1 <!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook V3.1//EN" [
2 <!entity % dummy "INCLUDE">
3 <!entity supported SYSTEM "supported.sgml">
4 <!entity newfeatures SYSTEM "newfeatures.sgml">
5 <!entity p-intro SYSTEM "privoxy.sgml">
6 <!entity seealso SYSTEM "seealso.sgml">
7 <!entity buildsource SYSTEM "buildsource.sgml">
8 <!entity contacting SYSTEM "contacting.sgml">
9 <!entity history SYSTEM "history.sgml">
10 <!entity copyright SYSTEM "copyright.sgml">
11 <!entity p-version "2.9.14">
12 <!entity p-status "beta">
13 <!entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE">
14 <!entity % p-stable "IGNORE">
15 <!entity % p-text "IGNORE"> <!-- define we are not a text only doc -->
16 <!entity % p-doc "INCLUDE"> <!-- and we are a formal doc -->
17 <!entity % p-readme "IGNORE">
18 <!entity % p-supp-userman "IGNORE"> <!-- Omit some from supported.sgml -->
21 File : $Source: /cvsroot/ijbswa/current/doc/source/user-manual.sgml,v $
24 This file belongs into
25 ijbswa.sourceforge.net:/home/groups/i/ij/ijbswa/htdocs/
27 $Id: user-manual.sgml,v 1.80 2002/04/18 10:45:19 oes Exp $
29 Written by and Copyright (C) 2001 the SourceForge
30 Privoxy team. http://www.privoxy.org/
32 Based on the Internet Junkbuster originally written
33 by and Copyright (C) 1997 Anonymous Coders and
34 Junkbusters Corporation. http://www.junkbusters.com
37 ========================================================================
38 NOTE: Please read developer-manual/documentation.html before touching
39 anything in this, or other Privoxy documentation.
40 ========================================================================
46 <title>Privoxy User Manual</title>
48 <pubdate>$Id: user-manual.sgml,v 1.80 2002/04/18 10:45:19 oes Exp $</pubdate>
53 <orgname>By: Privoxy Developers</orgname>
62 This is here to keep vim syntax file from breaking :/
63 If I knew enough to fix it, I would.
64 PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE! HB: hal@foobox.net
70 The user manual gives users information on how to install, configure and use
72 url="http://www.privoxy.org/"><application>Privoxy</application></ulink>.
75 <!-- Include privoxy.sgml boilerplate: -->
77 <!-- end privoxy.sgml -->
80 You can find the latest version of the user manual at <ulink
81 url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/">http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/</ulink>.
82 Please see the <ulink url="contact.html">Contact section</ulink> on how to
83 contact the developers.
87 <!-- Feel free to send a note to the developers at <email>ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net</email>. -->
93 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
94 <sect1 id="intro" label=""><title></title>
95 <!-- dummy section to force TOC on page by itself -->
96 <!-- DO NOT REMOVE! please ;) -->
100 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
102 <sect1 label="1" id="introduction"><title>Introduction</title>
105 This documentation is included with the current &p-status; version of
106 <application>Privoxy</application>, v.&p-version;<![%p-not-stable;[,
107 and is mostly complete at this point. The most up to date reference for the
108 time being is still the comments in the source files and in the individual
109 configuration files. Development of version 3.0 is currently nearing
110 completion, and includes many significant changes and enhancements over
111 earlier versions. The target release date for
112 stable v3.0 is <quote>soon</quote> ;-)]]>.
116 <!-- include only in non-stable versions -->
118 Since this is a &p-status; version, not all new features are well tested. This
119 documentation may be slightly out of sync as a result (especially with
120 CVS sources). And there <emphasis>may be</emphasis> bugs, though hopefully
125 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
126 <sect2 id="newfeatures">
127 <title>New Features</title>
129 In addition to <application>Internet Junkbuster's</application> traditional
130 features of ad and banner blocking and cookie management,
131 <application>Privoxy</application> provides new features<![%p-not-stable;[,
132 some of them currently under development]]>:
133 <anchor id="testing"/>
136 <!-- Include newfeatures.sgml boilerplate here: -->
138 <!-- end boilerplate -->
143 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
146 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
147 <sect1 id="installation"><title>Installation</title>
149 <application>Privoxy</application> is available both in convenient pre-compiled
150 packages for a wide range of operating systems, and as raw source code.
151 For most users, we recommend using the packages, which can be downloaded from our
152 <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ijbswa/">Privoxy Project Page</ulink>.
155 If you like to live on the bleeding edge and are not afraid of using
156 possibly unstable development versions, you can check out the up-to-the-minute
157 version directly from <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/cvs/?group_id=11118">the
158 CVS repository</ulink> or simply download <ulink
159 url="http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cvstarballs/ijbswa-cvsroot.tar.gz">the nightly CVS
163 <!-- Include supported.sgml boilerplate -->
165 <!-- end boilerplate -->
167 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
168 <sect2 id="installation-packages"><title>Binary Packages</title>
170 Binary packages can be downloaded from our <ulink
171 url="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ijbswa/">Privoxy Project Page</ulink>.
175 How to install them depends on your operating system:
178 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
179 <sect3 id="installation-pack-rpm"><title>Redhat and SuSE RPMs</title>
182 RPMs can be installed with <literal>rpm -Uvh <name-of-rpm.rpm></literal>,
183 and will use <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> for configuration files.
187 Note that if you have a <application>Junkbuster</application> RPM installed
188 on your system, you need to remove it first, because the packages conflict.
192 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
193 <sect3 id="installation-deb"><title>Debian</title>
199 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
200 <sect3 id="installation-pack-win"><title>Windows</title>
203 Just double-click the installer, which will guide you through
204 the installation process.
208 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
209 <sect3 id="installation-pack-bintgz"><title>Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD, HP-UX</title>
212 Create a new directory, <literal>cd</literal> to it, then unzip and
213 untar the archive. For the most part, you'll have to figure out where
218 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
219 <sect3 id="installation-os2"><title>OS/2</title>
222 First, make sure that no previous installations of
223 <application>Junkbuster</application> and / or
224 <application>Privoxy</application> are left on your
225 system. Be sure to backup your configuration if it
226 is valuable to you. (In that case, also see the
227 <link linkend="upgradersnote">note to upgraders</link>.)
231 Then, just double-click the WarpIN self-installing archive, which will
232 guide you through the installation process. A shadow of the
233 <application>Privoxy</application> executable will be placed in your
234 startup folder so it will start automatically whenever OS/2 starts.
238 The directory you choose to install <application>Privoxy</application>
239 into will contain all of the configuration files.
243 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
244 <sect3 id="installation-mac"><title>Max OSX</title>
250 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
251 <sect3 id="installation-amiga"><title>AmigaOS</title>
253 Unpack the <literal>.lha</literal> archive, then FIXME.
258 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
259 <sect2 id="installation-source"><title>Building from Source</title>
261 <!-- include buildsource.sgml boilerplate: -->
263 <!-- end boilerplate -->
268 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
271 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
273 <sect1 id="quickstart"><title>Quickstart to Using <application>Privoxy</application></title>
276 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
277 <sect2 id="upgradersnote">
278 <title>Note to Upgraders</title>
280 There are very significant changes from older versions of
281 <application>Junkbuster</application> to the current
282 <application>Privoxy</application>. Configuration is substantially
283 changed. <application>Junkbuster 2.0.x</application> and earlier
284 configuration files will not migrate. The functionality of the old
285 <filename>blockfile</filename>, <filename>cookiefile</filename> and
286 <filename>imagelist</filename>, are now combined into the
287 <quote>actions file</quote> (<filename>default.action</filename>
288 for most installations).
291 A <quote>filter file</quote> (typically <filename>default.filter</filename>)
292 is new with <application>Privoxy 2.9.x</application>, and provides some
293 of the new sophistication (explained below). <filename>config</filename> is
294 much the same as before.
297 If upgrading from a 2.0.x version, you will have to use the new config
298 files, and possibly adapt any personal rules from your older files.
299 When porting personal rules over from the old <filename>blockfile</filename>
300 to the new actions file, please note that even the pattern syntax has
302 If upgrading from 2.9.x development versions, it is still recommended
303 to use the new configuration files.
306 A quick list of things to be aware of before upgrading:
314 The default listening port is now 8118 due to a conflict with another
320 Some installers may remove earlier versions completely. Save any
321 important configuration files!
326 <application>Privoxy</application> is controllable with a web browser
327 at the special URL: <ulink
328 url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
329 (Shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>). Many
330 aspects of configuration can be done here, including temporarily disabling
331 <application>Privoxy</application>.
336 The primary configuration file for cookie management, ad and banner
337 blocking, and many other aspects of <application>Privoxy</application>
338 configuration is <filename>default.action</filename>. It is strongly
339 recommended to become familiar with the new actions concept below,
340 before modifying this file.
345 <!-- I think it is best to keep this somewhat vague, in case -->
346 <!-- the situation changes under our feet. -->
347 Some installers may not automatically start
348 <application>Privoxy</application> after installation.
357 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
359 <title>Starting <application>Privoxy</application></title>
361 Before launching <application>Privoxy</application> for the first time, you
362 will want to configure your browser(s) to use <application>Privoxy</application>
363 as a HTTP and HTTPS proxy. The default is localhost for the proxy address,
364 and port 8118 (earlier versions used port 8000). This is the one required
365 configuration that must be done!
369 With <application>Netscape</application> (and
370 <application>Mozilla</application>), this can be set under <literal>Edit
371 -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Proxies -> HTTP Proxy</literal>.
372 For <application>Internet Explorer</application>: <literal>Tools ->
373 Internet Properties -> Connections -> LAN Setting</literal>. Then,
374 check <quote>Use Proxy</quote> and fill in the appropriate info (Address:
375 localhost, Port: 8118). Include if HTTPS proxy support too.
379 After doing this, flush your browser's disk and memory caches to force a
380 re-reading of all pages and to get rid of any ads that may be cached. You
381 are now ready to start enjoying the benefits of using
382 <application>Privoxy</application>.
387 <application>Privoxy</application> is typically started by specifying the
388 main configuration file to be used on the command line. Example Unix startup
395 # /usr/sbin/privoxy /etc/privoxy/config
401 An init script is provided for SuSE and Redhat.
405 For for SuSE: <command>rcprivoxy start</command>
409 For RedHat: <command>/etc/rc.d/init.d/privoxy start</command>
414 If no configuration file is specified on the command line,
415 <application>Privoxy</application> will look for a file named
416 <filename>config</filename> in the current directory. Except on Win32 where
417 it will try <filename>config.txt</filename>. If no file is specified on the
418 command line and no default configuration file can be found,
419 <application>Privoxy</application> will fail to start.
424 The included default configuration files should give a reasonable starting
425 point. Most of the per site configuration is done in the
426 <quote>actions</quote> files. These are where various cookie actions are
427 defined, ad and banner blocking, and other aspects of
428 <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. There are several such
429 files included, with varying levels of aggressiveness.
433 You will probably want to keep an eye out for sites that require persistent
434 cookies, and add these to <filename>default.action</filename> as needed. By
435 default, most of these will be accepted only during the current browser
436 session (aka <quote>session cookies</quote>), until you add them to the
437 configuration. If you want the browser to handle this instead, you will need
438 to edit <filename>default.action</filename> and disable this feature. If you
439 use more than one browser, it would make more sense to let
440 <application>Privoxy</application> handle this. In which case, the
441 browser(s) should be set to accept all cookies.
445 Another feature where you will probably want to define exceptions for trusted
446 sites is the popup-killing (through the <literal>+popup</literal> and
447 <literal>+filter{popups}</literal> actions), because your favorite shopping,
448 banking, or leisure site may need popups.
452 <application>Privoxy</application> is HTTP/1.1 compliant, but not all of
453 the optional 1.1 features are as yet supported. In the unlikely event that
454 you experience inexplicable problems with browsers that use HTTP/1.1 per default
455 (like <application>Mozilla</application> or recent versions of I.E.), you might
456 try to force HTTP/1.0 compatibility. For Mozilla, look under <literal>Edit ->
457 Preferences -> Debug -> Networking</literal>.
458 Alternatively, set the <quote>+downgrade</quote> config option in
459 <filename>default.action</filename> which will downgrade your browser's HTTP
460 requests from HTTP/1.1 to HTTP/1.0 before processing them.
464 After running <application>Privoxy</application> for a while, you can
465 start to fine tune the configuration to suit your personal, or site,
466 preferences and requirements. There are many, many aspects that can
467 be customized. <quote>Actions</quote> (as specified in <filename>default.action</filename>)
468 can be adjusted by pointing your browser to
469 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
470 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
471 and then follow the link to <quote>edit the actions list</quote>.
472 (This is an internal page and does not require Internet access.)
476 In fact, various aspects of <application>Privoxy</application>
477 configuration can be viewed from this page, including
478 current configuration parameters, source code version numbers,
479 the browser's request headers, and <quote>actions</quote> that apply
480 to a given URL. In addition to the <filename>default.action</filename> file
481 editor mentioned above, <application>Privoxy</application> can also
482 be turned <quote>on</quote> and <quote>off</quote> (toggled) from this page.
486 If you encounter problems, try loading the page without
487 <application>Privoxy</application>. If that helps, enter the URL where
488 you have the problems into <ulink url="http://p.p/show-url-info">the browser
489 based rule tracing utility</ulink>. See which rules apply and why, and
490 then try turning them off for that site one after the other, until the problem
491 is gone. When you have found the culprit, you might want to turn the rest on
496 If the above paragraph sounds gibberish to you, you might want to <ulink
497 url="configuration.html#ACTIONSFILE">read more about the actions concept</ulink>
498 or even dive deep into the <ulink url="appendix.html#ACTIONSANAT">Appendix
503 If you can't get rid of the problem at all, think you've found a bug in
504 Privoxy, want to propose a new feature or smarter rules, please see the
505 chapter "Contacting the Developers, .." below.
511 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
513 <title>Command Line Options</title>
515 <application>Privoxy</application> may be invoked with the following
516 command-line options:
524 <emphasis>--version</emphasis>
527 Print version info and exit, Unix only.
532 <emphasis>--help</emphasis>
535 Print a short usage info and exit, Unix only.
540 <emphasis>--no-daemon</emphasis>
543 Don't become a daemon, i.e. don't fork and become process group
544 leader, don't detach from controlling tty. Unix only.
549 <emphasis>--pidfile FILE</emphasis>
553 On startup, write the process ID to <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>. Delete the
554 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> on exit. Failure to create or delete the
555 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> is non-fatal. If no <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>
556 option is given, no PID file will be used. Unix only.
561 <emphasis>--user USER[.GROUP]</emphasis>
565 After (optionally) writing the PID file, assume the user ID of
566 <emphasis>USER</emphasis>, and if included the GID of GROUP. Exit if the
567 privileges are not sufficient to do so. Unix only.
572 <emphasis>configfile</emphasis>
575 If no <emphasis>configfile</emphasis> is included on the command line,
576 <application>Privoxy</application> will look for a file named
577 <quote>config</quote> in the current directory (except on Win32
578 where it will look for <quote>config.txt</quote> instead). Specify
579 full path to avoid confusion.
590 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
593 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
594 <sect1 id="configuration"><title><application>Privoxy</application> Configuration</title>
596 All <application>Privoxy</application> configuration is stored
597 in text files. These files can be edited with a text editor.
598 Many important aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> can
599 also be controlled easily with a web browser.
604 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
607 <title>Controlling <application>Privoxy</application> with Your Web Browser</title>
609 <application>Privoxy</application>'s user interface can be reached through the special
610 URL <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
611 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
612 which is a built-in page and works without Internet access.
613 You will see the following section:
620 Please choose from the following options:
623 * Show information about the current configuration
624 * Show the source code version numbers
625 * Show the request headers.
626 * Show which actions apply to a URL and why
627 * Toggle Privoxy on or off
628 * Edit the actions list
634 This should be self-explanatory. Note the last item is an editor for the
635 <quote>actions list</quote>, which is where much of the ad, banner, cookie,
636 and URL blocking magic is configured as well as other advanced features of
637 <application>Privoxy</application>. This is an easy way to adjust various
638 aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. The actions
639 file, and other configuration files, are explained in detail below.
643 <quote>Toggle Privoxy On or Off</quote> is handy for sites that might
644 have problems with your current actions and filters. You can in fact use
645 it as a test to see whether it is <application>Privoxy</application>
646 causing the problem or not. <application>Privoxy</application> continues
647 to run as a proxy in this case, but all filtering is disabled. There
648 is even a toggle Bookmarklet offered, so that you can toggle
649 <application>Privoxy</application> with one click from your browser.
655 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
660 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
663 <title>Configuration Files Overview</title>
665 For Unix, *BSD and Linux, all configuration files are located in
666 <filename>/etc/privoxy/</filename> by default. For MS Windows, OS/2, and
667 AmigaOS these are all in the same directory as the
668 <application>Privoxy</application> executable. <![%p-not-stable;[ The name
669 and number of configuration files has changed from previous versions, and is
670 subject to change as development progresses.]]>
674 The installed defaults provide a reasonable starting point, though possibly
675 aggressive by some standards. For the time being, there are only three
676 default configuration files (this may change in time):
684 The main configuration file is named <filename>config</filename>
685 on Linux, Unix, BSD, OS/2, and AmigaOS and <filename>config.txt</filename>
692 <filename>default.action</filename> (the actions file) is used to define
693 which of a set of various <quote>actions</quote> relating to images, banners,
694 pop-ups, access restrictions, banners and cookies are to be applied where.
695 There is a web based editor for this file that can be accessed at <ulink
696 url="http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions/">http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions/</ulink>
697 (Shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/edit-actions/">http://p.p/edit-actions/</ulink>).
698 (Other actions files are included as well with differing levels of filtering
699 and blocking, e.g. <filename>basic.action</filename>.)
705 <filename>default.filter</filename> (the filter file) can be used to re-write the raw
706 page content, including viewable text as well as embedded HTML and JavaScript,
707 and whatever else lurks on any given web page. The filtering jobs are only
708 pre-defined here; whether to apply them or not is up to the actions file.
716 All files use the <quote><literal>#</literal></quote> character to denote a
717 comment (the rest of the line will be ignored) and understand line continuation
718 through placing a backslash ("<literal>\</literal>") as the very last character
719 in a line. If the <literal>#</literal> is preceded by a backslash, it looses
720 its special function. Placing a <literal>#</literal> in front of an otherwise
721 valid configuration line to prevent it from being interpreted is called "commenting
726 <filename>default.action</filename> and <filename>default.filter</filename>
727 can use Perl style regular expressions for maximum flexibility.
731 After making any changes, there is no need to restart
732 <application>Privoxy</application> in order for the changes to take
733 effect. <application>Privoxy</application> detects such changes
734 automatically. Note, however, that it may take one or two additional
735 requests for the change to take effect. When changing the listening address
736 of <application>Privoxy</application>, these <quote>wake up</quote> requests
737 must obviously be sent to the <emphasis>old</emphasis> listening address.
742 While under development, the configuration content is subject to change.
743 The below documentation may not be accurate by the time you read this.
744 Also, what constitutes a <quote>default</quote> setting, may change, so
745 please check all your configuration files on important issues.
751 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
754 <title>The Main Configuration File</title>
756 Again, the main configuration file is named <filename>config</filename> on
757 Linux/Unix/BSD and OS/2, and <filename>config.txt</filename> on Windows.
758 Configuration lines consist of an initial keyword followed by a list of
759 values, all separated by whitespace (any number of spaces or tabs). For
767 <emphasis>confdir /etc/privoxy</emphasis>
774 Assigns the value <literal>/etc/privoxy</literal> to the option
775 <literal>confdir</literal> and thus indicates that the configuration
776 directory is named <quote>/etc/privoxy/</quote>.
780 All options in the config file except for <literal>confdir</literal> and
781 <literal>logdir</literal> are optional. Watch out in the below description
782 for what happens if you leave them unset.
786 The main config file controls all aspects of <application>Privoxy</application>'s
787 operation that are not location dependent (i.e. they apply universally, no matter
788 where you may be surfing).
792 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
795 <title>Configuration and Log File Locations</title>
798 <application>Privoxy</application> can (and normally does) use a number of
799 other files for additional configuration and logging.
800 This section of the configuration file tells <application>Privoxy</application>
801 where to find those other files.
805 <sect4><title>confdir</title>
809 <term>Specifies:</term>
811 <para>The directory where the other configuration files are located</para>
815 <term>Type of value:</term>
817 <para>Path name</para>
821 <term>Default value:</term>
823 <para>/etc/privoxy (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> <application>Privoxy</application> installation dir (Windows) </para>
827 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
829 <para><emphasis>Mandatory</emphasis></para>
836 No trailing <quote><literal>/</literal></quote>, please
839 When development goes modular and multi-user, the blocker, filter, and
840 per-user config will be stored in subdirectories of <quote>confdir</quote>.
841 For now, the configuration directory structure is flat, except for
842 <filename>confdir/templates</filename>, where the HTML templates for CGI
843 output reside (e.g. <application>Privoxy's</application> 404 error page).
851 <sect4><title>logdir</title>
855 <term>Specifies:</term>
858 The directory where all logging takes place (i.e. where <filename>logfile</filename> and
859 <filename>jarfile</filename> are located)
864 <term>Type of value:</term>
866 <para>Path name</para>
870 <term>Default value:</term>
872 <para>/var/log/privoxy (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> <application>Privoxy</application> installation dir (Windows) </para>
876 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
878 <para><emphasis>Mandatory</emphasis></para>
885 No trailing <quote><literal>/</literal></quote>, please
892 <sect4><title>actionsfile</title>
896 <term>Specifies:</term>
899 The actions file to use
904 <term>Type of value:</term>
906 <para>File name, relative to <literal>confdir</literal></para>
910 <term>Default value:</term>
912 <para>default.action (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> default.action.txt (Windows)</para>
916 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
919 No action is taken at all. Simple neutral proxying.
927 There is no point in using <application>Privoxy</application> without
928 an actions file. There are three different actions files included in the
929 distribution, with varying degrees of aggressiveness:
930 <filename>default.action</filename>, <filename>intermediate.action</filename> and
931 <filename>advanced.action</filename>.
938 <sect4><title>filterfile</title>
942 <term>Specifies:</term>
945 The filter file to use
950 <term>Type of value:</term>
952 <para>File name, relative to <literal>confdir</literal></para>
956 <term>Default value:</term>
958 <para>default.filter (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> default.filter.txt (Windows)</para>
962 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
965 No textual content filtering takes place, i.e. all
966 <literal>+filter{<replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable>}</literal>
967 actions in the actions file are turned off
975 The <quote>default.filter</quote> file contains content modification rules
976 that use <quote>regular expressions</quote>. These rules permit powerful
977 changes on the content of Web pages, e.g., you could disable your favorite
978 JavaScript annoyances, re-write the actual displayed text, or just have some
979 fun replacing <quote>Microsoft</quote> with <quote>MicroSuck</quote> wherever
980 it appears on a Web page.
987 <sect4><title>logfile</title>
991 <term>Specifies:</term>
999 <term>Type of value:</term>
1001 <para>File name, relative to <literal>logdir</literal></para>
1005 <term>Default value:</term>
1007 <para>logfile (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> privoxy.log (Windows)</para>
1011 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1014 No log file is used, all log messages go to the console (<literal>stderr</literal>).
1022 The windows version will additionally log to the console.
1025 The logfile is where all logging and error messages are written. The level
1026 of detail and number of messages are set with the <literal>debug</literal>
1027 option (see below). The logfile can be useful for tracking down a problem with
1028 <application>Privoxy</application> (e.g., it's not blocking an ad you
1029 think it should block) but in most cases you probably will never look at it.
1032 Your logfile will grow indefinitely, and you will probably want to
1033 periodically remove it. On Unix systems, you can do this with a cron job
1034 (see <quote>man cron</quote>). For Redhat, a <command>logrotate</command>
1035 script has been included.
1038 On SuSE Linux systems, you can place a line like <quote>/var/log/privoxy.*
1039 +1024k 644 nobody.nogroup</quote> in <filename>/etc/logfiles</filename>, with
1040 the effect that cron.daily will automatically archive, gzip, and empty the
1041 log, when it exceeds 1M size.
1048 <sect4><title>jarfile</title>
1052 <term>Specifies:</term>
1055 The file to store intercepted cookies in
1060 <term>Type of value:</term>
1062 <para>File name, relative to <literal>logdir</literal></para>
1066 <term>Default value:</term>
1068 <para>jarfile (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> privoxy.jar (Windows)</para>
1072 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1075 Intercepted cookies are not stored at all.
1083 The jarfile may grow to ridiculous sizes over time.
1090 <sect4><title>trustfile</title>
1094 <term>Specifies:</term>
1097 The trust file to use
1102 <term>Type of value:</term>
1104 <para>File name, relative to <literal>confdir</literal></para>
1108 <term>Default value:</term>
1110 <para><emphasis>Unset (commented out)</emphasis>. When activated: trust (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> trust.txt (Windows)</para>
1114 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1117 The whole trust mechanism is turned off.
1125 The trust mechanism is an experimental feature for building white-lists and should
1126 be used with care. It is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> recommended for the casual user.
1129 If you specify a trust file, <application>Privoxy</application> will only allow
1130 access to sites that are named in the trustfile.
1131 You can also mark sites as trusted referrers (with <literal>+</literal>), with
1132 the effect that access to untrusted sites will be granted, if a link from a
1133 trusted referrer was used.
1134 The link target will then be added to the <quote>trustfile</quote>.
1135 Possible applications include limiting Internet access for children.
1138 If you use <literal>+</literal> operator in the trust file, it may grow considerably over time.
1147 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1151 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1154 <title>Local Set-up Documentation</title>
1157 If you intend to operate <application>Privoxy</application> for more users
1158 that just yourself, it might be a good idea to let them know how to reach
1159 you, what you block and why you do that, your policies etc.
1162 <sect4><title>trust-info-url</title>
1166 <term>Specifies:</term>
1169 A URL to be displayed in the error page that users will see if access to an untrusted page is denied.
1174 <term>Type of value:</term>
1180 <term>Default value:</term>
1182 <para>Two example URL are provided</para>
1186 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1189 No links are displayed on the "untrusted" error page.
1197 The value of this option only matters if the experimental trust mechanism has been
1198 activated. (See <literal>trustfile</literal> above.)
1201 If you use the trust mechanism, it is a good idea to write up some on-line
1202 documentation about your trust policy and to specify the URL(s) here.
1203 Use multiple times for multiple URLs.
1206 The URL(s) should be added to the trustfile as well, so users don't end up
1207 locked out from the information on why they were locked out in the first place!
1214 <sect4><title>admin-address</title>
1218 <term>Specifies:</term>
1221 An email address to reach the proxy administrator.
1226 <term>Type of value:</term>
1228 <para>Email address</para>
1232 <term>Default value:</term>
1234 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
1238 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1241 No email address is displayed on error pages and the CGI user interface.
1249 If both <literal>admin-address</literal> and <literal>proxy-info-url</literal>
1250 are unset, the whole "Local Privoxy Support" box on all generated pages will
1258 <sect4><title>proxy-info-url</title>
1262 <term>Specifies:</term>
1265 A URL to documentation about the local <application>Privoxy</application> setup,
1266 configuration or policies.
1271 <term>Type of value:</term>
1277 <term>Default value:</term>
1279 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
1283 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1286 No link to local documentation is displayed on error pages and the CGI user interface.
1294 If both <literal>admin-address</literal> and <literal>proxy-info-url</literal>
1295 are unset, the whole "Local Privoxy Support" box on all generated pages will
1299 This URL shouldn't be blocked ;-)
1307 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1309 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1312 <title>Debugging</title>
1315 These options are mainly useful when tracing a problem.
1316 Note that you might also want to invoke
1317 <application>Privoxy</application> with the <literal>--no-daemon</literal>
1318 command line option when debugging.
1321 <sect4><title>debug</title>
1325 <term>Specifies:</term>
1328 Key values that determine what information gets logged.
1333 <term>Type of value:</term>
1335 <para>Integer values</para>
1339 <term>Default value:</term>
1341 <para>12289 (i.e.: URLs plus informational and warning messages)</para>
1345 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1348 Nothing gets logged.
1356 The available debug levels are:
1360 debug 1 # show each GET/POST/CONNECT request
1361 debug 2 # show each connection status
1362 debug 4 # show I/O status
1363 debug 8 # show header parsing
1364 debug 16 # log all data into the logfile
1365 debug 32 # debug force feature
1366 debug 64 # debug regular expression filter
1367 debug 128 # debug fast redirects
1368 debug 256 # debug GIF de-animation
1369 debug 512 # Common Log Format
1370 debug 1024 # debug kill pop-ups
1371 debug 4096 # Startup banner and warnings.
1372 debug 8192 # Non-fatal errors
1376 To select multiple debug levels, you can either add them or use
1377 multiple <literal>debug</literal> lines.
1380 A debug level of 1 is informative because it will show you each request
1381 as it happens. <emphasis>1, 4096 and 8192 are highly recommended</emphasis>
1382 so that you will notice when things go wrong. The other levels are probably
1383 only of interest if you are hunting down a specific problem. They can produce
1384 a hell of an output (especially 16).
1388 The reporting of <emphasis>fatal</emphasis> errors (i.e. ones which crash
1389 <application>Privoxy</application>) is always on and cannot be disabled.
1392 If you want to use CLF (Common Log Format), you should set <quote>debug
1393 512</quote> <emphasis>ONLY</emphasis> and not enable anything else.
1400 <sect4><title>single-threaded</title>
1404 <term>Specifies:</term>
1407 Whether to run only one server thread
1412 <term>Type of value:</term>
1414 <para><emphasis>None</emphasis></para>
1418 <term>Default value:</term>
1420 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
1424 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1427 Multi-threaded (or, where unavailable: forked) operation, i.e. the ability to
1428 serve multiple requests simultaneously.
1436 This option is only there for debug purposes and you should never
1437 need to use it. <emphasis>It will drastically reduce performance.</emphasis>
1446 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1449 <title>Access Control and Security</title>
1452 This section of the config file controls the security-relevant aspects
1453 of <application>Privoxy</application>'s configuration.
1456 <sect4><title>listen-address</title>
1460 <term>Specifies:</term>
1463 The IP address and TCP port on which <application>Privoxy</application> will
1464 listen for client requests.
1469 <term>Type of value:</term>
1471 <para>[<replaceable class="parameter">IP-Address</replaceable>]:<replaceable class="parameter">Port</replaceable></para>
1475 <term>Default value:</term>
1477 <para>localhost:8118</para>
1481 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1484 Bind to localhost (127.0.0.1), port 8118. This is suitable and recommended for
1485 home users who run <application>Privoxy</application> on the same machine as
1494 You will need to configure your browser(s) to this proxy address and port.
1497 If you already have another service running on port 8118, or if you want to
1498 serve requests from other machines (e.g. on your local network) as well, you
1499 will need to override the default.
1502 If you leave out the IP address, <application>Privoxy</application> will
1503 bind to all interfaces (addresses) on your machine and may become reachable
1504 from the Internet. In that case, consider using access control lists (acl's)
1505 (see <quote>ACLs</quote> below), or a firewall.
1510 <term>Example:</term>
1513 Suppose you are running <application>Privoxy</application> on
1514 a machine which has the address 192.168.0.1 on your local private network
1515 (192.168.0.0) and has another outside connection with a different address.
1516 You want it to serve requests from inside only:
1520 listen-address 192.168.0.1:8118
1528 <sect4><title>toggle</title>
1532 <term>Specifies:</term>
1535 Initial state of "toggle" status
1540 <term>Type of value:</term>
1546 <term>Default value:</term>
1552 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1555 Act as if toggled on
1563 If set to 0, <application>Privoxy</application> will start in
1564 <quote>toggled off</quote> mode, i.e. behave like a normal, content-neutral
1565 proxy. See <literal>enable-remote-toggle</literal>
1566 below. This is not really useful anymore, since toggling is much easier
1567 via <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">the web
1568 interface</ulink> then via editing the <filename>conf</filename> file.
1571 The windows version will only display the toggle icon in the system tray
1572 if this option is present.
1580 <sect4><title>enable-remote-toggle</title>
1583 <term>Specifies:</term>
1586 Whether or not the <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">web-based toggle
1587 feature</ulink> may be used
1592 <term>Type of value:</term>
1598 <term>Default value:</term>
1604 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1607 The web-based toggle feature is disabled.
1615 When toggled off, <application>Privoxy</application> acts like a normal,
1616 content-neutral proxy, i.e. it acts as if none of the actions applied to
1620 For the time being, access to the toggle feature can <emphasis>not</emphasis> be
1621 controlled separately by <quote>ACLs</quote> or HTTP authentication,
1622 so that everybody who can access <application>Privoxy</application> (see
1623 <quote>ACLs</quote> and <literal>listen-address</literal> above) can
1624 toggle it for all users. So this option is <emphasis>not recommended</emphasis>
1625 for multi-user environments with untrusted users.
1628 Note that you must have compiled <application>Privoxy</application> with
1629 support for this feature, otherwise this option has no effect.
1637 <sect4><title>enable-edit-actions</title>
1640 <term>Specifies:</term>
1643 Whether or not the <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions">web-based actions
1644 file editor</ulink> may be used
1649 <term>Type of value:</term>
1655 <term>Default value:</term>
1661 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1664 The web-based actions file editor is disabled.
1672 For the time being, access to the editor can <emphasis>not</emphasis> be
1673 controlled separately by <quote>ACLs</quote> or HTTP authentication,
1674 so that everybody who can access <application>Privoxy</application> (see
1675 <quote>ACLs</quote> and <literal>listen-address</literal> above) can
1676 modify its configuration for all users. So this option is <emphasis>not
1677 recommended</emphasis> for multi-user environments with untrusted users.
1680 Note that you must have compiled <application>Privoxy</application> with
1681 support for this feature, otherwise this option has no effect.
1688 <sect4><title>ACLs: permit-access and deny-access</title>
1691 <term>Specifies:</term>
1694 Who can access what.
1699 <term>Type of value:</term>
1702 <replaceable class="parameter">src_addr</replaceable>[/<replaceable class="parameter">src_masklen</replaceable>]
1703 [<replaceable class="parameter">dst_addr</replaceable>[/<replaceable class="parameter">dst_masklen</replaceable>]]
1706 Where <replaceable class="parameter">src_addr</replaceable> and
1707 <replaceable class="parameter">dst_addr</replaceable> are IP addresses in dotted decimal notation or valid
1708 DNS names, and <replaceable class="parameter">src_masklen</replaceable> and
1709 <replaceable class="parameter">dst_masklen</replaceable> are subnet masks in CIDR notation, i.e. integer
1710 values from 2 to 30 representing the length (in bits) of the network address. The masks and the whole
1711 destination part are optional.
1716 <term>Default value:</term>
1718 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
1722 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1725 Don't restrict access further than implied by <literal>listen-address</literal>
1733 Access controls are included at the request of ISPs and systems
1734 administrators, and <emphasis>are not usually needed by individual users</emphasis>.
1735 For a typical home user, it will normally suffice to ensure that
1736 <application>Privoxy</application> only listens on the localhost or internal (home)
1737 network address by means of the <literal>listen-address</literal> option.
1740 Please see the warnings in the FAQ that this proxy is not intended to be a substitute
1741 for a firewall or to encourage anyone to defer addressing basic security
1745 Multiple ACL lines are OK.
1746 If any ACLs are specified, then the <application>Privoxy</application>
1747 talks only to IP addresses that match at least one <literal>permit-access</literal> line
1748 and don't match any subsequent <literal>deny-access</literal> line. In other words, the
1749 last match wins, with the default being <literal>deny-access</literal>.
1752 If <application>Privoxy</application> is using a forwarder (see <literal>forward</literal> below)
1753 for a particular destination URL, the <replaceable class="parameter">dst_addr</replaceable>
1754 that is examined is the address of the forwarder and <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> the address
1755 of the ultimate target. This is necessary because it may be impossible for the local
1756 <application>Privoxy</application> to determine the IP address of the
1757 ultimate target (that's often what gateways are used for).
1760 You should prefer using IP addresses over DNS names, because the address lookups take
1761 time. All DNS names must resolve! You can <emphasis>not</emphasis> use domain patterns
1762 like <quote>*.org</quote> or partial domain names. If a DNS name resolves to multiple
1763 IP addresses, only the first one is used.
1766 Denying access to particular sites by ACL may have undesired side effects
1767 if the site in question is hosted on a machine which also hosts other sites.
1772 <term>Examples:</term>
1775 Explicitly define the default behavior if no ACL and
1776 <literal>listen-address</literal> are set: <quote>localhost</quote>
1777 is OK. The absence of a <replaceable class="parameter">dst_addr</replaceable> implies that
1778 <emphasis>all</emphasis> destination addresses are OK:
1782 permit-access localhost
1786 Allow any host on the same class C subnet as www.privoxy.org access to
1787 nothing but www.example.com:
1791 permit-access www.privoxy.org/24 www.example.com/32
1795 Allow access from any host on the 26-bit subnet 192.168.45.64 to anywhere,
1796 with the exception that 192.168.45.73 may not access www.dirty-stuff.example.com:
1800 permit-access 192.168.45.64/26
1801 deny-access 192.168.45.73 www.dirty-stuff.example.com
1809 <sect4><title>buffer-limit</title>
1813 <term>Specifies:</term>
1816 Maximum size of the buffer for content filtering.
1821 <term>Type of value:</term>
1823 <para>Size in Kbytes</para>
1827 <term>Default value:</term>
1833 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1836 Use a 4MB (4096 KB) limit.
1844 For content filtering, i.e. the <literal>+filter</literal> and
1845 <literal>+deanimate-gif</literal> actions, it is necessary that
1846 <application>Privoxy</application> buffers the entire document body.
1847 This can be potentially dangerous, since a server could just keep sending
1848 data indefinitely and wait for your RAM to exhaust -- with nasty consequences.
1852 When a document buffer size reaches the <literal>buffer-limit</literal>, it is
1853 flushed to the client unfiltered and no further attempt to
1854 filter the rest of the document is made. Remember that there may be multiple threads
1855 running, which might require up to <literal>buffer-limit</literal> Kbytes
1856 <emphasis>each</emphasis>, unless you have enabled <quote>single-threaded</quote>
1866 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1869 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1871 <sect3 id="forwarding">
1872 <title>Forwarding</title>
1875 This feature allows routing of HTTP requests through a chain of
1877 It can be used to better protect privacy and confidentiality when
1878 accessing specific domains by routing requests to those domains
1879 through an anonymous public proxy (see e.g. <ulink
1880 url="http://www.multiproxy.org/anon_list.htm">http://www.multiproxy.org/anon_list.htm</ulink>)
1881 Or to use a caching proxy to speed up browsing. Or chaining to a parent
1882 proxy may be necessary because the machine that <application>Privoxy</application>
1883 runs on has no direct Internet access.
1887 Also specified here are SOCKS proxies. <application>Privoxy</application>
1888 supports the SOCKS 4 and SOCKS 4A protocols.
1891 <sect4><title>forward</title>
1894 <term>Specifies:</term>
1897 To which parent HTTP proxy specific requests should be routed.
1902 <term>Type of value:</term>
1905 <replaceable class="parameter">target_domain</replaceable>[:<replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable>]
1906 <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable>[/<replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable>]
1909 Where <replaceable class="parameter">target_domain</replaceable> is a domain name pattern (see the
1910 chapter on domain matching in the actions file),
1911 <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable> is the address of the parent HTTP proxy
1912 as an IP addresses in dotted decimal notation or as a valid DNS name (or <quote>.</quote> to denote
1913 <quote>no forwarding</quote>, and the optional
1914 <replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable> parameters are TCP ports, i.e. integer
1915 values from 1 to 64535
1920 <term>Default value:</term>
1922 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
1926 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1929 Don't use parent HTTP proxies.
1937 If <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable> is <quote>.</quote>, then requests are not
1938 forwarded to another HTTP proxy but are made directly to the web servers.
1941 Multiple lines are OK, they are checked in sequence, and the last match wins.
1946 <term>Examples:</term>
1949 Everything goes to an example anonymizing proxy, except SSL on port 443 (which it doesn't handle):
1953 forward .* anon-proxy.example.org:8080
1958 Everything goes to our example ISP's caching proxy, except for requests
1959 to that ISP's sites:
1963 forward .*. caching-proxy.example-isp.net:8000
1964 forward .example-isp.net .
1972 <sect4><title>forward-socks4 and forward-socks4a</title>
1975 <term>Specifies:</term>
1978 Through which SOCKS proxy (and to which parent HTTP proxy) specific requests should be routed.
1983 <term>Type of value:</term>
1986 <replaceable class="parameter">target_domain</replaceable>[:<replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable>]
1987 <replaceable class="parameter">socks_proxy</replaceable>[/<replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable>]
1988 <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable>[/<replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable>]
1991 Where <replaceable class="parameter">target_domain</replaceable> is a domain name pattern (see the
1992 chapter on domain matching in the actions file),
1993 <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable> and <replaceable class="parameter">socks_proxy</replaceable>
1994 are IP addresses in dotted decimal notation or valid DNS names (<replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable>
1995 may be <quote>.</quote> to denote <quote>no HTTP forwarding</quote>), and the optional
1996 <replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable> parameters are TCP ports, i.e. integer values from 1 to 64535
2001 <term>Default value:</term>
2003 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
2007 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
2010 Don't use SOCKS proxies.
2018 Multiple lines are OK, they are checked in sequence, and the last match wins.
2021 The difference between <literal>forward-socks4</literal> and <literal>forward-socks4a</literal>
2022 is that in the SOCKS 4A protocol, the DNS resolution of the target hostname happens on the SOCKS
2023 server, while in SOCKS 4 it happens locally.
2026 If <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable> is <quote>.</quote>, then requests are not
2027 forwarded to another HTTP proxy but are made (HTTP-wise) directly to the web servers, albeit through
2033 <term>Examples:</term>
2036 From the company example.com, direct connections are made to all
2037 <quote>internal</quote> domains, but everything outbound goes through
2038 their ISP's proxy by way of example.com's corporate SOCKS 4A gateway to
2043 forward-socks4a .*. socks-gw.example.com:1080 www-cache.example-isp.net:8080
2044 forward .example.com .
2048 A rule that uses a SOCKS 4 gateway for all destinations but no HTTP parent looks like this:
2052 forward-socks4 .*. socks-gw.example.com:1080 .
2060 <sect4><title>Advanced Forwarding Examples</title>
2063 If you have links to multiple ISPs that provide various special content
2064 only to their subscribers, you can configure multiple <application>Privoxies</application>
2065 which have connections to the respective ISPs to act as forwarders to each other, so that
2066 <emphasis>your</emphasis> users can see the internal content of all ISPs.
2070 Assume that host-a has a PPP connection to isp-a.net. And host-b has a PPP connection to
2071 isp-b.net. Both run <application>Privoxy</application>. Their forwarding
2072 configuration can look like this:
2082 forward .isp-b.net host-b:8118
2093 forward .isp-a.net host-a:8118
2098 Now, your users can set their browser's proxy to use either
2099 host-a or host-b and be able to browse the internal content
2100 of both isp-a and isp-b.
2104 If you intend to chain <application>Privoxy</application> and
2105 <application>squid</application> locally, then chain as
2106 <literal>browser -> squid -> privoxy</literal> is the recommended way.
2110 Assuming that <application>Privoxy</application> and <application>squid</application>
2111 run on the same box, your squid configuration could then look like this:
2116 # Define Privoxy as parent proxy (without ICP)
2117 cache_peer 127.0.0.1 parent 8118 7 no-query
2119 # Define ACL for protocol FTP
2122 # Do not forward FTP requests to Privoxy
2123 always_direct allow ftp
2125 # Forward all the rest to Privoxy
2126 never_direct allow all
2131 You would then need to change your browser's proxy settings to <application>squid</application>'s address and port.
2132 Squid normally uses port 3128. If unsure consult <literal>http_port</literal> in <filename>squid.conf</filename>.
2139 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2142 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2145 <title>Windows GUI Options</title>
2147 Removed references to Win32. HB 09/23/01
2150 <application>Privoxy</application> has a number of options specific to the
2151 Windows GUI interface:
2155 If <quote>activity-animation</quote> is set to 1, the
2156 <application>Privoxy</application> icon will animate when
2157 <quote>Privoxy</quote> is active. To turn off, set to 0.
2164 <emphasis>activity-animation 1</emphasis>
2171 If <quote>log-messages</quote> is set to 1,
2172 <application>Privoxy</application> will log messages to the console
2180 <emphasis>log-messages 1</emphasis>
2187 If <quote>log-buffer-size</quote> is set to 1, the size of the log buffer,
2188 i.e. the amount of memory used for the log messages displayed in the
2189 console window, will be limited to <quote>log-max-lines</quote> (see below).
2193 Warning: Setting this to 0 will result in the buffer to grow infinitely and
2194 eat up all your memory!
2201 <emphasis>log-buffer-size 1</emphasis>
2208 <application>log-max-lines</application> is the maximum number of lines held
2209 in the log buffer. See above.
2216 <emphasis>log-max-lines 200</emphasis>
2223 If <quote>log-highlight-messages</quote> is set to 1,
2224 <application>Privoxy</application> will highlight portions of the log
2225 messages with a bold-faced font:
2232 <emphasis>log-highlight-messages 1</emphasis>
2239 The font used in the console window:
2246 <emphasis>log-font-name Comic Sans MS</emphasis>
2253 Font size used in the console window:
2260 <emphasis>log-font-size 8</emphasis>
2267 <quote>show-on-task-bar</quote> controls whether or not
2268 <application>Privoxy</application> will appear as a button on the Task bar
2276 <emphasis>show-on-task-bar 0</emphasis>
2283 If <quote>close-button-minimizes</quote> is set to 1, the Windows close
2284 button will minimize <application>Privoxy</application> instead of closing
2285 the program (close with the exit option on the File menu).
2292 <emphasis>close-button-minimizes 1</emphasis>
2299 The <quote>hide-console</quote> option is specific to the MS-Win console
2300 version of <application>Privoxy</application>. If this option is used,
2301 <application>Privoxy</application> will disconnect from and hide the
2318 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2321 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2322 <sect2 id="actionsfile">
2323 <title>The Actions File</title>
2326 The actions file (<filename>default.action</filename>, formerly:
2327 <filename>actionsfile</filename> or <filename>ijb.action</filename>) is used
2328 to define what actions <application>Privoxy</application> takes for which
2329 URLs, and thus determines how ad images, cookies and various other aspects
2330 of HTTP content and transactions are handled on which sites (or even parts
2335 Anything you want can blocked, including ads, banners, or just some obnoxious
2336 URL that you would rather not see. Cookies can be accepted or rejected, or
2337 accepted only during the current browser session (i.e. not written to disk),
2338 content can be modified, JavaScripts tamed, user-tracking fooled, and much more.
2339 See below for a complete list of available actions.
2342 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2344 <title>Finding the Right Mix</title>
2346 Note that some actions like cookie suppression or script disabling may
2347 render some sites unusable, which rely on these techniques to work properly.
2348 Finding the right mix of actions is not easy and certainly a matter of personal
2349 taste. In general, it can be said that the more <quote>aggressive</quote>
2350 your default settings (in the top section of the actions file) are,
2351 the more exceptions for <quote>trusted</quote> sites you will have to
2352 make later. If, for example, you want to kill popup windows per default, you'll
2353 have to make exceptions from that rule for sites that you regularly use
2354 and that require popups for actually useful content, like maybe your bank,
2355 favorite shop, or newspaper.
2359 We have tried to provide you with reasonable rules to start from in the
2360 distribution actions file. But there is no general rule of thumb on these
2361 things. There just are too many variables, and sites are constantly changing.
2362 Sooner or later you will want to change the rules (and read this chapter).
2366 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2368 <title>How to Edit</title>
2370 The easiest way to edit the <quote>actions</quote> file is with a browser by
2371 using our browser-based editor, which is available at <ulink
2372 url="http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions">http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions</ulink>.
2376 If you prefer plain text editing to GUIs, you can of course also directly edit the
2377 <filename>default.action</filename> file.
2383 <title>How Actions are Applied to URLs</title>
2385 The actions file is divided into sections. There are special sections,
2386 like the alias sections which will be discussed later. For now let's
2387 concentrate on regular sections: They have a heading line (often split
2388 up to multiple lines for readability) which consist of a list of actions,
2389 separated by whitespace and enclosed in curly braces. Below that, there
2390 is a list of URL patterns, each on a separate line.
2394 To determine which actions apply to a request, the URL of the request is
2395 compared to all patterns in this file. Every time it matches, the list of
2396 applicable actions for the URL is incrementally updated, using the heading
2397 of the section in which the pattern is located. If multiple matches for
2398 the same URL set the same action differently, the last match wins.
2402 You can trace this process by visiting <ulink
2403 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>.
2407 More detail on this is provided in the Appendix, <link linkend="ACTIONSANAT">
2408 Anatomy of an Action</link>.
2412 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2414 <title>Patterns</title>
2416 Generally, a pattern has the form <literal><domain>/<path></literal>,
2417 where both the <literal><domain></literal> and <literal><path></literal>
2418 are optional. (This is why the pattern <literal>/</literal> matches all URLs).
2423 <term><literal>www.example.com/</literal></term>
2426 is a domain-only pattern and will match any request to <literal>www.example.com</literal>,
2427 regardless of which document on that server is requested.
2432 <term><literal>www.example.com</literal></term>
2435 means exactly the same. For domain-only patterns, the trailing <literal>/</literal> may
2441 <term><literal>www.example.com/index.html</literal></term>
2444 matches only the single document <literal>/index.html</literal>
2445 on <literal>www.example.com</literal>.
2450 <term><literal>/index.html</literal></term>
2453 matches the document <literal>/index.html</literal>, regardless of the domain,
2454 i.e. on <emphasis>any</emphasis> web server.
2459 <term><literal>index.html</literal></term>
2462 matches nothing, since it would be interpreted as a domain name and
2463 there is no top-level domain called <literal>.html</literal>.
2469 <sect4><title>The Domain Pattern</title>
2472 The matching of the domain part offers some flexible options: if the
2473 domain starts or ends with a dot, it becomes unanchored at that end.
2479 <term><literal>.example.com</literal></term>
2482 matches any domain that <emphasis>ENDS</emphasis> in
2483 <literal>.example.com</literal>
2488 <term><literal>www.</literal></term>
2491 matches any domain that <emphasis>STARTS</emphasis> with
2492 <literal>www.</literal>
2497 <term><literal>.example.</literal></term>
2500 matches any domain that <emphasis>CONTAINS</emphasis> <literal>.example.</literal>
2501 (Correctly speaking: It matches any FQDN that contains <literal>example</literal> as a domain.)
2508 Additionally, there are wild-cards that you can use in the domain names
2509 themselves. They work pretty similar to shell wild-cards: <quote>*</quote>
2510 stands for zero or more arbitrary characters, <quote>?</quote> stands for
2511 any single character, you can define character classes in square
2512 brackets and all of that can be freely mixed:
2517 <term><literal>ad*.example.com</literal></term>
2520 matches <quote>adserver.example.com</quote>,
2521 <quote>ads.example.com</quote>, etc but not <quote>sfads.example.com</quote>
2526 <term><literal>*ad*.example.com</literal></term>
2529 matches all of the above, and then some.
2534 <term><literal>.?pix.com</literal></term>
2537 matches <literal>www.ipix.com</literal>,
2538 <literal>pictures.epix.com</literal>, <literal>a.b.c.d.e.upix.com</literal> etc.
2543 <term><literal>www[1-9a-ez].example.c*</literal></term>
2546 matches <literal>www1.example.com</literal>,
2547 <literal>www4.example.cc</literal>, <literal>wwwd.example.cy</literal>,
2548 <literal>wwwz.example.com</literal> etc., but <emphasis>not</emphasis>
2549 <literal>wwww.example.com</literal>.
2557 <sect4><title>The Path Pattern</title>
2560 <application>Privoxy</application> uses Perl compatible regular expressions
2561 (through the <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/">PCRE</ulink> library) for
2566 There is an <link linkend="regex">Appendix</link> with a brief quick-start into regular
2567 expressions, and full (very technical) documentation on PCRE regex syntax is available on-line
2568 at <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/man.txt">http://www.pcre.org/man.txt</ulink>.
2569 You might also find the Perl man page on regular expressions (<literal>man perlre</literal>)
2570 useful, which is available on-line at <ulink
2571 url="http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html">http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html</ulink>.
2575 Note that the path pattern is automatically left-anchored at the <quote>/</quote>,
2576 i.e. it matches as if it would start with a <quote>^</quote>.
2580 Please also note that matching in the path is case
2581 <emphasis>INSENSITIVE</emphasis> by default, but you can switch to case
2582 sensitive at any point in the pattern by using the
2583 <quote>(?-i)</quote> switch:
2584 <literal>www.example.com/(?-i)PaTtErN.*</literal> will match only
2585 documents whose path starts with <literal>PaTtErN</literal> in
2586 <emphasis>exactly</emphasis> this capitalization.
2592 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2596 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2599 <title>Actions</title>
2601 Actions are enabled if preceded with a <quote>+</quote>, and disabled if
2602 preceded with a <quote>-</quote>. Actions are invoked by enclosing the
2603 action name in curly braces (e.g. {+some_action}), followed by a list of
2604 URLs to which the action applies. There are three classes of actions:
2612 Boolean (e.g. <quote>+/-block</quote>):
2618 <emphasis>{+name}</emphasis> # enable this action
2619 <emphasis>{-name}</emphasis> # disable this action
2629 parameterized (e.g. <quote>+/-hide-user-agent</quote>):
2635 <emphasis>{+name{param}}</emphasis> # enable action and set parameter to <quote>param</quote>
2636 <emphasis>{-name}</emphasis> # disable action
2645 Multi-value (e.g. <quote>{+/-add-header{Name: value}}</quote>, <quote>{+/-wafer{name=value}}</quote>):
2651 <emphasis>{+name{param}}</emphasis> # enable action and add parameter <quote>param</quote>
2652 <emphasis>{-name{param}}</emphasis> # remove the parameter <quote>param</quote>
2653 <emphasis>{-name}</emphasis> # disable this action totally
2664 If nothing is specified in this file, no <quote>actions</quote> are taken.
2665 So in this case <application>Privoxy</application> would just be a
2666 normal, non-blocking, non-anonymizing proxy. You must specifically
2667 enable the privacy and blocking features you need (although the
2668 provided default <filename>default.action</filename> file will
2669 give a good starting point).
2673 Later defined actions always over-ride earlier ones. So exceptions
2674 to any rules you make, should come in the latter part of the file. For
2675 multi-valued actions, the actions are applied in the order they are
2680 The list of valid <application>Privoxy</application> <quote>actions</quote> are:
2688 Add the specified HTTP header, which is not checked for validity.
2689 You may specify this many times to specify many different headers:
2695 <emphasis>+add-header{Name: value}</emphasis>
2705 Block this URL totally. In a default installation, a <quote>blocked</quote>
2706 URL will result in bright red banner that says <quote>BLOCKED</quote>,
2707 with a reason why it is being blocked, and an option to see it anyway.
2708 The page displayed for this is the <quote>blocked</quote> template
2715 <emphasis>+block</emphasis>
2725 De-animate all animated GIF images, i.e. reduce them to their last frame.
2726 This will also shrink the images considerably (in bytes, not pixels!). If
2727 the option <quote>first</quote> is given, the first frame of the animation
2728 is used as the replacement. If <quote>last</quote> is given, the last frame
2729 of the animation is used instead, which probably makes more sense for most
2730 banner animations, but also has the risk of not showing the entire last
2731 frame (if it is only a delta to an earlier frame).
2737 <emphasis>+deanimate-gifs{last}</emphasis>
2738 <emphasis>+deanimate-gifs{first}</emphasis>
2747 <quote>+downgrade</quote> will downgrade HTTP/1.1 client requests to
2748 HTTP/1.0 and downgrade the responses as well. Use this action for servers
2749 that use HTTP/1.1 protocol features that
2750 <application>Privoxy</application> doesn't handle well yet. HTTP/1.1
2751 is only partially implemented. Default is not to downgrade requests.
2757 <emphasis>+downgrade</emphasis>
2766 Many sites, like yahoo.com, don't just link to other sites. Instead, they
2767 will link to some script on their own server, giving the destination as a
2768 parameter, which will then redirect you to the final target. URLs resulting
2769 from this scheme typically look like:
2770 <emphasis>http://some.place/some_script?http://some.where-else</emphasis>.
2773 Sometimes, there are even multiple consecutive redirects encoded in the
2774 URL. These redirections via scripts make your web browsing more traceable,
2775 since the server from which you follow such a link can see where you go to.
2776 Apart from that, valuable bandwidth and time is wasted, while your browser
2777 ask the server for one redirect after the other. Plus, it feeds the
2781 The <quote>+fast-redirects</quote> option enables interception of these
2782 types of requests by <application>Privoxy</application>, who will cut off
2783 all but the last valid URL in the request and send a local redirect back to
2784 your browser without contacting the intermediate site(s).
2790 <emphasis>+fast-redirects</emphasis>
2799 Apply the filters in the <literal>section_header</literal>
2800 section of the <filename>default.filter</filename> file to the site(s).
2801 <filename>default.filter</filename> sections are grouped according to like
2802 functionality. <application>Filters</application> can be used to
2803 re-write any of the raw page content. This is a potentially a
2804 very powerful feature!
2811 <emphasis>+filter{section_header}</emphasis>
2818 Filter sections that are pre-defined in the supplied
2819 <filename>default.filter</filename> include:
2825 <emphasis>html-annoyances</emphasis>: Get rid of particularly annoying HTML abuse.
2830 <emphasis>js-annoyances</emphasis>: Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse
2835 <emphasis>content-cookies</emphasis>: Kill cookies that come in the HTML or JS content
2840 <emphasis>popups</emphasis>: Kill all popups in JS and HTML
2845 <emphasis>frameset-borders</emphasis>: Give frames a border and make them resizable
2850 <emphasis>webbugs</emphasis>: Squish WebBugs (1x1 invisible GIFs used for user tracking)
2855 <emphasis>refresh-tags</emphasis>: Kill automatic refresh tags (for dial-on-demand setups)
2860 <emphasis>fun</emphasis>: Text replacements for subversive browsing fun!
2865 <emphasis>nimda</emphasis>: Remove Nimda (virus) code.
2870 <emphasis>banners-by-size</emphasis>: Kill banners by size (<emphasis>very</emphasis> efficient!)
2875 <emphasis>shockwave-flash</emphasis>: Kill embedded Shockwave Flash objects
2880 <emphasis>crude-parental</emphasis>: Kill all web pages that contain the words "sex" or "warez"
2887 Note: Filtering requires buffering the page content, which may appear to slow down
2888 page rendering since nothing is displayed until all content has passed
2889 the filters. (It does not really take longer, but seems that way since
2890 the page is not incrementally displayed.) This effect will be more noticeable
2891 on slower connections.
2898 Block any existing X-Forwarded-for header, and do not add a new one:
2904 <emphasis>+hide-forwarded</emphasis>
2913 If the browser sends a <quote>From:</quote> header containing your e-mail
2914 address, this either completely removes the header (<quote>block</quote>), or
2915 changes it to the specified e-mail address.
2921 <emphasis>+hide-from{block}</emphasis>
2922 <emphasis>+hide-from{spam@sittingduck.xqq}</emphasis>
2931 Don't send the <quote>Referer:</quote> (sic) header to the web site. You
2932 can block it, forge a URL to the same server as the request (which is
2933 preferred because some sites will not send images otherwise) or set it to a
2934 constant, user defined string of your choice.
2940 <emphasis>+hide-referer{block}</emphasis>
2941 <emphasis>+hide-referer{forge}</emphasis>
2942 <emphasis>+hide-referer{http://nowhere.com}</emphasis>
2951 Alternative spelling of <quote>+hide-referer</quote>. It has the same
2952 parameters, and can be freely mixed with, <quote>+hide-referer</quote>.
2953 (<quote>referrer</quote> is the correct English spelling, however the HTTP
2954 specification has a bug - it requires it to be spelled <quote>referer</quote>.)
2960 <emphasis>+hide-referrer{...}</emphasis>
2969 Change the <quote>User-Agent:</quote> header so web servers can't tell your
2970 browser type. Warning! This breaks many web sites. Specify the
2971 user-agent value you want. Example, pretend to be using Netscape on
2978 <emphasis>+hide-user-agent{Mozilla (X11; I; Linux 2.0.32 i586)}</emphasis>
2985 Or to identify yourself explicitly as a <application>Privoxy</application> user:
2991 <emphasis>+hide-user-agent{Privoxy/1.0}</emphasis>
2996 (Don't change the version number from 1.0 - after all, why tell them?)
3003 <emphasis>+hide-user-agent{browser-type}</emphasis>
3013 Treat this URL as an image. This only matters if it's also <quote>+block</quote>ed,
3014 in which case a <quote>blocked</quote> image can be sent rather than a HTML page.
3015 See <quote>+image-blocker{}</quote> below for the control over what is actually sent.
3016 If you want <emphasis>invisible</emphasis> ads, they should be defined as
3017 <emphasis>images</emphasis> and <emphasis>blocked</emphasis>. And also,
3018 <quote>image-blocker</quote> should be set to <quote>blank</quote>. Note you
3019 cannot treat HTML pages as images in most cases. For instance, frames
3020 require an HTML page to display. So a frame that is an ad, cannot be
3021 treated as an image. Forcing an <quote>image</quote> in this
3022 situation just will not work.
3028 <emphasis>+image</emphasis>
3036 <para> Decides what to do with URLs that end up tagged with <quote>{+block
3037 +image}</quote>, e.g an advertisement. There are four options.
3038 <quote>-image-blocker</quote> will send a HTML <quote>blocked</quote> page,
3039 usually resulting in a <quote>broken image</quote> icon.
3040 <!-- <quote>+image-blocker{logo}</quote> will send a -->
3041 <!-- <application>Privoxy</application> logo -->
3043 <quote>+image-blocker{blank}</quote> will send a 1x1 transparent GIF
3044 image. And finally, <quote>+image-blocker{http://xyz.com}</quote> will send a
3045 HTTP temporary redirect to the specified image. This has the advantage of the
3046 icon being being cached by the browser, which will speed up the display.
3047 <quote>+image-blocker{pattern}</quote> will send a checkerboard type pattern:
3049 <!-- which scales better than the logo (which can get blocky if the browser -->
3050 <!-- enlarges it too much). -->
3056 <!-- <emphasis>+image-blocker{logo}</emphasis> -->
3057 <emphasis>+image-blocker{blank}</emphasis>
3058 <emphasis>+image-blocker{pattern}</emphasis>
3059 <emphasis>+image-blocker{http://p.p/send-banner}</emphasis>
3068 By default (i.e. in the absence of a <quote>+limit-connect</quote>
3069 action), <application>Privoxy</application> will only allow CONNECT
3070 requests to port 443, which is the standard port for https as a
3075 The CONNECT methods exists in HTTP to allow access to secure websites
3076 (https:// URLs) through proxies. It works very simply: the proxy
3077 connects to the server on the specified port, and then short-circuits
3078 its connections to the client <emphasis>and</emphasis> to the remote proxy.
3079 This can be a big security hole, since CONNECT-enabled proxies can
3080 be abused as TCP relays very easily.
3084 If you want to allow CONNECT for more ports than this, or want to forbid
3085 CONNECT altogether, you can specify a comma separated list of ports and
3086 port ranges (the latter using dashes, with the minimum defaulting to 0 and
3094 <emphasis>+limit-connect{443} # This is the default and need no be specified.</emphasis>
3095 <emphasis>+limit-connect{80,443} # Ports 80 and 443 are OK.</emphasis>
3096 <emphasis>+limit-connect{-3, 7, 20-100, 500-} # Port less than 3, 7, 20 to 100</emphasis>
3097 <emphasis> #and above 500 are OK.</emphasis>
3107 <quote>+no-compression</quote> prevents the website from compressing the
3108 data. Some websites do this, which can be a problem for
3109 <application>Privoxy</application>, since <quote>+filter</quote>,
3110 <quote>+no-popup</quote> and <quote>+gif-deanimate</quote> will not work on
3111 compressed data. This will slow down connections to those websites,
3112 though. Default is <quote>no-compression</quote> is turned on.
3119 <emphasis>+nocompression</emphasis>
3128 If the website sets cookies, <quote>no-cookies-keep</quote> will make sure
3129 they are erased when you exit and restart your web browser. This makes
3130 profiling cookies useless, but won't break sites which require cookies so
3131 that you can log in for transactions. Default: on.
3137 <emphasis>+no-cookies-keep</emphasis>
3146 Prevent the website from reading cookies:
3152 <emphasis>+no-cookies-read</emphasis>
3161 Prevent the website from setting cookies:
3167 <emphasis>+no-cookies-set</emphasis>
3176 Filter the website through a built-in filter to disable those obnoxious
3177 JavaScript pop-up windows via window.open(), etc. The two alternative
3178 spellings are equivalent.
3184 <emphasis>+no-popup</emphasis>
3185 <emphasis>+no-popups</emphasis>
3194 This action only applies if you are using a <filename>jarfile</filename>
3195 for saving cookies. It sends a cookie to every site stating that you do not
3196 accept any copyright on cookies sent to you, and asking them not to track
3197 you. Of course, this is a (relatively) unique header they could use to
3204 <emphasis>+vanilla-wafer</emphasis>
3213 This allows you to add an arbitrary cookie. It can be specified multiple
3214 times in order to add as many cookies as you like.
3220 <emphasis>+wafer{name=value}</emphasis>
3231 The meaning of any of the above is reversed by preceding the action with a
3232 <quote>-</quote>, in place of the <quote>+</quote>.
3240 Turn off cookies by default, then allow a few through for specified sites:
3247 # Turn off all persistent cookies
3248 { +no-cookies-read }
3250 # Allow cookies for this browser session ONLY
3251 { +no-cookies-keep }
3253 # Exceptions to the above, sites that benefit from persistent cookies
3254 { -no-cookies-read }
3256 { -no-cookies-keep }
3263 # Alternative way of saying the same thing
3264 {-no-cookies-set -no-cookies-read -no-cookies-keep}
3273 Now turn off <quote>fast redirects</quote>, and then we allow two exceptions:
3283 # Reverse it for these two sites, which don't work right without it.
3285 www.ukc.ac.uk/cgi-bin/wac\.cgi\?
3293 Turn on page filtering according to rules in the defined sections
3294 of <filename>default.filter</filename>, and make one exception for
3302 # Run everything through the filter file, using only the
3303 # specified sections:
3304 +filter{html-annoyances} +filter{js-annoyances} +filter{no-popups}\
3305 +filter{webbugs} +filter{nimda} +filter{banners-by-size}
3307 # Then disable filtering of code from sourceforge!
3309 .cvs.sourceforge.net
3316 Now some URLs that we want <quote>blocked</quote> (normally generates
3317 the <quote>blocked</quote> banner). Many of these use regular expressions
3318 that will expand to match multiple URLs:
3327 /.*/(.*[-_.])?ads?[0-9]?(/|[-_.].*|\.(gif|jpe?g))
3328 /.*/(.*[-_.])?count(er)?(\.cgi|\.dll|\.exe|[?/])
3329 /.*/(ng)?adclient\.cgi
3330 /.*/(plain|live|rotate)[-_.]?ads?/
3331 /.*/(sponsor)s?[0-9]?/
3332 /.*/_?(plain|live)?ads?(-banners)?/
3334 /.*/ad(sdna_image|gifs?)/
3335 /.*/ad(server|stream|juggler)\.(cgi|pl|dll|exe)
3339 /.*/adv((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))?/
3343 /.*/cgi-bin/centralad/getimage
3344 /.*/images/addver\.gif
3345 /.*/images/marketing/.*\.(gif|jpe?g)
3349 /.*/sponsors?[0-9]?/
3350 /.*/advert[0-9]+\.jpg
3357 /graphics/defaultAd/
3359 /image\.ng/transactionID
3360 /images/.*/.*_anim\.gif # alvin brattli
3361 /ip_img/.*\.(gif|jpe?g)
3365 /cgi-bin/nph-adclick.exe/
3366 /.*/Image/BannerAdvertising/
3368 /.*/adlib/server\.cgi
3376 Note that many of these actions have the potential to cause a page to
3377 misbehave, possibly even not to display at all. There are many ways
3378 a site designer may choose to design his site, and what HTTP header
3379 content he may depend on. There is no way to have hard and fast rules
3380 for all sites. See the <link linkend="ACTIONSANAT">Appendix</link>
3381 for a brief example on troubleshooting actions.
3386 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
3389 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3391 <title>Aliases</title>
3393 Custom <quote>actions</quote>, known to <application>Privoxy</application>
3394 as <quote>aliases</quote>, can be defined by combining other <quote>actions</quote>.
3395 These can in turn be invoked just like the built-in <quote>actions</quote>.
3396 Currently, an alias can contain any character except space, tab, <quote>=</quote>,
3397 <quote>{</quote> or <quote>}</quote>. But please use only <quote>a</quote>-
3398 <quote>z</quote>, <quote>0</quote>-<quote>9</quote>, <quote>+</quote>, and
3399 <quote>-</quote>. Alias names are not case sensitive, and
3400 <emphasis>must be defined before anything</emphasis> else in the
3401 <filename>default.action</filename>file! And there can only be one set of
3402 <quote>aliases</quote> defined.
3406 Now let's define a few aliases:
3413 # Useful custom aliases we can use later. These must come first!
3415 +no-cookies = +no-cookies-set +no-cookies-read
3416 -no-cookies = -no-cookies-set -no-cookies-read
3417 fragile = -block -no-cookies -filter -fast-redirects -hide-referer -no-popups
3418 shop = -no-cookies -filter -fast-redirects
3419 +imageblock = +block +image
3421 #For people who don't like to type too much: ;-)
3424 c2 = -no-cookies-set +no-cookies-read
3425 c3 = +no-cookies-set -no-cookies-read
3426 #... etc. Customize to your heart's content.
3433 Some examples using our <quote>shop</quote> and <quote>fragile</quote>
3441 # These sites are very complex and require
3442 # minimal interference.
3444 .office.microsoft.com
3445 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com
3448 # Shopping sites - still want to block ads.
3451 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
3455 # These shops require pop-ups
3465 The <quote>shop</quote> and <quote>fragile</quote> aliases are often used for
3466 <quote>problem</quote> sites that require most actions to be disabled
3467 in order to function properly.
3474 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
3477 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3478 <sect2 id="filterfile">
3479 <title>The Filter File</title>
3481 Any web page can be dynamically modified with the filter file. This
3482 modification can be removal, or re-writing, of any web page content,
3483 including tags and non-visible content. The default filter file is
3484 <filename>default.filter</filename>, located in the config directory.
3488 This is potentially a very powerful feature, and requires knowledge of both
3489 <quote>regular expression</quote> and HTML in order create custom
3490 filters. But, there are a number of useful filters included with
3491 <application>Privoxy</application> for many common situations.
3495 The included example file is divided into sections. Each section begins
3496 with the <literal>FILTER</literal> keyword, followed by the identifier
3497 for that section, e.g. <quote>FILTER: webbugs</quote>. Each section performs
3498 a similar type of filtering, such as <quote>html-annoyances</quote>.
3502 This file uses regular expressions to alter or remove any string in the
3503 target page. The expressions can only operate on one line at a time. Some
3504 examples from the included default <filename>default.filter</filename>:
3508 Stop web pages from displaying annoying messages in the status bar by
3509 deleting such references:
3516 FILTER: html-annoyances
3518 # New browser windows should be resizeable and have a location and status
3521 s/resizable="?(no|0)"?/resizable=1/ig s/noresize/yesresize/ig
3522 s/location="?(no|0)"?/location=1/ig s/status="?(no|0)"?/status=1/ig
3523 s/scrolling="?(no|0|Auto)"?/scrolling=1/ig
3524 s/menubar="?(no|0)"?/menubar=1/ig
3526 # The <BLINK> tag was a crime!
3528 s*<blink>|</blink>**ig
3532 #s/framespacing="?(no|0)"?//ig
3533 #s/margin(height|width)=[0-9]*//gi
3540 Just for kicks, replace any occurrence of <quote>Microsoft</quote> with
3541 <quote>MicroSuck</quote>, and have a little fun with topical buzzwords:
3550 s/microsoft(?!.com)/MicroSuck/ig
3554 s/industry-leading|cutting-edge|award-winning/<font color=red><b>BINGO!</b></font>/ig
3561 Kill those pesky little web-bugs:
3568 # webbugs: Squish WebBugs (1x1 invisible GIFs used for user tracking)
3571 s/<img\s+[^>]*?(width|height)\s*=\s*['"]?1\D[^>]*?(width|height)\s*=\s*['"]?1(\D[^>]*?)?>/<!-- Squished WebBug -->/sig
3579 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
3583 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3586 <title>Templates</title>
3588 When <application>Privoxy</application> displays one of its internal
3589 pages, such as a 404 Not Found error page, it uses the appropriate template.
3590 On Linux, BSD, and Unix, these are located in
3591 <filename>/etc/privoxy/templates</filename> by default. These may be
3592 customized, if desired. <filename>cgi-style.css</filename> is
3593 used to control the HTML attributes (fonts, etc).
3596 The default <quote>Blocked</quote> banner page with the bright red top
3597 banner, is called just <quote><filename>blocked</filename></quote>. This
3598 may be customized or replaced with something else if desired.
3605 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
3609 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3611 <sect1 id="contact"><title>Contacting the Developers, Bug Reporting and Feature
3614 <!-- Include contacting.sgml boilerplate: -->
3616 <!-- end boilerplate -->
3619 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3620 <sect2 id="submitactions">
3621 <title>Submitting Ads and <quote>Action</quote> Problems</title>
3623 Ads and banners that are not stopped by <application>Privoxy</application>
3624 can be submitted to the developers by accessing a special page and filling
3625 out the brief, required form. Conversely, you can also report pages, images,
3626 etc. that <application>Privoxy</application> is blocking, but should not.
3627 The form itself does require Internet access.
3630 To do this, point your browser to <application>Privoxy</application>
3631 at <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
3632 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>), and then select
3633 <ulink url="javascript:w=Math.floor(screen.width/2);h=Math.floor(screen.height*0.9);void(window.open('http://www.privoxy.org/actions','Feedback','screenx='+w+',width='+w+',height='+h+',scrollbars=yes,toolbar=no,location=no,directories=no,status=no,menubar=no,copyhistory=no').focus());">Actions file feedback system</ulink>,
3634 near the bottom of the page. Paste in the URL that is the cause of the
3635 unwanted behavior, and follow the prompts. The developers will
3636 try to incorporate a fix for the problem you reported into future versions.
3640 New <filename>default.actions</filename> files will occasionally be made
3641 available based on your feedback. These
3642 will be announced on the
3644 url="http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ijbswa-announce">ijbswa-announce</ulink>
3652 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3653 <sect1 id="copyright"><title>Copyright and History</title>
3655 <sect2><title>Copyright</title>
3656 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
3658 <!-- end copyright -->
3661 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
3664 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3666 <sect2 id="history"><title>History</title>
3667 <!-- Include history.sgml: -->
3669 <!-- end history -->
3673 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3674 <sect1 id="seealso"><title>See Also</title>
3675 <!-- Include seealso.sgml: -->
3677 <!-- end seealso -->
3682 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3683 <sect1 id="appendix"><title>Appendix</title>
3686 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3688 <title>Regular Expressions</title>
3690 <application>Privoxy</application> can use <quote>regular expressions</quote>
3691 in various config files. Assuming support for <quote>pcre</quote> (Perl
3692 Compatible Regular Expressions) is compiled in, which is the default. Such
3693 configuration directives do not require regular expressions, but they can be
3694 used to increase flexibility by matching a pattern with wild-cards against
3699 If you are reading this, you probably don't understand what <quote>regular
3700 expressions</quote> are, or what they can do. So this will be a very brief
3701 introduction only. A full explanation would require a book ;-)
3705 <quote>Regular expressions</quote> is a way of matching one character
3706 expression against another to see if it matches or not. One of the
3707 <quote>expressions</quote> is a literal string of readable characters
3708 (letter, numbers, etc), and the other is a complex string of literal
3709 characters combined with wild-cards, and other special characters, called
3710 meta-characters. The <quote>meta-characters</quote> have special meanings and
3711 are used to build the complex pattern to be matched against. Perl Compatible
3712 Regular Expressions is an enhanced form of the regular expression language
3713 with backward compatibility.
3717 To make a simple analogy, we do something similar when we use wild-card
3718 characters when listing files with the <command>dir</command> command in DOS.
3719 <literal>*.*</literal> matches all filenames. The <quote>special</quote>
3720 character here is the asterisk which matches any and all characters. We can be
3721 more specific and use <literal>?</literal> to match just individual
3722 characters. So <quote>dir file?.text</quote> would match
3723 <quote>file1.txt</quote>, <quote>file2.txt</quote>, etc. We are pattern
3724 matching, using a similar technique to <quote>regular expressions</quote>!
3728 Regular expressions do essentially the same thing, but are much, much more
3729 powerful. There are many more <quote>special characters</quote> and ways of
3730 building complex patterns however. Let's look at a few of the common ones,
3731 and then some examples:
3736 <emphasis>.</emphasis> - Matches any single character, e.g. <quote>a</quote>,
3737 <quote>A</quote>, <quote>4</quote>, <quote>:</quote>, or <quote>@</quote>.
3739 </simplelist></para>
3743 <emphasis>?</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or ONE
3746 </simplelist></para>
3750 <emphasis>+</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ONE or MORE
3753 </simplelist></para>
3757 <emphasis>*</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or MORE
3760 </simplelist></para>
3764 <emphasis>\</emphasis> - The <quote>escape</quote> character denotes that
3765 the following character should be taken literally. This is used where one of the
3766 special characters (e.g. <quote>.</quote>) needs to be taken literally and
3767 not as a special meta-character.
3769 </simplelist></para>
3773 <emphasis>[]</emphasis> - Characters enclosed in brackets will be matched if
3774 any of the enclosed characters are encountered.
3776 </simplelist></para>
3780 <emphasis>()</emphasis> - parentheses are used to group a sub-expression,
3781 or multiple sub-expressions.
3783 </simplelist></para>
3787 <emphasis>|</emphasis> - The <quote>bar</quote> character works like an
3788 <quote>or</quote> conditional statement. A match is successful if the
3789 sub-expression on either side of <quote>|</quote> matches.
3791 </simplelist></para>
3795 <emphasis>s/string1/string2/g</emphasis> - This is used to rewrite strings of text.
3796 <quote>string1</quote> is replaced by <quote>string2</quote> in this
3799 </simplelist></para>
3802 These are just some of the ones you are likely to use when matching URLs with
3803 <application>Privoxy</application>, and is a long way from a definitive
3804 list. This is enough to get us started with a few simple examples which may
3805 be more illuminating:
3809 <emphasis><literal>/.*/banners/.*</literal></emphasis> - A simple example
3810 that uses the common combination of <quote>.</quote> and <quote>*</quote> to
3811 denote any character, zero or more times. In other words, any string at all.
3812 So we start with a literal forward slash, then our regular expression pattern
3813 (<quote>.*</quote>) another literal forward slash, the string
3814 <quote>banners</quote>, another forward slash, and lastly another
3815 <quote>.*</quote>. We are building
3816 a directory path here. This will match any file with the path that has a
3817 directory named <quote>banners</quote> in it. The <quote>.*</quote> matches
3818 any characters, and this could conceivably be more forward slashes, so it
3819 might expand into a much longer looking path. For example, this could match:
3820 <quote>/eye/hate/spammers/banners/annoy_me_please.gif</quote>, or just
3821 <quote>/banners/annoying.html</quote>, or almost an infinite number of other
3822 possible combinations, just so it has <quote>banners</quote> in the path
3827 A now something a little more complex:
3831 <emphasis><literal>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))?/</literal></emphasis> -
3832 We have several literal forward slashes again (<quote>/</quote>), so we are
3833 building another expression that is a file path statement. We have another
3834 <quote>.*</quote>, so we are matching against any conceivable sub-path, just so
3835 it matches our expression. The only true literal that <emphasis>must
3836 match</emphasis> our pattern is <application>adv</application>, together with
3837 the forward slashes. What comes after the <quote>adv</quote> string is the
3842 Remember the <quote>?</quote> means the preceding expression (either a
3843 literal character or anything grouped with <quote>(...)</quote> in this case)
3844 can exist or not, since this means either zero or one match. So
3845 <quote>((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))</quote> is optional, as are the
3846 individual sub-expressions: <quote>(er)</quote>,
3847 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, and the <quote>s</quote>. The <quote>|</quote>
3848 means <quote>or</quote>. We have two of those. For instance,
3849 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, can expand to match either <quote>ing</quote>
3850 <emphasis>OR</emphasis> <quote>ements?</quote>. What is being done here, is an
3851 attempt at matching as many variations of <quote>advertisement</quote>, and
3852 similar, as possible. So this would expand to match just <quote>adv</quote>,
3853 or <quote>advert</quote>, or <quote>adverts</quote>, or
3854 <quote>advertising</quote>, or <quote>advertisement</quote>, or
3855 <quote>advertisements</quote>. You get the idea. But it would not match
3856 <quote>advertizements</quote> (with a <quote>z</quote>). We could fix that by
3857 changing our regular expression to:
3858 <quote>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|erti(s|z)(ing|ements?))?/</quote>, which would then match
3863 <emphasis><literal>/.*/advert[0-9]+\.(gif|jpe?g)</literal></emphasis> - Again
3864 another path statement with forward slashes. Anything in the square brackets
3865 <quote>[]</quote> can be matched. This is using <quote>0-9</quote> as a
3866 shorthand expression to mean any digit one through nine. It is the same as
3867 saying <quote>0123456789</quote>. So any digit matches. The <quote>+</quote>
3868 means one or more of the preceding expression must be included. The preceding
3869 expression here is what is in the square brackets -- in this case, any digit
3870 one through nine. Then, at the end, we have a grouping: <quote>(gif|jpe?g)</quote>.
3871 This includes a <quote>|</quote>, so this needs to match the expression on
3872 either side of that bar character also. A simple <quote>gif</quote> on one side, and the other
3873 side will in turn match either <quote>jpeg</quote> or <quote>jpg</quote>,
3874 since the <quote>?</quote> means the letter <quote>e</quote> is optional and
3875 can be matched once or not at all. So we are building an expression here to
3876 match image GIF or JPEG type image file. It must include the literal
3877 string <quote>advert</quote>, then one or more digits, and a <quote>.</quote>
3878 (which is now a literal, and not a special character, since it is escaped
3879 with <quote>\</quote>), and lastly either <quote>gif</quote>, or
3880 <quote>jpeg</quote>, or <quote>jpg</quote>. Some possible matches would
3881 include: <quote>//advert1.jpg</quote>,
3882 <quote>/nasty/ads/advert1234.gif</quote>,
3883 <quote>/banners/from/hell/advert99.jpg</quote>. It would not match
3884 <quote>advert1.gif</quote> (no leading slash), or
3885 <quote>/adverts232.jpg</quote> (the expression does not include an
3886 <quote>s</quote>), or <quote>/advert1.jsp</quote> (<quote>jsp</quote> is not
3887 in the expression anywhere).
3891 <emphasis><literal>s/microsoft(?!.com)/MicroSuck/i</literal></emphasis> - This is
3892 a substitution. <quote>MicroSuck</quote> will replace any occurrence of
3893 <quote>microsoft</quote>. The <quote>i</quote> at the end of the expression
3894 means ignore case. The <quote>(?!.com)</quote> means
3895 the match should fail if <quote>microsoft</quote> is followed by
3896 <quote>.com</quote>. In other words, this acts like a <quote>NOT</quote>
3897 modifier. In case this is a hyperlink, we don't want to break it ;-).
3901 We are barely scratching the surface of regular expressions here so that you
3902 can understand the default <application>Privoxy</application>
3903 configuration files, and maybe use this knowledge to customize your own
3904 installation. There is much, much more that can be done with regular
3905 expressions. Now that you know enough to get started, you can learn more on
3910 More reading on Perl Compatible Regular expressions:
3911 <ulink url="http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html">http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html</ulink>
3916 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
3919 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3921 <title><application>Privoxy</application>'s Internal Pages</title>
3924 Since <application>Privoxy</application> proxies each requested
3925 web page, it is easy for <application>Privoxy</application> to
3926 trap certain special URLs. In this way, we can talk directly to
3927 <application>Privoxy</application>, and see how it is
3928 configured, see how our rules are being applied, change these
3929 rules and other configuration options, and even turn
3930 <application>Privoxy's</application> filtering off, all with
3936 The URLs listed below are the special ones that allow direct access
3937 to <application>Privoxy</application>. Of course,
3938 <application>Privoxy</application> must be running to access these. If
3939 not, you will get a friendly error message. Internet access is not
3952 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
3956 Alternately, this may be reached at <ulink
3957 url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>, but this
3958 variation may not work as reliably as the above in some configurations.
3964 Show information about the current configuration:
3968 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
3975 Show the source code version numbers:
3979 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-version">http://config.privoxy.org/show-version</ulink>
3986 Show the client's request headers:
3990 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request">http://config.privoxy.org/show-request</ulink>
3997 Show which actions apply to a URL and why:
4001 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
4008 Toggle Privoxy on or off. In this case, <quote>Privoxy</quote> continues
4009 to run, but only as a pass-through proxy, with no actions taking place:
4013 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</ulink>
4017 Short cuts. Turn off, then on:
4021 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable</ulink>
4026 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable</ulink>
4033 Edit the actions list file:
4037 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions">http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions</ulink>
4046 These may be bookmarked for quick reference.
4050 <sect3 id="bookmarklets">
4051 <title>Bookmarklets</title>
4053 Below are some <quote>bookmarklets</quote> to allow you to easily access a
4054 <quote>mini</quote> version of some of <application>Privoxy's</application>
4055 special pages. They are designed for MS Internet Explorer, but should work
4056 equally well in Netscape, Mozilla, and other browsers which support
4057 JavaScript. They are designed to run directly from your bookmarks - not by
4058 clicking the links below (although that should work for testing).
4061 To save them, right-click the link and choose <quote>Add to Favorites</quote>
4062 (IE) or <quote>Add Bookmark</quote> (Netscape). You will get a warning that
4063 the bookmark <quote>may not be safe</quote> - just click OK. Then you can run the
4064 Bookmarklet directly from your favorites/bookmarks. For even faster access,
4065 you can put them on the <quote>Links</quote> bar (IE) or the <quote>Personal
4066 Toolbar</quote> (Netscape), and run them with a single click.
4074 <ulink url="javascript:void(window.open('http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?mini=y&set=enabled','ijbstatus','width=250,height=100,resizable=yes,scrollbars=no,toolbar=no,location=no,directories=no,status=no,menubar=no,copyhistory=no').focus());">Enable Privoxy</ulink>
4080 <ulink url="javascript:void(window.open('http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?mini=y&set=disabled','ijbstatus','width=250,height=100,resizable=yes,scrollbars=no,toolbar=no,location=no,directories=no,status=no,menubar=no,copyhistory=no').focus());">Disable Privoxy</ulink>
4086 <ulink url="javascript:void(window.open('http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?mini=y&set=toggle','ijbstatus','width=250,height=100,resizable=yes,scrollbars=no,toolbar=no,location=no,directories=no,status=no,menubar=no,copyhistory=no').focus());">Toggle Privoxy</ulink> (Toggles between enabled and disabled)
4092 <ulink url="javascript:void(window.open('http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?mini=y','ijbstatus','width=250,height=2,resizable=yes,scrollbars=no,toolbar=no,location=no,directories=no,status=no,menubar=no,copyhistory=no').focus());">View Privoxy Status</ulink>
4098 <ulink url="javascript:w=Math.floor(screen.width/2);h=Math.floor(screen.height*0.9);void(window.open('http://www.privoxy.org/actions','Feedback','screenx='+w+',width='+w+',height='+h+',scrollbars=yes,toolbar=no,location=no,directories=no,status=no,menubar=no,copyhistory=no').focus());">Actions file feedback system</ulink>
4108 Credit: The site which gave me the general idea for these bookmarklets is
4109 <ulink url="http://www.bookmarklets.com">www.bookmarklets.com</ulink>. They
4110 have more information about bookmarklets.
4119 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4120 <sect2 id="actionsanat">
4121 <title>Anatomy of an Action</title>
4124 The way <application>Privoxy</application> applies <quote>actions</quote>
4125 and <quote>filters</quote> to any given URL can be complex, and not always so
4126 easy to understand what is happening. And sometimes we need to be able to
4127 <emphasis>see</emphasis> just what <application>Privoxy</application> is
4128 doing. Especially, if something <application>Privoxy</application> is doing
4129 is causing us a problem inadvertently. It can be a little daunting to look at
4130 the actions and filters files themselves, since they tend to be filled with
4131 <quote>regular expressions</quote> whose consequences are not always
4132 so obvious. <application>Privoxy</application> provides the
4133 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
4134 page that can show us very specifically how <application>actions</application>
4135 are being applied to any given URL. This is a big help for troubleshooting.
4139 First, enter one URL (or partial URL) at the prompt, and then
4140 <application>Privoxy</application> will tell us
4141 how the current configuration will handle it. This will not
4142 help with filtering effects from the <filename>default.filter</filename> file! It
4143 also will not tell you about any other URLs that may be embedded within the
4144 URL you are testing (i.e. a web page). For instance, images such as ads are expressed as URLs
4145 within the raw page source of HTML pages. So you will only get info for the
4146 actual URL that is pasted into the prompt area -- not any sub-URLs. If you
4147 want to know about embedded URLs like ads, you will have to dig those out of
4148 the HTML source. Use your browser's <quote>View Page Source</quote> option
4149 for this. Or right click on the ad, and grab the URL.
4153 Let's look at an example, <ulink url="http://google.com">google.com</ulink>,
4154 one section at a time:
4159 System default actions:
4161 { -add-header -block -deanimate-gifs -downgrade -fast-redirects -filter
4162 -hide-forwarded -hide-from -hide-referer -hide-user-agent -image
4163 -image-blocker -limit-connect -no-compression -no-cookies-keep
4164 -no-cookies-read -no-cookies-set -no-popups -vanilla-wafer -wafer }
4170 This is the top section, and only tells us of the compiled in defaults. This
4171 is basically what <application>Privoxy</application> would do if there
4172 were not any <quote>actions</quote> defined, i.e. it does nothing. Every action
4173 is disabled. This is not particularly informative for our purposes here. OK,
4180 Matches for http://google.com:
4182 { -add-header -block +deanimate-gifs -downgrade +fast-redirects
4183 +filter{html-annoyances} +filter{js-annoyances} +filter{no-popups}
4184 +filter{webbugs} +filter{nimda} +filter{banners-by-size} +filter{hal}
4185 +filter{fun} +hide-forwarded +hide-from{block} +hide-referer{forge}
4186 -hide-user-agent -image +image-blocker{blank} +no-compression
4187 +no-cookies-keep -no-cookies-read -no-cookies-set +no-popups
4188 -vanilla-wafer -wafer }
4191 { -no-cookies-keep -no-cookies-read -no-cookies-set }
4201 This is much more informative, and tells us how we have defined our
4202 <quote>actions</quote>, and which ones match for our example,
4203 <quote>google.com</quote>. The first grouping shows our default
4204 settings, which would apply to all URLs. If you look at your <quote>actions</quote>
4205 file, this would be the section just below the <quote>aliases</quote> section
4206 near the top. This applies to all URLs as signified by the single forward
4207 slash -- <quote>/</quote>.
4212 These are the default actions we have enabled. But we can define additional
4213 actions that would be exceptions to these general rules, and then list
4214 specific URLs that these exceptions would apply to. Last match wins.
4215 Just below this then are two explicit matches for <quote>.google.com</quote>.
4216 The first is negating our various cookie blocking actions (i.e. we will allow
4217 cookies here). The second is allowing <quote>fast-redirects</quote>. Note
4218 that there is a leading dot here -- <quote>.google.com</quote>. This will
4219 match any hosts and sub-domains, in the google.com domain also, such as
4220 <quote>www.google.com</quote>. So, apparently, we have these actions defined
4221 somewhere in the lower part of our actions file, and
4222 <quote>google.com</quote> is referenced in these sections.
4227 And now we pull it altogether in the bottom section and summarize how
4228 <application>Privoxy</application> is applying all its <quote>actions</quote>
4229 to <quote>google.com</quote>:
4238 -add-header -block -deanimate-gifs -downgrade -fast-redirects
4239 +filter{html-annoyances} +filter{js-annoyances} +filter{no-popups}
4240 +filter{webbugs} +filter{nimda} +filter{banners-by-size} +filter{hal}
4241 +filter{fun} +hide-forwarded +hide-from{block} +hide-referer{forge}
4242 -hide-user-agent -image +image-blocker{blank} -limit-connect +no-compression
4243 -no-cookies-keep -no-cookies-read -no-cookies-set +no-popups -vanilla-wafer
4250 Now another example, <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>:
4269 We'll just show the interesting part here, the explicit matches. It is
4270 matched three different times. Each as an <quote>+block +image</quote>,
4271 which is the expanded form of one of our aliases that had been defined as:
4272 <quote>+imageblock</quote>. (<quote>Aliases</quote> are defined in the
4273 first section of the actions file and typically used to combine more
4278 Any one of these would have done the trick and blocked this as an unwanted
4279 image. This is unnecessarily redundant since the last case effectively
4280 would also cover the first. No point in taking chances with these guys
4281 though ;-) Note that if you want an ad or obnoxious
4282 URL to be invisible, it should be defined as <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>
4283 is done here -- as both a <quote>+block</quote> <emphasis>and</emphasis> an
4284 <quote>+image</quote>. The custom alias <quote>+imageblock</quote> does this
4289 One last example. Let's try <quote>http://www.rhapsodyk.net/adsl/HOWTO/</quote>.
4290 This one is giving us problems. We are getting a blank page. Hmmm...
4296 Matches for http://www.rhapsodyk.net/adsl/HOWTO/:
4298 { -add-header -block +deanimate-gifs -downgrade +fast-redirects
4299 +filter{html-annoyances} +filter{js-annoyances} +filter{no-popups}
4300 +filter{webbugs} +filter{nimda} +filter{banners-by-size} +filter{hal}
4301 +filter{fun} +hide-forwarded +hide-from{block} +hide-referer{forge}
4302 -hide-user-agent -image +image-blocker{blank} +no-compression
4303 +no-cookies-keep -no-cookies-read -no-cookies-set +no-popups
4304 -vanilla-wafer -wafer }
4314 Ooops, the <quote>/adsl/</quote> is matching <quote>/ads</quote>! But
4315 we did not want this at all! Now we see why we get the blank page. We could
4316 now add a new action below this that explicitly does <emphasis>not</emphasis>
4317 block (-block) pages with <quote>adsl</quote>. There are various ways to
4318 handle such exceptions. Example:
4331 Now the page displays ;-) Be sure to flush your browser's caches when
4332 making such changes. Or, try using <literal>Shift+Reload</literal>.
4336 But now what about a situation where we get no explicit matches like
4350 That actually was very telling and pointed us quickly to where the problem
4351 was. If you don't get this kind of match, then it means one of the default
4352 rules in the first section is causing the problem. This would require some
4353 guesswork, and maybe a little trial and error to isolate the offending rule.
4354 One likely cause would be one of the <quote>{+filter}</quote> actions. Try
4355 adding the URL for the site to one of aliases that turn off <quote>+filter</quote>:
4363 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
4372 <quote>{shop}</quote> is an <quote>alias</quote> that expands to
4373 <quote>{ -filter -no-cookies -no-cookies-keep }</quote>. Or you could do
4374 your own exception to negate filtering:
4388 <quote>{fragile}</quote> is an alias that disables most actions. This can be
4389 used as a last resort for problem sites. Remember to flush caches! If this
4390 still does not work, you will have to go through the remaining actions one by
4391 one to find which one(s) is causing the problem.
4400 This program is free software; you can redistribute it
4401 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
4402 Public License as published by the Free Software
4403 Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at
4404 your option) any later version.
4406 This program is distributed in the hope that it will
4407 be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the
4408 implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
4409 PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public
4410 License for more details.
4412 The GNU General Public License should be included with
4413 this file. If not, you can view it at
4414 http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
4415 or write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59
4416 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
4418 $Log: user-manual.sgml,v $
4419 Revision 1.80 2002/04/18 10:45:19 oes
4420 Moved text to buildsource.sgml, renamed some filters, details
4422 Revision 1.79 2002/04/18 03:18:06 hal9
4423 Spellcheck, and minor touchups.
4425 Revision 1.78 2002/04/17 18:04:16 oes
4428 Revision 1.77 2002/04/17 13:51:23 oes
4429 Proofreading, part one
4431 Revision 1.76 2002/04/16 04:25:51 hal9
4432 -Added 'Note to Upgraders' and re-ordered the 'Quickstart' section.
4433 -Note about proxy may need requests to re-read config files.
4435 Revision 1.75 2002/04/12 02:08:48 david__schmidt
4436 Remove OS/2 building info... it is already in the developer-manual
4438 Revision 1.74 2002/04/11 00:54:38 hal9
4439 Add small section on submitting actions.
4441 Revision 1.73 2002/04/10 18:45:15 swa
4444 Revision 1.72 2002/04/10 04:06:19 hal9
4445 Added actions feedback to Bookmarklets section
4447 Revision 1.71 2002/04/08 22:59:26 hal9
4448 Version update. Spell chkconfig correctly :)
4450 Revision 1.70 2002/04/08 20:53:56 swa
4453 Revision 1.69 2002/04/06 05:07:29 hal9
4454 -Add privoxy-man-page.sgml, for man page.
4455 -Add authors.sgml for AUTHORS (and p-authors.sgml)
4456 -Reworked various aspects of various docs.
4457 -Added additional comments to sub-docs.
4459 Revision 1.68 2002/04/04 18:46:47 swa
4460 consistent look. reuse of copyright, history et. al.
4462 Revision 1.67 2002/04/04 17:27:57 swa
4463 more single file to be included at multiple points. make maintaining easier
4465 Revision 1.66 2002/04/04 06:48:37 hal9
4466 Structural changes to allow for conditional inclusion/exclusion of content
4467 based on entity toggles, e.g. 'entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE"'. And
4468 definition of internal entities, e.g. 'entity p-version "2.9.13"' that will
4469 eventually be set by Makefile.
4470 More boilerplate text for use across multiple docs.
4472 Revision 1.65 2002/04/03 19:52:07 swa
4473 enhance squid section due to user suggestion
4475 Revision 1.64 2002/04/03 03:53:43 hal9
4476 A few minor bug fixes, and touch ups. Ready for review.
4478 Revision 1.63 2002/04/01 16:24:49 hal9
4479 Define entities to include boilerplate text. See doc/source/*.
4481 Revision 1.62 2002/03/30 04:15:53 hal9
4482 - Fix privoxy.org/config links.
4483 - Paste in Bookmarklets from Toggle page.
4484 - Move Quickstart nearer top, and minor rework.
4486 Revision 1.61 2002/03/29 01:31:08 hal9
4489 Revision 1.60 2002/03/27 01:57:34 hal9
4490 Added more to Anatomy section.
4492 Revision 1.59 2002/03/27 00:54:33 hal9
4493 Touch up intro for new name.
4495 Revision 1.58 2002/03/26 22:29:55 swa
4496 we have a new homepage!
4498 Revision 1.57 2002/03/24 20:33:30 hal9
4499 A few minor catch ups with name change.
4501 Revision 1.56 2002/03/24 16:17:06 swa
4502 configure needs to be generated.
4504 Revision 1.55 2002/03/24 16:08:08 swa
4505 we are too lazy to make a block-built
4506 privoxy logo. hence removed the option.
4508 Revision 1.54 2002/03/24 15:46:20 swa
4509 name change related issue.
4511 Revision 1.53 2002/03/24 11:51:00 swa
4512 name change. changed filenames.
4514 Revision 1.52 2002/03/24 11:01:06 swa
4517 Revision 1.51 2002/03/23 15:13:11 swa
4518 renamed every reference to the old name with foobar.
4519 fixed "application foobar application" tag, fixed
4520 "the foobar" with "foobar". left junkbustser in cvs
4521 comments and remarks to history untouched.
4523 Revision 1.50 2002/03/23 05:06:21 hal9
4526 Revision 1.49 2002/03/21 17:01:05 hal9
4527 New section in Appendix.
4529 Revision 1.48 2002/03/12 06:33:01 hal9
4530 Catching up to Andreas and re_filterfile changes.
4532 Revision 1.47 2002/03/11 13:13:27 swa
4533 correct feedback channels
4535 Revision 1.46 2002/03/10 00:51:08 hal9
4536 Added section on JB internal pages in Appendix.
4538 Revision 1.45 2002/03/09 17:43:53 swa
4541 Revision 1.44 2002/03/09 17:08:48 hal9
4542 New section on Jon's actions file editor, and move some stuff around.
4544 Revision 1.43 2002/03/08 00:47:32 hal9
4545 Added imageblock{pattern}.
4547 Revision 1.42 2002/03/07 18:16:55 swa
4550 Revision 1.41 2002/03/07 16:46:43 hal9
4551 Fix a few markup problems for jade.
4553 Revision 1.40 2002/03/07 16:28:39 swa
4554 provide correct feedback channels
4556 Revision 1.39 2002/03/06 16:19:28 hal9
4557 Note on perceived filtering slowdown per FR.
4559 Revision 1.38 2002/03/05 23:55:14 hal9
4560 Stupid I did it again. Double hyphen in comment breaks jade.
4562 Revision 1.37 2002/03/05 23:53:49 hal9
4563 jade barfs on '- -' embedded in comments. - -user option broke it.
4565 Revision 1.36 2002/03/05 22:53:28 hal9
4566 Add new - - user option.
4568 Revision 1.35 2002/03/05 00:17:27 hal9
4569 Added section on command line options.
4571 Revision 1.34 2002/03/04 19:32:07 oes
4572 Changed default port to 8118
4574 Revision 1.33 2002/03/03 19:46:13 hal9
4575 Emphasis on where/how to report bugs, etc
4577 Revision 1.32 2002/03/03 09:26:06 joergs
4578 AmigaOS changes, config is now loaded from PROGDIR: instead of
4579 AmiTCP:db/junkbuster/ if no configuration file is specified on the
4582 Revision 1.31 2002/03/02 22:45:52 david__schmidt
4585 Revision 1.30 2002/03/02 22:00:14 hal9
4586 Updated 'New Features' list. Ran through spell-checker.
4588 Revision 1.29 2002/03/02 20:34:07 david__schmidt
4589 Update OS/2 build section
4591 Revision 1.28 2002/02/24 14:34:24 jongfoster
4592 Formatting changes. Now changing the doctype to DocBook XML 4.1
4593 will work - no other changes are needed.
4595 Revision 1.27 2002/01/11 14:14:32 hal9
4596 Added a very short section on Templates
4598 Revision 1.26 2002/01/09 20:02:50 hal9
4599 Fix bug re: auto-detect config file changes.
4601 Revision 1.25 2002/01/09 18:20:30 hal9
4602 Touch ups for *.action files.
4604 Revision 1.24 2001/12/02 01:13:42 hal9
4607 Revision 1.23 2001/12/02 00:20:41 hal9
4608 Updates for recent changes.
4610 Revision 1.22 2001/11/05 23:57:51 hal9
4611 Minor update for startup now daemon mode.
4613 Revision 1.21 2001/10/31 21:11:03 hal9
4614 Correct 2 minor errors
4616 Revision 1.18 2001/10/24 18:45:26 hal9
4617 *** empty log message ***
4619 Revision 1.17 2001/10/24 17:10:55 hal9
4620 Catching up with Jon's recent work, and a few other things.
4622 Revision 1.16 2001/10/21 17:19:21 swa
4623 wrong url in documentation
4625 Revision 1.15 2001/10/14 23:46:24 hal9
4626 Various minor changes. Fleshed out SEE ALSO section.
4628 Revision 1.13 2001/10/10 17:28:33 hal9
4631 Revision 1.12 2001/09/28 02:57:04 hal9
4634 Revision 1.11 2001/09/28 02:25:20 hal9
4637 Revision 1.9 2001/09/27 23:50:29 hal9
4638 A few changes. A short section on regular expression in appendix.
4640 Revision 1.8 2001/09/25 00:34:59 hal9
4641 Some additions, and re-arranging.
4643 Revision 1.7 2001/09/24 14:31:36 hal9
4646 Revision 1.6 2001/09/24 14:10:32 hal9
4647 Including David's OS/2 installation instructions.
4649 Revision 1.2 2001/09/13 15:27:40 swa
4652 Revision 1.1 2001/09/12 15:36:41 swa
4653 source files for junkbuster documentation
4655 Revision 1.3 2001/09/10 17:43:59 swa
4656 first proposal of a structure.
4658 Revision 1.2 2001/06/13 14:28:31 swa
4659 docs should have an author.
4661 Revision 1.1 2001/06/13 14:20:37 swa
4662 first import of project's documentation for the webserver.