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 "3.0.8">
15 <!entity p-status "stable">
16 <!entity % p-authors-formal "INCLUDE"> <!-- include additional text, etc -->
17 <!entity % p-not-stable "IGNORE">
18 <!entity % p-stable "INCLUDE">
19 <!entity % p-text "IGNORE"> <!-- define we are not a text only doc -->
20 <!entity % p-doc "INCLUDE"> <!-- and we are a formal doc -->
21 <!entity % p-readme "IGNORE">
22 <!entity % user-man "IGNORE">
23 <!entity % config-file "IGNORE">
24 <!entity % p-supp-userman "IGNORE"> <!-- Omit some from supported.sgml -->
25 <!entity my-copy "©"> <!-- kludge for docbook2man -->
26 <!entity % draft "IGNORE"> <!-- WIP stuff -->
27 <!entity my-app "<application>Privoxy</application>">
30 File : $Source: /cvsroot/ijbswa/current/doc/source/user-manual.sgml,v $
33 This file belongs into
34 ijbswa.sourceforge.net:/home/groups/i/ij/ijbswa/htdocs/
36 $Id: user-manual.sgml,v 2.58 2008/02/03 21:37:40 hal9 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 2.58 2008/02/03 21:37:40 hal9 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 file
304 from the finder, or from the desktop if you downloaded it there).
305 Then, double-click on the package installer icon named
306 <literal>Privoxy.pkg</literal>
307 and follow the installation process.
308 It will start automatically whenever you start up. To prevent it from
309 starting automatically, remove or rename the folder
310 <literal>/Library/StartupItems/Privoxy</literal>.
313 To start and stop Privoxy by hand, download and install the
314 <ulink url="https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118&package_id=29783">Privoxy Utility</ulink> for Mac OS X.
317 The Privoxy Utility also provides an option to uninstall the software.
321 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
322 <sect3 id="installation-amiga"><title>AmigaOS</title>
324 Copy and then unpack the <filename>lha</filename> archive to a suitable location.
325 All necessary files will be installed into <application>Privoxy</application>
326 directory, including all configuration and log files. To uninstall, just
327 remove this directory.
331 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
332 <sect3 id="installation-tbz"><title>FreeBSD</title>
335 Privoxy is part of FreeBSD's Ports Collection, you can build and install
336 it with <literal>cd /usr/ports/www/privoxy; make install clean</literal>.
339 If you don't use the ports, you can fetch and install
340 the package with <literal>pkg_add -r privoxy</literal>.
343 The port skeleton and the package can also be downloaded from the
344 <ulink url="https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118">File Release
345 Page</ulink>, but there's no reason to use them unless you're interested in the
346 beta releases which are only available there.
350 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
351 <sect3 id="installattion-gentoo"><title>Gentoo</title>
353 Gentoo source packages (Ebuilds) for <application>Privoxy</application> are
354 contained in the Gentoo Portage Tree (they are not on the download page,
355 but there is a Gentoo section, where you can see when a new
356 <application>Privoxy</application> Version is added to the Portage Tree).
359 Before installing <application>Privoxy</application> under Gentoo just do
360 first <literal>emerge rsync</literal> to get the latest changes from the
361 Portage tree. With <literal>emerge privoxy</literal> you install the latest
365 Configuration files are in <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename>, the
366 documentation is in <filename>/usr/share/doc/privoxy-&p-version;</filename>
367 and the Log directory is in <filename>/var/log/privoxy</filename>.
373 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
374 <sect2 id="installation-source"><title>Building from Source</title>
377 The most convenient way to obtain the <application>Privoxy</application> sources
378 is to download the source tarball from our
379 <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118&package_id=10571">project download
384 If you like to live on the bleeding edge and are not afraid of using
385 possibly unstable development versions, you can check out the up-to-the-minute
386 version directly from <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/cvs/?group_id=11118">the
387 CVS repository</ulink>.
389 deprecated...out of business.
390 or simply download <ulink
391 url="http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cvstarballs/ijbswa-cvsroot.tar.bz2">the nightly CVS
396 <!-- include buildsource.sgml boilerplate: -->
398 <!-- end boilerplate -->
401 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
402 <sect2 id="installation-keepupdated"><title>Keeping your Installation Up-to-Date</title>
404 As user feedback comes in and development continues, we will make updated versions
405 of both the main <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link> (as a <ulink
406 url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118&release_id=103670">separate
407 package</ulink>) and the software itself (including the actions file) available for
412 If you wish to receive an email notification whenever we release updates of
413 <application>Privoxy</application> or the actions file, <ulink
414 url="http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ijbswa-announce/">subscribe
415 to our announce mailing list</ulink>, ijbswa-announce@lists.sourceforge.net.
419 In order not to lose your personal changes and adjustments when updating
420 to the latest <literal>default.action</literal> file we <emphasis>strongly
421 recommend</emphasis> that you use <literal>user.action</literal> and
422 <literal>user.filter</literal> for your local
423 customizations of <application>Privoxy</application>. See the <link
424 linkend="actions-file">Chapter on actions files</link> for details.
432 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
434 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
435 <sect1 id="whatsnew">
436 <title>What's New in this Release</title>
438 There are many improvements and new features since <application>Privoxy 3.0.6</application>, the last stable release:
445 Two new actions <link
446 linkend="server-header-tagger">server-header-tagger</link>
448 linkend="client-header-tagger">client-header-tagger</link>
449 that can be used to create arbitrary <quote>tags</quote>
450 based on client and server headers.
451 These <quote>tags</quote> can then subsequently be used
452 to control the other actions used for the current request,
453 greatly increasing &my-app;'s flexibility and selectivity. See <link
454 linkend="tag-pattern">tag patterns</link> for more information on tags.
460 Header filtering is done with dedicated header filters now. As a result
461 the actions <quote>filter-client-headers</quote> and <quote>filter-server-headers</quote>
462 that were introduced with <application>Privoxy 3.0.5</application> to apply
463 content filters to the headers have been removed.
464 See the new actions <link
465 linkend="server-header-filter">server-header-filter</link>
467 linkend="client-header-filter">client-header-filter</link> for details.
472 There are four new options for the main <filename>config</filename> file:
479 linkend="allow-cgi-request-crunching">allow-cgi-request-crunching</link>
480 which allows requests for Privoxy's internal CGI pages to be
481 blocked, redirected or (un)trusted like ordinary requests.
487 linkend="split-large-forms">split-large-forms</link>
488 that will work around a browser bug that caused IE6 and IE7 to
489 ignore the Submit button on the Privoxy's edit-actions-for-url CGI
496 linkend="accept-intercepted-requests">accept-intercepted-requests</link>
497 which allows to combine Privoxy with any packet filter to create an
498 intercepting proxy for HTTP/1.1 requests (and for HTTP/1.0 requests
499 with Host header set). This means clients can be forced to use
500 &my-app; even if their proxy settings are configured differently.
506 linkend="templdir">templdir</link>
507 to designate an alternate location for &my-app;'s
508 locally customized CGI templates so that
509 these are not overwritten during upgrades.
517 A new command line option <literal>--pre-chroot-nslookup hostname</literal> to
518 initialize the resolver library before chroot'ing. On some systems this
519 reduces the number of files that must be copied into the chroot tree.
520 (Patch provided by Stephen Gildea)
527 linkend="forward-override">forward-override</link> action
528 allows changing of the forwarding settings through the actions files.
529 Combined with tags, this allows to choose the forwarder based on
530 client headers like the <literal>User-Agent</literal>, or the request origin.
537 linkend="redirect">redirect</link> action can now use regular
538 expression substitutions against the original URL.
544 <application>zlib</application> support is now available as a compile
545 time option to filter compressed content. Patch provided by Wil Mahan.
550 Improve various filters, and add new ones.
557 Include support for RFC 3253 so that <filename>Subversion</filename> works
558 with &my-app;. Patch provided by Petr Kadlec.
564 Logging can be completely turned off by not specifying a logfile directive.
571 A number of improvements to Privoxy's internal CGI pages, including the
572 use of favicons for error and control pages.
578 Many bugfixes, memory leaks addressed, code improvements, and logging
586 For a more detailed list of changes please have a look at the ChangeLog.
589 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
591 <sect2 id="upgradersnote">
592 <title>Note to Upgraders</title>
595 A quick list of things to be aware of before upgrading from earlier
596 versions of <application>Privoxy</application>:
604 The recommended way to upgrade &my-app; is to backup your old
605 configuration files, install the new ones, verify that &my-app;
606 is working correctly and finally merge back your changes using
607 <application>diff</application> and maybe <application>patch</application>.
610 There are a number of new features in each &my-app; release and
611 most of them have to be explicitly enabled in the configuration
612 files. Old configuration files obviously don't do that and due
613 to syntax changes using old configuration files with a new
614 &my-app; isn't always possible anyway.
619 Note that some installers remove earlier versions completely,
620 including configuration files, therefore you should really save
621 any important configuration files!
626 On the other hand, other installers don't overwrite existing configuration
627 files, thinking you will want to do that yourself.
632 <filename>standard.action</filename> now only includes the enabled actions.
633 Not all actions as before.
638 In the default configuration only fatal errors are logged now.
639 You can change that in the <link linkend="DEBUG">debug section</link>
640 of the configuration file. You may also want to enable more verbose
641 logging until you verified that the new &my-app; version is working
648 Three other config file settings are now off by default:
649 <link linkend="enable-remote-toggle">enable-remote-toggle</link>,
650 <link linkend="enable-remote-http-toggle">enable-remote-http-toggle</link>,
651 and <link linkend="enable-edit-actions">enable-edit-actions</link>.
652 If you use or want these, you will need to explicitly enable them, and
653 be aware of the security issues involved.
659 The <quote>filter-client-headers</quote> and
660 <quote>filter-server-headers</quote> actions that were introduced with
661 <application>Privoxy 3.0.5</application> to apply content filters to
662 the headers have been removed and replaced with new actions.
664 linkend="whatsnew">What's New section</link> above.
672 What constitutes a <quote>default</quote> configuration has changed,
673 and you may want to review which actions are <quote>on</quote> by
674 default. This is primarily a matter of emphasis, but some features
675 you may have been used to, may now be <quote>off</quote> by default.
676 There are also a number of new actions and filters you may want to
677 consider, most of which are not fully incorporated into the default
678 settings as yet (see above).
685 The default actions setting is now <literal>Cautious</literal>. Previous
686 releases had a default setting of <literal>Medium</literal>. Experienced
687 users may want to adjust this, as it is fairly conservative by &my-app;
688 standards and past practices. See <ulink
689 url="http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions-list?f=default">
690 http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions-list?f=default</ulink>. New users
691 should try the default settings for a while before turning up the volume.
697 The default setting has filtering turned <emphasis>off</emphasis>, which
698 subsequently means that compression is <emphasis>on</emphasis>. Remember
699 that filtering does not work on compressed pages, so if you use, or want to
700 use, filtering, you will need to force compression off. Example:
704 { +<link linkend="filter">filter</link>{google} +<link linkend="prevent-compression">prevent-compression</link> }
708 Or if you use a number of filters, or filter many sites, you may just want
709 to turn off compression for all sites in
710 <filename>default.action</filename> (or
711 <filename>user.action</filename>).
718 Also, <link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> is
719 off by default now. If you've liked this feature in the past, you may want
720 to turn it back on in <filename>user.action</filename> now.
727 Some installers may not automatically start
728 <application>Privoxy</application> after installation.
739 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
740 <sect1 id="quickstart"><title>Quickstart to Using Privoxy</title>
746 Install <application>Privoxy</application>. See the <link
747 linkend="installation">Installation Section</link> below for platform specific
754 Advanced users and those who want to offer <application>Privoxy</application>
755 service to more than just their local machine should check the <link
756 linkend="config">main config file</link>, especially the <link
757 linkend="access-control">security-relevant</link> options. These are
764 Start <application>Privoxy</application>, if the installation program has
765 not done this already (may vary according to platform). See the section
766 <link linkend="startup">Starting <application>Privoxy</application></link>.
772 Set your browser to use <application>Privoxy</application> as HTTP and
773 HTTPS (SSL) <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_server">proxy</ulink>
774 by setting the proxy configuration for address of
775 <literal>127.0.0.1</literal> and port <literal>8118</literal>.
776 <emphasis>DO NOT</emphasis> activate proxying for <literal>FTP</literal> or
777 any protocols besides HTTP and HTTPS (SSL) unless you intend to prevent your
778 browser from using these protocols.
784 Flush your browser's disk and memory caches, to remove any cached ad images.
785 If using <application>Privoxy</application> to manage
786 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>,
787 you should remove any currently stored cookies too.
793 A default installation should provide a reasonable starting point for
794 most. There will undoubtedly be occasions where you will want to adjust the
795 configuration, but that can be dealt with as the need arises. Little
796 to no initial configuration is required in most cases, you may want
798 <ulink url="config.html#ENABLE-EDIT-ACTIONS">web-based action editor</ulink> though.
799 Be sure to read the warnings first.
802 See the <link linkend="configuration">Configuration section</link> for more
803 configuration options, and how to customize your installation.
804 You might also want to look at the <link
805 linkend="quickstart-ad-blocking">next section</link> for a quick
806 introduction to how <application>Privoxy</application> blocks ads and
813 If you experience ads that slip through, innocent images that are
814 blocked, or otherwise feel the need to fine-tune
815 <application>Privoxy's</application> behavior, take a look at the <link
816 linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>. As a quick start, you might
817 find the <link linkend="act-examples">richly commented examples</link>
818 helpful. You can also view and edit the actions files through the <ulink
819 url="http://config.privoxy.org">web-based user interface</ulink>. The
820 Appendix <quote><link linkend="actionsanat">Troubleshooting: Anatomy of an
821 Action</link></quote> has hints on how to understand and debug actions that
822 <quote>misbehave</quote>.
827 Did anyone test these lately?
831 For easy access to &my-app;'s most important controls, drag the provided
832 <link linkend="bookmarklets">Bookmarklets</link> into your browser's
840 Please see the section <link linkend="contact">Contacting the
841 Developers</link> on how to report bugs, problems with websites or to get
848 Now enjoy surfing with enhanced control, comfort and privacy!
856 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
858 <sect2 id="quickstart-ad-blocking">
859 <title>Quickstart to Ad Blocking</title>
861 NOTE: This section is deliberately redundant for those that don't
862 want to read the whole thing (which is getting lengthy).
865 Ad blocking is but one of <application>Privoxy's</application>
866 array of features. Many of these features are for the technically minded advanced
867 user. But, ad and banner blocking is surely common ground for everybody.
870 This section will provide a quick summary of ad blocking so
871 you can get up to speed quickly without having to read the more extensive
872 information provided below, though this is highly recommended.
875 First a bit of a warning ... blocking ads is much like blocking SPAM: the
876 more aggressive you are about it, the more likely you are to block
877 things that were not intended. And the more likely that some things
878 may not work as intended. So there is a trade off here. If you want
879 extreme ad free browsing, be prepared to deal with more
880 <quote>problem</quote> sites, and to spend more time adjusting the
881 configuration to solve these unintended consequences. In short, there is
882 not an easy way to eliminate <emphasis>all</emphasis> ads. Either take
883 the easy way and settle for <emphasis>most</emphasis> ads blocked with the
884 default configuration, or jump in and tweak it for your personal surfing
885 habits and preferences.
888 Secondly, a brief explanation of <application>Privoxy's </application>
889 <quote>actions</quote>. <quote>Actions</quote> in this context, are
890 the directives we use to tell <application>Privoxy</application> to perform
891 some task relating to HTTP transactions (i.e. web browsing). We tell
892 <application>Privoxy</application> to take some <quote>action</quote>. Each
893 action has a unique name and function. While there are many potential
894 <application>actions</application> in <application>Privoxy's</application>
895 arsenal, only a few are used for ad blocking. <link
896 linkend="actions">Actions</link>, and <link linkend="actions-file">action
897 configuration files</link>, are explained in depth below.
900 Actions are specified in <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration,
901 followed by one or more URLs to which the action should apply. URLs
902 can actually be URL type <link linkend="af-patterns">patterns</link> that use
903 wildcards so they can apply potentially to a range of similar URLs. The
904 actions, together with the URL patterns are called a section.
907 When you connect to a website, the full URL will either match one or more
908 of the sections as defined in <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration,
909 or not. If so, then <application>Privoxy</application> will perform the
910 respective actions. If not, then nothing special happens. Furthermore, web
911 pages may contain embedded, secondary URLs that your web browser will
912 use to load additional components of the page, as it parses the
913 original page's HTML content. An ad image for instance, is just an URL
914 embedded in the page somewhere. The image itself may be on the same server,
915 or a server somewhere else on the Internet. Complex web pages will have many
916 such embedded URLs. &my-app; can deal with each URL individually, so, for
917 instance, the main page text is not touched, but images from such-and-such
922 The most important actions for basic ad blocking are: <literal><link
923 linkend="block">block</link></literal>, <literal><link
924 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>,
926 linkend="handle-as-empty-document">handle-as-empty-document</link></literal>,and
927 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>:
935 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> - this is perhaps
936 the single most used action, and is particularly important for ad blocking.
937 This action stops any contact between your browser and any URL patterns
938 that match this action's configuration. It can be used for blocking ads,
939 but also anything that is determined to be unwanted. By itself, it simply
940 stops any communication with the remote server and sends
941 <application>Privoxy</application>'s own built-in BLOCKED page instead to
942 let you now what has happened (with some exceptions, see below).
948 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> -
949 tells <application>Privoxy</application> to treat this URL as an image.
950 <application>Privoxy</application>'s default configuration already does this
951 for all common image types (e.g. GIF), but there are many situations where this
952 is not so easy to determine. So we'll force it in these cases. This is particularly
953 important for ad blocking, since only if we know that it's an image of
954 some kind, can we replace it with an image of our choosing, instead of the
955 <application>Privoxy</application> BLOCKED page (which would only result in
956 a <quote>broken image</quote> icon). There are some limitations to this
957 though. For instance, you can't just brute-force an image substitution for
958 an entire HTML page in most situations.
964 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-empty-document">handle-as-empty-document</link></literal> -
965 sends an empty document instead of <application>Privoxy's</application>
966 normal BLOCKED HTML page. This is useful for file types that are neither
967 HTML nor images, such as blocking JavaScript files.
974 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal> - tells
975 <application>Privoxy</application> what to display in place of an ad image that
976 has hit a block rule. For this to come into play, the URL must match a
977 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action somewhere in the
978 configuration, <emphasis>and</emphasis>, it must also match an
979 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> action.
982 The configuration options on what to display instead of the ad are:
986 <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> - a checkerboard pattern, so that an ad
987 replacement is obvious. This is the default.
992 <emphasis>blank</emphasis> - A very small empty GIF image is displayed.
993 This is the so-called <quote>invisible</quote> configuration option.
998 <emphasis>http://<URL></emphasis> - A redirect to any image anywhere
999 of the user's choosing (advanced usage).
1008 Advanced users will eventually want to explore &my-app;
1009 <literal><link linkend="filter">filters</link></literal> as well. Filters
1010 are very different from <literal><link
1011 linkend="block">blocks</link></literal>.
1012 A <quote>block</quote> blocks a site, page, or unwanted contented. Filters
1013 are a way of filtering or modifying what is actually on the page. An example
1014 filter usage: a text replacement of <quote>no-no</quote> for
1015 <quote>nasty-word</quote>. That is a very simple example. This process can be
1016 used for ad blocking, but it is more in the realm of advanced usage and has
1017 some pitfalls to be wary off.
1021 The quickest way to adjust any of these settings is with your browser through
1022 the special <application>Privoxy</application> editor at <ulink
1023 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
1024 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/show-status</ulink>). This
1025 is an internal page, and does not require Internet access.
1029 Note that as of <application>Privoxy</application> 3.0.7 beta the
1030 action editor is disabled by default. Check the
1031 <ulink url="config.html#ENABLE-EDIT-ACTIONS">enable-edit-actions
1032 section in the configuration file</ulink> to learn why and in which
1033 cases it's safe to enable again.
1037 If you decided to enable the action editor, select the appropriate
1038 <quote>actions</quote> file, and click
1039 <quote><guibutton>Edit</guibutton></quote>. It is best to put personal or
1040 local preferences in <filename>user.action</filename> since this is not
1041 meant to be overwritten during upgrades, and will over-ride the settings in
1042 other files. Here you can insert new <quote>actions</quote>, and URLs for ad
1043 blocking or other purposes, and make other adjustments to the configuration.
1044 <application>Privoxy</application> will detect these changes automatically.
1048 A quick and simple step by step example:
1056 Right click on the ad image to be blocked, then select
1057 <quote><guimenuitem>Copy Link Location</guimenuitem></quote> from the
1065 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
1070 Find <filename>user.action</filename> in the top section, and click
1071 on <quote><guibutton>Edit</guibutton></quote>:
1074 <!-- image of editor and actions files selections -->
1076 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Actions Files in Use</title>
1079 <imagedata fileref="files-in-use.jpg" format="jpg">
1082 <phrase>[ Screenshot of Actions Files in Use ]</phrase>
1091 You should have a section with only
1092 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> listed under
1093 <quote>Actions:</quote>.
1094 If not, click a <quote><guibutton>Insert new section below</guibutton></quote>
1095 button, and in the new section that just appeared, click the
1096 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> button right under the word <quote>Actions:</quote>.
1097 This will bring up a list of all actions. Find
1098 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> near the top, and click
1099 in the <quote>Enabled</quote> column, then <quote><guibutton>Submit</guibutton></quote>
1100 just below the list.
1105 Now, in the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> actions section,
1106 click the <quote><guibutton>Add</guibutton></quote> button, and paste the URL the
1107 browser got from <quote><guimenuitem>Copy Link Location</guimenuitem></quote>.
1108 Remove the <literal>http://</literal> at the beginning of the URL. Then, click
1109 <quote><guibutton>Submit</guibutton></quote> (or
1110 <quote><guibutton>OK</guibutton></quote> if in a pop-up window).
1115 Now go back to the original page, and press <keycap>SHIFT-Reload</keycap>
1116 (or flush all browser caches). The image should be gone now.
1124 This is a very crude and simple example. There might be good reasons to use a
1125 wildcard pattern match to include potentially similar images from the same
1126 site. For a more extensive explanation of <quote>patterns</quote>, and
1127 the entire actions concept, see <link linkend="actions-file">the Actions
1132 For advanced users who want to hand edit their config files, you might want
1133 to now go to the <link linkend="act-examples">Actions Files Tutorial</link>.
1134 The ideas explained therein also apply to the web-based editor.
1137 There are also various
1138 <link linkend="filter">filters</link> that can be used for ad blocking
1139 (filters are a special subset of actions). These
1140 fall into the <quote>advanced</quote> usage category, and are explained in
1141 depth in later sections.
1148 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1151 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1152 <sect1 id="startup">
1153 <title>Starting Privoxy</title>
1155 Before launching <application>Privoxy</application> for the first time, you
1156 will want to configure your browser(s) to use
1157 <application>Privoxy</application> as a HTTP and HTTPS (SSL)
1158 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_server">proxy</ulink>. The default is
1159 127.0.0.1 (or localhost) for the proxy address, and port 8118 (earlier versions
1160 used port 8000). This is the one configuration step <emphasis>that must be done
1164 Please note that <application>Privoxy</application> can only proxy HTTP and
1165 HTTPS traffic. It will not work with FTP or other protocols.
1168 <!-- image of Mozilla Proxy configuration -->
1170 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Proxy Configuration Showing
1171 Mozilla/Netscape HTTP and HTTPS (SSL) Settings</title>
1174 <imagedata fileref="proxy_setup.jpg" format="jpg">
1177 <phrase>[ Screenshot of Mozilla Proxy Configuration ]</phrase>
1185 With <application>Firefox</application>, this is typically set under:
1189 <guibutton>Tools</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Options</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Advanced</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Network</guibutton> -><guibutton>Connection</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Settings</guibutton>
1194 Or optionally on some platforms:
1198 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Preferences</guibutton> -> <guibutton>General</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Connection Settings</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Manual Proxy Configuration</guibutton>
1204 With <application>Netscape</application> (and
1205 <application>Mozilla</application>), this can be set under:
1210 <!-- Mix ascii and gui art, something for everybody -->
1211 <!-- spacing on this is tricky -->
1212 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Preferences</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Advanced</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Proxies</guibutton> -> <guibutton>HTTP Proxy</guibutton>
1217 For <application>Internet Explorer v.5-7</application>:
1221 <guibutton>Tools</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Internet Options</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Connections</guibutton> -> <guibutton>LAN Settings</guibutton>
1225 Then, check <quote>Use Proxy</quote> and fill in the appropriate info
1226 (Address: 127.0.0.1, Port: 8118). Include HTTPS (SSL), if you want HTTPS
1227 proxy support too (sometimes labeled <quote>Secure</quote>). Make sure any
1228 checkboxes like <quote>Use the same proxy server for all protocols</quote> is
1229 <emphasis>UNCHECKED</emphasis>. You want only HTTP and HTTPS (SSL)!
1232 <!-- image of IE Proxy configuration -->
1234 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Proxy Configuration Showing
1235 Internet Explorer HTTP and HTTPS (Secure) Settings</title>
1238 <imagedata fileref="proxy2.jpg" format="jpg">
1241 <phrase>[ Screenshot of IE Proxy Configuration ]</phrase>
1249 After doing this, flush your browser's disk and memory caches to force a
1250 re-reading of all pages and to get rid of any ads that may be cached. Remove
1251 any <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>,
1252 if you want <application>Privoxy</application> to manage that. You are now
1253 ready to start enjoying the benefits of using
1254 <application>Privoxy</application>!
1258 <application>Privoxy</application> itself is typically started by specifying the
1259 main configuration file to be used on the command line. If no configuration
1260 file is specified on the command line, <application>Privoxy</application>
1261 will look for a file named <filename>config</filename> in the current
1262 directory. Except on Win32 where it will try <filename>config.txt</filename>.
1265 <sect2 id="start-redhat">
1266 <title>Red Hat and Fedora</title>
1268 A default Red Hat installation may not start &my-app; upon boot. It will use
1269 the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename> as its main configuration
1274 # /etc/rc.d/init.d/privoxy start
1282 # service privoxy start
1287 <sect2 id="start-debian">
1288 <title>Debian</title>
1290 We use a script. Note that Debian typically starts &my-app; upon booting per
1291 default. It will use the file
1292 <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename> as its main configuration
1297 # /etc/init.d/privoxy start
1302 <sect2 id="start-windows">
1303 <title>Windows</title>
1305 Click on the &my-app; Icon to start <application>Privoxy</application>. If no configuration file is
1306 specified on the command line, <application>Privoxy</application> will look
1307 for a file named <filename>config.txt</filename>. Note that Windows will
1308 automatically start &my-app; when the system starts if you chose that option
1312 <application>Privoxy</application> can run with full Windows service functionality.
1313 On Windows only, the &my-app; program has two new command line arguments
1314 to install and uninstall &my-app; as a service. See the
1315 <link linkend="installation-pack-win">Windows Installation
1316 instructions</link> for details.
1320 <sect2 id="start-unices">
1321 <title>Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD, HP-UX and others</title>
1323 Example Unix startup command:
1327 # /usr/sbin/privoxy /etc/privoxy/config
1332 <sect2 id="start-os2">
1335 During installation, <application>Privoxy</application> is configured to
1336 start automatically when the system restarts. You can start it manually by
1337 double-clicking on the <application>Privoxy</application> icon in the
1338 <application>Privoxy</application> folder.
1342 <sect2 id="start-macosx">
1343 <title>Mac OS X</title>
1345 During installation, <application>Privoxy</application> is configured to
1346 start automatically when the system restarts. To start &my-app; manually,
1347 double-click on the <literal>StartPrivoxy.command</literal> icon in the
1348 <literal>/Library/Privoxy</literal> folder. Or, type this command
1353 /Library/Privoxy/StartPrivoxy.command
1357 You will be prompted for the administrator password.
1362 <sect2 id="start-amigaos">
1363 <title>AmigaOS</title>
1365 Start <application>Privoxy</application> (with RUN <>NIL:) in your
1366 <filename>startnet</filename> script (AmiTCP), in
1367 <filename>s:user-startup</filename> (RoadShow), as startup program in your
1368 startup script (Genesis), or as startup action (Miami and MiamiDx).
1369 <application>Privoxy</application> will automatically quit when you quit your
1370 TCP/IP stack (just ignore the harmless warning your TCP/IP stack may display that
1371 <application>Privoxy</application> is still running).
1375 <sect2 id="start-gentoo">
1376 <title>Gentoo</title>
1378 A script is again used. It will use the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config
1379 </filename> as its main configuration file.
1383 /etc/init.d/privoxy start
1387 Note that <application>Privoxy</application> is not automatically started at
1388 boot time by default. You can change this with the <literal>rc-update</literal>
1393 rc-update add privoxy default
1401 See the section <link linkend="cmdoptions">Command line options</link> for
1405 must find a better place for this paragraph
1408 The included default configuration files should give a reasonable starting
1409 point. Most of the per site configuration is done in the
1410 <ulink url="actions-file.html"><quote>actions</quote></ulink> files. These are
1411 where various cookie actions are defined, ad and banner blocking, and other
1412 aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. There are several
1413 such files included, with varying levels of aggressiveness.
1417 You will probably want to keep an eye out for sites for which you may prefer
1418 persistent cookies, and add these to your actions configuration as needed. By
1419 default, most of these will be accepted only during the current browser
1420 session (aka <quote>session cookies</quote>), unless you add them to the
1421 configuration. If you want the browser to handle this instead, you will need
1422 to edit <filename>user.action</filename> (or through the web based interface)
1423 and disable this feature. If you use more than one browser, it would make
1424 more sense to let <application>Privoxy</application> handle this. In which
1425 case, the browser(s) should be set to accept all cookies.
1429 Another feature where you will probably want to define exceptions for trusted
1430 sites is the popup-killing (through the <ulink
1431 url="actions-file.html#KILL-POPUPS"><quote>+kill-popups</quote></ulink> and
1433 url="actions-file.html#FILTER-POPUPS"><quote>+filter{popups}</quote></ulink>
1434 actions), because your favorite shopping, banking, or leisure site may need
1435 popups (explained below).
1439 <application>Privoxy</application> does not support all of the optional HTTP/1.1
1440 features yet. In the unlikely event that you experience inexplicable problems
1441 with browsers that use HTTP/1.1 per default
1442 (like <application>Mozilla</application> or recent versions of I.E.), you might
1443 try to force HTTP/1.0 compatibility. For Mozilla, look under <literal>Edit ->
1444 Preferences -> Debug -> Networking</literal>.
1445 Alternatively, set the <quote>+downgrade-http-version</quote> config option in
1446 <filename>default.action</filename> which will downgrade your browser's HTTP
1447 requests from HTTP/1.1 to HTTP/1.0 before processing them.
1451 After running <application>Privoxy</application> for a while, you can
1452 start to fine tune the configuration to suit your personal, or site,
1453 preferences and requirements. There are many, many aspects that can
1454 be customized. <quote>Actions</quote>
1455 can be adjusted by pointing your browser to
1456 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
1457 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
1458 and then follow the link to <quote>View & Change the Current Configuration</quote>.
1459 (This is an internal page and does not require Internet access.)
1463 In fact, various aspects of <application>Privoxy</application>
1464 configuration can be viewed from this page, including
1465 current configuration parameters, source code version numbers,
1466 the browser's request headers, and <quote>actions</quote> that apply
1467 to a given URL. In addition to the actions file
1468 editor mentioned above, <application>Privoxy</application> can also
1469 be turned <quote>on</quote> and <quote>off</quote> (toggled) from this page.
1473 If you encounter problems, try loading the page without
1474 <application>Privoxy</application>. If that helps, enter the URL where
1475 you have the problems into <ulink url="http://p.p/show-url-info">the browser
1476 based rule tracing utility</ulink>. See which rules apply and why, and
1477 then try turning them off for that site one after the other, until the problem
1478 is gone. When you have found the culprit, you might want to turn the rest on
1483 If the above paragraph sounds gibberish to you, you might want to <link
1484 linkend="actions-file">read more about the actions concept</link>
1485 or even dive deep into the <link linkend="actionsanat">Appendix
1490 If you can't get rid of the problem at all, think you've found a bug in
1491 Privoxy, want to propose a new feature or smarter rules, please see the
1492 section <link linkend="contact"><quote>Contacting the
1493 Developers</quote></link> below.
1498 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1499 <sect2 id="cmdoptions">
1500 <title>Command Line Options</title>
1502 <application>Privoxy</application> may be invoked with the following
1503 command-line options:
1511 <emphasis>--version</emphasis>
1514 Print version info and exit. Unix only.
1519 <emphasis>--help</emphasis>
1522 Print short usage info and exit. Unix only.
1527 <emphasis>--no-daemon</emphasis>
1530 Don't become a daemon, i.e. don't fork and become process group
1531 leader, and don't detach from controlling tty. Unix only.
1536 <emphasis>--pidfile FILE</emphasis>
1539 On startup, write the process ID to <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>. Delete the
1540 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> on exit. Failure to create or delete the
1541 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> is non-fatal. If no <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>
1542 option is given, no PID file will be used. Unix only.
1547 <emphasis>--user USER[.GROUP]</emphasis>
1550 After (optionally) writing the PID file, assume the user ID of
1551 <emphasis>USER</emphasis>, and if included the GID of GROUP. Exit if the
1552 privileges are not sufficient to do so. Unix only.
1557 <emphasis>--chroot</emphasis>
1560 Before changing to the user ID given in the <emphasis>--user</emphasis> option,
1561 chroot to that user's home directory, i.e. make the kernel pretend to the &my-app;
1562 process that the directory tree starts there. If set up carefully, this can limit
1563 the impact of possible vulnerabilities in &my-app; to the files contained in that hierarchy.
1569 <emphasis>--pre-chroot-nslookup hostname</emphasis>
1572 Specifies a hostname to look up before doing a chroot. On some systems, initializing the
1573 resolver library involves reading config files from /etc and/or loading additional shared
1574 libraries from /lib. On these systems, doing a hostname lookup before the chroot reduces
1575 the number of files that must be copied into the chroot tree.
1578 For fastest startup speed, a good value is a hostname that is not in /etc/hosts but that
1579 your local name server (listed in /etc/resolv.conf) can resolve without recursion
1580 (that is, without having to ask any other name servers). The hostname need not exist,
1581 but if it doesn't, an error message (which can be ignored) will be output.
1587 <emphasis>configfile</emphasis>
1590 If no <emphasis>configfile</emphasis> is included on the command line,
1591 <application>Privoxy</application> will look for a file named
1592 <quote>config</quote> in the current directory (except on Win32
1593 where it will look for <quote>config.txt</quote> instead). Specify
1594 full path to avoid confusion. If no config file is found,
1595 <application>Privoxy</application> will fail to start.
1603 On <application>MS Windows</application> only there are two additional
1604 command-line options to allow <application>Privoxy</application> to install and
1605 run as a <emphasis>service</emphasis>. See the
1606 <link linkend="installation-pack-win">Window Installation section</link>
1614 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1617 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1618 <sect1 id="configuration"><title>Privoxy Configuration</title>
1620 All <application>Privoxy</application> configuration is stored
1621 in text files. These files can be edited with a text editor.
1622 Many important aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> can
1623 also be controlled easily with a web browser.
1627 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1630 <title>Controlling Privoxy with Your Web Browser</title>
1632 <application>Privoxy</application>'s user interface can be reached through the special
1633 URL <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
1634 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
1635 which is a built-in page and works without Internet access.
1636 You will see the following section:
1640 <!-- Needs to be put in a table and colorized -->
1643 <bridgehead renderas="sect2"> Privoxy Menu</bridgehead>
1647 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">View & change the current configuration</ulink>
1650 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-version">View the source code version numbers</ulink>
1653 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request">View the request headers.</ulink>
1656 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">Look up which actions apply to a URL and why</ulink>
1659 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">Toggle Privoxy on or off</ulink>
1662 ▪ <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/
1663 &p-version;/user-manual/">Documentation</ulink>
1671 This should be self-explanatory. Note the first item leads to an editor for the
1672 <link linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>, which is where the ad, banner,
1673 cookie, and URL blocking magic is configured as well as other advanced features of
1674 <application>Privoxy</application>. This is an easy way to adjust various
1675 aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. The actions
1676 file, and other configuration files, are explained in detail below.
1680 <quote>Toggle Privoxy On or Off</quote> is handy for sites that might
1681 have problems with your current actions and filters. You can in fact use
1682 it as a test to see whether it is <application>Privoxy</application>
1683 causing the problem or not. <application>Privoxy</application> continues
1684 to run as a proxy in this case, but all manipulation is disabled, i.e.
1685 <application>Privoxy</application> acts like a normal forwarding proxy. There
1686 is even a toggle <link linkend="bookmarklets">Bookmarklet</link> offered, so
1687 that you can toggle <application>Privoxy</application> with one click from
1692 Note that several of the features described above are disabled by default
1693 in <application>Privoxy</application> 3.0.7 beta and later.
1695 <ulink url="config.html">configuration file</ulink> to learn why
1696 and in which cases it's safe to enable them again.
1701 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1706 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1708 <sect2 id="confoverview">
1709 <title>Configuration Files Overview</title>
1711 For Unix, *BSD and Linux, all configuration files are located in
1712 <filename>/etc/privoxy/</filename> by default. For MS Windows, OS/2, and
1713 AmigaOS these are all in the same directory as the
1714 <application>Privoxy</application> executable. <![%p-not-stable;[ The name
1715 and number of configuration files has changed from previous versions, and is
1716 subject to change as development progresses.]]>
1720 The installed defaults provide a reasonable starting point, though
1721 some settings may be aggressive by some standards. For the time being, the
1722 principle configuration files are:
1730 The <link linkend="config">main configuration file</link> is named <filename>config</filename>
1731 on Linux, Unix, BSD, OS/2, and AmigaOS and <filename>config.txt</filename>
1732 on Windows. This is a required file.
1738 <filename>default.action</filename> (the main <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link>)
1739 is used to define which <quote>actions</quote> relating to banner-blocking, images, pop-ups,
1740 content modification, cookie handling etc should be applied by default. It also defines many
1741 exceptions (both positive and negative) from this default set of actions that enable
1742 <application>Privoxy</application> to selectively eliminate the junk, and only the junk, on
1743 as many websites as possible.
1746 Multiple actions files may be defined in <filename>config</filename>. These
1747 are processed in the order they are defined. Local customizations and locally
1748 preferred exceptions to the default policies as defined in
1749 <filename>default.action</filename> (which you will most probably want
1750 to define sooner or later) are probably best applied in
1751 <filename>user.action</filename>, where you can preserve them across
1752 upgrades. <filename>standard.action</filename> is only for
1753 <application>Privoxy's</application> internal use.
1756 There is also a web based editor that can be accessed from
1758 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
1760 url="http://p.p/show-status">http://p.p/show-status</ulink>) for the
1761 various actions files.
1767 <quote>Filter files</quote> (the <link linkend="filter-file">filter
1768 file</link>) can be used to re-write the raw page content, including
1769 viewable text as well as embedded HTML and JavaScript, and whatever else
1770 lurks on any given web page. The filtering jobs are only pre-defined here;
1771 whether to apply them or not is up to the actions files.
1772 <filename>default.filter</filename> includes various filters made
1773 available for use by the developers. Some are much more intrusive than
1774 others, and all should be used with caution. You may define additional
1775 filter files in <filename>config</filename> as you can with
1776 actions files. We suggest <filename>user.filter</filename> for any
1777 locally defined filters or customizations.
1785 The syntax of the configuration and filter files may change between different
1786 Privoxy versions, unfortunately some enhancements cost backwards compatibility.
1787 <!-- Add link to documentation-->
1791 All files use the <quote><literal>#</literal></quote> character to denote a
1792 comment (the rest of the line will be ignored) and understand line continuation
1793 through placing a backslash ("<literal>\</literal>") as the very last character
1794 in a line. If the <literal>#</literal> is preceded by a backslash, it looses
1795 its special function. Placing a <literal>#</literal> in front of an otherwise
1796 valid configuration line to prevent it from being interpreted is called "commenting
1797 out" that line. Blank lines are ignored.
1801 The actions files and filter files
1802 can use Perl style <link linkend="regex">regular expressions</link> for
1803 maximum flexibility.
1807 After making any changes, there is no need to restart
1808 <application>Privoxy</application> in order for the changes to take
1809 effect. <application>Privoxy</application> detects such changes
1810 automatically. Note, however, that it may take one or two additional
1811 requests for the change to take effect. When changing the listening address
1812 of <application>Privoxy</application>, these <quote>wake up</quote> requests
1813 must obviously be sent to the <emphasis>old</emphasis> listening address.
1818 While under development, the configuration content is subject to change.
1819 The below documentation may not be accurate by the time you read this.
1820 Also, what constitutes a <quote>default</quote> setting, may change, so
1821 please check all your configuration files on important issues.
1827 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1830 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
1832 <!-- **************************************************** -->
1833 <!-- Include config.sgml here -->
1834 <!-- This is where the entire config file is detailed. -->
1836 <!-- end include -->
1839 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1843 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
1845 <sect1 id="actions-file"><title>Actions Files</title>
1848 The actions files are used to define what <emphasis>actions</emphasis>
1849 <application>Privoxy</application> takes for which URLs, and thus determines
1850 how ad images, cookies and various other aspects of HTTP content and
1851 transactions are handled, and on which sites (or even parts thereof).
1852 There are a number of such actions, with a wide range of functionality.
1853 Each action does something a little different.
1854 These actions give us a veritable arsenal of tools with which to exert
1855 our control, preferences and independence. Actions can be combined so that
1856 their effects are aggregated when applied against a given set of URLs.
1860 are three action files included with <application>Privoxy</application> with
1868 <filename>default.action</filename> - is the primary action file
1869 that sets the initial values for all actions. It is intended to
1870 provide a base level of functionality for
1871 <application>Privoxy's</application> array of features. So it is
1872 a set of broad rules that should work reasonably well as-is for most users.
1873 This is the file that the developers are keeping updated, and <link
1874 linkend="installation-keepupdated">making available to users</link>.
1875 The user's preferences as set in <filename>standard.action</filename>,
1876 e.g. either <literal>Cautious</literal> (the default),
1877 <literal>Medium</literal>, or <literal>Advanced</literal> (see
1883 <filename>user.action</filename> - is intended to be for local site
1884 preferences and exceptions. As an example, if your ISP or your bank
1885 has specific requirements, and need special handling, this kind of
1886 thing should go here. This file will not be upgraded.
1891 <filename>standard.action</filename> - is used only by the web based editor
1892 at <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions-list?f=default">
1893 http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions-list?f=default</ulink>,
1894 to set various pre-defined sets of rules for the default actions section
1895 in <filename>default.action</filename>.
1898 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> <guibutton>Set to Cautious</guibutton> <guibutton>Set to Medium</guibutton> <guibutton>Set to Advanced</guibutton>
1901 These have increasing levels of aggressiveness <emphasis>and have no
1902 influence on your browsing unless you select them explicitly in the
1903 editor</emphasis>. A default installation should be pre-set to
1904 <literal>Cautious</literal> (versions prior to 3.0.5 were set to
1905 <literal>Medium</literal>). New users should try this for a while before
1906 adjusting the settings to more aggressive levels. The more aggressive
1907 the settings, then the more likelihood there is of problems such as sites
1908 not working as they should.
1911 The <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> button allows you to turn each
1912 action on/off individually for fine-tuning. The <guibutton>Cautious</guibutton>
1913 button changes the actions list to low/safe settings which will activate
1914 ad blocking and a minimal set of &my-app;'s features, and subsequently
1915 there will be less of a chance for accidental problems. The
1916 <guibutton>Medium</guibutton> button sets the list to a medium level of
1917 other features and a low level set of privacy features. The
1918 <guibutton>Advanced</guibutton> button sets the list to a high level of
1919 ad blocking and medium level of privacy. See the chart below. The latter
1920 three buttons over-ride any changes via with the
1921 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> button. More fine-tuning can be done in the
1922 lower sections of this internal page.
1925 It is not recommend to edit the <filename>standard.action</filename> file
1929 The default profiles, and their associated actions, as pre-defined in
1930 <filename>standard.action</filename> are<!-- different than this table which is out of date -->:
1933 <table frame=all><title>Default Configurations</title>
1934 <tgroup cols=4 align=left colsep=1 rowsep=1>
1935 <colspec colname=c1>
1936 <colspec colname=c2>
1937 <colspec colname=c3>
1938 <colspec colname=c4>
1941 <entry>Feature</entry>
1942 <entry>Cautious</entry>
1943 <entry>Medium</entry>
1944 <entry>Advanced</entry>
1949 <!-- <entry>f1</entry> -->
1950 <!-- <entry>f2</entry> -->
1951 <!-- <entry>f3</entry> -->
1952 <!-- <entry>f4</entry> -->
1958 <entry>Ad-blocking Aggressiveness</entry>
1959 <entry>medium</entry>
1965 <entry>Ad-filtering by size</entry>
1972 <entry>Ad-filtering by link</entry>
1978 <entry>Pop-up killing</entry>
1979 <entry>blocks only</entry>
1980 <entry>blocks only</entry>
1981 <entry>blocks only</entry>
1985 <entry>Privacy Features</entry>
1987 <entry>medium</entry>
1988 <entry>medium/high</entry>
1992 <entry>Cookie handling</entry>
1994 <entry>session-only</entry>
1999 <entry>Referer forging</entry>
2007 <entry>GIF de-animation</entry>
2015 <entry>Fast redirects</entry>
2022 <entry>HTML taming</entry>
2029 <entry>JavaScript taming</entry>
2036 <entry>Web-bug killing</entry>
2043 <entry>Image tag reordering</entry>
2059 The list of actions files to be used are defined in the main configuration
2060 file, and are processed in the order they are defined (e.g.
2061 <filename>default.action</filename> is typically processed before
2062 <filename>user.action</filename>). The content of these can all be viewed and
2064 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
2065 The over-riding principle when applying actions, is that the last action that
2066 matches a given URL wins. The broadest, most general rules go first
2067 (defined in <filename>default.action</filename>),
2068 followed by any exceptions (typically also in
2069 <filename>default.action</filename>), which are then followed lastly by any
2070 local preferences (typically in <emphasis>user</emphasis><filename>.action</filename>).
2071 Generally, <filename>user.action</filename> has the last word.
2075 An actions file typically has multiple sections. If you want to use
2076 <quote>aliases</quote> in an actions file, you have to place the (optional)
2077 <link linkend="aliases">alias section</link> at the top of that file.
2078 Then comes the default set of rules which will apply universally to all
2079 sites and pages (be <emphasis>very careful</emphasis> with using such a
2080 universal set in <filename>user.action</filename> or any other actions file after
2081 <filename>default.action</filename>, because it will override the result
2082 from consulting any previous file). And then below that,
2083 exceptions to the defined universal policies. You can regard
2084 <filename>user.action</filename> as an appendix to <filename>default.action</filename>,
2085 with the advantage that it is a separate file, which makes preserving your
2086 personal settings across <application>Privoxy</application> upgrades easier.
2090 Actions can be used to block anything you want, including ads, banners, or
2091 just some obnoxious URL whose content you would rather not see. Cookies can be accepted
2092 or rejected, or accepted only during the current browser session (i.e. not
2093 written to disk), content can be modified, some JavaScripts tamed, user-tracking
2094 fooled, and much more. See below for a <link linkend="actions">complete list
2098 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2100 <title>Finding the Right Mix</title>
2102 Note that some <link linkend="actions">actions</link>, like cookie suppression
2103 or script disabling, may render some sites unusable that rely on these
2104 techniques to work properly. Finding the right mix of actions is not always easy and
2105 certainly a matter of personal taste. And, things can always change, requiring
2106 refinements in the configuration. In general, it can be said that the more
2107 <quote>aggressive</quote> your default settings (in the top section of the
2108 actions file) are, the more exceptions for <quote>trusted</quote> sites you
2109 will have to make later. If, for example, you want to crunch all cookies per
2110 default, you'll have to make exceptions from that rule for sites that you
2111 regularly use and that require cookies for actually useful purposes, like maybe
2112 your bank, favorite shop, or newspaper.
2116 We have tried to provide you with reasonable rules to start from in the
2117 distribution actions files. But there is no general rule of thumb on these
2118 things. There just are too many variables, and sites are constantly changing.
2119 Sooner or later you will want to change the rules (and read this chapter again :).
2123 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2125 <title>How to Edit</title>
2127 The easiest way to edit the actions files is with a browser by
2128 using our browser-based editor, which can be reached from <ulink
2129 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
2130 Note: the config file option <link
2131 linkend="enable-edit-actions">enable-edit-actions</link> must be enabled for
2132 this to work. The editor allows both fine-grained control over every single
2133 feature on a per-URL basis, and easy choosing from wholesale sets of defaults
2134 like <quote>Cautious</quote>, <quote>Medium</quote> or
2135 <quote>Advanced</quote>. Warning: the <quote>Advanced</quote> setting is more
2136 aggressive, and will be more likely to cause problems for some sites.
2137 Experienced users only!
2141 If you prefer plain text editing to GUIs, you can of course also directly edit the
2142 the actions files with your favorite text editor. Look at
2143 <filename>default.action</filename> which is richly commented with many
2149 <sect2 id="actions-apply">
2150 <title>How Actions are Applied to Requests</title>
2152 Actions files are divided into sections. There are special sections,
2153 like the <quote><link linkend="aliases">alias</link></quote> sections which will
2154 be discussed later. For now let's concentrate on regular sections: They have a
2155 heading line (often split up to multiple lines for readability) which consist
2156 of a list of actions, separated by whitespace and enclosed in curly braces.
2157 Below that, there is a list of URL and tag patterns, each on a separate line.
2161 To determine which actions apply to a request, the URL of the request is
2162 compared to all URL patterns in each <quote>action file</quote>.
2163 Every time it matches, the list of applicable actions for the request is
2164 incrementally updated, using the heading of the section in which the
2165 pattern is located. The same is done again for tags and tag patterns later on.
2169 If multiple applying sections set the same action differently,
2170 the last match wins. If not, the effects are aggregated.
2171 E.g. a URL might match a regular section with a heading line of <literal>{
2172 +<link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link> }</literal>,
2173 then later another one with just <literal>{
2174 +<link linkend="block">block</link> }</literal>, resulting
2175 in <emphasis>both</emphasis> actions to apply. And there may well be
2176 cases where you will want to combine actions together. Such a section then
2182 { +<literal>handle-as-image</literal> +<literal>block</literal> }
2183 # Block these as if they were images. Send no block page.
2185 media.example.com/.*banners
2186 .example.com/images/ads/</screen>
2190 You can trace this process for URL patterns and any given URL by visiting <ulink
2191 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>.
2195 Examples and more detail on this is provided in the Appendix, <link linkend="ACTIONSANAT">
2196 Troubleshooting: Anatomy of an Action</link> section.
2200 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2201 <sect2 id="af-patterns">
2202 <title>Patterns</title>
2204 As mentioned, <application>Privoxy</application> uses <quote>patterns</quote>
2205 to determine what <emphasis>actions</emphasis> might apply to which sites and
2206 pages your browser attempts to access. These <quote>patterns</quote> use wild
2207 card type <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> matching to achieve a high degree of
2208 flexibility. This allows one expression to be expanded and potentially match
2209 against many similar patterns.
2213 Generally, an URL pattern has the form
2214 <literal><domain>/<path></literal>, where both the
2215 <literal><domain></literal> and <literal><path></literal> are
2216 optional. (This is why the special <literal>/</literal> pattern matches all
2217 URLs). Note that the protocol portion of the URL pattern (e.g.
2218 <literal>http://</literal>) should <emphasis>not</emphasis> be included in
2219 the pattern. This is assumed already!
2222 The pattern matching syntax is different for the domain and path parts of
2223 the URL. The domain part uses a simple globbing type matching technique,
2224 while the path part uses a more flexible
2225 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
2226 Expressions (PCRE)</quote></ulink> based syntax.
2231 <term><literal>www.example.com/</literal></term>
2234 is a domain-only pattern and will match any request to <literal>www.example.com</literal>,
2235 regardless of which document on that server is requested. So ALL pages in
2236 this domain would be covered by the scope of this action. Note that a
2237 simple <literal>example.com</literal> is different and would NOT match.
2242 <term><literal>www.example.com</literal></term>
2245 means exactly the same. For domain-only patterns, the trailing <literal>/</literal> may
2251 <term><literal>www.example.com/index.html$</literal></term>
2254 matches all the documents on <literal>www.example.com</literal>
2255 whose name starts with <literal>/index.html</literal>.
2260 <term><literal>www.example.com/index.html$</literal></term>
2263 matches only the single document <literal>/index.html</literal>
2264 on <literal>www.example.com</literal>.
2269 <term><literal>/index.html$</literal></term>
2272 matches the document <literal>/index.html</literal>, regardless of the domain,
2273 i.e. on <emphasis>any</emphasis> web server anywhere.
2278 <term><literal>index.html</literal></term>
2281 matches nothing, since it would be interpreted as a domain name and
2282 there is no top-level domain called <literal>.html</literal>. So its
2290 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2291 <sect3><title>The Domain Pattern</title>
2294 The matching of the domain part offers some flexible options: if the
2295 domain starts or ends with a dot, it becomes unanchored at that end.
2301 <term><literal>.example.com</literal></term>
2304 matches any domain with first-level domain <literal>com</literal>
2305 and second-level domain <literal>example</literal>.
2306 For example <literal>www.example.com</literal>,
2307 <literal>example.com</literal> and <literal>foo.bar.baz.example.com</literal>.
2308 Note that it wouldn't match if the second-level domain was <literal>another-example</literal>.
2313 <term><literal>www.</literal></term>
2316 matches any domain that <emphasis>STARTS</emphasis> with
2317 <literal>www.</literal> (It also matches the domain
2318 <literal>www</literal> but most of the time that doesn't matter.)
2323 <term><literal>.example.</literal></term>
2326 matches any domain that <emphasis>CONTAINS</emphasis> <literal>.example.</literal>.
2327 And, by the way, also included would be any files or documents that exist
2328 within that domain since no path limitations are specified. (Correctly
2329 speaking: It matches any FQDN that contains <literal>example</literal> as
2330 a domain.) This might be <literal>www.example.com</literal>,
2331 <literal>news.example.de</literal>, or
2332 <literal>www.example.net/cgi/testing.pl</literal> for instance. All these
2340 Additionally, there are wild-cards that you can use in the domain names
2341 themselves. These work similarly to shell globbing type wild-cards:
2342 <quote>*</quote> represents zero or more arbitrary characters (this is
2344 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
2345 Expression</quote></ulink> based syntax of <quote>.*</quote>),
2346 <quote>?</quote> represents any single character (this is equivalent to the
2347 regular expression syntax of a simple <quote>.</quote>), and you can define
2348 <quote>character classes</quote> in square brackets which is similar to
2349 the same regular expression technique. All of this can be freely mixed:
2354 <term><literal>ad*.example.com</literal></term>
2357 matches <quote>adserver.example.com</quote>,
2358 <quote>ads.example.com</quote>, etc but not <quote>sfads.example.com</quote>
2363 <term><literal>*ad*.example.com</literal></term>
2366 matches all of the above, and then some.
2371 <term><literal>.?pix.com</literal></term>
2374 matches <literal>www.ipix.com</literal>,
2375 <literal>pictures.epix.com</literal>, <literal>a.b.c.d.e.upix.com</literal> etc.
2380 <term><literal>www[1-9a-ez].example.c*</literal></term>
2383 matches <literal>www1.example.com</literal>,
2384 <literal>www4.example.cc</literal>, <literal>wwwd.example.cy</literal>,
2385 <literal>wwwz.example.com</literal> etc., but <emphasis>not</emphasis>
2386 <literal>wwww.example.com</literal>.
2393 While flexible, this is not the sophistication of full regular expression based syntax.
2398 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2401 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2402 <sect3><title>The Path Pattern</title>
2405 <application>Privoxy</application> uses Perl compatible (PCRE)
2406 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
2407 Expression</quote></ulink> based syntax
2408 (through the <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/">PCRE</ulink> library) for
2409 matching the path portion (after the slash), and is thus more flexible.
2413 There is an <link linkend="regex">Appendix</link> with a brief quick-start into regular
2414 expressions, and full (very technical) documentation on PCRE regex syntax is available on-line
2415 at <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/man.txt">http://www.pcre.org/man.txt</ulink>.
2416 You might also find the Perl man page on regular expressions (<literal>man perlre</literal>)
2417 useful, which is available on-line at <ulink
2418 url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html">http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html</ulink>.
2422 Note that the path pattern is automatically left-anchored at the <quote>/</quote>,
2423 i.e. it matches as if it would start with a <quote>^</quote> (regular expression speak
2424 for the beginning of a line).
2428 Please also note that matching in the path is <emphasis>CASE INSENSITIVE</emphasis>
2429 by default, but you can switch to case sensitive at any point in the pattern by using the
2430 <quote>(?-i)</quote> switch: <literal>www.example.com/(?-i)PaTtErN.*</literal> will match
2431 only documents whose path starts with <literal>PaTtErN</literal> in
2432 <emphasis>exactly</emphasis> this capitalization.
2437 <term><literal>.example.com/.*</literal></term>
2440 Is equivalent to just <quote>.example.com</quote>, since any documents
2441 within that domain are matched with or without the <quote>.*</quote>
2442 regular expression. This is redundant
2447 <term><literal>.example.com/.*/index.html$</literal></term>
2450 Will match any page in the domain of <quote>example.com</quote> that is
2451 named <quote>index.html</quote>, and that is part of some path. For
2452 example, it matches <quote>www.example.com/testing/index.html</quote> but
2453 NOT <quote>www.example.com/index.html</quote> because the regular
2454 expression called for at least two <quote>/'s</quote>, thus the path
2455 requirement. It also would match
2456 <quote>www.example.com/testing/index_html</quote>, because of the
2457 special meta-character <quote>.</quote>.
2462 <term><literal>.example.com/(.*/)?index\.html$</literal></term>
2465 This regular expression is conditional so it will match any page
2466 named <quote>index.html</quote> regardless of path which in this case can
2467 have one or more <quote>/'s</quote>. And this one must contain exactly
2468 <quote>.html</quote> (but does not have to end with that!).
2473 <term><literal>.example.com/(.*/)(ads|banners?|junk)</literal></term>
2476 This regular expression will match any path of <quote>example.com</quote>
2477 that contains any of the words <quote>ads</quote>, <quote>banner</quote>,
2478 <quote>banners</quote> (because of the <quote>?</quote>) or <quote>junk</quote>.
2479 The path does not have to end in these words, just contain them.
2484 <term><literal>.example.com/(.*/)(ads|banners?|junk)/.*\.(jpe?g|gif|png)$</literal></term>
2487 This is very much the same as above, except now it must end in either
2488 <quote>.jpg</quote>, <quote>.jpeg</quote>, <quote>.gif</quote> or <quote>.png</quote>. So this
2489 one is limited to common image formats.
2496 There are many, many good examples to be found in <filename>default.action</filename>,
2497 and more tutorials below in <link linkend="regex">Appendix on regular expressions</link>.
2502 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2505 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2506 <sect3 id="tag-pattern"><title>The Tag Pattern</title>
2509 Tag patterns are used to change the applying actions based on the
2510 request's tags. Tags can be created with either the
2511 <link linkend="CLIENT-HEADER-TAGGER">client-header-tagger</link>
2512 or the <link linkend="SERVER-HEADER-TAGGER">server-header-tagger</link> action.
2516 Tag patterns have to start with <quote>TAG:</quote>, so &my-app;
2517 can tell them apart from URL patterns. Everything after the colon
2518 including white space, is interpreted as a regular expression with
2519 path pattern syntax, except that tag patterns aren't left-anchored
2520 automatically (&my-app; doesn't silently add a <quote>^</quote>,
2521 you have to do it yourself if you need it).
2525 To match all requests that are tagged with <quote>foo</quote>
2526 your pattern line should be <quote>TAG:^foo$</quote>,
2527 <quote>TAG:foo</quote> would work as well, but it would also
2528 match requests whose tags contain <quote>foo</quote> somewhere.
2529 <quote>TAG: foo</quote> wouldn't work as it requires white space.
2533 Sections can contain URL and tag patterns at the same time,
2534 but tag patterns are checked after the URL patterns and thus
2535 always overrule them, even if they are located before the URL patterns.
2539 Once a new tag is added, Privoxy checks right away if it's matched by one
2540 of the tag patterns and updates the action settings accordingly. As a result
2541 tags can be used to activate other tagger actions, as long as these other
2542 taggers look for headers that haven't already be parsed.
2546 For example you could tag client requests which use the
2547 <literal>POST</literal> method,
2548 then use this tag to activate another tagger that adds a tag if cookies
2549 are sent, and then use a block action based on the cookie tag. This allows
2550 the outcome of one action, to be input into a subsequent action. However if
2551 you'd reverse the position of the described taggers, and activated the
2552 method tagger based on the cookie tagger, no method tags would be created.
2553 The method tagger would look for the request line, but at the time
2554 the cookie tag is created, the request line has already been parsed.
2558 While this is a limitation you should be aware of, this kind of
2559 indirection is seldom needed anyway and even the example doesn't
2560 make too much sense.
2567 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2570 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2572 <sect2 id="actions">
2573 <title>Actions</title>
2575 All actions are disabled by default, until they are explicitly enabled
2576 somewhere in an actions file. Actions are turned on if preceded with a
2577 <quote>+</quote>, and turned off if preceded with a <quote>-</quote>. So a
2578 <literal>+action</literal> means <quote>do that action</quote>, e.g.
2579 <literal>+block</literal> means <quote>please block URLs that match the
2580 following patterns</quote>, and <literal>-block</literal> means <quote>don't
2581 block URLs that match the following patterns, even if <literal>+block</literal>
2582 previously applied.</quote>
2587 Again, actions are invoked by placing them on a line, enclosed in curly braces and
2588 separated by whitespace, like in
2589 <literal>{+some-action -some-other-action{some-parameter}}</literal>,
2590 followed by a list of URL patterns, one per line, to which they apply.
2591 Together, the actions line and the following pattern lines make up a section
2592 of the actions file.
2596 Actions fall into three categories:
2603 Boolean, i.e the action can only be <quote>enabled</quote> or
2604 <quote>disabled</quote>. Syntax:
2608 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # enable action <replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable>
2609 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # disable action <replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable></screen>
2612 Example: <literal>+block</literal>
2619 Parameterized, where some value is required in order to enable this type of action.
2624 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # enable action and set parameter to <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>,
2625 # overwriting parameter from previous match if necessary
2626 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # disable action. The parameter can be omitted</screen>
2629 Note that if the URL matches multiple positive forms of a parameterized action,
2630 the last match wins, i.e. the params from earlier matches are simply ignored.
2633 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>
2639 Multi-value. These look exactly like parameterized actions,
2640 but they behave differently: If the action applies multiple times to the
2641 same URL, but with different parameters, <emphasis>all</emphasis> the parameters
2642 from <emphasis>all</emphasis> matches are remembered. This is used for actions
2643 that can be executed for the same request repeatedly, like adding multiple
2644 headers, or filtering through multiple filters. Syntax:
2648 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # enable action and add <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable> to the list of parameters
2649 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # remove the parameter <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable> from the list of parameters
2650 # If it was the last one left, disable the action.
2651 <replaceable class="parameter">-name</replaceable> # disable this action completely and remove all parameters from the list</screen>
2654 Examples: <literal>+add-header{X-Fun-Header: Some text}</literal> and
2655 <literal>+filter{html-annoyances}</literal>
2663 If nothing is specified in any actions file, no <quote>actions</quote> are
2664 taken. So in this case <application>Privoxy</application> would just be a
2665 normal, non-blocking, non-filtering proxy. You must specifically enable the
2666 privacy and blocking features you need (although the provided default actions
2667 files will give a good starting point).
2671 Later defined action sections always over-ride earlier ones of the same type.
2672 So exceptions to any rules you make, should come in the latter part of the file (or
2673 in a file that is processed later when using multiple actions files such
2674 as <filename>user.action</filename>). For multi-valued actions, the actions
2675 are applied in the order they are specified. Actions files are processed in
2676 the order they are defined in <filename>config</filename> (the default
2677 installation has three actions files). It also quite possible for any given
2678 URL to match more than one <quote>pattern</quote> (because of wildcards and
2679 regular expressions), and thus to trigger more than one set of actions! Last
2683 <!-- start actions listing -->
2685 The list of valid <application>Privoxy</application> actions are:
2689 <!-- ********************************************************** -->
2690 <!-- Please note the below defined actions use id's that are -->
2691 <!-- probably linked from other places, so please don't change. -->
2693 <!-- ********************************************************** -->
2696 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2698 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="add-header">
2699 <title>add-header</title>
2703 <term>Typical use:</term>
2705 <para>Confuse log analysis, custom applications</para>
2710 <term>Effect:</term>
2713 Sends a user defined HTTP header to the web server.
2720 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2722 <para>Multi-value.</para>
2727 <term>Parameter:</term>
2730 Any string value is possible. Validity of the defined HTTP headers is not checked.
2731 It is recommended that you use the <quote><literal>X-</literal></quote> prefix
2741 This action may be specified multiple times, in order to define multiple
2742 headers. This is rarely needed for the typical user. If you don't know what
2743 <quote>HTTP headers</quote> are, you definitely don't need to worry about this
2750 <term>Example usage:</term>
2753 <screen>+add-header{X-User-Tracking: sucks}</screen>
2761 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2762 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="block">
2763 <title>block</title>
2767 <term>Typical use:</term>
2769 <para>Block ads or other unwanted content</para>
2774 <term>Effect:</term>
2777 Requests for URLs to which this action applies are blocked, i.e. the
2778 requests are trapped by &my-app; and the requested URL is never retrieved,
2779 but is answered locally with a substitute page or image, as determined by
2781 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>,
2783 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>, and
2785 linkend="handle-as-empty-document">handle-as-empty-document</link></literal> actions.
2793 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2795 <para>Boolean.</para>
2800 <term>Parameter:</term>
2810 <application>Privoxy</application> sends a special <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page
2811 for requests to blocked pages. This page contains links to find out why the request
2812 was blocked, and a click-through to the blocked content (the latter only if compiled with the
2813 force feature enabled). The <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page adapts to the available
2814 screen space -- it displays full-blown if space allows, or miniaturized and text-only
2815 if loaded into a small frame or window. If you are using <application>Privoxy</application>
2816 right now, you can take a look at the
2817 <ulink url="http://ads.bannerserver.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor.html"><quote>BLOCKED</quote>
2821 A very important exception occurs if <emphasis>both</emphasis>
2822 <literal>block</literal> and <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>,
2823 apply to the same request: it will then be replaced by an image. If
2824 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>
2825 (see below) also applies, the type of image will be determined by its parameter,
2826 if not, the standard checkerboard pattern is sent.
2829 It is important to understand this process, in order
2830 to understand how <application>Privoxy</application> deals with
2831 ads and other unwanted content. Blocking is a core feature, and one
2832 upon which various other features depend.
2835 The <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>
2836 action can perform a very similar task, by <quote>blocking</quote>
2837 banner images and other content through rewriting the relevant URLs in the
2838 document's HTML source, so they don't get requested in the first place.
2839 Note that this is a totally different technique, and it's easy to confuse the two.
2845 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
2849 # Block and replace with "blocked" page
2850 .nasty-stuff.example.com
2852 {+block +handle-as-image}
2853 # Block and replace with image
2857 {+block +handle-as-empty-document}
2858 # Block and then ignore
2859 adserver.exampleclick.net/.*\.js$</screen>
2869 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2870 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="client-header-filter">
2871 <title>client-header-filter</title>
2875 <term>Typical use:</term>
2878 Rewrite or remove single client headers.
2884 <term>Effect:</term>
2887 All client headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly through
2888 the specified regular expression based substitutions.
2895 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2897 <para>Parameterized.</para>
2902 <term>Parameter:</term>
2905 The name of a client-header filter, as defined in one of the
2906 <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link>.
2915 Client-header filters are applied to each header on its own, not to
2916 all at once. This makes it easier to diagnose problems, but on the downside
2917 you can't write filters that only change header x if header y's value is z.
2918 You can do that by using tags though.
2921 Client-header filters are executed after the other header actions have finished
2922 and use their output as input.
2925 If the request URL gets changed, &my-app; will detect that and use the new
2926 one. This can be used to rewrite the request destination behind the client's
2927 back, for example to specify a Tor exit relay for certain requests.
2930 Please refer to the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file chapter</link>
2931 to learn which client-header filters are available by default, and how to
2939 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
2943 # Hide Tor exit notation in Host and Referer Headers
2944 {+client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation}}
2955 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2956 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="client-header-tagger">
2957 <title>client-header-tagger</title>
2961 <term>Typical use:</term>
2964 Block requests based on their headers.
2970 <term>Effect:</term>
2973 Client headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly through
2974 the specified regular expression based substitutions, the result is used as
2982 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2984 <para>Parameterized.</para>
2989 <term>Parameter:</term>
2992 The name of a client-header tagger, as defined in one of the
2993 <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link>.
3002 Client-header taggers are applied to each header on its own,
3003 and as the header isn't modified, each tagger <quote>sees</quote>
3007 Client-header taggers are the first actions that are executed
3008 and their tags can be used to control every other action.
3014 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3018 # Tag every request with the User-Agent header
3019 {+client-header-tagger{user-agent}}
3030 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3031 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="content-type-overwrite">
3032 <title>content-type-overwrite</title>
3036 <term>Typical use:</term>
3038 <para>Stop useless download menus from popping up, or change the browser's rendering mode</para>
3043 <term>Effect:</term>
3046 Replaces the <quote>Content-Type:</quote> HTTP server header.
3053 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3055 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3060 <term>Parameter:</term>
3072 The <quote>Content-Type:</quote> HTTP server header is used by the
3073 browser to decide what to do with the document. The value of this
3074 header can cause the browser to open a download menu instead of
3075 displaying the document by itself, even if the document's format is
3076 supported by the browser.
3079 The declared content type can also affect which rendering mode
3080 the browser chooses. If XHTML is delivered as <quote>text/html</quote>,
3081 many browsers treat it as yet another broken HTML document.
3082 If it is send as <quote>application/xml</quote>, browsers with
3083 XHTML support will only display it, if the syntax is correct.
3086 If you see a web site that proudly uses XHTML buttons, but sets
3087 <quote>Content-Type: text/html</quote>, you can use &my-app;
3088 to overwrite it with <quote>application/xml</quote> and validate
3089 the web master's claim inside your XHTML-supporting browser.
3090 If the syntax is incorrect, the browser will complain loudly.
3093 You can also go the opposite direction: if your browser prints
3094 error messages instead of rendering a document falsely declared
3095 as XHTML, you can overwrite the content type with
3096 <quote>text/html</quote> and have it rendered as broken HTML document.
3099 By default <literal>content-type-overwrite</literal> only replaces
3100 <quote>Content-Type:</quote> headers that look like some kind of text.
3101 If you want to overwrite it unconditionally, you have to combine it with
3102 <literal><link linkend="force-text-mode">force-text-mode</link></literal>.
3103 This limitation exists for a reason, think twice before circumventing it.
3106 Most of the time it's easier to replace this action with a custom
3107 <literal><link linkend="server-header-filter">server-header filter</link></literal>.
3108 It allows you to activate it for every document of a certain site and it will still
3109 only replace the content types you aimed at.
3112 Of course you can apply <literal>content-type-overwrite</literal>
3113 to a whole site and then make URL based exceptions, but it's a lot
3114 more work to get the same precision.
3120 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
3123 <screen># Check if www.example.net/ really uses valid XHTML
3124 { +content-type-overwrite{application/xml} }
3127 # but leave the content type unmodified if the URL looks like a style sheet
3128 {-content-type-overwrite}
3129 www.example.net/.*\.css$
3130 www.example.net/.*style
3139 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3140 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-client-header">
3144 <title>crunch-client-header</title>
3148 <term>Typical use:</term>
3150 <para>Remove a client header <application>Privoxy</application> has no dedicated action for.</para>
3155 <term>Effect:</term>
3158 Deletes every header sent by the client that contains the string the user supplied as parameter.
3165 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3167 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3172 <term>Parameter:</term>
3184 This action allows you to block client headers for which no dedicated
3185 <application>Privoxy</application> action exists.
3186 <application>Privoxy</application> will remove every client header that
3187 contains the string you supplied as parameter.
3190 Regular expressions are <emphasis>not supported</emphasis> and you can't
3191 use this action to block different headers in the same request, unless
3192 they contain the same string.
3195 <literal>crunch-client-header</literal> is only meant for quick tests.
3196 If you have to block several different headers, or only want to modify
3197 parts of them, you should use a
3198 <literal><link linkend="client-header-filter">client-header filter</link></literal>.
3202 Don't block any header without understanding the consequences.
3209 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3212 <screen># Block the non-existent "Privacy-Violation:" client header
3213 { +crunch-client-header{Privacy-Violation:} }
3223 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3224 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-if-none-match">
3225 <title>crunch-if-none-match</title>
3231 <term>Typical use:</term>
3233 <para>Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.</para>
3238 <term>Effect:</term>
3241 Deletes the <quote>If-None-Match:</quote> HTTP client header.
3248 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3250 <para>Boolean.</para>
3255 <term>Parameter:</term>
3267 Removing the <quote>If-None-Match:</quote> HTTP client header
3268 is useful for filter testing, where you want to force a real
3269 reload instead of getting status code <quote>304</quote> which
3270 would cause the browser to use a cached copy of the page.
3273 It is also useful to make sure the header isn't used as a cookie
3274 replacement (unlikely but possible).
3277 Blocking the <quote>If-None-Match:</quote> header shouldn't cause any
3278 caching problems, as long as the <quote>If-Modified-Since:</quote> header
3279 isn't blocked or missing as well.
3282 It is recommended to use this action together with
3283 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hide-if-modified-since</link></literal>
3285 <literal><link linkend="overwrite-last-modified">overwrite-last-modified</link></literal>.
3291 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3294 <screen># Let the browser revalidate cached documents but don't
3295 # allow the server to use the revalidation headers for user tracking.
3296 {+hide-if-modified-since{-60} \
3297 +overwrite-last-modified{randomize} \
3298 +crunch-if-none-match}
3307 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3308 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-incoming-cookies">
3309 <title>crunch-incoming-cookies</title>
3313 <term>Typical use:</term>
3316 Prevent the web server from setting HTTP cookies on your system
3322 <term>Effect:</term>
3325 Deletes any <quote>Set-Cookie:</quote> HTTP headers from server replies.
3332 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3334 <para>Boolean.</para>
3339 <term>Parameter:</term>
3351 This action is only concerned with <emphasis>incoming</emphasis> HTTP cookies. For
3352 <emphasis>outgoing</emphasis> HTTP cookies, use
3353 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>.
3354 Use <emphasis>both</emphasis> to disable HTTP cookies completely.
3357 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use this action in conjunction
3358 with the <literal><link linkend="session-cookies-only">session-cookies-only</link></literal> action,
3359 since it would prevent the session cookies from being set. See also
3360 <literal><link linkend="filter-content-cookies">filter-content-cookies</link></literal>.
3366 <term>Example usage:</term>
3369 <screen>+crunch-incoming-cookies</screen>
3377 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3378 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-server-header">
3379 <title>crunch-server-header</title>
3385 <term>Typical use:</term>
3387 <para>Remove a server header <application>Privoxy</application> has no dedicated action for.</para>
3392 <term>Effect:</term>
3395 Deletes every header sent by the server that contains the string the user supplied as parameter.
3402 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3404 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3409 <term>Parameter:</term>
3421 This action allows you to block server headers for which no dedicated
3422 <application>Privoxy</application> action exists. <application>Privoxy</application>
3423 will remove every server header that contains the string you supplied as parameter.
3426 Regular expressions are <emphasis>not supported</emphasis> and you can't
3427 use this action to block different headers in the same request, unless
3428 they contain the same string.
3431 <literal>crunch-server-header</literal> is only meant for quick tests.
3432 If you have to block several different headers, or only want to modify
3433 parts of them, you should use a custom
3434 <literal><link linkend="server-header-filter">server-header filter</link></literal>.
3438 Don't block any header without understanding the consequences.
3445 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3448 <screen># Crunch server headers that try to prevent caching
3449 { +crunch-server-header{no-cache} }
3458 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3459 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-outgoing-cookies">
3460 <title>crunch-outgoing-cookies</title>
3464 <term>Typical use:</term>
3467 Prevent the web server from reading any HTTP cookies from your system
3473 <term>Effect:</term>
3476 Deletes any <quote>Cookie:</quote> HTTP headers from client requests.
3483 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3485 <para>Boolean.</para>
3490 <term>Parameter:</term>
3502 This action is only concerned with <emphasis>outgoing</emphasis> HTTP cookies. For
3503 <emphasis>incoming</emphasis> HTTP cookies, use
3504 <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal>.
3505 Use <emphasis>both</emphasis> to disable HTTP cookies completely.
3508 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use this action in conjunction
3509 with the <literal><link linkend="session-cookies-only">session-cookies-only</link></literal> action,
3510 since it would prevent the session cookies from being read.
3516 <term>Example usage:</term>
3519 <screen>+crunch-outgoing-cookies</screen>
3528 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3529 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="deanimate-gifs">
3530 <title>deanimate-gifs</title>
3534 <term>Typical use:</term>
3536 <para>Stop those annoying, distracting animated GIF images.</para>
3541 <term>Effect:</term>
3544 De-animate GIF animations, i.e. reduce them to their first or last image.
3551 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3553 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3558 <term>Parameter:</term>
3561 <quote>last</quote> or <quote>first</quote>
3570 This will also shrink the images considerably (in bytes, not pixels!). If
3571 the option <quote>first</quote> is given, the first frame of the animation
3572 is used as the replacement. If <quote>last</quote> is given, the last
3573 frame of the animation is used instead, which probably makes more sense for
3574 most banner animations, but also has the risk of not showing the entire
3575 last frame (if it is only a delta to an earlier frame).
3578 You can safely use this action with patterns that will also match non-GIF
3579 objects, because no attempt will be made at anything that doesn't look like
3586 <term>Example usage:</term>
3589 <screen>+deanimate-gifs{last}</screen>
3596 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3597 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="downgrade-http-version">
3598 <title>downgrade-http-version</title>
3602 <term>Typical use:</term>
3604 <para>Work around (very rare) problems with HTTP/1.1</para>
3609 <term>Effect:</term>
3612 Downgrades HTTP/1.1 client requests and server replies to HTTP/1.0.
3619 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3621 <para>Boolean.</para>
3626 <term>Parameter:</term>
3638 This is a left-over from the time when <application>Privoxy</application>
3639 didn't support important HTTP/1.1 features well. It is left here for the
3640 unlikely case that you experience HTTP/1.1 related problems with some server
3641 out there. Not all HTTP/1.1 features and requirements are supported yet,
3642 so there is a chance you might need this action.
3648 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3651 <screen>{+downgrade-http-version}
3652 problem-host.example.com</screen>
3660 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3661 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="fast-redirects">
3662 <title>fast-redirects</title>
3666 <term>Typical use:</term>
3668 <para>Fool some click-tracking scripts and speed up indirect links.</para>
3673 <term>Effect:</term>
3676 Detects redirection URLs and redirects the browser without contacting
3677 the redirection server first.
3684 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3686 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3691 <term>Parameter:</term>
3696 <quote>simple-check</quote> to just search for the string <quote>http://</quote>
3697 to detect redirection URLs.
3702 <quote>check-decoded-url</quote> to decode URLs (if necessary) before searching
3703 for redirection URLs.
3714 Many sites, like yahoo.com, don't just link to other sites. Instead, they
3715 will link to some script on their own servers, giving the destination as a
3716 parameter, which will then redirect you to the final target. URLs
3717 resulting from this scheme typically look like:
3718 <quote>http://www.example.org/click-tracker.cgi?target=http%3a//www.example.net/</quote>.
3721 Sometimes, there are even multiple consecutive redirects encoded in the
3722 URL. These redirections via scripts make your web browsing more traceable,
3723 since the server from which you follow such a link can see where you go
3724 to. Apart from that, valuable bandwidth and time is wasted, while your
3725 browser asks the server for one redirect after the other. Plus, it feeds
3729 This feature is currently not very smart and is scheduled for improvement.
3730 If it is enabled by default, you will have to create some exceptions to
3731 this action. It can lead to failures in several ways:
3734 Not every URLs with other URLs as parameters is evil.
3735 Some sites offer a real service that requires this information to work.
3736 For example a validation service needs to know, which document to validate.
3737 <literal>fast-redirects</literal> assumes that every URL parameter that
3738 looks like another URL is a redirection target, and will always redirect to
3739 the last one. Most of the time the assumption is correct, but if it isn't,
3740 the user gets redirected anyway.
3743 Another failure occurs if the URL contains other parameters after the URL parameter.
3745 <quote>http://www.example.org/?redirect=http%3a//www.example.net/&foo=bar</quote>.
3746 contains the redirection URL <quote>http://www.example.net/</quote>,
3747 followed by another parameter. <literal>fast-redirects</literal> doesn't know that
3748 and will cause a redirect to <quote>http://www.example.net/&foo=bar</quote>.
3749 Depending on the target server configuration, the parameter will be silently ignored
3750 or lead to a <quote>page not found</quote> error. You can prevent this problem by
3751 first using the <literal><link linkend="redirect">redirect</link></literal> action
3752 to remove the last part of the URL, but it requires a little effort.
3755 To detect a redirection URL, <literal>fast-redirects</literal> only
3756 looks for the string <quote>http://</quote>, either in plain text
3757 (invalid but often used) or encoded as <quote>http%3a//</quote>.
3758 Some sites use their own URL encoding scheme, encrypt the address
3759 of the target server or replace it with a database id. In theses cases
3760 <literal>fast-redirects</literal> is fooled and the request reaches the
3761 redirection server where it probably gets logged.
3767 <term>Example usage:</term>
3771 { +fast-redirects{simple-check} }
3774 { +fast-redirects{check-decoded-url} }
3775 another.example.com/testing</screen>
3784 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3785 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="filter">
3786 <title>filter</title>
3790 <term>Typical use:</term>
3792 <para>Get rid of HTML and JavaScript annoyances, banner advertisements (by size),
3793 do fun text replacements, add personalized effects, etc.</para>
3798 <term>Effect:</term>
3801 All instances of text-based type, most notably HTML and JavaScript, to which
3802 this action applies, can be filtered on-the-fly through the specified regular
3803 expression based substitutions. (Note: as of version 3.0.3 plain text documents
3804 are exempted from filtering, because web servers often use the
3805 <literal>text/plain</literal> MIME type for all files whose type they don't know.)
3812 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3814 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3819 <term>Parameter:</term>
3822 The name of a content filter, as defined in the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file</link>.
3823 Filters can be defined in one or more files as defined by the
3824 <literal><link linkend="filterfile">filterfile</link></literal>
3825 option in the <link linkend="config">config file</link>.
3826 <filename>default.filter</filename> is the collection of filters
3827 supplied by the developers. Locally defined filters should go
3828 in their own file, such as <filename>user.filter</filename>.
3831 When used in its negative form,
3832 and without parameters, <emphasis>all</emphasis> filtering is completely disabled.
3841 For your convenience, there are a number of pre-defined filters available
3842 in the distribution filter file that you can use. See the examples below for
3846 Filtering requires buffering the page content, which may appear to
3847 slow down page rendering since nothing is displayed until all content has
3848 passed the filters. (It does not really take longer, but seems that way
3849 since the page is not incrementally displayed.) This effect will be more
3850 noticeable on slower connections.
3853 <quote>Rolling your own</quote>
3854 filters requires a knowledge of
3855 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
3856 Expressions</quote></ulink> and
3857 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Html"><quote>HTML</quote></ulink>.
3858 This is very powerful feature, and potentially very intrusive.
3859 Filters should be used with caution, and where an equivalent
3860 <quote>action</quote> is not available.
3863 The amount of data that can be filtered is limited to the
3864 <literal><link linkend="buffer-limit">buffer-limit</link></literal>
3865 option in the main <link linkend="config">config file</link>. The
3866 default is 4096 KB (4 Megs). Once this limit is exceeded, the buffered
3867 data, and all pending data, is passed through unfiltered.
3870 Inappropriate MIME types, such as zipped files, are not filtered at all.
3871 (Again, only text-based types except plain text). Encrypted SSL data
3872 (from HTTPS servers) cannot be filtered either, since this would violate
3873 the integrity of the secure transaction. In some situations it might
3874 be necessary to protect certain text, like source code, from filtering
3875 by defining appropriate <literal>-filter</literal> exceptions.
3878 Compressed content can't be filtered either, unless &my-app;
3879 is compiled with zlib support (requires at least &my-app; 3.0.7),
3880 in which case &my-app; will decompress the content before filtering
3884 If you use a &my-app; version without zlib support, but want filtering to work on
3885 as much documents as possible, even those that would normally be sent compressed,
3886 you must use the <literal><link linkend="prevent-compression">prevent-compression</link></literal>
3887 action in conjunction with <literal>filter</literal>.
3890 Content filtering can achieve some of the same effects as the
3891 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>
3892 action, i.e. it can be used to block ads and banners. But the mechanism
3893 works quite differently. One effective use, is to block ad banners
3894 based on their size (see below), since many of these seem to be somewhat
3898 <link linkend="contact">Feedback</link> with suggestions for new or
3899 improved filters is particularly welcome!
3902 The below list has only the names and a one-line description of each
3903 predefined filter. There are <link linkend="predefined-filters">more
3904 verbose explanations</link> of what these filters do in the <link
3905 linkend="filter-file">filter file chapter</link>.
3911 <term>Example usage (with filters from the distribution <filename>default.filter</filename> file).
3912 See <link linkend="PREDEFINED-FILTERS">the Predefined Filters section</link> for
3913 more explanation on each:</term>
3916 <anchor id="filter-js-annoyances">
3917 <screen>+filter{js-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse</screen>
3920 <anchor id="filter-js-events">
3921 <screen>+filter{js-events} # Kill all JS event bindings (Radically destructive! Only for extra nasty sites)</screen>
3924 <anchor id="filter-html-annoyances">
3925 <screen>+filter{html-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying HTML abuse</screen>
3928 <anchor id="filter-content-cookies">
3929 <screen>+filter{content-cookies} # Kill cookies that come in the HTML or JS content</screen>
3932 <anchor id="filter-refresh-tags">
3933 <screen>+filter{refresh-tags} # Kill automatic refresh tags (for dial-on-demand setups)</screen>
3936 <anchor id="filter-unsolicited-popups">
3937 <screen>+filter{unsolicited-popups} # Disable only unsolicited pop-up windows. Useful if your browser lacks this ability.</screen>
3940 <anchor id="filter-all-popups">
3941 <screen>+filter{all-popups} # Kill all popups in JavaScript and HTML. Useful if your browser lacks this ability.</screen>
3944 <anchor id="filter-img-reorder">
3945 <screen>+filter{img-reorder} # Reorder attributes in <img> tags to make the banners-by-* filters more effective</screen>
3948 <anchor id="filter-banners-by-size">
3949 <screen>+filter{banners-by-size} # Kill banners by size</screen>
3952 <anchor id="filter-banners-by-link">
3953 <screen>+filter{banners-by-link} # Kill banners by their links to known clicktrackers</screen>
3956 <anchor id="filter-webbugs">
3957 <screen>+filter{webbugs} # Squish WebBugs (1x1 invisible GIFs used for user tracking)</screen>
3960 <anchor id="filter-tiny-textforms">
3961 <screen>+filter{tiny-textforms} # Extend those tiny textareas up to 40x80 and kill the hard wrap</screen>
3964 <anchor id="filter-jumping-windows">
3965 <screen>+filter{jumping-windows} # Prevent windows from resizing and moving themselves</screen>
3968 <anchor id="filter-frameset-borders">
3969 <screen>+filter{frameset-borders} # Give frames a border and make them resizeable</screen>
3972 <anchor id="filter-demoronizer">
3973 <screen>+filter{demoronizer} # Fix MS's non-standard use of standard charsets</screen>
3976 <anchor id="filter-shockwave-flash">
3977 <screen>+filter{shockwave-flash} # Kill embedded Shockwave Flash objects</screen>
3980 <anchor id="filter-quicktime-kioskmode">
3981 <screen>+filter{quicktime-kioskmode} # Make Quicktime movies savable</screen>
3984 <anchor id="filter-fun">
3985 <screen>+filter{fun} # Text replacements for subversive browsing fun!</screen>
3988 <anchor id="filter-crude-parental">
3989 <screen>+filter{crude-parental} # Crude parental filtering (demo only)</screen>
3992 <anchor id="filter-ie-exploits">
3993 <screen>+filter{ie-exploits} # Disable a known Internet Explorer bug exploits</screen>
3996 <anchor id="filter-site-specifics">
3997 <screen>+filter{site-specifics} # Custom filters for specific site related problems</screen>
4000 <anchor id="filter-google">
4001 <screen>+filter{google} # Removes text ads and other Google specific improvements</screen>
4004 <anchor id="filter-yahoo">
4005 <screen>+filter{yahoo} # Removes text ads and other Yahoo specific improvements</screen>
4008 <anchor id="filter-msn">
4009 <screen>+filter{msn} # Removes text ads and other MSN specific improvements</screen>
4012 <anchor id="filter-blogspot">
4013 <screen>+filter{blogspot} # Cleans up Blogspot blogs</screen>
4016 <anchor id="filter-no-ping">
4017 <screen>+filter{no-ping} # Removes non-standard ping attributes from anchor and area tags</screen>
4025 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4026 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="force-text-mode">
4027 <title>force-text-mode</title>
4033 <term>Typical use:</term>
4035 <para>Force <application>Privoxy</application> to treat a document as if it was in some kind of <emphasis>text</emphasis> format. </para>
4040 <term>Effect:</term>
4043 Declares a document as text, even if the <quote>Content-Type:</quote> isn't detected as such.
4050 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4052 <para>Boolean.</para>
4057 <term>Parameter:</term>
4069 As explained <literal><link linkend="filter">above</link></literal>,
4070 <application>Privoxy</application> tries to only filter files that are
4071 in some kind of text format. The same restrictions apply to
4072 <literal><link linkend="content-type-overwrite">content-type-overwrite</link></literal>.
4073 <literal>force-text-mode</literal> declares a document as text,
4074 without looking at the <quote>Content-Type:</quote> first.
4078 Think twice before activating this action. Filtering binary data
4079 with regular expressions can cause file damage.
4086 <term>Example usage:</term>
4099 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4100 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="forward-override">
4101 <title>forward-override</title>
4107 <term>Typical use:</term>
4109 <para>Change the forwarding settings based on User-Agent or request origin</para>
4114 <term>Effect:</term>
4117 Overrules the forward directives in the configuration file.
4124 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4126 <para>Multi-value.</para>
4131 <term>Parameter:</term>
4135 <para><quote>forward .</quote> to use a direct connection without any additional proxies.</para>
4139 <quote>forward 127.0.0.1:8123</quote> to use the HTTP proxy listening at 127.0.0.1 port 8123.
4144 <quote>forward-socks4a 127.0.0.1:9050 .</quote> to use the socks4a proxy listening at
4145 127.0.0.1 port 9050. Replace <quote>forward-socks4a</quote> with <quote>forward-socks4</quote>
4146 to use a socks4 connection (with local DNS resolution) instead, use <quote>forward-socks5</quote>
4147 for socks5 connections (with remote DNS resolution).
4152 <quote>forward-socks4a 127.0.0.1:9050 proxy.example.org:8000</quote> to use the socks4a proxy
4153 listening at 127.0.0.1 port 9050 to reach the HTTP proxy listening at proxy.example.org port 8000.
4154 Replace <quote>forward-socks4a</quote> with <quote>forward-socks4</quote> to use a socks4 connection
4155 (with local DNS resolution) instead, use <quote>forward-socks5</quote>
4156 for socks5 connections (with remote DNS resolution).
4167 This action takes parameters similar to the
4168 <link linkend="forwarding">forward</link> directives in the configuration
4169 file, but without the URL pattern. It can be used as replacement, but normally it's only
4170 used in cases where matching based on the request URL isn't sufficient.
4174 Please read the description for the <link linkend="forwarding">forward</link> directives before
4175 using this action. Forwarding to the wrong people will reduce your privacy and increase the
4176 chances of man-in-the-middle attacks.
4179 If the ports are missing or invalid, default values will be used. This might change
4180 in the future and you shouldn't rely on it. Otherwise incorrect syntax causes Privoxy
4184 Use the <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">show-url-info CGI page</ulink>
4185 to verify that your forward settings do what you thought the do.
4192 <term>Example usage:</term>
4196 # Always use direct connections for requests previously tagged as
4197 # <quote>User-Agent: fetch libfetch/2.0</quote> and make sure
4198 # resuming downloads continues to work.
4199 # This way you can continue to use Tor for your normal browsing,
4200 # without overloading the Tor network with your FreeBSD ports updates
4201 # or downloads of bigger files like ISOs.
4202 # Note that HTTP headers are easy to fake and therefore their
4203 # values are as (un)trustworthy as your clients and users.
4204 {+forward-override{forward .} \
4205 -hide-if-modified-since \
4206 -overwrite-last-modified \
4208 TAG:^User-Agent: fetch libfetch/2\.0$
4217 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4218 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="handle-as-empty-document">
4219 <title>handle-as-empty-document</title>
4225 <term>Typical use:</term>
4227 <para>Mark URLs that should be replaced by empty documents <emphasis>if they get blocked</emphasis></para>
4232 <term>Effect:</term>
4235 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. It just marks URLs.
4236 If the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action <emphasis>also applies</emphasis>,
4237 the presence or absence of this mark decides whether an HTML <quote>BLOCKED</quote>
4238 page, or an empty document will be sent to the client as a substitute for the blocked content.
4239 The <emphasis>empty</emphasis> document isn't literally empty, but actually contains a single space.
4246 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4248 <para>Boolean.</para>
4253 <term>Parameter:</term>
4265 Some browsers complain about syntax errors if JavaScript documents
4266 are blocked with <application>Privoxy's</application>
4267 default HTML page; this option can be used to silence them.
4268 And of course this action can also be used to eliminate the &my-app;
4269 BLOCKED message in frames.
4272 The content type for the empty document can be specified with
4273 <literal><link linkend="content-type-overwrite">content-type-overwrite{}</link></literal>,
4274 but usually this isn't necessary.
4280 <term>Example usage:</term>
4283 <screen># Block all documents on example.org that end with ".js",
4284 # but send an empty document instead of the usual HTML message.
4285 {+block +handle-as-empty-document}
4295 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4296 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="handle-as-image">
4297 <title>handle-as-image</title>
4301 <term>Typical use:</term>
4303 <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>
4308 <term>Effect:</term>
4311 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. It just marks URLs as images.
4312 If the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action <emphasis>also applies</emphasis>,
4313 the presence or absence of this mark decides whether an HTML <quote>blocked</quote>
4314 page, or a replacement image (as determined by the <literal><link
4315 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal> action) will be sent to the
4316 client as a substitute for the blocked content.
4323 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4325 <para>Boolean.</para>
4330 <term>Parameter:</term>
4342 The below generic example section is actually part of <filename>default.action</filename>.
4343 It marks all URLs with well-known image file name extensions as images and should
4347 Users will probably only want to use the handle-as-image action in conjunction with
4348 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>, to block sources of banners, whose URLs don't
4349 reflect the file type, like in the second example section.
4352 Note that you cannot treat HTML pages as images in most cases. For instance, (in-line) ad
4353 frames require an HTML page to be sent, or they won't display properly.
4354 Forcing <literal>handle-as-image</literal> in this situation will not replace the
4355 ad frame with an image, but lead to error messages.
4361 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
4364 <screen># Generic image extensions:
4367 /.*\.(gif|jpg|jpeg|png|bmp|ico)$
4369 # These don't look like images, but they're banners and should be
4370 # blocked as images:
4372 {+block +handle-as-image}
4373 some.nasty-banner-server.com/junk.cgi\?output=trash
4375 # Banner source! Who cares if they also have non-image content?
4385 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4386 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-accept-language">
4387 <title>hide-accept-language</title>
4393 <term>Typical use:</term>
4395 <para>Pretend to use different language settings.</para>
4400 <term>Effect:</term>
4403 Deletes or replaces the <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> HTTP header in client requests.
4410 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4412 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4417 <term>Parameter:</term>
4420 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
4429 Faking the browser's language settings can be useful to make a
4430 foreign User-Agent set with
4431 <literal><link linkend="hide-user-agent">hide-user-agent</link></literal>
4435 However some sites with content in different languages check the
4436 <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> to decide which one to take by default.
4437 Sometimes it isn't possible to later switch to another language without
4438 changing the <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> header first.
4441 Therefore it's a good idea to either only change the
4442 <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> header to languages you understand,
4443 or to languages that aren't wide spread.
4446 Before setting the <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> header
4447 to a rare language, you should consider that it helps to
4448 make your requests unique and thus easier to trace.
4449 If you don't plan to change this header frequently,
4450 you should stick to a common language.
4456 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
4459 <screen># Pretend to use Canadian language settings.
4460 {+hide-accept-language{en-ca} \
4461 +hide-user-agent{Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; OpenBSD i386; en-CA; rv:1.8.0.4) Gecko/20060628 Firefox/1.5.0.4} \
4471 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4472 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-content-disposition">
4473 <title>hide-content-disposition</title>
4479 <term>Typical use:</term>
4481 <para>Prevent download menus for content you prefer to view inside the browser.</para>
4486 <term>Effect:</term>
4489 Deletes or replaces the <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> HTTP header set by some servers.
4496 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4498 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4503 <term>Parameter:</term>
4506 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
4515 Some servers set the <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> HTTP header for
4516 documents they assume you want to save locally before viewing them.
4517 The <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> header contains the file name
4518 the browser is supposed to use by default.
4521 In most browsers that understand this header, it makes it impossible to
4522 <emphasis>just view</emphasis> the document, without downloading it first,
4523 even if it's just a simple text file or an image.
4526 Removing the <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> header helps
4527 to prevent this annoyance, but some browsers additionally check the
4528 <quote>Content-Type:</quote> header, before they decide if they can
4529 display a document without saving it first. In these cases, you have
4530 to change this header as well, before the browser stops displaying
4534 It is also possible to change the server's file name suggestion
4535 to another one, but in most cases it isn't worth the time to set
4539 This action will probably be removed in the future,
4540 use server-header filters instead.
4546 <term>Example usage:</term>
4549 <screen># Disarm the download link in Sourceforge's patch tracker
4551 +content-type-overwrite{text/plain}\
4552 +hide-content-disposition{block} }
4553 .sourceforge.net/tracker/download\.php</screen>
4561 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4562 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-if-modified-since">
4563 <title>hide-if-modified-since</title>
4569 <term>Typical use:</term>
4571 <para>Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.</para>
4576 <term>Effect:</term>
4579 Deletes the <quote>If-Modified-Since:</quote> HTTP client header or modifies its value.
4586 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4588 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4593 <term>Parameter:</term>
4596 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or a user defined value that specifies a range of hours.
4605 Removing this header is useful for filter testing, where you want to force a real
4606 reload instead of getting status code <quote>304</quote>, which would cause the
4607 browser to use a cached copy of the page.
4610 Instead of removing the header, <literal>hide-if-modified-since</literal> can
4611 also add or subtract a random amount of time to/from the header's value.
4612 You specify a range of minutes where the random factor should be chosen from and
4613 <application>Privoxy</application> does the rest. A negative value means
4614 subtracting, a positive value adding.
4617 Randomizing the value of the <quote>If-Modified-Since:</quote> makes
4618 it less likely that the server can use the time as a cookie replacement,
4619 but you will run into caching problems if the random range is too high.
4622 It is a good idea to only use a small negative value and let
4623 <literal><link linkend="overwrite-last-modified">overwrite-last-modified</link></literal>
4624 handle the greater changes.
4627 It is also recommended to use this action together with
4628 <literal><link linkend="crunch-if-none-match">crunch-if-none-match</link></literal>,
4629 otherwise it's more or less pointless.
4635 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
4638 <screen># Let the browser revalidate but make tracking based on the time less likely.
4639 {+hide-if-modified-since{-60} \
4640 +overwrite-last-modified{randomize} \
4641 +crunch-if-none-match}
4650 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4651 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-forwarded-for-headers">
4652 <title>hide-forwarded-for-headers</title>
4655 <term>Typical use:</term>
4657 <para>Improve privacy by not forwarding the source of the request in the HTTP headers.</para>
4662 <term>Effect:</term>
4665 Deletes any existing <quote>X-Forwarded-for:</quote> HTTP header from client requests.
4672 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4674 <para>Boolean.</para>
4679 <term>Parameter:</term>
4691 It is safe and recommended to leave this on.
4697 <term>Example usage:</term>
4700 <screen>+hide-forwarded-for-headers</screen>
4708 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4709 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-from-header">
4710 <title>hide-from-header</title>
4714 <term>Typical use:</term>
4716 <para>Keep your (old and ill) browser from telling web servers your email address</para>
4721 <term>Effect:</term>
4724 Deletes any existing <quote>From:</quote> HTTP header, or replaces it with the
4732 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4734 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4739 <term>Parameter:</term>
4742 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
4751 The keyword <quote>block</quote> will completely remove the header
4752 (not to be confused with the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>
4756 Alternately, you can specify any value you prefer to be sent to the web
4757 server. If you do, it is a matter of fairness not to use any address that
4758 is actually used by a real person.
4761 This action is rarely needed, as modern web browsers don't send
4762 <quote>From:</quote> headers anymore.
4768 <term>Example usage:</term>
4771 <screen>+hide-from-header{block}</screen> or
4772 <screen>+hide-from-header{spam-me-senseless@sittingduck.example.com}</screen>
4780 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4781 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-referrer">
4782 <title>hide-referrer</title>
4783 <anchor id="hide-referer">
4786 <term>Typical use:</term>
4788 <para>Conceal which link you followed to get to a particular site</para>
4793 <term>Effect:</term>
4796 Deletes the <quote>Referer:</quote> (sic) HTTP header from the client request,
4797 or replaces it with a forged one.
4804 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4806 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4811 <term>Parameter:</term>
4815 <para><quote>conditional-block</quote> to delete the header completely if the host has changed.</para>
4818 <para><quote>conditional-forge</quote> to forge the header if the host has changed.</para>
4821 <para><quote>block</quote> to delete the header unconditionally.</para>
4824 <para><quote>forge</quote> to pretend to be coming from the homepage of the server we are talking to.</para>
4827 <para>Any other string to set a user defined referrer.</para>
4837 <literal>conditional-block</literal> is the only parameter,
4838 that isn't easily detected in the server's log file. If it blocks the
4839 referrer, the request will look like the visitor used a bookmark or
4840 typed in the address directly.
4843 Leaving the referrer unmodified for requests on the same host
4844 allows the server owner to see the visitor's <quote>click path</quote>,
4845 but in most cases she could also get that information by comparing
4846 other parts of the log file: for example the User-Agent if it isn't
4847 a very common one, or the user's IP address if it doesn't change between
4851 Always blocking the referrer, or using a custom one, can lead to
4852 failures on servers that check the referrer before they answer any
4853 requests, in an attempt to prevent their content from being
4854 embedded or linked to elsewhere.
4857 Both <literal>conditional-block</literal> and <literal>forge</literal>
4858 will work with referrer checks, as long as content and valid referring page
4859 are on the same host. Most of the time that's the case.
4862 <literal>hide-referer</literal> is an alternate spelling of
4863 <literal>hide-referrer</literal> and the two can be can be freely
4864 substituted with each other. (<quote>referrer</quote> is the
4865 correct English spelling, however the HTTP specification has a bug - it
4866 requires it to be spelled as <quote>referer</quote>.)
4872 <term>Example usage:</term>
4875 <screen>+hide-referrer{forge}</screen> or
4876 <screen>+hide-referrer{http://www.yahoo.com/}</screen>
4884 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4885 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-user-agent">
4886 <title>hide-user-agent</title>
4890 <term>Typical use:</term>
4892 <para>Try to conceal your type of browser and client operating system</para>
4897 <term>Effect:</term>
4900 Replaces the value of the <quote>User-Agent:</quote> HTTP header
4901 in client requests with the specified value.
4908 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4910 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4915 <term>Parameter:</term>
4918 Any user-defined string.
4928 This can lead to problems on web sites that depend on looking at this header in
4929 order to customize their content for different browsers (which, by the
4930 way, is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> the right thing to do: good web sites
4931 work browser-independently).
4935 Using this action in multi-user setups or wherever different types of
4936 browsers will access the same <application>Privoxy</application> is
4937 <emphasis>not recommended</emphasis>. In single-user, single-browser
4938 setups, you might use it to delete your OS version information from
4939 the headers, because it is an invitation to exploit known bugs for your
4940 OS. It is also occasionally useful to forge this in order to access
4941 sites that won't let you in otherwise (though there may be a good
4942 reason in some cases). Example of this: some MSN sites will not
4943 let <application>Mozilla</application> enter, yet forging to a
4944 <application>Netscape 6.1</application> user-agent works just fine.
4945 (Must be just a silly MS goof, I'm sure :-).
4948 More information on known user-agent strings can be found at
4949 <ulink url="http://www.user-agents.org/">http://www.user-agents.org/</ulink>
4951 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_agent">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_agent</ulink>.
4957 <term>Example usage:</term>
4960 <screen>+hide-user-agent{Netscape 6.1 (X11; I; Linux 2.4.18 i686)}</screen>
4968 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4969 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="inspect-jpegs">
4970 <title>inspect-jpegs</title>
4973 <term>Typical use:</term>
4975 <para>Try to protect against a MS buffer over-run in JPEG processing</para>
4980 <term>Effect:</term>
4983 Protect against a known exploit
4990 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4992 <para>Boolean.</para>
4997 <term>Parameter:</term>
5009 See Microsoft Security Bulletin MS04-028. JPEG images are one of the most
5010 common image types found across the Internet. The exploit as described can
5011 allow execution of code on the target system, giving an attacker access
5012 to the system in question by merely planting an altered JPEG image, which
5013 would have no obvious indications of what lurks inside. This action
5014 tries to prevent this exploit if delivered through unencrypted HTTP.
5017 Note that the exploit mentioned is several years old
5018 and it's unlikely that your client is still vulnerable
5019 against it. This action may be removed in one of the
5027 <term>Example usage:</term>
5029 <para><screen>+inspect-jpegs</screen></para>
5036 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5037 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="kill-popups">
5038 <title>kill-popups<anchor id="kill-popup"></title>
5042 <term>Typical use:</term>
5044 <para>Eliminate those annoying pop-up windows (deprecated)</para>
5049 <term>Effect:</term>
5052 While loading the document, replace JavaScript code that opens
5053 pop-up windows with (syntactically neutral) dummy code on the fly.
5060 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5062 <para>Boolean.</para>
5067 <term>Parameter:</term>
5079 This action is basically a built-in, hardwired special-purpose filter
5080 action, but there are important differences: For <literal>kill-popups</literal>,
5081 the document need not be buffered, so it can be incrementally rendered while
5082 downloading. But <literal>kill-popups</literal> doesn't catch as many pop-ups as
5084 linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{<replaceable>all-popups</replaceable>}</link></literal>
5085 does and is not as smart as <literal><link
5086 linkend="FILTER-UNSOLICITED-POPUPS">filter{<replaceable>unsolicited-popups</replaceable>}</link>
5090 Think of it as a fast and efficient replacement for a filter that you
5091 can use if you don't want any filtering at all. Note that it doesn't make
5092 sense to combine it with any <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> action,
5093 since as soon as one <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> applies,
5094 the whole document needs to be buffered anyway, which destroys the advantage of
5095 the <literal>kill-popups</literal> action over its filter equivalent.
5098 Killing all pop-ups unconditionally is problematic. Many shops and banks rely on
5099 pop-ups to display forms, shopping carts etc, and the <literal><link
5100 linkend="FILTER-UNSOLICITED-POPUPS">filter{<replaceable>unsolicited-popups</replaceable>}</link>
5101 </literal> does a better job of catching only the unwanted ones.
5104 If the only kind of pop-ups that you want to kill are exit consoles (those
5105 <emphasis>really nasty</emphasis> windows that appear when you close an other
5106 one), you might want to use
5108 linkend="filter">filter</link>{<replaceable>js-annoyances</replaceable>}</literal>
5112 This action is most appropriate for browsers that don't have any controls
5113 for unwanted pop-ups. Not recommended for general usage.
5116 This action doesn't work very reliable and may be removed in future releases.
5122 <term>Example usage:</term>
5124 <para><screen>+kill-popups</screen></para>
5131 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5132 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="limit-connect">
5133 <title>limit-connect</title>
5137 <term>Typical use:</term>
5139 <para>Prevent abuse of <application>Privoxy</application> as a TCP proxy relay or disable SSL for untrusted sites</para>
5144 <term>Effect:</term>
5147 Specifies to which ports HTTP CONNECT requests are allowable.
5154 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5156 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5161 <term>Parameter:</term>
5164 A comma-separated list of ports or port ranges (the latter using dashes, with the minimum
5165 defaulting to 0 and the maximum to 65K).
5174 By default, i.e. if no <literal>limit-connect</literal> action applies,
5175 <application>Privoxy</application> only allows HTTP CONNECT
5176 requests to port 443 (the standard, secure HTTPS port). Use
5177 <literal>limit-connect</literal> if more fine-grained control is desired
5178 for some or all destinations.
5181 The CONNECT methods exists in HTTP to allow access to secure websites
5182 (<quote>https://</quote> URLs) through proxies. It works very simply:
5183 the proxy connects to the server on the specified port, and then
5184 short-circuits its connections to the client and to the remote server.
5185 This means CONNECT-enabled proxies can be used as TCP relays very easily.
5188 <application>Privoxy</application> relays HTTPS traffic without seeing
5189 the decoded content. Websites can leverage this limitation to circumvent &my-app;'s
5190 filters. By specifying an invalid port range you can disable HTTPS entirely.
5191 If you plan to disable SSL by default, consider enabling
5192 <literal><link linkend="treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks ">treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks</link></literal>
5193 as well, to be able to quickly create exceptions.
5199 <term>Example usages:</term>
5201 <!-- I had trouble getting the spacing to look right in my browser -->
5202 <!-- I probably have the wrong font setup, bollocks. -->
5203 <!-- Apparently the emphasis tag uses a proportional font no matter what -->
5205 <screen>+limit-connect{443} # This is the default and need not be specified.
5206 +limit-connect{80,443} # Ports 80 and 443 are OK.
5207 +limit-connect{-3, 7, 20-100, 500-} # Ports less than 3, 7, 20 to 100 and above 500 are OK.
5208 +limit-connect{-} # All ports are OK
5209 +limit-connect{,} # No HTTPS/SSL traffic is allowed</screen>
5216 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5217 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="prevent-compression">
5218 <title>prevent-compression</title>
5222 <term>Typical use:</term>
5225 Ensure that servers send the content uncompressed, so it can be
5226 passed through <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>s.
5232 <term>Effect:</term>
5235 Removes the Accept-Encoding header which can be used to ask for compressed transfer.
5242 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5244 <para>Boolean.</para>
5249 <term>Parameter:</term>
5261 More and more websites send their content compressed by default, which
5262 is generally a good idea and saves bandwidth. But the <literal><link
5263 linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>, <literal><link linkend="deanimate-gifs">deanimate-gifs</link></literal>
5264 and <literal><link linkend="kill-popups">kill-popups</link></literal> actions need
5265 access to the uncompressed data.
5268 When compiled with zlib support (available since &my-app; 3.0.7), content that should be
5269 filtered is decompressed on-the-fly and you don't have to worry about this action.
5270 If you are using an older &my-app; version, or one that hasn't been compiled with zlib
5271 support, this action can be used to convince the server to send the content uncompressed.
5274 Most text-based instances compress very well, the size is seldom decreased by less than 50%,
5275 for markup-heavy instances like news feeds saving more than 90% of the original size isn't
5279 Not using compression will therefore slow down the transfer, and you should only
5280 enable this action if you really need it. As of &my-app; 3.0.7 it's disabled in all
5281 predefined action settings.
5284 Note that some (rare) ill-configured sites don't handle requests for uncompressed
5285 documents correctly. Broken PHP applications tend to send an empty document body,
5286 some IIS versions only send the beginning of the content. If you enable
5287 <literal>prevent-compression</literal> per default, you might want to add
5288 exceptions for those sites. See the example for how to do that.
5294 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
5298 # Selectively turn off compression, and enable a filter
5300 { +filter{tiny-textforms} +prevent-compression }
5301 # Match only these sites
5306 # Or instead, we could set a universal default:
5308 { +prevent-compression }
5311 # Then maybe make exceptions for broken sites:
5313 { -prevent-compression }
5314 .compusa.com/</screen>
5323 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5324 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="overwrite-last-modified">
5325 <title>overwrite-last-modified</title>
5331 <term>Typical use:</term>
5333 <para>Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.</para>
5338 <term>Effect:</term>
5341 Deletes the <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> HTTP server header or modifies its value.
5348 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5350 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5355 <term>Parameter:</term>
5358 One of the keywords: <quote>block</quote>, <quote>reset-to-request-time</quote>
5359 and <quote>randomize</quote>
5368 Removing the <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header is useful for filter
5369 testing, where you want to force a real reload instead of getting status
5370 code <quote>304</quote>, which would cause the browser to reuse the old
5371 version of the page.
5374 The <quote>randomize</quote> option overwrites the value of the
5375 <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header with a randomly chosen time
5376 between the original value and the current time. In theory the server
5377 could send each document with a different <quote>Last-Modified:</quote>
5378 header to track visits without using cookies. <quote>Randomize</quote>
5379 makes it impossible and the browser can still revalidate cached documents.
5382 <quote>reset-to-request-time</quote> overwrites the value of the
5383 <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header with the current time. You could use
5384 this option together with
5385 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hided-if-modified-since</link></literal>
5386 to further customize your random range.
5389 The preferred parameter here is <quote>randomize</quote>. It is safe
5390 to use, as long as the time settings are more or less correct.
5391 If the server sets the <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header to the time
5392 of the request, the random range becomes zero and the value stays the same.
5393 Therefore you should later randomize it a second time with
5394 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hided-if-modified-since</link></literal>,
5398 It is also recommended to use this action together with
5399 <literal><link linkend="crunch-if-none-match">crunch-if-none-match</link></literal>.
5405 <term>Example usage:</term>
5408 <screen># Let the browser revalidate without being tracked across sessions
5409 { +hide-if-modified-since{-60} \
5410 +overwrite-last-modified{randomize} \
5411 +crunch-if-none-match}
5420 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5421 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="redirect">
5422 <title>redirect</title>
5428 <term>Typical use:</term>
5431 Redirect requests to other sites.
5437 <term>Effect:</term>
5440 Convinces the browser that the requested document has been moved
5441 to another location and the browser should get it from there.
5448 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5450 <para>Parameterized</para>
5455 <term>Parameter:</term>
5458 An absolute URL or a single pcrs command.
5467 Requests to which this action applies are answered with a
5468 HTTP redirect to URLs of your choosing. The new URL is
5469 either provided as parameter, or derived by applying a
5470 single pcrs command to the original URL.
5473 This action will be ignored if you use it together with
5474 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>.
5475 It can be combined with
5476 <literal><link linkend="fast-redirects">fast-redirects{check-decoded-url}</link></literal>
5477 to redirect to a decoded version of a rewritten URL.
5480 Use this action carefully, make sure not to create redirection loops
5481 and be aware that using your own redirects might make it
5482 possible to fingerprint your requests.
5488 <term>Example usages:</term>
5491 <screen># Replace example.com's style sheet with another one
5492 { +redirect{http://localhost/css-replacements/example.com.css} }
5493 example.com/stylesheet\.css
5495 # Create a short, easy to remember nickname for a favorite site
5496 # (relies on the browser accept and forward invalid URLs to &my-app;)
5497 { +redirect{http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/actions-file.html} }
5500 # Always use the expanded view for Undeadly.org articles
5501 # (Note the $ at the end of the URL pattern to make sure
5502 # the request for the rewritten URL isn't redirected as well)
5503 {+redirect{s@$@&mode=expanded@}}
5504 undeadly.org/cgi\?action=article&sid=\d*$</screen>
5513 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5514 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="send-vanilla-wafer">
5515 <title>send-vanilla-wafer</title>
5519 <term>Typical use:</term>
5522 Feed log analysis scripts with useless data.
5528 <term>Effect:</term>
5531 Sends a cookie with each request stating that you do not accept any copyright
5532 on cookies sent to you, and asking the site operator not to track you.
5539 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5541 <para>Boolean.</para>
5546 <term>Parameter:</term>
5558 The vanilla wafer is a (relatively) unique header and could conceivably be used to track you.
5561 This action is rarely used and not enabled in the default configuration.
5567 <term>Example usage:</term>
5570 <screen>+send-vanilla-wafer</screen>
5579 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5580 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="send-wafer">
5581 <title>send-wafer</title>
5585 <term>Typical use:</term>
5588 Send custom cookies or feed log analysis scripts with even more useless data.
5594 <term>Effect:</term>
5597 Sends a custom, user-defined cookie with each request.
5604 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5606 <para>Multi-value.</para>
5611 <term>Parameter:</term>
5614 A string of the form <quote><replaceable class="option">name</replaceable>=<replaceable
5615 class="parameter">value</replaceable></quote>.
5624 Being multi-valued, multiple instances of this action can apply to the same request,
5625 resulting in multiple cookies being sent.
5628 This action is rarely used and not enabled in the default configuration.
5633 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
5636 <screen>{+send-wafer{UsingPrivoxy=true}}
5637 my-internal-testing-server.void</screen>
5645 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5646 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="server-header-filter">
5647 <title>server-header-filter</title>
5651 <term>Typical use:</term>
5654 Rewrite or remove single server headers.
5660 <term>Effect:</term>
5663 All server headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly
5664 through the specified regular expression based substitutions.
5671 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
5673 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5678 <term>Parameter:</term>
5681 The name of a server-header filter, as defined in one of the
5682 <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link>.
5691 Server-header filters are applied to each header on its own, not to
5692 all at once. This makes it easier to diagnose problems, but on the downside
5693 you can't write filters that only change header x if header y's value is z.
5694 You can do that by using tags though.
5697 Server-header filters are executed after the other header actions have finished
5698 and use their output as input.
5701 Please refer to the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file chapter</link>
5702 to learn which server-header filters are available by default, and how to
5709 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
5713 {+server-header-filter{html-to-xml}}
5714 example.org/xml-instance-that-is-delivered-as-html
5716 {+server-header-filter{xml-to-html}}
5717 example.org/instance-that-is-delivered-as-xml-but-is-not
5727 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5728 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="server-header-tagger">
5729 <title>server-header-tagger</title>
5733 <term>Typical use:</term>
5736 Enable or disable filters based on the Content-Type header.
5742 <term>Effect:</term>
5745 Server headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly through
5746 the specified regular expression based substitutions, the result is used as
5754 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
5756 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5761 <term>Parameter:</term>
5764 The name of a server-header tagger, as defined in one of the
5765 <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link>.
5774 Server-header taggers are applied to each header on its own,
5775 and as the header isn't modified, each tagger <quote>sees</quote>
5779 Server-header taggers are executed before all other header actions
5780 that modify server headers. Their tags can be used to control
5781 all of the other server-header actions, the content filters
5782 and the crunch actions (<link linkend="redirect">redirect</link>
5783 and <link linkend="block">block</link>).
5786 Obviously crunching based on tags created by server-header taggers
5787 doesn't prevent the request from showing up in the server's log file.
5794 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
5798 # Tag every request with the content type declared by the server
5799 {+server-header-tagger{content-type}}
5810 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5811 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="session-cookies-only">
5812 <title>session-cookies-only</title>
5816 <term>Typical use:</term>
5819 Allow only temporary <quote>session</quote> cookies (for the current
5820 browser session <emphasis>only</emphasis>).
5826 <term>Effect:</term>
5829 Deletes the <quote>expires</quote> field from <quote>Set-Cookie:</quote>
5830 server headers. Most browsers will not store such cookies permanently and
5831 forget them in between sessions.
5838 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5840 <para>Boolean.</para>
5845 <term>Parameter:</term>
5857 This is less strict than <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal> /
5858 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal> and allows you to browse
5859 websites that insist or rely on setting cookies, without compromising your privacy too badly.
5862 Most browsers will not permanently store cookies that have been processed by
5863 <literal>session-cookies-only</literal> and will forget about them between sessions.
5864 This makes profiling cookies useless, but won't break sites which require cookies so
5865 that you can log in for transactions. This is generally turned on for all
5866 sites, and is the recommended setting.
5869 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use <literal>session-cookies-only</literal>
5870 together with <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal> or
5871 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>. If you do, cookies
5872 will be plainly killed.
5875 Note that it is up to the browser how it handles such cookies without an <quote>expires</quote>
5876 field. If you use an exotic browser, you might want to try it out to be sure.
5879 This setting also has no effect on cookies that may have been stored
5880 previously by the browser before starting <application>Privoxy</application>.
5881 These would have to be removed manually.
5884 <application>Privoxy</application> also uses
5885 the <link linkend="filter-content-cookies">content-cookies filter</link>
5886 to block some types of cookies. Content cookies are not effected by
5887 <literal>session-cookies-only</literal>.
5893 <term>Example usage:</term>
5896 <screen>+session-cookies-only</screen>
5904 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5905 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="set-image-blocker">
5906 <title>set-image-blocker</title>
5910 <term>Typical use:</term>
5912 <para>Choose the replacement for blocked images</para>
5917 <term>Effect:</term>
5920 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. If <emphasis>both</emphasis>
5921 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> <emphasis>and</emphasis> <literal><link
5922 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> <emphasis>also</emphasis>
5923 apply, i.e. if the request is to be blocked as an image,
5924 <emphasis>then</emphasis> the parameter of this action decides what will be
5925 sent as a replacement.
5932 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5934 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5939 <term>Parameter:</term>
5944 <quote>pattern</quote> to send a built-in checkerboard pattern image. The image is visually
5945 decent, scales very well, and makes it obvious where banners were busted.
5950 <quote>blank</quote> to send a built-in transparent image. This makes banners disappear
5951 completely, but makes it hard to detect where <application>Privoxy</application> has blocked
5952 images on a given page and complicates troubleshooting if <application>Privoxy</application>
5953 has blocked innocent images, like navigation icons.
5958 <quote><replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable></quote> to
5959 send a redirect to <replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable>. You can redirect
5960 to any image anywhere, even in your local filesystem via <quote>file:///</quote> URL.
5961 (But note that not all browsers support redirecting to a local file system).
5964 A good application of redirects is to use special <application>Privoxy</application>-built-in
5965 URLs, which send the built-in images, as <replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable>.
5966 This has the same visual effect as specifying <quote>blank</quote> or <quote>pattern</quote> in
5967 the first place, but enables your browser to cache the replacement image, instead of requesting
5968 it over and over again.
5979 The URLs for the built-in images are <quote>http://config.privoxy.org/send-banner?type=<replaceable
5980 class="parameter">type</replaceable></quote>, where <replaceable class="parameter">type</replaceable> is
5981 either <quote>blank</quote> or <quote>pattern</quote>.
5984 There is a third (advanced) type, called <quote>auto</quote>. It is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> to be
5985 used in <literal>set-image-blocker</literal>, but meant for use from <link linkend="filter-file">filters</link>.
5986 Auto will select the type of image that would have applied to the referring page, had it been an image.
5992 <term>Example usage:</term>
5998 <screen>+set-image-blocker{pattern}</screen>
6001 Redirect to the BSD daemon:
6004 <screen>+set-image-blocker{http://www.freebsd.org/gifs/dae_up3.gif}</screen>
6007 Redirect to the built-in pattern for better caching:
6010 <screen>+set-image-blocker{http://config.privoxy.org/send-banner?type=pattern}</screen>
6018 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6019 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks">
6020 <title>treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks</title>
6026 <term>Typical use:</term>
6028 <para>Block forbidden connects with an easy to find error message.</para>
6033 <term>Effect:</term>
6036 If this action is enabled, <application>Privoxy</application> no longer
6037 makes a difference between forbidden connects and ordinary blocks.
6044 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
6046 <para>Boolean</para>
6051 <term>Parameter:</term>
6061 By default <application>Privoxy</application> answers
6062 <link linkend="limit-connect">forbidden <quote>Connect</quote> requests</link>
6063 with a short error message inside the headers. If the browser doesn't display
6064 headers (most don't), you just see an empty page.
6067 With this action enabled, <application>Privoxy</application> displays
6068 the message that is used for ordinary blocks instead. If you decide
6069 to make an exception for the page in question, you can do so by
6070 following the <quote>See why</quote> link.
6073 For <quote>Connect</quote> requests the clients tell
6074 <application>Privoxy</application> which host they are interested
6075 in, but not which document they plan to get later. As a result, the
6076 <quote>Go there anyway</quote> wouldn't work and is therefore suppressed.
6082 <term>Example usage:</term>
6085 <screen>+treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks</screen>
6093 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6095 <title>Summary</title>
6097 Note that many of these actions have the potential to cause a page to
6098 misbehave, possibly even not to display at all. There are many ways
6099 a site designer may choose to design his site, and what HTTP header
6100 content, and other criteria, he may depend on. There is no way to have hard
6101 and fast rules for all sites. See the <link
6102 linkend="ACTIONSANAT">Appendix</link> for a brief example on troubleshooting
6108 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6109 <sect2 id="aliases">
6110 <title>Aliases</title>
6112 Custom <quote>actions</quote>, known to <application>Privoxy</application>
6113 as <quote>aliases</quote>, can be defined by combining other actions.
6114 These can in turn be invoked just like the built-in actions.
6115 Currently, an alias name can contain any character except space, tab,
6117 <quote>{</quote> and <quote>}</quote>, but we <emphasis>strongly
6118 recommend</emphasis> that you only use <quote>a</quote> to <quote>z</quote>,
6119 <quote>0</quote> to <quote>9</quote>, <quote>+</quote>, and <quote>-</quote>.
6120 Alias names are not case sensitive, and are not required to start with a
6121 <quote>+</quote> or <quote>-</quote> sign, since they are merely textually
6125 Aliases can be used throughout the actions file, but they <emphasis>must be
6126 defined in a special section at the top of the file!</emphasis>
6127 And there can only be one such section per actions file. Each actions file may
6128 have its own alias section, and the aliases defined in it are only visible
6132 There are two main reasons to use aliases: One is to save typing for frequently
6133 used combinations of actions, the other one is a gain in flexibility: If you
6134 decide once how you want to handle shops by defining an alias called
6135 <quote>shop</quote>, you can later change your policy on shops in
6136 <emphasis>one</emphasis> place, and your changes will take effect everywhere
6137 in the actions file where the <quote>shop</quote> alias is used. Calling aliases
6138 by their purpose also makes your actions files more readable.
6141 Currently, there is one big drawback to using aliases, though:
6142 <application>Privoxy</application>'s built-in web-based action file
6143 editor honors aliases when reading the actions files, but it expands
6144 them before writing. So the effects of your aliases are of course preserved,
6145 but the aliases themselves are lost when you edit sections that use aliases
6150 Now let's define some aliases...
6155 # Useful custom aliases we can use later.
6157 # Note the (required!) section header line and that this section
6158 # must be at the top of the actions file!
6162 # These aliases just save typing later:
6163 # (Note that some already use other aliases!)
6165 +crunch-all-cookies = +<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> +<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
6166 -crunch-all-cookies = -<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> -<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
6167 +block-as-image = +block +handle-as-image
6168 allow-all-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> -<link linkend="FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</link>
6170 # These aliases define combinations of actions
6171 # that are useful for certain types of sites:
6173 fragile = -<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link> -<link linkend="HIDE-REFERER">hide-referrer</link> -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link> -<link linkend="PREVENT-COMPRESSION">prevent-compression</link>
6175 shop = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{all-popups}</link> -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link>
6177 # Short names for other aliases, for really lazy people ;-)
6179 c0 = +crunch-all-cookies
6180 c1 = -crunch-all-cookies</screen>
6184 ...and put them to use. These sections would appear in the lower part of an
6185 actions file and define exceptions to the default actions (as specified further
6186 up for the <quote>/</quote> pattern):
6191 # These sites are either very complex or very keen on
6192 # user data and require minimal interference to work:
6195 .office.microsoft.com
6196 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com
6197 # Gmail is really mail.google.com, not gmail.com
6201 # Allow cookies (for setting and retrieving your customer data)
6205 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
6208 # These shops require pop-ups:
6210 {-kill-popups -filter{all-popups} -filter{unsolicited-popups}}
6212 .overclockers.co.uk</screen>
6216 Aliases like <quote>shop</quote> and <quote>fragile</quote> are typically used for
6217 <quote>problem</quote> sites that require more than one action to be disabled
6218 in order to function properly.
6224 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6225 <sect2 id="act-examples">
6226 <title>Actions Files Tutorial</title>
6228 The above chapters have shown <link linkend="actions-file">which actions files
6229 there are and how they are organized</link>, how actions are <link
6230 linkend="actions">specified</link> and <link linkend="actions-apply">applied
6231 to URLs</link>, how <link linkend="af-patterns">patterns</link> work, and how to
6232 define and use <link linkend="aliases">aliases</link>. Now, let's look at an
6233 example <filename>default.action</filename> and <filename>user.action</filename>
6234 file and see how all these pieces come together:
6237 <sect3><title>default.action</title>
6240 Every config file should start with a short comment stating its purpose:
6244 <screen># Sample default.action file <ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net></screen>
6248 Then, since this is the <filename>default.action</filename> file, the
6249 first section is a special section for internal use that you needn't
6250 change or worry about:
6255 ##########################################################################
6256 # Settings -- Don't change! For internal Privoxy use ONLY.
6257 ##########################################################################
6260 for-privoxy-version=3.0</screen>
6264 After that comes the (optional) alias section. We'll use the example
6265 section from the above <link linkend="aliases">chapter on aliases</link>,
6266 that also explains why and how aliases are used:
6271 ##########################################################################
6273 ##########################################################################
6276 # These aliases just save typing later:
6277 # (Note that some already use other aliases!)
6279 +crunch-all-cookies = +<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> +<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
6280 -crunch-all-cookies = -<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> -<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
6281 +block-as-image = +block +handle-as-image
6282 mercy-for-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> -<link linkend="FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</link>
6284 # These aliases define combinations of actions
6285 # that are useful for certain types of sites:
6287 fragile = -<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link> -<link linkend="HIDE-REFERER">hide-referrer</link> -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link>
6288 shop = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{all-popups}</link> -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link></screen>
6292 Now come the regular sections, i.e. sets of actions, accompanied
6293 by URL patterns to which they apply. Remember <emphasis>all actions
6294 are disabled when matching starts</emphasis>, so we have to explicitly
6295 enable the ones we want.
6299 The first regular section is probably the most important. It has only
6300 one pattern, <quote><literal>/</literal></quote>, but this pattern
6301 <link linkend="af-patterns">matches all URLs</link>. Therefore, the
6302 set of actions used in this <quote>default</quote> section <emphasis>will
6303 be applied to all requests as a start</emphasis>. It can be partly or
6304 wholly overridden by later matches further down this file, or in user.action,
6305 but it will still be largely responsible for your overall browsing
6310 Again, at the start of matching, all actions are disabled, so there is
6311 no need to disable any actions here. (Remember: a <quote>+</quote>
6312 preceding the action name enables the action, a <quote>-</quote> disables!).
6313 Also note how this long line has been made more readable by splitting it into
6314 multiple lines with line continuation.
6319 ##########################################################################
6320 # "Defaults" section:
6321 ##########################################################################
6323 +<link linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS">deanimate-gifs</link> \
6324 +<link linkend="FILTER-HTML-ANNOYANCES">filter{html-annoyances}</link> \
6325 +<link linkend="FILTER-REFRESH-TAGS">filter{refresh-tags}</link> \
6326 +<link linkend="FILTER-WEBBUGS">filter{webbugs}</link> \
6327 +<link linkend="FILTER-IE-EXPLOITS">filter{ie-exploits}</link> \
6328 +<link linkend="HIDE-FORWARDED-FOR-HEADERS">hide-forwarded-for-headers</link> \
6329 +<link linkend="HIDE-FROM-HEADER">hide-from-header{block}</link> \
6330 +<link linkend="HIDE-REFERER">hide-referrer{forge}</link> \
6331 +<link linkend="PREVENT-COMPRESSION">prevent-compression</link> \
6332 +<link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> \
6333 +<link linkend="SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER">set-image-blocker{pattern}</link> \
6335 / # forward slash will match *all* potential URL patterns.</screen>
6339 The default behavior is now set.
6341 This needs rewording, but it can wait for now.
6344 Note that some actions, like not hiding
6345 the user agent, are part of a <quote>general policy</quote> that applies
6346 universally and won't get any exceptions defined later. Other choices,
6347 like not blocking (which is <emphasis>understandably</emphasis> the
6348 default!) need exceptions, i.e. we need to specify explicitly what we
6349 want to block in later sections.
6354 The first of our specialized sections is concerned with <quote>fragile</quote>
6355 sites, i.e. sites that require minimum interference, because they are either
6356 very complex or very keen on tracking you (and have mechanisms in place that
6357 make them unusable for people who avoid being tracked). We will simply use
6358 our pre-defined <literal>fragile</literal> alias instead of stating the list
6359 of actions explicitly:
6364 ##########################################################################
6365 # Exceptions for sites that'll break under the default action set:
6366 ##########################################################################
6368 # "Fragile" Use a minimum set of actions for these sites (see alias above):
6371 .office.microsoft.com # surprise, surprise!
6372 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com
6373 mail.google.com</screen>
6377 Shopping sites are not as fragile, but they typically
6378 require cookies to log in, and pop-up windows for shopping
6379 carts or item details. Again, we'll use a pre-defined alias:
6388 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
6390 .scan.co.uk</screen>
6393 <!-- No longer needed BEGIN OF COMMENTED OUT BLOCK
6396 Then, there are sites which rely on pop-up windows (yuck!) to work.
6397 Since we made pop-up-killing our default above, we need to make exceptions
6398 now. <ulink url="http://www.mozilla.org/">Mozilla</ulink> users, who
6399 can turn on smart handling of unwanted pop-ups in their browsers, can
6401 -<literal><link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{popups}</link></literal> (and
6402 -<literal><link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link></literal>) above
6403 and hence don't need this section. Anyway, disabling an already disabled
6404 action doesn't hurt, so we'll define our exceptions regardless of what was
6405 chosen in the defaults section:
6410 # These sites require pop-ups too :(
6412 { -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link> -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{popups}</link> }
6415 .deutsche-bank-24.de</screen>
6418 END OF COMMENTED OUT BLOCK -->
6421 The <literal><link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link></literal>
6422 action, which we enabled per default above, breaks some sites. So disable
6423 it for popular sites where we know it misbehaves:
6428 { -<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link> }
6432 .altavista.com/.*(like|url|link):http
6433 .altavista.com/trans.*urltext=http
6434 .nytimes.com</screen>
6438 It is important that <application>Privoxy</application> knows which
6439 URLs belong to images, so that <emphasis>if</emphasis> they are to
6440 be blocked, a substitute image can be sent, rather than an HTML page.
6441 Contacting the remote site to find out is not an option, since it
6442 would destroy the loading time advantage of banner blocking, and it
6443 would feed the advertisers (in terms of money <emphasis>and</emphasis>
6444 information). We can mark any URL as an image with the <literal><link
6445 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> action,
6446 and marking all URLs that end in a known image file extension is a
6452 ##########################################################################
6454 ##########################################################################
6456 # Define which file types will be treated as images, in case they get
6457 # blocked further down this file:
6459 { +<link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">handle-as-image</link> }
6460 /.*\.(gif|jpe?g|png|bmp|ico)$</screen>
6464 And then there are known banner sources. They often use scripts to
6465 generate the banners, so it won't be visible from the URL that the
6466 request is for an image. Hence we block them <emphasis>and</emphasis>
6467 mark them as images in one go, with the help of our
6468 <literal>+block-as-image</literal> alias defined above. (We could of
6469 course just as well use <literal>+<link linkend="block">block</link>
6470 +<link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> here.)
6471 Remember that the type of the replacement image is chosen by the
6472 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>
6473 action. Since all URLs have matched the default section with its
6474 <literal>+<link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link>{pattern}</literal>
6475 action before, it still applies and needn't be repeated:
6480 # Known ad generators:
6485 .ad.*.doubleclick.net
6486 .a.yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$
6487 .a[0-9].yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$
6493 One of the most important jobs of <application>Privoxy</application>
6494 is to block banners. Many of these can be <quote>blocked</quote>
6495 by the <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link>{banners-by-size}</literal>
6496 action, which we enabled above, and which deletes the references to banner
6497 images from the pages while they are loaded, so the browser doesn't request
6498 them anymore, and hence they don't need to be blocked here. But this naturally
6499 doesn't catch all banners, and some people choose not to use filters, so we
6500 need a comprehensive list of patterns for banner URLs here, and apply the
6501 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action to them.
6504 First comes many generic patterns, which do most of the work, by
6505 matching typical domain and path name components of banners. Then comes
6506 a list of individual patterns for specific sites, which is omitted here
6507 to keep the example short:
6512 ##########################################################################
6513 # Block these fine banners:
6514 ##########################################################################
6515 { <link linkend="BLOCK">+block</link> }
6523 /.*count(er)?\.(pl|cgi|exe|dll|asp|php[34]?)
6524 /(?:.*/)?(publicite|werbung|rekla(ma|me|am)|annonse|maino(kset|nta|s)?)/
6526 # Site-specific patterns (abbreviated):
6528 .hitbox.com</screen>
6532 It's quite remarkable how many advertisers actually call their banner
6533 servers ads.<replaceable>company</replaceable>.com, or call the directory
6534 in which the banners are stored simply <quote>banners</quote>. So the above
6535 generic patterns are surprisingly effective.
6538 But being very generic, they necessarily also catch URLs that we don't want
6539 to block. The pattern <literal>.*ads.</literal> e.g. catches
6540 <quote>nasty-<emphasis>ads</emphasis>.nasty-corp.com</quote> as intended,
6541 but also <quote>downlo<emphasis>ads</emphasis>.sourcefroge.net</quote> or
6542 <quote><emphasis>ads</emphasis>l.some-provider.net.</quote> So here come some
6543 well-known exceptions to the <literal>+<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal>
6547 Note that these are exceptions to exceptions from the default! Consider the URL
6548 <quote>downloads.sourcefroge.net</quote>: Initially, all actions are deactivated,
6549 so it wouldn't get blocked. Then comes the defaults section, which matches the
6550 URL, but just deactivates the <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal>
6551 action once again. Then it matches <literal>.*ads.</literal>, an exception to the
6552 general non-blocking policy, and suddenly
6553 <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">+block</link></literal> applies. And now, it'll match
6554 <literal>.*loads.</literal>, where <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">-block</link></literal>
6555 applies, so (unless it matches <emphasis>again</emphasis> further down) it ends up
6556 with no <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal> action applying.
6561 ##########################################################################
6562 # Save some innocent victims of the above generic block patterns:
6563 ##########################################################################
6567 { -<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> }
6568 adv[io]*. # (for advogato.org and advice.*)
6569 adsl. # (has nothing to do with ads)
6570 adobe. # (has nothing to do with ads either)
6571 ad[ud]*. # (adult.* and add.*)
6572 .edu # (universities don't host banners (yet!))
6573 .*loads. # (downloads, uploads etc)
6581 www.globalintersec.com/adv # (adv = advanced)
6582 www.ugu.com/sui/ugu/adv</screen>
6586 Filtering source code can have nasty side effects,
6587 so make an exception for our friends at sourceforge.net,
6588 and all paths with <quote>cvs</quote> in them. Note that
6589 <literal>-<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link></literal>
6590 disables <emphasis>all</emphasis> filters in one fell swoop!
6595 # Don't filter code!
6597 { -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> }
6602 .sourceforge.net</screen>
6606 The actual <filename>default.action</filename> is of course much more
6607 comprehensive, but we hope this example made clear how it works.
6612 <sect3><title>user.action</title>
6615 So far we are painting with a broad brush by setting general policies,
6616 which would be a reasonable starting point for many people. Now,
6617 you might want to be more specific and have customized rules that
6618 are more suitable to your personal habits and preferences. These would
6619 be for narrowly defined situations like your ISP or your bank, and should
6620 be placed in <filename>user.action</filename>, which is parsed after all other
6621 actions files and hence has the last word, over-riding any previously
6622 defined actions. <filename>user.action</filename> is also a
6623 <emphasis>safe</emphasis> place for your personal settings, since
6624 <filename>default.action</filename> is actively maintained by the
6625 <application>Privoxy</application> developers and you'll probably want
6626 to install updated versions from time to time.
6630 So let's look at a few examples of things that one might typically do in
6631 <filename>user.action</filename>:
6635 <!-- brief sample user.action here -->
6639 # My user.action file. <fred@example.com></screen>
6643 As <link linkend="aliases">aliases</link> are local to the actions
6644 file that they are defined in, you can't use the ones from
6645 <filename>default.action</filename>, unless you repeat them here:
6650 # Aliases are local to the file they are defined in.
6651 # (Re-)define aliases for this file:
6655 # These aliases just save typing later, and the alias names should
6656 # be self explanatory.
6658 +crunch-all-cookies = +crunch-incoming-cookies +crunch-outgoing-cookies
6659 -crunch-all-cookies = -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-cookies
6660 allow-all-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -session-cookies-only
6661 allow-popups = -filter{all-popups} -kill-popups
6662 +block-as-image = +block +handle-as-image
6663 -block-as-image = -block
6665 # These aliases define combinations of actions that are useful for
6666 # certain types of sites:
6668 fragile = -block -crunch-all-cookies -filter -fast-redirects -hide-referrer -kill-popups
6669 shop = -crunch-all-cookies allow-popups
6671 # Allow ads for selected useful free sites:
6673 allow-ads = -block -filter{banners-by-size} -filter{banners-by-link}
6675 # Alias for specific file types that are text, but might have conflicting
6676 # MIME types. We want the browser to force these to be text documents.
6677 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>
6682 Say you have accounts on some sites that you visit regularly, and
6683 you don't want to have to log in manually each time. So you'd like
6684 to allow persistent cookies for these sites. The
6685 <literal>allow-all-cookies</literal> alias defined above does exactly
6686 that, i.e. it disables crunching of cookies in any direction, and the
6687 processing of cookies to make them only temporary.
6692 { allow-all-cookies }
6696 .redhat.com</screen>
6700 Your bank is allergic to some filter, but you don't know which, so you disable them all:
6705 { -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> }
6706 .your-home-banking-site.com</screen>
6710 Some file types you may not want to filter for various reasons:
6715 # Technical documentation is likely to contain strings that might
6716 # erroneously get altered by the JavaScript-oriented filters:
6721 # And this stupid host sends streaming video with a wrong MIME type,
6722 # so that Privoxy thinks it is getting HTML and starts filtering:
6724 stupid-server.example.com/</screen>
6728 Example of a simple <link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> action. Say you've
6729 seen an ad on your favourite page on example.com that you want to get rid of.
6730 You have right-clicked the image, selected <quote>copy image location</quote>
6731 and pasted the URL below while removing the leading http://, into a
6732 <literal>{ +block }</literal> section. Note that <literal>{ +handle-as-image
6733 }</literal> need not be specified, since all URLs ending in
6734 <literal>.gif</literal> will be tagged as images by the general rules as set
6735 in default.action anyway:
6740 { +<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> }
6741 www.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor\.gif
6742 another.example.net/more/junk/here/</screen>
6746 The URLs of dynamically generated banners, especially from large banner
6747 farms, often don't use the well-known image file name extensions, which
6748 makes it impossible for <application>Privoxy</application> to guess
6749 the file type just by looking at the URL.
6750 You can use the <literal>+block-as-image</literal> alias defined above for
6752 Note that objects which match this rule but then turn out NOT to be an
6753 image are typically rendered as a <quote>broken image</quote> icon by the
6754 browser. Use cautiously.
6763 ar.atwola.com/</screen>
6767 Now you noticed that the default configuration breaks Forbes Magazine,
6768 but you were too lazy to find out which action is the culprit, and you
6769 were again too lazy to give <link linkend="contact">feedback</link>, so
6770 you just used the <literal>fragile</literal> alias on the site, and
6771 -- <emphasis>whoa!</emphasis> -- it worked. The <literal>fragile</literal>
6772 aliases disables those actions that are most likely to break a site. Also,
6773 good for testing purposes to see if it is <application>Privoxy</application>
6774 that is causing the problem or not. We later find other regular sites
6775 that misbehave, and add those to our personalized list of troublemakers:
6783 .mybank.com</screen>
6787 You like the <quote>fun</quote> text replacements in <filename>default.filter</filename>,
6788 but it is disabled in the distributed actions file.
6789 So you'd like to turn it on in your private,
6790 update-safe config, once and for all:
6795 { +<link linkend="filter-fun">filter{fun}</link> }
6796 / # For ALL sites!</screen>
6800 Note that the above is not really a good idea: There are exceptions
6801 to the filters in <filename>default.action</filename> for things that
6802 really shouldn't be filtered, like code on CVS->Web interfaces. Since
6803 <filename>user.action</filename> has the last word, these exceptions
6804 won't be valid for the <quote>fun</quote> filtering specified here.
6808 You might also worry about how your favourite free websites are
6809 funded, and find that they rely on displaying banner advertisements
6810 to survive. So you might want to specifically allow banners for those
6811 sites that you feel provide value to you:
6823 Note that <literal>allow-ads</literal> has been aliased to
6824 <literal>-<link linkend="block">block</link></literal>,
6825 <literal>-<link linkend="filter-banners-by-size">filter{banners-by-size}</link></literal>, and
6826 <literal>-<link linkend="filter-banners-by-link">filter{banners-by-link}</link></literal> above.
6830 Invoke another alias here to force an over-ride of the MIME type <literal>
6831 application/x-sh</literal> which typically would open a download type
6832 dialog. In my case, I want to look at the shell script, and then I can save
6833 it should I choose to.
6843 <filename>user.action</filename> is generally the best place to define
6844 exceptions and additions to the default policies of
6845 <filename>default.action</filename>. Some actions are safe to have their
6846 default policies set here though. So let's set a default policy to have a
6847 <quote>blank</quote> image as opposed to the checkerboard pattern for
6848 <emphasis>ALL</emphasis> sites. <quote>/</quote> of course matches all URL
6854 { +<link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker{blank}</link> }
6855 / # ALL sites</screen>
6861 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
6865 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
6867 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
6869 <sect1 id="filter-file">
6870 <title>Filter Files</title>
6873 On-the-fly text substitutions need
6874 to be defined in a <quote>filter file</quote>. Once defined, they
6875 can then be invoked as an <quote>action</quote>.
6879 &my-app; supports three different filter actions:
6880 <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> to
6881 rewrite the content that is send to the client,
6882 <literal><link linkend="client-header-filter">client-header-filter</link></literal>
6883 to rewrite headers that are send by the client, and
6884 <literal><link linkend="server-header-filter">server-header-filter</link></literal>
6885 to rewrite headers that are send by the server.
6889 &my-app; also supports two tagger actions:
6890 <literal><link linkend="client-header-tagger">client-header-tagger</link></literal>
6892 <literal><link linkend="server-header-tagger">server-header-tagger</link></literal>.
6893 Taggers and filters use the same syntax in the filter files, the difference
6894 is that taggers don't modify the text they are filtering, but use a rewritten
6895 version of the filtered text as tag. The tags can then be used to change the
6896 applying actions through sections with <link linkend="tag-pattern">tag-patterns</link>.
6901 Multiple filter files can be defined through the <literal> <link
6902 linkend="filterfile">filterfile</link></literal> config directive. The filters
6903 as supplied by the developers are located in
6904 <filename>default.filter</filename>. It is recommended that any locally
6905 defined or modified filters go in a separately defined file such as
6906 <filename>user.filter</filename>.
6910 Common tasks for content filters are to eliminate common annoyances in
6911 HTML and JavaScript, such as pop-up windows,
6912 exit consoles, crippled windows without navigation tools, the
6913 infamous <BLINK> tag etc, to suppress images with certain
6914 width and height attributes (standard banner sizes or web-bugs),
6915 or just to have fun.
6919 Enabled content filters are applied to any content whose
6920 <quote>Content Type</quote> header is recognised as a sign
6921 of text-based content, with the exception of <literal>text/plain</literal>.
6922 Use the <link linkend="FORCE-TEXT-MODE">force-text-mode</link> action
6923 to also filter other content.
6927 Substitutions are made at the source level, so if you want to <quote>roll
6928 your own</quote> filters, you should first be familiar with HTML syntax,
6929 and, of course, regular expressions.
6933 Just like the <link linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>, the
6934 filter file is organized in sections, which are called <emphasis>filters</emphasis>
6935 here. Each filter consists of a heading line, that starts with one of the
6936 <emphasis>keywords</emphasis> <literal>FILTER:</literal>,
6937 <literal>CLIENT-HEADER-FILTER:</literal> or <literal>SERVER-HEADER-FILTER:</literal>
6938 followed by the filter's <emphasis>name</emphasis>, and a short (one line)
6939 <emphasis>description</emphasis> of what it does. Below that line
6940 come the <emphasis>jobs</emphasis>, i.e. lines that define the actual
6941 text substitutions. By convention, the name of a filter
6942 should describe what the filter <emphasis>eliminates</emphasis>. The
6943 comment is used in the <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">web-based
6944 user interface</ulink>.
6948 Once a filter called <replaceable>name</replaceable> has been defined
6949 in the filter file, it can be invoked by using an action of the form
6950 +<literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link>{<replaceable>name</replaceable>}</literal>
6951 in any <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link>.
6955 Filter definitions start with a header line that contains the filter
6956 type, the filter name and the filter description.
6957 A content filter header line for a filter called <quote>foo</quote> could look
6962 <screen>FILTER: foo Replace all "foo" with "bar"</screen>
6966 Below that line, and up to the next header line, come the jobs that
6967 define what text replacements the filter executes. They are specified
6968 in a syntax that imitates <ulink url="http://www.perl.org/">Perl</ulink>'s
6969 <literal>s///</literal> operator. If you are familiar with Perl, you
6970 will find this to be quite intuitive, and may want to look at the
6971 PCRS documentation for the subtle differences to Perl behaviour. Most
6972 notably, the non-standard option letter <literal>U</literal> is supported,
6973 which turns the default to ungreedy matching.
6978 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
6979 Expressions</quote></ulink>, you might want to take a look at
6980 the <link linkend="regex">Appendix on regular expressions</link>, and
6981 see the <ulink url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html">Perl
6983 <ulink url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlop.html">the
6984 <literal>s///</literal> operator's syntax</ulink> and <ulink
6985 url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html">Perl-style regular
6986 expressions</ulink> in general.
6987 The below examples might also help to get you started.
6991 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
6993 <sect2><title>Filter File Tutorial</title>
6995 Now, let's complete our <quote>foo</quote> content filter. We have already defined
6996 the heading, but the jobs are still missing. Since all it does is to replace
6997 <quote>foo</quote> with <quote>bar</quote>, there is only one (trivial) job
7002 <screen>s/foo/bar/</screen>
7006 But wait! Didn't the comment say that <emphasis>all</emphasis> occurrences
7007 of <quote>foo</quote> should be replaced? Our current job will only take
7008 care of the first <quote>foo</quote> on each page. For global substitution,
7009 we'll need to add the <literal>g</literal> option:
7013 <screen>s/foo/bar/g</screen>
7017 Our complete filter now looks like this:
7020 <screen>FILTER: foo Replace all "foo" with "bar"
7021 s/foo/bar/g</screen>
7025 Let's look at some real filters for more interesting examples. Here you see
7026 a filter that protects against some common annoyances that arise from JavaScript
7027 abuse. Let's look at its jobs one after the other:
7033 FILTER: js-annoyances Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse
7035 # Get rid of JavaScript referrer tracking. Test page: http://www.randomoddness.com/untitled.htm
7037 s|(<script.*)document\.referrer(.*</script>)|$1"Not Your Business!"$2|Usg</screen>
7041 Following the header line and a comment, you see the job. Note that it uses
7042 <literal>|</literal> as the delimiter instead of <literal>/</literal>, because
7043 the pattern contains a forward slash, which would otherwise have to be escaped
7044 by a backslash (<literal>\</literal>).
7048 Now, let's examine the pattern: it starts with the text <literal><script.*</literal>
7049 enclosed in parentheses. Since the dot matches any character, and <literal>*</literal>
7050 means: <quote>Match an arbitrary number of the element left of myself</quote>, this
7051 matches <quote><script</quote>, followed by <emphasis>any</emphasis> text, i.e.
7052 it matches the whole page, from the start of the first <script> tag.
7056 That's more than we want, but the pattern continues: <literal>document\.referrer</literal>
7057 matches only the exact string <quote>document.referrer</quote>. The dot needed to
7058 be <emphasis>escaped</emphasis>, i.e. preceded by a backslash, to take away its
7059 special meaning as a joker, and make it just a regular dot. So far, the meaning is:
7060 Match from the start of the first <script> tag in a the page, up to, and including,
7061 the text <quote>document.referrer</quote>, if <emphasis>both</emphasis> are present
7062 in the page (and appear in that order).
7066 But there's still more pattern to go. The next element, again enclosed in parentheses,
7067 is <literal>.*</script></literal>. You already know what <literal>.*</literal>
7068 means, so the whole pattern translates to: Match from the start of the first <script>
7069 tag in a page to the end of the last <script> tag, provided that the text
7070 <quote>document.referrer</quote> appears somewhere in between.
7074 This is still not the whole story, since we have ignored the options and the parentheses:
7075 The portions of the page matched by sub-patterns that are enclosed in parentheses, will be
7076 remembered and be available through the variables <literal>$1, $2, ...</literal> in
7077 the substitute. The <literal>U</literal> option switches to ungreedy matching, which means
7078 that the first <literal>.*</literal> in the pattern will only <quote>eat up</quote> all
7079 text in between <quote><script</quote> and the <emphasis>first</emphasis> occurrence
7080 of <quote>document.referrer</quote>, and that the second <literal>.*</literal> will
7081 only span the text up to the <emphasis>first</emphasis> <quote></script></quote>
7082 tag. Furthermore, the <literal>s</literal> option says that the match may span
7083 multiple lines in the page, and the <literal>g</literal> option again means that the
7084 substitution is global.
7088 So, to summarize, the pattern means: Match all scripts that contain the text
7089 <quote>document.referrer</quote>. Remember the parts of the script from
7090 (and including) the start tag up to (and excluding) the string
7091 <quote>document.referrer</quote> as <literal>$1</literal>, and the part following
7092 that string, up to and including the closing tag, as <literal>$2</literal>.
7096 Now the pattern is deciphered, but wasn't this about substituting things? So
7097 lets look at the substitute: <literal>$1"Not Your Business!"$2</literal> is
7098 easy to read: The text remembered as <literal>$1</literal>, followed by
7099 <literal>"Not Your Business!"</literal> (<emphasis>including</emphasis>
7100 the quotation marks!), followed by the text remembered as <literal>$2</literal>.
7101 This produces an exact copy of the original string, with the middle part
7102 (the <quote>document.referrer</quote>) replaced by <literal>"Not Your
7103 Business!"</literal>.
7107 The whole job now reads: Replace <quote>document.referrer</quote> by
7108 <literal>"Not Your Business!"</literal> wherever it appears inside a
7109 <script> tag. Note that this job won't break JavaScript syntax,
7110 since both the original and the replacement are syntactically valid
7111 string objects. The script just won't have access to the referrer
7112 information anymore.
7116 We'll show you two other jobs from the JavaScript taming department, but
7117 this time only point out the constructs of special interest:
7122 # The status bar is for displaying link targets, not pointless blahblah
7124 s/window\.status\s*=\s*(['"]).*?\1/dUmMy=1/ig</screen>
7128 <literal>\s</literal> stands for whitespace characters (space, tab, newline,
7129 carriage return, form feed), so that <literal>\s*</literal> means: <quote>zero
7130 or more whitespace</quote>. The <literal>?</literal> in <literal>.*?</literal>
7131 makes this matching of arbitrary text ungreedy. (Note that the <literal>U</literal>
7132 option is not set). The <literal>['"]</literal> construct means: <quote>a single
7133 <emphasis>or</emphasis> a double quote</quote>. Finally, <literal>\1</literal> is
7134 a back-reference to the first parenthesis just like <literal>$1</literal> above,
7135 with the difference that in the <emphasis>pattern</emphasis>, a backslash indicates
7136 a back-reference, whereas in the <emphasis>substitute</emphasis>, it's the dollar.
7140 So what does this job do? It replaces assignments of single- or double-quoted
7141 strings to the <quote>window.status</quote> object with a dummy assignment
7142 (using a variable name that is hopefully odd enough not to conflict with
7143 real variables in scripts). Thus, it catches many cases where e.g. pointless
7144 descriptions are displayed in the status bar instead of the link target when
7145 you move your mouse over links.
7150 # Kill OnUnload popups. Yummy. Test: http://www.zdnet.com/zdsubs/yahoo/tree/yfs.html
7152 s/(<body [^>]*)onunload(.*>)/$1never$2/iU</screen>
7157 <ulink url="http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-DOM-Level-2-Events-20001113/events.html#Events-eventgroupings-htmlevents">OnUnload
7158 event binding</ulink> in the HTML DOM was a <emphasis>CRIME</emphasis>.
7159 When I close a browser window, I want it to close and die. Basta.
7160 This job replaces the <quote>onunload</quote> attribute in
7161 <quote><body></quote> tags with the dummy word <literal>never</literal>.
7162 Note that the <literal>i</literal> option makes the pattern matching
7163 case-insensitive. Also note that ungreedy matching alone doesn't always guarantee
7164 a minimal match: In the first parenthesis, we had to use <literal>[^>]*</literal>
7165 instead of <literal>.*</literal> to prevent the match from exceeding the
7166 <body> tag if it doesn't contain <quote>OnUnload</quote>, but the page's
7171 The last example is from the fun department:
7176 FILTER: fun Fun text replacements
7178 # Spice the daily news:
7180 s/microsoft(?!\.com)/MicroSuck/ig</screen>
7184 Note the <literal>(?!\.com)</literal> part (a so-called negative lookahead)
7185 in the job's pattern, which means: Don't match, if the string
7186 <quote>.com</quote> appears directly following <quote>microsoft</quote>
7187 in the page. This prevents links to microsoft.com from being trashed, while
7188 still replacing the word everywhere else.
7193 # Buzzword Bingo (example for extended regex syntax)
7195 s* industry[ -]leading \
7197 | customer[ -]focused \
7198 | market[ -]driven \
7199 | award[ -]winning # Comments are OK, too! \
7200 | high[ -]performance \
7201 | solutions[ -]based \
7205 *<font color="red"><b>BINGO!</b></font> \
7210 The <literal>x</literal> option in this job turns on extended syntax, and allows for
7211 e.g. the liberal use of (non-interpreted!) whitespace for nicer formatting.
7219 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
7221 <sect2 id="predefined-filters"><title>The Pre-defined Filters</title>
7225 Note each filter is also listed in the +filter action section above. Please
7226 keep these listings in sync.
7231 The distribution <filename>default.filter</filename> file contains a selection of
7232 pre-defined filters for your convenience:
7237 <term><emphasis>js-annoyances</emphasis></term>
7240 The purpose of this filter is to get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse.
7245 replaces JavaScript references to the browser's referrer information
7246 with the string "Not Your Business!". This compliments the <literal><link
7247 linkend="hide-referrer">hide-referrer</link></literal> action on the content level.
7252 removes the bindings to the DOM's
7253 <ulink url="http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-DOM-Level-2-Events-20001113/events.html#Events-eventgroupings-htmlevents">unload
7254 event</ulink> which we feel has no right to exist and is responsible for most <quote>exit consoles</quote>, i.e.
7255 nasty windows that pop up when you close another one.
7260 removes code that causes new windows to be opened with undesired properties, such as being
7261 full-screen, non-resizeable, without location, status or menu bar etc.
7267 Use with caution. This is an aggressive filter, and can break sites that
7268 rely heavily on JavaScript.
7274 <term><emphasis>js-events</emphasis></term>
7277 This is a very radical measure. It removes virtually all JavaScript event bindings, which
7278 means that scripts can not react to user actions such as mouse movements or clicks, window
7279 resizing etc, anymore. Use with caution!
7282 We <emphasis>strongly discourage</emphasis> using this filter as a default since it breaks
7283 many legitimate scripts. It is meant for use only on extra-nasty sites (should you really
7290 <term><emphasis>html-annoyances</emphasis></term>
7293 This filter will undo many common instances of HTML based abuse.
7296 The <literal>BLINK</literal> and <literal>MARQUEE</literal> tags
7297 are neutralized (yeah baby!), and browser windows will be created as
7298 resizeable (as of course they should be!), and will have location,
7299 scroll and menu bars -- even if specified otherwise.
7305 <term><emphasis>content-cookies</emphasis></term>
7308 Most cookies are set in the HTTP dialog, where they can be intercepted
7310 <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal>
7311 and <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>
7312 actions. But web sites increasingly make use of HTML meta tags and JavaScript
7313 to sneak cookies to the browser on the content level.
7316 This filter disables most HTML and JavaScript code that reads or sets
7317 cookies. It cannot detect all clever uses of these types of code, so it
7318 should not be relied on as an absolute fix. Use it wherever you would also
7319 use the cookie crunch actions.
7325 <term><emphasis>refresh tags</emphasis></term>
7328 Disable any refresh tags if the interval is greater than nine seconds (so
7329 that redirections done via refresh tags are not destroyed). This is useful
7330 for dial-on-demand setups, or for those who find this HTML feature
7337 <term><emphasis>unsolicited-popups</emphasis></term>
7340 This filter attempts to prevent only <quote>unsolicited</quote> pop-up
7341 windows from opening, yet still allow pop-up windows that the user
7342 has explicitly chosen to open. It was added in version 3.0.1,
7343 as an improvement over earlier such filters.
7346 Technical note: The filter works by redefining the window.open JavaScript
7347 function to a dummy function, <literal>PrivoxyWindowOpen()</literal>,
7348 during the loading and rendering phase of each HTML page access, and
7349 restoring the function afterward.
7352 This is recommended only for browsers that cannot perform this function
7353 reliably themselves. And be aware that some sites require such windows
7354 in order to function normally. Use with caution.
7360 <term><emphasis>all-popups</emphasis></term>
7363 Attempt to prevent <emphasis>all</emphasis> pop-up windows from opening.
7364 Note this should be used with even more discretion than the above, since
7365 it is more likely to break some sites that require pop-ups for normal
7366 usage. Use with caution.
7372 <term><emphasis>img-reorder</emphasis></term>
7375 This is a helper filter that has no value if used alone. It makes the
7376 <literal>banners-by-size</literal> and <literal>banners-by-link</literal>
7377 (see below) filters more effective and should be enabled together with them.
7383 <term><emphasis>banners-by-size</emphasis></term>
7386 This filter removes image tags purely based on what size they are. Fortunately
7387 for us, many ads and banner images tend to conform to certain standardized
7388 sizes, which makes this filter quite effective for ad stripping purposes.
7391 Occasionally this filter will cause false positives on images that are not ads,
7392 but just happen to be of one of the standard banner sizes.
7395 Recommended only for those who require extreme ad blocking. The default
7396 block rules should catch 95+% of all ads <emphasis>without</emphasis> this filter enabled.
7402 <term><emphasis>banners-by-link</emphasis></term>
7405 This is an experimental filter that attempts to kill any banners if
7406 their URLs seem to point to known or suspected click trackers. It is currently
7407 not of much value and is not recommended for use by default.
7413 <term><emphasis>webbugs</emphasis></term>
7416 Webbugs are small, invisible images (technically 1X1 GIF images), that
7417 are used to track users across websites, and collect information on them.
7418 As an HTML page is loaded by the browser, an embedded image tag causes the
7419 browser to contact a third-party site, disclosing the tracking information
7420 through the requested URL and/or cookies for that third-party domain, without
7421 the user ever becoming aware of the interaction with the third-party site.
7422 HTML-ized spam also uses a similar technique to verify email addresses.
7425 This filter removes the HTML code that loads such <quote>webbugs</quote>.
7431 <term><emphasis>tiny-textforms</emphasis></term>
7434 A rather special-purpose filter that can be used to enlarge textareas (those
7435 multi-line text boxes in web forms) and turn off hard word wrap in them.
7436 It was written for the sourceforge.net tracker system where such boxes are
7437 a nuisance, but it can be handy on other sites, too.
7440 It is not recommended to use this filter as a default.
7446 <term><emphasis>jumping-windows</emphasis></term>
7449 Many consider windows that move, or resize themselves to be abusive. This filter
7450 neutralizes the related JavaScript code. Note that some sites might not display
7451 or behave as intended when using this filter. Use with caution.
7457 <term><emphasis>frameset-borders</emphasis></term>
7460 Some web designers seem to assume that everyone in the world will view their
7461 web sites using the same browser brand and version, screen resolution etc,
7462 because only that assumption could explain why they'd use static frame sizes,
7463 yet prevent their frames from being resized by the user, should they be too
7464 small to show their whole content.
7467 This filter removes the related HTML code. It should only be applied to sites
7474 <term><emphasis>demoronizer</emphasis></term>
7477 Many Microsoft products that generate HTML use non-standard extensions (read:
7478 violations) of the ISO 8859-1 aka Latin-1 character set. This can cause those
7479 HTML documents to display with errors on standard-compliant platforms.
7482 This filter translates the MS-only characters into Latin-1 equivalents.
7483 It is not necessary when using MS products, and will cause corruption of
7484 all documents that use 8-bit character sets other than Latin-1. It's mostly
7485 worthwhile for Europeans on non-MS platforms, if weird garbage characters
7486 sometimes appear on some pages, or user agents that don't correct for this on
7489 My version of Mozilla (ancient) shows litte square boxes for quote
7490 characters, and apostrophes on moronized pages. So many pages have this, I
7491 can read them fine now. HB 08/27/06
7498 <term><emphasis>shockwave-flash</emphasis></term>
7501 A filter for shockwave haters. As the name suggests, this filter strips code
7502 out of web pages that is used to embed shockwave flash objects.
7510 <term><emphasis>quicktime-kioskmode</emphasis></term>
7513 Change HTML code that embeds Quicktime objects so that kioskmode, which
7514 prevents saving, is disabled.
7520 <term><emphasis>fun</emphasis></term>
7523 Text replacements for subversive browsing fun. Make fun of your favorite
7524 Monopolist or play buzzword bingo.
7530 <term><emphasis>crude-parental</emphasis></term>
7533 A demonstration-only filter that shows how <application>Privoxy</application>
7534 can be used to delete web content on a keyword basis.
7540 <term><emphasis>ie-exploits</emphasis></term>
7543 An experimental collection of text replacements to disable malicious HTML and JavaScript
7544 code that exploits known security holes in Internet Explorer.
7547 Presently, it only protects against Nimda and a cross-site scripting bug, and
7548 would need active maintenance to provide more substantial protection.
7554 <term><emphasis>site-specifics</emphasis></term>
7557 Some web sites have very specific problems, the cure for which doesn't apply
7558 anywhere else, or could even cause damage on other sites.
7561 This is a collection of such site-specific cures which should only be applied
7562 to the sites they were intended for, which is what the supplied
7563 <filename>default.action</filename> file does. Users shouldn't need to change
7564 anything regarding this filter.
7570 <term><emphasis>google</emphasis></term>
7573 A CSS based block for Google text ads. Also removes a width limitation
7574 and the toolbar advertisement.
7580 <term><emphasis>yahoo</emphasis></term>
7583 Another CSS based block, this time for Yahoo text ads. And removes
7584 a width limitation as well.
7590 <term><emphasis>msn</emphasis></term>
7593 Another CSS based block, this time for MSN text ads. And removes
7594 tracking URLs, as well as a width limitation.
7600 <term><emphasis>blogspot</emphasis></term>
7603 Cleans up some Blogspot blogs. Read the fine print before using this one!
7606 This filter also intentionally removes some navigation stuff and sets the
7607 page width to 100%. As a result, some rounded <quote>corners</quote> would
7608 appear to early or not at all and as fixing this would require a browser
7609 that understands background-size (CSS3), they are removed instead.
7615 <term><emphasis>xml-to-html</emphasis></term>
7618 Server-header filter to change the Content-Type from xml to html.
7624 <term><emphasis>html-to-xml</emphasis></term>
7627 Server-header filter to change the Content-Type from html to xml.
7633 <term><emphasis>no-ping</emphasis></term>
7636 Removes the non-standard <literal>ping</literal> attribute from
7637 anchor and area HTML tags.
7643 <term><emphasis>hide-tor-exit-notation</emphasis></term>
7646 Client-header filter to remove the <command>Tor</command> exit node notation
7647 found in Host and Referer headers.
7650 If &my-app; and <command>Tor</command> are chained and &my-app;
7651 is configured to use socks4a, one can use <quote>http://www.example.org.foobar.exit/</quote>
7652 to access the host <quote>www.example.org</quote> through the
7653 <command>Tor</command> exit node <quote>foobar</quote>.
7656 As the HTTP client isn't aware of this notation, it treats the
7657 whole string <quote>www.example.org.foobar.exit</quote> as host and uses it
7658 for the <quote>Host</quote> and <quote>Referer</quote> headers. From the
7659 server's point of view the resulting headers are invalid and can cause problems.
7662 An invalid <quote>Referer</quote> header can trigger <quote>hot-linking</quote>
7663 protections, an invalid <quote>Host</quote> header will make it impossible for
7664 the server to find the right vhost (several domains hosted on the same IP address).
7667 This client-header filter removes the <quote>foo.exit</quote> part in those headers
7668 to prevent the mentioned problems. Note that it only modifies
7669 the HTTP headers, it doesn't make it impossible for the server
7670 to detect your <command>Tor</command> exit node based on the IP address
7671 the request is coming from.
7678 <term><emphasis> </emphasis></term>
7692 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7696 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7698 <sect1 id="templates">
7699 <title>Privoxy's Template Files</title>
7701 All <application>Privoxy</application> built-in pages, i.e. error pages such as the
7702 <ulink url="http://show-the-404-error.page"><quote>404 - No Such Domain</quote>
7703 error page</ulink>, the <ulink
7704 url="http://ads.bannerserver.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor.html"><quote>BLOCKED</quote>
7706 and all pages of its <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">web-based
7707 user interface</ulink>, are generated from <emphasis>templates</emphasis>.
7708 (<application>Privoxy</application> must be running for the above links to work as
7713 These templates are stored in a subdirectory of the <link linkend="confdir">configuration
7714 directory</link> called <filename>templates</filename>. On Unixish platforms,
7716 <ulink url="file:///etc/privoxy/templates/"><filename>/etc/privoxy/templates/</filename></ulink>.
7720 The templates are basically normal HTML files, but with place-holders (called symbols
7721 or exports), which <application>Privoxy</application> fills at run time. It
7722 is possible to edit the templates with a normal text editor, should you want
7723 to customize them. (<emphasis>Not recommended for the casual
7724 user</emphasis>). Should you create your own custom templates, you should use
7725 the <filename>config</filename> setting <link linkend="templdir">templdir</link>
7726 to specify an alternate location, so your templates do not get overwritten
7730 Note that just like in configuration files, lines starting
7731 with <literal>#</literal> are ignored when the templates are filled in.
7735 The place-holders are of the form <literal>@name@</literal>, and you will
7736 find a list of available symbols, which vary from template to template,
7737 in the comments at the start of each file. Note that these comments are not
7738 always accurate, and that it's probably best to look at the existing HTML
7739 code to find out which symbols are supported and what they are filled in with.
7743 A special application of this substitution mechanism is to make whole
7744 blocks of HTML code disappear when a specific symbol is set. We use this
7745 for many purposes, one of them being to include the beta warning in all
7746 our user interface (CGI) pages when <application>Privoxy</application>
7747 is in an alpha or beta development stage:
7752 <!-- @if-unstable-start -->
7754 ... beta warning HTML code goes here ...
7756 <!-- if-unstable-end@ --></screen>
7760 If the "unstable" symbol is set, everything in between and including
7761 <literal>@if-unstable-start</literal> and <literal>if-unstable-end@</literal>
7762 will disappear, leaving nothing but an empty comment:
7766 <screen><!-- --></screen>
7770 There's also an if-then-else construct and an <literal>#include</literal>
7771 mechanism, but you'll sure find out if you are inclined to edit the
7776 All templates refer to a style located at
7777 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/send-stylesheet"><literal>http://config.privoxy.org/send-stylesheet</literal></ulink>.
7778 This is, of course, locally served by <application>Privoxy</application>
7779 and the source for it can be found and edited in the
7780 <filename>cgi-style.css</filename> template.
7785 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7789 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7791 <sect1 id="contact"><title>Contacting the Developers, Bug Reporting and Feature
7794 <!-- Include contacting.sgml boilerplate: -->
7796 <!-- end boilerplate -->
7800 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7803 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7804 <sect1 id="copyright"><title>Privoxy Copyright, License and History</title>
7806 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
7808 <!-- end copyright -->
7810 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7811 <sect2><title>License</title>
7812 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
7814 <!-- end copyright -->
7816 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7819 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7821 <sect2 id="history"><title>History</title>
7822 <!-- Include history.sgml: -->
7824 <!-- end history -->
7827 <sect2 id="authors"><title>Authors</title>
7828 <!-- Include p-authors.sgml: -->
7830 <!-- end authors -->
7835 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7838 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7839 <sect1 id="seealso"><title>See Also</title>
7840 <!-- Include seealso.sgml: -->
7842 <!-- end seealso -->
7847 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7848 <sect1 id="appendix"><title>Appendix</title>
7851 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7853 <title>Regular Expressions</title>
7855 <application>Privoxy</application> uses Perl-style <quote>regular
7856 expressions</quote> in its <link linkend="actions-file">actions
7857 files</link> and <link linkend="filter-file">filter file</link>,
7858 through the <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/">PCRE</ulink> and
7861 <ulink url="http://www.oesterhelt.org/pcrs/">PCRS</ulink> libraries.
7863 <application>PCRS</application> libraries.
7867 If you are reading this, you probably don't understand what <quote>regular
7868 expressions</quote> are, or what they can do. So this will be a very brief
7869 introduction only. A full explanation would require a <ulink
7870 url="http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/regex/">book</ulink> ;-)
7874 Regular expressions provide a language to describe patterns that can be
7875 run against strings of characters (letter, numbers, etc), to see if they
7876 match the string or not. The patterns are themselves (sometimes complex)
7877 strings of literal characters, combined with wild-cards, and other special
7878 characters, called meta-characters. The <quote>meta-characters</quote> have
7879 special meanings and are used to build complex patterns to be matched against.
7880 Perl Compatible Regular Expressions are an especially convenient
7881 <quote>dialect</quote> of the regular expression language.
7885 To make a simple analogy, we do something similar when we use wild-card
7886 characters when listing files with the <command>dir</command> command in DOS.
7887 <literal>*.*</literal> matches all filenames. The <quote>special</quote>
7888 character here is the asterisk which matches any and all characters. We can be
7889 more specific and use <literal>?</literal> to match just individual
7890 characters. So <quote>dir file?.text</quote> would match
7891 <quote>file1.txt</quote>, <quote>file2.txt</quote>, etc. We are pattern
7892 matching, using a similar technique to <quote>regular expressions</quote>!
7896 Regular expressions do essentially the same thing, but are much, much more
7897 powerful. There are many more <quote>special characters</quote> and ways of
7898 building complex patterns however. Let's look at a few of the common ones,
7899 and then some examples:
7904 <emphasis>.</emphasis> - Matches any single character, e.g. <quote>a</quote>,
7905 <quote>A</quote>, <quote>4</quote>, <quote>:</quote>, or <quote>@</quote>.
7907 </simplelist></para>
7911 <emphasis>?</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or ONE
7914 </simplelist></para>
7918 <emphasis>+</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ONE or MORE
7921 </simplelist></para>
7925 <emphasis>*</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or MORE
7928 </simplelist></para>
7932 <emphasis>\</emphasis> - The <quote>escape</quote> character denotes that
7933 the following character should be taken literally. This is used where one of the
7934 special characters (e.g. <quote>.</quote>) needs to be taken literally and
7935 not as a special meta-character. Example: <quote>example\.com</quote>, makes
7936 sure the period is recognized only as a period (and not expanded to its
7937 meta-character meaning of any single character).
7939 </simplelist></para>
7943 <emphasis>[ ]</emphasis> - Characters enclosed in brackets will be matched if
7944 any of the enclosed characters are encountered. For instance, <quote>[0-9]</quote>
7945 matches any numeric digit (zero through nine). As an example, we can combine
7946 this with <quote>+</quote> to match any digit one of more times: <quote>[0-9]+</quote>.
7948 </simplelist></para>
7952 <emphasis>( )</emphasis> - parentheses are used to group a sub-expression,
7953 or multiple sub-expressions.
7955 </simplelist></para>
7959 <emphasis>|</emphasis> - The <quote>bar</quote> character works like an
7960 <quote>or</quote> conditional statement. A match is successful if the
7961 sub-expression on either side of <quote>|</quote> matches. As an example:
7962 <quote>/(this|that) example/</quote> uses grouping and the bar character
7963 and would match either <quote>this example</quote> or <quote>that
7964 example</quote>, and nothing else.
7966 </simplelist></para>
7969 These are just some of the ones you are likely to use when matching URLs with
7970 <application>Privoxy</application>, and is a long way from a definitive
7971 list. This is enough to get us started with a few simple examples which may
7972 be more illuminating:
7976 <emphasis><literal>/.*/banners/.*</literal></emphasis> - A simple example
7977 that uses the common combination of <quote>.</quote> and <quote>*</quote> to
7978 denote any character, zero or more times. In other words, any string at all.
7979 So we start with a literal forward slash, then our regular expression pattern
7980 (<quote>.*</quote>) another literal forward slash, the string
7981 <quote>banners</quote>, another forward slash, and lastly another
7982 <quote>.*</quote>. We are building
7983 a directory path here. This will match any file with the path that has a
7984 directory named <quote>banners</quote> in it. The <quote>.*</quote> matches
7985 any characters, and this could conceivably be more forward slashes, so it
7986 might expand into a much longer looking path. For example, this could match:
7987 <quote>/eye/hate/spammers/banners/annoy_me_please.gif</quote>, or just
7988 <quote>/banners/annoying.html</quote>, or almost an infinite number of other
7989 possible combinations, just so it has <quote>banners</quote> in the path
7994 And now something a little more complex:
7998 <emphasis><literal>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))?/</literal></emphasis> -
7999 We have several literal forward slashes again (<quote>/</quote>), so we are
8000 building another expression that is a file path statement. We have another
8001 <quote>.*</quote>, so we are matching against any conceivable sub-path, just so
8002 it matches our expression. The only true literal that <emphasis>must
8003 match</emphasis> our pattern is <application>adv</application>, together with
8004 the forward slashes. What comes after the <quote>adv</quote> string is the
8009 Remember the <quote>?</quote> means the preceding expression (either a
8010 literal character or anything grouped with <quote>(...)</quote> in this case)
8011 can exist or not, since this means either zero or one match. So
8012 <quote>((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))</quote> is optional, as are the
8013 individual sub-expressions: <quote>(er)</quote>,
8014 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, and the <quote>s</quote>. The <quote>|</quote>
8015 means <quote>or</quote>. We have two of those. For instance,
8016 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, can expand to match either <quote>ing</quote>
8017 <emphasis>OR</emphasis> <quote>ements?</quote>. What is being done here, is an
8018 attempt at matching as many variations of <quote>advertisement</quote>, and
8019 similar, as possible. So this would expand to match just <quote>adv</quote>,
8020 or <quote>advert</quote>, or <quote>adverts</quote>, or
8021 <quote>advertising</quote>, or <quote>advertisement</quote>, or
8022 <quote>advertisements</quote>. You get the idea. But it would not match
8023 <quote>advertizements</quote> (with a <quote>z</quote>). We could fix that by
8024 changing our regular expression to:
8025 <quote>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|erti(s|z)(ing|ements?))?/</quote>, which would then match
8030 <emphasis><literal>/.*/advert[0-9]+\.(gif|jpe?g)</literal></emphasis> - Again
8031 another path statement with forward slashes. Anything in the square brackets
8032 <quote>[ ]</quote> can be matched. This is using <quote>0-9</quote> as a
8033 shorthand expression to mean any digit one through nine. It is the same as
8034 saying <quote>0123456789</quote>. So any digit matches. The <quote>+</quote>
8035 means one or more of the preceding expression must be included. The preceding
8036 expression here is what is in the square brackets -- in this case, any digit
8037 one through nine. Then, at the end, we have a grouping: <quote>(gif|jpe?g)</quote>.
8038 This includes a <quote>|</quote>, so this needs to match the expression on
8039 either side of that bar character also. A simple <quote>gif</quote> on one side, and the other
8040 side will in turn match either <quote>jpeg</quote> or <quote>jpg</quote>,
8041 since the <quote>?</quote> means the letter <quote>e</quote> is optional and
8042 can be matched once or not at all. So we are building an expression here to
8043 match image GIF or JPEG type image file. It must include the literal
8044 string <quote>advert</quote>, then one or more digits, and a <quote>.</quote>
8045 (which is now a literal, and not a special character, since it is escaped
8046 with <quote>\</quote>), and lastly either <quote>gif</quote>, or
8047 <quote>jpeg</quote>, or <quote>jpg</quote>. Some possible matches would
8048 include: <quote>//advert1.jpg</quote>,
8049 <quote>/nasty/ads/advert1234.gif</quote>,
8050 <quote>/banners/from/hell/advert99.jpg</quote>. It would not match
8051 <quote>advert1.gif</quote> (no leading slash), or
8052 <quote>/adverts232.jpg</quote> (the expression does not include an
8053 <quote>s</quote>), or <quote>/advert1.jsp</quote> (<quote>jsp</quote> is not
8054 in the expression anywhere).
8058 We are barely scratching the surface of regular expressions here so that you
8059 can understand the default <application>Privoxy</application>
8060 configuration files, and maybe use this knowledge to customize your own
8061 installation. There is much, much more that can be done with regular
8062 expressions. Now that you know enough to get started, you can learn more on
8067 More reading on Perl Compatible Regular expressions:
8068 <ulink url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html">http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html</ulink>
8072 For information on regular expression based substitutions and their applications
8073 in filters, please see the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file tutorial</link>
8078 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
8081 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
8083 <title>Privoxy's Internal Pages</title>
8086 Since <application>Privoxy</application> proxies each requested
8087 web page, it is easy for <application>Privoxy</application> to
8088 trap certain special URLs. In this way, we can talk directly to
8089 <application>Privoxy</application>, and see how it is
8090 configured, see how our rules are being applied, change these
8091 rules and other configuration options, and even turn
8092 <application>Privoxy's</application> filtering off, all with
8098 The URLs listed below are the special ones that allow direct access
8099 to <application>Privoxy</application>. Of course,
8100 <application>Privoxy</application> must be running to access these. If
8101 not, you will get a friendly error message. Internet access is not
8114 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
8118 There is a shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink> (But it
8119 doesn't provide a fall-back to a real page, in case the request is not
8120 sent through <application>Privoxy</application>)
8126 Show information about the current configuration, including viewing and
8127 editing of actions files:
8131 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
8138 Show the source code version numbers:
8142 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-version">http://config.privoxy.org/show-version</ulink>
8149 Show the browser's request headers:
8153 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request">http://config.privoxy.org/show-request</ulink>
8160 Show which actions apply to a URL and why:
8164 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
8171 Toggle Privoxy on or off. This feature can be turned off/on in the main
8172 <filename>config</filename> file. When toggled <quote>off</quote>, <quote>Privoxy</quote>
8173 continues to run, but only as a pass-through proxy, with no actions taking
8178 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</ulink>
8182 Short cuts. Turn off, then on:
8186 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable</ulink>
8191 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable</ulink>
8200 These may be bookmarked for quick reference. See next.
8204 <sect3 id="bookmarklets">
8205 <title>Bookmarklets</title>
8207 Below are some <quote>bookmarklets</quote> to allow you to easily access a
8208 <quote>mini</quote> version of some of <application>Privoxy's</application>
8209 special pages. They are designed for MS Internet Explorer, but should work
8210 equally well in Netscape, Mozilla, and other browsers which support
8211 JavaScript. They are designed to run directly from your bookmarks - not by
8212 clicking the links below (although that should work for testing).
8215 To save them, right-click the link and choose <quote>Add to Favorites</quote>
8216 (IE) or <quote>Add Bookmark</quote> (Netscape). You will get a warning that
8217 the bookmark <quote>may not be safe</quote> - just click OK. Then you can run the
8218 Bookmarklet directly from your favorites/bookmarks. For even faster access,
8219 you can put them on the <quote>Links</quote> bar (IE) or the <quote>Personal
8220 Toolbar</quote> (Netscape), and run them with a single click.
8229 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>
8236 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>
8243 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)
8250 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>
8256 <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>
8262 <ulink url="javascript:void(window.open('http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info?url='+escape(location.href),'Why').focus());">Privoxy - Why?</ulink>
8269 Credit: The site which gave us the general idea for these bookmarklets is
8270 <ulink url="http://www.bookmarklets.com/">www.bookmarklets.com</ulink>. They
8271 have more information about bookmarklets.
8280 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
8282 <title>Chain of Events</title>
8284 Let's take a quick look at how some of <application>Privoxy's</application>
8285 core features are triggered, and the ensuing sequence of events when a web
8286 page is requested by your browser:
8293 First, your web browser requests a web page. The browser knows to send
8294 the request to <application>Privoxy</application>, which will in turn,
8295 relay the request to the remote web server after passing the following
8301 <application>Privoxy</application> traps any request for its own internal CGI
8302 pages (e.g <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>) and sends the CGI page back to the browser.
8307 Next, <application>Privoxy</application> checks to see if the URL
8309 linkend="BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></link> patterns. If
8310 so, the URL is then blocked, and the remote web server will not be contacted.
8311 <link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></link>
8313 <link linkend="HANDLE-AS-EMPTY-DOCUMENT"><quote>+handle-as-empty-document</quote></link>
8314 are then checked, and if there is no match, an
8315 HTML <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page is sent back to the browser. Otherwise, if
8316 it does match, an image is returned for the former, and an empty text
8317 document for the latter. The type of image would depend on the setting of
8318 <link linkend="SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"><quote>+set-image-blocker</quote></link>
8319 (blank, checkerboard pattern, or an HTTP redirect to an image elsewhere).
8324 Untrusted URLs are blocked. If URLs are being added to the
8325 <filename>trust</filename> file, then that is done.
8330 If the URL pattern matches the <link
8331 linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS"><quote>+fast-redirects</quote></link> action,
8332 it is then processed. Unwanted parts of the requested URL are stripped.
8337 Now the rest of the client browser's request headers are processed. If any
8338 of these match any of the relevant actions (e.g. <link
8339 linkend="HIDE-USER-AGENT"><quote>+hide-user-agent</quote></link>,
8340 etc.), headers are suppressed or forged as determined by these actions and
8346 Now the web server starts sending its response back (i.e. typically a web
8352 First, the server headers are read and processed to determine, among other
8353 things, the MIME type (document type) and encoding. The headers are then
8354 filtered as determined by the
8355 <link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES"><quote>+crunch-incoming-cookies</quote></link>,
8356 <link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"><quote>+session-cookies-only</quote></link>,
8357 and <link linkend="DOWNGRADE-HTTP-VERSION"><quote>+downgrade-http-version</quote></link>
8363 If the <link linkend="KILL-POPUPS"><quote>+kill-popups</quote></link>
8364 action applies, and it is an HTML or JavaScript document, the popup-code in the
8365 response is filtered on-the-fly as it is received.
8370 If any <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> action
8372 linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS"><quote>+deanimate-gifs</quote></link>
8373 action applies (and the document type fits the action), the rest of the page is
8374 read into memory (up to a configurable limit). Then the filter rules (from
8375 <filename>default.filter</filename> and any other filter files) are
8376 processed against the buffered content. Filters are applied in the order
8377 they are specified in one of the filter files. Animated GIFs, if present,
8378 are reduced to either the first or last frame, depending on the action
8379 setting.The entire page, which is now filtered, is then sent by
8380 <application>Privoxy</application> back to your browser.
8383 If neither a <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> action
8385 linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS"><quote>+deanimate-gifs</quote></link>
8386 matches, then <application>Privoxy</application> passes the raw data through
8387 to the client browser as it becomes available.
8392 As the browser receives the now (possibly filtered) page content, it
8393 reads and then requests any URLs that may be embedded within the page
8394 source, e.g. ad images, stylesheets, JavaScript, other HTML documents (e.g.
8395 frames), sounds, etc. For each of these objects, the browser issues a
8396 separate request (this is easily viewable in <application>Privoxy's</application>
8397 logs). And each such request is in turn processed just as above. Note that a
8398 complex web page will have many, many such embedded URLs. If these
8399 secondary requests are to a different server, then quite possibly a very
8400 differing set of actions is triggered.
8407 NOTE: This is somewhat of a simplistic overview of what happens with each URL
8408 request. For the sake of brevity and simplicity, we have focused on
8409 <application>Privoxy's</application> core features only.
8415 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
8416 <sect2 id="actionsanat">
8417 <title>Troubleshooting: Anatomy of an Action</title>
8420 The way <application>Privoxy</application> applies
8421 <link linkend="ACTIONS">actions</link> and <link linkend="FILTER">filters</link>
8422 to any given URL can be complex, and not always so
8423 easy to understand what is happening. And sometimes we need to be able to
8424 <emphasis>see</emphasis> just what <application>Privoxy</application> is
8425 doing. Especially, if something <application>Privoxy</application> is doing
8426 is causing us a problem inadvertently. It can be a little daunting to look at
8427 the actions and filters files themselves, since they tend to be filled with
8428 <link linkend="regex">regular expressions</link> whose consequences are not
8433 One quick test to see if <application>Privoxy</application> is causing a problem
8434 or not, is to disable it temporarily. This should be the first troubleshooting
8435 step. See <link linkend="bookmarklets">the Bookmarklets</link> section on a quick
8436 and easy way to do this (be sure to flush caches afterward!). Looking at the
8437 logs is a good idea too. (Note that both the toggle feature and logging are
8438 enabled via <filename>config</filename> file settings, and may need to be
8439 turned <quote>on</quote>.)
8442 Another easy troubleshooting step to try is if you have done any
8443 customization of your installation, revert back to the installed
8444 defaults and see if that helps. There are times the developers get complaints
8445 about one thing or another, and the problem is more related to a customized
8446 configuration issue.
8450 <application>Privoxy</application> also provides the
8451 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
8452 page that can show us very specifically how <application>actions</application>
8453 are being applied to any given URL. This is a big help for troubleshooting.
8457 First, enter one URL (or partial URL) at the prompt, and then
8458 <application>Privoxy</application> will tell us
8459 how the current configuration will handle it. This will not
8460 help with filtering effects (i.e. the <link
8461 linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> action) from
8462 one of the filter files since this is handled very
8463 differently and not so easy to trap! It also will not tell you about any other
8464 URLs that may be embedded within the URL you are testing. For instance, images
8465 such as ads are expressed as URLs within the raw page source of HTML pages. So
8466 you will only get info for the actual URL that is pasted into the prompt area
8467 -- not any sub-URLs. If you want to know about embedded URLs like ads, you
8468 will have to dig those out of the HTML source. Use your browser's <quote>View
8469 Page Source</quote> option for this. Or right click on the ad, and grab the
8474 Let's try an example, <ulink url="http://google.com">google.com</ulink>,
8475 and look at it one section at a time in a sample configuration (your real
8476 configuration may vary):
8481 Matches for http://www.google.com:
8483 In file: default.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
8485 {+deanimate-gifs {last}
8486 +fast-redirects {check-decoded-url}
8487 +filter {refresh-tags}
8488 +filter {img-reorder}
8489 +filter {banners-by-size}
8491 +filter {jumping-windows}
8492 +filter {ie-exploits}
8493 +hide-forwarded-for-headers
8494 +hide-from-header {block}
8495 +hide-referrer {forge}
8496 +session-cookies-only
8497 +set-image-blocker {pattern}
8500 { -session-cookies-only }
8506 In file: user.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
8507 (no matches in this file)
8512 This is telling us how we have defined our
8513 <link linkend="ACTIONS"><quote>actions</quote></link>, and
8514 which ones match for our test case, <quote>google.com</quote>.
8515 Displayed is all the actions that are available to us. Remember,
8516 the <literal>+</literal> sign denotes <quote>on</quote>. <literal>-</literal>
8517 denotes <quote>off</quote>. So some are <quote>on</quote> here, but many
8518 are <quote>off</quote>. Each example we try may provide a slightly different
8519 end result, depending on our configuration directives.
8523 is for our <filename>default.action</filename> file. The large, multi-line
8524 listing, is how the actions are set to match for all URLs, i.e. our default
8525 settings. If you look at your <quote>actions</quote> file, this would be the
8526 section just below the <quote>aliases</quote> section near the top. This
8527 will apply to all URLs as signified by the single forward slash at the end
8528 of the listing -- <quote> / </quote>.
8532 But we have defined additional actions that would be exceptions to these general
8533 rules, and then we list specific URLs (or patterns) that these exceptions
8534 would apply to. Last match wins. Just below this then are two explicit
8535 matches for <quote>.google.com</quote>. The first is negating our previous
8536 cookie setting, which was for <link
8537 linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"><quote>+session-cookies-only</quote></link>
8538 (i.e. not persistent). So we will allow persistent cookies for google, at
8539 least that is how it is in this example. The second turns
8540 <emphasis>off</emphasis> any <link
8541 linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS"><quote>+fast-redirects</quote></link>
8542 action, allowing this to take place unmolested. Note that there is a leading
8543 dot here -- <quote>.google.com</quote>. This will match any hosts and
8544 sub-domains, in the google.com domain also, such as
8545 <quote>www.google.com</quote> or <quote>mail.google.com</quote>. But it would not
8546 match <quote>www.google.de</quote>! So, apparently, we have these two actions
8547 defined as exceptions to the general rules at the top somewhere in the lower
8548 part of our <filename>default.action</filename> file, and
8549 <quote>google.com</quote> is referenced somewhere in these latter sections.
8553 Then, for our <filename>user.action</filename> file, we again have no hits.
8554 So there is nothing google-specific that we might have added to our own, local
8555 configuration. If there was, those actions would over-rule any actions from
8556 previously processed files, such as <filename>default.action</filename>.
8557 <filename>user.action</filename> typically has the last word. This is the
8558 best place to put hard and fast exceptions,
8562 And finally we pull it all together in the bottom section and summarize how
8563 <application>Privoxy</application> is applying all its <quote>actions</quote>
8564 to <quote>google.com</quote>:
8575 -client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation}
8576 -content-type-overwrite
8577 -crunch-client-header
8578 -crunch-if-none-match
8579 -crunch-incoming-cookies
8580 -crunch-outgoing-cookies
8581 -crunch-server-header
8582 +deanimate-gifs {last}
8583 -downgrade-http-version
8586 -filter {content-cookies}
8587 -filter {all-popups}
8588 -filter {banners-by-link}
8589 -filter {tiny-textforms}
8590 -filter {frameset-borders}
8591 -filter {demoronizer}
8592 -filter {shockwave-flash}
8593 -filter {quicktime-kioskmode}
8595 -filter {crude-parental}
8596 -filter {site-specifics}
8597 -filter {js-annoyances}
8598 -filter {html-annoyances}
8599 +filter {refresh-tags}
8600 -filter {unsolicited-popups}
8601 +filter {img-reorder}
8602 +filter {banners-by-size}
8604 +filter {jumping-windows}
8605 +filter {ie-exploits}
8612 -handle-as-empty-document
8614 -hide-accept-language
8615 -hide-content-disposition
8616 +hide-forwarded-for-headers
8617 +hide-from-header {block}
8618 -hide-if-modified-since
8619 +hide-referrer {forge}
8624 -overwrite-last-modified
8625 -prevent-compression
8629 -server-header-filter{xml-to-html}
8630 -server-header-filter{html-to-xml}
8631 -session-cookies-only
8632 +set-image-blocker {pattern}
8633 -treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks </screen>
8637 Notice the only difference here to the previous listing, is to
8638 <quote>fast-redirects</quote> and <quote>session-cookies-only</quote>,
8639 which are activated specifically for this site in our configuration,
8640 and thus show in the <quote>Final Results</quote>.
8644 Now another example, <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>:
8656 { +block +handle-as-image }
8657 .[a-vx-z]*.doubleclick.net
8662 We'll just show the interesting part here - the explicit matches. It is
8663 matched three different times. Two <quote>+block</quote> sections,
8664 and a <quote>+block +handle-as-image</quote>,
8665 which is the expanded form of one of our aliases that had been defined as:
8666 <quote>+block-as-image</quote>. (<link
8667 linkend="ALIASES"><quote>Aliases</quote></link> are defined in
8668 the first section of the actions file and typically used to combine more
8673 Any one of these would have done the trick and blocked this as an unwanted
8674 image. This is unnecessarily redundant since the last case effectively
8675 would also cover the first. No point in taking chances with these guys
8676 though ;-) Note that if you want an ad or obnoxious
8677 URL to be invisible, it should be defined as <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>
8678 is done here -- as both a <link
8679 linkend="BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></link>
8680 <emphasis>and</emphasis> an
8681 <link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></link>.
8682 The custom alias <quote><literal>+block-as-image</literal></quote> just
8683 simplifies the process and make it more readable.
8687 One last example. Let's try <quote>http://www.example.net/adsl/HOWTO/</quote>.
8688 This one is giving us problems. We are getting a blank page. Hmmm ...
8694 Matches for http://www.example.net/adsl/HOWTO/:
8696 In file: default.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
8700 -client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation}
8701 -content-type-overwrite
8702 -crunch-client-header
8703 -crunch-if-none-match
8704 -crunch-incoming-cookies
8705 -crunch-outgoing-cookies
8706 -crunch-server-header
8708 -downgrade-http-version
8709 +fast-redirects {check-decoded-url}
8711 -filter {content-cookies}
8712 -filter {all-popups}
8713 -filter {banners-by-link}
8714 -filter {tiny-textforms}
8715 -filter {frameset-borders}
8716 -filter {demoronizer}
8717 -filter {shockwave-flash}
8718 -filter {quicktime-kioskmode}
8720 -filter {crude-parental}
8721 -filter {site-specifics}
8722 -filter {js-annoyances}
8723 -filter {html-annoyances}
8724 +filter {refresh-tags}
8725 -filter {unsolicited-popups}
8726 +filter {img-reorder}
8727 +filter {banners-by-size}
8729 +filter {jumping-windows}
8730 +filter {ie-exploits}
8737 -handle-as-empty-document
8739 -hide-accept-language
8740 -hide-content-disposition
8741 +hide-forwarded-for-headers
8742 +hide-from-header{block}
8743 +hide-referer{forge}
8747 -overwrite-last-modified
8748 +prevent-compression
8752 -server-header-filter{xml-to-html}
8753 -server-header-filter{html-to-xml}
8754 +session-cookies-only
8755 +set-image-blocker{blank}
8756 -treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks }
8759 { +block +handle-as-image }
8765 Ooops, the <quote>/adsl/</quote> is matching <quote>/ads</quote> in our
8766 configuration! But we did not want this at all! Now we see why we get the
8767 blank page. It is actually triggering two different actions here, and
8768 the effects are aggregated so that the URL is blocked, and &my-app; is told
8769 to treat the block as if it were an image. But this is, of course, all wrong.
8770 We could now add a new action below this (or better in our own
8771 <filename>user.action</filename> file) that explicitly
8772 <emphasis>un</emphasis> blocks (
8773 <link linkend="BLOCK"><quote>{-block}</quote></link>) paths with
8774 <quote>adsl</quote> in them (remember, last match in the configuration
8775 wins). There are various ways to handle such exceptions. Example:
8787 Now the page displays ;-)
8788 Remember to flush your browser's caches when making these kinds of changes to
8789 your configuration to insure that you get a freshly delivered page! Or, try
8790 using <literal>Shift+Reload</literal>.
8794 But now what about a situation where we get no explicit matches like
8801 { +block +handle-as-image }
8807 That actually was very helpful and pointed us quickly to where the problem
8808 was. If you don't get this kind of match, then it means one of the default
8809 rules in the first section of <filename>default.action</filename> is causing
8810 the problem. This would require some guesswork, and maybe a little trial and
8811 error to isolate the offending rule. One likely cause would be one of the
8812 <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> actions.
8813 These tend to be harder to troubleshoot.
8814 Try adding the URL for the site to one of aliases that turn off
8815 <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link>:
8823 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
8831 <quote><literal>{ shop }</literal></quote> is an <quote>alias</quote> that expands to
8832 <quote><literal>{ -filter -session-cookies-only }</literal></quote>.
8833 Or you could do your own exception to negate filtering:
8841 # Disable ALL filter actions for sites in this section
8849 This would turn off all filtering for these sites. This is best
8850 put in <filename>user.action</filename>, for local site
8851 exceptions. Note that when a simple domain pattern is used by itself (without
8852 the subsequent path portion), all sub-pages within that domain are included
8853 automatically in the scope of the action.
8857 Images that are inexplicably being blocked, may well be hitting the
8858 <link linkend="FILTER-BANNERS-BY-SIZE"><quote>+filter{banners-by-size}</quote></link>
8860 that images of certain sizes are ad banners (works well
8861 <emphasis>most of the time</emphasis> since these tend to be standardized).
8865 <quote><literal>{ fragile }</literal></quote> is an alias that disables most
8866 actions that are the most likely to cause trouble. This can be used as a
8867 last resort for problem sites.
8873 # Handle with care: easy to break
8875 mybank.example.com</screen>
8880 <emphasis>Remember to flush caches!</emphasis> Note that the
8881 <literal>mail.google</literal> reference lacks the TLD portion (e.g.
8882 <quote>.com</quote>). This will effectively match any TLD with
8883 <literal>google</literal> in it, such as <literal>mail.google.de.</literal>,
8887 If this still does not work, you will have to go through the remaining
8888 actions one by one to find which one(s) is causing the problem.
8897 This program is free software; you can redistribute it
8898 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
8899 Public License as published by the Free Software
8900 Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at
8901 your option) any later version.
8903 This program is distributed in the hope that it will
8904 be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the
8905 implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
8906 PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public
8907 License for more details.
8909 The GNU General Public License should be included with
8910 this file. If not, you can view it at
8911 http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
8912 or write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
8913 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301,
8916 $Log: user-manual.sgml,v $
8917 Revision 2.58 2008/02/03 21:37:40 hal9
8918 Apply patch from Mark: s/OSX/OS X/
8920 Revision 2.57 2008/02/03 19:10:14 fabiankeil
8921 Mention forward-socks5.
8923 Revision 2.56 2008/01/31 19:11:35 fabiankeil
8924 Let the +client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation} example apply
8925 to all requests as "tainted" Referers aren't limited to exit TLDs.
8927 Revision 2.55 2008/01/19 21:26:37 hal9
8928 Add IE7 to configuration section per Gerry.
8930 Revision 2.54 2008/01/19 17:52:39 hal9
8931 Re-commit to fix various minor issues for new release.
8933 Revision 2.53 2008/01/19 15:03:05 hal9
8934 Doc sources tagged for 3.0.8 release.
8936 Revision 2.52 2008/01/17 01:49:51 hal9
8937 Change copyright notice for docs s/2007/2008/. All these will be rebuilt soon
8940 Revision 2.51 2007/12/23 16:48:24 fabiankeil
8941 Use more precise example descriptions for the mysterious domain patterns.
8943 Revision 2.50 2007/12/08 12:44:36 fabiankeil
8944 - Remove already commented out pre-3.0.7 changes.
8945 - Update the "new log defaults" paragraph.
8947 Revision 2.49 2007/12/06 18:21:55 fabiankeil
8948 Update hide-forwarded-for-headers description.
8950 Revision 2.48 2007/11/24 19:07:17 fabiankeil
8951 - Mention request rewriting.
8952 - Enable the conditional-forge paragraph.
8955 Revision 2.47 2007/11/18 14:59:47 fabiankeil
8956 A few "Note to Upgraders" updates.
8958 Revision 2.46 2007/11/17 17:24:44 fabiankeil
8959 - Use new action defaults.
8960 - Minor fixes and rewordings.
8962 Revision 2.45 2007/11/16 11:48:46 hal9
8963 Fix one typo, and add a couple of small refinements.
8965 Revision 2.44 2007/11/15 03:30:20 hal9
8966 Results of spell check.
8968 Revision 2.43 2007/11/14 18:45:39 fabiankeil
8969 - Mention some more contributors in the "New in this Release" list.
8972 Revision 2.42 2007/11/12 03:32:40 hal9
8973 Updates for "What's New" and "Notes to Upgraders". Various other changes in
8974 preparation for new release. User Manual is almost ready.
8976 Revision 2.41 2007/11/11 16:32:11 hal9
8977 This is primarily syncing What's New and Note to Upgraders sections with the many
8978 new features and changes (gleaned from memory but mostly from ChangeLog).
8980 Revision 2.40 2007/11/10 17:10:59 fabiankeil
8981 In the first third of the file, mention several times that
8982 the action editor is disabled by default in 3.0.7 beta and later.
8984 Revision 2.39 2007/11/05 02:34:49 hal9
8985 Various changes in preparation for the upcoming release. Much yet to be done.
8987 Revision 2.38 2007/09/22 16:01:42 fabiankeil
8988 Update embedded show-url-info output.
8990 Revision 2.37 2007/08/27 16:09:55 fabiankeil
8991 Fix pre-chroot-nslookup description which I failed to
8992 copy and paste properly. Reported by Stephen Gildea.
8994 Revision 2.36 2007/08/26 16:47:14 fabiankeil
8995 Add Stephen Gildea's pre-chroot-nslookup patch [#1276666],
8996 extensive comments moved to user manual.
8998 Revision 2.35 2007/08/26 14:59:49 fabiankeil
8999 Minor rewordings and fixes.
9001 Revision 2.34 2007/08/05 15:19:50 fabiankeil
9002 - Don't claim HTTP/1.1 compliance.
9003 - Use $ in some of the path pattern examples.
9004 - Use a hide-user-agent example argument without
9005 leading and trailing space.
9006 - Make it clear that the cookie actions work with
9008 - Rephrase the inspect-jpegs text to underline
9009 that it's only meant to protect against a single
9012 Revision 2.33 2007/07/27 10:57:35 hal9
9013 Add references for user-agent strings for hide-user-agenet
9015 Revision 2.32 2007/06/07 12:36:22 fabiankeil
9016 Apply Roland's 29_usermanual.dpatch to fix a bunch
9017 of syntax errors I collected over the last months.
9019 Revision 2.31 2007/06/02 14:01:37 fabiankeil
9020 Start to document forward-override{}.
9022 Revision 2.30 2007/04/25 15:10:36 fabiankeil
9023 - Describe installation for FreeBSD.
9024 - Start to document taggers and tag patterns.
9025 - Don't confuse devils and daemons.
9027 Revision 2.29 2007/04/05 11:47:51 fabiankeil
9028 Some updates regarding header filtering,
9029 handling of compressed content and redirect's
9030 support for pcrs commands.
9032 Revision 2.28 2006/12/10 23:42:48 hal9
9033 Fix various typos reported by Adam P. Thanks.
9035 Revision 2.27 2006/11/14 01:57:47 hal9
9036 Dump all docs prior to 3.0.6 release. Various minor changes to faq and user
9039 Revision 2.26 2006/10/24 11:16:44 hal9
9042 Revision 2.25 2006/10/18 10:50:33 hal9
9043 Add note that since filters are off in Cautious, compression is ON. Turn off
9044 compression to make filters work on all sites.
9046 Revision 2.24 2006/10/03 11:13:54 hal9
9047 More references to the new filters. Include html this time around.
9049 Revision 2.23 2006/10/02 22:43:53 hal9
9050 Contains new filter definitions from Fabian, and few other miscellaneous
9053 Revision 2.22 2006/09/22 01:27:55 hal9
9054 Final commit of probably various minor changes here and there. Unless
9055 something changes this should be ready for pending release.
9057 Revision 2.21 2006/09/20 03:21:36 david__schmidt
9058 Just the tiniest tweak. Wafer thin!
9060 Revision 2.20 2006/09/10 14:53:54 hal9
9061 Results of spell check. User manual has some updates to standard.actions file
9064 Revision 2.19 2006/09/08 12:19:02 fabiankeil
9065 Adjust hide-if-modified-since example values
9066 to reflect the recent changes.
9068 Revision 2.18 2006/09/08 02:38:57 hal9
9070 -Fix a number of broken links.
9071 -Migrate the new Windows service command line options, and reference as
9073 -Rebuild so that can be used with the new "user-manual" config capabilities.
9076 Revision 2.17 2006/09/05 13:25:12 david__schmidt
9077 Add Windows service invocation stuff (duplicated) in FAQ and in user manual under Windows startup. One probably ought to reference the other.
9079 Revision 2.16 2006/09/02 12:49:37 hal9
9080 Various small updates for new actions, filterfiles, etc.
9082 Revision 2.15 2006/08/30 11:15:22 hal9
9083 More work on the new actions, especially filter-*-headers, and What's New
9084 section. User Manual is close to final form for 3.0.4 release. Some tinkering
9085 and proof reading left to do.
9087 Revision 2.14 2006/08/29 10:59:36 hal9
9088 Add a "Whats New in this release" Section. Further work on multiple filter
9089 files, and assorted other minor changes.
9091 Revision 2.13 2006/08/22 11:04:59 hal9
9092 Silence warnings and errors. This should build now. New filters were only
9093 stubbed in. More to be done.
9095 Revision 2.12 2006/08/14 08:40:39 fabiankeil
9096 Documented new actions that were part of
9097 the "minor Privoxy improvements".
9099 Revision 2.11 2006/07/18 14:48:51 david__schmidt
9100 Reorganizing the repository: swapping out what was HEAD (the old 3.1 branch)
9101 with what was really the latest development (the v_3_0_branch branch)
9103 Revision 1.123.2.43 2005/05/23 09:59:10 hal9
9106 Revision 1.123.2.42 2004/12/04 14:39:57 hal9
9107 Fix two minor typos per bug SF report.
9109 Revision 1.123.2.41 2004/03/23 12:58:42 oes
9112 Revision 1.123.2.40 2004/02/27 12:48:49 hal9
9113 Add comment re: redirecting to local file system for set-image-blocker may
9114 is dependent on browser.
9116 Revision 1.123.2.39 2004/01/30 22:31:40 oes
9117 Added a hint re bookmarklets to Quickstart section
9119 Revision 1.123.2.38 2004/01/30 16:47:51 oes
9120 Some minor clarifications
9122 Revision 1.123.2.37 2004/01/29 22:36:11 hal9
9123 Updates for no longer filtering text/plain, and demoronizer default settings,
9124 and copyright notice dates.
9126 Revision 1.123.2.36 2003/12/10 02:26:26 hal9
9127 Changed the demoronizer filter description.
9129 Revision 1.123.2.35 2003/11/06 13:36:37 oes
9130 Updated link to nightly CVS tarball
9132 Revision 1.123.2.34 2003/06/26 23:50:16 hal9
9133 Add a small bit on filtering and problems re: source code being corrupted.
9135 Revision 1.123.2.33 2003/05/08 18:17:33 roro
9136 Use apt-get instead of dpkg to install Debian package, which is more
9137 solid, uses the correct and most recent Debian version automatically.
9139 Revision 1.123.2.32 2003/04/11 03:13:57 hal9
9140 Add small note about only one filterfile (as opposed to multiple actions
9143 Revision 1.123.2.31 2003/03/26 02:03:43 oes
9144 Updated hard-coded copyright dates
9146 Revision 1.123.2.30 2003/03/24 12:58:56 hal9
9147 Add new section on Predefined Filters.
9149 Revision 1.123.2.29 2003/03/20 02:45:29 hal9
9150 More problems with \-\-chroot causing markup problems :(
9152 Revision 1.123.2.28 2003/03/19 00:35:24 hal9
9153 Manual edit of revision log because 'chroot' (even inside a comment) was
9154 causing Docbook to hang here (due to double hyphen and the processor thinking
9157 Revision 1.123.2.27 2003/03/18 19:37:14 oes
9158 s/Advanced|Radical/Adventuresome/g to avoid complaints re fun filter
9160 Revision 1.123.2.26 2003/03/17 16:50:53 oes
9161 Added documentation for new chroot option
9163 Revision 1.123.2.25 2003/03/15 18:36:55 oes
9164 Adapted to the new filters
9166 Revision 1.123.2.24 2002/11/17 06:41:06 hal9
9167 Move default profiles table from FAQ to U-M, and other minor related changes.
9170 Revision 1.123.2.23 2002/10/21 02:32:01 hal9
9171 Updates to the user.action examples section. A few new ones.
9173 Revision 1.123.2.22 2002/10/12 00:51:53 hal9
9174 Add demoronizer to filter section.
9176 Revision 1.123.2.21 2002/10/10 04:09:35 hal9
9177 s/Advanced/Radical/ and added very brief note.
9179 Revision 1.123.2.20 2002/10/10 03:49:21 hal9
9180 Add notes to session-cookies-only and Quickstart about pre-existing
9181 cookies. Also, note content-cookies work differently.
9183 Revision 1.123.2.19 2002/09/26 01:25:36 hal9
9184 More explanation on Privoxy patterns, more on content-cookies and SSL.
9186 Revision 1.123.2.18 2002/08/22 23:47:58 hal9
9187 Add 'Documentation' to Privoxy Menu shot in Configuration section to match
9190 Revision 1.123.2.17 2002/08/18 01:13:05 hal9
9191 Spell checked (only one typo this time!).
9193 Revision 1.123.2.16 2002/08/09 19:20:54 david__schmidt
9194 Update to Mac OS X startup script name
9196 Revision 1.123.2.15 2002/08/07 17:32:11 oes
9197 Converted some internal links from ulink to link for PDF creation; no content changed
9199 Revision 1.123.2.14 2002/08/06 09:16:13 oes
9200 Nits re: actions file download
9202 Revision 1.123.2.13 2002/08/02 18:23:19 g_sauthoff
9203 Just 2 small corrections to the Gentoo sections
9205 Revision 1.123.2.12 2002/08/02 18:17:21 g_sauthoff
9206 Added 2 Gentoo sections
9208 Revision 1.123.2.11 2002/07/26 15:20:31 oes
9209 - Added version info to title
9210 - Added info on new filters
9211 - Revised parts of the filter file tutorial
9212 - Added info on where to get updated actions files
9214 Revision 1.123.2.10 2002/07/25 21:42:29 hal9
9215 Add brief notes on not proxying non-HTTP protocols.
9217 Revision 1.123.2.9 2002/07/11 03:40:28 david__schmidt
9219 Updated Mac OS X sections due to installation location change
9221 Revision 1.123.2.8 2002/06/09 16:36:32 hal9
9222 Clarifications on filtering and MIME. Hardcode 'latest release' in index.html.
9224 Revision 1.123.2.7 2002/06/09 00:29:34 hal9
9225 Touch ups on filtering, in actions section and Anatomy.
9227 Revision 1.123.2.6 2002/06/06 23:11:03 hal9
9228 Fix broken link. Linkchecked all docs.
9230 Revision 1.123.2.5 2002/05/29 02:01:02 hal9
9231 This is break out of the entire config section from u-m, so it can
9232 eventually be used to generate the comments, etc in the main config file
9233 so that these are in sync with each other.
9235 Revision 1.123.2.4 2002/05/27 03:28:45 hal9
9236 Ooops missed something from David.
9238 Revision 1.123.2.3 2002/05/27 03:23:17 hal9
9239 Fix FIXMEs for OS2 and Mac OS X startup. Fix Redhat typos (should be Red Hat).
9240 That's a wrap, I think.
9242 Revision 1.123.2.2 2002/05/26 19:02:09 hal9
9243 Move Amiga stuff around to take of FIXME in start up section.
9245 Revision 1.123.2.1 2002/05/26 17:04:25 hal9
9246 -Spellcheck, very minor edits, and sync across branches
9248 Revision 1.123 2002/05/24 23:19:23 hal9
9249 Include new image (Proxy setup). More fun with guibutton.
9250 Minor corrections/clarifications here and there.
9252 Revision 1.122 2002/05/24 13:24:08 oes
9253 Added Bookmarklet for one-click pre-filled access to show-url-info
9255 Revision 1.121 2002/05/23 23:20:17 oes
9256 - Changed more (all?) references to actions to the
9257 <literal><link> style.
9258 - Small fixes in the actions chapter
9259 - Small clarifications in the quickstart to ad blocking
9260 - Removed <emphasis> from <title>s since the new doc CSS
9261 renders them red (bad in TOC).
9263 Revision 1.120 2002/05/23 19:16:43 roro
9264 Correct Debian specials (installation and startup).
9266 Revision 1.119 2002/05/22 17:17:05 oes
9269 Revision 1.118 2002/05/21 04:54:55 hal9
9270 -New Section: Quickstart to Ad Blocking
9271 -Reformat Actions Anatomy to match new CGI layout
9273 Revision 1.117 2002/05/17 13:56:16 oes
9274 - Reworked & extended Templates chapter
9275 - Small changes to Regex appendix
9276 - #included authors.sgml into (C) and hist chapter
9278 Revision 1.116 2002/05/17 03:23:46 hal9
9279 Fixing merge conflict in Quickstart section.
9281 Revision 1.115 2002/05/16 16:25:00 oes
9282 Extended the Filter File chapter & minor fixes
9284 Revision 1.114 2002/05/16 09:42:50 oes
9285 More ulink->link, added some hints to Quickstart section
9287 Revision 1.113 2002/05/15 21:07:25 oes
9288 Extended and further commented the example actions files
9290 Revision 1.112 2002/05/15 03:57:14 hal9
9291 Spell check. A few minor edits here and there for better syntax and
9294 Revision 1.111 2002/05/14 23:01:36 oes
9297 Revision 1.110 2002/05/14 19:10:45 oes
9298 Restored alphabetical order of actions
9300 Revision 1.109 2002/05/14 17:23:11 oes
9301 Renamed the prevent-*-cookies actions, extended aliases section and moved it before the example AFs
9303 Revision 1.108 2002/05/14 15:29:12 oes
9304 Completed proofreading the actions chapter
9306 Revision 1.107 2002/05/12 03:20:41 hal9
9307 Small clarifications for 127.0.0.1 vs localhost for listen-address since this
9308 apparently an important distinction for some OS's.
9310 Revision 1.106 2002/05/10 01:48:20 hal9
9311 This is mostly proposed copyright/licensing additions and changes. Docs
9312 are still GPL, but licensing and copyright are more visible. Also, copyright
9313 changed in doc header comments (eliminate references to JB except FAQ).
9315 Revision 1.105 2002/05/05 20:26:02 hal9
9316 Sorting out license vs copyright in these docs.
9318 Revision 1.104 2002/05/04 08:44:45 swa
9321 Revision 1.103 2002/05/04 00:40:53 hal9
9322 -Remove the TOC first page kludge. It's fixed proper now in ldp.dsl.in.
9323 -Some minor additions to Quickstart.
9325 Revision 1.102 2002/05/03 17:46:00 oes
9326 Further proofread & reactivated short build instructions
9328 Revision 1.101 2002/05/03 03:58:30 hal9
9329 Move the user-manual config directive to top of section. Add note about
9330 Privoxy needing read permissions for configs, and write for logs.
9332 Revision 1.100 2002/04/29 03:05:55 hal9
9333 Add clarification on differences of new actions files.
9335 Revision 1.99 2002/04/28 16:59:05 swa
9336 more structure in starting section
9338 Revision 1.98 2002/04/28 05:43:59 hal9
9339 This is the break up of configuration.html into multiple files. This
9340 will probably break links elsewhere :(
9342 Revision 1.97 2002/04/27 21:04:42 hal9
9343 -Rewrite of Actions File example.
9344 -Add section for user-manual directive in config.
9346 Revision 1.96 2002/04/27 05:32:00 hal9
9347 -Add short section to Filter Files to tie in with +filter action.
9348 -Start rewrite of examples in Actions Examples (not finished).
9350 Revision 1.95 2002/04/26 17:23:29 swa
9351 bookmarks cleaned, changed structure of user manual, screen and programlisting cleanups, and numerous other changes that I forgot
9353 Revision 1.94 2002/04/26 05:24:36 hal9
9354 -Add most of Andreas suggestions to Chain of Events section.
9355 -A few other minor corrections and touch up.
9357 Revision 1.92 2002/04/25 18:55:13 hal9
9358 More catchups on new actions files, and new actions names.
9359 Other assorted cleanups, and minor modifications.
9361 Revision 1.91 2002/04/24 02:39:31 hal9
9362 Add 'Chain of Events' section.
9364 Revision 1.90 2002/04/23 21:41:25 hal9
9365 Linuxconf is deprecated on RH, substitute chkconfig.
9367 Revision 1.89 2002/04/23 21:05:28 oes
9368 Added hint for startup on Red Hat
9370 Revision 1.88 2002/04/23 05:37:54 hal9
9371 Add AmigaOS install stuff.
9373 Revision 1.87 2002/04/23 02:53:15 david__schmidt
9374 Updated Mac OS X installation section
9375 Added a few English tweaks here an there
9377 Revision 1.86 2002/04/21 01:46:32 hal9
9378 Re-write actions section.
9380 Revision 1.85 2002/04/18 21:23:23 hal9
9381 Fix ugly typo (mine).
9383 Revision 1.84 2002/04/18 21:17:13 hal9
9384 Spell Redhat correctly (ie Red Hat). A few minor grammar corrections.
9386 Revision 1.83 2002/04/18 18:21:12 oes
9387 Added RPM install detail
9389 Revision 1.82 2002/04/18 12:04:50 oes
9392 Revision 1.81 2002/04/18 11:50:24 oes
9393 Extended Install section - needs fixing by packagers
9395 Revision 1.80 2002/04/18 10:45:19 oes
9396 Moved text to buildsource.sgml, renamed some filters, details
9398 Revision 1.79 2002/04/18 03:18:06 hal9
9399 Spellcheck, and minor touchups.
9401 Revision 1.78 2002/04/17 18:04:16 oes
9404 Revision 1.77 2002/04/17 13:51:23 oes
9405 Proofreading, part one
9407 Revision 1.76 2002/04/16 04:25:51 hal9
9408 -Added 'Note to Upgraders' and re-ordered the 'Quickstart' section.
9409 -Note about proxy may need requests to re-read config files.
9411 Revision 1.75 2002/04/12 02:08:48 david__schmidt
9412 Remove OS/2 building info... it is already in the developer-manual
9414 Revision 1.74 2002/04/11 00:54:38 hal9
9415 Add small section on submitting actions.
9417 Revision 1.73 2002/04/10 18:45:15 swa
9420 Revision 1.72 2002/04/10 04:06:19 hal9
9421 Added actions feedback to Bookmarklets section
9423 Revision 1.71 2002/04/08 22:59:26 hal9
9424 Version update. Spell chkconfig correctly :)
9426 Revision 1.70 2002/04/08 20:53:56 swa
9429 Revision 1.69 2002/04/06 05:07:29 hal9
9430 -Add privoxy-man-page.sgml, for man page.
9431 -Add authors.sgml for AUTHORS (and p-authors.sgml)
9432 -Reworked various aspects of various docs.
9433 -Added additional comments to sub-docs.
9435 Revision 1.68 2002/04/04 18:46:47 swa
9436 consistent look. reuse of copyright, history et. al.
9438 Revision 1.67 2002/04/04 17:27:57 swa
9439 more single file to be included at multiple points. make maintaining easier
9441 Revision 1.66 2002/04/04 06:48:37 hal9
9442 Structural changes to allow for conditional inclusion/exclusion of content
9443 based on entity toggles, e.g. 'entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE"'. And
9444 definition of internal entities, e.g. 'entity p-version "2.9.13"' that will
9445 eventually be set by Makefile.
9446 More boilerplate text for use across multiple docs.
9448 Revision 1.65 2002/04/03 19:52:07 swa
9449 enhance squid section due to user suggestion
9451 Revision 1.64 2002/04/03 03:53:43 hal9
9452 A few minor bug fixes, and touch ups. Ready for review.
9454 Revision 1.63 2002/04/01 16:24:49 hal9
9455 Define entities to include boilerplate text. See doc/source/*.
9457 Revision 1.62 2002/03/30 04:15:53 hal9
9458 - Fix privoxy.org/config links.
9459 - Paste in Bookmarklets from Toggle page.
9460 - Move Quickstart nearer top, and minor rework.
9462 Revision 1.61 2002/03/29 01:31:08 hal9
9465 Revision 1.60 2002/03/27 01:57:34 hal9
9466 Added more to Anatomy section.
9468 Revision 1.59 2002/03/27 00:54:33 hal9
9469 Touch up intro for new name.
9471 Revision 1.58 2002/03/26 22:29:55 swa
9472 we have a new homepage!
9474 Revision 1.57 2002/03/24 20:33:30 hal9
9475 A few minor catch ups with name change.
9477 Revision 1.56 2002/03/24 16:17:06 swa
9478 configure needs to be generated.
9480 Revision 1.55 2002/03/24 16:08:08 swa
9481 we are too lazy to make a block-built
9482 privoxy logo. hence removed the option.
9484 Revision 1.54 2002/03/24 15:46:20 swa
9485 name change related issue.
9487 Revision 1.53 2002/03/24 11:51:00 swa
9488 name change. changed filenames.
9490 Revision 1.52 2002/03/24 11:01:06 swa
9493 Revision 1.51 2002/03/23 15:13:11 swa
9494 renamed every reference to the old name with foobar.
9495 fixed "application foobar application" tag, fixed
9496 "the foobar" with "foobar". left junkbustser in cvs
9497 comments and remarks to history untouched.
9499 Revision 1.50 2002/03/23 05:06:21 hal9
9502 Revision 1.49 2002/03/21 17:01:05 hal9
9503 New section in Appendix.
9505 Revision 1.48 2002/03/12 06:33:01 hal9
9506 Catching up to Andreas and re_filterfile changes.
9508 Revision 1.47 2002/03/11 13:13:27 swa
9509 correct feedback channels
9511 Revision 1.46 2002/03/10 00:51:08 hal9
9512 Added section on JB internal pages in Appendix.
9514 Revision 1.45 2002/03/09 17:43:53 swa
9517 Revision 1.44 2002/03/09 17:08:48 hal9
9518 New section on Jon's actions file editor, and move some stuff around.
9520 Revision 1.43 2002/03/08 00:47:32 hal9
9521 Added imageblock{pattern}.
9523 Revision 1.42 2002/03/07 18:16:55 swa
9526 Revision 1.41 2002/03/07 16:46:43 hal9
9527 Fix a few markup problems for jade.
9529 Revision 1.40 2002/03/07 16:28:39 swa
9530 provide correct feedback channels
9532 Revision 1.39 2002/03/06 16:19:28 hal9
9533 Note on perceived filtering slowdown per FR.
9535 Revision 1.38 2002/03/05 23:55:14 hal9
9536 Stupid I did it again. Double hyphen in comment breaks jade.
9538 Revision 1.37 2002/03/05 23:53:49 hal9
9539 jade barfs on '- -' embedded in comments. - -user option broke it.
9541 Revision 1.36 2002/03/05 22:53:28 hal9
9542 Add new - - user option.
9544 Revision 1.35 2002/03/05 00:17:27 hal9
9545 Added section on command line options.
9547 Revision 1.34 2002/03/04 19:32:07 oes
9548 Changed default port to 8118
9550 Revision 1.33 2002/03/03 19:46:13 hal9
9551 Emphasis on where/how to report bugs, etc
9553 Revision 1.32 2002/03/03 09:26:06 joergs
9554 AmigaOS changes, config is now loaded from PROGDIR: instead of
9555 AmiTCP:db/junkbuster/ if no configuration file is specified on the
9558 Revision 1.31 2002/03/02 22:45:52 david__schmidt
9561 Revision 1.30 2002/03/02 22:00:14 hal9
9562 Updated 'New Features' list. Ran through spell-checker.
9564 Revision 1.29 2002/03/02 20:34:07 david__schmidt
9565 Update OS/2 build section
9567 Revision 1.28 2002/02/24 14:34:24 jongfoster
9568 Formatting changes. Now changing the doctype to DocBook XML 4.1
9569 will work - no other changes are needed.
9571 Revision 1.27 2002/01/11 14:14:32 hal9
9572 Added a very short section on Templates
9574 Revision 1.26 2002/01/09 20:02:50 hal9
9575 Fix bug re: auto-detect config file changes.
9577 Revision 1.25 2002/01/09 18:20:30 hal9
9578 Touch ups for *.action files.
9580 Revision 1.24 2001/12/02 01:13:42 hal9
9583 Revision 1.23 2001/12/02 00:20:41 hal9
9584 Updates for recent changes.
9586 Revision 1.22 2001/11/05 23:57:51 hal9
9587 Minor update for startup now daemon mode.
9589 Revision 1.21 2001/10/31 21:11:03 hal9
9590 Correct 2 minor errors
9592 Revision 1.18 2001/10/24 18:45:26 hal9
9593 *** empty log message ***
9595 Revision 1.17 2001/10/24 17:10:55 hal9
9596 Catching up with Jon's recent work, and a few other things.
9598 Revision 1.16 2001/10/21 17:19:21 swa
9599 wrong url in documentation
9601 Revision 1.15 2001/10/14 23:46:24 hal9
9602 Various minor changes. Fleshed out SEE ALSO section.
9604 Revision 1.13 2001/10/10 17:28:33 hal9
9607 Revision 1.12 2001/09/28 02:57:04 hal9
9610 Revision 1.11 2001/09/28 02:25:20 hal9
9613 Revision 1.9 2001/09/27 23:50:29 hal9
9614 A few changes. A short section on regular expression in appendix.
9616 Revision 1.8 2001/09/25 00:34:59 hal9
9617 Some additions, and re-arranging.
9619 Revision 1.7 2001/09/24 14:31:36 hal9
9622 Revision 1.6 2001/09/24 14:10:32 hal9
9623 Including David's OS/2 installation instructions.
9625 Revision 1.2 2001/09/13 15:27:40 swa
9628 Revision 1.1 2001/09/12 15:36:41 swa
9629 source files for junkbuster documentation
9631 Revision 1.3 2001/09/10 17:43:59 swa
9632 first proposal of a structure.
9634 Revision 1.2 2001/06/13 14:28:31 swa
9635 docs should have an author.
9637 Revision 1.1 2001/06/13 14:20:37 swa
9638 first import of project's documentation for the webserver.