1 <!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook V3.1//EN" [
2 <!entity % dummy "IGNORE">
3 <!entity supported SYSTEM "supported.sgml">
4 <!entity newfeatures SYSTEM "newfeatures.sgml">
5 <!entity p-intro SYSTEM "privoxy.sgml">
6 <!entity seealso SYSTEM "seealso.sgml">
7 <!entity buildsource SYSTEM "buildsource.sgml">
8 <!entity contacting SYSTEM "contacting.sgml">
9 <!entity history SYSTEM "history.sgml">
10 <!entity copyright SYSTEM "copyright.sgml">
11 <!entity license SYSTEM "license.sgml">
12 <!entity p-authors SYSTEM "p-authors.sgml">
13 <!entity config SYSTEM "p-config.sgml">
14 <!entity p-version "3.0.6">
15 <!entity p-status "UNRELEASED">
16 <!entity % p-authors-formal "INCLUDE"> <!-- include additional text, etc -->
17 <!entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE">
18 <!entity % p-stable "IGNORE">
19 <!entity % p-text "IGNORE"> <!-- define we are not a text only doc -->
20 <!entity % p-doc "INCLUDE"> <!-- and we are a formal doc -->
21 <!entity % p-readme "IGNORE">
22 <!entity % user-man "IGNORE">
23 <!entity % config-file "IGNORE">
24 <!entity % p-supp-userman "IGNORE"> <!-- Omit some from supported.sgml -->
25 <!entity my-copy "©"> <!-- kludge for docbook2man -->
26 <!entity % draft "IGNORE"> <!-- WIP stuff -->
27 <!entity my-app "<application>Privoxy</application>">
30 File : $Source: /cvsroot/ijbswa/current/doc/source/user-manual.sgml,v $
33 This file belongs into
34 ijbswa.sourceforge.net:/home/groups/i/ij/ijbswa/htdocs/
36 $Id: user-manual.sgml,v 2.22 2006/09/22 01:27:55 hal9 Exp $
38 Copyright (C) 2001- 2006 Privoxy Developers http://www.privoxy.org
41 ========================================================================
42 NOTE: Please read developer-manual/documentation.html before touching
43 anything in this, or other Privoxy documentation.
44 ========================================================================
51 <title>Privoxy &p-version; User Manual</title>
55 <!-- Completely the wrong markup, but very little is allowed -->
56 <!-- in this part of an article. FIXME -->
57 <link linkend="copyright">Copyright</link> &my-copy; 2001 - 2006 by
58 <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/">Privoxy Developers</ulink>
62 <pubdate>$Id: user-manual.sgml,v 2.22 2006/09/22 01:27:55 hal9 Exp $</pubdate>
66 Note: the following should generate a separate page, and a live link to it,
67 all nicely done. But it doesn't for some mysterious reason. Please leave
68 commented unless it can be fixed proper. For the time being, the
69 copyright/license declarations will be in their own sgml.
82 This is here to keep vim syntax file from breaking :/
83 If I knew enough to fix it, I would.
84 PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE! HB: hal@foobox.net
90 The <citetitle>Privoxy User Manual</citetitle> gives users information on how to
91 install, configure and use <ulink
92 url="http://www.privoxy.org/">Privoxy</ulink>.
95 <!-- Include privoxy.sgml boilerplate: -->
97 <!-- end privoxy.sgml -->
100 You can find the latest version of the <citetitle>Privoxy User Manual</citetitle> at <ulink
101 url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/">http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/</ulink>.
102 Please see the <link linkend="contact">Contact section</link> on how to
103 contact the developers.
107 <!-- Feel free to send a note to the developers at <email>ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net</email>. -->
113 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
114 <sect1 label="1" id="introduction"><title>Introduction</title>
116 This documentation is included with the current &p-status; version of
117 <application>Privoxy</application>, v.&p-version;<![%p-not-stable;[,
118 and is mostly complete at this point. The most up to date reference for the
119 time being is still the comments in the source files and in the individual
120 configuration files. Development of a new version is currently nearing
121 completion, and includes significant changes and enhancements over
122 earlier versions. ]]>.
125 <!-- include only in non-stable versions -->
128 Since this is a &p-status; version, not all new features are well tested. This
129 documentation may be slightly out of sync as a result (especially with
130 CVS sources). And there <emphasis>may be</emphasis> bugs, though hopefully
135 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
136 <sect2 id="features"><title>Features</title>
138 In addition to the core
139 features of ad blocking and
140 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookie</ulink> management,
141 <application>Privoxy</application> provides many supplemental
142 features<![%p-not-stable;[, some of them currently under development]]>,
143 that give the end-user more control, more privacy and more freedom:
145 <!-- Include newfeatures.sgml boilerplate here: -->
147 <!-- end boilerplate -->
152 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
155 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
156 <sect1 id="installation"><title>Installation</title>
159 <application>Privoxy</application> is available both in convenient pre-compiled
160 packages for a wide range of operating systems, and as raw source code.
161 For most users, we recommend using the packages, which can be downloaded from our
162 <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ijbswa/">Privoxy Project
168 On some platforms, the installer may remove previously installed versions, if
169 found. (See below for your platform). In any case <emphasis>be sure to backup
170 your old configuration if it is valuable to you.</emphasis> See the <link
171 linkend="upgradersnote">note to upgraders</link> section below.
174 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
175 <sect2 id="installation-packages"><title>Binary Packages</title>
177 How to install the binary packages depends on your operating system:
180 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
181 <sect3 id="installation-pack-rpm"><title>Red Hat, SuSE and Conectiva RPMs</title>
184 RPMs can be installed with <literal>rpm -Uvh privoxy-&p-version;-1.rpm</literal>,
185 and will use <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> for the location
186 of configuration files.
190 Note that on Red Hat, <application>Privoxy</application> will
191 <emphasis>not</emphasis> be automatically started on system boot. You will
192 need to enable that using <command>chkconfig</command>,
193 <command>ntsysv</command>, or similar methods.
197 If you have problems with failed dependencies, try rebuilding the SRC RPM:
198 <literal>rpm --rebuild privoxy-&p-version;-1.src.rpm</literal>. This
199 will use your locally installed libraries and RPM version.
203 Also note that if you have a <application>Junkbuster</application> RPM installed
204 on your system, you need to remove it first, because the packages conflict.
205 Otherwise, RPM will try to remove <application>Junkbuster</application>
206 automatically if found, before installing <application>Privoxy</application>.
210 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
211 <sect3 id="installation-deb"><title>Debian</title>
213 DEBs can be installed with <literal>apt-get install privoxy</literal>,
214 and will use <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> for the location of
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. You will find the configuration files
225 in the same directory as you installed <application>Privoxy</application> in.
228 Version 3.0.4 introduced full <application>Windows</application> service
229 functionality. On Windows only, the <application>Privoxy</application>
230 program has two new command line arguments to install and uninstall
231 <application>Privoxy</application> as a <emphasis>service</emphasis>.
235 <term>Arguments:</term>
238 <replaceable class="parameter">--install</replaceable>[:<replaceable class="parameter">service_name</replaceable>]
241 <replaceable class="parameter">--uninstall</replaceable>[:<replaceable class="parameter">service_name</replaceable>]
247 After invoking <application>Privoxy</application> with
248 <command>--install</command>, you will need to bring up the
249 <application>Windows</application> service console to assign the user you
250 want <application>Privoxy</application> to run under, and whether or not you
251 want it to run whenever the system starts. You can start the
252 <application>Windows</application> services console with the following
253 command: <command>services.msc</command>. If you do not take the manual step
254 of modifying <application>Privoxy's</application> service settings, it will
255 not start. Note too that you will need to give Privoxy a user account that
256 actually exists, or it will not be permitted to
257 write to its log and configuration files.
262 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
263 <sect3 id="installation-pack-bintgz"><title>Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD, HP-UX</title>
266 Create a new directory, <literal>cd</literal> to it, then unzip and
267 untar the archive. For the most part, you'll have to figure out where
268 things go. <!-- FIXME, more info needed? -->
272 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
273 <sect3 id="installation-os2"><title>OS/2</title>
276 First, make sure that no previous installations of
277 <application>Junkbuster</application> and / or
278 <application>Privoxy</application> are left on your
279 system. Check that no <application>Junkbuster</application>
280 or <application>Privoxy</application> objects are in
286 Then, just double-click the WarpIN self-installing archive, which will
287 guide you through the installation process. A shadow of the
288 <application>Privoxy</application> executable will be placed in your
289 startup folder so it will start automatically whenever OS/2 starts.
293 The directory you choose to install <application>Privoxy</application>
294 into will contain all of the configuration files.
298 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
299 <sect3 id="installation-mac"><title>Mac OSX</title>
301 Unzip the downloaded file (you can either double-click on the file
302 from the finder, or from the desktop if you downloaded it there).
303 Then, double-click on the package installer icon named
304 <literal>Privoxy.pkg</literal>
305 and follow the installation process.
306 <application>Privoxy</application> will be installed in the folder
307 <literal>/Library/Privoxy</literal>.
308 It will start automatically whenever you start up. To prevent it from
309 starting automatically, remove or rename the folder
310 <literal>/Library/StartupItems/Privoxy</literal>.
313 To start Privoxy by hand, double-click on
314 <literal>StartPrivoxy.command</literal> in the
315 <literal>/Library/Privoxy</literal> folder.
316 Or, type this command in the Terminal:
320 /Library/Privoxy/StartPrivoxy.command
324 You will be prompted for the administrator password.
328 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
329 <sect3 id="installation-amiga"><title>AmigaOS</title>
331 Copy and then unpack the <filename>lha</filename> archive to a suitable location.
332 All necessary files will be installed into <application>Privoxy</application>
333 directory, including all configuration and log files. To uninstall, just
334 remove this directory.
338 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
339 <sect3 id="installattion-gentoo"><title>Gentoo</title>
341 Gentoo source packages (Ebuilds) for <application>Privoxy</application> are
342 contained in the Gentoo Portage Tree (they are not on the download page,
343 but there is a Gentoo section, where you can see when a new
344 <application>Privoxy</application> Version is added to the Portage Tree).
347 Before installing <application>Privoxy</application> under Gentoo just do
348 first <literal>emerge rsync</literal> to get the latest changes from the
349 Portage tree. With <literal>emerge privoxy</literal> you install the latest
353 Configuration files are in <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename>, the
354 documentation is in <filename>/usr/share/doc/privoxy-&p-version;</filename>
355 and the Log directory is in <filename>/var/log/privoxy</filename>.
361 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
362 <sect2 id="installation-source"><title>Building from Source</title>
365 The most convenient way to obtain the <application>Privoxy</application> sources
366 is to download the source tarball from our <ulink url="http://sf.net/projects/ijbswa/">project
371 If you like to live on the bleeding edge and are not afraid of using
372 possibly unstable development versions, you can check out the up-to-the-minute
373 version directly from <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/cvs/?group_id=11118">the
374 CVS repository</ulink>.
376 deprecated...out of business.
377 or simply download <ulink
378 url="http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cvstarballs/ijbswa-cvsroot.tar.bz2">the nightly CVS
383 <!-- include buildsource.sgml boilerplate: -->
385 <!-- end boilerplate -->
388 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
389 <sect2 id="installation-keepupdated"><title>Keeping your Installation Up-to-Date</title>
391 As user feedback comes in and development continues, we will make updated versions
392 of both the main <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link> (as a <ulink
393 url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118&release_id=103670">separate
394 package</ulink>) and the software itself (including the actions file) available for
399 If you wish to receive an email notification whenever we release updates of
400 <application>Privoxy</application> or the actions file, <ulink
401 url="http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ijbswa-announce/">subscribe
402 to our announce mailing list</ulink>, ijbswa-announce@lists.sourceforge.net.
406 In order not to lose your personal changes and adjustments when updating
407 to the latest <literal>default.action</literal> file we <emphasis>strongly
408 recommend</emphasis> that you use <literal>user.action</literal> and
409 <literal>user.filter</literal> for your local
410 customizations of <application>Privoxy</application>. See the <link
411 linkend="actions-file">Chapter on actions files</link> for details.
419 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
421 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
422 <sect1 id="whatsnew">
423 <title>What's New in this Release</title>
425 There are many improvements and new features in <application>Privoxy</application> &p-version;
433 Multiple <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link> can now be specified in <filename>config</filename>. This allows for
434 locally defined filters that can be maintained separately from the filters as
435 supplied by the developers, i.e. <filename>default.filter</filename>.
441 There are a number of new <link linkend="actions-file">actions</link>:
449 <literal><link linkend="content-type-overwrite">content-type-overwrite</link></literal>
454 <literal><link linkend="crunch-client-header">crunch-client-header</link></literal>
459 <literal><link linkend="crunch-if-none-match">crunch-if-none-match</link></literal>
464 <literal><link linkend="crunch-server-header">crunch-server-header</link></literal>
469 <literal><link linkend="filter-client-headers">filter-client-headers</link></literal>
474 <literal><link linkend="filter-server-headers">filter-server-headers</link></literal>
479 <literal><link linkend="force-text-mode">force-text-mode</link></literal>
484 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-empty-document">handle-as-empty-document</link></literal>
489 <literal><link linkend="hide-accept-language">hide-accept-language</link></literal>
494 <literal><link linkend="hide-content-disposition">hide-content-disposition</link></literal>
499 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hide-if-modified-since</link></literal>
504 <literal><link linkend="inspect-jpegs">inspect-jpegs</link></literal>
509 <literal><link linkend="overwrite-last-modified">overwrite-last-modified</link></literal>
514 <literal><link linkend="redirect">redirect</link></literal>
519 <literal><link linkend="treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks">treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks</link></literal>
526 In addition, <literal><link linkend="fast-redirects">fast-redirects</link></literal>
527 has been significantly improved with enhanced syntax.
530 And <literal><link linkend="hide-referrer">hide-referrer</link></literal>
531 has a new option, <literal>conditional block</literal>.
538 <application>MS-Windows</application> versions can now be
540 linkend="installation-pack-win">installed and
541 started as a <emphasis>Windows service</emphasis></link>.
547 <filename>config</filename> has two new options:
549 linkend="enable-remote-http-toggle">enable-remote-http-toggle</link>,
551 linkend="forwarded-connect-retries">forwarded-connect-retries</link>.
554 And there is improved handling of the <link
555 linkend="user-manual">user-manual</link>
556 option, for placing documentation and help files on the local system.
562 Actions files problems and suggestions are now being directed to:
563 <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=11118&atid=460288">http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=11118&atid=460288</ulink>.
564 Please use this to report such configuration related problems as missed
565 ads, sites that don't function properly due to one action or another,
566 innocent images being blocked, etc.
572 In addition, there are numerous bug fixes and significant enhancements,
573 including error pages should no longer be cached if the problem is fixed,
574 much better DNS error handling, and various logging improvements.
580 The default actions setting is now <literal>Cautious</literal>. Previous
581 releases had a default setting of <literal>Medium</literal>. Experienced
582 users may want to adjust this, as it is fairly conservative by &my-app;
583 standards and past practices. See <ulink
584 url="http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions-list?f=default">
585 http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions-list?f=default</ulink>. New users
586 should try the default settings for a while before turning up the volume.
593 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
595 <sect2 id="upgradersnote">
596 <title>Note to Upgraders</title>
599 A quick list of things to be aware of before upgrading from earlier
600 versions of <application>Privoxy</application>:
608 Some installers may remove earlier versions completely, including
609 configuration files. Save any important configuration files!
614 On the other hand, other installers may not overwrite any existing configuration
615 files, thinking you will want to do that. You may want to manually check
616 your saved files against the newer versions to see if the improvements have
617 merit, or whether there are new options that you may want to consider.
618 There are a number of new features, but most won't be available unless
619 these features are incorporated into your configuration somehow.
624 See the full documentation on
625 <literal><link linkend="fast-redirects">fast-redirects</link></literal>
626 which has changed syntax, and will require adjustments to local configs,
627 such as <filename>user.action</filename>. You must reference the new
632 { +fast-redirects{check-decoded-url} }
641 The <filename>jarfile</filename>,
642 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookie</ulink> logger, is off by default now.
648 What constitutes a <quote>default</quote> configuration has changed,
649 and you may want to review which actions are <quote>on</quote> by
650 default. This is primarily a matter of emphasis, but some features
651 you may have been used to, may now be <quote>off</quote> by default.
652 There are also a number of new actions you may want to consider, most of
653 which are not incorporated into the default settings as yet (see above).
659 <!-- I think it is best to keep this somewhat vague, in case -->
660 <!-- the situation changes under our feet. -->
661 Some installers may not automatically start
662 <application>Privoxy</application> after installation.
671 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
672 <sect1 id="quickstart"><title>Quickstart to Using Privoxy</title>
678 Install <application>Privoxy</application>. See the <link
679 linkend="installation">Installation Section</link> below for platform specific
686 Advanced users and those who want to offer <application>Privoxy</application>
687 service to more than just their local machine should check the <link
688 linkend="config">main config file</link>, especially the <link
689 linkend="access-control">security-relevant</link> options. These are
696 Start <application>Privoxy</application>, if the installation program has
697 not done this already (may vary according to platform). See the section
698 <link linkend="startup">Starting <application>Privoxy</application></link>.
704 Set your browser to use <application>Privoxy</application> as HTTP and
705 HTTPS (SSL) <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_server">proxy</ulink>
706 by setting the proxy configuration for address of
707 <literal>127.0.0.1</literal> and port <literal>8118</literal>.
708 <emphasis>DO NOT</emphasis> activate proxying for <literal>FTP</literal> or
709 any protocols besides HTTP and HTTPS (SSL)! It won't work!
715 Flush your browser's disk and memory caches, to remove any cached ad images.
716 If using <application>Privoxy</application> to manage
717 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>,
718 you should remove any currently stored cookies too.
724 A default installation should provide a reasonable starting point for
725 most. There will undoubtedly be occasions where you will want to adjust the
726 configuration, but that can be dealt with as the need arises. Little
727 to no initial configuration is required in most cases.
730 See the <link linkend="configuration">Configuration section</link> for more
731 configuration options, and how to customize your installation.
732 You might also want to look at the <link
733 linkend="quickstart-ad-blocking">next section</link> for a quick
734 introduction to how <application>Privoxy</application> blocks ads and
741 If you experience ads that slip through, innocent images that are
742 blocked, or otherwise feel the need to fine-tune
743 <application>Privoxy's</application> behavior, take a look at the <link
744 linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>. As a quick start, you might
745 find the <link linkend="act-examples">richly commented examples</link>
746 helpful. You can also view and edit the actions files through the <ulink
747 url="http://config.privoxy.org">web-based user interface</ulink>. The
748 Appendix <quote><link linkend="actionsanat">Troubleshooting: Anatomy of an
749 Action</link></quote> has hints on how to understand and debug actions that
750 <quote>misbehave</quote>.
756 For easy access to &my-app;'s most important controls, drag the provided
757 <link linkend="bookmarklets">Bookmarklets</link> into your browser's
764 Please see the section <link linkend="contact">Contacting the
765 Developers</link> on how to report bugs, problems with websites or to get
772 Now enjoy surfing with enhanced control, comfort and privacy!
780 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
782 <sect2 id="quickstart-ad-blocking">
783 <title>Quickstart to Ad Blocking</title>
785 NOTE: This section is deliberately redundant for those that don't
786 want to read the whole thing (which is getting lengthy).
789 Ad blocking is but one of <application>Privoxy's</application>
790 array of features. Many of these features are for the technically minded advanced
791 user. But, ad and banner blocking is surely common ground for everybody.
794 This section will provide a quick summary of ad blocking so
795 you can get up to speed quickly without having to read the more extensive
796 information provided below, though this is highly recommended.
799 First a bit of a warning ... blocking ads is much like blocking SPAM: the
800 more aggressive you are about it, the more likely you are to block
801 things that were not intended. So there is a trade off here. If you want
802 extreme ad free browsing, be prepared to deal with more
803 <quote>problem</quote> sites, and to spend more time adjusting the
804 configuration to solve these unintended consequences. In short, there is
805 not an easy way to eliminate <emphasis>all</emphasis> ads. Either take
806 the easy way and settle for <emphasis>most</emphasis> ads blocked with the
807 default configuration, or jump in and tweak it for your personal surfing
808 habits and preferences.
811 Secondly, a brief explanation of <application>Privoxy's </application>
812 <quote>actions</quote>. <quote>Actions</quote> in this context, are
813 the directives we use to tell <application>Privoxy</application> to perform
814 some task relating to HTTP transactions (i.e. web browsing). We tell
815 <application>Privoxy</application> to take some <quote>action</quote>. Each
816 action has a unique name and function. While there are many potential
817 <application>actions</application> in <application>Privoxy's</application>
818 arsenal, only a few are used for ad blocking. <link
819 linkend="actions">Actions</link>, and <link linkend="actions-file">action
820 configuration files</link>, are explained in depth below.
823 Actions are specified in <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration,
824 followed by one or more URLs to which the action should apply. URLs
825 can actually be URL type <link linkend="af-patterns">patterns</link> that use
826 wildcards so they can apply potentially to a range of similar URLs. The
827 actions, together with the URL patterns are called a section.
830 When you connect to a website, the full URL will either match one or more
831 of the sections as defined in <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration,
832 or not. If so, then <application>Privoxy</application> will perform the
833 respective actions. If not, then nothing special happens. Furthermore, web
834 pages may contain embedded, secondary URLs that your web browser will
835 use to load additional components of the page, as it parses the
836 original page's HTML content. An ad image for instance, is just an URL
837 embedded in the page somewhere. The image itself may be on the same server,
838 or a server somewhere else on the Internet. Complex web pages will have many
843 The actions we need to know about for ad blocking are: <literal><link
844 linkend="block">block</link></literal>, <literal><link
845 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>, and
846 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>:
854 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> - this action stops
855 any contact between your browser and any URL patterns that match this
856 action's configuration. It can be used for blocking ads, but also anything
857 that is determined to be unwanted. By itself, it simply stops any
858 communication with the remote server and sends <application>Privoxy</application>'s
859 own built-in BLOCKED page instead to let you now what has happened.
865 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> -
866 tells <application>Privoxy</application> to treat this URL as an image.
867 <application>Privoxy</application>'s default configuration already does this
868 for all common image types (e.g. GIF), but there are many situations where this
869 is not so easy to determine. So we'll force it in these cases. This is particularly
870 important for ad blocking, since only if we know that it's an image of
871 some kind, can we replace it with an image of our choosing, instead of the
872 <application>Privoxy</application> BLOCKED page (which would only result in
873 a <quote>broken image</quote> icon). There are some limitations to this
874 though. For instance, you can't just brute-force an image substitution for
875 an entire HTML page in most situations.
882 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal> - tells
883 <application>Privoxy</application> what to display in place of an ad image that
884 has hit a block rule. For this to come into play, the URL must match a
885 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action somewhere in the
886 configuration, <emphasis>and</emphasis>, it must also match an
887 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> action.
890 The configuration options on what to display instead of the ad are:
894 <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> - a checkerboard pattern, so that an ad
895 replacement is obvious. This is the default.
900 <emphasis>blank</emphasis> - A very small empty GIF image is displayed.
901 This is the so-called <quote>invisible</quote> configuration option.
906 <emphasis>http://<URL></emphasis> - A redirect to any image anywhere
907 of the user's choosing (advanced usage).
916 The quickest way to adjust any of these settings is with your browser through
917 the special <application>Privoxy</application> editor at <ulink
918 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
919 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/show-status</ulink>). This
920 is an internal page, and does not require Internet access. Select the
921 appropriate <quote>actions</quote> file, and click
922 <quote><guibutton>Edit</guibutton></quote>. It is best to put personal or
923 local preferences in <filename>user.action</filename> since this is not
924 meant to be overwritten during upgrades, and will over-ride the settings in
925 other files. Here you can insert new <quote>actions</quote>, and URLs for ad
926 blocking or other purposes, and make other adjustments to the configuration.
927 <application>Privoxy</application> will detect these changes automatically.
931 A quick and simple step by step example:
939 Right click on the ad image to be blocked, then select
940 <quote><guimenuitem>Copy Link Location</guimenuitem></quote> from the
948 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
953 Find <filename>user.action</filename> in the top section, and click
954 on <quote><guibutton>Edit</guibutton></quote>:
957 <!-- image of editor and actions files selections -->
959 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Actions Files in Use</title>
962 <imagedata fileref="files-in-use.jpg" format="jpg">
965 <phrase>[ Screenshot of Actions Files in Use ]</phrase>
974 You should have a section with only
975 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> listed under
976 <quote>Actions:</quote>.
977 If not, click a <quote><guibutton>Insert new section below</guibutton></quote>
978 button, and in the new section that just appeared, click the
979 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> button right under the word <quote>Actions:</quote>.
980 This will bring up a list of all actions. Find
981 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> near the top, and click
982 in the <quote>Enabled</quote> column, then <quote><guibutton>Submit</guibutton></quote>
988 Now, in the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> actions section,
989 click the <quote><guibutton>Add</guibutton></quote> button, and paste the URL the
990 browser got from <quote><guimenuitem>Copy Link Location</guimenuitem></quote>.
991 Remove the <literal>http://</literal> at the beginning of the URL. Then, click
992 <quote><guibutton>Submit</guibutton></quote> (or
993 <quote><guibutton>OK</guibutton></quote> if in a pop-up window).
998 Now go back to the original page, and press <keycap>SHIFT-Reload</keycap>
999 (or flush all browser caches). The image should be gone now.
1007 This is a very crude and simple example. There might be good reasons to use a
1008 wildcard pattern match to include potentially similar images from the same
1009 site. For a more extensive explanation of <quote>patterns</quote>, and
1010 the entire actions concept, see <link linkend="actions-file">the Actions
1015 For advanced users who want to hand edit their config files, you might want
1016 to now go to the <link linkend="act-examples">Actions Files Tutorial</link>.
1017 The ideas explained therein also apply to the web-based editor.
1024 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1027 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1028 <sect1 id="startup">
1029 <title>Starting Privoxy</title>
1031 Before launching <application>Privoxy</application> for the first time, you
1032 will want to configure your browser(s) to use
1033 <application>Privoxy</application> as a HTTP and HTTPS (SSL)
1034 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_server">proxy</ulink>. The default is
1035 127.0.0.1 (or localhost) for the proxy address, and port 8118 (earlier versions
1036 used port 8000). This is the one configuration step <emphasis>that must be done
1040 Please note that <application>Privoxy</application> can only proxy HTTP and
1041 HTTPS traffic. It will not work with FTP or other protocols.
1044 <!-- image of Mozilla Proxy configuration -->
1046 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Proxy Configuration Showing
1047 Mozilla/Netscape HTTP and HTTPS (SSL) Settings</title>
1050 <imagedata fileref="proxy_setup.jpg" format="jpg">
1053 <phrase>[ Screenshot of Mozilla Proxy Configuration ]</phrase>
1061 With <application>Firefox</application>, this can be set under:
1065 <guibutton>Tools</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Options</guibutton> -> <guibutton>General</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Connection Settings</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Manual Proxy Configuration</guibutton>
1071 With <application>Netscape</application> (and
1072 <application>Mozilla</application>), this can be set under:
1077 <!-- Mix ascii and gui art, something for everybody -->
1078 <!-- spacing on this is tricky -->
1079 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Preferences</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Advanced</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Proxies</guibutton> -> <guibutton>HTTP Proxy</guibutton>
1084 For <application>Internet Explorer v.5-6</application>:
1088 <guibutton>Tools</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Internet Options</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Connections</guibutton> -> <guibutton>LAN Settings</guibutton>
1092 Then, check <quote>Use Proxy</quote> and fill in the appropriate info
1093 (Address: 127.0.0.1, Port: 8118). Include HTTPS (SSL), if you want HTTPS
1094 proxy support too (sometimes labeled <quote>Secure</quote>). Make sure any
1095 checkboxes like <quote>Use the same proxy server for all protocols</quote> is
1096 <emphasis>UNCHECKED</emphasis>. You want only HTTP and HTTPS (SSL)!
1099 <!-- image of IE Proxy configuration -->
1101 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Proxy Configuration Showing
1102 Internet Explorer HTTP and HTTPS (Secure) Settings</title>
1105 <imagedata fileref="proxy2.jpg" format="jpg">
1108 <phrase>[ Screenshot of IE Proxy Configuration ]</phrase>
1116 After doing this, flush your browser's disk and memory caches to force a
1117 re-reading of all pages and to get rid of any ads that may be cached. Remove
1118 any <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>,
1119 if you want <application>Privoxy</application> to manage that. You are now
1120 ready to start enjoying the benefits of using
1121 <application>Privoxy</application>!
1125 <application>Privoxy</application> itself is typically started by specifying the
1126 main configuration file to be used on the command line. If no configuration
1127 file is specified on the command line, <application>Privoxy</application>
1128 will look for a file named <filename>config</filename> in the current
1129 directory. Except on Win32 where it will try <filename>config.txt</filename>.
1132 <sect2 id="start-redhat">
1133 <title>Red Hat, Fedora and Conectiva</title>
1135 A default Red Hat installation may not start &my-app; upon boot. It will use
1136 the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename> as its main configuration
1141 # /etc/rc.d/init.d/privoxy start
1149 # service privoxy start
1154 <sect2 id="start-debian">
1155 <title>Debian</title>
1157 We use a script. Note that Debian typically starts &my-app; upon booting per
1158 default. It will use the file
1159 <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename> as its main configuration
1164 # /etc/init.d/privoxy start
1169 <sect2 id="start-suse">
1172 We use a script. It will use the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename>
1173 as its main configuration file. Note that SuSE starts Privoxy upon booting
1183 <sect2 id="start-windows">
1184 <title>Windows</title>
1186 Click on the &my-app; Icon to start <application>Privoxy</application>. If no configuration file is
1187 specified on the command line, <application>Privoxy</application> will look
1188 for a file named <filename>config.txt</filename>. Note that Windows will
1189 automatically start &my-app; when the system starts if you chose that option
1193 <application>Privoxy</application> can run with full Windows service functionality.
1194 On Windows only, the &my-app; program has two new command line arguments
1195 to install and uninstall &my-app; as a service. See the
1196 <link linkend="installation-pack-win">Windows Installation
1197 instructions</link> for details.
1201 <sect2 id="start-unices">
1202 <title>Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD, HP-UX and others</title>
1204 Example Unix startup command:
1208 # /usr/sbin/privoxy /etc/privoxy/config
1213 <sect2 id="start-os2">
1216 During installation, <application>Privoxy</application> is configured to
1217 start automatically when the system restarts. You can start it manually by
1218 double-clicking on the <application>Privoxy</application> icon in the
1219 <application>Privoxy</application> folder.
1223 <sect2 id="start-macosx">
1224 <title>Mac OSX</title>
1226 During installation, <application>Privoxy</application> is configured to
1227 start automatically when the system restarts. To start &my-app; manually,
1228 double-click on the <literal>StartPrivoxy.command</literal> icon in the
1229 <literal>/Library/Privoxy</literal> folder. Or, type this command
1234 /Library/Privoxy/StartPrivoxy.command
1238 You will be prompted for the administrator password.
1243 <sect2 id="start-amigaos">
1244 <title>AmigaOS</title>
1246 Start <application>Privoxy</application> (with RUN <>NIL:) in your
1247 <filename>startnet</filename> script (AmiTCP), in
1248 <filename>s:user-startup</filename> (RoadShow), as startup program in your
1249 startup script (Genesis), or as startup action (Miami and MiamiDx).
1250 <application>Privoxy</application> will automatically quit when you quit your
1251 TCP/IP stack (just ignore the harmless warning your TCP/IP stack may display that
1252 <application>Privoxy</application> is still running).
1256 <sect2 id="start-gentoo">
1257 <title>Gentoo</title>
1259 A script is again used. It will use the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config
1260 </filename> as its main configuration file.
1264 /etc/init.d/privoxy start
1268 Note that <application>Privoxy</application> is not automatically started at
1269 boot time by default. You can change this with the <literal>rc-update</literal>
1274 rc-update add privoxy default
1282 See the section <link linkend="cmdoptions">Command line options</link> for
1286 must find a better place for this paragraph
1289 The included default configuration files should give a reasonable starting
1290 point. Most of the per site configuration is done in the
1291 <ulink url="actions-file.html"><quote>actions</quote></ulink> files. These are
1292 where various cookie actions are defined, ad and banner blocking, and other
1293 aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. There are several
1294 such files included, with varying levels of aggressiveness.
1298 You will probably want to keep an eye out for sites for which you may prefer
1299 persistent cookies, and add these to your actions configuration as needed. By
1300 default, most of these will be accepted only during the current browser
1301 session (aka <quote>session cookies</quote>), unless you add them to the
1302 configuration. If you want the browser to handle this instead, you will need
1303 to edit <filename>user.action</filename> (or through the web based interface)
1304 and disable this feature. If you use more than one browser, it would make
1305 more sense to let <application>Privoxy</application> handle this. In which
1306 case, the browser(s) should be set to accept all cookies.
1310 Another feature where you will probably want to define exceptions for trusted
1311 sites is the popup-killing (through the <ulink
1312 url="actions-file.html#KILL-POPUPS"><quote>+kill-popups</quote></ulink> and
1314 url="actions-file.html#FILTER-POPUPS"><quote>+filter{popups}</quote></ulink>
1315 actions), because your favorite shopping, banking, or leisure site may need
1316 popups (explained below).
1320 <application>Privoxy</application> is HTTP/1.1 compliant, but not all of
1321 the optional 1.1 features are as yet supported. In the unlikely event that
1322 you experience inexplicable problems with browsers that use HTTP/1.1 per default
1323 (like <application>Mozilla</application> or recent versions of I.E.), you might
1324 try to force HTTP/1.0 compatibility. For Mozilla, look under <literal>Edit ->
1325 Preferences -> Debug -> Networking</literal>.
1326 Alternatively, set the <quote>+downgrade-http-version</quote> config option in
1327 <filename>default.action</filename> which will downgrade your browser's HTTP
1328 requests from HTTP/1.1 to HTTP/1.0 before processing them.
1332 After running <application>Privoxy</application> for a while, you can
1333 start to fine tune the configuration to suit your personal, or site,
1334 preferences and requirements. There are many, many aspects that can
1335 be customized. <quote>Actions</quote>
1336 can be adjusted by pointing your browser to
1337 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
1338 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
1339 and then follow the link to <quote>View & Change the Current Configuration</quote>.
1340 (This is an internal page and does not require Internet access.)
1344 In fact, various aspects of <application>Privoxy</application>
1345 configuration can be viewed from this page, including
1346 current configuration parameters, source code version numbers,
1347 the browser's request headers, and <quote>actions</quote> that apply
1348 to a given URL. In addition to the actions file
1349 editor mentioned above, <application>Privoxy</application> can also
1350 be turned <quote>on</quote> and <quote>off</quote> (toggled) from this page.
1354 If you encounter problems, try loading the page without
1355 <application>Privoxy</application>. If that helps, enter the URL where
1356 you have the problems into <ulink url="http://p.p/show-url-info">the browser
1357 based rule tracing utility</ulink>. See which rules apply and why, and
1358 then try turning them off for that site one after the other, until the problem
1359 is gone. When you have found the culprit, you might want to turn the rest on
1364 If the above paragraph sounds gibberish to you, you might want to <link
1365 linkend="actions-file">read more about the actions concept</link>
1366 or even dive deep into the <link linkend="actionsanat">Appendix
1371 If you can't get rid of the problem at all, think you've found a bug in
1372 Privoxy, want to propose a new feature or smarter rules, please see the
1373 section <link linkend="contact"><quote>Contacting the
1374 Developers</quote></link> below.
1379 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1380 <sect2 id="cmdoptions">
1381 <title>Command Line Options</title>
1383 <application>Privoxy</application> may be invoked with the following
1384 command-line options:
1392 <emphasis>--version</emphasis>
1395 Print version info and exit. Unix only.
1400 <emphasis>--help</emphasis>
1403 Print short usage info and exit. Unix only.
1408 <emphasis>--no-daemon</emphasis>
1411 Don't become a daemon, i.e. don't fork and become process group
1412 leader, and don't detach from controlling tty. Unix only.
1417 <emphasis>--pidfile FILE</emphasis>
1421 On startup, write the process ID to <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>. Delete the
1422 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> on exit. Failure to create or delete the
1423 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> is non-fatal. If no <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>
1424 option is given, no PID file will be used. Unix only.
1429 <emphasis>--user USER[.GROUP]</emphasis>
1433 After (optionally) writing the PID file, assume the user ID of
1434 <emphasis>USER</emphasis>, and if included the GID of GROUP. Exit if the
1435 privileges are not sufficient to do so. Unix only.
1440 <emphasis>--chroot</emphasis>
1444 Before changing to the user ID given in the <emphasis>--user</emphasis> option,
1445 chroot to that user's home directory, i.e. make the kernel pretend to the &my-app;
1446 process that the directory tree starts there. If set up carefully, this can limit
1447 the impact of possible vulnerabilities in &my-app; to the files contained in that hierarchy.
1453 <emphasis>configfile</emphasis>
1456 If no <emphasis>configfile</emphasis> is included on the command line,
1457 <application>Privoxy</application> will look for a file named
1458 <quote>config</quote> in the current directory (except on Win32
1459 where it will look for <quote>config.txt</quote> instead). Specify
1460 full path to avoid confusion. If no config file is found,
1461 <application>Privoxy</application> will fail to start.
1469 On <application>MS Windows</application> only there are two additional
1470 command-line options to allow <application>Privoxy</application> to install and
1471 run as a <emphasis>service</emphasis>. See the
1472 <link linkend="installation-pack-win">Window Installation section</link>
1480 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1483 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1484 <sect1 id="configuration"><title>Privoxy Configuration</title>
1486 All <application>Privoxy</application> configuration is stored
1487 in text files. These files can be edited with a text editor.
1488 Many important aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> can
1489 also be controlled easily with a web browser.
1493 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1496 <title>Controlling Privoxy with Your Web Browser</title>
1498 <application>Privoxy</application>'s user interface can be reached through the special
1499 URL <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
1500 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
1501 which is a built-in page and works without Internet access.
1502 You will see the following section:
1506 <!-- Needs to be put in a table and colorized -->
1509 <bridgehead renderas="sect2"> Privoxy Menu</bridgehead>
1513 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">View & change the current configuration</ulink>
1516 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-version">View the source code version numbers</ulink>
1519 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request">View the request headers.</ulink>
1522 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">Look up which actions apply to a URL and why</ulink>
1525 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">Toggle Privoxy on or off</ulink>
1528 ▪ <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/
1529 &p-version;/user-manual/">Documentation</ulink>
1537 This should be self-explanatory. Note the first item leads to an editor for the
1538 <link linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>, which is where the ad, banner,
1539 cookie, and URL blocking magic is configured as well as other advanced features of
1540 <application>Privoxy</application>. This is an easy way to adjust various
1541 aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. The actions
1542 file, and other configuration files, are explained in detail below.
1546 <quote>Toggle Privoxy On or Off</quote> is handy for sites that might
1547 have problems with your current actions and filters. You can in fact use
1548 it as a test to see whether it is <application>Privoxy</application>
1549 causing the problem or not. <application>Privoxy</application> continues
1550 to run as a proxy in this case, but all manipulation is disabled, i.e.
1551 <application>Privoxy</application> acts like a normal forwarding proxy. There
1552 is even a toggle <link linkend="bookmarklets">Bookmarklet</link> offered, so
1553 that you can toggle <application>Privoxy</application> with one click from
1559 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1564 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1566 <sect2 id="confoverview">
1567 <title>Configuration Files Overview</title>
1569 For Unix, *BSD and Linux, all configuration files are located in
1570 <filename>/etc/privoxy/</filename> by default. For MS Windows, OS/2, and
1571 AmigaOS these are all in the same directory as the
1572 <application>Privoxy</application> executable. <![%p-not-stable;[ The name
1573 and number of configuration files has changed from previous versions, and is
1574 subject to change as development progresses.]]>
1578 The installed defaults provide a reasonable starting point, though
1579 some settings may be aggressive by some standards. For the time being, the
1580 principle configuration files are:
1588 The <link linkend="config">main configuration file</link> is named <filename>config</filename>
1589 on Linux, Unix, BSD, OS/2, and AmigaOS and <filename>config.txt</filename>
1590 on Windows. This is a required file.
1596 <filename>default.action</filename> (the main <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link>)
1597 is used to define which <quote>actions</quote> relating to banner-blocking, images, pop-ups,
1598 content modification, cookie handling etc should be applied by default. It also defines many
1599 exceptions (both positive and negative) from this default set of actions that enable
1600 <application>Privoxy</application> to selectively eliminate the junk, and only the junk, on
1601 as many websites as possible.
1604 Multiple actions files may be defined in <filename>config</filename>. These
1605 are processed in the order they are defined. Local customizations and locally
1606 preferred exceptions to the default policies as defined in
1607 <filename>default.action</filename> (which you will most probably want
1608 to define sooner or later) are probably best applied in
1609 <filename>user.action</filename>, where you can preserve them across
1610 upgrades. <filename>standard.action</filename> is for
1611 <application>Privoxy's</application> internal use.
1614 There is also a web based editor that can be accessed from
1616 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
1618 url="http://p.p/show-status">http://p.p/show-status</ulink>) for the
1619 various actions files.
1625 <quote>Filter files</quote> (the <link linkend="filter-file">filter
1626 file</link>) can be used to re-write the raw page content, including
1627 viewable text as well as embedded HTML and JavaScript, and whatever else
1628 lurks on any given web page. The filtering jobs are only pre-defined here;
1629 whether to apply them or not is up to the actions files.
1630 <filename>default.filter</filename> includes various filters made
1631 available for use by the developers. Some are much more intrusive than
1632 others, and all should be used with caution. You may define additional
1633 filter files in <filename>config</filename> as you can with
1634 actions files. We suggest <filename>user.filter</filename> for any
1635 locally defined filters or customizations.
1643 The syntax of all configuration files has remained the same throughout the
1644 3.x series. There have been enhancements, but no changes that would preclude
1645 the use of any configuration file from one version to the next. (There is
1646 one exception: <link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">+fast-redirects</link> which
1647 has enhanced syntax and will require updating any local configs from earlier
1652 All files use the <quote><literal>#</literal></quote> character to denote a
1653 comment (the rest of the line will be ignored) and understand line continuation
1654 through placing a backslash ("<literal>\</literal>") as the very last character
1655 in a line. If the <literal>#</literal> is preceded by a backslash, it looses
1656 its special function. Placing a <literal>#</literal> in front of an otherwise
1657 valid configuration line to prevent it from being interpreted is called "commenting
1658 out" that line. Blank lines are ignored.
1662 The actions files and filter files
1663 can use Perl style <link linkend="regex">regular expressions</link> for
1664 maximum flexibility.
1668 After making any changes, there is no need to restart
1669 <application>Privoxy</application> in order for the changes to take
1670 effect. <application>Privoxy</application> detects such changes
1671 automatically. Note, however, that it may take one or two additional
1672 requests for the change to take effect. When changing the listening address
1673 of <application>Privoxy</application>, these <quote>wake up</quote> requests
1674 must obviously be sent to the <emphasis>old</emphasis> listening address.
1679 While under development, the configuration content is subject to change.
1680 The below documentation may not be accurate by the time you read this.
1681 Also, what constitutes a <quote>default</quote> setting, may change, so
1682 please check all your configuration files on important issues.
1688 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1691 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
1693 <!-- **************************************************** -->
1694 <!-- Include config.sgml here -->
1695 <!-- This is where the entire config file is detailed. -->
1697 <!-- end include -->
1700 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1704 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
1706 <sect1 id="actions-file"><title>Actions Files</title>
1709 The actions files are used to define what <emphasis>actions</emphasis>
1710 <application>Privoxy</application> takes for which URLs, and thus determines
1711 how ad images, cookies and various other aspects of HTTP content and
1712 transactions are handled, and on which sites (or even parts thereof).
1713 There are a number of such actions, with a wide range of functionality.
1714 Each action does something a little different.
1715 These actions give us a veritable arsenal of tools with which to exert
1716 our control, preferences and independence. Actions can be combined so that
1717 their effects are aggregated when applied against a given set of URLs.
1721 are three action files included with <application>Privoxy</application> with
1729 <filename>default.action</filename> - is the primary action file
1730 that sets the initial values for all actions. It is intended to
1731 provide a base level of functionality for
1732 <application>Privoxy's</application> array of features. So it is
1733 a set of broad rules that should work reasonably well as-is for most users.
1734 This is the file that the developers are keeping updated, and <link
1735 linkend="installation-keepupdated">making available to users</link>.
1736 The user's preferences as set in <filename>standard.action</filename>,
1737 e.g. either <literal>Cautious</literal> (the default),
1738 <literal>Medium</literal>, or <literal>Advanced</literal> (see
1744 <filename>user.action</filename> - is intended to be for local site
1745 preferences and exceptions. As an example, if your ISP or your bank
1746 has specific requirements, and need special handling, this kind of
1747 thing should go here. This file will not be upgraded.
1752 <filename>standard.action</filename> - is used by the web based editor
1753 at <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions-list?f=default">
1754 http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions-list?f=default</ulink>,
1755 to set various pre-defined sets of rules for the default actions section
1756 in <filename>default.action</filename>.
1759 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> <guibutton>Set to Cautious</guibutton> <guibutton>Set to Medium</guibutton> <guibutton>Set to Advanced</guibutton>
1762 These have increasing levels of aggressiveness <emphasis>and have no
1763 influence on your browsing unless you select them explicitly in the
1764 editor</emphasis>. A default installation should be pre-set to
1765 <literal>Cautious</literal> (versions prior to 3.0.5 were set to
1766 <literal>Medium</literal>). New users should try this for a while before
1767 adjusting the settings to more aggressive levels. The more aggressive
1768 the settings, then the more likelihood there is of problems such as sites
1769 not working as they should.
1772 The <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> button allows you to turn each
1773 action on/off individually for fine-tuning. The <guibutton>Cautious</guibutton>
1774 button changes the actions list to low/safe settings which will activate
1775 a minimal set of &my-app;'s features, and subsequently there will be
1776 less of a chance for accidental problems. The <guibutton>Medium</guibutton>
1777 button sets the list to a medium level of ad blocking and a low level set of
1778 privacy features. The <guibutton>Advanced</guibutton> button
1779 sets the list to a high level of ad blocking and medium level of
1780 privacy. See the chart below. The latter three buttons over-ride
1781 any changes via with the <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> button. More
1782 fine-tuning can be done in the lower sections of this internal page.
1785 It is not recommend to edit the <filename>standard.action</filename> file
1789 The default profiles, and their associated actions, as pre-defined in
1790 <filename>standard.action</filename> are:
1793 <table frame=all><title>Default Configurations</title>
1794 <tgroup cols=4 align=left colsep=1 rowsep=1>
1795 <colspec colname=c1>
1796 <colspec colname=c2>
1797 <colspec colname=c3>
1798 <colspec colname=c4>
1801 <entry>Feature</entry>
1802 <entry>Cautious</entry>
1803 <entry>Medium</entry>
1804 <entry>Advanced</entry>
1809 <!-- <entry>f1</entry> -->
1810 <!-- <entry>f2</entry> -->
1811 <!-- <entry>f3</entry> -->
1812 <!-- <entry>f4</entry> -->
1818 <entry>Ad-blocking Aggressiveness</entry>
1819 <entry>medium</entry>
1825 <entry>Ad-filtering by size</entry>
1832 <entry>Ad-filtering by link</entry>
1838 <entry>Pop-up killing</entry>
1839 <entry>blocks only</entry>
1840 <entry>blocks only</entry>
1841 <entry>blocks only</entry>
1845 <entry>Privacy Features</entry>
1847 <entry>medium</entry>
1848 <entry>medium/high</entry>
1852 <entry>Cookie handling</entry>
1854 <entry>session-only</entry>
1859 <entry>Referer forging</entry>
1867 <entry>GIF de-animation</entry>
1875 <entry>Fast redirects</entry>
1882 <entry>HTML taming</entry>
1889 <entry>JavaScript taming</entry>
1896 <entry>Web-bug killing</entry>
1903 <entry>Image tag reordering</entry>
1919 The list of actions files to be used are defined in the main configuration
1920 file, and are processed in the order they are defined (e.g.
1921 <filename>default.action</filename> is typically process before
1922 <filename>user.action</filename>). The content of these can all be viewed and
1924 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
1925 The over-riding principle when applying actions, is that the last action that
1926 matches a given URL, wins. The broadest, most general rules go first
1927 (defined in <filename>default.action</filename>),
1928 followed by any exceptions (typically also in
1929 <filename>default.action</filename>), which are then followed lastly by any
1930 local preferences (typically in <emphasis>user</emphasis><filename>.action</filename>).
1931 Generally, <filename>user.action</filename> has the last word.
1935 An actions file typically has multiple sections. If you want to use
1936 <quote>aliases</quote> in an actions file, you have to place the (optional)
1937 <link linkend="aliases">alias section</link> at the top of that file.
1938 Then comes the default set of rules which will apply universally to all
1939 sites and pages (be <emphasis>very careful</emphasis> with using such a
1940 universal set in <filename>user.action</filename> or any other actions file after
1941 <filename>default.action</filename>, because it will override the result
1942 from consulting any previous file). And then below that,
1943 exceptions to the defined universal policies. You can regard
1944 <filename>user.action</filename> as an appendix to <filename>default.action</filename>,
1945 with the advantage that is a separate file, which makes preserving your
1946 personal settings across <application>Privoxy</application> upgrades easier.
1950 Actions can be used to block anything you want, including ads, banners, or
1951 just some obnoxious URL that you would rather not see. Cookies can be accepted
1952 or rejected, or accepted only during the current browser session (i.e. not
1953 written to disk), content can be modified, JavaScripts tamed, user-tracking
1954 fooled, and much more. See below for a <link linkend="actions">complete list
1958 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1960 <title>Finding the Right Mix</title>
1962 Note that some <link linkend="actions">actions</link>, like cookie suppression
1963 or script disabling, may render some sites unusable that rely on these
1964 techniques to work properly. Finding the right mix of actions is not always easy and
1965 certainly a matter of personal taste. And, things can always change, requiring
1966 refinements in the configuration. In general, it can be said that the more
1967 <quote>aggressive</quote> your default settings (in the top section of the
1968 actions file) are, the more exceptions for <quote>trusted</quote> sites you
1969 will have to make later. If, for example, you want to crunch all cookies per
1970 default, you'll have to make exceptions from that rule for sites that you
1971 regularly use and that require cookies for actually useful purposes, like maybe
1972 your bank, favorite shop, or newspaper.
1976 We have tried to provide you with reasonable rules to start from in the
1977 distribution actions files. But there is no general rule of thumb on these
1978 things. There just are too many variables, and sites are constantly changing.
1979 Sooner or later you will want to change the rules (and read this chapter again :).
1983 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1985 <title>How to Edit</title>
1987 The easiest way to edit the actions files is with a browser by
1988 using our browser-based editor, which can be reached from <ulink
1989 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
1990 The editor allows both fine-grained control over every single feature on a
1991 per-URL basis, and easy choosing from wholesale sets of defaults like
1992 <quote>Cautious</quote>, <quote>Medium</quote> or <quote>Advanced</quote>.
1993 Warning: the <quote>Advanced</quote> setting is more aggressive, and
1994 will be more likely to cause problems for some sites. Experienced users only!
1998 If you prefer plain text editing to GUIs, you can of course also directly edit the
1999 the actions files with your favorite text editor. Look at
2000 <filename>default.action</filename> which is richly commented with many
2006 <sect2 id="actions-apply">
2007 <title>How Actions are Applied to URLs</title>
2009 Actions files are divided into sections. There are special sections,
2010 like the <quote><link linkend="aliases">alias</link></quote> sections which will
2011 be discussed later. For now let's concentrate on regular sections: They have a
2012 heading line (often split up to multiple lines for readability) which consist
2013 of a list of actions, separated by whitespace and enclosed in curly braces.
2014 Below that, there is a list of URL patterns, each on a separate line.
2018 To determine which actions apply to a request, the URL of the request is
2019 compared to all patterns in each <quote>action file</quote> file. Every time it matches, the list of
2020 applicable actions for the URL is incrementally updated, using the heading
2021 of the section in which the pattern is located. If multiple matches for
2022 the same URL set the same action differently, the last match wins. If not,
2023 the effects are aggregated. E.g. a URL might match a regular section with
2024 a heading line of <literal>{
2025 +<link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link> }</literal>,
2026 then later another one with just <literal>{
2027 +<link linkend="block">block</link> }</literal>, resulting
2028 in <emphasis>both</emphasis> actions to apply. And there may well be
2029 cases where you will want to combine actions together. Such a section then
2035 { +<literal>handle-as-image</literal> +<literal>block</literal> }
2036 # Block these as if they were images. Send no block page.
2038 media.example.com/.*banners
2039 .example.com/images/ads/</screen>
2043 You can trace this process for any given URL by visiting <ulink
2044 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>.
2048 Examples and more detail on this is provided in the Appendix, <link linkend="ACTIONSANAT">
2049 Troubleshooting: Anatomy of an Action</link> section.
2053 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2054 <sect2 id="af-patterns">
2055 <title>Patterns</title>
2057 As mentioned, <application>Privoxy</application> uses <quote>patterns</quote>
2058 to determine what <emphasis>actions</emphasis> might apply to which sites and
2059 pages your browser attempts to access. These <quote>patterns</quote> use wild
2060 card type <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> matching to achieve a high degree of
2061 flexibility. This allows one expression to be expanded and potentially match
2062 against many similar patterns.
2066 Generally, a <application>Privoxy</application> pattern has the form
2067 <literal><domain>/<path></literal>, where both the
2068 <literal><domain></literal> and <literal><path></literal> are
2069 optional. (This is why the special <literal>/</literal> pattern matches all
2070 URLs). Note that the protocol portion of the URL pattern (e.g.
2071 <literal>http://</literal>) should <emphasis>not</emphasis> be included in
2072 the pattern. This is assumed already!
2075 The pattern matching syntax is different for the domain and path parts of
2076 the URL. The domain part uses a simple globbing type matching technique,
2077 while the path part uses a more flexible
2078 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
2079 Expressions (PCRE)</quote></ulink> based syntax.
2084 <term><literal>www.example.com/</literal></term>
2087 is a domain-only pattern and will match any request to <literal>www.example.com</literal>,
2088 regardless of which document on that server is requested. So ALL pages in
2089 this domain would be covered by the scope of this action. Note that a
2090 simple <literal>example.com</literal> is different and would NOT match.
2095 <term><literal>www.example.com</literal></term>
2098 means exactly the same. For domain-only patterns, the trailing <literal>/</literal> may
2104 <term><literal>www.example.com/index.html</literal></term>
2107 matches only the single document <literal>/index.html</literal>
2108 on <literal>www.example.com</literal>.
2113 <term><literal>/index.html</literal></term>
2116 matches the document <literal>/index.html</literal>, regardless of the domain,
2117 i.e. on <emphasis>any</emphasis> web server anywhere.
2122 <term><literal>index.html</literal></term>
2125 matches nothing, since it would be interpreted as a domain name and
2126 there is no top-level domain called <literal>.html</literal>. So its
2134 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2135 <sect3><title>The Domain Pattern</title>
2138 The matching of the domain part offers some flexible options: if the
2139 domain starts or ends with a dot, it becomes unanchored at that end.
2145 <term><literal>.example.com</literal></term>
2148 matches any domain that <emphasis>ENDS</emphasis> in
2149 <literal>.example.com</literal>
2154 <term><literal>www.</literal></term>
2157 matches any domain that <emphasis>STARTS</emphasis> with
2158 <literal>www.</literal>
2163 <term><literal>.example.</literal></term>
2166 matches any domain that <emphasis>CONTAINS</emphasis> <literal>.example.</literal>.
2167 And, by the way, also included would be any files or documents that exist
2168 within that domain since no path limitations are specified. (Correctly
2169 speaking: It matches any FQDN that contains <literal>example</literal> as
2170 a domain.) This might be <literal>www.example.com</literal>,
2171 <literal>news.example.de</literal>, or
2172 <literal>www.example.net/cgi/testing.pl</literal> for instance. All these
2180 Additionally, there are wild-cards that you can use in the domain names
2181 themselves. These work similarly to shell globbing type wild-cards:
2182 <quote>*</quote> represents zero or more arbitrary characters (this is
2184 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
2185 Expression</quote></ulink> based syntax of <quote>.*</quote>),
2186 <quote>?</quote> represents any single character (this is equivalent to the
2187 regular expression syntax of a simple <quote>.</quote>), and you can define
2188 <quote>character classes</quote> in square brackets which is similar to
2189 the same regular expression technique. All of this can be freely mixed:
2194 <term><literal>ad*.example.com</literal></term>
2197 matches <quote>adserver.example.com</quote>,
2198 <quote>ads.example.com</quote>, etc but not <quote>sfads.example.com</quote>
2203 <term><literal>*ad*.example.com</literal></term>
2206 matches all of the above, and then some.
2211 <term><literal>.?pix.com</literal></term>
2214 matches <literal>www.ipix.com</literal>,
2215 <literal>pictures.epix.com</literal>, <literal>a.b.c.d.e.upix.com</literal> etc.
2220 <term><literal>www[1-9a-ez].example.c*</literal></term>
2223 matches <literal>www1.example.com</literal>,
2224 <literal>www4.example.cc</literal>, <literal>wwwd.example.cy</literal>,
2225 <literal>wwwz.example.com</literal> etc., but <emphasis>not</emphasis>
2226 <literal>wwww.example.com</literal>.
2233 While flexibile, this is not the sophistication of full regular expression based syntax.
2238 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2241 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2242 <sect3><title>The Path Pattern</title>
2245 <application>Privoxy</application> uses Perl compatible (PCRE)
2246 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
2247 Expression</quote></ulink> based syntax
2248 (through the <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/">PCRE</ulink> library) for
2249 matching the path portion (after the slash), and is thus more flexible.
2253 There is an <link linkend="regex">Appendix</link> with a brief quick-start into regular
2254 expressions, and full (very technical) documentation on PCRE regex syntax is available on-line
2255 at <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/man.txt">http://www.pcre.org/man.txt</ulink>.
2256 You might also find the Perl man page on regular expressions (<literal>man perlre</literal>)
2257 useful, which is available on-line at <ulink
2258 url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html">http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html</ulink>.
2262 Note that the path pattern is automatically left-anchored at the <quote>/</quote>,
2263 i.e. it matches as if it would start with a <quote>^</quote> (regular expression speak
2264 for the beginning of a line).
2268 Please also note that matching in the path is <emphasis>CASE INSENSITIVE</emphasis>
2269 by default, but you can switch to case sensitive at any point in the pattern by using the
2270 <quote>(?-i)</quote> switch: <literal>www.example.com/(?-i)PaTtErN.*</literal> will match
2271 only documents whose path starts with <literal>PaTtErN</literal> in
2272 <emphasis>exactly</emphasis> this capitalization.
2277 <term><literal>.example.com/.*</literal></term>
2280 Is equivalent to just <quote>.example.com</quote>, since any documents
2281 within that domain are matched with or without the <quote>.*</quote>
2282 regular expression. This is redundant
2287 <term><literal>.example.com/.*/index.html</literal></term>
2290 Will match any page in the domain of <quote>example.com</quote> that is
2291 named <quote>index.html</quote>, and that is part of some path. For
2292 example, it matches <quote>www.example.com/testing/index.html</quote> but
2293 NOT <quote>www.example.com/index.html</quote> because the regular
2294 expression called for at least two <quote>/'s</quote>, thus the path
2295 requirement. It also would match
2296 <quote>www.example.com/testing/index_html</quote>, because of the
2297 special meta-character <quote>.</quote>.
2302 <term><literal>.example.com/(.*/)?index\.html</literal></term>
2305 This regular expression is conditional so it will match any page
2306 named <quote>index.html</quote> regardless of path which in this case can
2307 have one or more <quote>/'s</quote>. And this one must contain exactly
2308 <quote>.html</quote> (but does not have to end with that!).
2313 <term><literal>.example.com/(.*/)(ads|banners?|junk)</literal></term>
2316 This regular expression will match any path of <quote>example.com</quote>
2317 that contains any of the words <quote>ads</quote>, <quote>banner</quote>,
2318 <quote>banners</quote> (because of the <quote>?</quote>) or <quote>junk</quote>.
2319 The path does not have to end in these words, just contain them.
2324 <term><literal>.example.com/(.*/)(ads|banners?|junk)/.*\.(jpe?g|gif|png)$</literal></term>
2327 This is very much the same as above, except now it must end in either
2328 <quote>.jpg</quote>, <quote>.jpeg</quote>, <quote>.gif</quote> or <quote>.png</quote>. So this
2329 one is limited to common image formats.
2336 There are many, many good examples to be found in <filename>default.action</filename>,
2337 and more tutorials below in <link linkend="regex">Appendix on regular expressions</link>.
2344 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2347 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2349 <sect2 id="actions">
2350 <title>Actions</title>
2352 All actions are disabled by default, until they are explicitly enabled
2353 somewhere in an actions file. Actions are turned on if preceded with a
2354 <quote>+</quote>, and turned off if preceded with a <quote>-</quote>. So a
2355 <literal>+action</literal> means <quote>do that action</quote>, e.g.
2356 <literal>+block</literal> means <quote>please block URLs that match the
2357 following patterns</quote>, and <literal>-block</literal> means <quote>don't
2358 block URLs that match the following patterns, even if <literal>+block</literal>
2359 previously applied.</quote>
2364 Again, actions are invoked by placing them on a line, enclosed in curly braces and
2365 separated by whitespace, like in
2366 <literal>{+some-action -some-other-action{some-parameter}}</literal>,
2367 followed by a list of URL patterns, one per line, to which they apply.
2368 Together, the actions line and the following pattern lines make up a section
2369 of the actions file.
2373 Actions fall into three categories:
2380 Boolean, i.e the action can only be <quote>enabled</quote> or
2381 <quote>disabled</quote>. Syntax:
2385 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # enable action <replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable>
2386 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # disable action <replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable></screen>
2389 Example: <literal>+block</literal>
2396 Parameterized, where some value is required in order to enable this type of action.
2401 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # enable action and set parameter to <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>,
2402 # overwriting parameter from previous match if necessary
2403 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # disable action. The parameter can be omitted</screen>
2406 Note that if the URL matches multiple positive forms of a parameterized action,
2407 the last match wins, i.e. the params from earlier matches are simply ignored.
2410 Example: <literal>+hide-user-agent{ Mozilla 1.0 }</literal>
2416 Multi-value. These look exactly like parameterized actions,
2417 but they behave differently: If the action applies multiple times to the
2418 same URL, but with different parameters, <emphasis>all</emphasis> the parameters
2419 from <emphasis>all</emphasis> matches are remembered. This is used for actions
2420 that can be executed for the same request repeatedly, like adding multiple
2421 headers, or filtering through multiple filters. Syntax:
2425 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # enable action and add <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable> to the list of parameters
2426 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # remove the parameter <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable> from the list of parameters
2427 # If it was the last one left, disable the action.
2428 <replaceable class="parameter">-name</replaceable> # disable this action completely and remove all parameters from the list</screen>
2431 Examples: <literal>+add-header{X-Fun-Header: Some text}</literal> and
2432 <literal>+filter{html-annoyances}</literal>
2440 If nothing is specified in any actions file, no <quote>actions</quote> are
2441 taken. So in this case <application>Privoxy</application> would just be a
2442 normal, non-blocking, non-anonymizing proxy. You must specifically enable the
2443 privacy and blocking features you need (although the provided default actions
2444 files will give a good starting point).
2448 Later defined actions always over-ride earlier ones. So exceptions
2449 to any rules you make, should come in the latter part of the file (or
2450 in a file that is processed later when using multiple actions files such
2451 as <filename>user.action</filename>). For multi-valued actions, the actions
2452 are applied in the order they are specified. Actions files are processed in
2453 the order they are defined in <filename>config</filename> (the default
2454 installation has three actions files). It also quite possible for any given
2455 URL to match more than one <quote>pattern</quote> (because of wildcards and
2456 regular expressions), and thus to trigger more than one set of actions! Last
2460 <!-- start actions listing -->
2462 The list of valid <application>Privoxy</application> actions are:
2466 <!-- ********************************************************** -->
2467 <!-- Please note the below defined actions use id's that are -->
2468 <!-- probably linked from other places, so please don't change. -->
2470 <!-- ********************************************************** -->
2473 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2475 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="add-header">
2476 <title>add-header</title>
2480 <term>Typical use:</term>
2482 <para>Confuse log analysis, custom applications</para>
2487 <term>Effect:</term>
2490 Sends a user defined HTTP header to the web server.
2497 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2499 <para>Multi-value.</para>
2504 <term>Parameter:</term>
2507 Any string value is possible. Validity of the defined HTTP headers is not checked.
2508 It is recommended that you use the <quote><literal>X-</literal></quote> prefix
2518 This action may be specified multiple times, in order to define multiple
2519 headers. This is rarely needed for the typical user. If you don't know what
2520 <quote>HTTP headers</quote> are, you definitely don't need to worry about this
2527 <term>Example usage:</term>
2530 <screen>+add-header{X-User-Tracking: sucks}</screen>
2538 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2539 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="block">
2540 <title>block</title>
2544 <term>Typical use:</term>
2546 <para>Block ads or other unwanted content</para>
2551 <term>Effect:</term>
2554 Requests for URLs to which this action applies are blocked, i.e. the
2555 requests are trapped by &my-app; and the requested URL is never retrieved,
2556 but is answered locally with a substitute page or image, as determined by
2558 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>,
2560 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>, and
2562 linkend="handle-as-empty-document">handle-as-empty-document</link></literal> actions.
2570 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2572 <para>Boolean.</para>
2577 <term>Parameter:</term>
2587 <application>Privoxy</application> sends a special <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page
2588 for requests to blocked pages. This page contains links to find out why the request
2589 was blocked, and a click-through to the blocked content (the latter only if compiled with the
2590 force feature enabled). The <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page adapts to the available
2591 screen space -- it displays full-blown if space allows, or miniaturized and text-only
2592 if loaded into a small frame or window. If you are using <application>Privoxy</application>
2593 right now, you can take a look at the
2594 <ulink url="http://ads.bannerserver.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor.html"><quote>BLOCKED</quote>
2598 A very important exception occurs if <emphasis>both</emphasis>
2599 <literal>block</literal> and <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>,
2600 apply to the same request: it will then be replaced by an image. If
2601 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>
2602 (see below) also applies, the type of image will be determined by its parameter,
2603 if not, the standard checkerboard pattern is sent.
2606 It is important to understand this process, in order
2607 to understand how <application>Privoxy</application> deals with
2608 ads and other unwanted content. Blocking is a core feature, and one
2609 upon which various other features depend.
2612 The <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>
2613 action can perform a very similar task, by <quote>blocking</quote>
2614 banner images and other content through rewriting the relevant URLs in the
2615 document's HTML source, so they don't get requested in the first place.
2616 Note that this is a totally different technique, and it's easy to confuse the two.
2622 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
2626 # Block and replace with "blocked" page
2627 .nasty-stuff.example.com
2629 {+block +handle-as-image}
2630 # Block and replace with image
2634 {+block +handle-as-empty-document}
2635 # Block and then ignore
2636 adserver.exampleclick.net/.*\.js$</screen>
2646 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2647 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="content-type-overwrite">
2651 <title>content-type-overwrite</title>
2655 <term>Typical use:</term>
2657 <para>Stop useless download menus from popping up, or change the browser's rendering mode</para>
2662 <term>Effect:</term>
2665 Replaces the <quote>Content-Type:</quote> HTTP server header.
2672 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
2674 <para>Parameterized.</para>
2679 <term>Parameter:</term>
2691 The <quote>Content-Type:</quote> HTTP server header is used by the
2692 browser to decide what to do with the document. The value of this
2693 header can cause the browser to open a download menu instead of
2694 displaying the document by itself, even if the document's format is
2695 supported by the browser.
2698 The declared content type can also affect which rendering mode
2699 the browser chooses. If XHTML is delivered as <quote>text/html</quote>,
2700 many browsers treat it as yet another broken HTML document.
2701 If it is send as <quote>application/xml</quote>, browsers with
2702 XHTML support will only display it, if the syntax is correct.
2705 If you see a web site that proudly uses XHTML buttons, but sets
2706 <quote>Content-Type: text/html</quote>, you can use &my-app;
2707 to overwrite it with <quote>application/xml</quote> and validate
2708 the web master's claim inside your XHTML-supporting browser.
2709 If the syntax is incorrect, the browser will complain loudly.
2712 You can also go the opposite direction: if your browser prints
2713 error messages instead of rendering a document falsely declared
2714 as XHTML, you can overwrite the content type with
2715 <quote>text/html</quote> and have it rendered as broken HTML document.
2718 By default <literal>content-type-overwrite</literal> only replaces
2719 <quote>Content-Type:</quote> headers that look like some kind of text.
2720 If you want to overwrite it unconditionally, you have to combine it with
2721 <literal><link linkend="force-text-mode">force-text-mode</link></literal>.
2722 This limitation exists for a reason, think twice before circumventing it.
2725 Most of the time it's easier to enable
2726 <literal><link linkend="filter-server-headers">filter-server-headers</link></literal>
2727 and replace this action with a custom regular expression. It allows you
2728 to activate it for every document of a certain site and it will still
2729 only replace the content types you aimed at.
2732 Of course you can apply <literal>content-type-overwrite</literal>
2733 to a whole site and then make URL based exceptions, but it's a lot
2734 more work to get the same precision.
2740 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
2743 <screen># Check if www.example.net/ really uses valid XHTML
2744 {+content-type-overwrite {application/xml}}
2747 # but leave the content type unmodified if the URL looks like a style sheet
2748 {-content-type-overwrite}
2749 www.example.net/*.\.css$
2750 www.example.net/*.style
2759 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2760 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-client-header">
2764 <title>crunch-client-header</title>
2768 <term>Typical use:</term>
2770 <para>Remove a client header <application>Privoxy</application> has no dedicated action for.</para>
2775 <term>Effect:</term>
2778 Deletes every header sent by the client that contains the string the user supplied as parameter.
2785 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
2787 <para>Parameterized.</para>
2792 <term>Parameter:</term>
2804 This action allows you to block client headers for which no dedicated
2805 <application>Privoxy</application> action exists.
2806 <application>Privoxy</application> will remove every client header that
2807 contains the string you supplied as parameter.
2810 Regular expressions are <emphasis>not supported</emphasis> and you can't
2811 use this action to block different headers in the same request, unless
2812 they contain the same string.
2815 <literal>crunch-client-header</literal> is only meant for quick tests.
2816 If you have to block several different headers, or only want to modify
2817 parts of them, you should enable
2818 <literal><link linkend="filter-client-headers">filter-client-headers</link></literal>
2819 and create your own filter.
2823 Don't block any header without understanding the consequences.
2830 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
2833 <screen># Block the non-existent "Privacy-Violation:" client header
2834 {+crunch-client-header {Privacy-Violation:}}
2844 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2845 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-if-none-match">
2846 <title>crunch-if-none-match</title>
2852 <term>Typical use:</term>
2854 <para>Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.</para>
2859 <term>Effect:</term>
2862 Deletes the <quote>If-None-Match:</quote> HTTP client header.
2869 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
2871 <para>Boolean.</para>
2876 <term>Parameter:</term>
2888 Removing the <quote>If-None-Match:</quote> HTTP client header
2889 is useful for filter testing, where you want to force a real
2890 reload instead of getting status code <quote>304</quote> which
2891 would cause the browser to use a cached copy of the page.
2894 It is also useful to make sure the header isn't used as a cookie
2898 Blocking the <quote>If-None-Match:</quote> header shouldn't cause any
2899 caching problems, as long as the <quote>If-Modified-Since:</quote> header
2900 isn't blocked as well.
2903 It is recommended to use this action together with
2904 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hide-if-modified-since</link></literal>
2906 <literal><link linkend="overwrite-last-modified">overwrite-last-modified</link></literal>.
2912 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
2915 <screen># Let the browser revalidate cached documents without being tracked across sessions
2916 {+hide-if-modified-since {-60} \
2917 +overwrite-last-modified {randomize} \
2918 +crunch-if-none-match}
2927 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2928 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-incoming-cookies">
2929 <title>crunch-incoming-cookies</title>
2933 <term>Typical use:</term>
2936 Prevent the web server from setting any cookies on your system
2942 <term>Effect:</term>
2945 Deletes any <quote>Set-Cookie:</quote> HTTP headers from server replies.
2952 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
2954 <para>Boolean.</para>
2959 <term>Parameter:</term>
2971 This action is only concerned with <emphasis>incoming</emphasis> cookies. For
2972 <emphasis>outgoing</emphasis> cookies, use
2973 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>.
2974 Use <emphasis>both</emphasis> to disable cookies completely.
2977 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use this action in conjunction
2978 with the <literal><link linkend="session-cookies-only">session-cookies-only</link></literal> action,
2979 since it would prevent the session cookies from being set. See also
2980 <literal><link linkend="filter-content-cookies">filter-content-cookies</link></literal>.
2986 <term>Example usage:</term>
2989 <screen>+crunch-incoming-cookies</screen>
2997 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2998 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-server-header">
2999 <title>crunch-server-header</title>
3005 <term>Typical use:</term>
3007 <para>Remove a server header <application>Privoxy</application> has no dedicated action for.</para>
3012 <term>Effect:</term>
3015 Deletes every header sent by the server that contains the string the user supplied as parameter.
3022 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3024 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3029 <term>Parameter:</term>
3041 This action allows you to block server headers for which no dedicated
3042 <application>Privoxy</application> action exists. <application>Privoxy</application>
3043 will remove every server header that contains the string you supplied as parameter.
3046 Regular expressions are <emphasis>not supported</emphasis> and you can't
3047 use this action to block different headers in the same request, unless
3048 they contain the same string.
3051 <literal>crunch-server-header</literal> is only meant for quick tests.
3052 If you have to block several different headers, or only want to modify
3053 parts of them, you should enable
3054 <literal><link linkend="filter-server-headers">filter-server-headers</link></literal>
3055 and create your own filter.
3059 Don't block any header without understanding the consequences.
3066 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3069 <screen># Crunch server headers that try to prevent caching
3070 {+crunch-server-header {no-cache}}
3079 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3080 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-outgoing-cookies">
3081 <title>crunch-outgoing-cookies</title>
3085 <term>Typical use:</term>
3088 Prevent the web server from reading any cookies from your system
3094 <term>Effect:</term>
3097 Deletes any <quote>Cookie:</quote> HTTP headers from client requests.
3104 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3106 <para>Boolean.</para>
3111 <term>Parameter:</term>
3123 This action is only concerned with <emphasis>outgoing</emphasis> cookies. For
3124 <emphasis>incoming</emphasis> cookies, use
3125 <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal>.
3126 Use <emphasis>both</emphasis> to disable cookies completely.
3129 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use this action in conjunction
3130 with the <literal><link linkend="session-cookies-only">session-cookies-only</link></literal> action,
3131 since it would prevent the session cookies from being read.
3137 <term>Example usage:</term>
3140 <screen>+crunch-outgoing-cookies</screen>
3149 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3150 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="deanimate-gifs">
3151 <title>deanimate-gifs</title>
3155 <term>Typical use:</term>
3157 <para>Stop those annoying, distracting animated GIF images.</para>
3162 <term>Effect:</term>
3165 De-animate GIF animations, i.e. reduce them to their first or last image.
3172 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3174 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3179 <term>Parameter:</term>
3182 <quote>last</quote> or <quote>first</quote>
3191 This will also shrink the images considerably (in bytes, not pixels!). If
3192 the option <quote>first</quote> is given, the first frame of the animation
3193 is used as the replacement. If <quote>last</quote> is given, the last
3194 frame of the animation is used instead, which probably makes more sense for
3195 most banner animations, but also has the risk of not showing the entire
3196 last frame (if it is only a delta to an earlier frame).
3199 You can safely use this action with patterns that will also match non-GIF
3200 objects, because no attempt will be made at anything that doesn't look like
3207 <term>Example usage:</term>
3210 <screen>+deanimate-gifs{last}</screen>
3217 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3218 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="downgrade-http-version">
3219 <title>downgrade-http-version</title>
3223 <term>Typical use:</term>
3225 <para>Work around (very rare) problems with HTTP/1.1</para>
3230 <term>Effect:</term>
3233 Downgrades HTTP/1.1 client requests and server replies to HTTP/1.0.
3240 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3242 <para>Boolean.</para>
3247 <term>Parameter:</term>
3259 This is a left-over from the time when <application>Privoxy</application>
3260 didn't support important HTTP/1.1 features well. It is left here for the
3261 unlikely case that you experience HTTP/1.1 related problems with some server
3262 out there. Not all (optional) HTTP/1.1 features are supported yet, so there
3263 is a chance you might need this action.
3269 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3272 <screen>{+downgrade-http-version}
3273 problem-host.example.com</screen>
3281 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3282 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="fast-redirects">
3283 <title>fast-redirects</title>
3287 <term>Typical use:</term>
3289 <para>Fool some click-tracking scripts and speed up indirect links.</para>
3294 <term>Effect:</term>
3297 Detects redirection URLs and redirects the browser without contacting
3298 the redirection server first.
3305 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3307 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3312 <term>Parameter:</term>
3317 <quote>simple-check</quote> to just search for the string <quote>http://</quote>
3318 to detect redirection URLs.
3323 <quote>check-decoded-url</quote> to decode URLs (if necessary) before searching
3324 for redirection URLs.
3335 Many sites, like yahoo.com, don't just link to other sites. Instead, they
3336 will link to some script on their own servers, giving the destination as a
3337 parameter, which will then redirect you to the final target. URLs
3338 resulting from this scheme typically look like:
3339 <quote>http://www.example.org/click-tracker.cgi?target=http%3a//www.example.net/</quote>.
3342 Sometimes, there are even multiple consecutive redirects encoded in the
3343 URL. These redirections via scripts make your web browsing more traceable,
3344 since the server from which you follow such a link can see where you go
3345 to. Apart from that, valuable bandwidth and time is wasted, while your
3346 browser asks the server for one redirect after the other. Plus, it feeds
3350 This feature is currently not very smart and is scheduled for improvement.
3351 If it is enabled by default, you will have to create some exceptions to
3352 this action. It can lead to failures in several ways:
3355 Not every URLs with other URLs as parameters is evil.
3356 Some sites offer a real service that requires this information to work.
3357 For example a validation service needs to know, which document to validate.
3358 <literal>fast-redirects</literal> assumes that every URL parameter that
3359 looks like another URL is a redirection target, and will always redirect to
3360 the last one. Most of the time the assumption is correct, but if it isn't,
3361 the user gets redirected anyway.
3364 Another failure occurs if the URL contains other parameters after the URL parameter.
3366 <quote>http://www.example.org/?redirect=http%3a//www.example.net/&foo=bar</quote>.
3367 contains the redirection URL <quote>http://www.example.net/</quote>,
3368 followed by another parameter. <literal>fast-redirects</literal> doesn't know that
3369 and will cause a redirect to <quote>http://www.example.net/&foo=bar</quote>.
3370 Depending on the target server configuration, the parameter will be silently ignored
3371 or lead to a <quote>page not found</quote> error. It is possible to fix these redirected
3372 requests with <literal><link linkend="filter-client-headers">filter-client-headers</link></literal>
3373 but it requires a little effort.
3376 To detect a redirection URL, <literal>fast-redirects</literal> only
3377 looks for the string <quote>http://</quote>, either in plain text
3378 (invalid but often used) or encoded as <quote>http%3a//</quote>.
3379 Some sites use their own URL encoding scheme, encrypt the address
3380 of the target server or replace it with a database id. In theses cases
3381 <literal>fast-redirects</literal> is fooled and the request reaches the
3382 redirection server where it probably gets logged.
3388 <term>Example usage:</term>
3392 { +fast-redirects{simple-check} }
3395 { +fast-redirects{check-decoded-url} }
3396 another.example.com/testing</screen>
3405 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3406 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="filter">
3407 <title>filter</title>
3411 <term>Typical use:</term>
3413 <para>Get rid of HTML and JavaScript annoyances, banner advertisements (by size),
3414 do fun text replacements, add personalized effects, etc.</para>
3419 <term>Effect:</term>
3422 All files of text-based type, most notably HTML and
3423 JavaScript, to which this action applies, can be filtered on-the-fly
3424 through the specified regular expression based substitutions. (Note: as of
3425 version 3.0.3 plain text documents are exempted from filtering, because
3426 web servers often use the <literal>text/plain</literal> MIME type for all
3427 files whose type they don't know.) By default, filtering works only on the
3428 raw document content itself (that which can be seen with <literal>View
3437 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3439 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3444 <term>Parameter:</term>
3447 The name of a filter, as defined in the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file</link>.
3448 Filters can be defined in one or more files as defined by the
3449 <literal><link linkend="filterfile">filterfile</link></literal>
3450 option in the <link linkend="config">config file</link>.
3451 <filename>default.filter</filename> is the collection of filters
3452 supplied by the developers. Locally defined filters should go
3453 in their own file, such as <filename>user.filter</filename>.
3456 When used in its negative form,
3457 and without parameters, <emphasis>all</emphasis> filtering is completely disabled.
3466 For your convenience, there are a number of pre-defined filters available
3467 in the distribution filter file that you can use. See the examples below for
3471 Filtering requires buffering the page content, which may appear to
3472 slow down page rendering since nothing is displayed until all content has
3473 passed the filters. (It does not really take longer, but seems that way
3474 since the page is not incrementally displayed.) This effect will be more
3475 noticeable on slower connections.
3478 <quote>Rolling your own</quote>
3479 filters requires a knowledge of
3480 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
3481 Expressions</quote></ulink> and
3482 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Html"><quote>HTML</quote></ulink>.
3483 This is very powerful feature, and potentially very intrusive.
3484 Filters should be used with caution, and where an equivalent
3485 <quote>action</quote> is not available.
3488 The amount of data that can be filtered is limited to the
3489 <literal><link linkend="buffer-limit">buffer-limit</link></literal>
3490 option in the main <link linkend="config">config file</link>. The
3491 default is 4096 KB (4 Megs). Once this limit is exceeded, the buffered
3492 data, and all pending data, is passed through unfiltered.
3495 Inappropriate MIME types, such as zipped files, are not filtered at all.
3496 (Again, only text-based types except plain text). Encrypted SSL data
3497 (from HTTPS servers) cannot be filtered either, since this would violate
3498 the integrity of the secure transaction. In some situations it might
3499 be necessary to protect certain text, like source code, from filtering
3500 by defining appropriate <literal>-filter</literal> exceptions.
3503 At this time, <application>Privoxy</application> cannot uncompress compressed
3504 documents. If you want filtering to work on all documents, even those that
3505 would normally be sent compressed, you must use the
3506 <literal><link linkend="prevent-compression">prevent-compression</link></literal>
3507 action in conjunction with <literal>filter</literal>.
3510 Filtering can achieve some of the same effects as the
3511 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>
3512 action, i.e. it can be used to block ads and banners. But the mechanism
3513 works quite differently. One effective use, is to block ad banners
3514 based on their size (see below), since many of these seem to be somewhat
3518 <link linkend="contact">Feedback</link> with suggestions for new or
3519 improved filters is particularly welcome!
3522 The below list has only the names and a one-line description of each
3523 predefined filter. There are <link linkend="predefined-filters">more
3524 verbose explanations</link> of what these filters do in the <link
3525 linkend="filter-file">filter file chapter</link>.
3531 <term>Example usage (with filters from the distribution <filename>default.filter</filename> file).
3532 See <link linkend="PREDEFINED-FILTERS">the Predefined Filters section</link> for
3533 more explanation on each:</term>
3536 <anchor id="filter-js-annoyances">
3537 <screen>+filter{js-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse</screen>
3540 <anchor id="filter-js-events">
3541 <screen>+filter{js-events} # Kill all JS event bindings (Radically destructive! Only for extra nasty sites)</screen>
3544 <anchor id="filter-html-annoyances">
3545 <screen>+filter{html-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying HTML abuse</screen>
3548 <anchor id="filter-content-cookies">
3549 <screen>+filter{content-cookies} # Kill cookies that come in the HTML or JS content</screen>
3552 <anchor id="filter-refresh-tags">
3553 <screen>+filter{refresh-tags} # Kill automatic refresh tags (for dial-on-demand setups)</screen>
3556 <anchor id="filter-unsolicited-popups">
3557 <screen>+filter{unsolicited-popups} # Disable only unsolicited pop-up windows. Useful if your browser lacks this ability.</screen>
3560 <anchor id="filter-all-popups">
3561 <screen>+filter{all-popups} # Kill all popups in JavaScript and HTML. Useful if your browser lacks this ability.</screen>
3564 <anchor id="filter-img-reorder">
3565 <screen>+filter{img-reorder} # Reorder attributes in <img> tags to make the banners-by-* filters more effective</screen>
3568 <anchor id="filter-banners-by-size">
3569 <screen>+filter{banners-by-size} # Kill banners by size</screen>
3572 <anchor id="filter-banners-by-link">
3573 <screen>+filter{banners-by-link} # Kill banners by their links to known clicktrackers</screen>
3576 <anchor id="filter-webbugs">
3577 <screen>+filter{webbugs} # Squish WebBugs (1x1 invisible GIFs used for user tracking)</screen>
3580 <anchor id="filter-tiny-textforms">
3581 <screen>+filter{tiny-textforms} # Extend those tiny textareas up to 40x80 and kill the hard wrap</screen>
3584 <anchor id="filter-jumping-windows">
3585 <screen>+filter{jumping-windows} # Prevent windows from resizing and moving themselves</screen>
3588 <anchor id="filter-frameset-borders">
3589 <screen>+filter{frameset-borders} # Give frames a border and make them resizeable</screen>
3592 <anchor id="filter-demoronizer">
3593 <screen>+filter{demoronizer} # Fix MS's non-standard use of standard charsets</screen>
3596 <anchor id="filter-shockwave-flash">
3597 <screen>+filter{shockwave-flash} # Kill embedded Shockwave Flash objects</screen>
3600 <anchor id="filter-quicktime-kioskmode">
3601 <screen>+filter{quicktime-kioskmode} # Make Quicktime movies savable</screen>
3604 <anchor id="filter-fun">
3605 <screen>+filter{fun} # Text replacements for subversive browsing fun!</screen>
3608 <anchor id="filter-crude-parental">
3609 <screen>+filter{crude-parental} # Crude parental filtering (demo only)</screen>
3612 <anchor id="filter-ie-exploits">
3613 <screen>+filter{ie-exploits} # Disable some known Internet Explorer bug exploits</screen>
3616 <anchor id="filter-site-specifics">
3617 <screen>+filter{site-specifics} # Custom filters for specific site related problems</screen>
3620 <anchor id="filter-google">
3621 <screen>+filter{google} # Removes text ads and other Google specific improvements</screen>
3624 <anchor id="filter-yahoo">
3625 <screen>+filter{yahoo} # Removes text ads and other Yahoo specific improvements</screen>
3628 <anchor id="filter-msn">
3629 <screen>+filter{msn} # Removes text ads and other MSN specific improvements</screen>
3632 <anchor id="filter-blogspot">
3633 <screen>+filter{blogspot} # Cleans up Blogspot blogs</screen>
3636 <anchor id="filter-html-to-xml">
3637 <screen>+filter{html-to-xml} # Header filter to change the Content-Type from html to xml</screen>
3640 <anchor id="filter-xml-to-html">
3641 <screen>+filter{xml-to-html} # Header filter to change the Content-Type from xml to html</screen>
3649 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3650 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="filter-client-headers">
3651 <title>filter-client-headers</title>
3655 <term>Typical use:</term>
3658 To apply filtering to the client's (browser's) headers
3664 <term>Effect:</term>
3667 By default, <application>Privoxy's</application> filters only apply
3668 to the document content itself. This will extend those filters to
3669 include the client's headers as well.
3676 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3678 <para>Boolean.</para>
3683 <term>Parameter:</term>
3695 Regular expressions can be used to filter headers as well. Check your
3696 filters closely before activating this action, as it can easily lead to broken
3700 These filters are applied to each header on its own, not to them
3701 all at once. This makes it easier to diagnose problems, but on the downside
3702 you can't write filters that only change header x if header y's value is
3706 The filters are used after the other header actions have finished and can
3707 use their output as input.
3711 Whenever possible one should specify <literal>^</literal>,
3712 <literal>$</literal>, the whole header name and the colon, to make sure
3713 the filter doesn't cause havoc to other headers or the
3714 page itself. For example if you want to transform
3715 <application>Galeon</application> User-Agents to
3716 <application>Firefox</application> User-Agents you
3721 s@Galeon/\d\.\d\.\d @@
3727 s@^(User-Agent:.*) Galeon/\d\.\d\.\d (Firefox/\d\.\d\.\d\.\d)$@$1 $2@
3734 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3738 {+filter-client-headers +filter{test_filter}}
3739 problem-host.example.com
3749 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3750 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="filter-server-headers">
3751 <title>filter-server-headers</title>
3755 <term>Typical use:</term>
3758 To apply filtering to the server's headers
3764 <term>Effect:</term>
3767 By default, <application>Privoxy's</application> filters only apply
3768 to the document content itself. This will extend those filters to
3769 include the server's headers as well.
3776 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3778 <para>Boolean.</para>
3783 <term>Parameter:</term>
3795 Similar to <literal>filter-client-headers</literal>, but works on
3796 the server instead. To filter both server and client, use both.
3799 As with <literal>filter-client-headers</literal>, check your
3800 filters before activating this action, as it can easily lead to broken
3804 These filters are applied to each header on its own, not to them
3805 all at once. This makes it easier to diagnose problems, but on the downside
3806 you can't write filters that only change header x if header y's value is
3810 The filters are used after the other header actions have finished and can
3811 use their output as input.
3814 Remember too, whenever possible one should specify <literal>^</literal>,
3815 <literal>$</literal>, the whole header name and the colon, to make sure
3816 the filter doesn't cause havoc to other headers or the
3817 page itself. See above for example.
3824 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3828 {+filter-server-headers +filter{test_filter}}
3829 problem-host.example.com
3839 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3840 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="force-text-mode">
3841 <title>force-text-mode</title>
3847 <term>Typical use:</term>
3849 <para>Force <application>Privoxy</application> to treat a document as if it was in some kind of <emphasis>text</emphasis> format. </para>
3854 <term>Effect:</term>
3857 Declares a document as text, even if the <quote>Content-Type:</quote> isn't detected as such.
3864 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3866 <para>Boolean.</para>
3871 <term>Parameter:</term>
3883 As explained <literal><link linkend="filter">above</link></literal>,
3884 <application>Privoxy</application> tries to only filter files that are
3885 in some kind of text format. The same restrictions apply to
3886 <literal><link linkend="content-type-overwrite">content-type-overwrite</link></literal>.
3887 <literal>force-text-mode</literal> declares a document as text,
3888 without looking at the <quote>Content-Type:</quote> first.
3892 Think twice before activating this action. Filtering binary data
3893 with regular expressions can cause file damage.
3900 <term>Example usage:</term>
3913 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3914 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="handle-as-empty-document">
3915 <title>handle-as-empty-document</title>
3921 <term>Typical use:</term>
3923 <para>Mark URLs that should be replaced by empty documents <emphasis>if they get blocked</emphasis></para>
3928 <term>Effect:</term>
3931 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. It just marks URLs.
3932 If the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action <emphasis>also applies</emphasis>,
3933 the presence or absence of this mark decides whether an HTML <quote>blocked</quote>
3934 page, or an empty document will be sent to the client as a substitute for the blocked content.
3935 The <emphasis>empty</emphasis> document isn't literally empty, but actually contains a single space.
3942 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3944 <para>Boolean.</para>
3949 <term>Parameter:</term>
3961 Some browsers complain about syntax errors if JavaScript documents
3962 are blocked with <application>Privoxy's</application>
3963 default HTML page; this option can be used to silence them.
3966 The content type for the empty document can be specified with
3967 <literal><link linkend="content-type-overwrite">content-type-overwrite{}</link></literal>,
3968 but usually this isn't necessary.
3974 <term>Example usage:</term>
3977 <screen># Block all documents on example.org that end with ".js",
3978 # but send an empty document instead of the usual HTML message.
3979 {+block +handle-as-empty-document}
3989 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3990 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="handle-as-image">
3991 <title>handle-as-image</title>
3995 <term>Typical use:</term>
3997 <para>Mark URLs as belonging to images (so they'll be replaced by images <emphasis>if they do get blocked</emphasis>, rather than HTML pages)</para>
4002 <term>Effect:</term>
4005 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. It just marks URLs as images.
4006 If the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action <emphasis>also applies</emphasis>,
4007 the presence or absence of this mark decides whether an HTML <quote>blocked</quote>
4008 page, or a replacement image (as determined by the <literal><link
4009 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal> action) will be sent to the
4010 client as a substitute for the blocked content.
4017 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4019 <para>Boolean.</para>
4024 <term>Parameter:</term>
4036 The below generic example section is actually part of <filename>default.action</filename>.
4037 It marks all URLs with well-known image file name extensions as images and should
4041 Users will probably only want to use the handle-as-image action in conjunction with
4042 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>, to block sources of banners, whose URLs don't
4043 reflect the file type, like in the second example section.
4046 Note that you cannot treat HTML pages as images in most cases. For instance, (in-line) ad
4047 frames require an HTML page to be sent, or they won't display properly.
4048 Forcing <literal>handle-as-image</literal> in this situation will not replace the
4049 ad frame with an image, but lead to error messages.
4055 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
4058 <screen># Generic image extensions:
4061 /.*\.(gif|jpg|jpeg|png|bmp|ico)$
4063 # These don't look like images, but they're banners and should be
4064 # blocked as images:
4066 {+block +handle-as-image}
4067 some.nasty-banner-server.com/junk.cgi?output=trash
4069 # Banner source! Who cares if they also have non-image content?
4079 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4080 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-accept-language">
4081 <title>hide-accept-language</title>
4087 <term>Typical use:</term>
4089 <para>Pretend to use different language settings.</para>
4094 <term>Effect:</term>
4097 Deletes or replaces the <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> HTTP header in client requests.
4104 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4106 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4111 <term>Parameter:</term>
4114 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
4123 Faking the browser's language settings can be useful to make a
4124 foreign User-Agent set with
4125 <literal><link linkend="hide-user-agent">hide-user-agent</link></literal>
4129 However some sites with content in different languages check the
4130 <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> to decide which one to take by default.
4131 Sometimes it isn't possible to later switch to another language without
4132 changing the <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> header first.
4135 Therefore it's a good idea to either only change the
4136 <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> header to languages you understand,
4137 or to languages that aren't wide spread.
4140 Before setting the <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> header
4141 to a rare language, you should consider that it helps to
4142 make your requests unique and thus easier to trace.
4143 If you don't plan to change this header frequently,
4144 you should stick to a common language.
4150 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
4153 <screen># Pretend to use Canadian language settings.
4154 {+hide-accept-language{en-ca} \
4155 +hide-user-agent{Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; OpenBSD i386; en-CA; rv:1.8.0.4) Gecko/20060628 Firefox/1.5.0.4} \
4165 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4166 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-content-disposition">
4167 <title>hide-content-disposition</title>
4173 <term>Typical use:</term>
4175 <para>Prevent download menus for content you prefer to view inside the browser.</para>
4180 <term>Effect:</term>
4183 Deletes or replaces the <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> HTTP header set by some servers.
4190 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4192 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4197 <term>Parameter:</term>
4200 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
4209 Some servers set the <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> HTTP header for
4210 documents they assume you want to save locally before viewing them.
4211 The <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> header contains the file name
4212 the browser is supposed to use by default.
4215 In most browsers that understand this header, it makes it impossible to
4216 <emphasis>just view</emphasis> the document, without downloading it first,
4217 even if it's just a simple text file or an image.
4220 Removing the <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> header helps
4221 to prevent this annoyance, but some browsers additionally check the
4222 <quote>Content-Type:</quote> header, before they decide if they can
4223 display a document without saving it first. In these cases, you have
4224 to change this header as well, before the browser stops displaying
4228 It is also possible to change the server's file name suggestion
4229 to another one, but in most cases it isn't worth the time to set
4236 <term>Example usage:</term>
4239 <screen># Disarm the download link in Sourceforge's patch tracker
4241 +content-type-overwrite {text/plain}\
4242 +hide-content-disposition {block} }
4243 .sourceforge.net/tracker/download.php</screen>
4251 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4252 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-if-modified-since">
4253 <title>hide-if-modified-since</title>
4259 <term>Typical use:</term>
4261 <para>Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.</para>
4266 <term>Effect:</term>
4269 Deletes the <quote>If-Modified-Since:</quote> HTTP client header or modifies its value.
4276 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4278 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4283 <term>Parameter:</term>
4286 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or a user defined value that specifies a range of hours.
4295 Removing this header is useful for filter testing, where you want to force a real
4296 reload instead of getting status code <quote>304</quote>, which would cause the
4297 browser to use a cached copy of the page.
4300 Instead of removing the header, <literal>hide-if-modified-since</literal> can
4301 also add or subtract a random amount of time to/from the header's value.
4302 You specify a range of minutes where the random factor should be chosen from and
4303 <application>Privoxy</application> does the rest. A negative value means
4304 subtracting, a positive value adding.
4307 Randomizing the value of the <quote>If-Modified-Since:</quote> makes
4308 sure it isn't used as a cookie replacement, but you will run into
4309 caching problems if the random range is too high.
4312 It is a good idea to only use a small negative value and let
4313 <literal><link linkend="overwrite-last-modified">overwrite-last-modified</link></literal>
4314 handle the greater changes.
4317 It is also recommended to use this action together with
4318 <literal><link linkend="crunch-if-none-match">crunch-if-none-match</link></literal>.
4324 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
4327 <screen># Let the browser revalidate without being tracked across sessions
4328 {+hide-if-modified-since {-60}\
4329 +overwrite-last-modified {randomize}\
4330 +crunch-if-none-match}
4339 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4340 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-forwarded-for-headers">
4341 <title>hide-forwarded-for-headers</title>
4347 <term>Typical use:</term>
4349 <para>Improve privacy by hiding the true source of the request</para>
4354 <term>Effect:</term>
4357 Deletes any existing <quote>X-Forwarded-for:</quote> HTTP header from client requests,
4358 and prevents adding a new one.
4365 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4367 <para>Boolean.</para>
4372 <term>Parameter:</term>
4384 It is fairly safe to leave this on.
4387 This action is scheduled for improvement: It should be able to generate forged
4388 <quote>X-Forwarded-for:</quote> headers using random IP addresses from a specified network,
4389 to make successive requests from the same client look like requests from a pool of different
4390 users sharing the same proxy.
4396 <term>Example usage:</term>
4399 <screen>+hide-forwarded-for-headers</screen>
4407 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4408 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-from-header">
4409 <title>hide-from-header</title>
4413 <term>Typical use:</term>
4415 <para>Keep your (old and ill) browser from telling web servers your email address</para>
4420 <term>Effect:</term>
4423 Deletes any existing <quote>From:</quote> HTTP header, or replaces it with the
4431 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4433 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4438 <term>Parameter:</term>
4441 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
4450 The keyword <quote>block</quote> will completely remove the header
4451 (not to be confused with the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>
4455 Alternately, you can specify any value you prefer to be sent to the web
4456 server. If you do, it is a matter of fairness not to use any address that
4457 is actually used by a real person.
4460 This action is rarely needed, as modern web browsers don't send
4461 <quote>From:</quote> headers anymore.
4467 <term>Example usage:</term>
4470 <screen>+hide-from-header{block}</screen> or
4471 <screen>+hide-from-header{spam-me-senseless@sittingduck.example.com}</screen>
4479 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4480 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-referrer">
4481 <title>hide-referrer</title>
4482 <anchor id="hide-referer">
4485 <term>Typical use:</term>
4487 <para>Conceal which link you followed to get to a particular site</para>
4492 <term>Effect:</term>
4495 Deletes the <quote>Referer:</quote> (sic) HTTP header from the client request,
4496 or replaces it with a forged one.
4503 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4505 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4510 <term>Parameter:</term>
4514 <para><quote>conditional-block</quote> to delete the header completely if the host has changed.</para>
4517 <para><quote>block</quote> to delete the header unconditionally.</para>
4520 <para><quote>forge</quote> to pretend to be coming from the homepage of the server we are talking to.</para>
4523 <para>Any other string to set a user defined referrer.</para>
4533 <literal>conditional-block</literal> is the only parameter,
4534 that isn't easily detected in the server's log file. If it blocks the
4535 referrer, the request will look like the visitor used a bookmark or
4536 typed in the address directly.
4539 Leaving the referrer unmodified for requests on the same host
4540 allows the server owner to see the visitor's <quote>click path</quote>,
4541 but in most cases she could also get that information by comparing
4542 other parts of the log file: for example the User-Agent if it isn't
4543 a very common one, or the user's IP address if it doesn't change between
4547 Always blocking the referrer, or using a custom one, can lead to
4548 failures on servers that check the referrer before they answer any
4549 requests, in an attempt to prevent their valuable content from being
4550 embedded or linked to elsewhere.
4553 Both <literal>conditional-block</literal> and <literal>forge</literal>
4554 will work with referrer checks, as long as content and valid referring page
4555 are on the same host. Most of the time that's the case.
4558 <literal>hide-referer</literal> is an alternate spelling of
4559 <literal>hide-referrer</literal> and the two can be can be freely
4560 substituted with each other. (<quote>referrer</quote> is the
4561 correct English spelling, however the HTTP specification has a bug - it
4562 requires it to be spelled as <quote>referer</quote>.)
4568 <term>Example usage:</term>
4571 <screen>+hide-referrer{forge}</screen> or
4572 <screen>+hide-referrer{http://www.yahoo.com/}</screen>
4580 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4581 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-user-agent">
4582 <title>hide-user-agent</title>
4586 <term>Typical use:</term>
4588 <para>Conceal your type of browser and client operating system</para>
4593 <term>Effect:</term>
4596 Replaces the value of the <quote>User-Agent:</quote> HTTP header
4597 in client requests with the specified value.
4604 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4606 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4611 <term>Parameter:</term>
4614 Any user-defined string.
4624 This can lead to problems on web sites that depend on looking at this header in
4625 order to customize their content for different browsers (which, by the
4626 way, is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> the right thing to do: good web sites
4627 work browser-independently).
4629 <ulink url="http://www.javascriptkit.com/javaindex.shtml">smart way to do
4635 Using this action in multi-user setups or wherever different types of
4636 browsers will access the same <application>Privoxy</application> is
4637 <emphasis>not recommended</emphasis>. In single-user, single-browser
4638 setups, you might use it to delete your OS version information from
4639 the headers, because it is an invitation to exploit known bugs for your
4640 OS. It is also occasionally useful to forge this in order to access
4641 sites that won't let you in otherwise (though there may be a good
4642 reason in some cases). Example of this: some MSN sites will not
4643 let <application>Mozilla</application> enter, yet forging to a
4644 <application>Netscape 6.1</application> user-agent works just fine.
4645 (Must be just a silly MS goof, I'm sure :-).
4648 This action is scheduled for improvement.
4654 <term>Example usage:</term>
4657 <screen>+hide-user-agent{Netscape 6.1 (X11; I; Linux 2.4.18 i686)}</screen>
4665 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4666 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="inspect-jpegs">
4667 <title>inspect-jpegs</title>
4673 <term>Typical use:</term>
4675 <para>To protect against the MS buffer over-run in JPEG processing</para>
4680 <term>Effect:</term>
4683 Protect against a known exploit
4690 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4692 <para>Boolean.</para>
4697 <term>Parameter:</term>
4709 See Microsoft Security Bulletin MS04-028. JPEG images are one of the most
4710 common image types found across the Internet. The exploit as described can
4711 allow execution of code on the target system, giving an attacker access
4712 to the system in question by merely planting an altered JPEG image, which
4713 would have no obvious indications of what lurks inside. This action
4714 prevents unwanted intrusion.
4721 <term>Example usage:</term>
4723 <para><screen>+inspect-jpegs</screen></para>
4732 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4733 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="kill-popups">
4734 <title>kill-popups<anchor id="kill-popup"></title>
4738 <term>Typical use:</term>
4740 <para>Eliminate those annoying pop-up windows (deprecated)</para>
4745 <term>Effect:</term>
4748 While loading the document, replace JavaScript code that opens
4749 pop-up windows with (syntactically neutral) dummy code on the fly.
4756 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4758 <para>Boolean.</para>
4763 <term>Parameter:</term>
4775 This action is basically a built-in, hardwired special-purpose filter
4776 action, but there are important differences: For <literal>kill-popups</literal>,
4777 the document need not be buffered, so it can be incrementally rendered while
4778 downloading. But <literal>kill-popups</literal> doesn't catch as many pop-ups as
4780 linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{<replaceable>all-popups</replaceable>}</link></literal>
4781 does and is not as smart as <literal><link
4782 linkend="FILTER-UNSOLICITED-POPUPS">filter{<replaceable>unsolicited-popups</replaceable>}</link>
4786 Think of it as a fast and efficient replacement for a filter that you
4787 can use if you don't want any filtering at all. Note that it doesn't make
4788 sense to combine it with any <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> action,
4789 since as soon as one <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> applies,
4790 the whole document needs to be buffered anyway, which destroys the advantage of
4791 the <literal>kill-popups</literal> action over its filter equivalent.
4794 Killing all pop-ups unconditionally is problematic. Many shops and banks rely on
4795 pop-ups to display forms, shopping carts etc, and the <literal><link
4796 linkend="FILTER-UNSOLICITED-POPUPS">filter{<replaceable>unsolicited-popups</replaceable>}</link>
4797 </literal> does a better job of catching only the unwanted ones.
4800 If the only kind of pop-ups that you want to kill are exit consoles (those
4801 <emphasis>really nasty</emphasis> windows that appear when you close an other
4802 one), you might want to use
4804 linkend="filter">filter</link>{<replaceable>js-annoyances</replaceable>}</literal>
4808 This action is most appropriate for browsers that don't have any controls
4809 for unwanted pop-ups. Not recommended for general usage.
4814 An alternate spelling is <literal>+kill-popup</literal>, which is
4822 <term>Example usage:</term>
4824 <para><screen>+kill-popups</screen></para>
4831 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4832 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="limit-connect">
4833 <title>limit-connect</title>
4837 <term>Typical use:</term>
4839 <para>Prevent abuse of <application>Privoxy</application> as a TCP proxy relay or disable SSL for untrusted sites</para>
4844 <term>Effect:</term>
4847 Specifies to which ports HTTP CONNECT requests are allowable.
4854 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4856 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4861 <term>Parameter:</term>
4864 A comma-separated list of ports or port ranges (the latter using dashes, with the minimum
4865 defaulting to 0 and the maximum to 65K).
4874 By default, i.e. if no <literal>limit-connect</literal> action applies,
4875 <application>Privoxy</application> only allows HTTP CONNECT
4876 requests to port 443 (the standard, secure HTTPS port). Use
4877 <literal>limit-connect</literal> if more fine-grained control is desired
4878 for some or all destinations.
4881 The CONNECT methods exists in HTTP to allow access to secure websites
4882 (<quote>https://</quote> URLs) through proxies. It works very simply:
4883 the proxy connects to the server on the specified port, and then
4884 short-circuits its connections to the client and to the remote server.
4885 This can be a big security hole, since CONNECT-enabled proxies can be
4886 abused as TCP relays very easily.
4889 <application>Privoxy</application> relays HTTPS traffic without seeing
4890 the decoded content. Websites can leverage this limitation to circumvent &my-app;'s
4891 filters. By specifying an invalid port range you can disable HTTPS entirely.
4892 If you plan to disable SSL by default, consider enabling
4893 <literal><link linkend="treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks ">treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks</link></literal>
4894 as well, to be able to quickly create exceptions.
4900 <term>Example usages:</term>
4902 <!-- I had trouble getting the spacing to look right in my browser -->
4903 <!-- I probably have the wrong font setup, bollocks. -->
4904 <!-- Apparently the emphasis tag uses a proportional font no matter what -->
4906 <screen>+limit-connect{443} # This is the default and need not be specified.
4907 +limit-connect{80,443} # Ports 80 and 443 are OK.
4908 +limit-connect{-3, 7, 20-100, 500-} # Ports less than 3, 7, 20 to 100 and above 500 are OK.
4909 +limit-connect{-} # All ports are OK
4910 +limit-connect{,} # No HTTPS/SSL traffic is allowed</screen>
4917 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4918 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="prevent-compression">
4919 <title>prevent-compression</title>
4923 <term>Typical use:</term>
4926 Ensure that servers send the content uncompressed, so it can be
4927 passed through <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>s.
4933 <term>Effect:</term>
4936 Removes the Accept-Encoding header which can be used to ask for compressed transfer.
4943 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4945 <para>Boolean.</para>
4950 <term>Parameter:</term>
4962 More and more websites send their content compressed by default, which
4963 is generally a good idea and saves bandwidth. But for the <literal><link
4964 linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>, <literal><link linkend="deanimate-gifs">deanimate-gifs</link></literal>
4965 and <literal><link linkend="kill-popups">kill-popups</link></literal> actions to work,
4966 <application>Privoxy</application> needs access to the uncompressed data.
4967 Unfortunately, <application>Privoxy</application> can't yet(!) uncompress, filter, and
4968 re-compress the content on the fly. So if you want to ensure that all websites, including
4969 those that normally compress, can be filtered, you need to use this action.
4972 This will slow down transfers from those websites, though. If you use any of the above-mentioned
4973 actions, you will typically want to use <literal>prevent-compression</literal> in conjunction
4977 Note that some (rare) ill-configured sites don't handle requests for uncompressed
4978 documents correctly (they send an empty document body). If you use <literal>prevent-compression</literal>
4979 per default, you'll have to add exceptions for those sites. See the example for how to do that.
4985 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
4988 <screen># Set default:
4990 {+prevent-compression}
4993 # Make exceptions for ill sites:
4995 {-prevent-compression}
4997 www.pclinuxonline.com</screen>
5006 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5007 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="overwrite-last-modified">
5008 <title>overwrite-last-modified</title>
5014 <term>Typical use:</term>
5016 <para>Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.</para>
5021 <term>Effect:</term>
5024 Deletes the <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> HTTP server header or modifies its value.
5031 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5033 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5038 <term>Parameter:</term>
5041 One of the keywords: <quote>block</quote>, <quote>reset-to-request-time</quote>
5042 and <quote>randomize</quote>
5051 Removing the <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header is useful for filter
5052 testing, where you want to force a real reload instead of getting status
5053 code <quote>304</quote>, which would cause the browser to reuse the old
5054 version of the page.
5057 The <quote>randomize</quote> option overwrites the value of the
5058 <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header with a randomly chosen time
5059 between the original value and the current time. In theory the server
5060 could send each document with a different <quote>Last-Modified:</quote>
5061 header to track visits without using cookies. <quote>Randomize</quote>
5062 makes it impossible and the browser can still revalidate cached documents.
5065 <quote>reset-to-request-time</quote> overwrites the value of the
5066 <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header with the current time. You could use
5067 this option together with
5068 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hided-if-modified-since</link></literal>
5069 to further customize your random range.
5072 The preferred parameter here is <quote>randomize</quote>. It is safe
5073 to use, as long as the time settings are more or less correct.
5074 If the server sets the <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header to the time
5075 of the request, the random range becomes zero and the value stays the same.
5076 Therefore you should later randomize it a second time with
5077 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hided-if-modified-since</link></literal>,
5081 It is also recommended to use this action together with
5082 <literal><link linkend="crunch-if-none-match">crunch-if-none-match</link></literal>.
5088 <term>Example usage:</term>
5091 <screen># Let the browser revalidate without being tracked across sessions
5092 {+hide-if-modified-since {-60}\
5093 +overwrite-last-modified {randomize}\
5094 +crunch-if-none-match}
5103 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5104 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="redirect">
5105 <title>redirect</title>
5111 <term>Typical use:</term>
5114 Redirect requests to other sites.
5120 <term>Effect:</term>
5123 Convinces the browser that the requested document has been moved
5124 to another location and the browser should get it from there.
5131 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5133 <para>Parameterized</para>
5138 <term>Parameter:</term>
5150 This action is useful to replace whole documents with ones of your
5151 choosing. This can be used to enforce safe surfing, or just as a simple
5155 You can do the same by combining the actions
5156 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>,
5157 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> and
5158 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker{URL}</link></literal>.
5159 It doesn't sound right for non-image documents, and that's why this action
5163 This action will be ignored if you use it together with
5164 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>.
5170 <term>Example usages:</term>
5173 <screen># Replace example.com's style sheet with another one
5174 { +redirect{http://localhost/css-replacements/example.com.css} }
5175 example.com/stylesheet.css
5177 # Create a short, easy to remember nickname for a favorite site
5178 { +redirect{http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/actions-file.html} }
5188 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5189 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="send-vanilla-wafer">
5190 <title>send-vanilla-wafer</title>
5194 <term>Typical use:</term>
5197 Feed log analysis scripts with useless data.
5203 <term>Effect:</term>
5206 Sends a cookie with each request stating that you do not accept any copyright
5207 on cookies sent to you, and asking the site operator not to track you.
5214 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5216 <para>Boolean.</para>
5221 <term>Parameter:</term>
5233 The vanilla wafer is a (relatively) unique header and could conceivably be used to track you.
5236 This action is rarely used and not enabled in the default configuration.
5242 <term>Example usage:</term>
5245 <screen>+send-vanilla-wafer</screen>
5254 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5255 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="send-wafer">
5256 <title>send-wafer</title>
5260 <term>Typical use:</term>
5263 Send custom cookies or feed log analysis scripts with even more useless data.
5269 <term>Effect:</term>
5272 Sends a custom, user-defined cookie with each request.
5279 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5281 <para>Multi-value.</para>
5286 <term>Parameter:</term>
5289 A string of the form <quote><replaceable class="option">name</replaceable>=<replaceable
5290 class="parameter">value</replaceable></quote>.
5299 Being multi-valued, multiple instances of this action can apply to the same request,
5300 resulting in multiple cookies being sent.
5303 This action is rarely used and not enabled in the default configuration.
5308 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
5311 <screen>{+send-wafer{UsingPrivoxy=true}}
5312 my-internal-testing-server.void</screen>
5320 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5321 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="session-cookies-only">
5322 <title>session-cookies-only</title>
5326 <term>Typical use:</term>
5329 Allow only temporary <quote>session</quote> cookies (for the current
5330 browser session <emphasis>only</emphasis>).
5336 <term>Effect:</term>
5339 Deletes the <quote>expires</quote> field from <quote>Set-Cookie:</quote>
5340 server headers. Most browsers will not store such cookies permanently and
5341 forget them in between sessions.
5348 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5350 <para>Boolean.</para>
5355 <term>Parameter:</term>
5367 This is less strict than <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal> /
5368 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal> and allows you to browse
5369 websites that insist or rely on setting cookies, without compromising your privacy too badly.
5372 Most browsers will not permanently store cookies that have been processed by
5373 <literal>session-cookies-only</literal> and will forget about them between sessions.
5374 This makes profiling cookies useless, but won't break sites which require cookies so
5375 that you can log in for transactions. This is generally turned on for all
5376 sites, and is the recommended setting.
5379 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use <literal>session-cookies-only</literal>
5380 together with <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal> or
5381 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>. If you do, cookies
5382 will be plainly killed.
5385 Note that it is up to the browser how it handles such cookies without an <quote>expires</quote>
5386 field. If you use an exotic browser, you might want to try it out to be sure.
5389 This setting also has no effect on cookies that may have been stored
5390 previously by the browser before starting <application>Privoxy</application>.
5391 These would have to be removed manually.
5394 <application>Privoxy</application> also uses
5395 the <link linkend="filter-content-cookies">content-cookies filter</link>
5396 to block some types of cookies. Content cookies are not effected by
5397 <literal>session-cookies-only</literal>.
5403 <term>Example usage:</term>
5406 <screen>+session-cookies-only</screen>
5414 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5415 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="set-image-blocker">
5416 <title>set-image-blocker</title>
5420 <term>Typical use:</term>
5422 <para>Choose the replacement for blocked images</para>
5427 <term>Effect:</term>
5430 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. If <emphasis>both</emphasis>
5431 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> <emphasis>and</emphasis> <literal><link
5432 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> <emphasis>also</emphasis>
5433 apply, i.e. if the request is to be blocked as an image,
5434 <emphasis>then</emphasis> the parameter of this action decides what will be
5435 sent as a replacement.
5442 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5444 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5449 <term>Parameter:</term>
5454 <quote>pattern</quote> to send a built-in checkerboard pattern image. The image is visually
5455 decent, scales very well, and makes it obvious where banners were busted.
5460 <quote>blank</quote> to send a built-in transparent image. This makes banners disappear
5461 completely, but makes it hard to detect where <application>Privoxy</application> has blocked
5462 images on a given page and complicates troubleshooting if <application>Privoxy</application>
5463 has blocked innocent images, like navigation icons.
5468 <quote><replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable></quote> to
5469 send a redirect to <replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable>. You can redirect
5470 to any image anywhere, even in your local filesystem via <quote>file:///</quote> URL.
5471 (But note that not all browsers support redirecting to a local file system).
5474 A good application of redirects is to use special <application>Privoxy</application>-built-in
5475 URLs, which send the built-in images, as <replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable>.
5476 This has the same visual effect as specifying <quote>blank</quote> or <quote>pattern</quote> in
5477 the first place, but enables your browser to cache the replacement image, instead of requesting
5478 it over and over again.
5489 The URLs for the built-in images are <quote>http://config.privoxy.org/send-banner?type=<replaceable
5490 class="parameter">type</replaceable></quote>, where <replaceable class="parameter">type</replaceable> is
5491 either <quote>blank</quote> or <quote>pattern</quote>.
5494 There is a third (advanced) type, called <quote>auto</quote>. It is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> to be
5495 used in <literal>set-image-blocker</literal>, but meant for use from <link linkend="filter-file">filters</link>.
5496 Auto will select the type of image that would have applied to the referring page, had it been an image.
5502 <term>Example usage:</term>
5508 <screen>+set-image-blocker{pattern}</screen>
5511 Redirect to the BSD devil:
5514 <screen>+set-image-blocker{http://www.freebsd.org/gifs/dae_up3.gif}</screen>
5517 Redirect to the built-in pattern for better caching:
5520 <screen>+set-image-blocker{http://config.privoxy.org/send-banner?type=pattern}</screen>
5528 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5529 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks">
5530 <title>treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks</title>
5536 <term>Typical use:</term>
5538 <para>Block forbidden connects with an easy to find error message.</para>
5543 <term>Effect:</term>
5546 If this action is enabled, <application>Privoxy</application> no longer
5547 makes a difference between forbidden connects and ordinary blocks.
5554 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5556 <para>Boolean</para>
5561 <term>Parameter:</term>
5571 By default <application>Privoxy</application> answers
5572 <link linkend="limit-connect">forbidden <quote>Connect</quote> requests</link>
5573 with a short error message inside the headers. If the browser doesn't display
5574 headers (most don't), you just see an empty page.
5577 With this action enabled, <application>Privoxy</application> displays
5578 the message that is used for ordinary blocks instead. If you decide
5579 to make an exception for the page in question, you can do so by
5580 following the <quote>See why</quote> link.
5583 For <quote>Connect</quote> requests the clients tell
5584 <application>Privoxy</application> which host they are interested
5585 in, but not which document they plan to get later. As a result, the
5586 <quote>Go there anyway</quote> link becomes rather useless:
5587 it lets the client request the home page of the forbidden host
5588 through unencrypted HTTP, still using the port of the last request.
5591 If you previously configured <application>Privoxy</application> to do the
5592 request through a SSL tunnel, everything will work. Most likely you haven't
5593 and the server will respond with an error message because it is expecting
5600 <term>Example usage:</term>
5603 <screen>+treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks</screen>
5611 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5613 <title>Summary</title>
5615 Note that many of these actions have the potential to cause a page to
5616 misbehave, possibly even not to display at all. There are many ways
5617 a site designer may choose to design his site, and what HTTP header
5618 content, and other criteria, he may depend on. There is no way to have hard
5619 and fast rules for all sites. See the <link
5620 linkend="ACTIONSANAT">Appendix</link> for a brief example on troubleshooting
5626 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5627 <sect2 id="aliases">
5628 <title>Aliases</title>
5630 Custom <quote>actions</quote>, known to <application>Privoxy</application>
5631 as <quote>aliases</quote>, can be defined by combining other actions.
5632 These can in turn be invoked just like the built-in actions.
5633 Currently, an alias name can contain any character except space, tab,
5635 <quote>{</quote> and <quote>}</quote>, but we <emphasis>strongly
5636 recommend</emphasis> that you only use <quote>a</quote> to <quote>z</quote>,
5637 <quote>0</quote> to <quote>9</quote>, <quote>+</quote>, and <quote>-</quote>.
5638 Alias names are not case sensitive, and are not required to start with a
5639 <quote>+</quote> or <quote>-</quote> sign, since they are merely textually
5643 Aliases can be used throughout the actions file, but they <emphasis>must be
5644 defined in a special section at the top of the file!</emphasis>
5645 And there can only be one such section per actions file. Each actions file may
5646 have its own alias section, and the aliases defined in it are only visible
5650 There are two main reasons to use aliases: One is to save typing for frequently
5651 used combinations of actions, the other one is a gain in flexibility: If you
5652 decide once how you want to handle shops by defining an alias called
5653 <quote>shop</quote>, you can later change your policy on shops in
5654 <emphasis>one</emphasis> place, and your changes will take effect everywhere
5655 in the actions file where the <quote>shop</quote> alias is used. Calling aliases
5656 by their purpose also makes your actions files more readable.
5659 Currently, there is one big drawback to using aliases, though:
5660 <application>Privoxy</application>'s built-in web-based action file
5661 editor honors aliases when reading the actions files, but it expands
5662 them before writing. So the effects of your aliases are of course preserved,
5663 but the aliases themselves are lost when you edit sections that use aliases
5665 This is likely to change in future versions of <application>Privoxy</application>.
5669 Now let's define some aliases...
5674 # Useful custom aliases we can use later.
5676 # Note the (required!) section header line and that this section
5677 # must be at the top of the actions file!
5681 # These aliases just save typing later:
5682 # (Note that some already use other aliases!)
5684 +crunch-all-cookies = +<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> +<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
5685 -crunch-all-cookies = -<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> -<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
5686 +block-as-image = +block +handle-as-image
5687 mercy-for-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> -<link linkend="FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</link>
5689 # These aliases define combinations of actions
5690 # that are useful for certain types of sites:
5692 fragile = -<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link> -<link linkend="HIDE-REFERER">hide-referrer</link> -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link>
5693 shop = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{all-popups}</link> -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link>
5695 # Short names for other aliases, for really lazy people ;-)
5697 c0 = +crunch-all-cookies
5698 c1 = -crunch-all-cookies</screen>
5702 ...and put them to use. These sections would appear in the lower part of an
5703 actions file and define exceptions to the default actions (as specified further
5704 up for the <quote>/</quote> pattern):
5709 # These sites are either very complex or very keen on
5710 # user data and require minimal interference to work:
5713 .office.microsoft.com
5714 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com
5718 # Allow cookies (for setting and retrieving your customer data)
5722 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
5725 # These shops require pop-ups:
5727 {shop -kill-popups -filter{all-popups}}
5729 .overclockers.co.uk</screen>
5733 Aliases like <quote>shop</quote> and <quote>fragile</quote> are often used for
5734 <quote>problem</quote> sites that require some actions to be disabled
5735 in order to function properly.
5741 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5742 <sect2 id="act-examples">
5743 <title>Actions Files Tutorial</title>
5745 The above chapters have shown <link linkend="actions-file">which actions files
5746 there are and how they are organized</link>, how actions are <link
5747 linkend="actions">specified</link> and <link linkend="actions-apply">applied
5748 to URLs</link>, how <link linkend="af-patterns">patterns</link> work, and how to
5749 define and use <link linkend="aliases">aliases</link>. Now, let's look at an
5750 example <filename>default.action</filename> and <filename>user.action</filename>
5751 file and see how all these pieces come together:
5754 <sect3><title>default.action</title>
5757 Every config file should start with a short comment stating its purpose:
5761 <screen># Sample default.action file <ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net></screen>
5765 Then, since this is the <filename>default.action</filename> file, the
5766 first section is a special section for internal use that you needn't
5767 change or worry about:
5772 ##########################################################################
5773 # Settings -- Don't change! For internal Privoxy use ONLY.
5774 ##########################################################################
5777 for-privoxy-version=3.0</screen>
5781 After that comes the (optional) alias section. We'll use the example
5782 section from the above <link linkend="aliases">chapter on aliases</link>,
5783 that also explains why and how aliases are used:
5788 ##########################################################################
5790 ##########################################################################
5793 # These aliases just save typing later:
5794 # (Note that some already use other aliases!)
5796 +crunch-all-cookies = +<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> +<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
5797 -crunch-all-cookies = -<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> -<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
5798 +block-as-image = +block +handle-as-image
5799 mercy-for-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> -<link linkend="FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</link>
5801 # These aliases define combinations of actions
5802 # that are useful for certain types of sites:
5804 fragile = -<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link> -<link linkend="HIDE-REFERER">hide-referrer</link> -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link>
5805 shop = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{all-popups}</link> -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link></screen>
5809 Now come the regular sections, i.e. sets of actions, accompanied
5810 by URL patterns to which they apply. Remember <emphasis>all actions
5811 are disabled when matching starts</emphasis>, so we have to explicitly
5812 enable the ones we want.
5816 The first regular section is probably the most important. It has only
5817 one pattern, <quote><literal>/</literal></quote>, but this pattern
5818 <link linkend="af-patterns">matches all URLs</link>. Therefore, the
5819 set of actions used in this <quote>default</quote> section <emphasis>will
5820 be applied to all requests as a start</emphasis>. It can be partly or
5821 wholly overridden by later matches further down this file, or in user.action,
5822 but it will still be largely responsible for your overall browsing
5827 Again, at the start of matching, all actions are disabled, so there is
5828 no real need to disable any actions here, but we will do that nonetheless,
5829 to have a complete listing for your reference. (Remember: a <quote>+</quote>
5830 preceding the action name enables the action, a <quote>-</quote> disables!).
5831 Also note how this long line has been made more readable by splitting it into
5832 multiple lines with line continuation.
5837 ##########################################################################
5838 # "Defaults" section:
5839 ##########################################################################
5841 -<link linkend="ADD-HEADER">add-header</link> \
5842 -<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> \
5843 -<link linkend="CONTENT-TYPE-OVERWRITE">content-type-overwrite</link> \
5844 -<link linkend="CRUNCH-CLIENT-HEADER">crunch-client-header</link> \
5845 -<link linkend="CRUNCH-IF-NONE-MATCH">crunch-if-none-match</link> \
5846 -<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> \
5847 -<link linkend="CRUNCH-SERVER-HEADER">crunch-server-header</link> \
5848 -<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link> \
5849 +<link linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS">deanimate-gifs</link> \
5850 -<link linkend="DOWNGRADE-HTTP-VERSION">downgrade-http-version</link> \
5851 -<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects{check-decoded-url}</link> \
5852 -<link linkend="FILTER-JS-ANNOYANCES">filter{js-annoyances}</link> \
5853 -<link linkend="FILTER-JS-EVENTS">filter{js-events}</link> \
5854 +<link linkend="FILTER-HTML-ANNOYANCES">filter{html-annoyances}</link> \
5855 -<link linkend="FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</link> \
5856 +<link linkend="FILTER-REFRESH-TAGS">filter{refresh-tags}</link> \
5857 -<link linkend="FILTER-UNSOLICITED-POPUPS">filter{unsolicited-popups}</link> \
5858 -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{all-popups}</link> \
5859 -<link linkend="FILTER-IMG-REORDER">filter{img-reorder}</link> \
5860 -<link linkend="FILTER-BANNERS-BY-SIZE">filter{banners-by-size}</link> \
5861 -<link linkend="FILTER-BANNERS-BY-LINK">filter{banners-by-link}</link> \
5862 +<link linkend="FILTER-WEBBUGS">filter{webbugs}</link> \
5863 -<link linkend="FILTER-TINY-TEXTFORMS">filter{tiny-textforms}</link> \
5864 -<link linkend="FILTER-JUMPING-WINDOWS">filter{jumping-windows}</link> \
5865 -<link linkend="FILTER-FRAMESET-BORDERS">filter{frameset-borders}</link> \
5866 -<link linkend="FILTER-DEMORONIZER">filter{demoronizer}</link> \
5867 -<link linkend="FILTER-SHOCKWAVE-FLASH">filter{shockwave-flash}</link> \
5868 -<link linkend="FILTER-QUICKTIME-KIOSKMODE">filter{quicktime-kioskmode}</link> \
5869 -<link linkend="FILTER-FUN">filter{fun}</link> \
5870 -<link linkend="FILTER-CRUDE-PARENTAL">filter{crude-parental}</link> \
5871 +<link linkend="FILTER-IE-EXPLOITS">filter{ie-exploits}</link> \
5872 -<link linkend="FILTER-CLIENT-HEADERS">filter-client-headers</link> \
5873 -<link linkend="FILTER-SERVER-HEADERS">filter-server-headers</link> \
5874 -<link linkend="FILTER-GOOGLE">filter-google</link> \
5875 -<link linkend="FILTER-YAHOO">filter-yahoo</link> \
5876 -<link linkend="FILTER-MSN">filter-msn</link> \
5877 -<link linkend="FILTER-BLOGSPOT">filter-blogspot</link> \
5878 -<link linkend="FILTER-XML-TO-HTML">filter-xml-to-html</link> \
5879 -<link linkend="FILTER-HTML-TO-XML">filter-html-to-xml</link> \
5880 -<link linkend="FORCE-TEXT-MODE">force-text-mode</link> \
5881 -<link linkend="HANDLE-AS-EMPTY-DOCUMENT">handle-as-empty-document</link> \
5882 -<link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">handle-as-image</link> \
5883 -<link linkend="HIDE-ACCEPT-LANGUAGE">hide-accept-language</link> \
5884 -<link linkend="HIDE-CONTENT-DISPOSITION">hide-content-disposition</link> \
5885 -<link linkend="HIDE-IF-MODIFIED-SINCE">hide-if-modified-since</link> \
5886 +<link linkend="HIDE-FORWARDED-FOR-HEADERS">hide-forwarded-for-headers</link> \
5887 +<link linkend="HIDE-FROM-HEADER">hide-from-header{block}</link> \
5888 +<link linkend="HIDE-REFERER">hide-referrer{forge}</link> \
5889 -<link linkend="HIDE-USER-AGENT">hide-user-agent</link> \
5890 -<link linkend="INSPECT-JPEGS">inspect-jpegs</link> \
5891 -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link> \
5892 -<link linkend="LIMIT-CONNECT">limit-connect</link> \
5893 +<link linkend="PREVENT-COMPRESSION">prevent-compression</link> \
5894 -<link linkend="OVERWRITE-LAST-MODIFIED">overwrite-last-modified</link> \
5895 -<link linkend="REDIRECT">redirect</link> \
5896 -<link linkend="SEND-VANILLA-WAFER">send-vanilla-wafer</link> \
5897 -<link linkend="SEND-WAFER">send-wafer</link> \
5898 +<link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> \
5899 +<link linkend="SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER">set-image-blocker{pattern}</link> \
5900 -<link linkend="TREAT-FORBIDDEN-CONNECTS-LIKE-BLOCKS">treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks</link> \
5902 / # forward slash will match *all* potential URL patterns.</screen>
5906 The default behavior is now set. Note that some actions, like not hiding
5907 the user agent, are part of a <quote>general policy</quote> that applies
5908 universally and won't get any exceptions defined later. Other choices,
5909 like not blocking (which is <emphasis>understandably</emphasis> the
5910 default!) need exceptions, i.e. we need to specify explicitly what we
5911 want to block in later sections.
5915 The first of our specialized sections is concerned with <quote>fragile</quote>
5916 sites, i.e. sites that require minimum interference, because they are either
5917 very complex or very keen on tracking you (and have mechanisms in place that
5918 make them unusable for people who avoid being tracked). We will simply use
5919 our pre-defined <literal>fragile</literal> alias instead of stating the list
5920 of actions explicitly:
5925 ##########################################################################
5926 # Exceptions for sites that'll break under the default action set:
5927 ##########################################################################
5929 # "Fragile" Use a minimum set of actions for these sites (see alias above):
5932 .office.microsoft.com # surprise, surprise!
5933 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com
5934 mail.google.com</screen>
5938 Shopping sites are not as fragile, but they typically
5939 require cookies to log in, and pop-up windows for shopping
5940 carts or item details. Again, we'll use a pre-defined alias:
5949 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
5951 .scan.co.uk</screen>
5954 <!-- No longer needed BEGIN OF COMMENTED OUT BLOCK
5957 Then, there are sites which rely on pop-up windows (yuck!) to work.
5958 Since we made pop-up-killing our default above, we need to make exceptions
5959 now. <ulink url="http://www.mozilla.org/">Mozilla</ulink> users, who
5960 can turn on smart handling of unwanted pop-ups in their browsers, can
5962 -<literal><link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{popups}</link></literal> (and
5963 -<literal><link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link></literal>) above
5964 and hence don't need this section. Anyway, disabling an already disabled
5965 action doesn't hurt, so we'll define our exceptions regardless of what was
5966 chosen in the defaults section:
5971 # These sites require pop-ups too :(
5973 { -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link> -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{popups}</link> }
5976 .deutsche-bank-24.de</screen>
5979 END OF COMMENTED OUT BLOCK -->
5982 The <literal><link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link></literal>
5983 action, which we enabled per default above, breaks some sites. So disable
5984 it for popular sites where we know it misbehaves:
5989 { -<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link> }
5993 .altavista.com/.*(like|url|link):http
5994 .altavista.com/trans.*urltext=http
5995 .nytimes.com</screen>
5999 It is important that <application>Privoxy</application> knows which
6000 URLs belong to images, so that <emphasis>if</emphasis> they are to
6001 be blocked, a substitute image can be sent, rather than an HTML page.
6002 Contacting the remote site to find out is not an option, since it
6003 would destroy the loading time advantage of banner blocking, and it
6004 would feed the advertisers (in terms of money <emphasis>and</emphasis>
6005 information). We can mark any URL as an image with the <literal><link
6006 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> action,
6007 and marking all URLs that end in a known image file extension is a
6013 ##########################################################################
6015 ##########################################################################
6017 # Define which file types will be treated as images, in case they get
6018 # blocked further down this file:
6020 { +<link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">handle-as-image</link> }
6021 /.*\.(gif|jpe?g|png|bmp|ico)$</screen>
6025 And then there are known banner sources. They often use scripts to
6026 generate the banners, so it won't be visible from the URL that the
6027 request is for an image. Hence we block them <emphasis>and</emphasis>
6028 mark them as images in one go, with the help of our
6029 <literal>+block-as-image</literal> alias defined above. (We could of
6030 course just as well use <literal>+<link linkend="block">block</link>
6031 +<link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> here.)
6032 Remember that the type of the replacement image is chosen by the
6033 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>
6034 action. Since all URLs have matched the default section with its
6035 <literal>+<link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link>{pattern}</literal>
6036 action before, it still applies and needn't be repeated:
6041 # Known ad generators:
6046 .ad.*.doubleclick.net
6047 .a.yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$
6048 .a[0-9].yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$
6054 One of the most important jobs of <application>Privoxy</application>
6055 is to block banners. Many of these can be <quote>blocked</quote>
6056 by the <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link>{banners-by-size}</literal>
6057 action, which we enabled above, and which deletes the references to banner
6058 images from the pages while they are loaded, so the browser doesn't request
6059 them anymore, and hence they don't need to be blocked here. But this naturally
6060 doesn't catch all banners, and some people choose not to use filters, so we
6061 need a comprehensive list of patterns for banner URLs here, and apply the
6062 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action to them.
6065 First comes many generic patterns, which do most of the work, by
6066 matching typical domain and path name components of banners. Then comes
6067 a list of individual patterns for specific sites, which is omitted here
6068 to keep the example short:
6073 ##########################################################################
6074 # Block these fine banners:
6075 ##########################################################################
6076 { <link linkend="BLOCK">+block</link> }
6084 /.*count(er)?\.(pl|cgi|exe|dll|asp|php[34]?)
6085 /(?:.*/)?(publicite|werbung|rekla(ma|me|am)|annonse|maino(kset|nta|s)?)/
6087 # Site-specific patterns (abbreviated):
6089 .hitbox.com</screen>
6093 It's quite remarkable how many advertisers actually call their banner
6094 servers ads.<replaceable>company</replaceable>.com, or call the directory
6095 in which the banners are stored simply <quote>banners</quote>. So the above
6096 generic patterns are surprisingly effective.
6099 But being very generic, they necessarily also catch URLs that we don't want
6100 to block. The pattern <literal>.*ads.</literal> e.g. catches
6101 <quote>nasty-<emphasis>ads</emphasis>.nasty-corp.com</quote> as intended,
6102 but also <quote>downlo<emphasis>ads</emphasis>.sourcefroge.net</quote> or
6103 <quote><emphasis>ads</emphasis>l.some-provider.net.</quote> So here come some
6104 well-known exceptions to the <literal>+<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal>
6108 Note that these are exceptions to exceptions from the default! Consider the URL
6109 <quote>downloads.sourcefroge.net</quote>: Initially, all actions are deactivated,
6110 so it wouldn't get blocked. Then comes the defaults section, which matches the
6111 URL, but just deactivates the <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal>
6112 action once again. Then it matches <literal>.*ads.</literal>, an exception to the
6113 general non-blocking policy, and suddenly
6114 <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">+block</link></literal> applies. And now, it'll match
6115 <literal>.*loads.</literal>, where <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">-block</link></literal>
6116 applies, so (unless it matches <emphasis>again</emphasis> further down) it ends up
6117 with no <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal> action applying.
6122 ##########################################################################
6123 # Save some innocent victims of the above generic block patterns:
6124 ##########################################################################
6128 { -<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> }
6129 adv[io]*. # (for advogato.org and advice.*)
6130 adsl. # (has nothing to do with ads)
6131 adobe. # (has nothing to do with ads either)
6132 ad[ud]*. # (adult.* and add.*)
6133 .edu # (universities don't host banners (yet!))
6134 .*loads. # (downloads, uploads etc)
6142 www.globalintersec.com/adv # (adv = advanced)
6143 www.ugu.com/sui/ugu/adv</screen>
6147 Filtering source code can have nasty side effects,
6148 so make an exception for our friends at sourceforge.net,
6149 and all paths with <quote>cvs</quote> in them. Note that
6150 <literal>-<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link></literal>
6151 disables <emphasis>all</emphasis> filters in one fell swoop!
6156 # Don't filter code!
6158 { -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> }
6163 .sourceforge.net</screen>
6167 The actual <filename>default.action</filename> is of course much more
6168 comprehensive, but we hope this example made clear how it works.
6173 <sect3><title>user.action</title>
6176 So far we are painting with a broad brush by setting general policies,
6177 which would be a reasonable starting point for many people. Now,
6178 you might want to be more specific and have customized rules that
6179 are more suitable to your personal habits and preferences. These would
6180 be for narrowly defined situations like your ISP or your bank, and should
6181 be placed in <filename>user.action</filename>, which is parsed after all other
6182 actions files and hence has the last word, over-riding any previously
6183 defined actions. <filename>user.action</filename> is also a
6184 <emphasis>safe</emphasis> place for your personal settings, since
6185 <filename>default.action</filename> is actively maintained by the
6186 <application>Privoxy</application> developers and you'll probably want
6187 to install updated versions from time to time.
6191 So let's look at a few examples of things that one might typically do in
6192 <filename>user.action</filename>:
6196 <!-- brief sample user.action here -->
6200 # My user.action file. <fred@foobar.com></screen>
6204 As <link linkend="aliases">aliases</link> are local to the actions
6205 file that they are defined in, you can't use the ones from
6206 <filename>default.action</filename>, unless you repeat them here:
6211 # Aliases are local to the file they are defined in.
6212 # (Re-)define aliases for this file:
6216 # These aliases just save typing later, and the alias names should
6217 # be self explanatory.
6219 +crunch-all-cookies = +crunch-incoming-cookies +crunch-outgoing-cookies
6220 -crunch-all-cookies = -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-cookies
6221 allow-all-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -session-cookies-only
6222 allow-popups = -filter{all-popups} -kill-popups
6223 +block-as-image = +block +handle-as-image
6224 -block-as-image = -block
6226 # These aliases define combinations of actions that are useful for
6227 # certain types of sites:
6229 fragile = -block -crunch-all-cookies -filter -fast-redirects -hide-referrer -kill-popups
6230 shop = -crunch-all-cookies allow-popups
6232 # Allow ads for selected useful free sites:
6234 allow-ads = -block -filter{banners-by-size} -filter{banners-by-link}
6236 # Alias for specific file types that are text, but might have conflicting
6237 # MIME types. We want the browser to force these to be text documents.
6238 handle-as-text = -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> +-<link linkend="content-type-overwrite">content-type-overwrite{text/plain}</link> +-<link linkend="FORCE-TEXT-MODE">force-text-mode</link> -<link linkend="HIDE-CONTENT-DISPOSITION">hide-content-disposition</link></screen>
6243 Say you have accounts on some sites that you visit regularly, and
6244 you don't want to have to log in manually each time. So you'd like
6245 to allow persistent cookies for these sites. The
6246 <literal>allow-all-cookies</literal> alias defined above does exactly
6247 that, i.e. it disables crunching of cookies in any direction, and the
6248 processing of cookies to make them only temporary.
6253 { allow-all-cookies }
6257 .redhat.com</screen>
6261 Your bank is allergic to some filter, but you don't know which, so you disable them all:
6266 { -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> }
6267 .your-home-banking-site.com</screen>
6271 Some file types you may not want to filter for various reasons:
6276 # Technical documentation is likely to contain strings that might
6277 # erroneously get altered by the JavaScript-oriented filters:
6282 # And this stupid host sends streaming video with a wrong MIME type,
6283 # so that Privoxy thinks it is getting HTML and starts filtering:
6285 stupid-server.example.com/</screen>
6289 Example of a simple <link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> action. Say you've
6290 seen an ad on your favourite page on example.com that you want to get rid of.
6291 You have right-clicked the image, selected <quote>copy image location</quote>
6292 and pasted the URL below while removing the leading http://, into a
6293 <literal>{ +block }</literal> section. Note that <literal>{ +handle-as-image
6294 }</literal> need not be specified, since all URLs ending in
6295 <literal>.gif</literal> will be tagged as images by the general rules as set
6296 in default.action anyway:
6301 { +<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> }
6302 www.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor.gif
6303 another.popular.site.net/more/junk/here/</screen>
6307 The URLs of dynamically generated banners, especially from large banner
6308 farms, often don't use the well-known image file name extensions, which
6309 makes it impossible for <application>Privoxy</application> to guess
6310 the file type just by looking at the URL.
6311 You can use the <literal>+block-as-image</literal> alias defined above for
6313 Note that objects which match this rule but then turn out NOT to be an
6314 image are typically rendered as a <quote>broken image</quote> icon by the
6315 browser. Use cautiously.
6324 ar.atwola.com/</screen>
6328 Now you noticed that the default configuration breaks Forbes Magazine,
6329 but you were too lazy to find out which action is the culprit, and you
6330 were again too lazy to give <link linkend="contact">feedback</link>, so
6331 you just used the <literal>fragile</literal> alias on the site, and
6332 -- <emphasis>whoa!</emphasis> -- it worked. The <literal>fragile</literal>
6333 aliases disables those actions that are most likely to break a site. Also,
6334 good for testing purposes to see if it is <application>Privoxy</application>
6335 that is causing the problem or not. We later find other regular sites
6336 that misbehave, and add those to our personalized list of troublemakers:
6344 .mybank.com</screen>
6348 You like the <quote>fun</quote> text replacements in <filename>default.filter</filename>,
6349 but it is disabled in the distributed actions file. (My colleagues on the team just
6350 don't have a sense of humour, that's why! ;-). So you'd like to turn it on in your private,
6351 update-safe config, once and for all:
6356 { +<link linkend="filter-fun">filter{fun}</link> }
6357 / # For ALL sites!</screen>
6361 Note that the above is not really a good idea: There are exceptions
6362 to the filters in <filename>default.action</filename> for things that
6363 really shouldn't be filtered, like code on CVS->Web interfaces. Since
6364 <filename>user.action</filename> has the last word, these exceptions
6365 won't be valid for the <quote>fun</quote> filtering specified here.
6369 You might also worry about how your favourite free websites are
6370 funded, and find that they rely on displaying banner advertisements
6371 to survive. So you might want to specifically allow banners for those
6372 sites that you feel provide value to you:
6384 Note that <literal>allow-ads</literal> has been aliased to
6385 <literal>-<link linkend="block">block</link></literal>,
6386 <literal>-<link linkend="filter-banners-by-size">filter{banners-by-size}</link></literal>, and
6387 <literal>-<link linkend="filter-banners-by-link">filter{banners-by-link}</link></literal> above.
6391 Invoke another alias here to force an over-ride of the MIME type <literal>
6392 application/x-sh</literal> which typically would open a download type
6393 dialog. In my case, I want to look at the shell script, and then I can save
6394 it should I choose to.
6404 <filename>user.action</filename> is generally the best place to define
6405 exceptions and additions to the default policies of
6406 <filename>default.action</filename>. Some actions are safe to have their
6407 default policies set here though. So let's set a default policy to have a
6408 <quote>blank</quote> image as opposed to the checkerboard pattern for
6409 <emphasis>ALL</emphasis> sites. <quote>/</quote> of course matches all URL
6415 { +<link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker{blank}</link> }
6416 / # ALL sites</screen>
6422 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
6426 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
6428 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
6430 <sect1 id="filter-file">
6431 <title>Filter Files</title>
6434 On-the-fly text substitutions that can be invoked through the
6435 <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> action need
6436 to be defined in a <quote>filter file</quote>. Once defined, they
6437 can then be invoked as an <quote>action</quote>. Multiple filter files can be
6438 defined through the <literal> <link
6439 linkend="filterfile">filterfile</link></literal> config directive. The filters
6440 as supplied by the developers will be found in
6441 <filename>default.filter</filename>. It is recommended that any locally
6442 defined or modified filters go in a separately defined file such as
6443 <filename>user.filter</filename>.
6448 Typical reasons for doing these kinds of substitutions are to eliminate
6449 common annoyances in HTML and JavaScript, such as pop-up windows,
6450 exit consoles, crippled windows without navigation tools, the
6451 infamous <BLINK> tag etc, to suppress images with certain
6452 width and height attributes (standard banner sizes or web-bugs),
6453 or just to have fun. The possibilities are endless.
6457 Filtering works on any text-based document type, including
6458 HTML, JavaScript, CSS etc. (all <literal>text/*</literal>
6459 MIME types, <emphasis>except</emphasis> <literal>text/plain</literal>).
6460 Substitutions are made at the source level, so if you want to <quote>roll
6461 your own</quote> filters, you should first be familiar with HTML syntax,
6462 and, of course, regular expressions. By default, filters are only applied
6463 to the raw document content, but can be extended to the HTTP headers with
6464 the supplemental actions:
6465 <link linkend="filter-client-headers">filter-client-headers</link> and
6466 <link linkend="filter-server-headers">filter-server-headers</link>.
6470 Just like the <link linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>, the
6471 filter file is organized in sections, which are called <emphasis>filters</emphasis>
6472 here. Each filter consists of a heading line, that starts with the
6473 <emphasis>keyword</emphasis> <literal>FILTER:</literal>, followed by
6474 the filter's <emphasis>name</emphasis>, and a short (one line)
6475 <emphasis>description</emphasis> of what it does. Below that line
6476 come the <emphasis>jobs</emphasis>, i.e. lines that define the actual
6477 text substitutions. By convention, the name of a filter
6478 should describe what the filter <emphasis>eliminates</emphasis>. The
6479 comment is used in the <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">web-based
6480 user interface</ulink>.
6484 Once a filter called <replaceable>name</replaceable> has been defined
6485 in the filter file, it can be invoked by using an action of the form
6486 +<literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link>{<replaceable>name</replaceable>}</literal>
6487 in any <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link>.
6491 A filter header line for a filter called <quote>foo</quote> could look
6496 <screen>FILTER: foo Replace all "foo" with "bar"</screen>
6500 Below that line, and up to the next header line, come the jobs that
6501 define what text replacements the filter executes. They are specified
6502 in a syntax that imitates <ulink url="http://www.perl.org/">Perl</ulink>'s
6503 <literal>s///</literal> operator. If you are familiar with Perl, you
6504 will find this to be quite intuitive, and may want to look at the
6505 PCRS documentation for the subtle differences to Perl behaviour. Most
6506 notably, the non-standard option letter <literal>U</literal> is supported,
6507 which turns the default to ungreedy matching.
6512 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
6513 Expressions</quote></ulink>, you might want to take a look at
6514 the <link linkend="regex">Appendix on regular expressions</link>, and
6515 see the <ulink url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html">Perl
6517 <ulink url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlop.html">the
6518 <literal>s///</literal> operator's syntax</ulink> and <ulink
6519 url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html">Perl-style regular
6520 expressions</ulink> in general.
6521 The below examples might also help to get you started.
6525 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
6527 <sect2><title>Filter File Tutorial</title>
6529 Now, let's complete our <quote>foo</quote> filter. We have already defined
6530 the heading, but the jobs are still missing. Since all it does is to replace
6531 <quote>foo</quote> with <quote>bar</quote>, there is only one (trivial) job
6536 <screen>s/foo/bar/</screen>
6540 But wait! Didn't the comment say that <emphasis>all</emphasis> occurrences
6541 of <quote>foo</quote> should be replaced? Our current job will only take
6542 care of the first <quote>foo</quote> on each page. For global substitution,
6543 we'll need to add the <literal>g</literal> option:
6547 <screen>s/foo/bar/g</screen>
6551 Our complete filter now looks like this:
6554 <screen>FILTER: foo Replace all "foo" with "bar"
6555 s/foo/bar/g</screen>
6559 Let's look at some real filters for more interesting examples. Here you see
6560 a filter that protects against some common annoyances that arise from JavaScript
6561 abuse. Let's look at its jobs one after the other:
6567 FILTER: js-annoyances Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse
6569 # Get rid of JavaScript referrer tracking. Test page: http://www.randomoddness.com/untitled.htm
6571 s|(<script.*)document\.referrer(.*</script>)|$1"Not Your Business!"$2|Usg</screen>
6575 Following the header line and a comment, you see the job. Note that it uses
6576 <literal>|</literal> as the delimiter instead of <literal>/</literal>, because
6577 the pattern contains a forward slash, which would otherwise have to be escaped
6578 by a backslash (<literal>\</literal>).
6582 Now, let's examine the pattern: it starts with the text <literal><script.*</literal>
6583 enclosed in parentheses. Since the dot matches any character, and <literal>*</literal>
6584 means: <quote>Match an arbitrary number of the element left of myself</quote>, this
6585 matches <quote><script</quote>, followed by <emphasis>any</emphasis> text, i.e.
6586 it matches the whole page, from the start of the first <script> tag.
6590 That's more than we want, but the pattern continues: <literal>document\.referrer</literal>
6591 matches only the exact string <quote>document.referrer</quote>. The dot needed to
6592 be <emphasis>escaped</emphasis>, i.e. preceded by a backslash, to take away its
6593 special meaning as a joker, and make it just a regular dot. So far, the meaning is:
6594 Match from the start of the first <script> tag in a the page, up to, and including,
6595 the text <quote>document.referrer</quote>, if <emphasis>both</emphasis> are present
6596 in the page (and appear in that order).
6600 But there's still more pattern to go. The next element, again enclosed in parentheses,
6601 is <literal>.*</script></literal>. You already know what <literal>.*</literal>
6602 means, so the whole pattern translates to: Match from the start of the first <script>
6603 tag in a page to the end of the last <script> tag, provided that the text
6604 <quote>document.referrer</quote> appears somewhere in between.
6608 This is still not the whole story, since we have ignored the options and the parentheses:
6609 The portions of the page matched by sub-patterns that are enclosed in parentheses, will be
6610 remembered and be available through the variables <literal>$1, $2, ...</literal> in
6611 the substitute. The <literal>U</literal> option switches to ungreedy matching, which means
6612 that the first <literal>.*</literal> in the pattern will only <quote>eat up</quote> all
6613 text in between <quote><script</quote> and the <emphasis>first</emphasis> occurrence
6614 of <quote>document.referrer</quote>, and that the second <literal>.*</literal> will
6615 only span the text up to the <emphasis>first</emphasis> <quote></script></quote>
6616 tag. Furthermore, the <literal>s</literal> option says that the match may span
6617 multiple lines in the page, and the <literal>g</literal> option again means that the
6618 substitution is global.
6622 So, to summarize, the pattern means: Match all scripts that contain the text
6623 <quote>document.referrer</quote>. Remember the parts of the script from
6624 (and including) the start tag up to (and excluding) the string
6625 <quote>document.referrer</quote> as <literal>$1</literal>, and the part following
6626 that string, up to and including the closing tag, as <literal>$2</literal>.
6630 Now the pattern is deciphered, but wasn't this about substituting things? So
6631 lets look at the substitute: <literal>$1"Not Your Business!"$2</literal> is
6632 easy to read: The text remembered as <literal>$1</literal>, followed by
6633 <literal>"Not Your Business!"</literal> (<emphasis>including</emphasis>
6634 the quotation marks!), followed by the text remembered as <literal>$2</literal>.
6635 This produces an exact copy of the original string, with the middle part
6636 (the <quote>document.referrer</quote>) replaced by <literal>"Not Your
6637 Business!"</literal>.
6641 The whole job now reads: Replace <quote>document.referrer</quote> by
6642 <literal>"Not Your Business!"</literal> wherever it appears inside a
6643 <script> tag. Note that this job won't break JavaScript syntax,
6644 since both the original and the replacement are syntactically valid
6645 string objects. The script just won't have access to the referrer
6646 information anymore.
6650 We'll show you two other jobs from the JavaScript taming department, but
6651 this time only point out the constructs of special interest:
6656 # The status bar is for displaying link targets, not pointless blahblah
6658 s/window\.status\s*=\s*(['"]).*?\1/dUmMy=1/ig</screen>
6662 <literal>\s</literal> stands for whitespace characters (space, tab, newline,
6663 carriage return, form feed), so that <literal>\s*</literal> means: <quote>zero
6664 or more whitespace</quote>. The <literal>?</literal> in <literal>.*?</literal>
6665 makes this matching of arbitrary text ungreedy. (Note that the <literal>U</literal>
6666 option is not set). The <literal>['"]</literal> construct means: <quote>a single
6667 <emphasis>or</emphasis> a double quote</quote>. Finally, <literal>\1</literal> is
6668 a back-reference to the first parenthesis just like <literal>$1</literal> above,
6669 with the difference that in the <emphasis>pattern</emphasis>, a backslash indicates
6670 a back-reference, whereas in the <emphasis>substitute</emphasis>, it's the dollar.
6674 So what does this job do? It replaces assignments of single- or double-quoted
6675 strings to the <quote>window.status</quote> object with a dummy assignment
6676 (using a variable name that is hopefully odd enough not to conflict with
6677 real variables in scripts). Thus, it catches many cases where e.g. pointless
6678 descriptions are displayed in the status bar instead of the link target when
6679 you move your mouse over links.
6684 # Kill OnUnload popups. Yummy. Test: http://www.zdnet.com/zdsubs/yahoo/tree/yfs.html
6686 s/(<body [^>]*)onunload(.*>)/$1never$2/iU</screen>
6691 <ulink url="http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-DOM-Level-2-Events-20001113/events.html#Events-eventgroupings-htmlevents">OnUnload
6692 event binding</ulink> in the HTML DOM was a <emphasis>CRIME</emphasis>.
6693 When I close a browser window, I want it to close and die. Basta.
6694 This job replaces the <quote>onunload</quote> attribute in
6695 <quote><body></quote> tags with the dummy word <literal>never</literal>.
6696 Note that the <literal>i</literal> option makes the pattern matching
6697 case-insensitive. Also note that ungreedy matching alone doesn't always guarantee
6698 a minimal match: In the first parenthesis, we had to use <literal>[^>]*</literal>
6699 instead of <literal>.*</literal> to prevent the match from exceeding the
6700 <body> tag if it doesn't contain <quote>OnUnload</quote>, but the page's
6705 The last example is from the fun department:
6710 FILTER: fun Fun text replacements
6712 # Spice the daily news:
6714 s/microsoft(?!\.com)/MicroSuck/ig</screen>
6718 Note the <literal>(?!\.com)</literal> part (a so-called negative lookahead)
6719 in the job's pattern, which means: Don't match, if the string
6720 <quote>.com</quote> appears directly following <quote>microsoft</quote>
6721 in the page. This prevents links to microsoft.com from being trashed, while
6722 still replacing the word everywhere else.
6727 # Buzzword Bingo (example for extended regex syntax)
6729 s* industry[ -]leading \
6731 | customer[ -]focused \
6732 | market[ -]driven \
6733 | award[ -]winning # Comments are OK, too! \
6734 | high[ -]performance \
6735 | solutions[ -]based \
6739 *<font color="red"><b>BINGO!</b></font> \
6744 The <literal>x</literal> option in this job turns on extended syntax, and allows for
6745 e.g. the liberal use of (non-interpreted!) whitespace for nicer formatting.
6753 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
6755 <sect2 id="predefined-filters"><title>The Pre-defined Filters</title>
6759 Note each filter is also listed in the +filter action section above. Please
6760 keep these listings in sync.
6765 The distribution <filename>default.filter</filename> file contains a selection of
6766 pre-defined filters for your convenience:
6771 <term><emphasis>js-annoyances</emphasis></term>
6774 The purpose of this filter is to get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse.
6779 replaces JavaScript references to the browser's referrer information
6780 with the string "Not Your Business!". This compliments the <literal><link
6781 linkend="hide-referrer">hide-referrer</link></literal> action on the content level.
6786 removes the bindings to the DOM's
6787 <ulink url="http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-DOM-Level-2-Events-20001113/events.html#Events-eventgroupings-htmlevents">unload
6788 event</ulink> which we feel has no right to exist and is responsible for most <quote>exit consoles</quote>, i.e.
6789 nasty windows that pop up when you close another one.
6794 removes code that causes new windows to be opened with undesired properties, such as being
6795 full-screen, non-resizeable, without location, status or menu bar etc.
6801 Use with caution. This is an aggressive filter, and can break sites that
6802 rely heavily on JavaScript.
6808 <term><emphasis>js-events</emphasis></term>
6811 This is a very radical measure. It removes virtually all JavaScript event bindings, which
6812 means that scripts can not react to user actions such as mouse movements or clicks, window
6813 resizing etc, anymore. Use with caution!
6816 We <emphasis>strongly discourage</emphasis> using this filter as a default since it breaks
6817 many legitimate scripts. It is meant for use only on extra-nasty sites (should you really
6824 <term><emphasis>html-annoyances</emphasis></term>
6827 This filter will undo many common instances of HTML based abuse.
6830 The <literal>BLINK</literal> and <literal>MARQUEE</literal> tags
6831 are neutralized (yeah baby!), and browser windows will be created as
6832 resizeable (as of course they should be!), and will have location,
6833 scroll and menu bars -- even if specified otherwise.
6839 <term><emphasis>content-cookies</emphasis></term>
6842 Most cookies are set in the HTTP dialog, where they can be intercepted
6844 <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal>
6845 and <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>
6846 actions. But web sites increasingly make use of HTML meta tags and JavaScript
6847 to sneak cookies to the browser on the content level.
6850 This filter disables most HTML and JavaScript code that reads or sets
6851 cookies. It cannot detect all clever uses of these types of code, so it
6852 should not be relied on as an absolute fix. Use it wherever you would also
6853 use the cookie crunch actions.
6859 <term><emphasis>refresh tags</emphasis></term>
6862 Disable any refresh tags if the interval is greater than nine seconds (so
6863 that redirections done via refresh tags are not destroyed). This is useful
6864 for dial-on-demand setups, or for those who find this HTML feature
6871 <term><emphasis>unsolicited-popups</emphasis></term>
6874 This filter attempts to prevent only <quote>unsolicited</quote> pop-up
6875 windows from opening, yet still allow pop-up windows that the user
6876 has explicitly chosen to open. It was added in version 3.0.1,
6877 as an improvement over earlier such filters.
6880 Technical note: The filter works by redefining the window.open JavaScript
6881 function to a dummy function, <literal>PrivoxyWindowOpen()</literal>,
6882 during the loading and rendering phase of each HTML page access, and
6883 restoring the function afterward.
6886 This is recommended only for browsers that cannot perform this function
6887 reliably themselves. And be aware that some sites require such windows
6888 in order to function normally. Use with caution.
6894 <term><emphasis>all-popups</emphasis></term>
6897 Attempt to prevent <emphasis>all</emphasis> pop-up windows from opening.
6898 Note this should be used with even more discretion than the above, since
6899 it is more likely to break some sites that require pop-ups for normal
6900 usage. Use with caution.
6906 <term><emphasis>img-reorder</emphasis></term>
6909 This is a helper filter that has no value if used alone. It makes the
6910 <literal>banners-by-size</literal> and <literal>banners-by-link</literal>
6911 (see below) filters more effective and should be enabled together with them.
6917 <term><emphasis>banners-by-size</emphasis></term>
6920 This filter removes image tags purely based on what size they are. Fortunately
6921 for us, many ads and banner images tend to conform to certain standardized
6922 sizes, which makes this filter quite effective for ad stripping purposes.
6925 Occasionally this filter will cause false positives on images that are not ads,
6926 but just happen to be of one of the standard banner sizes.
6929 Recommended only for those who require extreme ad blocking. The default
6930 block rules should catch 95+% of all ads <emphasis>without</emphasis> this filter enabled.
6936 <term><emphasis>banners-by-link</emphasis></term>
6939 This is an experimental filter that attempts to kill any banners if
6940 their URLs seem to point to known or suspected click trackers. It is currently
6941 not of much value and is not recommended for use by default.
6947 <term><emphasis>webbugs</emphasis></term>
6950 Webbugs are small, invisible images (technically 1X1 GIF images), that
6951 are used to track users across websites, and collect information on them.
6952 As an HTML page is loaded by the browser, an embedded image tag causes the
6953 browser to contact a third-party site, disclosing the tracking information
6954 through the requested URL and/or cookies for that third-party domain, without
6955 the user ever becoming aware of the interaction with the third-party site.
6956 HTML-ized spam also uses a similar technique to verify email addresses.
6959 This filter removes the HTML code that loads such <quote>webbugs</quote>.
6965 <term><emphasis>tiny-textforms</emphasis></term>
6968 A rather special-purpose filter that can be used to enlarge textareas (those
6969 multi-line text boxes in web forms) and turn off hard word wrap in them.
6970 It was written for the sourceforge.net tracker system where such boxes are
6971 a nuisance, but it can be handy on other sites, too.
6974 It is not recommended to use this filter as a default.
6980 <term><emphasis>jumping-windows</emphasis></term>
6983 Many consider windows that move, or resize themselves to be abusive. This filter
6984 neutralizes the related JavaScript code. Note that some sites might not display
6985 or behave as intended when using this filter. Use with caution.
6991 <term><emphasis>frameset-borders</emphasis></term>
6994 Some web designers seem to assume that everyone in the world will view their
6995 web sites using the same browser brand and version, screen resolution etc,
6996 because only that assumption could explain why they'd use static frame sizes,
6997 yet prevent their frames from being resized by the user, should they be too
6998 small to show their whole content.
7001 This filter removes the related HTML code. It should only be applied to sites
7008 <term><emphasis>demoronizer</emphasis></term>
7011 Many Microsoft products that generate HTML use non-standard extensions (read:
7012 violations) of the ISO 8859-1 aka Latin-1 character set. This can cause those
7013 HTML documents to display with errors on standard-compliant platforms.
7016 This filter translates the MS-only characters into Latin-1 equivalents.
7017 It is not necessary when using MS products, and will cause corruption of
7018 all documents that use 8-bit character sets other than Latin-1. It's mostly
7019 worthwhile for Europeans on non-MS platforms, if weird garbage characters
7020 sometimes appear on some pages, or user agents that don't correct for this on
7023 My version of Mozilla (ancient) shows litte square boxes for quote
7024 characters, and apostrophes on moronized pages. So many pages have this, I
7025 can read them fine now. HB 08/27/06
7032 <term><emphasis>shockwave-flash</emphasis></term>
7035 A filter for shockwave haters. As the name suggests, this filter strips code
7036 out of web pages that is used to embed shockwave flash objects.
7044 <term><emphasis>quicktime-kioskmode</emphasis></term>
7047 Change HTML code that embeds Quicktime objects so that kioskmode, which
7048 prevents saving, is disabled.
7054 <term><emphasis>fun</emphasis></term>
7057 Text replacements for subversive browsing fun. Make fun of your favorite
7058 Monopolist or play buzzword bingo.
7064 <term><emphasis>crude-parental</emphasis></term>
7067 A demonstration-only filter that shows how <application>Privoxy</application>
7068 can be used to delete web content on a keyword basis.
7074 <term><emphasis>ie-exploits</emphasis></term>
7077 An experimental collection of text replacements to disable malicious HTML and JavaScript
7078 code that exploits known security holes in Internet Explorer.
7081 Presently, it only protects against Nimda and a cross-site scripting bug, and
7082 would need active maintenance to provide more substantial protection.
7088 <term><emphasis>site-specifics</emphasis></term>
7091 Some web sites have very specific problems, the cure for which doesn't apply
7092 anywhere else, or could even cause damage on other sites.
7095 This is a collection of such site-specific cures which should only be applied
7096 to the sites they were intended for, which is what the supplied
7097 <filename>default.action</filename> file does. Users shouldn't need to change
7098 anything regarding this filter.
7104 <term><emphasis>google</emphasis></term>
7107 A CSS based block for Google text ads. Also removes a width limitation
7108 and the toolbar advertisement.
7114 <term><emphasis>yahoo</emphasis></term>
7117 Another CSS based block, this time for Yahoo text ads. And removes
7118 a width limitation as well.
7124 <term><emphasis>msn</emphasis></term>
7127 Another CSS based block, this time for MSN text ads. And removes
7128 tracking URLs, as well as a width limitation.
7134 <term><emphasis>blogspot</emphasis></term>
7137 Cleans up some Blogspot blogs. Read the fine print before using this one!
7140 This filter also intentionally removes some navigation stuff and sets the
7141 page width to 100%. As a result, some rounded <quote>corners</quote> would
7142 appear to early or not at all and as fixing this would require a browser
7143 that understands background-size (CSS3), they are removed instead.
7149 <term><emphasis>xml-to-html</emphasis></term>
7152 Header filter to change the Content-Type from xml to html.
7157 <term><emphasis>html-to-xml</emphasis></term>
7160 Header filter to change the Content-Type from html to xml.
7167 <term><emphasis> </emphasis></term>
7181 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7185 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7187 <sect1 id="templates">
7188 <title>Privoxy's Template Files</title>
7190 All <application>Privoxy</application> built-in pages, i.e. error pages such as the
7191 <ulink url="http://show-the-404-error.page"><quote>404 - No Such Domain</quote>
7192 error page</ulink>, the <ulink
7193 url="http://ads.bannerserver.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor.html"><quote>BLOCKED</quote>
7195 and all pages of its <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">web-based
7196 user interface</ulink>, are generated from <emphasis>templates</emphasis>.
7197 (<application>Privoxy</application> must be running for the above links to work as
7202 These templates are stored in a subdirectory of the <link linkend="confdir">configuration
7203 directory</link> called <filename>templates</filename>. On Unixish platforms,
7205 <ulink url="file:///etc/privoxy/templates/"><filename>/etc/privoxy/templates/</filename></ulink>.
7209 The templates are basically normal HTML files, but with place-holders (called symbols
7210 or exports), which <application>Privoxy</application> fills at run time. You can
7211 edit the templates with a normal text editor, should you want to customize them.
7212 (<emphasis>Not recommended for the casual user</emphasis>). Note that
7213 just like in configuration files, lines starting with <literal>#</literal> are
7214 ignored when the templates are filled in.
7218 The place-holders are of the form <literal>@name@</literal>, and you will
7219 find a list of available symbols, which vary from template to template,
7220 in the comments at the start of each file. Note that these comments are not
7221 always accurate, and that it's probably best to look at the existing HTML
7222 code to find out which symbols are supported and what they are filled in with.
7226 A special application of this substitution mechanism is to make whole
7227 blocks of HTML code disappear when a specific symbol is set. We use this
7228 for many purposes, one of them being to include the beta warning in all
7229 our user interface (CGI) pages when <application>Privoxy</application>
7230 is in an alpha or beta development stage:
7235 <!-- @if-unstable-start -->
7237 ... beta warning HTML code goes here ...
7239 <!-- if-unstable-end@ --></screen>
7243 If the "unstable" symbol is set, everything in between and including
7244 <literal>@if-unstable-start</literal> and <literal>if-unstable-end@</literal>
7245 will disappear, leaving nothing but an empty comment:
7249 <screen><!-- --></screen>
7253 There's also an if-then-else construct and an <literal>#include</literal>
7254 mechanism, but you'll sure find out if you are inclined to edit the
7259 All templates refer to a style located at
7260 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/send-stylesheet"><literal>http://config.privoxy.org/send-stylesheet</literal></ulink>.
7261 This is, of course, locally served by <application>Privoxy</application>
7262 and the source for it can be found and edited in the
7263 <filename>cgi-style.css</filename> template.
7268 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7272 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7274 <sect1 id="contact"><title>Contacting the Developers, Bug Reporting and Feature
7277 <!-- Include contacting.sgml boilerplate: -->
7279 <!-- end boilerplate -->
7283 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7286 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7287 <sect1 id="copyright"><title>Privoxy Copyright, License and History</title>
7289 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
7291 <!-- end copyright -->
7293 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7294 <sect2><title>License</title>
7295 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
7297 <!-- end copyright -->
7299 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7302 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7304 <sect2 id="history"><title>History</title>
7305 <!-- Include history.sgml: -->
7307 <!-- end history -->
7310 <sect2 id="authors"><title>Authors</title>
7311 <!-- Include p-authors.sgml: -->
7313 <!-- end authors -->
7318 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7321 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7322 <sect1 id="seealso"><title>See Also</title>
7323 <!-- Include seealso.sgml: -->
7325 <!-- end seealso -->
7330 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7331 <sect1 id="appendix"><title>Appendix</title>
7334 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7336 <title>Regular Expressions</title>
7338 <application>Privoxy</application> uses Perl-style <quote>regular
7339 expressions</quote> in its <link linkend="actions-file">actions
7340 files</link> and <link linkend="filter-file">filter file</link>,
7341 through the <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/">PCRE</ulink> and
7344 <ulink url="http://www.oesterhelt.org/pcrs/">PCRS</ulink> libraries.
7346 <application>PCRS</application> libraries.
7350 If you are reading this, you probably don't understand what <quote>regular
7351 expressions</quote> are, or what they can do. So this will be a very brief
7352 introduction only. A full explanation would require a <ulink
7353 url="http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/regex/">book</ulink> ;-)
7357 Regular expressions provide a language to describe patterns that can be
7358 run against strings of characters (letter, numbers, etc), to see if they
7359 match the string or not. The patterns are themselves (sometimes complex)
7360 strings of literal characters, combined with wild-cards, and other special
7361 characters, called meta-characters. The <quote>meta-characters</quote> have
7362 special meanings and are used to build complex patterns to be matched against.
7363 Perl Compatible Regular Expressions are an especially convenient
7364 <quote>dialect</quote> of the regular expression language.
7368 To make a simple analogy, we do something similar when we use wild-card
7369 characters when listing files with the <command>dir</command> command in DOS.
7370 <literal>*.*</literal> matches all filenames. The <quote>special</quote>
7371 character here is the asterisk which matches any and all characters. We can be
7372 more specific and use <literal>?</literal> to match just individual
7373 characters. So <quote>dir file?.text</quote> would match
7374 <quote>file1.txt</quote>, <quote>file2.txt</quote>, etc. We are pattern
7375 matching, using a similar technique to <quote>regular expressions</quote>!
7379 Regular expressions do essentially the same thing, but are much, much more
7380 powerful. There are many more <quote>special characters</quote> and ways of
7381 building complex patterns however. Let's look at a few of the common ones,
7382 and then some examples:
7387 <emphasis>.</emphasis> - Matches any single character, e.g. <quote>a</quote>,
7388 <quote>A</quote>, <quote>4</quote>, <quote>:</quote>, or <quote>@</quote>.
7390 </simplelist></para>
7394 <emphasis>?</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or ONE
7397 </simplelist></para>
7401 <emphasis>+</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ONE or MORE
7404 </simplelist></para>
7408 <emphasis>*</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or MORE
7411 </simplelist></para>
7415 <emphasis>\</emphasis> - The <quote>escape</quote> character denotes that
7416 the following character should be taken literally. This is used where one of the
7417 special characters (e.g. <quote>.</quote>) needs to be taken literally and
7418 not as a special meta-character. Example: <quote>example\.com</quote>, makes
7419 sure the period is recognized only as a period (and not expanded to its
7420 meta-character meaning of any single character).
7422 </simplelist></para>
7426 <emphasis>[ ]</emphasis> - Characters enclosed in brackets will be matched if
7427 any of the enclosed characters are encountered. For instance, <quote>[0-9]</quote>
7428 matches any numeric digit (zero through nine). As an example, we can combine
7429 this with <quote>+</quote> to match any digit one of more times: <quote>[0-9]+</quote>.
7431 </simplelist></para>
7435 <emphasis>( )</emphasis> - parentheses are used to group a sub-expression,
7436 or multiple sub-expressions.
7438 </simplelist></para>
7442 <emphasis>|</emphasis> - The <quote>bar</quote> character works like an
7443 <quote>or</quote> conditional statement. A match is successful if the
7444 sub-expression on either side of <quote>|</quote> matches. As an example:
7445 <quote>/(this|that) example/</quote> uses grouping and the bar character
7446 and would match either <quote>this example</quote> or <quote>that
7447 example</quote>, and nothing else.
7449 </simplelist></para>
7452 These are just some of the ones you are likely to use when matching URLs with
7453 <application>Privoxy</application>, and is a long way from a definitive
7454 list. This is enough to get us started with a few simple examples which may
7455 be more illuminating:
7459 <emphasis><literal>/.*/banners/.*</literal></emphasis> - A simple example
7460 that uses the common combination of <quote>.</quote> and <quote>*</quote> to
7461 denote any character, zero or more times. In other words, any string at all.
7462 So we start with a literal forward slash, then our regular expression pattern
7463 (<quote>.*</quote>) another literal forward slash, the string
7464 <quote>banners</quote>, another forward slash, and lastly another
7465 <quote>.*</quote>. We are building
7466 a directory path here. This will match any file with the path that has a
7467 directory named <quote>banners</quote> in it. The <quote>.*</quote> matches
7468 any characters, and this could conceivably be more forward slashes, so it
7469 might expand into a much longer looking path. For example, this could match:
7470 <quote>/eye/hate/spammers/banners/annoy_me_please.gif</quote>, or just
7471 <quote>/banners/annoying.html</quote>, or almost an infinite number of other
7472 possible combinations, just so it has <quote>banners</quote> in the path
7477 And now something a little more complex:
7481 <emphasis><literal>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))?/</literal></emphasis> -
7482 We have several literal forward slashes again (<quote>/</quote>), so we are
7483 building another expression that is a file path statement. We have another
7484 <quote>.*</quote>, so we are matching against any conceivable sub-path, just so
7485 it matches our expression. The only true literal that <emphasis>must
7486 match</emphasis> our pattern is <application>adv</application>, together with
7487 the forward slashes. What comes after the <quote>adv</quote> string is the
7492 Remember the <quote>?</quote> means the preceding expression (either a
7493 literal character or anything grouped with <quote>(...)</quote> in this case)
7494 can exist or not, since this means either zero or one match. So
7495 <quote>((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))</quote> is optional, as are the
7496 individual sub-expressions: <quote>(er)</quote>,
7497 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, and the <quote>s</quote>. The <quote>|</quote>
7498 means <quote>or</quote>. We have two of those. For instance,
7499 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, can expand to match either <quote>ing</quote>
7500 <emphasis>OR</emphasis> <quote>ements?</quote>. What is being done here, is an
7501 attempt at matching as many variations of <quote>advertisement</quote>, and
7502 similar, as possible. So this would expand to match just <quote>adv</quote>,
7503 or <quote>advert</quote>, or <quote>adverts</quote>, or
7504 <quote>advertising</quote>, or <quote>advertisement</quote>, or
7505 <quote>advertisements</quote>. You get the idea. But it would not match
7506 <quote>advertizements</quote> (with a <quote>z</quote>). We could fix that by
7507 changing our regular expression to:
7508 <quote>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|erti(s|z)(ing|ements?))?/</quote>, which would then match
7513 <emphasis><literal>/.*/advert[0-9]+\.(gif|jpe?g)</literal></emphasis> - Again
7514 another path statement with forward slashes. Anything in the square brackets
7515 <quote>[ ]</quote> can be matched. This is using <quote>0-9</quote> as a
7516 shorthand expression to mean any digit one through nine. It is the same as
7517 saying <quote>0123456789</quote>. So any digit matches. The <quote>+</quote>
7518 means one or more of the preceding expression must be included. The preceding
7519 expression here is what is in the square brackets -- in this case, any digit
7520 one through nine. Then, at the end, we have a grouping: <quote>(gif|jpe?g)</quote>.
7521 This includes a <quote>|</quote>, so this needs to match the expression on
7522 either side of that bar character also. A simple <quote>gif</quote> on one side, and the other
7523 side will in turn match either <quote>jpeg</quote> or <quote>jpg</quote>,
7524 since the <quote>?</quote> means the letter <quote>e</quote> is optional and
7525 can be matched once or not at all. So we are building an expression here to
7526 match image GIF or JPEG type image file. It must include the literal
7527 string <quote>advert</quote>, then one or more digits, and a <quote>.</quote>
7528 (which is now a literal, and not a special character, since it is escaped
7529 with <quote>\</quote>), and lastly either <quote>gif</quote>, or
7530 <quote>jpeg</quote>, or <quote>jpg</quote>. Some possible matches would
7531 include: <quote>//advert1.jpg</quote>,
7532 <quote>/nasty/ads/advert1234.gif</quote>,
7533 <quote>/banners/from/hell/advert99.jpg</quote>. It would not match
7534 <quote>advert1.gif</quote> (no leading slash), or
7535 <quote>/adverts232.jpg</quote> (the expression does not include an
7536 <quote>s</quote>), or <quote>/advert1.jsp</quote> (<quote>jsp</quote> is not
7537 in the expression anywhere).
7541 We are barely scratching the surface of regular expressions here so that you
7542 can understand the default <application>Privoxy</application>
7543 configuration files, and maybe use this knowledge to customize your own
7544 installation. There is much, much more that can be done with regular
7545 expressions. Now that you know enough to get started, you can learn more on
7550 More reading on Perl Compatible Regular expressions:
7551 <ulink url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html">http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html</ulink>
7555 For information on regular expression based substitutions and their applications
7556 in filters, please see the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file tutorial</link>
7561 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7564 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7566 <title>Privoxy's Internal Pages</title>
7569 Since <application>Privoxy</application> proxies each requested
7570 web page, it is easy for <application>Privoxy</application> to
7571 trap certain special URLs. In this way, we can talk directly to
7572 <application>Privoxy</application>, and see how it is
7573 configured, see how our rules are being applied, change these
7574 rules and other configuration options, and even turn
7575 <application>Privoxy's</application> filtering off, all with
7581 The URLs listed below are the special ones that allow direct access
7582 to <application>Privoxy</application>. Of course,
7583 <application>Privoxy</application> must be running to access these. If
7584 not, you will get a friendly error message. Internet access is not
7597 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
7601 There is a shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink> (But it
7602 doesn't provide a fall-back to a real page, in case the request is not
7603 sent through <application>Privoxy</application>)
7609 Show information about the current configuration, including viewing and
7610 editing of actions files:
7614 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
7621 Show the source code version numbers:
7625 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-version">http://config.privoxy.org/show-version</ulink>
7632 Show the browser's request headers:
7636 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request">http://config.privoxy.org/show-request</ulink>
7643 Show which actions apply to a URL and why:
7647 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
7654 Toggle Privoxy on or off. In this case, <quote>Privoxy</quote> continues
7655 to run, but only as a pass-through proxy, with no actions taking place:
7659 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</ulink>
7663 Short cuts. Turn off, then on:
7667 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable</ulink>
7672 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable</ulink>
7681 These may be bookmarked for quick reference. See next.
7685 <sect3 id="bookmarklets">
7686 <title>Bookmarklets</title>
7688 Below are some <quote>bookmarklets</quote> to allow you to easily access a
7689 <quote>mini</quote> version of some of <application>Privoxy's</application>
7690 special pages. They are designed for MS Internet Explorer, but should work
7691 equally well in Netscape, Mozilla, and other browsers which support
7692 JavaScript. They are designed to run directly from your bookmarks - not by
7693 clicking the links below (although that should work for testing).
7696 To save them, right-click the link and choose <quote>Add to Favorites</quote>
7697 (IE) or <quote>Add Bookmark</quote> (Netscape). You will get a warning that
7698 the bookmark <quote>may not be safe</quote> - just click OK. Then you can run the
7699 Bookmarklet directly from your favorites/bookmarks. For even faster access,
7700 you can put them on the <quote>Links</quote> bar (IE) or the <quote>Personal
7701 Toolbar</quote> (Netscape), and run them with a single click.
7710 url="javascript:void(window.open('http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?mini=y&set=enabled','ijbstatus','width=250,height=100,resizable=yes,scrollbars=no,toolbar=no,location=no,directories=no,status=no,menubar=no,copyhistory=no').focus());">Privoxy - Enable</ulink>
7717 url="javascript:void(window.open('http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?mini=y&set=disabled','ijbstatus','width=250,height=100,resizable=yes,scrollbars=no,toolbar=no,location=no,directories=no,status=no,menubar=no,copyhistory=no').focus());">Privoxy - Disable</ulink>
7724 url="javascript:void(window.open('http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?mini=y&set=toggle','ijbstatus','width=250,height=100,resizable=yes,scrollbars=no,toolbar=no,location=no,directories=no,status=no,menubar=no,copyhistory=no').focus());">Privoxy - Toggle Privoxy</ulink> (Toggles between enabled and disabled)
7731 url="javascript:void(window.open('http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?mini=y','ijbstatus','width=250,height=2,resizable=yes,scrollbars=no,toolbar=no,location=no,directories=no,status=no,menubar=no,copyhistory=no').focus());">Privoxy- View Status</ulink>
7737 <ulink url="javascript:w=Math.floor(screen.width/2);h=Math.floor(screen.height*0.9);void(window.open('http://www.privoxy.org/actions/index.php?url='+escape(location.href),'Feedback','screenx='+w+',width='+w+',height='+h+',scrollbars=yes,toolbar=no,location=no,directories=no,status=no,menubar=no,copyhistory=no').focus());">Privoxy - Submit Actions File Feedback</ulink>
7743 <ulink url="javascript:void(window.open('http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info?url='+escape(location.href),'Why').focus());">Privoxy - Why?</ulink>
7750 Credit: The site which gave us the general idea for these bookmarklets is
7751 <ulink url="http://www.bookmarklets.com/">www.bookmarklets.com</ulink>. They
7752 have more information about bookmarklets.
7761 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7763 <title>Chain of Events</title>
7765 Let's take a quick look at the basic sequence of events when a web page is
7766 requested by your browser and <application>Privoxy</application> is on duty:
7773 First, your web browser requests a web page. The browser knows to send
7774 the request to <application>Privoxy</application>, which will in turn,
7775 relay the request to the remote web server after passing the following
7781 <application>Privoxy</application> traps any request for its own internal CGI
7782 pages (e.g <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>) and sends the CGI page back to the browser.
7787 Next, <application>Privoxy</application> checks to see if the URL
7789 linkend="BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></link> patterns. If
7790 so, the URL is then blocked, and the remote web server will not be contacted.
7791 <link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></link>
7792 is then checked and if it does not match, an
7793 HTML <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page is sent back. Otherwise, if it does match,
7794 an image is returned. The type of image depends on the setting of <link
7795 linkend="SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"><quote>+set-image-blocker</quote></link>
7796 (blank, checkerboard pattern, or an HTTP redirect to an image elsewhere).
7801 Untrusted URLs are blocked. If URLs are being added to the
7802 <filename>trust</filename> file, then that is done.
7807 If the URL pattern matches the <link
7808 linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS"><quote>+fast-redirects</quote></link> action,
7809 it is then processed. Unwanted parts of the requested URL are stripped.
7814 Now the rest of the client browser's request headers are processed. If any
7815 of these match any of the relevant actions (e.g. <link
7816 linkend="HIDE-USER-AGENT"><quote>+hide-user-agent</quote></link>,
7817 etc.), headers are suppressed or forged as determined by these actions and
7823 Now the web server starts sending its response back (i.e. typically a web page and related
7829 First, the server headers are read and processed to determine, among other
7830 things, the MIME type (document type) and encoding. The headers are then
7831 filtered as determined by the
7832 <link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES"><quote>+crunch-incoming-cookies</quote></link>,
7833 <link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"><quote>+session-cookies-only</quote></link>,
7834 and <link linkend="DOWNGRADE-HTTP-VERSION"><quote>+downgrade-http-version</quote></link>
7840 If the <link linkend="KILL-POPUPS"><quote>+kill-popups</quote></link>
7841 action applies, and it is an HTML or JavaScript document, the popup-code in the
7842 response is filtered on-the-fly as it is received.
7847 If a <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link>
7849 linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS"><quote>+deanimate-gifs</quote></link>
7850 action applies (and the document type fits the action), the rest of the page is
7851 read into memory (up to a configurable limit). Then the filter rules (from
7852 <filename>default.filter</filename> and any other filter files) are
7853 processed against the buffered content. Filters are applied in the order
7854 they are specified in one of the filter files. Animated GIFs, if present,
7855 are reduced to either the first or last frame, depending on the action
7856 setting.The entire page, which is now filtered, is then sent by
7857 <application>Privoxy</application> back to your browser.
7860 If neither <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link>
7862 linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS"><quote>+deanimate-gifs</quote></link>
7863 matches, then <application>Privoxy</application> passes the raw data through
7864 to the client browser as it becomes available.
7869 As the browser receives the now (possibly filtered) page content, it
7870 reads and then requests any URLs that may be embedded within the page
7871 source, e.g. ad images, stylesheets, JavaScript, other HTML documents (e.g.
7872 frames), sounds, etc. For each of these objects, the browser issues a new
7873 request. And each such request is in turn processed as above. Note that a
7874 complex web page may have many such embedded URLs.
7884 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7885 <sect2 id="actionsanat">
7886 <title>Troubleshooting: Anatomy of an Action</title>
7889 The way <application>Privoxy</application> applies
7890 <link linkend="ACTIONS">actions</link> and <link linkend="FILTER">filters</link>
7891 to any given URL can be complex, and not always so
7892 easy to understand what is happening. And sometimes we need to be able to
7893 <emphasis>see</emphasis> just what <application>Privoxy</application> is
7894 doing. Especially, if something <application>Privoxy</application> is doing
7895 is causing us a problem inadvertently. It can be a little daunting to look at
7896 the actions and filters files themselves, since they tend to be filled with
7897 <link linkend="regex">regular expressions</link> whose consequences are not
7902 One quick test to see if <application>Privoxy</application> is causing a problem
7903 or not, is to disable it temporarily. This should be the first troubleshooting
7904 step. See <link linkend="bookmarklets">the Bookmarklets</link> section on a quick
7905 and easy way to do this (be sure to flush caches afterward!). Looking at the
7906 logs is a good idea too.
7909 Another easy troubleshooting step to try is if you have done any
7910 customization of your installation, revert back to the installed
7911 defaults and see if that helps. There are times the developers get complaints
7912 about one thing or another, and the problem is more related to a customized
7913 configuration issue.
7917 <application>Privoxy</application> also provides the
7918 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
7919 page that can show us very specifically how <application>actions</application>
7920 are being applied to any given URL. This is a big help for troubleshooting.
7924 First, enter one URL (or partial URL) at the prompt, and then
7925 <application>Privoxy</application> will tell us
7926 how the current configuration will handle it. This will not
7927 help with filtering effects (i.e. the <link
7928 linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> action) from
7929 one of the filter files since this is handled very
7930 differently and not so easy to trap! It also will not tell you about any other
7931 URLs that may be embedded within the URL you are testing. For instance, images
7932 such as ads are expressed as URLs within the raw page source of HTML pages. So
7933 you will only get info for the actual URL that is pasted into the prompt area
7934 -- not any sub-URLs. If you want to know about embedded URLs like ads, you
7935 will have to dig those out of the HTML source. Use your browser's <quote>View
7936 Page Source</quote> option for this. Or right click on the ad, and grab the
7941 Let's try an example, <ulink url="http://google.com">google.com</ulink>,
7942 and look at it one section at a time in a sample configuration (your real
7943 configuration may vary):
7948 Matches for http://google.com:
7950 In file: default.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
7954 -content-type-overwrite
7955 -crunch-client-header
7956 -crunch-if-none-match
7957 -crunch-incoming-cookies
7958 -crunch-outgoing-cookies
7959 -crunch-server-header
7960 +deanimate-gifs {last}
7961 -downgrade-http-version
7962 +fast-redirects {check-decoded-url}
7964 -filter {content-cookies}
7965 -filter {all-popups}
7966 -filter {banners-by-link}
7967 -filter {tiny-textforms}
7968 -filter {frameset-borders}
7969 -filter {demoronizer}
7970 -filter {shockwave-flash}
7971 -filter {quicktime-kioskmode}
7973 -filter {crude-parental}
7974 -filter {site-specifics}
7975 -filter {js-annoyances}
7976 -filter {html-annoyances}
7977 +filter {refresh-tags}
7978 -filter {unsolicited-popups}
7979 +filter {img-reorder}
7980 +filter {banners-by-size}
7982 +filter {jumping-windows}
7983 +filter {ie-exploits}
7988 -filter {xml-to-html}
7989 -filter {html-to-xml}
7990 -filter-client-headers
7991 -filter-server-headers
7993 -handle-as-empty-document
7995 -hide-accept-language
7996 -hide-content-disposition
7997 +hide-forwarded-for-headers
7998 +hide-from-header {block}
7999 -hide-if-modified-since
8000 +hide-referrer {forge}
8005 -overwrite-last-modified
8006 +prevent-compression
8010 +session-cookies-only
8011 +set-image-blocker {pattern}
8012 -treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks }
8015 { -session-cookies-only }
8021 In file: user.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
8022 (no matches in this file)
8027 This is telling us how we have defined our
8028 <link linkend="ACTIONS"><quote>actions</quote></link>, and
8029 which ones match for our test case, <quote>google.com</quote>.
8030 Displayed is all the actions that are available to us. Remember,
8031 the <literal>+</literal> sign denotes <quote>on</quote>. <literal>-</literal>
8032 denotes <quote>off</quote>. So some are <quote>on</quote> here, but many
8033 are <quote>off</quote>. Each example we try may provide a slightly different
8034 end result, depending on our configuration directives.
8038 is for our <filename>default.action</filename> file. The large, multi-line
8039 listing, is how the actions are set to match for all URLs, i.e. our default
8040 settings. If you look at your <quote>actions</quote> file, this would be the
8041 section just below the <quote>aliases</quote> section near the top. This
8042 will apply to all URLs as signified by the single forward slash at the end
8043 of the listing -- <quote> / </quote>.
8047 But we have defined additional actions that would be exceptions to these general
8048 rules, and then we list specific URLs (or patterns) that these exceptions
8049 would apply to. Last match wins. Just below this then are two explicit
8050 matches for <quote>.google.com</quote>. The first is negating our previous
8051 cookie setting, which was for <link
8052 linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"><quote>+session-cookies-only</quote></link>
8053 (i.e. not persistent). So we will allow persistent cookies for google, at
8054 least that is how it is in this example. The second turns
8055 <emphasis>off</emphasis> any <link
8056 linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS"><quote>+fast-redirects</quote></link>
8057 action, allowing this to take place unmolested. Note that there is a leading
8058 dot here -- <quote>.google.com</quote>. This will match any hosts and
8059 sub-domains, in the google.com domain also, such as
8060 <quote>www.google.com</quote> or <quote>mail.google.com</quote>. But it would not
8061 match <quote>www.google.de</quote>! So, apparently, we have these two actions
8062 defined as exceptions to the general rules at the top somewhere in the lower
8063 part of our <filename>default.action</filename> file, and
8064 <quote>google.com</quote> is referenced somewhere in these latter sections.
8068 Then, for our <filename>user.action</filename> file, we again have no hits.
8069 So there is nothing google-specific that we might have added to our own, local
8070 configuration. If there was, those actions would over-rule any actions from
8071 previously processed files, such as <filename>default.action</filename>.
8072 <filename>user.action</filename> typically has the last word. This is the
8073 best place to put hard and fast exceptions,
8077 And finally we pull it all together in the bottom section and summarize how
8078 <application>Privoxy</application> is applying all its <quote>actions</quote>
8079 to <quote>google.com</quote>:
8090 -content-type-overwrite
8091 -crunch-client-header
8092 -crunch-if-none-match
8093 -crunch-incoming-cookies
8094 -crunch-outgoing-cookies
8095 -crunch-server-header
8096 +deanimate-gifs {last}
8097 -downgrade-http-version
8098 +fast-redirects {check-decoded-url}
8100 -filter {content-cookies}
8101 -filter {all-popups}
8102 -filter {banners-by-link}
8103 -filter {tiny-textforms}
8104 -filter {frameset-borders}
8105 -filter {demoronizer}
8106 -filter {shockwave-flash}
8107 -filter {quicktime-kioskmode}
8109 -filter {crude-parental}
8110 -filter {site-specifics}
8111 -filter {js-annoyances}
8112 -filter {html-annoyances}
8113 +filter {refresh-tags}
8114 -filter {unsolicited-popups}
8115 +filter {img-reorder}
8116 +filter {banners-by-size}
8118 +filter {jumping-windows}
8119 +filter {ie-exploits}
8124 -filter {xml-to-html}
8125 -filter {html-to-xml}
8126 -filter-client-headers
8127 -filter-server-headers
8129 -handle-as-empty-document
8131 -hide-accept-language
8132 -hide-content-disposition
8133 +hide-forwarded-for-headers
8134 +hide-from-header {block}
8135 -hide-if-modified-since
8136 +hide-referrer {forge}
8141 -overwrite-last-modified
8142 +prevent-compression
8146 -session-cookies-only
8147 +set-image-blocker {pattern}
8148 -treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks </screen>
8152 Notice the only difference here to the previous listing, is to
8153 <quote>fast-redirects</quote> and <quote>session-cookies-only</quote>,
8154 which are activated specifically for this site in our configuration,
8155 and thus show in the <quote>Final Results</quote>.
8159 Now another example, <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>:
8171 { +block +handle-as-image }
8172 .[a-vx-z]*.doubleclick.net
8177 We'll just show the interesting part here - the explicit matches. It is
8178 matched three different times. Two <quote>+block</quote> sections,
8179 and a <quote>+block +handle-as-image</quote>,
8180 which is the expanded form of one of our aliases that had been defined as:
8181 <quote>+block-as-image</quote>. (<link
8182 linkend="ALIASES"><quote>Aliases</quote></link> are defined in
8183 the first section of the actions file and typically used to combine more
8188 Any one of these would have done the trick and blocked this as an unwanted
8189 image. This is unnecessarily redundant since the last case effectively
8190 would also cover the first. No point in taking chances with these guys
8191 though ;-) Note that if you want an ad or obnoxious
8192 URL to be invisible, it should be defined as <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>
8193 is done here -- as both a <link
8194 linkend="BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></link>
8195 <emphasis>and</emphasis> an
8196 <link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></link>.
8197 The custom alias <quote><literal>+block-as-image</literal></quote> just
8198 simplifies the process and make it more readable.
8202 One last example. Let's try <quote>http://www.example.net/adsl/HOWTO/</quote>.
8203 This one is giving us problems. We are getting a blank page. Hmmm ...
8209 Matches for http://www.example.net/adsl/HOWTO/:
8211 In file: default.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
8215 -content-type-overwrite
8216 -crunch-client-header
8217 -crunch-if-none-match
8218 -crunch-incoming-cookies
8219 -crunch-outgoing-cookies
8220 -crunch-server-header
8222 -downgrade-http-version
8223 +fast-redirects {check-decoded-url}
8225 -filter {content-cookies}
8226 -filter {all-popups}
8227 -filter {banners-by-link}
8228 -filter {tiny-textforms}
8229 -filter {frameset-borders}
8230 -filter {demoronizer}
8231 -filter {shockwave-flash}
8232 -filter {quicktime-kioskmode}
8234 -filter {crude-parental}
8235 -filter {site-specifics}
8236 -filter {js-annoyances}
8237 -filter {html-annoyances}
8238 +filter {refresh-tags}
8239 -filter {unsolicited-popups}
8240 +filter {img-reorder}
8241 +filter {banners-by-size}
8243 +filter {jumping-windows}
8244 +filter {ie-exploits}
8249 -filter {xml-to-html}
8250 -filter {html-to-xml}
8251 -filter-client-headers
8252 -filter-server-headers
8254 -handle-as-empty-document
8256 -hide-accept-language
8257 -hide-content-disposition
8258 +hide-forwarded-for-headers
8259 +hide-from-header{block}
8260 +hide-referer{forge}
8264 -overwrite-last-modified
8265 +prevent-compression
8269 +session-cookies-only
8270 +set-image-blocker{blank}
8271 -treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks }
8274 { +block +handle-as-image }
8280 Ooops, the <quote>/adsl/</quote> is matching <quote>/ads</quote> in our
8281 configuration! But we did not want this at all! Now we see why we get the
8282 blank page. It is actually triggering two different actions here, and
8283 the effects are aggregated so that the URL is blocked, and &my-app; is told
8284 to treat the block as if it were an image. But this is, of course, all wrong.
8285 We could now add a new action below this (or better in our own
8286 <filename>user.action</filename> file) that explicitly
8287 <emphasis>un</emphasis> blocks (
8288 <link linkend="BLOCK"><quote>{-block}</quote></link>) paths with
8289 <quote>adsl</quote> in them (remember, last match in the configuration
8290 wins). There are various ways to handle such exceptions. Example:
8302 Now the page displays ;-)
8303 Remember to flush your browser's caches when making these kinds of changes to
8304 your configuration to insure that you get a freshly delivered page! Or, try
8305 using <literal>Shift+Reload</literal>.
8309 But now what about a situation where we get no explicit matches like
8316 { +block +handle-as-image }
8322 That actually was very helpful and pointed us quickly to where the problem
8323 was. If you don't get this kind of match, then it means one of the default
8324 rules in the first section of <filename>default.action</filename> is causing
8325 the problem. This would require some guesswork, and maybe a little trial and
8326 error to isolate the offending rule. One likely cause would be one of the
8327 <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> actions.
8328 These tend to be harder to troubleshoot.
8329 Try adding the URL for the site to one of aliases that turn off
8330 <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link>:
8338 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
8346 <quote><literal>{ shop }</literal></quote> is an <quote>alias</quote> that expands to
8347 <quote><literal>{ -filter -session-cookies-only }</literal></quote>.
8348 Or you could do your own exception to negate filtering:
8356 # Disable ALL filter actions for sites in this section
8364 This would turn off all filtering for these sites. This is best
8365 put in <filename>user.action</filename>, for local site
8366 exceptions. Note that when a simple domain pattern is used by itself (without
8367 the subsequent path portion), all sub-pages within that domain are included
8368 automatcially in the scope of the action.
8372 Images that are inexplicably being blocked, may well be hitting the
8373 <link linkend="FILTER-BANNERS-BY-SIZE"><quote>+filter{banners-by-size}</quote></link>
8375 that images of certain sizes are ad banners (works well
8376 <emphasis>most of the time</emphasis> since these tend to be standardized).
8380 <quote><literal>{ fragile }</literal></quote> is an alias that disables most
8381 actions that are the most likely to cause trouble. This can be used as a
8382 last resort for problem sites.
8388 # Handle with care: easy to break
8390 mybank.example.com</screen>
8395 <emphasis>Remember to flush caches!</emphasis> Note that the
8396 <literal>mail.google</literal> reference lacks the TLD portion (e.g.
8397 <quote>.com</quote>. This will effectively match any TLD with
8398 <literal>google</literal> in it, such as <literal>mail.google.de</literal>,
8402 If this still does not work, you will have to go through the remaining
8403 actions one by one to find which one(s) is causing the problem.
8412 This program is free software; you can redistribute it
8413 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
8414 Public License as published by the Free Software
8415 Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at
8416 your option) any later version.
8418 This program is distributed in the hope that it will
8419 be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the
8420 implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
8421 PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public
8422 License for more details.
8424 The GNU General Public License should be included with
8425 this file. If not, you can view it at
8426 http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
8427 or write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
8428 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301,
8431 $Log: user-manual.sgml,v $
8432 Revision 2.22 2006/09/22 01:27:55 hal9
8433 Final commit of probably various minor changes here and there. Unless
8434 something changes this should be ready for pending release.
8436 Revision 2.21 2006/09/20 03:21:36 david__schmidt
8437 Just the tiniest tweak. Wafer thin!
8439 Revision 2.20 2006/09/10 14:53:54 hal9
8440 Results of spell check. User manual has some updates to standard.actions file
8443 Revision 2.19 2006/09/08 12:19:02 fabiankeil
8444 Adjust hide-if-modified-since example values
8445 to reflect the recent changes.
8447 Revision 2.18 2006/09/08 02:38:57 hal9
8449 -Fix a number of broken links.
8450 -Migrate the new Windows service command line options, and reference as
8452 -Rebuild so that can be used with the new "user-manual" config capabilities.
8455 Revision 2.17 2006/09/05 13:25:12 david__schmidt
8456 Add Windows service invocation stuff (duplicated) in FAQ and in user manual under Windows startup. One probably ought to reference the other.
8458 Revision 2.16 2006/09/02 12:49:37 hal9
8459 Various small updates for new actions, filterfiles, etc.
8461 Revision 2.15 2006/08/30 11:15:22 hal9
8462 More work on the new actions, especially filter-*-headers, and What's New
8463 section. User Manual is close to final form for 3.0.4 release. Some tinkering
8464 and proof reading left to do.
8466 Revision 2.14 2006/08/29 10:59:36 hal9
8467 Add a "Whats New in this release" Section. Further work on multiple filter
8468 files, and assorted other minor changes.
8470 Revision 2.13 2006/08/22 11:04:59 hal9
8471 Silence warnings and errors. This should build now. New filters were only
8472 stubbed in. More to be done.
8474 Revision 2.12 2006/08/14 08:40:39 fabiankeil
8475 Documented new actions that were part of
8476 the "minor Privoxy improvements".
8478 Revision 2.11 2006/07/18 14:48:51 david__schmidt
8479 Reorganizing the repository: swapping out what was HEAD (the old 3.1 branch)
8480 with what was really the latest development (the v_3_0_branch branch)
8482 Revision 1.123.2.43 2005/05/23 09:59:10 hal9
8485 Revision 1.123.2.42 2004/12/04 14:39:57 hal9
8486 Fix two minor typos per bug SF report.
8488 Revision 1.123.2.41 2004/03/23 12:58:42 oes
8491 Revision 1.123.2.40 2004/02/27 12:48:49 hal9
8492 Add comment re: redirecting to local file system for set-image-blocker may
8493 is dependent on browser.
8495 Revision 1.123.2.39 2004/01/30 22:31:40 oes
8496 Added a hint re bookmarklets to Quickstart section
8498 Revision 1.123.2.38 2004/01/30 16:47:51 oes
8499 Some minor clarifications
8501 Revision 1.123.2.37 2004/01/29 22:36:11 hal9
8502 Updates for no longer filtering text/plain, and demoronizer default settings,
8503 and copyright notice dates.
8505 Revision 1.123.2.36 2003/12/10 02:26:26 hal9
8506 Changed the demoronizer filter description.
8508 Revision 1.123.2.35 2003/11/06 13:36:37 oes
8509 Updated link to nightly CVS tarball
8511 Revision 1.123.2.34 2003/06/26 23:50:16 hal9
8512 Add a small bit on filtering and problems re: source code being corrupted.
8514 Revision 1.123.2.33 2003/05/08 18:17:33 roro
8515 Use apt-get instead of dpkg to install Debian package, which is more
8516 solid, uses the correct and most recent Debian version automatically.
8518 Revision 1.123.2.32 2003/04/11 03:13:57 hal9
8519 Add small note about only one filterfile (as opposed to multiple actions
8522 Revision 1.123.2.31 2003/03/26 02:03:43 oes
8523 Updated hard-coded copyright dates
8525 Revision 1.123.2.30 2003/03/24 12:58:56 hal9
8526 Add new section on Predefined Filters.
8528 Revision 1.123.2.29 2003/03/20 02:45:29 hal9
8529 More problems with \-\-chroot causing markup problems :(
8531 Revision 1.123.2.28 2003/03/19 00:35:24 hal9
8532 Manual edit of revision log because 'chroot' (even inside a comment) was
8533 causing Docbook to hang here (due to double hyphen and the processor thinking
8536 Revision 1.123.2.27 2003/03/18 19:37:14 oes
8537 s/Advanced|Radical/Adventuresome/g to avoid complaints re fun filter
8539 Revision 1.123.2.26 2003/03/17 16:50:53 oes
8540 Added documentation for new chroot option
8542 Revision 1.123.2.25 2003/03/15 18:36:55 oes
8543 Adapted to the new filters
8545 Revision 1.123.2.24 2002/11/17 06:41:06 hal9
8546 Move default profiles table from FAQ to U-M, and other minor related changes.
8549 Revision 1.123.2.23 2002/10/21 02:32:01 hal9
8550 Updates to the user.action examples section. A few new ones.
8552 Revision 1.123.2.22 2002/10/12 00:51:53 hal9
8553 Add demoronizer to filter section.
8555 Revision 1.123.2.21 2002/10/10 04:09:35 hal9
8556 s/Advanced/Radical/ and added very brief note.
8558 Revision 1.123.2.20 2002/10/10 03:49:21 hal9
8559 Add notes to session-cookies-only and Quickstart about pre-existing
8560 cookies. Also, note content-cookies work differently.
8562 Revision 1.123.2.19 2002/09/26 01:25:36 hal9
8563 More explanation on Privoxy patterns, more on content-cookies and SSL.
8565 Revision 1.123.2.18 2002/08/22 23:47:58 hal9
8566 Add 'Documentation' to Privoxy Menu shot in Configuration section to match
8569 Revision 1.123.2.17 2002/08/18 01:13:05 hal9
8570 Spell checked (only one typo this time!).
8572 Revision 1.123.2.16 2002/08/09 19:20:54 david__schmidt
8573 Update to Mac OSX startup script name
8575 Revision 1.123.2.15 2002/08/07 17:32:11 oes
8576 Converted some internal links from ulink to link for PDF creation; no content changed
8578 Revision 1.123.2.14 2002/08/06 09:16:13 oes
8579 Nits re: actions file download
8581 Revision 1.123.2.13 2002/08/02 18:23:19 g_sauthoff
8582 Just 2 small corrections to the Gentoo sections
8584 Revision 1.123.2.12 2002/08/02 18:17:21 g_sauthoff
8585 Added 2 Gentoo sections
8587 Revision 1.123.2.11 2002/07/26 15:20:31 oes
8588 - Added version info to title
8589 - Added info on new filters
8590 - Revised parts of the filter file tutorial
8591 - Added info on where to get updated actions files
8593 Revision 1.123.2.10 2002/07/25 21:42:29 hal9
8594 Add brief notes on not proxying non-HTTP protocols.
8596 Revision 1.123.2.9 2002/07/11 03:40:28 david__schmidt
8598 Updated Mac OSX sections due to installation location change
8600 Revision 1.123.2.8 2002/06/09 16:36:32 hal9
8601 Clarifications on filtering and MIME. Hardcode 'latest release' in index.html.
8603 Revision 1.123.2.7 2002/06/09 00:29:34 hal9
8604 Touch ups on filtering, in actions section and Anatomy.
8606 Revision 1.123.2.6 2002/06/06 23:11:03 hal9
8607 Fix broken link. Linkchecked all docs.
8609 Revision 1.123.2.5 2002/05/29 02:01:02 hal9
8610 This is break out of the entire config section from u-m, so it can
8611 eventually be used to generate the comments, etc in the main config file
8612 so that these are in sync with each other.
8614 Revision 1.123.2.4 2002/05/27 03:28:45 hal9
8615 Ooops missed something from David.
8617 Revision 1.123.2.3 2002/05/27 03:23:17 hal9
8618 Fix FIXMEs for OS2 and OSX startup. Fix Redhat typos (should be Red Hat).
8619 That's a wrap, I think.
8621 Revision 1.123.2.2 2002/05/26 19:02:09 hal9
8622 Move Amiga stuff around to take of FIXME in start up section.
8624 Revision 1.123.2.1 2002/05/26 17:04:25 hal9
8625 -Spellcheck, very minor edits, and sync across branches
8627 Revision 1.123 2002/05/24 23:19:23 hal9
8628 Include new image (Proxy setup). More fun with guibutton.
8629 Minor corrections/clarifications here and there.
8631 Revision 1.122 2002/05/24 13:24:08 oes
8632 Added Bookmarklet for one-click pre-filled access to show-url-info
8634 Revision 1.121 2002/05/23 23:20:17 oes
8635 - Changed more (all?) references to actions to the
8636 <literal><link> style.
8637 - Small fixes in the actions chapter
8638 - Small clarifications in the quickstart to ad blocking
8639 - Removed <emphasis> from <title>s since the new doc CSS
8640 renders them red (bad in TOC).
8642 Revision 1.120 2002/05/23 19:16:43 roro
8643 Correct Debian specials (installation and startup).
8645 Revision 1.119 2002/05/22 17:17:05 oes
8648 Revision 1.118 2002/05/21 04:54:55 hal9
8649 -New Section: Quickstart to Ad Blocking
8650 -Reformat Actions Anatomy to match new CGI layout
8652 Revision 1.117 2002/05/17 13:56:16 oes
8653 - Reworked & extended Templates chapter
8654 - Small changes to Regex appendix
8655 - #included authors.sgml into (C) and hist chapter
8657 Revision 1.116 2002/05/17 03:23:46 hal9
8658 Fixing merge conflict in Quickstart section.
8660 Revision 1.115 2002/05/16 16:25:00 oes
8661 Extended the Filter File chapter & minor fixes
8663 Revision 1.114 2002/05/16 09:42:50 oes
8664 More ulink->link, added some hints to Quickstart section
8666 Revision 1.113 2002/05/15 21:07:25 oes
8667 Extended and further commented the example actions files
8669 Revision 1.112 2002/05/15 03:57:14 hal9
8670 Spell check. A few minor edits here and there for better syntax and
8673 Revision 1.111 2002/05/14 23:01:36 oes
8676 Revision 1.110 2002/05/14 19:10:45 oes
8677 Restored alphabetical order of actions
8679 Revision 1.109 2002/05/14 17:23:11 oes
8680 Renamed the prevent-*-cookies actions, extended aliases section and moved it before the example AFs
8682 Revision 1.108 2002/05/14 15:29:12 oes
8683 Completed proofreading the actions chapter
8685 Revision 1.107 2002/05/12 03:20:41 hal9
8686 Small clarifications for 127.0.0.1 vs localhost for listen-address since this
8687 apparently an important distinction for some OS's.
8689 Revision 1.106 2002/05/10 01:48:20 hal9
8690 This is mostly proposed copyright/licensing additions and changes. Docs
8691 are still GPL, but licensing and copyright are more visible. Also, copyright
8692 changed in doc header comments (eliminate references to JB except FAQ).
8694 Revision 1.105 2002/05/05 20:26:02 hal9
8695 Sorting out license vs copyright in these docs.
8697 Revision 1.104 2002/05/04 08:44:45 swa
8700 Revision 1.103 2002/05/04 00:40:53 hal9
8701 -Remove the TOC first page kludge. It's fixed proper now in ldp.dsl.in.
8702 -Some minor additions to Quickstart.
8704 Revision 1.102 2002/05/03 17:46:00 oes
8705 Further proofread & reactivated short build instructions
8707 Revision 1.101 2002/05/03 03:58:30 hal9
8708 Move the user-manual config directive to top of section. Add note about
8709 Privoxy needing read permissions for configs, and write for logs.
8711 Revision 1.100 2002/04/29 03:05:55 hal9
8712 Add clarification on differences of new actions files.
8714 Revision 1.99 2002/04/28 16:59:05 swa
8715 more structure in starting section
8717 Revision 1.98 2002/04/28 05:43:59 hal9
8718 This is the break up of configuration.html into multiple files. This
8719 will probably break links elsewhere :(
8721 Revision 1.97 2002/04/27 21:04:42 hal9
8722 -Rewrite of Actions File example.
8723 -Add section for user-manual directive in config.
8725 Revision 1.96 2002/04/27 05:32:00 hal9
8726 -Add short section to Filter Files to tie in with +filter action.
8727 -Start rewrite of examples in Actions Examples (not finished).
8729 Revision 1.95 2002/04/26 17:23:29 swa
8730 bookmarks cleaned, changed structure of user manual, screen and programlisting cleanups, and numerous other changes that I forgot
8732 Revision 1.94 2002/04/26 05:24:36 hal9
8733 -Add most of Andreas suggestions to Chain of Events section.
8734 -A few other minor corrections and touch up.
8736 Revision 1.92 2002/04/25 18:55:13 hal9
8737 More catchups on new actions files, and new actions names.
8738 Other assorted cleanups, and minor modifications.
8740 Revision 1.91 2002/04/24 02:39:31 hal9
8741 Add 'Chain of Events' section.
8743 Revision 1.90 2002/04/23 21:41:25 hal9
8744 Linuxconf is deprecated on RH, substitute chkconfig.
8746 Revision 1.89 2002/04/23 21:05:28 oes
8747 Added hint for startup on Red Hat
8749 Revision 1.88 2002/04/23 05:37:54 hal9
8750 Add AmigaOS install stuff.
8752 Revision 1.87 2002/04/23 02:53:15 david__schmidt
8753 Updated OSX installation section
8754 Added a few English tweaks here an there
8756 Revision 1.86 2002/04/21 01:46:32 hal9
8757 Re-write actions section.
8759 Revision 1.85 2002/04/18 21:23:23 hal9
8760 Fix ugly typo (mine).
8762 Revision 1.84 2002/04/18 21:17:13 hal9
8763 Spell Redhat correctly (ie Red Hat). A few minor grammar corrections.
8765 Revision 1.83 2002/04/18 18:21:12 oes
8766 Added RPM install detail
8768 Revision 1.82 2002/04/18 12:04:50 oes
8771 Revision 1.81 2002/04/18 11:50:24 oes
8772 Extended Install section - needs fixing by packagers
8774 Revision 1.80 2002/04/18 10:45:19 oes
8775 Moved text to buildsource.sgml, renamed some filters, details
8777 Revision 1.79 2002/04/18 03:18:06 hal9
8778 Spellcheck, and minor touchups.
8780 Revision 1.78 2002/04/17 18:04:16 oes
8783 Revision 1.77 2002/04/17 13:51:23 oes
8784 Proofreading, part one
8786 Revision 1.76 2002/04/16 04:25:51 hal9
8787 -Added 'Note to Upgraders' and re-ordered the 'Quickstart' section.
8788 -Note about proxy may need requests to re-read config files.
8790 Revision 1.75 2002/04/12 02:08:48 david__schmidt
8791 Remove OS/2 building info... it is already in the developer-manual
8793 Revision 1.74 2002/04/11 00:54:38 hal9
8794 Add small section on submitting actions.
8796 Revision 1.73 2002/04/10 18:45:15 swa
8799 Revision 1.72 2002/04/10 04:06:19 hal9
8800 Added actions feedback to Bookmarklets section
8802 Revision 1.71 2002/04/08 22:59:26 hal9
8803 Version update. Spell chkconfig correctly :)
8805 Revision 1.70 2002/04/08 20:53:56 swa
8808 Revision 1.69 2002/04/06 05:07:29 hal9
8809 -Add privoxy-man-page.sgml, for man page.
8810 -Add authors.sgml for AUTHORS (and p-authors.sgml)
8811 -Reworked various aspects of various docs.
8812 -Added additional comments to sub-docs.
8814 Revision 1.68 2002/04/04 18:46:47 swa
8815 consistent look. reuse of copyright, history et. al.
8817 Revision 1.67 2002/04/04 17:27:57 swa
8818 more single file to be included at multiple points. make maintaining easier
8820 Revision 1.66 2002/04/04 06:48:37 hal9
8821 Structural changes to allow for conditional inclusion/exclusion of content
8822 based on entity toggles, e.g. 'entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE"'. And
8823 definition of internal entities, e.g. 'entity p-version "2.9.13"' that will
8824 eventually be set by Makefile.
8825 More boilerplate text for use across multiple docs.
8827 Revision 1.65 2002/04/03 19:52:07 swa
8828 enhance squid section due to user suggestion
8830 Revision 1.64 2002/04/03 03:53:43 hal9
8831 A few minor bug fixes, and touch ups. Ready for review.
8833 Revision 1.63 2002/04/01 16:24:49 hal9
8834 Define entities to include boilerplate text. See doc/source/*.
8836 Revision 1.62 2002/03/30 04:15:53 hal9
8837 - Fix privoxy.org/config links.
8838 - Paste in Bookmarklets from Toggle page.
8839 - Move Quickstart nearer top, and minor rework.
8841 Revision 1.61 2002/03/29 01:31:08 hal9
8844 Revision 1.60 2002/03/27 01:57:34 hal9
8845 Added more to Anatomy section.
8847 Revision 1.59 2002/03/27 00:54:33 hal9
8848 Touch up intro for new name.
8850 Revision 1.58 2002/03/26 22:29:55 swa
8851 we have a new homepage!
8853 Revision 1.57 2002/03/24 20:33:30 hal9
8854 A few minor catch ups with name change.
8856 Revision 1.56 2002/03/24 16:17:06 swa
8857 configure needs to be generated.
8859 Revision 1.55 2002/03/24 16:08:08 swa
8860 we are too lazy to make a block-built
8861 privoxy logo. hence removed the option.
8863 Revision 1.54 2002/03/24 15:46:20 swa
8864 name change related issue.
8866 Revision 1.53 2002/03/24 11:51:00 swa
8867 name change. changed filenames.
8869 Revision 1.52 2002/03/24 11:01:06 swa
8872 Revision 1.51 2002/03/23 15:13:11 swa
8873 renamed every reference to the old name with foobar.
8874 fixed "application foobar application" tag, fixed
8875 "the foobar" with "foobar". left junkbustser in cvs
8876 comments and remarks to history untouched.
8878 Revision 1.50 2002/03/23 05:06:21 hal9
8881 Revision 1.49 2002/03/21 17:01:05 hal9
8882 New section in Appendix.
8884 Revision 1.48 2002/03/12 06:33:01 hal9
8885 Catching up to Andreas and re_filterfile changes.
8887 Revision 1.47 2002/03/11 13:13:27 swa
8888 correct feedback channels
8890 Revision 1.46 2002/03/10 00:51:08 hal9
8891 Added section on JB internal pages in Appendix.
8893 Revision 1.45 2002/03/09 17:43:53 swa
8896 Revision 1.44 2002/03/09 17:08:48 hal9
8897 New section on Jon's actions file editor, and move some stuff around.
8899 Revision 1.43 2002/03/08 00:47:32 hal9
8900 Added imageblock{pattern}.
8902 Revision 1.42 2002/03/07 18:16:55 swa
8905 Revision 1.41 2002/03/07 16:46:43 hal9
8906 Fix a few markup problems for jade.
8908 Revision 1.40 2002/03/07 16:28:39 swa
8909 provide correct feedback channels
8911 Revision 1.39 2002/03/06 16:19:28 hal9
8912 Note on perceived filtering slowdown per FR.
8914 Revision 1.38 2002/03/05 23:55:14 hal9
8915 Stupid I did it again. Double hyphen in comment breaks jade.
8917 Revision 1.37 2002/03/05 23:53:49 hal9
8918 jade barfs on '- -' embedded in comments. - -user option broke it.
8920 Revision 1.36 2002/03/05 22:53:28 hal9
8921 Add new - - user option.
8923 Revision 1.35 2002/03/05 00:17:27 hal9
8924 Added section on command line options.
8926 Revision 1.34 2002/03/04 19:32:07 oes
8927 Changed default port to 8118
8929 Revision 1.33 2002/03/03 19:46:13 hal9
8930 Emphasis on where/how to report bugs, etc
8932 Revision 1.32 2002/03/03 09:26:06 joergs
8933 AmigaOS changes, config is now loaded from PROGDIR: instead of
8934 AmiTCP:db/junkbuster/ if no configuration file is specified on the
8937 Revision 1.31 2002/03/02 22:45:52 david__schmidt
8940 Revision 1.30 2002/03/02 22:00:14 hal9
8941 Updated 'New Features' list. Ran through spell-checker.
8943 Revision 1.29 2002/03/02 20:34:07 david__schmidt
8944 Update OS/2 build section
8946 Revision 1.28 2002/02/24 14:34:24 jongfoster
8947 Formatting changes. Now changing the doctype to DocBook XML 4.1
8948 will work - no other changes are needed.
8950 Revision 1.27 2002/01/11 14:14:32 hal9
8951 Added a very short section on Templates
8953 Revision 1.26 2002/01/09 20:02:50 hal9
8954 Fix bug re: auto-detect config file changes.
8956 Revision 1.25 2002/01/09 18:20:30 hal9
8957 Touch ups for *.action files.
8959 Revision 1.24 2001/12/02 01:13:42 hal9
8962 Revision 1.23 2001/12/02 00:20:41 hal9
8963 Updates for recent changes.
8965 Revision 1.22 2001/11/05 23:57:51 hal9
8966 Minor update for startup now daemon mode.
8968 Revision 1.21 2001/10/31 21:11:03 hal9
8969 Correct 2 minor errors
8971 Revision 1.18 2001/10/24 18:45:26 hal9
8972 *** empty log message ***
8974 Revision 1.17 2001/10/24 17:10:55 hal9
8975 Catching up with Jon's recent work, and a few other things.
8977 Revision 1.16 2001/10/21 17:19:21 swa
8978 wrong url in documentation
8980 Revision 1.15 2001/10/14 23:46:24 hal9
8981 Various minor changes. Fleshed out SEE ALSO section.
8983 Revision 1.13 2001/10/10 17:28:33 hal9
8986 Revision 1.12 2001/09/28 02:57:04 hal9
8989 Revision 1.11 2001/09/28 02:25:20 hal9
8992 Revision 1.9 2001/09/27 23:50:29 hal9
8993 A few changes. A short section on regular expression in appendix.
8995 Revision 1.8 2001/09/25 00:34:59 hal9
8996 Some additions, and re-arranging.
8998 Revision 1.7 2001/09/24 14:31:36 hal9
9001 Revision 1.6 2001/09/24 14:10:32 hal9
9002 Including David's OS/2 installation instructions.
9004 Revision 1.2 2001/09/13 15:27:40 swa
9007 Revision 1.1 2001/09/12 15:36:41 swa
9008 source files for junkbuster documentation
9010 Revision 1.3 2001/09/10 17:43:59 swa
9011 first proposal of a structure.
9013 Revision 1.2 2001/06/13 14:28:31 swa
9014 docs should have an author.
9016 Revision 1.1 2001/06/13 14:20:37 swa
9017 first import of project's documentation for the webserver.