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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-config "IGNORE">
19 <!entity % p-supp-userman "IGNORE"> <!-- Omit some from supported.sgml -->
22 File : $Source: /cvsroot/ijbswa/current/doc/source/user-manual.sgml,v $
25 This file belongs into
26 ijbswa.sourceforge.net:/home/groups/i/ij/ijbswa/htdocs/
28 $Id: user-manual.sgml,v 1.87 2002/04/23 02:53:15 david__schmidt Exp $
30 Written by and Copyright (C) 2001 the SourceForge
31 Privoxy team. http://www.privoxy.org/
33 Based on the Internet Junkbuster originally written
34 by and Copyright (C) 1997 Anonymous Coders and
35 Junkbusters Corporation. http://www.junkbusters.com
38 ========================================================================
39 NOTE: Please read developer-manual/documentation.html before touching
40 anything in this, or other Privoxy documentation.
41 ========================================================================
47 <title>Privoxy User Manual</title>
49 <pubdate>$Id: user-manual.sgml,v 1.87 2002/04/23 02:53:15 david__schmidt Exp $</pubdate>
54 <orgname>By: Privoxy Developers</orgname>
63 This is here to keep vim syntax file from breaking :/
64 If I knew enough to fix it, I would.
65 PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE! HB: hal@foobox.net
71 The user manual gives users information on how to install, configure and use
73 url="http://www.privoxy.org/"><application>Privoxy</application></ulink>.
76 <!-- Include privoxy.sgml boilerplate: -->
78 <!-- end privoxy.sgml -->
81 You can find the latest version of the user manual at <ulink
82 url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/">http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/</ulink>.
83 Please see the <ulink url="contact.html">Contact section</ulink> on how to
84 contact the developers.
88 <!-- Feel free to send a note to the developers at <email>ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net</email>. -->
94 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
95 <sect1 id="intro" label=""><title></title>
96 <!-- dummy section to force TOC on page by itself -->
97 <!-- DO NOT REMOVE! please ;) -->
101 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
103 <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> ;-)]]>.
115 <!-- 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]]>:
135 <!-- Include newfeatures.sgml boilerplate here: -->
137 <!-- end boilerplate -->
142 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
145 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
146 <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>.
156 If you like to live on the bleeding edge and are not afraid of using
157 possibly unstable development versions, you can check out the up-to-the-minute
158 version directly from <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/cvs/?group_id=11118">the
159 CVS repository</ulink> or simply download <ulink
160 url="http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cvstarballs/ijbswa-cvsroot.tar.gz">the nightly CVS
164 <!-- Include supported.sgml boilerplate -->
166 <!-- end boilerplate -->
168 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
169 <sect2 id="installation-packages"><title>Binary Packages</title>
172 Note: If you have a previous <application>Junkbuster</application> or
173 <application>Privoxy</application> installation on your system, you
174 will need to remove it. Some platforms do this for you as part
175 of their installation procedure. (See below for your platform).
179 In any case <emphasis>be sure to backup your old configuration
180 if it is valuable to you.</emphasis> See the
181 <link linkend="upgradersnote">note to upgraders</link>.
185 How to install the binary packages depends on your operating system:
188 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
189 <sect3 id="installation-pack-rpm"><title>Red Hat and SuSE RPMs</title>
192 RPMs can be installed with <literal>rpm -Uvh privoxy-&p-version;-1.rpm</literal>,
193 and will use <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> for the location
194 of configuration files.
198 If you have problems with failed dependencies, try rebuilding the SRC RPM:
199 <literal>rpm --rebuild privoxy-&p-version;-1.src.rpm;</literal>. This
200 will use your locally installed libraries and RPM version.
205 Note that if you have a <application>Junkbuster</application> RPM installed
206 on your system, you need to remove it first, because the packages conflict.
207 Otherwise, RPM will try to remove <application>Junkbuster</application>
208 automatically, before installing <application>Privoxy</application>.
212 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
213 <sect3 id="installation-deb"><title>Debian</title>
219 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
220 <sect3 id="installation-pack-win"><title>Windows</title>
223 Just double-click the installer, which will guide you through
224 the installation process.
228 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
229 <sect3 id="installation-pack-bintgz"><title>Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD, HP-UX</title>
232 Create a new directory, <literal>cd</literal> to it, then unzip and
233 untar the archive. For the most part, you'll have to figure out where
238 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
239 <sect3 id="installation-os2"><title>OS/2</title>
242 First, make sure that no previous installations of
243 <application>Junkbuster</application> and / or
244 <application>Privoxy</application> are left on your
245 system. You can do this by
249 Then, just double-click the WarpIN self-installing archive, which will
250 guide you through the installation process. A shadow of the
251 <application>Privoxy</application> executable will be placed in your
252 startup folder so it will start automatically whenever OS/2 starts.
256 The directory you choose to install <application>Privoxy</application>
257 into will contain all of the configuration files.
261 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
262 <sect3 id="installation-mac"><title>Max OSX</title>
264 Unzip the downloaded package (you can either double-click on the file
265 in the finder, or on the desktop if you downloaded it there). Then,
266 double-click on the package installer icon and follow the installation
268 <application>Privoxy</application> will be installed in the subdirectory
269 <literal>/Applications/Privoxy.app</literal>.
270 <application>Privoxy</application> will set itself up to start
271 automatically on system bringup via
272 <literal>/System/Library/StartupItems/Privoxy</literal>.
276 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
277 <sect3 id="installation-amiga"><title>AmigaOS</title>
279 Copy and then unpack the <filename>lha</filename> archive to a suitable location.
280 All necessary files will be installed into <application>Privoxy</application>
281 directory, including all configuration and log files. To uninstall, just
282 remove this directory.
285 Start <application>Privoxy</application> (with RUN <>NIL:) in your
286 <filename>startnet</filename> script (AmiTCP), in
287 <filename>s:user-startup</filename> (RoadShow), as startup program in your
288 startup script (Genesis), or as startup action (Miami and MiamiDx).
289 <application>Privoxy</application> will automatically quit when you quit your
290 TCP/IP stack (just ignore the harmless warning your TCP/IP stack may display that
291 <application>Privoxy</application> is still running).
296 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
297 <sect2 id="installation-source"><title>Building from Source</title>
299 <!-- include buildsource.sgml boilerplate: -->
301 <!-- end boilerplate -->
306 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
309 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
311 <sect1 id="quickstart"><title>Quickstart to Using <application>Privoxy</application></title>
314 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
315 <sect2 id="upgradersnote">
316 <title>Note to Upgraders</title>
318 There are very significant changes from older versions of
319 <application>Junkbuster</application> to the current
320 <application>Privoxy</application>. Configuration is substantially
321 changed. <application>Junkbuster 2.0.x</application> and earlier
322 configuration files will not migrate. The functionality of the old
323 <filename>blockfile</filename>, <filename>cookiefile</filename> and
324 <filename>imagelist</filename>, are now combined into the
325 <quote>actions file</quote> (<filename>default.action</filename>
326 for most installations).
329 A <quote>filter file</quote> (typically <filename>default.filter</filename>)
330 is new as of <application>Privoxy 2.9.x</application>, and provides some
331 of the new sophistication (explained below). <filename>config</filename> is
332 much the same as before.
335 If upgrading from a 2.0.x version, you will have to use the new config
336 files, and possibly adapt any personal rules from your older files.
337 When porting personal rules over from the old <filename>blockfile</filename>
338 to the new actions file, please note that even the pattern syntax has
339 changed. If upgrading from 2.9.x development versions, it is still
340 recommended to use the new configuration files.
343 A quick list of things to be aware of before upgrading:
351 The default listening port is now 8118 due to a conflict with another
357 Some installers may remove earlier versions completely. Save any
358 important configuration files!
363 <application>Privoxy</application> is controllable with a web browser
364 at the special URL: <ulink
365 url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
366 (Shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>). Many
367 aspects of configuration can be done here, including temporarily disabling
368 <application>Privoxy</application>.
373 The primary configuration file for cookie management, ad and banner
374 blocking, and many other aspects of <application>Privoxy</application>
375 configuration is <filename>default.action</filename>. It is strongly
376 recommended to become familiar with the new actions concept below,
377 before modifying this file.
382 <!-- I think it is best to keep this somewhat vague, in case -->
383 <!-- the situation changes under our feet. -->
384 Some installers may not automatically start
385 <application>Privoxy</application> after installation.
394 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
396 <title>Starting <application>Privoxy</application></title>
398 Before launching <application>Privoxy</application> for the first time, you
399 will want to configure your browser(s) to use <application>Privoxy</application>
400 as a HTTP and HTTPS proxy. The default is localhost for the proxy address,
401 and port 8118 (earlier versions used port 8000). This is the one
402 configuration step that must be done!
406 With <application>Netscape</application> (and
407 <application>Mozilla</application>), this can be set under <literal>Edit
408 -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Proxies -> HTTP Proxy</literal>.
409 For <application>Internet Explorer</application>: <literal>Tools ->
410 Internet Properties -> Connections -> LAN Setting</literal>. Then,
411 check <quote>Use Proxy</quote> and fill in the appropriate info (Address:
412 localhost, Port: 8118). Include if HTTPS proxy support too.
416 After doing this, flush your browser's disk and memory caches to force a
417 re-reading of all pages and to get rid of any ads that may be cached. You
418 are now ready to start enjoying the benefits of using
419 <application>Privoxy</application>!
424 <application>Privoxy</application> is typically started by specifying the
425 main configuration file to be used on the command line. Example Unix startup
432 # /usr/sbin/privoxy /etc/privoxy/config
438 See <link linkend="cmdoptions">below</link> for other command line options.
442 An init script is provided for SuSE and Red Hat.
446 For for SuSE: <command>rcprivoxy start</command>
450 For Red Hat and Debian: <command>/etc/rc.d/init.d/privoxy start</command>
455 If no configuration file is specified on the command line,
456 <application>Privoxy</application> will look for a file named
457 <filename>config</filename> in the current directory. Except on Win32 where
458 it will try <filename>config.txt</filename>. If no file is specified on the
459 command line and no default configuration file can be found,
460 <application>Privoxy</application> will fail to start.
465 The included default configuration files should give a reasonable starting
466 point. Most of the per site configuration is done in the
467 <quote>actions</quote> files. These are where various cookie actions are
468 defined, ad and banner blocking, and other aspects of
469 <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. There are several such
470 files included, with varying levels of aggressiveness.
474 You will probably want to keep an eye out for sites that require persistent
475 cookies, and add these to <filename>default.action</filename> as needed. By
476 default, most of these will be accepted only during the current browser
477 session (aka <quote>session cookies</quote>), until you add them to the
478 configuration. If you want the browser to handle this instead, you will need
479 to edit <filename>default.action</filename> and disable this feature. If you
480 use more than one browser, it would make more sense to let
481 <application>Privoxy</application> handle this. In which case, the
482 browser(s) should be set to accept all cookies.
486 Another feature where you will probably want to define exceptions for trusted
487 sites is the popup-killing (through the <literal>+popup</literal> and
488 <literal>+filter{popups}</literal> actions), because your favorite shopping,
489 banking, or leisure site may need popups.
493 <application>Privoxy</application> is HTTP/1.1 compliant, but not all of
494 the optional 1.1 features are as yet supported. In the unlikely event that
495 you experience inexplicable problems with browsers that use HTTP/1.1 per default
496 (like <application>Mozilla</application> or recent versions of I.E.), you might
497 try to force HTTP/1.0 compatibility. For Mozilla, look under <literal>Edit ->
498 Preferences -> Debug -> Networking</literal>.
499 Alternatively, set the <quote>+downgrade</quote> config option in
500 <filename>default.action</filename> which will downgrade your browser's HTTP
501 requests from HTTP/1.1 to HTTP/1.0 before processing them.
505 After running <application>Privoxy</application> for a while, you can
506 start to fine tune the configuration to suit your personal, or site,
507 preferences and requirements. There are many, many aspects that can
508 be customized. <quote>Actions</quote> (as specified in <filename>default.action</filename>)
509 can be adjusted by pointing your browser to
510 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
511 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
512 and then follow the link to <quote>edit the actions list</quote>.
513 (This is an internal page and does not require Internet access.)
517 In fact, various aspects of <application>Privoxy</application>
518 configuration can be viewed from this page, including
519 current configuration parameters, source code version numbers,
520 the browser's request headers, and <quote>actions</quote> that apply
521 to a given URL. In addition to the <filename>default.action</filename> file
522 editor mentioned above, <application>Privoxy</application> can also
523 be turned <quote>on</quote> and <quote>off</quote> (toggled) from this page.
527 If you encounter problems, try loading the page without
528 <application>Privoxy</application>. If that helps, enter the URL where
529 you have the problems into <ulink url="http://p.p/show-url-info">the browser
530 based rule tracing utility</ulink>. See which rules apply and why, and
531 then try turning them off for that site one after the other, until the problem
532 is gone. When you have found the culprit, you might want to turn the rest on
537 If the above paragraph sounds gibberish to you, you might want to <ulink
538 url="configuration.html#ACTIONSFILE">read more about the actions concept</ulink>
539 or even dive deep into the <ulink url="appendix.html#ACTIONSANAT">Appendix
544 If you can't get rid of the problem at all, think you've found a bug in
545 Privoxy, want to propose a new feature or smarter rules, please see the
546 chapter "Contacting the Developers, .." below.
552 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
553 <sect2 id="cmdoptions">
554 <title>Command Line Options</title>
556 <application>Privoxy</application> may be invoked with the following
557 command-line options:
565 <emphasis>--version</emphasis>
568 Print version info and exit. Unix only.
573 <emphasis>--help</emphasis>
576 Print short usage info and exit. Unix only.
581 <emphasis>--no-daemon</emphasis>
584 Don't become a daemon, i.e. don't fork and become process group
585 leader, and don't detach from controlling tty. Unix only.
590 <emphasis>--pidfile FILE</emphasis>
594 On startup, write the process ID to <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>. Delete the
595 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> on exit. Failure to create or delete the
596 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> is non-fatal. If no <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>
597 option is given, no PID file will be used. Unix only.
602 <emphasis>--user USER[.GROUP]</emphasis>
606 After (optionally) writing the PID file, assume the user ID of
607 <emphasis>USER</emphasis>, and if included the GID of GROUP. Exit if the
608 privileges are not sufficient to do so. Unix only.
613 <emphasis>configfile</emphasis>
616 If no <emphasis>configfile</emphasis> is included on the command line,
617 <application>Privoxy</application> will look for a file named
618 <quote>config</quote> in the current directory (except on Win32
619 where it will look for <quote>config.txt</quote> instead). Specify
620 full path to avoid confusion. If no config file is found,
621 <application>Privoxy</application> will fail to start.
632 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
635 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
636 <sect1 id="configuration"><title><application>Privoxy</application> Configuration</title>
638 All <application>Privoxy</application> configuration is stored
639 in text files. These files can be edited with a text editor.
640 Many important aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> can
641 also be controlled easily with a web browser.
646 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
649 <title>Controlling <application>Privoxy</application> with Your Web Browser</title>
651 <application>Privoxy</application>'s user interface can be reached through the special
652 URL <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
653 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
654 which is a built-in page and works without Internet access.
655 You will see the following section:
662 Please choose from the following options:
665 * Show information about the current configuration
666 * Show the source code version numbers
667 * Show the request headers.
668 * Show which actions apply to a URL and why
669 * Toggle Privoxy on or off
670 * Edit the actions list
676 This should be self-explanatory. Note the last item is an editor for the
677 <quote>actions list</quote>, which is where much of the ad, banner, cookie,
678 and URL blocking magic is configured as well as other advanced features of
679 <application>Privoxy</application>. This is an easy way to adjust various
680 aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. The actions
681 file, and other configuration files, are explained in detail below.
685 <quote>Toggle Privoxy On or Off</quote> is handy for sites that might
686 have problems with your current actions and filters. You can in fact use
687 it as a test to see whether it is <application>Privoxy</application>
688 causing the problem or not. <application>Privoxy</application> continues
689 to run as a proxy in this case, but all filtering is disabled. There
690 is even a toggle <link linkend="bookmarklets">Bookmarklet</link> offered, so
691 that you can toggle <application>Privoxy</application> with one click from
697 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
702 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
705 <title>Configuration Files Overview</title>
707 For Unix, *BSD and Linux, all configuration files are located in
708 <filename>/etc/privoxy/</filename> by default. For MS Windows, OS/2, and
709 AmigaOS these are all in the same directory as the
710 <application>Privoxy</application> executable. <![%p-not-stable;[ The name
711 and number of configuration files has changed from previous versions, and is
712 subject to change as development progresses.]]>
716 The installed defaults provide a reasonable starting point, though possibly
717 aggressive by some standards. For the time being, there are only three
718 default configuration files (this may change in time):
726 The main configuration file is named <filename>config</filename>
727 on Linux, Unix, BSD, OS/2, and AmigaOS and <filename>config.txt</filename>
734 <filename>default.action</filename> (the actions file) is used to define
735 which of a set of various <quote>actions</quote> relating to images, banners,
736 pop-ups, access restrictions, banners and cookies are to be applied, and where.
737 There is a web based editor for this file that can be accessed at <ulink
738 url="http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions/">http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions/</ulink>
739 (Shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/edit-actions/">http://p.p/edit-actions/</ulink>).
740 (Other actions files are included as well with differing levels of filtering
741 and blocking, e.g. <filename>basic.action</filename>.)
747 <filename>default.filter</filename> (the filter file) can be used to re-write the raw
748 page content, including viewable text as well as embedded HTML and JavaScript,
749 and whatever else lurks on any given web page. The filtering jobs are only
750 pre-defined here; whether to apply them or not is up to the actions file.
758 All files use the <quote><literal>#</literal></quote> character to denote a
759 comment (the rest of the line will be ignored) and understand line continuation
760 through placing a backslash ("<literal>\</literal>") as the very last character
761 in a line. If the <literal>#</literal> is preceded by a backslash, it looses
762 its special function. Placing a <literal>#</literal> in front of an otherwise
763 valid configuration line to prevent it from being interpreted is called "commenting
768 <filename>default.action</filename> and <filename>default.filter</filename>
769 can use Perl style <link linkend="regex">regular expressions</link> for
774 After making any changes, there is no need to restart
775 <application>Privoxy</application> in order for the changes to take
776 effect. <application>Privoxy</application> detects such changes
777 automatically. Note, however, that it may take one or two additional
778 requests for the change to take effect. When changing the listening address
779 of <application>Privoxy</application>, these <quote>wake up</quote> requests
780 must obviously be sent to the <emphasis>old</emphasis> listening address.
785 While under development, the configuration content is subject to change.
786 The below documentation may not be accurate by the time you read this.
787 Also, what constitutes a <quote>default</quote> setting, may change, so
788 please check all your configuration files on important issues.
794 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
797 <title>The Main Configuration File</title>
799 Again, the main configuration file is named <filename>config</filename> on
800 Linux/Unix/BSD and OS/2, and <filename>config.txt</filename> on Windows.
801 Configuration lines consist of an initial keyword followed by a list of
802 values, all separated by whitespace (any number of spaces or tabs). For
810 <emphasis>confdir /etc/privoxy</emphasis>
817 Assigns the value <literal>/etc/privoxy</literal> to the option
818 <literal>confdir</literal> and thus indicates that the configuration
819 directory is named <quote>/etc/privoxy/</quote>.
823 All options in the config file except for <literal>confdir</literal> and
824 <literal>logdir</literal> are optional. Watch out in the below description
825 for what happens if you leave them unset.
829 The main config file controls all aspects of <application>Privoxy</application>'s
830 operation that are not location dependent (i.e. they apply universally, no matter
831 where you may be surfing).
835 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
838 <title>Configuration and Log File Locations</title>
841 <application>Privoxy</application> can (and normally does) use a number of
842 other files for additional configuration and logging.
843 This section of the configuration file tells <application>Privoxy</application>
844 where to find those other files.
848 <sect4><title>confdir</title>
852 <term>Specifies:</term>
854 <para>The directory where the other configuration files are located</para>
858 <term>Type of value:</term>
860 <para>Path name</para>
864 <term>Default value:</term>
866 <para>/etc/privoxy (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> <application>Privoxy</application> installation dir (Windows) </para>
870 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
872 <para><emphasis>Mandatory</emphasis></para>
879 No trailing <quote><literal>/</literal></quote>, please
882 When development goes modular and multi-user, the blocker, filter, and
883 per-user config will be stored in subdirectories of <quote>confdir</quote>.
884 For now, the configuration directory structure is flat, except for
885 <filename>confdir/templates</filename>, where the HTML templates for CGI
886 output reside (e.g. <application>Privoxy's</application> 404 error page).
894 <sect4><title>logdir</title>
898 <term>Specifies:</term>
901 The directory where all logging takes place (i.e. where <filename>logfile</filename> and
902 <filename>jarfile</filename> are located)
907 <term>Type of value:</term>
909 <para>Path name</para>
913 <term>Default value:</term>
915 <para>/var/log/privoxy (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> <application>Privoxy</application> installation dir (Windows) </para>
919 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
921 <para><emphasis>Mandatory</emphasis></para>
928 No trailing <quote><literal>/</literal></quote>, please
935 <sect4><title>actionsfile</title>
939 <term>Specifies:</term>
942 The actions file to use
947 <term>Type of value:</term>
949 <para>File name, relative to <literal>confdir</literal></para>
953 <term>Default value:</term>
955 <para>default.action (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> default.action.txt (Windows)</para>
959 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
962 No action is taken at all. Simple neutral proxying.
970 There is no point in using <application>Privoxy</application> without
971 an actions file. There are three different actions files included in the
972 distribution, with varying degrees of aggressiveness:
973 <filename>default.action</filename>, <filename>intermediate.action</filename> and
974 <filename>advanced.action</filename>.
981 <sect4><title>filterfile</title>
985 <term>Specifies:</term>
988 The filter file to use
993 <term>Type of value:</term>
995 <para>File name, relative to <literal>confdir</literal></para>
999 <term>Default value:</term>
1001 <para>default.filter (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> default.filter.txt (Windows)</para>
1005 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1008 No textual content filtering takes place, i.e. all
1009 <literal>+filter{<replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable>}</literal>
1010 actions in the actions file are turned off
1018 The <quote>default.filter</quote> file contains content modification rules
1019 that use <quote>regular expressions</quote>. These rules permit powerful
1020 changes on the content of Web pages, e.g., you could disable your favorite
1021 JavaScript annoyances, re-write the actual displayed text, or just have some
1022 fun replacing <quote>Microsoft</quote> with <quote>MicroSuck</quote> wherever
1023 it appears on a Web page.
1030 <sect4><title>logfile</title>
1034 <term>Specifies:</term>
1042 <term>Type of value:</term>
1044 <para>File name, relative to <literal>logdir</literal></para>
1048 <term>Default value:</term>
1050 <para>logfile (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> privoxy.log (Windows)</para>
1054 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1057 No log file is used, all log messages go to the console (<literal>stderr</literal>).
1065 The windows version will additionally log to the console.
1068 The logfile is where all logging and error messages are written. The level
1069 of detail and number of messages are set with the <literal>debug</literal>
1070 option (see below). The logfile can be useful for tracking down a problem with
1071 <application>Privoxy</application> (e.g., it's not blocking an ad you
1072 think it should block) but in most cases you probably will never look at it.
1075 Your logfile will grow indefinitely, and you will probably want to
1076 periodically remove it. On Unix systems, you can do this with a cron job
1077 (see <quote>man cron</quote>). For Red Hat, a <command>logrotate</command>
1078 script has been included.
1081 On SuSE Linux systems, you can place a line like <quote>/var/log/privoxy.*
1082 +1024k 644 nobody.nogroup</quote> in <filename>/etc/logfiles</filename>, with
1083 the effect that cron.daily will automatically archive, gzip, and empty the
1084 log, when it exceeds 1M size.
1091 <sect4><title>jarfile</title>
1095 <term>Specifies:</term>
1098 The file to store intercepted cookies in
1103 <term>Type of value:</term>
1105 <para>File name, relative to <literal>logdir</literal></para>
1109 <term>Default value:</term>
1111 <para>jarfile (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> privoxy.jar (Windows)</para>
1115 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1118 Intercepted cookies are not stored at all.
1126 The jarfile may grow to ridiculous sizes over time.
1133 <sect4><title>trustfile</title>
1137 <term>Specifies:</term>
1140 The trust file to use
1145 <term>Type of value:</term>
1147 <para>File name, relative to <literal>confdir</literal></para>
1151 <term>Default value:</term>
1153 <para><emphasis>Unset (commented out)</emphasis>. When activated: trust (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> trust.txt (Windows)</para>
1157 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1160 The whole trust mechanism is turned off.
1168 The trust mechanism is an experimental feature for building white-lists and should
1169 be used with care. It is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> recommended for the casual user.
1172 If you specify a trust file, <application>Privoxy</application> will only allow
1173 access to sites that are named in the trustfile.
1174 You can also mark sites as trusted referrers (with <literal>+</literal>), with
1175 the effect that access to untrusted sites will be granted, if a link from a
1176 trusted referrer was used.
1177 The link target will then be added to the <quote>trustfile</quote>.
1178 Possible applications include limiting Internet access for children.
1181 If you use <literal>+</literal> operator in the trust file, it may grow considerably over time.
1190 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1194 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1197 <title>Local Set-up Documentation</title>
1200 If you intend to operate <application>Privoxy</application> for more users
1201 that just yourself, it might be a good idea to let them know how to reach
1202 you, what you block and why you do that, your policies etc.
1205 <sect4><title>trust-info-url</title>
1209 <term>Specifies:</term>
1212 A URL to be displayed in the error page that users will see if access to an untrusted page is denied.
1217 <term>Type of value:</term>
1223 <term>Default value:</term>
1225 <para>Two example URL are provided</para>
1229 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1232 No links are displayed on the "untrusted" error page.
1240 The value of this option only matters if the experimental trust mechanism has been
1241 activated. (See <literal>trustfile</literal> above.)
1244 If you use the trust mechanism, it is a good idea to write up some on-line
1245 documentation about your trust policy and to specify the URL(s) here.
1246 Use multiple times for multiple URLs.
1249 The URL(s) should be added to the trustfile as well, so users don't end up
1250 locked out from the information on why they were locked out in the first place!
1257 <sect4><title>admin-address</title>
1261 <term>Specifies:</term>
1264 An email address to reach the proxy administrator.
1269 <term>Type of value:</term>
1271 <para>Email address</para>
1275 <term>Default value:</term>
1277 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
1281 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1284 No email address is displayed on error pages and the CGI user interface.
1292 If both <literal>admin-address</literal> and <literal>proxy-info-url</literal>
1293 are unset, the whole "Local Privoxy Support" box on all generated pages will
1301 <sect4><title>proxy-info-url</title>
1305 <term>Specifies:</term>
1308 A URL to documentation about the local <application>Privoxy</application> setup,
1309 configuration or policies.
1314 <term>Type of value:</term>
1320 <term>Default value:</term>
1322 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
1326 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1329 No link to local documentation is displayed on error pages and the CGI user interface.
1337 If both <literal>admin-address</literal> and <literal>proxy-info-url</literal>
1338 are unset, the whole "Local Privoxy Support" box on all generated pages will
1342 This URL shouldn't be blocked ;-)
1350 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1352 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1355 <title>Debugging</title>
1358 These options are mainly useful when tracing a problem.
1359 Note that you might also want to invoke
1360 <application>Privoxy</application> with the <literal>--no-daemon</literal>
1361 command line option when debugging.
1364 <sect4><title>debug</title>
1368 <term>Specifies:</term>
1371 Key values that determine what information gets logged.
1376 <term>Type of value:</term>
1378 <para>Integer values</para>
1382 <term>Default value:</term>
1384 <para>12289 (i.e.: URLs plus informational and warning messages)</para>
1388 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1391 Nothing gets logged.
1399 The available debug levels are:
1403 debug 1 # show each GET/POST/CONNECT request
1404 debug 2 # show each connection status
1405 debug 4 # show I/O status
1406 debug 8 # show header parsing
1407 debug 16 # log all data into the logfile
1408 debug 32 # debug force feature
1409 debug 64 # debug regular expression filter
1410 debug 128 # debug fast redirects
1411 debug 256 # debug GIF de-animation
1412 debug 512 # Common Log Format
1413 debug 1024 # debug kill pop-ups
1414 debug 4096 # Startup banner and warnings.
1415 debug 8192 # Non-fatal errors
1419 To select multiple debug levels, you can either add them or use
1420 multiple <literal>debug</literal> lines.
1423 A debug level of 1 is informative because it will show you each request
1424 as it happens. <emphasis>1, 4096 and 8192 are highly recommended</emphasis>
1425 so that you will notice when things go wrong. The other levels are probably
1426 only of interest if you are hunting down a specific problem. They can produce
1427 a hell of an output (especially 16).
1431 The reporting of <emphasis>fatal</emphasis> errors (i.e. ones which crash
1432 <application>Privoxy</application>) is always on and cannot be disabled.
1435 If you want to use CLF (Common Log Format), you should set <quote>debug
1436 512</quote> <emphasis>ONLY</emphasis> and not enable anything else.
1443 <sect4><title>single-threaded</title>
1447 <term>Specifies:</term>
1450 Whether to run only one server thread
1455 <term>Type of value:</term>
1457 <para><emphasis>None</emphasis></para>
1461 <term>Default value:</term>
1463 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
1467 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1470 Multi-threaded (or, where unavailable: forked) operation, i.e. the ability to
1471 serve multiple requests simultaneously.
1479 This option is only there for debug purposes and you should never
1480 need to use it. <emphasis>It will drastically reduce performance.</emphasis>
1489 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1492 <title>Access Control and Security</title>
1495 This section of the config file controls the security-relevant aspects
1496 of <application>Privoxy</application>'s configuration.
1499 <sect4><title>listen-address</title>
1503 <term>Specifies:</term>
1506 The IP address and TCP port on which <application>Privoxy</application> will
1507 listen for client requests.
1512 <term>Type of value:</term>
1514 <para>[<replaceable class="parameter">IP-Address</replaceable>]:<replaceable class="parameter">Port</replaceable></para>
1518 <term>Default value:</term>
1520 <para>localhost:8118</para>
1524 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1527 Bind to localhost (127.0.0.1), port 8118. This is suitable and recommended for
1528 home users who run <application>Privoxy</application> on the same machine as
1537 You will need to configure your browser(s) to this proxy address and port.
1540 If you already have another service running on port 8118, or if you want to
1541 serve requests from other machines (e.g. on your local network) as well, you
1542 will need to override the default.
1545 If you leave out the IP address, <application>Privoxy</application> will
1546 bind to all interfaces (addresses) on your machine and may become reachable
1547 from the Internet. In that case, consider using access control lists (acl's)
1548 (see <quote>ACLs</quote> below), or a firewall.
1553 <term>Example:</term>
1556 Suppose you are running <application>Privoxy</application> on
1557 a machine which has the address 192.168.0.1 on your local private network
1558 (192.168.0.0) and has another outside connection with a different address.
1559 You want it to serve requests from inside only:
1563 listen-address 192.168.0.1:8118
1571 <sect4><title>toggle</title>
1575 <term>Specifies:</term>
1578 Initial state of "toggle" status
1583 <term>Type of value:</term>
1589 <term>Default value:</term>
1595 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1598 Act as if toggled on
1606 If set to 0, <application>Privoxy</application> will start in
1607 <quote>toggled off</quote> mode, i.e. behave like a normal, content-neutral
1608 proxy. See <literal>enable-remote-toggle</literal>
1609 below. This is not really useful anymore, since toggling is much easier
1610 via <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">the web
1611 interface</ulink> then via editing the <filename>conf</filename> file.
1614 The windows version will only display the toggle icon in the system tray
1615 if this option is present.
1623 <sect4><title>enable-remote-toggle</title>
1626 <term>Specifies:</term>
1629 Whether or not the <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">web-based toggle
1630 feature</ulink> may be used
1635 <term>Type of value:</term>
1641 <term>Default value:</term>
1647 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1650 The web-based toggle feature is disabled.
1658 When toggled off, <application>Privoxy</application> acts like a normal,
1659 content-neutral proxy, i.e. it acts as if none of the actions applied to
1663 For the time being, access to the toggle feature can <emphasis>not</emphasis> be
1664 controlled separately by <quote>ACLs</quote> or HTTP authentication,
1665 so that everybody who can access <application>Privoxy</application> (see
1666 <quote>ACLs</quote> and <literal>listen-address</literal> above) can
1667 toggle it for all users. So this option is <emphasis>not recommended</emphasis>
1668 for multi-user environments with untrusted users.
1671 Note that you must have compiled <application>Privoxy</application> with
1672 support for this feature, otherwise this option has no effect.
1680 <sect4><title>enable-edit-actions</title>
1683 <term>Specifies:</term>
1686 Whether or not the <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions">web-based actions
1687 file editor</ulink> may be used
1692 <term>Type of value:</term>
1698 <term>Default value:</term>
1704 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1707 The web-based actions file editor is disabled.
1715 For the time being, access to the editor can <emphasis>not</emphasis> be
1716 controlled separately by <quote>ACLs</quote> or HTTP authentication,
1717 so that everybody who can access <application>Privoxy</application> (see
1718 <quote>ACLs</quote> and <literal>listen-address</literal> above) can
1719 modify its configuration for all users. So this option is <emphasis>not
1720 recommended</emphasis> for multi-user environments with untrusted users.
1723 Note that you must have compiled <application>Privoxy</application> with
1724 support for this feature, otherwise this option has no effect.
1731 <sect4><title>ACLs: permit-access and deny-access</title>
1734 <term>Specifies:</term>
1737 Who can access what.
1742 <term>Type of value:</term>
1745 <replaceable class="parameter">src_addr</replaceable>[/<replaceable class="parameter">src_masklen</replaceable>]
1746 [<replaceable class="parameter">dst_addr</replaceable>[/<replaceable class="parameter">dst_masklen</replaceable>]]
1749 Where <replaceable class="parameter">src_addr</replaceable> and
1750 <replaceable class="parameter">dst_addr</replaceable> are IP addresses in dotted decimal notation or valid
1751 DNS names, and <replaceable class="parameter">src_masklen</replaceable> and
1752 <replaceable class="parameter">dst_masklen</replaceable> are subnet masks in CIDR notation, i.e. integer
1753 values from 2 to 30 representing the length (in bits) of the network address. The masks and the whole
1754 destination part are optional.
1759 <term>Default value:</term>
1761 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
1765 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1768 Don't restrict access further than implied by <literal>listen-address</literal>
1776 Access controls are included at the request of ISPs and systems
1777 administrators, and <emphasis>are not usually needed by individual users</emphasis>.
1778 For a typical home user, it will normally suffice to ensure that
1779 <application>Privoxy</application> only listens on the localhost or internal (home)
1780 network address by means of the <literal>listen-address</literal> option.
1783 Please see the warnings in the FAQ that this proxy is not intended to be a substitute
1784 for a firewall or to encourage anyone to defer addressing basic security
1788 Multiple ACL lines are OK.
1789 If any ACLs are specified, then the <application>Privoxy</application>
1790 talks only to IP addresses that match at least one <literal>permit-access</literal> line
1791 and don't match any subsequent <literal>deny-access</literal> line. In other words, the
1792 last match wins, with the default being <literal>deny-access</literal>.
1795 If <application>Privoxy</application> is using a forwarder (see <literal>forward</literal> below)
1796 for a particular destination URL, the <replaceable class="parameter">dst_addr</replaceable>
1797 that is examined is the address of the forwarder and <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> the address
1798 of the ultimate target. This is necessary because it may be impossible for the local
1799 <application>Privoxy</application> to determine the IP address of the
1800 ultimate target (that's often what gateways are used for).
1803 You should prefer using IP addresses over DNS names, because the address lookups take
1804 time. All DNS names must resolve! You can <emphasis>not</emphasis> use domain patterns
1805 like <quote>*.org</quote> or partial domain names. If a DNS name resolves to multiple
1806 IP addresses, only the first one is used.
1809 Denying access to particular sites by ACL may have undesired side effects
1810 if the site in question is hosted on a machine which also hosts other sites.
1815 <term>Examples:</term>
1818 Explicitly define the default behavior if no ACL and
1819 <literal>listen-address</literal> are set: <quote>localhost</quote>
1820 is OK. The absence of a <replaceable class="parameter">dst_addr</replaceable> implies that
1821 <emphasis>all</emphasis> destination addresses are OK:
1825 permit-access localhost
1829 Allow any host on the same class C subnet as www.privoxy.org access to
1830 nothing but www.example.com:
1834 permit-access www.privoxy.org/24 www.example.com/32
1838 Allow access from any host on the 26-bit subnet 192.168.45.64 to anywhere,
1839 with the exception that 192.168.45.73 may not access www.dirty-stuff.example.com:
1843 permit-access 192.168.45.64/26
1844 deny-access 192.168.45.73 www.dirty-stuff.example.com
1852 <sect4><title>buffer-limit</title>
1856 <term>Specifies:</term>
1859 Maximum size of the buffer for content filtering.
1864 <term>Type of value:</term>
1866 <para>Size in Kbytes</para>
1870 <term>Default value:</term>
1876 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1879 Use a 4MB (4096 KB) limit.
1887 For content filtering, i.e. the <literal>+filter</literal> and
1888 <literal>+deanimate-gif</literal> actions, it is necessary that
1889 <application>Privoxy</application> buffers the entire document body.
1890 This can be potentially dangerous, since a server could just keep sending
1891 data indefinitely and wait for your RAM to exhaust -- with nasty consequences.
1895 When a document buffer size reaches the <literal>buffer-limit</literal>, it is
1896 flushed to the client unfiltered and no further attempt to
1897 filter the rest of the document is made. Remember that there may be multiple threads
1898 running, which might require up to <literal>buffer-limit</literal> Kbytes
1899 <emphasis>each</emphasis>, unless you have enabled <quote>single-threaded</quote>
1909 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1912 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1914 <sect3 id="forwarding">
1915 <title>Forwarding</title>
1918 This feature allows routing of HTTP requests through a chain of
1920 It can be used to better protect privacy and confidentiality when
1921 accessing specific domains by routing requests to those domains
1922 through an anonymous public proxy (see e.g. <ulink
1923 url="http://www.multiproxy.org/anon_list.htm">http://www.multiproxy.org/anon_list.htm</ulink>)
1924 Or to use a caching proxy to speed up browsing. Or chaining to a parent
1925 proxy may be necessary because the machine that <application>Privoxy</application>
1926 runs on has no direct Internet access.
1930 Also specified here are SOCKS proxies. <application>Privoxy</application>
1931 supports the SOCKS 4 and SOCKS 4A protocols.
1934 <sect4><title>forward</title>
1937 <term>Specifies:</term>
1940 To which parent HTTP proxy specific requests should be routed.
1945 <term>Type of value:</term>
1948 <replaceable class="parameter">target_domain</replaceable>[:<replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable>]
1949 <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable>[/<replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable>]
1952 Where <replaceable class="parameter">target_domain</replaceable> is a domain name pattern (see the
1953 chapter on domain matching in the actions file),
1954 <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable> is the address of the parent HTTP proxy
1955 as an IP addresses in dotted decimal notation or as a valid DNS name (or <quote>.</quote> to denote
1956 <quote>no forwarding</quote>, and the optional
1957 <replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable> parameters are TCP ports, i.e. integer
1958 values from 1 to 64535
1963 <term>Default value:</term>
1965 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
1969 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1972 Don't use parent HTTP proxies.
1980 If <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable> is <quote>.</quote>, then requests are not
1981 forwarded to another HTTP proxy but are made directly to the web servers.
1984 Multiple lines are OK, they are checked in sequence, and the last match wins.
1989 <term>Examples:</term>
1992 Everything goes to an example anonymizing proxy, except SSL on port 443 (which it doesn't handle):
1996 forward .* anon-proxy.example.org:8080
2001 Everything goes to our example ISP's caching proxy, except for requests
2002 to that ISP's sites:
2006 forward .*. caching-proxy.example-isp.net:8000
2007 forward .example-isp.net .
2015 <sect4><title>forward-socks4 and forward-socks4a</title>
2018 <term>Specifies:</term>
2021 Through which SOCKS proxy (and to which parent HTTP proxy) specific requests should be routed.
2026 <term>Type of value:</term>
2029 <replaceable class="parameter">target_domain</replaceable>[:<replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable>]
2030 <replaceable class="parameter">socks_proxy</replaceable>[/<replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable>]
2031 <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable>[/<replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable>]
2034 Where <replaceable class="parameter">target_domain</replaceable> is a domain name pattern (see the
2035 chapter on domain matching in the actions file),
2036 <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable> and <replaceable class="parameter">socks_proxy</replaceable>
2037 are IP addresses in dotted decimal notation or valid DNS names (<replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable>
2038 may be <quote>.</quote> to denote <quote>no HTTP forwarding</quote>), and the optional
2039 <replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable> parameters are TCP ports, i.e. integer values from 1 to 64535
2044 <term>Default value:</term>
2046 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
2050 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
2053 Don't use SOCKS proxies.
2061 Multiple lines are OK, they are checked in sequence, and the last match wins.
2064 The difference between <literal>forward-socks4</literal> and <literal>forward-socks4a</literal>
2065 is that in the SOCKS 4A protocol, the DNS resolution of the target hostname happens on the SOCKS
2066 server, while in SOCKS 4 it happens locally.
2069 If <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable> is <quote>.</quote>, then requests are not
2070 forwarded to another HTTP proxy but are made (HTTP-wise) directly to the web servers, albeit through
2076 <term>Examples:</term>
2079 From the company example.com, direct connections are made to all
2080 <quote>internal</quote> domains, but everything outbound goes through
2081 their ISP's proxy by way of example.com's corporate SOCKS 4A gateway to
2086 forward-socks4a .*. socks-gw.example.com:1080 www-cache.example-isp.net:8080
2087 forward .example.com .
2091 A rule that uses a SOCKS 4 gateway for all destinations but no HTTP parent looks like this:
2095 forward-socks4 .*. socks-gw.example.com:1080 .
2103 <sect4><title>Advanced Forwarding Examples</title>
2106 If you have links to multiple ISPs that provide various special content
2107 only to their subscribers, you can configure multiple <application>Privoxies</application>
2108 which have connections to the respective ISPs to act as forwarders to each other, so that
2109 <emphasis>your</emphasis> users can see the internal content of all ISPs.
2113 Assume that host-a has a PPP connection to isp-a.net. And host-b has a PPP connection to
2114 isp-b.net. Both run <application>Privoxy</application>. Their forwarding
2115 configuration can look like this:
2125 forward .isp-b.net host-b:8118
2136 forward .isp-a.net host-a:8118
2141 Now, your users can set their browser's proxy to use either
2142 host-a or host-b and be able to browse the internal content
2143 of both isp-a and isp-b.
2147 If you intend to chain <application>Privoxy</application> and
2148 <application>squid</application> locally, then chain as
2149 <literal>browser -> squid -> privoxy</literal> is the recommended way.
2153 Assuming that <application>Privoxy</application> and <application>squid</application>
2154 run on the same box, your squid configuration could then look like this:
2159 # Define Privoxy as parent proxy (without ICP)
2160 cache_peer 127.0.0.1 parent 8118 7 no-query
2162 # Define ACL for protocol FTP
2165 # Do not forward FTP requests to Privoxy
2166 always_direct allow ftp
2168 # Forward all the rest to Privoxy
2169 never_direct allow all
2174 You would then need to change your browser's proxy settings to <application>squid</application>'s address and port.
2175 Squid normally uses port 3128. If unsure consult <literal>http_port</literal> in <filename>squid.conf</filename>.
2182 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2185 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2188 <title>Windows GUI Options</title>
2190 <application>Privoxy</application> has a number of options specific to the
2191 Windows GUI interface:
2195 If <quote>activity-animation</quote> is set to 1, the
2196 <application>Privoxy</application> icon will animate when
2197 <quote>Privoxy</quote> is active. To turn off, set to 0.
2204 <emphasis>activity-animation 1</emphasis>
2211 If <quote>log-messages</quote> is set to 1,
2212 <application>Privoxy</application> will log messages to the console
2220 <emphasis>log-messages 1</emphasis>
2227 If <quote>log-buffer-size</quote> is set to 1, the size of the log buffer,
2228 i.e. the amount of memory used for the log messages displayed in the
2229 console window, will be limited to <quote>log-max-lines</quote> (see below).
2233 Warning: Setting this to 0 will result in the buffer to grow infinitely and
2234 eat up all your memory!
2241 <emphasis>log-buffer-size 1</emphasis>
2248 <application>log-max-lines</application> is the maximum number of lines held
2249 in the log buffer. See above.
2256 <emphasis>log-max-lines 200</emphasis>
2263 If <quote>log-highlight-messages</quote> is set to 1,
2264 <application>Privoxy</application> will highlight portions of the log
2265 messages with a bold-faced font:
2272 <emphasis>log-highlight-messages 1</emphasis>
2279 The font used in the console window:
2286 <emphasis>log-font-name Comic Sans MS</emphasis>
2293 Font size used in the console window:
2300 <emphasis>log-font-size 8</emphasis>
2307 <quote>show-on-task-bar</quote> controls whether or not
2308 <application>Privoxy</application> will appear as a button on the Task bar
2316 <emphasis>show-on-task-bar 0</emphasis>
2323 If <quote>close-button-minimizes</quote> is set to 1, the Windows close
2324 button will minimize <application>Privoxy</application> instead of closing
2325 the program (close with the exit option on the File menu).
2332 <emphasis>close-button-minimizes 1</emphasis>
2339 The <quote>hide-console</quote> option is specific to the MS-Win console
2340 version of <application>Privoxy</application>. If this option is used,
2341 <application>Privoxy</application> will disconnect from and hide the
2358 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2361 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2362 <sect2 id="actionsfile">
2363 <title>The Actions File</title>
2366 The actions file (<filename>default.action</filename>, formerly:
2367 <filename>actionsfile</filename> or <filename>ijb.action</filename>) is used
2368 to define what actions <application>Privoxy</application> takes for which
2369 URLs, and thus determines how ad images, cookies and various other aspects
2370 of HTTP content and transactions are handled on which sites (or even parts
2375 Anything you want can blocked, including ads, banners, or just some obnoxious
2376 URL that you would rather not see. Cookies can be accepted or rejected, or
2377 accepted only during the current browser session (i.e. not written to disk),
2378 content can be modified, JavaScripts tamed, user-tracking fooled, and much more.
2379 See below for a complete list of available actions.
2383 An actions file typically has sections. At the top, <quote>aliases</quote> are
2384 defined (discussed below), then the default set of rules which will apply
2385 universally to all sites and pages. And then below that is generally a lengthy
2386 set of exceptions to the defined universal policies.
2389 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2391 <title>Finding the Right Mix</title>
2393 Note that some actions like cookie suppression or script disabling may
2394 render some sites unusable, which rely on these techniques to work properly.
2395 Finding the right mix of actions is not easy and certainly a matter of personal
2396 taste. In general, it can be said that the more <quote>aggressive</quote>
2397 your default settings (in the top section of the actions file) are,
2398 the more exceptions for <quote>trusted</quote> sites you will have to
2399 make later. If, for example, you want to kill popup windows per default, you'll
2400 have to make exceptions from that rule for sites that you regularly use
2401 and that require popups for actually useful content, like maybe your bank,
2402 favorite shop, or newspaper.
2406 We have tried to provide you with reasonable rules to start from in the
2407 distribution actions file. But there is no general rule of thumb on these
2408 things. There just are too many variables, and sites are constantly changing.
2409 Sooner or later you will want to change the rules (and read this chapter).
2413 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2415 <title>How to Edit</title>
2417 The easiest way to edit the <quote>actions</quote> file is with a browser by
2418 using our browser-based editor, which is available at <ulink
2419 url="http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions">http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions</ulink>.
2423 If you prefer plain text editing to GUIs, you can of course also directly edit the
2424 <filename>default.action</filename> file.
2430 <title>How Actions are Applied to URLs</title>
2432 The actions file is divided into sections. There are special sections,
2433 like the alias sections which will be discussed later. For now let's
2434 concentrate on regular sections: They have a heading line (often split
2435 up to multiple lines for readability) which consist of a list of actions,
2436 separated by whitespace and enclosed in curly braces. Below that, there
2437 is a list of URL patterns, each on a separate line.
2441 To determine which actions apply to a request, the URL of the request is
2442 compared to all patterns in this file. Every time it matches, the list of
2443 applicable actions for the URL is incrementally updated, using the heading
2444 of the section in which the pattern is located. If multiple matches for
2445 the same URL set the same action differently, the last match wins.
2449 You can trace this process by visiting <ulink
2450 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>.
2454 More detail on this is provided in the Appendix, <link linkend="ACTIONSANAT">
2455 Anatomy of an Action</link>.
2459 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2461 <title>Patterns</title>
2463 Generally, a pattern has the form <literal><domain>/<path></literal>,
2464 where both the <literal><domain></literal> and <literal><path></literal>
2465 are optional. (This is why the pattern <literal>/</literal> matches all URLs).
2470 <term><literal>www.example.com/</literal></term>
2473 is a domain-only pattern and will match any request to <literal>www.example.com</literal>,
2474 regardless of which document on that server is requested.
2479 <term><literal>www.example.com</literal></term>
2482 means exactly the same. For domain-only patterns, the trailing <literal>/</literal> may
2488 <term><literal>www.example.com/index.html</literal></term>
2491 matches only the single document <literal>/index.html</literal>
2492 on <literal>www.example.com</literal>.
2497 <term><literal>/index.html</literal></term>
2500 matches the document <literal>/index.html</literal>, regardless of the domain,
2501 i.e. on <emphasis>any</emphasis> web server.
2506 <term><literal>index.html</literal></term>
2509 matches nothing, since it would be interpreted as a domain name and
2510 there is no top-level domain called <literal>.html</literal>.
2516 <sect4><title>The Domain Pattern</title>
2519 The matching of the domain part offers some flexible options: if the
2520 domain starts or ends with a dot, it becomes unanchored at that end.
2526 <term><literal>.example.com</literal></term>
2529 matches any domain that <emphasis>ENDS</emphasis> in
2530 <literal>.example.com</literal>
2535 <term><literal>www.</literal></term>
2538 matches any domain that <emphasis>STARTS</emphasis> with
2539 <literal>www.</literal>
2544 <term><literal>.example.</literal></term>
2547 matches any domain that <emphasis>CONTAINS</emphasis> <literal>.example.</literal>
2548 (Correctly speaking: It matches any FQDN that contains <literal>example</literal> as a domain.)
2555 Additionally, there are wild-cards that you can use in the domain names
2556 themselves. They work pretty similar to shell wild-cards: <quote>*</quote>
2557 stands for zero or more arbitrary characters, <quote>?</quote> stands for
2558 any single character, you can define character classes in square
2559 brackets and all of that can be freely mixed:
2564 <term><literal>ad*.example.com</literal></term>
2567 matches <quote>adserver.example.com</quote>,
2568 <quote>ads.example.com</quote>, etc but not <quote>sfads.example.com</quote>
2573 <term><literal>*ad*.example.com</literal></term>
2576 matches all of the above, and then some.
2581 <term><literal>.?pix.com</literal></term>
2584 matches <literal>www.ipix.com</literal>,
2585 <literal>pictures.epix.com</literal>, <literal>a.b.c.d.e.upix.com</literal> etc.
2590 <term><literal>www[1-9a-ez].example.c*</literal></term>
2593 matches <literal>www1.example.com</literal>,
2594 <literal>www4.example.cc</literal>, <literal>wwwd.example.cy</literal>,
2595 <literal>wwwz.example.com</literal> etc., but <emphasis>not</emphasis>
2596 <literal>wwww.example.com</literal>.
2604 <sect4><title>The Path Pattern</title>
2607 <application>Privoxy</application> uses Perl compatible regular expressions
2608 (through the <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/">PCRE</ulink> library) for
2613 There is an <link linkend="regex">Appendix</link> with a brief quick-start into regular
2614 expressions, and full (very technical) documentation on PCRE regex syntax is available on-line
2615 at <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/man.txt">http://www.pcre.org/man.txt</ulink>.
2616 You might also find the Perl man page on regular expressions (<literal>man perlre</literal>)
2617 useful, which is available on-line at <ulink
2618 url="http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html">http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html</ulink>.
2622 Note that the path pattern is automatically left-anchored at the <quote>/</quote>,
2623 i.e. it matches as if it would start with a <quote>^</quote>.
2627 Please also note that matching in the path is case
2628 <emphasis>INSENSITIVE</emphasis> by default, but you can switch to case
2629 sensitive at any point in the pattern by using the
2630 <quote>(?-i)</quote> switch:
2631 <literal>www.example.com/(?-i)PaTtErN.*</literal> will match only
2632 documents whose path starts with <literal>PaTtErN</literal> in
2633 <emphasis>exactly</emphasis> this capitalization.
2639 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2642 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2644 <sect3 id="actions">
2645 <title>Actions</title>
2647 Actions are enabled if preceded with a <quote>+</quote>, and disabled if
2648 preceded with a <quote>-</quote>. Actions are invoked by enclosing the
2649 action name in curly braces (e.g. {+some_action}), followed by a list of
2650 URLs (or patterns that match URLs) to which the action applies. There are
2651 three classes of actions:
2659 Boolean, i.e the action can only be <quote>on</quote> or
2660 <quote>off</quote>. Examples:
2666 <emphasis>{+name}</emphasis> # enable this action
2667 <emphasis>{-name}</emphasis> # disable this action
2677 Parameterized, e.g. <quote>+/-hide-user-agent{ Mozilla 1.0 }</quote>,
2678 where some value is required in order to enable this type of action.
2685 <emphasis>{+name{param}}</emphasis> # enable action and set parameter to <quote>param</quote>
2686 <emphasis>{-name}</emphasis> # disable action (<quote>parameter</quote>) can be omitted
2695 <!-- oes, or someone, check this. Re-worded 04/20/02 HB. -->
2696 Multi-value, e.g. <quote>{+/-add-header{Name: value}}</quote> ot
2697 <quote>{+/-wafer{name=value}}</quote>), where some value needs to be defined
2698 in addition to simply enabling the actino. Examples:
2704 <emphasis>{+name{param=value}}</emphasis> # enable action and set <quote>param</quote> to <quote>value</quote>
2705 <emphasis>{-name{param=value}}</emphasis> # remove the parameter <quote>param</quote> completely
2706 <emphasis>{-name}</emphasis> # disable this action totally and remove <application>param</application> too
2717 If nothing is specified in this file, no <quote>actions</quote> are taken.
2718 So in this case <application>Privoxy</application> would just be a
2719 normal, non-blocking, non-anonymizing proxy. You must specifically
2720 enable the privacy and blocking features you need (although the
2721 provided default <filename>default.action</filename> file will
2722 give a good starting point).
2726 Later defined actions always over-ride earlier ones. So exceptions
2727 to any rules you make, should come in the latter part of the file. For
2728 multi-valued actions, the actions are applied in the order they are
2732 <!-- start actions listing -->
2734 The list of valid <application>Privoxy</application> <quote>actions</quote> are:
2738 <!-- ********************************************************** -->
2739 <!-- Please note the below defined actions use id's that are -->
2740 <!-- probably linked from other places, so please don't change. -->
2742 <!-- ********************************************************** -->
2745 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2747 <sect4 id="add-header">
2748 <title><emphasis>+add-header{Name: value}</emphasis></title>
2753 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2755 <para>Multi-value.</para>
2760 <term>Typical uses:</term>
2763 Send a user defined HTTP header to the web server.
2769 <term>Possible values:</term>
2772 Any value is possible. Validity of the defined HTTP headers is not checked.
2778 <term>Example usage:</term>
2781 <emphasis>{+add-header{X-User-Tracking: sucks}}</emphasis>
2782 <emphasis>.example.com</emphasis>
2791 This action may be specified multiple times, in order to define multiple
2792 headers. This is rarely needed for the typical user. If you don't know what
2793 <quote>HTTP headers</quote> are, you definitely don't need to worry about this
2802 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2804 <title><emphasis>+block</emphasis></title>
2809 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2811 <para>Boolean.</para>
2816 <term>Typical uses:</term>
2819 Used to block a URL from reaching your browser. The URL may be
2820 anything, but is typically used to block ads or other obnoxious
2827 <term>Possible values:</term>
2834 <term>Example usage:</term>
2837 <emphasis>{+block}</emphasis>
2838 <emphasis>.example.com</emphasis>
2839 <emphasis>.ads.r.us</emphasis>
2848 <application>Privoxy</application> will display its
2849 special <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page if a URL matches one of the
2850 blocked patterns. If there is sufficient space, a large red
2851 banner will appear with a friendly message about why the page
2852 was blocked, and a way to go there anyway. If there is insufficient
2853 space a smaller blocked page will appear without the red banner.
2854 One exception is if the URL matches both <quote>+block</quote>
2855 and <quote>+image</quote>, then it can be handled by
2856 <quote>+image-blocker</quote> (see below).
2865 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2866 <sect4 id="deanimate-gifs">
2867 <title><emphasis>+deanimate-gifs</emphasis></title>
2872 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2874 <para>Parameterized.</para>
2879 <term>Typical uses:</term>
2882 To stop those annoying, distracting animated GIF images.
2888 <term>Possible values:</term>
2891 <quote>last</quote> or <quote>first</quote>
2897 <term>Example usage:</term>
2900 <emphasis>{+deanimate-gifs{last}}</emphasis>
2901 <emphasis>.example.com</emphasis>
2910 De-animate all animated GIF images, i.e. reduce them to their last frame.
2911 This will also shrink the images considerably (in bytes, not pixels!). If
2912 the option <quote>first</quote> is given, the first frame of the animation
2913 is used as the replacement. If <quote>last</quote> is given, the last
2914 frame of the animation is used instead, which probably makes more sense for
2915 most banner animations, but also has the risk of not showing the entire
2916 last frame (if it is only a delta to an earlier frame).
2924 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2925 <sect4 id="downgrade">
2926 <title><emphasis>+downgrade</emphasis></title>
2931 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2933 <para>Boolean.</para>
2938 <term>Typical uses:</term>
2941 <quote>+downgrade</quote> will downgrade HTTP/1.1 client requests to
2942 HTTP/1.0 and downgrade the responses as well.
2948 <term>Possible values:</term>
2957 <term>Example usage:</term>
2960 <emphasis>{+downgrade}</emphasis>
2961 <emphasis>.example.com</emphasis>
2970 Use this action for servers that use HTTP/1.1 protocol features that
2971 <application>Privoxy</application> doesn't handle well yet. HTTP/1.1 is
2972 only partially implemented. Default is not to downgrade requests. This is
2973 an infrequently needed action, and is used to help with problem sites only.
2981 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2982 <sect4 id="fast-redirects">
2983 <title><emphasis>+fast-redirects</emphasis></title>
2988 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2990 <para>Boolean.</para>
2995 <term>Typical uses:</term>
2998 The <quote>+fast-redirects</quote> action enables interception of
2999 <quote>redirect</quote> requests from one server to another, which
3000 are used to track users.<application>Privoxy</application> can cut off
3001 all but the last valid URL in redirect request and send a local redirect
3002 back to your browser without contacting the intermediate site(s).
3008 <term>Possible values:</term>
3017 <term>Example usage:</term>
3020 <emphasis>{+fast-redirects}</emphasis>
3021 <emphasis>.example.com</emphasis>
3030 Many sites, like yahoo.com, don't just link to other sites. Instead, they
3031 will link to some script on their own server, giving the destination as a
3032 parameter, which will then redirect you to the final target. URLs
3033 resulting from this scheme typically look like:
3034 <emphasis>http://some.place/some_script?http://some.where-else</emphasis>.
3037 Sometimes, there are even multiple consecutive redirects encoded in the
3038 URL. These redirections via scripts make your web browsing more traceable,
3039 since the server from which you follow such a link can see where you go
3040 to. Apart from that, valuable bandwidth and time is wasted, while your
3041 browser ask the server for one redirect after the other. Plus, it feeds
3045 This is a normally on feature, and often requires exceptions for sites that
3046 are sensitive to defeating this mechanism.
3055 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3057 <title><emphasis>+filter</emphasis></title>
3062 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3064 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3069 <term>Typical uses:</term>
3072 Apply page filtering as defined by named sections of the
3073 <filename>default.filter</filename> file to the specified site(s).
3074 <quote>Filtering</quote> can be any modification of the raw
3075 page content, including re-writing or deletion.
3081 <term>Possible values:</term>
3084 <quote>+filter</quote> must include the name of one of the section identifiers
3085 from <filename>default.filter</filename> (or whatever
3086 <emphasis>filterfile</emphasis> is specified in <filename>config</filename>).
3092 <term>Example usage (from the current <filename>default.filter</filename>):</term>
3096 <emphasis>+filter{html-annoyances}</emphasis>: Get rid of particularly annoying HTML abuse.
3101 <emphasis>+filter{js-annoyances}</emphasis>: Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse
3106 <emphasis>+filter{content-cookies}</emphasis>: Kill cookies that come in the HTML or JS content
3111 <emphasis>+filter{popups}</emphasis>: Kill all popups in JS and HTML
3116 <emphasis>+filter{frameset-borders}</emphasis>: Give frames a border and make them resizable
3121 <emphasis>+filter{webbugs}</emphasis>: Squish WebBugs (1x1 invisible GIFs used for user tracking)
3126 <emphasis>+filter{refresh-tags}</emphasis>: Kill automatic refresh tags (for dial-on-demand setups)
3131 <emphasis>+filter{fun}</emphasis>: Text replacements for subversive browsing fun!
3136 <emphasis>+filter{nimda}</emphasis>: Remove Nimda (virus) code.
3141 <emphasis>+filter{banners-by-size}</emphasis>: Kill banners by size (<emphasis>very</emphasis> efficient!)
3146 <emphasis>+filter{shockwave-flash}</emphasis>: Kill embedded Shockwave Flash objects
3151 <emphasis>+filter{crude-parental}</emphasis>: Kill all web pages that contain the words "sex" or "warez"
3161 This is potentially a very powerful feature! And requires a knowledge
3162 of regular expressions if you want to <quote>roll your own</quote>.
3165 Filtering requires buffering the page content, which may appear to
3166 slow down page rendering since nothing is displayed until all content has
3167 passed the filters. (It does not really take longer, but seems that way
3168 since the page is not incrementally displayed.) This effect will be more
3169 noticeable on slower connections.
3178 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3179 <sect4 id="hide-forwarded">
3180 <title><emphasis>+hide-forwarded</emphasis></title>
3185 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3187 <para>Boolean.</para>
3192 <term>Typical uses:</term>
3195 Block any existing X-Forwarded-for HTTP header, and do not add a new one.
3201 <term>Possible values:</term>
3210 <term>Example usage:</term>
3213 <emphasis>{+hide-forwarded}</emphasis>
3214 <emphasis>.example.com</emphasis>
3223 It is fairly safe to leave this on. It does not seem to break many sites.
3232 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3233 <sect4 id="hide-from">
3234 <title><emphasis>+hide-from</emphasis></title>
3239 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3241 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3246 <term>Typical uses:</term>
3249 To block the browser from sending your email address in a <quote>From:</quote>
3256 <term>Possible values:</term>
3259 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
3265 <term>Example usage:</term>
3268 <emphasis>{+hide-from{block}}</emphasis>
3269 <emphasis>.example.com</emphasis>
3278 The keyword <quote>block</quote> will completely remove the header.
3279 Alternately, you can specify any value you prefer to send to the web
3289 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3290 <sect4 id="hide-referer">
3291 <title><emphasis>+hide-referer</emphasis></title>
3292 <anchor id="hide-referrer">
3297 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3299 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3304 <term>Typical uses:</term>
3307 Don't send the <quote>Referer:</quote> (sic) HTTP header to the web site.
3308 Or, alternately send a forged header instead.
3314 <term>Possible values:</term>
3317 Prevent the header from being sent with the keyword, <quote>block</quote>.
3318 Or, <quote>forge</quote> a URL to one from the same server as the request.
3319 Or, set to user defined value of your choice.
3325 <term>Example usage:</term>
3328 <emphasis>{+hide-referer{forge}}</emphasis>
3329 <emphasis>.example.com</emphasis>
3338 <quote>forge</quote> is the preferred option here, since some servers will
3339 not send images back otherwise.
3342 <quote>+hide-referrer</quote> is an alternate spelling of
3343 <quote>+hide-referer</quote>. It has the exact same parameters, and can be freely
3344 mixed with, <quote>+hide-referer</quote>. (<quote>referrer</quote> is the
3345 correct English spelling, however the HTTP specification has a bug - it
3346 requires it to be spelled as <quote>referer</quote>.)
3355 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3356 <sect4 id="hide-user-agent">
3357 <title><emphasis>+hide-user-agent</emphasis></title>
3362 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3364 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3369 <term>Typical uses:</term>
3372 To change the <quote>User-Agent:</quote> header so web servers can't tell
3373 your browser type. Who's business is it anyway?
3379 <term>Possible values:</term>
3382 Any user defined string.
3388 <term>Example usage:</term>
3391 <emphasis>{+hide-user-agent{Netscape 6.1 (X11; I; Linux 2.4.18 i686)}}</emphasis>
3392 <emphasis>.msn.com</emphasis>
3401 Warning! This breaks many web sites that depend on this in order
3402 to determine how the target browser will respond to various
3403 requests. Use with caution.
3411 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3413 <title><emphasis>+image</emphasis></title>
3418 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3420 <para>Boolean.</para>
3425 <term>Typical uses:</term>
3428 To define what <application>Privoxy</application> should treat
3429 automatically as an image.
3435 <term>Possible values:</term>
3444 <term>Example usage:</term>
3447 <emphasis>{+image}</emphasis>
3448 <emphasis>/.*\.(gif|jpg|jpeg|png|bmp|ico)</emphasis>
3457 This only has meaning if the URL (or pattern) also is
3458 <quote>+block</quote>ed, in which case a <quote>blocked</quote> image can
3459 be sent rather than a HTML page. (See <quote>+image-blocker{}</quote> below
3460 for the control over what is actually sent.)
3463 There is little reason to change the default definition for this.
3472 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3473 <sect4 id="image-blocker">
3474 <title><emphasis>+image-blocker</emphasis></title>
3479 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3481 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3486 <term>Typical uses:</term>
3489 Decide what to do with URLs that end up tagged with both <quote>{+block}</quote>
3490 and <quote>{+image}</quote>, e.g an advertisement.
3496 <term>Possible values:</term>
3499 There are four available options: <quote>-image-blocker</quote> will send a HTML
3500 <quote>blocked</quote> page, usually resulting in a <quote>broken
3501 image</quote> icon. <quote>+image-blocker{blank}</quote> will send a 1x1
3502 transparent GIF image. <quote>+image-blocker{pattern}</quote> will send a
3503 checkerboard type pattern (the default). And finally,
3504 <quote>+image-blocker{http://xyz.com}</quote> will send a HTTP temporary
3505 redirect to the specified image. This has the advantage of the icon being
3506 being cached by the browser, which will speed up the display.
3512 <term>Example usage:</term>
3515 <emphasis>{+image-blocker{blank}}</emphasis>
3516 <emphasis>.example.com</emphasis>
3525 If you want <emphasis>invisible</emphasis> ads, they need to be both
3526 defined as <emphasis>images</emphasis> and <emphasis>blocked</emphasis>.
3527 And then, <quote>image-blocker</quote> should be set to
3528 <quote>blank</quote> for invisibility. Note you cannot treat HTML pages as
3529 images in most cases. For instance, frames require an HTML page to display.
3530 So a frame that is an ad, cannot be treated as an image. Forcing an
3531 <quote>image</quote> in this situation just will not work.
3539 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3540 <sect4 id="limit-connect">
3541 <title><emphasis>+limit-connect</emphasis></title>
3546 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3548 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3553 <term>Typical uses:</term>
3556 By default, <application>Privoxy</application> only allows HTTP CONNECT
3557 requests to port 443 (the standard, secure HTTPS port). Use
3558 <quote>+limit-connect</quote> to disable this altogether, or to allow
3565 <term>Possible values:</term>
3568 Any valid port number, or port number range.
3574 <term>Example usages:</term>
3576 <!-- I had trouble getting the spacing to look right in my browser -->
3577 <!-- I probably have the wrong font setup, bollocks. -->
3579 <emphasis>+limit-connect{443}</emphasis> # This is the default and need not be specified.
3580 <emphasis>+limit-connect{80,443}</emphasis> # Ports 80 and 443 are OK.
3581 <emphasis>+limit-connect{-3, 7, 20-100, 500-}</emphasis> # Port less than 3, 7, 20 to 100 and above 500 are OK.
3590 The CONNECT methods exists in HTTP to allow access to secure websites
3591 (https:// URLs) through proxies. It works very simply: the proxy connects
3592 to the server on the specified port, and then short-circuits its
3593 connections to the client <emphasis>and</emphasis> to the remote proxy.
3594 This can be a big security hole, since CONNECT-enabled proxies can be
3595 abused as TCP relays very easily.
3598 If you want to allow CONNECT for more ports than this, or want to forbid
3599 CONNECT altogether, you can specify a comma separated list of ports and
3600 port ranges (the latter using dashes, with the minimum defaulting to 0 and
3604 If you don't know what any of this means, there probably is no reason to
3613 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3614 <sect4 id="no-compression">
3615 <title><emphasis>+no-compression</emphasis></title>
3620 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3622 <para>Boolean.</para>
3627 <term>Typical uses:</term>
3630 Prevent the specified websites from compressing HTTP data.
3636 <term>Possible values:</term>
3645 <term>Example usage:</term>
3648 <emphasis>{+no-compression}</emphasis>
3649 <emphasis>.example.com</emphasis>
3658 Some websites do this, which can be a problem for
3659 <application>Privoxy</application>, since <quote>+filter</quote>,
3660 <quote>+no-popup</quote> and <quote>+gif-deanimate</quote> will not work
3661 on compressed data. This will slow down connections to those websites,
3662 though. Default typically is to turn <quote>no-compression</quote> on.
3670 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3671 <sect4 id="no-cookies-keep">
3672 <title><emphasis>+no-cookies-keep</emphasis></title>
3677 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3679 <para>Boolean.</para>
3684 <term>Typical uses:</term>
3687 Allow cookies for the current browser session only.
3693 <term>Possible values:</term>
3702 <term>Example usage:</term>
3705 <emphasis>{+no-cookies-keep}</emphasis>
3706 <emphasis>.example.com</emphasis>
3715 If websites set cookies, <quote>no-cookies-keep</quote> will make sure
3716 they are erased when you exit and restart your web browser. This makes
3717 profiling cookies useless, but won't break sites which require cookies so
3718 that you can log in for transactions. This is generally turned on for all
3719 sites. Sometimes referred to as <quote>session cookies</quote>.
3728 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3729 <sect4 id="no-cookies-read">
3730 <title><emphasis>+no-cookies-read</emphasis></title>
3735 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3737 <para>Boolean.</para>
3742 <term>Typical uses:</term>
3745 Explicitly prevent the web server from reading any cookies on your
3752 <term>Possible values:</term>
3761 <term>Example usage:</term>
3764 <emphasis>{+no-cookies-read}</emphasis>
3765 <emphasis>.example.com</emphasis>
3774 Often used in conjunction with <quote>+no-cookies-set</quote> to
3775 disable persistant cookies completely.
3784 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3785 <sect4 id="no-cookies-set">
3786 <title><emphasis>+no-cookies-set</emphasis></title>
3791 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3793 <para>Boolean.</para>
3798 <term>Typical uses:</term>
3801 Explicitly block the web server from sending cookies to your
3808 <term>Possible values:</term>
3817 <term>Example usage:</term>
3820 <emphasis>{+no-cookies-set}</emphasis>
3821 <emphasis>.example.com</emphasis>
3830 Often used in conjunction with <quote>+no-cookies-read</quote> to
3831 disable persistant cookies completely.
3840 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3841 <sect4 id="no-popup">
3842 <title><emphasis>+no-popup</emphasis></title>
3843 <anchor id="no-popups">
3848 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3850 <para>Boolean.</para>
3855 <term>Typical uses:</term>
3858 Stop those annoying JavaScript pop-up windows!
3864 <term>Possible values:</term>
3873 <term>Example usage:</term>
3876 <emphasis>{+no-popup}</emphasis>
3877 <emphasis>.example.com</emphasis>
3886 <quote>+no-popup</quote> uses a built in filter to disable pop-ups
3887 that use the <literal>window.open()</literal> function, etc.
3890 An alternate spelling is <quote>+no-popups</quote>, which is
3900 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3901 <sect4 id="vanilla-wafer">
3902 <title><emphasis>+vanilla-wafer</emphasis></title>
3907 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3909 <para>Boolean.</para>
3914 <term>Typical uses:</term>
3917 Sends a cookie for every site stating that you do not accept any copyright
3918 on cookies sent to you, and asking them not to track you.
3924 <term>Possible values:</term>
3933 <term>Example usage:</term>
3936 <emphasis>{+vanilla-wafer}</emphasis>
3937 <emphasis>.example.com</emphasis>
3946 This action only applies if you are using a <filename>jarfile</filename>
3947 for saving cookies. Of course, this is a (relatively) unique header and
3948 could be used to track you.
3957 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3959 <title><emphasis>+wafer</emphasis></title>
3964 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3966 <para>Multi-value.</para>
3971 <term>Typical uses:</term>
3974 This allows you to send an arbitrary, user definable cookie.
3980 <term>Possible values:</term>
3983 User specified cookie name and corresponding value.
3989 <term>Example usage:</term>
3992 <emphasis>{+wafer{name=value}}</emphasis>
3993 <emphasis>.example.com</emphasis>
4002 This can be specified multiple times in order to add as many cookies as you
4012 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4013 <sect4 id="act-examples" renderas="sect3">
4014 <title>Actions Examples</title>
4016 Note that the meaning of any of the above examples is reversed by preceding
4017 the action with a <quote>-</quote>, in place of the <quote>+</quote>. Also,
4018 that some actions are turned on in the default section of the actions file,
4019 and require little to no additional configuration. These are just <quote>on</quote>.
4020 Some actions that are turned on the default section do typically require
4021 exceptions to be listed in the lower sections of actions file.
4029 Turn off cookies by default, then allow a few through for specified sites:
4036 # Turn off all persistent cookies
4037 { +no-cookies-read }
4040 # Allow cookies for this browser session ONLY
4041 { +no-cookies-keep }
4043 # Exceptions to the above, sites that benefit from persistent cookies
4044 # that saved from one browser session to the next.
4045 { -no-cookies-read }
4047 { -no-cookies-keep }
4054 # Alternative way of saying the same thing
4055 {-no-cookies-set -no-cookies-read -no-cookies-keep}
4064 Now turn off <quote>fast redirects</quote>, and then we allow two exceptions:
4074 # Reverse it for these two sites, which don't work right without it.
4076 www.ukc.ac.uk/cgi-bin/wac\.cgi\?
4084 Turn on page filtering according to rules in the defined sections
4085 of <filename>default.filter</filename>, and make one exception for
4093 # Run everything through the filter file, using only the
4094 # specified sections:
4095 +filter{html-annoyances} +filter{js-annoyances} +filter{no-popups}\
4096 +filter{webbugs} +filter{nimda} +filter{banners-by-size}
4098 # Then disable filtering of code from sourceforge!
4100 .cvs.sourceforge.net
4107 Now some URLs that we want <quote>blocked</quote> (normally generates
4108 the <quote>blocked</quote> banner). Many of these use
4109 <link linkend="regex">regular expressions</link> that will expand to match
4110 multiple URLs: </para>
4118 /.*/(.*[-_.])?ads?[0-9]?(/|[-_.].*|\.(gif|jpe?g))
4119 /.*/(.*[-_.])?count(er)?(\.cgi|\.dll|\.exe|[?/])
4120 /.*/(ng)?adclient\.cgi
4121 /.*/(plain|live|rotate)[-_.]?ads?/
4122 /.*/(sponsor)s?[0-9]?/
4123 /.*/_?(plain|live)?ads?(-banners)?/
4125 /.*/ad(sdna_image|gifs?)/
4126 /.*/ad(server|stream|juggler)\.(cgi|pl|dll|exe)
4130 /.*/adv((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))?/
4134 /.*/cgi-bin/centralad/getimage
4135 /.*/images/addver\.gif
4136 /.*/images/marketing/.*\.(gif|jpe?g)
4140 /.*/sponsors?[0-9]?/
4141 /.*/advert[0-9]+\.jpg
4148 /graphics/defaultAd/
4150 /image\.ng/transactionID
4151 /images/.*/.*_anim\.gif # alvin brattli
4152 /ip_img/.*\.(gif|jpe?g)
4156 /cgi-bin/nph-adclick.exe/
4157 /.*/Image/BannerAdvertising/
4159 /.*/adlib/server\.cgi
4167 Note that many of these actions have the potential to cause a page to
4168 misbehave, possibly even not to display at all. There are many ways
4169 a site designer may choose to design his site, and what HTTP header
4170 content he may depend on. There is no way to have hard and fast rules
4171 for all sites. See the <link linkend="ACTIONSANAT">Appendix</link>
4172 for a brief example on troubleshooting actions.
4178 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
4181 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4183 <title>Aliases</title>
4185 Custom <quote>actions</quote>, known to <application>Privoxy</application>
4186 as <quote>aliases</quote>, can be defined by combining other <quote>actions</quote>.
4187 These can in turn be invoked just like the built-in <quote>actions</quote>.
4188 Currently, an alias can contain any character except space, tab, <quote>=</quote>,
4189 <quote>{</quote> or <quote>}</quote>. But please use only <quote>a</quote>-
4190 <quote>z</quote>, <quote>0</quote>-<quote>9</quote>, <quote>+</quote>, and
4191 <quote>-</quote>. Alias names are not case sensitive, and
4192 <emphasis>must be defined before anything</emphasis> else in the
4193 <filename>default.action</filename>file! And there can only be one set of
4194 <quote>aliases</quote> defined.
4198 Now let's define a few aliases:
4205 # Useful custom aliases we can use later. These must come first!
4207 +no-cookies = +no-cookies-set +no-cookies-read
4208 -no-cookies = -no-cookies-set -no-cookies-read
4209 fragile = -block -no-cookies -filter -fast-redirects -hide-referer -no-popups
4210 shop = -no-cookies -filter -fast-redirects
4211 +imageblock = +block +image
4213 #For people who don't like to type too much: ;-)
4216 c2 = -no-cookies-set +no-cookies-read
4217 c3 = +no-cookies-set -no-cookies-read
4218 #... etc. Customize to your heart's content.
4225 Some examples using our <quote>shop</quote> and <quote>fragile</quote>
4233 # These sites are very complex and require
4234 # minimal interference.
4236 .office.microsoft.com
4237 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com
4240 # Shopping sites - but we still want to block ads.
4243 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
4247 # These shops require pop-ups also
4257 The <quote>shop</quote> and <quote>fragile</quote> aliases are often used for
4258 <quote>problem</quote> sites that require most actions to be disabled
4259 in order to function properly.
4266 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
4269 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4270 <sect2 id="filterfile">
4271 <title>The Filter File</title>
4273 Any web page can be dynamically modified with the filter file. This
4274 modification can be removal, or re-writing, of any web page content,
4275 including tags and non-visible content. The default filter file is
4276 <filename>default.filter</filename>, located in the config directory.
4280 This is potentially a very powerful feature, and requires knowledge of both
4281 <quote>regular expression</quote> and HTML in order create custom
4282 filters. But, there are a number of useful filters included with
4283 <application>Privoxy</application> for many common situations.
4287 The included example file is divided into sections. Each section begins
4288 with the <literal>FILTER</literal> keyword, followed by the identifier
4289 for that section, e.g. <quote>FILTER: webbugs</quote>. Each section performs
4290 a similar type of filtering, such as <quote>html-annoyances</quote>.
4294 This file uses regular expressions to alter or remove any string in the
4295 target page. The expressions can only operate on one line at a time. Some
4296 examples from the included default <filename>default.filter</filename>:
4300 Stop web pages from displaying annoying messages in the status bar by
4301 deleting such references:
4308 FILTER: html-annoyances
4310 # New browser windows should be resizeable and have a location and status
4313 s/resizable="?(no|0)"?/resizable=1/ig s/noresize/yesresize/ig
4314 s/location="?(no|0)"?/location=1/ig s/status="?(no|0)"?/status=1/ig
4315 s/scrolling="?(no|0|Auto)"?/scrolling=1/ig
4316 s/menubar="?(no|0)"?/menubar=1/ig
4318 # The <BLINK> tag was a crime!
4320 s*<blink>|</blink>**ig
4324 #s/framespacing="?(no|0)"?//ig
4325 #s/margin(height|width)=[0-9]*//gi
4332 Just for kicks, replace any occurrence of <quote>Microsoft</quote> with
4333 <quote>MicroSuck</quote>, and have a little fun with topical buzzwords:
4342 s/microsoft(?!.com)/MicroSuck/ig
4346 s/industry-leading|cutting-edge|award-winning/<font color=red><b>BINGO!</b></font>/ig
4353 Kill those pesky little web-bugs:
4360 # webbugs: Squish WebBugs (1x1 invisible GIFs used for user tracking)
4363 s/<img\s+[^>]*?(width|height)\s*=\s*['"]?1\D[^>]*?(width|height)\s*=\s*['"]?1(\D[^>]*?)?>/<!-- Squished WebBug -->/sig
4371 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
4375 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4378 <title>Templates</title>
4380 When <application>Privoxy</application> displays one of its internal
4381 pages, such as a 404 Not Found error page, it uses the appropriate template.
4382 On Linux, BSD, and Unix, these are located in
4383 <filename>/etc/privoxy/templates</filename> by default. These may be
4384 customized, if desired. <filename>cgi-style.css</filename> is
4385 used to control the HTML attributes (fonts, etc).
4388 The default <quote>Blocked</quote> banner page with the bright red top
4389 banner, is called just <quote><filename>blocked</filename></quote>. This
4390 may be customized or replaced with something else if desired.
4397 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
4401 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4403 <sect1 id="contact"><title>Contacting the Developers, Bug Reporting and Feature
4406 <!-- Include contacting.sgml boilerplate: -->
4408 <!-- end boilerplate -->
4411 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4412 <sect2 id="submitactions">
4413 <title>Submitting Ads and <quote>Action</quote> Problems</title>
4415 Ads and banners that are not stopped by <application>Privoxy</application>
4416 can be submitted to the developers by accessing a special page and filling
4417 out the brief, required form. Conversely, you can also report pages, images,
4418 etc. that <application>Privoxy</application> is blocking, but should not.
4419 The form itself does require Internet access.
4422 To do this, point your browser to <application>Privoxy</application>
4423 at <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
4424 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>), and then select
4425 <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>,
4426 near the bottom of the page. Paste in the URL that is the cause of the
4427 unwanted behavior, and follow the prompts. The developers will
4428 try to incorporate a fix for the problem you reported into future versions.
4432 New <filename>default.actions</filename> files will occasionally be made
4433 available based on your feedback. These
4434 will be announced on the
4436 url="http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ijbswa-announce">ijbswa-announce</ulink>
4444 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4445 <sect1 id="copyright"><title>Copyright and History</title>
4447 <sect2><title>Copyright</title>
4448 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
4450 <!-- end copyright -->
4453 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
4456 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4458 <sect2 id="history"><title>History</title>
4459 <!-- Include history.sgml: -->
4461 <!-- end history -->
4465 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4466 <sect1 id="seealso"><title>See Also</title>
4467 <!-- Include seealso.sgml: -->
4469 <!-- end seealso -->
4474 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4475 <sect1 id="appendix"><title>Appendix</title>
4478 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4480 <title>Regular Expressions</title>
4482 <application>Privoxy</application> can use <quote>regular expressions</quote>
4483 in various config files. Assuming support for <quote>pcre</quote> (Perl
4484 Compatible Regular Expressions) is compiled in, which is the default. Such
4485 configuration directives do not require regular expressions, but they can be
4486 used to increase flexibility by matching a pattern with wild-cards against
4491 If you are reading this, you probably don't understand what <quote>regular
4492 expressions</quote> are, or what they can do. So this will be a very brief
4493 introduction only. A full explanation would require a book ;-)
4497 <quote>Regular expressions</quote> is a way of matching one character
4498 expression against another to see if it matches or not. One of the
4499 <quote>expressions</quote> is a literal string of readable characters
4500 (letter, numbers, etc), and the other is a complex string of literal
4501 characters combined with wild-cards, and other special characters, called
4502 meta-characters. The <quote>meta-characters</quote> have special meanings and
4503 are used to build the complex pattern to be matched against. Perl Compatible
4504 Regular Expressions is an enhanced form of the regular expression language
4505 with backward compatibility.
4509 To make a simple analogy, we do something similar when we use wild-card
4510 characters when listing files with the <command>dir</command> command in DOS.
4511 <literal>*.*</literal> matches all filenames. The <quote>special</quote>
4512 character here is the asterisk which matches any and all characters. We can be
4513 more specific and use <literal>?</literal> to match just individual
4514 characters. So <quote>dir file?.text</quote> would match
4515 <quote>file1.txt</quote>, <quote>file2.txt</quote>, etc. We are pattern
4516 matching, using a similar technique to <quote>regular expressions</quote>!
4520 Regular expressions do essentially the same thing, but are much, much more
4521 powerful. There are many more <quote>special characters</quote> and ways of
4522 building complex patterns however. Let's look at a few of the common ones,
4523 and then some examples:
4528 <emphasis>.</emphasis> - Matches any single character, e.g. <quote>a</quote>,
4529 <quote>A</quote>, <quote>4</quote>, <quote>:</quote>, or <quote>@</quote>.
4531 </simplelist></para>
4535 <emphasis>?</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or ONE
4538 </simplelist></para>
4542 <emphasis>+</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ONE or MORE
4545 </simplelist></para>
4549 <emphasis>*</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or MORE
4552 </simplelist></para>
4556 <emphasis>\</emphasis> - The <quote>escape</quote> character denotes that
4557 the following character should be taken literally. This is used where one of the
4558 special characters (e.g. <quote>.</quote>) needs to be taken literally and
4559 not as a special meta-character. Example: <quote>example\.com</quote>, makes
4560 sure the period is recognized only as a period (and not expanded to its
4561 metacharacter meaning of any single character).
4563 </simplelist></para>
4567 <emphasis>[]</emphasis> - Characters enclosed in brackets will be matched if
4568 any of the enclosed characters are encountered. For instance, <quote>[0-9]</quote>
4569 matches any numeric digit (zero through nine). As an example, we can combine
4570 this with <quote>+</quote> to match any digit one of more times: <quote>[0-9]+</quote>.
4572 </simplelist></para>
4576 <emphasis>()</emphasis> - parentheses are used to group a sub-expression,
4577 or multiple sub-expressions.
4579 </simplelist></para>
4583 <emphasis>|</emphasis> - The <quote>bar</quote> character works like an
4584 <quote>or</quote> conditional statement. A match is successful if the
4585 sub-expression on either side of <quote>|</quote> matches. As an example:
4586 <quote>/(this|that) example/</quote> uses grouping and the bar character
4587 and would match either <quote>this example</quote> or <quote>that
4588 example</quote>, and nothing else.
4590 </simplelist></para>
4594 <emphasis>s/string1/string2/g</emphasis> - This is used to rewrite strings of text.
4595 <quote>string1</quote> is replaced by <quote>string2</quote> in this
4596 example. There must of course be a match on <quote>string1</quote> first.
4598 </simplelist></para>
4601 These are just some of the ones you are likely to use when matching URLs with
4602 <application>Privoxy</application>, and is a long way from a definitive
4603 list. This is enough to get us started with a few simple examples which may
4604 be more illuminating:
4608 <emphasis><literal>/.*/banners/.*</literal></emphasis> - A simple example
4609 that uses the common combination of <quote>.</quote> and <quote>*</quote> to
4610 denote any character, zero or more times. In other words, any string at all.
4611 So we start with a literal forward slash, then our regular expression pattern
4612 (<quote>.*</quote>) another literal forward slash, the string
4613 <quote>banners</quote>, another forward slash, and lastly another
4614 <quote>.*</quote>. We are building
4615 a directory path here. This will match any file with the path that has a
4616 directory named <quote>banners</quote> in it. The <quote>.*</quote> matches
4617 any characters, and this could conceivably be more forward slashes, so it
4618 might expand into a much longer looking path. For example, this could match:
4619 <quote>/eye/hate/spammers/banners/annoy_me_please.gif</quote>, or just
4620 <quote>/banners/annoying.html</quote>, or almost an infinite number of other
4621 possible combinations, just so it has <quote>banners</quote> in the path
4626 A now something a little more complex:
4630 <emphasis><literal>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))?/</literal></emphasis> -
4631 We have several literal forward slashes again (<quote>/</quote>), so we are
4632 building another expression that is a file path statement. We have another
4633 <quote>.*</quote>, so we are matching against any conceivable sub-path, just so
4634 it matches our expression. The only true literal that <emphasis>must
4635 match</emphasis> our pattern is <application>adv</application>, together with
4636 the forward slashes. What comes after the <quote>adv</quote> string is the
4641 Remember the <quote>?</quote> means the preceding expression (either a
4642 literal character or anything grouped with <quote>(...)</quote> in this case)
4643 can exist or not, since this means either zero or one match. So
4644 <quote>((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))</quote> is optional, as are the
4645 individual sub-expressions: <quote>(er)</quote>,
4646 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, and the <quote>s</quote>. The <quote>|</quote>
4647 means <quote>or</quote>. We have two of those. For instance,
4648 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, can expand to match either <quote>ing</quote>
4649 <emphasis>OR</emphasis> <quote>ements?</quote>. What is being done here, is an
4650 attempt at matching as many variations of <quote>advertisement</quote>, and
4651 similar, as possible. So this would expand to match just <quote>adv</quote>,
4652 or <quote>advert</quote>, or <quote>adverts</quote>, or
4653 <quote>advertising</quote>, or <quote>advertisement</quote>, or
4654 <quote>advertisements</quote>. You get the idea. But it would not match
4655 <quote>advertizements</quote> (with a <quote>z</quote>). We could fix that by
4656 changing our regular expression to:
4657 <quote>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|erti(s|z)(ing|ements?))?/</quote>, which would then match
4662 <emphasis><literal>/.*/advert[0-9]+\.(gif|jpe?g)</literal></emphasis> - Again
4663 another path statement with forward slashes. Anything in the square brackets
4664 <quote>[]</quote> can be matched. This is using <quote>0-9</quote> as a
4665 shorthand expression to mean any digit one through nine. It is the same as
4666 saying <quote>0123456789</quote>. So any digit matches. The <quote>+</quote>
4667 means one or more of the preceding expression must be included. The preceding
4668 expression here is what is in the square brackets -- in this case, any digit
4669 one through nine. Then, at the end, we have a grouping: <quote>(gif|jpe?g)</quote>.
4670 This includes a <quote>|</quote>, so this needs to match the expression on
4671 either side of that bar character also. A simple <quote>gif</quote> on one side, and the other
4672 side will in turn match either <quote>jpeg</quote> or <quote>jpg</quote>,
4673 since the <quote>?</quote> means the letter <quote>e</quote> is optional and
4674 can be matched once or not at all. So we are building an expression here to
4675 match image GIF or JPEG type image file. It must include the literal
4676 string <quote>advert</quote>, then one or more digits, and a <quote>.</quote>
4677 (which is now a literal, and not a special character, since it is escaped
4678 with <quote>\</quote>), and lastly either <quote>gif</quote>, or
4679 <quote>jpeg</quote>, or <quote>jpg</quote>. Some possible matches would
4680 include: <quote>//advert1.jpg</quote>,
4681 <quote>/nasty/ads/advert1234.gif</quote>,
4682 <quote>/banners/from/hell/advert99.jpg</quote>. It would not match
4683 <quote>advert1.gif</quote> (no leading slash), or
4684 <quote>/adverts232.jpg</quote> (the expression does not include an
4685 <quote>s</quote>), or <quote>/advert1.jsp</quote> (<quote>jsp</quote> is not
4686 in the expression anywhere).
4690 <emphasis><literal>s/microsoft(?!.com)/MicroSuck/i</literal></emphasis> - This is
4691 a substitution. <quote>MicroSuck</quote> will replace any occurrence of
4692 <quote>microsoft</quote>. The <quote>i</quote> at the end of the expression
4693 means ignore case. The <quote>(?!.com)</quote> means
4694 the match should fail if <quote>microsoft</quote> is followed by
4695 <quote>.com</quote>. In other words, this acts like a <quote>NOT</quote>
4696 modifier. In case this is a hyperlink, we don't want to break it ;-).
4700 We are barely scratching the surface of regular expressions here so that you
4701 can understand the default <application>Privoxy</application>
4702 configuration files, and maybe use this knowledge to customize your own
4703 installation. There is much, much more that can be done with regular
4704 expressions. Now that you know enough to get started, you can learn more on
4709 More reading on Perl Compatible Regular expressions:
4710 <ulink url="http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html">http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html</ulink>
4715 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
4718 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4720 <title><application>Privoxy</application>'s Internal Pages</title>
4723 Since <application>Privoxy</application> proxies each requested
4724 web page, it is easy for <application>Privoxy</application> to
4725 trap certain special URLs. In this way, we can talk directly to
4726 <application>Privoxy</application>, and see how it is
4727 configured, see how our rules are being applied, change these
4728 rules and other configuration options, and even turn
4729 <application>Privoxy's</application> filtering off, all with
4735 The URLs listed below are the special ones that allow direct access
4736 to <application>Privoxy</application>. Of course,
4737 <application>Privoxy</application> must be running to access these. If
4738 not, you will get a friendly error message. Internet access is not
4751 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
4755 Alternately, this may be reached at <ulink
4756 url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>, but this
4757 variation may not work as reliably as the above in some configurations.
4763 Show information about the current configuration:
4767 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
4774 Show the source code version numbers:
4778 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-version">http://config.privoxy.org/show-version</ulink>
4785 Show the client's request headers:
4789 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request">http://config.privoxy.org/show-request</ulink>
4796 Show which actions apply to a URL and why:
4800 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
4807 Toggle Privoxy on or off. In this case, <quote>Privoxy</quote> continues
4808 to run, but only as a pass-through proxy, with no actions taking place:
4812 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</ulink>
4816 Short cuts. Turn off, then on:
4820 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable</ulink>
4825 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable</ulink>
4832 Edit the actions list file:
4836 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions">http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions</ulink>
4845 These may be bookmarked for quick reference. See next.
4849 <sect3 id="bookmarklets">
4850 <title>Bookmarklets</title>
4852 Below are some <quote>bookmarklets</quote> to allow you to easily access a
4853 <quote>mini</quote> version of some of <application>Privoxy's</application>
4854 special pages. They are designed for MS Internet Explorer, but should work
4855 equally well in Netscape, Mozilla, and other browsers which support
4856 JavaScript. They are designed to run directly from your bookmarks - not by
4857 clicking the links below (although that should work for testing).
4860 To save them, right-click the link and choose <quote>Add to Favorites</quote>
4861 (IE) or <quote>Add Bookmark</quote> (Netscape). You will get a warning that
4862 the bookmark <quote>may not be safe</quote> - just click OK. Then you can run the
4863 Bookmarklet directly from your favorites/bookmarks. For even faster access,
4864 you can put them on the <quote>Links</quote> bar (IE) or the <quote>Personal
4865 Toolbar</quote> (Netscape), and run them with a single click.
4873 <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>
4879 <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>
4885 <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)
4891 <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>
4897 <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>
4907 Credit: The site which gave me the general idea for these bookmarklets is
4908 <ulink url="http://www.bookmarklets.com">www.bookmarklets.com</ulink>. They
4909 have more information about bookmarklets.
4918 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4919 <sect2 id="actionsanat">
4920 <title>Anatomy of an Action</title>
4923 The way <application>Privoxy</application> applies <quote>actions</quote>
4924 and <quote>filters</quote> to any given URL can be complex, and not always so
4925 easy to understand what is happening. And sometimes we need to be able to
4926 <emphasis>see</emphasis> just what <application>Privoxy</application> is
4927 doing. Especially, if something <application>Privoxy</application> is doing
4928 is causing us a problem inadvertently. It can be a little daunting to look at
4929 the actions and filters files themselves, since they tend to be filled with
4930 <quote>regular expressions</quote> whose consequences are not always
4935 One quick test to see if <application>Privoxy</application> is causing a problem
4936 or not, is to disable it temporarily. This should be the first troubleshooting
4937 step. See <link linkend="bookmarklets">the Bookmarklets</link> section on a quick
4938 and easy way to do this (be sure to flush caches afterwards!).
4942 <application>Privoxy</application> also provides the
4943 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
4944 page that can show us very specifically how <application>actions</application>
4945 are being applied to any given URL. This is a big help for troubleshooting.
4949 First, enter one URL (or partial URL) at the prompt, and then
4950 <application>Privoxy</application> will tell us
4951 how the current configuration will handle it. This will not
4952 help with filtering effects from the <filename>default.filter</filename> file! It
4953 also will not tell you about any other URLs that may be embedded within the
4954 URL you are testing (i.e. a web page). For instance, images such as ads are expressed as URLs
4955 within the raw page source of HTML pages. So you will only get info for the
4956 actual URL that is pasted into the prompt area -- not any sub-URLs. If you
4957 want to know about embedded URLs like ads, you will have to dig those out of
4958 the HTML source. Use your browser's <quote>View Page Source</quote> option
4959 for this. Or right click on the ad, and grab the URL.
4963 Let's look at an example, <ulink url="http://google.com">google.com</ulink>,
4964 one section at a time:
4969 System default actions:
4971 { -add-header -block -deanimate-gifs -downgrade -fast-redirects -filter
4972 -hide-forwarded -hide-from -hide-referer -hide-user-agent -image
4973 -image-blocker -limit-connect -no-compression -no-cookies-keep
4974 -no-cookies-read -no-cookies-set -no-popups -vanilla-wafer -wafer }
4980 This is the top section, and only tells us of the compiled in defaults. This
4981 is basically what <application>Privoxy</application> would do if there
4982 were not any <quote>actions</quote> defined, i.e. it does nothing. Every action
4983 is disabled. This is not particularly informative for our purposes here. OK,
4990 Matches for http://google.com:
4992 { -add-header -block +deanimate-gifs -downgrade +fast-redirects
4993 +filter{html-annoyances} +filter{js-annoyances} +filter{no-popups}
4994 +filter{webbugs} +filter{nimda} +filter{banners-by-size} +filter{hal}
4995 +filter{fun} +hide-forwarded +hide-from{block} +hide-referer{forge}
4996 -hide-user-agent -image +image-blocker{blank} +no-compression
4997 +no-cookies-keep -no-cookies-read -no-cookies-set +no-popups
4998 -vanilla-wafer -wafer }
5001 { -no-cookies-keep -no-cookies-read -no-cookies-set }
5011 This is much more informative, and tells us how we have defined our
5012 <quote>actions</quote>, and which ones match for our example,
5013 <quote>google.com</quote>. The first grouping shows our default
5014 settings, which would apply to all URLs. If you look at your <quote>actions</quote>
5015 file, this would be the section just below the <quote>aliases</quote> section
5016 near the top. This applies to all URLs as signified by the single forward
5017 slash -- <quote>/</quote>.
5022 These are the default actions we have enabled. But we can define additional
5023 actions that would be exceptions to these general rules, and then list
5024 specific URLs that these exceptions would apply to. Last match wins.
5025 Just below this then are two explicit matches for <quote>.google.com</quote>.
5026 The first is negating our various cookie blocking actions (i.e. we will allow
5027 cookies here). The second is allowing <quote>fast-redirects</quote>. Note
5028 that there is a leading dot here -- <quote>.google.com</quote>. This will
5029 match any hosts and sub-domains, in the google.com domain also, such as
5030 <quote>www.google.com</quote>. So, apparently, we have these actions defined
5031 somewhere in the lower part of our actions file, and
5032 <quote>google.com</quote> is referenced in these sections.
5037 And now we pull it altogether in the bottom section and summarize how
5038 <application>Privoxy</application> is applying all its <quote>actions</quote>
5039 to <quote>google.com</quote>:
5048 -add-header -block -deanimate-gifs -downgrade -fast-redirects
5049 +filter{html-annoyances} +filter{js-annoyances} +filter{no-popups}
5050 +filter{webbugs} +filter{nimda} +filter{banners-by-size} +filter{hal}
5051 +filter{fun} +hide-forwarded +hide-from{block} +hide-referer{forge}
5052 -hide-user-agent -image +image-blocker{blank} -limit-connect +no-compression
5053 -no-cookies-keep -no-cookies-read -no-cookies-set +no-popups -vanilla-wafer
5060 Now another example, <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>:
5079 We'll just show the interesting part here, the explicit matches. It is
5080 matched three different times. Each as an <quote>+block +image</quote>,
5081 which is the expanded form of one of our aliases that had been defined as:
5082 <quote>+imageblock</quote>. (<quote>Aliases</quote> are defined in the
5083 first section of the actions file and typically used to combine more
5088 Any one of these would have done the trick and blocked this as an unwanted
5089 image. This is unnecessarily redundant since the last case effectively
5090 would also cover the first. No point in taking chances with these guys
5091 though ;-) Note that if you want an ad or obnoxious
5092 URL to be invisible, it should be defined as <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>
5093 is done here -- as both a <quote>+block</quote> <emphasis>and</emphasis> an
5094 <quote>+image</quote>. The custom alias <quote>+imageblock</quote> does this
5099 One last example. Let's try <quote>http://www.rhapsodyk.net/adsl/HOWTO/</quote>.
5100 This one is giving us problems. We are getting a blank page. Hmmm...
5106 Matches for http://www.rhapsodyk.net/adsl/HOWTO/:
5108 { -add-header -block +deanimate-gifs -downgrade +fast-redirects
5109 +filter{html-annoyances} +filter{js-annoyances} +filter{no-popups}
5110 +filter{webbugs} +filter{nimda} +filter{banners-by-size} +filter{hal}
5111 +filter{fun} +hide-forwarded +hide-from{block} +hide-referer{forge}
5112 -hide-user-agent -image +image-blocker{blank} +no-compression
5113 +no-cookies-keep -no-cookies-read -no-cookies-set +no-popups
5114 -vanilla-wafer -wafer }
5124 Ooops, the <quote>/adsl/</quote> is matching <quote>/ads</quote>! But
5125 we did not want this at all! Now we see why we get the blank page. We could
5126 now add a new action below this that explicitly does <emphasis>not</emphasis>
5127 block (-block) pages with <quote>adsl</quote>. There are various ways to
5128 handle such exceptions. Example:
5141 Now the page displays ;-) Be sure to flush your browser's caches when
5142 making such changes. Or, try using <literal>Shift+Reload</literal>.
5146 But now what about a situation where we get no explicit matches like
5160 That actually was very telling and pointed us quickly to where the problem
5161 was. If you don't get this kind of match, then it means one of the default
5162 rules in the first section is causing the problem. This would require some
5163 guesswork, and maybe a little trial and error to isolate the offending rule.
5164 One likely cause would be one of the <quote>{+filter}</quote> actions. Try
5165 adding the URL for the site to one of aliases that turn off <quote>+filter</quote>:
5173 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
5182 <quote>{shop}</quote> is an <quote>alias</quote> that expands to
5183 <quote>{ -filter -no-cookies -no-cookies-keep }</quote>. Or you could do
5184 your own exception to negate filtering:
5198 <quote>{fragile}</quote> is an alias that disables most actions. This can be
5199 used as a last resort for problem sites. Remember to flush caches! If this
5200 still does not work, you will have to go through the remaining actions one by
5201 one to find which one(s) is causing the problem.
5210 This program is free software; you can redistribute it
5211 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
5212 Public License as published by the Free Software
5213 Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at
5214 your option) any later version.
5216 This program is distributed in the hope that it will
5217 be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the
5218 implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
5219 PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public
5220 License for more details.
5222 The GNU General Public License should be included with
5223 this file. If not, you can view it at
5224 http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
5225 or write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59
5226 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
5228 $Log: user-manual.sgml,v $
5229 Revision 1.87 2002/04/23 02:53:15 david__schmidt
5230 Updated OSX installation section
5231 Added a few English tweaks here an there
5233 Revision 1.86 2002/04/21 01:46:32 hal9
5234 Re-write actions section.
5236 Revision 1.85 2002/04/18 21:23:23 hal9
5237 Fix ugly typo (mine).
5239 Revision 1.84 2002/04/18 21:17:13 hal9
5240 Spell Redhat correctly (ie Red Hat). A few minor grammar corrections.
5242 Revision 1.83 2002/04/18 18:21:12 oes
5243 Added RPM install detail
5245 Revision 1.82 2002/04/18 12:04:50 oes
5248 Revision 1.81 2002/04/18 11:50:24 oes
5249 Extended Install section - needs fixing by packagers
5251 Revision 1.80 2002/04/18 10:45:19 oes
5252 Moved text to buildsource.sgml, renamed some filters, details
5254 Revision 1.79 2002/04/18 03:18:06 hal9
5255 Spellcheck, and minor touchups.
5257 Revision 1.78 2002/04/17 18:04:16 oes
5260 Revision 1.77 2002/04/17 13:51:23 oes
5261 Proofreading, part one
5263 Revision 1.76 2002/04/16 04:25:51 hal9
5264 -Added 'Note to Upgraders' and re-ordered the 'Quickstart' section.
5265 -Note about proxy may need requests to re-read config files.
5267 Revision 1.75 2002/04/12 02:08:48 david__schmidt
5268 Remove OS/2 building info... it is already in the developer-manual
5270 Revision 1.74 2002/04/11 00:54:38 hal9
5271 Add small section on submitting actions.
5273 Revision 1.73 2002/04/10 18:45:15 swa
5276 Revision 1.72 2002/04/10 04:06:19 hal9
5277 Added actions feedback to Bookmarklets section
5279 Revision 1.71 2002/04/08 22:59:26 hal9
5280 Version update. Spell chkconfig correctly :)
5282 Revision 1.70 2002/04/08 20:53:56 swa
5285 Revision 1.69 2002/04/06 05:07:29 hal9
5286 -Add privoxy-man-page.sgml, for man page.
5287 -Add authors.sgml for AUTHORS (and p-authors.sgml)
5288 -Reworked various aspects of various docs.
5289 -Added additional comments to sub-docs.
5291 Revision 1.68 2002/04/04 18:46:47 swa
5292 consistent look. reuse of copyright, history et. al.
5294 Revision 1.67 2002/04/04 17:27:57 swa
5295 more single file to be included at multiple points. make maintaining easier
5297 Revision 1.66 2002/04/04 06:48:37 hal9
5298 Structural changes to allow for conditional inclusion/exclusion of content
5299 based on entity toggles, e.g. 'entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE"'. And
5300 definition of internal entities, e.g. 'entity p-version "2.9.13"' that will
5301 eventually be set by Makefile.
5302 More boilerplate text for use across multiple docs.
5304 Revision 1.65 2002/04/03 19:52:07 swa
5305 enhance squid section due to user suggestion
5307 Revision 1.64 2002/04/03 03:53:43 hal9
5308 A few minor bug fixes, and touch ups. Ready for review.
5310 Revision 1.63 2002/04/01 16:24:49 hal9
5311 Define entities to include boilerplate text. See doc/source/*.
5313 Revision 1.62 2002/03/30 04:15:53 hal9
5314 - Fix privoxy.org/config links.
5315 - Paste in Bookmarklets from Toggle page.
5316 - Move Quickstart nearer top, and minor rework.
5318 Revision 1.61 2002/03/29 01:31:08 hal9
5321 Revision 1.60 2002/03/27 01:57:34 hal9
5322 Added more to Anatomy section.
5324 Revision 1.59 2002/03/27 00:54:33 hal9
5325 Touch up intro for new name.
5327 Revision 1.58 2002/03/26 22:29:55 swa
5328 we have a new homepage!
5330 Revision 1.57 2002/03/24 20:33:30 hal9
5331 A few minor catch ups with name change.
5333 Revision 1.56 2002/03/24 16:17:06 swa
5334 configure needs to be generated.
5336 Revision 1.55 2002/03/24 16:08:08 swa
5337 we are too lazy to make a block-built
5338 privoxy logo. hence removed the option.
5340 Revision 1.54 2002/03/24 15:46:20 swa
5341 name change related issue.
5343 Revision 1.53 2002/03/24 11:51:00 swa
5344 name change. changed filenames.
5346 Revision 1.52 2002/03/24 11:01:06 swa
5349 Revision 1.51 2002/03/23 15:13:11 swa
5350 renamed every reference to the old name with foobar.
5351 fixed "application foobar application" tag, fixed
5352 "the foobar" with "foobar". left junkbustser in cvs
5353 comments and remarks to history untouched.
5355 Revision 1.50 2002/03/23 05:06:21 hal9
5358 Revision 1.49 2002/03/21 17:01:05 hal9
5359 New section in Appendix.
5361 Revision 1.48 2002/03/12 06:33:01 hal9
5362 Catching up to Andreas and re_filterfile changes.
5364 Revision 1.47 2002/03/11 13:13:27 swa
5365 correct feedback channels
5367 Revision 1.46 2002/03/10 00:51:08 hal9
5368 Added section on JB internal pages in Appendix.
5370 Revision 1.45 2002/03/09 17:43:53 swa
5373 Revision 1.44 2002/03/09 17:08:48 hal9
5374 New section on Jon's actions file editor, and move some stuff around.
5376 Revision 1.43 2002/03/08 00:47:32 hal9
5377 Added imageblock{pattern}.
5379 Revision 1.42 2002/03/07 18:16:55 swa
5382 Revision 1.41 2002/03/07 16:46:43 hal9
5383 Fix a few markup problems for jade.
5385 Revision 1.40 2002/03/07 16:28:39 swa
5386 provide correct feedback channels
5388 Revision 1.39 2002/03/06 16:19:28 hal9
5389 Note on perceived filtering slowdown per FR.
5391 Revision 1.38 2002/03/05 23:55:14 hal9
5392 Stupid I did it again. Double hyphen in comment breaks jade.
5394 Revision 1.37 2002/03/05 23:53:49 hal9
5395 jade barfs on '- -' embedded in comments. - -user option broke it.
5397 Revision 1.36 2002/03/05 22:53:28 hal9
5398 Add new - - user option.
5400 Revision 1.35 2002/03/05 00:17:27 hal9
5401 Added section on command line options.
5403 Revision 1.34 2002/03/04 19:32:07 oes
5404 Changed default port to 8118
5406 Revision 1.33 2002/03/03 19:46:13 hal9
5407 Emphasis on where/how to report bugs, etc
5409 Revision 1.32 2002/03/03 09:26:06 joergs
5410 AmigaOS changes, config is now loaded from PROGDIR: instead of
5411 AmiTCP:db/junkbuster/ if no configuration file is specified on the
5414 Revision 1.31 2002/03/02 22:45:52 david__schmidt
5417 Revision 1.30 2002/03/02 22:00:14 hal9
5418 Updated 'New Features' list. Ran through spell-checker.
5420 Revision 1.29 2002/03/02 20:34:07 david__schmidt
5421 Update OS/2 build section
5423 Revision 1.28 2002/02/24 14:34:24 jongfoster
5424 Formatting changes. Now changing the doctype to DocBook XML 4.1
5425 will work - no other changes are needed.
5427 Revision 1.27 2002/01/11 14:14:32 hal9
5428 Added a very short section on Templates
5430 Revision 1.26 2002/01/09 20:02:50 hal9
5431 Fix bug re: auto-detect config file changes.
5433 Revision 1.25 2002/01/09 18:20:30 hal9
5434 Touch ups for *.action files.
5436 Revision 1.24 2001/12/02 01:13:42 hal9
5439 Revision 1.23 2001/12/02 00:20:41 hal9
5440 Updates for recent changes.
5442 Revision 1.22 2001/11/05 23:57:51 hal9
5443 Minor update for startup now daemon mode.
5445 Revision 1.21 2001/10/31 21:11:03 hal9
5446 Correct 2 minor errors
5448 Revision 1.18 2001/10/24 18:45:26 hal9
5449 *** empty log message ***
5451 Revision 1.17 2001/10/24 17:10:55 hal9
5452 Catching up with Jon's recent work, and a few other things.
5454 Revision 1.16 2001/10/21 17:19:21 swa
5455 wrong url in documentation
5457 Revision 1.15 2001/10/14 23:46:24 hal9
5458 Various minor changes. Fleshed out SEE ALSO section.
5460 Revision 1.13 2001/10/10 17:28:33 hal9
5463 Revision 1.12 2001/09/28 02:57:04 hal9
5466 Revision 1.11 2001/09/28 02:25:20 hal9
5469 Revision 1.9 2001/09/27 23:50:29 hal9
5470 A few changes. A short section on regular expression in appendix.
5472 Revision 1.8 2001/09/25 00:34:59 hal9
5473 Some additions, and re-arranging.
5475 Revision 1.7 2001/09/24 14:31:36 hal9
5478 Revision 1.6 2001/09/24 14:10:32 hal9
5479 Including David's OS/2 installation instructions.
5481 Revision 1.2 2001/09/13 15:27:40 swa
5484 Revision 1.1 2001/09/12 15:36:41 swa
5485 source files for junkbuster documentation
5487 Revision 1.3 2001/09/10 17:43:59 swa
5488 first proposal of a structure.
5490 Revision 1.2 2001/06/13 14:28:31 swa
5491 docs should have an author.
5493 Revision 1.1 2001/06/13 14:20:37 swa
5494 first import of project's documentation for the webserver.