3 By: Junkbuster Developers
5 $Id: user-manual.sgml,v 1.43 2002/03/08 00:47:32 hal9 Exp $
7 The user manual gives users information on how to install, configure and use
8 Internet Junkbuster. Internet Junkbuster is an application that provides
9 privacy and security to users of the World Wide Web.
11 You can find the latest version of the user manual at http://
12 ijbswa.sourceforge.net/user-manual/.
14 Feel free to send a note to the developers at <
15 ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net>.
17 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
33 3. JunkBuster Configuration
35 3.1. Controlling Junkbuster with Your Web Browser
36 3.2. Configuration Files Overview
37 3.3. The Main Configuration File
39 3.3.1. Defining Other Configuration Files
40 3.3.2. Other Configuration Options
41 3.3.3. Access Control List (ACL)
43 3.3.5. Windows GUI Options
47 3.4.1. URL Domain and Path Syntax
54 4. Quickstart to Using Junkbuster
56 4.1. Command Line Options
58 5. Contacting the Developers, Bug Reporting and Feature Requests
59 6. Copyright and History
67 8.1. Regular Expressions
71 Internet Junkbuster is a web proxy with advanced filtering capabilities for
72 protecting privacy, filtering and modifying web page content, managing cookies,
73 controlling access, and removing ads, banners, pop-ups and other obnoxious
74 Internet Junk. Junkbuster has a very flexible configuration and can be
75 customized to suit individual needs and tastes. Internet Junkbuster has
76 application for both stand-alone systems and multi-user networks.
78 This documentation is included with the current BETA version of Internet
79 Junkbuster and is mostly complete at this point. The most up to date reference
80 for the time being is still the comments in the source files and in the
81 individual configuration files. Development of version 3.0 is currently nearing
82 completion, and includes many significant changes and enhancements over earlier
83 versions. The target release date for stable v3.0 is "soon" ;-)
85 Since this is a BETA version, not all new features are well tested. This
86 documentation may be slightly out of sync as a result (especially with CVS
87 sources). And there may be bugs, though hopefully not many!
89 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
93 In addition to Junkbuster's traditional features of ad and banner blocking and
94 cookie management, this is a list of new features currently under development:
96 * Integrated browser based configuration and control utility (http://i.j.b).
97 Browser-based tracing of rule and filter effects.
99 * Modularized configuration that will allow for system wide settings, and
100 individual user settings. (not implemented yet, probably a 3.1 feature)
102 * Blocking of annoying pop-up browser windows.
104 * HTTP/1.1 compliant (most, but not all 1.1 features are supported).
106 * Support for Perl Compatible Regular Expressions in the configuration files,
107 and generally a more sophisticated and flexible configuration syntax over
112 * Web page content filtering (removes banners based on size, invisible
113 "web-bugs", JavaScript, pop-ups, status bar abuse, etc.)
115 * Bypass many click-tracking scripts (avoids script redirection).
117 * Multi-threaded (POSIX and native threads).
119 * Auto-detection and re-reading of config file changes.
121 * User-customizable HTML templates (e.g. 404 error page).
123 * Improved cookie management features (e.g. session based cookies).
125 * Builds from source on most UNIX-like systems. Packages available for: Linux
126 (RedHat, SuSE, or Debian), Windows, Sun Solaris, Mac OSX, OS/2.
128 * In addition, the configuration is much more powerful and versatile
131 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
135 Junkbuster is available as raw source code, or pre-compiled binaries. See the
136 Junkbuster Home Page for binaries and current release info. Junkbuster is also
137 available via CVS. This is the recommended approach at this time. But please be
138 aware that CVS is constantly changing, and it may break in mysterious ways.
140 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
144 For gzipped tar archives, unpack the source:
146 tar xzvf ijb_source_* [.tgz or .tar.gz]
147 cd ijb_source_2.9.11_beta
150 For retrieving the current CVS sources, you'll need the CVS package installed
151 first. To download CVS source:
153 cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.ijbswa.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/ijbswa login
154 cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.ijbswa.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/ijbswa co current
158 This will create a directory named current/, which will contain the source
161 Then, in either case, to build from tarball/CVS source:
163 ./configure (--help to see options)
164 make (the make from gnu, gmake for *BSD)
166 make -n install (to see where all the files will go)
167 make install (to really install)
170 For Redhat and SuSE Linux RPM packages, see below.
172 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
176 To build Redhat RPM packages, install source as above. Then:
178 autoheader [suggested for CVS source]
179 autoconf [suggested for CVS source]
184 This will create both binary and src RPMs in the usual places. Example:
186 /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i686/junkbuster-2.9.11-1.i686.rpm
188 /usr/src/redhat/SRPMS/junkbuster-2.9.11-1.src.rpm
190 To install, of course:
192 rpm -Uvv /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i686/junkbuster-2.9.11-1.i686.rpm
195 This will place the Junkbuster configuration files in /etc/junkbuster/, and log
196 files in /var/log/junkbuster/.
198 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
202 To build SuSE RPM packages, install source as above. Then:
204 autoheader [suggested for CVS source]
205 autoconf [suggested for CVS source]
210 This will create both binary and src RPMs in the usual places. Example:
212 /usr/src/packages/RPMS/i686/junkbuster-2.9.11-1.i686.rpm
214 /usr/src/packages/SRPMS/junkbuster-2.9.11-1.src.rpm
216 To install, of course:
218 rpm -Uvv /usr/src/packages/RPMS/i686/junkbuster-2.9.11-1.i686.rpm
221 This will place the Junkbuster configuration files in /etc/junkbuster/, and log
222 files in /var/log/junkbuster/.
224 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
228 Junkbuster is packaged in a WarpIN self- installing archive. The
229 self-installing program will be named depending on the release version,
230 something like: ijbos2_setup_1.2.3.exe. In order to install it, simply run this
231 executable or double-click on its icon and follow the WarpIN installation
232 panels. A shadow of the Junkbuster executable will be placed in your startup
233 folder so it will start automatically whenever OS/2 starts.
235 The directory you choose to install Junkbuster into will contain all of the
238 If you would like to build binary images on OS/2 yourself, you will need a few
239 Unix-like tools: autoconf, autoheader and sh. These tools will be used to
240 create the required config.h file, which is not part of the source distribution
241 because it differs based on platform. You will also need a compiler. The
242 distribution has been created using IBM VisualAge compilers, but you can use
243 any compiler you like. GCC/EMX has the disadvantage of needing to be
244 single-threaded due to a limitation of EMX's implementation of the select()
247 In addition to needing the source code distribution as outlined earlier, you
248 will want to extract the os2seutp directory from CVS:
250 cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.ijbswa.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/ijbswa login
251 cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.ijbswa.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/ijbswa co os2setup
254 This will create a directory named os2setup/, which will contain the
255 Makefile.vac makefile and os2build.cmd which is used to completely create the
256 binary distribution. The sequence of events for building the executable for
257 yourself goes something like this:
264 nmake -f Makefile.vac
267 You will see this sequence laid out in os2build.cmd.
269 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
273 Click-click. (I need help on this. Not a clue here. Also for configuration
276 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
280 Some quick notes on other Operating Systems.
282 For FreeBSD (and other *BSDs?), the build will require gmake instead of the
283 included make. gmake is available from http://www.gnu.org. The rest should be
284 the same as above for Linux/Unix.
286 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
288 3. JunkBuster Configuration
290 All JunkBuster configuration is kept in text files. These files can be edited
291 with a text editor. Many important aspects of JunkBuster can also be controlled
292 easily with a web browser.
294 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
296 3.1. Controlling Junkbuster with Your Web Browser
298 JunkBuster can be reached by the special URL http://i.j.b/ (or alternately
299 http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/config/, which is an internal page. You will see
300 the following section:
302 Please choose from the following options:
304 * Show information about the current configuration
305 * Show the source code version numbers
306 * Show the client's request headers.
307 * Show which actions apply to a URL and why
308 * Toggle JunkBuster on or off
309 * Edit the actions list
313 This should be self-explanatory. Note the last item is an editor for the
314 "actions list", which is where much of the ad, banner, cookie, and URL blocking
315 magic is configured as well as other advanced features of Junkbuster. This is
316 an easy way to adjust various aspects of Junkbuster configuration. The actions
317 file, and other configuration files, are explained in detail below. Junkbuster
318 will automatically detect any changes to these files.
320 "Toggle JunkBuster On or Off" is handy for sites that might have problems with
321 your current actions and filters, or just to test if a site misbehaves, whether
322 it is JunkBuster causing the problem or not. Junkbuster continues to run as a
323 proxy in this case, but all filtering is disabled.
325 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
327 3.2. Configuration Files Overview
329 For Unix, *BSD and Linux, all configuration files are located in /etc/
330 junkbuster/ by default. For MS Windows, OS/2, and AmigaOS these are all in the
331 same directory as the Junkbuster executable. The name and number of
332 configuration files has changed from previous versions, and is subject to
333 change as development progresses.
335 The installed defaults provide a reasonable starting point, though possibly
336 aggressive by some standards. For the time being, there are only three default
337 configuration files (this will change in time):
339 * The main configuration file is named config on Linux, Unix, BSD, OS/2, and
340 AmigaOS and config.txt on Windows.
342 * The ijb.action file is used to define various "actions" relating to images,
343 banners, pop-ups, access restrictions, banners and cookies. There is a CGI
344 based editor for this file that can be accessed via http://i.j.b. (Other
345 actions files are included as well with differing levels of filtering and
346 blocking, e.g. ijb-basic.action.)
348 * The re_filterfile file can be used to rewrite the raw page content,
349 including text as well as embedded HTML and JavaScript.
351 ijb.action and re_filterfile can use Perl style regular expressions for maximum
352 flexibility. All files use the "#" character to denote a comment. Such lines
353 are not processed by Junkbuster. After making any changes, there is no need to
354 restart Junkbuster in order for the changes to take effect. Junkbuster should
355 detect such changes automatically.
357 While under development, the configuration content is subject to change. The
358 below documentation may not be accurate by the time you read this. Also, what
359 constitutes a "default" setting, may change, so please check all your
360 configuration files on important issues.
362 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
364 3.3. The Main Configuration File
366 Again, the main configuration file is named config on Linux/Unix/BSD and OS/2,
367 and config.txt on Windows. Configuration lines consist of an initial keyword
368 followed by a list of values, all separated by whitespace (any number of spaces
369 or tabs). For example:
371 blockfile blocklist.ini
374 Indicates that the blockfile is named "blocklist.ini".
376 A "#" indicates a comment. Any part of a line following a "#" is ignored,
377 except if the "#" is preceded by a "\".
379 Thus, by placing a "#" at the start of an existing configuration line, you can
380 make it a comment and it will be treated as if it weren't there. This is called
381 "commenting out" an option and can be useful to turn off features: If you
382 comment out the "logfile" line, junkbuster will not log to a file at all. Watch
383 for the "default:" section in each explanation to see what happens if the
384 option is left unset (or commented out).
386 Long lines can be continued on the next line by using a "\" as the very last
389 There are various aspects of Junkbuster behavior that can be tuned.
391 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
393 3.3.1. Defining Other Configuration Files
395 Junkbuster can use a number of other files to tell it what ads to block, what
396 cookies to accept, etc. This section of the configuration file tells Junkbuster
397 where to find all those other files.
399 On Windows and AmigaOS, Junkbuster looks for these files in the same directory
400 as the executable. On Unix and OS/2, Junkbuster looks for these files in the
401 current working directory. In either case, an absolute path name can be used to
404 When development goes modular and multi-user, the blocker, filter, and per-user
405 config will be stored in subdirectories of "confdir". For now, only confdir/
406 templates is used for storing HTML templates for CGI results.
408 The location of the configuration files:
410 confdir /etc/junkbuster # No trailing /, please.
413 The directory where all logging (i.e. logfile and jarfile) takes place. No
414 trailing "/", please:
416 logdir /var/log/junkbuster
419 Note that all file specifications below are relative to the above two
422 The "ijb.action" file contains patterns to specify the actions to apply to
423 requests for each site. Default: Cookies to and from all destinations are kept
424 only during the current browser session (i.e. they are not saved to disk).
425 Pop-ups are disabled for all sites. All sites are filtered if "re_filterfile"
426 specified according to the contents of "re_filterfile". No sites are blocked.
427 The JunkBuster logo is displayed for filtered ads and other images . The syntax
428 of this file is explained in detail below.
430 actionsfile ijb.action
433 The "re_filterfile" file contains content modification rules. These rules
434 permit powerful changes on the content of Web pages, e.g., you could disable
435 your favorite JavaScript annoyances, rewrite the actual content, or just have
436 some fun replacing "Microsoft" with "MicroSuck" wherever it appears on a Web
437 page. Default: No content modification, or whatever the developers are playing
440 Filtering requires buffering the page content, which may appear to slow down
441 page rendering since nothing is displayed until all content has passed the
442 filters. (It does not really take longer, but seems that way since the page is
443 not incrementally displayed.) This effect will be more noticeable on slower
446 re_filterfile re_filterfile
449 The logfile is where all logging and error messages are written. The logfile
450 can be useful for tracking down a problem with Junkbuster (e.g., it's not
451 blocking an ad you think it should block) but in most cases you probably will
454 Your logfile will grow indefinitely, and you will probably want to periodically
455 remove it. On Unix systems, you can do this with a cron job (see "man cron").
456 For Redhat, a logrotate script has been included.
458 On SuSE Linux systems, you can place a line like "/var/log/junkbuster.* +1024k
459 644 nobody.nogroup" in /etc/logfiles, with the effect that cron.daily will
460 automatically archive, gzip, and empty the log, when it exceeds 1M size.
462 Default: Log to the a file named logfile. Comment out to disable logging.
467 The "jarfile" defines where Junkbuster stores the cookies it intercepts. Note
468 that if you use a "jarfile", it may grow quite large. Default: Don't store
474 If you specify a "trustfile", Junkbuster will only allow access to sites that
475 are named in the trustfile. You can also mark sites as trusted referrers, with
476 the effect that access to untrusted sites will be granted, if a link from a
477 trusted referrer was used. The link target will then be added to the
478 "trustfile". This is a very restrictive feature that typical users most
479 probably want to leave disabled. Default: Disabled, don't use the trust
485 If you use the trust mechanism, it is a good idea to write up some on-line
486 documentation about your blocking policy and to specify the URL(s) here. They
487 will appear on the page that your users receive when they try to access
488 untrusted content. Use multiple times for multiple URLs. Default: Don't display
489 links on the "untrusted" info page.
491 trust-info-url http://www.your-site.com/why_we_block.html
492 trust-info-url http://www.your-site.com/what_we_allow.html
495 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
497 3.3.2. Other Configuration Options
499 This part of the configuration file contains options that control how
502 "Admin-address" should be set to the email address of the proxy administrator.
503 It is used in many of the proxy-generated pages. Default: fill@me.in.please.
505 #admin-address fill@me.in.please
508 "Proxy-info-url" can be set to a URL that contains more info about this
509 Junkbuster installation, it's configuration and policies. It is used in many of
510 the proxy-generated pages and its use is highly recommended in multi-user
511 installations, since your users will want to know why certain content is
512 blocked or modified. Default: Don't show a link to on-line documentation.
514 proxy-info-url http://www.your-site.com/proxy.html
517 "Listen-address" specifies the address and port where Junkbuster will listen
518 for connections from your Web browser. The default is to listen on the
519 localhost port 8118, and this is suitable for most users. (In your web browser,
520 under proxy configuration, list the proxy server as "localhost" and the port as
523 If you already have another service running on port 8118, or if you want to
524 serve requests from other machines (e.g. on your local network) as well, you
525 will need to override the default. The syntax is "listen-address
526 [<ip-address>]:<port>". If you leave out the IP address, junkbuster will bind
527 to all interfaces (addresses) on your machine and may become reachable from the
528 Internet. In that case, consider using access control lists (acl's) (see
529 "aclfile" above), or a firewall.
531 For example, suppose you are running Junkbuster on a machine which has the
532 address 192.168.0.1 on your local private network (192.168.0.0) and has another
533 outside connection with a different address. You want it to serve requests from
536 listen-address 192.168.0.1:8118
539 If you want it to listen on all addresses (including the outside connection):
544 If you do this, consider using ACLs (see "aclfile" above). Note: you will need
545 to point your browser(s) to the address and port that you have configured here.
546 Default: localhost:8118 (127.0.0.1:8118).
548 The debug option sets the level of debugging information to log in the logfile
549 (and to the console in the Windows version). A debug level of 1 is informative
550 because it will show you each request as it happens. Higher levels of debug are
551 probably only of interest to developers.
553 debug 1 # GPC = show each GET/POST/CONNECT request
554 debug 2 # CONN = show each connection status
555 debug 4 # IO = show I/O status
556 debug 8 # HDR = show header parsing
557 debug 16 # LOG = log all data into the logfile
558 debug 32 # FRC = debug force feature
559 debug 64 # REF = debug regular expression filter
560 debug 128 # = debug fast redirects
561 debug 256 # = debug GIF de-animation
562 debug 512 # CLF = Common Log Format
563 debug 1024 # = debug kill pop-ups
564 debug 4096 # INFO = Startup banner and warnings.
565 debug 8192 # ERROR = Non-fatal errors
568 It is highly recommended that you enable ERROR reporting (debug 8192), at least
569 until the next stable release.
571 The reporting of FATAL errors (i.e. ones which crash JunkBuster) is always on
572 and cannot be disabled.
574 If you want to use CLF (Common Log Format), you should set "debug 512" ONLY, do
575 not enable anything else.
577 Multiple "debug" directives, are OK - they're logical-OR'd together.
579 debug 15 # same as setting the first 4 listed above
586 debug 8192 # Errors - *we highly recommended enabling this*
589 Junkbuster normally uses "multi-threading", a software technique that permits
590 it to handle many different requests simultaneously. In some cases you may wish
591 to disable this -- particularly if you're trying to debug a problem. The
592 "single-threaded" option forces Junkbuster to handle requests sequentially.
593 Default: Multi-threaded mode.
598 "toggle" allows you to temporarily disable all Junkbuster's filtering. Just set
601 The Windows version of Junkbuster puts an icon in the system tray, which also
602 allows you to change this option. If you right-click on that icon (or select
603 the "Options" menu), one choice is "Enable". Clicking on enable toggles
604 Junkbuster on and off. This is useful if you want to temporarily disable
605 Junkbuster, e.g., to access a site that requires cookies which you would
606 otherwise have blocked. This can also be toggled via a web browser at the
607 Junkbuster internal address of http://i.j.b on any platform.
609 "toggle 1" means Junkbuster runs normally, "toggle 0" means that Junkbuster
610 becomes a non-anonymizing non-blocking proxy. Default: 1 (on).
615 For content filtering, i.e. the "+filter" and "+deanimate-gif" actions, it is
616 necessary that Junkbuster buffers the entire document body. This can be
617 potentially dangerous, since a server could just keep sending data indefinitely
618 and wait for your RAM to exhaust. With nasty consequences.
620 The buffer-limit option lets you set the maximum size in Kbytes that each
621 buffer may use. When the documents buffer exceeds this size, it is flushed to
622 the client unfiltered and no further attempt to filter the rest of it is made.
623 Remember that there may multiple threads running, which might require
624 increasing the "buffer-limit" Kbytes each, unless you have enabled
625 "single-threaded" above.
630 To enable the web-based ijb.action file editor set enable-edit-actions to 1, or
631 0 to disable. Note that you must have compiled JunkBuster with support for this
632 feature, otherwise this option has no effect. This internal page can be reached
635 Security note: If this is enabled, anyone who can use the proxy can edit the
636 actions file, and their changes will affect all users. For shared proxies, you
637 probably want to disable this. Default: enabled.
639 enable-edit-actions 1
642 Allow JunkBuster to be toggled on and off remotely, using your web browser. Set
643 "enable-remote-toggle"to 1 to enable, and 0 to disable. Note that you must have
644 compiled JunkBuster with support for this feature, otherwise this option has no
647 Security note: If this is enabled, anyone who can use the proxy can toggle it
648 on or off (see http://i.j.b), and their changes will affect all users. For
649 shared proxies, you probably want to disable this. Default: enabled.
651 enable-remote-toggle 1
654 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
656 3.3.3. Access Control List (ACL)
658 Access controls are included at the request of some ISPs and systems
659 administrators, and are not usually needed by individual users. Please note the
660 warnings in the FAQ that this proxy is not intended to be a substitute for a
661 firewall or to encourage anyone to defer addressing basic security weaknesses.
663 If no access settings are specified, the proxy talks to anyone that connects.
664 If any access settings file are specified, then the proxy talks only to IP
665 addresses permitted somewhere in this file and not denied later in this file.
667 Summary -- if using an ACL:
669 Client must have permission to receive service.
671 LAST match in ACL wins.
673 Default behavior is to deny service.
675 The syntax for an entry in the Access Control List is:
677 ACTION SRC_ADDR[/SRC_MASKLEN] [ DST_ADDR[/DST_MASKLEN] ]
680 Where the individual fields are:
682 ACTION = "permit-access" or "deny-access"
684 SRC_ADDR = client hostname or dotted IP address
685 SRC_MASKLEN = number of bits in the subnet mask for the source
687 DST_ADDR = server or forwarder hostname or dotted IP address
688 DST_MASKLEN = number of bits in the subnet mask for the target
691 The field separator (FS) is whitespace (space or tab).
693 IMPORTANT NOTE: If the junkbuster is using a forwarder (see below) or a gateway
694 for a particular destination URL, the DST_ADDR that is examined is the address
695 of the forwarder or the gateway and NOT the address of the ultimate target.
696 This is necessary because it may be impossible for the local Junkbuster to
697 determine the address of the ultimate target (that's often what gateways are
700 Here are a few examples to show how the ACL features work:
702 "localhost" is OK -- no DST_ADDR implies that ALL destination addresses are OK:
704 permit-access localhost
707 A silly example to illustrate permitting any host on the class-C subnet with
708 Junkbuster to go anywhere:
710 permit-access www.junkbusters.com/24
713 Except deny one particular IP address from using it at all:
715 deny-access ident.junkbusters.com
718 You can also specify an explicit network address and subnet mask. Explicit
719 addresses do not have to be resolved to be used.
721 permit-access 207.153.200.0/24
724 A subnet mask of 0 matches anything, so the next line permits everyone.
726 permit-access 0.0.0.0/0
729 Note, you cannot say:
734 to allow all *.org domains. Every IP address listed must resolve fully.
736 An ISP may want to provide a Junkbuster that is accessible by "the world" and
737 yet restrict use of some of their private content to hosts on its internal
738 network (i.e. its own subscribers). Say, for instance the ISP owns the Class-B
739 IP address block 123.124.0.0 (a 16 bit netmask). This is how they could do it:
741 permit-access 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 # other clients can go anywhere
742 # with the following exceptions:
744 deny-access 0.0.0.0/0 123.124.0.0/16 # block all external requests for
745 # sites on the ISP's network
747 permit 0.0.0.0/0 www.my_isp.com # except for the ISP's main
750 permit 123.124.0.0/16 0.0.0.0/0 # the ISP's clients can go
754 Note that if some hostnames are listed with multiple IP addresses, the primary
755 value returned by DNS (via gethostbyname()) is used. Default: Anyone can access
758 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
762 This feature allows chaining of HTTP requests via multiple proxies. It can be
763 used to better protect privacy and confidentiality when accessing specific
764 domains by routing requests to those domains to a special purpose filtering
765 proxy such as lpwa.com. Or to use a caching proxy to speed up browsing.
767 It can also be used in an environment with multiple networks to route requests
768 via multiple gateways allowing transparent access to multiple networks without
769 having to modify browser configurations.
771 Also specified here are SOCKS proxies. Junkbuster SOCKS 4 and SOCKS 4A. The
772 difference is that SOCKS 4A will resolve the target hostname using DNS on the
773 SOCKS server, not our local DNS client.
775 The syntax of each line is:
777 forward target_domain[:port] http_proxy_host[:port]
778 forward-socks4 target_domain[:port] socks_proxy_host[:port] http_proxy_host[:
780 forward-socks4a target_domain[:port] socks_proxy_host[:port] http_proxy_host[:
784 If http_proxy_host is ".", then requests are not forwarded to a HTTP proxy but
785 are made directly to the web servers.
787 Lines are checked in sequence, and the last match wins.
789 There is an implicit line equivalent to the following, which specifies that
790 anything not finding a match on the list is to go out without forwarding or
791 gateway protocol, like so:
793 forward .* . # implicit
796 In the following common configuration, everything goes to Lucent's LPWA, except
797 SSL on port 443 (which it doesn't handle):
799 forward .* lpwa.com:8000
803 See the FAQ for instructions on how to automate the login procedure for LPWA.
804 Some users have reported difficulties related to LPWA's use of "." as the last
805 element of the domain, and have said that this can be fixed with this:
807 forward lpwa. lpwa.com:8000
810 (NOTE: the syntax for specifying target_domain has changed since the previous
811 paragraph was written -- it will not work now. More information is welcome.)
813 In this fictitious example, everything goes via an ISP's caching proxy, except
814 requests to that ISP:
816 forward .* caching.myisp.net:8000
820 For the @home network, we're told the forwarding configuration is this:
822 forward .* proxy:8080
825 Also, we're told they insist on getting cookies and JavaScript, so you should
826 add home.com to the cookie file. We consider JavaScript a security risk. Java
829 In this example direct connections are made to all "internal" domains, but
830 everything else goes through Lucent's LPWA by way of the company's SOCKS
831 gateway to the Internet.
833 forward-socks4 .* lpwa.com:8000 firewall.my_company.com:1080
834 forward my_company.com .
837 This is how you could set up a site that always uses SOCKS but no forwarders:
839 forward-socks4a .* . firewall.my_company.com:1080
842 An advanced example for network administrators:
844 If you have links to multiple ISPs that provide various special content to
845 their subscribers, you can configure forwarding to pass requests to the
846 specific host that's connected to that ISP so that everybody can see all of the
847 content on all of the ISPs.
849 This is a bit tricky, but here's an example:
851 host-a has a PPP connection to isp-a.com. And host-b has a PPP connection to
852 isp-b.com. host-a can run a Junkbuster proxy with forwarding like this:
855 forward isp-b.com host-b:8118
858 host-b can run a Junkbuster proxy with forwarding like this:
861 forward isp-a.com host-a:8118
864 Now, anyone on the Internet (including users on host-a and host-b) can set
865 their browser's proxy to either host-a or host-b and be able to browse the
866 content on isp-a or isp-b.
868 Here's another practical example, for University of Kent at Canterbury students
869 with a network connection in their room, who need to use the University's Squid
872 forward *. ssbcache.ukc.ac.uk:3128 # Use the proxy, except for:
873 forward .ukc.ac.uk . # Anything on the same domain as us
874 forward * . # Host with no domain specified
875 forward 129.12.*.* . # A dotted IP on our /16 network.
876 forward 127.*.*.* . # Loopback address
877 forward localhost.localdomain . # Loopback address
878 forward www.ukc.mirror.ac.uk . # Specific host
881 If you intend to chain Junkbuster and squid locally, then chain as browser ->
882 squid -> junkbuster is the recommended way.
884 Your squid configuration could then look like this:
886 # Define junkbuster as parent cache
888 cache_peer 127.0.0.1 parent 8118 0 no-query
890 # Define ACL for protocol FTP
893 # Do not forward ACL FTP to junkbuster
894 always_direct allow FTP
896 # Do not forward ACL CONNECT (https) to junkbuster
897 always_direct allow CONNECT
899 # Forward the rest to junkbuster
900 never_direct allow all
903 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
905 3.3.5. Windows GUI Options
907 Junkbuster has a number of options specific to the Windows GUI interface:
909 If "activity-animation" is set to 1, the Junkbuster icon will animate when
910 "Junkbuster" is active. To turn off, set to 0.
915 If "log-messages" is set to 1, Junkbuster will log messages to the console
921 If "log-buffer-size" is set to 1, the size of the log buffer, i.e. the amount
922 of memory used for the log messages displayed in the console window, will be
923 limited to "log-max-lines" (see below).
925 Warning: Setting this to 0 will result in the buffer to grow infinitely and eat
931 log-max-lines is the maximum number of lines held in the log buffer. See above.
936 If "log-highlight-messages" is set to 1, Junkbuster will highlight portions of
937 the log messages with a bold-faced font:
939 log-highlight-messages 1
942 The font used in the console window:
944 log-font-name Comic Sans MS
947 Font size used in the console window:
952 "show-on-task-bar" controls whether or not Junkbuster will appear as a button
953 on the Task bar when minimized:
958 If "close-button-minimizes" is set to 1, the Windows close button will minimize
959 Junkbuster instead of closing the program (close with the exit option on the
962 close-button-minimizes 1
965 The "hide-console" option is specific to the MS-Win console version of
966 JunkBuster. If this option is used, Junkbuster will disconnect from and hide
972 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
974 3.4. The Actions File
976 The "ijb.action" file (formerly actionsfile) is used to define what actions
977 Junkbuster takes, and thus determines how images, cookies and various other
978 aspects of HTTP content and transactions are handled. Images can be anything
979 you want, including ads, banners, or just some obnoxious image that you would
980 rather not see. Cookies can be accepted or rejected, or accepted only during
981 the current browser session (i.e. not written to disk). Changes to ijb.action
982 should be immediately visible to Junkbuster without the need to restart.
984 To determine which actions apply to a request, the URL of the request is
985 compared to all patterns in this file. Every time it matches, the list of
986 applicable actions for the URL is incrementally updated. You can trace this
987 process by visiting http://i.j.b/show-url-info.
989 The actions file can be edited with a browser by loading http://i.j.b/, and
990 then select "Edit Actions".
992 There are four types of lines in this file: comments (begin with a "#"
993 character), actions, aliases and patterns, all of which are explained below, as
994 well as the configuration file syntax that Junkbuster understands.
996 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
998 3.4.1. URL Domain and Path Syntax
1000 Generally, a pattern has the form <domain>/<path>, where both the <domain> and
1001 <path> part are optional. If you only specify a domain part, the "/" can be
1004 www.example.com - is a domain only pattern and will match any request to
1007 www.example.com/ - means exactly the same.
1009 www.example.com/index.html - matches only the single document "/index.html" on
1012 /index.html - matches the document "/index.html", regardless of the domain.
1014 index.html - matches nothing, since it would be interpreted as a domain name
1015 and there is no top-level domain called ".html".
1017 The matching of the domain part offers some flexible options: if the domain
1018 starts or ends with a dot, it becomes unanchored at that end. For example:
1020 .example.com - matches any domain that ENDS in ".example.com".
1022 www. - matches any domain that STARTS with "www".
1024 Additionally, there are wild-cards that you can use in the domain names
1025 themselves. They work pretty similar to shell wild-cards: "*" stands for zero
1026 or more arbitrary characters, "?" stands for any single character. And you can
1027 define character classes in square brackets and they can be freely mixed:
1029 ad*.example.com - matches "adserver.example.com", "ads.example.com", etc but
1030 not "sfads.example.com".
1032 *ad*.example.com - matches all of the above, and then some.
1034 .?pix.com - matches "www.ipix.com", "pictures.epix.com", "a.b.c.d.e.upix.com",
1037 www[1-9a-ez].example.com - matches "www1.example.com", "www4.example.com",
1038 "wwwd.example.com", "wwwz.example.com", etc., but not "wwww.example.com".
1040 If Junkbuster was compiled with "pcre" support (default), Perl compatible
1041 regular expressions can be used. See the pcre/docs/ directory or "man perlre"
1042 (also available on http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html) for details.
1043 A brief discussion of regular expressions is in the Appendix. For instance:
1045 /.*/advert[0-9]+\.jpe?g - would match a URL from any domain, with any path that
1046 includes "advert" followed immediately by one or more digits, then a "." and
1047 ending in either "jpeg" or "jpg". So we match "example.com/ads/advert2.jpg",
1048 and "www.example.com/ads/banners/advert39.jpeg", but not "www.example.com/ads/
1049 banners/advert39.gif" (no gifs in the example pattern).
1051 Please note that matching in the path is case INSENSITIVE by default, but you
1052 can switch to case sensitive at any point in the pattern by using the "(?-i)"
1055 www.example.com/(?-i)PaTtErN.* - will match only documents whose path starts
1056 with "PaTtErN" in exactly this capitalization.
1058 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1062 Actions are enabled if preceded with a "+", and disabled if preceded with a
1063 "-". Actions are invoked by enclosing the action name in curly braces (e.g.
1064 {+some_action}), followed by a list of URLs to which the action applies. There
1065 are three classes of actions:
1067 * Boolean (e.g. "+/-block"):
1069 {+name} # enable this action
1070 {-name} # disable this action
1073 * parameterized (e.g. "+/-hide-user-agent"):
1075 {+name{param}} # enable action and set parameter to "param"
1076 {-name} # disable action
1079 * Multi-value (e.g. "{+/-add-header{Name: value}}", "{+/-wafer{name=value}}
1082 {+name{param}} # enable action and add parameter "param"
1083 {-name{param}} # remove the parameter "param"
1084 {-name} # disable this action totally
1087 If nothing is specified in this file, no "actions" are taken. So in this case
1088 JunkBuster would just be a normal, non-blocking, non-anonymizing proxy. You
1089 must specifically enable the privacy and blocking features you need (although
1090 the provided default ijb.action file will give a good starting point).
1092 Later defined actions always over-ride earlier ones. For multi-valued actions,
1093 the actions are applied in the order they are specified.
1095 The list of valid Junkbuster "actions" are:
1097 * Add the specified HTTP header, which is not checked for validity. You may
1098 specify this many times to specify many different headers:
1100 +add-header{Name: value}
1103 * Block this URL totally.
1108 * De-animate all animated GIF images, i.e. reduce them to their last frame.
1109 This will also shrink the images considerably (in bytes, not pixels!). If
1110 the option "first" is given, the first frame of the animation is used as
1111 the replacement. If "last" is given, the last frame of the animation is
1112 used instead, which probably makes more sense for most banner animations,
1113 but also has the risk of not showing the entire last frame (if it is only a
1114 delta to an earlier frame).
1116 +deanimate-gifs{last}
1117 +deanimate-gifs{first}
1120 * "+downgrade" will downgrade HTTP/1.1 client requests to HTTP/1.0 and
1121 downgrade the responses as well. Use this action for servers that use HTTP/
1122 1.1 protocol features that Junkbuster doesn't handle well yet. HTTP/1.1 is
1123 only partially implemented. Default is not to downgrade requests.
1128 * Many sites, like yahoo.com, don't just link to other sites. Instead, they
1129 will link to some script on their own server, giving the destination as a
1130 parameter, which will then redirect you to the final target. URLs resulting
1131 from this scheme typically look like: http://some.place/some_script?http://
1134 Sometimes, there are even multiple consecutive redirects encoded in the
1135 URL. These redirections via scripts make your web browsing more traceable,
1136 since the server from which you follow such a link can see where you go to.
1137 Apart from that, valuable bandwidth and time is wasted, while your browser
1138 ask the server for one redirect after the other. Plus, it feeds the
1141 The "+fast-redirects" option enables interception of these requests by
1142 Junkbuster, who will cut off all but the last valid URL in the request and
1143 send a local redirect back to your browser without contacting the remote
1149 * Filter the website through the re_filterfile:
1154 * Block any existing X-Forwarded-for header, and do not add a new one:
1159 * If the browser sends a "From:" header containing your e-mail address, this
1160 either completely removes the header ("block"), or changes it to the
1161 specified e-mail address.
1164 +hide-from{spam@sittingduck.xqq}
1167 * Don't send the "Referer:" (sic) header to the web site. You can block it,
1168 forge a URL to the same server as the request (which is preferred because
1169 some sites will not send images otherwise) or set it to a constant string
1172 +hide-referer{block}
1173 +hide-referer{forge}
1174 +hide-referer{http://nowhere.com}
1177 * Alternative spelling of "+hide-referer". It has the same parameters, and
1178 can be freely mixed with, "+hide-referer". ("referrer" is the correct
1179 English spelling, however the HTTP specification has a bug - it requires it
1180 to be spelled "referer".)
1185 * Change the "User-Agent:" header so web servers can't tell your browser
1186 type. Warning! This breaks many web sites. Specify the user-agent value you
1187 want. Example, pretend to be using Netscape on Linux:
1189 +hide-user-agent{Mozilla (X11; I; Linux 2.0.32 i586)}
1192 * Treat this URL as an image. This only matters if it's also "+block"ed, in
1193 which case a "blocked" image can be sent rather than a HTML page. See
1194 "+image-blocker{}" below for the control over what is actually sent.
1199 * Decides what to do with URLs that end up tagged with "{+block +image}", e.g
1200 an advertizement. There are five options. "-image-blocker" will send a HTML
1201 "blocked" page, usually resulting in a "broken image" icon. "+image-blocker
1202 {logo}" will send a "JunkBuster" logo image. "+image-blocker{blank}" will
1203 send a 1x1 transparent GIF image. And finally, "+image-blocker{http://
1204 xyz.com}" will send a HTTP temporary redirect to the specified image. This
1205 has the advantage of the icon being being cached by the browser, which will
1206 speed up the display. "+image-blocker{pattern}" will send a checkboard type
1207 pattern, which scales better than the logo (which can get blocky if the
1208 browser enlarges it too much).
1210 +image-blocker{logo}
1211 +image-blocker{blank}
1212 +image-blocker{http://i.j.b/send-banner}
1215 * By default (i.e. in the absence of a "+limit-connect" action), Junkbuster
1216 will only allow CONNECT requests to port 443, which is the standard port
1217 for https as a precaution.
1219 The CONNECT methods exists in HTTP to allow access to secure websites
1220 (https:// URLs) through proxies. It works very simply: the proxy connects
1221 to the server on the specified port, and then short-circuits its
1222 connections to the client and to the remote proxy. This can be a big
1223 security hole, since CONNECT-enabled proxies can be abused as TCP relays
1226 If you want to allow CONNECT for more ports than this, or want to forbid
1227 CONNECT altogether, you can specify a comma separated list of ports and
1228 port ranges (the latter using dashes, with the minimum defaulting to 0 and
1231 +limit-connect{443} # This is the default and need no be specified.
1232 +limit-connect{80,443} # Ports 80 and 443 are OK.
1233 +limit-connect{-3, 7, 20-100, 500-} # Port less than 3, 7, 20 to 100
1234 #and above 500 are OK.
1237 * "+no-compression" prevents the website from compressing the data. Some
1238 websites do this, which can be a problem for Junkbuster, since "+filter",
1239 "+no-popup" and "+gif-deanimate" will not work on compressed data. This
1240 will slow down connections to those websites, though. Default is
1241 "nocompression" is turned on.
1246 * If the website sets cookies, "no-cookies-keep" will make sure they are
1247 erased when you exit and restart your web browser. This makes profiling
1248 cookies useless, but won't break sites which require cookies so that you
1249 can log in for transactions. Default: on.
1254 * Prevent the website from reading cookies:
1259 * Prevent the website from setting cookies:
1264 * Filter the website through a built-in filter to disable those obnoxious
1265 JavaScript pop-up windows via window.open(), etc. The two alternative
1266 spellings are equivalent.
1272 * This action only applies if you are using a jarfile for saving cookies. It
1273 sends a cookie to every site stating that you do not accept any copyright
1274 on cookies sent to you, and asking them not to track you. Of course, this
1275 is a (relatively) unique header they could use to track you.
1280 * This allows you to add an arbitrary cookie. It can be specified multiple
1281 times in order to add as many cookies as you like.
1286 The meaning of any of the above is reversed by preceding the action with a "-",
1287 in place of the "+".
1291 Turn off cookies by default, then allow a few through for specified sites:
1293 # Turn off all persistent cookies
1294 { +no-cookies-read }
1296 # Allow cookies for this browser session ONLY
1297 { +no-cookies-keep }
1299 # Exceptions to the above, sites that benefit from persistent cookies
1300 { -no-cookies-read }
1302 { -no-cookies-keep }
1309 # Alternative way of saying the same thing
1310 {-no-cookies-set -no-cookies-read -no-cookies-keep}
1315 Now turn off "fast redirects", and then we allow two exceptions:
1320 # Reverse it for these two sites, which don't work right without it.
1322 www.ukc.ac.uk/cgi-bin/wac\.cgi\?
1326 Turn on page filtering, with one exception for sourceforge:
1328 # Run everything through the default filter file (re_filterfile):
1331 # But please don't re_filter code from sourceforge!
1333 .cvs.sourceforge.net
1336 Now some URLs that we want "blocked", ie we won't see them. Many of these use
1337 regular expressions that will expand to match multiple URLs:
1341 /.*/(.*[-_.])?ads?[0-9]?(/|[-_.].*|\.(gif|jpe?g))
1342 /.*/(.*[-_.])?count(er)?(\.cgi|\.dll|\.exe|[?/])
1343 /.*/(ng)?adclient\.cgi
1344 /.*/(plain|live|rotate)[-_.]?ads?/
1345 /.*/(sponsor)s?[0-9]?/
1346 /.*/_?(plain|live)?ads?(-banners)?/
1348 /.*/ad(sdna_image|gifs?)/
1349 /.*/ad(server|stream|juggler)\.(cgi|pl|dll|exe)
1353 /.*/adv((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))?/
1357 /.*/cgi-bin/centralad/getimage
1358 /.*/images/addver\.gif
1359 /.*/images/marketing/.*\.(gif|jpe?g)
1363 /.*/sponsors?[0-9]?/
1364 /.*/advert[0-9]+\.jpg
1371 /graphics/defaultAd/
1373 /image\.ng/transactionID
1374 /images/.*/.*_anim\.gif # alvin brattli
1375 /ip_img/.*\.(gif|jpe?g)
1379 /cgi-bin/nph-adclick.exe/
1380 /.*/Image/BannerAdvertising/
1382 /.*/adlib/server\.cgi
1386 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1390 Custom "actions", known to Junkbuster as "aliases", can be defined by combining
1391 other "actions". These can in turn be invoked just like the built-in "actions".
1392 Currently, an alias can contain any character except space, tab, "=", "{" or "}
1393 ". But please use only "a"- "z", "0"-"9", "+", and "-". Alias names are not
1394 case sensitive, and must be defined before anything else in the ijb.actionfile
1395 ! And there can only be one set of "aliases" defined.
1397 Now let's define a few aliases:
1399 # Useful customer aliases we can use later. These must come first!
1401 +no-cookies = +no-cookies-set +no-cookies-read
1402 -no-cookies = -no-cookies-set -no-cookies-read
1404 -block -no-cookies -filter -fast-redirects -hide-referer -no-popups
1405 shop = -no-cookies -filter -fast-redirects
1406 +imageblock = +block +image
1408 #For people who don't like to type too much: ;-)
1411 c2 = -no-cookies-set +no-cookies-read
1412 c3 = +no-cookies-set -no-cookies-read
1413 #... etc. Customize to your heart's content.
1416 Some examples using our "shop" and "fragile" aliases from above:
1418 # These sites are very complex and require
1419 # minimal interference.
1421 .office.microsoft.com
1422 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com
1425 # Shopping sites - still want to block ads.
1428 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
1432 # These shops require pop-ups
1438 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1440 3.5. The Filter File
1442 The filter file defines what filtering of web pages Junkbuster does. The
1443 default filter file is re_filterfile, located in the config directory. In this
1444 file, any document content, whether viewable text or embedded non-visible
1445 content, can be changed.
1447 This file uses regular expressions to alter or remove any string in the target
1448 page. Some examples from the included default re_filterfile:
1450 Stop web pages from displaying annoying messages in the status bar by deleting
1453 # The status bar is for displaying link targets, not pointless buzzwords.
1454 # Again, check it out on http://www.airport-cgn.de/.
1455 s/status='.*?';*//ig
1458 Just for kicks, replace any occurrence of "Microsoft" with "MicroSuck":
1460 s/microsoft(?!.com)/MicroSuck/ig
1463 Kill those auto-refresh tags:
1465 # Kill refresh tags. I like to refresh myself. Manually.
1466 # check it out on http://www.airport-cgn.de/ and go to the arrivals page.
1468 s/<meta[^>]*http-equiv[^>]*refresh.*URL=([^>]*?)"?>/<link rev="x-refresh" href
1470 s/<meta[^>]*http-equiv="?page-enter"?[^>]*content=[^>]*>/<!
1471 --no page enter for me-->/i
1474 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1478 When Junkbuster displays one of its internal pages, such as a 404 Not Found
1479 error page, it uses the appropriate template. On Linux, BSD, and Unix, these
1480 are located in /etc/junkbuster/templates by default. These may be customized,
1483 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1485 4. Quickstart to Using Junkbuster
1487 Install package, then run and enjoy! JunkBuster is typically started by
1488 specifying the main configuration file to be used on the command line. Example
1489 Unix startup command:
1492 # /usr/sbin/junkbuster /etc/junkbuster/config
1496 An init script is provided for SuSE and Redhat.
1498 For for SuSE: /etc/rc.d/junkbuster start
1500 For RedHat: /etc/rc.d/init.d/junkbuster start
1502 If no configuration file is specified on the command line, Junkbuster will look
1503 for a file named config in the current directory. Except on Win32 where it will
1504 try config.txt. If no file is specified on the command line and no default
1505 configuration file can be found, Junkbuster will fail to start.
1507 Be sure your browser is set to use the proxy which is by default at localhost,
1508 port 8118. With Netscape (and Mozilla), this can be set under Edit ->
1509 Preferences -> Advanced -> Proxies -> HTTP Proxy. For Internet Explorer: Tools
1510 > Internet Properties -> Connections -> LAN Setting. Then, check "Use Proxy"
1511 and fill in the appropriate info (Address: localhost, Port: 8118). Include if
1512 HTTPS proxy support too.
1514 The included default configuration files should give a reasonable starting
1515 point, though may be somewhat aggressive in blocking junk. You will probably
1516 want to keep an eye out for sites that require persistent cookies, and add
1517 these to ijb.action as needed. By default, most of these will be accepted only
1518 during the current browser session, until you add them to the configuration. If
1519 you want the browser to handle this instead, you will need to edit ijb.action
1520 and disable this feature. If you use more than one browser, it would make more
1521 sense to let Junkbuster handle this. In which case, the browser(s) should be
1522 set to accept all cookies.
1524 If a particular site shows problems loading properly, try adding it to the
1525 {fragile} section of ijb.action. This will turn off most actions for this site.
1527 Junkbuster is HTTP/1.1 compliant, but not all 1.1 features are as yet
1528 implemented. If browsers that support HTTP/1.1 (like Mozilla or recent versions
1529 of I.E.) experience problems, you might try to force HTTP/1.0 compatibility.
1530 For Mozilla, look under Edit -> Preferences -> Debug -> Networking. Or set the
1531 "+downgrade" config option in ijb.action.
1533 After running Junkbuster for a while, you can start to fine tune the
1534 configuration to suit your personal, or site, preferences and requirements.
1535 There are many, many aspects that can be customized. "Actions" (as specified in
1536 ijb.action) can be adjusted by pointing your browser to http://i.j.b/, and then
1537 follow the link to "edit the actions list". (This is an internal page and does
1538 not require Internet access.)
1540 In fact, various aspects of Junkbuster configuration can be viewed from this
1541 page, including current configuration parameters, source code version numbers,
1542 the browser's request headers, and "actions" that apply to a given URL. In
1543 addition to the ijb.action file editor mentioned above, Junkbuster can also be
1544 turned "on" and "off" from this page.
1546 If you encounter problems, please verify it is a Junkbuster bug, by disabling
1547 Junkbuster, and then trying the same page. Also, try another browser if
1548 possible to eliminate browser or site problems. Before reporting it as a bug,
1549 see if there is not a configuration option that is enabled that is causing the
1550 page not to load. You can then add an exception for that page or site. If a
1551 bug, please report it to the developers (see below).
1553 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1555 4.1. Command Line Options
1557 JunkBuster may be invoked with the following command-line options:
1561 Print version info and exit, Unix only.
1565 Print a short usage info and exit, Unix only.
1569 Don't become a daemon, i.e. don't fork and become process group leader,
1570 don't detach from controlling tty. Unix only.
1574 On startup, write the process ID to FILE. Delete the FILE on exit. Failiure
1575 to create or delete the FILE is non-fatal. If no FILE option is given, no
1576 PID file will be used. Unix only.
1578 * --user USER[.GROUP]
1580 After (optionally) writing the PID file, assume the user ID of USER, and if
1581 included the GID of GROUP. Exit if the privileges are not sufficient to do
1586 If no configfile is included on the command line, JunkBuster will look for
1587 a file named "config" in the current directory (except on Win32 where it
1588 will look for "config.txt" instead). Specify full path to avoid confusion.
1590 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1592 5. Contacting the Developers, Bug Reporting and Feature Requests
1594 We value your feedback. However, to provide you with the best support, please
1597 * Use the Sourceforge support forum to get help.
1599 * Submit bugs only thru our Sourceforge bug forum. Make sure that the bug has
1600 not already been submitted. Please try to verify that it is a Junkbuster
1601 bug, and not a browser or site bug first. If you are using your own custom
1602 configuration, please try the stock configs to see if the problem is a
1603 configuration related bug. And if not using the latest development
1604 snapshot, please try the latest one. Or even better, CVS sources.
1606 * Submit feature requests only thru our Sourceforge feature request forum.
1610 For any other issues, feel free to use the mailing lists.
1612 Anyone interested in actively participating in development and related
1613 discussions can join the appropriate mailing list here. Archives are available
1616 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1618 6. Copyright and History
1622 Internet Junkbuster is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
1623 under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free
1624 Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any
1627 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY
1628 WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
1629 PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details, which
1630 is available from the Free Software Foundation, Inc, 59 Temple Place - Suite
1631 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
1633 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1637 Junkbuster was originally written by Anonymous Coders and Junkbuster's
1638 Corporation, and was released as free open-source software under the GNU GPL.
1639 Stefan Waldherr made many improvements, and started the SourceForge project to
1640 rekindle development. There are now several active developers contributing. The
1641 last stable release was v2.0.2, which has now grown whiskers ;-).
1643 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1647 http://sourceforge.net/projects/ijbswa
1649 http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/
1653 http://www.junkbusters.com/ht/en/cookies.html
1655 http://www.waldherr.org/junkbuster/
1657 http://privacy.net/analyze/
1659 http://www.squid-cache.org/
1663 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1667 8.1. Regular Expressions
1669 Junkbuster can use "regular expressions" in various config files. Assuming
1670 support for "pcre" (Perl Compatible Regular Expressions) is compiled in, which
1671 is the default. Such configuration directives do not require regular
1672 expressions, but they can be used to increase flexibility by matching a pattern
1673 with wild-cards against URLs.
1675 If you are reading this, you probably don't understand what "regular
1676 expressions" are, or what they can do. So this will be a very brief
1677 introduction only. A full explanation would require a book ;-)
1679 "Regular expressions" is a way of matching one character expression against
1680 another to see if it matches or not. One of the "expressions" is a literal
1681 string of readable characters (letter, numbers, etc), and the other is a
1682 complex string of literal characters combined with wild-cards, and other
1683 special characters, called meta-characters. The "meta-characters" have special
1684 meanings and are used to build the complex pattern to be matched against. Perl
1685 Compatible Regular Expressions is an enhanced form of the regular expression
1686 language with backward compatibility.
1688 To make a simple analogy, we do something similar when we use wild-card
1689 characters when listing files with the dir command in DOS. *.* matches all
1690 filenames. The "special" character here is the asterisk which matches any and
1691 all characters. We can be more specific and use ? to match just individual
1692 characters. So "dir file?.text" would match "file1.txt", "file2.txt", etc. We
1693 are pattern matching, using a similar technique to "regular expressions"!
1695 Regular expressions do essentially the same thing, but are much, much more
1696 powerful. There are many more "special characters" and ways of building complex
1697 patterns however. Let's look at a few of the common ones, and then some
1700 . - Matches any single character, e.g. "a", "A", "4", ":", or "@".
1702 ? - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or ONE times. Either/
1705 + - The preceding character or expression is matched ONE or MORE times.
1707 * - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or MORE times.
1709 \ - The "escape" character denotes that the following character should be taken
1710 literally. This is used where one of the special characters (e.g. ".") needs to
1711 be taken literally and not as a special meta-character.
1713 [] - Characters enclosed in brackets will be matched if any of the enclosed
1714 characters are encountered.
1716 () - parentheses are used to group a sub-expression, or multiple
1719 | - The "bar" character works like an "or" conditional statement. A match is
1720 successful if the sub-expression on either side of "|" matches.
1722 s/string1/string2/g - This is used to rewrite strings of text. "string1" is
1723 replaced by "string2" in this example.
1725 These are just some of the ones you are likely to use when matching URLs with
1726 Junkbuster, and is a long way from a definitive list. This is enough to get us
1727 started with a few simple examples which may be more illuminating:
1729 /.*/banners/.* - A simple example that uses the common combination of "." and "
1730 *" to denote any character, zero or more times. In other words, any string at
1731 all. So we start with a literal forward slash, then our regular expression
1732 pattern (".*") another literal forward slash, the string "banners", another
1733 forward slash, and lastly another ".*". We are building a directory path here.
1734 This will match any file with the path that has a directory named "banners" in
1735 it. The ".*" matches any characters, and this could conceivably be more forward
1736 slashes, so it might expand into a much longer looking path. For example, this
1737 could match: "/eye/hate/spammers/banners/annoy_me_please.gif", or just "/
1738 banners/annoying.html", or almost an infinite number of other possible
1739 combinations, just so it has "banners" in the path somewhere.
1741 A now something a little more complex:
1743 /.*/adv((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))?/ - We have several literal forward
1744 slashes again ("/"), so we are building another expression that is a file path
1745 statement. We have another ".*", so we are matching against any conceivable
1746 sub-path, just so it matches our expression. The only true literal that must
1747 match our pattern is adv, together with the forward slashes. What comes after
1748 the "adv" string is the interesting part.
1750 Remember the "?" means the preceding expression (either a literal character or
1751 anything grouped with "(...)" in this case) can exist or not, since this means
1752 either zero or one match. So "((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))" is optional, as
1753 are the individual sub-expressions: "(er)", "(ing|ements?)", and the "s". The "
1754 |" means "or". We have two of those. For instance, "(ing|ements?)", can expand
1755 to match either "ing" OR "ements?". What is being done here, is an attempt at
1756 matching as many variations of "advertisement", and similar, as possible. So
1757 this would expand to match just "adv", or "advert", or "adverts", or
1758 "advertising", or "advertisement", or "advertisements". You get the idea. But
1759 it would not match "advertizements" (with a "z"). We could fix that by changing
1760 our regular expression to: "/.*/adv((er)?ts?|erti(s|z)(ing|ements?))?/", which
1761 would then match either spelling.
1763 /.*/advert[0-9]+\.(gif|jpe?g) - Again another path statement with forward
1764 slashes. Anything in the square brackets "[]" can be matched. This is using
1765 "0-9" as a shorthand expression to mean any digit one through nine. It is the
1766 same as saying "0123456789". So any digit matches. The "+" means one or more of
1767 the preceding expression must be included. The preceding expression here is
1768 what is in the square brackets -- in this case, any digit one through nine.
1769 Then, at the end, we have a grouping: "(gif|jpe?g)". This includes a "|", so
1770 this needs to match the expression on either side of that bar character also. A
1771 simple "gif" on one side, and the other side will in turn match either "jpeg"
1772 or "jpg", since the "?" means the letter "e" is optional and can be matched
1773 once or not at all. So we are building an expression here to match image GIF or
1774 JPEG type image file. It must include the literal string "advert", then one or
1775 more digits, and a "." (which is now a literal, and not a special character,
1776 since it is escaped with "\"), and lastly either "gif", or "jpeg", or "jpg".
1777 Some possible matches would include: "//advert1.jpg", "/nasty/ads/
1778 advert1234.gif", "/banners/from/hell/advert99.jpg". It would not match
1779 "advert1.gif" (no leading slash), or "/adverts232.jpg" (the expression does not
1780 include an "s"), or "/advert1.jsp" ("jsp" is not in the expression anywhere).
1782 s/microsoft(?!.com)/MicroSuck/i - This is a substitution. "MicroSuck" will
1783 replace any occurrence of "microsoft". The "i" at the end of the expression
1784 means ignore case. The "(?!.com)" means the match should fail if "microsoft" is
1785 followed by ".com". In other words, this acts like a "NOT" modifier. In case
1786 this is a hyperlink, we don't want to break it ;-).
1788 We are barely scratching the surface of regular expressions here so that you
1789 can understand the default Junkbuster configuration files, and maybe use this
1790 knowledge to customize your own installation. There is much, much more that can
1791 be done with regular expressions. Now that you know enough to get started, you
1792 can learn more on your own :/
1794 More reading on Perl Compatible Regular expressions: http://www.perldoc.com/
1795 perl5.6/pod/perlre.html