There are many improvements and new features since Privoxy 3.0.6, the last stable release:
Header filtering can be done with dedicated header filters now. As a result the actions "filter-client-headers" and "filter-server-headers" that were introduced with Privoxy 3.0.5 to apply the content filters to the headers as, well have been removed again.
A quick list of things to be aware of before upgrading from earlier versions of Privoxy:
Some installers may remove earlier versions completely, including configuration files. Save any important configuration files!
On the other hand, other installers may not overwrite any existing configuration files, thinking you will want to do that. You may want to manually check your saved files against the newer versions to see if the improvements have merit, or whether there are new options that you may want to consider. There are a number of new features, but most won't be available unless these features are incorporated into your configuration somehow.
See the full documentation on fast-redirects which has changed syntax, and will require adjustments to local configs, such as user.action. You must reference the new syntax:
{ +fast-redirects{check-decoded-url} } .example.com mybank.com .google. |
The jarfile, cookie logger, is off by default now.
What constitutes a "default" configuration has changed, and you may want to review which actions are "on" by default. This is primarily a matter of emphasis, but some features you may have been used to, may now be "off" by default. There are also a number of new actions and filters you may want to consider, most of which are not fully incorporated into the default settings as yet (see above).
The default actions setting is now Cautious. Previous releases had a default setting of Medium. Experienced users may want to adjust this, as it is fairly conservative by Privoxy standards and past practices. See http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions-list?f=default. New users should try the default settings for a while before turning up the volume.
The default setting has filtering turned off, which subsequently means that compression is on. Remember that filtering does not work on compressed pages, so if you use, or want to use, filtering, you will need to force compression off. Example:
{ +filter{google} +prevent-compression } .google. |
Or if you use a number of filters, or filter many sites, you may just want to turn off compression for all sites in default.action (or user.action).
Also, session-cookies-only is off by default now. If you've liked this feature in the past, you may want to turn it back on in user.action now.
Some installers may not automatically start Privoxy after installation.