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 "3.0.9">
15 <!entity p-status "UNRELEASED">
16 <!entity % p-authors-formal "INCLUDE"> <!-- include additional text, etc -->
17 <!entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE">
18 <!entity % p-stable "IGNORE">
19 <!entity % p-text "IGNORE"> <!-- define we are not a text only doc -->
20 <!entity % p-doc "INCLUDE"> <!-- and we are a formal doc -->
21 <!entity % p-readme "IGNORE">
22 <!entity % user-man "IGNORE">
23 <!entity % config-file "IGNORE">
24 <!entity % p-supp-userman "IGNORE"> <!-- Omit some from supported.sgml -->
25 <!entity my-copy "©"> <!-- kludge for docbook2man -->
26 <!entity % draft "IGNORE"> <!-- WIP stuff -->
27 <!entity my-app "<application>Privoxy</application>">
30 File : $Source: /cvsroot/ijbswa/current/doc/source/user-manual.sgml,v $
33 This file belongs into
34 ijbswa.sourceforge.net:/home/groups/i/ij/ijbswa/htdocs/
36 $Id: user-manual.sgml,v 2.74 2008/05/26 15:55:46 fabiankeil Exp $
38 Copyright (C) 2001-2008 Privoxy Developers http://www.privoxy.org/
41 ========================================================================
42 NOTE: Please read developer-manual/documentation.html before touching
43 anything in this, or other Privoxy documentation.
44 ========================================================================
51 <title>Privoxy &p-version; User Manual</title>
55 <!-- Completely the wrong markup, but very little is allowed -->
56 <!-- in this part of an article. FIXME -->
57 <link linkend="copyright">Copyright</link> &my-copy; 2001 - 2008 by
58 <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/">Privoxy Developers</ulink>
62 <pubdate>$Id: user-manual.sgml,v 2.74 2008/05/26 15:55:46 fabiankeil Exp $</pubdate>
66 Note: the following should generate a separate page, and a live link to it,
67 all nicely done. But it doesn't for some mysterious reason. Please leave
68 commented unless it can be fixed proper. For the time being, the
69 copyright/license declarations will be in their own sgml.
82 This is here to keep vim syntax file from breaking :/
83 If I knew enough to fix it, I would.
84 PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE! HB: hal@foobox.net
90 The <citetitle>Privoxy User Manual</citetitle> gives users information on how to
91 install, configure and use <ulink
92 url="http://www.privoxy.org/">Privoxy</ulink>.
95 <!-- Include privoxy.sgml boilerplate: -->
97 <!-- end privoxy.sgml -->
100 You can find the latest version of the <citetitle>Privoxy User Manual</citetitle> at <ulink
101 url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/">http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/</ulink>.
102 Please see the <link linkend="contact">Contact section</link> on how to
103 contact the developers.
107 <!-- Feel free to send a note to the developers at <email>ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net</email>. -->
113 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
114 <sect1 label="1" id="introduction"><title>Introduction</title>
116 This documentation is included with the current &p-status; version of
117 <application>Privoxy</application>, v.&p-version;<![%p-not-stable;[,
118 and is mostly complete at this point. The most up to date reference for the
119 time being is still the comments in the source files and in the individual
120 configuration files. Development of a new version is currently nearing
121 completion, and includes significant changes and enhancements over
122 earlier versions. ]]>.
125 <!-- include only in non-stable versions -->
128 Since this is a &p-status; version, not all new features are well tested. This
129 documentation may be slightly out of sync as a result (especially with
130 CVS sources). And there <emphasis>may be</emphasis> bugs, though hopefully
135 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
136 <sect2 id="features"><title>Features</title>
138 In addition to the core
139 features of ad blocking and
140 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookie</ulink> management,
141 <application>Privoxy</application> provides many supplemental
142 features<![%p-not-stable;[, some of them currently under development]]>,
143 that give the end-user more control, more privacy and more freedom:
145 <!-- Include newfeatures.sgml boilerplate here: -->
147 <!-- end boilerplate -->
152 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
155 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
156 <sect1 id="installation"><title>Installation</title>
159 <application>Privoxy</application> is available both in convenient pre-compiled
160 packages for a wide range of operating systems, and as raw source code.
161 For most users, we recommend using the packages, which can be downloaded from our
162 <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ijbswa/">Privoxy Project
168 On some platforms, the installer may remove previously installed versions, if
169 found. (See below for your platform). In any case <emphasis>be sure to backup
170 your old configuration if it is valuable to you.</emphasis> See the <link
171 linkend="upgradersnote">note to upgraders</link> section below.
174 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
175 <sect2 id="installation-packages"><title>Binary Packages</title>
177 How to install the binary packages depends on your operating system:
180 <!-- XXX: The installation sections should be sorted -->
182 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
183 <sect3 id="installation-pack-rpm"><title>Red Hat and Fedora RPMs</title>
186 RPMs can be installed with <literal>rpm -Uvh privoxy-&p-version;-1.rpm</literal>,
187 and will use <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> for the location
188 of configuration files.
192 Note that on Red Hat, <application>Privoxy</application> will
193 <emphasis>not</emphasis> be automatically started on system boot. You will
194 need to enable that using <command>chkconfig</command>,
195 <command>ntsysv</command>, or similar methods.
199 If you have problems with failed dependencies, try rebuilding the SRC RPM:
200 <literal>rpm --rebuild privoxy-&p-version;-1.src.rpm</literal>. This
201 will use your locally installed libraries and RPM version.
205 Also note that if you have a <application>Junkbuster</application> RPM installed
206 on your system, you need to remove it first, because the packages conflict.
207 Otherwise, RPM will try to remove <application>Junkbuster</application>
208 automatically if found, before installing <application>Privoxy</application>.
212 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
213 <sect3 id="installation-deb"><title>Debian and Ubuntu</title>
215 DEBs can be installed with <literal>apt-get install privoxy</literal>,
216 and will use <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> for the location of
221 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
222 <sect3 id="installation-pack-win"><title>Windows</title>
225 Just double-click the installer, which will guide you through
226 the installation process. You will find the configuration files
227 in the same directory as you installed <application>Privoxy</application> in.
230 Version 3.0.5 beta introduced full <application>Windows</application> service
231 functionality. On Windows only, the <application>Privoxy</application>
232 program has two new command line arguments to install and uninstall
233 <application>Privoxy</application> as a <emphasis>service</emphasis>.
237 <term>Arguments:</term>
240 <replaceable class="parameter">--install</replaceable>[:<replaceable class="parameter">service_name</replaceable>]
243 <replaceable class="parameter">--uninstall</replaceable>[:<replaceable class="parameter">service_name</replaceable>]
249 After invoking <application>Privoxy</application> with
250 <command>--install</command>, you will need to bring up the
251 <application>Windows</application> service console to assign the user you
252 want <application>Privoxy</application> to run under, and whether or not you
253 want it to run whenever the system starts. You can start the
254 <application>Windows</application> services console with the following
255 command: <command>services.msc</command>. If you do not take the manual step
256 of modifying <application>Privoxy's</application> service settings, it will
257 not start. Note too that you will need to give Privoxy a user account that
258 actually exists, or it will not be permitted to
259 write to its log and configuration files.
264 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
265 <sect3 id="installation-pack-bintgz"><title>Solaris <!--, NetBSD, HP-UX--></title>
268 Create a new directory, <literal>cd</literal> to it, then unzip and
269 untar the archive. For the most part, you'll have to figure out where
270 things go. <!-- FIXME, more info needed? -->
274 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
275 <sect3 id="installation-os2"><title>OS/2</title>
278 First, make sure that no previous installations of
279 <application>Junkbuster</application> and / or
280 <application>Privoxy</application> are left on your
281 system. Check that no <application>Junkbuster</application>
282 or <application>Privoxy</application> objects are in
288 Then, just double-click the WarpIN self-installing archive, which will
289 guide you through the installation process. A shadow of the
290 <application>Privoxy</application> executable will be placed in your
291 startup folder so it will start automatically whenever OS/2 starts.
295 The directory you choose to install <application>Privoxy</application>
296 into will contain all of the configuration files.
300 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
301 <sect3 id="installation-mac"><title>Mac OS X</title>
303 Unzip the downloaded file (you can either double-click on the zip file
304 icon from the Finder, or from the desktop if you downloaded it there).
305 Then, double-click on the package installer icon and follow the
306 installation process.
309 The privoxy service will automatically start after a successful
310 installation (in addition to every time your computer starts up). To
311 prevent the privoxy service from automatically starting when your
312 computer starts up, remove or rename the folder named
313 <literal>/Library/StartupItems/Privoxy</literal>.
316 To manually start or stop the privoxy service, use the Privoxy Utility
317 for Mac OS X. This application controls the privoxy service (e.g.
318 starting and stopping the service as well as uninstalling the software).
322 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
323 <sect3 id="installation-amiga"><title>AmigaOS</title>
325 Copy and then unpack the <filename>lha</filename> archive to a suitable location.
326 All necessary files will be installed into <application>Privoxy</application>
327 directory, including all configuration and log files. To uninstall, just
328 remove this directory.
332 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
333 <sect3 id="installation-tbz"><title>FreeBSD</title>
336 Privoxy is part of FreeBSD's Ports Collection, you can build and install
337 it with <literal>cd /usr/ports/www/privoxy; make install clean</literal>.
340 If you don't use the ports, you can fetch and install
341 the package with <literal>pkg_add -r privoxy</literal>.
344 The port skeleton and the package can also be downloaded from the
345 <ulink url="https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118">File Release
346 Page</ulink>, but there's no reason to use them unless you're interested in the
347 beta releases which are only available there.
351 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
352 <sect3 id="installattion-gentoo"><title>Gentoo</title>
354 Gentoo source packages (Ebuilds) for <application>Privoxy</application> are
355 contained in the Gentoo Portage Tree (they are not on the download page,
356 but there is a Gentoo section, where you can see when a new
357 <application>Privoxy</application> Version is added to the Portage Tree).
360 Before installing <application>Privoxy</application> under Gentoo just do
361 first <literal>emerge rsync</literal> to get the latest changes from the
362 Portage tree. With <literal>emerge privoxy</literal> you install the latest
366 Configuration files are in <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename>, the
367 documentation is in <filename>/usr/share/doc/privoxy-&p-version;</filename>
368 and the Log directory is in <filename>/var/log/privoxy</filename>.
374 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
375 <sect2 id="installation-source"><title>Building from Source</title>
378 The most convenient way to obtain the <application>Privoxy</application> sources
379 is to download the source tarball from our
380 <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118&package_id=10571">project download
385 If you like to live on the bleeding edge and are not afraid of using
386 possibly unstable development versions, you can check out the up-to-the-minute
387 version directly from <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/cvs/?group_id=11118">the
388 CVS repository</ulink>.
390 deprecated...out of business.
391 or simply download <ulink
392 url="http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cvstarballs/ijbswa-cvsroot.tar.bz2">the nightly CVS
397 <!-- include buildsource.sgml boilerplate: -->
399 <!-- end boilerplate -->
402 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
403 <sect2 id="installation-keepupdated"><title>Keeping your Installation Up-to-Date</title>
405 As user feedback comes in and development continues, we will make updated versions
406 of both the main <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link> (as a <ulink
407 url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118&release_id=103670">separate
408 package</ulink>) and the software itself (including the actions file) available for
413 If you wish to receive an email notification whenever we release updates of
414 <application>Privoxy</application> or the actions file, <ulink
415 url="http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ijbswa-announce/">subscribe
416 to our announce mailing list</ulink>, ijbswa-announce@lists.sourceforge.net.
420 In order not to lose your personal changes and adjustments when updating
421 to the latest <literal>default.action</literal> file we <emphasis>strongly
422 recommend</emphasis> that you use <literal>user.action</literal> and
423 <literal>user.filter</literal> for your local
424 customizations of <application>Privoxy</application>. See the <link
425 linkend="actions-file">Chapter on actions files</link> for details.
433 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
435 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
436 <sect1 id="whatsnew">
437 <title>What's New in this Release</title>
439 There are many improvements and new features since <application>Privoxy 3.0.8</application>, the last stable release:
446 Added SOCKS5 support (with address resolution done by
447 the SOCKS5 server). Patch provided by Eric M. Hopper.
452 The "blocked" CGI pages include a block reason that was
453 provided as argument to the last-applying block action.
458 If enable-edit-actions is disabled (the default since 3.0.7 beta)
459 the show-status page hides the edit buttons and explains why.
460 Previously the user would get the "this feature has been disabled"
461 message after using the edit button.
466 Forbidden CONNECT requests are treated like blocks by default.
467 The now-pointless treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks action
473 Not enabling limit-connect now allows CONNECT requests to all ports.
474 In previous versions it would only allow CONNECT requests to port 443.
475 Use +limit-connect{443} if you think you need the old default behaviour.
480 The CGI editor gets turned off after three edit requests with invalid
481 file modification timestamps. This makes life harder for attackers
482 who can leverage browser bugs to send fake Referers and intend to
483 brute-force edit URLs.
488 Action settings for multiple patterns in the same section are
489 shared in memory. As a result these sections take up less space
490 (and are loaded slightly faster). Problem reported by Franz Schwartau.
495 Linear white space in HTTP headers will be normalized to single
496 spaces before parsing the header's content, headers split across
497 multiple lines get merged first.
502 Host information is gathered outside the main thread so it's less
503 likely to delay other incoming connections if the host is misconfigured.
508 New config option "hostname" to use a hostname other than
509 the one returned by the operating system. Useful to speed-up responses
510 for CGI requests on misconfigured systems. Requested by Max Khon.
515 The CGI editor supports the "disable all filters of this type"
516 directives "-client-header-filter", "-server-header-filter",
517 "-client-header-tagger" and "-server-header-tagger".
522 Fixed false-positives with the link-by-url filter and URLs that
523 contain the pattern "/jump/".
528 The less-download-windows filter no longer messes
529 "Content-Type: application/x-shockwave-flash" headers up.
534 In the show-url-info page's "Final results" section active and
535 inactive actions are listed separately. Patch provided by Lee.
540 The GNUmakefile supports the DESTDIR variable. Patch for
541 the install target submitted by Radoslaw Zielinski.
546 Embedding the content of configuration files in the show-status
547 page is significantly faster now. For a largish action file (1 MB)
548 a speedup of about 2450 times has been measured. This is mostly
549 interesting if you are using large action files or regularly use
550 Privoxy-Regression-Test while running Privoxy through Valgrind,
551 for stock configuration files it doesn't really matter.
556 If zlib support is unavailable and there are content
557 filters active but the prevent-compression action is disabled,
558 the show-url-info page includes a warning that compression
559 might prevent filtering.
564 The show-url-info page provides an OpenSearch Description that
565 allows to access the page through browser search plugins.
570 The obsolete kill-popups action has been removed as the
571 PCRS-based popup filters can do the same and are slightly
577 The inspect-jpegs action has been removed.
582 The send-wafer and send-vanilla-wafer actions have been removed.
583 They weren't particular useful and their behaviour could be emulated
584 with add-header anyway.
589 Privoxy-Regression-Test has been significantly improved.
594 Most sections in the default.action file contain tests for
595 Privoxy-Regression-Test to verify that they are working as intended.
600 Parts of Privoxy have been refactored to increase maintainability.
605 Building with zlib (if available) is done by default.
612 For a more detailed list of changes please have a look at the ChangeLog.
615 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
617 <sect2 id="upgradersnote">
618 <title>Note to Upgraders</title>
621 A quick list of things to be aware of before upgrading from earlier
622 versions of <application>Privoxy</application>:
630 The recommended way to upgrade &my-app; is to backup your old
631 configuration files, install the new ones, verify that &my-app;
632 is working correctly and finally merge back your changes using
633 <application>diff</application> and maybe <application>patch</application>.
636 There are a number of new features in each &my-app; release and
637 most of them have to be explicitly enabled in the configuration
638 files. Old configuration files obviously don't do that and due
639 to syntax changes using old configuration files with a new
640 &my-app; isn't always possible anyway.
645 Note that some installers remove earlier versions completely,
646 including configuration files, therefore you should really save
647 any important configuration files!
652 On the other hand, other installers don't overwrite existing configuration
653 files, thinking you will want to do that yourself.
658 <filename>standard.action</filename> now only includes the enabled actions.
659 Not all actions as before.
664 In the default configuration only fatal errors are logged now.
665 You can change that in the <link linkend="DEBUG">debug section</link>
666 of the configuration file. You may also want to enable more verbose
667 logging until you verified that the new &my-app; version is working
674 Three other config file settings are now off by default:
675 <link linkend="enable-remote-toggle">enable-remote-toggle</link>,
676 <link linkend="enable-remote-http-toggle">enable-remote-http-toggle</link>,
677 and <link linkend="enable-edit-actions">enable-edit-actions</link>.
678 If you use or want these, you will need to explicitly enable them, and
679 be aware of the security issues involved.
685 The <quote>filter-client-headers</quote> and
686 <quote>filter-server-headers</quote> actions that were introduced with
687 <application>Privoxy 3.0.5</application> to apply content filters to
688 the headers have been removed and replaced with new actions.
690 linkend="whatsnew">What's New section</link> above.
698 What constitutes a <quote>default</quote> configuration has changed,
699 and you may want to review which actions are <quote>on</quote> by
700 default. This is primarily a matter of emphasis, but some features
701 you may have been used to, may now be <quote>off</quote> by default.
702 There are also a number of new actions and filters you may want to
703 consider, most of which are not fully incorporated into the default
704 settings as yet (see above).
711 The default actions setting is now <literal>Cautious</literal>. Previous
712 releases had a default setting of <literal>Medium</literal>. Experienced
713 users may want to adjust this, as it is fairly conservative by &my-app;
714 standards and past practices. See <ulink
715 url="http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions-list?f=default">
716 http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions-list?f=default</ulink>. New users
717 should try the default settings for a while before turning up the volume.
723 The default setting has filtering turned <emphasis>off</emphasis>, which
724 subsequently means that compression is <emphasis>on</emphasis>. Remember
725 that filtering does not work on compressed pages, so if you use, or want to
726 use, filtering, you will need to force compression off. Example:
730 { +<link linkend="filter">filter</link>{google} +<link linkend="prevent-compression">prevent-compression</link> }
734 Or if you use a number of filters, or filter many sites, you may just want
735 to turn off compression for all sites in
736 <filename>default.action</filename> (or
737 <filename>user.action</filename>).
744 Also, <link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> is
745 off by default now. If you've liked this feature in the past, you may want
746 to turn it back on in <filename>user.action</filename> now.
753 Some installers may not automatically start
754 <application>Privoxy</application> after installation.
765 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
766 <sect1 id="quickstart"><title>Quickstart to Using Privoxy</title>
772 Install <application>Privoxy</application>. See the <link
773 linkend="installation">Installation Section</link> below for platform specific
780 Advanced users and those who want to offer <application>Privoxy</application>
781 service to more than just their local machine should check the <link
782 linkend="config">main config file</link>, especially the <link
783 linkend="access-control">security-relevant</link> options. These are
790 Start <application>Privoxy</application>, if the installation program has
791 not done this already (may vary according to platform). See the section
792 <link linkend="startup">Starting <application>Privoxy</application></link>.
798 Set your browser to use <application>Privoxy</application> as HTTP and
799 HTTPS (SSL) <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_server">proxy</ulink>
800 by setting the proxy configuration for address of
801 <literal>127.0.0.1</literal> and port <literal>8118</literal>.
802 <emphasis>DO NOT</emphasis> activate proxying for <literal>FTP</literal> or
803 any protocols besides HTTP and HTTPS (SSL) unless you intend to prevent your
804 browser from using these protocols.
810 Flush your browser's disk and memory caches, to remove any cached ad images.
811 If using <application>Privoxy</application> to manage
812 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>,
813 you should remove any currently stored cookies too.
819 A default installation should provide a reasonable starting point for
820 most. There will undoubtedly be occasions where you will want to adjust the
821 configuration, but that can be dealt with as the need arises. Little
822 to no initial configuration is required in most cases, you may want
824 <ulink url="config.html#ENABLE-EDIT-ACTIONS">web-based action editor</ulink> though.
825 Be sure to read the warnings first.
828 See the <link linkend="configuration">Configuration section</link> for more
829 configuration options, and how to customize your installation.
830 You might also want to look at the <link
831 linkend="quickstart-ad-blocking">next section</link> for a quick
832 introduction to how <application>Privoxy</application> blocks ads and
839 If you experience ads that slip through, innocent images that are
840 blocked, or otherwise feel the need to fine-tune
841 <application>Privoxy's</application> behavior, take a look at the <link
842 linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>. As a quick start, you might
843 find the <link linkend="act-examples">richly commented examples</link>
844 helpful. You can also view and edit the actions files through the <ulink
845 url="http://config.privoxy.org">web-based user interface</ulink>. The
846 Appendix <quote><link linkend="actionsanat">Troubleshooting: Anatomy of an
847 Action</link></quote> has hints on how to understand and debug actions that
848 <quote>misbehave</quote>.
853 Did anyone test these lately?
857 For easy access to &my-app;'s most important controls, drag the provided
858 <link linkend="bookmarklets">Bookmarklets</link> into your browser's
866 Please see the section <link linkend="contact">Contacting the
867 Developers</link> on how to report bugs, problems with websites or to get
874 Now enjoy surfing with enhanced control, comfort and privacy!
882 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
884 <sect2 id="quickstart-ad-blocking">
885 <title>Quickstart to Ad Blocking</title>
887 NOTE: This section is deliberately redundant for those that don't
888 want to read the whole thing (which is getting lengthy).
891 Ad blocking is but one of <application>Privoxy's</application>
892 array of features. Many of these features are for the technically minded advanced
893 user. But, ad and banner blocking is surely common ground for everybody.
896 This section will provide a quick summary of ad blocking so
897 you can get up to speed quickly without having to read the more extensive
898 information provided below, though this is highly recommended.
901 First a bit of a warning ... blocking ads is much like blocking SPAM: the
902 more aggressive you are about it, the more likely you are to block
903 things that were not intended. And the more likely that some things
904 may not work as intended. So there is a trade off here. If you want
905 extreme ad free browsing, be prepared to deal with more
906 <quote>problem</quote> sites, and to spend more time adjusting the
907 configuration to solve these unintended consequences. In short, there is
908 not an easy way to eliminate <emphasis>all</emphasis> ads. Either take
909 the easy way and settle for <emphasis>most</emphasis> ads blocked with the
910 default configuration, or jump in and tweak it for your personal surfing
911 habits and preferences.
914 Secondly, a brief explanation of <application>Privoxy's </application>
915 <quote>actions</quote>. <quote>Actions</quote> in this context, are
916 the directives we use to tell <application>Privoxy</application> to perform
917 some task relating to HTTP transactions (i.e. web browsing). We tell
918 <application>Privoxy</application> to take some <quote>action</quote>. Each
919 action has a unique name and function. While there are many potential
920 <application>actions</application> in <application>Privoxy's</application>
921 arsenal, only a few are used for ad blocking. <link
922 linkend="actions">Actions</link>, and <link linkend="actions-file">action
923 configuration files</link>, are explained in depth below.
926 Actions are specified in <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration,
927 followed by one or more URLs to which the action should apply. URLs
928 can actually be URL type <link linkend="af-patterns">patterns</link> that use
929 wildcards so they can apply potentially to a range of similar URLs. The
930 actions, together with the URL patterns are called a section.
933 When you connect to a website, the full URL will either match one or more
934 of the sections as defined in <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration,
935 or not. If so, then <application>Privoxy</application> will perform the
936 respective actions. If not, then nothing special happens. Furthermore, web
937 pages may contain embedded, secondary URLs that your web browser will
938 use to load additional components of the page, as it parses the
939 original page's HTML content. An ad image for instance, is just an URL
940 embedded in the page somewhere. The image itself may be on the same server,
941 or a server somewhere else on the Internet. Complex web pages will have many
942 such embedded URLs. &my-app; can deal with each URL individually, so, for
943 instance, the main page text is not touched, but images from such-and-such
948 The most important actions for basic ad blocking are: <literal><link
949 linkend="block">block</link></literal>, <literal><link
950 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>,
952 linkend="handle-as-empty-document">handle-as-empty-document</link></literal>,and
953 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>:
961 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> - this is perhaps
962 the single most used action, and is particularly important for ad blocking.
963 This action stops any contact between your browser and any URL patterns
964 that match this action's configuration. It can be used for blocking ads,
965 but also anything that is determined to be unwanted. By itself, it simply
966 stops any communication with the remote server and sends
967 <application>Privoxy</application>'s own built-in BLOCKED page instead to
968 let you now what has happened (with some exceptions, see below).
974 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> -
975 tells <application>Privoxy</application> to treat this URL as an image.
976 <application>Privoxy</application>'s default configuration already does this
977 for all common image types (e.g. GIF), but there are many situations where this
978 is not so easy to determine. So we'll force it in these cases. This is particularly
979 important for ad blocking, since only if we know that it's an image of
980 some kind, can we replace it with an image of our choosing, instead of the
981 <application>Privoxy</application> BLOCKED page (which would only result in
982 a <quote>broken image</quote> icon). There are some limitations to this
983 though. For instance, you can't just brute-force an image substitution for
984 an entire HTML page in most situations.
990 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-empty-document">handle-as-empty-document</link></literal> -
991 sends an empty document instead of <application>Privoxy's</application>
992 normal BLOCKED HTML page. This is useful for file types that are neither
993 HTML nor images, such as blocking JavaScript files.
1000 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal> - tells
1001 <application>Privoxy</application> what to display in place of an ad image that
1002 has hit a block rule. For this to come into play, the URL must match a
1003 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action somewhere in the
1004 configuration, <emphasis>and</emphasis>, it must also match an
1005 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> action.
1008 The configuration options on what to display instead of the ad are:
1012 <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> - a checkerboard pattern, so that an ad
1013 replacement is obvious. This is the default.
1018 <emphasis>blank</emphasis> - A very small empty GIF image is displayed.
1019 This is the so-called <quote>invisible</quote> configuration option.
1024 <emphasis>http://<URL></emphasis> - A redirect to any image anywhere
1025 of the user's choosing (advanced usage).
1034 Advanced users will eventually want to explore &my-app;
1035 <literal><link linkend="filter">filters</link></literal> as well. Filters
1036 are very different from <literal><link
1037 linkend="block">blocks</link></literal>.
1038 A <quote>block</quote> blocks a site, page, or unwanted contented. Filters
1039 are a way of filtering or modifying what is actually on the page. An example
1040 filter usage: a text replacement of <quote>no-no</quote> for
1041 <quote>nasty-word</quote>. That is a very simple example. This process can be
1042 used for ad blocking, but it is more in the realm of advanced usage and has
1043 some pitfalls to be wary off.
1047 The quickest way to adjust any of these settings is with your browser through
1048 the special <application>Privoxy</application> editor at <ulink
1049 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
1050 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/show-status</ulink>). This
1051 is an internal page, and does not require Internet access.
1055 Note that as of <application>Privoxy</application> 3.0.7 beta the
1056 action editor is disabled by default. Check the
1057 <ulink url="config.html#ENABLE-EDIT-ACTIONS">enable-edit-actions
1058 section in the configuration file</ulink> to learn why and in which
1059 cases it's safe to enable again.
1063 If you decided to enable the action editor, select the appropriate
1064 <quote>actions</quote> file, and click
1065 <quote><guibutton>Edit</guibutton></quote>. It is best to put personal or
1066 local preferences in <filename>user.action</filename> since this is not
1067 meant to be overwritten during upgrades, and will over-ride the settings in
1068 other files. Here you can insert new <quote>actions</quote>, and URLs for ad
1069 blocking or other purposes, and make other adjustments to the configuration.
1070 <application>Privoxy</application> will detect these changes automatically.
1074 A quick and simple step by step example:
1082 Right click on the ad image to be blocked, then select
1083 <quote><guimenuitem>Copy Link Location</guimenuitem></quote> from the
1091 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
1096 Find <filename>user.action</filename> in the top section, and click
1097 on <quote><guibutton>Edit</guibutton></quote>:
1100 <!-- image of editor and actions files selections -->
1102 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Actions Files in Use</title>
1105 <imagedata fileref="files-in-use.jpg" format="jpg">
1108 <phrase>[ Screenshot of Actions Files in Use ]</phrase>
1117 You should have a section with only
1118 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> listed under
1119 <quote>Actions:</quote>.
1120 If not, click a <quote><guibutton>Insert new section below</guibutton></quote>
1121 button, and in the new section that just appeared, click the
1122 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> button right under the word <quote>Actions:</quote>.
1123 This will bring up a list of all actions. Find
1124 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> near the top, and click
1125 in the <quote>Enabled</quote> column, then <quote><guibutton>Submit</guibutton></quote>
1126 just below the list.
1131 Now, in the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> actions section,
1132 click the <quote><guibutton>Add</guibutton></quote> button, and paste the URL the
1133 browser got from <quote><guimenuitem>Copy Link Location</guimenuitem></quote>.
1134 Remove the <literal>http://</literal> at the beginning of the URL. Then, click
1135 <quote><guibutton>Submit</guibutton></quote> (or
1136 <quote><guibutton>OK</guibutton></quote> if in a pop-up window).
1141 Now go back to the original page, and press <keycap>SHIFT-Reload</keycap>
1142 (or flush all browser caches). The image should be gone now.
1150 This is a very crude and simple example. There might be good reasons to use a
1151 wildcard pattern match to include potentially similar images from the same
1152 site. For a more extensive explanation of <quote>patterns</quote>, and
1153 the entire actions concept, see <link linkend="actions-file">the Actions
1158 For advanced users who want to hand edit their config files, you might want
1159 to now go to the <link linkend="act-examples">Actions Files Tutorial</link>.
1160 The ideas explained therein also apply to the web-based editor.
1163 There are also various
1164 <link linkend="filter">filters</link> that can be used for ad blocking
1165 (filters are a special subset of actions). These
1166 fall into the <quote>advanced</quote> usage category, and are explained in
1167 depth in later sections.
1174 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1177 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1178 <sect1 id="startup">
1179 <title>Starting Privoxy</title>
1181 Before launching <application>Privoxy</application> for the first time, you
1182 will want to configure your browser(s) to use
1183 <application>Privoxy</application> as a HTTP and HTTPS (SSL)
1184 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_server">proxy</ulink>. The default is
1185 127.0.0.1 (or localhost) for the proxy address, and port 8118 (earlier versions
1186 used port 8000). This is the one configuration step <emphasis>that must be done
1190 Please note that <application>Privoxy</application> can only proxy HTTP and
1191 HTTPS traffic. It will not work with FTP or other protocols.
1194 <!-- image of Mozilla Proxy configuration -->
1196 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Proxy Configuration Showing
1197 Mozilla/Netscape HTTP and HTTPS (SSL) Settings</title>
1200 <imagedata fileref="proxy_setup.jpg" format="jpg">
1203 <phrase>[ Screenshot of Mozilla Proxy Configuration ]</phrase>
1211 With <application>Firefox</application>, this is typically set under:
1215 <guibutton>Tools</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Options</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Advanced</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Network</guibutton> -><guibutton>Connection</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Settings</guibutton>
1220 Or optionally on some platforms:
1224 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Preferences</guibutton> -> <guibutton>General</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Connection Settings</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Manual Proxy Configuration</guibutton>
1230 With <application>Netscape</application> (and
1231 <application>Mozilla</application>), this can be set under:
1236 <!-- Mix ascii and gui art, something for everybody -->
1237 <!-- spacing on this is tricky -->
1238 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Preferences</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Advanced</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Proxies</guibutton> -> <guibutton>HTTP Proxy</guibutton>
1243 For <application>Internet Explorer v.5-7</application>:
1247 <guibutton>Tools</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Internet Options</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Connections</guibutton> -> <guibutton>LAN Settings</guibutton>
1251 Then, check <quote>Use Proxy</quote> and fill in the appropriate info
1252 (Address: 127.0.0.1, Port: 8118). Include HTTPS (SSL), if you want HTTPS
1253 proxy support too (sometimes labeled <quote>Secure</quote>). Make sure any
1254 checkboxes like <quote>Use the same proxy server for all protocols</quote> is
1255 <emphasis>UNCHECKED</emphasis>. You want only HTTP and HTTPS (SSL)!
1258 <!-- image of IE Proxy configuration -->
1260 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Proxy Configuration Showing
1261 Internet Explorer HTTP and HTTPS (Secure) Settings</title>
1264 <imagedata fileref="proxy2.jpg" format="jpg">
1267 <phrase>[ Screenshot of IE Proxy Configuration ]</phrase>
1275 After doing this, flush your browser's disk and memory caches to force a
1276 re-reading of all pages and to get rid of any ads that may be cached. Remove
1277 any <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>,
1278 if you want <application>Privoxy</application> to manage that. You are now
1279 ready to start enjoying the benefits of using
1280 <application>Privoxy</application>!
1284 <application>Privoxy</application> itself is typically started by specifying the
1285 main configuration file to be used on the command line. If no configuration
1286 file is specified on the command line, <application>Privoxy</application>
1287 will look for a file named <filename>config</filename> in the current
1288 directory. Except on Win32 where it will try <filename>config.txt</filename>.
1291 <sect2 id="start-redhat">
1292 <title>Red Hat and Fedora</title>
1294 A default Red Hat installation may not start &my-app; upon boot. It will use
1295 the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename> as its main configuration
1300 # /etc/rc.d/init.d/privoxy start
1308 # service privoxy start
1313 <sect2 id="start-debian">
1314 <title>Debian</title>
1316 We use a script. Note that Debian typically starts &my-app; upon booting per
1317 default. It will use the file
1318 <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename> as its main configuration
1323 # /etc/init.d/privoxy start
1328 <sect2 id="start-windows">
1329 <title>Windows</title>
1331 Click on the &my-app; Icon to start <application>Privoxy</application>. If no configuration file is
1332 specified on the command line, <application>Privoxy</application> will look
1333 for a file named <filename>config.txt</filename>. Note that Windows will
1334 automatically start &my-app; when the system starts if you chose that option
1338 <application>Privoxy</application> can run with full Windows service functionality.
1339 On Windows only, the &my-app; program has two new command line arguments
1340 to install and uninstall &my-app; as a service. See the
1341 <link linkend="installation-pack-win">Windows Installation
1342 instructions</link> for details.
1346 <sect2 id="start-unices">
1347 <title>Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD, HP-UX and others</title>
1349 Example Unix startup command:
1353 # /usr/sbin/privoxy /etc/privoxy/config
1358 <sect2 id="start-os2">
1361 During installation, <application>Privoxy</application> is configured to
1362 start automatically when the system restarts. You can start it manually by
1363 double-clicking on the <application>Privoxy</application> icon in the
1364 <application>Privoxy</application> folder.
1368 <sect2 id="start-macosx">
1369 <title>Mac OS X</title>
1371 After downloading the privoxy software, unzip the downloaded file by
1372 double-clicking on the zip file icon. Then, double-click on the
1373 installer package icon and follow the installation process.
1376 The privoxy service will automatically start after a successful
1377 installation. In addition, the privoxy service will automatically
1378 start every time your computer starts up.
1381 To prevent the privoxy service from automatically starting when your
1382 computer starts up, remove or rename the folder named
1383 /Library/StartupItems/Privoxy.
1386 A simple application named Privoxy Utility has been created which
1387 enables administrators to easily start and stop the privoxy service.
1390 In addition, the Privoxy Utility presents a simple way for
1391 administrators to edit the various privoxy config files. A method
1392 to uninstall the software is also available.
1395 An administrator username and password must be supplied in order for
1396 the Privoxy Utility to perform any of the tasks.
1399 During installation, <application>Privoxy</application> is configured to
1400 start automatically when the system restarts. To start &my-app; manually,
1401 double-click on the <literal>StartPrivoxy.command</literal> icon in the
1402 <literal>/Library/Privoxy</literal> folder. Or, type this command
1407 /Library/Privoxy/StartPrivoxy.command
1411 You will be prompted for the administrator password.
1416 <sect2 id="start-amigaos">
1417 <title>AmigaOS</title>
1419 Start <application>Privoxy</application> (with RUN <>NIL:) in your
1420 <filename>startnet</filename> script (AmiTCP), in
1421 <filename>s:user-startup</filename> (RoadShow), as startup program in your
1422 startup script (Genesis), or as startup action (Miami and MiamiDx).
1423 <application>Privoxy</application> will automatically quit when you quit your
1424 TCP/IP stack (just ignore the harmless warning your TCP/IP stack may display that
1425 <application>Privoxy</application> is still running).
1429 <sect2 id="start-gentoo">
1430 <title>Gentoo</title>
1432 A script is again used. It will use the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config
1433 </filename> as its main configuration file.
1437 /etc/init.d/privoxy start
1441 Note that <application>Privoxy</application> is not automatically started at
1442 boot time by default. You can change this with the <literal>rc-update</literal>
1447 rc-update add privoxy default
1455 See the section <link linkend="cmdoptions">Command line options</link> for
1459 must find a better place for this paragraph
1462 The included default configuration files should give a reasonable starting
1463 point. Most of the per site configuration is done in the
1464 <ulink url="actions-file.html"><quote>actions</quote></ulink> files. These are
1465 where various cookie actions are defined, ad and banner blocking, and other
1466 aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. There are several
1467 such files included, with varying levels of aggressiveness.
1471 You will probably want to keep an eye out for sites for which you may prefer
1472 persistent cookies, and add these to your actions configuration as needed. By
1473 default, most of these will be accepted only during the current browser
1474 session (aka <quote>session cookies</quote>), unless you add them to the
1475 configuration. If you want the browser to handle this instead, you will need
1476 to edit <filename>user.action</filename> (or through the web based interface)
1477 and disable this feature. If you use more than one browser, it would make
1478 more sense to let <application>Privoxy</application> handle this. In which
1479 case, the browser(s) should be set to accept all cookies.
1483 Another feature where you will probably want to define exceptions for trusted
1484 sites is the popup-killing (through <ulink
1485 url="actions-file.html#FILTER-POPUPS"><quote>+filter{popups}</quote></ulink>),
1486 because your favorite shopping, banking, or leisure site may need
1487 popups (explained below).
1491 <application>Privoxy</application> does not support all of the optional HTTP/1.1
1492 features yet. In the unlikely event that you experience inexplicable problems
1493 with browsers that use HTTP/1.1 per default
1494 (like <application>Mozilla</application> or recent versions of I.E.), you might
1495 try to force HTTP/1.0 compatibility. For Mozilla, look under <literal>Edit ->
1496 Preferences -> Debug -> Networking</literal>.
1497 Alternatively, set the <quote>+downgrade-http-version</quote> config option in
1498 <filename>default.action</filename> which will downgrade your browser's HTTP
1499 requests from HTTP/1.1 to HTTP/1.0 before processing them.
1503 After running <application>Privoxy</application> for a while, you can
1504 start to fine tune the configuration to suit your personal, or site,
1505 preferences and requirements. There are many, many aspects that can
1506 be customized. <quote>Actions</quote>
1507 can be adjusted by pointing your browser to
1508 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
1509 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
1510 and then follow the link to <quote>View & Change the Current Configuration</quote>.
1511 (This is an internal page and does not require Internet access.)
1515 In fact, various aspects of <application>Privoxy</application>
1516 configuration can be viewed from this page, including
1517 current configuration parameters, source code version numbers,
1518 the browser's request headers, and <quote>actions</quote> that apply
1519 to a given URL. In addition to the actions file
1520 editor mentioned above, <application>Privoxy</application> can also
1521 be turned <quote>on</quote> and <quote>off</quote> (toggled) from this page.
1525 If you encounter problems, try loading the page without
1526 <application>Privoxy</application>. If that helps, enter the URL where
1527 you have the problems into <ulink url="http://p.p/show-url-info">the browser
1528 based rule tracing utility</ulink>. See which rules apply and why, and
1529 then try turning them off for that site one after the other, until the problem
1530 is gone. When you have found the culprit, you might want to turn the rest on
1535 If the above paragraph sounds gibberish to you, you might want to <link
1536 linkend="actions-file">read more about the actions concept</link>
1537 or even dive deep into the <link linkend="actionsanat">Appendix
1542 If you can't get rid of the problem at all, think you've found a bug in
1543 Privoxy, want to propose a new feature or smarter rules, please see the
1544 section <link linkend="contact"><quote>Contacting the
1545 Developers</quote></link> below.
1550 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1551 <sect2 id="cmdoptions">
1552 <title>Command Line Options</title>
1554 <application>Privoxy</application> may be invoked with the following
1555 command-line options:
1563 <emphasis>--version</emphasis>
1566 Print version info and exit. Unix only.
1571 <emphasis>--help</emphasis>
1574 Print short usage info and exit. Unix only.
1579 <emphasis>--no-daemon</emphasis>
1582 Don't become a daemon, i.e. don't fork and become process group
1583 leader, and don't detach from controlling tty. Unix only.
1588 <emphasis>--pidfile FILE</emphasis>
1591 On startup, write the process ID to <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>. Delete the
1592 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> on exit. Failure to create or delete the
1593 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> is non-fatal. If no <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>
1594 option is given, no PID file will be used. Unix only.
1599 <emphasis>--user USER[.GROUP]</emphasis>
1602 After (optionally) writing the PID file, assume the user ID of
1603 <emphasis>USER</emphasis>, and if included the GID of GROUP. Exit if the
1604 privileges are not sufficient to do so. Unix only.
1609 <emphasis>--chroot</emphasis>
1612 Before changing to the user ID given in the <emphasis>--user</emphasis> option,
1613 chroot to that user's home directory, i.e. make the kernel pretend to the &my-app;
1614 process that the directory tree starts there. If set up carefully, this can limit
1615 the impact of possible vulnerabilities in &my-app; to the files contained in that hierarchy.
1621 <emphasis>--pre-chroot-nslookup hostname</emphasis>
1624 Specifies a hostname to look up before doing a chroot. On some systems, initializing the
1625 resolver library involves reading config files from /etc and/or loading additional shared
1626 libraries from /lib. On these systems, doing a hostname lookup before the chroot reduces
1627 the number of files that must be copied into the chroot tree.
1630 For fastest startup speed, a good value is a hostname that is not in /etc/hosts but that
1631 your local name server (listed in /etc/resolv.conf) can resolve without recursion
1632 (that is, without having to ask any other name servers). The hostname need not exist,
1633 but if it doesn't, an error message (which can be ignored) will be output.
1639 <emphasis>configfile</emphasis>
1642 If no <emphasis>configfile</emphasis> is included on the command line,
1643 <application>Privoxy</application> will look for a file named
1644 <quote>config</quote> in the current directory (except on Win32
1645 where it will look for <quote>config.txt</quote> instead). Specify
1646 full path to avoid confusion. If no config file is found,
1647 <application>Privoxy</application> will fail to start.
1655 On <application>MS Windows</application> only there are two additional
1656 command-line options to allow <application>Privoxy</application> to install and
1657 run as a <emphasis>service</emphasis>. See the
1658 <link linkend="installation-pack-win">Window Installation section</link>
1666 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1669 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1670 <sect1 id="configuration"><title>Privoxy Configuration</title>
1672 All <application>Privoxy</application> configuration is stored
1673 in text files. These files can be edited with a text editor.
1674 Many important aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> can
1675 also be controlled easily with a web browser.
1679 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1682 <title>Controlling Privoxy with Your Web Browser</title>
1684 <application>Privoxy</application>'s user interface can be reached through the special
1685 URL <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
1686 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
1687 which is a built-in page and works without Internet access.
1688 You will see the following section:
1692 <!-- Needs to be put in a table and colorized -->
1695 <bridgehead renderas="sect2"> Privoxy Menu</bridgehead>
1699 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">View & change the current configuration</ulink>
1702 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-version">View the source code version numbers</ulink>
1705 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request">View the request headers.</ulink>
1708 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">Look up which actions apply to a URL and why</ulink>
1711 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">Toggle Privoxy on or off</ulink>
1714 ▪ <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/
1715 &p-version;/user-manual/">Documentation</ulink>
1723 This should be self-explanatory. Note the first item leads to an editor for the
1724 <link linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>, which is where the ad, banner,
1725 cookie, and URL blocking magic is configured as well as other advanced features of
1726 <application>Privoxy</application>. This is an easy way to adjust various
1727 aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. The actions
1728 file, and other configuration files, are explained in detail below.
1732 <quote>Toggle Privoxy On or Off</quote> is handy for sites that might
1733 have problems with your current actions and filters. You can in fact use
1734 it as a test to see whether it is <application>Privoxy</application>
1735 causing the problem or not. <application>Privoxy</application> continues
1736 to run as a proxy in this case, but all manipulation is disabled, i.e.
1737 <application>Privoxy</application> acts like a normal forwarding proxy. There
1738 is even a toggle <link linkend="bookmarklets">Bookmarklet</link> offered, so
1739 that you can toggle <application>Privoxy</application> with one click from
1744 Note that several of the features described above are disabled by default
1745 in <application>Privoxy</application> 3.0.7 beta and later.
1747 <ulink url="config.html">configuration file</ulink> to learn why
1748 and in which cases it's safe to enable them again.
1753 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1758 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1760 <sect2 id="confoverview">
1761 <title>Configuration Files Overview</title>
1763 For Unix, *BSD and Linux, all configuration files are located in
1764 <filename>/etc/privoxy/</filename> by default. For MS Windows, OS/2, and
1765 AmigaOS these are all in the same directory as the
1766 <application>Privoxy</application> executable. <![%p-not-stable;[ The name
1767 and number of configuration files has changed from previous versions, and is
1768 subject to change as development progresses.]]>
1772 The installed defaults provide a reasonable starting point, though
1773 some settings may be aggressive by some standards. For the time being, the
1774 principle configuration files are:
1782 The <link linkend="config">main configuration file</link> is named <filename>config</filename>
1783 on Linux, Unix, BSD, OS/2, and AmigaOS and <filename>config.txt</filename>
1784 on Windows. This is a required file.
1790 <filename>default.action</filename> (the main <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link>)
1791 is used to define which <quote>actions</quote> relating to banner-blocking, images, pop-ups,
1792 content modification, cookie handling etc should be applied by default. It also defines many
1793 exceptions (both positive and negative) from this default set of actions that enable
1794 <application>Privoxy</application> to selectively eliminate the junk, and only the junk, on
1795 as many websites as possible.
1798 Multiple actions files may be defined in <filename>config</filename>. These
1799 are processed in the order they are defined. Local customizations and locally
1800 preferred exceptions to the default policies as defined in
1801 <filename>default.action</filename> (which you will most probably want
1802 to define sooner or later) are probably best applied in
1803 <filename>user.action</filename>, where you can preserve them across
1804 upgrades. <filename>standard.action</filename> is only for
1805 <application>Privoxy's</application> internal use.
1808 There is also a web based editor that can be accessed from
1810 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
1812 url="http://p.p/show-status">http://p.p/show-status</ulink>) for the
1813 various actions files.
1819 <quote>Filter files</quote> (the <link linkend="filter-file">filter
1820 file</link>) can be used to re-write the raw page content, including
1821 viewable text as well as embedded HTML and JavaScript, and whatever else
1822 lurks on any given web page. The filtering jobs are only pre-defined here;
1823 whether to apply them or not is up to the actions files.
1824 <filename>default.filter</filename> includes various filters made
1825 available for use by the developers. Some are much more intrusive than
1826 others, and all should be used with caution. You may define additional
1827 filter files in <filename>config</filename> as you can with
1828 actions files. We suggest <filename>user.filter</filename> for any
1829 locally defined filters or customizations.
1837 The syntax of the configuration and filter files may change between different
1838 Privoxy versions, unfortunately some enhancements cost backwards compatibility.
1839 <!-- Add link to documentation-->
1843 All files use the <quote><literal>#</literal></quote> character to denote a
1844 comment (the rest of the line will be ignored) and understand line continuation
1845 through placing a backslash ("<literal>\</literal>") as the very last character
1846 in a line. If the <literal>#</literal> is preceded by a backslash, it looses
1847 its special function. Placing a <literal>#</literal> in front of an otherwise
1848 valid configuration line to prevent it from being interpreted is called "commenting
1849 out" that line. Blank lines are ignored.
1853 The actions files and filter files
1854 can use Perl style <link linkend="regex">regular expressions</link> for
1855 maximum flexibility.
1859 After making any changes, there is no need to restart
1860 <application>Privoxy</application> in order for the changes to take
1861 effect. <application>Privoxy</application> detects such changes
1862 automatically. Note, however, that it may take one or two additional
1863 requests for the change to take effect. When changing the listening address
1864 of <application>Privoxy</application>, these <quote>wake up</quote> requests
1865 must obviously be sent to the <emphasis>old</emphasis> listening address.
1870 While under development, the configuration content is subject to change.
1871 The below documentation may not be accurate by the time you read this.
1872 Also, what constitutes a <quote>default</quote> setting, may change, so
1873 please check all your configuration files on important issues.
1879 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1882 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
1884 <!-- **************************************************** -->
1885 <!-- Include config.sgml here -->
1886 <!-- This is where the entire config file is detailed. -->
1888 <!-- end include -->
1891 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1895 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
1897 <sect1 id="actions-file"><title>Actions Files</title>
1900 The actions files are used to define what <emphasis>actions</emphasis>
1901 <application>Privoxy</application> takes for which URLs, and thus determines
1902 how ad images, cookies and various other aspects of HTTP content and
1903 transactions are handled, and on which sites (or even parts thereof).
1904 There are a number of such actions, with a wide range of functionality.
1905 Each action does something a little different.
1906 These actions give us a veritable arsenal of tools with which to exert
1907 our control, preferences and independence. Actions can be combined so that
1908 their effects are aggregated when applied against a given set of URLs.
1912 are three action files included with <application>Privoxy</application> with
1920 <filename>default.action</filename> - is the primary action file
1921 that sets the initial values for all actions. It is intended to
1922 provide a base level of functionality for
1923 <application>Privoxy's</application> array of features. So it is
1924 a set of broad rules that should work reasonably well as-is for most users.
1925 This is the file that the developers are keeping updated, and <link
1926 linkend="installation-keepupdated">making available to users</link>.
1927 The user's preferences as set in <filename>standard.action</filename>,
1928 e.g. either <literal>Cautious</literal> (the default),
1929 <literal>Medium</literal>, or <literal>Advanced</literal> (see
1935 <filename>user.action</filename> - is intended to be for local site
1936 preferences and exceptions. As an example, if your ISP or your bank
1937 has specific requirements, and need special handling, this kind of
1938 thing should go here. This file will not be upgraded.
1943 <filename>standard.action</filename> - is used only by the web based editor
1944 at <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions-list?f=default">
1945 http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions-list?f=default</ulink>,
1946 to set various pre-defined sets of rules for the default actions section
1947 in <filename>default.action</filename>.
1950 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> <guibutton>Set to Cautious</guibutton> <guibutton>Set to Medium</guibutton> <guibutton>Set to Advanced</guibutton>
1953 These have increasing levels of aggressiveness <emphasis>and have no
1954 influence on your browsing unless you select them explicitly in the
1955 editor</emphasis>. A default installation should be pre-set to
1956 <literal>Cautious</literal> (versions prior to 3.0.5 were set to
1957 <literal>Medium</literal>). New users should try this for a while before
1958 adjusting the settings to more aggressive levels. The more aggressive
1959 the settings, then the more likelihood there is of problems such as sites
1960 not working as they should.
1963 The <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> button allows you to turn each
1964 action on/off individually for fine-tuning. The <guibutton>Cautious</guibutton>
1965 button changes the actions list to low/safe settings which will activate
1966 ad blocking and a minimal set of &my-app;'s features, and subsequently
1967 there will be less of a chance for accidental problems. The
1968 <guibutton>Medium</guibutton> button sets the list to a medium level of
1969 other features and a low level set of privacy features. The
1970 <guibutton>Advanced</guibutton> button sets the list to a high level of
1971 ad blocking and medium level of privacy. See the chart below. The latter
1972 three buttons over-ride any changes via with the
1973 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> button. More fine-tuning can be done in the
1974 lower sections of this internal page.
1977 It is not recommend to edit the <filename>standard.action</filename> file
1981 The default profiles, and their associated actions, as pre-defined in
1982 <filename>standard.action</filename> are
1985 <table frame=all><title>Default Configurations</title>
1986 <tgroup cols=4 align=left colsep=1 rowsep=1>
1987 <colspec colname=c1>
1988 <colspec colname=c2>
1989 <colspec colname=c3>
1990 <colspec colname=c4>
1993 <entry>Feature</entry>
1994 <entry>Cautious</entry>
1995 <entry>Medium</entry>
1996 <entry>Advanced</entry>
2001 <!-- <entry>f1</entry> -->
2002 <!-- <entry>f2</entry> -->
2003 <!-- <entry>f3</entry> -->
2004 <!-- <entry>f4</entry> -->
2010 <entry>Ad-blocking Aggressiveness</entry>
2011 <entry>medium</entry>
2017 <entry>Ad-filtering by size</entry>
2024 <entry>Ad-filtering by link</entry>
2030 <entry>Pop-up killing</entry>
2031 <entry>blocks only</entry>
2032 <entry>blocks only</entry>
2033 <entry>blocks only</entry>
2037 <entry>Privacy Features</entry>
2039 <entry>medium</entry>
2040 <entry>medium/high</entry>
2044 <entry>Cookie handling</entry>
2046 <entry>session-only</entry>
2051 <entry>Referer forging</entry>
2059 <entry>GIF de-animation</entry>
2067 <entry>Fast redirects</entry>
2074 <entry>HTML taming</entry>
2081 <entry>JavaScript taming</entry>
2088 <entry>Web-bug killing</entry>
2095 <entry>Image tag reordering</entry>
2111 The list of actions files to be used are defined in the main configuration
2112 file, and are processed in the order they are defined (e.g.
2113 <filename>default.action</filename> is typically processed before
2114 <filename>user.action</filename>). The content of these can all be viewed and
2116 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
2117 The over-riding principle when applying actions, is that the last action that
2118 matches a given URL wins. The broadest, most general rules go first
2119 (defined in <filename>default.action</filename>),
2120 followed by any exceptions (typically also in
2121 <filename>default.action</filename>), which are then followed lastly by any
2122 local preferences (typically in <emphasis>user</emphasis><filename>.action</filename>).
2123 Generally, <filename>user.action</filename> has the last word.
2127 An actions file typically has multiple sections. If you want to use
2128 <quote>aliases</quote> in an actions file, you have to place the (optional)
2129 <link linkend="aliases">alias section</link> at the top of that file.
2130 Then comes the default set of rules which will apply universally to all
2131 sites and pages (be <emphasis>very careful</emphasis> with using such a
2132 universal set in <filename>user.action</filename> or any other actions file after
2133 <filename>default.action</filename>, because it will override the result
2134 from consulting any previous file). And then below that,
2135 exceptions to the defined universal policies. You can regard
2136 <filename>user.action</filename> as an appendix to <filename>default.action</filename>,
2137 with the advantage that it is a separate file, which makes preserving your
2138 personal settings across <application>Privoxy</application> upgrades easier.
2142 Actions can be used to block anything you want, including ads, banners, or
2143 just some obnoxious URL whose content you would rather not see. Cookies can be accepted
2144 or rejected, or accepted only during the current browser session (i.e. not
2145 written to disk), content can be modified, some JavaScripts tamed, user-tracking
2146 fooled, and much more. See below for a <link linkend="actions">complete list
2150 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2152 <title>Finding the Right Mix</title>
2154 Note that some <link linkend="actions">actions</link>, like cookie suppression
2155 or script disabling, may render some sites unusable that rely on these
2156 techniques to work properly. Finding the right mix of actions is not always easy and
2157 certainly a matter of personal taste. And, things can always change, requiring
2158 refinements in the configuration. In general, it can be said that the more
2159 <quote>aggressive</quote> your default settings (in the top section of the
2160 actions file) are, the more exceptions for <quote>trusted</quote> sites you
2161 will have to make later. If, for example, you want to crunch all cookies per
2162 default, you'll have to make exceptions from that rule for sites that you
2163 regularly use and that require cookies for actually useful purposes, like maybe
2164 your bank, favorite shop, or newspaper.
2168 We have tried to provide you with reasonable rules to start from in the
2169 distribution actions files. But there is no general rule of thumb on these
2170 things. There just are too many variables, and sites are constantly changing.
2171 Sooner or later you will want to change the rules (and read this chapter again :).
2175 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2177 <title>How to Edit</title>
2179 The easiest way to edit the actions files is with a browser by
2180 using our browser-based editor, which can be reached from <ulink
2181 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
2182 Note: the config file option <link
2183 linkend="enable-edit-actions">enable-edit-actions</link> must be enabled for
2184 this to work. The editor allows both fine-grained control over every single
2185 feature on a per-URL basis, and easy choosing from wholesale sets of defaults
2186 like <quote>Cautious</quote>, <quote>Medium</quote> or
2187 <quote>Advanced</quote>. Warning: the <quote>Advanced</quote> setting is more
2188 aggressive, and will be more likely to cause problems for some sites.
2189 Experienced users only!
2193 If you prefer plain text editing to GUIs, you can of course also directly edit the
2194 the actions files with your favorite text editor. Look at
2195 <filename>default.action</filename> which is richly commented with many
2201 <sect2 id="actions-apply">
2202 <title>How Actions are Applied to Requests</title>
2204 Actions files are divided into sections. There are special sections,
2205 like the <quote><link linkend="aliases">alias</link></quote> sections which will
2206 be discussed later. For now let's concentrate on regular sections: They have a
2207 heading line (often split up to multiple lines for readability) which consist
2208 of a list of actions, separated by whitespace and enclosed in curly braces.
2209 Below that, there is a list of URL and tag patterns, each on a separate line.
2213 To determine which actions apply to a request, the URL of the request is
2214 compared to all URL patterns in each <quote>action file</quote>.
2215 Every time it matches, the list of applicable actions for the request is
2216 incrementally updated, using the heading of the section in which the
2217 pattern is located. The same is done again for tags and tag patterns later on.
2221 If multiple applying sections set the same action differently,
2222 the last match wins. If not, the effects are aggregated.
2223 E.g. a URL might match a regular section with a heading line of <literal>{
2224 +<link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link> }</literal>,
2225 then later another one with just <literal>{
2226 +<link linkend="block">block</link> }</literal>, resulting
2227 in <emphasis>both</emphasis> actions to apply. And there may well be
2228 cases where you will want to combine actions together. Such a section then
2234 { +<literal>handle-as-image</literal> +<literal>block{Banner ads.}</literal> }
2235 # Block these as if they were images. Send no block page.
2237 media.example.com/.*banners
2238 .example.com/images/ads/</screen>
2242 You can trace this process for URL patterns and any given URL by visiting <ulink
2243 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>.
2247 Examples and more detail on this is provided in the Appendix, <link linkend="ACTIONSANAT">
2248 Troubleshooting: Anatomy of an Action</link> section.
2252 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2253 <sect2 id="af-patterns">
2254 <title>Patterns</title>
2256 As mentioned, <application>Privoxy</application> uses <quote>patterns</quote>
2257 to determine what <emphasis>actions</emphasis> might apply to which sites and
2258 pages your browser attempts to access. These <quote>patterns</quote> use wild
2259 card type <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> matching to achieve a high degree of
2260 flexibility. This allows one expression to be expanded and potentially match
2261 against many similar patterns.
2265 Generally, an URL pattern has the form
2266 <literal><domain>/<path></literal>, where both the
2267 <literal><domain></literal> and <literal><path></literal> are
2268 optional. (This is why the special <literal>/</literal> pattern matches all
2269 URLs). Note that the protocol portion of the URL pattern (e.g.
2270 <literal>http://</literal>) should <emphasis>not</emphasis> be included in
2271 the pattern. This is assumed already!
2274 The pattern matching syntax is different for the domain and path parts of
2275 the URL. The domain part uses a simple globbing type matching technique,
2276 while the path part uses more flexible
2277 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
2278 Expressions</quote></ulink> (POSIX 1003.2).
2283 <term><literal>www.example.com/</literal></term>
2286 is a domain-only pattern and will match any request to <literal>www.example.com</literal>,
2287 regardless of which document on that server is requested. So ALL pages in
2288 this domain would be covered by the scope of this action. Note that a
2289 simple <literal>example.com</literal> is different and would NOT match.
2294 <term><literal>www.example.com</literal></term>
2297 means exactly the same. For domain-only patterns, the trailing <literal>/</literal> may
2303 <term><literal>www.example.com/index.html$</literal></term>
2306 matches all the documents on <literal>www.example.com</literal>
2307 whose name starts with <literal>/index.html</literal>.
2312 <term><literal>www.example.com/index.html$</literal></term>
2315 matches only the single document <literal>/index.html</literal>
2316 on <literal>www.example.com</literal>.
2321 <term><literal>/index.html$</literal></term>
2324 matches the document <literal>/index.html</literal>, regardless of the domain,
2325 i.e. on <emphasis>any</emphasis> web server anywhere.
2330 <term><literal>index.html</literal></term>
2333 matches nothing, since it would be interpreted as a domain name and
2334 there is no top-level domain called <literal>.html</literal>. So its
2342 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2343 <sect3><title>The Domain Pattern</title>
2346 The matching of the domain part offers some flexible options: if the
2347 domain starts or ends with a dot, it becomes unanchored at that end.
2353 <term><literal>.example.com</literal></term>
2356 matches any domain with first-level domain <literal>com</literal>
2357 and second-level domain <literal>example</literal>.
2358 For example <literal>www.example.com</literal>,
2359 <literal>example.com</literal> and <literal>foo.bar.baz.example.com</literal>.
2360 Note that it wouldn't match if the second-level domain was <literal>another-example</literal>.
2365 <term><literal>www.</literal></term>
2368 matches any domain that <emphasis>STARTS</emphasis> with
2369 <literal>www.</literal> (It also matches the domain
2370 <literal>www</literal> but most of the time that doesn't matter.)
2375 <term><literal>.example.</literal></term>
2378 matches any domain that <emphasis>CONTAINS</emphasis> <literal>.example.</literal>.
2379 And, by the way, also included would be any files or documents that exist
2380 within that domain since no path limitations are specified. (Correctly
2381 speaking: It matches any FQDN that contains <literal>example</literal> as
2382 a domain.) This might be <literal>www.example.com</literal>,
2383 <literal>news.example.de</literal>, or
2384 <literal>www.example.net/cgi/testing.pl</literal> for instance. All these
2392 Additionally, there are wild-cards that you can use in the domain names
2393 themselves. These work similarly to shell globbing type wild-cards:
2394 <quote>*</quote> represents zero or more arbitrary characters (this is
2396 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
2397 Expression</quote></ulink> based syntax of <quote>.*</quote>),
2398 <quote>?</quote> represents any single character (this is equivalent to the
2399 regular expression syntax of a simple <quote>.</quote>), and you can define
2400 <quote>character classes</quote> in square brackets which is similar to
2401 the same regular expression technique. All of this can be freely mixed:
2406 <term><literal>ad*.example.com</literal></term>
2409 matches <quote>adserver.example.com</quote>,
2410 <quote>ads.example.com</quote>, etc but not <quote>sfads.example.com</quote>
2415 <term><literal>*ad*.example.com</literal></term>
2418 matches all of the above, and then some.
2423 <term><literal>.?pix.com</literal></term>
2426 matches <literal>www.ipix.com</literal>,
2427 <literal>pictures.epix.com</literal>, <literal>a.b.c.d.e.upix.com</literal> etc.
2432 <term><literal>www[1-9a-ez].example.c*</literal></term>
2435 matches <literal>www1.example.com</literal>,
2436 <literal>www4.example.cc</literal>, <literal>wwwd.example.cy</literal>,
2437 <literal>wwwz.example.com</literal> etc., but <emphasis>not</emphasis>
2438 <literal>wwww.example.com</literal>.
2445 While flexible, this is not the sophistication of full regular expression based syntax.
2450 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2453 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2454 <sect3><title>The Path Pattern</title>
2457 <application>Privoxy</application> uses <quote>modern</quote> POSIX 1003.2
2458 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
2459 Expressions</quote></ulink> for matching the path portion (after the slash),
2460 and is thus more flexible.
2464 There is an <link linkend="regex">Appendix</link> with a brief quick-start into regular
2465 expressions, you also might want to have a look at your operating system's documentation
2466 on regular expressions (try <literal>man re_format</literal>).
2470 Note that the path pattern is automatically left-anchored at the <quote>/</quote>,
2471 i.e. it matches as if it would start with a <quote>^</quote> (regular expression speak
2472 for the beginning of a line).
2476 Please also note that matching in the path is <emphasis>CASE INSENSITIVE</emphasis>
2477 by default, but you can switch to case sensitive at any point in the pattern by using the
2478 <quote>(?-i)</quote> switch: <literal>www.example.com/(?-i)PaTtErN.*</literal> will match
2479 only documents whose path starts with <literal>PaTtErN</literal> in
2480 <emphasis>exactly</emphasis> this capitalization.
2485 <term><literal>.example.com/.*</literal></term>
2488 Is equivalent to just <quote>.example.com</quote>, since any documents
2489 within that domain are matched with or without the <quote>.*</quote>
2490 regular expression. This is redundant
2495 <term><literal>.example.com/.*/index.html$</literal></term>
2498 Will match any page in the domain of <quote>example.com</quote> that is
2499 named <quote>index.html</quote>, and that is part of some path. For
2500 example, it matches <quote>www.example.com/testing/index.html</quote> but
2501 NOT <quote>www.example.com/index.html</quote> because the regular
2502 expression called for at least two <quote>/'s</quote>, thus the path
2503 requirement. It also would match
2504 <quote>www.example.com/testing/index_html</quote>, because of the
2505 special meta-character <quote>.</quote>.
2510 <term><literal>.example.com/(.*/)?index\.html$</literal></term>
2513 This regular expression is conditional so it will match any page
2514 named <quote>index.html</quote> regardless of path which in this case can
2515 have one or more <quote>/'s</quote>. And this one must contain exactly
2516 <quote>.html</quote> (but does not have to end with that!).
2521 <term><literal>.example.com/(.*/)(ads|banners?|junk)</literal></term>
2524 This regular expression will match any path of <quote>example.com</quote>
2525 that contains any of the words <quote>ads</quote>, <quote>banner</quote>,
2526 <quote>banners</quote> (because of the <quote>?</quote>) or <quote>junk</quote>.
2527 The path does not have to end in these words, just contain them.
2532 <term><literal>.example.com/(.*/)(ads|banners?|junk)/.*\.(jpe?g|gif|png)$</literal></term>
2535 This is very much the same as above, except now it must end in either
2536 <quote>.jpg</quote>, <quote>.jpeg</quote>, <quote>.gif</quote> or <quote>.png</quote>. So this
2537 one is limited to common image formats.
2544 There are many, many good examples to be found in <filename>default.action</filename>,
2545 and more tutorials below in <link linkend="regex">Appendix on regular expressions</link>.
2550 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2553 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2554 <sect3 id="tag-pattern"><title>The Tag Pattern</title>
2557 Tag patterns are used to change the applying actions based on the
2558 request's tags. Tags can be created with either the
2559 <link linkend="CLIENT-HEADER-TAGGER">client-header-tagger</link>
2560 or the <link linkend="SERVER-HEADER-TAGGER">server-header-tagger</link> action.
2564 Tag patterns have to start with <quote>TAG:</quote>, so &my-app;
2565 can tell them apart from URL patterns. Everything after the colon
2566 including white space, is interpreted as a regular expression with
2567 path pattern syntax, except that tag patterns aren't left-anchored
2568 automatically (&my-app; doesn't silently add a <quote>^</quote>,
2569 you have to do it yourself if you need it).
2573 To match all requests that are tagged with <quote>foo</quote>
2574 your pattern line should be <quote>TAG:^foo$</quote>,
2575 <quote>TAG:foo</quote> would work as well, but it would also
2576 match requests whose tags contain <quote>foo</quote> somewhere.
2577 <quote>TAG: foo</quote> wouldn't work as it requires white space.
2581 Sections can contain URL and tag patterns at the same time,
2582 but tag patterns are checked after the URL patterns and thus
2583 always overrule them, even if they are located before the URL patterns.
2587 Once a new tag is added, Privoxy checks right away if it's matched by one
2588 of the tag patterns and updates the action settings accordingly. As a result
2589 tags can be used to activate other tagger actions, as long as these other
2590 taggers look for headers that haven't already be parsed.
2594 For example you could tag client requests which use the
2595 <literal>POST</literal> method,
2596 then use this tag to activate another tagger that adds a tag if cookies
2597 are sent, and then use a block action based on the cookie tag. This allows
2598 the outcome of one action, to be input into a subsequent action. However if
2599 you'd reverse the position of the described taggers, and activated the
2600 method tagger based on the cookie tagger, no method tags would be created.
2601 The method tagger would look for the request line, but at the time
2602 the cookie tag is created, the request line has already been parsed.
2606 While this is a limitation you should be aware of, this kind of
2607 indirection is seldom needed anyway and even the example doesn't
2608 make too much sense.
2615 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2618 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2620 <sect2 id="actions">
2621 <title>Actions</title>
2623 All actions are disabled by default, until they are explicitly enabled
2624 somewhere in an actions file. Actions are turned on if preceded with a
2625 <quote>+</quote>, and turned off if preceded with a <quote>-</quote>. So a
2626 <literal>+action</literal> means <quote>do that action</quote>, e.g.
2627 <literal>+block</literal> means <quote>please block URLs that match the
2628 following patterns</quote>, and <literal>-block</literal> means <quote>don't
2629 block URLs that match the following patterns, even if <literal>+block</literal>
2630 previously applied.</quote>
2635 Again, actions are invoked by placing them on a line, enclosed in curly braces and
2636 separated by whitespace, like in
2637 <literal>{+some-action -some-other-action{some-parameter}}</literal>,
2638 followed by a list of URL patterns, one per line, to which they apply.
2639 Together, the actions line and the following pattern lines make up a section
2640 of the actions file.
2644 Actions fall into three categories:
2651 Boolean, i.e the action can only be <quote>enabled</quote> or
2652 <quote>disabled</quote>. Syntax:
2656 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # enable action <replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable>
2657 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # disable action <replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable></screen>
2660 Example: <literal>+handle-as-image</literal>
2667 Parameterized, where some value is required in order to enable this type of action.
2672 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # enable action and set parameter to <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>,
2673 # overwriting parameter from previous match if necessary
2674 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # disable action. The parameter can be omitted</screen>
2677 Note that if the URL matches multiple positive forms of a parameterized action,
2678 the last match wins, i.e. the params from earlier matches are simply ignored.
2681 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>
2687 Multi-value. These look exactly like parameterized actions,
2688 but they behave differently: If the action applies multiple times to the
2689 same URL, but with different parameters, <emphasis>all</emphasis> the parameters
2690 from <emphasis>all</emphasis> matches are remembered. This is used for actions
2691 that can be executed for the same request repeatedly, like adding multiple
2692 headers, or filtering through multiple filters. Syntax:
2696 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # enable action and add <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable> to the list of parameters
2697 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # remove the parameter <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable> from the list of parameters
2698 # If it was the last one left, disable the action.
2699 <replaceable class="parameter">-name</replaceable> # disable this action completely and remove all parameters from the list</screen>
2702 Examples: <literal>+add-header{X-Fun-Header: Some text}</literal> and
2703 <literal>+filter{html-annoyances}</literal>
2711 If nothing is specified in any actions file, no <quote>actions</quote> are
2712 taken. So in this case <application>Privoxy</application> would just be a
2713 normal, non-blocking, non-filtering proxy. You must specifically enable the
2714 privacy and blocking features you need (although the provided default actions
2715 files will give a good starting point).
2719 Later defined action sections always over-ride earlier ones of the same type.
2720 So exceptions to any rules you make, should come in the latter part of the file (or
2721 in a file that is processed later when using multiple actions files such
2722 as <filename>user.action</filename>). For multi-valued actions, the actions
2723 are applied in the order they are specified. Actions files are processed in
2724 the order they are defined in <filename>config</filename> (the default
2725 installation has three actions files). It also quite possible for any given
2726 URL to match more than one <quote>pattern</quote> (because of wildcards and
2727 regular expressions), and thus to trigger more than one set of actions! Last
2731 <!-- start actions listing -->
2733 The list of valid <application>Privoxy</application> actions are:
2737 <!-- ********************************************************** -->
2738 <!-- Please note the below defined actions use id's that are -->
2739 <!-- probably linked from other places, so please don't change. -->
2741 <!-- ********************************************************** -->
2744 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2746 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="add-header">
2747 <title>add-header</title>
2751 <term>Typical use:</term>
2753 <para>Confuse log analysis, custom applications</para>
2758 <term>Effect:</term>
2761 Sends a user defined HTTP header to the web server.
2768 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2770 <para>Multi-value.</para>
2775 <term>Parameter:</term>
2778 Any string value is possible. Validity of the defined HTTP headers is not checked.
2779 It is recommended that you use the <quote><literal>X-</literal></quote> prefix
2789 This action may be specified multiple times, in order to define multiple
2790 headers. This is rarely needed for the typical user. If you don't know what
2791 <quote>HTTP headers</quote> are, you definitely don't need to worry about this
2798 <term>Example usage:</term>
2801 <screen>+add-header{X-User-Tracking: sucks}</screen>
2809 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2810 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="block">
2811 <title>block</title>
2815 <term>Typical use:</term>
2817 <para>Block ads or other unwanted content</para>
2822 <term>Effect:</term>
2825 Requests for URLs to which this action applies are blocked, i.e. the
2826 requests are trapped by &my-app; and the requested URL is never retrieved,
2827 but is answered locally with a substitute page or image, as determined by
2829 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>,
2831 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>, and
2833 linkend="handle-as-empty-document">handle-as-empty-document</link></literal> actions.
2841 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2843 <para>Parameterized.</para>
2848 <term>Parameter:</term>
2850 <para>A block reason that should be given to the user.</para>
2858 <application>Privoxy</application> sends a special <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page
2859 for requests to blocked pages. This page contains the block reason given as
2860 parameter, a link to find out why the block action applies, and a click-through
2861 to the blocked content (the latter only if the force feature is available and
2865 A very important exception occurs if <emphasis>both</emphasis>
2866 <literal>block</literal> and <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>,
2867 apply to the same request: it will then be replaced by an image. If
2868 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>
2869 (see below) also applies, the type of image will be determined by its parameter,
2870 if not, the standard checkerboard pattern is sent.
2873 It is important to understand this process, in order
2874 to understand how <application>Privoxy</application> deals with
2875 ads and other unwanted content. Blocking is a core feature, and one
2876 upon which various other features depend.
2879 The <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>
2880 action can perform a very similar task, by <quote>blocking</quote>
2881 banner images and other content through rewriting the relevant URLs in the
2882 document's HTML source, so they don't get requested in the first place.
2883 Note that this is a totally different technique, and it's easy to confuse the two.
2889 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
2892 <screen>{+block{No nasty stuff for you.}}
2893 # Block and replace with "blocked" page
2894 .nasty-stuff.example.com
2896 {+block{Doubleclick banners.} +handle-as-image}
2897 # Block and replace with image
2901 {+block{Layered ads.} +handle-as-empty-document}
2902 # Block and then ignore
2903 adserver.example.net/.*\.js$</screen>
2913 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2914 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="client-header-filter">
2915 <title>client-header-filter</title>
2919 <term>Typical use:</term>
2922 Rewrite or remove single client headers.
2928 <term>Effect:</term>
2931 All client headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly through
2932 the specified regular expression based substitutions.
2939 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2941 <para>Parameterized.</para>
2946 <term>Parameter:</term>
2949 The name of a client-header filter, as defined in one of the
2950 <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link>.
2959 Client-header filters are applied to each header on its own, not to
2960 all at once. This makes it easier to diagnose problems, but on the downside
2961 you can't write filters that only change header x if header y's value is z.
2962 You can do that by using tags though.
2965 Client-header filters are executed after the other header actions have finished
2966 and use their output as input.
2969 If the request URL gets changed, &my-app; will detect that and use the new
2970 one. This can be used to rewrite the request destination behind the client's
2971 back, for example to specify a Tor exit relay for certain requests.
2974 Please refer to the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file chapter</link>
2975 to learn which client-header filters are available by default, and how to
2983 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
2987 # Hide Tor exit notation in Host and Referer Headers
2988 {+client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation}}
2999 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3000 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="client-header-tagger">
3001 <title>client-header-tagger</title>
3005 <term>Typical use:</term>
3008 Block requests based on their headers.
3014 <term>Effect:</term>
3017 Client headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly through
3018 the specified regular expression based substitutions, the result is used as
3026 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3028 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3033 <term>Parameter:</term>
3036 The name of a client-header tagger, as defined in one of the
3037 <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link>.
3046 Client-header taggers are applied to each header on its own,
3047 and as the header isn't modified, each tagger <quote>sees</quote>
3051 Client-header taggers are the first actions that are executed
3052 and their tags can be used to control every other action.
3058 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3062 # Tag every request with the User-Agent header
3063 {+client-header-tagger{user-agent}}
3066 # Tagging itself doesn't change the action
3067 # settings, sections with TAG patterns do:
3069 # If it's a download agent, use a different forwarding proxy,
3070 # show the real User-Agent and make sure resume works.
3071 {+forward-override{forward-socks5 10.0.0.2:2222 .} \
3072 -hide-if-modified-since \
3073 -overwrite-last-modified \
3078 TAG:^User-Agent: NetBSD-ftp/
3079 TAG:^User-Agent: Novell ZYPP Installer
3080 TAG:^User-Agent: RPM APT-HTTP/
3081 TAG:^User-Agent: fetch libfetch/
3082 TAG:^User-Agent: Ubuntu APT-HTTP/
3083 TAG:^User-Agent: MPlayer/
3093 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3094 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="content-type-overwrite">
3095 <title>content-type-overwrite</title>
3099 <term>Typical use:</term>
3101 <para>Stop useless download menus from popping up, or change the browser's rendering mode</para>
3106 <term>Effect:</term>
3109 Replaces the <quote>Content-Type:</quote> HTTP server header.
3116 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3118 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3123 <term>Parameter:</term>
3135 The <quote>Content-Type:</quote> HTTP server header is used by the
3136 browser to decide what to do with the document. The value of this
3137 header can cause the browser to open a download menu instead of
3138 displaying the document by itself, even if the document's format is
3139 supported by the browser.
3142 The declared content type can also affect which rendering mode
3143 the browser chooses. If XHTML is delivered as <quote>text/html</quote>,
3144 many browsers treat it as yet another broken HTML document.
3145 If it is send as <quote>application/xml</quote>, browsers with
3146 XHTML support will only display it, if the syntax is correct.
3149 If you see a web site that proudly uses XHTML buttons, but sets
3150 <quote>Content-Type: text/html</quote>, you can use &my-app;
3151 to overwrite it with <quote>application/xml</quote> and validate
3152 the web master's claim inside your XHTML-supporting browser.
3153 If the syntax is incorrect, the browser will complain loudly.
3156 You can also go the opposite direction: if your browser prints
3157 error messages instead of rendering a document falsely declared
3158 as XHTML, you can overwrite the content type with
3159 <quote>text/html</quote> and have it rendered as broken HTML document.
3162 By default <literal>content-type-overwrite</literal> only replaces
3163 <quote>Content-Type:</quote> headers that look like some kind of text.
3164 If you want to overwrite it unconditionally, you have to combine it with
3165 <literal><link linkend="force-text-mode">force-text-mode</link></literal>.
3166 This limitation exists for a reason, think twice before circumventing it.
3169 Most of the time it's easier to replace this action with a custom
3170 <literal><link linkend="server-header-filter">server-header filter</link></literal>.
3171 It allows you to activate it for every document of a certain site and it will still
3172 only replace the content types you aimed at.
3175 Of course you can apply <literal>content-type-overwrite</literal>
3176 to a whole site and then make URL based exceptions, but it's a lot
3177 more work to get the same precision.
3183 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
3186 <screen># Check if www.example.net/ really uses valid XHTML
3187 { +content-type-overwrite{application/xml} }
3190 # but leave the content type unmodified if the URL looks like a style sheet
3191 {-content-type-overwrite}
3192 www.example.net/.*\.css$
3193 www.example.net/.*style
3202 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3203 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-client-header">
3207 <title>crunch-client-header</title>
3211 <term>Typical use:</term>
3213 <para>Remove a client header <application>Privoxy</application> has no dedicated action for.</para>
3218 <term>Effect:</term>
3221 Deletes every header sent by the client that contains the string the user supplied as parameter.
3228 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3230 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3235 <term>Parameter:</term>
3247 This action allows you to block client headers for which no dedicated
3248 <application>Privoxy</application> action exists.
3249 <application>Privoxy</application> will remove every client header that
3250 contains the string you supplied as parameter.
3253 Regular expressions are <emphasis>not supported</emphasis> and you can't
3254 use this action to block different headers in the same request, unless
3255 they contain the same string.
3258 <literal>crunch-client-header</literal> is only meant for quick tests.
3259 If you have to block several different headers, or only want to modify
3260 parts of them, you should use a
3261 <literal><link linkend="client-header-filter">client-header filter</link></literal>.
3265 Don't block any header without understanding the consequences.
3272 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3275 <screen># Block the non-existent "Privacy-Violation:" client header
3276 { +crunch-client-header{Privacy-Violation:} }
3286 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3287 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-if-none-match">
3288 <title>crunch-if-none-match</title>
3294 <term>Typical use:</term>
3296 <para>Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.</para>
3301 <term>Effect:</term>
3304 Deletes the <quote>If-None-Match:</quote> HTTP client header.
3311 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3313 <para>Boolean.</para>
3318 <term>Parameter:</term>
3330 Removing the <quote>If-None-Match:</quote> HTTP client header
3331 is useful for filter testing, where you want to force a real
3332 reload instead of getting status code <quote>304</quote> which
3333 would cause the browser to use a cached copy of the page.
3336 It is also useful to make sure the header isn't used as a cookie
3337 replacement (unlikely but possible).
3340 Blocking the <quote>If-None-Match:</quote> header shouldn't cause any
3341 caching problems, as long as the <quote>If-Modified-Since:</quote> header
3342 isn't blocked or missing as well.
3345 It is recommended to use this action together with
3346 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hide-if-modified-since</link></literal>
3348 <literal><link linkend="overwrite-last-modified">overwrite-last-modified</link></literal>.
3354 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3357 <screen># Let the browser revalidate cached documents but don't
3358 # allow the server to use the revalidation headers for user tracking.
3359 {+hide-if-modified-since{-60} \
3360 +overwrite-last-modified{randomize} \
3361 +crunch-if-none-match}
3370 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3371 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-incoming-cookies">
3372 <title>crunch-incoming-cookies</title>
3376 <term>Typical use:</term>
3379 Prevent the web server from setting HTTP cookies on your system
3385 <term>Effect:</term>
3388 Deletes any <quote>Set-Cookie:</quote> HTTP headers from server replies.
3395 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3397 <para>Boolean.</para>
3402 <term>Parameter:</term>
3414 This action is only concerned with <emphasis>incoming</emphasis> HTTP cookies. For
3415 <emphasis>outgoing</emphasis> HTTP cookies, use
3416 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>.
3417 Use <emphasis>both</emphasis> to disable HTTP cookies completely.
3420 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use this action in conjunction
3421 with the <literal><link linkend="session-cookies-only">session-cookies-only</link></literal> action,
3422 since it would prevent the session cookies from being set. See also
3423 <literal><link linkend="filter-content-cookies">filter-content-cookies</link></literal>.
3429 <term>Example usage:</term>
3432 <screen>+crunch-incoming-cookies</screen>
3440 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3441 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-server-header">
3442 <title>crunch-server-header</title>
3448 <term>Typical use:</term>
3450 <para>Remove a server header <application>Privoxy</application> has no dedicated action for.</para>
3455 <term>Effect:</term>
3458 Deletes every header sent by the server that contains the string the user supplied as parameter.
3465 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3467 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3472 <term>Parameter:</term>
3484 This action allows you to block server headers for which no dedicated
3485 <application>Privoxy</application> action exists. <application>Privoxy</application>
3486 will remove every server header that contains the string you supplied as parameter.
3489 Regular expressions are <emphasis>not supported</emphasis> and you can't
3490 use this action to block different headers in the same request, unless
3491 they contain the same string.
3494 <literal>crunch-server-header</literal> is only meant for quick tests.
3495 If you have to block several different headers, or only want to modify
3496 parts of them, you should use a custom
3497 <literal><link linkend="server-header-filter">server-header filter</link></literal>.
3501 Don't block any header without understanding the consequences.
3508 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3511 <screen># Crunch server headers that try to prevent caching
3512 { +crunch-server-header{no-cache} }
3521 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3522 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-outgoing-cookies">
3523 <title>crunch-outgoing-cookies</title>
3527 <term>Typical use:</term>
3530 Prevent the web server from reading any HTTP cookies from your system
3536 <term>Effect:</term>
3539 Deletes any <quote>Cookie:</quote> HTTP headers from client requests.
3546 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3548 <para>Boolean.</para>
3553 <term>Parameter:</term>
3565 This action is only concerned with <emphasis>outgoing</emphasis> HTTP cookies. For
3566 <emphasis>incoming</emphasis> HTTP cookies, use
3567 <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal>.
3568 Use <emphasis>both</emphasis> to disable HTTP cookies completely.
3571 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use this action in conjunction
3572 with the <literal><link linkend="session-cookies-only">session-cookies-only</link></literal> action,
3573 since it would prevent the session cookies from being read.
3579 <term>Example usage:</term>
3582 <screen>+crunch-outgoing-cookies</screen>
3591 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3592 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="deanimate-gifs">
3593 <title>deanimate-gifs</title>
3597 <term>Typical use:</term>
3599 <para>Stop those annoying, distracting animated GIF images.</para>
3604 <term>Effect:</term>
3607 De-animate GIF animations, i.e. reduce them to their first or last image.
3614 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3616 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3621 <term>Parameter:</term>
3624 <quote>last</quote> or <quote>first</quote>
3633 This will also shrink the images considerably (in bytes, not pixels!). If
3634 the option <quote>first</quote> is given, the first frame of the animation
3635 is used as the replacement. If <quote>last</quote> is given, the last
3636 frame of the animation is used instead, which probably makes more sense for
3637 most banner animations, but also has the risk of not showing the entire
3638 last frame (if it is only a delta to an earlier frame).
3641 You can safely use this action with patterns that will also match non-GIF
3642 objects, because no attempt will be made at anything that doesn't look like
3649 <term>Example usage:</term>
3652 <screen>+deanimate-gifs{last}</screen>
3659 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3660 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="downgrade-http-version">
3661 <title>downgrade-http-version</title>
3665 <term>Typical use:</term>
3667 <para>Work around (very rare) problems with HTTP/1.1</para>
3672 <term>Effect:</term>
3675 Downgrades HTTP/1.1 client requests and server replies to HTTP/1.0.
3682 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3684 <para>Boolean.</para>
3689 <term>Parameter:</term>
3701 This is a left-over from the time when <application>Privoxy</application>
3702 didn't support important HTTP/1.1 features well. It is left here for the
3703 unlikely case that you experience HTTP/1.1 related problems with some server
3704 out there. Not all HTTP/1.1 features and requirements are supported yet,
3705 so there is a chance you might need this action.
3711 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3714 <screen>{+downgrade-http-version}
3715 problem-host.example.com</screen>
3723 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3724 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="fast-redirects">
3725 <title>fast-redirects</title>
3729 <term>Typical use:</term>
3731 <para>Fool some click-tracking scripts and speed up indirect links.</para>
3736 <term>Effect:</term>
3739 Detects redirection URLs and redirects the browser without contacting
3740 the redirection server first.
3747 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3749 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3754 <term>Parameter:</term>
3759 <quote>simple-check</quote> to just search for the string <quote>http://</quote>
3760 to detect redirection URLs.
3765 <quote>check-decoded-url</quote> to decode URLs (if necessary) before searching
3766 for redirection URLs.
3777 Many sites, like yahoo.com, don't just link to other sites. Instead, they
3778 will link to some script on their own servers, giving the destination as a
3779 parameter, which will then redirect you to the final target. URLs
3780 resulting from this scheme typically look like:
3781 <quote>http://www.example.org/click-tracker.cgi?target=http%3a//www.example.net/</quote>.
3784 Sometimes, there are even multiple consecutive redirects encoded in the
3785 URL. These redirections via scripts make your web browsing more traceable,
3786 since the server from which you follow such a link can see where you go
3787 to. Apart from that, valuable bandwidth and time is wasted, while your
3788 browser asks the server for one redirect after the other. Plus, it feeds
3792 This feature is currently not very smart and is scheduled for improvement.
3793 If it is enabled by default, you will have to create some exceptions to
3794 this action. It can lead to failures in several ways:
3797 Not every URLs with other URLs as parameters is evil.
3798 Some sites offer a real service that requires this information to work.
3799 For example a validation service needs to know, which document to validate.
3800 <literal>fast-redirects</literal> assumes that every URL parameter that
3801 looks like another URL is a redirection target, and will always redirect to
3802 the last one. Most of the time the assumption is correct, but if it isn't,
3803 the user gets redirected anyway.
3806 Another failure occurs if the URL contains other parameters after the URL parameter.
3808 <quote>http://www.example.org/?redirect=http%3a//www.example.net/&foo=bar</quote>.
3809 contains the redirection URL <quote>http://www.example.net/</quote>,
3810 followed by another parameter. <literal>fast-redirects</literal> doesn't know that
3811 and will cause a redirect to <quote>http://www.example.net/&foo=bar</quote>.
3812 Depending on the target server configuration, the parameter will be silently ignored
3813 or lead to a <quote>page not found</quote> error. You can prevent this problem by
3814 first using the <literal><link linkend="redirect">redirect</link></literal> action
3815 to remove the last part of the URL, but it requires a little effort.
3818 To detect a redirection URL, <literal>fast-redirects</literal> only
3819 looks for the string <quote>http://</quote>, either in plain text
3820 (invalid but often used) or encoded as <quote>http%3a//</quote>.
3821 Some sites use their own URL encoding scheme, encrypt the address
3822 of the target server or replace it with a database id. In theses cases
3823 <literal>fast-redirects</literal> is fooled and the request reaches the
3824 redirection server where it probably gets logged.
3830 <term>Example usage:</term>
3834 { +fast-redirects{simple-check} }
3837 { +fast-redirects{check-decoded-url} }
3838 another.example.com/testing</screen>
3847 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3848 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="filter">
3849 <title>filter</title>
3853 <term>Typical use:</term>
3855 <para>Get rid of HTML and JavaScript annoyances, banner advertisements (by size),
3856 do fun text replacements, add personalized effects, etc.</para>
3861 <term>Effect:</term>
3864 All instances of text-based type, most notably HTML and JavaScript, to which
3865 this action applies, can be filtered on-the-fly through the specified regular
3866 expression based substitutions. (Note: as of version 3.0.3 plain text documents
3867 are exempted from filtering, because web servers often use the
3868 <literal>text/plain</literal> MIME type for all files whose type they don't know.)
3875 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3877 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3882 <term>Parameter:</term>
3885 The name of a content filter, as defined in the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file</link>.
3886 Filters can be defined in one or more files as defined by the
3887 <literal><link linkend="filterfile">filterfile</link></literal>
3888 option in the <link linkend="config">config file</link>.
3889 <filename>default.filter</filename> is the collection of filters
3890 supplied by the developers. Locally defined filters should go
3891 in their own file, such as <filename>user.filter</filename>.
3894 When used in its negative form,
3895 and without parameters, <emphasis>all</emphasis> filtering is completely disabled.
3904 For your convenience, there are a number of pre-defined filters available
3905 in the distribution filter file that you can use. See the examples below for
3909 Filtering requires buffering the page content, which may appear to
3910 slow down page rendering since nothing is displayed until all content has
3911 passed the filters. (It does not really take longer, but seems that way
3912 since the page is not incrementally displayed.) This effect will be more
3913 noticeable on slower connections.
3916 <quote>Rolling your own</quote>
3917 filters requires a knowledge of
3918 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
3919 Expressions</quote></ulink> and
3920 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Html"><quote>HTML</quote></ulink>.
3921 This is very powerful feature, and potentially very intrusive.
3922 Filters should be used with caution, and where an equivalent
3923 <quote>action</quote> is not available.
3926 The amount of data that can be filtered is limited to the
3927 <literal><link linkend="buffer-limit">buffer-limit</link></literal>
3928 option in the main <link linkend="config">config file</link>. The
3929 default is 4096 KB (4 Megs). Once this limit is exceeded, the buffered
3930 data, and all pending data, is passed through unfiltered.
3933 Inappropriate MIME types, such as zipped files, are not filtered at all.
3934 (Again, only text-based types except plain text). Encrypted SSL data
3935 (from HTTPS servers) cannot be filtered either, since this would violate
3936 the integrity of the secure transaction. In some situations it might
3937 be necessary to protect certain text, like source code, from filtering
3938 by defining appropriate <literal>-filter</literal> exceptions.
3941 Compressed content can't be filtered either, unless &my-app;
3942 is compiled with zlib support (requires at least &my-app; 3.0.7),
3943 in which case &my-app; will decompress the content before filtering
3947 If you use a &my-app; version without zlib support, but want filtering to work on
3948 as much documents as possible, even those that would normally be sent compressed,
3949 you must use the <literal><link linkend="prevent-compression">prevent-compression</link></literal>
3950 action in conjunction with <literal>filter</literal>.
3953 Content filtering can achieve some of the same effects as the
3954 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>
3955 action, i.e. it can be used to block ads and banners. But the mechanism
3956 works quite differently. One effective use, is to block ad banners
3957 based on their size (see below), since many of these seem to be somewhat
3961 <link linkend="contact">Feedback</link> with suggestions for new or
3962 improved filters is particularly welcome!
3965 The below list has only the names and a one-line description of each
3966 predefined filter. There are <link linkend="predefined-filters">more
3967 verbose explanations</link> of what these filters do in the <link
3968 linkend="filter-file">filter file chapter</link>.
3974 <term>Example usage (with filters from the distribution <filename>default.filter</filename> file).
3975 See <link linkend="PREDEFINED-FILTERS">the Predefined Filters section</link> for
3976 more explanation on each:</term>
3979 <anchor id="filter-js-annoyances">
3980 <screen>+filter{js-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse.</screen>
3983 <anchor id="filter-js-events">
3984 <screen>+filter{js-events} # Kill all JS event bindings and timers (Radically destructive! Only for extra nasty sites).</screen>
3987 <anchor id="filter-html-annoyances">
3988 <screen>+filter{html-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying HTML abuse.</screen>
3991 <anchor id="filter-content-cookies">
3992 <screen>+filter{content-cookies} # Kill cookies that come in the HTML or JS content.</screen>
3995 <anchor id="filter-refresh-tags">
3996 <screen>+filter{refresh-tags} # Kill automatic refresh tags (for dial-on-demand setups).</screen>
3999 <anchor id="filter-unsolicited-popups">
4000 <screen>+filter{unsolicited-popups} # Disable only unsolicited pop-up windows. Useful if your browser lacks this ability.</screen>
4003 <anchor id="filter-all-popups">
4004 <screen>+filter{all-popups} # Kill all popups in JavaScript and HTML. Useful if your browser lacks this ability.</screen>
4007 <anchor id="filter-img-reorder">
4008 <screen>+filter{img-reorder} # Reorder attributes in <img> tags to make the banners-by-* filters more effective.</screen>
4011 <anchor id="filter-banners-by-size">
4012 <screen>+filter{banners-by-size} # Kill banners by size.</screen>
4015 <anchor id="filter-banners-by-link">
4016 <screen>+filter{banners-by-link} # Kill banners by their links to known clicktrackers.</screen>
4019 <anchor id="filter-webbugs">
4020 <screen>+filter{webbugs} # Squish WebBugs (1x1 invisible GIFs used for user tracking).</screen>
4023 <anchor id="filter-tiny-textforms">
4024 <screen>+filter{tiny-textforms} # Extend those tiny textareas up to 40x80 and kill the hard wrap.</screen>
4027 <anchor id="filter-jumping-windows">
4028 <screen>+filter{jumping-windows} # Prevent windows from resizing and moving themselves.</screen>
4031 <anchor id="filter-frameset-borders">
4032 <screen>+filter{frameset-borders} # Give frames a border and make them resizable.</screen>
4035 <anchor id="filter-demoronizer">
4036 <screen>+filter{demoronizer} # Fix MS's non-standard use of standard charsets.</screen>
4039 <anchor id="filter-shockwave-flash">
4040 <screen>+filter{shockwave-flash} # Kill embedded Shockwave Flash objects.</screen>
4043 <anchor id="filter-quicktime-kioskmode">
4044 <screen>+filter{quicktime-kioskmode} # Make Quicktime movies saveable.</screen>
4047 <anchor id="filter-fun">
4048 <screen>+filter{fun} # Text replacements for subversive browsing fun!</screen>
4051 <anchor id="filter-crude-parental">
4052 <screen>+filter{crude-parental} # Crude parental filtering. Note that this filter doesn't work reliable.</screen>
4055 <anchor id="filter-ie-exploits">
4056 <screen>+filter{ie-exploits} # Disable some known Internet Explorer bug exploits.</screen>
4059 <anchor id="filter-site-specifics">
4060 <screen>+filter{site-specifics} # Cure for site-specific problems. Don't apply generally!</screen>
4063 <anchor id="filter-no-ping">
4064 <screen>+filter{no-ping} # Removes non-standard ping attributes in <a> and <area> tags.</screen>
4067 <anchor id="filter-google">
4068 <screen>+filter{google} # CSS-based block for Google text ads. Also removes a width limitation and the toolbar advertisement.</screen>
4071 <anchor id="filter-yahoo">
4072 <screen>+filter{yahoo} # CSS-based block for Yahoo text ads. Also removes a width limitation.</screen>
4075 <anchor id="filter-msn">
4076 <screen>+filter{msn} # CSS-based block for MSN text ads. Also removes tracking URLs and a width limitation.</screen>
4079 <anchor id="filter-blogspot">
4080 <screen>+filter{blogspot} # Cleans up some Blogspot blogs. Read the fine print before using this.</screen>
4088 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4089 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="force-text-mode">
4090 <title>force-text-mode</title>
4096 <term>Typical use:</term>
4098 <para>Force <application>Privoxy</application> to treat a document as if it was in some kind of <emphasis>text</emphasis> format. </para>
4103 <term>Effect:</term>
4106 Declares a document as text, even if the <quote>Content-Type:</quote> isn't detected as such.
4113 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4115 <para>Boolean.</para>
4120 <term>Parameter:</term>
4132 As explained <literal><link linkend="filter">above</link></literal>,
4133 <application>Privoxy</application> tries to only filter files that are
4134 in some kind of text format. The same restrictions apply to
4135 <literal><link linkend="content-type-overwrite">content-type-overwrite</link></literal>.
4136 <literal>force-text-mode</literal> declares a document as text,
4137 without looking at the <quote>Content-Type:</quote> first.
4141 Think twice before activating this action. Filtering binary data
4142 with regular expressions can cause file damage.
4149 <term>Example usage:</term>
4162 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4163 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="forward-override">
4164 <title>forward-override</title>
4170 <term>Typical use:</term>
4172 <para>Change the forwarding settings based on User-Agent or request origin</para>
4177 <term>Effect:</term>
4180 Overrules the forward directives in the configuration file.
4187 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4189 <para>Multi-value.</para>
4194 <term>Parameter:</term>
4198 <para><quote>forward .</quote> to use a direct connection without any additional proxies.</para>
4202 <quote>forward 127.0.0.1:8123</quote> to use the HTTP proxy listening at 127.0.0.1 port 8123.
4207 <quote>forward-socks4a 127.0.0.1:9050 .</quote> to use the socks4a proxy listening at
4208 127.0.0.1 port 9050. Replace <quote>forward-socks4a</quote> with <quote>forward-socks4</quote>
4209 to use a socks4 connection (with local DNS resolution) instead, use <quote>forward-socks5</quote>
4210 for socks5 connections (with remote DNS resolution).
4215 <quote>forward-socks4a 127.0.0.1:9050 proxy.example.org:8000</quote> to use the socks4a proxy
4216 listening at 127.0.0.1 port 9050 to reach the HTTP proxy listening at proxy.example.org port 8000.
4217 Replace <quote>forward-socks4a</quote> with <quote>forward-socks4</quote> to use a socks4 connection
4218 (with local DNS resolution) instead, use <quote>forward-socks5</quote>
4219 for socks5 connections (with remote DNS resolution).
4230 This action takes parameters similar to the
4231 <link linkend="forwarding">forward</link> directives in the configuration
4232 file, but without the URL pattern. It can be used as replacement, but normally it's only
4233 used in cases where matching based on the request URL isn't sufficient.
4237 Please read the description for the <link linkend="forwarding">forward</link> directives before
4238 using this action. Forwarding to the wrong people will reduce your privacy and increase the
4239 chances of man-in-the-middle attacks.
4242 If the ports are missing or invalid, default values will be used. This might change
4243 in the future and you shouldn't rely on it. Otherwise incorrect syntax causes Privoxy
4247 Use the <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">show-url-info CGI page</ulink>
4248 to verify that your forward settings do what you thought the do.
4255 <term>Example usage:</term>
4259 # Always use direct connections for requests previously tagged as
4260 # <quote>User-Agent: fetch libfetch/2.0</quote> and make sure
4261 # resuming downloads continues to work.
4262 # This way you can continue to use Tor for your normal browsing,
4263 # without overloading the Tor network with your FreeBSD ports updates
4264 # or downloads of bigger files like ISOs.
4265 # Note that HTTP headers are easy to fake and therefore their
4266 # values are as (un)trustworthy as your clients and users.
4267 {+forward-override{forward .} \
4268 -hide-if-modified-since \
4269 -overwrite-last-modified \
4271 TAG:^User-Agent: fetch libfetch/2\.0$
4280 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4281 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="handle-as-empty-document">
4282 <title>handle-as-empty-document</title>
4288 <term>Typical use:</term>
4290 <para>Mark URLs that should be replaced by empty documents <emphasis>if they get blocked</emphasis></para>
4295 <term>Effect:</term>
4298 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. It just marks URLs.
4299 If the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action <emphasis>also applies</emphasis>,
4300 the presence or absence of this mark decides whether an HTML <quote>BLOCKED</quote>
4301 page, or an empty document will be sent to the client as a substitute for the blocked content.
4302 The <emphasis>empty</emphasis> document isn't literally empty, but actually contains a single space.
4309 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4311 <para>Boolean.</para>
4316 <term>Parameter:</term>
4328 Some browsers complain about syntax errors if JavaScript documents
4329 are blocked with <application>Privoxy's</application>
4330 default HTML page; this option can be used to silence them.
4331 And of course this action can also be used to eliminate the &my-app;
4332 BLOCKED message in frames.
4335 The content type for the empty document can be specified with
4336 <literal><link linkend="content-type-overwrite">content-type-overwrite{}</link></literal>,
4337 but usually this isn't necessary.
4343 <term>Example usage:</term>
4346 <screen># Block all documents on example.org that end with ".js",
4347 # but send an empty document instead of the usual HTML message.
4348 {+block{Blocked JavaScript} +handle-as-empty-document}
4358 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4359 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="handle-as-image">
4360 <title>handle-as-image</title>
4364 <term>Typical use:</term>
4366 <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>
4371 <term>Effect:</term>
4374 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. It just marks URLs as images.
4375 If the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action <emphasis>also applies</emphasis>,
4376 the presence or absence of this mark decides whether an HTML <quote>blocked</quote>
4377 page, or a replacement image (as determined by the <literal><link
4378 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal> action) will be sent to the
4379 client as a substitute for the blocked content.
4386 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4388 <para>Boolean.</para>
4393 <term>Parameter:</term>
4405 The below generic example section is actually part of <filename>default.action</filename>.
4406 It marks all URLs with well-known image file name extensions as images and should
4410 Users will probably only want to use the handle-as-image action in conjunction with
4411 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>, to block sources of banners, whose URLs don't
4412 reflect the file type, like in the second example section.
4415 Note that you cannot treat HTML pages as images in most cases. For instance, (in-line) ad
4416 frames require an HTML page to be sent, or they won't display properly.
4417 Forcing <literal>handle-as-image</literal> in this situation will not replace the
4418 ad frame with an image, but lead to error messages.
4424 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
4427 <screen># Generic image extensions:
4430 /.*\.(gif|jpg|jpeg|png|bmp|ico)$
4432 # These don't look like images, but they're banners and should be
4433 # blocked as images:
4435 {+block{Nasty banners.} +handle-as-image}
4436 nasty-banner-server.example.com/junk.cgi\?output=trash
4445 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4446 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-accept-language">
4447 <title>hide-accept-language</title>
4453 <term>Typical use:</term>
4455 <para>Pretend to use different language settings.</para>
4460 <term>Effect:</term>
4463 Deletes or replaces the <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> HTTP header in client requests.
4470 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4472 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4477 <term>Parameter:</term>
4480 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
4489 Faking the browser's language settings can be useful to make a
4490 foreign User-Agent set with
4491 <literal><link linkend="hide-user-agent">hide-user-agent</link></literal>
4495 However some sites with content in different languages check the
4496 <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> to decide which one to take by default.
4497 Sometimes it isn't possible to later switch to another language without
4498 changing the <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> header first.
4501 Therefore it's a good idea to either only change the
4502 <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> header to languages you understand,
4503 or to languages that aren't wide spread.
4506 Before setting the <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> header
4507 to a rare language, you should consider that it helps to
4508 make your requests unique and thus easier to trace.
4509 If you don't plan to change this header frequently,
4510 you should stick to a common language.
4516 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
4519 <screen># Pretend to use Canadian language settings.
4520 {+hide-accept-language{en-ca} \
4521 +hide-user-agent{Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; OpenBSD i386; en-CA; rv:1.8.0.4) Gecko/20060628 Firefox/1.5.0.4} \
4531 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4532 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-content-disposition">
4533 <title>hide-content-disposition</title>
4539 <term>Typical use:</term>
4541 <para>Prevent download menus for content you prefer to view inside the browser.</para>
4546 <term>Effect:</term>
4549 Deletes or replaces the <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> HTTP header set by some servers.
4556 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4558 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4563 <term>Parameter:</term>
4566 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
4575 Some servers set the <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> HTTP header for
4576 documents they assume you want to save locally before viewing them.
4577 The <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> header contains the file name
4578 the browser is supposed to use by default.
4581 In most browsers that understand this header, it makes it impossible to
4582 <emphasis>just view</emphasis> the document, without downloading it first,
4583 even if it's just a simple text file or an image.
4586 Removing the <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> header helps
4587 to prevent this annoyance, but some browsers additionally check the
4588 <quote>Content-Type:</quote> header, before they decide if they can
4589 display a document without saving it first. In these cases, you have
4590 to change this header as well, before the browser stops displaying
4594 It is also possible to change the server's file name suggestion
4595 to another one, but in most cases it isn't worth the time to set
4599 This action will probably be removed in the future,
4600 use server-header filters instead.
4606 <term>Example usage:</term>
4609 <screen># Disarm the download link in Sourceforge's patch tracker
4611 +content-type-overwrite{text/plain}\
4612 +hide-content-disposition{block} }
4613 .sourceforge.net/tracker/download\.php</screen>
4621 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4622 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-if-modified-since">
4623 <title>hide-if-modified-since</title>
4629 <term>Typical use:</term>
4631 <para>Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.</para>
4636 <term>Effect:</term>
4639 Deletes the <quote>If-Modified-Since:</quote> HTTP client header or modifies its value.
4646 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4648 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4653 <term>Parameter:</term>
4656 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or a user defined value that specifies a range of hours.
4665 Removing this header is useful for filter testing, where you want to force a real
4666 reload instead of getting status code <quote>304</quote>, which would cause the
4667 browser to use a cached copy of the page.
4670 Instead of removing the header, <literal>hide-if-modified-since</literal> can
4671 also add or subtract a random amount of time to/from the header's value.
4672 You specify a range of minutes where the random factor should be chosen from and
4673 <application>Privoxy</application> does the rest. A negative value means
4674 subtracting, a positive value adding.
4677 Randomizing the value of the <quote>If-Modified-Since:</quote> makes
4678 it less likely that the server can use the time as a cookie replacement,
4679 but you will run into caching problems if the random range is too high.
4682 It is a good idea to only use a small negative value and let
4683 <literal><link linkend="overwrite-last-modified">overwrite-last-modified</link></literal>
4684 handle the greater changes.
4687 It is also recommended to use this action together with
4688 <literal><link linkend="crunch-if-none-match">crunch-if-none-match</link></literal>,
4689 otherwise it's more or less pointless.
4695 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
4698 <screen># Let the browser revalidate but make tracking based on the time less likely.
4699 {+hide-if-modified-since{-60} \
4700 +overwrite-last-modified{randomize} \
4701 +crunch-if-none-match}
4710 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4711 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-forwarded-for-headers">
4712 <title>hide-forwarded-for-headers</title>
4715 <term>Typical use:</term>
4717 <para>Improve privacy by not forwarding the source of the request in the HTTP headers.</para>
4722 <term>Effect:</term>
4725 Deletes any existing <quote>X-Forwarded-for:</quote> HTTP header from client requests.
4732 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4734 <para>Boolean.</para>
4739 <term>Parameter:</term>
4751 It is safe and recommended to leave this on.
4757 <term>Example usage:</term>
4760 <screen>+hide-forwarded-for-headers</screen>
4768 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4769 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-from-header">
4770 <title>hide-from-header</title>
4774 <term>Typical use:</term>
4776 <para>Keep your (old and ill) browser from telling web servers your email address</para>
4781 <term>Effect:</term>
4784 Deletes any existing <quote>From:</quote> HTTP header, or replaces it with the
4792 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4794 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4799 <term>Parameter:</term>
4802 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
4811 The keyword <quote>block</quote> will completely remove the header
4812 (not to be confused with the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>
4816 Alternately, you can specify any value you prefer to be sent to the web
4817 server. If you do, it is a matter of fairness not to use any address that
4818 is actually used by a real person.
4821 This action is rarely needed, as modern web browsers don't send
4822 <quote>From:</quote> headers anymore.
4828 <term>Example usage:</term>
4831 <screen>+hide-from-header{block}</screen> or
4832 <screen>+hide-from-header{spam-me-senseless@sittingduck.example.com}</screen>
4840 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4841 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-referrer">
4842 <title>hide-referrer</title>
4843 <anchor id="hide-referer">
4846 <term>Typical use:</term>
4848 <para>Conceal which link you followed to get to a particular site</para>
4853 <term>Effect:</term>
4856 Deletes the <quote>Referer:</quote> (sic) HTTP header from the client request,
4857 or replaces it with a forged one.
4864 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4866 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4871 <term>Parameter:</term>
4875 <para><quote>conditional-block</quote> to delete the header completely if the host has changed.</para>
4878 <para><quote>conditional-forge</quote> to forge the header if the host has changed.</para>
4881 <para><quote>block</quote> to delete the header unconditionally.</para>
4884 <para><quote>forge</quote> to pretend to be coming from the homepage of the server we are talking to.</para>
4887 <para>Any other string to set a user defined referrer.</para>
4897 <literal>conditional-block</literal> is the only parameter,
4898 that isn't easily detected in the server's log file. If it blocks the
4899 referrer, the request will look like the visitor used a bookmark or
4900 typed in the address directly.
4903 Leaving the referrer unmodified for requests on the same host
4904 allows the server owner to see the visitor's <quote>click path</quote>,
4905 but in most cases she could also get that information by comparing
4906 other parts of the log file: for example the User-Agent if it isn't
4907 a very common one, or the user's IP address if it doesn't change between
4911 Always blocking the referrer, or using a custom one, can lead to
4912 failures on servers that check the referrer before they answer any
4913 requests, in an attempt to prevent their content from being
4914 embedded or linked to elsewhere.
4917 Both <literal>conditional-block</literal> and <literal>forge</literal>
4918 will work with referrer checks, as long as content and valid referring page
4919 are on the same host. Most of the time that's the case.
4922 <literal>hide-referer</literal> is an alternate spelling of
4923 <literal>hide-referrer</literal> and the two can be can be freely
4924 substituted with each other. (<quote>referrer</quote> is the
4925 correct English spelling, however the HTTP specification has a bug - it
4926 requires it to be spelled as <quote>referer</quote>.)
4932 <term>Example usage:</term>
4935 <screen>+hide-referrer{forge}</screen> or
4936 <screen>+hide-referrer{http://www.yahoo.com/}</screen>
4944 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4945 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-user-agent">
4946 <title>hide-user-agent</title>
4950 <term>Typical use:</term>
4952 <para>Try to conceal your type of browser and client operating system</para>
4957 <term>Effect:</term>
4960 Replaces the value of the <quote>User-Agent:</quote> HTTP header
4961 in client requests with the specified value.
4968 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4970 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4975 <term>Parameter:</term>
4978 Any user-defined string.
4988 This can lead to problems on web sites that depend on looking at this header in
4989 order to customize their content for different browsers (which, by the
4990 way, is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> the right thing to do: good web sites
4991 work browser-independently).
4995 Using this action in multi-user setups or wherever different types of
4996 browsers will access the same <application>Privoxy</application> is
4997 <emphasis>not recommended</emphasis>. In single-user, single-browser
4998 setups, you might use it to delete your OS version information from
4999 the headers, because it is an invitation to exploit known bugs for your
5000 OS. It is also occasionally useful to forge this in order to access
5001 sites that won't let you in otherwise (though there may be a good
5002 reason in some cases). Example of this: some MSN sites will not
5003 let <application>Mozilla</application> enter, yet forging to a
5004 <application>Netscape 6.1</application> user-agent works just fine.
5005 (Must be just a silly MS goof, I'm sure :-).
5008 More information on known user-agent strings can be found at
5009 <ulink url="http://www.user-agents.org/">http://www.user-agents.org/</ulink>
5011 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_agent">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_agent</ulink>.
5017 <term>Example usage:</term>
5020 <screen>+hide-user-agent{Netscape 6.1 (X11; I; Linux 2.4.18 i686)}</screen>
5028 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5029 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="limit-connect">
5030 <title>limit-connect</title>
5034 <term>Typical use:</term>
5036 <para>Prevent abuse of <application>Privoxy</application> as a TCP proxy relay or disable SSL for untrusted sites</para>
5041 <term>Effect:</term>
5044 Specifies to which ports HTTP CONNECT requests are allowable.
5051 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5053 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5058 <term>Parameter:</term>
5061 A comma-separated list of ports or port ranges (the latter using dashes, with the minimum
5062 defaulting to 0 and the maximum to 65K).
5071 By default, i.e. if no <literal>limit-connect</literal> action applies,
5072 <application>Privoxy</application> allows HTTP CONNECT requests to all
5073 ports. Use <literal>limit-connect</literal> if fine-grained control
5074 is desired for some or all destinations.
5077 The CONNECT methods exists in HTTP to allow access to secure websites
5078 (<quote>https://</quote> URLs) through proxies. It works very simply:
5079 the proxy connects to the server on the specified port, and then
5080 short-circuits its connections to the client and to the remote server.
5081 This means CONNECT-enabled proxies can be used as TCP relays very easily.
5084 <application>Privoxy</application> relays HTTPS traffic without seeing
5085 the decoded content. Websites can leverage this limitation to circumvent &my-app;'s
5086 filters. By specifying an invalid port range you can disable HTTPS entirely.
5092 <term>Example usages:</term>
5094 <!-- I had trouble getting the spacing to look right in my browser -->
5095 <!-- I probably have the wrong font setup, bollocks. -->
5096 <!-- Apparently the emphasis tag uses a proportional font no matter what -->
5098 <screen>+limit-connect{443} # Port 443 is OK.
5099 +limit-connect{80,443} # Ports 80 and 443 are OK.
5100 +limit-connect{-3, 7, 20-100, 500-} # Ports less than 3, 7, 20 to 100 and above 500 are OK.
5101 +limit-connect{-} # All ports are OK
5102 +limit-connect{,} # No HTTPS/SSL traffic is allowed</screen>
5109 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5110 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="prevent-compression">
5111 <title>prevent-compression</title>
5115 <term>Typical use:</term>
5118 Ensure that servers send the content uncompressed, so it can be
5119 passed through <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>s.
5125 <term>Effect:</term>
5128 Removes the Accept-Encoding header which can be used to ask for compressed transfer.
5135 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5137 <para>Boolean.</para>
5142 <term>Parameter:</term>
5154 More and more websites send their content compressed by default, which
5155 is generally a good idea and saves bandwidth. But the <literal><link
5156 linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> and
5157 <literal><link linkend="deanimate-gifs">deanimate-gifs</link></literal>
5158 actions need access to the uncompressed data.
5161 When compiled with zlib support (available since &my-app; 3.0.7), content that should be
5162 filtered is decompressed on-the-fly and you don't have to worry about this action.
5163 If you are using an older &my-app; version, or one that hasn't been compiled with zlib
5164 support, this action can be used to convince the server to send the content uncompressed.
5167 Most text-based instances compress very well, the size is seldom decreased by less than 50%,
5168 for markup-heavy instances like news feeds saving more than 90% of the original size isn't
5172 Not using compression will therefore slow down the transfer, and you should only
5173 enable this action if you really need it. As of &my-app; 3.0.7 it's disabled in all
5174 predefined action settings.
5177 Note that some (rare) ill-configured sites don't handle requests for uncompressed
5178 documents correctly. Broken PHP applications tend to send an empty document body,
5179 some IIS versions only send the beginning of the content. If you enable
5180 <literal>prevent-compression</literal> per default, you might want to add
5181 exceptions for those sites. See the example for how to do that.
5187 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
5191 # Selectively turn off compression, and enable a filter
5193 { +filter{tiny-textforms} +prevent-compression }
5194 # Match only these sites
5199 # Or instead, we could set a universal default:
5201 { +prevent-compression }
5204 # Then maybe make exceptions for broken sites:
5206 { -prevent-compression }
5207 .compusa.com/</screen>
5216 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5217 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="overwrite-last-modified">
5218 <title>overwrite-last-modified</title>
5224 <term>Typical use:</term>
5226 <para>Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.</para>
5231 <term>Effect:</term>
5234 Deletes the <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> HTTP server header or modifies its value.
5241 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5243 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5248 <term>Parameter:</term>
5251 One of the keywords: <quote>block</quote>, <quote>reset-to-request-time</quote>
5252 and <quote>randomize</quote>
5261 Removing the <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header is useful for filter
5262 testing, where you want to force a real reload instead of getting status
5263 code <quote>304</quote>, which would cause the browser to reuse the old
5264 version of the page.
5267 The <quote>randomize</quote> option overwrites the value of the
5268 <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header with a randomly chosen time
5269 between the original value and the current time. In theory the server
5270 could send each document with a different <quote>Last-Modified:</quote>
5271 header to track visits without using cookies. <quote>Randomize</quote>
5272 makes it impossible and the browser can still revalidate cached documents.
5275 <quote>reset-to-request-time</quote> overwrites the value of the
5276 <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header with the current time. You could use
5277 this option together with
5278 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hided-if-modified-since</link></literal>
5279 to further customize your random range.
5282 The preferred parameter here is <quote>randomize</quote>. It is safe
5283 to use, as long as the time settings are more or less correct.
5284 If the server sets the <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header to the time
5285 of the request, the random range becomes zero and the value stays the same.
5286 Therefore you should later randomize it a second time with
5287 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hided-if-modified-since</link></literal>,
5291 It is also recommended to use this action together with
5292 <literal><link linkend="crunch-if-none-match">crunch-if-none-match</link></literal>.
5298 <term>Example usage:</term>
5301 <screen># Let the browser revalidate without being tracked across sessions
5302 { +hide-if-modified-since{-60} \
5303 +overwrite-last-modified{randomize} \
5304 +crunch-if-none-match}
5313 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5314 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="redirect">
5315 <title>redirect</title>
5321 <term>Typical use:</term>
5324 Redirect requests to other sites.
5330 <term>Effect:</term>
5333 Convinces the browser that the requested document has been moved
5334 to another location and the browser should get it from there.
5341 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5343 <para>Parameterized</para>
5348 <term>Parameter:</term>
5351 An absolute URL or a single pcrs command.
5360 Requests to which this action applies are answered with a
5361 HTTP redirect to URLs of your choosing. The new URL is
5362 either provided as parameter, or derived by applying a
5363 single pcrs command to the original URL.
5366 This action will be ignored if you use it together with
5367 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>.
5368 It can be combined with
5369 <literal><link linkend="fast-redirects">fast-redirects{check-decoded-url}</link></literal>
5370 to redirect to a decoded version of a rewritten URL.
5373 Use this action carefully, make sure not to create redirection loops
5374 and be aware that using your own redirects might make it
5375 possible to fingerprint your requests.
5378 In case of problems with your redirects, or simply to watch
5379 them working, enable <link linkend="DEBUG">debug 128</link>.
5385 <term>Example usages:</term>
5388 <screen># Replace example.com's style sheet with another one
5389 { +redirect{http://localhost/css-replacements/example.com.css} }
5390 example.com/stylesheet\.css
5392 # Create a short, easy to remember nickname for a favorite site
5393 # (relies on the browser accept and forward invalid URLs to &my-app;)
5394 { +redirect{http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/actions-file.html} }
5397 # Always use the expanded view for Undeadly.org articles
5398 # (Note the $ at the end of the URL pattern to make sure
5399 # the request for the rewritten URL isn't redirected as well)
5400 {+redirect{s@$@&mode=expanded@}}
5401 undeadly.org/cgi\?action=article&sid=\d*$
5403 # Redirect Google search requests to MSN
5404 {+redirect{s@^http://[^/]*/search\?q=([^&]*).*@http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=$1@}}
5407 # Redirect MSN search requests to Yahoo
5408 {+redirect{s@^http://[^/]*/results\.aspx\?q=([^&]*).*@http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=$1@}}
5409 search.msn.com//results\.aspx\?q=
5411 # Redirect remote requests for this manual
5412 # to the local version delivered by Privoxy
5413 {+redirect{s@^http://www@http://config@}}
5414 www.privoxy.org/user-manual/</screen>
5423 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5424 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="server-header-filter">
5425 <title>server-header-filter</title>
5429 <term>Typical use:</term>
5432 Rewrite or remove single server headers.
5438 <term>Effect:</term>
5441 All server headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly
5442 through the specified regular expression based substitutions.
5449 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
5451 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5456 <term>Parameter:</term>
5459 The name of a server-header filter, as defined in one of the
5460 <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link>.
5469 Server-header filters are applied to each header on its own, not to
5470 all at once. This makes it easier to diagnose problems, but on the downside
5471 you can't write filters that only change header x if header y's value is z.
5472 You can do that by using tags though.
5475 Server-header filters are executed after the other header actions have finished
5476 and use their output as input.
5479 Please refer to the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file chapter</link>
5480 to learn which server-header filters are available by default, and how to
5487 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
5491 {+server-header-filter{html-to-xml}}
5492 example.org/xml-instance-that-is-delivered-as-html
5494 {+server-header-filter{xml-to-html}}
5495 example.org/instance-that-is-delivered-as-xml-but-is-not
5505 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5506 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="server-header-tagger">
5507 <title>server-header-tagger</title>
5511 <term>Typical use:</term>
5514 Enable or disable filters based on the Content-Type header.
5520 <term>Effect:</term>
5523 Server headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly through
5524 the specified regular expression based substitutions, the result is used as
5532 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
5534 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5539 <term>Parameter:</term>
5542 The name of a server-header tagger, as defined in one of the
5543 <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link>.
5552 Server-header taggers are applied to each header on its own,
5553 and as the header isn't modified, each tagger <quote>sees</quote>
5557 Server-header taggers are executed before all other header actions
5558 that modify server headers. Their tags can be used to control
5559 all of the other server-header actions, the content filters
5560 and the crunch actions (<link linkend="redirect">redirect</link>
5561 and <link linkend="block">block</link>).
5564 Obviously crunching based on tags created by server-header taggers
5565 doesn't prevent the request from showing up in the server's log file.
5572 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
5576 # Tag every request with the content type declared by the server
5577 {+server-header-tagger{content-type}}
5588 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5589 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="session-cookies-only">
5590 <title>session-cookies-only</title>
5594 <term>Typical use:</term>
5597 Allow only temporary <quote>session</quote> cookies (for the current
5598 browser session <emphasis>only</emphasis>).
5604 <term>Effect:</term>
5607 Deletes the <quote>expires</quote> field from <quote>Set-Cookie:</quote>
5608 server headers. Most browsers will not store such cookies permanently and
5609 forget them in between sessions.
5616 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5618 <para>Boolean.</para>
5623 <term>Parameter:</term>
5635 This is less strict than <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal> /
5636 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal> and allows you to browse
5637 websites that insist or rely on setting cookies, without compromising your privacy too badly.
5640 Most browsers will not permanently store cookies that have been processed by
5641 <literal>session-cookies-only</literal> and will forget about them between sessions.
5642 This makes profiling cookies useless, but won't break sites which require cookies so
5643 that you can log in for transactions. This is generally turned on for all
5644 sites, and is the recommended setting.
5647 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use <literal>session-cookies-only</literal>
5648 together with <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal> or
5649 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>. If you do, cookies
5650 will be plainly killed.
5653 Note that it is up to the browser how it handles such cookies without an <quote>expires</quote>
5654 field. If you use an exotic browser, you might want to try it out to be sure.
5657 This setting also has no effect on cookies that may have been stored
5658 previously by the browser before starting <application>Privoxy</application>.
5659 These would have to be removed manually.
5662 <application>Privoxy</application> also uses
5663 the <link linkend="filter-content-cookies">content-cookies filter</link>
5664 to block some types of cookies. Content cookies are not effected by
5665 <literal>session-cookies-only</literal>.
5671 <term>Example usage:</term>
5674 <screen>+session-cookies-only</screen>
5682 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5683 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="set-image-blocker">
5684 <title>set-image-blocker</title>
5688 <term>Typical use:</term>
5690 <para>Choose the replacement for blocked images</para>
5695 <term>Effect:</term>
5698 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. If <emphasis>both</emphasis>
5699 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> <emphasis>and</emphasis> <literal><link
5700 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> <emphasis>also</emphasis>
5701 apply, i.e. if the request is to be blocked as an image,
5702 <emphasis>then</emphasis> the parameter of this action decides what will be
5703 sent as a replacement.
5710 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5712 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5717 <term>Parameter:</term>
5722 <quote>pattern</quote> to send a built-in checkerboard pattern image. The image is visually
5723 decent, scales very well, and makes it obvious where banners were busted.
5728 <quote>blank</quote> to send a built-in transparent image. This makes banners disappear
5729 completely, but makes it hard to detect where <application>Privoxy</application> has blocked
5730 images on a given page and complicates troubleshooting if <application>Privoxy</application>
5731 has blocked innocent images, like navigation icons.
5736 <quote><replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable></quote> to
5737 send a redirect to <replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable>. You can redirect
5738 to any image anywhere, even in your local filesystem via <quote>file:///</quote> URL.
5739 (But note that not all browsers support redirecting to a local file system).
5742 A good application of redirects is to use special <application>Privoxy</application>-built-in
5743 URLs, which send the built-in images, as <replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable>.
5744 This has the same visual effect as specifying <quote>blank</quote> or <quote>pattern</quote> in
5745 the first place, but enables your browser to cache the replacement image, instead of requesting
5746 it over and over again.
5757 The URLs for the built-in images are <quote>http://config.privoxy.org/send-banner?type=<replaceable
5758 class="parameter">type</replaceable></quote>, where <replaceable class="parameter">type</replaceable> is
5759 either <quote>blank</quote> or <quote>pattern</quote>.
5762 There is a third (advanced) type, called <quote>auto</quote>. It is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> to be
5763 used in <literal>set-image-blocker</literal>, but meant for use from <link linkend="filter-file">filters</link>.
5764 Auto will select the type of image that would have applied to the referring page, had it been an image.
5770 <term>Example usage:</term>
5776 <screen>+set-image-blocker{pattern}</screen>
5779 Redirect to the BSD daemon:
5782 <screen>+set-image-blocker{http://www.freebsd.org/gifs/dae_up3.gif}</screen>
5785 Redirect to the built-in pattern for better caching:
5788 <screen>+set-image-blocker{http://config.privoxy.org/send-banner?type=pattern}</screen>
5796 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5798 <title>Summary</title>
5800 Note that many of these actions have the potential to cause a page to
5801 misbehave, possibly even not to display at all. There are many ways
5802 a site designer may choose to design his site, and what HTTP header
5803 content, and other criteria, he may depend on. There is no way to have hard
5804 and fast rules for all sites. See the <link
5805 linkend="ACTIONSANAT">Appendix</link> for a brief example on troubleshooting
5811 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5812 <sect2 id="aliases">
5813 <title>Aliases</title>
5815 Custom <quote>actions</quote>, known to <application>Privoxy</application>
5816 as <quote>aliases</quote>, can be defined by combining other actions.
5817 These can in turn be invoked just like the built-in actions.
5818 Currently, an alias name can contain any character except space, tab,
5820 <quote>{</quote> and <quote>}</quote>, but we <emphasis>strongly
5821 recommend</emphasis> that you only use <quote>a</quote> to <quote>z</quote>,
5822 <quote>0</quote> to <quote>9</quote>, <quote>+</quote>, and <quote>-</quote>.
5823 Alias names are not case sensitive, and are not required to start with a
5824 <quote>+</quote> or <quote>-</quote> sign, since they are merely textually
5828 Aliases can be used throughout the actions file, but they <emphasis>must be
5829 defined in a special section at the top of the file!</emphasis>
5830 And there can only be one such section per actions file. Each actions file may
5831 have its own alias section, and the aliases defined in it are only visible
5835 There are two main reasons to use aliases: One is to save typing for frequently
5836 used combinations of actions, the other one is a gain in flexibility: If you
5837 decide once how you want to handle shops by defining an alias called
5838 <quote>shop</quote>, you can later change your policy on shops in
5839 <emphasis>one</emphasis> place, and your changes will take effect everywhere
5840 in the actions file where the <quote>shop</quote> alias is used. Calling aliases
5841 by their purpose also makes your actions files more readable.
5844 Currently, there is one big drawback to using aliases, though:
5845 <application>Privoxy</application>'s built-in web-based action file
5846 editor honors aliases when reading the actions files, but it expands
5847 them before writing. So the effects of your aliases are of course preserved,
5848 but the aliases themselves are lost when you edit sections that use aliases
5853 Now let's define some aliases...
5858 # Useful custom aliases we can use later.
5860 # Note the (required!) section header line and that this section
5861 # must be at the top of the actions file!
5865 # These aliases just save typing later:
5866 # (Note that some already use other aliases!)
5868 +crunch-all-cookies = +<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> +<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
5869 -crunch-all-cookies = -<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> -<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
5870 +block-as-image = +block{Blocked image.} +handle-as-image
5871 allow-all-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> -<link linkend="FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</link>
5873 # These aliases define combinations of actions
5874 # that are useful for certain types of sites:
5876 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>
5878 shop = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{all-popups}</link>
5880 # Short names for other aliases, for really lazy people ;-)
5882 c0 = +crunch-all-cookies
5883 c1 = -crunch-all-cookies</screen>
5887 ...and put them to use. These sections would appear in the lower part of an
5888 actions file and define exceptions to the default actions (as specified further
5889 up for the <quote>/</quote> pattern):
5894 # These sites are either very complex or very keen on
5895 # user data and require minimal interference to work:
5898 .office.microsoft.com
5899 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com
5900 # Gmail is really mail.google.com, not gmail.com
5904 # Allow cookies (for setting and retrieving your customer data)
5908 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
5911 # These shops require pop-ups:
5913 {-filter{all-popups} -filter{unsolicited-popups}}
5915 .overclockers.co.uk</screen>
5919 Aliases like <quote>shop</quote> and <quote>fragile</quote> are typically used for
5920 <quote>problem</quote> sites that require more than one action to be disabled
5921 in order to function properly.
5927 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5928 <sect2 id="act-examples">
5929 <title>Actions Files Tutorial</title>
5931 The above chapters have shown <link linkend="actions-file">which actions files
5932 there are and how they are organized</link>, how actions are <link
5933 linkend="actions">specified</link> and <link linkend="actions-apply">applied
5934 to URLs</link>, how <link linkend="af-patterns">patterns</link> work, and how to
5935 define and use <link linkend="aliases">aliases</link>. Now, let's look at an
5936 example <filename>default.action</filename> and <filename>user.action</filename>
5937 file and see how all these pieces come together:
5940 <sect3><title>default.action</title>
5943 Every config file should start with a short comment stating its purpose:
5947 <screen># Sample default.action file <ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net></screen>
5951 Then, since this is the <filename>default.action</filename> file, the
5952 first section is a special section for internal use that you needn't
5953 change or worry about:
5958 ##########################################################################
5959 # Settings -- Don't change! For internal Privoxy use ONLY.
5960 ##########################################################################
5963 for-privoxy-version=3.0</screen>
5967 After that comes the (optional) alias section. We'll use the example
5968 section from the above <link linkend="aliases">chapter on aliases</link>,
5969 that also explains why and how aliases are used:
5974 ##########################################################################
5976 ##########################################################################
5979 # These aliases just save typing later:
5980 # (Note that some already use other aliases!)
5982 +crunch-all-cookies = +<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> +<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
5983 -crunch-all-cookies = -<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> -<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
5984 +block-as-image = +block{Blocked image.} +handle-as-image
5985 mercy-for-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> -<link linkend="FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</link>
5987 # These aliases define combinations of actions
5988 # that are useful for certain types of sites:
5990 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>
5991 shop = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{all-popups}</link></screen>
5995 Now come the regular sections, i.e. sets of actions, accompanied
5996 by URL patterns to which they apply. Remember <emphasis>all actions
5997 are disabled when matching starts</emphasis>, so we have to explicitly
5998 enable the ones we want.
6002 The first regular section is probably the most important. It has only
6003 one pattern, <quote><literal>/</literal></quote>, but this pattern
6004 <link linkend="af-patterns">matches all URLs</link>. Therefore, the
6005 set of actions used in this <quote>default</quote> section <emphasis>will
6006 be applied to all requests as a start</emphasis>. It can be partly or
6007 wholly overridden by later matches further down this file, or in user.action,
6008 but it will still be largely responsible for your overall browsing
6013 Again, at the start of matching, all actions are disabled, so there is
6014 no need to disable any actions here. (Remember: a <quote>+</quote>
6015 preceding the action name enables the action, a <quote>-</quote> disables!).
6016 Also note how this long line has been made more readable by splitting it into
6017 multiple lines with line continuation.
6022 ##########################################################################
6023 # "Defaults" section:
6024 ##########################################################################
6026 +<link linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS">deanimate-gifs</link> \
6027 +<link linkend="FILTER-HTML-ANNOYANCES">filter{html-annoyances}</link> \
6028 +<link linkend="FILTER-REFRESH-TAGS">filter{refresh-tags}</link> \
6029 +<link linkend="FILTER-WEBBUGS">filter{webbugs}</link> \
6030 +<link linkend="FILTER-IE-EXPLOITS">filter{ie-exploits}</link> \
6031 +<link linkend="HIDE-FORWARDED-FOR-HEADERS">hide-forwarded-for-headers</link> \
6032 +<link linkend="HIDE-FROM-HEADER">hide-from-header{block}</link> \
6033 +<link linkend="HIDE-REFERER">hide-referrer{forge}</link> \
6034 +<link linkend="PREVENT-COMPRESSION">prevent-compression</link> \
6035 +<link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> \
6036 +<link linkend="SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER">set-image-blocker{pattern}</link> \
6038 / # forward slash will match *all* potential URL patterns.</screen>
6042 The default behavior is now set.
6044 This needs rewording, but it can wait for now.
6047 Note that some actions, like not hiding
6048 the user agent, are part of a <quote>general policy</quote> that applies
6049 universally and won't get any exceptions defined later. Other choices,
6050 like not blocking (which is <emphasis>understandably</emphasis> the
6051 default!) need exceptions, i.e. we need to specify explicitly what we
6052 want to block in later sections.
6057 The first of our specialized sections is concerned with <quote>fragile</quote>
6058 sites, i.e. sites that require minimum interference, because they are either
6059 very complex or very keen on tracking you (and have mechanisms in place that
6060 make them unusable for people who avoid being tracked). We will simply use
6061 our pre-defined <literal>fragile</literal> alias instead of stating the list
6062 of actions explicitly:
6067 ##########################################################################
6068 # Exceptions for sites that'll break under the default action set:
6069 ##########################################################################
6071 # "Fragile" Use a minimum set of actions for these sites (see alias above):
6074 .office.microsoft.com # surprise, surprise!
6075 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com
6076 mail.google.com</screen>
6080 Shopping sites are not as fragile, but they typically
6081 require cookies to log in, and pop-up windows for shopping
6082 carts or item details. Again, we'll use a pre-defined alias:
6091 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
6093 .scan.co.uk</screen>
6096 <!-- No longer needed BEGIN OF COMMENTED OUT BLOCK
6099 Then, there are sites which rely on pop-up windows (yuck!) to work.
6100 Since we made pop-up-killing our default above, we need to make exceptions
6101 now. <ulink url="http://www.mozilla.org/">Mozilla</ulink> users, who
6102 can turn on smart handling of unwanted pop-ups in their browsers, can
6104 -<literal><link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{popups}</link></literal> above
6105 and hence don't need this section. Anyway, disabling an already disabled
6106 action doesn't hurt, so we'll define our exceptions regardless of what was
6107 chosen in the defaults section:
6112 # These sites require pop-ups too :(
6114 { -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{popups}</link> }
6117 .deutsche-bank-24.de</screen>
6120 END OF COMMENTED OUT BLOCK -->
6123 The <literal><link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link></literal>
6124 action, which we enabled per default above, breaks some sites. So disable
6125 it for popular sites where we know it misbehaves:
6130 { -<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link> }
6134 .altavista.com/.*(like|url|link):http
6135 .altavista.com/trans.*urltext=http
6136 .nytimes.com</screen>
6140 It is important that <application>Privoxy</application> knows which
6141 URLs belong to images, so that <emphasis>if</emphasis> they are to
6142 be blocked, a substitute image can be sent, rather than an HTML page.
6143 Contacting the remote site to find out is not an option, since it
6144 would destroy the loading time advantage of banner blocking, and it
6145 would feed the advertisers (in terms of money <emphasis>and</emphasis>
6146 information). We can mark any URL as an image with the <literal><link
6147 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> action,
6148 and marking all URLs that end in a known image file extension is a
6154 ##########################################################################
6156 ##########################################################################
6158 # Define which file types will be treated as images, in case they get
6159 # blocked further down this file:
6161 { +<link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">handle-as-image</link> }
6162 /.*\.(gif|jpe?g|png|bmp|ico)$</screen>
6166 And then there are known banner sources. They often use scripts to
6167 generate the banners, so it won't be visible from the URL that the
6168 request is for an image. Hence we block them <emphasis>and</emphasis>
6169 mark them as images in one go, with the help of our
6170 <literal>+block-as-image</literal> alias defined above. (We could of
6171 course just as well use <literal>+<link linkend="block">block</link>
6172 +<link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> here.)
6173 Remember that the type of the replacement image is chosen by the
6174 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>
6175 action. Since all URLs have matched the default section with its
6176 <literal>+<link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link>{pattern}</literal>
6177 action before, it still applies and needn't be repeated:
6182 # Known ad generators:
6187 .ad.*.doubleclick.net
6188 .a.yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$
6189 .a[0-9].yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$
6195 One of the most important jobs of <application>Privoxy</application>
6196 is to block banners. Many of these can be <quote>blocked</quote>
6197 by the <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link>{banners-by-size}</literal>
6198 action, which we enabled above, and which deletes the references to banner
6199 images from the pages while they are loaded, so the browser doesn't request
6200 them anymore, and hence they don't need to be blocked here. But this naturally
6201 doesn't catch all banners, and some people choose not to use filters, so we
6202 need a comprehensive list of patterns for banner URLs here, and apply the
6203 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action to them.
6206 First comes many generic patterns, which do most of the work, by
6207 matching typical domain and path name components of banners. Then comes
6208 a list of individual patterns for specific sites, which is omitted here
6209 to keep the example short:
6214 ##########################################################################
6215 # Block these fine banners:
6216 ##########################################################################
6217 { <link linkend="BLOCK">+block{Banner ads.}</link> }
6225 /.*count(er)?\.(pl|cgi|exe|dll|asp|php[34]?)
6226 /(?:.*/)?(publicite|werbung|rekla(ma|me|am)|annonse|maino(kset|nta|s)?)/
6228 # Site-specific patterns (abbreviated):
6230 .hitbox.com</screen>
6234 It's quite remarkable how many advertisers actually call their banner
6235 servers ads.<replaceable>company</replaceable>.com, or call the directory
6236 in which the banners are stored simply <quote>banners</quote>. So the above
6237 generic patterns are surprisingly effective.
6240 But being very generic, they necessarily also catch URLs that we don't want
6241 to block. The pattern <literal>.*ads.</literal> e.g. catches
6242 <quote>nasty-<emphasis>ads</emphasis>.nasty-corp.com</quote> as intended,
6243 but also <quote>downlo<emphasis>ads</emphasis>.sourcefroge.net</quote> or
6244 <quote><emphasis>ads</emphasis>l.some-provider.net.</quote> So here come some
6245 well-known exceptions to the <literal>+<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal>
6249 Note that these are exceptions to exceptions from the default! Consider the URL
6250 <quote>downloads.sourcefroge.net</quote>: Initially, all actions are deactivated,
6251 so it wouldn't get blocked. Then comes the defaults section, which matches the
6252 URL, but just deactivates the <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal>
6253 action once again. Then it matches <literal>.*ads.</literal>, an exception to the
6254 general non-blocking policy, and suddenly
6255 <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">+block</link></literal> applies. And now, it'll match
6256 <literal>.*loads.</literal>, where <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">-block</link></literal>
6257 applies, so (unless it matches <emphasis>again</emphasis> further down) it ends up
6258 with no <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal> action applying.
6263 ##########################################################################
6264 # Save some innocent victims of the above generic block patterns:
6265 ##########################################################################
6269 { -<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> }
6270 adv[io]*. # (for advogato.org and advice.*)
6271 adsl. # (has nothing to do with ads)
6272 adobe. # (has nothing to do with ads either)
6273 ad[ud]*. # (adult.* and add.*)
6274 .edu # (universities don't host banners (yet!))
6275 .*loads. # (downloads, uploads etc)
6283 www.globalintersec.com/adv # (adv = advanced)
6284 www.ugu.com/sui/ugu/adv</screen>
6288 Filtering source code can have nasty side effects,
6289 so make an exception for our friends at sourceforge.net,
6290 and all paths with <quote>cvs</quote> in them. Note that
6291 <literal>-<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link></literal>
6292 disables <emphasis>all</emphasis> filters in one fell swoop!
6297 # Don't filter code!
6299 { -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> }
6304 .sourceforge.net</screen>
6308 The actual <filename>default.action</filename> is of course much more
6309 comprehensive, but we hope this example made clear how it works.
6314 <sect3><title>user.action</title>
6317 So far we are painting with a broad brush by setting general policies,
6318 which would be a reasonable starting point for many people. Now,
6319 you might want to be more specific and have customized rules that
6320 are more suitable to your personal habits and preferences. These would
6321 be for narrowly defined situations like your ISP or your bank, and should
6322 be placed in <filename>user.action</filename>, which is parsed after all other
6323 actions files and hence has the last word, over-riding any previously
6324 defined actions. <filename>user.action</filename> is also a
6325 <emphasis>safe</emphasis> place for your personal settings, since
6326 <filename>default.action</filename> is actively maintained by the
6327 <application>Privoxy</application> developers and you'll probably want
6328 to install updated versions from time to time.
6332 So let's look at a few examples of things that one might typically do in
6333 <filename>user.action</filename>:
6337 <!-- brief sample user.action here -->
6341 # My user.action file. <fred@example.com></screen>
6345 As <link linkend="aliases">aliases</link> are local to the actions
6346 file that they are defined in, you can't use the ones from
6347 <filename>default.action</filename>, unless you repeat them here:
6352 # Aliases are local to the file they are defined in.
6353 # (Re-)define aliases for this file:
6357 # These aliases just save typing later, and the alias names should
6358 # be self explanatory.
6360 +crunch-all-cookies = +crunch-incoming-cookies +crunch-outgoing-cookies
6361 -crunch-all-cookies = -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-cookies
6362 allow-all-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -session-cookies-only
6363 allow-popups = -filter{all-popups}
6364 +block-as-image = +block{Blocked as image.} +handle-as-image
6365 -block-as-image = -block
6367 # These aliases define combinations of actions that are useful for
6368 # certain types of sites:
6370 fragile = -block -crunch-all-cookies -filter -fast-redirects -hide-referrer
6371 shop = -crunch-all-cookies allow-popups
6373 # Allow ads for selected useful free sites:
6375 allow-ads = -block -filter{banners-by-size} -filter{banners-by-link}
6377 # Alias for specific file types that are text, but might have conflicting
6378 # MIME types. We want the browser to force these to be text documents.
6379 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>
6384 Say you have accounts on some sites that you visit regularly, and
6385 you don't want to have to log in manually each time. So you'd like
6386 to allow persistent cookies for these sites. The
6387 <literal>allow-all-cookies</literal> alias defined above does exactly
6388 that, i.e. it disables crunching of cookies in any direction, and the
6389 processing of cookies to make them only temporary.
6394 { allow-all-cookies }
6398 .redhat.com</screen>
6402 Your bank is allergic to some filter, but you don't know which, so you disable them all:
6407 { -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> }
6408 .your-home-banking-site.com</screen>
6412 Some file types you may not want to filter for various reasons:
6417 # Technical documentation is likely to contain strings that might
6418 # erroneously get altered by the JavaScript-oriented filters:
6423 # And this stupid host sends streaming video with a wrong MIME type,
6424 # so that Privoxy thinks it is getting HTML and starts filtering:
6426 stupid-server.example.com/</screen>
6430 Example of a simple <link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> action. Say you've
6431 seen an ad on your favourite page on example.com that you want to get rid of.
6432 You have right-clicked the image, selected <quote>copy image location</quote>
6433 and pasted the URL below while removing the leading http://, into a
6434 <literal>{ +block{} }</literal> section. Note that <literal>{ +handle-as-image
6435 }</literal> need not be specified, since all URLs ending in
6436 <literal>.gif</literal> will be tagged as images by the general rules as set
6437 in default.action anyway:
6442 { +<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link>{Nasty ads.} }
6443 www.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor\.gif
6444 another.example.net/more/junk/here/</screen>
6448 The URLs of dynamically generated banners, especially from large banner
6449 farms, often don't use the well-known image file name extensions, which
6450 makes it impossible for <application>Privoxy</application> to guess
6451 the file type just by looking at the URL.
6452 You can use the <literal>+block-as-image</literal> alias defined above for
6454 Note that objects which match this rule but then turn out NOT to be an
6455 image are typically rendered as a <quote>broken image</quote> icon by the
6456 browser. Use cautiously.
6465 ar.atwola.com/</screen>
6469 Now you noticed that the default configuration breaks Forbes Magazine,
6470 but you were too lazy to find out which action is the culprit, and you
6471 were again too lazy to give <link linkend="contact">feedback</link>, so
6472 you just used the <literal>fragile</literal> alias on the site, and
6473 -- <emphasis>whoa!</emphasis> -- it worked. The <literal>fragile</literal>
6474 aliases disables those actions that are most likely to break a site. Also,
6475 good for testing purposes to see if it is <application>Privoxy</application>
6476 that is causing the problem or not. We later find other regular sites
6477 that misbehave, and add those to our personalized list of troublemakers:
6485 .mybank.com</screen>
6489 You like the <quote>fun</quote> text replacements in <filename>default.filter</filename>,
6490 but it is disabled in the distributed actions file.
6491 So you'd like to turn it on in your private,
6492 update-safe config, once and for all:
6497 { +<link linkend="filter-fun">filter{fun}</link> }
6498 / # For ALL sites!</screen>
6502 Note that the above is not really a good idea: There are exceptions
6503 to the filters in <filename>default.action</filename> for things that
6504 really shouldn't be filtered, like code on CVS->Web interfaces. Since
6505 <filename>user.action</filename> has the last word, these exceptions
6506 won't be valid for the <quote>fun</quote> filtering specified here.
6510 You might also worry about how your favourite free websites are
6511 funded, and find that they rely on displaying banner advertisements
6512 to survive. So you might want to specifically allow banners for those
6513 sites that you feel provide value to you:
6525 Note that <literal>allow-ads</literal> has been aliased to
6526 <literal>-<link linkend="block">block</link></literal>,
6527 <literal>-<link linkend="filter-banners-by-size">filter{banners-by-size}</link></literal>, and
6528 <literal>-<link linkend="filter-banners-by-link">filter{banners-by-link}</link></literal> above.
6532 Invoke another alias here to force an over-ride of the MIME type <literal>
6533 application/x-sh</literal> which typically would open a download type
6534 dialog. In my case, I want to look at the shell script, and then I can save
6535 it should I choose to.
6545 <filename>user.action</filename> is generally the best place to define
6546 exceptions and additions to the default policies of
6547 <filename>default.action</filename>. Some actions are safe to have their
6548 default policies set here though. So let's set a default policy to have a
6549 <quote>blank</quote> image as opposed to the checkerboard pattern for
6550 <emphasis>ALL</emphasis> sites. <quote>/</quote> of course matches all URL
6556 { +<link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker{blank}</link> }
6557 / # ALL sites</screen>
6563 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
6567 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
6569 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
6571 <sect1 id="filter-file">
6572 <title>Filter Files</title>
6575 On-the-fly text substitutions need
6576 to be defined in a <quote>filter file</quote>. Once defined, they
6577 can then be invoked as an <quote>action</quote>.
6581 &my-app; supports three different filter actions:
6582 <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> to
6583 rewrite the content that is send to the client,
6584 <literal><link linkend="client-header-filter">client-header-filter</link></literal>
6585 to rewrite headers that are send by the client, and
6586 <literal><link linkend="server-header-filter">server-header-filter</link></literal>
6587 to rewrite headers that are send by the server.
6591 &my-app; also supports two tagger actions:
6592 <literal><link linkend="client-header-tagger">client-header-tagger</link></literal>
6594 <literal><link linkend="server-header-tagger">server-header-tagger</link></literal>.
6595 Taggers and filters use the same syntax in the filter files, the difference
6596 is that taggers don't modify the text they are filtering, but use a rewritten
6597 version of the filtered text as tag. The tags can then be used to change the
6598 applying actions through sections with <link linkend="tag-pattern">tag-patterns</link>.
6603 Multiple filter files can be defined through the <literal> <link
6604 linkend="filterfile">filterfile</link></literal> config directive. The filters
6605 as supplied by the developers are located in
6606 <filename>default.filter</filename>. It is recommended that any locally
6607 defined or modified filters go in a separately defined file such as
6608 <filename>user.filter</filename>.
6612 Common tasks for content filters are to eliminate common annoyances in
6613 HTML and JavaScript, such as pop-up windows,
6614 exit consoles, crippled windows without navigation tools, the
6615 infamous <BLINK> tag etc, to suppress images with certain
6616 width and height attributes (standard banner sizes or web-bugs),
6617 or just to have fun.
6621 Enabled content filters are applied to any content whose
6622 <quote>Content Type</quote> header is recognised as a sign
6623 of text-based content, with the exception of <literal>text/plain</literal>.
6624 Use the <link linkend="FORCE-TEXT-MODE">force-text-mode</link> action
6625 to also filter other content.
6629 Substitutions are made at the source level, so if you want to <quote>roll
6630 your own</quote> filters, you should first be familiar with HTML syntax,
6631 and, of course, regular expressions.
6635 Just like the <link linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>, the
6636 filter file is organized in sections, which are called <emphasis>filters</emphasis>
6637 here. Each filter consists of a heading line, that starts with one of the
6638 <emphasis>keywords</emphasis> <literal>FILTER:</literal>,
6639 <literal>CLIENT-HEADER-FILTER:</literal> or <literal>SERVER-HEADER-FILTER:</literal>
6640 followed by the filter's <emphasis>name</emphasis>, and a short (one line)
6641 <emphasis>description</emphasis> of what it does. Below that line
6642 come the <emphasis>jobs</emphasis>, i.e. lines that define the actual
6643 text substitutions. By convention, the name of a filter
6644 should describe what the filter <emphasis>eliminates</emphasis>. The
6645 comment is used in the <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">web-based
6646 user interface</ulink>.
6650 Once a filter called <replaceable>name</replaceable> has been defined
6651 in the filter file, it can be invoked by using an action of the form
6652 +<literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link>{<replaceable>name</replaceable>}</literal>
6653 in any <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link>.
6657 Filter definitions start with a header line that contains the filter
6658 type, the filter name and the filter description.
6659 A content filter header line for a filter called <quote>foo</quote> could look
6664 <screen>FILTER: foo Replace all "foo" with "bar"</screen>
6668 Below that line, and up to the next header line, come the jobs that
6669 define what text replacements the filter executes. They are specified
6670 in a syntax that imitates <ulink url="http://www.perl.org/">Perl</ulink>'s
6671 <literal>s///</literal> operator. If you are familiar with Perl, you
6672 will find this to be quite intuitive, and may want to look at the
6673 PCRS documentation for the subtle differences to Perl behaviour. Most
6674 notably, the non-standard option letter <literal>U</literal> is supported,
6675 which turns the default to ungreedy matching.
6680 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
6681 Expressions</quote></ulink>, you might want to take a look at
6682 the <link linkend="regex">Appendix on regular expressions</link>, and
6683 see the <ulink url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html">Perl
6685 <ulink url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlop.html">the
6686 <literal>s///</literal> operator's syntax</ulink> and <ulink
6687 url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html">Perl-style regular
6688 expressions</ulink> in general.
6689 The below examples might also help to get you started.
6693 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
6695 <sect2><title>Filter File Tutorial</title>
6697 Now, let's complete our <quote>foo</quote> content filter. We have already defined
6698 the heading, but the jobs are still missing. Since all it does is to replace
6699 <quote>foo</quote> with <quote>bar</quote>, there is only one (trivial) job
6704 <screen>s/foo/bar/</screen>
6708 But wait! Didn't the comment say that <emphasis>all</emphasis> occurrences
6709 of <quote>foo</quote> should be replaced? Our current job will only take
6710 care of the first <quote>foo</quote> on each page. For global substitution,
6711 we'll need to add the <literal>g</literal> option:
6715 <screen>s/foo/bar/g</screen>
6719 Our complete filter now looks like this:
6722 <screen>FILTER: foo Replace all "foo" with "bar"
6723 s/foo/bar/g</screen>
6727 Let's look at some real filters for more interesting examples. Here you see
6728 a filter that protects against some common annoyances that arise from JavaScript
6729 abuse. Let's look at its jobs one after the other:
6735 FILTER: js-annoyances Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse
6737 # Get rid of JavaScript referrer tracking. Test page: http://www.randomoddness.com/untitled.htm
6739 s|(<script.*)document\.referrer(.*</script>)|$1"Not Your Business!"$2|Usg</screen>
6743 Following the header line and a comment, you see the job. Note that it uses
6744 <literal>|</literal> as the delimiter instead of <literal>/</literal>, because
6745 the pattern contains a forward slash, which would otherwise have to be escaped
6746 by a backslash (<literal>\</literal>).
6750 Now, let's examine the pattern: it starts with the text <literal><script.*</literal>
6751 enclosed in parentheses. Since the dot matches any character, and <literal>*</literal>
6752 means: <quote>Match an arbitrary number of the element left of myself</quote>, this
6753 matches <quote><script</quote>, followed by <emphasis>any</emphasis> text, i.e.
6754 it matches the whole page, from the start of the first <script> tag.
6758 That's more than we want, but the pattern continues: <literal>document\.referrer</literal>
6759 matches only the exact string <quote>document.referrer</quote>. The dot needed to
6760 be <emphasis>escaped</emphasis>, i.e. preceded by a backslash, to take away its
6761 special meaning as a joker, and make it just a regular dot. So far, the meaning is:
6762 Match from the start of the first <script> tag in a the page, up to, and including,
6763 the text <quote>document.referrer</quote>, if <emphasis>both</emphasis> are present
6764 in the page (and appear in that order).
6768 But there's still more pattern to go. The next element, again enclosed in parentheses,
6769 is <literal>.*</script></literal>. You already know what <literal>.*</literal>
6770 means, so the whole pattern translates to: Match from the start of the first <script>
6771 tag in a page to the end of the last <script> tag, provided that the text
6772 <quote>document.referrer</quote> appears somewhere in between.
6776 This is still not the whole story, since we have ignored the options and the parentheses:
6777 The portions of the page matched by sub-patterns that are enclosed in parentheses, will be
6778 remembered and be available through the variables <literal>$1, $2, ...</literal> in
6779 the substitute. The <literal>U</literal> option switches to ungreedy matching, which means
6780 that the first <literal>.*</literal> in the pattern will only <quote>eat up</quote> all
6781 text in between <quote><script</quote> and the <emphasis>first</emphasis> occurrence
6782 of <quote>document.referrer</quote>, and that the second <literal>.*</literal> will
6783 only span the text up to the <emphasis>first</emphasis> <quote></script></quote>
6784 tag. Furthermore, the <literal>s</literal> option says that the match may span
6785 multiple lines in the page, and the <literal>g</literal> option again means that the
6786 substitution is global.
6790 So, to summarize, the pattern means: Match all scripts that contain the text
6791 <quote>document.referrer</quote>. Remember the parts of the script from
6792 (and including) the start tag up to (and excluding) the string
6793 <quote>document.referrer</quote> as <literal>$1</literal>, and the part following
6794 that string, up to and including the closing tag, as <literal>$2</literal>.
6798 Now the pattern is deciphered, but wasn't this about substituting things? So
6799 lets look at the substitute: <literal>$1"Not Your Business!"$2</literal> is
6800 easy to read: The text remembered as <literal>$1</literal>, followed by
6801 <literal>"Not Your Business!"</literal> (<emphasis>including</emphasis>
6802 the quotation marks!), followed by the text remembered as <literal>$2</literal>.
6803 This produces an exact copy of the original string, with the middle part
6804 (the <quote>document.referrer</quote>) replaced by <literal>"Not Your
6805 Business!"</literal>.
6809 The whole job now reads: Replace <quote>document.referrer</quote> by
6810 <literal>"Not Your Business!"</literal> wherever it appears inside a
6811 <script> tag. Note that this job won't break JavaScript syntax,
6812 since both the original and the replacement are syntactically valid
6813 string objects. The script just won't have access to the referrer
6814 information anymore.
6818 We'll show you two other jobs from the JavaScript taming department, but
6819 this time only point out the constructs of special interest:
6824 # The status bar is for displaying link targets, not pointless blahblah
6826 s/window\.status\s*=\s*(['"]).*?\1/dUmMy=1/ig</screen>
6830 <literal>\s</literal> stands for whitespace characters (space, tab, newline,
6831 carriage return, form feed), so that <literal>\s*</literal> means: <quote>zero
6832 or more whitespace</quote>. The <literal>?</literal> in <literal>.*?</literal>
6833 makes this matching of arbitrary text ungreedy. (Note that the <literal>U</literal>
6834 option is not set). The <literal>['"]</literal> construct means: <quote>a single
6835 <emphasis>or</emphasis> a double quote</quote>. Finally, <literal>\1</literal> is
6836 a back-reference to the first parenthesis just like <literal>$1</literal> above,
6837 with the difference that in the <emphasis>pattern</emphasis>, a backslash indicates
6838 a back-reference, whereas in the <emphasis>substitute</emphasis>, it's the dollar.
6842 So what does this job do? It replaces assignments of single- or double-quoted
6843 strings to the <quote>window.status</quote> object with a dummy assignment
6844 (using a variable name that is hopefully odd enough not to conflict with
6845 real variables in scripts). Thus, it catches many cases where e.g. pointless
6846 descriptions are displayed in the status bar instead of the link target when
6847 you move your mouse over links.
6852 # Kill OnUnload popups. Yummy. Test: http://www.zdnet.com/zdsubs/yahoo/tree/yfs.html
6854 s/(<body [^>]*)onunload(.*>)/$1never$2/iU</screen>
6859 <ulink url="http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-DOM-Level-2-Events-20001113/events.html#Events-eventgroupings-htmlevents">OnUnload
6860 event binding</ulink> in the HTML DOM was a <emphasis>CRIME</emphasis>.
6861 When I close a browser window, I want it to close and die. Basta.
6862 This job replaces the <quote>onunload</quote> attribute in
6863 <quote><body></quote> tags with the dummy word <literal>never</literal>.
6864 Note that the <literal>i</literal> option makes the pattern matching
6865 case-insensitive. Also note that ungreedy matching alone doesn't always guarantee
6866 a minimal match: In the first parenthesis, we had to use <literal>[^>]*</literal>
6867 instead of <literal>.*</literal> to prevent the match from exceeding the
6868 <body> tag if it doesn't contain <quote>OnUnload</quote>, but the page's
6873 The last example is from the fun department:
6878 FILTER: fun Fun text replacements
6880 # Spice the daily news:
6882 s/microsoft(?!\.com)/MicroSuck/ig</screen>
6886 Note the <literal>(?!\.com)</literal> part (a so-called negative lookahead)
6887 in the job's pattern, which means: Don't match, if the string
6888 <quote>.com</quote> appears directly following <quote>microsoft</quote>
6889 in the page. This prevents links to microsoft.com from being trashed, while
6890 still replacing the word everywhere else.
6895 # Buzzword Bingo (example for extended regex syntax)
6897 s* industry[ -]leading \
6899 | customer[ -]focused \
6900 | market[ -]driven \
6901 | award[ -]winning # Comments are OK, too! \
6902 | high[ -]performance \
6903 | solutions[ -]based \
6907 *<font color="red"><b>BINGO!</b></font> \
6912 The <literal>x</literal> option in this job turns on extended syntax, and allows for
6913 e.g. the liberal use of (non-interpreted!) whitespace for nicer formatting.
6921 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
6923 <sect2 id="predefined-filters"><title>The Pre-defined Filters</title>
6927 Note each filter is also listed in the +filter action section above. Please
6928 keep these listings in sync.
6933 The distribution <filename>default.filter</filename> file contains a selection of
6934 pre-defined filters for your convenience:
6939 <term><emphasis>js-annoyances</emphasis></term>
6942 The purpose of this filter is to get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse.
6947 replaces JavaScript references to the browser's referrer information
6948 with the string "Not Your Business!". This compliments the <literal><link
6949 linkend="hide-referrer">hide-referrer</link></literal> action on the content level.
6954 removes the bindings to the DOM's
6955 <ulink url="http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-DOM-Level-2-Events-20001113/events.html#Events-eventgroupings-htmlevents">unload
6956 event</ulink> which we feel has no right to exist and is responsible for most <quote>exit consoles</quote>, i.e.
6957 nasty windows that pop up when you close another one.
6962 removes code that causes new windows to be opened with undesired properties, such as being
6963 full-screen, non-resizeable, without location, status or menu bar etc.
6969 Use with caution. This is an aggressive filter, and can break sites that
6970 rely heavily on JavaScript.
6976 <term><emphasis>js-events</emphasis></term>
6979 This is a very radical measure. It removes virtually all JavaScript event bindings, which
6980 means that scripts can not react to user actions such as mouse movements or clicks, window
6981 resizing etc, anymore. Use with caution!
6984 We <emphasis>strongly discourage</emphasis> using this filter as a default since it breaks
6985 many legitimate scripts. It is meant for use only on extra-nasty sites (should you really
6992 <term><emphasis>html-annoyances</emphasis></term>
6995 This filter will undo many common instances of HTML based abuse.
6998 The <literal>BLINK</literal> and <literal>MARQUEE</literal> tags
6999 are neutralized (yeah baby!), and browser windows will be created as
7000 resizeable (as of course they should be!), and will have location,
7001 scroll and menu bars -- even if specified otherwise.
7007 <term><emphasis>content-cookies</emphasis></term>
7010 Most cookies are set in the HTTP dialog, where they can be intercepted
7012 <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal>
7013 and <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>
7014 actions. But web sites increasingly make use of HTML meta tags and JavaScript
7015 to sneak cookies to the browser on the content level.
7018 This filter disables most HTML and JavaScript code that reads or sets
7019 cookies. It cannot detect all clever uses of these types of code, so it
7020 should not be relied on as an absolute fix. Use it wherever you would also
7021 use the cookie crunch actions.
7027 <term><emphasis>refresh tags</emphasis></term>
7030 Disable any refresh tags if the interval is greater than nine seconds (so
7031 that redirections done via refresh tags are not destroyed). This is useful
7032 for dial-on-demand setups, or for those who find this HTML feature
7039 <term><emphasis>unsolicited-popups</emphasis></term>
7042 This filter attempts to prevent only <quote>unsolicited</quote> pop-up
7043 windows from opening, yet still allow pop-up windows that the user
7044 has explicitly chosen to open. It was added in version 3.0.1,
7045 as an improvement over earlier such filters.
7048 Technical note: The filter works by redefining the window.open JavaScript
7049 function to a dummy function, <literal>PrivoxyWindowOpen()</literal>,
7050 during the loading and rendering phase of each HTML page access, and
7051 restoring the function afterward.
7054 This is recommended only for browsers that cannot perform this function
7055 reliably themselves. And be aware that some sites require such windows
7056 in order to function normally. Use with caution.
7062 <term><emphasis>all-popups</emphasis></term>
7065 Attempt to prevent <emphasis>all</emphasis> pop-up windows from opening.
7066 Note this should be used with even more discretion than the above, since
7067 it is more likely to break some sites that require pop-ups for normal
7068 usage. Use with caution.
7074 <term><emphasis>img-reorder</emphasis></term>
7077 This is a helper filter that has no value if used alone. It makes the
7078 <literal>banners-by-size</literal> and <literal>banners-by-link</literal>
7079 (see below) filters more effective and should be enabled together with them.
7085 <term><emphasis>banners-by-size</emphasis></term>
7088 This filter removes image tags purely based on what size they are. Fortunately
7089 for us, many ads and banner images tend to conform to certain standardized
7090 sizes, which makes this filter quite effective for ad stripping purposes.
7093 Occasionally this filter will cause false positives on images that are not ads,
7094 but just happen to be of one of the standard banner sizes.
7097 Recommended only for those who require extreme ad blocking. The default
7098 block rules should catch 95+% of all ads <emphasis>without</emphasis> this filter enabled.
7104 <term><emphasis>banners-by-link</emphasis></term>
7107 This is an experimental filter that attempts to kill any banners if
7108 their URLs seem to point to known or suspected click trackers. It is currently
7109 not of much value and is not recommended for use by default.
7115 <term><emphasis>webbugs</emphasis></term>
7118 Webbugs are small, invisible images (technically 1X1 GIF images), that
7119 are used to track users across websites, and collect information on them.
7120 As an HTML page is loaded by the browser, an embedded image tag causes the
7121 browser to contact a third-party site, disclosing the tracking information
7122 through the requested URL and/or cookies for that third-party domain, without
7123 the user ever becoming aware of the interaction with the third-party site.
7124 HTML-ized spam also uses a similar technique to verify email addresses.
7127 This filter removes the HTML code that loads such <quote>webbugs</quote>.
7133 <term><emphasis>tiny-textforms</emphasis></term>
7136 A rather special-purpose filter that can be used to enlarge textareas (those
7137 multi-line text boxes in web forms) and turn off hard word wrap in them.
7138 It was written for the sourceforge.net tracker system where such boxes are
7139 a nuisance, but it can be handy on other sites, too.
7142 It is not recommended to use this filter as a default.
7148 <term><emphasis>jumping-windows</emphasis></term>
7151 Many consider windows that move, or resize themselves to be abusive. This filter
7152 neutralizes the related JavaScript code. Note that some sites might not display
7153 or behave as intended when using this filter. Use with caution.
7159 <term><emphasis>frameset-borders</emphasis></term>
7162 Some web designers seem to assume that everyone in the world will view their
7163 web sites using the same browser brand and version, screen resolution etc,
7164 because only that assumption could explain why they'd use static frame sizes,
7165 yet prevent their frames from being resized by the user, should they be too
7166 small to show their whole content.
7169 This filter removes the related HTML code. It should only be applied to sites
7176 <term><emphasis>demoronizer</emphasis></term>
7179 Many Microsoft products that generate HTML use non-standard extensions (read:
7180 violations) of the ISO 8859-1 aka Latin-1 character set. This can cause those
7181 HTML documents to display with errors on standard-compliant platforms.
7184 This filter translates the MS-only characters into Latin-1 equivalents.
7185 It is not necessary when using MS products, and will cause corruption of
7186 all documents that use 8-bit character sets other than Latin-1. It's mostly
7187 worthwhile for Europeans on non-MS platforms, if weird garbage characters
7188 sometimes appear on some pages, or user agents that don't correct for this on
7191 My version of Mozilla (ancient) shows litte square boxes for quote
7192 characters, and apostrophes on moronized pages. So many pages have this, I
7193 can read them fine now. HB 08/27/06
7200 <term><emphasis>shockwave-flash</emphasis></term>
7203 A filter for shockwave haters. As the name suggests, this filter strips code
7204 out of web pages that is used to embed shockwave flash objects.
7212 <term><emphasis>quicktime-kioskmode</emphasis></term>
7215 Change HTML code that embeds Quicktime objects so that kioskmode, which
7216 prevents saving, is disabled.
7222 <term><emphasis>fun</emphasis></term>
7225 Text replacements for subversive browsing fun. Make fun of your favorite
7226 Monopolist or play buzzword bingo.
7232 <term><emphasis>crude-parental</emphasis></term>
7235 A demonstration-only filter that shows how <application>Privoxy</application>
7236 can be used to delete web content on a keyword basis.
7242 <term><emphasis>ie-exploits</emphasis></term>
7245 An experimental collection of text replacements to disable malicious HTML and JavaScript
7246 code that exploits known security holes in Internet Explorer.
7249 Presently, it only protects against Nimda and a cross-site scripting bug, and
7250 would need active maintenance to provide more substantial protection.
7256 <term><emphasis>site-specifics</emphasis></term>
7259 Some web sites have very specific problems, the cure for which doesn't apply
7260 anywhere else, or could even cause damage on other sites.
7263 This is a collection of such site-specific cures which should only be applied
7264 to the sites they were intended for, which is what the supplied
7265 <filename>default.action</filename> file does. Users shouldn't need to change
7266 anything regarding this filter.
7272 <term><emphasis>google</emphasis></term>
7275 A CSS based block for Google text ads. Also removes a width limitation
7276 and the toolbar advertisement.
7282 <term><emphasis>yahoo</emphasis></term>
7285 Another CSS based block, this time for Yahoo text ads. And removes
7286 a width limitation as well.
7292 <term><emphasis>msn</emphasis></term>
7295 Another CSS based block, this time for MSN text ads. And removes
7296 tracking URLs, as well as a width limitation.
7302 <term><emphasis>blogspot</emphasis></term>
7305 Cleans up some Blogspot blogs. Read the fine print before using this one!
7308 This filter also intentionally removes some navigation stuff and sets the
7309 page width to 100%. As a result, some rounded <quote>corners</quote> would
7310 appear to early or not at all and as fixing this would require a browser
7311 that understands background-size (CSS3), they are removed instead.
7317 <term><emphasis>xml-to-html</emphasis></term>
7320 Server-header filter to change the Content-Type from xml to html.
7326 <term><emphasis>html-to-xml</emphasis></term>
7329 Server-header filter to change the Content-Type from html to xml.
7335 <term><emphasis>no-ping</emphasis></term>
7338 Removes the non-standard <literal>ping</literal> attribute from
7339 anchor and area HTML tags.
7345 <term><emphasis>hide-tor-exit-notation</emphasis></term>
7348 Client-header filter to remove the <command>Tor</command> exit node notation
7349 found in Host and Referer headers.
7352 If &my-app; and <command>Tor</command> are chained and &my-app;
7353 is configured to use socks4a, one can use <quote>http://www.example.org.foobar.exit/</quote>
7354 to access the host <quote>www.example.org</quote> through the
7355 <command>Tor</command> exit node <quote>foobar</quote>.
7358 As the HTTP client isn't aware of this notation, it treats the
7359 whole string <quote>www.example.org.foobar.exit</quote> as host and uses it
7360 for the <quote>Host</quote> and <quote>Referer</quote> headers. From the
7361 server's point of view the resulting headers are invalid and can cause problems.
7364 An invalid <quote>Referer</quote> header can trigger <quote>hot-linking</quote>
7365 protections, an invalid <quote>Host</quote> header will make it impossible for
7366 the server to find the right vhost (several domains hosted on the same IP address).
7369 This client-header filter removes the <quote>foo.exit</quote> part in those headers
7370 to prevent the mentioned problems. Note that it only modifies
7371 the HTTP headers, it doesn't make it impossible for the server
7372 to detect your <command>Tor</command> exit node based on the IP address
7373 the request is coming from.
7380 <term><emphasis> </emphasis></term>
7394 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7398 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7400 <sect1 id="templates">
7401 <title>Privoxy's Template Files</title>
7403 All <application>Privoxy</application> built-in pages, i.e. error pages such as the
7404 <ulink url="http://show-the-404-error.page"><quote>404 - No Such Domain</quote>
7405 error page</ulink>, the <ulink
7406 url="http://ads.bannerserver.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor.html"><quote>BLOCKED</quote>
7408 and all pages of its <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">web-based
7409 user interface</ulink>, are generated from <emphasis>templates</emphasis>.
7410 (<application>Privoxy</application> must be running for the above links to work as
7415 These templates are stored in a subdirectory of the <link linkend="confdir">configuration
7416 directory</link> called <filename>templates</filename>. On Unixish platforms,
7418 <ulink url="file:///etc/privoxy/templates/"><filename>/etc/privoxy/templates/</filename></ulink>.
7422 The templates are basically normal HTML files, but with place-holders (called symbols
7423 or exports), which <application>Privoxy</application> fills at run time. It
7424 is possible to edit the templates with a normal text editor, should you want
7425 to customize them. (<emphasis>Not recommended for the casual
7426 user</emphasis>). Should you create your own custom templates, you should use
7427 the <filename>config</filename> setting <link linkend="templdir">templdir</link>
7428 to specify an alternate location, so your templates do not get overwritten
7432 Note that just like in configuration files, lines starting
7433 with <literal>#</literal> are ignored when the templates are filled in.
7437 The place-holders are of the form <literal>@name@</literal>, and you will
7438 find a list of available symbols, which vary from template to template,
7439 in the comments at the start of each file. Note that these comments are not
7440 always accurate, and that it's probably best to look at the existing HTML
7441 code to find out which symbols are supported and what they are filled in with.
7445 A special application of this substitution mechanism is to make whole
7446 blocks of HTML code disappear when a specific symbol is set. We use this
7447 for many purposes, one of them being to include the beta warning in all
7448 our user interface (CGI) pages when <application>Privoxy</application>
7449 is in an alpha or beta development stage:
7454 <!-- @if-unstable-start -->
7456 ... beta warning HTML code goes here ...
7458 <!-- if-unstable-end@ --></screen>
7462 If the "unstable" symbol is set, everything in between and including
7463 <literal>@if-unstable-start</literal> and <literal>if-unstable-end@</literal>
7464 will disappear, leaving nothing but an empty comment:
7468 <screen><!-- --></screen>
7472 There's also an if-then-else construct and an <literal>#include</literal>
7473 mechanism, but you'll sure find out if you are inclined to edit the
7478 All templates refer to a style located at
7479 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/send-stylesheet"><literal>http://config.privoxy.org/send-stylesheet</literal></ulink>.
7480 This is, of course, locally served by <application>Privoxy</application>
7481 and the source for it can be found and edited in the
7482 <filename>cgi-style.css</filename> template.
7487 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7491 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7493 <sect1 id="contact"><title>Contacting the Developers, Bug Reporting and Feature
7496 <!-- Include contacting.sgml boilerplate: -->
7498 <!-- end boilerplate -->
7502 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7505 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7506 <sect1 id="copyright"><title>Privoxy Copyright, License and History</title>
7508 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
7510 <!-- end copyright -->
7512 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7513 <sect2><title>License</title>
7514 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
7516 <!-- end copyright -->
7518 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7521 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7523 <sect2 id="history"><title>History</title>
7524 <!-- Include history.sgml: -->
7526 <!-- end history -->
7529 <sect2 id="authors"><title>Authors</title>
7530 <!-- Include p-authors.sgml: -->
7532 <!-- end authors -->
7537 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7540 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7541 <sect1 id="seealso"><title>See Also</title>
7542 <!-- Include seealso.sgml: -->
7544 <!-- end seealso -->
7549 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7550 <sect1 id="appendix"><title>Appendix</title>
7553 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7555 <title>Regular Expressions</title>
7557 <application>Privoxy</application> uses Perl-style <quote>regular
7558 expressions</quote> in its <link linkend="actions-file">actions
7559 files</link> and <link linkend="filter-file">filter file</link>,
7560 through the <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/">PCRE</ulink> and
7563 <ulink url="http://www.oesterhelt.org/pcrs/">PCRS</ulink> libraries.
7565 <application>PCRS</application> libraries.
7569 If you are reading this, you probably don't understand what <quote>regular
7570 expressions</quote> are, or what they can do. So this will be a very brief
7571 introduction only. A full explanation would require a <ulink
7572 url="http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/regex/">book</ulink> ;-)
7576 Regular expressions provide a language to describe patterns that can be
7577 run against strings of characters (letter, numbers, etc), to see if they
7578 match the string or not. The patterns are themselves (sometimes complex)
7579 strings of literal characters, combined with wild-cards, and other special
7580 characters, called meta-characters. The <quote>meta-characters</quote> have
7581 special meanings and are used to build complex patterns to be matched against.
7582 Perl Compatible Regular Expressions are an especially convenient
7583 <quote>dialect</quote> of the regular expression language.
7587 To make a simple analogy, we do something similar when we use wild-card
7588 characters when listing files with the <command>dir</command> command in DOS.
7589 <literal>*.*</literal> matches all filenames. The <quote>special</quote>
7590 character here is the asterisk which matches any and all characters. We can be
7591 more specific and use <literal>?</literal> to match just individual
7592 characters. So <quote>dir file?.text</quote> would match
7593 <quote>file1.txt</quote>, <quote>file2.txt</quote>, etc. We are pattern
7594 matching, using a similar technique to <quote>regular expressions</quote>!
7598 Regular expressions do essentially the same thing, but are much, much more
7599 powerful. There are many more <quote>special characters</quote> and ways of
7600 building complex patterns however. Let's look at a few of the common ones,
7601 and then some examples:
7606 <emphasis>.</emphasis> - Matches any single character, e.g. <quote>a</quote>,
7607 <quote>A</quote>, <quote>4</quote>, <quote>:</quote>, or <quote>@</quote>.
7609 </simplelist></para>
7613 <emphasis>?</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or ONE
7616 </simplelist></para>
7620 <emphasis>+</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ONE or MORE
7623 </simplelist></para>
7627 <emphasis>*</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or MORE
7630 </simplelist></para>
7634 <emphasis>\</emphasis> - The <quote>escape</quote> character denotes that
7635 the following character should be taken literally. This is used where one of the
7636 special characters (e.g. <quote>.</quote>) needs to be taken literally and
7637 not as a special meta-character. Example: <quote>example\.com</quote>, makes
7638 sure the period is recognized only as a period (and not expanded to its
7639 meta-character meaning of any single character).
7641 </simplelist></para>
7645 <emphasis>[ ]</emphasis> - Characters enclosed in brackets will be matched if
7646 any of the enclosed characters are encountered. For instance, <quote>[0-9]</quote>
7647 matches any numeric digit (zero through nine). As an example, we can combine
7648 this with <quote>+</quote> to match any digit one of more times: <quote>[0-9]+</quote>.
7650 </simplelist></para>
7654 <emphasis>( )</emphasis> - parentheses are used to group a sub-expression,
7655 or multiple sub-expressions.
7657 </simplelist></para>
7661 <emphasis>|</emphasis> - The <quote>bar</quote> character works like an
7662 <quote>or</quote> conditional statement. A match is successful if the
7663 sub-expression on either side of <quote>|</quote> matches. As an example:
7664 <quote>/(this|that) example/</quote> uses grouping and the bar character
7665 and would match either <quote>this example</quote> or <quote>that
7666 example</quote>, and nothing else.
7668 </simplelist></para>
7671 These are just some of the ones you are likely to use when matching URLs with
7672 <application>Privoxy</application>, and is a long way from a definitive
7673 list. This is enough to get us started with a few simple examples which may
7674 be more illuminating:
7678 <emphasis><literal>/.*/banners/.*</literal></emphasis> - A simple example
7679 that uses the common combination of <quote>.</quote> and <quote>*</quote> to
7680 denote any character, zero or more times. In other words, any string at all.
7681 So we start with a literal forward slash, then our regular expression pattern
7682 (<quote>.*</quote>) another literal forward slash, the string
7683 <quote>banners</quote>, another forward slash, and lastly another
7684 <quote>.*</quote>. We are building
7685 a directory path here. This will match any file with the path that has a
7686 directory named <quote>banners</quote> in it. The <quote>.*</quote> matches
7687 any characters, and this could conceivably be more forward slashes, so it
7688 might expand into a much longer looking path. For example, this could match:
7689 <quote>/eye/hate/spammers/banners/annoy_me_please.gif</quote>, or just
7690 <quote>/banners/annoying.html</quote>, or almost an infinite number of other
7691 possible combinations, just so it has <quote>banners</quote> in the path
7696 And now something a little more complex:
7700 <emphasis><literal>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))?/</literal></emphasis> -
7701 We have several literal forward slashes again (<quote>/</quote>), so we are
7702 building another expression that is a file path statement. We have another
7703 <quote>.*</quote>, so we are matching against any conceivable sub-path, just so
7704 it matches our expression. The only true literal that <emphasis>must
7705 match</emphasis> our pattern is <application>adv</application>, together with
7706 the forward slashes. What comes after the <quote>adv</quote> string is the
7711 Remember the <quote>?</quote> means the preceding expression (either a
7712 literal character or anything grouped with <quote>(...)</quote> in this case)
7713 can exist or not, since this means either zero or one match. So
7714 <quote>((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))</quote> is optional, as are the
7715 individual sub-expressions: <quote>(er)</quote>,
7716 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, and the <quote>s</quote>. The <quote>|</quote>
7717 means <quote>or</quote>. We have two of those. For instance,
7718 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, can expand to match either <quote>ing</quote>
7719 <emphasis>OR</emphasis> <quote>ements?</quote>. What is being done here, is an
7720 attempt at matching as many variations of <quote>advertisement</quote>, and
7721 similar, as possible. So this would expand to match just <quote>adv</quote>,
7722 or <quote>advert</quote>, or <quote>adverts</quote>, or
7723 <quote>advertising</quote>, or <quote>advertisement</quote>, or
7724 <quote>advertisements</quote>. You get the idea. But it would not match
7725 <quote>advertizements</quote> (with a <quote>z</quote>). We could fix that by
7726 changing our regular expression to:
7727 <quote>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|erti(s|z)(ing|ements?))?/</quote>, which would then match
7732 <emphasis><literal>/.*/advert[0-9]+\.(gif|jpe?g)</literal></emphasis> - Again
7733 another path statement with forward slashes. Anything in the square brackets
7734 <quote>[ ]</quote> can be matched. This is using <quote>0-9</quote> as a
7735 shorthand expression to mean any digit one through nine. It is the same as
7736 saying <quote>0123456789</quote>. So any digit matches. The <quote>+</quote>
7737 means one or more of the preceding expression must be included. The preceding
7738 expression here is what is in the square brackets -- in this case, any digit
7739 one through nine. Then, at the end, we have a grouping: <quote>(gif|jpe?g)</quote>.
7740 This includes a <quote>|</quote>, so this needs to match the expression on
7741 either side of that bar character also. A simple <quote>gif</quote> on one side, and the other
7742 side will in turn match either <quote>jpeg</quote> or <quote>jpg</quote>,
7743 since the <quote>?</quote> means the letter <quote>e</quote> is optional and
7744 can be matched once or not at all. So we are building an expression here to
7745 match image GIF or JPEG type image file. It must include the literal
7746 string <quote>advert</quote>, then one or more digits, and a <quote>.</quote>
7747 (which is now a literal, and not a special character, since it is escaped
7748 with <quote>\</quote>), and lastly either <quote>gif</quote>, or
7749 <quote>jpeg</quote>, or <quote>jpg</quote>. Some possible matches would
7750 include: <quote>//advert1.jpg</quote>,
7751 <quote>/nasty/ads/advert1234.gif</quote>,
7752 <quote>/banners/from/hell/advert99.jpg</quote>. It would not match
7753 <quote>advert1.gif</quote> (no leading slash), or
7754 <quote>/adverts232.jpg</quote> (the expression does not include an
7755 <quote>s</quote>), or <quote>/advert1.jsp</quote> (<quote>jsp</quote> is not
7756 in the expression anywhere).
7760 We are barely scratching the surface of regular expressions here so that you
7761 can understand the default <application>Privoxy</application>
7762 configuration files, and maybe use this knowledge to customize your own
7763 installation. There is much, much more that can be done with regular
7764 expressions. Now that you know enough to get started, you can learn more on
7769 More reading on Perl Compatible Regular expressions:
7770 <ulink url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html">http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html</ulink>
7774 For information on regular expression based substitutions and their applications
7775 in filters, please see the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file tutorial</link>
7780 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7783 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7785 <title>Privoxy's Internal Pages</title>
7788 Since <application>Privoxy</application> proxies each requested
7789 web page, it is easy for <application>Privoxy</application> to
7790 trap certain special URLs. In this way, we can talk directly to
7791 <application>Privoxy</application>, and see how it is
7792 configured, see how our rules are being applied, change these
7793 rules and other configuration options, and even turn
7794 <application>Privoxy's</application> filtering off, all with
7800 The URLs listed below are the special ones that allow direct access
7801 to <application>Privoxy</application>. Of course,
7802 <application>Privoxy</application> must be running to access these. If
7803 not, you will get a friendly error message. Internet access is not
7816 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
7820 There is a shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink> (But it
7821 doesn't provide a fall-back to a real page, in case the request is not
7822 sent through <application>Privoxy</application>)
7828 Show information about the current configuration, including viewing and
7829 editing of actions files:
7833 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
7840 Show the source code version numbers:
7844 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-version">http://config.privoxy.org/show-version</ulink>
7851 Show the browser's request headers:
7855 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request">http://config.privoxy.org/show-request</ulink>
7862 Show which actions apply to a URL and why:
7866 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
7873 Toggle Privoxy on or off. This feature can be turned off/on in the main
7874 <filename>config</filename> file. When toggled <quote>off</quote>, <quote>Privoxy</quote>
7875 continues to run, but only as a pass-through proxy, with no actions taking
7880 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</ulink>
7884 Short cuts. Turn off, then on:
7888 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable</ulink>
7893 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable</ulink>
7902 These may be bookmarked for quick reference. See next.
7906 <sect3 id="bookmarklets">
7907 <title>Bookmarklets</title>
7909 Below are some <quote>bookmarklets</quote> to allow you to easily access a
7910 <quote>mini</quote> version of some of <application>Privoxy's</application>
7911 special pages. They are designed for MS Internet Explorer, but should work
7912 equally well in Netscape, Mozilla, and other browsers which support
7913 JavaScript. They are designed to run directly from your bookmarks - not by
7914 clicking the links below (although that should work for testing).
7917 To save them, right-click the link and choose <quote>Add to Favorites</quote>
7918 (IE) or <quote>Add Bookmark</quote> (Netscape). You will get a warning that
7919 the bookmark <quote>may not be safe</quote> - just click OK. Then you can run the
7920 Bookmarklet directly from your favorites/bookmarks. For even faster access,
7921 you can put them on the <quote>Links</quote> bar (IE) or the <quote>Personal
7922 Toolbar</quote> (Netscape), and run them with a single click.
7931 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>
7938 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>
7945 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)
7952 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>
7958 <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>
7964 <ulink url="javascript:void(window.open('http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info?url='+escape(location.href),'Why').focus());">Privoxy - Why?</ulink>
7971 Credit: The site which gave us the general idea for these bookmarklets is
7972 <ulink url="http://www.bookmarklets.com/">www.bookmarklets.com</ulink>. They
7973 have more information about bookmarklets.
7982 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7984 <title>Chain of Events</title>
7986 Let's take a quick look at how some of <application>Privoxy's</application>
7987 core features are triggered, and the ensuing sequence of events when a web
7988 page is requested by your browser:
7995 First, your web browser requests a web page. The browser knows to send
7996 the request to <application>Privoxy</application>, which will in turn,
7997 relay the request to the remote web server after passing the following
8003 <application>Privoxy</application> traps any request for its own internal CGI
8004 pages (e.g <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>) and sends the CGI page back to the browser.
8009 Next, <application>Privoxy</application> checks to see if the URL
8011 linkend="BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></link> patterns. If
8012 so, the URL is then blocked, and the remote web server will not be contacted.
8013 <link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></link>
8015 <link linkend="HANDLE-AS-EMPTY-DOCUMENT"><quote>+handle-as-empty-document</quote></link>
8016 are then checked, and if there is no match, an
8017 HTML <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page is sent back to the browser. Otherwise, if
8018 it does match, an image is returned for the former, and an empty text
8019 document for the latter. The type of image would depend on the setting of
8020 <link linkend="SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"><quote>+set-image-blocker</quote></link>
8021 (blank, checkerboard pattern, or an HTTP redirect to an image elsewhere).
8026 Untrusted URLs are blocked. If URLs are being added to the
8027 <filename>trust</filename> file, then that is done.
8032 If the URL pattern matches the <link
8033 linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS"><quote>+fast-redirects</quote></link> action,
8034 it is then processed. Unwanted parts of the requested URL are stripped.
8039 Now the rest of the client browser's request headers are processed. If any
8040 of these match any of the relevant actions (e.g. <link
8041 linkend="HIDE-USER-AGENT"><quote>+hide-user-agent</quote></link>,
8042 etc.), headers are suppressed or forged as determined by these actions and
8048 Now the web server starts sending its response back (i.e. typically a web
8054 First, the server headers are read and processed to determine, among other
8055 things, the MIME type (document type) and encoding. The headers are then
8056 filtered as determined by the
8057 <link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES"><quote>+crunch-incoming-cookies</quote></link>,
8058 <link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"><quote>+session-cookies-only</quote></link>,
8059 and <link linkend="DOWNGRADE-HTTP-VERSION"><quote>+downgrade-http-version</quote></link>
8065 If any <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> action
8067 linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS"><quote>+deanimate-gifs</quote></link>
8068 action applies (and the document type fits the action), the rest of the page is
8069 read into memory (up to a configurable limit). Then the filter rules (from
8070 <filename>default.filter</filename> and any other filter files) are
8071 processed against the buffered content. Filters are applied in the order
8072 they are specified in one of the filter files. Animated GIFs, if present,
8073 are reduced to either the first or last frame, depending on the action
8074 setting.The entire page, which is now filtered, is then sent by
8075 <application>Privoxy</application> back to your browser.
8078 If neither a <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> action
8080 linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS"><quote>+deanimate-gifs</quote></link>
8081 matches, then <application>Privoxy</application> passes the raw data through
8082 to the client browser as it becomes available.
8087 As the browser receives the now (possibly filtered) page content, it
8088 reads and then requests any URLs that may be embedded within the page
8089 source, e.g. ad images, stylesheets, JavaScript, other HTML documents (e.g.
8090 frames), sounds, etc. For each of these objects, the browser issues a
8091 separate request (this is easily viewable in <application>Privoxy's</application>
8092 logs). And each such request is in turn processed just as above. Note that a
8093 complex web page will have many, many such embedded URLs. If these
8094 secondary requests are to a different server, then quite possibly a very
8095 differing set of actions is triggered.
8102 NOTE: This is somewhat of a simplistic overview of what happens with each URL
8103 request. For the sake of brevity and simplicity, we have focused on
8104 <application>Privoxy's</application> core features only.
8110 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
8111 <sect2 id="actionsanat">
8112 <title>Troubleshooting: Anatomy of an Action</title>
8115 The way <application>Privoxy</application> applies
8116 <link linkend="ACTIONS">actions</link> and <link linkend="FILTER">filters</link>
8117 to any given URL can be complex, and not always so
8118 easy to understand what is happening. And sometimes we need to be able to
8119 <emphasis>see</emphasis> just what <application>Privoxy</application> is
8120 doing. Especially, if something <application>Privoxy</application> is doing
8121 is causing us a problem inadvertently. It can be a little daunting to look at
8122 the actions and filters files themselves, since they tend to be filled with
8123 <link linkend="regex">regular expressions</link> whose consequences are not
8128 One quick test to see if <application>Privoxy</application> is causing a problem
8129 or not, is to disable it temporarily. This should be the first troubleshooting
8130 step. See <link linkend="bookmarklets">the Bookmarklets</link> section on a quick
8131 and easy way to do this (be sure to flush caches afterward!). Looking at the
8132 logs is a good idea too. (Note that both the toggle feature and logging are
8133 enabled via <filename>config</filename> file settings, and may need to be
8134 turned <quote>on</quote>.)
8137 Another easy troubleshooting step to try is if you have done any
8138 customization of your installation, revert back to the installed
8139 defaults and see if that helps. There are times the developers get complaints
8140 about one thing or another, and the problem is more related to a customized
8141 configuration issue.
8145 <application>Privoxy</application> also provides the
8146 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
8147 page that can show us very specifically how <application>actions</application>
8148 are being applied to any given URL. This is a big help for troubleshooting.
8152 First, enter one URL (or partial URL) at the prompt, and then
8153 <application>Privoxy</application> will tell us
8154 how the current configuration will handle it. This will not
8155 help with filtering effects (i.e. the <link
8156 linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> action) from
8157 one of the filter files since this is handled very
8158 differently and not so easy to trap! It also will not tell you about any other
8159 URLs that may be embedded within the URL you are testing. For instance, images
8160 such as ads are expressed as URLs within the raw page source of HTML pages. So
8161 you will only get info for the actual URL that is pasted into the prompt area
8162 -- not any sub-URLs. If you want to know about embedded URLs like ads, you
8163 will have to dig those out of the HTML source. Use your browser's <quote>View
8164 Page Source</quote> option for this. Or right click on the ad, and grab the
8169 Let's try an example, <ulink url="http://google.com">google.com</ulink>,
8170 and look at it one section at a time in a sample configuration (your real
8171 configuration may vary):
8176 Matches for http://www.google.com:
8178 In file: default.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
8180 {+deanimate-gifs {last}
8181 +fast-redirects {check-decoded-url}
8182 +filter {refresh-tags}
8183 +filter {img-reorder}
8184 +filter {banners-by-size}
8186 +filter {jumping-windows}
8187 +filter {ie-exploits}
8188 +hide-forwarded-for-headers
8189 +hide-from-header {block}
8190 +hide-referrer {forge}
8191 +session-cookies-only
8192 +set-image-blocker {pattern}
8195 { -session-cookies-only }
8201 In file: user.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
8202 (no matches in this file)
8207 This is telling us how we have defined our
8208 <link linkend="ACTIONS"><quote>actions</quote></link>, and
8209 which ones match for our test case, <quote>google.com</quote>.
8210 Displayed is all the actions that are available to us. Remember,
8211 the <literal>+</literal> sign denotes <quote>on</quote>. <literal>-</literal>
8212 denotes <quote>off</quote>. So some are <quote>on</quote> here, but many
8213 are <quote>off</quote>. Each example we try may provide a slightly different
8214 end result, depending on our configuration directives.
8218 is for our <filename>default.action</filename> file. The large, multi-line
8219 listing, is how the actions are set to match for all URLs, i.e. our default
8220 settings. If you look at your <quote>actions</quote> file, this would be the
8221 section just below the <quote>aliases</quote> section near the top. This
8222 will apply to all URLs as signified by the single forward slash at the end
8223 of the listing -- <quote> / </quote>.
8227 But we have defined additional actions that would be exceptions to these general
8228 rules, and then we list specific URLs (or patterns) that these exceptions
8229 would apply to. Last match wins. Just below this then are two explicit
8230 matches for <quote>.google.com</quote>. The first is negating our previous
8231 cookie setting, which was for <link
8232 linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"><quote>+session-cookies-only</quote></link>
8233 (i.e. not persistent). So we will allow persistent cookies for google, at
8234 least that is how it is in this example. The second turns
8235 <emphasis>off</emphasis> any <link
8236 linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS"><quote>+fast-redirects</quote></link>
8237 action, allowing this to take place unmolested. Note that there is a leading
8238 dot here -- <quote>.google.com</quote>. This will match any hosts and
8239 sub-domains, in the google.com domain also, such as
8240 <quote>www.google.com</quote> or <quote>mail.google.com</quote>. But it would not
8241 match <quote>www.google.de</quote>! So, apparently, we have these two actions
8242 defined as exceptions to the general rules at the top somewhere in the lower
8243 part of our <filename>default.action</filename> file, and
8244 <quote>google.com</quote> is referenced somewhere in these latter sections.
8248 Then, for our <filename>user.action</filename> file, we again have no hits.
8249 So there is nothing google-specific that we might have added to our own, local
8250 configuration. If there was, those actions would over-rule any actions from
8251 previously processed files, such as <filename>default.action</filename>.
8252 <filename>user.action</filename> typically has the last word. This is the
8253 best place to put hard and fast exceptions,
8257 And finally we pull it all together in the bottom section and summarize how
8258 <application>Privoxy</application> is applying all its <quote>actions</quote>
8259 to <quote>google.com</quote>:
8270 -client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation}
8271 -content-type-overwrite
8272 -crunch-client-header
8273 -crunch-if-none-match
8274 -crunch-incoming-cookies
8275 -crunch-outgoing-cookies
8276 -crunch-server-header
8277 +deanimate-gifs {last}
8278 -downgrade-http-version
8281 -filter {content-cookies}
8282 -filter {all-popups}
8283 -filter {banners-by-link}
8284 -filter {tiny-textforms}
8285 -filter {frameset-borders}
8286 -filter {demoronizer}
8287 -filter {shockwave-flash}
8288 -filter {quicktime-kioskmode}
8290 -filter {crude-parental}
8291 -filter {site-specifics}
8292 -filter {js-annoyances}
8293 -filter {html-annoyances}
8294 +filter {refresh-tags}
8295 -filter {unsolicited-popups}
8296 +filter {img-reorder}
8297 +filter {banners-by-size}
8299 +filter {jumping-windows}
8300 +filter {ie-exploits}
8307 -handle-as-empty-document
8309 -hide-accept-language
8310 -hide-content-disposition
8311 +hide-forwarded-for-headers
8312 +hide-from-header {block}
8313 -hide-if-modified-since
8314 +hide-referrer {forge}
8317 -overwrite-last-modified
8318 -prevent-compression
8320 -server-header-filter{xml-to-html}
8321 -server-header-filter{html-to-xml}
8322 -session-cookies-only
8323 +set-image-blocker {pattern} </screen>
8327 Notice the only difference here to the previous listing, is to
8328 <quote>fast-redirects</quote> and <quote>session-cookies-only</quote>,
8329 which are activated specifically for this site in our configuration,
8330 and thus show in the <quote>Final Results</quote>.
8334 Now another example, <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>:
8340 { +block{Domains starts with "ad"} }
8343 { +block{Domain contains "ad"} }
8346 { +block{Doubleclick banner server} +handle-as-image }
8347 .[a-vx-z]*.doubleclick.net
8352 We'll just show the interesting part here - the explicit matches. It is
8353 matched three different times. Two <quote>+block{}</quote> sections,
8354 and a <quote>+block{} +handle-as-image</quote>,
8355 which is the expanded form of one of our aliases that had been defined as:
8356 <quote>+block-as-image</quote>. (<link
8357 linkend="ALIASES"><quote>Aliases</quote></link> are defined in
8358 the first section of the actions file and typically used to combine more
8363 Any one of these would have done the trick and blocked this as an unwanted
8364 image. This is unnecessarily redundant since the last case effectively
8365 would also cover the first. No point in taking chances with these guys
8366 though ;-) Note that if you want an ad or obnoxious
8367 URL to be invisible, it should be defined as <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>
8368 is done here -- as both a <link
8369 linkend="BLOCK"><quote>+block{}</quote></link>
8370 <emphasis>and</emphasis> an
8371 <link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></link>.
8372 The custom alias <quote><literal>+block-as-image</literal></quote> just
8373 simplifies the process and make it more readable.
8377 One last example. Let's try <quote>http://www.example.net/adsl/HOWTO/</quote>.
8378 This one is giving us problems. We are getting a blank page. Hmmm ...
8384 Matches for http://www.example.net/adsl/HOWTO/:
8386 In file: default.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
8390 -client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation}
8391 -content-type-overwrite
8392 -crunch-client-header
8393 -crunch-if-none-match
8394 -crunch-incoming-cookies
8395 -crunch-outgoing-cookies
8396 -crunch-server-header
8398 -downgrade-http-version
8399 +fast-redirects {check-decoded-url}
8401 -filter {content-cookies}
8402 -filter {all-popups}
8403 -filter {banners-by-link}
8404 -filter {tiny-textforms}
8405 -filter {frameset-borders}
8406 -filter {demoronizer}
8407 -filter {shockwave-flash}
8408 -filter {quicktime-kioskmode}
8410 -filter {crude-parental}
8411 -filter {site-specifics}
8412 -filter {js-annoyances}
8413 -filter {html-annoyances}
8414 +filter {refresh-tags}
8415 -filter {unsolicited-popups}
8416 +filter {img-reorder}
8417 +filter {banners-by-size}
8419 +filter {jumping-windows}
8420 +filter {ie-exploits}
8427 -handle-as-empty-document
8429 -hide-accept-language
8430 -hide-content-disposition
8431 +hide-forwarded-for-headers
8432 +hide-from-header{block}
8433 +hide-referer{forge}
8435 -overwrite-last-modified
8436 +prevent-compression
8438 -server-header-filter{xml-to-html}
8439 -server-header-filter{html-to-xml}
8440 +session-cookies-only
8441 +set-image-blocker{blank} }
8444 { +block{Path contains "ads".} +handle-as-image }
8450 Ooops, the <quote>/adsl/</quote> is matching <quote>/ads</quote> in our
8451 configuration! But we did not want this at all! Now we see why we get the
8452 blank page. It is actually triggering two different actions here, and
8453 the effects are aggregated so that the URL is blocked, and &my-app; is told
8454 to treat the block as if it were an image. But this is, of course, all wrong.
8455 We could now add a new action below this (or better in our own
8456 <filename>user.action</filename> file) that explicitly
8457 <emphasis>un</emphasis> blocks (
8458 <link linkend="BLOCK"><quote>{-block}</quote></link>) paths with
8459 <quote>adsl</quote> in them (remember, last match in the configuration
8460 wins). There are various ways to handle such exceptions. Example:
8472 Now the page displays ;-)
8473 Remember to flush your browser's caches when making these kinds of changes to
8474 your configuration to insure that you get a freshly delivered page! Or, try
8475 using <literal>Shift+Reload</literal>.
8479 But now what about a situation where we get no explicit matches like
8486 { +block{Path starts with "ads".} +handle-as-image }
8492 That actually was very helpful and pointed us quickly to where the problem
8493 was. If you don't get this kind of match, then it means one of the default
8494 rules in the first section of <filename>default.action</filename> is causing
8495 the problem. This would require some guesswork, and maybe a little trial and
8496 error to isolate the offending rule. One likely cause would be one of the
8497 <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> actions.
8498 These tend to be harder to troubleshoot.
8499 Try adding the URL for the site to one of aliases that turn off
8500 <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link>:
8508 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
8516 <quote><literal>{ shop }</literal></quote> is an <quote>alias</quote> that expands to
8517 <quote><literal>{ -filter -session-cookies-only }</literal></quote>.
8518 Or you could do your own exception to negate filtering:
8526 # Disable ALL filter actions for sites in this section
8534 This would turn off all filtering for these sites. This is best
8535 put in <filename>user.action</filename>, for local site
8536 exceptions. Note that when a simple domain pattern is used by itself (without
8537 the subsequent path portion), all sub-pages within that domain are included
8538 automatically in the scope of the action.
8542 Images that are inexplicably being blocked, may well be hitting the
8543 <link linkend="FILTER-BANNERS-BY-SIZE"><quote>+filter{banners-by-size}</quote></link>
8545 that images of certain sizes are ad banners (works well
8546 <emphasis>most of the time</emphasis> since these tend to be standardized).
8550 <quote><literal>{ fragile }</literal></quote> is an alias that disables most
8551 actions that are the most likely to cause trouble. This can be used as a
8552 last resort for problem sites.
8558 # Handle with care: easy to break
8560 mybank.example.com</screen>
8565 <emphasis>Remember to flush caches!</emphasis> Note that the
8566 <literal>mail.google</literal> reference lacks the TLD portion (e.g.
8567 <quote>.com</quote>). This will effectively match any TLD with
8568 <literal>google</literal> in it, such as <literal>mail.google.de.</literal>,
8572 If this still does not work, you will have to go through the remaining
8573 actions one by one to find which one(s) is causing the problem.
8582 This program is free software; you can redistribute it
8583 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
8584 Public License as published by the Free Software
8585 Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at
8586 your option) any later version.
8588 This program is distributed in the hope that it will
8589 be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the
8590 implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
8591 PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public
8592 License for more details.
8594 The GNU General Public License should be included with
8595 this file. If not, you can view it at
8596 http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
8597 or write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
8598 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301,
8601 $Log: user-manual.sgml,v $
8602 Revision 2.74 2008/05/26 15:55:46 fabiankeil
8603 - Update "default profiles" table.
8604 - Add some more pcrs redirect examples and note that
8605 enabling debug 128 helps to get redirects working.
8607 Revision 2.73 2008/05/23 14:43:18 fabiankeil
8608 Remove previously out-commented block that caused syntax problems.
8610 Revision 2.72 2008/05/12 10:26:14 fabiankeil
8611 Synchronize content filter descriptions with the ones in default.filter.
8613 Revision 2.71 2008/04/10 17:37:16 fabiankeil
8614 Actually we use "modern" POSIX 1003.2 regular
8615 expressions in path patterns, not PCRE.
8617 Revision 2.70 2008/04/10 15:59:12 fabiankeil
8618 Add another section to the client-header-tagger example that shows
8619 how to actually change the action settings once the tag is created.
8621 Revision 2.69 2008/03/29 12:14:25 fabiankeil
8622 Remove send-wafer and send-vanilla-wafer actions.
8624 Revision 2.68 2008/03/28 15:13:43 fabiankeil
8625 Remove inspect-jpegs action.
8627 Revision 2.67 2008/03/27 18:31:21 fabiankeil
8628 Remove kill-popups action.
8630 Revision 2.66 2008/03/06 16:33:47 fabiankeil
8631 If limit-connect isn't used, don't limit CONNECT requests to port 443.
8633 Revision 2.65 2008/03/04 18:30:40 fabiankeil
8634 Remove the treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks action. We now
8635 use the "blocked" page for forbidden CONNECT requests by default.
8637 Revision 2.64 2008/03/01 14:10:28 fabiankeil
8638 Use new block syntax. Still needs some polishing.
8640 Revision 2.63 2008/02/22 05:50:37 markm68k
8643 Revision 2.62 2008/02/11 11:52:23 hal9
8644 Fix entity ... s/&/&
8646 Revision 2.61 2008/02/11 03:41:47 markm68k
8647 more updates for mac os x
8649 Revision 2.60 2008/02/11 03:40:25 markm68k
8650 more updates for mac os x
8652 Revision 2.59 2008/02/11 00:52:34 markm68k
8653 reflect new changes for mac os x
8655 Revision 2.58 2008/02/03 21:37:40 hal9
8656 Apply patch from Mark: s/OSX/OS X/
8658 Revision 2.57 2008/02/03 19:10:14 fabiankeil
8659 Mention forward-socks5.
8661 Revision 2.56 2008/01/31 19:11:35 fabiankeil
8662 Let the +client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation} example apply
8663 to all requests as "tainted" Referers aren't limited to exit TLDs.
8665 Revision 2.55 2008/01/19 21:26:37 hal9
8666 Add IE7 to configuration section per Gerry.
8668 Revision 2.54 2008/01/19 17:52:39 hal9
8669 Re-commit to fix various minor issues for new release.
8671 Revision 2.53 2008/01/19 15:03:05 hal9
8672 Doc sources tagged for 3.0.8 release.
8674 Revision 2.52 2008/01/17 01:49:51 hal9
8675 Change copyright notice for docs s/2007/2008/. All these will be rebuilt soon
8678 Revision 2.51 2007/12/23 16:48:24 fabiankeil
8679 Use more precise example descriptions for the mysterious domain patterns.
8681 Revision 2.50 2007/12/08 12:44:36 fabiankeil
8682 - Remove already commented out pre-3.0.7 changes.
8683 - Update the "new log defaults" paragraph.
8685 Revision 2.49 2007/12/06 18:21:55 fabiankeil
8686 Update hide-forwarded-for-headers description.
8688 Revision 2.48 2007/11/24 19:07:17 fabiankeil
8689 - Mention request rewriting.
8690 - Enable the conditional-forge paragraph.
8693 Revision 2.47 2007/11/18 14:59:47 fabiankeil
8694 A few "Note to Upgraders" updates.
8696 Revision 2.46 2007/11/17 17:24:44 fabiankeil
8697 - Use new action defaults.
8698 - Minor fixes and rewordings.
8700 Revision 2.45 2007/11/16 11:48:46 hal9
8701 Fix one typo, and add a couple of small refinements.
8703 Revision 2.44 2007/11/15 03:30:20 hal9
8704 Results of spell check.
8706 Revision 2.43 2007/11/14 18:45:39 fabiankeil
8707 - Mention some more contributors in the "New in this Release" list.
8710 Revision 2.42 2007/11/12 03:32:40 hal9
8711 Updates for "What's New" and "Notes to Upgraders". Various other changes in
8712 preparation for new release. User Manual is almost ready.
8714 Revision 2.41 2007/11/11 16:32:11 hal9
8715 This is primarily syncing What's New and Note to Upgraders sections with the many
8716 new features and changes (gleaned from memory but mostly from ChangeLog).
8718 Revision 2.40 2007/11/10 17:10:59 fabiankeil
8719 In the first third of the file, mention several times that
8720 the action editor is disabled by default in 3.0.7 beta and later.
8722 Revision 2.39 2007/11/05 02:34:49 hal9
8723 Various changes in preparation for the upcoming release. Much yet to be done.
8725 Revision 2.38 2007/09/22 16:01:42 fabiankeil
8726 Update embedded show-url-info output.
8728 Revision 2.37 2007/08/27 16:09:55 fabiankeil
8729 Fix pre-chroot-nslookup description which I failed to
8730 copy and paste properly. Reported by Stephen Gildea.
8732 Revision 2.36 2007/08/26 16:47:14 fabiankeil
8733 Add Stephen Gildea's pre-chroot-nslookup patch [#1276666],
8734 extensive comments moved to user manual.
8736 Revision 2.35 2007/08/26 14:59:49 fabiankeil
8737 Minor rewordings and fixes.
8739 Revision 2.34 2007/08/05 15:19:50 fabiankeil
8740 - Don't claim HTTP/1.1 compliance.
8741 - Use $ in some of the path pattern examples.
8742 - Use a hide-user-agent example argument without
8743 leading and trailing space.
8744 - Make it clear that the cookie actions work with
8746 - Rephrase the inspect-jpegs text to underline
8747 that it's only meant to protect against a single
8750 Revision 2.33 2007/07/27 10:57:35 hal9
8751 Add references for user-agent strings for hide-user-agenet
8753 Revision 2.32 2007/06/07 12:36:22 fabiankeil
8754 Apply Roland's 29_usermanual.dpatch to fix a bunch
8755 of syntax errors I collected over the last months.
8757 Revision 2.31 2007/06/02 14:01:37 fabiankeil
8758 Start to document forward-override{}.
8760 Revision 2.30 2007/04/25 15:10:36 fabiankeil
8761 - Describe installation for FreeBSD.
8762 - Start to document taggers and tag patterns.
8763 - Don't confuse devils and daemons.
8765 Revision 2.29 2007/04/05 11:47:51 fabiankeil
8766 Some updates regarding header filtering,
8767 handling of compressed content and redirect's
8768 support for pcrs commands.
8770 Revision 2.28 2006/12/10 23:42:48 hal9
8771 Fix various typos reported by Adam P. Thanks.
8773 Revision 2.27 2006/11/14 01:57:47 hal9
8774 Dump all docs prior to 3.0.6 release. Various minor changes to faq and user
8777 Revision 2.26 2006/10/24 11:16:44 hal9
8780 Revision 2.25 2006/10/18 10:50:33 hal9
8781 Add note that since filters are off in Cautious, compression is ON. Turn off
8782 compression to make filters work on all sites.
8784 Revision 2.24 2006/10/03 11:13:54 hal9
8785 More references to the new filters. Include html this time around.
8787 Revision 2.23 2006/10/02 22:43:53 hal9
8788 Contains new filter definitions from Fabian, and few other miscellaneous
8791 Revision 2.22 2006/09/22 01:27:55 hal9
8792 Final commit of probably various minor changes here and there. Unless
8793 something changes this should be ready for pending release.
8795 Revision 2.21 2006/09/20 03:21:36 david__schmidt
8796 Just the tiniest tweak. Wafer thin!
8798 Revision 2.20 2006/09/10 14:53:54 hal9
8799 Results of spell check. User manual has some updates to standard.actions file
8802 Revision 2.19 2006/09/08 12:19:02 fabiankeil
8803 Adjust hide-if-modified-since example values
8804 to reflect the recent changes.
8806 Revision 2.18 2006/09/08 02:38:57 hal9
8808 -Fix a number of broken links.
8809 -Migrate the new Windows service command line options, and reference as
8811 -Rebuild so that can be used with the new "user-manual" config capabilities.
8814 Revision 2.17 2006/09/05 13:25:12 david__schmidt
8815 Add Windows service invocation stuff (duplicated) in FAQ and in user manual under Windows startup. One probably ought to reference the other.
8817 Revision 2.16 2006/09/02 12:49:37 hal9
8818 Various small updates for new actions, filterfiles, etc.
8820 Revision 2.15 2006/08/30 11:15:22 hal9
8821 More work on the new actions, especially filter-*-headers, and What's New
8822 section. User Manual is close to final form for 3.0.4 release. Some tinkering
8823 and proof reading left to do.
8825 Revision 2.14 2006/08/29 10:59:36 hal9
8826 Add a "Whats New in this release" Section. Further work on multiple filter
8827 files, and assorted other minor changes.
8829 Revision 2.13 2006/08/22 11:04:59 hal9
8830 Silence warnings and errors. This should build now. New filters were only
8831 stubbed in. More to be done.
8833 Revision 2.12 2006/08/14 08:40:39 fabiankeil
8834 Documented new actions that were part of
8835 the "minor Privoxy improvements".
8837 Revision 2.11 2006/07/18 14:48:51 david__schmidt
8838 Reorganizing the repository: swapping out what was HEAD (the old 3.1 branch)
8839 with what was really the latest development (the v_3_0_branch branch)
8841 Revision 1.123.2.43 2005/05/23 09:59:10 hal9
8844 Revision 1.123.2.42 2004/12/04 14:39:57 hal9
8845 Fix two minor typos per bug SF report.
8847 Revision 1.123.2.41 2004/03/23 12:58:42 oes
8850 Revision 1.123.2.40 2004/02/27 12:48:49 hal9
8851 Add comment re: redirecting to local file system for set-image-blocker may
8852 is dependent on browser.
8854 Revision 1.123.2.39 2004/01/30 22:31:40 oes
8855 Added a hint re bookmarklets to Quickstart section
8857 Revision 1.123.2.38 2004/01/30 16:47:51 oes
8858 Some minor clarifications
8860 Revision 1.123.2.37 2004/01/29 22:36:11 hal9
8861 Updates for no longer filtering text/plain, and demoronizer default settings,
8862 and copyright notice dates.
8864 Revision 1.123.2.36 2003/12/10 02:26:26 hal9
8865 Changed the demoronizer filter description.
8867 Revision 1.123.2.35 2003/11/06 13:36:37 oes
8868 Updated link to nightly CVS tarball
8870 Revision 1.123.2.34 2003/06/26 23:50:16 hal9
8871 Add a small bit on filtering and problems re: source code being corrupted.
8873 Revision 1.123.2.33 2003/05/08 18:17:33 roro
8874 Use apt-get instead of dpkg to install Debian package, which is more
8875 solid, uses the correct and most recent Debian version automatically.
8877 Revision 1.123.2.32 2003/04/11 03:13:57 hal9
8878 Add small note about only one filterfile (as opposed to multiple actions
8881 Revision 1.123.2.31 2003/03/26 02:03:43 oes
8882 Updated hard-coded copyright dates
8884 Revision 1.123.2.30 2003/03/24 12:58:56 hal9
8885 Add new section on Predefined Filters.
8887 Revision 1.123.2.29 2003/03/20 02:45:29 hal9
8888 More problems with \-\-chroot causing markup problems :(
8890 Revision 1.123.2.28 2003/03/19 00:35:24 hal9
8891 Manual edit of revision log because 'chroot' (even inside a comment) was
8892 causing Docbook to hang here (due to double hyphen and the processor thinking
8895 Revision 1.123.2.27 2003/03/18 19:37:14 oes
8896 s/Advanced|Radical/Adventuresome/g to avoid complaints re fun filter
8898 Revision 1.123.2.26 2003/03/17 16:50:53 oes
8899 Added documentation for new chroot option
8901 Revision 1.123.2.25 2003/03/15 18:36:55 oes
8902 Adapted to the new filters
8904 Revision 1.123.2.24 2002/11/17 06:41:06 hal9
8905 Move default profiles table from FAQ to U-M, and other minor related changes.
8908 Revision 1.123.2.23 2002/10/21 02:32:01 hal9
8909 Updates to the user.action examples section. A few new ones.
8911 Revision 1.123.2.22 2002/10/12 00:51:53 hal9
8912 Add demoronizer to filter section.
8914 Revision 1.123.2.21 2002/10/10 04:09:35 hal9
8915 s/Advanced/Radical/ and added very brief note.
8917 Revision 1.123.2.20 2002/10/10 03:49:21 hal9
8918 Add notes to session-cookies-only and Quickstart about pre-existing
8919 cookies. Also, note content-cookies work differently.
8921 Revision 1.123.2.19 2002/09/26 01:25:36 hal9
8922 More explanation on Privoxy patterns, more on content-cookies and SSL.
8924 Revision 1.123.2.18 2002/08/22 23:47:58 hal9
8925 Add 'Documentation' to Privoxy Menu shot in Configuration section to match
8928 Revision 1.123.2.17 2002/08/18 01:13:05 hal9
8929 Spell checked (only one typo this time!).
8931 Revision 1.123.2.16 2002/08/09 19:20:54 david__schmidt
8932 Update to Mac OS X startup script name
8934 Revision 1.123.2.15 2002/08/07 17:32:11 oes
8935 Converted some internal links from ulink to link for PDF creation; no content changed
8937 Revision 1.123.2.14 2002/08/06 09:16:13 oes
8938 Nits re: actions file download
8940 Revision 1.123.2.13 2002/08/02 18:23:19 g_sauthoff
8941 Just 2 small corrections to the Gentoo sections
8943 Revision 1.123.2.12 2002/08/02 18:17:21 g_sauthoff
8944 Added 2 Gentoo sections
8946 Revision 1.123.2.11 2002/07/26 15:20:31 oes
8947 - Added version info to title
8948 - Added info on new filters
8949 - Revised parts of the filter file tutorial
8950 - Added info on where to get updated actions files
8952 Revision 1.123.2.10 2002/07/25 21:42:29 hal9
8953 Add brief notes on not proxying non-HTTP protocols.
8955 Revision 1.123.2.9 2002/07/11 03:40:28 david__schmidt
8957 Updated Mac OS X sections due to installation location change
8959 Revision 1.123.2.8 2002/06/09 16:36:32 hal9
8960 Clarifications on filtering and MIME. Hardcode 'latest release' in index.html.
8962 Revision 1.123.2.7 2002/06/09 00:29:34 hal9
8963 Touch ups on filtering, in actions section and Anatomy.
8965 Revision 1.123.2.6 2002/06/06 23:11:03 hal9
8966 Fix broken link. Linkchecked all docs.
8968 Revision 1.123.2.5 2002/05/29 02:01:02 hal9
8969 This is break out of the entire config section from u-m, so it can
8970 eventually be used to generate the comments, etc in the main config file
8971 so that these are in sync with each other.
8973 Revision 1.123.2.4 2002/05/27 03:28:45 hal9
8974 Ooops missed something from David.
8976 Revision 1.123.2.3 2002/05/27 03:23:17 hal9
8977 Fix FIXMEs for OS2 and Mac OS X startup. Fix Redhat typos (should be Red Hat).
8978 That's a wrap, I think.
8980 Revision 1.123.2.2 2002/05/26 19:02:09 hal9
8981 Move Amiga stuff around to take of FIXME in start up section.
8983 Revision 1.123.2.1 2002/05/26 17:04:25 hal9
8984 -Spellcheck, very minor edits, and sync across branches
8986 Revision 1.123 2002/05/24 23:19:23 hal9
8987 Include new image (Proxy setup). More fun with guibutton.
8988 Minor corrections/clarifications here and there.
8990 Revision 1.122 2002/05/24 13:24:08 oes
8991 Added Bookmarklet for one-click pre-filled access to show-url-info
8993 Revision 1.121 2002/05/23 23:20:17 oes
8994 - Changed more (all?) references to actions to the
8995 <literal><link> style.
8996 - Small fixes in the actions chapter
8997 - Small clarifications in the quickstart to ad blocking
8998 - Removed <emphasis> from <title>s since the new doc CSS
8999 renders them red (bad in TOC).
9001 Revision 1.120 2002/05/23 19:16:43 roro
9002 Correct Debian specials (installation and startup).
9004 Revision 1.119 2002/05/22 17:17:05 oes
9007 Revision 1.118 2002/05/21 04:54:55 hal9
9008 -New Section: Quickstart to Ad Blocking
9009 -Reformat Actions Anatomy to match new CGI layout
9011 Revision 1.117 2002/05/17 13:56:16 oes
9012 - Reworked & extended Templates chapter
9013 - Small changes to Regex appendix
9014 - #included authors.sgml into (C) and hist chapter
9016 Revision 1.116 2002/05/17 03:23:46 hal9
9017 Fixing merge conflict in Quickstart section.
9019 Revision 1.115 2002/05/16 16:25:00 oes
9020 Extended the Filter File chapter & minor fixes
9022 Revision 1.114 2002/05/16 09:42:50 oes
9023 More ulink->link, added some hints to Quickstart section
9025 Revision 1.113 2002/05/15 21:07:25 oes
9026 Extended and further commented the example actions files
9028 Revision 1.112 2002/05/15 03:57:14 hal9
9029 Spell check. A few minor edits here and there for better syntax and
9032 Revision 1.111 2002/05/14 23:01:36 oes
9035 Revision 1.110 2002/05/14 19:10:45 oes
9036 Restored alphabetical order of actions
9038 Revision 1.109 2002/05/14 17:23:11 oes
9039 Renamed the prevent-*-cookies actions, extended aliases section and moved it before the example AFs
9041 Revision 1.108 2002/05/14 15:29:12 oes
9042 Completed proofreading the actions chapter
9044 Revision 1.107 2002/05/12 03:20:41 hal9
9045 Small clarifications for 127.0.0.1 vs localhost for listen-address since this
9046 apparently an important distinction for some OS's.
9048 Revision 1.106 2002/05/10 01:48:20 hal9
9049 This is mostly proposed copyright/licensing additions and changes. Docs
9050 are still GPL, but licensing and copyright are more visible. Also, copyright
9051 changed in doc header comments (eliminate references to JB except FAQ).
9053 Revision 1.105 2002/05/05 20:26:02 hal9
9054 Sorting out license vs copyright in these docs.
9056 Revision 1.104 2002/05/04 08:44:45 swa
9059 Revision 1.103 2002/05/04 00:40:53 hal9
9060 -Remove the TOC first page kludge. It's fixed proper now in ldp.dsl.in.
9061 -Some minor additions to Quickstart.
9063 Revision 1.102 2002/05/03 17:46:00 oes
9064 Further proofread & reactivated short build instructions
9066 Revision 1.101 2002/05/03 03:58:30 hal9
9067 Move the user-manual config directive to top of section. Add note about
9068 Privoxy needing read permissions for configs, and write for logs.
9070 Revision 1.100 2002/04/29 03:05:55 hal9
9071 Add clarification on differences of new actions files.
9073 Revision 1.99 2002/04/28 16:59:05 swa
9074 more structure in starting section
9076 Revision 1.98 2002/04/28 05:43:59 hal9
9077 This is the break up of configuration.html into multiple files. This
9078 will probably break links elsewhere :(
9080 Revision 1.97 2002/04/27 21:04:42 hal9
9081 -Rewrite of Actions File example.
9082 -Add section for user-manual directive in config.
9084 Revision 1.96 2002/04/27 05:32:00 hal9
9085 -Add short section to Filter Files to tie in with +filter action.
9086 -Start rewrite of examples in Actions Examples (not finished).
9088 Revision 1.95 2002/04/26 17:23:29 swa
9089 bookmarks cleaned, changed structure of user manual, screen and programlisting cleanups, and numerous other changes that I forgot
9091 Revision 1.94 2002/04/26 05:24:36 hal9
9092 -Add most of Andreas suggestions to Chain of Events section.
9093 -A few other minor corrections and touch up.
9095 Revision 1.92 2002/04/25 18:55:13 hal9
9096 More catchups on new actions files, and new actions names.
9097 Other assorted cleanups, and minor modifications.
9099 Revision 1.91 2002/04/24 02:39:31 hal9
9100 Add 'Chain of Events' section.
9102 Revision 1.90 2002/04/23 21:41:25 hal9
9103 Linuxconf is deprecated on RH, substitute chkconfig.
9105 Revision 1.89 2002/04/23 21:05:28 oes
9106 Added hint for startup on Red Hat
9108 Revision 1.88 2002/04/23 05:37:54 hal9
9109 Add AmigaOS install stuff.
9111 Revision 1.87 2002/04/23 02:53:15 david__schmidt
9112 Updated Mac OS X installation section
9113 Added a few English tweaks here an there
9115 Revision 1.86 2002/04/21 01:46:32 hal9
9116 Re-write actions section.
9118 Revision 1.85 2002/04/18 21:23:23 hal9
9119 Fix ugly typo (mine).
9121 Revision 1.84 2002/04/18 21:17:13 hal9
9122 Spell Redhat correctly (ie Red Hat). A few minor grammar corrections.
9124 Revision 1.83 2002/04/18 18:21:12 oes
9125 Added RPM install detail
9127 Revision 1.82 2002/04/18 12:04:50 oes
9130 Revision 1.81 2002/04/18 11:50:24 oes
9131 Extended Install section - needs fixing by packagers
9133 Revision 1.80 2002/04/18 10:45:19 oes
9134 Moved text to buildsource.sgml, renamed some filters, details
9136 Revision 1.79 2002/04/18 03:18:06 hal9
9137 Spellcheck, and minor touchups.
9139 Revision 1.78 2002/04/17 18:04:16 oes
9142 Revision 1.77 2002/04/17 13:51:23 oes
9143 Proofreading, part one
9145 Revision 1.76 2002/04/16 04:25:51 hal9
9146 -Added 'Note to Upgraders' and re-ordered the 'Quickstart' section.
9147 -Note about proxy may need requests to re-read config files.
9149 Revision 1.75 2002/04/12 02:08:48 david__schmidt
9150 Remove OS/2 building info... it is already in the developer-manual
9152 Revision 1.74 2002/04/11 00:54:38 hal9
9153 Add small section on submitting actions.
9155 Revision 1.73 2002/04/10 18:45:15 swa
9158 Revision 1.72 2002/04/10 04:06:19 hal9
9159 Added actions feedback to Bookmarklets section
9161 Revision 1.71 2002/04/08 22:59:26 hal9
9162 Version update. Spell chkconfig correctly :)
9164 Revision 1.70 2002/04/08 20:53:56 swa
9167 Revision 1.69 2002/04/06 05:07:29 hal9
9168 -Add privoxy-man-page.sgml, for man page.
9169 -Add authors.sgml for AUTHORS (and p-authors.sgml)
9170 -Reworked various aspects of various docs.
9171 -Added additional comments to sub-docs.
9173 Revision 1.68 2002/04/04 18:46:47 swa
9174 consistent look. reuse of copyright, history et. al.
9176 Revision 1.67 2002/04/04 17:27:57 swa
9177 more single file to be included at multiple points. make maintaining easier
9179 Revision 1.66 2002/04/04 06:48:37 hal9
9180 Structural changes to allow for conditional inclusion/exclusion of content
9181 based on entity toggles, e.g. 'entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE"'. And
9182 definition of internal entities, e.g. 'entity p-version "2.9.13"' that will
9183 eventually be set by Makefile.
9184 More boilerplate text for use across multiple docs.
9186 Revision 1.65 2002/04/03 19:52:07 swa
9187 enhance squid section due to user suggestion
9189 Revision 1.64 2002/04/03 03:53:43 hal9
9190 A few minor bug fixes, and touch ups. Ready for review.
9192 Revision 1.63 2002/04/01 16:24:49 hal9
9193 Define entities to include boilerplate text. See doc/source/*.
9195 Revision 1.62 2002/03/30 04:15:53 hal9
9196 - Fix privoxy.org/config links.
9197 - Paste in Bookmarklets from Toggle page.
9198 - Move Quickstart nearer top, and minor rework.
9200 Revision 1.61 2002/03/29 01:31:08 hal9
9203 Revision 1.60 2002/03/27 01:57:34 hal9
9204 Added more to Anatomy section.
9206 Revision 1.59 2002/03/27 00:54:33 hal9
9207 Touch up intro for new name.
9209 Revision 1.58 2002/03/26 22:29:55 swa
9210 we have a new homepage!
9212 Revision 1.57 2002/03/24 20:33:30 hal9
9213 A few minor catch ups with name change.
9215 Revision 1.56 2002/03/24 16:17:06 swa
9216 configure needs to be generated.
9218 Revision 1.55 2002/03/24 16:08:08 swa
9219 we are too lazy to make a block-built
9220 privoxy logo. hence removed the option.
9222 Revision 1.54 2002/03/24 15:46:20 swa
9223 name change related issue.
9225 Revision 1.53 2002/03/24 11:51:00 swa
9226 name change. changed filenames.
9228 Revision 1.52 2002/03/24 11:01:06 swa
9231 Revision 1.51 2002/03/23 15:13:11 swa
9232 renamed every reference to the old name with foobar.
9233 fixed "application foobar application" tag, fixed
9234 "the foobar" with "foobar". left junkbustser in cvs
9235 comments and remarks to history untouched.
9237 Revision 1.50 2002/03/23 05:06:21 hal9
9240 Revision 1.49 2002/03/21 17:01:05 hal9
9241 New section in Appendix.
9243 Revision 1.48 2002/03/12 06:33:01 hal9
9244 Catching up to Andreas and re_filterfile changes.
9246 Revision 1.47 2002/03/11 13:13:27 swa
9247 correct feedback channels
9249 Revision 1.46 2002/03/10 00:51:08 hal9
9250 Added section on JB internal pages in Appendix.
9252 Revision 1.45 2002/03/09 17:43:53 swa
9255 Revision 1.44 2002/03/09 17:08:48 hal9
9256 New section on Jon's actions file editor, and move some stuff around.
9258 Revision 1.43 2002/03/08 00:47:32 hal9
9259 Added imageblock{pattern}.
9261 Revision 1.42 2002/03/07 18:16:55 swa
9264 Revision 1.41 2002/03/07 16:46:43 hal9
9265 Fix a few markup problems for jade.
9267 Revision 1.40 2002/03/07 16:28:39 swa
9268 provide correct feedback channels
9270 Revision 1.39 2002/03/06 16:19:28 hal9
9271 Note on perceived filtering slowdown per FR.
9273 Revision 1.38 2002/03/05 23:55:14 hal9
9274 Stupid I did it again. Double hyphen in comment breaks jade.
9276 Revision 1.37 2002/03/05 23:53:49 hal9
9277 jade barfs on '- -' embedded in comments. - -user option broke it.
9279 Revision 1.36 2002/03/05 22:53:28 hal9
9280 Add new - - user option.
9282 Revision 1.35 2002/03/05 00:17:27 hal9
9283 Added section on command line options.
9285 Revision 1.34 2002/03/04 19:32:07 oes
9286 Changed default port to 8118
9288 Revision 1.33 2002/03/03 19:46:13 hal9
9289 Emphasis on where/how to report bugs, etc
9291 Revision 1.32 2002/03/03 09:26:06 joergs
9292 AmigaOS changes, config is now loaded from PROGDIR: instead of
9293 AmiTCP:db/junkbuster/ if no configuration file is specified on the
9296 Revision 1.31 2002/03/02 22:45:52 david__schmidt
9299 Revision 1.30 2002/03/02 22:00:14 hal9
9300 Updated 'New Features' list. Ran through spell-checker.
9302 Revision 1.29 2002/03/02 20:34:07 david__schmidt
9303 Update OS/2 build section
9305 Revision 1.28 2002/02/24 14:34:24 jongfoster
9306 Formatting changes. Now changing the doctype to DocBook XML 4.1
9307 will work - no other changes are needed.
9309 Revision 1.27 2002/01/11 14:14:32 hal9
9310 Added a very short section on Templates
9312 Revision 1.26 2002/01/09 20:02:50 hal9
9313 Fix bug re: auto-detect config file changes.
9315 Revision 1.25 2002/01/09 18:20:30 hal9
9316 Touch ups for *.action files.
9318 Revision 1.24 2001/12/02 01:13:42 hal9
9321 Revision 1.23 2001/12/02 00:20:41 hal9
9322 Updates for recent changes.
9324 Revision 1.22 2001/11/05 23:57:51 hal9
9325 Minor update for startup now daemon mode.
9327 Revision 1.21 2001/10/31 21:11:03 hal9
9328 Correct 2 minor errors
9330 Revision 1.18 2001/10/24 18:45:26 hal9
9331 *** empty log message ***
9333 Revision 1.17 2001/10/24 17:10:55 hal9
9334 Catching up with Jon's recent work, and a few other things.
9336 Revision 1.16 2001/10/21 17:19:21 swa
9337 wrong url in documentation
9339 Revision 1.15 2001/10/14 23:46:24 hal9
9340 Various minor changes. Fleshed out SEE ALSO section.
9342 Revision 1.13 2001/10/10 17:28:33 hal9
9345 Revision 1.12 2001/09/28 02:57:04 hal9
9348 Revision 1.11 2001/09/28 02:25:20 hal9
9351 Revision 1.9 2001/09/27 23:50:29 hal9
9352 A few changes. A short section on regular expression in appendix.
9354 Revision 1.8 2001/09/25 00:34:59 hal9
9355 Some additions, and re-arranging.
9357 Revision 1.7 2001/09/24 14:31:36 hal9
9360 Revision 1.6 2001/09/24 14:10:32 hal9
9361 Including David's OS/2 installation instructions.
9363 Revision 1.2 2001/09/13 15:27:40 swa
9366 Revision 1.1 2001/09/12 15:36:41 swa
9367 source files for junkbuster documentation
9369 Revision 1.3 2001/09/10 17:43:59 swa
9370 first proposal of a structure.
9372 Revision 1.2 2001/06/13 14:28:31 swa
9373 docs should have an author.
9375 Revision 1.1 2001/06/13 14:20:37 swa
9376 first import of project's documentation for the webserver.