMs</title>
186 RPMs can be installed with <literal>rpm -Uvh privoxy-&p-version;-1.rpm</literal>,
187 and will use <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> for the location
188 of configuration files.
192 Note that on Red Hat, <application>Privoxy</application> will
193 <emphasis>not</emphasis> be automatically started on system boot. You will
194 need to enable that using <command>chkconfig</command>,
195 <command>ntsysv</command>, or similar methods.
199 If you have problems with failed dependencies, try rebuilding the SRC RPM:
200 <literal>rpm --rebuild privoxy-&p-version;-1.src.rpm</literal>. This
201 will use your locally installed libraries and RPM version.
205 Also note that if you have a <application>Junkbuster</application> RPM installed
206 on your system, you need to remove it first, because the packages conflict.
207 Otherwise, RPM will try to remove <application>Junkbuster</application>
208 automatically if found, before installing <application>Privoxy</application>.
212 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
213 <sect3 id="installation-deb"><title>Debian</title>
215 DEBs can be installed with <literal>apt-get install privoxy</literal>,
216 and will use <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> for the location of
221 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
222 <sect3 id="installation-pack-win"><title>Windows</title>
225 Just double-click the installer, which will guide you through
226 the installation process. You will find the configuration files
227 in the same directory as you installed <application>Privoxy</application> in.
230 Version 3.0.4 introduced full <application>Windows</application> service
231 functionality. On Windows only, the <application>Privoxy</application>
232 program has two new command line arguments to install and uninstall
233 <application>Privoxy</application> as a <emphasis>service</emphasis>.
237 <term>Arguments:</term>
240 <replaceable class="parameter">--install</replaceable>[:<replaceable class="parameter">service_name</replaceable>]
243 <replaceable class="parameter">--uninstall</replaceable>[:<replaceable class="parameter">service_name</replaceable>]
249 After invoking <application>Privoxy</application> with
250 <command>--install</command>, you will need to bring up the
251 <application>Windows</application> service console to assign the user you
252 want <application>Privoxy</application> to run under, and whether or not you
253 want it to run whenever the system starts. You can start the
254 <application>Windows</application> services console with the following
255 command: <command>services.msc</command>. If you do not take the manual step
256 of modifying <application>Privoxy's</application> service settings, it will
257 not start. Note too that you will need to give Privoxy a user account that
258 actually exists, or it will not be permitted to
259 write to its log and configuration files.
264 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
265 <sect3 id="installation-pack-bintgz"><title>Solaris, NetBSD, HP-UX</title>
268 Create a new directory, <literal>cd</literal> to it, then unzip and
269 untar the archive. For the most part, you'll have to figure out where
270 things go. <!-- FIXME, more info needed? -->
274 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
275 <sect3 id="installation-os2"><title>OS/2</title>
278 First, make sure that no previous installations of
279 <application>Junkbuster</application> and / or
280 <application>Privoxy</application> are left on your
281 system. Check that no <application>Junkbuster</application>
282 or <application>Privoxy</application> objects are in
288 Then, just double-click the WarpIN self-installing archive, which will
289 guide you through the installation process. A shadow of the
290 <application>Privoxy</application> executable will be placed in your
291 startup folder so it will start automatically whenever OS/2 starts.
295 The directory you choose to install <application>Privoxy</application>
296 into will contain all of the configuration files.
300 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
301 <sect3 id="installation-mac"><title>Mac OSX</title>
303 Unzip the downloaded file (you can either double-click on the file
304 from the finder, or from the desktop if you downloaded it there).
305 Then, double-click on the package installer icon named
306 <literal>Privoxy.pkg</literal>
307 and follow the installation process.
308 <application>Privoxy</application> will be installed in the folder
309 <literal>/Library/Privoxy</literal>.
310 It will start automatically whenever you start up. To prevent it from
311 starting automatically, remove or rename the folder
312 <literal>/Library/StartupItems/Privoxy</literal>.
315 To start Privoxy by hand, double-click on
316 <literal>StartPrivoxy.command</literal> in the
317 <literal>/Library/Privoxy</literal> folder.
318 Or, type this command in the Terminal:
322 /Library/Privoxy/StartPrivoxy.command
326 You will be prompted for the administrator password.
330 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
331 <sect3 id="installation-amiga"><title>AmigaOS</title>
333 Copy and then unpack the <filename>lha</filename> archive to a suitable location.
334 All necessary files will be installed into <application>Privoxy</application>
335 directory, including all configuration and log files. To uninstall, just
336 remove this directory.
340 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
341 <sect3 id="installation-tbz"><title>FreeBSD</title>
344 Privoxy is part of FreeBSD's Ports Collection, you can build and install
345 it with <literal>cd /usr/ports/www/privoxy; make install clean</literal>.
348 If you don't use the ports, you can fetch and install
349 the package with <literal>pkg_add -r privoxy</literal>.
352 The port skeleton and the package can also be downloaded from the
353 <ulink url="https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118">File Release
354 Page</ulink>, but if you're interested in stable releases only you don't
355 gain anything by using them.
359 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
360 <sect3 id="installattion-gentoo"><title>Gentoo</title>
362 Gentoo source packages (Ebuilds) for <application>Privoxy</application> are
363 contained in the Gentoo Portage Tree (they are not on the download page,
364 but there is a Gentoo section, where you can see when a new
365 <application>Privoxy</application> Version is added to the Portage Tree).
368 Before installing <application>Privoxy</application> under Gentoo just do
369 first <literal>emerge rsync</literal> to get the latest changes from the
370 Portage tree. With <literal>emerge privoxy</literal> you install the latest
374 Configuration files are in <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename>, the
375 documentation is in <filename>/usr/share/doc/privoxy-&p-version;</filename>
376 and the Log directory is in <filename>/var/log/privoxy</filename>.
382 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
383 <sect2 id="installation-source"><title>Building from Source</title>
386 The most convenient way to obtain the <application>Privoxy</application> sources
387 is to download the source tarball from our
388 <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118&package_id=10571">project download
393 If you like to live on the bleeding edge and are not afraid of using
394 possibly unstable development versions, you can check out the up-to-the-minute
395 version directly from <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/cvs/?group_id=11118">the
396 CVS repository</ulink>.
398 deprecated...out of business.
399 or simply download <ulink
400 url="http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cvstarballs/ijbswa-cvsroot.tar.bz2">the nightly CVS
405 <!-- include buildsource.sgml boilerplate: -->
407 <!-- end boilerplate -->
410 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
411 <sect2 id="installation-keepupdated"><title>Keeping your Installation Up-to-Date</title>
413 As user feedback comes in and development continues, we will make updated versions
414 of both the main <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link> (as a <ulink
415 url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118&release_id=103670">separate
416 package</ulink>) and the software itself (including the actions file) available for
421 If you wish to receive an email notification whenever we release updates of
422 <application>Privoxy</application> or the actions file, <ulink
423 url="http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ijbswa-announce/">subscribe
424 to our announce mailing list</ulink>, ijbswa-announce@lists.sourceforge.net.
428 In order not to lose your personal changes and adjustments when updating
429 to the latest <literal>default.action</literal> file we <emphasis>strongly
430 recommend</emphasis> that you use <literal>user.action</literal> and
431 <literal>user.filter</literal> for your local
432 customizations of <application>Privoxy</application>. See the <link
433 linkend="actions-file">Chapter on actions files</link> for details.
441 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
443 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
444 <sect1 id="whatsnew">
445 <title>What's New in this Release</title>
447 There are many improvements and new features since <application>Privoxy 3.0.6</application>, the last stable release:
454 Header filtering can be done with dedicated header filters now. As a result
455 the actions <quote>filter-client-headers</quote> and <quote>filter-server-headers</quote>
456 that were introduced with <application>Privoxy 3.0.5</application> to apply
457 the content filters to the headers as, well have been removed again.
461 <!-- pre-3.0.6 changes:
464 There are a number of new <link linkend="actions-file">actions</link>:
472 <literal><link linkend="content-type-overwrite">content-type-overwrite</link></literal>
477 <literal><link linkend="crunch-client-header">crunch-client-header</link></literal>
482 <literal><link linkend="crunch-if-none-match">crunch-if-none-match</link></literal>
487 <literal><link linkend="crunch-server-header">crunch-server-header</link></literal>
492 <literal><link linkend="filter-client-headers">filter-client-headers</link></literal>
497 <literal><link linkend="filter-server-headers">filter-server-headers</link></literal>
502 <literal><link linkend="force-text-mode">force-text-mode</link></literal>
507 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-empty-document">handle-as-empty-document</link></literal>
512 <literal><link linkend="hide-accept-language">hide-accept-language</link></literal>
517 <literal><link linkend="hide-content-disposition">hide-content-disposition</link></literal>
522 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hide-if-modified-since</link></literal>
527 <literal><link linkend="inspect-jpegs">inspect-jpegs</link></literal>
532 <literal><link linkend="overwrite-last-modified">overwrite-last-modified</link></literal>
537 <literal><link linkend="redirect">redirect</link></literal>
542 <literal><link linkend="treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks">treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks</link></literal>
549 In addition, <literal><link linkend="fast-redirects">fast-redirects</link></literal>
550 has been significantly improved with enhanced syntax.
553 And <literal><link linkend="hide-referrer">hide-referrer</link></literal>
554 has a new option, <literal>conditional block</literal>.
561 <application>MS-Windows</application> versions can now be
563 linkend="installation-pack-win">installed and
564 started as a <emphasis>Windows service</emphasis></link>.
570 <filename>config</filename> has two new options:
572 linkend="enable-remote-http-toggle">enable-remote-http-toggle</link>,
574 linkend="forwarded-connect-retries">forwarded-connect-retries</link>.
577 And there is improved handling of the <link
578 linkend="user-manual">user-manual</link>
579 option, for placing documentation and help files on the local system.
585 There are six new <link linkend="FILTER">filters</link>.
591 Actions files problems and suggestions are now being directed to:
592 <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=11118&atid=460288">http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=11118&atid=460288</ulink>.
593 Please use this to report such configuration related problems as missed
594 ads, sites that don't function properly due to one action or another,
595 innocent images being blocked, etc.
601 In addition, there are numerous bug fixes and significant enhancements,
602 including error pages should no longer be cached if the problem is fixed,
603 much better DNS error handling, various logging improvements, and
604 configuration updates for better ad blocking and junk elimination.
612 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
614 <sect2 id="upgradersnote">
615 <title>Note to Upgraders</title>
618 A quick list of things to be aware of before upgrading from earlier
619 versions of <application>Privoxy</application>:
627 Some installers may remove earlier versions completely, including
628 configuration files. Save any important configuration files!
633 On the other hand, other installers may not overwrite any existing configuration
634 files, thinking you will want to do that. You may want to manually check
635 your saved files against the newer versions to see if the improvements have
636 merit, or whether there are new options that you may want to consider.
637 There are a number of new features, but most won't be available unless
638 these features are incorporated into your configuration somehow.
643 See the full documentation on
644 <literal><link linkend="fast-redirects">fast-redirects</link></literal>
645 which has changed syntax, and will require adjustments to local configs,
646 such as <filename>user.action</filename>. You must reference the new
651 { +fast-redirects{check-decoded-url} }
660 The <filename>jarfile</filename>,
661 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookie</ulink> logger, is off by default now.
667 What constitutes a <quote>default</quote> configuration has changed,
668 and you may want to review which actions are <quote>on</quote> by
669 default. This is primarily a matter of emphasis, but some features
670 you may have been used to, may now be <quote>off</quote> by default.
671 There are also a number of new actions and filters you may want to
672 consider, most of which are not fully incorporated into the default
673 settings as yet (see above).
679 The default actions setting is now <literal>Cautious</literal>. Previous
680 releases had a default setting of <literal>Medium</literal>. Experienced
681 users may want to adjust this, as it is fairly conservative by &my-app;
682 standards and past practices. See <ulink
683 url="http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions-list?f=default">
684 http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions-list?f=default</ulink>. New users
685 should try the default settings for a while before turning up the volume.
691 The default setting has filtering turned <emphasis>off</emphasis>, which
692 subsequently means that compression is <emphasis>on</emphasis>. Remember
693 that filtering does not work on compressed pages, so if you use, or want to
694 use, filtering, you will need to force compression off. Example:
698 { +<link linkend="filter">filter</link>{google} +<link linkend="prevent-compression">prevent-compression</link> }
702 Or if you use a number of filters, or filter many sites, you may just want
703 to turn off compression for all sites in
704 <filename>default.action</filename> (or
705 <filename>user.action</filename>).
712 Also, <link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> is
713 off by default now. If you've liked this feature in the past, you may want
714 to turn it back on in <filename>user.action</filename> now.
721 <!-- I think it is best to keep this somewhat vague, in case -->
722 <!-- the situation changes under our feet. -->
723 Some installers may not automatically start
724 <application>Privoxy</application> after installation.
734 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
735 <sect1 id="quickstart"><title>Quickstart to Using Privoxy</title>
741 Install <application>Privoxy</application>. See the <link
742 linkend="installation">Installation Section</link> below for platform specific
749 Advanced users and those who want to offer <application>Privoxy</application>
750 service to more than just their local machine should check the <link
751 linkend="config">main config file</link>, especially the <link
752 linkend="access-control">security-relevant</link> options. These are
759 Start <application>Privoxy</application>, if the installation program has
760 not done this already (may vary according to platform). See the section
761 <link linkend="startup">Starting <application>Privoxy</application></link>.
767 Set your browser to use <application>Privoxy</application> as HTTP and
768 HTTPS (SSL) <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_server">proxy</ulink>
769 by setting the proxy configuration for address of
770 <literal>127.0.0.1</literal> and port <literal>8118</literal>.
771 <emphasis>DO NOT</emphasis> activate proxying for <literal>FTP</literal> or
772 any protocols besides HTTP and HTTPS (SSL)! It won't work!
778 Flush your browser's disk and memory caches, to remove any cached ad images.
779 If using <application>Privoxy</application> to manage
780 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>,
781 you should remove any currently stored cookies too.
787 A default installation should provide a reasonable starting point for
788 most. There will undoubtedly be occasions where you will want to adjust the
789 configuration, but that can be dealt with as the need arises. Little
790 to no initial configuration is required in most cases.
793 See the <link linkend="configuration">Configuration section</link> for more
794 configuration options, and how to customize your installation.
795 You might also want to look at the <link
796 linkend="quickstart-ad-blocking">next section</link> for a quick
797 introduction to how <application>Privoxy</application> blocks ads and
804 If you experience ads that slip through, innocent images that are
805 blocked, or otherwise feel the need to fine-tune
806 <application>Privoxy's</application> behavior, take a look at the <link
807 linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>. As a quick start, you might
808 find the <link linkend="act-examples">richly commented examples</link>
809 helpful. You can also view and edit the actions files through the <ulink
810 url="http://config.privoxy.org">web-based user interface</ulink>. The
811 Appendix <quote><link linkend="actionsanat">Troubleshooting: Anatomy of an
812 Action</link></quote> has hints on how to understand and debug actions that
813 <quote>misbehave</quote>.
819 For easy access to &my-app;'s most important controls, drag the provided
820 <link linkend="bookmarklets">Bookmarklets</link> into your browser's
827 Please see the section <link linkend="contact">Contacting the
828 Developers</link> on how to report bugs, problems with websites or to get
835 Now enjoy surfing with enhanced control, comfort and privacy!
843 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
845 <sect2 id="quickstart-ad-blocking">
846 <title>Quickstart to Ad Blocking</title>
848 NOTE: This section is deliberately redundant for those that don't
849 want to read the whole thing (which is getting lengthy).
852 Ad blocking is but one of <application>Privoxy's</application>
853 array of features. Many of these features are for the technically minded advanced
854 user. But, ad and banner blocking is surely common ground for everybody.
857 This section will provide a quick summary of ad blocking so
858 you can get up to speed quickly without having to read the more extensive
859 information provided below, though this is highly recommended.
862 First a bit of a warning ... blocking ads is much like blocking SPAM: the
863 more aggressive you are about it, the more likely you are to block
864 things that were not intended. And the more likely that some things
865 may not work as intended. So there is a trade off here. If you want
866 extreme ad free browsing, be prepared to deal with more
867 <quote>problem</quote> sites, and to spend more time adjusting the
868 configuration to solve these unintended consequences. In short, there is
869 not an easy way to eliminate <emphasis>all</emphasis> ads. Either take
870 the easy way and settle for <emphasis>most</emphasis> ads blocked with the
871 default configuration, or jump in and tweak it for your personal surfing
872 habits and preferences.
875 Secondly, a brief explanation of <application>Privoxy's </application>
876 <quote>actions</quote>. <quote>Actions</quote> in this context, are
877 the directives we use to tell <application>Privoxy</application> to perform
878 some task relating to WWW transactions (i.e. web browsing). We tell
879 <application>Privoxy</application> to take some <quote>action</quote>. Each
880 action has a unique name and function. While there are many potential
881 <application>actions</application> in <application>Privoxy's</application>
882 arsenal, only a few are used for ad blocking. <link
883 linkend="actions">Actions</link>, and <link linkend="actions-file">action
884 configuration files</link>, are explained in depth below.
887 Actions are specified in <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration,
888 followed by one or more URLs to which the action should apply. URLs
889 can actually be URL type <link linkend="af-patterns">patterns</link> that use
890 wildcards so they can apply potentially to a range of similar URLs. The
891 actions, together with the URL patterns are called a section.
894 When you connect to a website, the full URL will either match one or more
895 of the sections as defined in <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration,
896 or not. If so, then <application>Privoxy</application> will perform the
897 respective actions. If not, then nothing special happens. Furthermore, web
898 pages may contain embedded, secondary URLs that your web browser will
899 use to load additional components of the page, as it parses the
900 original page's HTML content. An ad image for instance, is just an URL
901 embedded in the page somewhere. The image itself may be on the same server,
902 or a server somewhere else on the Internet. Complex web pages will have many
903 such embedded URLs. &my-app; can deal with each URL individually, so, for
904 instance, the main page text is not touched, but images from such-and-such
909 The most important actions for basic ad blocking are: <literal><link
910 linkend="block">block</link></literal>, <literal><link
911 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>,
913 linkend="handle-as-empty-document">handle-as-empty-document</link></literal>,and
914 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>:
922 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> - this is perhaps
923 the single most used action, and is particularly important for ad blocking.
924 This action stops any contact between your browser and any URL patterns
925 that match this action's configuration. It can be used for blocking ads,
926 but also anything that is determined to be unwanted. By itself, it simply
927 stops any communication with the remote server and sends
928 <application>Privoxy</application>'s own built-in BLOCKED page instead to
929 let you now what has happened (with some exceptions, see below).
935 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> -
936 tells <application>Privoxy</application> to treat this URL as an image.
937 <application>Privoxy</application>'s default configuration already does this
938 for all common image types (e.g. GIF), but there are many situations where this
939 is not so easy to determine. So we'll force it in these cases. This is particularly
940 important for ad blocking, since only if we know that it's an image of
941 some kind, can we replace it with an image of our choosing, instead of the
942 <application>Privoxy</application> BLOCKED page (which would only result in
943 a <quote>broken image</quote> icon). There are some limitations to this
944 though. For instance, you can't just brute-force an image substitution for
945 an entire HTML page in most situations.
951 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-empty-document">handle-as-empty-document</link></literal> -
952 sends an empty document instead of <application>Privoxy's</application>
953 normal BLOCKED HTML page. This is useful for file types that are neither
954 HTML nor images, such as blocking JavaScript files.
961 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal> - tells
962 <application>Privoxy</application> what to display in place of an ad image that
963 has hit a block rule. For this to come into play, the URL must match a
964 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action somewhere in the
965 configuration, <emphasis>and</emphasis>, it must also match an
966 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> action.
969 The configuration options on what to display instead of the ad are:
973 <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> - a checkerboard pattern, so that an ad
974 replacement is obvious. This is the default.
979 <emphasis>blank</emphasis> - A very small empty GIF image is displayed.
980 This is the so-called <quote>invisible</quote> configuration option.
985 <emphasis>http://<URL></emphasis> - A redirect to any image anywhere
986 of the user's choosing (advanced usage).
995 The quickest way to adjust any of these settings is with your browser through
996 the special <application>Privoxy</application> editor at <ulink
997 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
998 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/show-status</ulink>). This
999 is an internal page, and does not require Internet access. Select the
1000 appropriate <quote>actions</quote> file, and click
1001 <quote><guibutton>Edit</guibutton></quote>. It is best to put personal or
1002 local preferences in <filename>user.action</filename> since this is not
1003 meant to be overwritten during upgrades, and will over-ride the settings in
1004 other files. Here you can insert new <quote>actions</quote>, and URLs for ad
1005 blocking or other purposes, and make other adjustments to the configuration.
1006 <application>Privoxy</application> will detect these changes automatically.
1010 A quick and simple step by step example:
1018 Right click on the ad image to be blocked, then select
1019 <quote><guimenuitem>Copy Link Location</guimenuitem></quote> from the
1027 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
1032 Find <filename>user.action</filename> in the top section, and click
1033 on <quote><guibutton>Edit</guibutton></quote>:
1036 <!-- image of editor and actions files selections -->
1038 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Actions Files in Use</title>
1041 <imagedata fileref="files-in-use.jpg" format="jpg">
1044 <phrase>[ Screenshot of Actions Files in Use ]</phrase>
1053 You should have a section with only
1054 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> listed under
1055 <quote>Actions:</quote>.
1056 If not, click a <quote><guibutton>Insert new section below</guibutton></quote>
1057 button, and in the new section that just appeared, click the
1058 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> button right under the word <quote>Actions:</quote>.
1059 This will bring up a list of all actions. Find
1060 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> near the top, and click
1061 in the <quote>Enabled</quote> column, then <quote><guibutton>Submit</guibutton></quote>
1062 just below the list.
1067 Now, in the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> actions section,
1068 click the <quote><guibutton>Add</guibutton></quote> button, and paste the URL the
1069 browser got from <quote><guimenuitem>Copy Link Location</guimenuitem></quote>.
1070 Remove the <literal>http://</literal> at the beginning of the URL. Then, click
1071 <quote><guibutton>Submit</guibutton></quote> (or
1072 <quote><guibutton>OK</guibutton></quote> if in a pop-up window).
1077 Now go back to the original page, and press <keycap>SHIFT-Reload</keycap>
1078 (or flush all browser caches). The image should be gone now.
1086 This is a very crude and simple example. There might be good reasons to use a
1087 wildcard pattern match to include potentially similar images from the same
1088 site. For a more extensive explanation of <quote>patterns</quote>, and
1089 the entire actions concept, see <link linkend="actions-file">the Actions
1094 For advanced users who want to hand edit their config files, you might want
1095 to now go to the <link linkend="act-examples">Actions Files Tutorial</link>.
1096 The ideas explained therein also apply to the web-based editor.
1099 There are also various
1100 <link linkend="filter">filters</link> that can be used for ad blocking
1101 (filters are a special subset of actions). These
1102 fall into the <quote>advanced</quote> usage category, and are explained in
1103 depth in later sections.
1110 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1113 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1114 <sect1 id="startup">
1115 <title>Starting Privoxy</title>
1117 Before launching <application>Privoxy</application> for the first time, you
1118 will want to configure your browser(s) to use
1119 <application>Privoxy</application> as a HTTP and HTTPS (SSL)
1120 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_server">proxy</ulink>. The default is
1121 127.0.0.1 (or localhost) for the proxy address, and port 8118 (earlier versions
1122 used port 8000). This is the one configuration step <emphasis>that must be done
1126 Please note that <application>Privoxy</application> can only proxy HTTP and
1127 HTTPS traffic. It will not work with FTP or other protocols.
1130 <!-- image of Mozilla Proxy configuration -->
1132 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Proxy Configuration Showing
1133 Mozilla/Netscape HTTP and HTTPS (SSL) Settings</title>
1136 <imagedata fileref="proxy_setup.jpg" format="jpg">
1139 <phrase>[ Screenshot of Mozilla Proxy Configuration ]</phrase>
1147 With <application>Firefox</application>, this is typically set under:
1151 <guibutton>Tools</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Options</guibutton> -> <guibutton>General</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Connection Settings</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Manual Proxy Configuration</guibutton>
1156 Or optionally on some platforms:
1160 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Preferences</guibutton> -> <guibutton>General</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Connection Settings</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Manual Proxy Configuration</guibutton>
1166 With <application>Netscape</application> (and
1167 <application>Mozilla</application>), this can be set under:
1172 <!-- Mix ascii and gui art, something for everybody -->
1173 <!-- spacing on this is tricky -->
1174 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Preferences</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Advanced</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Proxies</guibutton> -> <guibutton>HTTP Proxy</guibutton>
1179 For <application>Internet Explorer v.5-6</application>:
1183 <guibutton>Tools</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Internet Options</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Connections</guibutton> -> <guibutton>LAN Settings</guibutton>
1187 Then, check <quote>Use Proxy</quote> and fill in the appropriate info
1188 (Address: 127.0.0.1, Port: 8118). Include HTTPS (SSL), if you want HTTPS
1189 proxy support too (sometimes labeled <quote>Secure</quote>). Make sure any
1190 checkboxes like <quote>Use the same proxy server for all protocols</quote> is
1191 <emphasis>UNCHECKED</emphasis>. You want only HTTP and HTTPS (SSL)!
1194 <!-- image of IE Proxy configuration -->
1196 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Proxy Configuration Showing
1197 Internet Explorer HTTP and HTTPS (Secure) Settings</title>
1200 <imagedata fileref="proxy2.jpg" format="jpg">
1203 <phrase>[ Screenshot of IE Proxy Configuration ]</phrase>
1211 After doing this, flush your browser's disk and memory caches to force a
1212 re-reading of all pages and to get rid of any ads that may be cached. Remove
1213 any <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>,
1214 if you want <application>Privoxy</application> to manage that. You are now
1215 ready to start enjoying the benefits of using
1216 <application>Privoxy</application>!
1220 <application>Privoxy</application> itself is typically started by specifying the
1221 main configuration file to be used on the command line. If no configuration
1222 file is specified on the command line, <application>Privoxy</application>
1223 will look for a file named <filename>config</filename> in the current
1224 directory. Except on Win32 where it will try <filename>config.txt</filename>.
1227 <sect2 id="start-redhat">
1228 <title>Red Hat and Fedora</title>
1230 A default Red Hat installation may not start &my-app; upon boot. It will use
1231 the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename> as its main configuration
1236 # /etc/rc.d/init.d/privoxy start
1244 # service privoxy start
1249 <sect2 id="start-debian">
1250 <title>Debian</title>
1252 We use a script. Note that Debian typically starts &my-app; upon booting per
1253 default. It will use the file
1254 <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename> as its main configuration
1259 # /etc/init.d/privoxy start
1265 omitting 10/31/06 HB
1267 <sect2 id="start-suse">
1270 We use a script. It will use the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename>
1271 as its main configuration file. Note that SuSE starts Privoxy upon booting
1281 <sect2 id="start-windows">
1282 <title>Windows</title>
1284 Click on the &my-app; Icon to start <application>Privoxy</application>. If no configuration file is
1285 specified on the command line, <application>Privoxy</application> will look
1286 for a file named <filename>config.txt</filename>. Note that Windows will
1287 automatically start &my-app; when the system starts if you chose that option
1291 <application>Privoxy</application> can run with full Windows service functionality.
1292 On Windows only, the &my-app; program has two new command line arguments
1293 to install and uninstall &my-app; as a service. See the
1294 <link linkend="installation-pack-win">Windows Installation
1295 instructions</link> for details.
1299 <sect2 id="start-unices">
1300 <title>Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD, HP-UX and others</title>
1302 Example Unix startup command:
1306 # /usr/sbin/privoxy /etc/privoxy/config
1311 <sect2 id="start-os2">
1314 During installation, <application>Privoxy</application> is configured to
1315 start automatically when the system restarts. You can start it manually by
1316 double-clicking on the <application>Privoxy</application> icon in the
1317 <application>Privoxy</application> folder.
1321 <sect2 id="start-macosx">
1322 <title>Mac OSX</title>
1324 During installation, <application>Privoxy</application> is configured to
1325 start automatically when the system restarts. To start &my-app; manually,
1326 double-click on the <literal>StartPrivoxy.command</literal> icon in the
1327 <literal>/Library/Privoxy</literal> folder. Or, type this command
1332 /Library/Privoxy/StartPrivoxy.command
1336 You will be prompted for the administrator password.
1341 <sect2 id="start-amigaos">
1342 <title>AmigaOS</title>
1344 Start <application>Privoxy</application> (with RUN <>NIL:) in your
1345 <filename>startnet</filename> script (AmiTCP), in
1346 <filename>s:user-startup</filename> (RoadShow), as startup program in your
1347 startup script (Genesis), or as startup action (Miami and MiamiDx).
1348 <application>Privoxy</application> will automatically quit when you quit your
1349 TCP/IP stack (just ignore the harmless warning your TCP/IP stack may display that
1350 <application>Privoxy</application> is still running).
1354 <sect2 id="start-gentoo">
1355 <title>Gentoo</title>
1357 A script is again used. It will use the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config
1358 </filename> as its main configuration file.
1362 /etc/init.d/privoxy start
1366 Note that <application>Privoxy</application> is not automatically started at
1367 boot time by default. You can change this with the <literal>rc-update</literal>
1372 rc-update add privoxy default
1380 See the section <link linkend="cmdoptions">Command line options</link> for
1384 must find a better place for this paragraph
1387 The included default configuration files should give a reasonable starting
1388 point. Most of the per site configuration is done in the
1389 <ulink url="actions-file.html"><quote>actions</quote></ulink> files. These are
1390 where various cookie actions are defined, ad and banner blocking, and other
1391 aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. There are several
1392 such files included, with varying levels of aggressiveness.
1396 You will probably want to keep an eye out for sites for which you may prefer
1397 persistent cookies, and add these to your actions configuration as needed. By
1398 default, most of these will be accepted only during the current browser
1399 session (aka <quote>session cookies</quote>), unless you add them to the
1400 configuration. If you want the browser to handle this instead, you will need
1401 to edit <filename>user.action</filename> (or through the web based interface)
1402 and disable this feature. If you use more than one browser, it would make
1403 more sense to let <application>Privoxy</application> handle this. In which
1404 case, the browser(s) should be set to accept all cookies.
1408 Another feature where you will probably want to define exceptions for trusted
1409 sites is the popup-killing (through the <ulink
1410 url="actions-file.html#KILL-POPUPS"><quote>+kill-popups</quote></ulink> and
1412 url="actions-file.html#FILTER-POPUPS"><quote>+filter{popups}</quote></ulink>
1413 actions), because your favorite shopping, banking, or leisure site may need
1414 popups (explained below).
1418 <application>Privoxy</application> does not support all of the optional HTTP/1.1
1419 features yet. In the unlikely event that you experience inexplicable problems
1420 with browsers that use HTTP/1.1 per default
1421 (like <application>Mozilla</application> or recent versions of I.E.), you might
1422 try to force HTTP/1.0 compatibility. For Mozilla, look under <literal>Edit ->
1423 Preferences -> Debug -> Networking</literal>.
1424 Alternatively, set the <quote>+downgrade-http-version</quote> config option in
1425 <filename>default.action</filename> which will downgrade your browser's HTTP
1426 requests from HTTP/1.1 to HTTP/1.0 before processing them.
1430 After running <application>Privoxy</application> for a while, you can
1431 start to fine tune the configuration to suit your personal, or site,
1432 preferences and requirements. There are many, many aspects that can
1433 be customized. <quote>Actions</quote>
1434 can be adjusted by pointing your browser to
1435 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
1436 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
1437 and then follow the link to <quote>View & Change the Current Configuration</quote>.
1438 (This is an internal page and does not require Internet access.)
1442 In fact, various aspects of <application>Privoxy</application>
1443 configuration can be viewed from this page, including
1444 current configuration parameters, source code version numbers,
1445 the browser's request headers, and <quote>actions</quote> that apply
1446 to a given URL. In addition to the actions file
1447 editor mentioned above, <application>Privoxy</application> can also
1448 be turned <quote>on</quote> and <quote>off</quote> (toggled) from this page.
1452 If you encounter problems, try loading the page without
1453 <application>Privoxy</application>. If that helps, enter the URL where
1454 you have the problems into <ulink url="http://p.p/show-url-info">the browser
1455 based rule tracing utility</ulink>. See which rules apply and why, and
1456 then try turning them off for that site one after the other, until the problem
1457 is gone. When you have found the culprit, you might want to turn the rest on
1462 If the above paragraph sounds gibberish to you, you might want to <link
1463 linkend="actions-file">read more about the actions concept</link>
1464 or even dive deep into the <link linkend="actionsanat">Appendix
1469 If you can't get rid of the problem at all, think you've found a bug in
1470 Privoxy, want to propose a new feature or smarter rules, please see the
1471 section <link linkend="contact"><quote>Contacting the
1472 Developers</quote></link> below.
1477 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1478 <sect2 id="cmdoptions">
1479 <title>Command Line Options</title>
1481 <application>Privoxy</application> may be invoked with the following
1482 command-line options:
1490 <emphasis>--version</emphasis>
1493 Print version info and exit. Unix only.
1498 <emphasis>--help</emphasis>
1501 Print short usage info and exit. Unix only.
1506 <emphasis>--no-daemon</emphasis>
1509 Don't become a daemon, i.e. don't fork and become process group
1510 leader, and don't detach from controlling tty. Unix only.
1515 <emphasis>--pidfile FILE</emphasis>
1518 On startup, write the process ID to <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>. Delete the
1519 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> on exit. Failure to create or delete the
1520 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> is non-fatal. If no <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>
1521 option is given, no PID file will be used. Unix only.
1526 <emphasis>--user USER[.GROUP]</emphasis>
1529 After (optionally) writing the PID file, assume the user ID of
1530 <emphasis>USER</emphasis>, and if included the GID of GROUP. Exit if the
1531 privileges are not sufficient to do so. Unix only.
1536 <emphasis>--chroot</emphasis>
1539 Before changing to the user ID given in the <emphasis>--user</emphasis> option,
1540 chroot to that user's home directory, i.e. make the kernel pretend to the &my-app;
1541 process that the directory tree starts there. If set up carefully, this can limit
1542 the impact of possible vulnerabilities in &my-app; to the files contained in that hierarchy.
1548 <emphasis>--pre-chroot-nslookup hostname</emphasis>
1551 Specifies a hostname to look up before doing a chroot. On some systems, initializing the
1552 resolver library involves reading config files from /etc and/or loading additional shared
1553 libraries from /lib. On these systems, doing a hostname lookup before the chroot reduces
1554 the number of files that must be copied into the chroot tree.
1557 For fastest startup speed, a good value is a hostname that is not in /etc/hosts but that
1558 your local name server (listed in /etc/resolv.conf) can resolve without recursion
1559 (that is, without having to ask any other name servers). The hostname need not exist,
1560 but if it doesn't, an error message (which can be ignored) will be output.
1566 <emphasis>configfile</emphasis>
1569 If no <emphasis>configfile</emphasis> is included on the command line,
1570 <application>Privoxy</application> will look for a file named
1571 <quote>config</quote> in the current directory (except on Win32
1572 where it will look for <quote>config.txt</quote> instead). Specify
1573 full path to avoid confusion. If no config file is found,
1574 <application>Privoxy</application> will fail to start.
1582 On <application>MS Windows</application> only there are two additional
1583 command-line options to allow <application>Privoxy</application> to install and
1584 run as a <emphasis>service</emphasis>. See the
1585 <link linkend="installation-pack-win">Window Installation section</link>
1593 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1596 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1597 <sect1 id="configuration"><title>Privoxy Configuration</title>
1599 All <application>Privoxy</application> configuration is stored
1600 in text files. These files can be edited with a text editor.
1601 Many important aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> can
1602 also be controlled easily with a web browser.
1606 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1609 <title>Controlling Privoxy with Your Web Browser</title>
1611 <application>Privoxy</application>'s user interface can be reached through the special
1612 URL <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
1613 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
1614 which is a built-in page and works without Internet access.
1615 You will see the following section:
1619 <!-- Needs to be put in a table and colorized -->
1622 <bridgehead renderas="sect2"> Privoxy Menu</bridgehead>
1626 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">View & change the current configuration</ulink>
1629 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-version">View the source code version numbers</ulink>
1632 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request">View the request headers.</ulink>
1635 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">Look up which actions apply to a URL and why</ulink>
1638 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">Toggle Privoxy on or off</ulink>
1641 ▪ <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/
1642 &p-version;/user-manual/">Documentation</ulink>
1650 This should be self-explanatory. Note the first item leads to an editor for the
1651 <link linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>, which is where the ad, banner,
1652 cookie, and URL blocking magic is configured as well as other advanced features of
1653 <application>Privoxy</application>. This is an easy way to adjust various
1654 aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. The actions
1655 file, and other configuration files, are explained in detail below.
1659 <quote>Toggle Privoxy On or Off</quote> is handy for sites that might
1660 have problems with your current actions and filters. You can in fact use
1661 it as a test to see whether it is <application>Privoxy</application>
1662 causing the problem or not. <application>Privoxy</application> continues
1663 to run as a proxy in this case, but all manipulation is disabled, i.e.
1664 <application>Privoxy</application> acts like a normal forwarding proxy. There
1665 is even a toggle <link linkend="bookmarklets">Bookmarklet</link> offered, so
1666 that you can toggle <application>Privoxy</application> with one click from
1672 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1677 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1679 <sect2 id="confoverview">
1680 <title>Configuration Files Overview</title>
1682 For Unix, *BSD and Linux, all configuration files are located in
1683 <filename>/etc/privoxy/</filename> by default. For MS Windows, OS/2, and
1684 AmigaOS these are all in the same directory as the
1685 <application>Privoxy</application> executable. <![%p-not-stable;[ The name
1686 and number of configuration files has changed from previous versions, and is
1687 subject to change as development progresses.]]>
1691 The installed defaults provide a reasonable starting point, though
1692 some settings may be aggressive by some standards. For the time being, the
1693 principle configuration files are:
1701 The <link linkend="config">main configuration file</link> is named <filename>config</filename>
1702 on Linux, Unix, BSD, OS/2, and AmigaOS and <filename>config.txt</filename>
1703 on Windows. This is a required file.
1709 <filename>default.action</filename> (the main <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link>)
1710 is used to define which <quote>actions</quote> relating to banner-blocking, images, pop-ups,
1711 content modification, cookie handling etc should be applied by default. It also defines many
1712 exceptions (both positive and negative) from this default set of actions that enable
1713 <application>Privoxy</application> to selectively eliminate the junk, and only the junk, on
1714 as many websites as possible.
1717 Multiple actions files may be defined in <filename>config</filename>. These
1718 are processed in the order they are defined. Local customizations and locally
1719 preferred exceptions to the default policies as defined in
1720 <filename>default.action</filename> (which you will most probably want
1721 to define sooner or later) are probably best applied in
1722 <filename>user.action</filename>, where you can preserve them across
1723 upgrades. <filename>standard.action</filename> is only for
1724 <application>Privoxy's</application> internal use.
1727 There is also a web based editor that can be accessed from
1729 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
1731 url="http://p.p/show-status">http://p.p/show-status</ulink>) for the
1732 various actions files.
1738 <quote>Filter files</quote> (the <link linkend="filter-file">filter
1739 file</link>) can be used to re-write the raw page content, including
1740 viewable text as well as embedded HTML and JavaScript, and whatever else
1741 lurks on any given web page. The filtering jobs are only pre-defined here;
1742 whether to apply them or not is up to the actions files.
1743 <filename>default.filter</filename> includes various filters made
1744 available for use by the developers. Some are much more intrusive than
1745 others, and all should be used with caution. You may define additional
1746 filter files in <filename>config</filename> as you can with
1747 actions files. We suggest <filename>user.filter</filename> for any
1748 locally defined filters or customizations.
1756 The syntax of the configuration and filter files may change between different
1757 Privoxy versions, unfortunately some enhancements cost backwards compatibility.
1758 <!-- Add link to documentation-->
1762 All files use the <quote><literal>#</literal></quote> character to denote a
1763 comment (the rest of the line will be ignored) and understand line continuation
1764 through placing a backslash ("<literal>\</literal>") as the very last character
1765 in a line. If the <literal>#</literal> is preceded by a backslash, it looses
1766 its special function. Placing a <literal>#</literal> in front of an otherwise
1767 valid configuration line to prevent it from being interpreted is called "commenting
1768 out" that line. Blank lines are ignored.
1772 The actions files and filter files
1773 can use Perl style <link linkend="regex">regular expressions</link> for
1774 maximum flexibility.
1778 After making any changes, there is no need to restart
1779 <application>Privoxy</application> in order for the changes to take
1780 effect. <application>Privoxy</application> detects such changes
1781 automatically. Note, however, that it may take one or two additional
1782 requests for the change to take effect. When changing the listening address
1783 of <application>Privoxy</application>, these <quote>wake up</quote> requests
1784 must obviously be sent to the <emphasis>old</emphasis> listening address.
1789 While under development, the configuration content is subject to change.
1790 The below documentation may not be accurate by the time you read this.
1791 Also, what constitutes a <quote>default</quote> setting, may change, so
1792 please check all your configuration files on important issues.
1798 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1801 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
1803 <!-- **************************************************** -->
1804 <!-- Include config.sgml here -->
1805 <!-- This is where the entire config file is detailed. -->
1807 <!-- end include -->
1810 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1814 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
1816 <sect1 id="actions-file"><title>Actions Files</title>
1819 The actions files are used to define what <emphasis>actions</emphasis>
1820 <application>Privoxy</application> takes for which URLs, and thus determines
1821 how ad images, cookies and various other aspects of HTTP content and
1822 transactions are handled, and on which sites (or even parts thereof).
1823 There are a number of such actions, with a wide range of functionality.
1824 Each action does something a little different.
1825 These actions give us a veritable arsenal of tools with which to exert
1826 our control, preferences and independence. Actions can be combined so that
1827 their effects are aggregated when applied against a given set of URLs.
1831 are three action files included with <application>Privoxy</application> with
1839 <filename>default.action</filename> - is the primary action file
1840 that sets the initial values for all actions. It is intended to
1841 provide a base level of functionality for
1842 <application>Privoxy's</application> array of features. So it is
1843 a set of broad rules that should work reasonably well as-is for most users.
1844 This is the file that the developers are keeping updated, and <link
1845 linkend="installation-keepupdated">making available to users</link>.
1846 The user's preferences as set in <filename>standard.action</filename>,
1847 e.g. either <literal>Cautious</literal> (the default),
1848 <literal>Medium</literal>, or <literal>Advanced</literal> (see
1854 <filename>user.action</filename> - is intended to be for local site
1855 preferences and exceptions. As an example, if your ISP or your bank
1856 has specific requirements, and need special handling, this kind of
1857 thing should go here. This file will not be upgraded.
1862 <filename>standard.action</filename> - is used only by the web based editor
1863 at <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions-list?f=default">
1864 http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions-list?f=default</ulink>,
1865 to set various pre-defined sets of rules for the default actions section
1866 in <filename>default.action</filename>.
1869 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> <guibutton>Set to Cautious</guibutton> <guibutton>Set to Medium</guibutton> <guibutton>Set to Advanced</guibutton>
1872 These have increasing levels of aggressiveness <emphasis>and have no
1873 influence on your browsing unless you select them explicitly in the
1874 editor</emphasis>. A default installation should be pre-set to
1875 <literal>Cautious</literal> (versions prior to 3.0.5 were set to
1876 <literal>Medium</literal>). New users should try this for a while before
1877 adjusting the settings to more aggressive levels. The more aggressive
1878 the settings, then the more likelihood there is of problems such as sites
1879 not working as they should.
1882 The <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> button allows you to turn each
1883 action on/off individually for fine-tuning. The <guibutton>Cautious</guibutton>
1884 button changes the actions list to low/safe settings which will activate
1885 ad blocking and a minimal set of &my-app;'s features, and subsequently
1886 there will be less of a chance for accidental problems. The
1887 <guibutton>Medium</guibutton> button sets the list to a medium level of
1888 other features and a low level set of privacy features. The
1889 <guibutton>Advanced</guibutton> button sets the list to a high level of
1890 ad blocking and medium level of privacy. See the chart below. The latter
1891 three buttons over-ride any changes via with the
1892 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> button. More fine-tuning can be done in the
1893 lower sections of this internal page.
1896 It is not recommend to edit the <filename>standard.action</filename> file
1900 The default profiles, and their associated actions, as pre-defined in
1901 <filename>standard.action</filename> are<!-- different than this table which is out of date -->:
1904 <table frame=all><title>Default Configurations</title>
1905 <tgroup cols=4 align=left colsep=1 rowsep=1>
1906 <colspec colname=c1>
1907 <colspec colname=c2>
1908 <colspec colname=c3>
1909 <colspec colname=c4>
1912 <entry>Feature</entry>
1913 <entry>Cautious</entry>
1914 <entry>Medium</entry>
1915 <entry>Advanced</entry>
1920 <!-- <entry>f1</entry> -->
1921 <!-- <entry>f2</entry> -->
1922 <!-- <entry>f3</entry> -->
1923 <!-- <entry>f4</entry> -->
1929 <entry>Ad-blocking Aggressiveness</entry>
1930 <entry>medium</entry>
1936 <entry>Ad-filtering by size</entry>
1943 <entry>Ad-filtering by link</entry>
1949 <entry>Pop-up killing</entry>
1950 <entry>blocks only</entry>
1951 <entry>blocks only</entry>
1952 <entry>blocks only</entry>
1956 <entry>Privacy Features</entry>
1958 <entry>medium</entry>
1959 <entry>medium/high</entry>
1963 <entry>Cookie handling</entry>
1965 <entry>session-only</entry>
1970 <entry>Referer forging</entry>
1978 <entry>GIF de-animation</entry>
1986 <entry>Fast redirects</entry>
1993 <entry>HTML taming</entry>
2000 <entry>JavaScript taming</entry>
2007 <entry>Web-bug killing</entry>
2014 <entry>Image tag reordering</entry>
2030 The list of actions files to be used are defined in the main configuration
2031 file, and are processed in the order they are defined (e.g.
2032 <filename>default.action</filename> is typically processed before
2033 <filename>user.action</filename>). The content of these can all be viewed and
2035 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
2036 The over-riding principle when applying actions, is that the last action that
2037 matches a given URL wins. The broadest, most general rules go first
2038 (defined in <filename>default.action</filename>),
2039 followed by any exceptions (typically also in
2040 <filename>default.action</filename>), which are then followed lastly by any
2041 local preferences (typically in <emphasis>user</emphasis><filename>.action</filename>).
2042 Generally, <filename>user.action</filename> has the last word.
2046 An actions file typically has multiple sections. If you want to use
2047 <quote>aliases</quote> in an actions file, you have to place the (optional)
2048 <link linkend="aliases">alias section</link> at the top of that file.
2049 Then comes the default set of rules which will apply universally to all
2050 sites and pages (be <emphasis>very careful</emphasis> with using such a
2051 universal set in <filename>user.action</filename> or any other actions file after
2052 <filename>default.action</filename>, because it will override the result
2053 from consulting any previous file). And then below that,
2054 exceptions to the defined universal policies. You can regard
2055 <filename>user.action</filename> as an appendix to <filename>default.action</filename>,
2056 with the advantage that it is a separate file, which makes preserving your
2057 personal settings across <application>Privoxy</application> upgrades easier.
2061 Actions can be used to block anything you want, including ads, banners, or
2062 just some obnoxious URL whose content you would rather not see. Cookies can be accepted
2063 or rejected, or accepted only during the current browser session (i.e. not
2064 written to disk), content can be modified, some JavaScripts tamed, user-tracking
2065 fooled, and much more. See below for a <link linkend="actions">complete list
2069 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2071 <title>Finding the Right Mix</title>
2073 Note that some <link linkend="actions">actions</link>, like cookie suppression
2074 or script disabling, may render some sites unusable that rely on these
2075 techniques to work properly. Finding the right mix of actions is not always easy and
2076 certainly a matter of personal taste. And, things can always change, requiring
2077 refinements in the configuration. In general, it can be said that the more
2078 <quote>aggressive</quote> your default settings (in the top section of the
2079 actions file) are, the more exceptions for <quote>trusted</quote> sites you
2080 will have to make later. If, for example, you want to crunch all cookies per
2081 default, you'll have to make exceptions from that rule for sites that you
2082 regularly use and that require cookies for actually useful purposes, like maybe
2083 your bank, favorite shop, or newspaper.
2087 We have tried to provide you with reasonable rules to start from in the
2088 distribution actions files. But there is no general rule of thumb on these
2089 things. There just are too many variables, and sites are constantly changing.
2090 Sooner or later you will want to change the rules (and read this chapter again :).
2094 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2096 <title>How to Edit</title>
2098 The easiest way to edit the actions files is with a browser by
2099 using our browser-based editor, which can be reached from <ulink
2100 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
2101 The editor allows both fine-grained control over every single feature on a
2102 per-URL basis, and easy choosing from wholesale sets of defaults like
2103 <quote>Cautious</quote>, <quote>Medium</quote> or <quote>Advanced</quote>.
2104 Warning: the <quote>Advanced</quote> setting is more aggressive, and
2105 will be more likely to cause problems for some sites. Experienced users only!
2109 If you prefer plain text editing to GUIs, you can of course also directly edit the
2110 the actions files with your favorite text editor. Look at
2111 <filename>default.action</filename> which is richly commented with many
2117 <sect2 id="actions-apply">
2118 <title>How Actions are Applied to Requests</title>
2120 Actions files are divided into sections. There are special sections,
2121 like the <quote><link linkend="aliases">alias</link></quote> sections which will
2122 be discussed later. For now let's concentrate on regular sections: They have a
2123 heading line (often split up to multiple lines for readability) which consist
2124 of a list of actions, separated by whitespace and enclosed in curly braces.
2125 Below that, there is a list of URL and tag patterns, each on a separate line.
2129 To determine which actions apply to a request, the URL of the request is
2130 compared to all URL patterns in each <quote>action file</quote>.
2131 Every time it matches, the list of applicable actions for the request is
2132 incrementally updated, using the heading of the section in which the
2133 pattern is located. The same is done again for tags and tag patterns later on.
2137 If multiple applying sections set the same action differently,
2138 the last match wins. If not, the effects are aggregated.
2139 E.g. a URL might match a regular section with a heading line of <literal>{
2140 +<link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link> }</literal>,
2141 then later another one with just <literal>{
2142 +<link linkend="block">block</link> }</literal>, resulting
2143 in <emphasis>both</emphasis> actions to apply. And there may well be
2144 cases where you will want to combine actions together. Such a section then
2150 { +<literal>handle-as-image</literal> +<literal>block</literal> }
2151 # Block these as if they were images. Send no block page.
2153 media.example.com/.*banners
2154 .example.com/images/ads/</screen>
2158 You can trace this process for URL patterns and any given URL by visiting <ulink
2159 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>.
2163 Examples and more detail on this is provided in the Appendix, <link linkend="ACTIONSANAT">
2164 Troubleshooting: Anatomy of an Action</link> section.
2168 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2169 <sect2 id="af-patterns">
2170 <title>Patterns</title>
2172 As mentioned, <application>Privoxy</application> uses <quote>patterns</quote>
2173 to determine what <emphasis>actions</emphasis> might apply to which sites and
2174 pages your browser attempts to access. These <quote>patterns</quote> use wild
2175 card type <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> matching to achieve a high degree of
2176 flexibility. This allows one expression to be expanded and potentially match
2177 against many similar patterns.
2181 Generally, an URL pattern has the form
2182 <literal><domain>/<path></literal>, where both the
2183 <literal><domain></literal> and <literal><path></literal> are
2184 optional. (This is why the special <literal>/</literal> pattern matches all
2185 URLs). Note that the protocol portion of the URL pattern (e.g.
2186 <literal>http://</literal>) should <emphasis>not</emphasis> be included in
2187 the pattern. This is assumed already!
2190 The pattern matching syntax is different for the domain and path parts of
2191 the URL. The domain part uses a simple globbing type matching technique,
2192 while the path part uses a more flexible
2193 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
2194 Expressions (PCRE)</quote></ulink> based syntax.
2199 <term><literal>www.example.com/</literal></term>
2202 is a domain-only pattern and will match any request to <literal>www.example.com</literal>,
2203 regardless of which document on that server is requested. So ALL pages in
2204 this domain would be covered by the scope of this action. Note that a
2205 simple <literal>example.com</literal> is different and would NOT match.
2210 <term><literal>www.example.com</literal></term>
2213 means exactly the same. For domain-only patterns, the trailing <literal>/</literal> may
2219 <term><literal>www.example.com/index.html$</literal></term>
2222 matches all the documents on <literal>www.example.com</literal>
2223 whose name starts with <literal>/index.html</literal>.
2228 <term><literal>www.example.com/index.html$</literal></term>
2231 matches only the single document <literal>/index.html</literal>
2232 on <literal>www.example.com</literal>.
2237 <term><literal>/index.html$</literal></term>
2240 matches the document <literal>/index.html</literal>, regardless of the domain,
2241 i.e. on <emphasis>any</emphasis> web server anywhere.
2246 <term><literal>index.html</literal></term>
2249 matches nothing, since it would be interpreted as a domain name and
2250 there is no top-level domain called <literal>.html</literal>. So its
2258 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2259 <sect3><title>The Domain Pattern</title>
2262 The matching of the domain part offers some flexible options: if the
2263 domain starts or ends with a dot, it becomes unanchored at that end.
2269 <term><literal>.example.com</literal></term>
2272 matches any domain that <emphasis>ENDS</emphasis> in
2273 <literal>.example.com</literal>
2278 <term><literal>www.</literal></term>
2281 matches any domain that <emphasis>STARTS</emphasis> with
2282 <literal>www.</literal>
2287 <term><literal>.example.</literal></term>
2290 matches any domain that <emphasis>CONTAINS</emphasis> <literal>.example.</literal>.
2291 And, by the way, also included would be any files or documents that exist
2292 within that domain since no path limitations are specified. (Correctly
2293 speaking: It matches any FQDN that contains <literal>example</literal> as
2294 a domain.) This might be <literal>www.example.com</literal>,
2295 <literal>news.example.de</literal>, or
2296 <literal>www.example.net/cgi/testing.pl</literal> for instance. All these
2304 Additionally, there are wild-cards that you can use in the domain names
2305 themselves. These work similarly to shell globbing type wild-cards:
2306 <quote>*</quote> represents zero or more arbitrary characters (this is
2308 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
2309 Expression</quote></ulink> based syntax of <quote>.*</quote>),
2310 <quote>?</quote> represents any single character (this is equivalent to the
2311 regular expression syntax of a simple <quote>.</quote>), and you can define
2312 <quote>character classes</quote> in square brackets which is similar to
2313 the same regular expression technique. All of this can be freely mixed:
2318 <term><literal>ad*.example.com</literal></term>
2321 matches <quote>adserver.example.com</quote>,
2322 <quote>ads.example.com</quote>, etc but not <quote>sfads.example.com</quote>
2327 <term><literal>*ad*.example.com</literal></term>
2330 matches all of the above, and then some.
2335 <term><literal>.?pix.com</literal></term>
2338 matches <literal>www.ipix.com</literal>,
2339 <literal>pictures.epix.com</literal>, <literal>a.b.c.d.e.upix.com</literal> etc.
2344 <term><literal>www[1-9a-ez].example.c*</literal></term>
2347 matches <literal>www1.example.com</literal>,
2348 <literal>www4.example.cc</literal>, <literal>wwwd.example.cy</literal>,
2349 <literal>wwwz.example.com</literal> etc., but <emphasis>not</emphasis>
2350 <literal>wwww.example.com</literal>.
2357 While flexible, this is not the sophistication of full regular expression based syntax.
2362 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2365 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2366 <sect3><title>The Path Pattern</title>
2369 <application>Privoxy</application> uses Perl compatible (PCRE)
2370 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
2371 Expression</quote></ulink> based syntax
2372 (through the <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/">PCRE</ulink> library) for
2373 matching the path portion (after the slash), and is thus more flexible.
2377 There is an <link linkend="regex">Appendix</link> with a brief quick-start into regular
2378 expressions, and full (very technical) documentation on PCRE regex syntax is available on-line
2379 at <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/man.txt">http://www.pcre.org/man.txt</ulink>.
2380 You might also find the Perl man page on regular expressions (<literal>man perlre</literal>)
2381 useful, which is available on-line at <ulink
2382 url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html">http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html</ulink>.
2386 Note that the path pattern is automatically left-anchored at the <quote>/</quote>,
2387 i.e. it matches as if it would start with a <quote>^</quote> (regular expression speak
2388 for the beginning of a line).
2392 Please also note that matching in the path is <emphasis>CASE INSENSITIVE</emphasis>
2393 by default, but you can switch to case sensitive at any point in the pattern by using the
2394 <quote>(?-i)</quote> switch: <literal>www.example.com/(?-i)PaTtErN.*</literal> will match
2395 only documents whose path starts with <literal>PaTtErN</literal> in
2396 <emphasis>exactly</emphasis> this capitalization.
2401 <term><literal>.example.com/.*</literal></term>
2404 Is equivalent to just <quote>.example.com</quote>, since any documents
2405 within that domain are matched with or without the <quote>.*</quote>
2406 regular expression. This is redundant
2411 <term><literal>.example.com/.*/index.html$</literal></term>
2414 Will match any page in the domain of <quote>example.com</quote> that is
2415 named <quote>index.html</quote>, and that is part of some path. For
2416 example, it matches <quote>www.example.com/testing/index.html</quote> but
2417 NOT <quote>www.example.com/index.html</quote> because the regular
2418 expression called for at least two <quote>/'s</quote>, thus the path
2419 requirement. It also would match
2420 <quote>www.example.com/testing/index_html</quote>, because of the
2421 special meta-character <quote>.</quote>.
2426 <term><literal>.example.com/(.*/)?index\.html$</literal></term>
2429 This regular expression is conditional so it will match any page
2430 named <quote>index.html</quote> regardless of path which in this case can
2431 have one or more <quote>/'s</quote>. And this one must contain exactly
2432 <quote>.html</quote> (but does not have to end with that!).
2437 <term><literal>.example.com/(.*/)(ads|banners?|junk)</literal></term>
2440 This regular expression will match any path of <quote>example.com</quote>
2441 that contains any of the words <quote>ads</quote>, <quote>banner</quote>,
2442 <quote>banners</quote> (because of the <quote>?</quote>) or <quote>junk</quote>.
2443 The path does not have to end in these words, just contain them.
2448 <term><literal>.example.com/(.*/)(ads|banners?|junk)/.*\.(jpe?g|gif|png)$</literal></term>
2451 This is very much the same as above, except now it must end in either
2452 <quote>.jpg</quote>, <quote>.jpeg</quote>, <quote>.gif</quote> or <quote>.png</quote>. So this
2453 one is limited to common image formats.
2460 There are many, many good examples to be found in <filename>default.action</filename>,
2461 and more tutorials below in <link linkend="regex">Appendix on regular expressions</link>.
2466 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2469 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2470 <sect3 id="tag-pattern"><title>The Tag Pattern</title>
2473 Tag patterns are used to change the applying actions based on the
2474 request's tags. Tags can be created with either the
2475 <link linkend="CLIENT-HEADER-TAGGER">client-header-tagger</link>
2476 or the <link linkend="SERVER-HEADER-TAGGER">server-header-tagger</link> action.
2480 Tag patterns have to start with <quote>TAG:</quote>, so &my-app;
2481 can tell them apart from URL patterns. Everything after the colon
2482 including white space, is interpreted as a regular expression with
2483 path pattern syntax, except that tag patterns aren't left-anchored
2484 automatically (Privoxy doesn't silently add a <quote>^</quote>,
2485 you have to do it yourself if you need it).
2489 To match all requests that are tagged with <quote>foo</quote>
2490 your pattern line should be <quote>TAG:^foo$</quote>,
2491 <quote>TAG:foo</quote> would work as well, but it would also
2492 match requests whose tags contain <quote>foo</quote> somewhere.
2493 <quote>TAG: foo</quote> wouldn't work as it requires white space.
2497 Sections can contain URL and tag patterns at the same time,
2498 but tag patterns are checked after the URL patterns and thus
2499 always overrule them, even if they are located before the URL patterns.
2503 Once a new tag is added, Privoxy checks right away if it's matched by one
2504 of the tag patterns and updates the action settings accordingly. As a result
2505 tags can be used to activate other tagger actions, as long as these other
2506 taggers look for headers that haven't already be parsed.
2510 For example you could tag client requests which use the POST method,
2511 use this tag to activate another tagger that adds a tag if cookies
2512 are send, and then block based on the cookie tag. However if you'd
2513 reverse the position of the described taggers, and activated the method
2514 tagger based on the cookie tagger, no method tags would be created.
2515 The method tagger would look for the request line, but at the time
2516 the cookie tag is created the request line has already been parsed.
2520 While this is a limitation you should be aware of, this kind of
2521 indirection is seldom needed anyway and even the example doesn't
2522 make too much sense.
2529 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2532 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2534 <sect2 id="actions">
2535 <title>Actions</title>
2537 All actions are disabled by default, until they are explicitly enabled
2538 somewhere in an actions file. Actions are turned on if preceded with a
2539 <quote>+</quote>, and turned off if preceded with a <quote>-</quote>. So a
2540 <literal>+action</literal> means <quote>do that action</quote>, e.g.
2541 <literal>+block</literal> means <quote>please block URLs that match the
2542 following patterns</quote>, and <literal>-block</literal> means <quote>don't
2543 block URLs that match the following patterns, even if <literal>+block</literal>
2544 previously applied.</quote>
2549 Again, actions are invoked by placing them on a line, enclosed in curly braces and
2550 separated by whitespace, like in
2551 <literal>{+some-action -some-other-action{some-parameter}}</literal>,
2552 followed by a list of URL patterns, one per line, to which they apply.
2553 Together, the actions line and the following pattern lines make up a section
2554 of the actions file.
2558 Actions fall into three categories:
2565 Boolean, i.e the action can only be <quote>enabled</quote> or
2566 <quote>disabled</quote>. Syntax:
2570 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # enable action <replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable>
2571 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # disable action <replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable></screen>
2574 Example: <literal>+block</literal>
2581 Parameterized, where some value is required in order to enable this type of action.
2586 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # enable action and set parameter to <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>,
2587 # overwriting parameter from previous match if necessary
2588 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # disable action. The parameter can be omitted</screen>
2591 Note that if the URL matches multiple positive forms of a parameterized action,
2592 the last match wins, i.e. the params from earlier matches are simply ignored.
2595 Example: <literal>+hide-user-agent{Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; FreeBSD i386; en-US; rv:1.8.1.4) Gecko/20070602 Firefox/2.0.0.4}</literal>
2601 Multi-value. These look exactly like parameterized actions,
2602 but they behave differently: If the action applies multiple times to the
2603 same URL, but with different parameters, <emphasis>all</emphasis> the parameters
2604 from <emphasis>all</emphasis> matches are remembered. This is used for actions
2605 that can be executed for the same request repeatedly, like adding multiple
2606 headers, or filtering through multiple filters. Syntax:
2610 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # enable action and add <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable> to the list of parameters
2611 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # remove the parameter <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable> from the list of parameters
2612 # If it was the last one left, disable the action.
2613 <replaceable class="parameter">-name</replaceable> # disable this action completely and remove all parameters from the list</screen>
2616 Examples: <literal>+add-header{X-Fun-Header: Some text}</literal> and
2617 <literal>+filter{html-annoyances}</literal>
2625 If nothing is specified in any actions file, no <quote>actions</quote> are
2626 taken. So in this case <application>Privoxy</application> would just be a
2627 normal, non-blocking, non-filtering proxy. You must specifically enable the
2628 privacy and blocking features you need (although the provided default actions
2629 files will give a good starting point).
2633 Later defined action sections always over-ride earlier ones of the same type.
2634 So exceptions to any rules you make, should come in the latter part of the file (or
2635 in a file that is processed later when using multiple actions files such
2636 as <filename>user.action</filename>). For multi-valued actions, the actions
2637 are applied in the order they are specified. Actions files are processed in
2638 the order they are defined in <filename>config</filename> (the default
2639 installation has three actions files). It also quite possible for any given
2640 URL to match more than one <quote>pattern</quote> (because of wildcards and
2641 regular expressions), and thus to trigger more than one set of actions! Last
2645 <!-- start actions listing -->
2647 The list of valid <application>Privoxy</application> actions are:
2651 <!-- ********************************************************** -->
2652 <!-- Please note the below defined actions use id's that are -->
2653 <!-- probably linked from other places, so please don't change. -->
2655 <!-- ********************************************************** -->
2658 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2660 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="add-header">
2661 <title>add-header</title>
2665 <term>Typical use:</term>
2667 <para>Confuse log analysis, custom applications</para>
2672 <term>Effect:</term>
2675 Sends a user defined HTTP header to the web server.
2682 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2684 <para>Multi-value.</para>
2689 <term>Parameter:</term>
2692 Any string value is possible. Validity of the defined HTTP headers is not checked.
2693 It is recommended that you use the <quote><literal>X-</literal></quote> prefix
2703 This action may be specified multiple times, in order to define multiple
2704 headers. This is rarely needed for the typical user. If you don't know what
2705 <quote>HTTP headers</quote> are, you definitely don't need to worry about this
2712 <term>Example usage:</term>
2715 <screen>+add-header{X-User-Tracking: sucks}</screen>
2723 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2724 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="block">
2725 <title>block</title>
2729 <term>Typical use:</term>
2731 <para>Block ads or other unwanted content</para>
2736 <term>Effect:</term>
2739 Requests for URLs to which this action applies are blocked, i.e. the
2740 requests are trapped by &my-app; and the requested URL is never retrieved,
2741 but is answered locally with a substitute page or image, as determined by
2743 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>,
2745 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>, and
2747 linkend="handle-as-empty-document">handle-as-empty-document</link></literal> actions.
2755 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2757 <para>Boolean.</para>
2762 <term>Parameter:</term>
2772 <application>Privoxy</application> sends a special <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page
2773 for requests to blocked pages. This page contains links to find out why the request
2774 was blocked, and a click-through to the blocked content (the latter only if compiled with the
2775 force feature enabled). The <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page adapts to the available
2776 screen space -- it displays full-blown if space allows, or miniaturized and text-only
2777 if loaded into a small frame or window. If you are using <application>Privoxy</application>
2778 right now, you can take a look at the
2779 <ulink url="http://ads.bannerserver.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor.html"><quote>BLOCKED</quote>
2783 A very important exception occurs if <emphasis>both</emphasis>
2784 <literal>block</literal> and <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>,
2785 apply to the same request: it will then be replaced by an image. If
2786 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>
2787 (see below) also applies, the type of image will be determined by its parameter,
2788 if not, the standard checkerboard pattern is sent.
2791 It is important to understand this process, in order
2792 to understand how <application>Privoxy</application> deals with
2793 ads and other unwanted content. Blocking is a core feature, and one
2794 upon which various other features depend.
2797 The <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>
2798 action can perform a very similar task, by <quote>blocking</quote>
2799 banner images and other content through rewriting the relevant URLs in the
2800 document's HTML source, so they don't get requested in the first place.
2801 Note that this is a totally different technique, and it's easy to confuse the two.
2807 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
2811 # Block and replace with "blocked" page
2812 .nasty-stuff.example.com
2814 {+block +handle-as-image}
2815 # Block and replace with image
2819 {+block +handle-as-empty-document}
2820 # Block and then ignore
2821 adserver.exampleclick.net/.*\.js$</screen>
2831 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2832 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="client-header-filter">
2833 <title>client-header-filter</title>
2837 <term>Typical use:</term>
2840 Rewrite or remove single client headers.
2846 <term>Effect:</term>
2849 All client headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly through
2850 the specified regular expression based substitutions.
2857 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2859 <para>Parameterized.</para>
2864 <term>Parameter:</term>
2867 The name of a client-header filter, as defined in one of the
2868 <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link>.
2877 Client-header filters are applied to each header on its own, not to
2878 all at once. This makes it easier to diagnose problems, but on the downside
2879 you can't write filters that only change header x if header y's value is z.
2880 You can do that by using tags though.
2883 Client-header filters are executed after the other header actions have finished
2884 and use their output as input.
2887 Please refer to the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file chapter</link>
2888 to learn which client-header filters are available by default, and how to
2896 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
2900 {+client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation}}
2911 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2912 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="client-header-tagger">
2913 <title>client-header-tagger</title>
2917 <term>Typical use:</term>
2920 Block requests based on their headers.
2926 <term>Effect:</term>
2929 Client headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly through
2930 the specified regular expression based substitutions, the result is used as
2938 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2940 <para>Parameterized.</para>
2945 <term>Parameter:</term>
2948 The name of a client-header tagger, as defined in one of the
2949 <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link>.
2958 Client-header taggers are applied to each header on its own,
2959 and as the header isn't modified, each tagger <quote>sees</quote>
2963 Client-header taggers are the first actions that are executed
2964 and their tags can be used to control every other action.
2970 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
2974 # Tag every request with the User-Agent header
2975 {+client-header-filter{user-agent}}
2986 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2987 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="content-type-overwrite">
2988 <title>content-type-overwrite</title>
2992 <term>Typical use:</term>
2994 <para>Stop useless download menus from popping up, or change the browser's rendering mode</para>
2999 <term>Effect:</term>
3002 Replaces the <quote>Content-Type:</quote> HTTP server header.
3009 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3011 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3016 <term>Parameter:</term>
3028 The <quote>Content-Type:</quote> HTTP server header is used by the
3029 browser to decide what to do with the document. The value of this
3030 header can cause the browser to open a download menu instead of
3031 displaying the document by itself, even if the document's format is
3032 supported by the browser.
3035 The declared content type can also affect which rendering mode
3036 the browser chooses. If XHTML is delivered as <quote>text/html</quote>,
3037 many browsers treat it as yet another broken HTML document.
3038 If it is send as <quote>application/xml</quote>, browsers with
3039 XHTML support will only display it, if the syntax is correct.
3042 If you see a web site that proudly uses XHTML buttons, but sets
3043 <quote>Content-Type: text/html</quote>, you can use &my-app;
3044 to overwrite it with <quote>application/xml</quote> and validate
3045 the web master's claim inside your XHTML-supporting browser.
3046 If the syntax is incorrect, the browser will complain loudly.
3049 You can also go the opposite direction: if your browser prints
3050 error messages instead of rendering a document falsely declared
3051 as XHTML, you can overwrite the content type with
3052 <quote>text/html</quote> and have it rendered as broken HTML document.
3055 By default <literal>content-type-overwrite</literal> only replaces
3056 <quote>Content-Type:</quote> headers that look like some kind of text.
3057 If you want to overwrite it unconditionally, you have to combine it with
3058 <literal><link linkend="force-text-mode">force-text-mode</link></literal>.
3059 This limitation exists for a reason, think twice before circumventing it.
3062 Most of the time it's easier to replace this action with a custom
3063 <literal><link linkend="server-header-filter">server-header filter</link></literal>.
3064 It allows you to activate it for every document of a certain site and it will still
3065 only replace the content types you aimed at.
3068 Of course you can apply <literal>content-type-overwrite</literal>
3069 to a whole site and then make URL based exceptions, but it's a lot
3070 more work to get the same precision.
3076 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
3079 <screen># Check if www.example.net/ really uses valid XHTML
3080 { +content-type-overwrite{application/xml} }
3083 # but leave the content type unmodified if the URL looks like a style sheet
3084 {-content-type-overwrite}
3085 www.example.net/.*\.css$
3086 www.example.net/.*style
3095 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3096 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-client-header">
3100 <title>crunch-client-header</title>
3104 <term>Typical use:</term>
3106 <para>Remove a client header <application>Privoxy</application> has no dedicated action for.</para>
3111 <term>Effect:</term>
3114 Deletes every header sent by the client that contains the string the user supplied as parameter.
3121 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3123 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3128 <term>Parameter:</term>
3140 This action allows you to block client headers for which no dedicated
3141 <application>Privoxy</application> action exists.
3142 <application>Privoxy</application> will remove every client header that
3143 contains the string you supplied as parameter.
3146 Regular expressions are <emphasis>not supported</emphasis> and you can't
3147 use this action to block different headers in the same request, unless
3148 they contain the same string.
3151 <literal>crunch-client-header</literal> is only meant for quick tests.
3152 If you have to block several different headers, or only want to modify
3153 parts of them, you should use a
3154 <literal><link linkend="client-header-filter">client-header filter</link></literal>.
3158 Don't block any header without understanding the consequences.
3165 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3168 <screen># Block the non-existent "Privacy-Violation:" client header
3169 { +crunch-client-header{Privacy-Violation:} }
3179 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3180 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-if-none-match">
3181 <title>crunch-if-none-match</title>
3187 <term>Typical use:</term>
3189 <para>Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.</para>
3194 <term>Effect:</term>
3197 Deletes the <quote>If-None-Match:</quote> HTTP client header.
3204 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3206 <para>Boolean.</para>
3211 <term>Parameter:</term>
3223 Removing the <quote>If-None-Match:</quote> HTTP client header
3224 is useful for filter testing, where you want to force a real
3225 reload instead of getting status code <quote>304</quote> which
3226 would cause the browser to use a cached copy of the page.
3229 It is also useful to make sure the header isn't used as a cookie
3230 replacement (unlikely but possible).
3233 Blocking the <quote>If-None-Match:</quote> header shouldn't cause any
3234 caching problems, as long as the <quote>If-Modified-Since:</quote> header
3235 isn't blocked or missing as well.
3238 It is recommended to use this action together with
3239 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hide-if-modified-since</link></literal>
3241 <literal><link linkend="overwrite-last-modified">overwrite-last-modified</link></literal>.
3247 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3250 <screen># Let the browser revalidate cached documents but don't
3251 # allow the server to use the revalidation headers for user tracking.
3252 {+hide-if-modified-since{-60} \
3253 +overwrite-last-modified{randomize} \
3254 +crunch-if-none-match}
3263 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3264 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-incoming-cookies">
3265 <title>crunch-incoming-cookies</title>
3269 <term>Typical use:</term>
3272 Prevent the web server from setting HTTP cookies on your system
3278 <term>Effect:</term>
3281 Deletes any <quote>Set-Cookie:</quote> HTTP headers from server replies.
3288 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3290 <para>Boolean.</para>
3295 <term>Parameter:</term>
3307 This action is only concerned with <emphasis>incoming</emphasis> HTTP cookies. For
3308 <emphasis>outgoing</emphasis> HTTP cookies, use
3309 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>.
3310 Use <emphasis>both</emphasis> to disable HTTP cookies completely.
3313 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use this action in conjunction
3314 with the <literal><link linkend="session-cookies-only">session-cookies-only</link></literal> action,
3315 since it would prevent the session cookies from being set. See also
3316 <literal><link linkend="filter-content-cookies">filter-content-cookies</link></literal>.
3322 <term>Example usage:</term>
3325 <screen>+crunch-incoming-cookies</screen>
3333 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3334 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-server-header">
3335 <title>crunch-server-header</title>
3341 <term>Typical use:</term>
3343 <para>Remove a server header <application>Privoxy</application> has no dedicated action for.</para>
3348 <term>Effect:</term>
3351 Deletes every header sent by the server that contains the string the user supplied as parameter.
3358 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3360 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3365 <term>Parameter:</term>
3377 This action allows you to block server headers for which no dedicated
3378 <application>Privoxy</application> action exists. <application>Privoxy</application>
3379 will remove every server header that contains the string you supplied as parameter.
3382 Regular expressions are <emphasis>not supported</emphasis> and you can't
3383 use this action to block different headers in the same request, unless
3384 they contain the same string.
3387 <literal>crunch-server-header</literal> is only meant for quick tests.
3388 If you have to block several different headers, or only want to modify
3389 parts of them, you should use a custom
3390 <literal><link linkend="server-header-filter">server-header filter</link></literal>.
3394 Don't block any header without understanding the consequences.
3401 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3404 <screen># Crunch server headers that try to prevent caching
3405 { +crunch-server-header{no-cache} }
3414 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3415 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-outgoing-cookies">
3416 <title>crunch-outgoing-cookies</title>
3420 <term>Typical use:</term>
3423 Prevent the web server from reading any HTTP cookies from your system
3429 <term>Effect:</term>
3432 Deletes any <quote>Cookie:</quote> HTTP headers from client requests.
3439 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3441 <para>Boolean.</para>
3446 <term>Parameter:</term>
3458 This action is only concerned with <emphasis>outgoing</emphasis> HTTP cookies. For
3459 <emphasis>incoming</emphasis> HTTP cookies, use
3460 <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal>.
3461 Use <emphasis>both</emphasis> to disable HTTP cookies completely.
3464 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use this action in conjunction
3465 with the <literal><link linkend="session-cookies-only">session-cookies-only</link></literal> action,
3466 since it would prevent the session cookies from being read.
3472 <term>Example usage:</term>
3475 <screen>+crunch-outgoing-cookies</screen>
3484 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3485 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="deanimate-gifs">
3486 <title>deanimate-gifs</title>
3490 <term>Typical use:</term>
3492 <para>Stop those annoying, distracting animated GIF images.</para>
3497 <term>Effect:</term>
3500 De-animate GIF animations, i.e. reduce them to their first or last image.
3507 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3509 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3514 <term>Parameter:</term>
3517 <quote>last</quote> or <quote>first</quote>
3526 This will also shrink the images considerably (in bytes, not pixels!). If
3527 the option <quote>first</quote> is given, the first frame of the animation
3528 is used as the replacement. If <quote>last</quote> is given, the last
3529 frame of the animation is used instead, which probably makes more sense for
3530 most banner animations, but also has the risk of not showing the entire
3531 last frame (if it is only a delta to an earlier frame).
3534 You can safely use this action with patterns that will also match non-GIF
3535 objects, because no attempt will be made at anything that doesn't look like
3542 <term>Example usage:</term>
3545 <screen>+deanimate-gifs{last}</screen>
3552 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3553 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="downgrade-http-version">
3554 <title>downgrade-http-version</title>
3558 <term>Typical use:</term>
3560 <para>Work around (very rare) problems with HTTP/1.1</para>
3565 <term>Effect:</term>
3568 Downgrades HTTP/1.1 client requests and server replies to HTTP/1.0.
3575 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3577 <para>Boolean.</para>
3582 <term>Parameter:</term>
3594 This is a left-over from the time when <application>Privoxy</application>
3595 didn't support important HTTP/1.1 features well. It is left here for the
3596 unlikely case that you experience HTTP/1.1 related problems with some server
3597 out there. Not all HTTP/1.1 features and requirements are supported yet,
3598 so there is a chance you might need this action.
3604 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3607 <screen>{+downgrade-http-version}
3608 problem-host.example.com</screen>
3616 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3617 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="fast-redirects">
3618 <title>fast-redirects</title>
3622 <term>Typical use:</term>
3624 <para>Fool some click-tracking scripts and speed up indirect links.</para>
3629 <term>Effect:</term>
3632 Detects redirection URLs and redirects the browser without contacting
3633 the redirection server first.
3640 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3642 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3647 <term>Parameter:</term>
3652 <quote>simple-check</quote> to just search for the string <quote>http://</quote>
3653 to detect redirection URLs.
3658 <quote>check-decoded-url</quote> to decode URLs (if necessary) before searching
3659 for redirection URLs.
3670 Many sites, like yahoo.com, don't just link to other sites. Instead, they
3671 will link to some script on their own servers, giving the destination as a
3672 parameter, which will then redirect you to the final target. URLs
3673 resulting from this scheme typically look like:
3674 <quote>http://www.example.org/click-tracker.cgi?target=http%3a//www.example.net/</quote>.
3677 Sometimes, there are even multiple consecutive redirects encoded in the
3678 URL. These redirections via scripts make your web browsing more traceable,
3679 since the server from which you follow such a link can see where you go
3680 to. Apart from that, valuable bandwidth and time is wasted, while your
3681 browser asks the server for one redirect after the other. Plus, it feeds
3685 This feature is currently not very smart and is scheduled for improvement.
3686 If it is enabled by default, you will have to create some exceptions to
3687 this action. It can lead to failures in several ways:
3690 Not every URLs with other URLs as parameters is evil.
3691 Some sites offer a real service that requires this information to work.
3692 For example a validation service needs to know, which document to validate.
3693 <literal>fast-redirects</literal> assumes that every URL parameter that
3694 looks like another URL is a redirection target, and will always redirect to
3695 the last one. Most of the time the assumption is correct, but if it isn't,
3696 the user gets redirected anyway.
3699 Another failure occurs if the URL contains other parameters after the URL parameter.
3701 <quote>http://www.example.org/?redirect=http%3a//www.example.net/&foo=bar</quote>.
3702 contains the redirection URL <quote>http://www.example.net/</quote>,
3703 followed by another parameter. <literal>fast-redirects</literal> doesn't know that
3704 and will cause a redirect to <quote>http://www.example.net/&foo=bar</quote>.
3705 Depending on the target server configuration, the parameter will be silently ignored
3706 or lead to a <quote>page not found</quote> error. You can prevent this problem by
3707 first using the <literal><link linkend="redirect">redirect</link></literal> action
3708 to remove the last part of the URL, but it requires a little effort.
3711 To detect a redirection URL, <literal>fast-redirects</literal> only
3712 looks for the string <quote>http://</quote>, either in plain text
3713 (invalid but often used) or encoded as <quote>http%3a//</quote>.
3714 Some sites use their own URL encoding scheme, encrypt the address
3715 of the target server or replace it with a database id. In theses cases
3716 <literal>fast-redirects</literal> is fooled and the request reaches the
3717 redirection server where it probably gets logged.
3723 <term>Example usage:</term>
3727 { +fast-redirects{simple-check} }
3730 { +fast-redirects{check-decoded-url} }
3731 another.example.com/testing</screen>
3740 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3741 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="filter">
3742 <title>filter</title>
3746 <term>Typical use:</term>
3748 <para>Get rid of HTML and JavaScript annoyances, banner advertisements (by size),
3749 do fun text replacements, add personalized effects, etc.</para>
3754 <term>Effect:</term>
3757 All instances of text-based type, most notably HTML and JavaScript, to which
3758 this action applies, can be filtered on-the-fly through the specified regular
3759 expression based substitutions. (Note: as of version 3.0.3 plain text documents
3760 are exempted from filtering, because web servers often use the
3761 <literal>text/plain</literal> MIME type for all files whose type they don't know.)
3768 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3770 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3775 <term>Parameter:</term>
3778 The name of a content filter, as defined in the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file</link>.
3779 Filters can be defined in one or more files as defined by the
3780 <literal><link linkend="filterfile">filterfile</link></literal>
3781 option in the <link linkend="config">config file</link>.
3782 <filename>default.filter</filename> is the collection of filters
3783 supplied by the developers. Locally defined filters should go
3784 in their own file, such as <filename>user.filter</filename>.
3787 When used in its negative form,
3788 and without parameters, <emphasis>all</emphasis> filtering is completely disabled.
3797 For your convenience, there are a number of pre-defined filters available
3798 in the distribution filter file that you can use. See the examples below for
3802 Filtering requires buffering the page content, which may appear to
3803 slow down page rendering since nothing is displayed until all content has
3804 passed the filters. (It does not really take longer, but seems that way
3805 since the page is not incrementally displayed.) This effect will be more
3806 noticeable on slower connections.
3809 <quote>Rolling your own</quote>
3810 filters requires a knowledge of
3811 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
3812 Expressions</quote></ulink> and
3813 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Html"><quote>HTML</quote></ulink>.
3814 This is very powerful feature, and potentially very intrusive.
3815 Filters should be used with caution, and where an equivalent
3816 <quote>action</quote> is not available.
3819 The amount of data that can be filtered is limited to the
3820 <literal><link linkend="buffer-limit">buffer-limit</link></literal>
3821 option in the main <link linkend="config">config file</link>. The
3822 default is 4096 KB (4 Megs). Once this limit is exceeded, the buffered
3823 data, and all pending data, is passed through unfiltered.
3826 Inappropriate MIME types, such as zipped files, are not filtered at all.
3827 (Again, only text-based types except plain text). Encrypted SSL data
3828 (from HTTPS servers) cannot be filtered either, since this would violate
3829 the integrity of the secure transaction. In some situations it might
3830 be necessary to protect certain text, like source code, from filtering
3831 by defining appropriate <literal>-filter</literal> exceptions.
3834 Compressed content can't be filtered either, unless &my-app;
3835 is compiled with zlib support (requires at least &my-app; 3.0.7),
3836 in which case &my-app; will decompress the content before filtering
3840 If you use a &my-app; version without zlib support, but want filtering to work on
3841 as much documents as possible, even those that would normally be sent compressed,
3842 you must use the <literal><link linkend="prevent-compression">prevent-compression</link></literal>
3843 action in conjunction with <literal>filter</literal>.
3846 Content filtering can achieve some of the same effects as the
3847 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>
3848 action, i.e. it can be used to block ads and banners. But the mechanism
3849 works quite differently. One effective use, is to block ad banners
3850 based on their size (see below), since many of these seem to be somewhat
3854 <link linkend="contact">Feedback</link> with suggestions for new or
3855 improved filters is particularly welcome!
3858 The below list has only the names and a one-line description of each
3859 predefined filter. There are <link linkend="predefined-filters">more
3860 verbose explanations</link> of what these filters do in the <link
3861 linkend="filter-file">filter file chapter</link>.
3867 <term>Example usage (with filters from the distribution <filename>default.filter</filename> file).
3868 See <link linkend="PREDEFINED-FILTERS">the Predefined Filters section</link> for
3869 more explanation on each:</term>
3872 <anchor id="filter-js-annoyances">
3873 <screen>+filter{js-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse</screen>
3876 <anchor id="filter-js-events">
3877 <screen>+filter{js-events} # Kill all JS event bindings (Radically destructive! Only for extra nasty sites)</screen>
3880 <anchor id="filter-html-annoyances">
3881 <screen>+filter{html-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying HTML abuse</screen>
3884 <anchor id="filter-content-cookies">
3885 <screen>+filter{content-cookies} # Kill cookies that come in the HTML or JS content</screen>
3888 <anchor id="filter-refresh-tags">
3889 <screen>+filter{refresh-tags} # Kill automatic refresh tags (for dial-on-demand setups)</screen>
3892 <anchor id="filter-unsolicited-popups">
3893 <screen>+filter{unsolicited-popups} # Disable only unsolicited pop-up windows. Useful if your browser lacks this ability.</screen>
3896 <anchor id="filter-all-popups">
3897 <screen>+filter{all-popups} # Kill all popups in JavaScript and HTML. Useful if your browser lacks this ability.</screen>
3900 <anchor id="filter-img-reorder">
3901 <screen>+filter{img-reorder} # Reorder attributes in <img> tags to make the banners-by-* filters more effective</screen>
3904 <anchor id="filter-banners-by-size">
3905 <screen>+filter{banners-by-size} # Kill banners by size</screen>
3908 <anchor id="filter-banners-by-link">
3909 <screen>+filter{banners-by-link} # Kill banners by their links to known clicktrackers</screen>
3912 <anchor id="filter-webbugs">
3913 <screen>+filter{webbugs} # Squish WebBugs (1x1 invisible GIFs used for user tracking)</screen>
3916 <anchor id="filter-tiny-textforms">
3917 <screen>+filter{tiny-textforms} # Extend those tiny textareas up to 40x80 and kill the hard wrap</screen>
3920 <anchor id="filter-jumping-windows">
3921 <screen>+filter{jumping-windows} # Prevent windows from resizing and moving themselves</screen>
3924 <anchor id="filter-frameset-borders">
3925 <screen>+filter{frameset-borders} # Give frames a border and make them resizeable</screen>
3928 <anchor id="filter-demoronizer">
3929 <screen>+filter{demoronizer} # Fix MS's non-standard use of standard charsets</screen>
3932 <anchor id="filter-shockwave-flash">
3933 <screen>+filter{shockwave-flash} # Kill embedded Shockwave Flash objects</screen>
3936 <anchor id="filter-quicktime-kioskmode">
3937 <screen>+filter{quicktime-kioskmode} # Make Quicktime movies savable</screen>
3940 <anchor id="filter-fun">
3941 <screen>+filter{fun} # Text replacements for subversive browsing fun!</screen>
3944 <anchor id="filter-crude-parental">
3945 <screen>+filter{crude-parental} # Crude parental filtering (demo only)</screen>
3948 <anchor id="filter-ie-exploits">
3949 <screen>+filter{ie-exploits} # Disable a known Internet Explorer bug exploits</screen>
3952 <anchor id="filter-site-specifics">
3953 <screen>+filter{site-specifics} # Custom filters for specific site related problems</screen>
3956 <anchor id="filter-google">
3957 <screen>+filter{google} # Removes text ads and other Google specific improvements</screen>
3960 <anchor id="filter-yahoo">
3961 <screen>+filter{yahoo} # Removes text ads and other Yahoo specific improvements</screen>
3964 <anchor id="filter-msn">
3965 <screen>+filter{msn} # Removes text ads and other MSN specific improvements</screen>
3968 <anchor id="filter-blogspot">
3969 <screen>+filter{blogspot} # Cleans up Blogspot blogs</screen>
3972 <anchor id="filter-no-ping">
3973 <screen>+filter{no-ping} # Removes non-standard ping attributes from anchor and area tags</screen>
3981 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3982 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="force-text-mode">
3983 <title>force-text-mode</title>
3989 <term>Typical use:</term>
3991 <para>Force <application>Privoxy</application> to treat a document as if it was in some kind of <emphasis>text</emphasis> format. </para>
3996 <term>Effect:</term>
3999 Declares a document as text, even if the <quote>Content-Type:</quote> isn't detected as such.
4006 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4008 <para>Boolean.</para>
4013 <term>Parameter:</term>
4025 As explained <literal><link linkend="filter">above</link></literal>,
4026 <application>Privoxy</application> tries to only filter files that are
4027 in some kind of text format. The same restrictions apply to
4028 <literal><link linkend="content-type-overwrite">content-type-overwrite</link></literal>.
4029 <literal>force-text-mode</literal> declares a document as text,
4030 without looking at the <quote>Content-Type:</quote> first.
4034 Think twice before activating this action. Filtering binary data
4035 with regular expressions can cause file damage.
4042 <term>Example usage:</term>
4055 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4056 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="forward-override">
4057 <title>forward-override</title>
4063 <term>Typical use:</term>
4065 <para>Change the forwarding settings based on User-Agent or request origin</para>
4070 <term>Effect:</term>
4073 Overrules the forward directives in the configuration file.
4080 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4082 <para>Multi-value.</para>
4087 <term>Parameter:</term>
4091 <para><quote>forward .</quote> to use a direct connection without any additional proxies.</para>
4095 <quote>forward 127.0.0.1:8123</quote> to use the HTTP proxy listening at 127.0.0.1 port 8123.
4100 <quote>forward-socks4a 127.0.0.1:9050 .</quote> to use the socks4a proxy listening at
4101 127.0.0.1 port 9050. Replace <quote>forward-socks4a</quote> with <quote>forward-socks4</quote>
4102 to use a socks4 connection (with local DNS resolution) instead.
4107 <quote>forward-socks4a 127.0.0.1:9050 proxy.example.org:8000</quote> to use the socks4a proxy
4108 listening at 127.0.0.1 port 9050 to reach the HTTP proxy listening at proxy.example.org port 8000.
4109 Replace <quote>forward-socks4a</quote> with <quote>forward-socks4</quote> to use a socks4 connection
4110 (with local DNS resolution) instead.
4121 This action takes parameters similar to the <!-- I hope this link actual works -->
4122 <link linkend="forwarding">forward</link> directives in the configuration
4123 file, but without the URL pattern. It can be used as replacement, but normally it's only
4124 used in cases where matching based on the request URL isn't sufficient.
4128 Please read the description for the <link linkend="forwarding">forward</link> directives before
4129 using this action. Forwarding to the wrong people will reduce your privacy and increase the
4130 chances of man-in-the-middle attacks.
4133 If the ports are missing or invalid, default values will be used. This might change
4134 in the future and you shouldn't rely on it. Otherwise incorrect syntax causes Privoxy
4138 Use the <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">show-url-info CGI page</ulink>
4139 to verify that your forward settings do what you thought the do.
4146 <term>Example usage:</term>
4150 # Always use direct connections for requests previously tagged as
4151 # <quote>User-Agent: fetch libfetch/2.0</quote> and make sure
4152 # resuming downloads continues to work.
4153 # This way you can continue to use Tor for your normal browsing,
4154 # without overloading the Tor network with your FreeBSD ports updates
4155 # or downloads of bigger files like ISOs.
4156 {+forward-override{forward .} \
4157 -hide-if-modified-since \
4158 -overwrite-last-modified \
4160 TAG:^User-Agent: fetch libfetch/2\.0$
4169 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4170 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="handle-as-empty-document">
4171 <title>handle-as-empty-document</title>
4177 <term>Typical use:</term>
4179 <para>Mark URLs that should be replaced by empty documents <emphasis>if they get blocked</emphasis></para>
4184 <term>Effect:</term>
4187 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. It just marks URLs.
4188 If the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action <emphasis>also applies</emphasis>,
4189 the presence or absence of this mark decides whether an HTML <quote>BLOCKED</quote>
4190 page, or an empty document will be sent to the client as a substitute for the blocked content.
4191 The <emphasis>empty</emphasis> document isn't literally empty, but actually contains a single space.
4198 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4200 <para>Boolean.</para>
4205 <term>Parameter:</term>
4217 Some browsers complain about syntax errors if JavaScript documents
4218 are blocked with <application>Privoxy's</application>
4219 default HTML page; this option can be used to silence them.
4220 And of course this action can also be used to eliminate the &my-app;
4221 BLOCKED message in frames.
4224 The content type for the empty document can be specified with
4225 <literal><link linkend="content-type-overwrite">content-type-overwrite{}</link></literal>,
4226 but usually this isn't necessary.
4232 <term>Example usage:</term>
4235 <screen># Block all documents on example.org that end with ".js",
4236 # but send an empty document instead of the usual HTML message.
4237 {+block +handle-as-empty-document}
4247 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4248 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="handle-as-image">
4249 <title>handle-as-image</title>
4253 <term>Typical use:</term>
4255 <para>Mark URLs as belonging to images (so they'll be replaced by images <emphasis>if they do get blocked</emphasis>, rather than HTML pages)</para>
4260 <term>Effect:</term>
4263 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. It just marks URLs as images.
4264 If the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action <emphasis>also applies</emphasis>,
4265 the presence or absence of this mark decides whether an HTML <quote>blocked</quote>
4266 page, or a replacement image (as determined by the <literal><link
4267 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal> action) will be sent to the
4268 client as a substitute for the blocked content.
4275 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4277 <para>Boolean.</para>
4282 <term>Parameter:</term>
4294 The below generic example section is actually part of <filename>default.action</filename>.
4295 It marks all URLs with well-known image file name extensions as images and should
4299 Users will probably only want to use the handle-as-image action in conjunction with
4300 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>, to block sources of banners, whose URLs don't
4301 reflect the file type, like in the second example section.
4304 Note that you cannot treat HTML pages as images in most cases. For instance, (in-line) ad
4305 frames require an HTML page to be sent, or they won't display properly.
4306 Forcing <literal>handle-as-image</literal> in this situation will not replace the
4307 ad frame with an image, but lead to error messages.
4313 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
4316 <screen># Generic image extensions:
4319 /.*\.(gif|jpg|jpeg|png|bmp|ico)$
4321 # These don't look like images, but they're banners and should be
4322 # blocked as images:
4324 {+block +handle-as-image}
4325 some.nasty-banner-server.com/junk.cgi\?output=trash
4327 # Banner source! Who cares if they also have non-image content?
4337 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4338 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-accept-language">
4339 <title>hide-accept-language</title>
4345 <term>Typical use:</term>
4347 <para>Pretend to use different language settings.</para>
4352 <term>Effect:</term>
4355 Deletes or replaces the <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> HTTP header in client requests.
4362 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4364 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4369 <term>Parameter:</term>
4372 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
4381 Faking the browser's language settings can be useful to make a
4382 foreign User-Agent set with
4383 <literal><link linkend="hide-user-agent">hide-user-agent</link></literal>
4387 However some sites with content in different languages check the
4388 <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> to decide which one to take by default.
4389 Sometimes it isn't possible to later switch to another language without
4390 changing the <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> header first.
4393 Therefore it's a good idea to either only change the
4394 <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> header to languages you understand,
4395 or to languages that aren't wide spread.
4398 Before setting the <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> header
4399 to a rare language, you should consider that it helps to
4400 make your requests unique and thus easier to trace.
4401 If you don't plan to change this header frequently,
4402 you should stick to a common language.
4408 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
4411 <screen># Pretend to use Canadian language settings.
4412 {+hide-accept-language{en-ca} \
4413 +hide-user-agent{Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; OpenBSD i386; en-CA; rv:1.8.0.4) Gecko/20060628 Firefox/1.5.0.4} \
4423 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4424 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-content-disposition">
4425 <title>hide-content-disposition</title>
4431 <term>Typical use:</term>
4433 <para>Prevent download menus for content you prefer to view inside the browser.</para>
4438 <term>Effect:</term>
4441 Deletes or replaces the <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> HTTP header set by some servers.
4448 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4450 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4455 <term>Parameter:</term>
4458 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
4467 Some servers set the <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> HTTP header for
4468 documents they assume you want to save locally before viewing them.
4469 The <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> header contains the file name
4470 the browser is supposed to use by default.
4473 In most browsers that understand this header, it makes it impossible to
4474 <emphasis>just view</emphasis> the document, without downloading it first,
4475 even if it's just a simple text file or an image.
4478 Removing the <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> header helps
4479 to prevent this annoyance, but some browsers additionally check the
4480 <quote>Content-Type:</quote> header, before they decide if they can
4481 display a document without saving it first. In these cases, you have
4482 to change this header as well, before the browser stops displaying
4486 It is also possible to change the server's file name suggestion
4487 to another one, but in most cases it isn't worth the time to set
4491 This action will probably be removed in the future,
4492 use server-header filters instead.
4498 <term>Example usage:</term>
4501 <screen># Disarm the download link in Sourceforge's patch tracker
4503 +content-type-overwrite{text/plain}\
4504 +hide-content-disposition{block} }
4505 .sourceforge.net/tracker/download\.php</screen>
4513 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4514 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-if-modified-since">
4515 <title>hide-if-modified-since</title>
4521 <term>Typical use:</term>
4523 <para>Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.</para>
4528 <term>Effect:</term>
4531 Deletes the <quote>If-Modified-Since:</quote> HTTP client header or modifies its value.
4538 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4540 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4545 <term>Parameter:</term>
4548 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or a user defined value that specifies a range of hours.
4557 Removing this header is useful for filter testing, where you want to force a real
4558 reload instead of getting status code <quote>304</quote>, which would cause the
4559 browser to use a cached copy of the page.
4562 Instead of removing the header, <literal>hide-if-modified-since</literal> can
4563 also add or subtract a random amount of time to/from the header's value.
4564 You specify a range of minutes where the random factor should be chosen from and
4565 <application>Privoxy</application> does the rest. A negative value means
4566 subtracting, a positive value adding.
4569 Randomizing the value of the <quote>If-Modified-Since:</quote> makes
4570 sure it isn't used as a cookie replacement, but you will run into
4571 caching problems if the random range is too high.
4574 It is a good idea to only use a small negative value and let
4575 <literal><link linkend="overwrite-last-modified">overwrite-last-modified</link></literal>
4576 handle the greater changes.
4579 It is also recommended to use this action together with
4580 <literal><link linkend="crunch-if-none-match">crunch-if-none-match</link></literal>.
4586 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
4589 <screen># Let the browser revalidate without being tracked across sessions
4590 { +hide-if-modified-since{-60} \
4591 +overwrite-last-modified{randomize} \
4592 +crunch-if-none-match}
4601 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4602 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-forwarded-for-headers">
4603 <title>hide-forwarded-for-headers</title>
4606 <term>Typical use:</term>
4608 <para>Improve privacy by not embedding the source of the request in the HTTP headers.</para>
4613 <term>Effect:</term>
4616 Deletes any existing <quote>X-Forwarded-for:</quote> HTTP header from client requests,
4617 and prevents adding a new one.
4624 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4626 <para>Boolean.</para>
4631 <term>Parameter:</term>
4643 It is safe to leave this on.
4649 <term>Example usage:</term>
4652 <screen>+hide-forwarded-for-headers</screen>
4660 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4661 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-from-header">
4662 <title>hide-from-header</title>
4666 <term>Typical use:</term>
4668 <para>Keep your (old and ill) browser from telling web servers your email address</para>
4673 <term>Effect:</term>
4676 Deletes any existing <quote>From:</quote> HTTP header, or replaces it with the
4684 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4686 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4691 <term>Parameter:</term>
4694 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
4703 The keyword <quote>block</quote> will completely remove the header
4704 (not to be confused with the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>
4708 Alternately, you can specify any value you prefer to be sent to the web
4709 server. If you do, it is a matter of fairness not to use any address that
4710 is actually used by a real person.
4713 This action is rarely needed, as modern web browsers don't send
4714 <quote>From:</quote> headers anymore.
4720 <term>Example usage:</term>
4723 <screen>+hide-from-header{block}</screen> or
4724 <screen>+hide-from-header{spam-me-senseless@sittingduck.example.com}</screen>
4732 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4733 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-referrer">
4734 <title>hide-referrer</title>
4735 <anchor id="hide-referer">
4738 <term>Typical use:</term>
4740 <para>Conceal which link you followed to get to a particular site</para>
4745 <term>Effect:</term>
4748 Deletes the <quote>Referer:</quote> (sic) HTTP header from the client request,
4749 or replaces it with a forged one.
4756 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4758 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4763 <term>Parameter:</term>
4767 <para><quote>conditional-block</quote> to delete the header completely if the host has changed.</para>
4771 <para><quote>conditional-forge</quote> to forge the header if the host has changed.</para>
4775 <para><quote>block</quote> to delete the header unconditionally.</para>
4778 <para><quote>forge</quote> to pretend to be coming from the homepage of the server we are talking to.</para>
4781 <para>Any other string to set a user defined referrer.</para>
4791 <literal>conditional-block</literal> is the only parameter,
4792 that isn't easily detected in the server's log file. If it blocks the
4793 referrer, the request will look like the visitor used a bookmark or
4794 typed in the address directly.
4797 Leaving the referrer unmodified for requests on the same host
4798 allows the server owner to see the visitor's <quote>click path</quote>,
4799 but in most cases she could also get that information by comparing
4800 other parts of the log file: for example the User-Agent if it isn't
4801 a very common one, or the user's IP address if it doesn't change between
4805 Always blocking the referrer, or using a custom one, can lead to
4806 failures on servers that check the referrer before they answer any
4807 requests, in an attempt to prevent their valuable content from being
4808 embedded or linked to elsewhere.
4811 Both <literal>conditional-block</literal> and <literal>forge</literal>
4812 will work with referrer checks, as long as content and valid referring page
4813 are on the same host. Most of the time that's the case.
4816 <literal>hide-referer</literal> is an alternate spelling of
4817 <literal>hide-referrer</literal> and the two can be can be freely
4818 substituted with each other. (<quote>referrer</quote> is the
4819 correct English spelling, however the HTTP specification has a bug - it
4820 requires it to be spelled as <quote>referer</quote>.)
4826 <term>Example usage:</term>
4829 <screen>+hide-referrer{forge}</screen> or
4830 <screen>+hide-referrer{http://www.yahoo.com/}</screen>
4838 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4839 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-user-agent">
4840 <title>hide-user-agent</title>
4844 <term>Typical use:</term>
4846 <para>Conceal your type of browser and client operating system</para>
4851 <term>Effect:</term>
4854 Replaces the value of the <quote>User-Agent:</quote> HTTP header
4855 in client requests with the specified value.
4862 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4864 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4869 <term>Parameter:</term>
4872 Any user-defined string.
4882 This can lead to problems on web sites that depend on looking at this header in
4883 order to customize their content for different browsers (which, by the
4884 way, is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> the right thing to do: good web sites
4885 work browser-independently).
4887 <ulink url="http://www.javascriptkit.com/javaindex.shtml">smart way to do
4893 Using this action in multi-user setups or wherever different types of
4894 browsers will access the same <application>Privoxy</application> is
4895 <emphasis>not recommended</emphasis>. In single-user, single-browser
4896 setups, you might use it to delete your OS version information from
4897 the headers, because it is an invitation to exploit known bugs for your
4898 OS. It is also occasionally useful to forge this in order to access
4899 sites that won't let you in otherwise (though there may be a good
4900 reason in some cases). Example of this: some MSN sites will not
4901 let <application>Mozilla</application> enter, yet forging to a
4902 <application>Netscape 6.1</application> user-agent works just fine.
4903 (Must be just a silly MS goof, I'm sure :-).
4906 More information on known user-agent strings can be found at
4907 <ulink url="http://www.user-agents.org/">http://www.user-agents.org/</ulink>
4909 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_agent">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_agent</ulink>.
4915 <term>Example usage:</term>
4918 <screen>+hide-user-agent{Netscape 6.1 (X11; I; Linux 2.4.18 i686)}</screen>
4926 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4927 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="inspect-jpegs">
4928 <title>inspect-jpegs</title>
4934 <term>Typical use:</term>
4936 <para>To protect against the MS buffer over-run in JPEG processing</para>
4941 <term>Effect:</term>
4944 Protect against a known exploit
4951 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4953 <para>Boolean.</para>
4958 <term>Parameter:</term>
4970 See Microsoft Security Bulletin MS04-028. JPEG images are one of the most
4971 common image types found across the Internet. The exploit as described can
4972 allow execution of code on the target system, giving an attacker access
4973 to the system in question by merely planting an altered JPEG image, which
4974 would have no obvious indications of what lurks inside. This action
4975 prevents this exploit.
4978 Note that the described exploit is only one of many,
4979 using this action does not mean that you no longer
4980 have to patch the client.
4987 <term>Example usage:</term>
4989 <para><screen>+inspect-jpegs</screen></para>
4996 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4997 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="kill-popups">
4998 <title>kill-popups<anchor id="kill-popup"></title>
5002 <term>Typical use:</term>
5004 <para>Eliminate those annoying pop-up windows (deprecated)</para>
5009 <term>Effect:</term>
5012 While loading the document, replace JavaScript code that opens
5013 pop-up windows with (syntactically neutral) dummy code on the fly.
5020 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5022 <para>Boolean.</para>
5027 <term>Parameter:</term>
5039 This action is basically a built-in, hardwired special-purpose filter
5040 action, but there are important differences: For <literal>kill-popups</literal>,
5041 the document need not be buffered, so it can be incrementally rendered while
5042 downloading. But <literal>kill-popups</literal> doesn't catch as many pop-ups as
5044 linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{<replaceable>all-popups</replaceable>}</link></literal>
5045 does and is not as smart as <literal><link
5046 linkend="FILTER-UNSOLICITED-POPUPS">filter{<replaceable>unsolicited-popups</replaceable>}</link>
5050 Think of it as a fast and efficient replacement for a filter that you
5051 can use if you don't want any filtering at all. Note that it doesn't make
5052 sense to combine it with any <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> action,
5053 since as soon as one <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> applies,
5054 the whole document needs to be buffered anyway, which destroys the advantage of
5055 the <literal>kill-popups</literal> action over its filter equivalent.
5058 Killing all pop-ups unconditionally is problematic. Many shops and banks rely on
5059 pop-ups to display forms, shopping carts etc, and the <literal><link
5060 linkend="FILTER-UNSOLICITED-POPUPS">filter{<replaceable>unsolicited-popups</replaceable>}</link>
5061 </literal> does a better job of catching only the unwanted ones.
5064 If the only kind of pop-ups that you want to kill are exit consoles (those
5065 <emphasis>really nasty</emphasis> windows that appear when you close an other
5066 one), you might want to use
5068 linkend="filter">filter</link>{<replaceable>js-annoyances</replaceable>}</literal>
5072 This action is most appropriate for browsers that don't have any controls
5073 for unwanted pop-ups. Not recommended for general usage.
5078 An alternate spelling is <literal>+kill-popup</literal>, which is
5086 <term>Example usage:</term>
5088 <para><screen>+kill-popups</screen></para>
5095 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5096 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="limit-connect">
5097 <title>limit-connect</title>
5101 <term>Typical use:</term>
5103 <para>Prevent abuse of <application>Privoxy</application> as a TCP proxy relay or disable SSL for untrusted sites</para>
5108 <term>Effect:</term>
5111 Specifies to which ports HTTP CONNECT requests are allowable.
5118 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5120 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5125 <term>Parameter:</term>
5128 A comma-separated list of ports or port ranges (the latter using dashes, with the minimum
5129 defaulting to 0 and the maximum to 65K).
5138 By default, i.e. if no <literal>limit-connect</literal> action applies,
5139 <application>Privoxy</application> only allows HTTP CONNECT
5140 requests to port 443 (the standard, secure HTTPS port). Use
5141 <literal>limit-connect</literal> if more fine-grained control is desired
5142 for some or all destinations.
5145 The CONNECT methods exists in HTTP to allow access to secure websites
5146 (<quote>https://</quote> URLs) through proxies. It works very simply:
5147 the proxy connects to the server on the specified port, and then
5148 short-circuits its connections to the client and to the remote server.
5149 This can be a big security hole, since CONNECT-enabled proxies can be
5150 abused as TCP relays very easily.
5153 <application>Privoxy</application> relays HTTPS traffic without seeing
5154 the decoded content. Websites can leverage this limitation to circumvent &my-app;'s
5155 filters. By specifying an invalid port range you can disable HTTPS entirely.
5156 If you plan to disable SSL by default, consider enabling
5157 <literal><link linkend="treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks ">treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks</link></literal>
5158 as well, to be able to quickly create exceptions.
5164 <term>Example usages:</term>
5166 <!-- I had trouble getting the spacing to look right in my browser -->
5167 <!-- I probably have the wrong font setup, bollocks. -->
5168 <!-- Apparently the emphasis tag uses a proportional font no matter what -->
5170 <screen>+limit-connect{443} # This is the default and need not be specified.
5171 +limit-connect{80,443} # Ports 80 and 443 are OK.
5172 +limit-connect{-3, 7, 20-100, 500-} # Ports less than 3, 7, 20 to 100 and above 500 are OK.
5173 +limit-connect{-} # All ports are OK
5174 +limit-connect{,} # No HTTPS/SSL traffic is allowed</screen>
5181 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5182 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="prevent-compression">
5183 <title>prevent-compression</title>
5187 <term>Typical use:</term>
5190 Ensure that servers send the content uncompressed, so it can be
5191 passed through <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>s.
5197 <term>Effect:</term>
5200 Removes the Accept-Encoding header which can be used to ask for compressed transfer.
5207 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5209 <para>Boolean.</para>
5214 <term>Parameter:</term>
5226 More and more websites send their content compressed by default, which
5227 is generally a good idea and saves bandwidth. But the <literal><link
5228 linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>, <literal><link linkend="deanimate-gifs">deanimate-gifs</link></literal>
5229 and <literal><link linkend="kill-popups">kill-popups</link></literal> actions need
5230 access to the uncompressed data.
5233 When compiled with zlib support (available since &my-app; 3.0.7), content that should be
5234 filtered is decompressed on-the-fly and you don't have to worry about this action.
5235 If you are using an older &my-app; version, or one that hasn't been compiled with zlib
5236 support, this action can be used to convince the server to send the content uncompressed.
5239 Most text-based instances compress very well, the size is seldom decreased by less than 50%,
5240 for markup-heavy instances like news feeds saving more than 90% of the original size isn't
5244 Not using compression will therefore slow down the transfer, and you should only
5245 enable this action if you really need it. As of &my-app; 3.0.7 it's disabled in all
5246 predefined action settings.
5249 Note that some (rare) ill-configured sites don't handle requests for uncompressed
5250 documents correctly. Broken PHP applications tend to send an empty document body,
5251 some IIS versions only send the beginning of the content. If you enable
5252 <literal>prevent-compression</literal> per default, you might want to add
5253 exceptions for those sites. See the example for how to do that.
5259 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
5263 # Selectively turn off compression, and enable a filter
5265 { +filter{tiny-textforms} +prevent-compression }
5266 # Match only these sites
5271 # Or instead, we could set a universal default:
5273 { +prevent-compression }
5276 # Then maybe make exceptions for broken sites:
5278 { -prevent-compression }
5279 .compusa.com/</screen>
5288 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5289 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="overwrite-last-modified">
5290 <title>overwrite-last-modified</title>
5296 <term>Typical use:</term>
5298 <para>Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.</para>
5303 <term>Effect:</term>
5306 Deletes the <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> HTTP server header or modifies its value.
5313 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5315 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5320 <term>Parameter:</term>
5323 One of the keywords: <quote>block</quote>, <quote>reset-to-request-time</quote>
5324 and <quote>randomize</quote>
5333 Removing the <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header is useful for filter
5334 testing, where you want to force a real reload instead of getting status
5335 code <quote>304</quote>, which would cause the browser to reuse the old
5336 version of the page.
5339 The <quote>randomize</quote> option overwrites the value of the
5340 <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header with a randomly chosen time
5341 between the original value and the current time. In theory the server
5342 could send each document with a different <quote>Last-Modified:</quote>
5343 header to track visits without using cookies. <quote>Randomize</quote>
5344 makes it impossible and the browser can still revalidate cached documents.
5347 <quote>reset-to-request-time</quote> overwrites the value of the
5348 <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header with the current time. You could use
5349 this option together with
5350 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hided-if-modified-since</link></literal>
5351 to further customize your random range.
5354 The preferred parameter here is <quote>randomize</quote>. It is safe
5355 to use, as long as the time settings are more or less correct.
5356 If the server sets the <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header to the time
5357 of the request, the random range becomes zero and the value stays the same.
5358 Therefore you should later randomize it a second time with
5359 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hided-if-modified-since</link></literal>,
5363 It is also recommended to use this action together with
5364 <literal><link linkend="crunch-if-none-match">crunch-if-none-match</link></literal>.
5370 <term>Example usage:</term>
5373 <screen># Let the browser revalidate without being tracked across sessions
5374 { +hide-if-modified-since{-60} \
5375 +overwrite-last-modified{randomize} \
5376 +crunch-if-none-match}
5385 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5386 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="redirect">
5387 <title>redirect</title>
5393 <term>Typical use:</term>
5396 Redirect requests to other sites.
5402 <term>Effect:</term>
5405 Convinces the browser that the requested document has been moved
5406 to another location and the browser should get it from there.
5413 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5415 <para>Parameterized</para>
5420 <term>Parameter:</term>
5423 An absolute URL or a single pcrs command.
5432 Requests to which this action applies are answered with a
5433 HTTP redirect to URLs of your choosing. The new URL is
5434 either provided as parameter, or derived by applying a
5435 single pcrs command to the original URL.
5438 This action will be ignored if you use it together with
5439 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>.
5440 It can be combined with
5441 <literal><link linkend="fast-redirects">fast-redirects{check-decoded-url}</link></literal>
5442 to redirect to a decoded version of a rewritten URL.
5445 Use this action carefully, make sure not to create redirection loops
5446 and be aware that using your own redirects might make it
5447 possible to fingerprint your requests.
5453 <term>Example usages:</term>
5456 <screen># Replace example.com's style sheet with another one
5457 { +redirect{http://localhost/css-replacements/example.com.css} }
5458 example.com/stylesheet\.css
5460 # Create a short, easy to remember nickname for a favorite site
5461 # (relies on the browser accept and forward invalid URLs to &my-app;)
5462 { +redirect{http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/actions-file.html} }
5465 # Always use the expanded view for Undeadly.org articles
5466 # (Note the $ at the end of the URL pattern to make sure
5467 # the request for the rewritten URL isn't redirected as well)
5468 {+redirect{s@$@&mode=expanded@}}
5469 undeadly.org/cgi\?action=article&sid=\d*$</screen>
5478 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5479 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="send-vanilla-wafer">
5480 <title>send-vanilla-wafer</title>
5484 <term>Typical use:</term>
5487 Feed log analysis scripts with useless data.
5493 <term>Effect:</term>
5496 Sends a cookie with each request stating that you do not accept any copyright
5497 on cookies sent to you, and asking the site operator not to track you.
5504 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5506 <para>Boolean.</para>
5511 <term>Parameter:</term>
5523 The vanilla wafer is a (relatively) unique header and could conceivably be used to track you.
5526 This action is rarely used and not enabled in the default configuration.
5532 <term>Example usage:</term>
5535 <screen>+send-vanilla-wafer</screen>
5544 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5545 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="send-wafer">
5546 <title>send-wafer</title>
5550 <term>Typical use:</term>
5553 Send custom cookies or feed log analysis scripts with even more useless data.
5559 <term>Effect:</term>
5562 Sends a custom, user-defined cookie with each request.
5569 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5571 <para>Multi-value.</para>
5576 <term>Parameter:</term>
5579 A string of the form <quote><replaceable class="option">name</replaceable>=<replaceable
5580 class="parameter">value</replaceable></quote>.
5589 Being multi-valued, multiple instances of this action can apply to the same request,
5590 resulting in multiple cookies being sent.
5593 This action is rarely used and not enabled in the default configuration.
5598 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
5601 <screen>{+send-wafer{UsingPrivoxy=true}}
5602 my-internal-testing-server.void</screen>
5610 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5611 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="server-header-filter">
5612 <title>server-header-filter</title>
5616 <term>Typical use:</term>
5619 Rewrite or remove single server headers.
5625 <term>Effect:</term>
5628 All server headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly
5629 through the specified regular expression based substitutions.
5636 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
5638 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5643 <term>Parameter:</term>
5646 The name of a server-header filter, as defined in one of the
5647 <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link>.
5656 Server-header filters are applied to each header on its own, not to
5657 all at once. This makes it easier to diagnose problems, but on the downside
5658 you can't write filters that only change header x if header y's value is z.
5659 You can do that by using tags though.
5662 Server-header filters are executed after the other header actions have finished
5663 and use their output as input.
5666 Please refer to the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file chapter</link>
5667 to learn which server-header filters are available by default, and how to
5674 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
5678 {+server-header-filter{html-to-xml}}
5679 example.org/xml-instance-that-is-delivered-as-html
5681 {+server-header-filter{xml-to-html}}
5682 example.org/instance-that-is-delivered-as-xml-but-is-not
5692 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5693 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="server-header-tagger">
5694 <title>server-header-tagger</title>
5698 <term>Typical use:</term>
5701 Disable or disable filters based on the Content-Type header.
5707 <term>Effect:</term>
5710 Server headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly through
5711 the specified regular expression based substitutions, the result is used as
5719 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
5721 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5726 <term>Parameter:</term>
5729 The name of a server-header tagger, as defined in one of the
5730 <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link>.
5739 Server-header taggers are applied to each header on its own,
5740 and as the header isn't modified, each tagger <quote>sees</quote>
5744 Server-header taggers are executed before all other header actions
5745 that modify server headers. Their tags can be used to control
5746 all of the other server-header actions, the content filters
5747 and the crunch actions (<link linkend="redirect">redirect</link>
5748 and <link linkend="block">block</link>).
5751 Obviously crunching based on tags created by server-header taggers
5752 doesn't prevent the request from showing up in the server's log file.
5759 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
5763 # Tag every request with the declared content type
5764 {+client-header-filter{content-type}}
5775 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5776 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="session-cookies-only">
5777 <title>session-cookies-only</title>
5781 <term>Typical use:</term>
5784 Allow only temporary <quote>session</quote> cookies (for the current
5785 browser session <emphasis>only</emphasis>).
5791 <term>Effect:</term>
5794 Deletes the <quote>expires</quote> field from <quote>Set-Cookie:</quote>
5795 server headers. Most browsers will not store such cookies permanently and
5796 forget them in between sessions.
5803 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5805 <para>Boolean.</para>
5810 <term>Parameter:</term>
5822 This is less strict than <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal> /
5823 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal> and allows you to browse
5824 websites that insist or rely on setting cookies, without compromising your privacy too badly.
5827 Most browsers will not permanently store cookies that have been processed by
5828 <literal>session-cookies-only</literal> and will forget about them between sessions.
5829 This makes profiling cookies useless, but won't break sites which require cookies so
5830 that you can log in for transactions. This is generally turned on for all
5831 sites, and is the recommended setting.
5834 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use <literal>session-cookies-only</literal>
5835 together with <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal> or
5836 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>. If you do, cookies
5837 will be plainly killed.
5840 Note that it is up to the browser how it handles such cookies without an <quote>expires</quote>
5841 field. If you use an exotic browser, you might want to try it out to be sure.
5844 This setting also has no effect on cookies that may have been stored
5845 previously by the browser before starting <application>Privoxy</application>.
5846 These would have to be removed manually.
5849 <application>Privoxy</application> also uses
5850 the <link linkend="filter-content-cookies">content-cookies filter</link>
5851 to block some types of cookies. Content cookies are not effected by
5852 <literal>session-cookies-only</literal>.
5858 <term>Example usage:</term>
5861 <screen>+session-cookies-only</screen>
5869 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5870 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="set-image-blocker">
5871 <title>set-image-blocker</title>
5875 <term>Typical use:</term>
5877 <para>Choose the replacement for blocked images</para>
5882 <term>Effect:</term>
5885 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. If <emphasis>both</emphasis>
5886 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> <emphasis>and</emphasis> <literal><link
5887 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> <emphasis>also</emphasis>
5888 apply, i.e. if the request is to be blocked as an image,
5889 <emphasis>then</emphasis> the parameter of this action decides what will be
5890 sent as a replacement.
5897 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5899 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5904 <term>Parameter:</term>
5909 <quote>pattern</quote> to send a built-in checkerboard pattern image. The image is visually
5910 decent, scales very well, and makes it obvious where banners were busted.
5915 <quote>blank</quote> to send a built-in transparent image. This makes banners disappear
5916 completely, but makes it hard to detect where <application>Privoxy</application> has blocked
5917 images on a given page and complicates troubleshooting if <application>Privoxy</application>
5918 has blocked innocent images, like navigation icons.
5923 <quote><replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable></quote> to
5924 send a redirect to <replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable>. You can redirect
5925 to any image anywhere, even in your local filesystem via <quote>file:///</quote> URL.
5926 (But note that not all browsers support redirecting to a local file system).
5929 A good application of redirects is to use special <application>Privoxy</application>-built-in
5930 URLs, which send the built-in images, as <replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable>.
5931 This has the same visual effect as specifying <quote>blank</quote> or <quote>pattern</quote> in
5932 the first place, but enables your browser to cache the replacement image, instead of requesting
5933 it over and over again.
5944 The URLs for the built-in images are <quote>http://config.privoxy.org/send-banner?type=<replaceable
5945 class="parameter">type</replaceable></quote>, where <replaceable class="parameter">type</replaceable> is
5946 either <quote>blank</quote> or <quote>pattern</quote>.
5949 There is a third (advanced) type, called <quote>auto</quote>. It is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> to be
5950 used in <literal>set-image-blocker</literal>, but meant for use from <link linkend="filter-file">filters</link>.
5951 Auto will select the type of image that would have applied to the referring page, had it been an image.
5957 <term>Example usage:</term>
5963 <screen>+set-image-blocker{pattern}</screen>
5966 Redirect to the BSD daemon:
5969 <screen>+set-image-blocker{http://www.freebsd.org/gifs/dae_up3.gif}</screen>
5972 Redirect to the built-in pattern for better caching:
5975 <screen>+set-image-blocker{http://config.privoxy.org/send-banner?type=pattern}</screen>
5983 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5984 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks">
5985 <title>treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks</title>
5991 <term>Typical use:</term>
5993 <para>Block forbidden connects with an easy to find error message.</para>
5998 <term>Effect:</term>
6001 If this action is enabled, <application>Privoxy</application> no longer
6002 makes a difference between forbidden connects and ordinary blocks.
6009 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
6011 <para>Boolean</para>
6016 <term>Parameter:</term>
6026 By default <application>Privoxy</application> answers
6027 <link linkend="limit-connect">forbidden <quote>Connect</quote> requests</link>
6028 with a short error message inside the headers. If the browser doesn't display
6029 headers (most don't), you just see an empty page.
6032 With this action enabled, <application>Privoxy</application> displays
6033 the message that is used for ordinary blocks instead. If you decide
6034 to make an exception for the page in question, you can do so by
6035 following the <quote>See why</quote> link.
6038 For <quote>Connect</quote> requests the clients tell
6039 <application>Privoxy</application> which host they are interested
6040 in, but not which document they plan to get later. As a result, the
6041 <quote>Go there anyway</quote> wouldn't work and is therefore suppressed.
6047 <term>Example usage:</term>
6050 <screen>+treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks</screen>
6058 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6060 <title>Summary</title>
6062 Note that many of these actions have the potential to cause a page to
6063 misbehave, possibly even not to display at all. There are many ways
6064 a site designer may choose to design his site, and what HTTP header
6065 content, and other criteria, he may depend on. There is no way to have hard
6066 and fast rules for all sites. See the <link
6067 linkend="ACTIONSANAT">Appendix</link> for a brief example on troubleshooting
6073 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6074 <sect2 id="aliases">
6075 <title>Aliases</title>
6077 Custom <quote>actions</quote>, known to <application>Privoxy</application>
6078 as <quote>aliases</quote>, can be defined by combining other actions.
6079 These can in turn be invoked just like the built-in actions.
6080 Currently, an alias name can contain any character except space, tab,
6082 <quote>{</quote> and <quote>}</quote>, but we <emphasis>strongly
6083 recommend</emphasis> that you only use <quote>a</quote> to <quote>z</quote>,
6084 <quote>0</quote> to <quote>9</quote>, <quote>+</quote>, and <quote>-</quote>.
6085 Alias names are not case sensitive, and are not required to start with a
6086 <quote>+</quote> or <quote>-</quote> sign, since they are merely textually
6090 Aliases can be used throughout the actions file, but they <emphasis>must be
6091 defined in a special section at the top of the file!</emphasis>
6092 And there can only be one such section per actions file. Each actions file may
6093 have its own alias section, and the aliases defined in it are only visible
6097 There are two main reasons to use aliases: One is to save typing for frequently
6098 used combinations of actions, the other one is a gain in flexibility: If you
6099 decide once how you want to handle shops by defining an alias called
6100 <quote>shop</quote>, you can later change your policy on shops in
6101 <emphasis>one</emphasis> place, and your changes will take effect everywhere
6102 in the actions file where the <quote>shop</quote> alias is used. Calling aliases
6103 by their purpose also makes your actions files more readable.
6106 Currently, there is one big drawback to using aliases, though:
6107 <application>Privoxy</application>'s built-in web-based action file
6108 editor honors aliases when reading the actions files, but it expands
6109 them before writing. So the effects of your aliases are of course preserved,
6110 but the aliases themselves are lost when you edit sections that use aliases
6115 Now let's define some aliases...
6120 # Useful custom aliases we can use later.
6122 # Note the (required!) section header line and that this section
6123 # must be at the top of the actions file!
6127 # These aliases just save typing later:
6128 # (Note that some already use other aliases!)
6130 +crunch-all-cookies = +<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> +<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
6131 -crunch-all-cookies = -<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> -<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
6132 +block-as-image = +block +handle-as-image
6133 allow-all-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> -<link linkend="FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</link>
6135 # These aliases define combinations of actions
6136 # that are useful for certain types of sites:
6138 fragile = -<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link> -<link linkend="HIDE-REFERER">hide-referrer</link> -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link> -<link linkend="PREVENT-COMPRESSION">prevent-compression</link>
6140 shop = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{all-popups}</link> -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link>
6142 # Short names for other aliases, for really lazy people ;-)
6144 c0 = +crunch-all-cookies
6145 c1 = -crunch-all-cookies</screen>
6149 ...and put them to use. These sections would appear in the lower part of an
6150 actions file and define exceptions to the default actions (as specified further
6151 up for the <quote>/</quote> pattern):
6156 # These sites are either very complex or very keen on
6157 # user data and require minimal interference to work:
6160 .office.microsoft.com
6161 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com
6162 # Gmail is really mail.google.com, not gmail.com
6166 # Allow cookies (for setting and retrieving your customer data)
6170 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
6173 # These shops require pop-ups:
6175 {-kill-popups -filter{all-popups} -filter{unsolicited-popups}}
6177 .overclockers.co.uk</screen>
6181 Aliases like <quote>shop</quote> and <quote>fragile</quote> are typically used for
6182 <quote>problem</quote> sites that require more than one action to be disabled
6183 in order to function properly.
6189 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6190 <sect2 id="act-examples">
6191 <title>Actions Files Tutorial</title>
6193 The above chapters have shown <link linkend="actions-file">which actions files
6194 there are and how they are organized</link>, how actions are <link
6195 linkend="actions">specified</link> and <link linkend="actions-apply">applied
6196 to URLs</link>, how <link linkend="af-patterns">patterns</link> work, and how to
6197 define and use <link linkend="aliases">aliases</link>. Now, let's look at an
6198 example <filename>default.action</filename> and <filename>user.action</filename>
6199 file and see how all these pieces come together:
6202 <sect3><title>default.action</title>
6205 Every config file should start with a short comment stating its purpose:
6209 <screen># Sample default.action file <ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net></screen>
6213 Then, since this is the <filename>default.action</filename> file, the
6214 first section is a special section for internal use that you needn't
6215 change or worry about:
6220 ##########################################################################
6221 # Settings -- Don't change! For internal Privoxy use ONLY.
6222 ##########################################################################
6225 for-privoxy-version=3.0</screen>
6229 After that comes the (optional) alias section. We'll use the example
6230 section from the above <link linkend="aliases">chapter on aliases</link>,
6231 that also explains why and how aliases are used:
6236 ##########################################################################
6238 ##########################################################################
6241 # These aliases just save typing later:
6242 # (Note that some already use other aliases!)
6244 +crunch-all-cookies = +<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> +<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
6245 -crunch-all-cookies = -<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> -<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
6246 +block-as-image = +block +handle-as-image
6247 mercy-for-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> -<link linkend="FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</link>
6249 # These aliases define combinations of actions
6250 # that are useful for certain types of sites:
6252 fragile = -<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link> -<link linkend="HIDE-REFERER">hide-referrer</link> -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link>
6253 shop = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{all-popups}</link> -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link></screen>
6257 Now come the regular sections, i.e. sets of actions, accompanied
6258 by URL patterns to which they apply. Remember <emphasis>all actions
6259 are disabled when matching starts</emphasis>, so we have to explicitly
6260 enable the ones we want.
6264 The first regular section is probably the most important. It has only
6265 one pattern, <quote><literal>/</literal></quote>, but this pattern
6266 <link linkend="af-patterns">matches all URLs</link>. Therefore, the
6267 set of actions used in this <quote>default</quote> section <emphasis>will
6268 be applied to all requests as a start</emphasis>. It can be partly or
6269 wholly overridden by later matches further down this file, or in user.action,
6270 but it will still be largely responsible for your overall browsing
6275 Again, at the start of matching, all actions are disabled, so there is
6276 no real need to disable any actions here, but we will do that nonetheless,
6277 to have a complete listing for your reference. (Remember: a <quote>+</quote>
6278 preceding the action name enables the action, a <quote>-</quote> disables!).
6279 Also note how this long line has been made more readable by splitting it into
6280 multiple lines with line continuation.
6285 ##########################################################################
6286 # "Defaults" section:
6287 ##########################################################################
6289 -<link linkend="ADD-HEADER">add-header</link> \
6290 -<link linkend="CLIENT-HEADER-FILTER">client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation}</link> \
6291 -<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> \
6292 -<link linkend="CONTENT-TYPE-OVERWRITE">content-type-overwrite</link> \
6293 -<link linkend="CRUNCH-CLIENT-HEADER">crunch-client-header</link> \
6294 -<link linkend="CRUNCH-IF-NONE-MATCH">crunch-if-none-match</link> \
6295 -<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> \
6296 -<link linkend="CRUNCH-SERVER-HEADER">crunch-server-header</link> \
6297 -<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link> \
6298 +<link linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS">deanimate-gifs</link> \
6299 -<link linkend="DOWNGRADE-HTTP-VERSION">downgrade-http-version</link> \
6300 -<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects{check-decoded-url}</link> \
6301 -<link linkend="FILTER-JS-ANNOYANCES">filter{js-annoyances}</link> \
6302 -<link linkend="FILTER-JS-EVENTS">filter{js-events}</link> \
6303 +<link linkend="FILTER-HTML-ANNOYANCES">filter{html-annoyances}</link> \
6304 -<link linkend="FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</link> \
6305 +<link linkend="FILTER-REFRESH-TAGS">filter{refresh-tags}</link> \
6306 -<link linkend="FILTER-UNSOLICITED-POPUPS">filter{unsolicited-popups}</link> \
6307 -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{all-popups}</link> \
6308 -<link linkend="FILTER-IMG-REORDER">filter{img-reorder}</link> \
6309 -<link linkend="FILTER-BANNERS-BY-SIZE">filter{banners-by-size}</link> \
6310 -<link linkend="FILTER-BANNERS-BY-LINK">filter{banners-by-link}</link> \
6311 +<link linkend="FILTER-WEBBUGS">filter{webbugs}</link> \
6312 -<link linkend="FILTER-TINY-TEXTFORMS">filter{tiny-textforms}</link> \
6313 -<link linkend="FILTER-JUMPING-WINDOWS">filter{jumping-windows}</link> \
6314 -<link linkend="FILTER-FRAMESET-BORDERS">filter{frameset-borders}</link> \
6315 -<link linkend="FILTER-DEMORONIZER">filter{demoronizer}</link> \
6316 -<link linkend="FILTER-SHOCKWAVE-FLASH">filter{shockwave-flash}</link> \
6317 -<link linkend="FILTER-QUICKTIME-KIOSKMODE">filter{quicktime-kioskmode}</link> \
6318 -<link linkend="FILTER-FUN">filter{fun}</link> \
6319 -<link linkend="FILTER-CRUDE-PARENTAL">filter{crude-parental}</link> \
6320 +<link linkend="FILTER-IE-EXPLOITS">filter{ie-exploits}</link> \
6321 -<link linkend="FILTER-GOOGLE">filter{google}</link> \
6322 -<link linkend="FILTER-YAHOO">filter{yahoo}</link> \
6323 -<link linkend="FILTER-MSN">filter{msn}</link> \
6324 -<link linkend="FILTER-BLOGSPOT">filter{blogspot}</link> \
6325 -<link linkend="FILTER-NO-PING">filter{no-ping}</link> \
6326 -<link linkend="FORCE-TEXT-MODE">force-text-mode</link> \
6327 -<link linkend="HANDLE-AS-EMPTY-DOCUMENT">handle-as-empty-document</link> \
6328 -<link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">handle-as-image</link> \
6329 -<link linkend="HIDE-ACCEPT-LANGUAGE">hide-accept-language</link> \
6330 -<link linkend="HIDE-CONTENT-DISPOSITION">hide-content-disposition</link> \
6331 -<link linkend="HIDE-IF-MODIFIED-SINCE">hide-if-modified-since</link> \
6332 +<link linkend="HIDE-FORWARDED-FOR-HEADERS">hide-forwarded-for-headers</link> \
6333 +<link linkend="HIDE-FROM-HEADER">hide-from-header{block}</link> \
6334 +<link linkend="HIDE-REFERER">hide-referrer{forge}</link> \
6335 -<link linkend="HIDE-USER-AGENT">hide-user-agent</link> \
6336 -<link linkend="INSPECT-JPEGS">inspect-jpegs</link> \
6337 -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link> \
6338 -<link linkend="LIMIT-CONNECT">limit-connect</link> \
6339 +<link linkend="PREVENT-COMPRESSION">prevent-compression</link> \
6340 -<link linkend="OVERWRITE-LAST-MODIFIED">overwrite-last-modified</link> \
6341 -<link linkend="REDIRECT">redirect</link> \
6342 -<link linkend="SEND-VANILLA-WAFER">send-vanilla-wafer</link> \
6343 -<link linkend="SEND-WAFER">send-wafer</link> \
6344 -<link linkend="SERVER-HEADER-FILTER">server-header-filter{xml-to-html}</link> \
6345 -<link linkend="SERVER-HEADER-FILTER">server-header-filter{html-to-xml}</link> \
6346 +<link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> \
6347 +<link linkend="SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER">set-image-blocker{pattern}</link> \
6348 -<link linkend="TREAT-FORBIDDEN-CONNECTS-LIKE-BLOCKS">treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks</link> \
6350 / # forward slash will match *all* potential URL patterns.</screen>
6354 The default behavior is now set. Note that some actions, like not hiding
6355 the user agent, are part of a <quote>general policy</quote> that applies
6356 universally and won't get any exceptions defined later. Other choices,
6357 like not blocking (which is <emphasis>understandably</emphasis> the
6358 default!) need exceptions, i.e. we need to specify explicitly what we
6359 want to block in later sections.
6363 The first of our specialized sections is concerned with <quote>fragile</quote>
6364 sites, i.e. sites that require minimum interference, because they are either
6365 very complex or very keen on tracking you (and have mechanisms in place that
6366 make them unusable for people who avoid being tracked). We will simply use
6367 our pre-defined <literal>fragile</literal> alias instead of stating the list
6368 of actions explicitly:
6373 ##########################################################################
6374 # Exceptions for sites that'll break under the default action set:
6375 ##########################################################################
6377 # "Fragile" Use a minimum set of actions for these sites (see alias above):
6380 .office.microsoft.com # surprise, surprise!
6381 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com
6382 mail.google.com</screen>
6386 Shopping sites are not as fragile, but they typically
6387 require cookies to log in, and pop-up windows for shopping
6388 carts or item details. Again, we'll use a pre-defined alias:
6397 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
6399 .scan.co.uk</screen>
6402 <!-- No longer needed BEGIN OF COMMENTED OUT BLOCK
6405 Then, there are sites which rely on pop-up windows (yuck!) to work.
6406 Since we made pop-up-killing our default above, we need to make exceptions
6407 now. <ulink url="http://www.mozilla.org/">Mozilla</ulink> users, who
6408 can turn on smart handling of unwanted pop-ups in their browsers, can
6410 -<literal><link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{popups}</link></literal> (and
6411 -<literal><link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link></literal>) above
6412 and hence don't need this section. Anyway, disabling an already disabled
6413 action doesn't hurt, so we'll define our exceptions regardless of what was
6414 chosen in the defaults section:
6419 # These sites require pop-ups too :(
6421 { -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link> -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{popups}</link> }
6424 .deutsche-bank-24.de</screen>
6427 END OF COMMENTED OUT BLOCK -->
6430 The <literal><link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link></literal>
6431 action, which we enabled per default above, breaks some sites. So disable
6432 it for popular sites where we know it misbehaves:
6437 { -<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link> }
6441 .altavista.com/.*(like|url|link):http
6442 .altavista.com/trans.*urltext=http
6443 .nytimes.com</screen>
6447 It is important that <application>Privoxy</application> knows which
6448 URLs belong to images, so that <emphasis>if</emphasis> they are to
6449 be blocked, a substitute image can be sent, rather than an HTML page.
6450 Contacting the remote site to find out is not an option, since it
6451 would destroy the loading time advantage of banner blocking, and it
6452 would feed the advertisers (in terms of money <emphasis>and</emphasis>
6453 information). We can mark any URL as an image with the <literal><link
6454 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> action,
6455 and marking all URLs that end in a known image file extension is a
6461 ##########################################################################
6463 ##########################################################################
6465 # Define which file types will be treated as images, in case they get
6466 # blocked further down this file:
6468 { +<link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">handle-as-image</link> }
6469 /.*\.(gif|jpe?g|png|bmp|ico)$</screen>
6473 And then there are known banner sources. They often use scripts to
6474 generate the banners, so it won't be visible from the URL that the
6475 request is for an image. Hence we block them <emphasis>and</emphasis>
6476 mark them as images in one go, with the help of our
6477 <literal>+block-as-image</literal> alias defined above. (We could of
6478 course just as well use <literal>+<link linkend="block">block</link>
6479 +<link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> here.)
6480 Remember that the type of the replacement image is chosen by the
6481 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>
6482 action. Since all URLs have matched the default section with its
6483 <literal>+<link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link>{pattern}</literal>
6484 action before, it still applies and needn't be repeated:
6489 # Known ad generators:
6494 .ad.*.doubleclick.net
6495 .a.yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$
6496 .a[0-9].yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$
6502 One of the most important jobs of <application>Privoxy</application>
6503 is to block banners. Many of these can be <quote>blocked</quote>
6504 by the <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link>{banners-by-size}</literal>
6505 action, which we enabled above, and which deletes the references to banner
6506 images from the pages while they are loaded, so the browser doesn't request
6507 them anymore, and hence they don't need to be blocked here. But this naturally
6508 doesn't catch all banners, and some people choose not to use filters, so we
6509 need a comprehensive list of patterns for banner URLs here, and apply the
6510 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action to them.
6513 First comes many generic patterns, which do most of the work, by
6514 matching typical domain and path name components of banners. Then comes
6515 a list of individual patterns for specific sites, which is omitted here
6516 to keep the example short:
6521 ##########################################################################
6522 # Block these fine banners:
6523 ##########################################################################
6524 { <link linkend="BLOCK">+block</link> }
6532 /.*count(er)?\.(pl|cgi|exe|dll|asp|php[34]?)
6533 /(?:.*/)?(publicite|werbung|rekla(ma|me|am)|annonse|maino(kset|nta|s)?)/
6535 # Site-specific patterns (abbreviated):
6537 .hitbox.com</screen>
6541 It's quite remarkable how many advertisers actually call their banner
6542 servers ads.<replaceable>company</replaceable>.com, or call the directory
6543 in which the banners are stored simply <quote>banners</quote>. So the above
6544 generic patterns are surprisingly effective.
6547 But being very generic, they necessarily also catch URLs that we don't want
6548 to block. The pattern <literal>.*ads.</literal> e.g. catches
6549 <quote>nasty-<emphasis>ads</emphasis>.nasty-corp.com</quote> as intended,
6550 but also <quote>downlo<emphasis>ads</emphasis>.sourcefroge.net</quote> or
6551 <quote><emphasis>ads</emphasis>l.some-provider.net.</quote> So here come some
6552 well-known exceptions to the <literal>+<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal>
6556 Note that these are exceptions to exceptions from the default! Consider the URL
6557 <quote>downloads.sourcefroge.net</quote>: Initially, all actions are deactivated,
6558 so it wouldn't get blocked. Then comes the defaults section, which matches the
6559 URL, but just deactivates the <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal>
6560 action once again. Then it matches <literal>.*ads.</literal>, an exception to the
6561 general non-blocking policy, and suddenly
6562 <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">+block</link></literal> applies. And now, it'll match
6563 <literal>.*loads.</literal>, where <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">-block</link></literal>
6564 applies, so (unless it matches <emphasis>again</emphasis> further down) it ends up
6565 with no <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal> action applying.
6570 ##########################################################################
6571 # Save some innocent victims of the above generic block patterns:
6572 ##########################################################################
6576 { -<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> }
6577 adv[io]*. # (for advogato.org and advice.*)
6578 adsl. # (has nothing to do with ads)
6579 adobe. # (has nothing to do with ads either)
6580 ad[ud]*. # (adult.* and add.*)
6581 .edu # (universities don't host banners (yet!))
6582 .*loads. # (downloads, uploads etc)
6590 www.globalintersec.com/adv # (adv = advanced)
6591 www.ugu.com/sui/ugu/adv</screen>
6595 Filtering source code can have nasty side effects,
6596 so make an exception for our friends at sourceforge.net,
6597 and all paths with <quote>cvs</quote> in them. Note that
6598 <literal>-<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link></literal>
6599 disables <emphasis>all</emphasis> filters in one fell swoop!
6604 # Don't filter code!
6606 { -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> }
6611 .sourceforge.net</screen>
6615 The actual <filename>default.action</filename> is of course much more
6616 comprehensive, but we hope this example made clear how it works.
6621 <sect3><title>user.action</title>
6624 So far we are painting with a broad brush by setting general policies,
6625 which would be a reasonable starting point for many people. Now,
6626 you might want to be more specific and have customized rules that
6627 are more suitable to your personal habits and preferences. These would
6628 be for narrowly defined situations like your ISP or your bank, and should
6629 be placed in <filename>user.action</filename>, which is parsed after all other
6630 actions files and hence has the last word, over-riding any previously
6631 defined actions. <filename>user.action</filename> is also a
6632 <emphasis>safe</emphasis> place for your personal settings, since
6633 <filename>default.action</filename> is actively maintained by the
6634 <application>Privoxy</application> developers and you'll probably want
6635 to install updated versions from time to time.
6639 So let's look at a few examples of things that one might typically do in
6640 <filename>user.action</filename>:
6644 <!-- brief sample user.action here -->
6648 # My user.action file. <fred@foobar.com></screen>
6652 As <link linkend="aliases">aliases</link> are local to the actions
6653 file that they are defined in, you can't use the ones from
6654 <filename>default.action</filename>, unless you repeat them here:
6659 # Aliases are local to the file they are defined in.
6660 # (Re-)define aliases for this file:
6664 # These aliases just save typing later, and the alias names should
6665 # be self explanatory.
6667 +crunch-all-cookies = +crunch-incoming-cookies +crunch-outgoing-cookies
6668 -crunch-all-cookies = -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-cookies
6669 allow-all-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -session-cookies-only
6670 allow-popups = -filter{all-popups} -kill-popups
6671 +block-as-image = +block +handle-as-image
6672 -block-as-image = -block
6674 # These aliases define combinations of actions that are useful for
6675 # certain types of sites:
6677 fragile = -block -crunch-all-cookies -filter -fast-redirects -hide-referrer -kill-popups
6678 shop = -crunch-all-cookies allow-popups
6680 # Allow ads for selected useful free sites:
6682 allow-ads = -block -filter{banners-by-size} -filter{banners-by-link}
6684 # Alias for specific file types that are text, but might have conflicting
6685 # MIME types. We want the browser to force these to be text documents.
6686 handle-as-text = -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> +-<link linkend="content-type-overwrite">content-type-overwrite{text/plain}</link> +-<link linkend="FORCE-TEXT-MODE">force-text-mode</link> -<link linkend="HIDE-CONTENT-DISPOSITION">hide-content-disposition</link></screen>
6691 Say you have accounts on some sites that you visit regularly, and
6692 you don't want to have to log in manually each time. So you'd like
6693 to allow persistent cookies for these sites. The
6694 <literal>allow-all-cookies</literal> alias defined above does exactly
6695 that, i.e. it disables crunching of cookies in any direction, and the
6696 processing of cookies to make them only temporary.
6701 { allow-all-cookies }
6705 .redhat.com</screen>
6709 Your bank is allergic to some filter, but you don't know which, so you disable them all:
6714 { -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> }
6715 .your-home-banking-site.com</screen>
6719 Some file types you may not want to filter for various reasons:
6724 # Technical documentation is likely to contain strings that might
6725 # erroneously get altered by the JavaScript-oriented filters:
6730 # And this stupid host sends streaming video with a wrong MIME type,
6731 # so that Privoxy thinks it is getting HTML and starts filtering:
6733 stupid-server.example.com/</screen>
6737 Example of a simple <link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> action. Say you've
6738 seen an ad on your favourite page on example.com that you want to get rid of.
6739 You have right-clicked the image, selected <quote>copy image location</quote>
6740 and pasted the URL below while removing the leading http://, into a
6741 <literal>{ +block }</literal> section. Note that <literal>{ +handle-as-image
6742 }</literal> need not be specified, since all URLs ending in
6743 <literal>.gif</literal> will be tagged as images by the general rules as set
6744 in default.action anyway:
6749 { +<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> }
6750 www.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor\.gif
6751 another.popular.site.net/more/junk/here/</screen>
6755 The URLs of dynamically generated banners, especially from large banner
6756 farms, often don't use the well-known image file name extensions, which
6757 makes it impossible for <application>Privoxy</application> to guess
6758 the file type just by looking at the URL.
6759 You can use the <literal>+block-as-image</literal> alias defined above for
6761 Note that objects which match this rule but then turn out NOT to be an
6762 image are typically rendered as a <quote>broken image</quote> icon by the
6763 browser. Use cautiously.
6772 ar.atwola.com/</screen>
6776 Now you noticed that the default configuration breaks Forbes Magazine,
6777 but you were too lazy to find out which action is the culprit, and you
6778 were again too lazy to give <link linkend="contact">feedback</link>, so
6779 you just used the <literal>fragile</literal> alias on the site, and
6780 -- <emphasis>whoa!</emphasis> -- it worked. The <literal>fragile</literal>
6781 aliases disables those actions that are most likely to break a site. Also,
6782 good for testing purposes to see if it is <application>Privoxy</application>
6783 that is causing the problem or not. We later find other regular sites
6784 that misbehave, and add those to our personalized list of troublemakers:
6792 .mybank.com</screen>
6796 You like the <quote>fun</quote> text replacements in <filename>default.filter</filename>,
6797 but it is disabled in the distributed actions file. (My colleagues on the team just
6798 don't have a sense of humour, that's why! ;-). So you'd like to turn it on in your private,
6799 update-safe config, once and for all:
6804 { +<link linkend="filter-fun">filter{fun}</link> }
6805 / # For ALL sites!</screen>
6809 Note that the above is not really a good idea: There are exceptions
6810 to the filters in <filename>default.action</filename> for things that
6811 really shouldn't be filtered, like code on CVS->Web interfaces. Since
6812 <filename>user.action</filename> has the last word, these exceptions
6813 won't be valid for the <quote>fun</quote> filtering specified here.
6817 You might also worry about how your favourite free websites are
6818 funded, and find that they rely on displaying banner advertisements
6819 to survive. So you might want to specifically allow banners for those
6820 sites that you feel provide value to you:
6832 Note that <literal>allow-ads</literal> has been aliased to
6833 <literal>-<link linkend="block">block</link></literal>,
6834 <literal>-<link linkend="filter-banners-by-size">filter{banners-by-size}</link></literal>, and
6835 <literal>-<link linkend="filter-banners-by-link">filter{banners-by-link}</link></literal> above.
6839 Invoke another alias here to force an over-ride of the MIME type <literal>
6840 application/x-sh</literal> which typically would open a download type
6841 dialog. In my case, I want to look at the shell script, and then I can save
6842 it should I choose to.
6852 <filename>user.action</filename> is generally the best place to define
6853 exceptions and additions to the default policies of
6854 <filename>default.action</filename>. Some actions are safe to have their
6855 default policies set here though. So let's set a default policy to have a
6856 <quote>blank</quote> image as opposed to the checkerboard pattern for
6857 <emphasis>ALL</emphasis> sites. <quote>/</quote> of course matches all URL
6863 { +<link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker{blank}</link> }
6864 / # ALL sites</screen>
6870 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
6874 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
6876 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
6878 <sect1 id="filter-file">
6879 <title>Filter Files</title>
6882 On-the-fly text substitutions need
6883 to be defined in a <quote>filter file</quote>. Once defined, they
6884 can then be invoked as an <quote>action</quote>.
6888 &my-app; supports three different filter actions:
6889 <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> to
6890 rewrite the content that is send to the client,
6891 <literal><link linkend="client-header-filter">client-header-filter</link></literal>
6892 to rewrite headers that are send by the client, and
6893 <literal><link linkend="server-header-filter">server-header-filter</link></literal>
6894 to rewrite headers that are send by the server, and
6898 &my-app; also supports two tagger actions:
6899 <literal><link linkend="client-header-tagger">client-header-tagger</link></literal>
6901 <literal><link linkend="server-header-tagger">server-header-tagger</link></literal>.
6902 Taggers and filters use the same syntax in the filter files, the differnce
6903 is that taggers don't modify the text they are filtering, but use a rewritten
6904 version of the filtered text as tag. The tags can then be used to change the
6905 applying actions through sections with <link linkend="tag-pattern">tag-patterns</link>.
6910 Multiple filter files can be defined through the <literal> <link
6911 linkend="filterfile">filterfile</link></literal> config directive. The filters
6912 as supplied by the developers will be found in
6913 <filename>default.filter</filename>. It is recommended that any locally
6914 defined or modified filters go in a separately defined file such as
6915 <filename>user.filter</filename>.
6920 Command tasks for content filters are to eliminate common annoyances in
6921 HTML and JavaScript, such as pop-up windows,
6922 exit consoles, crippled windows without navigation tools, the
6923 infamous <BLINK> tag etc, to suppress images with certain
6924 width and height attributes (standard banner sizes or web-bugs),
6925 or just to have fun.
6929 Content filtering works on any text-based document type, including
6930 HTML, JavaScript, CSS etc. (all <literal>text/*</literal>
6931 MIME types, <emphasis>except</emphasis> <literal>text/plain</literal>).
6932 Substitutions are made at the source level, so if you want to <quote>roll
6933 your own</quote> filters, you should first be familiar with HTML syntax,
6934 and, of course, regular expressions.
6938 Just like the <link linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>, the
6939 filter file is organized in sections, which are called <emphasis>filters</emphasis>
6940 here. Each filter consists of a heading line, that starts with one of the
6941 <emphasis>keywords</emphasis> <literal>FILTER:</literal>,
6942 <literal>CLIENT-HEADER-FILTER:</literal> or <literal>SERVER-HEADER-FILTER:</literal>
6943 followed by the filter's <emphasis>name</emphasis>, and a short (one line)
6944 <emphasis>description</emphasis> of what it does. Below that line
6945 come the <emphasis>jobs</emphasis>, i.e. lines that define the actual
6946 text substitutions. By convention, the name of a filter
6947 should describe what the filter <emphasis>eliminates</emphasis>. The
6948 comment is used in the <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">web-based
6949 user interface</ulink>.
6953 Once a filter called <replaceable>name</replaceable> has been defined
6954 in the filter file, it can be invoked by using an action of the form
6955 +<literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link>{<replaceable>name</replaceable>}</literal>
6956 in any <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link>.
6960 Filter definitions start with a header line that contains the filter
6961 type, the filter name and the filter description.
6962 A content filter header line for a filter called <quote>foo</quote> could look
6967 <screen>FILTER: foo Replace all "foo" with "bar"</screen>
6971 Below that line, and up to the next header line, come the jobs that
6972 define what text replacements the filter executes. They are specified
6973 in a syntax that imitates <ulink url="http://www.perl.org/">Perl</ulink>'s
6974 <literal>s///</literal> operator. If you are familiar with Perl, you
6975 will find this to be quite intuitive, and may want to look at the
6976 PCRS documentation for the subtle differences to Perl behaviour. Most
6977 notably, the non-standard option letter <literal>U</literal> is supported,
6978 which turns the default to ungreedy matching.
6983 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
6984 Expressions</quote></ulink>, you might want to take a look at
6985 the <link linkend="regex">Appendix on regular expressions</link>, and
6986 see the <ulink url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html">Perl
6988 <ulink url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlop.html">the
6989 <literal>s///</literal> operator's syntax</ulink> and <ulink
6990 url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html">Perl-style regular
6991 expressions</ulink> in general.
6992 The below examples might also help to get you started.
6996 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
6998 <sect2><title>Filter File Tutorial</title>
7000 Now, let's complete our <quote>foo</quote> content filter. We have already defined
7001 the heading, but the jobs are still missing. Since all it does is to replace
7002 <quote>foo</quote> with <quote>bar</quote>, there is only one (trivial) job
7007 <screen>s/foo/bar/</screen>
7011 But wait! Didn't the comment say that <emphasis>all</emphasis> occurrences
7012 of <quote>foo</quote> should be replaced? Our current job will only take
7013 care of the first <quote>foo</quote> on each page. For global substitution,
7014 we'll need to add the <literal>g</literal> option:
7018 <screen>s/foo/bar/g</screen>
7022 Our complete filter now looks like this:
7025 <screen>FILTER: foo Replace all "foo" with "bar"
7026 s/foo/bar/g</screen>
7030 Let's look at some real filters for more interesting examples. Here you see
7031 a filter that protects against some common annoyances that arise from JavaScript
7032 abuse. Let's look at its jobs one after the other:
7038 FILTER: js-annoyances Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse
7040 # Get rid of JavaScript referrer tracking. Test page: http://www.randomoddness.com/untitled.htm
7042 s|(<script.*)document\.referrer(.*</script>)|$1"Not Your Business!"$2|Usg</screen>
7046 Following the header line and a comment, you see the job. Note that it uses
7047 <literal>|</literal> as the delimiter instead of <literal>/</literal>, because
7048 the pattern contains a forward slash, which would otherwise have to be escaped
7049 by a backslash (<literal>\</literal>).
7053 Now, let's examine the pattern: it starts with the text <literal><script.*</literal>
7054 enclosed in parentheses. Since the dot matches any character, and <literal>*</literal>
7055 means: <quote>Match an arbitrary number of the element left of myself</quote>, this
7056 matches <quote><script</quote>, followed by <emphasis>any</emphasis> text, i.e.
7057 it matches the whole page, from the start of the first <script> tag.
7061 That's more than we want, but the pattern continues: <literal>document\.referrer</literal>
7062 matches only the exact string <quote>document.referrer</quote>. The dot needed to
7063 be <emphasis>escaped</emphasis>, i.e. preceded by a backslash, to take away its
7064 special meaning as a joker, and make it just a regular dot. So far, the meaning is:
7065 Match from the start of the first <script> tag in a the page, up to, and including,
7066 the text <quote>document.referrer</quote>, if <emphasis>both</emphasis> are present
7067 in the page (and appear in that order).
7071 But there's still more pattern to go. The next element, again enclosed in parentheses,
7072 is <literal>.*</script></literal>. You already know what <literal>.*</literal>
7073 means, so the whole pattern translates to: Match from the start of the first <script>
7074 tag in a page to the end of the last <script> tag, provided that the text
7075 <quote>document.referrer</quote> appears somewhere in between.
7079 This is still not the whole story, since we have ignored the options and the parentheses:
7080 The portions of the page matched by sub-patterns that are enclosed in parentheses, will be
7081 remembered and be available through the variables <literal>$1, $2, ...</literal> in
7082 the substitute. The <literal>U</literal> option switches to ungreedy matching, which means
7083 that the first <literal>.*</literal> in the pattern will only <quote>eat up</quote> all
7084 text in between <quote><script</quote> and the <emphasis>first</emphasis> occurrence
7085 of <quote>document.referrer</quote>, and that the second <literal>.*</literal> will
7086 only span the text up to the <emphasis>first</emphasis> <quote></script></quote>
7087 tag. Furthermore, the <literal>s</literal> option says that the match may span
7088 multiple lines in the page, and the <literal>g</literal> option again means that the
7089 substitution is global.
7093 So, to summarize, the pattern means: Match all scripts that contain the text
7094 <quote>document.referrer</quote>. Remember the parts of the script from
7095 (and including) the start tag up to (and excluding) the string
7096 <quote>document.referrer</quote> as <literal>$1</literal>, and the part following
7097 that string, up to and including the closing tag, as <literal>$2</literal>.
7101 Now the pattern is deciphered, but wasn't this about substituting things? So
7102 lets look at the substitute: <literal>$1"Not Your Business!"$2</literal> is
7103 easy to read: The text remembered as <literal>$1</literal>, followed by
7104 <literal>"Not Your Business!"</literal> (<emphasis>including</emphasis>
7105 the quotation marks!), followed by the text remembered as <literal>$2</literal>.
7106 This produces an exact copy of the original string, with the middle part
7107 (the <quote>document.referrer</quote>) replaced by <literal>"Not Your
7108 Business!"</literal>.
7112 The whole job now reads: Replace <quote>document.referrer</quote> by
7113 <literal>"Not Your Business!"</literal> wherever it appears inside a
7114 <script> tag. Note that this job won't break JavaScript syntax,
7115 since both the original and the replacement are syntactically valid
7116 string objects. The script just won't have access to the referrer
7117 information anymore.
7121 We'll show you two other jobs from the JavaScript taming department, but
7122 this time only point out the constructs of special interest:
7127 # The status bar is for displaying link targets, not pointless blahblah
7129 s/window\.status\s*=\s*(['"]).*?\1/dUmMy=1/ig</screen>
7133 <literal>\s</literal> stands for whitespace characters (space, tab, newline,
7134 carriage return, form feed), so that <literal>\s*</literal> means: <quote>zero
7135 or more whitespace</quote>. The <literal>?</literal> in <literal>.*?</literal>
7136 makes this matching of arbitrary text ungreedy. (Note that the <literal>U</literal>
7137 option is not set). The <literal>['"]</literal> construct means: <quote>a single
7138 <emphasis>or</emphasis> a double quote</quote>. Finally, <literal>\1</literal> is
7139 a back-reference to the first parenthesis just like <literal>$1</literal> above,
7140 with the difference that in the <emphasis>pattern</emphasis>, a backslash indicates
7141 a back-reference, whereas in the <emphasis>substitute</emphasis>, it's the dollar.
7145 So what does this job do? It replaces assignments of single- or double-quoted
7146 strings to the <quote>window.status</quote> object with a dummy assignment
7147 (using a variable name that is hopefully odd enough not to conflict with
7148 real variables in scripts). Thus, it catches many cases where e.g. pointless
7149 descriptions are displayed in the status bar instead of the link target when
7150 you move your mouse over links.
7155 # Kill OnUnload popups. Yummy. Test: http://www.zdnet.com/zdsubs/yahoo/tree/yfs.html
7157 s/(<body [^>]*)onunload(.*>)/$1never$2/iU</screen>
7162 <ulink url="http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-DOM-Level-2-Events-20001113/events.html#Events-eventgroupings-htmlevents">OnUnload
7163 event binding</ulink> in the HTML DOM was a <emphasis>CRIME</emphasis>.
7164 When I close a browser window, I want it to close and die. Basta.
7165 This job replaces the <quote>onunload</quote> attribute in
7166 <quote><body></quote> tags with the dummy word <literal>never</literal>.
7167 Note that the <literal>i</literal> option makes the pattern matching
7168 case-insensitive. Also note that ungreedy matching alone doesn't always guarantee
7169 a minimal match: In the first parenthesis, we had to use <literal>[^>]*</literal>
7170 instead of <literal>.*</literal> to prevent the match from exceeding the
7171 <body> tag if it doesn't contain <quote>OnUnload</quote>, but the page's
7176 The last example is from the fun department:
7181 FILTER: fun Fun text replacements
7183 # Spice the daily news:
7185 s/microsoft(?!\.com)/MicroSuck/ig</screen>
7189 Note the <literal>(?!\.com)</literal> part (a so-called negative lookahead)
7190 in the job's pattern, which means: Don't match, if the string
7191 <quote>.com</quote> appears directly following <quote>microsoft</quote>
7192 in the page. This prevents links to microsoft.com from being trashed, while
7193 still replacing the word everywhere else.
7198 # Buzzword Bingo (example for extended regex syntax)
7200 s* industry[ -]leading \
7202 | customer[ -]focused \
7203 | market[ -]driven \
7204 | award[ -]winning # Comments are OK, too! \
7205 | high[ -]performance \
7206 | solutions[ -]based \
7210 *<font color="red"><b>BINGO!</b></font> \
7215 The <literal>x</literal> option in this job turns on extended syntax, and allows for
7216 e.g. the liberal use of (non-interpreted!) whitespace for nicer formatting.
7224 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
7226 <sect2 id="predefined-filters"><title>The Pre-defined Filters</title>
7230 Note each filter is also listed in the +filter action section above. Please
7231 keep these listings in sync.
7236 The distribution <filename>default.filter</filename> file contains a selection of
7237 pre-defined filters for your convenience:
7242 <term><emphasis>js-annoyances</emphasis></term>
7245 The purpose of this filter is to get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse.
7250 replaces JavaScript references to the browser's referrer information
7251 with the string "Not Your Business!". This compliments the <literal><link
7252 linkend="hide-referrer">hide-referrer</link></literal> action on the content level.
7257 removes the bindings to the DOM's
7258 <ulink url="http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-DOM-Level-2-Events-20001113/events.html#Events-eventgroupings-htmlevents">unload
7259 event</ulink> which we feel has no right to exist and is responsible for most <quote>exit consoles</quote>, i.e.
7260 nasty windows that pop up when you close another one.
7265 removes code that causes new windows to be opened with undesired properties, such as being
7266 full-screen, non-resizeable, without location, status or menu bar etc.
7272 Use with caution. This is an aggressive filter, and can break sites that
7273 rely heavily on JavaScript.
7279 <term><emphasis>js-events</emphasis></term>
7282 This is a very radical measure. It removes virtually all JavaScript event bindings, which
7283 means that scripts can not react to user actions such as mouse movements or clicks, window
7284 resizing etc, anymore. Use with caution!
7287 We <emphasis>strongly discourage</emphasis> using this filter as a default since it breaks
7288 many legitimate scripts. It is meant for use only on extra-nasty sites (should you really
7295 <term><emphasis>html-annoyances</emphasis></term>
7298 This filter will undo many common instances of HTML based abuse.
7301 The <literal>BLINK</literal> and <literal>MARQUEE</literal> tags
7302 are neutralized (yeah baby!), and browser windows will be created as
7303 resizeable (as of course they should be!), and will have location,
7304 scroll and menu bars -- even if specified otherwise.
7310 <term><emphasis>content-cookies</emphasis></term>
7313 Most cookies are set in the HTTP dialog, where they can be intercepted
7315 <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal>
7316 and <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>
7317 actions. But web sites increasingly make use of HTML meta tags and JavaScript
7318 to sneak cookies to the browser on the content level.
7321 This filter disables most HTML and JavaScript code that reads or sets
7322 cookies. It cannot detect all clever uses of these types of code, so it
7323 should not be relied on as an absolute fix. Use it wherever you would also
7324 use the cookie crunch actions.
7330 <term><emphasis>refresh tags</emphasis></term>
7333 Disable any refresh tags if the interval is greater than nine seconds (so
7334 that redirections done via refresh tags are not destroyed). This is useful
7335 for dial-on-demand setups, or for those who find this HTML feature
7342 <term><emphasis>unsolicited-popups</emphasis></term>
7345 This filter attempts to prevent only <quote>unsolicited</quote> pop-up
7346 windows from opening, yet still allow pop-up windows that the user
7347 has explicitly chosen to open. It was added in version 3.0.1,
7348 as an improvement over earlier such filters.
7351 Technical note: The filter works by redefining the window.open JavaScript
7352 function to a dummy function, <literal>PrivoxyWindowOpen()</literal>,
7353 during the loading and rendering phase of each HTML page access, and
7354 restoring the function afterward.
7357 This is recommended only for browsers that cannot perform this function
7358 reliably themselves. And be aware that some sites require such windows
7359 in order to function normally. Use with caution.
7365 <term><emphasis>all-popups</emphasis></term>
7368 Attempt to prevent <emphasis>all</emphasis> pop-up windows from opening.
7369 Note this should be used with even more discretion than the above, since
7370 it is more likely to break some sites that require pop-ups for normal
7371 usage. Use with caution.
7377 <term><emphasis>img-reorder</emphasis></term>
7380 This is a helper filter that has no value if used alone. It makes the
7381 <literal>banners-by-size</literal> and <literal>banners-by-link</literal>
7382 (see below) filters more effective and should be enabled together with them.
7388 <term><emphasis>banners-by-size</emphasis></term>
7391 This filter removes image tags purely based on what size they are. Fortunately
7392 for us, many ads and banner images tend to conform to certain standardized
7393 sizes, which makes this filter quite effective for ad stripping purposes.
7396 Occasionally this filter will cause false positives on images that are not ads,
7397 but just happen to be of one of the standard banner sizes.
7400 Recommended only for those who require extreme ad blocking. The default
7401 block rules should catch 95+% of all ads <emphasis>without</emphasis> this filter enabled.
7407 <term><emphasis>banners-by-link</emphasis></term>
7410 This is an experimental filter that attempts to kill any banners if
7411 their URLs seem to point to known or suspected click trackers. It is currently
7412 not of much value and is not recommended for use by default.
7418 <term><emphasis>webbugs</emphasis></term>
7421 Webbugs are small, invisible images (technically 1X1 GIF images), that
7422 are used to track users across websites, and collect information on them.
7423 As an HTML page is loaded by the browser, an embedded image tag causes the
7424 browser to contact a third-party site, disclosing the tracking information
7425 through the requested URL and/or cookies for that third-party domain, without
7426 the user ever becoming aware of the interaction with the third-party site.
7427 HTML-ized spam also uses a similar technique to verify email addresses.
7430 This filter removes the HTML code that loads such <quote>webbugs</quote>.
7436 <term><emphasis>tiny-textforms</emphasis></term>
7439 A rather special-purpose filter that can be used to enlarge textareas (those
7440 multi-line text boxes in web forms) and turn off hard word wrap in them.
7441 It was written for the sourceforge.net tracker system where such boxes are
7442 a nuisance, but it can be handy on other sites, too.
7445 It is not recommended to use this filter as a default.
7451 <term><emphasis>jumping-windows</emphasis></term>
7454 Many consider windows that move, or resize themselves to be abusive. This filter
7455 neutralizes the related JavaScript code. Note that some sites might not display
7456 or behave as intended when using this filter. Use with caution.
7462 <term><emphasis>frameset-borders</emphasis></term>
7465 Some web designers seem to assume that everyone in the world will view their
7466 web sites using the same browser brand and version, screen resolution etc,
7467 because only that assumption could explain why they'd use static frame sizes,
7468 yet prevent their frames from being resized by the user, should they be too
7469 small to show their whole content.
7472 This filter removes the related HTML code. It should only be applied to sites
7479 <term><emphasis>demoronizer</emphasis></term>
7482 Many Microsoft products that generate HTML use non-standard extensions (read:
7483 violations) of the ISO 8859-1 aka Latin-1 character set. This can cause those
7484 HTML documents to display with errors on standard-compliant platforms.
7487 This filter translates the MS-only characters into Latin-1 equivalents.
7488 It is not necessary when using MS products, and will cause corruption of
7489 all documents that use 8-bit character sets other than Latin-1. It's mostly
7490 worthwhile for Europeans on non-MS platforms, if weird garbage characters
7491 sometimes appear on some pages, or user agents that don't correct for this on
7494 My version of Mozilla (ancient) shows litte square boxes for quote
7495 characters, and apostrophes on moronized pages. So many pages have this, I
7496 can read them fine now. HB 08/27/06
7503 <term><emphasis>shockwave-flash</emphasis></term>
7506 A filter for shockwave haters. As the name suggests, this filter strips code
7507 out of web pages that is used to embed shockwave flash objects.
7515 <term><emphasis>quicktime-kioskmode</emphasis></term>
7518 Change HTML code that embeds Quicktime objects so that kioskmode, which
7519 prevents saving, is disabled.
7525 <term><emphasis>fun</emphasis></term>
7528 Text replacements for subversive browsing fun. Make fun of your favorite
7529 Monopolist or play buzzword bingo.
7535 <term><emphasis>crude-parental</emphasis></term>
7538 A demonstration-only filter that shows how <application>Privoxy</application>
7539 can be used to delete web content on a keyword basis.
7545 <term><emphasis>ie-exploits</emphasis></term>
7548 An experimental collection of text replacements to disable malicious HTML and JavaScript
7549 code that exploits known security holes in Internet Explorer.
7552 Presently, it only protects against Nimda and a cross-site scripting bug, and
7553 would need active maintenance to provide more substantial protection.
7559 <term><emphasis>site-specifics</emphasis></term>
7562 Some web sites have very specific problems, the cure for which doesn't apply
7563 anywhere else, or could even cause damage on other sites.
7566 This is a collection of such site-specific cures which should only be applied
7567 to the sites they were intended for, which is what the supplied
7568 <filename>default.action</filename> file does. Users shouldn't need to change
7569 anything regarding this filter.
7575 <term><emphasis>google</emphasis></term>
7578 A CSS based block for Google text ads. Also removes a width limitation
7579 and the toolbar advertisement.
7585 <term><emphasis>yahoo</emphasis></term>
7588 Another CSS based block, this time for Yahoo text ads. And removes
7589 a width limitation as well.
7595 <term><emphasis>msn</emphasis></term>
7598 Another CSS based block, this time for MSN text ads. And removes
7599 tracking URLs, as well as a width limitation.
7605 <term><emphasis>blogspot</emphasis></term>
7608 Cleans up some Blogspot blogs. Read the fine print before using this one!
7611 This filter also intentionally removes some navigation stuff and sets the
7612 page width to 100%. As a result, some rounded <quote>corners</quote> would
7613 appear to early or not at all and as fixing this would require a browser
7614 that understands background-size (CSS3), they are removed instead.
7620 <term><emphasis>xml-to-html</emphasis></term>
7623 Server-header filter to change the Content-Type from xml to html.
7629 <term><emphasis>html-to-xml</emphasis></term>
7632 Server-header filter to change the Content-Type from html to xml.
7638 <term><emphasis>no-ping</emphasis></term>
7641 Removes the non-standard <literal>ping</literal> attribute from
7642 anchor and area HTML tags.
7648 <term><emphasis>hide-tor-exit-notation</emphasis></term>
7651 Client-header filter to remove the <command>Tor</command> exit node notation
7652 found in Host and Referer headers.
7655 If &my-app; and <command>Tor</command> are chained and &my-app;
7656 is configured to use socks4a, one can use <quote>http://www.example.org.foobar.exit/</quote>
7657 to access the host <quote>www.example.org</quote> through the
7658 <command>Tor</command> exit node <quote>foobar</quote>.
7661 As the HTTP client isn't aware of this notation, it treats the
7662 whole string <quote>www.example.org.foobar.exit</quote> as host and uses it
7663 for the <quote>Host</quote> and <quote>Referer</quote> headers. From the
7664 server's point of view the resulting headers are invalid and can cause problems.
7667 An invalid <quote>Referer</quote> header can trigger <quote>hot-linking</quote>
7668 protections, an invalid <quote>Host</quote> header will make it impossible for
7669 the server to find the right vhost (several domains hosted on the same IP address).
7672 This client-header filter removes the <quote>foo.exit</quote> part in those headers
7673 to prevent the mentioned problems. Note that it only modifies
7674 the HTTP headers, it doesn't make it impossible for the server
7675 to detect your <command>Tor</command> exit node based on the IP address
7676 the request is coming from.
7683 <term><emphasis> </emphasis></term>
7697 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7701 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7703 <sect1 id="templates">
7704 <title>Privoxy's Template Files</title>
7706 All <application>Privoxy</application> built-in pages, i.e. error pages such as the
7707 <ulink url="http://show-the-404-error.page"><quote>404 - No Such Domain</quote>
7708 error page</ulink>, the <ulink
7709 url="http://ads.bannerserver.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor.html"><quote>BLOCKED</quote>
7711 and all pages of its <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">web-based
7712 user interface</ulink>, are generated from <emphasis>templates</emphasis>.
7713 (<application>Privoxy</application> must be running for the above links to work as
7718 These templates are stored in a subdirectory of the <link linkend="confdir">configuration
7719 directory</link> called <filename>templates</filename>. On Unixish platforms,
7721 <ulink url="file:///etc/privoxy/templates/"><filename>/etc/privoxy/templates/</filename></ulink>.
7725 The templates are basically normal HTML files, but with place-holders (called symbols
7726 or exports), which <application>Privoxy</application> fills at run time. You can
7727 edit the templates with a normal text editor, should you want to customize them.
7728 (<emphasis>Not recommended for the casual user</emphasis>). Note that
7729 just like in configuration files, lines starting with <literal>#</literal> are
7730 ignored when the templates are filled in.
7734 The place-holders are of the form <literal>@name@</literal>, and you will
7735 find a list of available symbols, which vary from template to template,
7736 in the comments at the start of each file. Note that these comments are not
7737 always accurate, and that it's probably best to look at the existing HTML
7738 code to find out which symbols are supported and what they are filled in with.
7742 A special application of this substitution mechanism is to make whole
7743 blocks of HTML code disappear when a specific symbol is set. We use this
7744 for many purposes, one of them being to include the beta warning in all
7745 our user interface (CGI) pages when <application>Privoxy</application>
7746 is in an alpha or beta development stage:
7751 <!-- @if-unstable-start -->
7753 ... beta warning HTML code goes here ...
7755 <!-- if-unstable-end@ --></screen>
7759 If the "unstable" symbol is set, everything in between and including
7760 <literal>@if-unstable-start</literal> and <literal>if-unstable-end@</literal>
7761 will disappear, leaving nothing but an empty comment:
7765 <screen><!-- --></screen>
7769 There's also an if-then-else construct and an <literal>#include</literal>
7770 mechanism, but you'll sure find out if you are inclined to edit the
7775 All templates refer to a style located at
7776 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/send-stylesheet"><literal>http://config.privoxy.org/send-stylesheet</literal></ulink>.
7777 This is, of course, locally served by <application>Privoxy</application>
7778 and the source for it can be found and edited in the
7779 <filename>cgi-style.css</filename> template.
7784 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7788 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7790 <sect1 id="contact"><title>Contacting the Developers, Bug Reporting and Feature
7793 <!-- Include contacting.sgml boilerplate: -->
7795 <!-- end boilerplate -->
7799 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7802 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7803 <sect1 id="copyright"><title>Privoxy Copyright, License and History</title>
7805 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
7807 <!-- end copyright -->
7809 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7810 <sect2><title>License</title>
7811 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
7813 <!-- end copyright -->
7815 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7818 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7820 <sect2 id="history"><title>History</title>
7821 <!-- Include history.sgml: -->
7823 <!-- end history -->
7826 <sect2 id="authors"><title>Authors</title>
7827 <!-- Include p-authors.sgml: -->
7829 <!-- end authors -->
7834 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7837 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7838 <sect1 id="seealso"><title>See Also</title>
7839 <!-- Include seealso.sgml: -->
7841 <!-- end seealso -->
7846 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7847 <sect1 id="appendix"><title>Appendix</title>
7850 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7852 <title>Regular Expressions</title>
7854 <application>Privoxy</application> uses Perl-style <quote>regular
7855 expressions</quote> in its <link linkend="actions-file">actions
7856 files</link> and <link linkend="filter-file">filter file</link>,
7857 through the <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/">PCRE</ulink> and
7860 <ulink url="http://www.oesterhelt.org/pcrs/">PCRS</ulink> libraries.
7862 <application>PCRS</application> libraries.
7866 If you are reading this, you probably don't understand what <quote>regular
7867 expressions</quote> are, or what they can do. So this will be a very brief
7868 introduction only. A full explanation would require a <ulink
7869 url="http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/regex/">book</ulink> ;-)
7873 Regular expressions provide a language to describe patterns that can be
7874 run against strings of characters (letter, numbers, etc), to see if they
7875 match the string or not. The patterns are themselves (sometimes complex)
7876 strings of literal characters, combined with wild-cards, and other special
7877 characters, called meta-characters. The <quote>meta-characters</quote> have
7878 special meanings and are used to build complex patterns to be matched against.
7879 Perl Compatible Regular Expressions are an especially convenient
7880 <quote>dialect</quote> of the regular expression language.
7884 To make a simple analogy, we do something similar when we use wild-card
7885 characters when listing files with the <command>dir</command> command in DOS.
7886 <literal>*.*</literal> matches all filenames. The <quote>special</quote>
7887 character here is the asterisk which matches any and all characters. We can be
7888 more specific and use <literal>?</literal> to match just individual
7889 characters. So <quote>dir file?.text</quote> would match
7890 <quote>file1.txt</quote>, <quote>file2.txt</quote>, etc. We are pattern
7891 matching, using a similar technique to <quote>regular expressions</quote>!
7895 Regular expressions do essentially the same thing, but are much, much more
7896 powerful. There are many more <quote>special characters</quote> and ways of
7897 building complex patterns however. Let's look at a few of the common ones,
7898 and then some examples:
7903 <emphasis>.</emphasis> - Matches any single character, e.g. <quote>a</quote>,
7904 <quote>A</quote>, <quote>4</quote>, <quote>:</quote>, or <quote>@</quote>.
7906 </simplelist></para>
7910 <emphasis>?</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or ONE
7913 </simplelist></para>
7917 <emphasis>+</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ONE or MORE
7920 </simplelist></para>
7924 <emphasis>*</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or MORE
7927 </simplelist></para>
7931 <emphasis>\</emphasis> - The <quote>escape</quote> character denotes that
7932 the following character should be taken literally. This is used where one of the
7933 special characters (e.g. <quote>.</quote>) needs to be taken literally and
7934 not as a special meta-character. Example: <quote>example\.com</quote>, makes
7935 sure the period is recognized only as a period (and not expanded to its
7936 meta-character meaning of any single character).
7938 </simplelist></para>
7942 <emphasis>[ ]</emphasis> - Characters enclosed in brackets will be matched if
7943 any of the enclosed characters are encountered. For instance, <quote>[0-9]</quote>
7944 matches any numeric digit (zero through nine). As an example, we can combine
7945 this with <quote>+</quote> to match any digit one of more times: <quote>[0-9]+</quote>.
7947 </simplelist></para>
7951 <emphasis>( )</emphasis> - parentheses are used to group a sub-expression,
7952 or multiple sub-expressions.
7954 </simplelist></para>
7958 <emphasis>|</emphasis> - The <quote>bar</quote> character works like an
7959 <quote>or</quote> conditional statement. A match is successful if the
7960 sub-expression on either side of <quote>|</quote> matches. As an example:
7961 <quote>/(this|that) example/</quote> uses grouping and the bar character
7962 and would match either <quote>this example</quote> or <quote>that
7963 example</quote>, and nothing else.
7965 </simplelist></para>
7968 These are just some of the ones you are likely to use when matching URLs with
7969 <application>Privoxy</application>, and is a long way from a definitive
7970 list. This is enough to get us started with a few simple examples which may
7971 be more illuminating:
7975 <emphasis><literal>/.*/banners/.*</literal></emphasis> - A simple example
7976 that uses the common combination of <quote>.</quote> and <quote>*</quote> to
7977 denote any character, zero or more times. In other words, any string at all.
7978 So we start with a literal forward slash, then our regular expression pattern
7979 (<quote>.*</quote>) another literal forward slash, the string
7980 <quote>banners</quote>, another forward slash, and lastly another
7981 <quote>.*</quote>. We are building
7982 a directory path here. This will match any file with the path that has a
7983 directory named <quote>banners</quote> in it. The <quote>.*</quote> matches
7984 any characters, and this could conceivably be more forward slashes, so it
7985 might expand into a much longer looking path. For example, this could match:
7986 <quote>/eye/hate/spammers/banners/annoy_me_please.gif</quote>, or just
7987 <quote>/banners/annoying.html</quote>, or almost an infinite number of other
7988 possible combinations, just so it has <quote>banners</quote> in the path
7993 And now something a little more complex:
7997 <emphasis><literal>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))?/</literal></emphasis> -
7998 We have several literal forward slashes again (<quote>/</quote>), so we are
7999 building another expression that is a file path statement. We have another
8000 <quote>.*</quote>, so we are matching against any conceivable sub-path, just so
8001 it matches our expression. The only true literal that <emphasis>must
8002 match</emphasis> our pattern is <application>adv</application>, together with
8003 the forward slashes. What comes after the <quote>adv</quote> string is the
8008 Remember the <quote>?</quote> means the preceding expression (either a
8009 literal character or anything grouped with <quote>(...)</quote> in this case)
8010 can exist or not, since this means either zero or one match. So
8011 <quote>((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))</quote> is optional, as are the
8012 individual sub-expressions: <quote>(er)</quote>,
8013 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, and the <quote>s</quote>. The <quote>|</quote>
8014 means <quote>or</quote>. We have two of those. For instance,
8015 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, can expand to match either <quote>ing</quote>
8016 <emphasis>OR</emphasis> <quote>ements?</quote>. What is being done here, is an
8017 attempt at matching as many variations of <quote>advertisement</quote>, and
8018 similar, as possible. So this would expand to match just <quote>adv</quote>,
8019 or <quote>advert</quote>, or <quote>adverts</quote>, or
8020 <quote>advertising</quote>, or <quote>advertisement</quote>, or
8021 <quote>advertisements</quote>. You get the idea. But it would not match
8022 <quote>advertizements</quote> (with a <quote>z</quote>). We could fix that by
8023 changing our regular expression to:
8024 <quote>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|erti(s|z)(ing|ements?))?/</quote>, which would then match
8029 <emphasis><literal>/.*/advert[0-9]+\.(gif|jpe?g)</literal></emphasis> - Again
8030 another path statement with forward slashes. Anything in the square brackets
8031 <quote>[ ]</quote> can be matched. This is using <quote>0-9</quote> as a
8032 shorthand expression to mean any digit one through nine. It is the same as
8033 saying <quote>0123456789</quote>. So any digit matches. The <quote>+</quote>
8034 means one or more of the preceding expression must be included. The preceding
8035 expression here is what is in the square brackets -- in this case, any digit
8036 one through nine. Then, at the end, we have a grouping: <quote>(gif|jpe?g)</quote>.
8037 This includes a <quote>|</quote>, so this needs to match the expression on
8038 either side of that bar character also. A simple <quote>gif</quote> on one side, and the other
8039 side will in turn match either <quote>jpeg</quote> or <quote>jpg</quote>,
8040 since the <quote>?</quote> means the letter <quote>e</quote> is optional and
8041 can be matched once or not at all. So we are building an expression here to
8042 match image GIF or JPEG type image file. It must include the literal
8043 string <quote>advert</quote>, then one or more digits, and a <quote>.</quote>
8044 (which is now a literal, and not a special character, since it is escaped
8045 with <quote>\</quote>), and lastly either <quote>gif</quote>, or
8046 <quote>jpeg</quote>, or <quote>jpg</quote>. Some possible matches would
8047 include: <quote>//advert1.jpg</quote>,
8048 <quote>/nasty/ads/advert1234.gif</quote>,
8049 <quote>/banners/from/hell/advert99.jpg</quote>. It would not match
8050 <quote>advert1.gif</quote> (no leading slash), or
8051 <quote>/adverts232.jpg</quote> (the expression does not include an
8052 <quote>s</quote>), or <quote>/advert1.jsp</quote> (<quote>jsp</quote> is not
8053 in the expression anywhere).
8057 We are barely scratching the surface of regular expressions here so that you
8058 can understand the default <application>Privoxy</application>
8059 configuration files, and maybe use this knowledge to customize your own
8060 installation. There is much, much more that can be done with regular
8061 expressions. Now that you know enough to get started, you can learn more on
8066 More reading on Perl Compatible Regular expressions:
8067 <ulink url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html">http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html</ulink>
8071 For information on regular expression based substitutions and their applications
8072 in filters, please see the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file tutorial</link>
8077 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
8080 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
8082 <title>Privoxy's Internal Pages</title>
8085 Since <application>Privoxy</application> proxies each requested
8086 web page, it is easy for <application>Privoxy</application> to
8087 trap certain special URLs. In this way, we can talk directly to
8088 <application>Privoxy</application>, and see how it is
8089 configured, see how our rules are being applied, change these
8090 rules and other configuration options, and even turn
8091 <application>Privoxy's</application> filtering off, all with
8097 The URLs listed below are the special ones that allow direct access
8098 to <application>Privoxy</application>. Of course,
8099 <application>Privoxy</application> must be running to access these. If
8100 not, you will get a friendly error message. Internet access is not
8113 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
8117 There is a shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink> (But it
8118 doesn't provide a fall-back to a real page, in case the request is not
8119 sent through <application>Privoxy</application>)
8125 Show information about the current configuration, including viewing and
8126 editing of actions files:
8130 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
8137 Show the source code version numbers:
8141 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-version">http://config.privoxy.org/show-version</ulink>
8148 Show the browser's request headers:
8152 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request">http://config.privoxy.org/show-request</ulink>
8159 Show which actions apply to a URL and why:
8163 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
8170 Toggle Privoxy on or off. In this case, <quote>Privoxy</quote> continues
8171 to run, but only as a pass-through proxy, with no actions taking place:
8175 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</ulink>
8179 Short cuts. Turn off, then on:
8183 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable</ulink>
8188 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable</ulink>
8197 These may be bookmarked for quick reference. See next.
8201 <sect3 id="bookmarklets">
8202 <title>Bookmarklets</title>
8204 Below are some <quote>bookmarklets</quote> to allow you to easily access a
8205 <quote>mini</quote> version of some of <application>Privoxy's</application>
8206 special pages. They are designed for MS Internet Explorer, but should work
8207 equally well in Netscape, Mozilla, and other browsers which support
8208 JavaScript. They are designed to run directly from your bookmarks - not by
8209 clicking the links below (although that should work for testing).
8212 To save them, right-click the link and choose <quote>Add to Favorites</quote>
8213 (IE) or <quote>Add Bookmark</quote> (Netscape). You will get a warning that
8214 the bookmark <quote>may not be safe</quote> - just click OK. Then you can run the
8215 Bookmarklet directly from your favorites/bookmarks. For even faster access,
8216 you can put them on the <quote>Links</quote> bar (IE) or the <quote>Personal
8217 Toolbar</quote> (Netscape), and run them with a single click.
8226 url="javascript:void(window.open('http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?mini=y&set=enabled','ijbstatus','width=250,height=100,resizable=yes,scrollbars=no,toolbar=no,location=no,directories=no,status=no,menubar=no,copyhistory=no').focus());">Privoxy - Enable</ulink>
8233 url="javascript:void(window.open('http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?mini=y&set=disabled','ijbstatus','width=250,height=100,resizable=yes,scrollbars=no,toolbar=no,location=no,directories=no,status=no,menubar=no,copyhistory=no').focus());">Privoxy - Disable</ulink>
8240 url="javascript:void(window.open('http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?mini=y&set=toggle','ijbstatus','width=250,height=100,resizable=yes,scrollbars=no,toolbar=no,location=no,directories=no,status=no,menubar=no,copyhistory=no').focus());">Privoxy - Toggle Privoxy</ulink> (Toggles between enabled and disabled)
8247 url="javascript:void(window.open('http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?mini=y','ijbstatus','width=250,height=2,resizable=yes,scrollbars=no,toolbar=no,location=no,directories=no,status=no,menubar=no,copyhistory=no').focus());">Privoxy- View Status</ulink>
8253 <ulink url="javascript:w=Math.floor(screen.width/2);h=Math.floor(screen.height*0.9);void(window.open('http://www.privoxy.org/actions/index.php?url='+escape(location.href),'Feedback','screenx='+w+',width='+w+',height='+h+',scrollbars=yes,toolbar=no,location=no,directories=no,status=no,menubar=no,copyhistory=no').focus());">Privoxy - Submit Actions File Feedback</ulink>
8259 <ulink url="javascript:void(window.open('http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info?url='+escape(location.href),'Why').focus());">Privoxy - Why?</ulink>
8266 Credit: The site which gave us the general idea for these bookmarklets is
8267 <ulink url="http://www.bookmarklets.com/">www.bookmarklets.com</ulink>. They
8268 have more information about bookmarklets.
8277 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
8279 <title>Chain of Events</title>
8281 Let's take a quick look at how some of <application>Privoxy's</application>
8282 core features are triggered, and the ensuing sequence of events when a web
8283 page is requested by your browser:
8290 First, your web browser requests a web page. The browser knows to send
8291 the request to <application>Privoxy</application>, which will in turn,
8292 relay the request to the remote web server after passing the following
8298 <application>Privoxy</application> traps any request for its own internal CGI
8299 pages (e.g <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>) and sends the CGI page back to the browser.
8304 Next, <application>Privoxy</application> checks to see if the URL
8306 linkend="BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></link> patterns. If
8307 so, the URL is then blocked, and the remote web server will not be contacted.
8308 <link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></link>
8310 <link linkend="HANDLE-AS-EMPTY-DOCUMENT"><quote>+handle-as-empty-document</quote></link>
8311 are then checked, and if there is no match, an
8312 HTML <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page is sent back to the browser. Otherwise, if
8313 it does match, an image is returned for the former, and an empty text
8314 document for the latter. The type of image would depend on the setting of
8315 <link linkend="SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"><quote>+set-image-blocker</quote></link>
8316 (blank, checkerboard pattern, or an HTTP redirect to an image elsewhere).
8321 Untrusted URLs are blocked. If URLs are being added to the
8322 <filename>trust</filename> file, then that is done.
8327 If the URL pattern matches the <link
8328 linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS"><quote>+fast-redirects</quote></link> action,
8329 it is then processed. Unwanted parts of the requested URL are stripped.
8334 Now the rest of the client browser's request headers are processed. If any
8335 of these match any of the relevant actions (e.g. <link
8336 linkend="HIDE-USER-AGENT"><quote>+hide-user-agent</quote></link>,
8337 etc.), headers are suppressed or forged as determined by these actions and
8343 Now the web server starts sending its response back (i.e. typically a web
8349 First, the server headers are read and processed to determine, among other
8350 things, the MIME type (document type) and encoding. The headers are then
8351 filtered as determined by the
8352 <link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES"><quote>+crunch-incoming-cookies</quote></link>,
8353 <link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"><quote>+session-cookies-only</quote></link>,
8354 and <link linkend="DOWNGRADE-HTTP-VERSION"><quote>+downgrade-http-version</quote></link>
8360 If the <link linkend="KILL-POPUPS"><quote>+kill-popups</quote></link>
8361 action applies, and it is an HTML or JavaScript document, the popup-code in the
8362 response is filtered on-the-fly as it is received.
8367 If any <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> action
8369 linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS"><quote>+deanimate-gifs</quote></link>
8370 action applies (and the document type fits the action), the rest of the page is
8371 read into memory (up to a configurable limit). Then the filter rules (from
8372 <filename>default.filter</filename> and any other filter files) are
8373 processed against the buffered content. Filters are applied in the order
8374 they are specified in one of the filter files. Animated GIFs, if present,
8375 are reduced to either the first or last frame, depending on the action
8376 setting.The entire page, which is now filtered, is then sent by
8377 <application>Privoxy</application> back to your browser.
8380 If neither a <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> action
8382 linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS"><quote>+deanimate-gifs</quote></link>
8383 matches, then <application>Privoxy</application> passes the raw data through
8384 to the client browser as it becomes available.
8389 As the browser receives the now (possibly filtered) page content, it
8390 reads and then requests any URLs that may be embedded within the page
8391 source, e.g. ad images, stylesheets, JavaScript, other HTML documents (e.g.
8392 frames), sounds, etc. For each of these objects, the browser issues a
8393 separate request (this is easily viewable in <application>Privoxy's</application>
8394 logs). And each such request is in turn processed just as above. Note that a
8395 complex web page will have many, many such embedded URLs. If these
8396 secondary requests are to a different server, then quite possibly a very
8397 differing set of actions is triggered.
8404 NOTE: This is somewhat of a simplistic overview of what happens with each URL
8405 request. For the sake of brevity and simplicity, we have focused on
8406 <application>Privoxy's</application> core features only.
8412 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
8413 <sect2 id="actionsanat">
8414 <title>Troubleshooting: Anatomy of an Action</title>
8417 The way <application>Privoxy</application> applies
8418 <link linkend="ACTIONS">actions</link> and <link linkend="FILTER">filters</link>
8419 to any given URL can be complex, and not always so
8420 easy to understand what is happening. And sometimes we need to be able to
8421 <emphasis>see</emphasis> just what <application>Privoxy</application> is
8422 doing. Especially, if something <application>Privoxy</application> is doing
8423 is causing us a problem inadvertently. It can be a little daunting to look at
8424 the actions and filters files themselves, since they tend to be filled with
8425 <link linkend="regex">regular expressions</link> whose consequences are not
8430 One quick test to see if <application>Privoxy</application> is causing a problem
8431 or not, is to disable it temporarily. This should be the first troubleshooting
8432 step. See <link linkend="bookmarklets">the Bookmarklets</link> section on a quick
8433 and easy way to do this (be sure to flush caches afterward!). Looking at the
8434 logs is a good idea too.
8437 Another easy troubleshooting step to try is if you have done any
8438 customization of your installation, revert back to the installed
8439 defaults and see if that helps. There are times the developers get complaints
8440 about one thing or another, and the problem is more related to a customized
8441 configuration issue.
8445 <application>Privoxy</application> also provides the
8446 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
8447 page that can show us very specifically how <application>actions</application>
8448 are being applied to any given URL. This is a big help for troubleshooting.
8452 First, enter one URL (or partial URL) at the prompt, and then
8453 <application>Privoxy</application> will tell us
8454 how the current configuration will handle it. This will not
8455 help with filtering effects (i.e. the <link
8456 linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> action) from
8457 one of the filter files since this is handled very
8458 differently and not so easy to trap! It also will not tell you about any other
8459 URLs that may be embedded within the URL you are testing. For instance, images
8460 such as ads are expressed as URLs within the raw page source of HTML pages. So
8461 you will only get info for the actual URL that is pasted into the prompt area
8462 -- not any sub-URLs. If you want to know about embedded URLs like ads, you
8463 will have to dig those out of the HTML source. Use your browser's <quote>View
8464 Page Source</quote> option for this. Or right click on the ad, and grab the
8469 Let's try an example, <ulink url="http://google.com">google.com</ulink>,
8470 and look at it one section at a time in a sample configuration (your real
8471 configuration may vary):
8476 Matches for http://google.com:
8478 In file: default.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
8482 -client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation}
8483 -content-type-overwrite
8484 -crunch-client-header
8485 -crunch-if-none-match
8486 -crunch-incoming-cookies
8487 -crunch-outgoing-cookies
8488 -crunch-server-header
8489 +deanimate-gifs {last}
8490 -downgrade-http-version
8491 +fast-redirects {check-decoded-url}
8493 -filter {content-cookies}
8494 -filter {all-popups}
8495 -filter {banners-by-link}
8496 -filter {tiny-textforms}
8497 -filter {frameset-borders}
8498 -filter {demoronizer}
8499 -filter {shockwave-flash}
8500 -filter {quicktime-kioskmode}
8502 -filter {crude-parental}
8503 -filter {site-specifics}
8504 -filter {js-annoyances}
8505 -filter {html-annoyances}
8506 +filter {refresh-tags}
8507 -filter {unsolicited-popups}
8508 +filter {img-reorder}
8509 +filter {banners-by-size}
8511 +filter {jumping-windows}
8512 +filter {ie-exploits}
8519 -handle-as-empty-document
8521 -hide-accept-language
8522 -hide-content-disposition
8523 +hide-forwarded-for-headers
8524 +hide-from-header {block}
8525 -hide-if-modified-since
8526 +hide-referrer {forge}
8531 -overwrite-last-modified
8532 +prevent-compression
8536 -server-header-filter{xml-to-html}
8537 -server-header-filter{html-to-xml}
8538 +session-cookies-only
8539 +set-image-blocker {pattern}
8540 -treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks }
8543 { -session-cookies-only }
8549 In file: user.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
8550 (no matches in this file)
8555 This is telling us how we have defined our
8556 <link linkend="ACTIONS"><quote>actions</quote></link>, and
8557 which ones match for our test case, <quote>google.com</quote>.
8558 Displayed is all the actions that are available to us. Remember,
8559 the <literal>+</literal> sign denotes <quote>on</quote>. <literal>-</literal>
8560 denotes <quote>off</quote>. So some are <quote>on</quote> here, but many
8561 are <quote>off</quote>. Each example we try may provide a slightly different
8562 end result, depending on our configuration directives.
8566 is for our <filename>default.action</filename> file. The large, multi-line
8567 listing, is how the actions are set to match for all URLs, i.e. our default
8568 settings. If you look at your <quote>actions</quote> file, this would be the
8569 section just below the <quote>aliases</quote> section near the top. This
8570 will apply to all URLs as signified by the single forward slash at the end
8571 of the listing -- <quote> / </quote>.
8575 But we have defined additional actions that would be exceptions to these general
8576 rules, and then we list specific URLs (or patterns) that these exceptions
8577 would apply to. Last match wins. Just below this then are two explicit
8578 matches for <quote>.google.com</quote>. The first is negating our previous
8579 cookie setting, which was for <link
8580 linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"><quote>+session-cookies-only</quote></link>
8581 (i.e. not persistent). So we will allow persistent cookies for google, at
8582 least that is how it is in this example. The second turns
8583 <emphasis>off</emphasis> any <link
8584 linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS"><quote>+fast-redirects</quote></link>
8585 action, allowing this to take place unmolested. Note that there is a leading
8586 dot here -- <quote>.google.com</quote>. This will match any hosts and
8587 sub-domains, in the google.com domain also, such as
8588 <quote>www.google.com</quote> or <quote>mail.google.com</quote>. But it would not
8589 match <quote>www.google.de</quote>! So, apparently, we have these two actions
8590 defined as exceptions to the general rules at the top somewhere in the lower
8591 part of our <filename>default.action</filename> file, and
8592 <quote>google.com</quote> is referenced somewhere in these latter sections.
8596 Then, for our <filename>user.action</filename> file, we again have no hits.
8597 So there is nothing google-specific that we might have added to our own, local
8598 configuration. If there was, those actions would over-rule any actions from
8599 previously processed files, such as <filename>default.action</filename>.
8600 <filename>user.action</filename> typically has the last word. This is the
8601 best place to put hard and fast exceptions,
8605 And finally we pull it all together in the bottom section and summarize how
8606 <application>Privoxy</application> is applying all its <quote>actions</quote>
8607 to <quote>google.com</quote>:
8618 -client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation}
8619 -content-type-overwrite
8620 -crunch-client-header
8621 -crunch-if-none-match
8622 -crunch-incoming-cookies
8623 -crunch-outgoing-cookies
8624 -crunch-server-header
8625 +deanimate-gifs {last}
8626 -downgrade-http-version
8627 +fast-redirects {check-decoded-url}
8629 -filter {content-cookies}
8630 -filter {all-popups}
8631 -filter {banners-by-link}
8632 -filter {tiny-textforms}
8633 -filter {frameset-borders}
8634 -filter {demoronizer}
8635 -filter {shockwave-flash}
8636 -filter {quicktime-kioskmode}
8638 -filter {crude-parental}
8639 -filter {site-specifics}
8640 -filter {js-annoyances}
8641 -filter {html-annoyances}
8642 +filter {refresh-tags}
8643 -filter {unsolicited-popups}
8644 +filter {img-reorder}
8645 +filter {banners-by-size}
8647 +filter {jumping-windows}
8648 +filter {ie-exploits}
8655 -handle-as-empty-document
8657 -hide-accept-language
8658 -hide-content-disposition
8659 +hide-forwarded-for-headers
8660 +hide-from-header {block}
8661 -hide-if-modified-since
8662 +hide-referrer {forge}
8667 -overwrite-last-modified
8668 +prevent-compression
8672 -server-header-filter{xml-to-html}
8673 -server-header-filter{html-to-xml}
8674 -session-cookies-only
8675 +set-image-blocker {pattern}
8676 -treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks </screen>
8680 Notice the only difference here to the previous listing, is to
8681 <quote>fast-redirects</quote> and <quote>session-cookies-only</quote>,
8682 which are activated specifically for this site in our configuration,
8683 and thus show in the <quote>Final Results</quote>.
8687 Now another example, <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>:
8699 { +block +handle-as-image }
8700 .[a-vx-z]*.doubleclick.net
8705 We'll just show the interesting part here - the explicit matches. It is
8706 matched three different times. Two <quote>+block</quote> sections,
8707 and a <quote>+block +handle-as-image</quote>,
8708 which is the expanded form of one of our aliases that had been defined as:
8709 <quote>+block-as-image</quote>. (<link
8710 linkend="ALIASES"><quote>Aliases</quote></link> are defined in
8711 the first section of the actions file and typically used to combine more
8716 Any one of these would have done the trick and blocked this as an unwanted
8717 image. This is unnecessarily redundant since the last case effectively
8718 would also cover the first. No point in taking chances with these guys
8719 though ;-) Note that if you want an ad or obnoxious
8720 URL to be invisible, it should be defined as <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>
8721 is done here -- as both a <link
8722 linkend="BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></link>
8723 <emphasis>and</emphasis> an
8724 <link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></link>.
8725 The custom alias <quote><literal>+block-as-image</literal></quote> just
8726 simplifies the process and make it more readable.
8730 One last example. Let's try <quote>http://www.example.net/adsl/HOWTO/</quote>.
8731 This one is giving us problems. We are getting a blank page. Hmmm ...
8737 Matches for http://www.example.net/adsl/HOWTO/:
8739 In file: default.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
8743 -client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation}
8744 -content-type-overwrite
8745 -crunch-client-header
8746 -crunch-if-none-match
8747 -crunch-incoming-cookies
8748 -crunch-outgoing-cookies
8749 -crunch-server-header
8751 -downgrade-http-version
8752 +fast-redirects {check-decoded-url}
8754 -filter {content-cookies}
8755 -filter {all-popups}
8756 -filter {banners-by-link}
8757 -filter {tiny-textforms}
8758 -filter {frameset-borders}
8759 -filter {demoronizer}
8760 -filter {shockwave-flash}
8761 -filter {quicktime-kioskmode}
8763 -filter {crude-parental}
8764 -filter {site-specifics}
8765 -filter {js-annoyances}
8766 -filter {html-annoyances}
8767 +filter {refresh-tags}
8768 -filter {unsolicited-popups}
8769 +filter {img-reorder}
8770 +filter {banners-by-size}
8772 +filter {jumping-windows}
8773 +filter {ie-exploits}
8780 -handle-as-empty-document
8782 -hide-accept-language
8783 -hide-content-disposition
8784 +hide-forwarded-for-headers
8785 +hide-from-header{block}
8786 +hide-referer{forge}
8790 -overwrite-last-modified
8791 +prevent-compression
8795 -server-header-filter{xml-to-html}
8796 -server-header-filter{html-to-xml}
8797 +session-cookies-only
8798 +set-image-blocker{blank}
8799 -treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks }
8802 { +block +handle-as-image }
8808 Ooops, the <quote>/adsl/</quote> is matching <quote>/ads</quote> in our
8809 configuration! But we did not want this at all! Now we see why we get the
8810 blank page. It is actually triggering two different actions here, and
8811 the effects are aggregated so that the URL is blocked, and &my-app; is told
8812 to treat the block as if it were an image. But this is, of course, all wrong.
8813 We could now add a new action below this (or better in our own
8814 <filename>user.action</filename> file) that explicitly
8815 <emphasis>un</emphasis> blocks (
8816 <link linkend="BLOCK"><quote>{-block}</quote></link>) paths with
8817 <quote>adsl</quote> in them (remember, last match in the configuration
8818 wins). There are various ways to handle such exceptions. Example:
8830 Now the page displays ;-)
8831 Remember to flush your browser's caches when making these kinds of changes to
8832 your configuration to insure that you get a freshly delivered page! Or, try
8833 using <literal>Shift+Reload</literal>.
8837 But now what about a situation where we get no explicit matches like
8844 { +block +handle-as-image }
8850 That actually was very helpful and pointed us quickly to where the problem
8851 was. If you don't get this kind of match, then it means one of the default
8852 rules in the first section of <filename>default.action</filename> is causing
8853 the problem. This would require some guesswork, and maybe a little trial and
8854 error to isolate the offending rule. One likely cause would be one of the
8855 <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> actions.
8856 These tend to be harder to troubleshoot.
8857 Try adding the URL for the site to one of aliases that turn off
8858 <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link>:
8866 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
8874 <quote><literal>{ shop }</literal></quote> is an <quote>alias</quote> that expands to
8875 <quote><literal>{ -filter -session-cookies-only }</literal></quote>.
8876 Or you could do your own exception to negate filtering:
8884 # Disable ALL filter actions for sites in this section
8892 This would turn off all filtering for these sites. This is best
8893 put in <filename>user.action</filename>, for local site
8894 exceptions. Note that when a simple domain pattern is used by itself (without
8895 the subsequent path portion), all sub-pages within that domain are included
8896 automatically in the scope of the action.
8900 Images that are inexplicably being blocked, may well be hitting the
8901 <link linkend="FILTER-BANNERS-BY-SIZE"><quote>+filter{banners-by-size}</quote></link>
8903 that images of certain sizes are ad banners (works well
8904 <emphasis>most of the time</emphasis> since these tend to be standardized).
8908 <quote><literal>{ fragile }</literal></quote> is an alias that disables most
8909 actions that are the most likely to cause trouble. This can be used as a
8910 last resort for problem sites.
8916 # Handle with care: easy to break
8918 mybank.example.com</screen>
8923 <emphasis>Remember to flush caches!</emphasis> Note that the
8924 <literal>mail.google</literal> reference lacks the TLD portion (e.g.
8925 <quote>.com</quote>. This will effectively match any TLD with
8926 <literal>google</literal> in it, such as <literal>mail.google.de</literal>,
8930 If this still does not work, you will have to go through the remaining
8931 actions one by one to find which one(s) is causing the problem.
8940 This program is free software; you can redistribute it
8941 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
8942 Public License as published by the Free Software
8943 Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at
8944 your option) any later version.
8946 This program is distributed in the hope that it will
8947 be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the
8948 implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
8949 PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public
8950 License for more details.
8952 The GNU General Public License should be included with
8953 this file. If not, you can view it at
8954 http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
8955 or write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
8956 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301,
8959 $Log: user-manual.sgml,v $
8960 Revision 2.36 2007/08/26 16:47:14 fabiankeil
8961 Add Stephen Gildea's --pre-chroot-nslookup patch [#1276666],
8962 extensive comments moved to user manual.
8964 Revision 2.35 2007/08/26 14:59:49 fabiankeil
8965 Minor rewordings and fixes.
8967 Revision 2.34 2007/08/05 15:19:50 fabiankeil
8968 - Don't claim HTTP/1.1 compliance.
8969 - Use $ in some of the path pattern examples.
8970 - Use a hide-user-agent example argument without
8971 leading and trailing space.
8972 - Make it clear that the cookie actions work with
8974 - Rephrase the inspect-jpegs text to underline
8975 that it's only meant to protect against a single
8978 Revision 2.33 2007/07/27 10:57:35 hal9
8979 Add references for user-agent strings for hide-user-agenet
8981 Revision 2.32 2007/06/07 12:36:22 fabiankeil
8982 Apply Roland's 29_usermanual.dpatch to fix a bunch
8983 of syntax errors I collected over the last months.
8985 Revision 2.31 2007/06/02 14:01:37 fabiankeil
8986 Start to document forward-override{}.
8988 Revision 2.30 2007/04/25 15:10:36 fabiankeil
8989 - Describe installation for FreeBSD.
8990 - Start to document taggers and tag patterns.
8991 - Don't confuse devils and daemons.
8993 Revision 2.29 2007/04/05 11:47:51 fabiankeil
8994 Some updates regarding header filtering,
8995 handling of compressed content and redirect's
8996 support for pcrs commands.
8998 Revision 2.28 2006/12/10 23:42:48 hal9
8999 Fix various typos reported by Adam P. Thanks.
9001 Revision 2.27 2006/11/14 01:57:47 hal9
9002 Dump all docs prior to 3.0.6 release. Various minor changes to faq and user
9005 Revision 2.26 2006/10/24 11:16:44 hal9
9008 Revision 2.25 2006/10/18 10:50:33 hal9
9009 Add note that since filters are off in Cautious, compression is ON. Turn off
9010 compression to make filters work on all sites.
9012 Revision 2.24 2006/10/03 11:13:54 hal9
9013 More references to the new filters. Include html this time around.
9015 Revision 2.23 2006/10/02 22:43:53 hal9
9016 Contains new filter definitions from Fabian, and few other miscellaneous
9019 Revision 2.22 2006/09/22 01:27:55 hal9
9020 Final commit of probably various minor changes here and there. Unless
9021 something changes this should be ready for pending release.
9023 Revision 2.21 2006/09/20 03:21:36 david__schmidt
9024 Just the tiniest tweak. Wafer thin!
9026 Revision 2.20 2006/09/10 14:53:54 hal9
9027 Results of spell check. User manual has some updates to standard.actions file
9030 Revision 2.19 2006/09/08 12:19:02 fabiankeil
9031 Adjust hide-if-modified-since example values
9032 to reflect the recent changes.
9034 Revision 2.18 2006/09/08 02:38:57 hal9
9036 -Fix a number of broken links.
9037 -Migrate the new Windows service command line options, and reference as
9039 -Rebuild so that can be used with the new "user-manual" config capabilities.
9042 Revision 2.17 2006/09/05 13:25:12 david__schmidt
9043 Add Windows service invocation stuff (duplicated) in FAQ and in user manual under Windows startup. One probably ought to reference the other.
9045 Revision 2.16 2006/09/02 12:49:37 hal9
9046 Various small updates for new actions, filterfiles, etc.
9048 Revision 2.15 2006/08/30 11:15:22 hal9
9049 More work on the new actions, especially filter-*-headers, and What's New
9050 section. User Manual is close to final form for 3.0.4 release. Some tinkering
9051 and proof reading left to do.
9053 Revision 2.14 2006/08/29 10:59:36 hal9
9054 Add a "Whats New in this release" Section. Further work on multiple filter
9055 files, and assorted other minor changes.
9057 Revision 2.13 2006/08/22 11:04:59 hal9
9058 Silence warnings and errors. This should build now. New filters were only
9059 stubbed in. More to be done.
9061 Revision 2.12 2006/08/14 08:40:39 fabiankeil
9062 Documented new actions that were part of
9063 the "minor Privoxy improvements".
9065 Revision 2.11 2006/07/18 14:48:51 david__schmidt
9066 Reorganizing the repository: swapping out what was HEAD (the old 3.1 branch)
9067 with what was really the latest development (the v_3_0_branch branch)
9069 Revision 1.123.2.43 2005/05/23 09:59:10 hal9
9072 Revision 1.123.2.42 2004/12/04 14:39:57 hal9
9073 Fix two minor typos per bug SF report.
9075 Revision 1.123.2.41 2004/03/23 12:58:42 oes
9078 Revision 1.123.2.40 2004/02/27 12:48:49 hal9
9079 Add comment re: redirecting to local file system for set-image-blocker may
9080 is dependent on browser.
9082 Revision 1.123.2.39 2004/01/30 22:31:40 oes
9083 Added a hint re bookmarklets to Quickstart section
9085 Revision 1.123.2.38 2004/01/30 16:47:51 oes
9086 Some minor clarifications
9088 Revision 1.123.2.37 2004/01/29 22:36:11 hal9
9089 Updates for no longer filtering text/plain, and demoronizer default settings,
9090 and copyright notice dates.
9092 Revision 1.123.2.36 2003/12/10 02:26:26 hal9
9093 Changed the demoronizer filter description.
9095 Revision 1.123.2.35 2003/11/06 13:36:37 oes
9096 Updated link to nightly CVS tarball
9098 Revision 1.123.2.34 2003/06/26 23:50:16 hal9
9099 Add a small bit on filtering and problems re: source code being corrupted.
9101 Revision 1.123.2.33 2003/05/08 18:17:33 roro
9102 Use apt-get instead of dpkg to install Debian package, which is more
9103 solid, uses the correct and most recent Debian version automatically.
9105 Revision 1.123.2.32 2003/04/11 03:13:57 hal9
9106 Add small note about only one filterfile (as opposed to multiple actions
9109 Revision 1.123.2.31 2003/03/26 02:03:43 oes
9110 Updated hard-coded copyright dates
9112 Revision 1.123.2.30 2003/03/24 12:58:56 hal9
9113 Add new section on Predefined Filters.
9115 Revision 1.123.2.29 2003/03/20 02:45:29 hal9
9116 More problems with \-\-chroot causing markup problems :(
9118 Revision 1.123.2.28 2003/03/19 00:35:24 hal9
9119 Manual edit of revision log because 'chroot' (even inside a comment) was
9120 causing Docbook to hang here (due to double hyphen and the processor thinking
9123 Revision 1.123.2.27 2003/03/18 19:37:14 oes
9124 s/Advanced|Radical/Adventuresome/g to avoid complaints re fun filter
9126 Revision 1.123.2.26 2003/03/17 16:50:53 oes
9127 Added documentation for new chroot option
9129 Revision 1.123.2.25 2003/03/15 18:36:55 oes
9130 Adapted to the new filters
9132 Revision 1.123.2.24 2002/11/17 06:41:06 hal9
9133 Move default profiles table from FAQ to U-M, and other minor related changes.
9136 Revision 1.123.2.23 2002/10/21 02:32:01 hal9
9137 Updates to the user.action examples section. A few new ones.
9139 Revision 1.123.2.22 2002/10/12 00:51:53 hal9
9140 Add demoronizer to filter section.
9142 Revision 1.123.2.21 2002/10/10 04:09:35 hal9
9143 s/Advanced/Radical/ and added very brief note.
9145 Revision 1.123.2.20 2002/10/10 03:49:21 hal9
9146 Add notes to session-cookies-only and Quickstart about pre-existing
9147 cookies. Also, note content-cookies work differently.
9149 Revision 1.123.2.19 2002/09/26 01:25:36 hal9
9150 More explanation on Privoxy patterns, more on content-cookies and SSL.
9152 Revision 1.123.2.18 2002/08/22 23:47:58 hal9
9153 Add 'Documentation' to Privoxy Menu shot in Configuration section to match
9156 Revision 1.123.2.17 2002/08/18 01:13:05 hal9
9157 Spell checked (only one typo this time!).
9159 Revision 1.123.2.16 2002/08/09 19:20:54 david__schmidt
9160 Update to Mac OSX startup script name
9162 Revision 1.123.2.15 2002/08/07 17:32:11 oes
9163 Converted some internal links from ulink to link for PDF creation; no content changed
9165 Revision 1.123.2.14 2002/08/06 09:16:13 oes
9166 Nits re: actions file download
9168 Revision 1.123.2.13 2002/08/02 18:23:19 g_sauthoff
9169 Just 2 small corrections to the Gentoo sections
9171 Revision 1.123.2.12 2002/08/02 18:17:21 g_sauthoff
9172 Added 2 Gentoo sections
9174 Revision 1.123.2.11 2002/07/26 15:20:31 oes
9175 - Added version info to title
9176 - Added info on new filters
9177 - Revised parts of the filter file tutorial
9178 - Added info on where to get updated actions files
9180 Revision 1.123.2.10 2002/07/25 21:42:29 hal9
9181 Add brief notes on not proxying non-HTTP protocols.
9183 Revision 1.123.2.9 2002/07/11 03:40:28 david__schmidt
9185 Updated Mac OSX sections due to installation location change
9187 Revision 1.123.2.8 2002/06/09 16:36:32 hal9
9188 Clarifications on filtering and MIME. Hardcode 'latest release' in index.html.
9190 Revision 1.123.2.7 2002/06/09 00:29:34 hal9
9191 Touch ups on filtering, in actions section and Anatomy.
9193 Revision 1.123.2.6 2002/06/06 23:11:03 hal9
9194 Fix broken link. Linkchecked all docs.
9196 Revision 1.123.2.5 2002/05/29 02:01:02 hal9
9197 This is break out of the entire config section from u-m, so it can
9198 eventually be used to generate the comments, etc in the main config file
9199 so that these are in sync with each other.
9201 Revision 1.123.2.4 2002/05/27 03:28:45 hal9
9202 Ooops missed something from David.
9204 Revision 1.123.2.3 2002/05/27 03:23:17 hal9
9205 Fix FIXMEs for OS2 and OSX startup. Fix Redhat typos (should be Red Hat).
9206 That's a wrap, I think.
9208 Revision 1.123.2.2 2002/05/26 19:02:09 hal9
9209 Move Amiga stuff around to take of FIXME in start up section.
9211 Revision 1.123.2.1 2002/05/26 17:04:25 hal9
9212 -Spellcheck, very minor edits, and sync across branches
9214 Revision 1.123 2002/05/24 23:19:23 hal9
9215 Include new image (Proxy setup). More fun with guibutton.
9216 Minor corrections/clarifications here and there.
9218 Revision 1.122 2002/05/24 13:24:08 oes
9219 Added Bookmarklet for one-click pre-filled access to show-url-info
9221 Revision 1.121 2002/05/23 23:20:17 oes
9222 - Changed more (all?) references to actions to the
9223 <literal><link> style.
9224 - Small fixes in the actions chapter
9225 - Small clarifications in the quickstart to ad blocking
9226 - Removed <emphasis> from <title>s since the new doc CSS
9227 renders them red (bad in TOC).
9229 Revision 1.120 2002/05/23 19:16:43 roro
9230 Correct Debian specials (installation and startup).
9232 Revision 1.119 2002/05/22 17:17:05 oes
9235 Revision 1.118 2002/05/21 04:54:55 hal9
9236 -New Section: Quickstart to Ad Blocking
9237 -Reformat Actions Anatomy to match new CGI layout
9239 Revision 1.117 2002/05/17 13:56:16 oes
9240 - Reworked & extended Templates chapter
9241 - Small changes to Regex appendix
9242 - #included authors.sgml into (C) and hist chapter
9244 Revision 1.116 2002/05/17 03:23:46 hal9
9245 Fixing merge conflict in Quickstart section.
9247 Revision 1.115 2002/05/16 16:25:00 oes
9248 Extended the Filter File chapter & minor fixes
9250 Revision 1.114 2002/05/16 09:42:50 oes
9251 More ulink->link, added some hints to Quickstart section
9253 Revision 1.113 2002/05/15 21:07:25 oes
9254 Extended and further commented the example actions files
9256 Revision 1.112 2002/05/15 03:57:14 hal9
9257 Spell check. A few minor edits here and there for better syntax and
9260 Revision 1.111 2002/05/14 23:01:36 oes
9263 Revision 1.110 2002/05/14 19:10:45 oes
9264 Restored alphabetical order of actions
9266 Revision 1.109 2002/05/14 17:23:11 oes
9267 Renamed the prevent-*-cookies actions, extended aliases section and moved it before the example AFs
9269 Revision 1.108 2002/05/14 15:29:12 oes
9270 Completed proofreading the actions chapter
9272 Revision 1.107 2002/05/12 03:20:41 hal9
9273 Small clarifications for 127.0.0.1 vs localhost for listen-address since this
9274 apparently an important distinction for some OS's.
9276 Revision 1.106 2002/05/10 01:48:20 hal9
9277 This is mostly proposed copyright/licensing additions and changes. Docs
9278 are still GPL, but licensing and copyright are more visible. Also, copyright
9279 changed in doc header comments (eliminate references to JB except FAQ).
9281 Revision 1.105 2002/05/05 20:26:02 hal9
9282 Sorting out license vs copyright in these docs.
9284 Revision 1.104 2002/05/04 08:44:45 swa
9287 Revision 1.103 2002/05/04 00:40:53 hal9
9288 -Remove the TOC first page kludge. It's fixed proper now in ldp.dsl.in.
9289 -Some minor additions to Quickstart.
9291 Revision 1.102 2002/05/03 17:46:00 oes
9292 Further proofread & reactivated short build instructions
9294 Revision 1.101 2002/05/03 03:58:30 hal9
9295 Move the user-manual config directive to top of section. Add note about
9296 Privoxy needing read permissions for configs, and write for logs.
9298 Revision 1.100 2002/04/29 03:05:55 hal9
9299 Add clarification on differences of new actions files.
9301 Revision 1.99 2002/04/28 16:59:05 swa
9302 more structure in starting section
9304 Revision 1.98 2002/04/28 05:43:59 hal9
9305 This is the break up of configuration.html into multiple files. This
9306 will probably break links elsewhere :(
9308 Revision 1.97 2002/04/27 21:04:42 hal9
9309 -Rewrite of Actions File example.
9310 -Add section for user-manual directive in config.
9312 Revision 1.96 2002/04/27 05:32:00 hal9
9313 -Add short section to Filter Files to tie in with +filter action.
9314 -Start rewrite of examples in Actions Examples (not finished).
9316 Revision 1.95 2002/04/26 17:23:29 swa
9317 bookmarks cleaned, changed structure of user manual, screen and programlisting cleanups, and numerous other changes that I forgot
9319 Revision 1.94 2002/04/26 05:24:36 hal9
9320 -Add most of Andreas suggestions to Chain of Events section.
9321 -A few other minor corrections and touch up.
9323 Revision 1.92 2002/04/25 18:55:13 hal9
9324 More catchups on new actions files, and new actions names.
9325 Other assorted cleanups, and minor modifications.
9327 Revision 1.91 2002/04/24 02:39:31 hal9
9328 Add 'Chain of Events' section.
9330 Revision 1.90 2002/04/23 21:41:25 hal9
9331 Linuxconf is deprecated on RH, substitute chkconfig.
9333 Revision 1.89 2002/04/23 21:05:28 oes
9334 Added hint for startup on Red Hat
9336 Revision 1.88 2002/04/23 05:37:54 hal9
9337 Add AmigaOS install stuff.
9339 Revision 1.87 2002/04/23 02:53:15 david__schmidt
9340 Updated OSX installation section
9341 Added a few English tweaks here an there
9343 Revision 1.86 2002/04/21 01:46:32 hal9
9344 Re-write actions section.
9346 Revision 1.85 2002/04/18 21:23:23 hal9
9347 Fix ugly typo (mine).
9349 Revision 1.84 2002/04/18 21:17:13 hal9
9350 Spell Redhat correctly (ie Red Hat). A few minor grammar corrections.
9352 Revision 1.83 2002/04/18 18:21:12 oes
9353 Added RPM install detail
9355 Revision 1.82 2002/04/18 12:04:50 oes
9358 Revision 1.81 2002/04/18 11:50:24 oes
9359 Extended Install section - needs fixing by packagers
9361 Revision 1.80 2002/04/18 10:45:19 oes
9362 Moved text to buildsource.sgml, renamed some filters, details
9364 Revision 1.79 2002/04/18 03:18:06 hal9
9365 Spellcheck, and minor touchups.
9367 Revision 1.78 2002/04/17 18:04:16 oes
9370 Revision 1.77 2002/04/17 13:51:23 oes
9371 Proofreading, part one
9373 Revision 1.76 2002/04/16 04:25:51 hal9
9374 -Added 'Note to Upgraders' and re-ordered the 'Quickstart' section.
9375 -Note about proxy may need requests to re-read config files.
9377 Revision 1.75 2002/04/12 02:08:48 david__schmidt
9378 Remove OS/2 building info... it is already in the developer-manual
9380 Revision 1.74 2002/04/11 00:54:38 hal9
9381 Add small section on submitting actions.
9383 Revision 1.73 2002/04/10 18:45:15 swa
9386 Revision 1.72 2002/04/10 04:06:19 hal9
9387 Added actions feedback to Bookmarklets section
9389 Revision 1.71 2002/04/08 22:59:26 hal9
9390 Version update. Spell chkconfig correctly :)
9392 Revision 1.70 2002/04/08 20:53:56 swa
9395 Revision 1.69 2002/04/06 05:07:29 hal9
9396 -Add privoxy-man-page.sgml, for man page.
9397 -Add authors.sgml for AUTHORS (and p-authors.sgml)
9398 -Reworked various aspects of various docs.
9399 -Added additional comments to sub-docs.
9401 Revision 1.68 2002/04/04 18:46:47 swa
9402 consistent look. reuse of copyright, history et. al.
9404 Revision 1.67 2002/04/04 17:27:57 swa
9405 more single file to be included at multiple points. make maintaining easier
9407 Revision 1.66 2002/04/04 06:48:37 hal9
9408 Structural changes to allow for conditional inclusion/exclusion of content
9409 based on entity toggles, e.g. 'entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE"'. And
9410 definition of internal entities, e.g. 'entity p-version "2.9.13"' that will
9411 eventually be set by Makefile.
9412 More boilerplate text for use across multiple docs.
9414 Revision 1.65 2002/04/03 19:52:07 swa
9415 enhance squid section due to user suggestion
9417 Revision 1.64 2002/04/03 03:53:43 hal9
9418 A few minor bug fixes, and touch ups. Ready for review.
9420 Revision 1.63 2002/04/01 16:24:49 hal9
9421 Define entities to include boilerplate text. See doc/source/*.
9423 Revision 1.62 2002/03/30 04:15:53 hal9
9424 - Fix privoxy.org/config links.
9425 - Paste in Bookmarklets from Toggle page.
9426 - Move Quickstart nearer top, and minor rework.
9428 Revision 1.61 2002/03/29 01:31:08 hal9
9431 Revision 1.60 2002/03/27 01:57:34 hal9
9432 Added more to Anatomy section.
9434 Revision 1.59 2002/03/27 00:54:33 hal9
9435 Touch up intro for new name.
9437 Revision 1.58 2002/03/26 22:29:55 swa
9438 we have a new homepage!
9440 Revision 1.57 2002/03/24 20:33:30 hal9
9441 A few minor catch ups with name change.
9443 Revision 1.56 2002/03/24 16:17:06 swa
9444 configure needs to be generated.
9446 Revision 1.55 2002/03/24 16:08:08 swa
9447 we are too lazy to make a block-built
9448 privoxy logo. hence removed the option.
9450 Revision 1.54 2002/03/24 15:46:20 swa
9451 name change related issue.
9453 Revision 1.53 2002/03/24 11:51:00 swa
9454 name change. changed filenames.
9456 Revision 1.52 2002/03/24 11:01:06 swa
9459 Revision 1.51 2002/03/23 15:13:11 swa
9460 renamed every reference to the old name with foobar.
9461 fixed "application foobar application" tag, fixed
9462 "the foobar" with "foobar". left junkbustser in cvs
9463 comments and remarks to history untouched.
9465 Revision 1.50 2002/03/23 05:06:21 hal9
9468 Revision 1.49 2002/03/21 17:01:05 hal9
9469 New section in Appendix.
9471 Revision 1.48 2002/03/12 06:33:01 hal9
9472 Catching up to Andreas and re_filterfile changes.
9474 Revision 1.47 2002/03/11 13:13:27 swa
9475 correct feedback channels
9477 Revision 1.46 2002/03/10 00:51:08 hal9
9478 Added section on JB internal pages in Appendix.
9480 Revision 1.45 2002/03/09 17:43:53 swa
9483 Revision 1.44 2002/03/09 17:08:48 hal9
9484 New section on Jon's actions file editor, and move some stuff around.
9486 Revision 1.43 2002/03/08 00:47:32 hal9
9487 Added imageblock{pattern}.
9489 Revision 1.42 2002/03/07 18:16:55 swa
9492 Revision 1.41 2002/03/07 16:46:43 hal9
9493 Fix a few markup problems for jade.
9495 Revision 1.40 2002/03/07 16:28:39 swa
9496 provide correct feedback channels
9498 Revision 1.39 2002/03/06 16:19:28 hal9
9499 Note on perceived filtering slowdown per FR.
9501 Revision 1.38 2002/03/05 23:55:14 hal9
9502 Stupid I did it again. Double hyphen in comment breaks jade.
9504 Revision 1.37 2002/03/05 23:53:49 hal9
9505 jade barfs on '- -' embedded in comments. - -user option broke it.
9507 Revision 1.36 2002/03/05 22:53:28 hal9
9508 Add new - - user option.
9510 Revision 1.35 2002/03/05 00:17:27 hal9
9511 Added section on command line options.
9513 Revision 1.34 2002/03/04 19:32:07 oes
9514 Changed default port to 8118
9516 Revision 1.33 2002/03/03 19:46:13 hal9
9517 Emphasis on where/how to report bugs, etc
9519 Revision 1.32 2002/03/03 09:26:06 joergs
9520 AmigaOS changes, config is now loaded from PROGDIR: instead of
9521 AmiTCP:db/junkbuster/ if no configuration file is specified on the
9524 Revision 1.31 2002/03/02 22:45:52 david__schmidt
9527 Revision 1.30 2002/03/02 22:00:14 hal9
9528 Updated 'New Features' list. Ran through spell-checker.
9530 Revision 1.29 2002/03/02 20:34:07 david__schmidt
9531 Update OS/2 build section
9533 Revision 1.28 2002/02/24 14:34:24 jongfoster
9534 Formatting changes. Now changing the doctype to DocBook XML 4.1
9535 will work - no other changes are needed.
9537 Revision 1.27 2002/01/11 14:14:32 hal9
9538 Added a very short section on Templates
9540 Revision 1.26 2002/01/09 20:02:50 hal9
9541 Fix bug re: auto-detect config file changes.
9543 Revision 1.25 2002/01/09 18:20:30 hal9
9544 Touch ups for *.action files.
9546 Revision 1.24 2001/12/02 01:13:42 hal9
9549 Revision 1.23 2001/12/02 00:20:41 hal9
9550 Updates for recent changes.
9552 Revision 1.22 2001/11/05 23:57:51 hal9
9553 Minor update for startup now daemon mode.
9555 Revision 1.21 2001/10/31 21:11:03 hal9
9556 Correct 2 minor errors
9558 Revision 1.18 2001/10/24 18:45:26 hal9
9559 *** empty log message ***
9561 Revision 1.17 2001/10/24 17:10:55 hal9
9562 Catching up with Jon's recent work, and a few other things.
9564 Revision 1.16 2001/10/21 17:19:21 swa
9565 wrong url in documentation
9567 Revision 1.15 2001/10/14 23:46:24 hal9
9568 Various minor changes. Fleshed out SEE ALSO section.
9570 Revision 1.13 2001/10/10 17:28:33 hal9
9573 Revision 1.12 2001/09/28 02:57:04 hal9
9576 Revision 1.11 2001/09/28 02:25:20 hal9
9579 Revision 1.9 2001/09/27 23:50:29 hal9
9580 A few changes. A short section on regular expression in appendix.
9582 Revision 1.8 2001/09/25 00:34:59 hal9
9583 Some additions, and re-arranging.
9585 Revision 1.7 2001/09/24 14:31:36 hal9
9588 Revision 1.6 2001/09/24 14:10:32 hal9
9589 Including David's OS/2 installation instructions.
9591 Revision 1.2 2001/09/13 15:27:40 swa
9594 Revision 1.1 2001/09/12 15:36:41 swa
9595 source files for junkbuster documentation
9597 Revision 1.3 2001/09/10 17:43:59 swa
9598 first proposal of a structure.
9600 Revision 1.2 2001/06/13 14:28:31 swa
9601 docs should have an author.
9603 Revision 1.1 2001/06/13 14:20:37 swa
9604 first import of project's documentation for the webserver.