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54 <h1 class="SECT1"><a name="CONFIG" id="CONFIG">7. The Main Configuration
57 <p>By default, the main configuration file is named <tt class=
58 "FILENAME">config</tt>, with the exception of Windows, where it is named
59 <tt class="FILENAME">config.txt</tt>. Configuration lines consist of an
60 initial keyword followed by a list of values, all separated by whitespace
61 (any number of spaces or tabs). For example:</p>
63 <p class="LITERALLAYOUT"><tt class="LITERAL"> <span class=
64 "emphasis EMPHASIS c2">confdir /etc/privoxy</span></tt></p>
66 <p>Assigns the value <tt class="LITERAL">/etc/privoxy</tt> to the option
67 <tt class="LITERAL">confdir</tt> and thus indicates that the
68 configuration directory is named <span class=
69 "QUOTE">"/etc/privoxy/"</span>.</p>
71 <p>All options in the config file except for <tt class=
72 "LITERAL">confdir</tt> and <tt class="LITERAL">logdir</tt> are optional.
73 Watch out in the below description for what happens if you leave them
76 <p>The main config file controls all aspects of <span class=
77 "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span>'s operation that are not location dependent
78 (i.e. they apply universally, no matter where you may be surfing). Like
79 the filter and action files, the config file is a plain text file and can
80 be modified with a text editor like emacs, vim or notepad.exe.</p>
83 <h2 class="SECT2"><a name="LOCAL-SET-UP" id="LOCAL-SET-UP">7.1. Local
84 Set-up Documentation</a></h2>
86 <p>If you intend to operate <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span>
87 for more users than just yourself, it might be a good idea to let them
88 know how to reach you, what you block and why you do that, your
92 <h4 class="SECT3"><a name="USER-MANUAL" id="USER-MANUAL">7.1.1.
95 <div class="VARIABLELIST">
100 <p>Location of the <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span>
104 <dt>Type of value:</dt>
107 <p>A fully qualified URI</p>
110 <dt>Default value:</dt>
113 <p><span class="emphasis EMPHASIS c2">Unset</span></p>
116 <dt>Effect if unset:</dt>
119 <p><a href="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/" target=
120 "_top">http://www.privoxy.org/<tt class=
121 "REPLACEABLE c3">version</tt>/user-manual/</a> will be used,
122 where <tt class="REPLACEABLE c3">version</tt> is the
123 <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> version.</p>
129 <p>The User Manual URI is the single best source of information
130 on <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span>, and is used for
131 help links from some of the internal CGI pages. The manual
132 itself is normally packaged with the binary distributions, so
133 you probably want to set this to a locally installed copy.</p>
137 <p>The best all purpose solution is simply to put the full
138 local <tt class="LITERAL">PATH</tt> to where the <i class=
139 "CITETITLE">User Manual</i> is located:</p>
141 <table class="c4" border="0" width="90%">
145 user-manual /usr/share/doc/privoxy/user-manual
151 <p>The User Manual is then available to anyone with access to
152 <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span>, by following the
153 built-in URL: <tt class=
154 "LITERAL">http://config.privoxy.org/user-manual/</tt> (or the
156 "LITERAL">http://p.p/user-manual/</tt>).</p>
158 <p>If the documentation is not on the local system, it can be
159 accessed from a remote server, as:</p>
161 <table class="c4" border="0" width="90%">
165 user-manual http://example.com/privoxy/user-manual/
171 <div class="WARNING">
172 <table class="WARNING" border="1" width="90%">
174 <td class="c5" align="center">Warning</td>
179 <p>If set, this option should be <span class=
180 "emphasis EMPHASIS c2">the first option in the config
181 file</span>, because it is used while the config file
182 is being read on start-up.</p>
193 <h4 class="SECT3"><a name="TRUST-INFO-URL" id="TRUST-INFO-URL">7.1.2.
194 trust-info-url</a></h4>
196 <div class="VARIABLELIST">
201 <p>A URL to be displayed in the error page that users will see
202 if access to an untrusted page is denied.</p>
205 <dt>Type of value:</dt>
211 <dt>Default value:</dt>
214 <p><span class="emphasis EMPHASIS c2">Unset</span></p>
217 <dt>Effect if unset:</dt>
220 <p>No links are displayed on the "untrusted" error page.</p>
226 <p>The value of this option only matters if the experimental
227 trust mechanism has been activated. (See <a href=
228 "config.html#TRUSTFILE"><span class=
229 "emphasis EMPHASIS c2">trustfile</span></a> below.)</p>
231 <p>If you use the trust mechanism, it is a good idea to write
232 up some on-line documentation about your trust policy and to
233 specify the URL(s) here. Use multiple times for multiple
236 <p>The URL(s) should be added to the trustfile as well, so
237 users don't end up locked out from the information on why they
238 were locked out in the first place!</p>
245 <h4 class="SECT3"><a name="ADMIN-ADDRESS" id="ADMIN-ADDRESS">7.1.3.
246 admin-address</a></h4>
248 <div class="VARIABLELIST">
253 <p>An email address to reach the <span class=
254 "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> administrator.</p>
257 <dt>Type of value:</dt>
263 <dt>Default value:</dt>
266 <p><span class="emphasis EMPHASIS c2">Unset</span></p>
269 <dt>Effect if unset:</dt>
272 <p>No email address is displayed on error pages and the CGI
279 <p>If both <tt class="LITERAL">admin-address</tt> and
280 <tt class="LITERAL">proxy-info-url</tt> are unset, the whole
281 "Local Privoxy Support" box on all generated pages will not be
289 <h4 class="SECT3"><a name="PROXY-INFO-URL" id="PROXY-INFO-URL">7.1.4.
290 proxy-info-url</a></h4>
292 <div class="VARIABLELIST">
297 <p>A URL to documentation about the local <span class=
298 "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> setup, configuration or
302 <dt>Type of value:</dt>
308 <dt>Default value:</dt>
311 <p><span class="emphasis EMPHASIS c2">Unset</span></p>
314 <dt>Effect if unset:</dt>
317 <p>No link to local documentation is displayed on error pages
318 and the CGI user interface.</p>
324 <p>If both <tt class="LITERAL">admin-address</tt> and
325 <tt class="LITERAL">proxy-info-url</tt> are unset, the whole
326 "Local Privoxy Support" box on all generated pages will not be
329 <p>This URL shouldn't be blocked ;-)</p>
337 <h2 class="SECT2"><a name="CONF-LOG-LOC" id="CONF-LOG-LOC">7.2.
338 Configuration and Log File Locations</a></h2>
340 <p><span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> can (and normally does) use
341 a number of other files for additional configuration, help and logging.
342 This section of the configuration file tells <span class=
343 "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> where to find those other files.</p>
345 <p>The user running <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span>, must have
346 read permission for all configuration files, and write permission to
347 any files that would be modified, such as log files and actions
351 <h4 class="SECT3"><a name="CONFDIR" id="CONFDIR">7.2.1.
354 <div class="VARIABLELIST">
359 <p>The directory where the other configuration files are
363 <dt>Type of value:</dt>
369 <dt>Default value:</dt>
372 <p>/etc/privoxy (Unix) <span class=
373 "emphasis EMPHASIS c2">or</span> <span class=
374 "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> installation dir (Windows)</p>
377 <dt>Effect if unset:</dt>
380 <p><span class="emphasis EMPHASIS c2">Mandatory</span></p>
386 <p>No trailing <span class="QUOTE">"<tt class=
387 "LITERAL">/</tt>"</span>, please.</p>
394 <h4 class="SECT3"><a name="TEMPLDIR" id="TEMPLDIR">7.2.2.
397 <div class="VARIABLELIST">
402 <p>An alternative directory where the templates are loaded
406 <dt>Type of value:</dt>
412 <dt>Default value:</dt>
418 <dt>Effect if unset:</dt>
421 <p>The templates are assumed to be located in
422 confdir/template.</p>
428 <p><span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy's</span> original
429 templates are usually overwritten with each update. Use this
430 option to relocate customized templates that should be kept. As
431 template variables might change between updates, you shouldn't
432 expect templates to work with <span class=
433 "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> releases other than the one they
434 were part of, though.</p>
441 <h4 class="SECT3"><a name="LOGDIR" id="LOGDIR">7.2.3. logdir</a></h4>
443 <div class="VARIABLELIST">
448 <p>The directory where all logging takes place (i.e. where the
449 <tt class="FILENAME">logfile</tt> is located).</p>
452 <dt>Type of value:</dt>
458 <dt>Default value:</dt>
461 <p>/var/log/privoxy (Unix) <span class=
462 "emphasis EMPHASIS c2">or</span> <span class=
463 "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> installation dir (Windows)</p>
466 <dt>Effect if unset:</dt>
469 <p><span class="emphasis EMPHASIS c2">Mandatory</span></p>
475 <p>No trailing <span class="QUOTE">"<tt class=
476 "LITERAL">/</tt>"</span>, please.</p>
483 <h4 class="SECT3"><a name="ACTIONSFILE" id="ACTIONSFILE">7.2.4.
484 actionsfile</a></h4><a name="DEFAULT.ACTION" id=
485 "DEFAULT.ACTION"></a><a name="STANDARD.ACTION" id=
486 "STANDARD.ACTION"></a><a name="USER.ACTION" id="USER.ACTION"></a>
488 <div class="VARIABLELIST">
493 <p>The <a href="actions-file.html">actions file(s)</a> to
497 <dt>Type of value:</dt>
500 <p>Complete file name, relative to <tt class=
501 "LITERAL">confdir</tt></p>
504 <dt>Default values:</dt>
511 <p class="LITERALLAYOUT">
512 match-all.action # Actions that are applied to all sites and maybe overruled later on.</p>
518 <p class="LITERALLAYOUT">
519 default.action # Main actions file</p>
525 <p class="LITERALLAYOUT">
526 user.action # User customizations</p>
533 <dt>Effect if unset:</dt>
536 <p>No actions are taken at all. More or less neutral
543 <p>Multiple <tt class="LITERAL">actionsfile</tt> lines are
544 permitted, and are in fact recommended!</p>
546 <p>The default values are <tt class=
547 "FILENAME">default.action</tt>, which is the <span class=
548 "QUOTE">"main"</span> actions file maintained by the
549 developers, and <tt class="FILENAME">user.action</tt>, where
550 you can make your personal additions.</p>
552 <p>Actions files contain all the per site and per URL
553 configuration for ad blocking, cookie management, privacy
554 considerations, etc. There is no point in using <span class=
555 "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> without at least one actions
558 <p>Note that since Privoxy 3.0.7, the complete filename,
559 including the <span class="QUOTE">".action"</span> extension
560 has to be specified. The syntax change was necessary to be
561 consistent with the other file options and to allow previously
562 forbidden characters.</p>
569 <h4 class="SECT3"><a name="FILTERFILE" id="FILTERFILE">7.2.5.
570 filterfile</a></h4><a name="DEFAULT.FILTER" id="DEFAULT.FILTER"></a>
572 <div class="VARIABLELIST">
577 <p>The <a href="filter-file.html">filter file(s)</a> to use</p>
580 <dt>Type of value:</dt>
583 <p>File name, relative to <tt class="LITERAL">confdir</tt></p>
586 <dt>Default value:</dt>
589 <p>default.filter (Unix) <span class=
590 "emphasis EMPHASIS c2">or</span> default.filter.txt
594 <dt>Effect if unset:</dt>
597 <p>No textual content filtering takes place, i.e. all
598 <tt class="LITERAL">+<a href=
599 "actions-file.html#FILTER">filter</a>{<tt class=
600 "REPLACEABLE c3">name</tt>}</tt> actions in the actions files
601 are turned neutral.</p>
607 <p>Multiple <tt class="LITERAL">filterfile</tt> lines are
610 <p>The <a href="filter-file.html">filter files</a> contain
611 content modification rules that use <a href=
612 "appendix.html#REGEX">regular expressions</a>. These rules
613 permit powerful changes on the content of Web pages, and
614 optionally the headers as well, e.g., you could try to disable
615 your favorite JavaScript annoyances, re-write the actual
616 displayed text, or just have some fun playing buzzword bingo
619 <p>The <tt class="LITERAL">+<a href=
620 "actions-file.html#FILTER">filter</a>{<tt class=
621 "REPLACEABLE c3">name</tt>}</tt> actions rely on the relevant
622 filter (<tt class="REPLACEABLE c3">name</tt>) to be defined in
625 <p>A pre-defined filter file called <tt class=
626 "FILENAME">default.filter</tt> that contains a number of useful
627 filters for common problems is included in the distribution.
628 See the section on the <tt class="LITERAL"><a href=
629 "actions-file.html#FILTER">filter</a></tt> action for a
632 <p>It is recommended to place any locally adapted filters into
633 a separate file, such as <tt class=
634 "FILENAME">user.filter</tt>.</p>
641 <h4 class="SECT3"><a name="LOGFILE" id="LOGFILE">7.2.6.
644 <div class="VARIABLELIST">
649 <p>The log file to use</p>
652 <dt>Type of value:</dt>
655 <p>File name, relative to <tt class="LITERAL">logdir</tt></p>
658 <dt>Default value:</dt>
661 <p><span class="emphasis EMPHASIS c2">Unset (commented
662 out)</span>. When activated: logfile (Unix) <span class=
663 "emphasis EMPHASIS c2">or</span> privoxy.log (Windows).</p>
666 <dt>Effect if unset:</dt>
669 <p>No logfile is written.</p>
675 <p>The logfile is where all logging and error messages are
676 written. The level of detail and number of messages are set
677 with the <tt class="LITERAL">debug</tt> option (see below). The
678 logfile can be useful for tracking down a problem with
679 <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> (e.g., it's not
680 blocking an ad you think it should block) and it can help you
681 to monitor what your browser is doing.</p>
683 <p>Depending on the debug options below, the logfile may be a
684 privacy risk if third parties can get access to it. As most
685 users will never look at it, <span class=
686 "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> 3.0.7 and later only log fatal
687 errors by default.</p>
689 <p>For most troubleshooting purposes, you will have to change
690 that, please refer to the debugging section for details.</p>
692 <p>Your logfile will grow indefinitely, and you will probably
693 want to periodically remove it. On Unix systems, you can do
694 this with a cron job (see <span class="QUOTE">"man
695 cron"</span>). For Red Hat based Linux distributions, a
696 <b class="COMMAND">logrotate</b> script has been included.</p>
698 <p>Any log files must be writable by whatever user <span class=
699 "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> is being run as (on Unix, default
700 user id is <span class="QUOTE">"privoxy"</span>).</p>
707 <h4 class="SECT3"><a name="TRUSTFILE" id="TRUSTFILE">7.2.7.
710 <div class="VARIABLELIST">
715 <p>The name of the trust file to use</p>
718 <dt>Type of value:</dt>
721 <p>File name, relative to <tt class="LITERAL">confdir</tt></p>
724 <dt>Default value:</dt>
727 <p><span class="emphasis EMPHASIS c2">Unset (commented
728 out)</span>. When activated: trust (Unix) <span class=
729 "emphasis EMPHASIS c2">or</span> trust.txt (Windows)</p>
732 <dt>Effect if unset:</dt>
735 <p>The entire trust mechanism is disabled.</p>
741 <p>The trust mechanism is an experimental feature for building
742 white-lists and should be used with care. It is <span class=
743 "emphasis EMPHASIS c2">NOT</span> recommended for the casual
746 <p>If you specify a trust file, <span class=
747 "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> will only allow access to sites
748 that are specified in the trustfile. Sites can be listed in one
751 <p>Prepending a <tt class="LITERAL">~</tt> character limits
752 access to this site only (and any sub-paths within this site),
753 e.g. <tt class="LITERAL">~www.example.com</tt> allows access to
754 <tt class="LITERAL">~www.example.com/features/news.html</tt>,
757 <p>Or, you can designate sites as <span class=
758 "emphasis EMPHASIS c2">trusted referrers</span>, by prepending
759 the name with a <tt class="LITERAL">+</tt> character. The
760 effect is that access to untrusted sites will be granted -- but
761 only if a link from this trusted referrer was used to get
762 there. The link target will then be added to the <span class=
763 "QUOTE">"trustfile"</span> so that future, direct accesses will
764 be granted. Sites added via this mechanism do not become
765 trusted referrers themselves (i.e. they are added with a
766 <tt class="LITERAL">~</tt> designation). There is a limit of
767 512 such entries, after which new entries will not be made.</p>
769 <p>If you use the <tt class="LITERAL">+</tt> operator in the
770 trust file, it may grow considerably over time.</p>
772 <p>It is recommended that <span class=
773 "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> be compiled with the <tt class=
774 "LITERAL">--disable-force</tt>, <tt class=
775 "LITERAL">--disable-toggle</tt> and <tt class=
776 "LITERAL">--disable-editor</tt> options, if this feature is to
779 <p>Possible applications include limiting Internet access for
788 <h2 class="SECT2"><a name="DEBUGGING" id="DEBUGGING">7.3.
791 <p>These options are mainly useful when tracing a problem. Note that
792 you might also want to invoke <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span>
793 with the <tt class="LITERAL">--no-daemon</tt> command line option when
797 <h4 class="SECT3"><a name="DEBUG" id="DEBUG">7.3.1. debug</a></h4>
799 <div class="VARIABLELIST">
804 <p>Key values that determine what information gets logged.</p>
807 <dt>Type of value:</dt>
810 <p>Integer values</p>
813 <dt>Default value:</dt>
816 <p>0 (i.e.: only fatal errors (that cause Privoxy to exit) are
820 <dt>Effect if unset:</dt>
823 <p>Default value is used (see above).</p>
829 <p>The available debug levels are:</p>
831 <table class="c4" border="0" width="90%">
834 <pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
835 debug 1 # Log the destination for each request <span class=
836 "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> let through. See also debug 1024.
837 debug 2 # show each connection status
838 debug 4 # show I/O status
839 debug 8 # show header parsing
840 debug 16 # log all data written to the network
841 debug 32 # debug force feature
842 debug 64 # debug regular expression filters
843 debug 128 # debug redirects
844 debug 256 # debug GIF de-animation
845 debug 512 # Common Log Format
846 debug 1024 # Log the destination for requests <span class=
847 "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> didn't let through, and the reason why.
848 debug 2048 # CGI user interface
849 debug 4096 # Startup banner and warnings.
850 debug 8192 # Non-fatal errors
851 debug 32768 # log all data read from the network
857 <p>To select multiple debug levels, you can either add them or
858 use multiple <tt class="LITERAL">debug</tt> lines.</p>
860 <p>A debug level of 1 is informative because it will show you
861 each request as it happens. <span class=
862 "emphasis EMPHASIS c2">1, 1024, 4096 and 8192 are
863 recommended</span> so that you will notice when things go
864 wrong. The other levels are probably only of interest if you
865 are hunting down a specific problem. They can produce a hell of
866 an output (especially 16).</p>
868 <p><span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> used to ship with
869 the debug levels recommended above enabled by default, but due
870 to privacy concerns 3.0.7 and later are configured to only log
873 <p>If you are used to the more verbose settings, simply enable
874 the debug lines below again.</p>
876 <p>If you want to use pure CLF (Common Log Format), you should
877 set <span class="QUOTE">"debug 512"</span> <span class=
878 "emphasis EMPHASIS c2">ONLY</span> and not enable anything
881 <p><span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> has a hard-coded
882 limit for the length of log messages. If it's reached, messages
883 are logged truncated and marked with <span class="QUOTE">"...
884 [too long, truncated]"</span>.</p>
886 <p>Please don't file any support requests without trying to
887 reproduce the problem with increased debug level first. Once
888 you read the log messages, you may even be able to solve the
889 problem on your own.</p>
896 <h4 class="SECT3"><a name="SINGLE-THREADED" id=
897 "SINGLE-THREADED">7.3.2. single-threaded</a></h4>
899 <div class="VARIABLELIST">
904 <p>Whether to run only one server thread.</p>
907 <dt>Type of value:</dt>
910 <p><span class="emphasis EMPHASIS c2">None</span></p>
913 <dt>Default value:</dt>
916 <p><span class="emphasis EMPHASIS c2">Unset</span></p>
919 <dt>Effect if unset:</dt>
922 <p>Multi-threaded (or, where unavailable: forked) operation,
923 i.e. the ability to serve multiple requests simultaneously.</p>
929 <p>This option is only there for debugging purposes.
930 <span class="emphasis EMPHASIS c2">It will drastically reduce
931 performance.</span></p>
938 <h4 class="SECT3"><a name="HOSTNAME" id="HOSTNAME">7.3.3.
941 <div class="VARIABLELIST">
946 <p>The hostname shown on the CGI pages.</p>
949 <dt>Type of value:</dt>
955 <dt>Default value:</dt>
958 <p><span class="emphasis EMPHASIS c2">Unset</span></p>
961 <dt>Effect if unset:</dt>
964 <p>The hostname provided by the operating system is used.</p>
970 <p>On some misconfigured systems resolving the hostname fails
971 or takes too much time and slows Privoxy down. Setting a fixed
972 hostname works around the problem.</p>
974 <p>In other circumstances it might be desirable to show a
975 hostname other than the one returned by the operating system.
976 For example if the system has several different hostnames and
977 you don't want to use the first one.</p>
979 <p>Note that Privoxy does not validate the specified hostname
988 <h2 class="SECT2"><a name="ACCESS-CONTROL" id="ACCESS-CONTROL">7.4.
989 Access Control and Security</a></h2>
991 <p>This section of the config file controls the security-relevant
992 aspects of <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span>'s
996 <h4 class="SECT3"><a name="LISTEN-ADDRESS" id="LISTEN-ADDRESS">7.4.1.
997 listen-address</a></h4>
999 <div class="VARIABLELIST">
1004 <p>The address and TCP port on which <span class=
1005 "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> will listen for client
1009 <dt>Type of value:</dt>
1012 <p>[<tt class="REPLACEABLE c3">IP-Address</tt>]:<tt class=
1013 "REPLACEABLE c3">Port</tt></p>
1015 <p>[<tt class="REPLACEABLE c3">Hostname</tt>]:<tt class=
1016 "REPLACEABLE c3">Port</tt></p>
1019 <dt>Default value:</dt>
1022 <p>127.0.0.1:8118</p>
1025 <dt>Effect if unset:</dt>
1028 <p>Bind to 127.0.0.1 (IPv4 localhost), port 8118. This is
1029 suitable and recommended for home users who run <span class=
1030 "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> on the same machine as their
1037 <p>You will need to configure your browser(s) to this proxy
1038 address and port.</p>
1040 <p>If you already have another service running on port 8118, or
1041 if you want to serve requests from other machines (e.g. on your
1042 local network) as well, you will need to override the
1045 <p>You can use this statement multiple times to make
1046 <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> listen on more ports
1047 or more <abbr class="ABBREV">IP</abbr> addresses. Suitable if
1048 your operating system does not support sharing <abbr class=
1049 "ABBREV">IPv6</abbr> and <abbr class="ABBREV">IPv4</abbr>
1050 protocols on the same socket.</p>
1052 <p>If a hostname is used instead of an IP address, <span class=
1053 "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> will try to resolve it to an IP
1054 address and if there are multiple, use the first one
1057 <p>If the address for the hostname isn't already known on the
1058 system (for example because it's in /etc/hostname), this may
1059 result in DNS traffic.</p>
1061 <p>If the specified address isn't available on the system, or
1062 if the hostname can't be resolved, <span class=
1063 "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> will fail to start.</p>
1065 <p>IPv6 addresses containing colons have to be quoted by
1066 brackets. They can only be used if <span class=
1067 "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> has been compiled with IPv6
1068 support. If you aren't sure if your version supports it, have a
1070 "LITERAL">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</tt>.</p>
1072 <p>Some operating systems will prefer IPv6 to IPv4 addresses
1073 even if the system has no IPv6 connectivity which is usually
1074 not expected by the user. Some even rely on DNS to resolve
1075 localhost which mean the "localhost" address used may not
1076 actually be local.</p>
1078 <p>It is therefore recommended to explicitly configure the
1079 intended IP address instead of relying on the operating system,
1080 unless there's a strong reason not to.</p>
1082 <p>If you leave out the address, <span class=
1083 "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> will bind to all IPv4 interfaces
1084 (addresses) on your machine and may become reachable from the
1085 Internet and/or the local network. Be aware that some GNU/Linux
1086 distributions modify that behaviour without updating the
1087 documentation. Check for non-standard patches if your
1088 <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span>version behaves
1091 <p>If you configure <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span>to
1092 be reachable from the network, consider using <a href=
1093 "config.html#ACLS">access control lists</a> (ACL's, see below),
1094 and/or a firewall.</p>
1096 <p>If you open <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> to
1097 untrusted users, you will also want to make sure that the
1098 following actions are disabled: <tt class="LITERAL"><a href=
1099 "config.html#ENABLE-EDIT-ACTIONS">enable-edit-actions</a></tt>
1100 and <tt class="LITERAL"><a href=
1101 "config.html#ENABLE-REMOTE-TOGGLE">enable-remote-toggle</a></tt></p>
1103 <p>With the exception noted above, listening on multiple
1104 addresses is currently not supported by <span class=
1105 "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> directly. It can be done on most
1106 operating systems by letting a packet filter redirect request
1107 for certain addresses to Privoxy, though.</p>
1113 <p>Suppose you are running <span class=
1114 "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> on a machine which has the address
1115 192.168.0.1 on your local private network (192.168.0.0) and has
1116 another outside connection with a different address. You want
1117 it to serve requests from inside only:</p>
1119 <table class="c4" border="0" width="90%">
1122 <pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
1123 listen-address 192.168.0.1:8118
1129 <p>Suppose you are running <span class=
1130 "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> on an IPv6-capable machine and you
1131 want it to listen on the IPv6 address of the loopback
1134 <table class="c4" border="0" width="90%">
1137 <pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
1138 listen-address [::1]:8118
1149 <h4 class="SECT3"><a name="TOGGLE" id="TOGGLE">7.4.2. toggle</a></h4>
1151 <div class="VARIABLELIST">
1156 <p>Initial state of "toggle" status</p>
1159 <dt>Type of value:</dt>
1165 <dt>Default value:</dt>
1171 <dt>Effect if unset:</dt>
1174 <p>Act as if toggled on</p>
1180 <p>If set to 0, <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> will
1181 start in <span class="QUOTE">"toggled off"</span> mode, i.e.
1182 mostly behave like a normal, content-neutral proxy with both ad
1183 blocking and content filtering disabled. See <tt class=
1184 "LITERAL">enable-remote-toggle</tt> below.</p>
1186 <p>The windows version will only display the toggle icon in the
1187 system tray if this option is present.</p>
1194 <h4 class="SECT3"><a name="ENABLE-REMOTE-TOGGLE" id=
1195 "ENABLE-REMOTE-TOGGLE">7.4.3. enable-remote-toggle</a></h4>
1197 <div class="VARIABLELIST">
1202 <p>Whether or not the <a href=
1203 "http://config.privoxy.org/toggle" target="_top">web-based
1204 toggle feature</a> may be used</p>
1207 <dt>Type of value:</dt>
1213 <dt>Default value:</dt>
1219 <dt>Effect if unset:</dt>
1222 <p>The web-based toggle feature is disabled.</p>
1228 <p>When toggled off, <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span>
1229 mostly acts like a normal, content-neutral proxy, i.e. doesn't
1230 block ads or filter content.</p>
1232 <p>Access to the toggle feature can <span class=
1233 "emphasis EMPHASIS c2">not</span> be controlled separately by
1234 <span class="QUOTE">"ACLs"</span> or HTTP authentication, so
1235 that everybody who can access <span class=
1236 "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> (see <span class=
1237 "QUOTE">"ACLs"</span> and <tt class=
1238 "LITERAL">listen-address</tt> above) can toggle it for all
1239 users. So this option is <span class="emphasis EMPHASIS c2">not
1240 recommended</span> for multi-user environments with untrusted
1243 <p>Note that malicious client side code (e.g Java) is also
1244 capable of using this option.</p>
1246 <p>As a lot of <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> users
1247 don't read documentation, this feature is disabled by
1250 <p>Note that you must have compiled <span class=
1251 "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> with support for this feature,
1252 otherwise this option has no effect.</p>
1259 <h4 class="SECT3"><a name="ENABLE-REMOTE-HTTP-TOGGLE" id=
1260 "ENABLE-REMOTE-HTTP-TOGGLE">7.4.4. enable-remote-http-toggle</a></h4>
1262 <div class="VARIABLELIST">
1267 <p>Whether or not Privoxy recognizes special HTTP headers to
1268 change its behaviour.</p>
1271 <dt>Type of value:</dt>
1277 <dt>Default value:</dt>
1283 <dt>Effect if unset:</dt>
1286 <p>Privoxy ignores special HTTP headers.</p>
1292 <p>When toggled on, the client can change <span class=
1293 "APPLICATION">Privoxy's</span> behaviour by setting special
1294 HTTP headers. Currently the only supported special header is
1295 <span class="QUOTE">"X-Filter: No"</span>, to disable filtering
1296 for the ongoing request, even if it is enabled in one of the
1299 <p>This feature is disabled by default. If you are using
1300 <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> in a environment with
1301 trusted clients, you may enable this feature at your
1302 discretion. Note that malicious client side code (e.g Java) is
1303 also capable of using this feature.</p>
1305 <p>This option will be removed in future releases as it has
1306 been obsoleted by the more general header taggers.</p>
1313 <h4 class="SECT3"><a name="ENABLE-EDIT-ACTIONS" id=
1314 "ENABLE-EDIT-ACTIONS">7.4.5. enable-edit-actions</a></h4>
1316 <div class="VARIABLELIST">
1321 <p>Whether or not the <a href=
1322 "http://config.privoxy.org/show-status" target="_top">web-based
1323 actions file editor</a> may be used</p>
1326 <dt>Type of value:</dt>
1332 <dt>Default value:</dt>
1338 <dt>Effect if unset:</dt>
1341 <p>The web-based actions file editor is disabled.</p>
1347 <p>Access to the editor can <span class=
1348 "emphasis EMPHASIS c2">not</span> be controlled separately by
1349 <span class="QUOTE">"ACLs"</span> or HTTP authentication, so
1350 that everybody who can access <span class=
1351 "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> (see <span class=
1352 "QUOTE">"ACLs"</span> and <tt class=
1353 "LITERAL">listen-address</tt> above) can modify its
1354 configuration for all users.</p>
1356 <p>This option is <span class="emphasis EMPHASIS c2">not
1357 recommended</span> for environments with untrusted users and as
1358 a lot of <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> users don't
1359 read documentation, this feature is disabled by default.</p>
1361 <p>Note that malicious client side code (e.g Java) is also
1362 capable of using the actions editor and you shouldn't enable
1363 this options unless you understand the consequences and are
1364 sure your browser is configured correctly.</p>
1366 <p>Note that you must have compiled <span class=
1367 "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> with support for this feature,
1368 otherwise this option has no effect.</p>
1375 <h4 class="SECT3"><a name="ENFORCE-BLOCKS" id="ENFORCE-BLOCKS">7.4.6.
1376 enforce-blocks</a></h4>
1378 <div class="VARIABLELIST">
1383 <p>Whether the user is allowed to ignore blocks and can
1384 <span class="QUOTE">"go there anyway"</span>.</p>
1387 <dt>Type of value:</dt>
1390 <p><tt class="REPLACEABLE c3">0 or 1</tt></p>
1393 <dt>Default value:</dt>
1396 <p><span class="emphasis EMPHASIS c2">0</span></p>
1399 <dt>Effect if unset:</dt>
1402 <p>Blocks are not enforced.</p>
1408 <p><span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> is mainly used to
1409 block and filter requests as a service to the user, for example
1410 to block ads and other junk that clogs the pipes. <span class=
1411 "APPLICATION">Privoxy's</span> configuration isn't perfect and
1412 sometimes innocent pages are blocked. In this situation it
1413 makes sense to allow the user to enforce the request and have
1414 <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> ignore the block.</p>
1416 <p>In the default configuration <span class=
1417 "APPLICATION">Privoxy's</span> <span class=
1418 "QUOTE">"Blocked"</span> page contains a <span class=
1419 "QUOTE">"go there anyway"</span> link to adds a special string
1420 (the force prefix) to the request URL. If that link is used,
1421 <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> will detect the force
1422 prefix, remove it again and let the request pass.</p>
1424 <p>Of course <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> can also
1425 be used to enforce a network policy. In that case the user
1426 obviously should not be able to bypass any blocks, and that's
1427 what the <span class="QUOTE">"enforce-blocks"</span> option is
1428 for. If it's enabled, <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span>
1429 hides the <span class="QUOTE">"go there anyway"</span> link. If
1430 the user adds the force prefix by hand, it will not be accepted
1431 and the circumvention attempt is logged.</p>
1437 <p>enforce-blocks 1</p>
1444 <h4 class="SECT3"><a name="ACLS" id="ACLS">7.4.7. ACLs: permit-access
1445 and deny-access</a></h4><a name="PERMIT-ACCESS" id=
1446 "PERMIT-ACCESS"></a><a name="DENY-ACCESS" id="DENY-ACCESS"></a>
1448 <div class="VARIABLELIST">
1453 <p>Who can access what.</p>
1456 <dt>Type of value:</dt>
1459 <p><tt class="REPLACEABLE c3">src_addr</tt>[:<tt class=
1460 "REPLACEABLE c3">port</tt>][/<tt class=
1461 "REPLACEABLE c3">src_masklen</tt>] [<tt class=
1462 "REPLACEABLE c3">dst_addr</tt>[:<tt class=
1463 "REPLACEABLE c3">port</tt>][/<tt class=
1464 "REPLACEABLE c3">dst_masklen</tt>]]</p>
1466 <p>Where <tt class="REPLACEABLE c3">src_addr</tt> and
1467 <tt class="REPLACEABLE c3">dst_addr</tt> are IPv4 addresses in
1468 dotted decimal notation or valid DNS names, <tt class=
1469 "REPLACEABLE c3">port</tt> is a port number, and <tt class=
1470 "REPLACEABLE c3">src_masklen</tt> and <tt class=
1471 "REPLACEABLE c3">dst_masklen</tt> are subnet masks in CIDR
1472 notation, i.e. integer values from 2 to 30 representing the
1473 length (in bits) of the network address. The masks and the
1474 whole destination part are optional.</p>
1476 <p>If your system implements <a href=
1477 "http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3493" target="_top">RFC
1478 3493</a>, then <tt class="REPLACEABLE c3">src_addr</tt> and
1479 <tt class="REPLACEABLE c3">dst_addr</tt> can be IPv6 addresses
1480 delimeted by brackets, <tt class="REPLACEABLE c3">port</tt> can
1481 be a number or a service name, and <tt class=
1482 "REPLACEABLE c3">src_masklen</tt> and <tt class=
1483 "REPLACEABLE c3">dst_masklen</tt> can be a number from 0 to
1487 <dt>Default value:</dt>
1490 <p><span class="emphasis EMPHASIS c2">Unset</span></p>
1492 <p>If no <tt class="REPLACEABLE c3">port</tt> is specified, any
1493 port will match. If no <tt class=
1494 "REPLACEABLE c3">src_masklen</tt> or <tt class=
1495 "REPLACEABLE c3">src_masklen</tt> is given, the complete IP
1496 address has to match (i.e. 32 bits for IPv4 and 128 bits for
1500 <dt>Effect if unset:</dt>
1503 <p>Don't restrict access further than implied by <tt class=
1504 "LITERAL">listen-address</tt></p>
1510 <p>Access controls are included at the request of ISPs and
1511 systems administrators, and <span class=
1512 "emphasis EMPHASIS c2">are not usually needed by individual
1513 users</span>. For a typical home user, it will normally suffice
1514 to ensure that <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> only
1515 listens on the localhost (127.0.0.1) or internal (home) network
1516 address by means of the <a href=
1517 "config.html#LISTEN-ADDRESS"><span class=
1518 "emphasis EMPHASIS c2">listen-address</span></a> option.</p>
1520 <p>Please see the warnings in the FAQ that <span class=
1521 "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> is not intended to be a substitute
1522 for a firewall or to encourage anyone to defer addressing basic
1523 security weaknesses.</p>
1525 <p>Multiple ACL lines are OK. If any ACLs are specified,
1526 <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> only talks to IP
1527 addresses that match at least one <tt class=
1528 "LITERAL">permit-access</tt> line and don't match any
1529 subsequent <tt class="LITERAL">deny-access</tt> line. In other
1530 words, the last match wins, with the default being <tt class=
1531 "LITERAL">deny-access</tt>.</p>
1533 <p>If <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> is using a
1534 forwarder (see <tt class="LITERAL">forward</tt> below) for a
1535 particular destination URL, the <tt class=
1536 "REPLACEABLE c3">dst_addr</tt> that is examined is the address
1537 of the forwarder and <span class=
1538 "emphasis EMPHASIS c2">NOT</span> the address of the ultimate
1539 target. This is necessary because it may be impossible for the
1540 local <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> to determine the
1541 IP address of the ultimate target (that's often what gateways
1544 <p>You should prefer using IP addresses over DNS names, because
1545 the address lookups take time. All DNS names must resolve! You
1546 can <span class="emphasis EMPHASIS c2">not</span> use domain
1547 patterns like <span class="QUOTE">"*.org"</span> or partial
1548 domain names. If a DNS name resolves to multiple IP addresses,
1549 only the first one is used.</p>
1551 <p>Some systems allow IPv4 clients to connect to IPv6 server
1552 sockets. Then the client's IPv4 address will be translated by
1553 the system into IPv6 address space with special prefix
1554 ::ffff:0:0/96 (so called IPv4 mapped IPv6 address).
1555 <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> can handle it and maps
1556 such ACL addresses automatically.</p>
1558 <p>Denying access to particular sites by ACL may have undesired
1559 side effects if the site in question is hosted on a machine
1560 which also hosts other sites (most sites are).</p>
1566 <p>Explicitly define the default behavior if no ACL and
1567 <tt class="LITERAL">listen-address</tt> are set: <span class=
1568 "QUOTE">"localhost"</span> is OK. The absence of a <tt class=
1569 "REPLACEABLE c3">dst_addr</tt> implies that <span class=
1570 "emphasis EMPHASIS c2">all</span> destination addresses are
1573 <table class="c4" border="0" width="90%">
1576 <pre class="SCREEN">
1577 permit-access localhost
1583 <p>Allow any host on the same class C subnet as www.privoxy.org
1584 access to nothing but www.example.com (or other domains hosted
1585 on the same system):</p>
1587 <table class="c4" border="0" width="90%">
1590 <pre class="SCREEN">
1591 permit-access www.privoxy.org/24 www.example.com/32
1597 <p>Allow access from any host on the 26-bit subnet
1598 192.168.45.64 to anywhere, with the exception that
1599 192.168.45.73 may not access the IP address behind
1600 www.dirty-stuff.example.com:</p>
1602 <table class="c4" border="0" width="90%">
1605 <pre class="SCREEN">
1606 permit-access 192.168.45.64/26
1607 deny-access 192.168.45.73 www.dirty-stuff.example.com
1613 <p>Allow access from the IPv4 network 192.0.2.0/24 even if
1614 listening on an IPv6 wild card address (not supported on all
1617 <table class="c4" border="0" width="90%">
1620 <pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
1621 permit-access 192.0.2.0/24
1627 <p>This is equivalent to the following line even if listening
1628 on an IPv4 address (not supported on all platforms):</p>
1630 <table class="c4" border="0" width="90%">
1633 <pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
1634 permit-access [::ffff:192.0.2.0]/120
1645 <h4 class="SECT3"><a name="BUFFER-LIMIT" id="BUFFER-LIMIT">7.4.8.
1646 buffer-limit</a></h4>
1648 <div class="VARIABLELIST">
1653 <p>Maximum size of the buffer for content filtering.</p>
1656 <dt>Type of value:</dt>
1659 <p>Size in Kbytes</p>
1662 <dt>Default value:</dt>
1668 <dt>Effect if unset:</dt>
1671 <p>Use a 4MB (4096 KB) limit.</p>
1677 <p>For content filtering, i.e. the <tt class=
1678 "LITERAL">+filter</tt> and <tt class=
1679 "LITERAL">+deanimate-gif</tt> actions, it is necessary that
1680 <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> buffers the entire
1681 document body. This can be potentially dangerous, since a
1682 server could just keep sending data indefinitely and wait for
1683 your RAM to exhaust -- with nasty consequences. Hence this
1686 <p>When a document buffer size reaches the <tt class=
1687 "LITERAL">buffer-limit</tt>, it is flushed to the client
1688 unfiltered and no further attempt to filter the rest of the
1689 document is made. Remember that there may be multiple threads
1690 running, which might require up to <tt class=
1691 "LITERAL">buffer-limit</tt> Kbytes <span class=
1692 "emphasis EMPHASIS c2">each</span>, unless you have enabled
1693 <span class="QUOTE">"single-threaded"</span> above.</p>
1701 <h2 class="SECT2"><a name="FORWARDING" id="FORWARDING">7.5.
1704 <p>This feature allows routing of HTTP requests through a chain of
1705 multiple proxies.</p>
1707 <p>Forwarding can be used to chain Privoxy with a caching proxy to
1708 speed up browsing. Using a parent proxy may also be necessary if the
1709 machine that <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> runs on has no
1710 direct Internet access.</p>
1712 <p>Note that parent proxies can severely decrease your privacy level.
1713 For example a parent proxy could add your IP address to the request
1714 headers and if it's a caching proxy it may add the <span class=
1715 "QUOTE">"Etag"</span> header to revalidation requests again, even
1716 though you configured Privoxy to remove it. It may also ignore
1717 Privoxy's header time randomization and use the original values which
1718 could be used by the server as cookie replacement to track your steps
1721 <p>Also specified here are SOCKS proxies. <span class=
1722 "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> supports the SOCKS 4 and SOCKS 4A
1726 <h4 class="SECT3"><a name="FORWARD" id="FORWARD">7.5.1.
1729 <div class="VARIABLELIST">
1734 <p>To which parent HTTP proxy specific requests should be
1738 <dt>Type of value:</dt>
1741 <p><tt class="REPLACEABLE c3">target_pattern</tt> <tt class=
1742 "REPLACEABLE c3">http_parent</tt>[:<tt class=
1743 "REPLACEABLE c3">port</tt>]</p>
1745 <p>where <tt class="REPLACEABLE c3">target_pattern</tt> is a
1746 <a href="actions-file.html#AF-PATTERNS">URL pattern</a> that
1747 specifies to which requests (i.e. URLs) this forward rule shall
1748 apply. Use <tt class="LITERAL">/</tt> to denote <span class=
1749 "QUOTE">"all URLs"</span>. <tt class=
1750 "REPLACEABLE c3">http_parent</tt>[:<tt class=
1751 "REPLACEABLE c3">port</tt>] is the DNS name or IP address of
1752 the parent HTTP proxy through which the requests should be
1753 forwarded, optionally followed by its listening port (default:
1754 8000). Use a single dot (<tt class="LITERAL">.</tt>) to denote
1755 <span class="QUOTE">"no forwarding"</span>.</p>
1758 <dt>Default value:</dt>
1761 <p><span class="emphasis EMPHASIS c2">Unset</span></p>
1764 <dt>Effect if unset:</dt>
1767 <p>Don't use parent HTTP proxies.</p>
1773 <p>If <tt class="REPLACEABLE c3">http_parent</tt> is
1774 <span class="QUOTE">"."</span>, then requests are not forwarded
1775 to another HTTP proxy but are made directly to the web
1778 <p><tt class="REPLACEABLE c3">http_parent</tt> can be a
1779 numerical IPv6 address (if <a href=
1780 "http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3493" target="_top">RFC 3493</a>
1781 is implemented). To prevent clashes with the port delimiter,
1782 the whole IP address has to be put into brackets. On the other
1783 hand a <tt class="REPLACEABLE c3">target_pattern</tt>
1784 containing an IPv6 address has to be put into angle brackets
1785 (normal brackets are reserved for regular expressions
1788 <p>Multiple lines are OK, they are checked in sequence, and the
1789 last match wins.</p>
1795 <p>Everything goes to an example parent proxy, except SSL on
1796 port 443 (which it doesn't handle):</p>
1798 <table class="c4" border="0" width="90%">
1801 <pre class="SCREEN">
1802 forward / parent-proxy.example.org:8080
1809 <p>Everything goes to our example ISP's caching proxy, except
1810 for requests to that ISP's sites:</p>
1812 <table class="c4" border="0" width="90%">
1815 <pre class="SCREEN">
1816 forward / caching-proxy.isp.example.net:8000
1817 forward .isp.example.net .
1823 <p>Parent proxy specified by an IPv6 address:</p>
1825 <table class="c4" border="0" width="90%">
1828 <pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
1829 forward / [2001:DB8::1]:8000
1835 <p>Suppose your parent proxy doesn't support IPv6:</p>
1837 <table class="c4" border="0" width="90%">
1840 <pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
1841 forward / parent-proxy.example.org:8000
1842 forward ipv6-server.example.org .
1843 forward <[2-3][0-9a-f][0-9a-f][0-9a-f]:*> .
1854 <h4 class="SECT3"><a name="SOCKS" id="SOCKS">7.5.2. forward-socks4,
1855 forward-socks4a and forward-socks5</a></h4><a name="FORWARD-SOCKS4"
1856 id="FORWARD-SOCKS4"></a><a name="FORWARD-SOCKS4A" id=
1857 "FORWARD-SOCKS4A"></a>
1859 <div class="VARIABLELIST">
1864 <p>Through which SOCKS proxy (and optionally to which parent
1865 HTTP proxy) specific requests should be routed.</p>
1868 <dt>Type of value:</dt>
1871 <p><tt class="REPLACEABLE c3">target_pattern</tt> <tt class=
1872 "REPLACEABLE c3">socks_proxy</tt>[:<tt class=
1873 "REPLACEABLE c3">port</tt>] <tt class=
1874 "REPLACEABLE c3">http_parent</tt>[:<tt class=
1875 "REPLACEABLE c3">port</tt>]</p>
1877 <p>where <tt class="REPLACEABLE c3">target_pattern</tt> is a
1878 <a href="actions-file.html#AF-PATTERNS">URL pattern</a> that
1879 specifies to which requests (i.e. URLs) this forward rule shall
1880 apply. Use <tt class="LITERAL">/</tt> to denote <span class=
1881 "QUOTE">"all URLs"</span>. <tt class=
1882 "REPLACEABLE c3">http_parent</tt> and <tt class=
1883 "REPLACEABLE c3">socks_proxy</tt> are IP addresses in dotted
1884 decimal notation or valid DNS names (<tt class=
1885 "REPLACEABLE c3">http_parent</tt> may be <span class=
1886 "QUOTE">"."</span> to denote <span class="QUOTE">"no HTTP
1887 forwarding"</span>), and the optional <tt class=
1888 "REPLACEABLE c3">port</tt> parameters are TCP ports, i.e.
1889 integer values from 1 to 65535</p>
1892 <dt>Default value:</dt>
1895 <p><span class="emphasis EMPHASIS c2">Unset</span></p>
1898 <dt>Effect if unset:</dt>
1901 <p>Don't use SOCKS proxies.</p>
1907 <p>Multiple lines are OK, they are checked in sequence, and the
1908 last match wins.</p>
1910 <p>The difference between <tt class=
1911 "LITERAL">forward-socks4</tt> and <tt class=
1912 "LITERAL">forward-socks4a</tt> is that in the SOCKS 4A
1913 protocol, the DNS resolution of the target hostname happens on
1914 the SOCKS server, while in SOCKS 4 it happens locally.</p>
1916 <p>With <tt class="LITERAL">forward-socks5</tt> the DNS
1917 resolution will happen on the remote server as well.</p>
1919 <p><tt class="REPLACEABLE c3">socks_proxy</tt> and <tt class=
1920 "REPLACEABLE c3">http_parent</tt> can be a numerical IPv6
1921 address (if <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3493"
1922 target="_top">RFC 3493</a> is implemented). To prevent clashes
1923 with the port delimiter, the whole IP address has to be put
1924 into brackets. On the other hand a <tt class=
1925 "REPLACEABLE c3">target_pattern</tt> containing an IPv6 address
1926 has to be put into angle brackets (normal brackets are reserved
1927 for regular expressions already).</p>
1929 <p>If <tt class="REPLACEABLE c3">http_parent</tt> is
1930 <span class="QUOTE">"."</span>, then requests are not forwarded
1931 to another HTTP proxy but are made (HTTP-wise) directly to the
1932 web servers, albeit through a SOCKS proxy.</p>
1938 <p>From the company example.com, direct connections are made to
1939 all <span class="QUOTE">"internal"</span> domains, but
1940 everything outbound goes through their ISP's proxy by way of
1941 example.com's corporate SOCKS 4A gateway to the Internet.</p>
1943 <table class="c4" border="0" width="90%">
1946 <pre class="SCREEN">
1947 forward-socks4a / socks-gw.example.com:1080 www-cache.isp.example.net:8080
1948 forward .example.com .
1954 <p>A rule that uses a SOCKS 4 gateway for all destinations but
1955 no HTTP parent looks like this:</p>
1957 <table class="c4" border="0" width="90%">
1960 <pre class="SCREEN">
1961 forward-socks4 / socks-gw.example.com:1080 .
1967 <p>To chain Privoxy and Tor, both running on the same system,
1968 you would use something like:</p>
1970 <table class="c4" border="0" width="90%">
1973 <pre class="SCREEN">
1974 forward-socks5 / 127.0.0.1:9050 .
1980 <p>The public <span class="APPLICATION">Tor</span> network
1981 can't be used to reach your local network, if you need to
1982 access local servers you therefore might want to make some
1985 <table class="c4" border="0" width="90%">
1988 <pre class="SCREEN">
1989 forward 192.168.*.*/ .
1991 forward 127.*.*.*/ .
1997 <p>Unencrypted connections to systems in these address ranges
1998 will be as (un)secure as the local network is, but the
1999 alternative is that you can't reach the local network through
2000 <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> at all. Of course this
2001 may actually be desired and there is no reason to make these
2002 exceptions if you aren't sure you need them.</p>
2004 <p>If you also want to be able to reach servers in your local
2005 network by using their names, you will need additional
2006 exceptions that look like this:</p>
2008 <table class="c4" border="0" width="90%">
2011 <pre class="SCREEN">
2012 forward localhost/ .
2023 <h4 class="SECT3"><a name="ADVANCED-FORWARDING-EXAMPLES" id=
2024 "ADVANCED-FORWARDING-EXAMPLES">7.5.3. Advanced Forwarding
2027 <p>If you have links to multiple ISPs that provide various special
2028 content only to their subscribers, you can configure multiple
2029 <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxies</span> which have connections to
2030 the respective ISPs to act as forwarders to each other, so that
2031 <span class="emphasis EMPHASIS c2">your</span> users can see the
2032 internal content of all ISPs.</p>
2034 <p>Assume that host-a has a PPP connection to isp-a.example.net. And
2035 host-b has a PPP connection to isp-b.example.org. Both run
2036 <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span>. Their forwarding
2037 configuration can look like this:</p>
2041 <table class="c4" border="0" width="100%">
2044 <pre class="SCREEN">
2046 forward .isp-b.example.net host-b:8118
2054 <table class="c4" border="0" width="100%">
2057 <pre class="SCREEN">
2059 forward .isp-a.example.org host-a:8118
2065 <p>Now, your users can set their browser's proxy to use either host-a
2066 or host-b and be able to browse the internal content of both isp-a
2069 <p>If you intend to chain <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span>
2070 and <span class="APPLICATION">squid</span> locally, then chaining as
2071 <tt class="LITERAL">browser -> squid -> privoxy</tt> is the
2072 recommended way.</p>
2074 <p>Assuming that <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> and
2075 <span class="APPLICATION">squid</span> run on the same box, your
2076 <span class="APPLICATION">squid</span> configuration could then look
2079 <table class="c4" border="0" width="100%">
2082 <pre class="SCREEN">
2083 # Define Privoxy as parent proxy (without ICP)
2084 cache_peer 127.0.0.1 parent 8118 7 no-query
2086 # Define ACL for protocol FTP
2089 # Do not forward FTP requests to Privoxy
2090 always_direct allow ftp
2092 # Forward all the rest to Privoxy
2093 never_direct allow all
2099 <p>You would then need to change your browser's proxy settings to
2100 <span class="APPLICATION">squid</span>'s address and port. Squid
2101 normally uses port 3128. If unsure consult <tt class=
2102 "LITERAL">http_port</tt> in <tt class="FILENAME">squid.conf</tt>.</p>
2104 <p>You could just as well decide to only forward requests you suspect
2105 of leading to Windows executables through a virus-scanning parent
2106 proxy, say, on <tt class="LITERAL">antivir.example.com</tt>, port
2109 <table class="c4" border="0" width="100%">
2112 <pre class="SCREEN">
2114 forward /.*\.(exe|com|dll|zip)$ antivir.example.com:8010
2122 <h4 class="SECT3"><a name="FORWARDED-CONNECT-RETRIES" id=
2123 "FORWARDED-CONNECT-RETRIES">7.5.4. forwarded-connect-retries</a></h4>
2125 <div class="VARIABLELIST">
2130 <p>How often Privoxy retries if a forwarded connection request
2134 <dt>Type of value:</dt>
2137 <p><tt class="REPLACEABLE c3">Number of retries.</tt></p>
2140 <dt>Default value:</dt>
2143 <p><span class="emphasis EMPHASIS c2">0</span></p>
2146 <dt>Effect if unset:</dt>
2149 <p>Connections forwarded through other proxies are treated like
2150 direct connections and no retry attempts are made.</p>
2156 <p><tt class="REPLACEABLE c3">forwarded-connect-retries</tt> is
2157 mainly interesting for socks4a connections, where <span class=
2158 "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> can't detect why the connections
2159 failed. The connection might have failed because of a DNS
2160 timeout in which case a retry makes sense, but it might also
2161 have failed because the server doesn't exist or isn't
2162 reachable. In this case the retry will just delay the
2163 appearance of Privoxy's error message.</p>
2165 <p>Note that in the context of this option, <span class=
2166 "QUOTE">"forwarded connections"</span> includes all connections
2167 that Privoxy forwards through other proxies. This option is not
2168 limited to the HTTP CONNECT method.</p>
2170 <p>Only use this option, if you are getting lots of
2171 forwarding-related error messages that go away when you try
2172 again manually. Start with a small value and check Privoxy's
2173 logfile from time to time, to see how many retries are usually
2180 <p>forwarded-connect-retries 1</p>
2188 <h2 class="SECT2"><a name="MISC" id="MISC">7.6. Miscellaneous</a></h2>
2191 <h4 class="SECT3"><a name="ACCEPT-INTERCEPTED-REQUESTS" id=
2192 "ACCEPT-INTERCEPTED-REQUESTS">7.6.1.
2193 accept-intercepted-requests</a></h4>
2195 <div class="VARIABLELIST">
2200 <p>Whether intercepted requests should be treated as valid.</p>
2203 <dt>Type of value:</dt>
2206 <p><tt class="REPLACEABLE c3">0 or 1</tt></p>
2209 <dt>Default value:</dt>
2212 <p><span class="emphasis EMPHASIS c2">0</span></p>
2215 <dt>Effect if unset:</dt>
2218 <p>Only proxy requests are accepted, intercepted requests are
2219 treated as invalid.</p>
2225 <p>If you don't trust your clients and want to force them to
2226 use <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span>, enable this
2227 option and configure your packet filter to redirect outgoing
2228 HTTP connections into <span class=
2229 "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span>.</p>
2231 <p>Make sure that <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy's</span>
2232 own requests aren't redirected as well. Additionally take care
2233 that <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> can't
2234 intentionally connect to itself, otherwise you could run into
2235 redirection loops if <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy's</span>
2236 listening port is reachable by the outside or an attacker has
2237 access to the pages you visit.</p>
2243 <p>accept-intercepted-requests 1</p>
2250 <h4 class="SECT3"><a name="ALLOW-CGI-REQUEST-CRUNCHING" id=
2251 "ALLOW-CGI-REQUEST-CRUNCHING">7.6.2.
2252 allow-cgi-request-crunching</a></h4>
2254 <div class="VARIABLELIST">
2259 <p>Whether requests to <span class=
2260 "APPLICATION">Privoxy's</span> CGI pages can be blocked or
2264 <dt>Type of value:</dt>
2267 <p><tt class="REPLACEABLE c3">0 or 1</tt></p>
2270 <dt>Default value:</dt>
2273 <p><span class="emphasis EMPHASIS c2">0</span></p>
2276 <dt>Effect if unset:</dt>
2279 <p><span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> ignores block and
2280 redirect actions for its CGI pages.</p>
2286 <p>By default <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> ignores
2287 block or redirect actions for its CGI pages. Intercepting these
2288 requests can be useful in multi-user setups to implement
2289 fine-grained access control, but it can also render the
2290 complete web interface useless and make debugging problems
2291 painful if done without care.</p>
2293 <p>Don't enable this option unless you're sure that you really
2300 <p>allow-cgi-request-crunching 1</p>
2307 <h4 class="SECT3"><a name="SPLIT-LARGE-FORMS" id=
2308 "SPLIT-LARGE-FORMS">7.6.3. split-large-forms</a></h4>
2310 <div class="VARIABLELIST">
2315 <p>Whether the CGI interface should stay compatible with broken
2319 <dt>Type of value:</dt>
2322 <p><tt class="REPLACEABLE c3">0 or 1</tt></p>
2325 <dt>Default value:</dt>
2328 <p><span class="emphasis EMPHASIS c2">0</span></p>
2331 <dt>Effect if unset:</dt>
2334 <p>The CGI form generate long GET URLs.</p>
2340 <p><span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy's</span> CGI forms can
2341 lead to rather long URLs. This isn't a problem as far as the
2342 HTTP standard is concerned, but it can confuse clients with
2343 arbitrary URL length limitations.</p>
2345 <p>Enabling split-large-forms causes <span class=
2346 "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> to divide big forms into smaller
2347 ones to keep the URL length down. It makes editing a lot less
2348 convenient and you can no longer submit all changes at once,
2349 but at least it works around this browser bug.</p>
2351 <p>If you don't notice any editing problems, there is no reason
2352 to enable this option, but if one of the submit buttons appears
2353 to be broken, you should give it a try.</p>
2359 <p>split-large-forms 1</p>
2366 <h4 class="SECT3"><a name="KEEP-ALIVE-TIMEOUT" id=
2367 "KEEP-ALIVE-TIMEOUT">7.6.4. keep-alive-timeout</a></h4>
2369 <div class="VARIABLELIST">
2374 <p>Number of seconds after which an open connection will no
2375 longer be reused.</p>
2378 <dt>Type of value:</dt>
2381 <p><tt class="REPLACEABLE c3">Time in seconds.</tt></p>
2384 <dt>Default value:</dt>
2390 <dt>Effect if unset:</dt>
2393 <p>Connections are not kept alive.</p>
2399 <p>This option allows clients to keep the connection to
2400 <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> alive. If the server
2401 supports it, <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> will keep
2402 the connection to the server alive as well. Under certain
2403 circumstances this may result in speed-ups.</p>
2405 <p>By default, <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> will
2406 close the connection to the server if the client connection
2407 gets closed, or if the specified timeout has been reached
2408 without a new request coming in. This behaviour can be changed
2409 with the <a href="#CONNECTION-SHARING" target=
2410 "_top">connection-sharing</a> option.</p>
2412 <p>This option has no effect if <span class=
2413 "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> has been compiled without
2414 keep-alive support.</p>
2416 <p>Note that a timeout of five seconds as used in the default
2417 configuration file significantly decreases the number of
2418 connections that will be reused. The value is used because some
2419 browsers limit the number of connections they open to a single
2420 host and apply the same limit to proxies. This can result in a
2421 single website <span class="QUOTE">"grabbing"</span> all the
2422 connections the browser allows, which means connections to
2423 other websites can't be opened until the connections currently
2424 in use time out.</p>
2426 <p>Several users have reported this as a Privoxy bug, so the
2427 default value has been reduced. Consider increasing it to 300
2428 seconds or even more if you think your browser can handle it.
2429 If your browser appears to be hanging it can't.</p>
2435 <p>keep-alive-timeout 300</p>
2442 <h4 class="SECT3"><a name="DEFAULT-SERVER-TIMEOUT" id=
2443 "DEFAULT-SERVER-TIMEOUT">7.6.5. default-server-timeout</a></h4>
2445 <div class="VARIABLELIST">
2450 <p>Assumed server-side keep-alive timeout if not specified by
2454 <dt>Type of value:</dt>
2457 <p><tt class="REPLACEABLE c3">Time in seconds.</tt></p>
2460 <dt>Default value:</dt>
2466 <dt>Effect if unset:</dt>
2469 <p>Connections for which the server didn't specify the
2470 keep-alive timeout are not reused.</p>
2476 <p>Enabling this option significantly increases the number of
2477 connections that are reused, provided the <a href=
2478 "#KEEP-ALIVE-TIMEOUT" target="_top">keep-alive-timeout</a>
2479 option is also enabled.</p>
2481 <p>While it also increases the number of connections problems
2482 when <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> tries to reuse a
2483 connection that already has been closed on the server side, or
2484 is closed while <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> is
2485 trying to reuse it, this should only be a problem if it happens
2486 for the first request sent by the client. If it happens for
2487 requests on reused client connections, <span class=
2488 "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> will simply close the connection
2489 and the client is supposed to retry the request without
2490 bothering the user.</p>
2492 <p>Enabling this option is therefore only recommended if the
2493 <a href="#CONNECTION-SHARING" target=
2494 "_top">connection-sharing</a> option is disabled.</p>
2496 <p>It is an error to specify a value larger than the <a href=
2497 "#KEEP-ALIVE-TIMEOUT" target="_top">keep-alive-timeout</a>
2500 <p>This option has no effect if <span class=
2501 "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> has been compiled without
2502 keep-alive support.</p>
2508 <p>default-server-timeout 60</p>
2515 <h4 class="SECT3"><a name="CONNECTION-SHARING" id=
2516 "CONNECTION-SHARING">7.6.6. connection-sharing</a></h4>
2518 <div class="VARIABLELIST">
2523 <p>Whether or not outgoing connections that have been kept
2524 alive should be shared between different incoming
2528 <dt>Type of value:</dt>
2531 <p><tt class="REPLACEABLE c3">0 or 1</tt></p>
2534 <dt>Default value:</dt>
2540 <dt>Effect if unset:</dt>
2543 <p>Connections are not shared.</p>
2549 <p>This option has no effect if <span class=
2550 "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> has been compiled without
2551 keep-alive support, or if it's disabled.</p>
2557 <p>Note that reusing connections doesn't necessary cause
2558 speedups. There are also a few privacy implications you should
2561 <p>If this option is effective, outgoing connections are shared
2562 between clients (if there are more than one) and closing the
2563 browser that initiated the outgoing connection does no longer
2564 affect the connection between <span class=
2565 "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> and the server unless the client's
2566 request hasn't been completed yet.</p>
2568 <p>If the outgoing connection is idle, it will not be closed
2569 until either <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy's</span> or the
2570 server's timeout is reached. While it's open, the server knows
2571 that the system running <span class=
2572 "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> is still there.</p>
2574 <p>If there are more than one client (maybe even belonging to
2575 multiple users), they will be able to reuse each others
2576 connections. This is potentially dangerous in case of
2577 authentication schemes like NTLM where only the connection is
2578 authenticated, instead of requiring authentication for each
2581 <p>If there is only a single client, and if said client can
2582 keep connections alive on its own, enabling this option has
2583 next to no effect. If the client doesn't support connection
2584 keep-alive, enabling this option may make sense as it allows
2585 <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> to keep outgoing
2586 connections alive even if the client itself doesn't support
2589 <p>You should also be aware that enabling this option increases
2590 the likelihood of getting the "No server or forwarder data"
2591 error message, especially if you are using a slow connection to
2594 <p>This option should only be used by experienced users who
2595 understand the risks and can weight them against the
2602 <p>connection-sharing 1</p>
2609 <h4 class="SECT3"><a name="SOCKET-TIMEOUT" id="SOCKET-TIMEOUT">7.6.7.
2610 socket-timeout</a></h4>
2612 <div class="VARIABLELIST">
2617 <p>Number of seconds after which a socket times out if no data
2621 <dt>Type of value:</dt>
2624 <p><tt class="REPLACEABLE c3">Time in seconds.</tt></p>
2627 <dt>Default value:</dt>
2633 <dt>Effect if unset:</dt>
2636 <p>A default value of 300 seconds is used.</p>
2642 <p>The default is quite high and you probably want to reduce
2643 it. If you aren't using an occasionally slow proxy like Tor,
2644 reducing it to a few seconds should be fine.</p>
2650 <p>socket-timeout 300</p>
2657 <h4 class="SECT3"><a name="MAX-CLIENT-CONNECTIONS" id=
2658 "MAX-CLIENT-CONNECTIONS">7.6.8. max-client-connections</a></h4>
2660 <div class="VARIABLELIST">
2665 <p>Maximum number of client connections that will be
2669 <dt>Type of value:</dt>
2672 <p><tt class="REPLACEABLE c3">Positive number.</tt></p>
2675 <dt>Default value:</dt>
2681 <dt>Effect if unset:</dt>
2684 <p>Connections are served until a resource limit is
2691 <p><span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> creates one thread
2692 (or process) for every incoming client connection that isn't
2693 rejected based on the access control settings.</p>
2695 <p>If the system is powerful enough, <span class=
2696 "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> can theoretically deal with
2697 several hundred (or thousand) connections at the same time, but
2698 some operating systems enforce resource limits by shutting down
2699 offending processes and their default limits may be below the
2700 ones <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> would require
2701 under heavy load.</p>
2703 <p>Configuring <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> to
2704 enforce a connection limit below the thread or process limit
2705 used by the operating system makes sure this doesn't happen.
2706 Simply increasing the operating system's limit would work too,
2707 but if <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> isn't the only
2708 application running on the system, you may actually want to
2709 limit the resources used by <span class=
2710 "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span>.</p>
2712 <p>If <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> is only used by
2713 a single trusted user, limiting the number of client
2714 connections is probably unnecessary. If there are multiple
2715 possibly untrusted users you probably still want to
2716 additionally use a packet filter to limit the maximal number of
2717 incoming connections per client. Otherwise a malicious user
2718 could intentionally create a high number of connections to
2719 prevent other users from using <span class=
2720 "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span>.</p>
2722 <p>Obviously using this option only makes sense if you choose a
2723 limit below the one enforced by the operating system.</p>
2729 <p>max-client-connections 256</p>
2736 <h4 class="SECT3"><a name="HANDLE-AS-EMPTY-DOC-RETURNS-OK" id=
2737 "HANDLE-AS-EMPTY-DOC-RETURNS-OK">7.6.9.
2738 handle-as-empty-doc-returns-ok</a></h4>
2740 <div class="VARIABLELIST">
2745 <p>The status code Privoxy returns for pages blocked with
2746 <tt class="LITERAL"><a href=
2747 "actions-file.html#HANDLE-AS-EMPTY-DOCUMENT" target=
2748 "_top">+handle-as-empty-document</a></tt>.</p>
2751 <dt>Type of value:</dt>
2754 <p><tt class="REPLACEABLE c3">0 or 1</tt></p>
2757 <dt>Default value:</dt>
2763 <dt>Effect if unset:</dt>
2766 <p>Privoxy returns a status 403(forbidden) for all blocked
2770 <dt>Effect if set:</dt>
2773 <p>Privoxy returns a status 200(OK) for pages blocked with
2774 +handle-as-empty-document and a status 403(Forbidden) for all
2775 other blocked pages.</p>
2781 <p>This is a work-around for Firefox bug 492459: <span class=
2782 "QUOTE">" Websites are no longer rendered if SSL requests for
2783 JavaScripts are blocked by a proxy. "</span> (<a href=
2784 "https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=492459" target=
2785 "_top">https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=492459</a>)
2786 As the bug has been fixed for quite some time this option
2787 should no longer be needed and will be removed in a future
2788 release. Please speak up if you have a reason why the option
2789 should be kept around.</p>
2796 <h4 class="SECT3"><a name="ENABLE-COMPRESSION" id=
2797 "ENABLE-COMPRESSION">7.6.10. enable-compression</a></h4>
2799 <div class="VARIABLELIST">
2804 <p>Whether or not buffered content is compressed before
2808 <dt>Type of value:</dt>
2811 <p><tt class="REPLACEABLE c3">0 or 1</tt></p>
2814 <dt>Default value:</dt>
2820 <dt>Effect if unset:</dt>
2823 <p>Privoxy does not compress buffered content.</p>
2826 <dt>Effect if set:</dt>
2829 <p>Privoxy compresses buffered content before delivering it to
2830 the client, provided the client supports it.</p>
2836 <p>This directive is only supported if Privoxy has been
2837 compiled with FEATURE_COMPRESSION, which should not to be
2838 confused with FEATURE_ZLIB.</p>
2840 <p>Compressing buffered content is mainly useful if Privoxy and
2841 the client are running on different systems. If they are
2842 running on the same system, enabling compression is likely to
2843 slow things down. If you didn't measure otherwise, you should
2844 assume that it does and keep this option disabled.</p>
2846 <p>Privoxy will not compress buffered content below a certain
2854 <h4 class="SECT3"><a name="COMPRESSION-LEVEL" id=
2855 "COMPRESSION-LEVEL">7.6.11. compression-level</a></h4>
2857 <div class="VARIABLELIST">
2862 <p>The compression level that is passed to the zlib library
2863 when compressing buffered content.</p>
2866 <dt>Type of value:</dt>
2869 <p><tt class="REPLACEABLE c3">Positive number ranging from 0 to
2873 <dt>Default value:</dt>
2882 <p>Compressing the data more takes usually longer than
2883 compressing it less or not compressing it at all. Which level
2884 is best depends on the connection between Privoxy and the
2885 client. If you can't be bothered to benchmark it for yourself,
2886 you should stick with the default and keep compression
2889 <p>If compression is disabled, the compression level is
2896 <table class="c4" border="0" width="90%">
2899 <pre class="SCREEN">
2900 # Best speed (compared to the other levels)
2904 # No compression. Only useful for testing as the added header
2905 # slightly increases the amount of data that has to be sent.
2906 # If your benchmark shows that using this compression level
2907 # is superior to using no compression at all, the benchmark
2908 # is likely to be flawed.
2922 <h2 class="SECT2"><a name="WINDOWS-GUI" id="WINDOWS-GUI">7.7. Windows
2923 GUI Options</a></h2>
2925 <p><span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> has a number of options
2926 specific to the Windows GUI interface:</p><a name="ACTIVITY-ANIMATION"
2927 id="ACTIVITY-ANIMATION"></a>
2929 <p>If <span class="QUOTE">"activity-animation"</span> is set to 1, the
2930 <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> icon will animate when
2931 <span class="QUOTE">"Privoxy"</span> is active. To turn off, set to
2934 <p class="LITERALLAYOUT"><tt class="LITERAL"> <span class=
2935 "emphasis EMPHASIS c2">activity-animation 1</span><br>
2936 </tt></p><a name="LOG-MESSAGES" id=
2939 <p>If <span class="QUOTE">"log-messages"</span> is set to 1,
2940 <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> will log messages to the
2943 <p class="LITERALLAYOUT"><tt class="LITERAL"> <span class=
2944 "emphasis EMPHASIS c2">log-messages 1</span><br>
2945 </tt></p><a name="LOG-BUFFER-SIZE" id=
2946 "LOG-BUFFER-SIZE"></a>
2948 <p>If <span class="QUOTE">"log-buffer-size"</span> is set to 1, the
2949 size of the log buffer, i.e. the amount of memory used for the log
2950 messages displayed in the console window, will be limited to
2951 <span class="QUOTE">"log-max-lines"</span> (see below).</p>
2953 <p>Warning: Setting this to 0 will result in the buffer to grow
2954 infinitely and eat up all your memory!</p>
2956 <p class="LITERALLAYOUT"><tt class="LITERAL"> <span class=
2957 "emphasis EMPHASIS c2">log-buffer-size 1</span><br>
2958 </tt></p><a name="LOG-MAX-LINES" id=
2959 "LOG-MAX-LINES"></a>
2961 <p><span class="APPLICATION">log-max-lines</span> is the maximum number
2962 of lines held in the log buffer. See above.</p>
2964 <p class="LITERALLAYOUT"><tt class="LITERAL"> <span class=
2965 "emphasis EMPHASIS c2">log-max-lines 200</span><br>
2966 </tt></p><a name="LOG-HIGHLIGHT-MESSAGES" id=
2967 "LOG-HIGHLIGHT-MESSAGES"></a>
2969 <p>If <span class="QUOTE">"log-highlight-messages"</span> is set to 1,
2970 <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> will highlight portions of the
2971 log messages with a bold-faced font:</p>
2973 <p class="LITERALLAYOUT"><tt class="LITERAL"> <span class=
2974 "emphasis EMPHASIS c2">log-highlight-messages 1</span><br>
2975 </tt></p><a name="LOG-FONT-NAME" id=
2976 "LOG-FONT-NAME"></a>
2978 <p>The font used in the console window:</p>
2980 <p class="LITERALLAYOUT"><tt class="LITERAL"> <span class=
2981 "emphasis EMPHASIS c2">log-font-name Comic Sans MS</span><br>
2982 </tt></p><a name="LOG-FONT-SIZE" id=
2983 "LOG-FONT-SIZE"></a>
2985 <p>Font size used in the console window:</p>
2987 <p class="LITERALLAYOUT"><tt class="LITERAL"> <span class=
2988 "emphasis EMPHASIS c2">log-font-size 8</span><br>
2989 </tt></p><a name="SHOW-ON-TASK-BAR" id=
2990 "SHOW-ON-TASK-BAR"></a>
2992 <p><span class="QUOTE">"show-on-task-bar"</span> controls whether or
2993 not <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> will appear as a button on
2994 the Task bar when minimized:</p>
2996 <p class="LITERALLAYOUT"><tt class="LITERAL"> <span class=
2997 "emphasis EMPHASIS c2">show-on-task-bar 0</span><br>
2998 </tt></p><a name="CLOSE-BUTTON-MINIMIZES" id=
2999 "CLOSE-BUTTON-MINIMIZES"></a>
3001 <p>If <span class="QUOTE">"close-button-minimizes"</span> is set to 1,
3002 the Windows close button will minimize <span class=
3003 "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> instead of closing the program (close with
3004 the exit option on the File menu).</p>
3006 <p class="LITERALLAYOUT"><tt class="LITERAL"> <span class=
3007 "emphasis EMPHASIS c2">close-button-minimizes 1</span><br>
3008 </tt></p><a name="HIDE-CONSOLE" id=
3011 <p>The <span class="QUOTE">"hide-console"</span> option is specific to
3012 the MS-Win console version of <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span>.
3013 If this option is used, <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> will
3014 disconnect from and hide the command console.</p>
3016 <p class="LITERALLAYOUT"><tt class="LITERAL"> #<span class=
3017 "emphasis EMPHASIS c2">hide-console</span><br>
3018 </tt></p>
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