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 "3.0.11">
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 % seealso-extra "INCLUDE"> <!-- extra stuff from seealso.sgml -->
28 <!entity my-app "<application>Privoxy</application>">
31 File : $Source: /cvsroot/ijbswa/current/doc/source/user-manual.sgml,v $
34 This file belongs into
35 ijbswa.sourceforge.net:/home/groups/i/ij/ijbswa/htdocs/
37 $Id: user-manual.sgml,v 2.100 2009/02/19 17:14:11 fabiankeil Exp $
39 Copyright (C) 2001-2009 Privoxy Developers http://www.privoxy.org/
42 ========================================================================
43 NOTE: Please read developer-manual/documentation.html before touching
44 anything in this, or other Privoxy documentation.
45 ========================================================================
52 <title>Privoxy &p-version; User Manual</title>
56 <!-- Completely the wrong markup, but very little is allowed -->
57 <!-- in this part of an article. FIXME -->
58 <link linkend="copyright">Copyright</link> &my-copy; 2001-2009 by
59 <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/">Privoxy Developers</ulink>
63 <pubdate>$Id: user-manual.sgml,v 2.100 2009/02/19 17:14:11 fabiankeil Exp $</pubdate>
67 Note: the following should generate a separate page, and a live link to it,
68 all nicely done. But it doesn't for some mysterious reason. Please leave
69 commented unless it can be fixed proper. For the time being, the
70 copyright/license declarations will be in their own sgml.
83 This is here to keep vim syntax file from breaking :/
84 If I knew enough to fix it, I would.
85 PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE! HB: hal@foobox.net
91 The <citetitle>Privoxy User Manual</citetitle> gives users information on how to
92 install, configure and use <ulink
93 url="http://www.privoxy.org/">Privoxy</ulink>.
96 <!-- Include privoxy.sgml boilerplate: -->
98 <!-- end privoxy.sgml -->
101 You can find the latest version of the <citetitle>Privoxy User Manual</citetitle> at <ulink
102 url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/">http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/</ulink>.
103 Please see the <link linkend="contact">Contact section</link> on how to
104 contact the developers.
108 <!-- Feel free to send a note to the developers at <email>ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net</email>. -->
114 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
115 <sect1 label="1" id="introduction"><title>Introduction</title>
117 This documentation is included with the current &p-status; version of
118 <application>Privoxy</application>, v.&p-version;<![%p-not-stable;[,
119 and is mostly complete at this point. The most up to date reference for the
120 time being is still the comments in the source files and in the individual
121 configuration files. Development of a new version is currently nearing
122 completion, and includes significant changes and enhancements over
123 earlier versions. ]]>.
126 <!-- include only in non-stable versions -->
129 Since this is a &p-status; version, not all new features are well tested. This
130 documentation may be slightly out of sync as a result (especially with
131 CVS sources). And there <emphasis>may be</emphasis> bugs, though hopefully
136 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
137 <sect2 id="features"><title>Features</title>
139 In addition to the core
140 features of ad blocking and
141 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookie</ulink> management,
142 <application>Privoxy</application> provides many supplemental
143 features<![%p-not-stable;[, some of them currently under development]]>,
144 that give the end-user more control, more privacy and more freedom:
146 <!-- Include newfeatures.sgml boilerplate here: -->
148 <!-- end boilerplate -->
153 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
156 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
157 <sect1 id="installation"><title>Installation</title>
160 <application>Privoxy</application> is available both in convenient pre-compiled
161 packages for a wide range of operating systems, and as raw source code.
162 For most users, we recommend using the packages, which can be downloaded from our
163 <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ijbswa/">Privoxy Project
169 On some platforms, the installer may remove previously installed versions, if
170 found. (See below for your platform). In any case <emphasis>be sure to backup
171 your old configuration if it is valuable to you.</emphasis> See the <link
172 linkend="upgradersnote">note to upgraders</link> section below.
175 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
176 <sect2 id="installation-packages"><title>Binary Packages</title>
178 How to install the binary packages depends on your operating system:
181 <!-- XXX: The installation sections should be sorted -->
183 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
184 <sect3 id="installation-pack-rpm"><title>Red Hat and Fedora RPMs</title>
187 RPMs can be installed with <literal>rpm -Uvh privoxy-&p-version;-1.rpm</literal>,
188 and will use <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> for the location
189 of configuration files.
193 Note that on Red Hat, <application>Privoxy</application> will
194 <emphasis>not</emphasis> be automatically started on system boot. You will
195 need to enable that using <command>chkconfig</command>,
196 <command>ntsysv</command>, or similar methods.
200 If you have problems with failed dependencies, try rebuilding the SRC RPM:
201 <literal>rpm --rebuild privoxy-&p-version;-1.src.rpm</literal>. This
202 will use your locally installed libraries and RPM version.
206 Also note that if you have a <application>Junkbuster</application> RPM installed
207 on your system, you need to remove it first, because the packages conflict.
208 Otherwise, RPM will try to remove <application>Junkbuster</application>
209 automatically if found, before installing <application>Privoxy</application>.
213 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
214 <sect3 id="installation-deb"><title>Debian and Ubuntu</title>
216 DEBs can be installed with <literal>apt-get install privoxy</literal>,
217 and will use <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> for the location of
222 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
223 <sect3 id="installation-pack-win"><title>Windows</title>
226 Just double-click the installer, which will guide you through
227 the installation process. You will find the configuration files
228 in the same directory as you installed <application>Privoxy</application> in.
231 Version 3.0.5 beta introduced full <application>Windows</application> service
232 functionality. On Windows only, the <application>Privoxy</application>
233 program has two new command line arguments to install and uninstall
234 <application>Privoxy</application> as a <emphasis>service</emphasis>.
238 <term>Arguments:</term>
241 <replaceable class="parameter">--install</replaceable>[:<replaceable class="parameter">service_name</replaceable>]
244 <replaceable class="parameter">--uninstall</replaceable>[:<replaceable class="parameter">service_name</replaceable>]
250 After invoking <application>Privoxy</application> with
251 <command>--install</command>, you will need to bring up the
252 <application>Windows</application> service console to assign the user you
253 want <application>Privoxy</application> to run under, and whether or not you
254 want it to run whenever the system starts. You can start the
255 <application>Windows</application> services console with the following
256 command: <command>services.msc</command>. If you do not take the manual step
257 of modifying <application>Privoxy's</application> service settings, it will
258 not start. Note too that you will need to give Privoxy a user account that
259 actually exists, or it will not be permitted to
260 write to its log and configuration files.
265 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
266 <sect3 id="installation-pack-bintgz"><title>Solaris <!--, NetBSD, HP-UX--></title>
269 Create a new directory, <literal>cd</literal> to it, then unzip and
270 untar the archive. For the most part, you'll have to figure out where
271 things go. <!-- FIXME, more info needed? -->
275 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
276 <sect3 id="installation-os2"><title>OS/2</title>
279 First, make sure that no previous installations of
280 <application>Junkbuster</application> and / or
281 <application>Privoxy</application> are left on your
282 system. Check that no <application>Junkbuster</application>
283 or <application>Privoxy</application> objects are in
289 Then, just double-click the WarpIN self-installing archive, which will
290 guide you through the installation process. A shadow of the
291 <application>Privoxy</application> executable will be placed in your
292 startup folder so it will start automatically whenever OS/2 starts.
296 The directory you choose to install <application>Privoxy</application>
297 into will contain all of the configuration files.
301 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
302 <sect3 id="installation-mac"><title>Mac OS X</title>
304 Unzip the downloaded file (you can either double-click on the zip file
305 icon from the Finder, or from the desktop if you downloaded it there).
306 Then, double-click on the package installer icon and follow the
307 installation process.
310 The privoxy service will automatically start after a successful
311 installation (in addition to every time your computer starts up). To
312 prevent the privoxy service from automatically starting when your
313 computer starts up, remove or rename the folder named
314 <literal>/Library/StartupItems/Privoxy</literal>.
317 To manually start or stop the privoxy service, use the Privoxy Utility
318 for Mac OS X. This application controls the privoxy service (e.g.
319 starting and stopping the service as well as uninstalling the software).
323 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
324 <sect3 id="installation-amiga"><title>AmigaOS</title>
326 Copy and then unpack the <filename>lha</filename> archive to a suitable location.
327 All necessary files will be installed into <application>Privoxy</application>
328 directory, including all configuration and log files. To uninstall, just
329 remove this directory.
333 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
334 <sect3 id="installation-tbz"><title>FreeBSD</title>
337 Privoxy is part of FreeBSD's Ports Collection, you can build and install
338 it with <literal>cd /usr/ports/www/privoxy; make install clean</literal>.
341 If you don't use the ports, you can fetch and install
342 the package with <literal>pkg_add -r privoxy</literal>.
345 The port skeleton and the package can also be downloaded from the
346 <ulink url="https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118">File Release
347 Page</ulink>, but there's no reason to use them unless you're interested in the
348 beta releases which are only available there.
352 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
353 <sect3 id="installattion-gentoo"><title>Gentoo</title>
355 Gentoo source packages (Ebuilds) for <application>Privoxy</application> are
356 contained in the Gentoo Portage Tree (they are not on the download page,
357 but there is a Gentoo section, where you can see when a new
358 <application>Privoxy</application> Version is added to the Portage Tree).
361 Before installing <application>Privoxy</application> under Gentoo just do
362 first <literal>emerge --sync</literal> to get the latest changes from the
363 Portage tree. With <literal>emerge privoxy</literal> you install the latest
367 Configuration files are in <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename>, the
368 documentation is in <filename>/usr/share/doc/privoxy-&p-version;</filename>
369 and the Log directory is in <filename>/var/log/privoxy</filename>.
375 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
376 <sect2 id="installation-source"><title>Building from Source</title>
379 The most convenient way to obtain the <application>Privoxy</application> sources
380 is to download the source tarball from our
381 <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118&package_id=10571">project download
386 If you like to live on the bleeding edge and are not afraid of using
387 possibly unstable development versions, you can check out the up-to-the-minute
388 version directly from <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/cvs/?group_id=11118">the
389 CVS repository</ulink>.
391 deprecated...out of business.
392 or simply download <ulink
393 url="http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cvstarballs/ijbswa-cvsroot.tar.bz2">the nightly CVS
398 <!-- include buildsource.sgml boilerplate: -->
400 <!-- end boilerplate -->
403 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
404 <sect2 id="installation-keepupdated"><title>Keeping your Installation Up-to-Date</title>
406 As user feedback comes in and development continues, we will make updated versions
407 of both the main <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link> (as a <ulink
408 url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118&release_id=103670">separate
409 package</ulink>) and the software itself (including the actions file) available for
414 If you wish to receive an email notification whenever we release updates of
415 <application>Privoxy</application> or the actions file, <ulink
416 url="http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ijbswa-announce/">subscribe
417 to our announce mailing list</ulink>, ijbswa-announce@lists.sourceforge.net.
421 In order not to lose your personal changes and adjustments when updating
422 to the latest <literal>default.action</literal> file we <emphasis>strongly
423 recommend</emphasis> that you use <literal>user.action</literal> and
424 <literal>user.filter</literal> for your local
425 customizations of <application>Privoxy</application>. See the <link
426 linkend="actions-file">Chapter on actions files</link> for details.
434 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
436 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
437 <sect1 id="whatsnew">
438 <title>What's New in this Release</title>
440 There are only a few improvements and new features since
441 <application>Privoxy 3.0.10</application>, the last stable release:
448 On most platforms, outgoing connections can be kept alive and
449 reused if the server supports it. Whether or not this improves
450 things depends on the connection.
455 When dropping privileges, membership in supplementary groups
456 is given up as well. Not doing that can lead to Privoxy running
457 with more rights than necessary and violates the principle of
458 least privilege. Users of the --user option are advised to update.
459 Thanks to Matthias Drochner for reporting the problem,
460 providing the initial patch and testing the final version.
465 Passing invalid users or groups with the --user option
466 didn't lead to program exit. Regression introduced in 3.0.7.
471 The match all section has been moved from default.action
472 to a new file called match-all.action. As a result the
473 default.action no longer needs to be touched by the user
474 and can be safely overwritten by updates.
479 The standard.action file has been removed. Its content
480 is now part of the default.action file.
485 In some situations the logged content length was slightly too low.
490 Crunched requests are logged with their own log level.
491 If you used "debug 1" in the past, you'll probably want
492 to additionally enable "debug 1024", otherwise only passed
493 requests will be logged. If you only care about crunched
494 requests, simply replace "debug 1" with "debug 1024".
499 The crunch reason has been moved to the beginning of the
500 crunch message. For HTTP URLs, the protocol is logged as well.
505 Log messages are shortened by printing the thread id on its
506 own (as opposed to putting it inside the string "Privoxy()").
511 The config option socket-timeout has been added to control
512 the time Privoxy waits for data to arrive on a socket.
517 Support for remote toggling is controlled by the configure
518 option --disable-toggle only. In previous versions it also
519 depended on the action editor and thus configuring with the
520 --disable-editor option would disable remote toggling support
526 Requests with invalid HTTP versions are rejected.
531 The template symbol @date@ can be used to include a date(1)-like
532 time string. Initial patch submitted by Endre Szabo.
537 Responses from shoutcast servers are accepted again.
538 Problem reported and fix suggested by Stefan.
543 The hide-forwarded-for-headers action has been replaced with
544 the change-x-forwarded-for{} action which can also be used to
545 add X-Forwarded-For headers. The latter functionality already
546 existed in Privoxy versions prior to 3.0.7 but has been removed
547 as it was often used unintentionally (by not using the
548 hide-forwarded-for-headers action).
553 A "clear log" view option was added to the mingw32 version
554 to clear out all of the lines in the Privoxy log window.
555 Based on a patch submitted by T Ford.
560 The mingw32 version uses "critical sections" now, which prevents
561 log message corruption under load. As a side effect, the
562 "no thread-safe PRNG" warning could be removed as well.
567 The mingw32 version's task bar icon is crossed out and
568 the color changed to gray if Privoxy is toggled off.
575 This release marks a departure for Privoxy development.
578 Previously, odd numbered releases were considered beta versions and
579 were only released at the end of the development cycle when the code
580 was already believed to be stable. Usually it was, so the stable release
581 contained pretty much the same code, but got a higher version number.
582 In the future we intend to release several snapshots between stable releases.
583 There will probably still be about two stable releases per year,
584 but hopefully about six snapshots instead of the two betas we have now.
585 The intentions is to make testing without CVS access easier.
588 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
590 <sect2 id="upgradersnote">
591 <title>Note to Upgraders</title>
594 A quick list of things to be aware of before upgrading from earlier
595 versions of <application>Privoxy</application>:
603 The recommended way to upgrade &my-app; is to backup your old
604 configuration files, install the new ones, verify that &my-app;
605 is working correctly and finally merge back your changes using
606 <application>diff</application> and maybe <application>patch</application>.
609 There are a number of new features in each &my-app; release and
610 most of them have to be explicitly enabled in the configuration
611 files. Old configuration files obviously don't do that and due
612 to syntax changes using old configuration files with a new
613 &my-app; isn't always possible anyway.
618 Note that some installers remove earlier versions completely,
619 including configuration files, therefore you should really save
620 any important configuration files!
625 On the other hand, other installers don't overwrite existing configuration
626 files, thinking you will want to do that yourself.
631 <filename>standard.action</filename> has been merged into
632 the <filename>default.action</filename> file.
637 In the default configuration only fatal errors are logged now.
638 You can change that in the <link linkend="DEBUG">debug section</link>
639 of the configuration file. You may also want to enable more verbose
640 logging until you verified that the new &my-app; version is working
647 Three other config file settings are now off by default:
648 <link linkend="enable-remote-toggle">enable-remote-toggle</link>,
649 <link linkend="enable-remote-http-toggle">enable-remote-http-toggle</link>,
650 and <link linkend="enable-edit-actions">enable-edit-actions</link>.
651 If you use or want these, you will need to explicitly enable them, and
652 be aware of the security issues involved.
659 What constitutes a <quote>default</quote> configuration has changed,
660 and you may want to review which actions are <quote>on</quote> by
661 default. This is primarily a matter of emphasis, but some features
662 you may have been used to, may now be <quote>off</quote> by default.
663 There are also a number of new actions and filters you may want to
664 consider, most of which are not fully incorporated into the default
665 settings as yet (see above).
672 The default actions setting is now <literal>Cautious</literal>. Previous
673 releases had a default setting of <literal>Medium</literal>. Experienced
674 users may want to adjust this, as it is fairly conservative by &my-app;
675 standards and past practices. See <ulink
676 url="http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions-list?f=default">
677 http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions-list?f=default</ulink>. New users
678 should try the default settings for a while before turning up the volume.
684 The default setting has filtering turned <emphasis>off</emphasis>, which
685 subsequently means that compression is <emphasis>on</emphasis>. Remember
686 that filtering does not work on compressed pages, so if you use, or want to
687 use, filtering, you will need to force compression off. Example:
691 { +<link linkend="filter">filter</link>{google} +<link linkend="prevent-compression">prevent-compression</link> }
695 Or if you use a number of filters, or filter many sites, you may just want
696 to turn off compression for all sites in
697 <filename>default.action</filename> (or
698 <filename>user.action</filename>).
705 Also, <link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> is
706 off by default now. If you've liked this feature in the past, you may want
707 to turn it back on in <filename>user.action</filename> now.
714 Some installers may not automatically start
715 <application>Privoxy</application> after installation.
726 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
727 <sect1 id="quickstart"><title>Quickstart to Using Privoxy</title>
733 Install <application>Privoxy</application>. See the <link
734 linkend="installation">Installation Section</link> below for platform specific
741 Advanced users and those who want to offer <application>Privoxy</application>
742 service to more than just their local machine should check the <link
743 linkend="config">main config file</link>, especially the <link
744 linkend="access-control">security-relevant</link> options. These are
751 Start <application>Privoxy</application>, if the installation program has
752 not done this already (may vary according to platform). See the section
753 <link linkend="startup">Starting <application>Privoxy</application></link>.
759 Set your browser to use <application>Privoxy</application> as HTTP and
760 HTTPS (SSL) <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_server">proxy</ulink>
761 by setting the proxy configuration for address of
762 <literal>127.0.0.1</literal> and port <literal>8118</literal>.
763 <emphasis>DO NOT</emphasis> activate proxying for <literal>FTP</literal> or
764 any protocols besides HTTP and HTTPS (SSL) unless you intend to prevent your
765 browser from using these protocols.
771 Flush your browser's disk and memory caches, to remove any cached ad images.
772 If using <application>Privoxy</application> to manage
773 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>,
774 you should remove any currently stored cookies too.
780 A default installation should provide a reasonable starting point for
781 most. There will undoubtedly be occasions where you will want to adjust the
782 configuration, but that can be dealt with as the need arises. Little
783 to no initial configuration is required in most cases, you may want
785 <ulink url="config.html#ENABLE-EDIT-ACTIONS">web-based action editor</ulink> though.
786 Be sure to read the warnings first.
789 See the <link linkend="configuration">Configuration section</link> for more
790 configuration options, and how to customize your installation.
791 You might also want to look at the <link
792 linkend="quickstart-ad-blocking">next section</link> for a quick
793 introduction to how <application>Privoxy</application> blocks ads and
800 If you experience ads that slip through, innocent images that are
801 blocked, or otherwise feel the need to fine-tune
802 <application>Privoxy's</application> behavior, take a look at the <link
803 linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>. As a quick start, you might
804 find the <link linkend="act-examples">richly commented examples</link>
805 helpful. You can also view and edit the actions files through the <ulink
806 url="http://config.privoxy.org">web-based user interface</ulink>. The
807 Appendix <quote><link linkend="actionsanat">Troubleshooting: Anatomy of an
808 Action</link></quote> has hints on how to understand and debug actions that
809 <quote>misbehave</quote>.
814 Did anyone test these lately?
818 For easy access to &my-app;'s most important controls, drag the provided
819 <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 HTTP 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 Advanced users will eventually want to explore &my-app;
996 <literal><link linkend="filter">filters</link></literal> as well. Filters
997 are very different from <literal><link
998 linkend="block">blocks</link></literal>.
999 A <quote>block</quote> blocks a site, page, or unwanted contented. Filters
1000 are a way of filtering or modifying what is actually on the page. An example
1001 filter usage: a text replacement of <quote>no-no</quote> for
1002 <quote>nasty-word</quote>. That is a very simple example. This process can be
1003 used for ad blocking, but it is more in the realm of advanced usage and has
1004 some pitfalls to be wary off.
1008 The quickest way to adjust any of these settings is with your browser through
1009 the special <application>Privoxy</application> editor at <ulink
1010 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
1011 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/show-status</ulink>). This
1012 is an internal page, and does not require Internet access.
1016 Note that as of <application>Privoxy</application> 3.0.7 beta the
1017 action editor is disabled by default. Check the
1018 <ulink url="config.html#ENABLE-EDIT-ACTIONS">enable-edit-actions
1019 section in the configuration file</ulink> to learn why and in which
1020 cases it's safe to enable again.
1024 If you decided to enable the action editor, select the appropriate
1025 <quote>actions</quote> file, and click
1026 <quote><guibutton>Edit</guibutton></quote>. It is best to put personal or
1027 local preferences in <filename>user.action</filename> since this is not
1028 meant to be overwritten during upgrades, and will over-ride the settings in
1029 other files. Here you can insert new <quote>actions</quote>, and URLs for ad
1030 blocking or other purposes, and make other adjustments to the configuration.
1031 <application>Privoxy</application> will detect these changes automatically.
1035 A quick and simple step by step example:
1043 Right click on the ad image to be blocked, then select
1044 <quote><guimenuitem>Copy Link Location</guimenuitem></quote> from the
1052 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
1057 Find <filename>user.action</filename> in the top section, and click
1058 on <quote><guibutton>Edit</guibutton></quote>:
1061 <!-- image of editor and actions files selections -->
1063 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Actions Files in Use</title>
1066 <imagedata fileref="files-in-use.jpg" format="jpg">
1069 <phrase>[ Screenshot of Actions Files in Use ]</phrase>
1078 You should have a section with only
1079 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> listed under
1080 <quote>Actions:</quote>.
1081 If not, click a <quote><guibutton>Insert new section below</guibutton></quote>
1082 button, and in the new section that just appeared, click the
1083 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> button right under the word <quote>Actions:</quote>.
1084 This will bring up a list of all actions. Find
1085 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> near the top, and click
1086 in the <quote>Enabled</quote> column, then <quote><guibutton>Submit</guibutton></quote>
1087 just below the list.
1092 Now, in the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> actions section,
1093 click the <quote><guibutton>Add</guibutton></quote> button, and paste the URL the
1094 browser got from <quote><guimenuitem>Copy Link Location</guimenuitem></quote>.
1095 Remove the <literal>http://</literal> at the beginning of the URL. Then, click
1096 <quote><guibutton>Submit</guibutton></quote> (or
1097 <quote><guibutton>OK</guibutton></quote> if in a pop-up window).
1102 Now go back to the original page, and press <keycap>SHIFT-Reload</keycap>
1103 (or flush all browser caches). The image should be gone now.
1111 This is a very crude and simple example. There might be good reasons to use a
1112 wildcard pattern match to include potentially similar images from the same
1113 site. For a more extensive explanation of <quote>patterns</quote>, and
1114 the entire actions concept, see <link linkend="actions-file">the Actions
1119 For advanced users who want to hand edit their config files, you might want
1120 to now go to the <link linkend="act-examples">Actions Files Tutorial</link>.
1121 The ideas explained therein also apply to the web-based editor.
1124 There are also various
1125 <link linkend="filter">filters</link> that can be used for ad blocking
1126 (filters are a special subset of actions). These
1127 fall into the <quote>advanced</quote> usage category, and are explained in
1128 depth in later sections.
1135 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1138 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1139 <sect1 id="startup">
1140 <title>Starting Privoxy</title>
1142 Before launching <application>Privoxy</application> for the first time, you
1143 will want to configure your browser(s) to use
1144 <application>Privoxy</application> as a HTTP and HTTPS (SSL)
1145 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_server">proxy</ulink>. The default is
1146 127.0.0.1 (or localhost) for the proxy address, and port 8118 (earlier versions
1147 used port 8000). This is the one configuration step <emphasis>that must be done
1151 Please note that <application>Privoxy</application> can only proxy HTTP and
1152 HTTPS traffic. It will not work with FTP or other protocols.
1155 <!-- image of Mozilla Proxy configuration -->
1157 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Proxy Configuration Showing
1158 Mozilla/Netscape HTTP and HTTPS (SSL) Settings</title>
1161 <imagedata fileref="proxy_setup.jpg" format="jpg">
1164 <phrase>[ Screenshot of Mozilla Proxy Configuration ]</phrase>
1172 With <application>Firefox</application>, this is typically set under:
1176 <guibutton>Tools</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Options</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Advanced</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Network</guibutton> -><guibutton>Connection</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Settings</guibutton>
1181 Or optionally on some platforms:
1185 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Preferences</guibutton> -> <guibutton>General</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Connection Settings</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Manual Proxy Configuration</guibutton>
1191 With <application>Netscape</application> (and
1192 <application>Mozilla</application>), this can be set under:
1197 <!-- Mix ascii and gui art, something for everybody -->
1198 <!-- spacing on this is tricky -->
1199 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Preferences</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Advanced</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Proxies</guibutton> -> <guibutton>HTTP Proxy</guibutton>
1204 For <application>Internet Explorer v.5-7</application>:
1208 <guibutton>Tools</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Internet Options</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Connections</guibutton> -> <guibutton>LAN Settings</guibutton>
1212 Then, check <quote>Use Proxy</quote> and fill in the appropriate info
1213 (Address: 127.0.0.1, Port: 8118). Include HTTPS (SSL), if you want HTTPS
1214 proxy support too (sometimes labeled <quote>Secure</quote>). Make sure any
1215 checkboxes like <quote>Use the same proxy server for all protocols</quote> is
1216 <emphasis>UNCHECKED</emphasis>. You want only HTTP and HTTPS (SSL)!
1219 <!-- image of IE Proxy configuration -->
1221 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Proxy Configuration Showing
1222 Internet Explorer HTTP and HTTPS (Secure) Settings</title>
1225 <imagedata fileref="proxy2.jpg" format="jpg">
1228 <phrase>[ Screenshot of IE Proxy Configuration ]</phrase>
1236 After doing this, flush your browser's disk and memory caches to force a
1237 re-reading of all pages and to get rid of any ads that may be cached. Remove
1238 any <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>,
1239 if you want <application>Privoxy</application> to manage that. You are now
1240 ready to start enjoying the benefits of using
1241 <application>Privoxy</application>!
1245 <application>Privoxy</application> itself is typically started by specifying the
1246 main configuration file to be used on the command line. If no configuration
1247 file is specified on the command line, <application>Privoxy</application>
1248 will look for a file named <filename>config</filename> in the current
1249 directory. Except on Win32 where it will try <filename>config.txt</filename>.
1252 <sect2 id="start-redhat">
1253 <title>Red Hat and Fedora</title>
1255 A default Red Hat installation may not start &my-app; upon boot. It will use
1256 the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename> as its main configuration
1261 # /etc/rc.d/init.d/privoxy start
1269 # service privoxy start
1274 <sect2 id="start-debian">
1275 <title>Debian</title>
1277 We use a script. Note that Debian typically starts &my-app; upon booting per
1278 default. It will use the file
1279 <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename> as its main configuration
1284 # /etc/init.d/privoxy start
1289 <sect2 id="start-windows">
1290 <title>Windows</title>
1292 Click on the &my-app; Icon to start <application>Privoxy</application>. If no configuration file is
1293 specified on the command line, <application>Privoxy</application> will look
1294 for a file named <filename>config.txt</filename>. Note that Windows will
1295 automatically start &my-app; when the system starts if you chose that option
1299 <application>Privoxy</application> can run with full Windows service functionality.
1300 On Windows only, the &my-app; program has two new command line arguments
1301 to install and uninstall &my-app; as a service. See the
1302 <link linkend="installation-pack-win">Windows Installation
1303 instructions</link> for details.
1307 <sect2 id="start-unices">
1308 <title>Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD, HP-UX and others</title>
1310 Example Unix startup command:
1314 # /usr/sbin/privoxy /etc/privoxy/config
1319 <sect2 id="start-os2">
1322 During installation, <application>Privoxy</application> is configured to
1323 start automatically when the system restarts. You can start it manually by
1324 double-clicking on the <application>Privoxy</application> icon in the
1325 <application>Privoxy</application> folder.
1329 <sect2 id="start-macosx">
1330 <title>Mac OS X</title>
1332 After downloading the privoxy software, unzip the downloaded file by
1333 double-clicking on the zip file icon. Then, double-click on the
1334 installer package icon and follow the installation process.
1337 The privoxy service will automatically start after a successful
1338 installation. In addition, the privoxy service will automatically
1339 start every time your computer starts up.
1342 To prevent the privoxy service from automatically starting when your
1343 computer starts up, remove or rename the folder named
1344 /Library/StartupItems/Privoxy.
1347 A simple application named Privoxy Utility has been created which
1348 enables administrators to easily start and stop the privoxy service.
1351 In addition, the Privoxy Utility presents a simple way for
1352 administrators to edit the various privoxy config files. A method
1353 to uninstall the software is also available.
1356 An administrator username and password must be supplied in order for
1357 the Privoxy Utility to perform any of the tasks.
1362 <sect2 id="start-amigaos">
1363 <title>AmigaOS</title>
1365 Start <application>Privoxy</application> (with RUN <>NIL:) in your
1366 <filename>startnet</filename> script (AmiTCP), in
1367 <filename>s:user-startup</filename> (RoadShow), as startup program in your
1368 startup script (Genesis), or as startup action (Miami and MiamiDx).
1369 <application>Privoxy</application> will automatically quit when you quit your
1370 TCP/IP stack (just ignore the harmless warning your TCP/IP stack may display that
1371 <application>Privoxy</application> is still running).
1375 <sect2 id="start-gentoo">
1376 <title>Gentoo</title>
1378 A script is again used. It will use the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config
1379 </filename> as its main configuration file.
1383 /etc/init.d/privoxy start
1387 Note that <application>Privoxy</application> is not automatically started at
1388 boot time by default. You can change this with the <literal>rc-update</literal>
1393 rc-update add privoxy default
1401 See the section <link linkend="cmdoptions">Command line options</link> for
1405 must find a better place for this paragraph
1408 The included default configuration files should give a reasonable starting
1409 point. Most of the per site configuration is done in the
1410 <ulink url="actions-file.html"><quote>actions</quote></ulink> files. These are
1411 where various cookie actions are defined, ad and banner blocking, and other
1412 aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. There are several
1413 such files included, with varying levels of aggressiveness.
1417 You will probably want to keep an eye out for sites for which you may prefer
1418 persistent cookies, and add these to your actions configuration as needed. By
1419 default, most of these will be accepted only during the current browser
1420 session (aka <quote>session cookies</quote>), unless you add them to the
1421 configuration. If you want the browser to handle this instead, you will need
1422 to edit <filename>user.action</filename> (or through the web based interface)
1423 and disable this feature. If you use more than one browser, it would make
1424 more sense to let <application>Privoxy</application> handle this. In which
1425 case, the browser(s) should be set to accept all cookies.
1429 Another feature where you will probably want to define exceptions for trusted
1430 sites is the popup-killing (through <ulink
1431 url="actions-file.html#FILTER-POPUPS"><quote>+filter{popups}</quote></ulink>),
1432 because your favorite shopping, banking, or leisure site may need
1433 popups (explained below).
1437 <application>Privoxy</application> does not support all of the optional HTTP/1.1
1438 features yet. In the unlikely event that you experience inexplicable problems
1439 with browsers that use HTTP/1.1 per default
1440 (like <application>Mozilla</application> or recent versions of I.E.), you might
1441 try to force HTTP/1.0 compatibility. For Mozilla, look under <literal>Edit ->
1442 Preferences -> Debug -> Networking</literal>.
1443 Alternatively, set the <quote>+downgrade-http-version</quote> config option in
1444 <filename>default.action</filename> which will downgrade your browser's HTTP
1445 requests from HTTP/1.1 to HTTP/1.0 before processing them.
1449 After running <application>Privoxy</application> for a while, you can
1450 start to fine tune the configuration to suit your personal, or site,
1451 preferences and requirements. There are many, many aspects that can
1452 be customized. <quote>Actions</quote>
1453 can be adjusted by pointing your browser to
1454 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
1455 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
1456 and then follow the link to <quote>View & Change the Current Configuration</quote>.
1457 (This is an internal page and does not require Internet access.)
1461 In fact, various aspects of <application>Privoxy</application>
1462 configuration can be viewed from this page, including
1463 current configuration parameters, source code version numbers,
1464 the browser's request headers, and <quote>actions</quote> that apply
1465 to a given URL. In addition to the actions file
1466 editor mentioned above, <application>Privoxy</application> can also
1467 be turned <quote>on</quote> and <quote>off</quote> (toggled) from this page.
1471 If you encounter problems, try loading the page without
1472 <application>Privoxy</application>. If that helps, enter the URL where
1473 you have the problems into <ulink url="http://p.p/show-url-info">the browser
1474 based rule tracing utility</ulink>. See which rules apply and why, and
1475 then try turning them off for that site one after the other, until the problem
1476 is gone. When you have found the culprit, you might want to turn the rest on
1481 If the above paragraph sounds gibberish to you, you might want to <link
1482 linkend="actions-file">read more about the actions concept</link>
1483 or even dive deep into the <link linkend="actionsanat">Appendix
1488 If you can't get rid of the problem at all, think you've found a bug in
1489 Privoxy, want to propose a new feature or smarter rules, please see the
1490 section <link linkend="contact"><quote>Contacting the
1491 Developers</quote></link> below.
1496 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1497 <sect2 id="cmdoptions">
1498 <title>Command Line Options</title>
1500 <application>Privoxy</application> may be invoked with the following
1501 command-line options:
1509 <emphasis>--version</emphasis>
1512 Print version info and exit. Unix only.
1517 <emphasis>--help</emphasis>
1520 Print short usage info and exit. Unix only.
1525 <emphasis>--no-daemon</emphasis>
1528 Don't become a daemon, i.e. don't fork and become process group
1529 leader, and don't detach from controlling tty. Unix only.
1534 <emphasis>--pidfile FILE</emphasis>
1537 On startup, write the process ID to <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>. Delete the
1538 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> on exit. Failure to create or delete the
1539 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> is non-fatal. If no <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>
1540 option is given, no PID file will be used. Unix only.
1545 <emphasis>--user USER[.GROUP]</emphasis>
1548 After (optionally) writing the PID file, assume the user ID of
1549 <emphasis>USER</emphasis>, and if included the GID of GROUP. Exit if the
1550 privileges are not sufficient to do so. Unix only.
1555 <emphasis>--chroot</emphasis>
1558 Before changing to the user ID given in the <emphasis>--user</emphasis> option,
1559 chroot to that user's home directory, i.e. make the kernel pretend to the &my-app;
1560 process that the directory tree starts there. If set up carefully, this can limit
1561 the impact of possible vulnerabilities in &my-app; to the files contained in that hierarchy.
1567 <emphasis>--pre-chroot-nslookup hostname</emphasis>
1570 Specifies a hostname to look up before doing a chroot. On some systems, initializing the
1571 resolver library involves reading config files from /etc and/or loading additional shared
1572 libraries from /lib. On these systems, doing a hostname lookup before the chroot reduces
1573 the number of files that must be copied into the chroot tree.
1576 For fastest startup speed, a good value is a hostname that is not in /etc/hosts but that
1577 your local name server (listed in /etc/resolv.conf) can resolve without recursion
1578 (that is, without having to ask any other name servers). The hostname need not exist,
1579 but if it doesn't, an error message (which can be ignored) will be output.
1585 <emphasis>configfile</emphasis>
1588 If no <emphasis>configfile</emphasis> is included on the command line,
1589 <application>Privoxy</application> will look for a file named
1590 <quote>config</quote> in the current directory (except on Win32
1591 where it will look for <quote>config.txt</quote> instead). Specify
1592 full path to avoid confusion. If no config file is found,
1593 <application>Privoxy</application> will fail to start.
1601 On <application>MS Windows</application> only there are two additional
1602 command-line options to allow <application>Privoxy</application> to install and
1603 run as a <emphasis>service</emphasis>. See the
1604 <link linkend="installation-pack-win">Window Installation section</link>
1612 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1615 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1616 <sect1 id="configuration"><title>Privoxy Configuration</title>
1618 All <application>Privoxy</application> configuration is stored
1619 in text files. These files can be edited with a text editor.
1620 Many important aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> can
1621 also be controlled easily with a web browser.
1625 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1628 <title>Controlling Privoxy with Your Web Browser</title>
1630 <application>Privoxy</application>'s user interface can be reached through the special
1631 URL <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
1632 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
1633 which is a built-in page and works without Internet access.
1634 You will see the following section:
1638 <!-- Needs to be put in a table and colorized -->
1641 <bridgehead renderas="sect2"> Privoxy Menu</bridgehead>
1645 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">View & change the current configuration</ulink>
1648 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-version">View the source code version numbers</ulink>
1651 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request">View the request headers.</ulink>
1654 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">Look up which actions apply to a URL and why</ulink>
1657 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">Toggle Privoxy on or off</ulink>
1660 ▪ <ulink
1661 url="http://www.privoxy.org/&p-version;/user-manual/">Documentation</ulink>
1669 This should be self-explanatory. Note the first item leads to an editor for the
1670 <link linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>, which is where the ad, banner,
1671 cookie, and URL blocking magic is configured as well as other advanced features of
1672 <application>Privoxy</application>. This is an easy way to adjust various
1673 aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. The actions
1674 file, and other configuration files, are explained in detail below.
1678 <quote>Toggle Privoxy On or Off</quote> is handy for sites that might
1679 have problems with your current actions and filters. You can in fact use
1680 it as a test to see whether it is <application>Privoxy</application>
1681 causing the problem or not. <application>Privoxy</application> continues
1682 to run as a proxy in this case, but all manipulation is disabled, i.e.
1683 <application>Privoxy</application> acts like a normal forwarding proxy. There
1684 is even a toggle <link linkend="bookmarklets">Bookmarklet</link> offered, so
1685 that you can toggle <application>Privoxy</application> with one click from
1690 Note that several of the features described above are disabled by default
1691 in <application>Privoxy</application> 3.0.7 beta and later.
1693 <ulink url="config.html">configuration file</ulink> to learn why
1694 and in which cases it's safe to enable them again.
1699 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1704 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1706 <sect2 id="confoverview">
1707 <title>Configuration Files Overview</title>
1709 For Unix, *BSD and Linux, all configuration files are located in
1710 <filename>/etc/privoxy/</filename> by default. For MS Windows, OS/2, and
1711 AmigaOS these are all in the same directory as the
1712 <application>Privoxy</application> executable. <![%p-not-stable;[ The name
1713 and number of configuration files has changed from previous versions, and is
1714 subject to change as development progresses.]]>
1718 The installed defaults provide a reasonable starting point, though
1719 some settings may be aggressive by some standards. For the time being, the
1720 principle configuration files are:
1728 The <link linkend="config">main configuration file</link> is named <filename>config</filename>
1729 on Linux, Unix, BSD, OS/2, and AmigaOS and <filename>config.txt</filename>
1730 on Windows. This is a required file.
1736 <filename>match-all.action</filename> is used to define which <quote>actions</quote>
1737 relating to banner-blocking, images, pop-ups, content modification, cookie handling
1738 etc should be applied by default. It should be the first actions file loaded.
1741 <filename>default.action</filename> defines many exceptions (both positive and negative)
1742 from the default set of actions that's configured in <filename>match-all.action</filename>.
1743 It should be the second actions file loaded and shouldn't be edited by the user.
1746 Multiple actions files may be defined in <filename>config</filename>. These
1747 are processed in the order they are defined. Local customizations and locally
1748 preferred exceptions to the default policies as defined in
1749 <filename>match-all.action</filename> (which you will most probably want
1750 to define sooner or later) are best applied in <filename>user.action</filename>,
1751 where you can preserve them across upgrades. The file isn't installed by all
1752 installers, but you can easily create it yourself with a text editor.
1755 There is also a web based editor that can be accessed from
1757 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
1759 url="http://p.p/show-status">http://p.p/show-status</ulink>) for the
1760 various actions files.
1766 <quote>Filter files</quote> (the <link linkend="filter-file">filter
1767 file</link>) can be used to re-write the raw page content, including
1768 viewable text as well as embedded HTML and JavaScript, and whatever else
1769 lurks on any given web page. The filtering jobs are only pre-defined here;
1770 whether to apply them or not is up to the actions files.
1771 <filename>default.filter</filename> includes various filters made
1772 available for use by the developers. Some are much more intrusive than
1773 others, and all should be used with caution. You may define additional
1774 filter files in <filename>config</filename> as you can with
1775 actions files. We suggest <filename>user.filter</filename> for any
1776 locally defined filters or customizations.
1784 The syntax of the configuration and filter files may change between different
1785 Privoxy versions, unfortunately some enhancements cost backwards compatibility.
1786 <!-- Add link to documentation-->
1790 All files use the <quote><literal>#</literal></quote> character to denote a
1791 comment (the rest of the line will be ignored) and understand line continuation
1792 through placing a backslash ("<literal>\</literal>") as the very last character
1793 in a line. If the <literal>#</literal> is preceded by a backslash, it looses
1794 its special function. Placing a <literal>#</literal> in front of an otherwise
1795 valid configuration line to prevent it from being interpreted is called "commenting
1796 out" that line. Blank lines are ignored.
1800 The actions files and filter files
1801 can use Perl style <link linkend="regex">regular expressions</link> for
1802 maximum flexibility.
1806 After making any changes, there is no need to restart
1807 <application>Privoxy</application> in order for the changes to take
1808 effect. <application>Privoxy</application> detects such changes
1809 automatically. Note, however, that it may take one or two additional
1810 requests for the change to take effect. When changing the listening address
1811 of <application>Privoxy</application>, these <quote>wake up</quote> requests
1812 must obviously be sent to the <emphasis>old</emphasis> listening address.
1817 While under development, the configuration content is subject to change.
1818 The below documentation may not be accurate by the time you read this.
1819 Also, what constitutes a <quote>default</quote> setting, may change, so
1820 please check all your configuration files on important issues.
1826 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1829 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
1831 <!-- **************************************************** -->
1832 <!-- Include config.sgml here -->
1833 <!-- This is where the entire config file is detailed. -->
1835 <!-- end include -->
1838 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1842 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
1844 <sect1 id="actions-file"><title>Actions Files</title>
1848 XXX: similar descriptions are in the Configuration Files sections.
1849 We should only describe them at one place.
1852 The actions files are used to define what <emphasis>actions</emphasis>
1853 <application>Privoxy</application> takes for which URLs, and thus determines
1854 how ad images, cookies and various other aspects of HTTP content and
1855 transactions are handled, and on which sites (or even parts thereof).
1856 There are a number of such actions, with a wide range of functionality.
1857 Each action does something a little different.
1858 These actions give us a veritable arsenal of tools with which to exert
1859 our control, preferences and independence. Actions can be combined so that
1860 their effects are aggregated when applied against a given set of URLs.
1864 are three action files included with <application>Privoxy</application> with
1871 <filename>match-all.action</filename> - is used to define which
1872 <quote>actions</quote> relating to banner-blocking, images, pop-ups,
1873 content modification, cookie handling etc should be applied by default.
1874 It should be the first actions file loaded
1879 <filename>default.action</filename> - defines many exceptions (both
1880 positive and negative) from the default set of actions that's configured
1881 in <filename>match-all.action</filename>. It is a set of rules that should
1882 work reasonably well as-is for most users. This file is only supposed to
1883 be edited by the developers. It should be the second actions file loaded.
1888 <filename>user.action</filename> - is intended to be for local site
1889 preferences and exceptions. As an example, if your ISP or your bank
1890 has specific requirements, and need special handling, this kind of
1891 thing should go here. This file will not be upgraded.
1896 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> <guibutton>Set to Cautious</guibutton> <guibutton>Set to Medium</guibutton> <guibutton>Set to Advanced</guibutton>
1899 These have increasing levels of aggressiveness <emphasis>and have no
1900 influence on your browsing unless you select them explicitly in the
1901 editor</emphasis>. A default installation should be pre-set to
1902 <literal>Cautious</literal>. New users should try this for a while before
1903 adjusting the settings to more aggressive levels. The more aggressive
1904 the settings, then the more likelihood there is of problems such as sites
1905 not working as they should.
1908 The <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> button allows you to turn each
1909 action on/off individually for fine-tuning. The <guibutton>Cautious</guibutton>
1910 button changes the actions list to low/safe settings which will activate
1911 ad blocking and a minimal set of &my-app;'s features, and subsequently
1912 there will be less of a chance for accidental problems. The
1913 <guibutton>Medium</guibutton> button sets the list to a medium level of
1914 other features and a low level set of privacy features. The
1915 <guibutton>Advanced</guibutton> button sets the list to a high level of
1916 ad blocking and medium level of privacy. See the chart below. The latter
1917 three buttons over-ride any changes via with the
1918 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> button. More fine-tuning can be done in the
1919 lower sections of this internal page.
1922 While the actions file editor allows to enable these settings in all
1923 actions files, they are only supposed to be enabled in the first one
1924 to make sure you don't unintentionally overrule earlier rules.
1927 The default profiles, and their associated actions, as pre-defined in
1928 <filename>default.action</filename> are:
1931 <table frame=all><title>Default Configurations</title>
1932 <tgroup cols=4 align=left colsep=1 rowsep=1>
1933 <colspec colname=c1>
1934 <colspec colname=c2>
1935 <colspec colname=c3>
1936 <colspec colname=c4>
1939 <entry>Feature</entry>
1940 <entry>Cautious</entry>
1941 <entry>Medium</entry>
1942 <entry>Advanced</entry>
1947 <!-- <entry>f1</entry> -->
1948 <!-- <entry>f2</entry> -->
1949 <!-- <entry>f3</entry> -->
1950 <!-- <entry>f4</entry> -->
1956 <entry>Ad-blocking Aggressiveness</entry>
1957 <entry>medium</entry>
1963 <entry>Ad-filtering by size</entry>
1970 <entry>Ad-filtering by link</entry>
1976 <entry>Pop-up killing</entry>
1977 <entry>blocks only</entry>
1978 <entry>blocks only</entry>
1979 <entry>blocks only</entry>
1983 <entry>Privacy Features</entry>
1985 <entry>medium</entry>
1986 <entry>medium/high</entry>
1990 <entry>Cookie handling</entry>
1992 <entry>session-only</entry>
1997 <entry>Referer forging</entry>
2004 <entry>GIF de-animation</entry>
2011 <entry>Fast redirects</entry>
2018 <entry>HTML taming</entry>
2025 <entry>JavaScript taming</entry>
2032 <entry>Web-bug killing</entry>
2039 <entry>Image tag reordering</entry>
2055 The list of actions files to be used are defined in the main configuration
2056 file, and are processed in the order they are defined (e.g.
2057 <filename>default.action</filename> is typically processed before
2058 <filename>user.action</filename>). The content of these can all be viewed and
2060 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
2061 The over-riding principle when applying actions, is that the last action that
2062 matches a given URL wins. The broadest, most general rules go first
2063 (defined in <filename>default.action</filename>),
2064 followed by any exceptions (typically also in
2065 <filename>default.action</filename>), which are then followed lastly by any
2066 local preferences (typically in <emphasis>user</emphasis><filename>.action</filename>).
2067 Generally, <filename>user.action</filename> has the last word.
2071 An actions file typically has multiple sections. If you want to use
2072 <quote>aliases</quote> in an actions file, you have to place the (optional)
2073 <link linkend="aliases">alias section</link> at the top of that file.
2074 Then comes the default set of rules which will apply universally to all
2075 sites and pages (be <emphasis>very careful</emphasis> with using such a
2076 universal set in <filename>user.action</filename> or any other actions file after
2077 <filename>default.action</filename>, because it will override the result
2078 from consulting any previous file). And then below that,
2079 exceptions to the defined universal policies. You can regard
2080 <filename>user.action</filename> as an appendix to <filename>default.action</filename>,
2081 with the advantage that it is a separate file, which makes preserving your
2082 personal settings across <application>Privoxy</application> upgrades easier.
2086 Actions can be used to block anything you want, including ads, banners, or
2087 just some obnoxious URL whose content you would rather not see. Cookies can be accepted
2088 or rejected, or accepted only during the current browser session (i.e. not
2089 written to disk), content can be modified, some JavaScripts tamed, user-tracking
2090 fooled, and much more. See below for a <link linkend="actions">complete list
2094 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2096 <title>Finding the Right Mix</title>
2098 Note that some <link linkend="actions">actions</link>, like cookie suppression
2099 or script disabling, may render some sites unusable that rely on these
2100 techniques to work properly. Finding the right mix of actions is not always easy and
2101 certainly a matter of personal taste. And, things can always change, requiring
2102 refinements in the configuration. In general, it can be said that the more
2103 <quote>aggressive</quote> your default settings (in the top section of the
2104 actions file) are, the more exceptions for <quote>trusted</quote> sites you
2105 will have to make later. If, for example, you want to crunch all cookies per
2106 default, you'll have to make exceptions from that rule for sites that you
2107 regularly use and that require cookies for actually useful purposes, like maybe
2108 your bank, favorite shop, or newspaper.
2112 We have tried to provide you with reasonable rules to start from in the
2113 distribution actions files. But there is no general rule of thumb on these
2114 things. There just are too many variables, and sites are constantly changing.
2115 Sooner or later you will want to change the rules (and read this chapter again :).
2119 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2121 <title>How to Edit</title>
2123 The easiest way to edit the actions files is with a browser by
2124 using our browser-based editor, which can be reached from <ulink
2125 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
2126 Note: the config file option <link
2127 linkend="enable-edit-actions">enable-edit-actions</link> must be enabled for
2128 this to work. The editor allows both fine-grained control over every single
2129 feature on a per-URL basis, and easy choosing from wholesale sets of defaults
2130 like <quote>Cautious</quote>, <quote>Medium</quote> or
2131 <quote>Advanced</quote>. Warning: the <quote>Advanced</quote> setting is more
2132 aggressive, and will be more likely to cause problems for some sites.
2133 Experienced users only!
2137 If you prefer plain text editing to GUIs, you can of course also directly edit the
2138 the actions files with your favorite text editor. Look at
2139 <filename>default.action</filename> which is richly commented with many
2145 <sect2 id="actions-apply">
2146 <title>How Actions are Applied to Requests</title>
2148 Actions files are divided into sections. There are special sections,
2149 like the <quote><link linkend="aliases">alias</link></quote> sections which will
2150 be discussed later. For now let's concentrate on regular sections: They have a
2151 heading line (often split up to multiple lines for readability) which consist
2152 of a list of actions, separated by whitespace and enclosed in curly braces.
2153 Below that, there is a list of URL and tag patterns, each on a separate line.
2157 To determine which actions apply to a request, the URL of the request is
2158 compared to all URL patterns in each <quote>action file</quote>.
2159 Every time it matches, the list of applicable actions for the request is
2160 incrementally updated, using the heading of the section in which the
2161 pattern is located. The same is done again for tags and tag patterns later on.
2165 If multiple applying sections set the same action differently,
2166 the last match wins. If not, the effects are aggregated.
2167 E.g. a URL might match a regular section with a heading line of <literal>{
2168 +<link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link> }</literal>,
2169 then later another one with just <literal>{
2170 +<link linkend="block">block</link> }</literal>, resulting
2171 in <emphasis>both</emphasis> actions to apply. And there may well be
2172 cases where you will want to combine actions together. Such a section then
2178 { +<literal>handle-as-image</literal> +<literal>block{Banner ads.}</literal> }
2179 # Block these as if they were images. Send no block page.
2181 media.example.com/.*banners
2182 .example.com/images/ads/</screen>
2186 You can trace this process for URL patterns and any given URL by visiting <ulink
2187 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>.
2191 Examples and more detail on this is provided in the Appendix, <link linkend="ACTIONSANAT">
2192 Troubleshooting: Anatomy of an Action</link> section.
2196 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2197 <sect2 id="af-patterns">
2198 <title>Patterns</title>
2200 As mentioned, <application>Privoxy</application> uses <quote>patterns</quote>
2201 to determine what <emphasis>actions</emphasis> might apply to which sites and
2202 pages your browser attempts to access. These <quote>patterns</quote> use wild
2203 card type <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> matching to achieve a high degree of
2204 flexibility. This allows one expression to be expanded and potentially match
2205 against many similar patterns.
2209 Generally, an URL pattern has the form
2210 <literal><domain>/<path></literal>, where both the
2211 <literal><domain></literal> and <literal><path></literal> are
2212 optional. (This is why the special <literal>/</literal> pattern matches all
2213 URLs). Note that the protocol portion of the URL pattern (e.g.
2214 <literal>http://</literal>) should <emphasis>not</emphasis> be included in
2215 the pattern. This is assumed already!
2218 The pattern matching syntax is different for the domain and path parts of
2219 the URL. The domain part uses a simple globbing type matching technique,
2220 while the path part uses more flexible
2221 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
2222 Expressions</quote></ulink> (POSIX 1003.2).
2227 <term><literal>www.example.com/</literal></term>
2230 is a domain-only pattern and will match any request to <literal>www.example.com</literal>,
2231 regardless of which document on that server is requested. So ALL pages in
2232 this domain would be covered by the scope of this action. Note that a
2233 simple <literal>example.com</literal> is different and would NOT match.
2238 <term><literal>www.example.com</literal></term>
2241 means exactly the same. For domain-only patterns, the trailing <literal>/</literal> may
2247 <term><literal>www.example.com/index.html</literal></term>
2250 matches all the documents on <literal>www.example.com</literal>
2251 whose name starts with <literal>/index.html</literal>.
2256 <term><literal>www.example.com/index.html$</literal></term>
2259 matches only the single document <literal>/index.html</literal>
2260 on <literal>www.example.com</literal>.
2265 <term><literal>/index.html$</literal></term>
2268 matches the document <literal>/index.html</literal>, regardless of the domain,
2269 i.e. on <emphasis>any</emphasis> web server anywhere.
2274 <term><literal>index.html</literal></term>
2277 matches nothing, since it would be interpreted as a domain name and
2278 there is no top-level domain called <literal>.html</literal>. So its
2286 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2287 <sect3><title>The Domain Pattern</title>
2290 The matching of the domain part offers some flexible options: if the
2291 domain starts or ends with a dot, it becomes unanchored at that end.
2297 <term><literal>.example.com</literal></term>
2300 matches any domain with first-level domain <literal>com</literal>
2301 and second-level domain <literal>example</literal>.
2302 For example <literal>www.example.com</literal>,
2303 <literal>example.com</literal> and <literal>foo.bar.baz.example.com</literal>.
2304 Note that it wouldn't match if the second-level domain was <literal>another-example</literal>.
2309 <term><literal>www.</literal></term>
2312 matches any domain that <emphasis>STARTS</emphasis> with
2313 <literal>www.</literal> (It also matches the domain
2314 <literal>www</literal> but most of the time that doesn't matter.)
2319 <term><literal>.example.</literal></term>
2322 matches any domain that <emphasis>CONTAINS</emphasis> <literal>.example.</literal>.
2323 And, by the way, also included would be any files or documents that exist
2324 within that domain since no path limitations are specified. (Correctly
2325 speaking: It matches any FQDN that contains <literal>example</literal> as
2326 a domain.) This might be <literal>www.example.com</literal>,
2327 <literal>news.example.de</literal>, or
2328 <literal>www.example.net/cgi/testing.pl</literal> for instance. All these
2336 Additionally, there are wild-cards that you can use in the domain names
2337 themselves. These work similarly to shell globbing type wild-cards:
2338 <quote>*</quote> represents zero or more arbitrary characters (this is
2340 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
2341 Expression</quote></ulink> based syntax of <quote>.*</quote>),
2342 <quote>?</quote> represents any single character (this is equivalent to the
2343 regular expression syntax of a simple <quote>.</quote>), and you can define
2344 <quote>character classes</quote> in square brackets which is similar to
2345 the same regular expression technique. All of this can be freely mixed:
2350 <term><literal>ad*.example.com</literal></term>
2353 matches <quote>adserver.example.com</quote>,
2354 <quote>ads.example.com</quote>, etc but not <quote>sfads.example.com</quote>
2359 <term><literal>*ad*.example.com</literal></term>
2362 matches all of the above, and then some.
2367 <term><literal>.?pix.com</literal></term>
2370 matches <literal>www.ipix.com</literal>,
2371 <literal>pictures.epix.com</literal>, <literal>a.b.c.d.e.upix.com</literal> etc.
2376 <term><literal>www[1-9a-ez].example.c*</literal></term>
2379 matches <literal>www1.example.com</literal>,
2380 <literal>www4.example.cc</literal>, <literal>wwwd.example.cy</literal>,
2381 <literal>wwwz.example.com</literal> etc., but <emphasis>not</emphasis>
2382 <literal>wwww.example.com</literal>.
2389 While flexible, this is not the sophistication of full regular expression based syntax.
2394 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2397 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2398 <sect3><title>The Path Pattern</title>
2401 <application>Privoxy</application> uses <quote>modern</quote> POSIX 1003.2
2402 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
2403 Expressions</quote></ulink> for matching the path portion (after the slash),
2404 and is thus more flexible.
2408 There is an <link linkend="regex">Appendix</link> with a brief quick-start into regular
2409 expressions, you also might want to have a look at your operating system's documentation
2410 on regular expressions (try <literal>man re_format</literal>).
2414 Note that the path pattern is automatically left-anchored at the <quote>/</quote>,
2415 i.e. it matches as if it would start with a <quote>^</quote> (regular expression speak
2416 for the beginning of a line).
2420 Please also note that matching in the path is <emphasis>CASE INSENSITIVE</emphasis>
2421 by default, but you can switch to case sensitive at any point in the pattern by using the
2422 <quote>(?-i)</quote> switch: <literal>www.example.com/(?-i)PaTtErN.*</literal> will match
2423 only documents whose path starts with <literal>PaTtErN</literal> in
2424 <emphasis>exactly</emphasis> this capitalization.
2429 <term><literal>.example.com/.*</literal></term>
2432 Is equivalent to just <quote>.example.com</quote>, since any documents
2433 within that domain are matched with or without the <quote>.*</quote>
2434 regular expression. This is redundant
2439 <term><literal>.example.com/.*/index.html$</literal></term>
2442 Will match any page in the domain of <quote>example.com</quote> that is
2443 named <quote>index.html</quote>, and that is part of some path. For
2444 example, it matches <quote>www.example.com/testing/index.html</quote> but
2445 NOT <quote>www.example.com/index.html</quote> because the regular
2446 expression called for at least two <quote>/'s</quote>, thus the path
2447 requirement. It also would match
2448 <quote>www.example.com/testing/index_html</quote>, because of the
2449 special meta-character <quote>.</quote>.
2454 <term><literal>.example.com/(.*/)?index\.html$</literal></term>
2457 This regular expression is conditional so it will match any page
2458 named <quote>index.html</quote> regardless of path which in this case can
2459 have one or more <quote>/'s</quote>. And this one must contain exactly
2460 <quote>.html</quote> (but does not have to end with that!).
2465 <term><literal>.example.com/(.*/)(ads|banners?|junk)</literal></term>
2468 This regular expression will match any path of <quote>example.com</quote>
2469 that contains any of the words <quote>ads</quote>, <quote>banner</quote>,
2470 <quote>banners</quote> (because of the <quote>?</quote>) or <quote>junk</quote>.
2471 The path does not have to end in these words, just contain them.
2476 <term><literal>.example.com/(.*/)(ads|banners?|junk)/.*\.(jpe?g|gif|png)$</literal></term>
2479 This is very much the same as above, except now it must end in either
2480 <quote>.jpg</quote>, <quote>.jpeg</quote>, <quote>.gif</quote> or <quote>.png</quote>. So this
2481 one is limited to common image formats.
2488 There are many, many good examples to be found in <filename>default.action</filename>,
2489 and more tutorials below in <link linkend="regex">Appendix on regular expressions</link>.
2494 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2497 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2498 <sect3 id="tag-pattern"><title>The Tag Pattern</title>
2501 Tag patterns are used to change the applying actions based on the
2502 request's tags. Tags can be created with either the
2503 <link linkend="CLIENT-HEADER-TAGGER">client-header-tagger</link>
2504 or the <link linkend="SERVER-HEADER-TAGGER">server-header-tagger</link> action.
2508 Tag patterns have to start with <quote>TAG:</quote>, so &my-app;
2509 can tell them apart from URL patterns. Everything after the colon
2510 including white space, is interpreted as a regular expression with
2511 path pattern syntax, except that tag patterns aren't left-anchored
2512 automatically (&my-app; doesn't silently add a <quote>^</quote>,
2513 you have to do it yourself if you need it).
2517 To match all requests that are tagged with <quote>foo</quote>
2518 your pattern line should be <quote>TAG:^foo$</quote>,
2519 <quote>TAG:foo</quote> would work as well, but it would also
2520 match requests whose tags contain <quote>foo</quote> somewhere.
2521 <quote>TAG: foo</quote> wouldn't work as it requires white space.
2525 Sections can contain URL and tag patterns at the same time,
2526 but tag patterns are checked after the URL patterns and thus
2527 always overrule them, even if they are located before the URL patterns.
2531 Once a new tag is added, Privoxy checks right away if it's matched by one
2532 of the tag patterns and updates the action settings accordingly. As a result
2533 tags can be used to activate other tagger actions, as long as these other
2534 taggers look for headers that haven't already be parsed.
2538 For example you could tag client requests which use the
2539 <literal>POST</literal> method,
2540 then use this tag to activate another tagger that adds a tag if cookies
2541 are sent, and then use a block action based on the cookie tag. This allows
2542 the outcome of one action, to be input into a subsequent action. However if
2543 you'd reverse the position of the described taggers, and activated the
2544 method tagger based on the cookie tagger, no method tags would be created.
2545 The method tagger would look for the request line, but at the time
2546 the cookie tag is created, the request line has already been parsed.
2550 While this is a limitation you should be aware of, this kind of
2551 indirection is seldom needed anyway and even the example doesn't
2552 make too much sense.
2559 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2562 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2564 <sect2 id="actions">
2565 <title>Actions</title>
2567 All actions are disabled by default, until they are explicitly enabled
2568 somewhere in an actions file. Actions are turned on if preceded with a
2569 <quote>+</quote>, and turned off if preceded with a <quote>-</quote>. So a
2570 <literal>+action</literal> means <quote>do that action</quote>, e.g.
2571 <literal>+block</literal> means <quote>please block URLs that match the
2572 following patterns</quote>, and <literal>-block</literal> means <quote>don't
2573 block URLs that match the following patterns, even if <literal>+block</literal>
2574 previously applied.</quote>
2579 Again, actions are invoked by placing them on a line, enclosed in curly braces and
2580 separated by whitespace, like in
2581 <literal>{+some-action -some-other-action{some-parameter}}</literal>,
2582 followed by a list of URL patterns, one per line, to which they apply.
2583 Together, the actions line and the following pattern lines make up a section
2584 of the actions file.
2588 Actions fall into three categories:
2595 Boolean, i.e the action can only be <quote>enabled</quote> or
2596 <quote>disabled</quote>. Syntax:
2600 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # enable action <replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable>
2601 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # disable action <replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable></screen>
2604 Example: <literal>+handle-as-image</literal>
2611 Parameterized, where some value is required in order to enable this type of action.
2616 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # enable action and set parameter to <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>,
2617 # overwriting parameter from previous match if necessary
2618 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # disable action. The parameter can be omitted</screen>
2621 Note that if the URL matches multiple positive forms of a parameterized action,
2622 the last match wins, i.e. the params from earlier matches are simply ignored.
2625 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>
2631 Multi-value. These look exactly like parameterized actions,
2632 but they behave differently: If the action applies multiple times to the
2633 same URL, but with different parameters, <emphasis>all</emphasis> the parameters
2634 from <emphasis>all</emphasis> matches are remembered. This is used for actions
2635 that can be executed for the same request repeatedly, like adding multiple
2636 headers, or filtering through multiple filters. Syntax:
2640 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # enable action and add <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable> to the list of parameters
2641 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # remove the parameter <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable> from the list of parameters
2642 # If it was the last one left, disable the action.
2643 <replaceable class="parameter">-name</replaceable> # disable this action completely and remove all parameters from the list</screen>
2646 Examples: <literal>+add-header{X-Fun-Header: Some text}</literal> and
2647 <literal>+filter{html-annoyances}</literal>
2655 If nothing is specified in any actions file, no <quote>actions</quote> are
2656 taken. So in this case <application>Privoxy</application> would just be a
2657 normal, non-blocking, non-filtering proxy. You must specifically enable the
2658 privacy and blocking features you need (although the provided default actions
2659 files will give a good starting point).
2663 Later defined action sections always over-ride earlier ones of the same type.
2664 So exceptions to any rules you make, should come in the latter part of the file (or
2665 in a file that is processed later when using multiple actions files such
2666 as <filename>user.action</filename>). For multi-valued actions, the actions
2667 are applied in the order they are specified. Actions files are processed in
2668 the order they are defined in <filename>config</filename> (the default
2669 installation has three actions files). It also quite possible for any given
2670 URL to match more than one <quote>pattern</quote> (because of wildcards and
2671 regular expressions), and thus to trigger more than one set of actions! Last
2675 <!-- start actions listing -->
2677 The list of valid <application>Privoxy</application> actions are:
2681 <!-- ********************************************************** -->
2682 <!-- Please note the below defined actions use id's that are -->
2683 <!-- probably linked from other places, so please don't change. -->
2685 <!-- ********************************************************** -->
2688 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2690 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="add-header">
2691 <title>add-header</title>
2695 <term>Typical use:</term>
2697 <para>Confuse log analysis, custom applications</para>
2702 <term>Effect:</term>
2705 Sends a user defined HTTP header to the web server.
2712 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2714 <para>Multi-value.</para>
2719 <term>Parameter:</term>
2722 Any string value is possible. Validity of the defined HTTP headers is not checked.
2723 It is recommended that you use the <quote><literal>X-</literal></quote> prefix
2733 This action may be specified multiple times, in order to define multiple
2734 headers. This is rarely needed for the typical user. If you don't know what
2735 <quote>HTTP headers</quote> are, you definitely don't need to worry about this
2742 <term>Example usage:</term>
2745 <screen>+add-header{X-User-Tracking: sucks}</screen>
2753 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2754 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="block">
2755 <title>block</title>
2759 <term>Typical use:</term>
2761 <para>Block ads or other unwanted content</para>
2766 <term>Effect:</term>
2769 Requests for URLs to which this action applies are blocked, i.e. the
2770 requests are trapped by &my-app; and the requested URL is never retrieved,
2771 but is answered locally with a substitute page or image, as determined by
2773 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>,
2775 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>, and
2777 linkend="handle-as-empty-document">handle-as-empty-document</link></literal> actions.
2785 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2787 <para>Parameterized.</para>
2792 <term>Parameter:</term>
2794 <para>A block reason that should be given to the user.</para>
2802 <application>Privoxy</application> sends a special <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page
2803 for requests to blocked pages. This page contains the block reason given as
2804 parameter, a link to find out why the block action applies, and a click-through
2805 to the blocked content (the latter only if the force feature is available and
2809 A very important exception occurs if <emphasis>both</emphasis>
2810 <literal>block</literal> and <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>,
2811 apply to the same request: it will then be replaced by an image. If
2812 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>
2813 (see below) also applies, the type of image will be determined by its parameter,
2814 if not, the standard checkerboard pattern is sent.
2817 It is important to understand this process, in order
2818 to understand how <application>Privoxy</application> deals with
2819 ads and other unwanted content. Blocking is a core feature, and one
2820 upon which various other features depend.
2823 The <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>
2824 action can perform a very similar task, by <quote>blocking</quote>
2825 banner images and other content through rewriting the relevant URLs in the
2826 document's HTML source, so they don't get requested in the first place.
2827 Note that this is a totally different technique, and it's easy to confuse the two.
2833 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
2836 <screen>{+block{No nasty stuff for you.}}
2837 # Block and replace with "blocked" page
2838 .nasty-stuff.example.com
2840 {+block{Doubleclick banners.} +handle-as-image}
2841 # Block and replace with image
2845 {+block{Layered ads.} +handle-as-empty-document}
2846 # Block and then ignore
2847 adserver.example.net/.*\.js$</screen>
2857 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2858 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="change-x-forwarded-for">
2859 <title>change-x-forwarded-for</title>
2863 <term>Typical use:</term>
2865 <para>Improve privacy by not forwarding the source of the request in the HTTP headers.</para>
2870 <term>Effect:</term>
2873 Deletes the <quote>X-Forwarded-For:</quote> HTTP header from the client request,
2881 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
2883 <para>Parameterized.</para>
2888 <term>Parameter:</term>
2892 <para><quote>block</quote> to delete the header.</para>
2896 <quote>add</quote> to create the header (or append
2897 the client's IP address to an already existing one).
2908 It is safe and recommended to use <literal>block</literal>.
2911 Forwarding the source address of the request may make
2912 sense in some multi-user setups but is also a privacy risk.
2917 <term>Example usage:</term>
2920 <screen>+change-x-forwarded-for{block}</screen>
2927 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2928 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="client-header-filter">
2929 <title>client-header-filter</title>
2933 <term>Typical use:</term>
2936 Rewrite or remove single client headers.
2942 <term>Effect:</term>
2945 All client headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly through
2946 the specified regular expression based substitutions.
2953 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2955 <para>Parameterized.</para>
2960 <term>Parameter:</term>
2963 The name of a client-header filter, as defined in one of the
2964 <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link>.
2973 Client-header filters are applied to each header on its own, not to
2974 all at once. This makes it easier to diagnose problems, but on the downside
2975 you can't write filters that only change header x if header y's value is z.
2976 You can do that by using tags though.
2979 Client-header filters are executed after the other header actions have finished
2980 and use their output as input.
2983 If the request URL gets changed, &my-app; will detect that and use the new
2984 one. This can be used to rewrite the request destination behind the client's
2985 back, for example to specify a Tor exit relay for certain requests.
2988 Please refer to the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file chapter</link>
2989 to learn which client-header filters are available by default, and how to
2997 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3001 # Hide Tor exit notation in Host and Referer Headers
3002 {+client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation}}
3013 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3014 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="client-header-tagger">
3015 <title>client-header-tagger</title>
3019 <term>Typical use:</term>
3022 Block requests based on their headers.
3028 <term>Effect:</term>
3031 Client headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly through
3032 the specified regular expression based substitutions, the result is used as
3040 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3042 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3047 <term>Parameter:</term>
3050 The name of a client-header tagger, as defined in one of the
3051 <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link>.
3060 Client-header taggers are applied to each header on its own,
3061 and as the header isn't modified, each tagger <quote>sees</quote>
3065 Client-header taggers are the first actions that are executed
3066 and their tags can be used to control every other action.
3072 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3076 # Tag every request with the User-Agent header
3077 {+client-header-tagger{user-agent}}
3080 # Tagging itself doesn't change the action
3081 # settings, sections with TAG patterns do:
3083 # If it's a download agent, use a different forwarding proxy,
3084 # show the real User-Agent and make sure resume works.
3085 {+forward-override{forward-socks5 10.0.0.2:2222 .} \
3086 -hide-if-modified-since \
3087 -overwrite-last-modified \
3092 TAG:^User-Agent: NetBSD-ftp/
3093 TAG:^User-Agent: Novell ZYPP Installer
3094 TAG:^User-Agent: RPM APT-HTTP/
3095 TAG:^User-Agent: fetch libfetch/
3096 TAG:^User-Agent: Ubuntu APT-HTTP/
3097 TAG:^User-Agent: MPlayer/
3107 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3108 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="content-type-overwrite">
3109 <title>content-type-overwrite</title>
3113 <term>Typical use:</term>
3115 <para>Stop useless download menus from popping up, or change the browser's rendering mode</para>
3120 <term>Effect:</term>
3123 Replaces the <quote>Content-Type:</quote> HTTP server header.
3130 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3132 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3137 <term>Parameter:</term>
3149 The <quote>Content-Type:</quote> HTTP server header is used by the
3150 browser to decide what to do with the document. The value of this
3151 header can cause the browser to open a download menu instead of
3152 displaying the document by itself, even if the document's format is
3153 supported by the browser.
3156 The declared content type can also affect which rendering mode
3157 the browser chooses. If XHTML is delivered as <quote>text/html</quote>,
3158 many browsers treat it as yet another broken HTML document.
3159 If it is send as <quote>application/xml</quote>, browsers with
3160 XHTML support will only display it, if the syntax is correct.
3163 If you see a web site that proudly uses XHTML buttons, but sets
3164 <quote>Content-Type: text/html</quote>, you can use &my-app;
3165 to overwrite it with <quote>application/xml</quote> and validate
3166 the web master's claim inside your XHTML-supporting browser.
3167 If the syntax is incorrect, the browser will complain loudly.
3170 You can also go the opposite direction: if your browser prints
3171 error messages instead of rendering a document falsely declared
3172 as XHTML, you can overwrite the content type with
3173 <quote>text/html</quote> and have it rendered as broken HTML document.
3176 By default <literal>content-type-overwrite</literal> only replaces
3177 <quote>Content-Type:</quote> headers that look like some kind of text.
3178 If you want to overwrite it unconditionally, you have to combine it with
3179 <literal><link linkend="force-text-mode">force-text-mode</link></literal>.
3180 This limitation exists for a reason, think twice before circumventing it.
3183 Most of the time it's easier to replace this action with a custom
3184 <literal><link linkend="server-header-filter">server-header filter</link></literal>.
3185 It allows you to activate it for every document of a certain site and it will still
3186 only replace the content types you aimed at.
3189 Of course you can apply <literal>content-type-overwrite</literal>
3190 to a whole site and then make URL based exceptions, but it's a lot
3191 more work to get the same precision.
3197 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
3200 <screen># Check if www.example.net/ really uses valid XHTML
3201 { +content-type-overwrite{application/xml} }
3204 # but leave the content type unmodified if the URL looks like a style sheet
3205 {-content-type-overwrite}
3206 www.example.net/.*\.css$
3207 www.example.net/.*style
3216 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3217 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-client-header">
3221 <title>crunch-client-header</title>
3225 <term>Typical use:</term>
3227 <para>Remove a client header <application>Privoxy</application> has no dedicated action for.</para>
3232 <term>Effect:</term>
3235 Deletes every header sent by the client that contains the string the user supplied as parameter.
3242 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3244 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3249 <term>Parameter:</term>
3261 This action allows you to block client headers for which no dedicated
3262 <application>Privoxy</application> action exists.
3263 <application>Privoxy</application> will remove every client header that
3264 contains the string you supplied as parameter.
3267 Regular expressions are <emphasis>not supported</emphasis> and you can't
3268 use this action to block different headers in the same request, unless
3269 they contain the same string.
3272 <literal>crunch-client-header</literal> is only meant for quick tests.
3273 If you have to block several different headers, or only want to modify
3274 parts of them, you should use a
3275 <literal><link linkend="client-header-filter">client-header filter</link></literal>.
3279 Don't block any header without understanding the consequences.
3286 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3289 <screen># Block the non-existent "Privacy-Violation:" client header
3290 { +crunch-client-header{Privacy-Violation:} }
3300 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3301 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-if-none-match">
3302 <title>crunch-if-none-match</title>
3308 <term>Typical use:</term>
3310 <para>Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.</para>
3315 <term>Effect:</term>
3318 Deletes the <quote>If-None-Match:</quote> HTTP client header.
3325 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3327 <para>Boolean.</para>
3332 <term>Parameter:</term>
3344 Removing the <quote>If-None-Match:</quote> HTTP client header
3345 is useful for filter testing, where you want to force a real
3346 reload instead of getting status code <quote>304</quote> which
3347 would cause the browser to use a cached copy of the page.
3350 It is also useful to make sure the header isn't used as a cookie
3351 replacement (unlikely but possible).
3354 Blocking the <quote>If-None-Match:</quote> header shouldn't cause any
3355 caching problems, as long as the <quote>If-Modified-Since:</quote> header
3356 isn't blocked or missing as well.
3359 It is recommended to use this action together with
3360 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hide-if-modified-since</link></literal>
3362 <literal><link linkend="overwrite-last-modified">overwrite-last-modified</link></literal>.
3368 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3371 <screen># Let the browser revalidate cached documents but don't
3372 # allow the server to use the revalidation headers for user tracking.
3373 {+hide-if-modified-since{-60} \
3374 +overwrite-last-modified{randomize} \
3375 +crunch-if-none-match}
3384 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3385 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-incoming-cookies">
3386 <title>crunch-incoming-cookies</title>
3390 <term>Typical use:</term>
3393 Prevent the web server from setting HTTP cookies on your system
3399 <term>Effect:</term>
3402 Deletes any <quote>Set-Cookie:</quote> HTTP headers from server replies.
3409 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3411 <para>Boolean.</para>
3416 <term>Parameter:</term>
3428 This action is only concerned with <emphasis>incoming</emphasis> HTTP cookies. For
3429 <emphasis>outgoing</emphasis> HTTP cookies, use
3430 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>.
3431 Use <emphasis>both</emphasis> to disable HTTP cookies completely.
3434 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use this action in conjunction
3435 with the <literal><link linkend="session-cookies-only">session-cookies-only</link></literal> action,
3436 since it would prevent the session cookies from being set. See also
3437 <literal><link linkend="filter-content-cookies">filter-content-cookies</link></literal>.
3443 <term>Example usage:</term>
3446 <screen>+crunch-incoming-cookies</screen>
3454 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3455 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-server-header">
3456 <title>crunch-server-header</title>
3462 <term>Typical use:</term>
3464 <para>Remove a server header <application>Privoxy</application> has no dedicated action for.</para>
3469 <term>Effect:</term>
3472 Deletes every header sent by the server that contains the string the user supplied as parameter.
3479 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3481 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3486 <term>Parameter:</term>
3498 This action allows you to block server headers for which no dedicated
3499 <application>Privoxy</application> action exists. <application>Privoxy</application>
3500 will remove every server header that contains the string you supplied as parameter.
3503 Regular expressions are <emphasis>not supported</emphasis> and you can't
3504 use this action to block different headers in the same request, unless
3505 they contain the same string.
3508 <literal>crunch-server-header</literal> is only meant for quick tests.
3509 If you have to block several different headers, or only want to modify
3510 parts of them, you should use a custom
3511 <literal><link linkend="server-header-filter">server-header filter</link></literal>.
3515 Don't block any header without understanding the consequences.
3522 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3525 <screen># Crunch server headers that try to prevent caching
3526 { +crunch-server-header{no-cache} }
3535 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3536 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-outgoing-cookies">
3537 <title>crunch-outgoing-cookies</title>
3541 <term>Typical use:</term>
3544 Prevent the web server from reading any HTTP cookies from your system
3550 <term>Effect:</term>
3553 Deletes any <quote>Cookie:</quote> HTTP headers from client requests.
3560 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3562 <para>Boolean.</para>
3567 <term>Parameter:</term>
3579 This action is only concerned with <emphasis>outgoing</emphasis> HTTP cookies. For
3580 <emphasis>incoming</emphasis> HTTP cookies, use
3581 <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal>.
3582 Use <emphasis>both</emphasis> to disable HTTP cookies completely.
3585 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use this action in conjunction
3586 with the <literal><link linkend="session-cookies-only">session-cookies-only</link></literal> action,
3587 since it would prevent the session cookies from being read.
3593 <term>Example usage:</term>
3596 <screen>+crunch-outgoing-cookies</screen>
3605 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3606 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="deanimate-gifs">
3607 <title>deanimate-gifs</title>
3611 <term>Typical use:</term>
3613 <para>Stop those annoying, distracting animated GIF images.</para>
3618 <term>Effect:</term>
3621 De-animate GIF animations, i.e. reduce them to their first or last image.
3628 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3630 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3635 <term>Parameter:</term>
3638 <quote>last</quote> or <quote>first</quote>
3647 This will also shrink the images considerably (in bytes, not pixels!). If
3648 the option <quote>first</quote> is given, the first frame of the animation
3649 is used as the replacement. If <quote>last</quote> is given, the last
3650 frame of the animation is used instead, which probably makes more sense for
3651 most banner animations, but also has the risk of not showing the entire
3652 last frame (if it is only a delta to an earlier frame).
3655 You can safely use this action with patterns that will also match non-GIF
3656 objects, because no attempt will be made at anything that doesn't look like
3663 <term>Example usage:</term>
3666 <screen>+deanimate-gifs{last}</screen>
3673 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3674 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="downgrade-http-version">
3675 <title>downgrade-http-version</title>
3679 <term>Typical use:</term>
3681 <para>Work around (very rare) problems with HTTP/1.1</para>
3686 <term>Effect:</term>
3689 Downgrades HTTP/1.1 client requests and server replies to HTTP/1.0.
3696 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3698 <para>Boolean.</para>
3703 <term>Parameter:</term>
3715 This is a left-over from the time when <application>Privoxy</application>
3716 didn't support important HTTP/1.1 features well. It is left here for the
3717 unlikely case that you experience HTTP/1.1 related problems with some server
3718 out there. Not all HTTP/1.1 features and requirements are supported yet,
3719 so there is a chance you might need this action.
3725 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3728 <screen>{+downgrade-http-version}
3729 problem-host.example.com</screen>
3737 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3738 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="fast-redirects">
3739 <title>fast-redirects</title>
3743 <term>Typical use:</term>
3745 <para>Fool some click-tracking scripts and speed up indirect links.</para>
3750 <term>Effect:</term>
3753 Detects redirection URLs and redirects the browser without contacting
3754 the redirection server first.
3761 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3763 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3768 <term>Parameter:</term>
3773 <quote>simple-check</quote> to just search for the string <quote>http://</quote>
3774 to detect redirection URLs.
3779 <quote>check-decoded-url</quote> to decode URLs (if necessary) before searching
3780 for redirection URLs.
3791 Many sites, like yahoo.com, don't just link to other sites. Instead, they
3792 will link to some script on their own servers, giving the destination as a
3793 parameter, which will then redirect you to the final target. URLs
3794 resulting from this scheme typically look like:
3795 <quote>http://www.example.org/click-tracker.cgi?target=http%3a//www.example.net/</quote>.
3798 Sometimes, there are even multiple consecutive redirects encoded in the
3799 URL. These redirections via scripts make your web browsing more traceable,
3800 since the server from which you follow such a link can see where you go
3801 to. Apart from that, valuable bandwidth and time is wasted, while your
3802 browser asks the server for one redirect after the other. Plus, it feeds
3806 This feature is currently not very smart and is scheduled for improvement.
3807 If it is enabled by default, you will have to create some exceptions to
3808 this action. It can lead to failures in several ways:
3811 Not every URLs with other URLs as parameters is evil.
3812 Some sites offer a real service that requires this information to work.
3813 For example a validation service needs to know, which document to validate.
3814 <literal>fast-redirects</literal> assumes that every URL parameter that
3815 looks like another URL is a redirection target, and will always redirect to
3816 the last one. Most of the time the assumption is correct, but if it isn't,
3817 the user gets redirected anyway.
3820 Another failure occurs if the URL contains other parameters after the URL parameter.
3822 <quote>http://www.example.org/?redirect=http%3a//www.example.net/&foo=bar</quote>.
3823 contains the redirection URL <quote>http://www.example.net/</quote>,
3824 followed by another parameter. <literal>fast-redirects</literal> doesn't know that
3825 and will cause a redirect to <quote>http://www.example.net/&foo=bar</quote>.
3826 Depending on the target server configuration, the parameter will be silently ignored
3827 or lead to a <quote>page not found</quote> error. You can prevent this problem by
3828 first using the <literal><link linkend="redirect">redirect</link></literal> action
3829 to remove the last part of the URL, but it requires a little effort.
3832 To detect a redirection URL, <literal>fast-redirects</literal> only
3833 looks for the string <quote>http://</quote>, either in plain text
3834 (invalid but often used) or encoded as <quote>http%3a//</quote>.
3835 Some sites use their own URL encoding scheme, encrypt the address
3836 of the target server or replace it with a database id. In theses cases
3837 <literal>fast-redirects</literal> is fooled and the request reaches the
3838 redirection server where it probably gets logged.
3844 <term>Example usage:</term>
3848 { +fast-redirects{simple-check} }
3851 { +fast-redirects{check-decoded-url} }
3852 another.example.com/testing</screen>
3861 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3862 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="filter">
3863 <title>filter</title>
3867 <term>Typical use:</term>
3869 <para>Get rid of HTML and JavaScript annoyances, banner advertisements (by size),
3870 do fun text replacements, add personalized effects, etc.</para>
3875 <term>Effect:</term>
3878 All instances of text-based type, most notably HTML and JavaScript, to which
3879 this action applies, can be filtered on-the-fly through the specified regular
3880 expression based substitutions. (Note: as of version 3.0.3 plain text documents
3881 are exempted from filtering, because web servers often use the
3882 <literal>text/plain</literal> MIME type for all files whose type they don't know.)
3889 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3891 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3896 <term>Parameter:</term>
3899 The name of a content filter, as defined in the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file</link>.
3900 Filters can be defined in one or more files as defined by the
3901 <literal><link linkend="filterfile">filterfile</link></literal>
3902 option in the <link linkend="config">config file</link>.
3903 <filename>default.filter</filename> is the collection of filters
3904 supplied by the developers. Locally defined filters should go
3905 in their own file, such as <filename>user.filter</filename>.
3908 When used in its negative form,
3909 and without parameters, <emphasis>all</emphasis> filtering is completely disabled.
3918 For your convenience, there are a number of pre-defined filters available
3919 in the distribution filter file that you can use. See the examples below for
3923 Filtering requires buffering the page content, which may appear to
3924 slow down page rendering since nothing is displayed until all content has
3925 passed the filters. (It does not really take longer, but seems that way
3926 since the page is not incrementally displayed.) This effect will be more
3927 noticeable on slower connections.
3930 <quote>Rolling your own</quote>
3931 filters requires a knowledge of
3932 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
3933 Expressions</quote></ulink> and
3934 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Html"><quote>HTML</quote></ulink>.
3935 This is very powerful feature, and potentially very intrusive.
3936 Filters should be used with caution, and where an equivalent
3937 <quote>action</quote> is not available.
3940 The amount of data that can be filtered is limited to the
3941 <literal><link linkend="buffer-limit">buffer-limit</link></literal>
3942 option in the main <link linkend="config">config file</link>. The
3943 default is 4096 KB (4 Megs). Once this limit is exceeded, the buffered
3944 data, and all pending data, is passed through unfiltered.
3947 Inappropriate MIME types, such as zipped files, are not filtered at all.
3948 (Again, only text-based types except plain text). Encrypted SSL data
3949 (from HTTPS servers) cannot be filtered either, since this would violate
3950 the integrity of the secure transaction. In some situations it might
3951 be necessary to protect certain text, like source code, from filtering
3952 by defining appropriate <literal>-filter</literal> exceptions.
3955 Compressed content can't be filtered either, unless &my-app;
3956 is compiled with zlib support (requires at least &my-app; 3.0.7),
3957 in which case &my-app; will decompress the content before filtering
3961 If you use a &my-app; version without zlib support, but want filtering to work on
3962 as much documents as possible, even those that would normally be sent compressed,
3963 you must use the <literal><link linkend="prevent-compression">prevent-compression</link></literal>
3964 action in conjunction with <literal>filter</literal>.
3967 Content filtering can achieve some of the same effects as the
3968 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>
3969 action, i.e. it can be used to block ads and banners. But the mechanism
3970 works quite differently. One effective use, is to block ad banners
3971 based on their size (see below), since many of these seem to be somewhat
3975 <link linkend="contact">Feedback</link> with suggestions for new or
3976 improved filters is particularly welcome!
3979 The below list has only the names and a one-line description of each
3980 predefined filter. There are <link linkend="predefined-filters">more
3981 verbose explanations</link> of what these filters do in the <link
3982 linkend="filter-file">filter file chapter</link>.
3988 <term>Example usage (with filters from the distribution <filename>default.filter</filename> file).
3989 See <link linkend="PREDEFINED-FILTERS">the Predefined Filters section</link> for
3990 more explanation on each:</term>
3993 <anchor id="filter-js-annoyances">
3994 <screen>+filter{js-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse.</screen>
3997 <anchor id="filter-js-events">
3998 <screen>+filter{js-events} # Kill all JS event bindings and timers (Radically destructive! Only for extra nasty sites).</screen>
4001 <anchor id="filter-html-annoyances">
4002 <screen>+filter{html-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying HTML abuse.</screen>
4005 <anchor id="filter-content-cookies">
4006 <screen>+filter{content-cookies} # Kill cookies that come in the HTML or JS content.</screen>
4009 <anchor id="filter-refresh-tags">
4010 <screen>+filter{refresh-tags} # Kill automatic refresh tags (for dial-on-demand setups).</screen>
4013 <anchor id="filter-unsolicited-popups">
4014 <screen>+filter{unsolicited-popups} # Disable only unsolicited pop-up windows. Useful if your browser lacks this ability.</screen>
4017 <anchor id="filter-all-popups">
4018 <screen>+filter{all-popups} # Kill all popups in JavaScript and HTML. Useful if your browser lacks this ability.</screen>
4021 <anchor id="filter-img-reorder">
4022 <screen>+filter{img-reorder} # Reorder attributes in <img> tags to make the banners-by-* filters more effective.</screen>
4025 <anchor id="filter-banners-by-size">
4026 <screen>+filter{banners-by-size} # Kill banners by size.</screen>
4029 <anchor id="filter-banners-by-link">
4030 <screen>+filter{banners-by-link} # Kill banners by their links to known clicktrackers.</screen>
4033 <anchor id="filter-webbugs">
4034 <screen>+filter{webbugs} # Squish WebBugs (1x1 invisible GIFs used for user tracking).</screen>
4037 <anchor id="filter-tiny-textforms">
4038 <screen>+filter{tiny-textforms} # Extend those tiny textareas up to 40x80 and kill the hard wrap.</screen>
4041 <anchor id="filter-jumping-windows">
4042 <screen>+filter{jumping-windows} # Prevent windows from resizing and moving themselves.</screen>
4045 <anchor id="filter-frameset-borders">
4046 <screen>+filter{frameset-borders} # Give frames a border and make them resizable.</screen>
4049 <anchor id="filter-demoronizer">
4050 <screen>+filter{demoronizer} # Fix MS's non-standard use of standard charsets.</screen>
4053 <anchor id="filter-shockwave-flash">
4054 <screen>+filter{shockwave-flash} # Kill embedded Shockwave Flash objects.</screen>
4057 <anchor id="filter-quicktime-kioskmode">
4058 <screen>+filter{quicktime-kioskmode} # Make Quicktime movies saveable.</screen>
4061 <anchor id="filter-fun">
4062 <screen>+filter{fun} # Text replacements for subversive browsing fun!</screen>
4065 <anchor id="filter-crude-parental">
4066 <screen>+filter{crude-parental} # Crude parental filtering. Note that this filter doesn't work reliably.</screen>
4069 <anchor id="filter-ie-exploits">
4070 <screen>+filter{ie-exploits} # Disable some known Internet Explorer bug exploits.</screen>
4073 <anchor id="filter-site-specifics">
4074 <screen>+filter{site-specifics} # Cure for site-specific problems. Don't apply generally!</screen>
4077 <anchor id="filter-no-ping">
4078 <screen>+filter{no-ping} # Removes non-standard ping attributes in <a> and <area> tags.</screen>
4081 <anchor id="filter-google">
4082 <screen>+filter{google} # CSS-based block for Google text ads. Also removes a width limitation and the toolbar advertisement.</screen>
4085 <anchor id="filter-yahoo">
4086 <screen>+filter{yahoo} # CSS-based block for Yahoo text ads. Also removes a width limitation.</screen>
4089 <anchor id="filter-msn">
4090 <screen>+filter{msn} # CSS-based block for MSN text ads. Also removes tracking URLs and a width limitation.</screen>
4093 <anchor id="filter-blogspot">
4094 <screen>+filter{blogspot} # Cleans up some Blogspot blogs. Read the fine print before using this.</screen>
4102 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4103 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="force-text-mode">
4104 <title>force-text-mode</title>
4110 <term>Typical use:</term>
4112 <para>Force <application>Privoxy</application> to treat a document as if it was in some kind of <emphasis>text</emphasis> format. </para>
4117 <term>Effect:</term>
4120 Declares a document as text, even if the <quote>Content-Type:</quote> isn't detected as such.
4127 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4129 <para>Boolean.</para>
4134 <term>Parameter:</term>
4146 As explained <literal><link linkend="filter">above</link></literal>,
4147 <application>Privoxy</application> tries to only filter files that are
4148 in some kind of text format. The same restrictions apply to
4149 <literal><link linkend="content-type-overwrite">content-type-overwrite</link></literal>.
4150 <literal>force-text-mode</literal> declares a document as text,
4151 without looking at the <quote>Content-Type:</quote> first.
4155 Think twice before activating this action. Filtering binary data
4156 with regular expressions can cause file damage.
4163 <term>Example usage:</term>
4176 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4177 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="forward-override">
4178 <title>forward-override</title>
4184 <term>Typical use:</term>
4186 <para>Change the forwarding settings based on User-Agent or request origin</para>
4191 <term>Effect:</term>
4194 Overrules the forward directives in the configuration file.
4201 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4203 <para>Multi-value.</para>
4208 <term>Parameter:</term>
4212 <para><quote>forward .</quote> to use a direct connection without any additional proxies.</para>
4216 <quote>forward 127.0.0.1:8123</quote> to use the HTTP proxy listening at 127.0.0.1 port 8123.
4221 <quote>forward-socks4a 127.0.0.1:9050 .</quote> to use the socks4a proxy listening at
4222 127.0.0.1 port 9050. Replace <quote>forward-socks4a</quote> with <quote>forward-socks4</quote>
4223 to use a socks4 connection (with local DNS resolution) instead, use <quote>forward-socks5</quote>
4224 for socks5 connections (with remote DNS resolution).
4229 <quote>forward-socks4a 127.0.0.1:9050 proxy.example.org:8000</quote> to use the socks4a proxy
4230 listening at 127.0.0.1 port 9050 to reach the HTTP proxy listening at proxy.example.org port 8000.
4231 Replace <quote>forward-socks4a</quote> with <quote>forward-socks4</quote> to use a socks4 connection
4232 (with local DNS resolution) instead, use <quote>forward-socks5</quote>
4233 for socks5 connections (with remote DNS resolution).
4244 This action takes parameters similar to the
4245 <link linkend="forwarding">forward</link> directives in the configuration
4246 file, but without the URL pattern. It can be used as replacement, but normally it's only
4247 used in cases where matching based on the request URL isn't sufficient.
4251 Please read the description for the <link linkend="forwarding">forward</link> directives before
4252 using this action. Forwarding to the wrong people will reduce your privacy and increase the
4253 chances of man-in-the-middle attacks.
4256 If the ports are missing or invalid, default values will be used. This might change
4257 in the future and you shouldn't rely on it. Otherwise incorrect syntax causes Privoxy
4261 Use the <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">show-url-info CGI page</ulink>
4262 to verify that your forward settings do what you thought the do.
4269 <term>Example usage:</term>
4273 # Always use direct connections for requests previously tagged as
4274 # <quote>User-Agent: fetch libfetch/2.0</quote> and make sure
4275 # resuming downloads continues to work.
4276 # This way you can continue to use Tor for your normal browsing,
4277 # without overloading the Tor network with your FreeBSD ports updates
4278 # or downloads of bigger files like ISOs.
4279 # Note that HTTP headers are easy to fake and therefore their
4280 # values are as (un)trustworthy as your clients and users.
4281 {+forward-override{forward .} \
4282 -hide-if-modified-since \
4283 -overwrite-last-modified \
4285 TAG:^User-Agent: fetch libfetch/2\.0$
4294 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4295 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="handle-as-empty-document">
4296 <title>handle-as-empty-document</title>
4302 <term>Typical use:</term>
4304 <para>Mark URLs that should be replaced by empty documents <emphasis>if they get blocked</emphasis></para>
4309 <term>Effect:</term>
4312 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. It just marks URLs.
4313 If the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action <emphasis>also applies</emphasis>,
4314 the presence or absence of this mark decides whether an HTML <quote>BLOCKED</quote>
4315 page, or an empty document will be sent to the client as a substitute for the blocked content.
4316 The <emphasis>empty</emphasis> document isn't literally empty, but actually contains a single space.
4323 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4325 <para>Boolean.</para>
4330 <term>Parameter:</term>
4342 Some browsers complain about syntax errors if JavaScript documents
4343 are blocked with <application>Privoxy's</application>
4344 default HTML page; this option can be used to silence them.
4345 And of course this action can also be used to eliminate the &my-app;
4346 BLOCKED message in frames.
4349 The content type for the empty document can be specified with
4350 <literal><link linkend="content-type-overwrite">content-type-overwrite{}</link></literal>,
4351 but usually this isn't necessary.
4357 <term>Example usage:</term>
4360 <screen># Block all documents on example.org that end with ".js",
4361 # but send an empty document instead of the usual HTML message.
4362 {+block{Blocked JavaScript} +handle-as-empty-document}
4372 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4373 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="handle-as-image">
4374 <title>handle-as-image</title>
4378 <term>Typical use:</term>
4380 <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>
4385 <term>Effect:</term>
4388 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. It just marks URLs as images.
4389 If the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action <emphasis>also applies</emphasis>,
4390 the presence or absence of this mark decides whether an HTML <quote>blocked</quote>
4391 page, or a replacement image (as determined by the <literal><link
4392 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal> action) will be sent to the
4393 client as a substitute for the blocked content.
4400 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4402 <para>Boolean.</para>
4407 <term>Parameter:</term>
4419 The below generic example section is actually part of <filename>default.action</filename>.
4420 It marks all URLs with well-known image file name extensions as images and should
4424 Users will probably only want to use the handle-as-image action in conjunction with
4425 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>, to block sources of banners, whose URLs don't
4426 reflect the file type, like in the second example section.
4429 Note that you cannot treat HTML pages as images in most cases. For instance, (in-line) ad
4430 frames require an HTML page to be sent, or they won't display properly.
4431 Forcing <literal>handle-as-image</literal> in this situation will not replace the
4432 ad frame with an image, but lead to error messages.
4438 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
4441 <screen># Generic image extensions:
4444 /.*\.(gif|jpg|jpeg|png|bmp|ico)$
4446 # These don't look like images, but they're banners and should be
4447 # blocked as images:
4449 {+block{Nasty banners.} +handle-as-image}
4450 nasty-banner-server.example.com/junk.cgi\?output=trash
4459 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4460 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-accept-language">
4461 <title>hide-accept-language</title>
4467 <term>Typical use:</term>
4469 <para>Pretend to use different language settings.</para>
4474 <term>Effect:</term>
4477 Deletes or replaces the <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> HTTP header in client requests.
4484 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4486 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4491 <term>Parameter:</term>
4494 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
4503 Faking the browser's language settings can be useful to make a
4504 foreign User-Agent set with
4505 <literal><link linkend="hide-user-agent">hide-user-agent</link></literal>
4509 However some sites with content in different languages check the
4510 <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> to decide which one to take by default.
4511 Sometimes it isn't possible to later switch to another language without
4512 changing the <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> header first.
4515 Therefore it's a good idea to either only change the
4516 <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> header to languages you understand,
4517 or to languages that aren't wide spread.
4520 Before setting the <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> header
4521 to a rare language, you should consider that it helps to
4522 make your requests unique and thus easier to trace.
4523 If you don't plan to change this header frequently,
4524 you should stick to a common language.
4530 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
4533 <screen># Pretend to use Canadian language settings.
4534 {+hide-accept-language{en-ca} \
4535 +hide-user-agent{Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; OpenBSD i386; en-CA; rv:1.8.0.4) Gecko/20060628 Firefox/1.5.0.4} \
4545 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4546 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-content-disposition">
4547 <title>hide-content-disposition</title>
4553 <term>Typical use:</term>
4555 <para>Prevent download menus for content you prefer to view inside the browser.</para>
4560 <term>Effect:</term>
4563 Deletes or replaces the <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> HTTP header set by some servers.
4570 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4572 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4577 <term>Parameter:</term>
4580 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
4589 Some servers set the <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> HTTP header for
4590 documents they assume you want to save locally before viewing them.
4591 The <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> header contains the file name
4592 the browser is supposed to use by default.
4595 In most browsers that understand this header, it makes it impossible to
4596 <emphasis>just view</emphasis> the document, without downloading it first,
4597 even if it's just a simple text file or an image.
4600 Removing the <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> header helps
4601 to prevent this annoyance, but some browsers additionally check the
4602 <quote>Content-Type:</quote> header, before they decide if they can
4603 display a document without saving it first. In these cases, you have
4604 to change this header as well, before the browser stops displaying
4608 It is also possible to change the server's file name suggestion
4609 to another one, but in most cases it isn't worth the time to set
4613 This action will probably be removed in the future,
4614 use server-header filters instead.
4620 <term>Example usage:</term>
4623 <screen># Disarm the download link in Sourceforge's patch tracker
4625 +content-type-overwrite{text/plain}\
4626 +hide-content-disposition{block} }
4627 .sourceforge.net/tracker/download\.php</screen>
4635 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4636 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-if-modified-since">
4637 <title>hide-if-modified-since</title>
4643 <term>Typical use:</term>
4645 <para>Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.</para>
4650 <term>Effect:</term>
4653 Deletes the <quote>If-Modified-Since:</quote> HTTP client header or modifies its value.
4660 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4662 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4667 <term>Parameter:</term>
4670 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or a user defined value that specifies a range of hours.
4679 Removing this header is useful for filter testing, where you want to force a real
4680 reload instead of getting status code <quote>304</quote>, which would cause the
4681 browser to use a cached copy of the page.
4684 Instead of removing the header, <literal>hide-if-modified-since</literal> can
4685 also add or subtract a random amount of time to/from the header's value.
4686 You specify a range of minutes where the random factor should be chosen from and
4687 <application>Privoxy</application> does the rest. A negative value means
4688 subtracting, a positive value adding.
4691 Randomizing the value of the <quote>If-Modified-Since:</quote> makes
4692 it less likely that the server can use the time as a cookie replacement,
4693 but you will run into caching problems if the random range is too high.
4696 It is a good idea to only use a small negative value and let
4697 <literal><link linkend="overwrite-last-modified">overwrite-last-modified</link></literal>
4698 handle the greater changes.
4701 It is also recommended to use this action together with
4702 <literal><link linkend="crunch-if-none-match">crunch-if-none-match</link></literal>,
4703 otherwise it's more or less pointless.
4709 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
4712 <screen># Let the browser revalidate but make tracking based on the time less likely.
4713 {+hide-if-modified-since{-60} \
4714 +overwrite-last-modified{randomize} \
4715 +crunch-if-none-match}
4724 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4725 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-from-header">
4726 <title>hide-from-header</title>
4730 <term>Typical use:</term>
4732 <para>Keep your (old and ill) browser from telling web servers your email address</para>
4737 <term>Effect:</term>
4740 Deletes any existing <quote>From:</quote> HTTP header, or replaces it with the
4748 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4750 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4755 <term>Parameter:</term>
4758 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
4767 The keyword <quote>block</quote> will completely remove the header
4768 (not to be confused with the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>
4772 Alternately, you can specify any value you prefer to be sent to the web
4773 server. If you do, it is a matter of fairness not to use any address that
4774 is actually used by a real person.
4777 This action is rarely needed, as modern web browsers don't send
4778 <quote>From:</quote> headers anymore.
4784 <term>Example usage:</term>
4787 <screen>+hide-from-header{block}</screen> or
4788 <screen>+hide-from-header{spam-me-senseless@sittingduck.example.com}</screen>
4796 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4797 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-referrer">
4798 <title>hide-referrer</title>
4799 <anchor id="hide-referer">
4802 <term>Typical use:</term>
4804 <para>Conceal which link you followed to get to a particular site</para>
4809 <term>Effect:</term>
4812 Deletes the <quote>Referer:</quote> (sic) HTTP header from the client request,
4813 or replaces it with a forged one.
4820 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4822 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4827 <term>Parameter:</term>
4831 <para><quote>conditional-block</quote> to delete the header completely if the host has changed.</para>
4834 <para><quote>conditional-forge</quote> to forge the header if the host has changed.</para>
4837 <para><quote>block</quote> to delete the header unconditionally.</para>
4840 <para><quote>forge</quote> to pretend to be coming from the homepage of the server we are talking to.</para>
4843 <para>Any other string to set a user defined referrer.</para>
4853 <literal>conditional-block</literal> is the only parameter,
4854 that isn't easily detected in the server's log file. If it blocks the
4855 referrer, the request will look like the visitor used a bookmark or
4856 typed in the address directly.
4859 Leaving the referrer unmodified for requests on the same host
4860 allows the server owner to see the visitor's <quote>click path</quote>,
4861 but in most cases she could also get that information by comparing
4862 other parts of the log file: for example the User-Agent if it isn't
4863 a very common one, or the user's IP address if it doesn't change between
4867 Always blocking the referrer, or using a custom one, can lead to
4868 failures on servers that check the referrer before they answer any
4869 requests, in an attempt to prevent their content from being
4870 embedded or linked to elsewhere.
4873 Both <literal>conditional-block</literal> and <literal>forge</literal>
4874 will work with referrer checks, as long as content and valid referring page
4875 are on the same host. Most of the time that's the case.
4878 <literal>hide-referer</literal> is an alternate spelling of
4879 <literal>hide-referrer</literal> and the two can be can be freely
4880 substituted with each other. (<quote>referrer</quote> is the
4881 correct English spelling, however the HTTP specification has a bug - it
4882 requires it to be spelled as <quote>referer</quote>.)
4888 <term>Example usage:</term>
4891 <screen>+hide-referrer{forge}</screen> or
4892 <screen>+hide-referrer{http://www.yahoo.com/}</screen>
4900 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4901 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-user-agent">
4902 <title>hide-user-agent</title>
4906 <term>Typical use:</term>
4908 <para>Try to conceal your type of browser and client operating system</para>
4913 <term>Effect:</term>
4916 Replaces the value of the <quote>User-Agent:</quote> HTTP header
4917 in client requests with the specified value.
4924 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4926 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4931 <term>Parameter:</term>
4934 Any user-defined string.
4944 This can lead to problems on web sites that depend on looking at this header in
4945 order to customize their content for different browsers (which, by the
4946 way, is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> the right thing to do: good web sites
4947 work browser-independently).
4951 Using this action in multi-user setups or wherever different types of
4952 browsers will access the same <application>Privoxy</application> is
4953 <emphasis>not recommended</emphasis>. In single-user, single-browser
4954 setups, you might use it to delete your OS version information from
4955 the headers, because it is an invitation to exploit known bugs for your
4956 OS. It is also occasionally useful to forge this in order to access
4957 sites that won't let you in otherwise (though there may be a good
4958 reason in some cases). Example of this: some MSN sites will not
4959 let <application>Mozilla</application> enter, yet forging to a
4960 <application>Netscape 6.1</application> user-agent works just fine.
4961 (Must be just a silly MS goof, I'm sure :-).
4964 More information on known user-agent strings can be found at
4965 <ulink url="http://www.user-agents.org/">http://www.user-agents.org/</ulink>
4967 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_agent">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_agent</ulink>.
4973 <term>Example usage:</term>
4976 <screen>+hide-user-agent{Netscape 6.1 (X11; I; Linux 2.4.18 i686)}</screen>
4984 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4985 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="limit-connect">
4986 <title>limit-connect</title>
4990 <term>Typical use:</term>
4992 <para>Prevent abuse of <application>Privoxy</application> as a TCP proxy relay or disable SSL for untrusted sites</para>
4997 <term>Effect:</term>
5000 Specifies to which ports HTTP CONNECT requests are allowable.
5007 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5009 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5014 <term>Parameter:</term>
5017 A comma-separated list of ports or port ranges (the latter using dashes, with the minimum
5018 defaulting to 0 and the maximum to 65K).
5027 By default, i.e. if no <literal>limit-connect</literal> action applies,
5028 <application>Privoxy</application> allows HTTP CONNECT requests to all
5029 ports. Use <literal>limit-connect</literal> if fine-grained control
5030 is desired for some or all destinations.
5033 The CONNECT methods exists in HTTP to allow access to secure websites
5034 (<quote>https://</quote> URLs) through proxies. It works very simply:
5035 the proxy connects to the server on the specified port, and then
5036 short-circuits its connections to the client and to the remote server.
5037 This means CONNECT-enabled proxies can be used as TCP relays very easily.
5040 <application>Privoxy</application> relays HTTPS traffic without seeing
5041 the decoded content. Websites can leverage this limitation to circumvent &my-app;'s
5042 filters. By specifying an invalid port range you can disable HTTPS entirely.
5048 <term>Example usages:</term>
5050 <!-- I had trouble getting the spacing to look right in my browser -->
5051 <!-- I probably have the wrong font setup, bollocks. -->
5052 <!-- Apparently the emphasis tag uses a proportional font no matter what -->
5054 <screen>+limit-connect{443} # Port 443 is OK.
5055 +limit-connect{80,443} # Ports 80 and 443 are OK.
5056 +limit-connect{-3, 7, 20-100, 500-} # Ports less than 3, 7, 20 to 100 and above 500 are OK.
5057 +limit-connect{-} # All ports are OK
5058 +limit-connect{,} # No HTTPS/SSL traffic is allowed</screen>
5065 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5066 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="prevent-compression">
5067 <title>prevent-compression</title>
5071 <term>Typical use:</term>
5074 Ensure that servers send the content uncompressed, so it can be
5075 passed through <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>s.
5081 <term>Effect:</term>
5084 Removes the Accept-Encoding header which can be used to ask for compressed transfer.
5091 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5093 <para>Boolean.</para>
5098 <term>Parameter:</term>
5110 More and more websites send their content compressed by default, which
5111 is generally a good idea and saves bandwidth. But the <literal><link
5112 linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> and
5113 <literal><link linkend="deanimate-gifs">deanimate-gifs</link></literal>
5114 actions need access to the uncompressed data.
5117 When compiled with zlib support (available since &my-app; 3.0.7), content that should be
5118 filtered is decompressed on-the-fly and you don't have to worry about this action.
5119 If you are using an older &my-app; version, or one that hasn't been compiled with zlib
5120 support, this action can be used to convince the server to send the content uncompressed.
5123 Most text-based instances compress very well, the size is seldom decreased by less than 50%,
5124 for markup-heavy instances like news feeds saving more than 90% of the original size isn't
5128 Not using compression will therefore slow down the transfer, and you should only
5129 enable this action if you really need it. As of &my-app; 3.0.7 it's disabled in all
5130 predefined action settings.
5133 Note that some (rare) ill-configured sites don't handle requests for uncompressed
5134 documents correctly. Broken PHP applications tend to send an empty document body,
5135 some IIS versions only send the beginning of the content. If you enable
5136 <literal>prevent-compression</literal> per default, you might want to add
5137 exceptions for those sites. See the example for how to do that.
5143 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
5147 # Selectively turn off compression, and enable a filter
5149 { +filter{tiny-textforms} +prevent-compression }
5150 # Match only these sites
5155 # Or instead, we could set a universal default:
5157 { +prevent-compression }
5160 # Then maybe make exceptions for broken sites:
5162 { -prevent-compression }
5163 .compusa.com/</screen>
5172 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5173 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="overwrite-last-modified">
5174 <title>overwrite-last-modified</title>
5180 <term>Typical use:</term>
5182 <para>Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.</para>
5187 <term>Effect:</term>
5190 Deletes the <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> HTTP server header or modifies its value.
5197 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5199 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5204 <term>Parameter:</term>
5207 One of the keywords: <quote>block</quote>, <quote>reset-to-request-time</quote>
5208 and <quote>randomize</quote>
5217 Removing the <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header is useful for filter
5218 testing, where you want to force a real reload instead of getting status
5219 code <quote>304</quote>, which would cause the browser to reuse the old
5220 version of the page.
5223 The <quote>randomize</quote> option overwrites the value of the
5224 <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header with a randomly chosen time
5225 between the original value and the current time. In theory the server
5226 could send each document with a different <quote>Last-Modified:</quote>
5227 header to track visits without using cookies. <quote>Randomize</quote>
5228 makes it impossible and the browser can still revalidate cached documents.
5231 <quote>reset-to-request-time</quote> overwrites the value of the
5232 <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header with the current time. You could use
5233 this option together with
5234 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hide-if-modified-since</link></literal>
5235 to further customize your random range.
5238 The preferred parameter here is <quote>randomize</quote>. It is safe
5239 to use, as long as the time settings are more or less correct.
5240 If the server sets the <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header to the time
5241 of the request, the random range becomes zero and the value stays the same.
5242 Therefore you should later randomize it a second time with
5243 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hided-if-modified-since</link></literal>,
5247 It is also recommended to use this action together with
5248 <literal><link linkend="crunch-if-none-match">crunch-if-none-match</link></literal>.
5254 <term>Example usage:</term>
5257 <screen># Let the browser revalidate without being tracked across sessions
5258 { +hide-if-modified-since{-60} \
5259 +overwrite-last-modified{randomize} \
5260 +crunch-if-none-match}
5269 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5270 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="redirect">
5271 <title>redirect</title>
5277 <term>Typical use:</term>
5280 Redirect requests to other sites.
5286 <term>Effect:</term>
5289 Convinces the browser that the requested document has been moved
5290 to another location and the browser should get it from there.
5297 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5299 <para>Parameterized</para>
5304 <term>Parameter:</term>
5307 An absolute URL or a single pcrs command.
5316 Requests to which this action applies are answered with a
5317 HTTP redirect to URLs of your choosing. The new URL is
5318 either provided as parameter, or derived by applying a
5319 single pcrs command to the original URL.
5322 This action will be ignored if you use it together with
5323 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>.
5324 It can be combined with
5325 <literal><link linkend="fast-redirects">fast-redirects{check-decoded-url}</link></literal>
5326 to redirect to a decoded version of a rewritten URL.
5329 Use this action carefully, make sure not to create redirection loops
5330 and be aware that using your own redirects might make it
5331 possible to fingerprint your requests.
5334 In case of problems with your redirects, or simply to watch
5335 them working, enable <link linkend="DEBUG">debug 128</link>.
5341 <term>Example usages:</term>
5344 <screen># Replace example.com's style sheet with another one
5345 { +redirect{http://localhost/css-replacements/example.com.css} }
5346 example.com/stylesheet\.css
5348 # Create a short, easy to remember nickname for a favorite site
5349 # (relies on the browser accept and forward invalid URLs to &my-app;)
5350 { +redirect{http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/actions-file.html} }
5353 # Always use the expanded view for Undeadly.org articles
5354 # (Note the $ at the end of the URL pattern to make sure
5355 # the request for the rewritten URL isn't redirected as well)
5356 {+redirect{s@$@&mode=expanded@}}
5357 undeadly.org/cgi\?action=article&sid=\d*$
5359 # Redirect Google search requests to MSN
5360 {+redirect{s@^http://[^/]*/search\?q=([^&]*).*@http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=$1@}}
5363 # Redirect MSN search requests to Yahoo
5364 {+redirect{s@^http://[^/]*/results\.aspx\?q=([^&]*).*@http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=$1@}}
5365 search.msn.com//results\.aspx\?q=
5367 # Redirect remote requests for this manual
5368 # to the local version delivered by Privoxy
5369 {+redirect{s@^http://www@http://config@}}
5370 www.privoxy.org/user-manual/</screen>
5379 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5380 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="server-header-filter">
5381 <title>server-header-filter</title>
5385 <term>Typical use:</term>
5388 Rewrite or remove single server headers.
5394 <term>Effect:</term>
5397 All server headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly
5398 through the specified regular expression based substitutions.
5405 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
5407 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5412 <term>Parameter:</term>
5415 The name of a server-header filter, as defined in one of the
5416 <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link>.
5425 Server-header filters are applied to each header on its own, not to
5426 all at once. This makes it easier to diagnose problems, but on the downside
5427 you can't write filters that only change header x if header y's value is z.
5428 You can do that by using tags though.
5431 Server-header filters are executed after the other header actions have finished
5432 and use their output as input.
5435 Please refer to the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file chapter</link>
5436 to learn which server-header filters are available by default, and how to
5443 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
5447 {+server-header-filter{html-to-xml}}
5448 example.org/xml-instance-that-is-delivered-as-html
5450 {+server-header-filter{xml-to-html}}
5451 example.org/instance-that-is-delivered-as-xml-but-is-not
5461 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5462 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="server-header-tagger">
5463 <title>server-header-tagger</title>
5467 <term>Typical use:</term>
5470 Enable or disable filters based on the Content-Type header.
5476 <term>Effect:</term>
5479 Server headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly through
5480 the specified regular expression based substitutions, the result is used as
5488 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
5490 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5495 <term>Parameter:</term>
5498 The name of a server-header tagger, as defined in one of the
5499 <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link>.
5508 Server-header taggers are applied to each header on its own,
5509 and as the header isn't modified, each tagger <quote>sees</quote>
5513 Server-header taggers are executed before all other header actions
5514 that modify server headers. Their tags can be used to control
5515 all of the other server-header actions, the content filters
5516 and the crunch actions (<link linkend="redirect">redirect</link>
5517 and <link linkend="block">block</link>).
5520 Obviously crunching based on tags created by server-header taggers
5521 doesn't prevent the request from showing up in the server's log file.
5528 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
5532 # Tag every request with the content type declared by the server
5533 {+server-header-tagger{content-type}}
5544 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5545 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="session-cookies-only">
5546 <title>session-cookies-only</title>
5550 <term>Typical use:</term>
5553 Allow only temporary <quote>session</quote> cookies (for the current
5554 browser session <emphasis>only</emphasis>).
5560 <term>Effect:</term>
5563 Deletes the <quote>expires</quote> field from <quote>Set-Cookie:</quote>
5564 server headers. Most browsers will not store such cookies permanently and
5565 forget them in between sessions.
5572 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5574 <para>Boolean.</para>
5579 <term>Parameter:</term>
5591 This is less strict than <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal> /
5592 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal> and allows you to browse
5593 websites that insist or rely on setting cookies, without compromising your privacy too badly.
5596 Most browsers will not permanently store cookies that have been processed by
5597 <literal>session-cookies-only</literal> and will forget about them between sessions.
5598 This makes profiling cookies useless, but won't break sites which require cookies so
5599 that you can log in for transactions. This is generally turned on for all
5600 sites, and is the recommended setting.
5603 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use <literal>session-cookies-only</literal>
5604 together with <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal> or
5605 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>. If you do, cookies
5606 will be plainly killed.
5609 Note that it is up to the browser how it handles such cookies without an <quote>expires</quote>
5610 field. If you use an exotic browser, you might want to try it out to be sure.
5613 This setting also has no effect on cookies that may have been stored
5614 previously by the browser before starting <application>Privoxy</application>.
5615 These would have to be removed manually.
5618 <application>Privoxy</application> also uses
5619 the <link linkend="filter-content-cookies">content-cookies filter</link>
5620 to block some types of cookies. Content cookies are not effected by
5621 <literal>session-cookies-only</literal>.
5627 <term>Example usage:</term>
5630 <screen>+session-cookies-only</screen>
5638 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5639 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="set-image-blocker">
5640 <title>set-image-blocker</title>
5644 <term>Typical use:</term>
5646 <para>Choose the replacement for blocked images</para>
5651 <term>Effect:</term>
5654 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. If <emphasis>both</emphasis>
5655 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> <emphasis>and</emphasis> <literal><link
5656 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> <emphasis>also</emphasis>
5657 apply, i.e. if the request is to be blocked as an image,
5658 <emphasis>then</emphasis> the parameter of this action decides what will be
5659 sent as a replacement.
5666 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5668 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5673 <term>Parameter:</term>
5678 <quote>pattern</quote> to send a built-in checkerboard pattern image. The image is visually
5679 decent, scales very well, and makes it obvious where banners were busted.
5684 <quote>blank</quote> to send a built-in transparent image. This makes banners disappear
5685 completely, but makes it hard to detect where <application>Privoxy</application> has blocked
5686 images on a given page and complicates troubleshooting if <application>Privoxy</application>
5687 has blocked innocent images, like navigation icons.
5692 <quote><replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable></quote> to
5693 send a redirect to <replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable>. You can redirect
5694 to any image anywhere, even in your local filesystem via <quote>file:///</quote> URL.
5695 (But note that not all browsers support redirecting to a local file system).
5698 A good application of redirects is to use special <application>Privoxy</application>-built-in
5699 URLs, which send the built-in images, as <replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable>.
5700 This has the same visual effect as specifying <quote>blank</quote> or <quote>pattern</quote> in
5701 the first place, but enables your browser to cache the replacement image, instead of requesting
5702 it over and over again.
5713 The URLs for the built-in images are <quote>http://config.privoxy.org/send-banner?type=<replaceable
5714 class="parameter">type</replaceable></quote>, where <replaceable class="parameter">type</replaceable> is
5715 either <quote>blank</quote> or <quote>pattern</quote>.
5718 There is a third (advanced) type, called <quote>auto</quote>. It is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> to be
5719 used in <literal>set-image-blocker</literal>, but meant for use from <link linkend="filter-file">filters</link>.
5720 Auto will select the type of image that would have applied to the referring page, had it been an image.
5726 <term>Example usage:</term>
5732 <screen>+set-image-blocker{pattern}</screen>
5735 Redirect to the BSD daemon:
5738 <screen>+set-image-blocker{http://www.freebsd.org/gifs/dae_up3.gif}</screen>
5741 Redirect to the built-in pattern for better caching:
5744 <screen>+set-image-blocker{http://config.privoxy.org/send-banner?type=pattern}</screen>
5752 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5754 <title>Summary</title>
5756 Note that many of these actions have the potential to cause a page to
5757 misbehave, possibly even not to display at all. There are many ways
5758 a site designer may choose to design his site, and what HTTP header
5759 content, and other criteria, he may depend on. There is no way to have hard
5760 and fast rules for all sites. See the <link
5761 linkend="ACTIONSANAT">Appendix</link> for a brief example on troubleshooting
5767 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5768 <sect2 id="aliases">
5769 <title>Aliases</title>
5771 Custom <quote>actions</quote>, known to <application>Privoxy</application>
5772 as <quote>aliases</quote>, can be defined by combining other actions.
5773 These can in turn be invoked just like the built-in actions.
5774 Currently, an alias name can contain any character except space, tab,
5776 <quote>{</quote> and <quote>}</quote>, but we <emphasis>strongly
5777 recommend</emphasis> that you only use <quote>a</quote> to <quote>z</quote>,
5778 <quote>0</quote> to <quote>9</quote>, <quote>+</quote>, and <quote>-</quote>.
5779 Alias names are not case sensitive, and are not required to start with a
5780 <quote>+</quote> or <quote>-</quote> sign, since they are merely textually
5784 Aliases can be used throughout the actions file, but they <emphasis>must be
5785 defined in a special section at the top of the file!</emphasis>
5786 And there can only be one such section per actions file. Each actions file may
5787 have its own alias section, and the aliases defined in it are only visible
5791 There are two main reasons to use aliases: One is to save typing for frequently
5792 used combinations of actions, the other one is a gain in flexibility: If you
5793 decide once how you want to handle shops by defining an alias called
5794 <quote>shop</quote>, you can later change your policy on shops in
5795 <emphasis>one</emphasis> place, and your changes will take effect everywhere
5796 in the actions file where the <quote>shop</quote> alias is used. Calling aliases
5797 by their purpose also makes your actions files more readable.
5800 Currently, there is one big drawback to using aliases, though:
5801 <application>Privoxy</application>'s built-in web-based action file
5802 editor honors aliases when reading the actions files, but it expands
5803 them before writing. So the effects of your aliases are of course preserved,
5804 but the aliases themselves are lost when you edit sections that use aliases
5809 Now let's define some aliases...
5814 # Useful custom aliases we can use later.
5816 # Note the (required!) section header line and that this section
5817 # must be at the top of the actions file!
5821 # These aliases just save typing later:
5822 # (Note that some already use other aliases!)
5824 +crunch-all-cookies = +<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> +<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
5825 -crunch-all-cookies = -<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> -<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
5826 +block-as-image = +block{Blocked image.} +handle-as-image
5827 allow-all-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> -<link linkend="FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</link>
5829 # These aliases define combinations of actions
5830 # that are useful for certain types of sites:
5832 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="PREVENT-COMPRESSION">prevent-compression</link>
5834 shop = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{all-popups}</link>
5836 # Short names for other aliases, for really lazy people ;-)
5838 c0 = +crunch-all-cookies
5839 c1 = -crunch-all-cookies</screen>
5843 ...and put them to use. These sections would appear in the lower part of an
5844 actions file and define exceptions to the default actions (as specified further
5845 up for the <quote>/</quote> pattern):
5850 # These sites are either very complex or very keen on
5851 # user data and require minimal interference to work:
5854 .office.microsoft.com
5855 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com
5856 # Gmail is really mail.google.com, not gmail.com
5860 # Allow cookies (for setting and retrieving your customer data)
5864 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
5867 # These shops require pop-ups:
5869 {-filter{all-popups} -filter{unsolicited-popups}}
5871 .overclockers.co.uk</screen>
5875 Aliases like <quote>shop</quote> and <quote>fragile</quote> are typically used for
5876 <quote>problem</quote> sites that require more than one action to be disabled
5877 in order to function properly.
5883 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5884 <sect2 id="act-examples">
5885 <title>Actions Files Tutorial</title>
5887 The above chapters have shown <link linkend="actions-file">which actions files
5888 there are and how they are organized</link>, how actions are <link
5889 linkend="actions">specified</link> and <link linkend="actions-apply">applied
5890 to URLs</link>, how <link linkend="af-patterns">patterns</link> work, and how to
5891 define and use <link linkend="aliases">aliases</link>. Now, let's look at an
5892 example <filename>match-all.action</filename>, <filename>default.action</filename>
5893 and <filename>user.action</filename> file and see how all these pieces come together:
5897 <title>match-all.action</title>
5899 Remember <emphasis>all actions are disabled when matching starts</emphasis>,
5900 so we have to explicitly enable the ones we want.
5904 While the <filename>match-all.action</filename> file only contains a
5905 single section, it is probably the most important one. It has only one
5906 pattern, <quote><literal>/</literal></quote>, but this pattern
5907 <link linkend="af-patterns">matches all URLs</link>. Therefore, the set of
5908 actions used in this <quote>default</quote> section <emphasis>will
5909 be applied to all requests as a start</emphasis>. It can be partly or
5910 wholly overridden by other actions files like <filename>default.action</filename>
5911 and <filename>user.action</filename>, but it will still be largely responsible
5912 for your overall browsing experience.
5916 Again, at the start of matching, all actions are disabled, so there is
5917 no need to disable any actions here. (Remember: a <quote>+</quote>
5918 preceding the action name enables the action, a <quote>-</quote> disables!).
5919 Also note how this long line has been made more readable by splitting it into
5920 multiple lines with line continuation.
5926 +<link linkend="CHANGE-X-FORWARDED-FOR">change-x-forwarded-for{block}</link> \
5927 +<link linkend="HIDE-FROM-HEADER">hide-from-header{block}</link> \
5928 +<link linkend="SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER">set-image-blocker{pattern}</link> \
5935 The default behavior is now set.
5940 <title>default.action</title>
5943 If you aren't a developer, there's no need for you to edit the
5944 <filename>default.action</filename> file. It is maintained by
5945 the &my-app; developers and if you disagree with some of the
5946 sections, you should overrule them in your <filename>user.action</filename>.
5950 Understanding the <filename>default.action</filename> file can
5951 help you with your <filename>user.action</filename>, though.
5955 The first section in this file is a special section for internal use
5956 that prevents older &my-app; versions from reading the file:
5961 ##########################################################################
5962 # Settings -- Don't change! For internal Privoxy use ONLY.
5963 ##########################################################################
5965 for-privoxy-version=3.0.11</screen>
5969 After that comes the (optional) alias section. We'll use the example
5970 section from the above <link linkend="aliases">chapter on aliases</link>,
5971 that also explains why and how aliases are used:
5976 ##########################################################################
5978 ##########################################################################
5981 # These aliases just save typing later:
5982 # (Note that some already use other aliases!)
5984 +crunch-all-cookies = +<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> +<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
5985 -crunch-all-cookies = -<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> -<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
5986 +block-as-image = +block{Blocked image.} +handle-as-image
5987 mercy-for-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> -<link linkend="FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</link>
5989 # These aliases define combinations of actions
5990 # that are useful for certain types of sites:
5992 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>
5993 shop = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{all-popups}</link></screen>
5997 The first of our specialized sections is concerned with <quote>fragile</quote>
5998 sites, i.e. sites that require minimum interference, because they are either
5999 very complex or very keen on tracking you (and have mechanisms in place that
6000 make them unusable for people who avoid being tracked). We will simply use
6001 our pre-defined <literal>fragile</literal> alias instead of stating the list
6002 of actions explicitly:
6007 ##########################################################################
6008 # Exceptions for sites that'll break under the default action set:
6009 ##########################################################################
6011 # "Fragile" Use a minimum set of actions for these sites (see alias above):
6014 .office.microsoft.com # surprise, surprise!
6015 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com
6016 mail.google.com</screen>
6020 Shopping sites are not as fragile, but they typically
6021 require cookies to log in, and pop-up windows for shopping
6022 carts or item details. Again, we'll use a pre-defined alias:
6031 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
6033 .scan.co.uk</screen>
6037 The <literal><link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link></literal>
6038 action, which may have been enabled in <filename>match-all.action</filename>,
6039 breaks some sites. So disable it for popular sites where we know it misbehaves:
6044 { -<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link> }
6048 .altavista.com/.*(like|url|link):http
6049 .altavista.com/trans.*urltext=http
6050 .nytimes.com</screen>
6054 It is important that <application>Privoxy</application> knows which
6055 URLs belong to images, so that <emphasis>if</emphasis> they are to
6056 be blocked, a substitute image can be sent, rather than an HTML page.
6057 Contacting the remote site to find out is not an option, since it
6058 would destroy the loading time advantage of banner blocking, and it
6059 would feed the advertisers information about you. We can mark any
6060 URL as an image with the <literal><link
6061 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> action,
6062 and marking all URLs that end in a known image file extension is a
6068 ##########################################################################
6070 ##########################################################################
6072 # Define which file types will be treated as images, in case they get
6073 # blocked further down this file:
6075 { +<link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">handle-as-image</link> }
6076 /.*\.(gif|jpe?g|png|bmp|ico)$</screen>
6080 And then there are known banner sources. They often use scripts to
6081 generate the banners, so it won't be visible from the URL that the
6082 request is for an image. Hence we block them <emphasis>and</emphasis>
6083 mark them as images in one go, with the help of our
6084 <literal>+block-as-image</literal> alias defined above. (We could of
6085 course just as well use <literal>+<link linkend="block">block</link>
6086 +<link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> here.)
6087 Remember that the type of the replacement image is chosen by the
6088 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>
6089 action. Since all URLs have matched the default section with its
6090 <literal>+<link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link>{pattern}</literal>
6091 action before, it still applies and needn't be repeated:
6096 # Known ad generators:
6101 .ad.*.doubleclick.net
6102 .a.yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$
6103 .a[0-9].yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$
6109 One of the most important jobs of <application>Privoxy</application>
6110 is to block banners. Many of these can be <quote>blocked</quote>
6111 by the <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link>{banners-by-size}</literal>
6112 action, which we enabled above, and which deletes the references to banner
6113 images from the pages while they are loaded, so the browser doesn't request
6114 them anymore, and hence they don't need to be blocked here. But this naturally
6115 doesn't catch all banners, and some people choose not to use filters, so we
6116 need a comprehensive list of patterns for banner URLs here, and apply the
6117 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action to them.
6120 First comes many generic patterns, which do most of the work, by
6121 matching typical domain and path name components of banners. Then comes
6122 a list of individual patterns for specific sites, which is omitted here
6123 to keep the example short:
6128 ##########################################################################
6129 # Block these fine banners:
6130 ##########################################################################
6131 { <link linkend="BLOCK">+block{Banner ads.}</link> }
6139 /.*count(er)?\.(pl|cgi|exe|dll|asp|php[34]?)
6140 /(?:.*/)?(publicite|werbung|rekla(ma|me|am)|annonse|maino(kset|nta|s)?)/
6142 # Site-specific patterns (abbreviated):
6144 .hitbox.com</screen>
6148 It's quite remarkable how many advertisers actually call their banner
6149 servers ads.<replaceable>company</replaceable>.com, or call the directory
6150 in which the banners are stored simply <quote>banners</quote>. So the above
6151 generic patterns are surprisingly effective.
6154 But being very generic, they necessarily also catch URLs that we don't want
6155 to block. The pattern <literal>.*ads.</literal> e.g. catches
6156 <quote>nasty-<emphasis>ads</emphasis>.nasty-corp.com</quote> as intended,
6157 but also <quote>downlo<emphasis>ads</emphasis>.sourcefroge.net</quote> or
6158 <quote><emphasis>ads</emphasis>l.some-provider.net.</quote> So here come some
6159 well-known exceptions to the <literal>+<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal>
6163 Note that these are exceptions to exceptions from the default! Consider the URL
6164 <quote>downloads.sourcefroge.net</quote>: Initially, all actions are deactivated,
6165 so it wouldn't get blocked. Then comes the defaults section, which matches the
6166 URL, but just deactivates the <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal>
6167 action once again. Then it matches <literal>.*ads.</literal>, an exception to the
6168 general non-blocking policy, and suddenly
6169 <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">+block</link></literal> applies. And now, it'll match
6170 <literal>.*loads.</literal>, where <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">-block</link></literal>
6171 applies, so (unless it matches <emphasis>again</emphasis> further down) it ends up
6172 with no <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal> action applying.
6177 ##########################################################################
6178 # Save some innocent victims of the above generic block patterns:
6179 ##########################################################################
6183 { -<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> }
6184 adv[io]*. # (for advogato.org and advice.*)
6185 adsl. # (has nothing to do with ads)
6186 adobe. # (has nothing to do with ads either)
6187 ad[ud]*. # (adult.* and add.*)
6188 .edu # (universities don't host banners (yet!))
6189 .*loads. # (downloads, uploads etc)
6197 www.globalintersec.com/adv # (adv = advanced)
6198 www.ugu.com/sui/ugu/adv</screen>
6202 Filtering source code can have nasty side effects,
6203 so make an exception for our friends at sourceforge.net,
6204 and all paths with <quote>cvs</quote> in them. Note that
6205 <literal>-<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link></literal>
6206 disables <emphasis>all</emphasis> filters in one fell swoop!
6211 # Don't filter code!
6213 { -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> }
6218 .sourceforge.net</screen>
6222 The actual <filename>default.action</filename> is of course much more
6223 comprehensive, but we hope this example made clear how it works.
6228 <sect3><title>user.action</title>
6231 So far we are painting with a broad brush by setting general policies,
6232 which would be a reasonable starting point for many people. Now,
6233 you might want to be more specific and have customized rules that
6234 are more suitable to your personal habits and preferences. These would
6235 be for narrowly defined situations like your ISP or your bank, and should
6236 be placed in <filename>user.action</filename>, which is parsed after all other
6237 actions files and hence has the last word, over-riding any previously
6238 defined actions. <filename>user.action</filename> is also a
6239 <emphasis>safe</emphasis> place for your personal settings, since
6240 <filename>default.action</filename> is actively maintained by the
6241 <application>Privoxy</application> developers and you'll probably want
6242 to install updated versions from time to time.
6246 So let's look at a few examples of things that one might typically do in
6247 <filename>user.action</filename>:
6251 <!-- brief sample user.action here -->
6255 # My user.action file. <fred@example.com></screen>
6259 As <link linkend="aliases">aliases</link> are local to the actions
6260 file that they are defined in, you can't use the ones from
6261 <filename>default.action</filename>, unless you repeat them here:
6266 # Aliases are local to the file they are defined in.
6267 # (Re-)define aliases for this file:
6271 # These aliases just save typing later, and the alias names should
6272 # be self explanatory.
6274 +crunch-all-cookies = +crunch-incoming-cookies +crunch-outgoing-cookies
6275 -crunch-all-cookies = -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-cookies
6276 allow-all-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -session-cookies-only
6277 allow-popups = -filter{all-popups}
6278 +block-as-image = +block{Blocked as image.} +handle-as-image
6279 -block-as-image = -block
6281 # These aliases define combinations of actions that are useful for
6282 # certain types of sites:
6284 fragile = -block -crunch-all-cookies -filter -fast-redirects -hide-referrer
6285 shop = -crunch-all-cookies allow-popups
6287 # Allow ads for selected useful free sites:
6289 allow-ads = -block -filter{banners-by-size} -filter{banners-by-link}
6291 # Alias for specific file types that are text, but might have conflicting
6292 # MIME types. We want the browser to force these to be text documents.
6293 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>
6298 Say you have accounts on some sites that you visit regularly, and
6299 you don't want to have to log in manually each time. So you'd like
6300 to allow persistent cookies for these sites. The
6301 <literal>allow-all-cookies</literal> alias defined above does exactly
6302 that, i.e. it disables crunching of cookies in any direction, and the
6303 processing of cookies to make them only temporary.
6308 { allow-all-cookies }
6312 .redhat.com</screen>
6316 Your bank is allergic to some filter, but you don't know which, so you disable them all:
6321 { -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> }
6322 .your-home-banking-site.com</screen>
6326 Some file types you may not want to filter for various reasons:
6331 # Technical documentation is likely to contain strings that might
6332 # erroneously get altered by the JavaScript-oriented filters:
6337 # And this stupid host sends streaming video with a wrong MIME type,
6338 # so that Privoxy thinks it is getting HTML and starts filtering:
6340 stupid-server.example.com/</screen>
6344 Example of a simple <link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> action. Say you've
6345 seen an ad on your favourite page on example.com that you want to get rid of.
6346 You have right-clicked the image, selected <quote>copy image location</quote>
6347 and pasted the URL below while removing the leading http://, into a
6348 <literal>{ +block{} }</literal> section. Note that <literal>{ +handle-as-image
6349 }</literal> need not be specified, since all URLs ending in
6350 <literal>.gif</literal> will be tagged as images by the general rules as set
6351 in default.action anyway:
6356 { +<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link>{Nasty ads.} }
6357 www.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor\.gif
6358 another.example.net/more/junk/here/</screen>
6362 The URLs of dynamically generated banners, especially from large banner
6363 farms, often don't use the well-known image file name extensions, which
6364 makes it impossible for <application>Privoxy</application> to guess
6365 the file type just by looking at the URL.
6366 You can use the <literal>+block-as-image</literal> alias defined above for
6368 Note that objects which match this rule but then turn out NOT to be an
6369 image are typically rendered as a <quote>broken image</quote> icon by the
6370 browser. Use cautiously.
6379 ar.atwola.com/</screen>
6383 Now you noticed that the default configuration breaks Forbes Magazine,
6384 but you were too lazy to find out which action is the culprit, and you
6385 were again too lazy to give <link linkend="contact">feedback</link>, so
6386 you just used the <literal>fragile</literal> alias on the site, and
6387 -- <emphasis>whoa!</emphasis> -- it worked. The <literal>fragile</literal>
6388 aliases disables those actions that are most likely to break a site. Also,
6389 good for testing purposes to see if it is <application>Privoxy</application>
6390 that is causing the problem or not. We later find other regular sites
6391 that misbehave, and add those to our personalized list of troublemakers:
6399 .mybank.com</screen>
6403 You like the <quote>fun</quote> text replacements in <filename>default.filter</filename>,
6404 but it is disabled in the distributed actions file.
6405 So you'd like to turn it on in your private,
6406 update-safe config, once and for all:
6411 { +<link linkend="filter-fun">filter{fun}</link> }
6412 / # For ALL sites!</screen>
6416 Note that the above is not really a good idea: There are exceptions
6417 to the filters in <filename>default.action</filename> for things that
6418 really shouldn't be filtered, like code on CVS->Web interfaces. Since
6419 <filename>user.action</filename> has the last word, these exceptions
6420 won't be valid for the <quote>fun</quote> filtering specified here.
6424 You might also worry about how your favourite free websites are
6425 funded, and find that they rely on displaying banner advertisements
6426 to survive. So you might want to specifically allow banners for those
6427 sites that you feel provide value to you:
6439 Note that <literal>allow-ads</literal> has been aliased to
6440 <literal>-<link linkend="block">block</link></literal>,
6441 <literal>-<link linkend="filter-banners-by-size">filter{banners-by-size}</link></literal>, and
6442 <literal>-<link linkend="filter-banners-by-link">filter{banners-by-link}</link></literal> above.
6446 Invoke another alias here to force an over-ride of the MIME type <literal>
6447 application/x-sh</literal> which typically would open a download type
6448 dialog. In my case, I want to look at the shell script, and then I can save
6449 it should I choose to.
6459 <filename>user.action</filename> is generally the best place to define
6460 exceptions and additions to the default policies of
6461 <filename>default.action</filename>. Some actions are safe to have their
6462 default policies set here though. So let's set a default policy to have a
6463 <quote>blank</quote> image as opposed to the checkerboard pattern for
6464 <emphasis>ALL</emphasis> sites. <quote>/</quote> of course matches all URL
6470 { +<link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker{blank}</link> }
6471 / # ALL sites</screen>
6477 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
6481 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
6483 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
6485 <sect1 id="filter-file">
6486 <title>Filter Files</title>
6489 On-the-fly text substitutions need
6490 to be defined in a <quote>filter file</quote>. Once defined, they
6491 can then be invoked as an <quote>action</quote>.
6495 &my-app; supports three different filter actions:
6496 <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> to
6497 rewrite the content that is send to the client,
6498 <literal><link linkend="client-header-filter">client-header-filter</link></literal>
6499 to rewrite headers that are send by the client, and
6500 <literal><link linkend="server-header-filter">server-header-filter</link></literal>
6501 to rewrite headers that are send by the server.
6505 &my-app; also supports two tagger actions:
6506 <literal><link linkend="client-header-tagger">client-header-tagger</link></literal>
6508 <literal><link linkend="server-header-tagger">server-header-tagger</link></literal>.
6509 Taggers and filters use the same syntax in the filter files, the difference
6510 is that taggers don't modify the text they are filtering, but use a rewritten
6511 version of the filtered text as tag. The tags can then be used to change the
6512 applying actions through sections with <link linkend="tag-pattern">tag-patterns</link>.
6517 Multiple filter files can be defined through the <literal> <link
6518 linkend="filterfile">filterfile</link></literal> config directive. The filters
6519 as supplied by the developers are located in
6520 <filename>default.filter</filename>. It is recommended that any locally
6521 defined or modified filters go in a separately defined file such as
6522 <filename>user.filter</filename>.
6526 Common tasks for content filters are to eliminate common annoyances in
6527 HTML and JavaScript, such as pop-up windows,
6528 exit consoles, crippled windows without navigation tools, the
6529 infamous <BLINK> tag etc, to suppress images with certain
6530 width and height attributes (standard banner sizes or web-bugs),
6531 or just to have fun.
6535 Enabled content filters are applied to any content whose
6536 <quote>Content Type</quote> header is recognised as a sign
6537 of text-based content, with the exception of <literal>text/plain</literal>.
6538 Use the <link linkend="FORCE-TEXT-MODE">force-text-mode</link> action
6539 to also filter other content.
6543 Substitutions are made at the source level, so if you want to <quote>roll
6544 your own</quote> filters, you should first be familiar with HTML syntax,
6545 and, of course, regular expressions.
6549 Just like the <link linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>, the
6550 filter file is organized in sections, which are called <emphasis>filters</emphasis>
6551 here. Each filter consists of a heading line, that starts with one of the
6552 <emphasis>keywords</emphasis> <literal>FILTER:</literal>,
6553 <literal>CLIENT-HEADER-FILTER:</literal> or <literal>SERVER-HEADER-FILTER:</literal>
6554 followed by the filter's <emphasis>name</emphasis>, and a short (one line)
6555 <emphasis>description</emphasis> of what it does. Below that line
6556 come the <emphasis>jobs</emphasis>, i.e. lines that define the actual
6557 text substitutions. By convention, the name of a filter
6558 should describe what the filter <emphasis>eliminates</emphasis>. The
6559 comment is used in the <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">web-based
6560 user interface</ulink>.
6564 Once a filter called <replaceable>name</replaceable> has been defined
6565 in the filter file, it can be invoked by using an action of the form
6566 +<literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link>{<replaceable>name</replaceable>}</literal>
6567 in any <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link>.
6571 Filter definitions start with a header line that contains the filter
6572 type, the filter name and the filter description.
6573 A content filter header line for a filter called <quote>foo</quote> could look
6578 <screen>FILTER: foo Replace all "foo" with "bar"</screen>
6582 Below that line, and up to the next header line, come the jobs that
6583 define what text replacements the filter executes. They are specified
6584 in a syntax that imitates <ulink url="http://www.perl.org/">Perl</ulink>'s
6585 <literal>s///</literal> operator. If you are familiar with Perl, you
6586 will find this to be quite intuitive, and may want to look at the
6587 PCRS documentation for the subtle differences to Perl behaviour. Most
6588 notably, the non-standard option letter <literal>U</literal> is supported,
6589 which turns the default to ungreedy matching.
6594 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
6595 Expressions</quote></ulink>, you might want to take a look at
6596 the <link linkend="regex">Appendix on regular expressions</link>, and
6597 see the <ulink url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html">Perl
6599 <ulink url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlop.html">the
6600 <literal>s///</literal> operator's syntax</ulink> and <ulink
6601 url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html">Perl-style regular
6602 expressions</ulink> in general.
6603 The below examples might also help to get you started.
6607 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
6609 <sect2><title>Filter File Tutorial</title>
6611 Now, let's complete our <quote>foo</quote> content filter. We have already defined
6612 the heading, but the jobs are still missing. Since all it does is to replace
6613 <quote>foo</quote> with <quote>bar</quote>, there is only one (trivial) job
6618 <screen>s/foo/bar/</screen>
6622 But wait! Didn't the comment say that <emphasis>all</emphasis> occurrences
6623 of <quote>foo</quote> should be replaced? Our current job will only take
6624 care of the first <quote>foo</quote> on each page. For global substitution,
6625 we'll need to add the <literal>g</literal> option:
6629 <screen>s/foo/bar/g</screen>
6633 Our complete filter now looks like this:
6636 <screen>FILTER: foo Replace all "foo" with "bar"
6637 s/foo/bar/g</screen>
6641 Let's look at some real filters for more interesting examples. Here you see
6642 a filter that protects against some common annoyances that arise from JavaScript
6643 abuse. Let's look at its jobs one after the other:
6649 FILTER: js-annoyances Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse
6651 # Get rid of JavaScript referrer tracking. Test page: http://www.randomoddness.com/untitled.htm
6653 s|(<script.*)document\.referrer(.*</script>)|$1"Not Your Business!"$2|Usg</screen>
6657 Following the header line and a comment, you see the job. Note that it uses
6658 <literal>|</literal> as the delimiter instead of <literal>/</literal>, because
6659 the pattern contains a forward slash, which would otherwise have to be escaped
6660 by a backslash (<literal>\</literal>).
6664 Now, let's examine the pattern: it starts with the text <literal><script.*</literal>
6665 enclosed in parentheses. Since the dot matches any character, and <literal>*</literal>
6666 means: <quote>Match an arbitrary number of the element left of myself</quote>, this
6667 matches <quote><script</quote>, followed by <emphasis>any</emphasis> text, i.e.
6668 it matches the whole page, from the start of the first <script> tag.
6672 That's more than we want, but the pattern continues: <literal>document\.referrer</literal>
6673 matches only the exact string <quote>document.referrer</quote>. The dot needed to
6674 be <emphasis>escaped</emphasis>, i.e. preceded by a backslash, to take away its
6675 special meaning as a joker, and make it just a regular dot. So far, the meaning is:
6676 Match from the start of the first <script> tag in a the page, up to, and including,
6677 the text <quote>document.referrer</quote>, if <emphasis>both</emphasis> are present
6678 in the page (and appear in that order).
6682 But there's still more pattern to go. The next element, again enclosed in parentheses,
6683 is <literal>.*</script></literal>. You already know what <literal>.*</literal>
6684 means, so the whole pattern translates to: Match from the start of the first <script>
6685 tag in a page to the end of the last <script> tag, provided that the text
6686 <quote>document.referrer</quote> appears somewhere in between.
6690 This is still not the whole story, since we have ignored the options and the parentheses:
6691 The portions of the page matched by sub-patterns that are enclosed in parentheses, will be
6692 remembered and be available through the variables <literal>$1, $2, ...</literal> in
6693 the substitute. The <literal>U</literal> option switches to ungreedy matching, which means
6694 that the first <literal>.*</literal> in the pattern will only <quote>eat up</quote> all
6695 text in between <quote><script</quote> and the <emphasis>first</emphasis> occurrence
6696 of <quote>document.referrer</quote>, and that the second <literal>.*</literal> will
6697 only span the text up to the <emphasis>first</emphasis> <quote></script></quote>
6698 tag. Furthermore, the <literal>s</literal> option says that the match may span
6699 multiple lines in the page, and the <literal>g</literal> option again means that the
6700 substitution is global.
6704 So, to summarize, the pattern means: Match all scripts that contain the text
6705 <quote>document.referrer</quote>. Remember the parts of the script from
6706 (and including) the start tag up to (and excluding) the string
6707 <quote>document.referrer</quote> as <literal>$1</literal>, and the part following
6708 that string, up to and including the closing tag, as <literal>$2</literal>.
6712 Now the pattern is deciphered, but wasn't this about substituting things? So
6713 lets look at the substitute: <literal>$1"Not Your Business!"$2</literal> is
6714 easy to read: The text remembered as <literal>$1</literal>, followed by
6715 <literal>"Not Your Business!"</literal> (<emphasis>including</emphasis>
6716 the quotation marks!), followed by the text remembered as <literal>$2</literal>.
6717 This produces an exact copy of the original string, with the middle part
6718 (the <quote>document.referrer</quote>) replaced by <literal>"Not Your
6719 Business!"</literal>.
6723 The whole job now reads: Replace <quote>document.referrer</quote> by
6724 <literal>"Not Your Business!"</literal> wherever it appears inside a
6725 <script> tag. Note that this job won't break JavaScript syntax,
6726 since both the original and the replacement are syntactically valid
6727 string objects. The script just won't have access to the referrer
6728 information anymore.
6732 We'll show you two other jobs from the JavaScript taming department, but
6733 this time only point out the constructs of special interest:
6738 # The status bar is for displaying link targets, not pointless blahblah
6740 s/window\.status\s*=\s*(['"]).*?\1/dUmMy=1/ig</screen>
6744 <literal>\s</literal> stands for whitespace characters (space, tab, newline,
6745 carriage return, form feed), so that <literal>\s*</literal> means: <quote>zero
6746 or more whitespace</quote>. The <literal>?</literal> in <literal>.*?</literal>
6747 makes this matching of arbitrary text ungreedy. (Note that the <literal>U</literal>
6748 option is not set). The <literal>['"]</literal> construct means: <quote>a single
6749 <emphasis>or</emphasis> a double quote</quote>. Finally, <literal>\1</literal> is
6750 a back-reference to the first parenthesis just like <literal>$1</literal> above,
6751 with the difference that in the <emphasis>pattern</emphasis>, a backslash indicates
6752 a back-reference, whereas in the <emphasis>substitute</emphasis>, it's the dollar.
6756 So what does this job do? It replaces assignments of single- or double-quoted
6757 strings to the <quote>window.status</quote> object with a dummy assignment
6758 (using a variable name that is hopefully odd enough not to conflict with
6759 real variables in scripts). Thus, it catches many cases where e.g. pointless
6760 descriptions are displayed in the status bar instead of the link target when
6761 you move your mouse over links.
6766 # Kill OnUnload popups. Yummy. Test: http://www.zdnet.com/zdsubs/yahoo/tree/yfs.html
6768 s/(<body [^>]*)onunload(.*>)/$1never$2/iU</screen>
6773 <ulink url="http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-DOM-Level-2-Events-20001113/events.html#Events-eventgroupings-htmlevents">OnUnload
6774 event binding</ulink> in the HTML DOM was a <emphasis>CRIME</emphasis>.
6775 When I close a browser window, I want it to close and die. Basta.
6776 This job replaces the <quote>onunload</quote> attribute in
6777 <quote><body></quote> tags with the dummy word <literal>never</literal>.
6778 Note that the <literal>i</literal> option makes the pattern matching
6779 case-insensitive. Also note that ungreedy matching alone doesn't always guarantee
6780 a minimal match: In the first parenthesis, we had to use <literal>[^>]*</literal>
6781 instead of <literal>.*</literal> to prevent the match from exceeding the
6782 <body> tag if it doesn't contain <quote>OnUnload</quote>, but the page's
6787 The last example is from the fun department:
6792 FILTER: fun Fun text replacements
6794 # Spice the daily news:
6796 s/microsoft(?!\.com)/MicroSuck/ig</screen>
6800 Note the <literal>(?!\.com)</literal> part (a so-called negative lookahead)
6801 in the job's pattern, which means: Don't match, if the string
6802 <quote>.com</quote> appears directly following <quote>microsoft</quote>
6803 in the page. This prevents links to microsoft.com from being trashed, while
6804 still replacing the word everywhere else.
6809 # Buzzword Bingo (example for extended regex syntax)
6811 s* industry[ -]leading \
6813 | customer[ -]focused \
6814 | market[ -]driven \
6815 | award[ -]winning # Comments are OK, too! \
6816 | high[ -]performance \
6817 | solutions[ -]based \
6821 *<font color="red"><b>BINGO!</b></font> \
6826 The <literal>x</literal> option in this job turns on extended syntax, and allows for
6827 e.g. the liberal use of (non-interpreted!) whitespace for nicer formatting.
6835 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
6837 <sect2 id="predefined-filters"><title>The Pre-defined Filters</title>
6841 Note each filter is also listed in the +filter action section above. Please
6842 keep these listings in sync.
6847 The distribution <filename>default.filter</filename> file contains a selection of
6848 pre-defined filters for your convenience:
6853 <term><emphasis>js-annoyances</emphasis></term>
6856 The purpose of this filter is to get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse.
6861 replaces JavaScript references to the browser's referrer information
6862 with the string "Not Your Business!". This compliments the <literal><link
6863 linkend="hide-referrer">hide-referrer</link></literal> action on the content level.
6868 removes the bindings to the DOM's
6869 <ulink url="http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-DOM-Level-2-Events-20001113/events.html#Events-eventgroupings-htmlevents">unload
6870 event</ulink> which we feel has no right to exist and is responsible for most <quote>exit consoles</quote>, i.e.
6871 nasty windows that pop up when you close another one.
6876 removes code that causes new windows to be opened with undesired properties, such as being
6877 full-screen, non-resizeable, without location, status or menu bar etc.
6883 Use with caution. This is an aggressive filter, and can break sites that
6884 rely heavily on JavaScript.
6890 <term><emphasis>js-events</emphasis></term>
6893 This is a very radical measure. It removes virtually all JavaScript event bindings, which
6894 means that scripts can not react to user actions such as mouse movements or clicks, window
6895 resizing etc, anymore. Use with caution!
6898 We <emphasis>strongly discourage</emphasis> using this filter as a default since it breaks
6899 many legitimate scripts. It is meant for use only on extra-nasty sites (should you really
6906 <term><emphasis>html-annoyances</emphasis></term>
6909 This filter will undo many common instances of HTML based abuse.
6912 The <literal>BLINK</literal> and <literal>MARQUEE</literal> tags
6913 are neutralized (yeah baby!), and browser windows will be created as
6914 resizeable (as of course they should be!), and will have location,
6915 scroll and menu bars -- even if specified otherwise.
6921 <term><emphasis>content-cookies</emphasis></term>
6924 Most cookies are set in the HTTP dialog, where they can be intercepted
6926 <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal>
6927 and <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>
6928 actions. But web sites increasingly make use of HTML meta tags and JavaScript
6929 to sneak cookies to the browser on the content level.
6932 This filter disables most HTML and JavaScript code that reads or sets
6933 cookies. It cannot detect all clever uses of these types of code, so it
6934 should not be relied on as an absolute fix. Use it wherever you would also
6935 use the cookie crunch actions.
6941 <term><emphasis>refresh tags</emphasis></term>
6944 Disable any refresh tags if the interval is greater than nine seconds (so
6945 that redirections done via refresh tags are not destroyed). This is useful
6946 for dial-on-demand setups, or for those who find this HTML feature
6953 <term><emphasis>unsolicited-popups</emphasis></term>
6956 This filter attempts to prevent only <quote>unsolicited</quote> pop-up
6957 windows from opening, yet still allow pop-up windows that the user
6958 has explicitly chosen to open. It was added in version 3.0.1,
6959 as an improvement over earlier such filters.
6962 Technical note: The filter works by redefining the window.open JavaScript
6963 function to a dummy function, <literal>PrivoxyWindowOpen()</literal>,
6964 during the loading and rendering phase of each HTML page access, and
6965 restoring the function afterward.
6968 This is recommended only for browsers that cannot perform this function
6969 reliably themselves. And be aware that some sites require such windows
6970 in order to function normally. Use with caution.
6976 <term><emphasis>all-popups</emphasis></term>
6979 Attempt to prevent <emphasis>all</emphasis> pop-up windows from opening.
6980 Note this should be used with even more discretion than the above, since
6981 it is more likely to break some sites that require pop-ups for normal
6982 usage. Use with caution.
6988 <term><emphasis>img-reorder</emphasis></term>
6991 This is a helper filter that has no value if used alone. It makes the
6992 <literal>banners-by-size</literal> and <literal>banners-by-link</literal>
6993 (see below) filters more effective and should be enabled together with them.
6999 <term><emphasis>banners-by-size</emphasis></term>
7002 This filter removes image tags purely based on what size they are. Fortunately
7003 for us, many ads and banner images tend to conform to certain standardized
7004 sizes, which makes this filter quite effective for ad stripping purposes.
7007 Occasionally this filter will cause false positives on images that are not ads,
7008 but just happen to be of one of the standard banner sizes.
7011 Recommended only for those who require extreme ad blocking. The default
7012 block rules should catch 95+% of all ads <emphasis>without</emphasis> this filter enabled.
7018 <term><emphasis>banners-by-link</emphasis></term>
7021 This is an experimental filter that attempts to kill any banners if
7022 their URLs seem to point to known or suspected click trackers. It is currently
7023 not of much value and is not recommended for use by default.
7029 <term><emphasis>webbugs</emphasis></term>
7032 Webbugs are small, invisible images (technically 1X1 GIF images), that
7033 are used to track users across websites, and collect information on them.
7034 As an HTML page is loaded by the browser, an embedded image tag causes the
7035 browser to contact a third-party site, disclosing the tracking information
7036 through the requested URL and/or cookies for that third-party domain, without
7037 the user ever becoming aware of the interaction with the third-party site.
7038 HTML-ized spam also uses a similar technique to verify email addresses.
7041 This filter removes the HTML code that loads such <quote>webbugs</quote>.
7047 <term><emphasis>tiny-textforms</emphasis></term>
7050 A rather special-purpose filter that can be used to enlarge textareas (those
7051 multi-line text boxes in web forms) and turn off hard word wrap in them.
7052 It was written for the sourceforge.net tracker system where such boxes are
7053 a nuisance, but it can be handy on other sites, too.
7056 It is not recommended to use this filter as a default.
7062 <term><emphasis>jumping-windows</emphasis></term>
7065 Many consider windows that move, or resize themselves to be abusive. This filter
7066 neutralizes the related JavaScript code. Note that some sites might not display
7067 or behave as intended when using this filter. Use with caution.
7073 <term><emphasis>frameset-borders</emphasis></term>
7076 Some web designers seem to assume that everyone in the world will view their
7077 web sites using the same browser brand and version, screen resolution etc,
7078 because only that assumption could explain why they'd use static frame sizes,
7079 yet prevent their frames from being resized by the user, should they be too
7080 small to show their whole content.
7083 This filter removes the related HTML code. It should only be applied to sites
7090 <term><emphasis>demoronizer</emphasis></term>
7093 Many Microsoft products that generate HTML use non-standard extensions (read:
7094 violations) of the ISO 8859-1 aka Latin-1 character set. This can cause those
7095 HTML documents to display with errors on standard-compliant platforms.
7098 This filter translates the MS-only characters into Latin-1 equivalents.
7099 It is not necessary when using MS products, and will cause corruption of
7100 all documents that use 8-bit character sets other than Latin-1. It's mostly
7101 worthwhile for Europeans on non-MS platforms, if weird garbage characters
7102 sometimes appear on some pages, or user agents that don't correct for this on
7105 My version of Mozilla (ancient) shows litte square boxes for quote
7106 characters, and apostrophes on moronized pages. So many pages have this, I
7107 can read them fine now. HB 08/27/06
7114 <term><emphasis>shockwave-flash</emphasis></term>
7117 A filter for shockwave haters. As the name suggests, this filter strips code
7118 out of web pages that is used to embed shockwave flash objects.
7126 <term><emphasis>quicktime-kioskmode</emphasis></term>
7129 Change HTML code that embeds Quicktime objects so that kioskmode, which
7130 prevents saving, is disabled.
7136 <term><emphasis>fun</emphasis></term>
7139 Text replacements for subversive browsing fun. Make fun of your favorite
7140 Monopolist or play buzzword bingo.
7146 <term><emphasis>crude-parental</emphasis></term>
7149 A demonstration-only filter that shows how <application>Privoxy</application>
7150 can be used to delete web content on a keyword basis.
7156 <term><emphasis>ie-exploits</emphasis></term>
7159 An experimental collection of text replacements to disable malicious HTML and JavaScript
7160 code that exploits known security holes in Internet Explorer.
7163 Presently, it only protects against Nimda and a cross-site scripting bug, and
7164 would need active maintenance to provide more substantial protection.
7170 <term><emphasis>site-specifics</emphasis></term>
7173 Some web sites have very specific problems, the cure for which doesn't apply
7174 anywhere else, or could even cause damage on other sites.
7177 This is a collection of such site-specific cures which should only be applied
7178 to the sites they were intended for, which is what the supplied
7179 <filename>default.action</filename> file does. Users shouldn't need to change
7180 anything regarding this filter.
7186 <term><emphasis>google</emphasis></term>
7189 A CSS based block for Google text ads. Also removes a width limitation
7190 and the toolbar advertisement.
7196 <term><emphasis>yahoo</emphasis></term>
7199 Another CSS based block, this time for Yahoo text ads. And removes
7200 a width limitation as well.
7206 <term><emphasis>msn</emphasis></term>
7209 Another CSS based block, this time for MSN text ads. And removes
7210 tracking URLs, as well as a width limitation.
7216 <term><emphasis>blogspot</emphasis></term>
7219 Cleans up some Blogspot blogs. Read the fine print before using this one!
7222 This filter also intentionally removes some navigation stuff and sets the
7223 page width to 100%. As a result, some rounded <quote>corners</quote> would
7224 appear to early or not at all and as fixing this would require a browser
7225 that understands background-size (CSS3), they are removed instead.
7231 <term><emphasis>xml-to-html</emphasis></term>
7234 Server-header filter to change the Content-Type from xml to html.
7240 <term><emphasis>html-to-xml</emphasis></term>
7243 Server-header filter to change the Content-Type from html to xml.
7249 <term><emphasis>no-ping</emphasis></term>
7252 Removes the non-standard <literal>ping</literal> attribute from
7253 anchor and area HTML tags.
7259 <term><emphasis>hide-tor-exit-notation</emphasis></term>
7262 Client-header filter to remove the <command>Tor</command> exit node notation
7263 found in Host and Referer headers.
7266 If &my-app; and <command>Tor</command> are chained and &my-app;
7267 is configured to use socks4a, one can use <quote>http://www.example.org.foobar.exit/</quote>
7268 to access the host <quote>www.example.org</quote> through the
7269 <command>Tor</command> exit node <quote>foobar</quote>.
7272 As the HTTP client isn't aware of this notation, it treats the
7273 whole string <quote>www.example.org.foobar.exit</quote> as host and uses it
7274 for the <quote>Host</quote> and <quote>Referer</quote> headers. From the
7275 server's point of view the resulting headers are invalid and can cause problems.
7278 An invalid <quote>Referer</quote> header can trigger <quote>hot-linking</quote>
7279 protections, an invalid <quote>Host</quote> header will make it impossible for
7280 the server to find the right vhost (several domains hosted on the same IP address).
7283 This client-header filter removes the <quote>foo.exit</quote> part in those headers
7284 to prevent the mentioned problems. Note that it only modifies
7285 the HTTP headers, it doesn't make it impossible for the server
7286 to detect your <command>Tor</command> exit node based on the IP address
7287 the request is coming from.
7294 <term><emphasis> </emphasis></term>
7308 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7312 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7314 <sect1 id="templates">
7315 <title>Privoxy's Template Files</title>
7317 All <application>Privoxy</application> built-in pages, i.e. error pages such as the
7318 <ulink url="http://show-the-404-error.page"><quote>404 - No Such Domain</quote>
7319 error page</ulink>, the <ulink
7320 url="http://ads.bannerserver.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor.html"><quote>BLOCKED</quote>
7322 and all pages of its <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">web-based
7323 user interface</ulink>, are generated from <emphasis>templates</emphasis>.
7324 (<application>Privoxy</application> must be running for the above links to work as
7329 These templates are stored in a subdirectory of the <link linkend="confdir">configuration
7330 directory</link> called <filename>templates</filename>. On Unixish platforms,
7332 <ulink url="file:///etc/privoxy/templates/"><filename>/etc/privoxy/templates/</filename></ulink>.
7336 The templates are basically normal HTML files, but with place-holders (called symbols
7337 or exports), which <application>Privoxy</application> fills at run time. It
7338 is possible to edit the templates with a normal text editor, should you want
7339 to customize them. (<emphasis>Not recommended for the casual
7340 user</emphasis>). Should you create your own custom templates, you should use
7341 the <filename>config</filename> setting <link linkend="templdir">templdir</link>
7342 to specify an alternate location, so your templates do not get overwritten
7346 Note that just like in configuration files, lines starting
7347 with <literal>#</literal> are ignored when the templates are filled in.
7351 The place-holders are of the form <literal>@name@</literal>, and you will
7352 find a list of available symbols, which vary from template to template,
7353 in the comments at the start of each file. Note that these comments are not
7354 always accurate, and that it's probably best to look at the existing HTML
7355 code to find out which symbols are supported and what they are filled in with.
7359 A special application of this substitution mechanism is to make whole
7360 blocks of HTML code disappear when a specific symbol is set. We use this
7361 for many purposes, one of them being to include the beta warning in all
7362 our user interface (CGI) pages when <application>Privoxy</application>
7363 is in an alpha or beta development stage:
7368 <!-- @if-unstable-start -->
7370 ... beta warning HTML code goes here ...
7372 <!-- if-unstable-end@ --></screen>
7376 If the "unstable" symbol is set, everything in between and including
7377 <literal>@if-unstable-start</literal> and <literal>if-unstable-end@</literal>
7378 will disappear, leaving nothing but an empty comment:
7382 <screen><!-- --></screen>
7386 There's also an if-then-else construct and an <literal>#include</literal>
7387 mechanism, but you'll sure find out if you are inclined to edit the
7392 All templates refer to a style located at
7393 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/send-stylesheet"><literal>http://config.privoxy.org/send-stylesheet</literal></ulink>.
7394 This is, of course, locally served by <application>Privoxy</application>
7395 and the source for it can be found and edited in the
7396 <filename>cgi-style.css</filename> template.
7401 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7405 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7407 <sect1 id="contact"><title>Contacting the Developers, Bug Reporting and Feature
7410 <!-- Include contacting.sgml boilerplate: -->
7412 <!-- end boilerplate -->
7416 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7419 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7420 <sect1 id="copyright"><title>Privoxy Copyright, License and History</title>
7422 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
7424 <!-- end copyright -->
7426 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7427 <sect2><title>License</title>
7428 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
7430 <!-- end copyright -->
7432 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7435 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7437 <sect2 id="history"><title>History</title>
7438 <!-- Include history.sgml: -->
7440 <!-- end history -->
7443 <sect2 id="authors"><title>Authors</title>
7444 <!-- Include p-authors.sgml: -->
7446 <!-- end authors -->
7451 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7454 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7455 <sect1 id="seealso"><title>See Also</title>
7456 <!-- Include seealso.sgml: -->
7458 <!-- end seealso -->
7463 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7464 <sect1 id="appendix"><title>Appendix</title>
7467 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7469 <title>Regular Expressions</title>
7471 <application>Privoxy</application> uses Perl-style <quote>regular
7472 expressions</quote> in its <link linkend="actions-file">actions
7473 files</link> and <link linkend="filter-file">filter file</link>,
7474 through the <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/">PCRE</ulink> and
7477 <ulink url="http://www.oesterhelt.org/pcrs/">PCRS</ulink> libraries.
7479 <application>PCRS</application> libraries.
7483 If you are reading this, you probably don't understand what <quote>regular
7484 expressions</quote> are, or what they can do. So this will be a very brief
7485 introduction only. A full explanation would require a <ulink
7486 url="http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/regex/">book</ulink> ;-)
7490 Regular expressions provide a language to describe patterns that can be
7491 run against strings of characters (letter, numbers, etc), to see if they
7492 match the string or not. The patterns are themselves (sometimes complex)
7493 strings of literal characters, combined with wild-cards, and other special
7494 characters, called meta-characters. The <quote>meta-characters</quote> have
7495 special meanings and are used to build complex patterns to be matched against.
7496 Perl Compatible Regular Expressions are an especially convenient
7497 <quote>dialect</quote> of the regular expression language.
7501 To make a simple analogy, we do something similar when we use wild-card
7502 characters when listing files with the <command>dir</command> command in DOS.
7503 <literal>*.*</literal> matches all filenames. The <quote>special</quote>
7504 character here is the asterisk which matches any and all characters. We can be
7505 more specific and use <literal>?</literal> to match just individual
7506 characters. So <quote>dir file?.text</quote> would match
7507 <quote>file1.txt</quote>, <quote>file2.txt</quote>, etc. We are pattern
7508 matching, using a similar technique to <quote>regular expressions</quote>!
7512 Regular expressions do essentially the same thing, but are much, much more
7513 powerful. There are many more <quote>special characters</quote> and ways of
7514 building complex patterns however. Let's look at a few of the common ones,
7515 and then some examples:
7520 <emphasis>.</emphasis> - Matches any single character, e.g. <quote>a</quote>,
7521 <quote>A</quote>, <quote>4</quote>, <quote>:</quote>, or <quote>@</quote>.
7523 </simplelist></para>
7527 <emphasis>?</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or ONE
7530 </simplelist></para>
7534 <emphasis>+</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ONE or MORE
7537 </simplelist></para>
7541 <emphasis>*</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or MORE
7544 </simplelist></para>
7548 <emphasis>\</emphasis> - The <quote>escape</quote> character denotes that
7549 the following character should be taken literally. This is used where one of the
7550 special characters (e.g. <quote>.</quote>) needs to be taken literally and
7551 not as a special meta-character. Example: <quote>example\.com</quote>, makes
7552 sure the period is recognized only as a period (and not expanded to its
7553 meta-character meaning of any single character).
7555 </simplelist></para>
7559 <emphasis>[ ]</emphasis> - Characters enclosed in brackets will be matched if
7560 any of the enclosed characters are encountered. For instance, <quote>[0-9]</quote>
7561 matches any numeric digit (zero through nine). As an example, we can combine
7562 this with <quote>+</quote> to match any digit one of more times: <quote>[0-9]+</quote>.
7564 </simplelist></para>
7568 <emphasis>( )</emphasis> - parentheses are used to group a sub-expression,
7569 or multiple sub-expressions.
7571 </simplelist></para>
7575 <emphasis>|</emphasis> - The <quote>bar</quote> character works like an
7576 <quote>or</quote> conditional statement. A match is successful if the
7577 sub-expression on either side of <quote>|</quote> matches. As an example:
7578 <quote>/(this|that) example/</quote> uses grouping and the bar character
7579 and would match either <quote>this example</quote> or <quote>that
7580 example</quote>, and nothing else.
7582 </simplelist></para>
7585 These are just some of the ones you are likely to use when matching URLs with
7586 <application>Privoxy</application>, and is a long way from a definitive
7587 list. This is enough to get us started with a few simple examples which may
7588 be more illuminating:
7592 <emphasis><literal>/.*/banners/.*</literal></emphasis> - A simple example
7593 that uses the common combination of <quote>.</quote> and <quote>*</quote> to
7594 denote any character, zero or more times. In other words, any string at all.
7595 So we start with a literal forward slash, then our regular expression pattern
7596 (<quote>.*</quote>) another literal forward slash, the string
7597 <quote>banners</quote>, another forward slash, and lastly another
7598 <quote>.*</quote>. We are building
7599 a directory path here. This will match any file with the path that has a
7600 directory named <quote>banners</quote> in it. The <quote>.*</quote> matches
7601 any characters, and this could conceivably be more forward slashes, so it
7602 might expand into a much longer looking path. For example, this could match:
7603 <quote>/eye/hate/spammers/banners/annoy_me_please.gif</quote>, or just
7604 <quote>/banners/annoying.html</quote>, or almost an infinite number of other
7605 possible combinations, just so it has <quote>banners</quote> in the path
7610 And now something a little more complex:
7614 <emphasis><literal>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))?/</literal></emphasis> -
7615 We have several literal forward slashes again (<quote>/</quote>), so we are
7616 building another expression that is a file path statement. We have another
7617 <quote>.*</quote>, so we are matching against any conceivable sub-path, just so
7618 it matches our expression. The only true literal that <emphasis>must
7619 match</emphasis> our pattern is <application>adv</application>, together with
7620 the forward slashes. What comes after the <quote>adv</quote> string is the
7625 Remember the <quote>?</quote> means the preceding expression (either a
7626 literal character or anything grouped with <quote>(...)</quote> in this case)
7627 can exist or not, since this means either zero or one match. So
7628 <quote>((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))</quote> is optional, as are the
7629 individual sub-expressions: <quote>(er)</quote>,
7630 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, and the <quote>s</quote>. The <quote>|</quote>
7631 means <quote>or</quote>. We have two of those. For instance,
7632 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, can expand to match either <quote>ing</quote>
7633 <emphasis>OR</emphasis> <quote>ements?</quote>. What is being done here, is an
7634 attempt at matching as many variations of <quote>advertisement</quote>, and
7635 similar, as possible. So this would expand to match just <quote>adv</quote>,
7636 or <quote>advert</quote>, or <quote>adverts</quote>, or
7637 <quote>advertising</quote>, or <quote>advertisement</quote>, or
7638 <quote>advertisements</quote>. You get the idea. But it would not match
7639 <quote>advertizements</quote> (with a <quote>z</quote>). We could fix that by
7640 changing our regular expression to:
7641 <quote>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|erti(s|z)(ing|ements?))?/</quote>, which would then match
7646 <emphasis><literal>/.*/advert[0-9]+\.(gif|jpe?g)</literal></emphasis> - Again
7647 another path statement with forward slashes. Anything in the square brackets
7648 <quote>[ ]</quote> can be matched. This is using <quote>0-9</quote> as a
7649 shorthand expression to mean any digit one through nine. It is the same as
7650 saying <quote>0123456789</quote>. So any digit matches. The <quote>+</quote>
7651 means one or more of the preceding expression must be included. The preceding
7652 expression here is what is in the square brackets -- in this case, any digit
7653 one through nine. Then, at the end, we have a grouping: <quote>(gif|jpe?g)</quote>.
7654 This includes a <quote>|</quote>, so this needs to match the expression on
7655 either side of that bar character also. A simple <quote>gif</quote> on one side, and the other
7656 side will in turn match either <quote>jpeg</quote> or <quote>jpg</quote>,
7657 since the <quote>?</quote> means the letter <quote>e</quote> is optional and
7658 can be matched once or not at all. So we are building an expression here to
7659 match image GIF or JPEG type image file. It must include the literal
7660 string <quote>advert</quote>, then one or more digits, and a <quote>.</quote>
7661 (which is now a literal, and not a special character, since it is escaped
7662 with <quote>\</quote>), and lastly either <quote>gif</quote>, or
7663 <quote>jpeg</quote>, or <quote>jpg</quote>. Some possible matches would
7664 include: <quote>//advert1.jpg</quote>,
7665 <quote>/nasty/ads/advert1234.gif</quote>,
7666 <quote>/banners/from/hell/advert99.jpg</quote>. It would not match
7667 <quote>advert1.gif</quote> (no leading slash), or
7668 <quote>/adverts232.jpg</quote> (the expression does not include an
7669 <quote>s</quote>), or <quote>/advert1.jsp</quote> (<quote>jsp</quote> is not
7670 in the expression anywhere).
7674 We are barely scratching the surface of regular expressions here so that you
7675 can understand the default <application>Privoxy</application>
7676 configuration files, and maybe use this knowledge to customize your own
7677 installation. There is much, much more that can be done with regular
7678 expressions. Now that you know enough to get started, you can learn more on
7683 More reading on Perl Compatible Regular expressions:
7684 <ulink url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html">http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html</ulink>
7688 For information on regular expression based substitutions and their applications
7689 in filters, please see the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file tutorial</link>
7694 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7697 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7699 <title>Privoxy's Internal Pages</title>
7702 Since <application>Privoxy</application> proxies each requested
7703 web page, it is easy for <application>Privoxy</application> to
7704 trap certain special URLs. In this way, we can talk directly to
7705 <application>Privoxy</application>, and see how it is
7706 configured, see how our rules are being applied, change these
7707 rules and other configuration options, and even turn
7708 <application>Privoxy's</application> filtering off, all with
7714 The URLs listed below are the special ones that allow direct access
7715 to <application>Privoxy</application>. Of course,
7716 <application>Privoxy</application> must be running to access these. If
7717 not, you will get a friendly error message. Internet access is not
7730 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
7734 There is a shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink> (But it
7735 doesn't provide a fall-back to a real page, in case the request is not
7736 sent through <application>Privoxy</application>)
7742 Show information about the current configuration, including viewing and
7743 editing of actions files:
7747 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
7754 Show the source code version numbers:
7758 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-version">http://config.privoxy.org/show-version</ulink>
7765 Show the browser's request headers:
7769 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request">http://config.privoxy.org/show-request</ulink>
7776 Show which actions apply to a URL and why:
7780 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
7787 Toggle Privoxy on or off. This feature can be turned off/on in the main
7788 <filename>config</filename> file. When toggled <quote>off</quote>, <quote>Privoxy</quote>
7789 continues to run, but only as a pass-through proxy, with no actions taking
7794 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</ulink>
7798 Short cuts. Turn off, then on:
7802 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable</ulink>
7807 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable</ulink>
7816 These may be bookmarked for quick reference. See next.
7820 <sect3 id="bookmarklets">
7821 <title>Bookmarklets</title>
7823 Below are some <quote>bookmarklets</quote> to allow you to easily access a
7824 <quote>mini</quote> version of some of <application>Privoxy's</application>
7825 special pages. They are designed for MS Internet Explorer, but should work
7826 equally well in Netscape, Mozilla, and other browsers which support
7827 JavaScript. They are designed to run directly from your bookmarks - not by
7828 clicking the links below (although that should work for testing).
7831 To save them, right-click the link and choose <quote>Add to Favorites</quote>
7832 (IE) or <quote>Add Bookmark</quote> (Netscape). You will get a warning that
7833 the bookmark <quote>may not be safe</quote> - just click OK. Then you can run the
7834 Bookmarklet directly from your favorites/bookmarks. For even faster access,
7835 you can put them on the <quote>Links</quote> bar (IE) or the <quote>Personal
7836 Toolbar</quote> (Netscape), and run them with a single click.
7845 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>
7852 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>
7859 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)
7866 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>
7872 <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>
7878 <ulink url="javascript:void(window.open('http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info?url='+escape(location.href),'Why').focus());">Privoxy - Why?</ulink>
7885 Credit: The site which gave us the general idea for these bookmarklets is
7886 <ulink url="http://www.bookmarklets.com/">www.bookmarklets.com</ulink>. They
7887 have more information about bookmarklets.
7896 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7898 <title>Chain of Events</title>
7900 Let's take a quick look at how some of <application>Privoxy's</application>
7901 core features are triggered, and the ensuing sequence of events when a web
7902 page is requested by your browser:
7909 First, your web browser requests a web page. The browser knows to send
7910 the request to <application>Privoxy</application>, which will in turn,
7911 relay the request to the remote web server after passing the following
7917 <application>Privoxy</application> traps any request for its own internal CGI
7918 pages (e.g <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>) and sends the CGI page back to the browser.
7923 Next, <application>Privoxy</application> checks to see if the URL
7925 linkend="BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></link> patterns. If
7926 so, the URL is then blocked, and the remote web server will not be contacted.
7927 <link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></link>
7929 <link linkend="HANDLE-AS-EMPTY-DOCUMENT"><quote>+handle-as-empty-document</quote></link>
7930 are then checked, and if there is no match, an
7931 HTML <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page is sent back to the browser. Otherwise, if
7932 it does match, an image is returned for the former, and an empty text
7933 document for the latter. The type of image would depend on the setting of
7934 <link linkend="SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"><quote>+set-image-blocker</quote></link>
7935 (blank, checkerboard pattern, or an HTTP redirect to an image elsewhere).
7940 Untrusted URLs are blocked. If URLs are being added to the
7941 <filename>trust</filename> file, then that is done.
7946 If the URL pattern matches the <link
7947 linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS"><quote>+fast-redirects</quote></link> action,
7948 it is then processed. Unwanted parts of the requested URL are stripped.
7953 Now the rest of the client browser's request headers are processed. If any
7954 of these match any of the relevant actions (e.g. <link
7955 linkend="HIDE-USER-AGENT"><quote>+hide-user-agent</quote></link>,
7956 etc.), headers are suppressed or forged as determined by these actions and
7962 Now the web server starts sending its response back (i.e. typically a web
7968 First, the server headers are read and processed to determine, among other
7969 things, the MIME type (document type) and encoding. The headers are then
7970 filtered as determined by the
7971 <link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES"><quote>+crunch-incoming-cookies</quote></link>,
7972 <link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"><quote>+session-cookies-only</quote></link>,
7973 and <link linkend="DOWNGRADE-HTTP-VERSION"><quote>+downgrade-http-version</quote></link>
7979 If any <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> action
7981 linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS"><quote>+deanimate-gifs</quote></link>
7982 action applies (and the document type fits the action), the rest of the page is
7983 read into memory (up to a configurable limit). Then the filter rules (from
7984 <filename>default.filter</filename> and any other filter files) are
7985 processed against the buffered content. Filters are applied in the order
7986 they are specified in one of the filter files. Animated GIFs, if present,
7987 are reduced to either the first or last frame, depending on the action
7988 setting.The entire page, which is now filtered, is then sent by
7989 <application>Privoxy</application> back to your browser.
7992 If neither a <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> action
7994 linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS"><quote>+deanimate-gifs</quote></link>
7995 matches, then <application>Privoxy</application> passes the raw data through
7996 to the client browser as it becomes available.
8001 As the browser receives the now (possibly filtered) page content, it
8002 reads and then requests any URLs that may be embedded within the page
8003 source, e.g. ad images, stylesheets, JavaScript, other HTML documents (e.g.
8004 frames), sounds, etc. For each of these objects, the browser issues a
8005 separate request (this is easily viewable in <application>Privoxy's</application>
8006 logs). And each such request is in turn processed just as above. Note that a
8007 complex web page will have many, many such embedded URLs. If these
8008 secondary requests are to a different server, then quite possibly a very
8009 differing set of actions is triggered.
8016 NOTE: This is somewhat of a simplistic overview of what happens with each URL
8017 request. For the sake of brevity and simplicity, we have focused on
8018 <application>Privoxy's</application> core features only.
8024 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
8025 <sect2 id="actionsanat">
8026 <title>Troubleshooting: Anatomy of an Action</title>
8029 The way <application>Privoxy</application> applies
8030 <link linkend="ACTIONS">actions</link> and <link linkend="FILTER">filters</link>
8031 to any given URL can be complex, and not always so
8032 easy to understand what is happening. And sometimes we need to be able to
8033 <emphasis>see</emphasis> just what <application>Privoxy</application> is
8034 doing. Especially, if something <application>Privoxy</application> is doing
8035 is causing us a problem inadvertently. It can be a little daunting to look at
8036 the actions and filters files themselves, since they tend to be filled with
8037 <link linkend="regex">regular expressions</link> whose consequences are not
8042 One quick test to see if <application>Privoxy</application> is causing a problem
8043 or not, is to disable it temporarily. This should be the first troubleshooting
8044 step. See <link linkend="bookmarklets">the Bookmarklets</link> section on a quick
8045 and easy way to do this (be sure to flush caches afterward!). Looking at the
8046 logs is a good idea too. (Note that both the toggle feature and logging are
8047 enabled via <filename>config</filename> file settings, and may need to be
8048 turned <quote>on</quote>.)
8051 Another easy troubleshooting step to try is if you have done any
8052 customization of your installation, revert back to the installed
8053 defaults and see if that helps. There are times the developers get complaints
8054 about one thing or another, and the problem is more related to a customized
8055 configuration issue.
8059 <application>Privoxy</application> also provides the
8060 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
8061 page that can show us very specifically how <application>actions</application>
8062 are being applied to any given URL. This is a big help for troubleshooting.
8066 First, enter one URL (or partial URL) at the prompt, and then
8067 <application>Privoxy</application> will tell us
8068 how the current configuration will handle it. This will not
8069 help with filtering effects (i.e. the <link
8070 linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> action) from
8071 one of the filter files since this is handled very
8072 differently and not so easy to trap! It also will not tell you about any other
8073 URLs that may be embedded within the URL you are testing. For instance, images
8074 such as ads are expressed as URLs within the raw page source of HTML pages. So
8075 you will only get info for the actual URL that is pasted into the prompt area
8076 -- not any sub-URLs. If you want to know about embedded URLs like ads, you
8077 will have to dig those out of the HTML source. Use your browser's <quote>View
8078 Page Source</quote> option for this. Or right click on the ad, and grab the
8083 Let's try an example, <ulink url="http://google.com">google.com</ulink>,
8084 and look at it one section at a time in a sample configuration (your real
8085 configuration may vary):
8090 Matches for http://www.google.com:
8092 In file: default.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
8094 {+change-x-forwarded-for{block}
8095 +deanimate-gifs {last}
8096 +fast-redirects {check-decoded-url}
8097 +filter {refresh-tags}
8098 +filter {img-reorder}
8099 +filter {banners-by-size}
8101 +filter {jumping-windows}
8102 +filter {ie-exploits}
8103 +hide-from-header {block}
8104 +hide-referrer {forge}
8105 +session-cookies-only
8106 +set-image-blocker {pattern}
8109 { -session-cookies-only }
8115 In file: user.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
8116 (no matches in this file)
8121 This is telling us how we have defined our
8122 <link linkend="ACTIONS"><quote>actions</quote></link>, and
8123 which ones match for our test case, <quote>google.com</quote>.
8124 Displayed is all the actions that are available to us. Remember,
8125 the <literal>+</literal> sign denotes <quote>on</quote>. <literal>-</literal>
8126 denotes <quote>off</quote>. So some are <quote>on</quote> here, but many
8127 are <quote>off</quote>. Each example we try may provide a slightly different
8128 end result, depending on our configuration directives.
8132 is for our <filename>default.action</filename> file. The large, multi-line
8133 listing, is how the actions are set to match for all URLs, i.e. our default
8134 settings. If you look at your <quote>actions</quote> file, this would be the
8135 section just below the <quote>aliases</quote> section near the top. This
8136 will apply to all URLs as signified by the single forward slash at the end
8137 of the listing -- <quote> / </quote>.
8141 But we have defined additional actions that would be exceptions to these general
8142 rules, and then we list specific URLs (or patterns) that these exceptions
8143 would apply to. Last match wins. Just below this then are two explicit
8144 matches for <quote>.google.com</quote>. The first is negating our previous
8145 cookie setting, which was for <link
8146 linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"><quote>+session-cookies-only</quote></link>
8147 (i.e. not persistent). So we will allow persistent cookies for google, at
8148 least that is how it is in this example. The second turns
8149 <emphasis>off</emphasis> any <link
8150 linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS"><quote>+fast-redirects</quote></link>
8151 action, allowing this to take place unmolested. Note that there is a leading
8152 dot here -- <quote>.google.com</quote>. This will match any hosts and
8153 sub-domains, in the google.com domain also, such as
8154 <quote>www.google.com</quote> or <quote>mail.google.com</quote>. But it would not
8155 match <quote>www.google.de</quote>! So, apparently, we have these two actions
8156 defined as exceptions to the general rules at the top somewhere in the lower
8157 part of our <filename>default.action</filename> file, and
8158 <quote>google.com</quote> is referenced somewhere in these latter sections.
8162 Then, for our <filename>user.action</filename> file, we again have no hits.
8163 So there is nothing google-specific that we might have added to our own, local
8164 configuration. If there was, those actions would over-rule any actions from
8165 previously processed files, such as <filename>default.action</filename>.
8166 <filename>user.action</filename> typically has the last word. This is the
8167 best place to put hard and fast exceptions,
8171 And finally we pull it all together in the bottom section and summarize how
8172 <application>Privoxy</application> is applying all its <quote>actions</quote>
8173 to <quote>google.com</quote>:
8184 +change-x-forwarded-for{block}
8185 -client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation}
8186 -content-type-overwrite
8187 -crunch-client-header
8188 -crunch-if-none-match
8189 -crunch-incoming-cookies
8190 -crunch-outgoing-cookies
8191 -crunch-server-header
8192 +deanimate-gifs {last}
8193 -downgrade-http-version
8196 -filter {content-cookies}
8197 -filter {all-popups}
8198 -filter {banners-by-link}
8199 -filter {tiny-textforms}
8200 -filter {frameset-borders}
8201 -filter {demoronizer}
8202 -filter {shockwave-flash}
8203 -filter {quicktime-kioskmode}
8205 -filter {crude-parental}
8206 -filter {site-specifics}
8207 -filter {js-annoyances}
8208 -filter {html-annoyances}
8209 +filter {refresh-tags}
8210 -filter {unsolicited-popups}
8211 +filter {img-reorder}
8212 +filter {banners-by-size}
8214 +filter {jumping-windows}
8215 +filter {ie-exploits}
8222 -handle-as-empty-document
8224 -hide-accept-language
8225 -hide-content-disposition
8226 +hide-from-header {block}
8227 -hide-if-modified-since
8228 +hide-referrer {forge}
8231 -overwrite-last-modified
8232 -prevent-compression
8234 -server-header-filter{xml-to-html}
8235 -server-header-filter{html-to-xml}
8236 -session-cookies-only
8237 +set-image-blocker {pattern} </screen>
8241 Notice the only difference here to the previous listing, is to
8242 <quote>fast-redirects</quote> and <quote>session-cookies-only</quote>,
8243 which are activated specifically for this site in our configuration,
8244 and thus show in the <quote>Final Results</quote>.
8248 Now another example, <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>:
8254 { +block{Domains starts with "ad"} }
8257 { +block{Domain contains "ad"} }
8260 { +block{Doubleclick banner server} +handle-as-image }
8261 .[a-vx-z]*.doubleclick.net
8266 We'll just show the interesting part here - the explicit matches. It is
8267 matched three different times. Two <quote>+block{}</quote> sections,
8268 and a <quote>+block{} +handle-as-image</quote>,
8269 which is the expanded form of one of our aliases that had been defined as:
8270 <quote>+block-as-image</quote>. (<link
8271 linkend="ALIASES"><quote>Aliases</quote></link> are defined in
8272 the first section of the actions file and typically used to combine more
8277 Any one of these would have done the trick and blocked this as an unwanted
8278 image. This is unnecessarily redundant since the last case effectively
8279 would also cover the first. No point in taking chances with these guys
8280 though ;-) Note that if you want an ad or obnoxious
8281 URL to be invisible, it should be defined as <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>
8282 is done here -- as both a <link
8283 linkend="BLOCK"><quote>+block{}</quote></link>
8284 <emphasis>and</emphasis> an
8285 <link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></link>.
8286 The custom alias <quote><literal>+block-as-image</literal></quote> just
8287 simplifies the process and make it more readable.
8291 One last example. Let's try <quote>http://www.example.net/adsl/HOWTO/</quote>.
8292 This one is giving us problems. We are getting a blank page. Hmmm ...
8298 Matches for http://www.example.net/adsl/HOWTO/:
8300 In file: default.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
8304 +change-x-forwarded-for{block}
8305 -client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation}
8306 -content-type-overwrite
8307 -crunch-client-header
8308 -crunch-if-none-match
8309 -crunch-incoming-cookies
8310 -crunch-outgoing-cookies
8311 -crunch-server-header
8313 -downgrade-http-version
8314 +fast-redirects {check-decoded-url}
8316 -filter {content-cookies}
8317 -filter {all-popups}
8318 -filter {banners-by-link}
8319 -filter {tiny-textforms}
8320 -filter {frameset-borders}
8321 -filter {demoronizer}
8322 -filter {shockwave-flash}
8323 -filter {quicktime-kioskmode}
8325 -filter {crude-parental}
8326 -filter {site-specifics}
8327 -filter {js-annoyances}
8328 -filter {html-annoyances}
8329 +filter {refresh-tags}
8330 -filter {unsolicited-popups}
8331 +filter {img-reorder}
8332 +filter {banners-by-size}
8334 +filter {jumping-windows}
8335 +filter {ie-exploits}
8342 -handle-as-empty-document
8344 -hide-accept-language
8345 -hide-content-disposition
8346 +hide-from-header{block}
8347 +hide-referer{forge}
8349 -overwrite-last-modified
8350 +prevent-compression
8352 -server-header-filter{xml-to-html}
8353 -server-header-filter{html-to-xml}
8354 +session-cookies-only
8355 +set-image-blocker{blank} }
8358 { +block{Path contains "ads".} +handle-as-image }
8364 Ooops, the <quote>/adsl/</quote> is matching <quote>/ads</quote> in our
8365 configuration! But we did not want this at all! Now we see why we get the
8366 blank page. It is actually triggering two different actions here, and
8367 the effects are aggregated so that the URL is blocked, and &my-app; is told
8368 to treat the block as if it were an image. But this is, of course, all wrong.
8369 We could now add a new action below this (or better in our own
8370 <filename>user.action</filename> file) that explicitly
8371 <emphasis>un</emphasis> blocks (
8372 <link linkend="BLOCK"><quote>{-block}</quote></link>) paths with
8373 <quote>adsl</quote> in them (remember, last match in the configuration
8374 wins). There are various ways to handle such exceptions. Example:
8386 Now the page displays ;-)
8387 Remember to flush your browser's caches when making these kinds of changes to
8388 your configuration to insure that you get a freshly delivered page! Or, try
8389 using <literal>Shift+Reload</literal>.
8393 But now what about a situation where we get no explicit matches like
8400 { +block{Path starts with "ads".} +handle-as-image }
8406 That actually was very helpful and pointed us quickly to where the problem
8407 was. If you don't get this kind of match, then it means one of the default
8408 rules in the first section of <filename>default.action</filename> is causing
8409 the problem. This would require some guesswork, and maybe a little trial and
8410 error to isolate the offending rule. One likely cause would be one of the
8411 <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> actions.
8412 These tend to be harder to troubleshoot.
8413 Try adding the URL for the site to one of aliases that turn off
8414 <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link>:
8422 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
8430 <quote><literal>{ shop }</literal></quote> is an <quote>alias</quote> that expands to
8431 <quote><literal>{ -filter -session-cookies-only }</literal></quote>.
8432 Or you could do your own exception to negate filtering:
8440 # Disable ALL filter actions for sites in this section
8448 This would turn off all filtering for these sites. This is best
8449 put in <filename>user.action</filename>, for local site
8450 exceptions. Note that when a simple domain pattern is used by itself (without
8451 the subsequent path portion), all sub-pages within that domain are included
8452 automatically in the scope of the action.
8456 Images that are inexplicably being blocked, may well be hitting the
8457 <link linkend="FILTER-BANNERS-BY-SIZE"><quote>+filter{banners-by-size}</quote></link>
8459 that images of certain sizes are ad banners (works well
8460 <emphasis>most of the time</emphasis> since these tend to be standardized).
8464 <quote><literal>{ fragile }</literal></quote> is an alias that disables most
8465 actions that are the most likely to cause trouble. This can be used as a
8466 last resort for problem sites.
8472 # Handle with care: easy to break
8474 mybank.example.com</screen>
8479 <emphasis>Remember to flush caches!</emphasis> Note that the
8480 <literal>mail.google</literal> reference lacks the TLD portion (e.g.
8481 <quote>.com</quote>). This will effectively match any TLD with
8482 <literal>google</literal> in it, such as <literal>mail.google.de.</literal>,
8486 If this still does not work, you will have to go through the remaining
8487 actions one by one to find which one(s) is causing the problem.
8496 This program is free software; you can redistribute it
8497 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
8498 Public License as published by the Free Software
8499 Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at
8500 your option) any later version.
8502 This program is distributed in the hope that it will
8503 be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the
8504 implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
8505 PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public
8506 License for more details.
8508 The GNU General Public License should be included with
8509 this file. If not, you can view it at
8510 http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
8511 or write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
8512 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301,
8515 $Log: user-manual.sgml,v $
8516 Revision 2.100 2009/02/19 17:14:11 fabiankeil
8517 - Copy the release cycle description from announce.txt into
8518 the "What's New" section.
8519 - Stop referring to the ChangeLog for a "complete list of changes".
8520 The "What's New" section already contains the complete list.
8522 Revision 2.99 2009/02/19 02:20:22 hal9
8523 Make some links in seealso conditional. Man page is now privoxy only links.
8525 Revision 2.98 2009/02/16 17:10:33 fabiankeil
8526 Fix entry about shortened log messages. Noticed by Lee.
8528 Revision 2.97 2009/02/14 18:01:00 fabiankeil
8531 Revision 2.96 2009/02/14 13:14:03 fabiankeil
8534 Revision 2.95 2009/02/14 12:51:26 fabiankeil
8535 Mention match-all.action in the "Actions Files Tutorial" section.
8537 Revision 2.94 2009/02/14 11:50:31 fabiankeil
8538 Some indentation fixes.
8540 Revision 2.93 2009/02/14 10:14:42 fabiankeil
8541 Mention match-all.action in the action file descriptions.
8543 Revision 2.92 2009/02/12 16:08:26 fabiankeil
8544 Declare the code stable.
8546 Revision 2.91 2009/01/13 16:50:35 fabiankeil
8547 The standard.action file is gone.
8549 Revision 2.90 2008/09/26 16:53:09 fabiankeil
8550 Update "What's new" section.
8552 Revision 2.89 2008/09/21 15:38:56 fabiankeil
8553 Fix Portage tree sync instructions in Gentoo section.
8554 Anonymously reported at ijbswa-developers@.
8556 Revision 2.88 2008/09/21 14:42:52 fabiankeil
8557 Add documentation for change-x-forwarded-for{},
8558 remove documentation for hide-forwarded-for-headers.
8560 Revision 2.87 2008/08/30 15:37:35 fabiankeil
8563 Revision 2.86 2008/08/16 10:12:23 fabiankeil
8564 Merge two sentences and move the URL to the end of the item.
8566 Revision 2.85 2008/08/16 10:04:59 fabiankeil
8567 Some more syntax fixes. This version actually builds.
8569 Revision 2.84 2008/08/16 09:42:45 fabiankeil
8570 Turns out building docs works better if the syntax is valid.
8572 Revision 2.83 2008/08/16 09:32:02 fabiankeil
8573 Mention changes since 3.0.9 beta.
8575 Revision 2.82 2008/08/16 09:00:52 fabiankeil
8576 Fix example URL pattern (once more with feeling).
8578 Revision 2.81 2008/08/16 08:51:28 fabiankeil
8579 Update version-related entities.
8581 Revision 2.80 2008/07/18 16:54:30 fabiankeil
8582 Remove erroneous whitespace in documentation link.
8583 Reported by John Chronister in #2021611.
8585 Revision 2.79 2008/06/27 18:00:53 markm68k
8586 remove outdated startup information for mac os x
8588 Revision 2.78 2008/06/21 17:03:03 fabiankeil
8591 Revision 2.77 2008/06/14 13:45:22 fabiankeil
8592 Re-add a colon I unintentionally removed a few revisions ago.
8594 Revision 2.76 2008/06/14 13:21:28 fabiankeil
8595 Prepare for the upcoming 3.0.9 beta release.
8597 Revision 2.75 2008/06/13 16:06:48 fabiankeil
8598 Update the "What's New in this Release" section with
8599 the ChangeLog entries changelog2doc.pl could handle.
8601 Revision 2.74 2008/05/26 15:55:46 fabiankeil
8602 - Update "default profiles" table.
8603 - Add some more pcrs redirect examples and note that
8604 enabling debug 128 helps to get redirects working.
8606 Revision 2.73 2008/05/23 14:43:18 fabiankeil
8607 Remove previously out-commented block that caused syntax problems.
8609 Revision 2.72 2008/05/12 10:26:14 fabiankeil
8610 Synchronize content filter descriptions with the ones in default.filter.
8612 Revision 2.71 2008/04/10 17:37:16 fabiankeil
8613 Actually we use "modern" POSIX 1003.2 regular
8614 expressions in path patterns, not PCRE.
8616 Revision 2.70 2008/04/10 15:59:12 fabiankeil
8617 Add another section to the client-header-tagger example that shows
8618 how to actually change the action settings once the tag is created.
8620 Revision 2.69 2008/03/29 12:14:25 fabiankeil
8621 Remove send-wafer and send-vanilla-wafer actions.
8623 Revision 2.68 2008/03/28 15:13:43 fabiankeil
8624 Remove inspect-jpegs action.
8626 Revision 2.67 2008/03/27 18:31:21 fabiankeil
8627 Remove kill-popups action.
8629 Revision 2.66 2008/03/06 16:33:47 fabiankeil
8630 If limit-connect isn't used, don't limit CONNECT requests to port 443.
8632 Revision 2.65 2008/03/04 18:30:40 fabiankeil
8633 Remove the treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks action. We now
8634 use the "blocked" page for forbidden CONNECT requests by default.
8636 Revision 2.64 2008/03/01 14:10:28 fabiankeil
8637 Use new block syntax. Still needs some polishing.
8639 Revision 2.63 2008/02/22 05:50:37 markm68k
8642 Revision 2.62 2008/02/11 11:52:23 hal9
8643 Fix entity ... s/&/&
8645 Revision 2.61 2008/02/11 03:41:47 markm68k
8646 more updates for mac os x
8648 Revision 2.60 2008/02/11 03:40:25 markm68k
8649 more updates for mac os x
8651 Revision 2.59 2008/02/11 00:52:34 markm68k
8652 reflect new changes for mac os x
8654 Revision 2.58 2008/02/03 21:37:40 hal9
8655 Apply patch from Mark: s/OSX/OS X/
8657 Revision 2.57 2008/02/03 19:10:14 fabiankeil
8658 Mention forward-socks5.
8660 Revision 2.56 2008/01/31 19:11:35 fabiankeil
8661 Let the +client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation} example apply
8662 to all requests as "tainted" Referers aren't limited to exit TLDs.
8664 Revision 2.55 2008/01/19 21:26:37 hal9
8665 Add IE7 to configuration section per Gerry.
8667 Revision 2.54 2008/01/19 17:52:39 hal9
8668 Re-commit to fix various minor issues for new release.
8670 Revision 2.53 2008/01/19 15:03:05 hal9
8671 Doc sources tagged for 3.0.8 release.
8673 Revision 2.52 2008/01/17 01:49:51 hal9
8674 Change copyright notice for docs s/2007/2008/. All these will be rebuilt soon
8677 Revision 2.51 2007/12/23 16:48:24 fabiankeil
8678 Use more precise example descriptions for the mysterious domain patterns.
8680 Revision 2.50 2007/12/08 12:44:36 fabiankeil
8681 - Remove already commented out pre-3.0.7 changes.
8682 - Update the "new log defaults" paragraph.
8684 Revision 2.49 2007/12/06 18:21:55 fabiankeil
8685 Update hide-forwarded-for-headers description.
8687 Revision 2.48 2007/11/24 19:07:17 fabiankeil
8688 - Mention request rewriting.
8689 - Enable the conditional-forge paragraph.
8692 Revision 2.47 2007/11/18 14:59:47 fabiankeil
8693 A few "Note to Upgraders" updates.
8695 Revision 2.46 2007/11/17 17:24:44 fabiankeil
8696 - Use new action defaults.
8697 - Minor fixes and rewordings.
8699 Revision 2.45 2007/11/16 11:48:46 hal9
8700 Fix one typo, and add a couple of small refinements.
8702 Revision 2.44 2007/11/15 03:30:20 hal9
8703 Results of spell check.
8705 Revision 2.43 2007/11/14 18:45:39 fabiankeil
8706 - Mention some more contributors in the "New in this Release" list.
8709 Revision 2.42 2007/11/12 03:32:40 hal9
8710 Updates for "What's New" and "Notes to Upgraders". Various other changes in
8711 preparation for new release. User Manual is almost ready.
8713 Revision 2.41 2007/11/11 16:32:11 hal9
8714 This is primarily syncing What's New and Note to Upgraders sections with the many
8715 new features and changes (gleaned from memory but mostly from ChangeLog).
8717 Revision 2.40 2007/11/10 17:10:59 fabiankeil
8718 In the first third of the file, mention several times that
8719 the action editor is disabled by default in 3.0.7 beta and later.
8721 Revision 2.39 2007/11/05 02:34:49 hal9
8722 Various changes in preparation for the upcoming release. Much yet to be done.
8724 Revision 2.38 2007/09/22 16:01:42 fabiankeil
8725 Update embedded show-url-info output.
8727 Revision 2.37 2007/08/27 16:09:55 fabiankeil
8728 Fix pre-chroot-nslookup description which I failed to
8729 copy and paste properly. Reported by Stephen Gildea.
8731 Revision 2.36 2007/08/26 16:47:14 fabiankeil
8732 Add Stephen Gildea's pre-chroot-nslookup patch [#1276666],
8733 extensive comments moved to user manual.
8735 Revision 2.35 2007/08/26 14:59:49 fabiankeil
8736 Minor rewordings and fixes.
8738 Revision 2.34 2007/08/05 15:19:50 fabiankeil
8739 - Don't claim HTTP/1.1 compliance.
8740 - Use $ in some of the path pattern examples.
8741 - Use a hide-user-agent example argument without
8742 leading and trailing space.
8743 - Make it clear that the cookie actions work with
8745 - Rephrase the inspect-jpegs text to underline
8746 that it's only meant to protect against a single
8749 Revision 2.33 2007/07/27 10:57:35 hal9
8750 Add references for user-agent strings for hide-user-agenet
8752 Revision 2.32 2007/06/07 12:36:22 fabiankeil
8753 Apply Roland's 29_usermanual.dpatch to fix a bunch
8754 of syntax errors I collected over the last months.
8756 Revision 2.31 2007/06/02 14:01:37 fabiankeil
8757 Start to document forward-override{}.
8759 Revision 2.30 2007/04/25 15:10:36 fabiankeil
8760 - Describe installation for FreeBSD.
8761 - Start to document taggers and tag patterns.
8762 - Don't confuse devils and daemons.
8764 Revision 2.29 2007/04/05 11:47:51 fabiankeil
8765 Some updates regarding header filtering,
8766 handling of compressed content and redirect's
8767 support for pcrs commands.
8769 Revision 2.28 2006/12/10 23:42:48 hal9
8770 Fix various typos reported by Adam P. Thanks.
8772 Revision 2.27 2006/11/14 01:57:47 hal9
8773 Dump all docs prior to 3.0.6 release. Various minor changes to faq and user
8776 Revision 2.26 2006/10/24 11:16:44 hal9
8779 Revision 2.25 2006/10/18 10:50:33 hal9
8780 Add note that since filters are off in Cautious, compression is ON. Turn off
8781 compression to make filters work on all sites.
8783 Revision 2.24 2006/10/03 11:13:54 hal9
8784 More references to the new filters. Include html this time around.
8786 Revision 2.23 2006/10/02 22:43:53 hal9
8787 Contains new filter definitions from Fabian, and few other miscellaneous
8790 Revision 2.22 2006/09/22 01:27:55 hal9
8791 Final commit of probably various minor changes here and there. Unless
8792 something changes this should be ready for pending release.
8794 Revision 2.21 2006/09/20 03:21:36 david__schmidt
8795 Just the tiniest tweak. Wafer thin!
8797 Revision 2.20 2006/09/10 14:53:54 hal9
8798 Results of spell check. User manual has some updates to standard.actions file
8801 Revision 2.19 2006/09/08 12:19:02 fabiankeil
8802 Adjust hide-if-modified-since example values
8803 to reflect the recent changes.
8805 Revision 2.18 2006/09/08 02:38:57 hal9
8807 -Fix a number of broken links.
8808 -Migrate the new Windows service command line options, and reference as
8810 -Rebuild so that can be used with the new "user-manual" config capabilities.
8813 Revision 2.17 2006/09/05 13:25:12 david__schmidt
8814 Add Windows service invocation stuff (duplicated) in FAQ and in user manual under Windows startup. One probably ought to reference the other.
8816 Revision 2.16 2006/09/02 12:49:37 hal9
8817 Various small updates for new actions, filterfiles, etc.
8819 Revision 2.15 2006/08/30 11:15:22 hal9
8820 More work on the new actions, especially filter-*-headers, and What's New
8821 section. User Manual is close to final form for 3.0.4 release. Some tinkering
8822 and proof reading left to do.
8824 Revision 2.14 2006/08/29 10:59:36 hal9
8825 Add a "Whats New in this release" Section. Further work on multiple filter
8826 files, and assorted other minor changes.
8828 Revision 2.13 2006/08/22 11:04:59 hal9
8829 Silence warnings and errors. This should build now. New filters were only
8830 stubbed in. More to be done.
8832 Revision 2.12 2006/08/14 08:40:39 fabiankeil
8833 Documented new actions that were part of
8834 the "minor Privoxy improvements".
8836 Revision 2.11 2006/07/18 14:48:51 david__schmidt
8837 Reorganizing the repository: swapping out what was HEAD (the old 3.1 branch)
8838 with what was really the latest development (the v_3_0_branch branch)
8840 Revision 1.123.2.43 2005/05/23 09:59:10 hal9
8843 Revision 1.123.2.42 2004/12/04 14:39:57 hal9
8844 Fix two minor typos per bug SF report.
8846 Revision 1.123.2.41 2004/03/23 12:58:42 oes
8849 Revision 1.123.2.40 2004/02/27 12:48:49 hal9
8850 Add comment re: redirecting to local file system for set-image-blocker may
8851 is dependent on browser.
8853 Revision 1.123.2.39 2004/01/30 22:31:40 oes
8854 Added a hint re bookmarklets to Quickstart section
8856 Revision 1.123.2.38 2004/01/30 16:47:51 oes
8857 Some minor clarifications
8859 Revision 1.123.2.37 2004/01/29 22:36:11 hal9
8860 Updates for no longer filtering text/plain, and demoronizer default settings,
8861 and copyright notice dates.
8863 Revision 1.123.2.36 2003/12/10 02:26:26 hal9
8864 Changed the demoronizer filter description.
8866 Revision 1.123.2.35 2003/11/06 13:36:37 oes
8867 Updated link to nightly CVS tarball
8869 Revision 1.123.2.34 2003/06/26 23:50:16 hal9
8870 Add a small bit on filtering and problems re: source code being corrupted.
8872 Revision 1.123.2.33 2003/05/08 18:17:33 roro
8873 Use apt-get instead of dpkg to install Debian package, which is more
8874 solid, uses the correct and most recent Debian version automatically.
8876 Revision 1.123.2.32 2003/04/11 03:13:57 hal9
8877 Add small note about only one filterfile (as opposed to multiple actions
8880 Revision 1.123.2.31 2003/03/26 02:03:43 oes
8881 Updated hard-coded copyright dates
8883 Revision 1.123.2.30 2003/03/24 12:58:56 hal9
8884 Add new section on Predefined Filters.
8886 Revision 1.123.2.29 2003/03/20 02:45:29 hal9
8887 More problems with \-\-chroot causing markup problems :(
8889 Revision 1.123.2.28 2003/03/19 00:35:24 hal9
8890 Manual edit of revision log because 'chroot' (even inside a comment) was
8891 causing Docbook to hang here (due to double hyphen and the processor thinking
8894 Revision 1.123.2.27 2003/03/18 19:37:14 oes
8895 s/Advanced|Radical/Adventuresome/g to avoid complaints re fun filter
8897 Revision 1.123.2.26 2003/03/17 16:50:53 oes
8898 Added documentation for new chroot option
8900 Revision 1.123.2.25 2003/03/15 18:36:55 oes
8901 Adapted to the new filters
8903 Revision 1.123.2.24 2002/11/17 06:41:06 hal9
8904 Move default profiles table from FAQ to U-M, and other minor related changes.
8907 Revision 1.123.2.23 2002/10/21 02:32:01 hal9
8908 Updates to the user.action examples section. A few new ones.
8910 Revision 1.123.2.22 2002/10/12 00:51:53 hal9
8911 Add demoronizer to filter section.
8913 Revision 1.123.2.21 2002/10/10 04:09:35 hal9
8914 s/Advanced/Radical/ and added very brief note.
8916 Revision 1.123.2.20 2002/10/10 03:49:21 hal9
8917 Add notes to session-cookies-only and Quickstart about pre-existing
8918 cookies. Also, note content-cookies work differently.
8920 Revision 1.123.2.19 2002/09/26 01:25:36 hal9
8921 More explanation on Privoxy patterns, more on content-cookies and SSL.
8923 Revision 1.123.2.18 2002/08/22 23:47:58 hal9
8924 Add 'Documentation' to Privoxy Menu shot in Configuration section to match
8927 Revision 1.123.2.17 2002/08/18 01:13:05 hal9
8928 Spell checked (only one typo this time!).
8930 Revision 1.123.2.16 2002/08/09 19:20:54 david__schmidt
8931 Update to Mac OS X startup script name
8933 Revision 1.123.2.15 2002/08/07 17:32:11 oes
8934 Converted some internal links from ulink to link for PDF creation; no content changed
8936 Revision 1.123.2.14 2002/08/06 09:16:13 oes
8937 Nits re: actions file download
8939 Revision 1.123.2.13 2002/08/02 18:23:19 g_sauthoff
8940 Just 2 small corrections to the Gentoo sections
8942 Revision 1.123.2.12 2002/08/02 18:17:21 g_sauthoff
8943 Added 2 Gentoo sections
8945 Revision 1.123.2.11 2002/07/26 15:20:31 oes
8946 - Added version info to title
8947 - Added info on new filters
8948 - Revised parts of the filter file tutorial
8949 - Added info on where to get updated actions files
8951 Revision 1.123.2.10 2002/07/25 21:42:29 hal9
8952 Add brief notes on not proxying non-HTTP protocols.
8954 Revision 1.123.2.9 2002/07/11 03:40:28 david__schmidt
8956 Updated Mac OS X sections due to installation location change
8958 Revision 1.123.2.8 2002/06/09 16:36:32 hal9
8959 Clarifications on filtering and MIME. Hardcode 'latest release' in index.html.
8961 Revision 1.123.2.7 2002/06/09 00:29:34 hal9
8962 Touch ups on filtering, in actions section and Anatomy.
8964 Revision 1.123.2.6 2002/06/06 23:11:03 hal9
8965 Fix broken link. Linkchecked all docs.
8967 Revision 1.123.2.5 2002/05/29 02:01:02 hal9
8968 This is break out of the entire config section from u-m, so it can
8969 eventually be used to generate the comments, etc in the main config file
8970 so that these are in sync with each other.
8972 Revision 1.123.2.4 2002/05/27 03:28:45 hal9
8973 Ooops missed something from David.
8975 Revision 1.123.2.3 2002/05/27 03:23:17 hal9
8976 Fix FIXMEs for OS2 and Mac OS X startup. Fix Redhat typos (should be Red Hat).
8977 That's a wrap, I think.
8979 Revision 1.123.2.2 2002/05/26 19:02:09 hal9
8980 Move Amiga stuff around to take of FIXME in start up section.
8982 Revision 1.123.2.1 2002/05/26 17:04:25 hal9
8983 -Spellcheck, very minor edits, and sync across branches
8985 Revision 1.123 2002/05/24 23:19:23 hal9
8986 Include new image (Proxy setup). More fun with guibutton.
8987 Minor corrections/clarifications here and there.
8989 Revision 1.122 2002/05/24 13:24:08 oes
8990 Added Bookmarklet for one-click pre-filled access to show-url-info
8992 Revision 1.121 2002/05/23 23:20:17 oes
8993 - Changed more (all?) references to actions to the
8994 <literal><link> style.
8995 - Small fixes in the actions chapter
8996 - Small clarifications in the quickstart to ad blocking
8997 - Removed <emphasis> from <title>s since the new doc CSS
8998 renders them red (bad in TOC).
9000 Revision 1.120 2002/05/23 19:16:43 roro
9001 Correct Debian specials (installation and startup).
9003 Revision 1.119 2002/05/22 17:17:05 oes
9006 Revision 1.118 2002/05/21 04:54:55 hal9
9007 -New Section: Quickstart to Ad Blocking
9008 -Reformat Actions Anatomy to match new CGI layout
9010 Revision 1.117 2002/05/17 13:56:16 oes
9011 - Reworked & extended Templates chapter
9012 - Small changes to Regex appendix
9013 - #included authors.sgml into (C) and hist chapter
9015 Revision 1.116 2002/05/17 03:23:46 hal9
9016 Fixing merge conflict in Quickstart section.
9018 Revision 1.115 2002/05/16 16:25:00 oes
9019 Extended the Filter File chapter & minor fixes
9021 Revision 1.114 2002/05/16 09:42:50 oes
9022 More ulink->link, added some hints to Quickstart section
9024 Revision 1.113 2002/05/15 21:07:25 oes
9025 Extended and further commented the example actions files
9027 Revision 1.112 2002/05/15 03:57:14 hal9
9028 Spell check. A few minor edits here and there for better syntax and
9031 Revision 1.111 2002/05/14 23:01:36 oes
9034 Revision 1.110 2002/05/14 19:10:45 oes
9035 Restored alphabetical order of actions
9037 Revision 1.109 2002/05/14 17:23:11 oes
9038 Renamed the prevent-*-cookies actions, extended aliases section and moved it before the example AFs
9040 Revision 1.108 2002/05/14 15:29:12 oes
9041 Completed proofreading the actions chapter
9043 Revision 1.107 2002/05/12 03:20:41 hal9
9044 Small clarifications for 127.0.0.1 vs localhost for listen-address since this
9045 apparently an important distinction for some OS's.
9047 Revision 1.106 2002/05/10 01:48:20 hal9
9048 This is mostly proposed copyright/licensing additions and changes. Docs
9049 are still GPL, but licensing and copyright are more visible. Also, copyright
9050 changed in doc header comments (eliminate references to JB except FAQ).
9052 Revision 1.105 2002/05/05 20:26:02 hal9
9053 Sorting out license vs copyright in these docs.
9055 Revision 1.104 2002/05/04 08:44:45 swa
9058 Revision 1.103 2002/05/04 00:40:53 hal9
9059 -Remove the TOC first page kludge. It's fixed proper now in ldp.dsl.in.
9060 -Some minor additions to Quickstart.
9062 Revision 1.102 2002/05/03 17:46:00 oes
9063 Further proofread & reactivated short build instructions
9065 Revision 1.101 2002/05/03 03:58:30 hal9
9066 Move the user-manual config directive to top of section. Add note about
9067 Privoxy needing read permissions for configs, and write for logs.
9069 Revision 1.100 2002/04/29 03:05:55 hal9
9070 Add clarification on differences of new actions files.
9072 Revision 1.99 2002/04/28 16:59:05 swa
9073 more structure in starting section
9075 Revision 1.98 2002/04/28 05:43:59 hal9
9076 This is the break up of configuration.html into multiple files. This
9077 will probably break links elsewhere :(
9079 Revision 1.97 2002/04/27 21:04:42 hal9
9080 -Rewrite of Actions File example.
9081 -Add section for user-manual directive in config.
9083 Revision 1.96 2002/04/27 05:32:00 hal9
9084 -Add short section to Filter Files to tie in with +filter action.
9085 -Start rewrite of examples in Actions Examples (not finished).
9087 Revision 1.95 2002/04/26 17:23:29 swa
9088 bookmarks cleaned, changed structure of user manual, screen and programlisting cleanups, and numerous other changes that I forgot
9090 Revision 1.94 2002/04/26 05:24:36 hal9
9091 -Add most of Andreas suggestions to Chain of Events section.
9092 -A few other minor corrections and touch up.
9094 Revision 1.92 2002/04/25 18:55:13 hal9
9095 More catchups on new actions files, and new actions names.
9096 Other assorted cleanups, and minor modifications.
9098 Revision 1.91 2002/04/24 02:39:31 hal9
9099 Add 'Chain of Events' section.
9101 Revision 1.90 2002/04/23 21:41:25 hal9
9102 Linuxconf is deprecated on RH, substitute chkconfig.
9104 Revision 1.89 2002/04/23 21:05:28 oes
9105 Added hint for startup on Red Hat
9107 Revision 1.88 2002/04/23 05:37:54 hal9
9108 Add AmigaOS install stuff.
9110 Revision 1.87 2002/04/23 02:53:15 david__schmidt
9111 Updated Mac OS X installation section
9112 Added a few English tweaks here an there
9114 Revision 1.86 2002/04/21 01:46:32 hal9
9115 Re-write actions section.
9117 Revision 1.85 2002/04/18 21:23:23 hal9
9118 Fix ugly typo (mine).
9120 Revision 1.84 2002/04/18 21:17:13 hal9
9121 Spell Redhat correctly (ie Red Hat). A few minor grammar corrections.
9123 Revision 1.83 2002/04/18 18:21:12 oes
9124 Added RPM install detail
9126 Revision 1.82 2002/04/18 12:04:50 oes
9129 Revision 1.81 2002/04/18 11:50:24 oes
9130 Extended Install section - needs fixing by packagers
9132 Revision 1.80 2002/04/18 10:45:19 oes
9133 Moved text to buildsource.sgml, renamed some filters, details
9135 Revision 1.79 2002/04/18 03:18:06 hal9
9136 Spellcheck, and minor touchups.
9138 Revision 1.78 2002/04/17 18:04:16 oes
9141 Revision 1.77 2002/04/17 13:51:23 oes
9142 Proofreading, part one
9144 Revision 1.76 2002/04/16 04:25:51 hal9
9145 -Added 'Note to Upgraders' and re-ordered the 'Quickstart' section.
9146 -Note about proxy may need requests to re-read config files.
9148 Revision 1.75 2002/04/12 02:08:48 david__schmidt
9149 Remove OS/2 building info... it is already in the developer-manual
9151 Revision 1.74 2002/04/11 00:54:38 hal9
9152 Add small section on submitting actions.
9154 Revision 1.73 2002/04/10 18:45:15 swa
9157 Revision 1.72 2002/04/10 04:06:19 hal9
9158 Added actions feedback to Bookmarklets section
9160 Revision 1.71 2002/04/08 22:59:26 hal9
9161 Version update. Spell chkconfig correctly :)
9163 Revision 1.70 2002/04/08 20:53:56 swa
9166 Revision 1.69 2002/04/06 05:07:29 hal9
9167 -Add privoxy-man-page.sgml, for man page.
9168 -Add authors.sgml for AUTHORS (and p-authors.sgml)
9169 -Reworked various aspects of various docs.
9170 -Added additional comments to sub-docs.
9172 Revision 1.68 2002/04/04 18:46:47 swa
9173 consistent look. reuse of copyright, history et. al.
9175 Revision 1.67 2002/04/04 17:27:57 swa
9176 more single file to be included at multiple points. make maintaining easier
9178 Revision 1.66 2002/04/04 06:48:37 hal9
9179 Structural changes to allow for conditional inclusion/exclusion of content
9180 based on entity toggles, e.g. 'entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE"'. And
9181 definition of internal entities, e.g. 'entity p-version "2.9.13"' that will
9182 eventually be set by Makefile.
9183 More boilerplate text for use across multiple docs.
9185 Revision 1.65 2002/04/03 19:52:07 swa
9186 enhance squid section due to user suggestion
9188 Revision 1.64 2002/04/03 03:53:43 hal9
9189 A few minor bug fixes, and touch ups. Ready for review.
9191 Revision 1.63 2002/04/01 16:24:49 hal9
9192 Define entities to include boilerplate text. See doc/source/*.
9194 Revision 1.62 2002/03/30 04:15:53 hal9
9195 - Fix privoxy.org/config links.
9196 - Paste in Bookmarklets from Toggle page.
9197 - Move Quickstart nearer top, and minor rework.
9199 Revision 1.61 2002/03/29 01:31:08 hal9
9202 Revision 1.60 2002/03/27 01:57:34 hal9
9203 Added more to Anatomy section.
9205 Revision 1.59 2002/03/27 00:54:33 hal9
9206 Touch up intro for new name.
9208 Revision 1.58 2002/03/26 22:29:55 swa
9209 we have a new homepage!
9211 Revision 1.57 2002/03/24 20:33:30 hal9
9212 A few minor catch ups with name change.
9214 Revision 1.56 2002/03/24 16:17:06 swa
9215 configure needs to be generated.
9217 Revision 1.55 2002/03/24 16:08:08 swa
9218 we are too lazy to make a block-built
9219 privoxy logo. hence removed the option.
9221 Revision 1.54 2002/03/24 15:46:20 swa
9222 name change related issue.
9224 Revision 1.53 2002/03/24 11:51:00 swa
9225 name change. changed filenames.
9227 Revision 1.52 2002/03/24 11:01:06 swa
9230 Revision 1.51 2002/03/23 15:13:11 swa
9231 renamed every reference to the old name with foobar.
9232 fixed "application foobar application" tag, fixed
9233 "the foobar" with "foobar". left junkbustser in cvs
9234 comments and remarks to history untouched.
9236 Revision 1.50 2002/03/23 05:06:21 hal9
9239 Revision 1.49 2002/03/21 17:01:05 hal9
9240 New section in Appendix.
9242 Revision 1.48 2002/03/12 06:33:01 hal9
9243 Catching up to Andreas and re_filterfile changes.
9245 Revision 1.47 2002/03/11 13:13:27 swa
9246 correct feedback channels
9248 Revision 1.46 2002/03/10 00:51:08 hal9
9249 Added section on JB internal pages in Appendix.
9251 Revision 1.45 2002/03/09 17:43:53 swa
9254 Revision 1.44 2002/03/09 17:08:48 hal9
9255 New section on Jon's actions file editor, and move some stuff around.
9257 Revision 1.43 2002/03/08 00:47:32 hal9
9258 Added imageblock{pattern}.
9260 Revision 1.42 2002/03/07 18:16:55 swa
9263 Revision 1.41 2002/03/07 16:46:43 hal9
9264 Fix a few markup problems for jade.
9266 Revision 1.40 2002/03/07 16:28:39 swa
9267 provide correct feedback channels
9269 Revision 1.39 2002/03/06 16:19:28 hal9
9270 Note on perceived filtering slowdown per FR.
9272 Revision 1.38 2002/03/05 23:55:14 hal9
9273 Stupid I did it again. Double hyphen in comment breaks jade.
9275 Revision 1.37 2002/03/05 23:53:49 hal9
9276 jade barfs on '- -' embedded in comments. - -user option broke it.
9278 Revision 1.36 2002/03/05 22:53:28 hal9
9279 Add new - - user option.
9281 Revision 1.35 2002/03/05 00:17:27 hal9
9282 Added section on command line options.
9284 Revision 1.34 2002/03/04 19:32:07 oes
9285 Changed default port to 8118
9287 Revision 1.33 2002/03/03 19:46:13 hal9
9288 Emphasis on where/how to report bugs, etc
9290 Revision 1.32 2002/03/03 09:26:06 joergs
9291 AmigaOS changes, config is now loaded from PROGDIR: instead of
9292 AmiTCP:db/junkbuster/ if no configuration file is specified on the
9295 Revision 1.31 2002/03/02 22:45:52 david__schmidt
9298 Revision 1.30 2002/03/02 22:00:14 hal9
9299 Updated 'New Features' list. Ran through spell-checker.
9301 Revision 1.29 2002/03/02 20:34:07 david__schmidt
9302 Update OS/2 build section
9304 Revision 1.28 2002/02/24 14:34:24 jongfoster
9305 Formatting changes. Now changing the doctype to DocBook XML 4.1
9306 will work - no other changes are needed.
9308 Revision 1.27 2002/01/11 14:14:32 hal9
9309 Added a very short section on Templates
9311 Revision 1.26 2002/01/09 20:02:50 hal9
9312 Fix bug re: auto-detect config file changes.
9314 Revision 1.25 2002/01/09 18:20:30 hal9
9315 Touch ups for *.action files.
9317 Revision 1.24 2001/12/02 01:13:42 hal9
9320 Revision 1.23 2001/12/02 00:20:41 hal9
9321 Updates for recent changes.
9323 Revision 1.22 2001/11/05 23:57:51 hal9
9324 Minor update for startup now daemon mode.
9326 Revision 1.21 2001/10/31 21:11:03 hal9
9327 Correct 2 minor errors
9329 Revision 1.18 2001/10/24 18:45:26 hal9
9330 *** empty log message ***
9332 Revision 1.17 2001/10/24 17:10:55 hal9
9333 Catching up with Jon's recent work, and a few other things.
9335 Revision 1.16 2001/10/21 17:19:21 swa
9336 wrong url in documentation
9338 Revision 1.15 2001/10/14 23:46:24 hal9
9339 Various minor changes. Fleshed out SEE ALSO section.
9341 Revision 1.13 2001/10/10 17:28:33 hal9
9344 Revision 1.12 2001/09/28 02:57:04 hal9
9347 Revision 1.11 2001/09/28 02:25:20 hal9
9350 Revision 1.9 2001/09/27 23:50:29 hal9
9351 A few changes. A short section on regular expression in appendix.
9353 Revision 1.8 2001/09/25 00:34:59 hal9
9354 Some additions, and re-arranging.
9356 Revision 1.7 2001/09/24 14:31:36 hal9
9359 Revision 1.6 2001/09/24 14:10:32 hal9
9360 Including David's OS/2 installation instructions.
9362 Revision 1.2 2001/09/13 15:27:40 swa
9365 Revision 1.1 2001/09/12 15:36:41 swa
9366 source files for junkbuster documentation
9368 Revision 1.3 2001/09/10 17:43:59 swa
9369 first proposal of a structure.
9371 Revision 1.2 2001/06/13 14:28:31 swa
9372 docs should have an author.
9374 Revision 1.1 2001/06/13 14:20:37 swa
9375 first import of project's documentation for the webserver.