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 "3.0.7">
15 <!entity p-status "stable">
16 <!entity % p-authors-formal "INCLUDE"> <!-- include additional text, etc -->
17 <!entity % p-not-stable "IGNORE">
18 <!entity % p-stable "INCLUDE">
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 2.32 2007/06/07 12:36:22 fabiankeil Exp $
38 Copyright (C) 2001-2007 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 - 2007 by
58 <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/">Privoxy Developers</ulink>
62 <pubdate>$Id: user-manual.sgml,v 2.32 2007/06/07 12:36:22 fabiankeil 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 <!-- XXX: The installation sections should be sorted -->
182 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
183 <sect3 id="installation-pack-rpm"><title>Red Hat and Fedora RPMs</title>
186 RPMs can be installed with <literal>rpm -Uvh privoxy-&p-version;-1.rpm</literal>,
187 and will use <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> for the location
188 of configuration files.
192 Note that on Red Hat, <application>Privoxy</application> will
193 <emphasis>not</emphasis> be automatically started on system boot. You will
194 need to enable that using <command>chkconfig</command>,
195 <command>ntsysv</command>, or similar methods.
199 If you have problems with failed dependencies, try rebuilding the SRC RPM:
200 <literal>rpm --rebuild privoxy-&p-version;-1.src.rpm</literal>. This
201 will use your locally installed libraries and RPM version.
205 Also note that if you have a <application>Junkbuster</application> RPM installed
206 on your system, you need to remove it first, because the packages conflict.
207 Otherwise, RPM will try to remove <application>Junkbuster</application>
208 automatically if found, before installing <application>Privoxy</application>.
212 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
213 <sect3 id="installation-deb"><title>Debian</title>
215 DEBs can be installed with <literal>apt-get install privoxy</literal>,
216 and will use <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> for the location of
221 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
222 <sect3 id="installation-pack-win"><title>Windows</title>
225 Just double-click the installer, which will guide you through
226 the installation process. You will find the configuration files
227 in the same directory as you installed <application>Privoxy</application> in.
230 Version 3.0.4 introduced full <application>Windows</application> service
231 functionality. On Windows only, the <application>Privoxy</application>
232 program has two new command line arguments to install and uninstall
233 <application>Privoxy</application> as a <emphasis>service</emphasis>.
237 <term>Arguments:</term>
240 <replaceable class="parameter">--install</replaceable>[:<replaceable class="parameter">service_name</replaceable>]
243 <replaceable class="parameter">--uninstall</replaceable>[:<replaceable class="parameter">service_name</replaceable>]
249 After invoking <application>Privoxy</application> with
250 <command>--install</command>, you will need to bring up the
251 <application>Windows</application> service console to assign the user you
252 want <application>Privoxy</application> to run under, and whether or not you
253 want it to run whenever the system starts. You can start the
254 <application>Windows</application> services console with the following
255 command: <command>services.msc</command>. If you do not take the manual step
256 of modifying <application>Privoxy's</application> service settings, it will
257 not start. Note too that you will need to give Privoxy a user account that
258 actually exists, or it will not be permitted to
259 write to its log and configuration files.
264 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
265 <sect3 id="installation-pack-bintgz"><title>Solaris, NetBSD, HP-UX</title>
268 Create a new directory, <literal>cd</literal> to it, then unzip and
269 untar the archive. For the most part, you'll have to figure out where
270 things go. <!-- FIXME, more info needed? -->
274 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
275 <sect3 id="installation-os2"><title>OS/2</title>
278 First, make sure that no previous installations of
279 <application>Junkbuster</application> and / or
280 <application>Privoxy</application> are left on your
281 system. Check that no <application>Junkbuster</application>
282 or <application>Privoxy</application> objects are in
288 Then, just double-click the WarpIN self-installing archive, which will
289 guide you through the installation process. A shadow of the
290 <application>Privoxy</application> executable will be placed in your
291 startup folder so it will start automatically whenever OS/2 starts.
295 The directory you choose to install <application>Privoxy</application>
296 into will contain all of the configuration files.
300 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
301 <sect3 id="installation-mac"><title>Mac OSX</title>
303 Unzip the downloaded file (you can either double-click on the file
304 from the finder, or from the desktop if you downloaded it there).
305 Then, double-click on the package installer icon named
306 <literal>Privoxy.pkg</literal>
307 and follow the installation process.
308 <application>Privoxy</application> will be installed in the folder
309 <literal>/Library/Privoxy</literal>.
310 It will start automatically whenever you start up. To prevent it from
311 starting automatically, remove or rename the folder
312 <literal>/Library/StartupItems/Privoxy</literal>.
315 To start Privoxy by hand, double-click on
316 <literal>StartPrivoxy.command</literal> in the
317 <literal>/Library/Privoxy</literal> folder.
318 Or, type this command in the Terminal:
322 /Library/Privoxy/StartPrivoxy.command
326 You will be prompted for the administrator password.
330 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
331 <sect3 id="installation-amiga"><title>AmigaOS</title>
333 Copy and then unpack the <filename>lha</filename> archive to a suitable location.
334 All necessary files will be installed into <application>Privoxy</application>
335 directory, including all configuration and log files. To uninstall, just
336 remove this directory.
340 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
341 <sect3 id="installation-tbz"><title>FreeBSD</title>
344 Privoxy is part of FreeBSD's Ports Collection, you can build and install
345 it with <literal>cd /usr/ports/www/privoxy; make install clean</literal>.
348 If you don't use the ports, you can fetch and install
349 the package with <literal>pkg_add -r privoxy</literal>.
352 The port skeleton and the package can also be downloaded from the
353 <ulink url="https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118">File Release
354 Page</ulink>, but if you're interested in stable releases only you don't
355 gain anything by using them.
359 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
360 <sect3 id="installattion-gentoo"><title>Gentoo</title>
362 Gentoo source packages (Ebuilds) for <application>Privoxy</application> are
363 contained in the Gentoo Portage Tree (they are not on the download page,
364 but there is a Gentoo section, where you can see when a new
365 <application>Privoxy</application> Version is added to the Portage Tree).
368 Before installing <application>Privoxy</application> under Gentoo just do
369 first <literal>emerge rsync</literal> to get the latest changes from the
370 Portage tree. With <literal>emerge privoxy</literal> you install the latest
374 Configuration files are in <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename>, the
375 documentation is in <filename>/usr/share/doc/privoxy-&p-version;</filename>
376 and the Log directory is in <filename>/var/log/privoxy</filename>.
382 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
383 <sect2 id="installation-source"><title>Building from Source</title>
386 The most convenient way to obtain the <application>Privoxy</application> sources
387 is to download the source tarball from our
388 <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118&package_id=10571">project download
393 If you like to live on the bleeding edge and are not afraid of using
394 possibly unstable development versions, you can check out the up-to-the-minute
395 version directly from <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/cvs/?group_id=11118">the
396 CVS repository</ulink>.
398 deprecated...out of business.
399 or simply download <ulink
400 url="http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cvstarballs/ijbswa-cvsroot.tar.bz2">the nightly CVS
405 <!-- include buildsource.sgml boilerplate: -->
407 <!-- end boilerplate -->
410 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
411 <sect2 id="installation-keepupdated"><title>Keeping your Installation Up-to-Date</title>
413 As user feedback comes in and development continues, we will make updated versions
414 of both the main <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link> (as a <ulink
415 url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118&release_id=103670">separate
416 package</ulink>) and the software itself (including the actions file) available for
421 If you wish to receive an email notification whenever we release updates of
422 <application>Privoxy</application> or the actions file, <ulink
423 url="http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ijbswa-announce/">subscribe
424 to our announce mailing list</ulink>, ijbswa-announce@lists.sourceforge.net.
428 In order not to lose your personal changes and adjustments when updating
429 to the latest <literal>default.action</literal> file we <emphasis>strongly
430 recommend</emphasis> that you use <literal>user.action</literal> and
431 <literal>user.filter</literal> for your local
432 customizations of <application>Privoxy</application>. See the <link
433 linkend="actions-file">Chapter on actions files</link> for details.
441 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
443 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
444 <sect1 id="whatsnew">
445 <title>What's New in this Release</title>
447 There are many improvements and new features since <application>Privoxy 3.0.6</application>, the last stable release:
454 Header filtering can be done with dedicated header filters now. As a result
455 the actions <quote>filter-client-headers</quote> and <quote>filter-server-headers</quote>
456 that were introduced with <application>Privoxy 3.0.5</application> to apply
457 the content filters to the headers as, well have been removed again.
461 <!-- pre-3.0.6 changes:
464 There are a number of new <link linkend="actions-file">actions</link>:
472 <literal><link linkend="content-type-overwrite">content-type-overwrite</link></literal>
477 <literal><link linkend="crunch-client-header">crunch-client-header</link></literal>
482 <literal><link linkend="crunch-if-none-match">crunch-if-none-match</link></literal>
487 <literal><link linkend="crunch-server-header">crunch-server-header</link></literal>
492 <literal><link linkend="filter-client-headers">filter-client-headers</link></literal>
497 <literal><link linkend="filter-server-headers">filter-server-headers</link></literal>
502 <literal><link linkend="force-text-mode">force-text-mode</link></literal>
507 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-empty-document">handle-as-empty-document</link></literal>
512 <literal><link linkend="hide-accept-language">hide-accept-language</link></literal>
517 <literal><link linkend="hide-content-disposition">hide-content-disposition</link></literal>
522 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hide-if-modified-since</link></literal>
527 <literal><link linkend="inspect-jpegs">inspect-jpegs</link></literal>
532 <literal><link linkend="overwrite-last-modified">overwrite-last-modified</link></literal>
537 <literal><link linkend="redirect">redirect</link></literal>
542 <literal><link linkend="treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks">treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks</link></literal>
549 In addition, <literal><link linkend="fast-redirects">fast-redirects</link></literal>
550 has been significantly improved with enhanced syntax.
553 And <literal><link linkend="hide-referrer">hide-referrer</link></literal>
554 has a new option, <literal>conditional block</literal>.
561 <application>MS-Windows</application> versions can now be
563 linkend="installation-pack-win">installed and
564 started as a <emphasis>Windows service</emphasis></link>.
570 <filename>config</filename> has two new options:
572 linkend="enable-remote-http-toggle">enable-remote-http-toggle</link>,
574 linkend="forwarded-connect-retries">forwarded-connect-retries</link>.
577 And there is improved handling of the <link
578 linkend="user-manual">user-manual</link>
579 option, for placing documentation and help files on the local system.
585 There are six new <link linkend="FILTER">filters</link>.
591 Actions files problems and suggestions are now being directed to:
592 <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=11118&atid=460288">http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=11118&atid=460288</ulink>.
593 Please use this to report such configuration related problems as missed
594 ads, sites that don't function properly due to one action or another,
595 innocent images being blocked, etc.
601 In addition, there are numerous bug fixes and significant enhancements,
602 including error pages should no longer be cached if the problem is fixed,
603 much better DNS error handling, various logging improvements, and
604 configuration updates for better ad blocking and junk elimination.
612 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
614 <sect2 id="upgradersnote">
615 <title>Note to Upgraders</title>
618 A quick list of things to be aware of before upgrading from earlier
619 versions of <application>Privoxy</application>:
627 Some installers may remove earlier versions completely, including
628 configuration files. Save any important configuration files!
633 On the other hand, other installers may not overwrite any existing configuration
634 files, thinking you will want to do that. You may want to manually check
635 your saved files against the newer versions to see if the improvements have
636 merit, or whether there are new options that you may want to consider.
637 There are a number of new features, but most won't be available unless
638 these features are incorporated into your configuration somehow.
643 See the full documentation on
644 <literal><link linkend="fast-redirects">fast-redirects</link></literal>
645 which has changed syntax, and will require adjustments to local configs,
646 such as <filename>user.action</filename>. You must reference the new
651 { +fast-redirects{check-decoded-url} }
660 The <filename>jarfile</filename>,
661 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookie</ulink> logger, is off by default now.
667 What constitutes a <quote>default</quote> configuration has changed,
668 and you may want to review which actions are <quote>on</quote> by
669 default. This is primarily a matter of emphasis, but some features
670 you may have been used to, may now be <quote>off</quote> by default.
671 There are also a number of new actions and filters you may want to
672 consider, most of which are not fully incorporated into the default
673 settings as yet (see above).
679 The default actions setting is now <literal>Cautious</literal>. Previous
680 releases had a default setting of <literal>Medium</literal>. Experienced
681 users may want to adjust this, as it is fairly conservative by &my-app;
682 standards and past practices. See <ulink
683 url="http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions-list?f=default">
684 http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions-list?f=default</ulink>. New users
685 should try the default settings for a while before turning up the volume.
691 The default setting has filtering turned <emphasis>off</emphasis>, which
692 subsequently means that compression is <emphasis>on</emphasis>. Remember
693 that filtering does not work on compressed pages, so if you use, or want to
694 use, filtering, you will need to force compression off. Example:
698 { +<link linkend="filter">filter</link>{google} +<link linkend="prevent-compression">prevent-compression</link> }
702 Or if you use a number of filters, or filter many sites, you may just want
703 to turn off compression for all sites in
704 <filename>default.action</filename> (or
705 <filename>user.action</filename>).
712 Also, <link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> is
713 off by default now. If you've liked this feature in the past, you may want
714 to turn it back on in <filename>user.action</filename> now.
721 <!-- I think it is best to keep this somewhat vague, in case -->
722 <!-- the situation changes under our feet. -->
723 Some installers may not automatically start
724 <application>Privoxy</application> after installation.
734 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
735 <sect1 id="quickstart"><title>Quickstart to Using Privoxy</title>
741 Install <application>Privoxy</application>. See the <link
742 linkend="installation">Installation Section</link> below for platform specific
749 Advanced users and those who want to offer <application>Privoxy</application>
750 service to more than just their local machine should check the <link
751 linkend="config">main config file</link>, especially the <link
752 linkend="access-control">security-relevant</link> options. These are
759 Start <application>Privoxy</application>, if the installation program has
760 not done this already (may vary according to platform). See the section
761 <link linkend="startup">Starting <application>Privoxy</application></link>.
767 Set your browser to use <application>Privoxy</application> as HTTP and
768 HTTPS (SSL) <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_server">proxy</ulink>
769 by setting the proxy configuration for address of
770 <literal>127.0.0.1</literal> and port <literal>8118</literal>.
771 <emphasis>DO NOT</emphasis> activate proxying for <literal>FTP</literal> or
772 any protocols besides HTTP and HTTPS (SSL)! It won't work!
778 Flush your browser's disk and memory caches, to remove any cached ad images.
779 If using <application>Privoxy</application> to manage
780 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>,
781 you should remove any currently stored cookies too.
787 A default installation should provide a reasonable starting point for
788 most. There will undoubtedly be occasions where you will want to adjust the
789 configuration, but that can be dealt with as the need arises. Little
790 to no initial configuration is required in most cases.
793 See the <link linkend="configuration">Configuration section</link> for more
794 configuration options, and how to customize your installation.
795 You might also want to look at the <link
796 linkend="quickstart-ad-blocking">next section</link> for a quick
797 introduction to how <application>Privoxy</application> blocks ads and
804 If you experience ads that slip through, innocent images that are
805 blocked, or otherwise feel the need to fine-tune
806 <application>Privoxy's</application> behavior, take a look at the <link
807 linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>. As a quick start, you might
808 find the <link linkend="act-examples">richly commented examples</link>
809 helpful. You can also view and edit the actions files through the <ulink
810 url="http://config.privoxy.org">web-based user interface</ulink>. The
811 Appendix <quote><link linkend="actionsanat">Troubleshooting: Anatomy of an
812 Action</link></quote> has hints on how to understand and debug actions that
813 <quote>misbehave</quote>.
819 For easy access to &my-app;'s most important controls, drag the provided
820 <link linkend="bookmarklets">Bookmarklets</link> into your browser's
827 Please see the section <link linkend="contact">Contacting the
828 Developers</link> on how to report bugs, problems with websites or to get
835 Now enjoy surfing with enhanced control, comfort and privacy!
843 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
845 <sect2 id="quickstart-ad-blocking">
846 <title>Quickstart to Ad Blocking</title>
848 NOTE: This section is deliberately redundant for those that don't
849 want to read the whole thing (which is getting lengthy).
852 Ad blocking is but one of <application>Privoxy's</application>
853 array of features. Many of these features are for the technically minded advanced
854 user. But, ad and banner blocking is surely common ground for everybody.
857 This section will provide a quick summary of ad blocking so
858 you can get up to speed quickly without having to read the more extensive
859 information provided below, though this is highly recommended.
862 First a bit of a warning ... blocking ads is much like blocking SPAM: the
863 more aggressive you are about it, the more likely you are to block
864 things that were not intended. And the more likely that some things
865 may not work as intended. So there is a trade off here. If you want
866 extreme ad free browsing, be prepared to deal with more
867 <quote>problem</quote> sites, and to spend more time adjusting the
868 configuration to solve these unintended consequences. In short, there is
869 not an easy way to eliminate <emphasis>all</emphasis> ads. Either take
870 the easy way and settle for <emphasis>most</emphasis> ads blocked with the
871 default configuration, or jump in and tweak it for your personal surfing
872 habits and preferences.
875 Secondly, a brief explanation of <application>Privoxy's </application>
876 <quote>actions</quote>. <quote>Actions</quote> in this context, are
877 the directives we use to tell <application>Privoxy</application> to perform
878 some task relating to WWW transactions (i.e. web browsing). We tell
879 <application>Privoxy</application> to take some <quote>action</quote>. Each
880 action has a unique name and function. While there are many potential
881 <application>actions</application> in <application>Privoxy's</application>
882 arsenal, only a few are used for ad blocking. <link
883 linkend="actions">Actions</link>, and <link linkend="actions-file">action
884 configuration files</link>, are explained in depth below.
887 Actions are specified in <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration,
888 followed by one or more URLs to which the action should apply. URLs
889 can actually be URL type <link linkend="af-patterns">patterns</link> that use
890 wildcards so they can apply potentially to a range of similar URLs. The
891 actions, together with the URL patterns are called a section.
894 When you connect to a website, the full URL will either match one or more
895 of the sections as defined in <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration,
896 or not. If so, then <application>Privoxy</application> will perform the
897 respective actions. If not, then nothing special happens. Furthermore, web
898 pages may contain embedded, secondary URLs that your web browser will
899 use to load additional components of the page, as it parses the
900 original page's HTML content. An ad image for instance, is just an URL
901 embedded in the page somewhere. The image itself may be on the same server,
902 or a server somewhere else on the Internet. Complex web pages will have many
903 such embedded URLs. &my-app; can deal with each URL individually, so, for
904 instance, the main page text is not touched, but images from such-and-such
909 The most important actions for basic ad blocking are: <literal><link
910 linkend="block">block</link></literal>, <literal><link
911 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>,
913 linkend="handle-as-empty-document">handle-as-empty-document</link></literal>,and
914 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>:
922 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> - this is perhaps
923 the single most used action, and is particularly important for ad blocking.
924 This action stops any contact between your browser and any URL patterns
925 that match this action's configuration. It can be used for blocking ads,
926 but also anything that is determined to be unwanted. By itself, it simply
927 stops any communication with the remote server and sends
928 <application>Privoxy</application>'s own built-in BLOCKED page instead to
929 let you now what has happened (with some exceptions, see below).
935 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> -
936 tells <application>Privoxy</application> to treat this URL as an image.
937 <application>Privoxy</application>'s default configuration already does this
938 for all common image types (e.g. GIF), but there are many situations where this
939 is not so easy to determine. So we'll force it in these cases. This is particularly
940 important for ad blocking, since only if we know that it's an image of
941 some kind, can we replace it with an image of our choosing, instead of the
942 <application>Privoxy</application> BLOCKED page (which would only result in
943 a <quote>broken image</quote> icon). There are some limitations to this
944 though. For instance, you can't just brute-force an image substitution for
945 an entire HTML page in most situations.
951 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-empty-document">handle-as-empty-document</link></literal> -
952 sends an empty document instead of <application>Privoxy's</application>
953 normal BLOCKED HTML page. This is useful for file types that are neither
954 HTML nor images, such as blocking JavaScript files.
961 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal> - tells
962 <application>Privoxy</application> what to display in place of an ad image that
963 has hit a block rule. For this to come into play, the URL must match a
964 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action somewhere in the
965 configuration, <emphasis>and</emphasis>, it must also match an
966 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> action.
969 The configuration options on what to display instead of the ad are:
973 <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> - a checkerboard pattern, so that an ad
974 replacement is obvious. This is the default.
979 <emphasis>blank</emphasis> - A very small empty GIF image is displayed.
980 This is the so-called <quote>invisible</quote> configuration option.
985 <emphasis>http://<URL></emphasis> - A redirect to any image anywhere
986 of the user's choosing (advanced usage).
995 The quickest way to adjust any of these settings is with your browser through
996 the special <application>Privoxy</application> editor at <ulink
997 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
998 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/show-status</ulink>). This
999 is an internal page, and does not require Internet access. Select the
1000 appropriate <quote>actions</quote> file, and click
1001 <quote><guibutton>Edit</guibutton></quote>. It is best to put personal or
1002 local preferences in <filename>user.action</filename> since this is not
1003 meant to be overwritten during upgrades, and will over-ride the settings in
1004 other files. Here you can insert new <quote>actions</quote>, and URLs for ad
1005 blocking or other purposes, and make other adjustments to the configuration.
1006 <application>Privoxy</application> will detect these changes automatically.
1010 A quick and simple step by step example:
1018 Right click on the ad image to be blocked, then select
1019 <quote><guimenuitem>Copy Link Location</guimenuitem></quote> from the
1027 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
1032 Find <filename>user.action</filename> in the top section, and click
1033 on <quote><guibutton>Edit</guibutton></quote>:
1036 <!-- image of editor and actions files selections -->
1038 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Actions Files in Use</title>
1041 <imagedata fileref="files-in-use.jpg" format="jpg">
1044 <phrase>[ Screenshot of Actions Files in Use ]</phrase>
1053 You should have a section with only
1054 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> listed under
1055 <quote>Actions:</quote>.
1056 If not, click a <quote><guibutton>Insert new section below</guibutton></quote>
1057 button, and in the new section that just appeared, click the
1058 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> button right under the word <quote>Actions:</quote>.
1059 This will bring up a list of all actions. Find
1060 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> near the top, and click
1061 in the <quote>Enabled</quote> column, then <quote><guibutton>Submit</guibutton></quote>
1062 just below the list.
1067 Now, in the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> actions section,
1068 click the <quote><guibutton>Add</guibutton></quote> button, and paste the URL the
1069 browser got from <quote><guimenuitem>Copy Link Location</guimenuitem></quote>.
1070 Remove the <literal>http://</literal> at the beginning of the URL. Then, click
1071 <quote><guibutton>Submit</guibutton></quote> (or
1072 <quote><guibutton>OK</guibutton></quote> if in a pop-up window).
1077 Now go back to the original page, and press <keycap>SHIFT-Reload</keycap>
1078 (or flush all browser caches). The image should be gone now.
1086 This is a very crude and simple example. There might be good reasons to use a
1087 wildcard pattern match to include potentially similar images from the same
1088 site. For a more extensive explanation of <quote>patterns</quote>, and
1089 the entire actions concept, see <link linkend="actions-file">the Actions
1094 For advanced users who want to hand edit their config files, you might want
1095 to now go to the <link linkend="act-examples">Actions Files Tutorial</link>.
1096 The ideas explained therein also apply to the web-based editor.
1099 There are also various
1100 <link linkend="filter">filters</link> that can be used for ad blocking
1101 (filters are a special subset of actions). These
1102 fall into the <quote>advanced</quote> usage category, and are explained in
1103 depth in later sections.
1110 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1113 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1114 <sect1 id="startup">
1115 <title>Starting Privoxy</title>
1117 Before launching <application>Privoxy</application> for the first time, you
1118 will want to configure your browser(s) to use
1119 <application>Privoxy</application> as a HTTP and HTTPS (SSL)
1120 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_server">proxy</ulink>. The default is
1121 127.0.0.1 (or localhost) for the proxy address, and port 8118 (earlier versions
1122 used port 8000). This is the one configuration step <emphasis>that must be done
1126 Please note that <application>Privoxy</application> can only proxy HTTP and
1127 HTTPS traffic. It will not work with FTP or other protocols.
1130 <!-- image of Mozilla Proxy configuration -->
1132 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Proxy Configuration Showing
1133 Mozilla/Netscape HTTP and HTTPS (SSL) Settings</title>
1136 <imagedata fileref="proxy_setup.jpg" format="jpg">
1139 <phrase>[ Screenshot of Mozilla Proxy Configuration ]</phrase>
1147 With <application>Firefox</application>, this is typically set under:
1151 <guibutton>Tools</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Options</guibutton> -> <guibutton>General</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Connection Settings</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Manual Proxy Configuration</guibutton>
1156 Or optionally on some platforms:
1160 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Preferences</guibutton> -> <guibutton>General</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Connection Settings</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Manual Proxy Configuration</guibutton>
1166 With <application>Netscape</application> (and
1167 <application>Mozilla</application>), this can be set under:
1172 <!-- Mix ascii and gui art, something for everybody -->
1173 <!-- spacing on this is tricky -->
1174 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Preferences</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Advanced</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Proxies</guibutton> -> <guibutton>HTTP Proxy</guibutton>
1179 For <application>Internet Explorer v.5-6</application>:
1183 <guibutton>Tools</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Internet Options</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Connections</guibutton> -> <guibutton>LAN Settings</guibutton>
1187 Then, check <quote>Use Proxy</quote> and fill in the appropriate info
1188 (Address: 127.0.0.1, Port: 8118). Include HTTPS (SSL), if you want HTTPS
1189 proxy support too (sometimes labeled <quote>Secure</quote>). Make sure any
1190 checkboxes like <quote>Use the same proxy server for all protocols</quote> is
1191 <emphasis>UNCHECKED</emphasis>. You want only HTTP and HTTPS (SSL)!
1194 <!-- image of IE Proxy configuration -->
1196 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Proxy Configuration Showing
1197 Internet Explorer HTTP and HTTPS (Secure) Settings</title>
1200 <imagedata fileref="proxy2.jpg" format="jpg">
1203 <phrase>[ Screenshot of IE Proxy Configuration ]</phrase>
1211 After doing this, flush your browser's disk and memory caches to force a
1212 re-reading of all pages and to get rid of any ads that may be cached. Remove
1213 any <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>,
1214 if you want <application>Privoxy</application> to manage that. You are now
1215 ready to start enjoying the benefits of using
1216 <application>Privoxy</application>!
1220 <application>Privoxy</application> itself is typically started by specifying the
1221 main configuration file to be used on the command line. If no configuration
1222 file is specified on the command line, <application>Privoxy</application>
1223 will look for a file named <filename>config</filename> in the current
1224 directory. Except on Win32 where it will try <filename>config.txt</filename>.
1227 <sect2 id="start-redhat">
1228 <title>Red Hat and Fedora</title>
1230 A default Red Hat installation may not start &my-app; upon boot. It will use
1231 the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename> as its main configuration
1236 # /etc/rc.d/init.d/privoxy start
1244 # service privoxy start
1249 <sect2 id="start-debian">
1250 <title>Debian</title>
1252 We use a script. Note that Debian typically starts &my-app; upon booting per
1253 default. It will use the file
1254 <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename> as its main configuration
1259 # /etc/init.d/privoxy start
1265 omitting 10/31/06 HB
1267 <sect2 id="start-suse">
1270 We use a script. It will use the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename>
1271 as its main configuration file. Note that SuSE starts Privoxy upon booting
1281 <sect2 id="start-windows">
1282 <title>Windows</title>
1284 Click on the &my-app; Icon to start <application>Privoxy</application>. If no configuration file is
1285 specified on the command line, <application>Privoxy</application> will look
1286 for a file named <filename>config.txt</filename>. Note that Windows will
1287 automatically start &my-app; when the system starts if you chose that option
1291 <application>Privoxy</application> can run with full Windows service functionality.
1292 On Windows only, the &my-app; program has two new command line arguments
1293 to install and uninstall &my-app; as a service. See the
1294 <link linkend="installation-pack-win">Windows Installation
1295 instructions</link> for details.
1299 <sect2 id="start-unices">
1300 <title>Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD, HP-UX and others</title>
1302 Example Unix startup command:
1306 # /usr/sbin/privoxy /etc/privoxy/config
1311 <sect2 id="start-os2">
1314 During installation, <application>Privoxy</application> is configured to
1315 start automatically when the system restarts. You can start it manually by
1316 double-clicking on the <application>Privoxy</application> icon in the
1317 <application>Privoxy</application> folder.
1321 <sect2 id="start-macosx">
1322 <title>Mac OSX</title>
1324 During installation, <application>Privoxy</application> is configured to
1325 start automatically when the system restarts. To start &my-app; manually,
1326 double-click on the <literal>StartPrivoxy.command</literal> icon in the
1327 <literal>/Library/Privoxy</literal> folder. Or, type this command
1332 /Library/Privoxy/StartPrivoxy.command
1336 You will be prompted for the administrator password.
1341 <sect2 id="start-amigaos">
1342 <title>AmigaOS</title>
1344 Start <application>Privoxy</application> (with RUN <>NIL:) in your
1345 <filename>startnet</filename> script (AmiTCP), in
1346 <filename>s:user-startup</filename> (RoadShow), as startup program in your
1347 startup script (Genesis), or as startup action (Miami and MiamiDx).
1348 <application>Privoxy</application> will automatically quit when you quit your
1349 TCP/IP stack (just ignore the harmless warning your TCP/IP stack may display that
1350 <application>Privoxy</application> is still running).
1354 <sect2 id="start-gentoo">
1355 <title>Gentoo</title>
1357 A script is again used. It will use the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config
1358 </filename> as its main configuration file.
1362 /etc/init.d/privoxy start
1366 Note that <application>Privoxy</application> is not automatically started at
1367 boot time by default. You can change this with the <literal>rc-update</literal>
1372 rc-update add privoxy default
1380 See the section <link linkend="cmdoptions">Command line options</link> for
1384 must find a better place for this paragraph
1387 The included default configuration files should give a reasonable starting
1388 point. Most of the per site configuration is done in the
1389 <ulink url="actions-file.html"><quote>actions</quote></ulink> files. These are
1390 where various cookie actions are defined, ad and banner blocking, and other
1391 aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. There are several
1392 such files included, with varying levels of aggressiveness.
1396 You will probably want to keep an eye out for sites for which you may prefer
1397 persistent cookies, and add these to your actions configuration as needed. By
1398 default, most of these will be accepted only during the current browser
1399 session (aka <quote>session cookies</quote>), unless you add them to the
1400 configuration. If you want the browser to handle this instead, you will need
1401 to edit <filename>user.action</filename> (or through the web based interface)
1402 and disable this feature. If you use more than one browser, it would make
1403 more sense to let <application>Privoxy</application> handle this. In which
1404 case, the browser(s) should be set to accept all cookies.
1408 Another feature where you will probably want to define exceptions for trusted
1409 sites is the popup-killing (through the <ulink
1410 url="actions-file.html#KILL-POPUPS"><quote>+kill-popups</quote></ulink> and
1412 url="actions-file.html#FILTER-POPUPS"><quote>+filter{popups}</quote></ulink>
1413 actions), because your favorite shopping, banking, or leisure site may need
1414 popups (explained below).
1418 <application>Privoxy</application> is HTTP/1.1 compliant, but not all of
1419 the optional 1.1 features are as yet supported. In the unlikely event that
1420 you experience inexplicable problems with browsers that use HTTP/1.1 per default
1421 (like <application>Mozilla</application> or recent versions of I.E.), you might
1422 try to force HTTP/1.0 compatibility. For Mozilla, look under <literal>Edit ->
1423 Preferences -> Debug -> Networking</literal>.
1424 Alternatively, set the <quote>+downgrade-http-version</quote> config option in
1425 <filename>default.action</filename> which will downgrade your browser's HTTP
1426 requests from HTTP/1.1 to HTTP/1.0 before processing them.
1430 After running <application>Privoxy</application> for a while, you can
1431 start to fine tune the configuration to suit your personal, or site,
1432 preferences and requirements. There are many, many aspects that can
1433 be customized. <quote>Actions</quote>
1434 can be adjusted by pointing your browser to
1435 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
1436 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
1437 and then follow the link to <quote>View & Change the Current Configuration</quote>.
1438 (This is an internal page and does not require Internet access.)
1442 In fact, various aspects of <application>Privoxy</application>
1443 configuration can be viewed from this page, including
1444 current configuration parameters, source code version numbers,
1445 the browser's request headers, and <quote>actions</quote> that apply
1446 to a given URL. In addition to the actions file
1447 editor mentioned above, <application>Privoxy</application> can also
1448 be turned <quote>on</quote> and <quote>off</quote> (toggled) from this page.
1452 If you encounter problems, try loading the page without
1453 <application>Privoxy</application>. If that helps, enter the URL where
1454 you have the problems into <ulink url="http://p.p/show-url-info">the browser
1455 based rule tracing utility</ulink>. See which rules apply and why, and
1456 then try turning them off for that site one after the other, until the problem
1457 is gone. When you have found the culprit, you might want to turn the rest on
1462 If the above paragraph sounds gibberish to you, you might want to <link
1463 linkend="actions-file">read more about the actions concept</link>
1464 or even dive deep into the <link linkend="actionsanat">Appendix
1469 If you can't get rid of the problem at all, think you've found a bug in
1470 Privoxy, want to propose a new feature or smarter rules, please see the
1471 section <link linkend="contact"><quote>Contacting the
1472 Developers</quote></link> below.
1477 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1478 <sect2 id="cmdoptions">
1479 <title>Command Line Options</title>
1481 <application>Privoxy</application> may be invoked with the following
1482 command-line options:
1490 <emphasis>--version</emphasis>
1493 Print version info and exit. Unix only.
1498 <emphasis>--help</emphasis>
1501 Print short usage info and exit. Unix only.
1506 <emphasis>--no-daemon</emphasis>
1509 Don't become a daemon, i.e. don't fork and become process group
1510 leader, and don't detach from controlling tty. Unix only.
1515 <emphasis>--pidfile FILE</emphasis>
1519 On startup, write the process ID to <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>. Delete the
1520 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> on exit. Failure to create or delete the
1521 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> is non-fatal. If no <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>
1522 option is given, no PID file will be used. Unix only.
1527 <emphasis>--user USER[.GROUP]</emphasis>
1531 After (optionally) writing the PID file, assume the user ID of
1532 <emphasis>USER</emphasis>, and if included the GID of GROUP. Exit if the
1533 privileges are not sufficient to do so. Unix only.
1538 <emphasis>--chroot</emphasis>
1542 Before changing to the user ID given in the <emphasis>--user</emphasis> option,
1543 chroot to that user's home directory, i.e. make the kernel pretend to the &my-app;
1544 process that the directory tree starts there. If set up carefully, this can limit
1545 the impact of possible vulnerabilities in &my-app; to the files contained in that hierarchy.
1551 <emphasis>configfile</emphasis>
1554 If no <emphasis>configfile</emphasis> is included on the command line,
1555 <application>Privoxy</application> will look for a file named
1556 <quote>config</quote> in the current directory (except on Win32
1557 where it will look for <quote>config.txt</quote> instead). Specify
1558 full path to avoid confusion. If no config file is found,
1559 <application>Privoxy</application> will fail to start.
1567 On <application>MS Windows</application> only there are two additional
1568 command-line options to allow <application>Privoxy</application> to install and
1569 run as a <emphasis>service</emphasis>. See the
1570 <link linkend="installation-pack-win">Window Installation section</link>
1578 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1581 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1582 <sect1 id="configuration"><title>Privoxy Configuration</title>
1584 All <application>Privoxy</application> configuration is stored
1585 in text files. These files can be edited with a text editor.
1586 Many important aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> can
1587 also be controlled easily with a web browser.
1591 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1594 <title>Controlling Privoxy with Your Web Browser</title>
1596 <application>Privoxy</application>'s user interface can be reached through the special
1597 URL <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
1598 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
1599 which is a built-in page and works without Internet access.
1600 You will see the following section:
1604 <!-- Needs to be put in a table and colorized -->
1607 <bridgehead renderas="sect2"> Privoxy Menu</bridgehead>
1611 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">View & change the current configuration</ulink>
1614 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-version">View the source code version numbers</ulink>
1617 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request">View the request headers.</ulink>
1620 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">Look up which actions apply to a URL and why</ulink>
1623 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">Toggle Privoxy on or off</ulink>
1626 ▪ <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/
1627 &p-version;/user-manual/">Documentation</ulink>
1635 This should be self-explanatory. Note the first item leads to an editor for the
1636 <link linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>, which is where the ad, banner,
1637 cookie, and URL blocking magic is configured as well as other advanced features of
1638 <application>Privoxy</application>. This is an easy way to adjust various
1639 aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. The actions
1640 file, and other configuration files, are explained in detail below.
1644 <quote>Toggle Privoxy On or Off</quote> is handy for sites that might
1645 have problems with your current actions and filters. You can in fact use
1646 it as a test to see whether it is <application>Privoxy</application>
1647 causing the problem or not. <application>Privoxy</application> continues
1648 to run as a proxy in this case, but all manipulation is disabled, i.e.
1649 <application>Privoxy</application> acts like a normal forwarding proxy. There
1650 is even a toggle <link linkend="bookmarklets">Bookmarklet</link> offered, so
1651 that you can toggle <application>Privoxy</application> with one click from
1657 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1662 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1664 <sect2 id="confoverview">
1665 <title>Configuration Files Overview</title>
1667 For Unix, *BSD and Linux, all configuration files are located in
1668 <filename>/etc/privoxy/</filename> by default. For MS Windows, OS/2, and
1669 AmigaOS these are all in the same directory as the
1670 <application>Privoxy</application> executable. <![%p-not-stable;[ The name
1671 and number of configuration files has changed from previous versions, and is
1672 subject to change as development progresses.]]>
1676 The installed defaults provide a reasonable starting point, though
1677 some settings may be aggressive by some standards. For the time being, the
1678 principle configuration files are:
1686 The <link linkend="config">main configuration file</link> is named <filename>config</filename>
1687 on Linux, Unix, BSD, OS/2, and AmigaOS and <filename>config.txt</filename>
1688 on Windows. This is a required file.
1694 <filename>default.action</filename> (the main <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link>)
1695 is used to define which <quote>actions</quote> relating to banner-blocking, images, pop-ups,
1696 content modification, cookie handling etc should be applied by default. It also defines many
1697 exceptions (both positive and negative) from this default set of actions that enable
1698 <application>Privoxy</application> to selectively eliminate the junk, and only the junk, on
1699 as many websites as possible.
1702 Multiple actions files may be defined in <filename>config</filename>. These
1703 are processed in the order they are defined. Local customizations and locally
1704 preferred exceptions to the default policies as defined in
1705 <filename>default.action</filename> (which you will most probably want
1706 to define sooner or later) are probably best applied in
1707 <filename>user.action</filename>, where you can preserve them across
1708 upgrades. <filename>standard.action</filename> is only for
1709 <application>Privoxy's</application> internal use.
1712 There is also a web based editor that can be accessed from
1714 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
1716 url="http://p.p/show-status">http://p.p/show-status</ulink>) for the
1717 various actions files.
1723 <quote>Filter files</quote> (the <link linkend="filter-file">filter
1724 file</link>) can be used to re-write the raw page content, including
1725 viewable text as well as embedded HTML and JavaScript, and whatever else
1726 lurks on any given web page. The filtering jobs are only pre-defined here;
1727 whether to apply them or not is up to the actions files.
1728 <filename>default.filter</filename> includes various filters made
1729 available for use by the developers. Some are much more intrusive than
1730 others, and all should be used with caution. You may define additional
1731 filter files in <filename>config</filename> as you can with
1732 actions files. We suggest <filename>user.filter</filename> for any
1733 locally defined filters or customizations.
1741 The syntax of all configuration files has remained the same throughout the
1742 3.x series. There have been enhancements, but no changes that would preclude
1743 the use of any configuration file from one version to the next. (There is
1744 one exception: <link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">+fast-redirects</link> which
1745 has enhanced syntax and will require updating any local configs from earlier
1750 All files use the <quote><literal>#</literal></quote> character to denote a
1751 comment (the rest of the line will be ignored) and understand line continuation
1752 through placing a backslash ("<literal>\</literal>") as the very last character
1753 in a line. If the <literal>#</literal> is preceded by a backslash, it looses
1754 its special function. Placing a <literal>#</literal> in front of an otherwise
1755 valid configuration line to prevent it from being interpreted is called "commenting
1756 out" that line. Blank lines are ignored.
1760 The actions files and filter files
1761 can use Perl style <link linkend="regex">regular expressions</link> for
1762 maximum flexibility.
1766 After making any changes, there is no need to restart
1767 <application>Privoxy</application> in order for the changes to take
1768 effect. <application>Privoxy</application> detects such changes
1769 automatically. Note, however, that it may take one or two additional
1770 requests for the change to take effect. When changing the listening address
1771 of <application>Privoxy</application>, these <quote>wake up</quote> requests
1772 must obviously be sent to the <emphasis>old</emphasis> listening address.
1777 While under development, the configuration content is subject to change.
1778 The below documentation may not be accurate by the time you read this.
1779 Also, what constitutes a <quote>default</quote> setting, may change, so
1780 please check all your configuration files on important issues.
1786 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1789 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
1791 <!-- **************************************************** -->
1792 <!-- Include config.sgml here -->
1793 <!-- This is where the entire config file is detailed. -->
1795 <!-- end include -->
1798 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1802 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
1804 <sect1 id="actions-file"><title>Actions Files</title>
1807 The actions files are used to define what <emphasis>actions</emphasis>
1808 <application>Privoxy</application> takes for which URLs, and thus determines
1809 how ad images, cookies and various other aspects of HTTP content and
1810 transactions are handled, and on which sites (or even parts thereof).
1811 There are a number of such actions, with a wide range of functionality.
1812 Each action does something a little different.
1813 These actions give us a veritable arsenal of tools with which to exert
1814 our control, preferences and independence. Actions can be combined so that
1815 their effects are aggregated when applied against a given set of URLs.
1819 are three action files included with <application>Privoxy</application> with
1827 <filename>default.action</filename> - is the primary action file
1828 that sets the initial values for all actions. It is intended to
1829 provide a base level of functionality for
1830 <application>Privoxy's</application> array of features. So it is
1831 a set of broad rules that should work reasonably well as-is for most users.
1832 This is the file that the developers are keeping updated, and <link
1833 linkend="installation-keepupdated">making available to users</link>.
1834 The user's preferences as set in <filename>standard.action</filename>,
1835 e.g. either <literal>Cautious</literal> (the default),
1836 <literal>Medium</literal>, or <literal>Advanced</literal> (see
1842 <filename>user.action</filename> - is intended to be for local site
1843 preferences and exceptions. As an example, if your ISP or your bank
1844 has specific requirements, and need special handling, this kind of
1845 thing should go here. This file will not be upgraded.
1850 <filename>standard.action</filename> - is used only by the web based editor
1851 at <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions-list?f=default">
1852 http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions-list?f=default</ulink>,
1853 to set various pre-defined sets of rules for the default actions section
1854 in <filename>default.action</filename>.
1857 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> <guibutton>Set to Cautious</guibutton> <guibutton>Set to Medium</guibutton> <guibutton>Set to Advanced</guibutton>
1860 These have increasing levels of aggressiveness <emphasis>and have no
1861 influence on your browsing unless you select them explicitly in the
1862 editor</emphasis>. A default installation should be pre-set to
1863 <literal>Cautious</literal> (versions prior to 3.0.5 were set to
1864 <literal>Medium</literal>). New users should try this for a while before
1865 adjusting the settings to more aggressive levels. The more aggressive
1866 the settings, then the more likelihood there is of problems such as sites
1867 not working as they should.
1870 The <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> button allows you to turn each
1871 action on/off individually for fine-tuning. The <guibutton>Cautious</guibutton>
1872 button changes the actions list to low/safe settings which will activate
1873 ad blocking and a minimal set of &my-app;'s features, and subsequently
1874 there will be less of a chance for accidental problems. The
1875 <guibutton>Medium</guibutton> button sets the list to a medium level of
1876 other features and a low level set of privacy features. The
1877 <guibutton>Advanced</guibutton> button sets the list to a high level of
1878 ad blocking and medium level of privacy. See the chart below. The latter
1879 three buttons over-ride any changes via with the
1880 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> button. More fine-tuning can be done in the
1881 lower sections of this internal page.
1884 It is not recommend to edit the <filename>standard.action</filename> file
1888 The default profiles, and their associated actions, as pre-defined in
1889 <filename>standard.action</filename> are:
1892 <table frame=all><title>Default Configurations</title>
1893 <tgroup cols=4 align=left colsep=1 rowsep=1>
1894 <colspec colname=c1>
1895 <colspec colname=c2>
1896 <colspec colname=c3>
1897 <colspec colname=c4>
1900 <entry>Feature</entry>
1901 <entry>Cautious</entry>
1902 <entry>Medium</entry>
1903 <entry>Advanced</entry>
1908 <!-- <entry>f1</entry> -->
1909 <!-- <entry>f2</entry> -->
1910 <!-- <entry>f3</entry> -->
1911 <!-- <entry>f4</entry> -->
1917 <entry>Ad-blocking Aggressiveness</entry>
1918 <entry>medium</entry>
1924 <entry>Ad-filtering by size</entry>
1931 <entry>Ad-filtering by link</entry>
1937 <entry>Pop-up killing</entry>
1938 <entry>blocks only</entry>
1939 <entry>blocks only</entry>
1940 <entry>blocks only</entry>
1944 <entry>Privacy Features</entry>
1946 <entry>medium</entry>
1947 <entry>medium/high</entry>
1951 <entry>Cookie handling</entry>
1953 <entry>session-only</entry>
1958 <entry>Referer forging</entry>
1966 <entry>GIF de-animation</entry>
1974 <entry>Fast redirects</entry>
1981 <entry>HTML taming</entry>
1988 <entry>JavaScript taming</entry>
1995 <entry>Web-bug killing</entry>
2002 <entry>Image tag reordering</entry>
2018 The list of actions files to be used are defined in the main configuration
2019 file, and are processed in the order they are defined (e.g.
2020 <filename>default.action</filename> is typically processed before
2021 <filename>user.action</filename>). The content of these can all be viewed and
2023 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
2024 The over-riding principle when applying actions, is that the last action that
2025 matches a given URL, wins. The broadest, most general rules go first
2026 (defined in <filename>default.action</filename>),
2027 followed by any exceptions (typically also in
2028 <filename>default.action</filename>), which are then followed lastly by any
2029 local preferences (typically in <emphasis>user</emphasis><filename>.action</filename>).
2030 Generally, <filename>user.action</filename> has the last word.
2034 An actions file typically has multiple sections. If you want to use
2035 <quote>aliases</quote> in an actions file, you have to place the (optional)
2036 <link linkend="aliases">alias section</link> at the top of that file.
2037 Then comes the default set of rules which will apply universally to all
2038 sites and pages (be <emphasis>very careful</emphasis> with using such a
2039 universal set in <filename>user.action</filename> or any other actions file after
2040 <filename>default.action</filename>, because it will override the result
2041 from consulting any previous file). And then below that,
2042 exceptions to the defined universal policies. You can regard
2043 <filename>user.action</filename> as an appendix to <filename>default.action</filename>,
2044 with the advantage that is a separate file, which makes preserving your
2045 personal settings across <application>Privoxy</application> upgrades easier.
2049 Actions can be used to block anything you want, including ads, banners, or
2050 just some obnoxious URL that you would rather not see. Cookies can be accepted
2051 or rejected, or accepted only during the current browser session (i.e. not
2052 written to disk), content can be modified, JavaScripts tamed, user-tracking
2053 fooled, and much more. See below for a <link linkend="actions">complete list
2057 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2059 <title>Finding the Right Mix</title>
2061 Note that some <link linkend="actions">actions</link>, like cookie suppression
2062 or script disabling, may render some sites unusable that rely on these
2063 techniques to work properly. Finding the right mix of actions is not always easy and
2064 certainly a matter of personal taste. And, things can always change, requiring
2065 refinements in the configuration. In general, it can be said that the more
2066 <quote>aggressive</quote> your default settings (in the top section of the
2067 actions file) are, the more exceptions for <quote>trusted</quote> sites you
2068 will have to make later. If, for example, you want to crunch all cookies per
2069 default, you'll have to make exceptions from that rule for sites that you
2070 regularly use and that require cookies for actually useful purposes, like maybe
2071 your bank, favorite shop, or newspaper.
2075 We have tried to provide you with reasonable rules to start from in the
2076 distribution actions files. But there is no general rule of thumb on these
2077 things. There just are too many variables, and sites are constantly changing.
2078 Sooner or later you will want to change the rules (and read this chapter again :).
2082 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2084 <title>How to Edit</title>
2086 The easiest way to edit the actions files is with a browser by
2087 using our browser-based editor, which can be reached from <ulink
2088 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
2089 The editor allows both fine-grained control over every single feature on a
2090 per-URL basis, and easy choosing from wholesale sets of defaults like
2091 <quote>Cautious</quote>, <quote>Medium</quote> or <quote>Advanced</quote>.
2092 Warning: the <quote>Advanced</quote> setting is more aggressive, and
2093 will be more likely to cause problems for some sites. Experienced users only!
2097 If you prefer plain text editing to GUIs, you can of course also directly edit the
2098 the actions files with your favorite text editor. Look at
2099 <filename>default.action</filename> which is richly commented with many
2105 <sect2 id="actions-apply">
2106 <title>How Actions are Applied to Requests</title>
2108 Actions files are divided into sections. There are special sections,
2109 like the <quote><link linkend="aliases">alias</link></quote> sections which will
2110 be discussed later. For now let's concentrate on regular sections: They have a
2111 heading line (often split up to multiple lines for readability) which consist
2112 of a list of actions, separated by whitespace and enclosed in curly braces.
2113 Below that, there is a list of URL and tag patterns, each on a separate line.
2117 To determine which actions apply to a request, the URL of the request is
2118 compared to all URL patterns in each <quote>action file</quote>.
2119 Every time it matches, the list of applicable actions for the request is
2120 incrementally updated, using the heading of the section in which the
2121 pattern is located. The same is done again for tags and tag patterns later on.
2125 If multiple applying sections set the same action differently,
2126 the last match wins. If not, the effects are aggregated.
2127 E.g. a URL might match a regular section with a heading line of <literal>{
2128 +<link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link> }</literal>,
2129 then later another one with just <literal>{
2130 +<link linkend="block">block</link> }</literal>, resulting
2131 in <emphasis>both</emphasis> actions to apply. And there may well be
2132 cases where you will want to combine actions together. Such a section then
2138 { +<literal>handle-as-image</literal> +<literal>block</literal> }
2139 # Block these as if they were images. Send no block page.
2141 media.example.com/.*banners
2142 .example.com/images/ads/</screen>
2146 You can trace this process for URL patterns and any given URL by visiting <ulink
2147 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>.
2151 Examples and more detail on this is provided in the Appendix, <link linkend="ACTIONSANAT">
2152 Troubleshooting: Anatomy of an Action</link> section.
2156 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2157 <sect2 id="af-patterns">
2158 <title>Patterns</title>
2160 As mentioned, <application>Privoxy</application> uses <quote>patterns</quote>
2161 to determine what <emphasis>actions</emphasis> might apply to which sites and
2162 pages your browser attempts to access. These <quote>patterns</quote> use wild
2163 card type <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> matching to achieve a high degree of
2164 flexibility. This allows one expression to be expanded and potentially match
2165 against many similar patterns.
2169 Generally, a URL pattern has the form
2170 <literal><domain>/<path></literal>, where both the
2171 <literal><domain></literal> and <literal><path></literal> are
2172 optional. (This is why the special <literal>/</literal> pattern matches all
2173 URLs). Note that the protocol portion of the URL pattern (e.g.
2174 <literal>http://</literal>) should <emphasis>not</emphasis> be included in
2175 the pattern. This is assumed already!
2178 The pattern matching syntax is different for the domain and path parts of
2179 the URL. The domain part uses a simple globbing type matching technique,
2180 while the path part uses a more flexible
2181 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
2182 Expressions (PCRE)</quote></ulink> based syntax.
2187 <term><literal>www.example.com/</literal></term>
2190 is a domain-only pattern and will match any request to <literal>www.example.com</literal>,
2191 regardless of which document on that server is requested. So ALL pages in
2192 this domain would be covered by the scope of this action. Note that a
2193 simple <literal>example.com</literal> is different and would NOT match.
2198 <term><literal>www.example.com</literal></term>
2201 means exactly the same. For domain-only patterns, the trailing <literal>/</literal> may
2207 <term><literal>www.example.com/index.html</literal></term>
2210 matches only the single document <literal>/index.html</literal>
2211 on <literal>www.example.com</literal>.
2216 <term><literal>/index.html</literal></term>
2219 matches the document <literal>/index.html</literal>, regardless of the domain,
2220 i.e. on <emphasis>any</emphasis> web server anywhere.
2225 <term><literal>index.html</literal></term>
2228 matches nothing, since it would be interpreted as a domain name and
2229 there is no top-level domain called <literal>.html</literal>. So its
2237 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2238 <sect3><title>The Domain Pattern</title>
2241 The matching of the domain part offers some flexible options: if the
2242 domain starts or ends with a dot, it becomes unanchored at that end.
2248 <term><literal>.example.com</literal></term>
2251 matches any domain that <emphasis>ENDS</emphasis> in
2252 <literal>.example.com</literal>
2257 <term><literal>www.</literal></term>
2260 matches any domain that <emphasis>STARTS</emphasis> with
2261 <literal>www.</literal>
2266 <term><literal>.example.</literal></term>
2269 matches any domain that <emphasis>CONTAINS</emphasis> <literal>.example.</literal>.
2270 And, by the way, also included would be any files or documents that exist
2271 within that domain since no path limitations are specified. (Correctly
2272 speaking: It matches any FQDN that contains <literal>example</literal> as
2273 a domain.) This might be <literal>www.example.com</literal>,
2274 <literal>news.example.de</literal>, or
2275 <literal>www.example.net/cgi/testing.pl</literal> for instance. All these
2283 Additionally, there are wild-cards that you can use in the domain names
2284 themselves. These work similarly to shell globbing type wild-cards:
2285 <quote>*</quote> represents zero or more arbitrary characters (this is
2287 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
2288 Expression</quote></ulink> based syntax of <quote>.*</quote>),
2289 <quote>?</quote> represents any single character (this is equivalent to the
2290 regular expression syntax of a simple <quote>.</quote>), and you can define
2291 <quote>character classes</quote> in square brackets which is similar to
2292 the same regular expression technique. All of this can be freely mixed:
2297 <term><literal>ad*.example.com</literal></term>
2300 matches <quote>adserver.example.com</quote>,
2301 <quote>ads.example.com</quote>, etc but not <quote>sfads.example.com</quote>
2306 <term><literal>*ad*.example.com</literal></term>
2309 matches all of the above, and then some.
2314 <term><literal>.?pix.com</literal></term>
2317 matches <literal>www.ipix.com</literal>,
2318 <literal>pictures.epix.com</literal>, <literal>a.b.c.d.e.upix.com</literal> etc.
2323 <term><literal>www[1-9a-ez].example.c*</literal></term>
2326 matches <literal>www1.example.com</literal>,
2327 <literal>www4.example.cc</literal>, <literal>wwwd.example.cy</literal>,
2328 <literal>wwwz.example.com</literal> etc., but <emphasis>not</emphasis>
2329 <literal>wwww.example.com</literal>.
2336 While flexible, this is not the sophistication of full regular expression based syntax.
2341 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2344 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2345 <sect3><title>The Path Pattern</title>
2348 <application>Privoxy</application> uses Perl compatible (PCRE)
2349 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
2350 Expression</quote></ulink> based syntax
2351 (through the <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/">PCRE</ulink> library) for
2352 matching the path portion (after the slash), and is thus more flexible.
2356 There is an <link linkend="regex">Appendix</link> with a brief quick-start into regular
2357 expressions, and full (very technical) documentation on PCRE regex syntax is available on-line
2358 at <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/man.txt">http://www.pcre.org/man.txt</ulink>.
2359 You might also find the Perl man page on regular expressions (<literal>man perlre</literal>)
2360 useful, which is available on-line at <ulink
2361 url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html">http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html</ulink>.
2365 Note that the path pattern is automatically left-anchored at the <quote>/</quote>,
2366 i.e. it matches as if it would start with a <quote>^</quote> (regular expression speak
2367 for the beginning of a line).
2371 Please also note that matching in the path is <emphasis>CASE INSENSITIVE</emphasis>
2372 by default, but you can switch to case sensitive at any point in the pattern by using the
2373 <quote>(?-i)</quote> switch: <literal>www.example.com/(?-i)PaTtErN.*</literal> will match
2374 only documents whose path starts with <literal>PaTtErN</literal> in
2375 <emphasis>exactly</emphasis> this capitalization.
2380 <term><literal>.example.com/.*</literal></term>
2383 Is equivalent to just <quote>.example.com</quote>, since any documents
2384 within that domain are matched with or without the <quote>.*</quote>
2385 regular expression. This is redundant
2390 <term><literal>.example.com/.*/index.html</literal></term>
2393 Will match any page in the domain of <quote>example.com</quote> that is
2394 named <quote>index.html</quote>, and that is part of some path. For
2395 example, it matches <quote>www.example.com/testing/index.html</quote> but
2396 NOT <quote>www.example.com/index.html</quote> because the regular
2397 expression called for at least two <quote>/'s</quote>, thus the path
2398 requirement. It also would match
2399 <quote>www.example.com/testing/index_html</quote>, because of the
2400 special meta-character <quote>.</quote>.
2405 <term><literal>.example.com/(.*/)?index\.html</literal></term>
2408 This regular expression is conditional so it will match any page
2409 named <quote>index.html</quote> regardless of path which in this case can
2410 have one or more <quote>/'s</quote>. And this one must contain exactly
2411 <quote>.html</quote> (but does not have to end with that!).
2416 <term><literal>.example.com/(.*/)(ads|banners?|junk)</literal></term>
2419 This regular expression will match any path of <quote>example.com</quote>
2420 that contains any of the words <quote>ads</quote>, <quote>banner</quote>,
2421 <quote>banners</quote> (because of the <quote>?</quote>) or <quote>junk</quote>.
2422 The path does not have to end in these words, just contain them.
2427 <term><literal>.example.com/(.*/)(ads|banners?|junk)/.*\.(jpe?g|gif|png)$</literal></term>
2430 This is very much the same as above, except now it must end in either
2431 <quote>.jpg</quote>, <quote>.jpeg</quote>, <quote>.gif</quote> or <quote>.png</quote>. So this
2432 one is limited to common image formats.
2439 There are many, many good examples to be found in <filename>default.action</filename>,
2440 and more tutorials below in <link linkend="regex">Appendix on regular expressions</link>.
2445 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2448 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2449 <sect3 id="tag-pattern"><title>The Tag Pattern</title>
2452 Tag patterns are used to change the applying actions based on the
2453 request's tags. Tags can be created with either the
2454 <link linkend="CLIENT-HEADER-FILTER">client-header-tagger</link>
2455 or the <link linkend="SERVER-HEADER-FILTER">server-header-tagger</link> action.
2459 Tag patterns have to start with <quote>TAG:</quote>, so &my-app;
2460 can tell them apart from URL patterns. Everything after the colon
2461 including white space, is interpreted as a regular expression with
2462 path patterns syntax, except that tag patterns aren't left-anchored
2463 automatically (Privoxy doesn't silently add a <quote>^</quote>,
2464 you have to do it yourself if you need it).
2468 To match all requests that are tagged with <quote>foo</quote>
2469 your pattern line should be <quote>TAG:^foo$</quote>,
2470 <quote>TAG:foo</quote> would work as well, but it would also
2471 match requests whose tags contain <quote>foo</quote> somewhere.
2475 Sections can contain URL and tag patterns at the same time,
2476 but tag patterns are checked after the URL patterns and thus
2477 always overrule them, even if they are located before the URL patterns.
2481 Once a new tag is added, Privoxy checks right away if it's matched by one
2482 of the tag patterns and updates the action settings accordingly. As a result
2483 tags can be used to activate other tagger actions, as long as these other
2484 taggers look for headers that haven't already be parsed.
2488 For example you could tag client requests which use the POST method,
2489 use this tag to activate another tagger that adds a tag if cookies
2490 are send, and then block based on the cookie tag. However if you'd
2491 reverse the position of the described taggers, and activated the method
2492 tagger based on the cookie tagger, no method tags would be created.
2493 The method tagger would look for the request line, but at the time
2494 the cookie tag is created the request line has already been parsed.
2498 While this is a limitation you should be aware of, this kind of
2499 indirection is seldom needed anyway and even the example doesn't
2500 make too much sense.
2507 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2510 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2512 <sect2 id="actions">
2513 <title>Actions</title>
2515 All actions are disabled by default, until they are explicitly enabled
2516 somewhere in an actions file. Actions are turned on if preceded with a
2517 <quote>+</quote>, and turned off if preceded with a <quote>-</quote>. So a
2518 <literal>+action</literal> means <quote>do that action</quote>, e.g.
2519 <literal>+block</literal> means <quote>please block URLs that match the
2520 following patterns</quote>, and <literal>-block</literal> means <quote>don't
2521 block URLs that match the following patterns, even if <literal>+block</literal>
2522 previously applied.</quote>
2527 Again, actions are invoked by placing them on a line, enclosed in curly braces and
2528 separated by whitespace, like in
2529 <literal>{+some-action -some-other-action{some-parameter}}</literal>,
2530 followed by a list of URL patterns, one per line, to which they apply.
2531 Together, the actions line and the following pattern lines make up a section
2532 of the actions file.
2536 Actions fall into three categories:
2543 Boolean, i.e the action can only be <quote>enabled</quote> or
2544 <quote>disabled</quote>. Syntax:
2548 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # enable action <replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable>
2549 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # disable action <replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable></screen>
2552 Example: <literal>+block</literal>
2559 Parameterized, where some value is required in order to enable this type of action.
2564 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # enable action and set parameter to <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>,
2565 # overwriting parameter from previous match if necessary
2566 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # disable action. The parameter can be omitted</screen>
2569 Note that if the URL matches multiple positive forms of a parameterized action,
2570 the last match wins, i.e. the params from earlier matches are simply ignored.
2573 Example: <literal>+hide-user-agent{ Mozilla 1.0 }</literal>
2579 Multi-value. These look exactly like parameterized actions,
2580 but they behave differently: If the action applies multiple times to the
2581 same URL, but with different parameters, <emphasis>all</emphasis> the parameters
2582 from <emphasis>all</emphasis> matches are remembered. This is used for actions
2583 that can be executed for the same request repeatedly, like adding multiple
2584 headers, or filtering through multiple filters. Syntax:
2588 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # enable action and add <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable> to the list of parameters
2589 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # remove the parameter <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable> from the list of parameters
2590 # If it was the last one left, disable the action.
2591 <replaceable class="parameter">-name</replaceable> # disable this action completely and remove all parameters from the list</screen>
2594 Examples: <literal>+add-header{X-Fun-Header: Some text}</literal> and
2595 <literal>+filter{html-annoyances}</literal>
2603 If nothing is specified in any actions file, no <quote>actions</quote> are
2604 taken. So in this case <application>Privoxy</application> would just be a
2605 normal, non-blocking, non-anonymizing proxy. You must specifically enable the
2606 privacy and blocking features you need (although the provided default actions
2607 files will give a good starting point).
2611 Later defined actions always over-ride earlier ones. So exceptions
2612 to any rules you make, should come in the latter part of the file (or
2613 in a file that is processed later when using multiple actions files such
2614 as <filename>user.action</filename>). For multi-valued actions, the actions
2615 are applied in the order they are specified. Actions files are processed in
2616 the order they are defined in <filename>config</filename> (the default
2617 installation has three actions files). It also quite possible for any given
2618 URL to match more than one <quote>pattern</quote> (because of wildcards and
2619 regular expressions), and thus to trigger more than one set of actions! Last
2623 <!-- start actions listing -->
2625 The list of valid <application>Privoxy</application> actions are:
2629 <!-- ********************************************************** -->
2630 <!-- Please note the below defined actions use id's that are -->
2631 <!-- probably linked from other places, so please don't change. -->
2633 <!-- ********************************************************** -->
2636 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2638 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="add-header">
2639 <title>add-header</title>
2643 <term>Typical use:</term>
2645 <para>Confuse log analysis, custom applications</para>
2650 <term>Effect:</term>
2653 Sends a user defined HTTP header to the web server.
2660 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2662 <para>Multi-value.</para>
2667 <term>Parameter:</term>
2670 Any string value is possible. Validity of the defined HTTP headers is not checked.
2671 It is recommended that you use the <quote><literal>X-</literal></quote> prefix
2681 This action may be specified multiple times, in order to define multiple
2682 headers. This is rarely needed for the typical user. If you don't know what
2683 <quote>HTTP headers</quote> are, you definitely don't need to worry about this
2690 <term>Example usage:</term>
2693 <screen>+add-header{X-User-Tracking: sucks}</screen>
2701 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2702 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="block">
2703 <title>block</title>
2707 <term>Typical use:</term>
2709 <para>Block ads or other unwanted content</para>
2714 <term>Effect:</term>
2717 Requests for URLs to which this action applies are blocked, i.e. the
2718 requests are trapped by &my-app; and the requested URL is never retrieved,
2719 but is answered locally with a substitute page or image, as determined by
2721 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>,
2723 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>, and
2725 linkend="handle-as-empty-document">handle-as-empty-document</link></literal> actions.
2733 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2735 <para>Boolean.</para>
2740 <term>Parameter:</term>
2750 <application>Privoxy</application> sends a special <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page
2751 for requests to blocked pages. This page contains links to find out why the request
2752 was blocked, and a click-through to the blocked content (the latter only if compiled with the
2753 force feature enabled). The <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page adapts to the available
2754 screen space -- it displays full-blown if space allows, or miniaturized and text-only
2755 if loaded into a small frame or window. If you are using <application>Privoxy</application>
2756 right now, you can take a look at the
2757 <ulink url="http://ads.bannerserver.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor.html"><quote>BLOCKED</quote>
2761 A very important exception occurs if <emphasis>both</emphasis>
2762 <literal>block</literal> and <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>,
2763 apply to the same request: it will then be replaced by an image. If
2764 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>
2765 (see below) also applies, the type of image will be determined by its parameter,
2766 if not, the standard checkerboard pattern is sent.
2769 It is important to understand this process, in order
2770 to understand how <application>Privoxy</application> deals with
2771 ads and other unwanted content. Blocking is a core feature, and one
2772 upon which various other features depend.
2775 The <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>
2776 action can perform a very similar task, by <quote>blocking</quote>
2777 banner images and other content through rewriting the relevant URLs in the
2778 document's HTML source, so they don't get requested in the first place.
2779 Note that this is a totally different technique, and it's easy to confuse the two.
2785 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
2789 # Block and replace with "blocked" page
2790 .nasty-stuff.example.com
2792 {+block +handle-as-image}
2793 # Block and replace with image
2797 {+block +handle-as-empty-document}
2798 # Block and then ignore
2799 adserver.exampleclick.net/.*\.js$</screen>
2809 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2810 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="client-header-filter">
2811 <title>client-header-filter</title>
2815 <term>Typical use:</term>
2818 Rewrite or remove single client headers.
2824 <term>Effect:</term>
2827 All client headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly through
2828 the specified regular expression based substitutions.
2835 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2837 <para>Parameterized.</para>
2842 <term>Parameter:</term>
2845 The name of a client-header filter, as defined in one of the
2846 <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link>.
2855 Client-header filters are applied to each header on its own, not to
2856 all at once. This makes it easier to diagnose problems, but on the downside
2857 you can't write filters that only change header x if header y's value is z.
2858 You can do that by using tags though.
2861 Client-header filters are executed after the other header actions have finished
2862 and use their output as input.
2865 Please refer to the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file chapter</link>
2866 to learn which client-header filters are available by default, and how to
2874 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
2878 {+client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation}}
2889 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2890 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="client-header-tagger">
2891 <title>client-header-tagger</title>
2895 <term>Typical use:</term>
2898 Block requests based on their headers.
2904 <term>Effect:</term>
2907 Client headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly through
2908 the specified regular expression based substitutions, the result is used as
2916 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2918 <para>Parameterized.</para>
2923 <term>Parameter:</term>
2926 The name of a client-header tagger, as defined in one of the
2927 <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link>.
2936 Client-header taggers are applied to each header on its own,
2937 and as the header isn't modified, each tagger <quote>sees</quote>
2941 Client-header taggers are the first actions that are executed
2942 and their tags can be used to control every other action.
2948 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
2952 # Tag every request with the User-Agent header
2953 {+client-header-filter{user-agent}}
2964 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2965 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="content-type-overwrite">
2969 <title>content-type-overwrite</title>
2973 <term>Typical use:</term>
2975 <para>Stop useless download menus from popping up, or change the browser's rendering mode</para>
2980 <term>Effect:</term>
2983 Replaces the <quote>Content-Type:</quote> HTTP server header.
2990 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
2992 <para>Parameterized.</para>
2997 <term>Parameter:</term>
3009 The <quote>Content-Type:</quote> HTTP server header is used by the
3010 browser to decide what to do with the document. The value of this
3011 header can cause the browser to open a download menu instead of
3012 displaying the document by itself, even if the document's format is
3013 supported by the browser.
3016 The declared content type can also affect which rendering mode
3017 the browser chooses. If XHTML is delivered as <quote>text/html</quote>,
3018 many browsers treat it as yet another broken HTML document.
3019 If it is send as <quote>application/xml</quote>, browsers with
3020 XHTML support will only display it, if the syntax is correct.
3023 If you see a web site that proudly uses XHTML buttons, but sets
3024 <quote>Content-Type: text/html</quote>, you can use &my-app;
3025 to overwrite it with <quote>application/xml</quote> and validate
3026 the web master's claim inside your XHTML-supporting browser.
3027 If the syntax is incorrect, the browser will complain loudly.
3030 You can also go the opposite direction: if your browser prints
3031 error messages instead of rendering a document falsely declared
3032 as XHTML, you can overwrite the content type with
3033 <quote>text/html</quote> and have it rendered as broken HTML document.
3036 By default <literal>content-type-overwrite</literal> only replaces
3037 <quote>Content-Type:</quote> headers that look like some kind of text.
3038 If you want to overwrite it unconditionally, you have to combine it with
3039 <literal><link linkend="force-text-mode">force-text-mode</link></literal>.
3040 This limitation exists for a reason, think twice before circumventing it.
3043 Most of the time it's easier to replace this action with a custom
3044 <literal><link linkend="server-header-filter">server-header filter</link></literal>.
3045 It allows you to activate it for every document of a certain site and it will still
3046 only replace the content types you aimed at.
3049 Of course you can apply <literal>content-type-overwrite</literal>
3050 to a whole site and then make URL based exceptions, but it's a lot
3051 more work to get the same precision.
3057 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
3060 <screen># Check if www.example.net/ really uses valid XHTML
3061 { +content-type-overwrite{application/xml} }
3064 # but leave the content type unmodified if the URL looks like a style sheet
3065 {-content-type-overwrite}
3066 www.example.net/.*\.css$
3067 www.example.net/.*style
3076 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3077 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-client-header">
3081 <title>crunch-client-header</title>
3085 <term>Typical use:</term>
3087 <para>Remove a client header <application>Privoxy</application> has no dedicated action for.</para>
3092 <term>Effect:</term>
3095 Deletes every header sent by the client that contains the string the user supplied as parameter.
3102 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3104 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3109 <term>Parameter:</term>
3121 This action allows you to block client headers for which no dedicated
3122 <application>Privoxy</application> action exists.
3123 <application>Privoxy</application> will remove every client header that
3124 contains the string you supplied as parameter.
3127 Regular expressions are <emphasis>not supported</emphasis> and you can't
3128 use this action to block different headers in the same request, unless
3129 they contain the same string.
3132 <literal>crunch-client-header</literal> is only meant for quick tests.
3133 If you have to block several different headers, or only want to modify
3134 parts of them, you should use a
3135 <literal><link linkend="client-header-filter">client-header filter</link></literal>.
3139 Don't block any header without understanding the consequences.
3146 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3149 <screen># Block the non-existent "Privacy-Violation:" client header
3150 { +crunch-client-header{Privacy-Violation:} }
3160 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3161 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-if-none-match">
3162 <title>crunch-if-none-match</title>
3168 <term>Typical use:</term>
3170 <para>Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.</para>
3175 <term>Effect:</term>
3178 Deletes the <quote>If-None-Match:</quote> HTTP client header.
3185 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3187 <para>Boolean.</para>
3192 <term>Parameter:</term>
3204 Removing the <quote>If-None-Match:</quote> HTTP client header
3205 is useful for filter testing, where you want to force a real
3206 reload instead of getting status code <quote>304</quote> which
3207 would cause the browser to use a cached copy of the page.
3210 It is also useful to make sure the header isn't used as a cookie
3214 Blocking the <quote>If-None-Match:</quote> header shouldn't cause any
3215 caching problems, as long as the <quote>If-Modified-Since:</quote> header
3216 isn't blocked as well.
3219 It is recommended to use this action together with
3220 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hide-if-modified-since</link></literal>
3222 <literal><link linkend="overwrite-last-modified">overwrite-last-modified</link></literal>.
3228 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3231 <screen># Let the browser revalidate cached documents without being tracked across sessions
3232 { +hide-if-modified-since{-60} \
3233 +overwrite-last-modified{randomize} \
3234 +crunch-if-none-match}
3243 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3244 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-incoming-cookies">
3245 <title>crunch-incoming-cookies</title>
3249 <term>Typical use:</term>
3252 Prevent the web server from setting any cookies on your system
3258 <term>Effect:</term>
3261 Deletes any <quote>Set-Cookie:</quote> HTTP headers from server replies.
3268 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3270 <para>Boolean.</para>
3275 <term>Parameter:</term>
3287 This action is only concerned with <emphasis>incoming</emphasis> cookies. For
3288 <emphasis>outgoing</emphasis> cookies, use
3289 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>.
3290 Use <emphasis>both</emphasis> to disable cookies completely.
3293 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use this action in conjunction
3294 with the <literal><link linkend="session-cookies-only">session-cookies-only</link></literal> action,
3295 since it would prevent the session cookies from being set. See also
3296 <literal><link linkend="filter-content-cookies">filter-content-cookies</link></literal>.
3302 <term>Example usage:</term>
3305 <screen>+crunch-incoming-cookies</screen>
3313 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3314 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-server-header">
3315 <title>crunch-server-header</title>
3321 <term>Typical use:</term>
3323 <para>Remove a server header <application>Privoxy</application> has no dedicated action for.</para>
3328 <term>Effect:</term>
3331 Deletes every header sent by the server that contains the string the user supplied as parameter.
3338 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3340 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3345 <term>Parameter:</term>
3357 This action allows you to block server headers for which no dedicated
3358 <application>Privoxy</application> action exists. <application>Privoxy</application>
3359 will remove every server header that contains the string you supplied as parameter.
3362 Regular expressions are <emphasis>not supported</emphasis> and you can't
3363 use this action to block different headers in the same request, unless
3364 they contain the same string.
3367 <literal>crunch-server-header</literal> is only meant for quick tests.
3368 If you have to block several different headers, or only want to modify
3369 parts of them, you should use a custom
3370 <literal><link linkend="server-header-filter">server-header filter</link></literal>.
3374 Don't block any header without understanding the consequences.
3381 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3384 <screen># Crunch server headers that try to prevent caching
3385 { +crunch-server-header{no-cache} }
3394 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3395 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-outgoing-cookies">
3396 <title>crunch-outgoing-cookies</title>
3400 <term>Typical use:</term>
3403 Prevent the web server from reading any cookies from your system
3409 <term>Effect:</term>
3412 Deletes any <quote>Cookie:</quote> HTTP headers from client requests.
3419 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3421 <para>Boolean.</para>
3426 <term>Parameter:</term>
3438 This action is only concerned with <emphasis>outgoing</emphasis> cookies. For
3439 <emphasis>incoming</emphasis> cookies, use
3440 <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal>.
3441 Use <emphasis>both</emphasis> to disable cookies completely.
3444 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use this action in conjunction
3445 with the <literal><link linkend="session-cookies-only">session-cookies-only</link></literal> action,
3446 since it would prevent the session cookies from being read.
3452 <term>Example usage:</term>
3455 <screen>+crunch-outgoing-cookies</screen>
3464 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3465 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="deanimate-gifs">
3466 <title>deanimate-gifs</title>
3470 <term>Typical use:</term>
3472 <para>Stop those annoying, distracting animated GIF images.</para>
3477 <term>Effect:</term>
3480 De-animate GIF animations, i.e. reduce them to their first or last image.
3487 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3489 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3494 <term>Parameter:</term>
3497 <quote>last</quote> or <quote>first</quote>
3506 This will also shrink the images considerably (in bytes, not pixels!). If
3507 the option <quote>first</quote> is given, the first frame of the animation
3508 is used as the replacement. If <quote>last</quote> is given, the last
3509 frame of the animation is used instead, which probably makes more sense for
3510 most banner animations, but also has the risk of not showing the entire
3511 last frame (if it is only a delta to an earlier frame).
3514 You can safely use this action with patterns that will also match non-GIF
3515 objects, because no attempt will be made at anything that doesn't look like
3522 <term>Example usage:</term>
3525 <screen>+deanimate-gifs{last}</screen>
3532 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3533 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="downgrade-http-version">
3534 <title>downgrade-http-version</title>
3538 <term>Typical use:</term>
3540 <para>Work around (very rare) problems with HTTP/1.1</para>
3545 <term>Effect:</term>
3548 Downgrades HTTP/1.1 client requests and server replies to HTTP/1.0.
3555 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3557 <para>Boolean.</para>
3562 <term>Parameter:</term>
3574 This is a left-over from the time when <application>Privoxy</application>
3575 didn't support important HTTP/1.1 features well. It is left here for the
3576 unlikely case that you experience HTTP/1.1 related problems with some server
3577 out there. Not all (optional) HTTP/1.1 features are supported yet, so there
3578 is a chance you might need this action.
3584 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3587 <screen>{+downgrade-http-version}
3588 problem-host.example.com</screen>
3596 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3597 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="fast-redirects">
3598 <title>fast-redirects</title>
3602 <term>Typical use:</term>
3604 <para>Fool some click-tracking scripts and speed up indirect links.</para>
3609 <term>Effect:</term>
3612 Detects redirection URLs and redirects the browser without contacting
3613 the redirection server first.
3620 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3622 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3627 <term>Parameter:</term>
3632 <quote>simple-check</quote> to just search for the string <quote>http://</quote>
3633 to detect redirection URLs.
3638 <quote>check-decoded-url</quote> to decode URLs (if necessary) before searching
3639 for redirection URLs.
3650 Many sites, like yahoo.com, don't just link to other sites. Instead, they
3651 will link to some script on their own servers, giving the destination as a
3652 parameter, which will then redirect you to the final target. URLs
3653 resulting from this scheme typically look like:
3654 <quote>http://www.example.org/click-tracker.cgi?target=http%3a//www.example.net/</quote>.
3657 Sometimes, there are even multiple consecutive redirects encoded in the
3658 URL. These redirections via scripts make your web browsing more traceable,
3659 since the server from which you follow such a link can see where you go
3660 to. Apart from that, valuable bandwidth and time is wasted, while your
3661 browser asks the server for one redirect after the other. Plus, it feeds
3665 This feature is currently not very smart and is scheduled for improvement.
3666 If it is enabled by default, you will have to create some exceptions to
3667 this action. It can lead to failures in several ways:
3670 Not every URLs with other URLs as parameters is evil.
3671 Some sites offer a real service that requires this information to work.
3672 For example a validation service needs to know, which document to validate.
3673 <literal>fast-redirects</literal> assumes that every URL parameter that
3674 looks like another URL is a redirection target, and will always redirect to
3675 the last one. Most of the time the assumption is correct, but if it isn't,
3676 the user gets redirected anyway.
3679 Another failure occurs if the URL contains other parameters after the URL parameter.
3681 <quote>http://www.example.org/?redirect=http%3a//www.example.net/&foo=bar</quote>.
3682 contains the redirection URL <quote>http://www.example.net/</quote>,
3683 followed by another parameter. <literal>fast-redirects</literal> doesn't know that
3684 and will cause a redirect to <quote>http://www.example.net/&foo=bar</quote>.
3685 Depending on the target server configuration, the parameter will be silently ignored
3686 or lead to a <quote>page not found</quote> error. You can prevent this problem by
3687 first using the <literal><link linkend="redirect">redirect</link></literal> action
3688 to remove the last part of the URL, but it requires a little effort.
3691 To detect a redirection URL, <literal>fast-redirects</literal> only
3692 looks for the string <quote>http://</quote>, either in plain text
3693 (invalid but often used) or encoded as <quote>http%3a//</quote>.
3694 Some sites use their own URL encoding scheme, encrypt the address
3695 of the target server or replace it with a database id. In theses cases
3696 <literal>fast-redirects</literal> is fooled and the request reaches the
3697 redirection server where it probably gets logged.
3703 <term>Example usage:</term>
3707 { +fast-redirects{simple-check} }
3710 { +fast-redirects{check-decoded-url} }
3711 another.example.com/testing</screen>
3720 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3721 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="filter">
3722 <title>filter</title>
3726 <term>Typical use:</term>
3728 <para>Get rid of HTML and JavaScript annoyances, banner advertisements (by size),
3729 do fun text replacements, add personalized effects, etc.</para>
3734 <term>Effect:</term>
3737 All instances of text-based type, most notably HTML and JavaScript, to which
3738 this action applies, can be filtered on-the-fly through the specified regular
3739 expression based substitutions. (Note: as of version 3.0.3 plain text documents
3740 are exempted from filtering, because web servers often use the
3741 <literal>text/plain</literal> MIME type for all files whose type they don't know.)
3748 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3750 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3755 <term>Parameter:</term>
3758 The name of a content filter, as defined in the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file</link>.
3759 Filters can be defined in one or more files as defined by the
3760 <literal><link linkend="filterfile">filterfile</link></literal>
3761 option in the <link linkend="config">config file</link>.
3762 <filename>default.filter</filename> is the collection of filters
3763 supplied by the developers. Locally defined filters should go
3764 in their own file, such as <filename>user.filter</filename>.
3767 When used in its negative form,
3768 and without parameters, <emphasis>all</emphasis> filtering is completely disabled.
3777 For your convenience, there are a number of pre-defined filters available
3778 in the distribution filter file that you can use. See the examples below for
3782 Filtering requires buffering the page content, which may appear to
3783 slow down page rendering since nothing is displayed until all content has
3784 passed the filters. (It does not really take longer, but seems that way
3785 since the page is not incrementally displayed.) This effect will be more
3786 noticeable on slower connections.
3789 <quote>Rolling your own</quote>
3790 filters requires a knowledge of
3791 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
3792 Expressions</quote></ulink> and
3793 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Html"><quote>HTML</quote></ulink>.
3794 This is very powerful feature, and potentially very intrusive.
3795 Filters should be used with caution, and where an equivalent
3796 <quote>action</quote> is not available.
3799 The amount of data that can be filtered is limited to the
3800 <literal><link linkend="buffer-limit">buffer-limit</link></literal>
3801 option in the main <link linkend="config">config file</link>. The
3802 default is 4096 KB (4 Megs). Once this limit is exceeded, the buffered
3803 data, and all pending data, is passed through unfiltered.
3806 Inappropriate MIME types, such as zipped files, are not filtered at all.
3807 (Again, only text-based types except plain text). Encrypted SSL data
3808 (from HTTPS servers) cannot be filtered either, since this would violate
3809 the integrity of the secure transaction. In some situations it might
3810 be necessary to protect certain text, like source code, from filtering
3811 by defining appropriate <literal>-filter</literal> exceptions.
3814 Compressed content can't be filtered either, unless &my-app;
3815 is compiled with zlib support (requires at least &my-app; 3.0.7),
3816 in which case &my-app; will decompress the content before filtering
3820 If you use a &my-app; version without zlib support, but want filtering to work on
3821 as much documents as possible, even those that would normally be sent compressed,
3822 you must use the <literal><link linkend="prevent-compression">prevent-compression</link></literal>
3823 action in conjunction with <literal>filter</literal>.
3826 Content filtering can achieve some of the same effects as the
3827 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>
3828 action, i.e. it can be used to block ads and banners. But the mechanism
3829 works quite differently. One effective use, is to block ad banners
3830 based on their size (see below), since many of these seem to be somewhat
3834 <link linkend="contact">Feedback</link> with suggestions for new or
3835 improved filters is particularly welcome!
3838 The below list has only the names and a one-line description of each
3839 predefined filter. There are <link linkend="predefined-filters">more
3840 verbose explanations</link> of what these filters do in the <link
3841 linkend="filter-file">filter file chapter</link>.
3847 <term>Example usage (with filters from the distribution <filename>default.filter</filename> file).
3848 See <link linkend="PREDEFINED-FILTERS">the Predefined Filters section</link> for
3849 more explanation on each:</term>
3852 <anchor id="filter-js-annoyances">
3853 <screen>+filter{js-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse</screen>
3856 <anchor id="filter-js-events">
3857 <screen>+filter{js-events} # Kill all JS event bindings (Radically destructive! Only for extra nasty sites)</screen>
3860 <anchor id="filter-html-annoyances">
3861 <screen>+filter{html-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying HTML abuse</screen>
3864 <anchor id="filter-content-cookies">
3865 <screen>+filter{content-cookies} # Kill cookies that come in the HTML or JS content</screen>
3868 <anchor id="filter-refresh-tags">
3869 <screen>+filter{refresh-tags} # Kill automatic refresh tags (for dial-on-demand setups)</screen>
3872 <anchor id="filter-unsolicited-popups">
3873 <screen>+filter{unsolicited-popups} # Disable only unsolicited pop-up windows. Useful if your browser lacks this ability.</screen>
3876 <anchor id="filter-all-popups">
3877 <screen>+filter{all-popups} # Kill all popups in JavaScript and HTML. Useful if your browser lacks this ability.</screen>
3880 <anchor id="filter-img-reorder">
3881 <screen>+filter{img-reorder} # Reorder attributes in <img> tags to make the banners-by-* filters more effective</screen>
3884 <anchor id="filter-banners-by-size">
3885 <screen>+filter{banners-by-size} # Kill banners by size</screen>
3888 <anchor id="filter-banners-by-link">
3889 <screen>+filter{banners-by-link} # Kill banners by their links to known clicktrackers</screen>
3892 <anchor id="filter-webbugs">
3893 <screen>+filter{webbugs} # Squish WebBugs (1x1 invisible GIFs used for user tracking)</screen>
3896 <anchor id="filter-tiny-textforms">
3897 <screen>+filter{tiny-textforms} # Extend those tiny textareas up to 40x80 and kill the hard wrap</screen>
3900 <anchor id="filter-jumping-windows">
3901 <screen>+filter{jumping-windows} # Prevent windows from resizing and moving themselves</screen>
3904 <anchor id="filter-frameset-borders">
3905 <screen>+filter{frameset-borders} # Give frames a border and make them resizeable</screen>
3908 <anchor id="filter-demoronizer">
3909 <screen>+filter{demoronizer} # Fix MS's non-standard use of standard charsets</screen>
3912 <anchor id="filter-shockwave-flash">
3913 <screen>+filter{shockwave-flash} # Kill embedded Shockwave Flash objects</screen>
3916 <anchor id="filter-quicktime-kioskmode">
3917 <screen>+filter{quicktime-kioskmode} # Make Quicktime movies savable</screen>
3920 <anchor id="filter-fun">
3921 <screen>+filter{fun} # Text replacements for subversive browsing fun!</screen>
3924 <anchor id="filter-crude-parental">
3925 <screen>+filter{crude-parental} # Crude parental filtering (demo only)</screen>
3928 <anchor id="filter-ie-exploits">
3929 <screen>+filter{ie-exploits} # Disable some known Internet Explorer bug exploits</screen>
3932 <anchor id="filter-site-specifics">
3933 <screen>+filter{site-specifics} # Custom filters for specific site related problems</screen>
3936 <anchor id="filter-google">
3937 <screen>+filter{google} # Removes text ads and other Google specific improvements</screen>
3940 <anchor id="filter-yahoo">
3941 <screen>+filter{yahoo} # Removes text ads and other Yahoo specific improvements</screen>
3944 <anchor id="filter-msn">
3945 <screen>+filter{msn} # Removes text ads and other MSN specific improvements</screen>
3948 <anchor id="filter-blogspot">
3949 <screen>+filter{blogspot} # Cleans up Blogspot blogs</screen>
3952 <anchor id="filter-no-ping">
3953 <screen>+filter{no-ping} # Removes non-standard ping attributes from anchor and area tags</screen>
3961 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3962 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="force-text-mode">
3963 <title>force-text-mode</title>
3969 <term>Typical use:</term>
3971 <para>Force <application>Privoxy</application> to treat a document as if it was in some kind of <emphasis>text</emphasis> format. </para>
3976 <term>Effect:</term>
3979 Declares a document as text, even if the <quote>Content-Type:</quote> isn't detected as such.
3986 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3988 <para>Boolean.</para>
3993 <term>Parameter:</term>
4005 As explained <literal><link linkend="filter">above</link></literal>,
4006 <application>Privoxy</application> tries to only filter files that are
4007 in some kind of text format. The same restrictions apply to
4008 <literal><link linkend="content-type-overwrite">content-type-overwrite</link></literal>.
4009 <literal>force-text-mode</literal> declares a document as text,
4010 without looking at the <quote>Content-Type:</quote> first.
4014 Think twice before activating this action. Filtering binary data
4015 with regular expressions can cause file damage.
4022 <term>Example usage:</term>
4035 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4036 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="forward-override">
4037 <title>forward-override</title>
4043 <term>Typical use:</term>
4045 <para>Change the forwarding settings based on User-Agent or request origin</para>
4050 <term>Effect:</term>
4053 Overrules the forward directives in the configuration files.
4060 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4062 <para>Multi-value.</para>
4067 <term>Parameter:</term>
4071 <para><quote>forward .</quote> to use a direct connection without any additional proxies.</para>
4075 <quote>forward 127.0.0.1:8123</quote> to use the HTTP proxy listening at 127.0.0.1 port 8123.
4080 <quote>forward-socks4a 127.0.0.1:9050 .</quote> to use the socks4a proxy listening at 127.0.0.1 port 9050.
4081 Replace <quote>forward-socks4a</quote> with <quote>forward-socks4</quote> to use a socks4 connection (with local DNS
4082 resolution) instead.
4087 <quote>forward-socks4a 127.0.0.1:9050 proxy.example.org:8000</quote> to use the socks4a proxy
4088 listening at 127.0.0.1 port 9050 to reach the HTTP proxy listening at proxy.example.org port 8000.
4089 Replace <quote>forward-socks4a</quote> with <quote>forward-socks4</quote> to use a socks4 connection (with local DNS
4090 resolution) instead.
4101 This action takes parameters similar to the <!-- I hope this link actual works -->
4102 <link linkend="forwarding">forward</link> directives in the configuration
4103 file, but without the URL pattern. It can be used as replacement, but normally it's only
4104 used in cases where matching based on the request URL isn't sufficient.
4108 Please read the description for the <link linkend="forwarding">forward</link> directives before
4109 using this action. Forwarding to the wrong people will reduce your privacy and increase the
4110 chances of man-in-the-middle attacks.
4113 If the ports are missing or invalid, default values will be used. This might change
4114 in the future and you shouldn't rely on it. Otherwise incorrect syntax causes Privoxy
4118 Use the <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">show-url-info CGI page</ulink>
4119 to verify that your forward settings do what you thought the do.
4126 <term>Example usage:</term>
4130 # Always use direct connections for requests previously tagged as
4131 # <quote>User-Agent: fetch libfetch/2.0</quote> and make sure
4132 # resuming downloads continues to work.
4133 # This way you can continue to use Tor for your normal browsing,
4134 # without overloading the Tor network with your FreeBSD ports updates
4135 # or downloads of bigger files like ISOs.
4136 {+forward-override{forward .} \
4137 -hide-if-modified-since \
4138 -overwrite-last-modified \
4140 TAG:^User-Agent: fetch libfetch/2.0$
4149 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4150 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="handle-as-empty-document">
4151 <title>handle-as-empty-document</title>
4157 <term>Typical use:</term>
4159 <para>Mark URLs that should be replaced by empty documents <emphasis>if they get blocked</emphasis></para>
4164 <term>Effect:</term>
4167 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. It just marks URLs.
4168 If the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action <emphasis>also applies</emphasis>,
4169 the presence or absence of this mark decides whether an HTML <quote>BLOCKED</quote>
4170 page, or an empty document will be sent to the client as a substitute for the blocked content.
4171 The <emphasis>empty</emphasis> document isn't literally empty, but actually contains a single space.
4178 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4180 <para>Boolean.</para>
4185 <term>Parameter:</term>
4197 Some browsers complain about syntax errors if JavaScript documents
4198 are blocked with <application>Privoxy's</application>
4199 default HTML page; this option can be used to silence them.
4200 And of course this action can also be used to eliminate the &my-app;
4201 BLOCKED message in frames.
4204 The content type for the empty document can be specified with
4205 <literal><link linkend="content-type-overwrite">content-type-overwrite{}</link></literal>,
4206 but usually this isn't necessary.
4212 <term>Example usage:</term>
4215 <screen># Block all documents on example.org that end with ".js",
4216 # but send an empty document instead of the usual HTML message.
4217 {+block +handle-as-empty-document}
4227 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4228 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="handle-as-image">
4229 <title>handle-as-image</title>
4233 <term>Typical use:</term>
4235 <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>
4240 <term>Effect:</term>
4243 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. It just marks URLs as images.
4244 If the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action <emphasis>also applies</emphasis>,
4245 the presence or absence of this mark decides whether an HTML <quote>blocked</quote>
4246 page, or a replacement image (as determined by the <literal><link
4247 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal> action) will be sent to the
4248 client as a substitute for the blocked content.
4255 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4257 <para>Boolean.</para>
4262 <term>Parameter:</term>
4274 The below generic example section is actually part of <filename>default.action</filename>.
4275 It marks all URLs with well-known image file name extensions as images and should
4279 Users will probably only want to use the handle-as-image action in conjunction with
4280 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>, to block sources of banners, whose URLs don't
4281 reflect the file type, like in the second example section.
4284 Note that you cannot treat HTML pages as images in most cases. For instance, (in-line) ad
4285 frames require an HTML page to be sent, or they won't display properly.
4286 Forcing <literal>handle-as-image</literal> in this situation will not replace the
4287 ad frame with an image, but lead to error messages.
4293 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
4296 <screen># Generic image extensions:
4299 /.*\.(gif|jpg|jpeg|png|bmp|ico)$
4301 # These don't look like images, but they're banners and should be
4302 # blocked as images:
4304 {+block +handle-as-image}
4305 some.nasty-banner-server.com/junk.cgi?output=trash
4307 # Banner source! Who cares if they also have non-image content?
4317 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4318 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-accept-language">
4319 <title>hide-accept-language</title>
4325 <term>Typical use:</term>
4327 <para>Pretend to use different language settings.</para>
4332 <term>Effect:</term>
4335 Deletes or replaces the <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> HTTP header in client requests.
4342 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4344 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4349 <term>Parameter:</term>
4352 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
4361 Faking the browser's language settings can be useful to make a
4362 foreign User-Agent set with
4363 <literal><link linkend="hide-user-agent">hide-user-agent</link></literal>
4367 However some sites with content in different languages check the
4368 <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> to decide which one to take by default.
4369 Sometimes it isn't possible to later switch to another language without
4370 changing the <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> header first.
4373 Therefore it's a good idea to either only change the
4374 <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> header to languages you understand,
4375 or to languages that aren't wide spread.
4378 Before setting the <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> header
4379 to a rare language, you should consider that it helps to
4380 make your requests unique and thus easier to trace.
4381 If you don't plan to change this header frequently,
4382 you should stick to a common language.
4388 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
4391 <screen># Pretend to use Canadian language settings.
4392 {+hide-accept-language{en-ca} \
4393 +hide-user-agent{Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; OpenBSD i386; en-CA; rv:1.8.0.4) Gecko/20060628 Firefox/1.5.0.4} \
4403 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4404 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-content-disposition">
4405 <title>hide-content-disposition</title>
4411 <term>Typical use:</term>
4413 <para>Prevent download menus for content you prefer to view inside the browser.</para>
4418 <term>Effect:</term>
4421 Deletes or replaces the <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> HTTP header set by some servers.
4428 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4430 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4435 <term>Parameter:</term>
4438 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
4447 Some servers set the <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> HTTP header for
4448 documents they assume you want to save locally before viewing them.
4449 The <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> header contains the file name
4450 the browser is supposed to use by default.
4453 In most browsers that understand this header, it makes it impossible to
4454 <emphasis>just view</emphasis> the document, without downloading it first,
4455 even if it's just a simple text file or an image.
4458 Removing the <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> header helps
4459 to prevent this annoyance, but some browsers additionally check the
4460 <quote>Content-Type:</quote> header, before they decide if they can
4461 display a document without saving it first. In these cases, you have
4462 to change this header as well, before the browser stops displaying
4466 It is also possible to change the server's file name suggestion
4467 to another one, but in most cases it isn't worth the time to set
4474 <term>Example usage:</term>
4477 <screen># Disarm the download link in Sourceforge's patch tracker
4479 +content-type-overwrite{text/plain}\
4480 +hide-content-disposition{block} }
4481 .sourceforge.net/tracker/download\.php</screen>
4489 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4490 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-if-modified-since">
4491 <title>hide-if-modified-since</title>
4497 <term>Typical use:</term>
4499 <para>Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.</para>
4504 <term>Effect:</term>
4507 Deletes the <quote>If-Modified-Since:</quote> HTTP client header or modifies its value.
4514 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4516 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4521 <term>Parameter:</term>
4524 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or a user defined value that specifies a range of hours.
4533 Removing this header is useful for filter testing, where you want to force a real
4534 reload instead of getting status code <quote>304</quote>, which would cause the
4535 browser to use a cached copy of the page.
4538 Instead of removing the header, <literal>hide-if-modified-since</literal> can
4539 also add or subtract a random amount of time to/from the header's value.
4540 You specify a range of minutes where the random factor should be chosen from and
4541 <application>Privoxy</application> does the rest. A negative value means
4542 subtracting, a positive value adding.
4545 Randomizing the value of the <quote>If-Modified-Since:</quote> makes
4546 sure it isn't used as a cookie replacement, but you will run into
4547 caching problems if the random range is too high.
4550 It is a good idea to only use a small negative value and let
4551 <literal><link linkend="overwrite-last-modified">overwrite-last-modified</link></literal>
4552 handle the greater changes.
4555 It is also recommended to use this action together with
4556 <literal><link linkend="crunch-if-none-match">crunch-if-none-match</link></literal>.
4562 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
4565 <screen># Let the browser revalidate without being tracked across sessions
4566 { +hide-if-modified-since{-60} \
4567 +overwrite-last-modified{randomize} \
4568 +crunch-if-none-match}
4577 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4578 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-forwarded-for-headers">
4579 <title>hide-forwarded-for-headers</title>
4585 <term>Typical use:</term>
4587 <para>Improve privacy by hiding the true source of the request</para>
4592 <term>Effect:</term>
4595 Deletes any existing <quote>X-Forwarded-for:</quote> HTTP header from client requests,
4596 and prevents adding a new one.
4603 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4605 <para>Boolean.</para>
4610 <term>Parameter:</term>
4622 It is fairly safe to leave this on.
4625 This action is scheduled for improvement: It should be able to generate forged
4626 <quote>X-Forwarded-for:</quote> headers using random IP addresses from a specified network,
4627 to make successive requests from the same client look like requests from a pool of different
4628 users sharing the same proxy.
4634 <term>Example usage:</term>
4637 <screen>+hide-forwarded-for-headers</screen>
4645 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4646 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-from-header">
4647 <title>hide-from-header</title>
4651 <term>Typical use:</term>
4653 <para>Keep your (old and ill) browser from telling web servers your email address</para>
4658 <term>Effect:</term>
4661 Deletes any existing <quote>From:</quote> HTTP header, or replaces it with the
4669 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4671 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4676 <term>Parameter:</term>
4679 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
4688 The keyword <quote>block</quote> will completely remove the header
4689 (not to be confused with the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>
4693 Alternately, you can specify any value you prefer to be sent to the web
4694 server. If you do, it is a matter of fairness not to use any address that
4695 is actually used by a real person.
4698 This action is rarely needed, as modern web browsers don't send
4699 <quote>From:</quote> headers anymore.
4705 <term>Example usage:</term>
4708 <screen>+hide-from-header{block}</screen> or
4709 <screen>+hide-from-header{spam-me-senseless@sittingduck.example.com}</screen>
4717 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4718 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-referrer">
4719 <title>hide-referrer</title>
4720 <anchor id="hide-referer">
4723 <term>Typical use:</term>
4725 <para>Conceal which link you followed to get to a particular site</para>
4730 <term>Effect:</term>
4733 Deletes the <quote>Referer:</quote> (sic) HTTP header from the client request,
4734 or replaces it with a forged one.
4741 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4743 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4748 <term>Parameter:</term>
4752 <para><quote>conditional-block</quote> to delete the header completely if the host has changed.</para>
4755 <para><quote>block</quote> to delete the header unconditionally.</para>
4758 <para><quote>forge</quote> to pretend to be coming from the homepage of the server we are talking to.</para>
4761 <para>Any other string to set a user defined referrer.</para>
4771 <literal>conditional-block</literal> is the only parameter,
4772 that isn't easily detected in the server's log file. If it blocks the
4773 referrer, the request will look like the visitor used a bookmark or
4774 typed in the address directly.
4777 Leaving the referrer unmodified for requests on the same host
4778 allows the server owner to see the visitor's <quote>click path</quote>,
4779 but in most cases she could also get that information by comparing
4780 other parts of the log file: for example the User-Agent if it isn't
4781 a very common one, or the user's IP address if it doesn't change between
4785 Always blocking the referrer, or using a custom one, can lead to
4786 failures on servers that check the referrer before they answer any
4787 requests, in an attempt to prevent their valuable content from being
4788 embedded or linked to elsewhere.
4791 Both <literal>conditional-block</literal> and <literal>forge</literal>
4792 will work with referrer checks, as long as content and valid referring page
4793 are on the same host. Most of the time that's the case.
4796 <literal>hide-referer</literal> is an alternate spelling of
4797 <literal>hide-referrer</literal> and the two can be can be freely
4798 substituted with each other. (<quote>referrer</quote> is the
4799 correct English spelling, however the HTTP specification has a bug - it
4800 requires it to be spelled as <quote>referer</quote>.)
4806 <term>Example usage:</term>
4809 <screen>+hide-referrer{forge}</screen> or
4810 <screen>+hide-referrer{http://www.yahoo.com/}</screen>
4818 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4819 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-user-agent">
4820 <title>hide-user-agent</title>
4824 <term>Typical use:</term>
4826 <para>Conceal your type of browser and client operating system</para>
4831 <term>Effect:</term>
4834 Replaces the value of the <quote>User-Agent:</quote> HTTP header
4835 in client requests with the specified value.
4842 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4844 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4849 <term>Parameter:</term>
4852 Any user-defined string.
4862 This can lead to problems on web sites that depend on looking at this header in
4863 order to customize their content for different browsers (which, by the
4864 way, is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> the right thing to do: good web sites
4865 work browser-independently).
4867 <ulink url="http://www.javascriptkit.com/javaindex.shtml">smart way to do
4873 Using this action in multi-user setups or wherever different types of
4874 browsers will access the same <application>Privoxy</application> is
4875 <emphasis>not recommended</emphasis>. In single-user, single-browser
4876 setups, you might use it to delete your OS version information from
4877 the headers, because it is an invitation to exploit known bugs for your
4878 OS. It is also occasionally useful to forge this in order to access
4879 sites that won't let you in otherwise (though there may be a good
4880 reason in some cases). Example of this: some MSN sites will not
4881 let <application>Mozilla</application> enter, yet forging to a
4882 <application>Netscape 6.1</application> user-agent works just fine.
4883 (Must be just a silly MS goof, I'm sure :-).
4886 More information on known user-agent strings can be found at
4887 <ulink url="http://www.user-agents.org/">http://www.user-agents.org/</ulink>
4889 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_agent">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_agent</ulink>.
4895 <term>Example usage:</term>
4898 <screen>+hide-user-agent{Netscape 6.1 (X11; I; Linux 2.4.18 i686)}</screen>
4906 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4907 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="inspect-jpegs">
4908 <title>inspect-jpegs</title>
4914 <term>Typical use:</term>
4916 <para>To protect against the MS buffer over-run in JPEG processing</para>
4921 <term>Effect:</term>
4924 Protect against a known exploit
4931 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4933 <para>Boolean.</para>
4938 <term>Parameter:</term>
4950 See Microsoft Security Bulletin MS04-028. JPEG images are one of the most
4951 common image types found across the Internet. The exploit as described can
4952 allow execution of code on the target system, giving an attacker access
4953 to the system in question by merely planting an altered JPEG image, which
4954 would have no obvious indications of what lurks inside. This action
4955 prevents unwanted intrusion.
4962 <term>Example usage:</term>
4964 <para><screen>+inspect-jpegs</screen></para>
4971 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4972 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="kill-popups">
4973 <title>kill-popups<anchor id="kill-popup"></title>
4977 <term>Typical use:</term>
4979 <para>Eliminate those annoying pop-up windows (deprecated)</para>
4984 <term>Effect:</term>
4987 While loading the document, replace JavaScript code that opens
4988 pop-up windows with (syntactically neutral) dummy code on the fly.
4995 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4997 <para>Boolean.</para>
5002 <term>Parameter:</term>
5014 This action is basically a built-in, hardwired special-purpose filter
5015 action, but there are important differences: For <literal>kill-popups</literal>,
5016 the document need not be buffered, so it can be incrementally rendered while
5017 downloading. But <literal>kill-popups</literal> doesn't catch as many pop-ups as
5019 linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{<replaceable>all-popups</replaceable>}</link></literal>
5020 does and is not as smart as <literal><link
5021 linkend="FILTER-UNSOLICITED-POPUPS">filter{<replaceable>unsolicited-popups</replaceable>}</link>
5025 Think of it as a fast and efficient replacement for a filter that you
5026 can use if you don't want any filtering at all. Note that it doesn't make
5027 sense to combine it with any <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> action,
5028 since as soon as one <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> applies,
5029 the whole document needs to be buffered anyway, which destroys the advantage of
5030 the <literal>kill-popups</literal> action over its filter equivalent.
5033 Killing all pop-ups unconditionally is problematic. Many shops and banks rely on
5034 pop-ups to display forms, shopping carts etc, and the <literal><link
5035 linkend="FILTER-UNSOLICITED-POPUPS">filter{<replaceable>unsolicited-popups</replaceable>}</link>
5036 </literal> does a better job of catching only the unwanted ones.
5039 If the only kind of pop-ups that you want to kill are exit consoles (those
5040 <emphasis>really nasty</emphasis> windows that appear when you close an other
5041 one), you might want to use
5043 linkend="filter">filter</link>{<replaceable>js-annoyances</replaceable>}</literal>
5047 This action is most appropriate for browsers that don't have any controls
5048 for unwanted pop-ups. Not recommended for general usage.
5053 An alternate spelling is <literal>+kill-popup</literal>, which is
5061 <term>Example usage:</term>
5063 <para><screen>+kill-popups</screen></para>
5070 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5071 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="limit-connect">
5072 <title>limit-connect</title>
5076 <term>Typical use:</term>
5078 <para>Prevent abuse of <application>Privoxy</application> as a TCP proxy relay or disable SSL for untrusted sites</para>
5083 <term>Effect:</term>
5086 Specifies to which ports HTTP CONNECT requests are allowable.
5093 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5095 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5100 <term>Parameter:</term>
5103 A comma-separated list of ports or port ranges (the latter using dashes, with the minimum
5104 defaulting to 0 and the maximum to 65K).
5113 By default, i.e. if no <literal>limit-connect</literal> action applies,
5114 <application>Privoxy</application> only allows HTTP CONNECT
5115 requests to port 443 (the standard, secure HTTPS port). Use
5116 <literal>limit-connect</literal> if more fine-grained control is desired
5117 for some or all destinations.
5120 The CONNECT methods exists in HTTP to allow access to secure websites
5121 (<quote>https://</quote> URLs) through proxies. It works very simply:
5122 the proxy connects to the server on the specified port, and then
5123 short-circuits its connections to the client and to the remote server.
5124 This can be a big security hole, since CONNECT-enabled proxies can be
5125 abused as TCP relays very easily.
5128 <application>Privoxy</application> relays HTTPS traffic without seeing
5129 the decoded content. Websites can leverage this limitation to circumvent &my-app;'s
5130 filters. By specifying an invalid port range you can disable HTTPS entirely.
5131 If you plan to disable SSL by default, consider enabling
5132 <literal><link linkend="treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks ">treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks</link></literal>
5133 as well, to be able to quickly create exceptions.
5139 <term>Example usages:</term>
5141 <!-- I had trouble getting the spacing to look right in my browser -->
5142 <!-- I probably have the wrong font setup, bollocks. -->
5143 <!-- Apparently the emphasis tag uses a proportional font no matter what -->
5145 <screen>+limit-connect{443} # This is the default and need not be specified.
5146 +limit-connect{80,443} # Ports 80 and 443 are OK.
5147 +limit-connect{-3, 7, 20-100, 500-} # Ports less than 3, 7, 20 to 100 and above 500 are OK.
5148 +limit-connect{-} # All ports are OK
5149 +limit-connect{,} # No HTTPS/SSL traffic is allowed</screen>
5156 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5157 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="prevent-compression">
5158 <title>prevent-compression</title>
5162 <term>Typical use:</term>
5165 Ensure that servers send the content uncompressed, so it can be
5166 passed through <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>s.
5172 <term>Effect:</term>
5175 Removes the Accept-Encoding header which can be used to ask for compressed transfer.
5182 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5184 <para>Boolean.</para>
5189 <term>Parameter:</term>
5201 More and more websites send their content compressed by default, which
5202 is generally a good idea and saves bandwidth. But the <literal><link
5203 linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>, <literal><link linkend="deanimate-gifs">deanimate-gifs</link></literal>
5204 and <literal><link linkend="kill-popups">kill-popups</link></literal> actions need
5205 access to the uncompressed data.
5208 When compiled with zlib support (available since &my-app; 3.0.7), content that should be
5209 filtered is decompressed on-the-fly and you don't have to worry about this action.
5210 If you are using an older &my-app; version, or one that hasn't been compiled with zlib
5211 support, this action can be used to convince the server to send the content uncompressed.
5214 Most text-based instances compress very well, the size is seldom decreased by less than 50%,
5215 for markup-heavy instances like news feeds saving more than 90% of the original size isn't
5219 Not using compression will therefore slow down the transfer, and you should only
5220 enable this action if you really need it. As of &my-app; 3.0.7 it's disabled in all
5221 predefined action settings.
5224 Note that some (rare) ill-configured sites don't handle requests for uncompressed
5225 documents correctly. Broken PHP applications tend to send an empty document body,
5226 some IIS versions only send the beginning of the content. If you enable
5227 <literal>prevent-compression</literal> per default, you might want to add
5228 exceptions for those sites. See the example for how to do that.
5234 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
5238 # Selectively turn off compression, and enable a filter
5240 { +filter{tiny-textforms} +prevent-compression }
5241 # Match only these sites
5246 # Or instead, we could set a universal default:
5248 { +prevent-compression }
5251 # Then maybe make exceptions for broken sites:
5253 { -prevent-compression }
5254 .compusa.com/</screen>
5263 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5264 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="overwrite-last-modified">
5265 <title>overwrite-last-modified</title>
5271 <term>Typical use:</term>
5273 <para>Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.</para>
5278 <term>Effect:</term>
5281 Deletes the <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> HTTP server header or modifies its value.
5288 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5290 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5295 <term>Parameter:</term>
5298 One of the keywords: <quote>block</quote>, <quote>reset-to-request-time</quote>
5299 and <quote>randomize</quote>
5308 Removing the <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header is useful for filter
5309 testing, where you want to force a real reload instead of getting status
5310 code <quote>304</quote>, which would cause the browser to reuse the old
5311 version of the page.
5314 The <quote>randomize</quote> option overwrites the value of the
5315 <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header with a randomly chosen time
5316 between the original value and the current time. In theory the server
5317 could send each document with a different <quote>Last-Modified:</quote>
5318 header to track visits without using cookies. <quote>Randomize</quote>
5319 makes it impossible and the browser can still revalidate cached documents.
5322 <quote>reset-to-request-time</quote> overwrites the value of the
5323 <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header with the current time. You could use
5324 this option together with
5325 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hided-if-modified-since</link></literal>
5326 to further customize your random range.
5329 The preferred parameter here is <quote>randomize</quote>. It is safe
5330 to use, as long as the time settings are more or less correct.
5331 If the server sets the <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header to the time
5332 of the request, the random range becomes zero and the value stays the same.
5333 Therefore you should later randomize it a second time with
5334 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hided-if-modified-since</link></literal>,
5338 It is also recommended to use this action together with
5339 <literal><link linkend="crunch-if-none-match">crunch-if-none-match</link></literal>.
5345 <term>Example usage:</term>
5348 <screen># Let the browser revalidate without being tracked across sessions
5349 { +hide-if-modified-since{-60} \
5350 +overwrite-last-modified{randomize} \
5351 +crunch-if-none-match}
5360 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5361 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="redirect">
5362 <title>redirect</title>
5368 <term>Typical use:</term>
5371 Redirect requests to other sites.
5377 <term>Effect:</term>
5380 Convinces the browser that the requested document has been moved
5381 to another location and the browser should get it from there.
5388 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5390 <para>Parameterized</para>
5395 <term>Parameter:</term>
5398 An absolute URL or a single pcrs command.
5407 Requests to which this action applies are answered with a
5408 HTTP redirect to URLs of your choosing. The new URL is
5409 either provided as parameter, or derived by applying a
5410 single pcrs command to the original URL.
5413 This action will be ignored if you use it together with
5414 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>.
5415 It can be combined with
5416 <literal><link linkend="fast-redirects">fast-redirects{check-decoded-url}</link></literal>
5417 to redirect to a decoded version of a rewritten URL.
5420 Use this action carefully, make sure not to create redirection loops
5421 and be aware that using your own redirects might make it
5422 possible to fingerprint your requests.
5428 <term>Example usages:</term>
5431 <screen># Replace example.com's style sheet with another one
5432 { +redirect{http://localhost/css-replacements/example.com.css} }
5433 example.com/stylesheet\.css
5435 # Create a short, easy to remember nickname for a favorite site
5436 # (relies on the browser accept and forward invalid URLs to &my-app;)
5437 { +redirect{http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/actions-file.html} }
5440 # Always use the expanded view for Undeadly.org articles
5441 # (Note the $ at the end of the URL pattern to make sure
5442 # the request for the rewritten URL isn't redirected as well)
5443 {+redirect{s@$@&mode=expanded@}}
5444 undeadly.org/cgi\?action=article&sid=\d*$</screen>
5453 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5454 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="send-vanilla-wafer">
5455 <title>send-vanilla-wafer</title>
5459 <term>Typical use:</term>
5462 Feed log analysis scripts with useless data.
5468 <term>Effect:</term>
5471 Sends a cookie with each request stating that you do not accept any copyright
5472 on cookies sent to you, and asking the site operator not to track you.
5479 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5481 <para>Boolean.</para>
5486 <term>Parameter:</term>
5498 The vanilla wafer is a (relatively) unique header and could conceivably be used to track you.
5501 This action is rarely used and not enabled in the default configuration.
5507 <term>Example usage:</term>
5510 <screen>+send-vanilla-wafer</screen>
5519 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5520 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="send-wafer">
5521 <title>send-wafer</title>
5525 <term>Typical use:</term>
5528 Send custom cookies or feed log analysis scripts with even more useless data.
5534 <term>Effect:</term>
5537 Sends a custom, user-defined cookie with each request.
5544 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5546 <para>Multi-value.</para>
5551 <term>Parameter:</term>
5554 A string of the form <quote><replaceable class="option">name</replaceable>=<replaceable
5555 class="parameter">value</replaceable></quote>.
5564 Being multi-valued, multiple instances of this action can apply to the same request,
5565 resulting in multiple cookies being sent.
5568 This action is rarely used and not enabled in the default configuration.
5573 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
5576 <screen>{+send-wafer{UsingPrivoxy=true}}
5577 my-internal-testing-server.void</screen>
5585 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5586 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="server-header-filter">
5587 <title>server-header-filter</title>
5591 <term>Typical use:</term>
5594 Rewrite or remove single server headers.
5600 <term>Effect:</term>
5603 All server headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly
5604 through the specified regular expression based substitutions.
5611 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
5613 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5618 <term>Parameter:</term>
5621 The name of a server-header filter, as defined in one of the
5622 <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link>.
5631 Server-header filters are applied to each header on its own, not to
5632 all at once. This makes it easier to diagnose problems, but on the downside
5633 you can't write filters that only change header x if header y's value is z.
5634 You can do that by using tags though.
5637 Server-header filters are executed after the other header actions have finished
5638 and use their output as input.
5641 Please refer to the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file chapter</link>
5642 to learn which server-header filters are available by default, and how to
5649 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
5653 {+server-header-filter{html-to-xml}}
5654 example.org/xml-instance-that-is-delivered-as-html
5656 {+server-header-filter{xml-to-html}}
5657 example.org/instance-that-is-delivered-as-xml-but-is-not
5667 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5668 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="server-header-tagger">
5669 <title>server-header-tagger</title>
5673 <term>Typical use:</term>
5676 Disable or disable filters based on the Content-Type header.
5682 <term>Effect:</term>
5685 Server headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly through
5686 the specified regular expression based substitutions, the result is used as
5694 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
5696 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5701 <term>Parameter:</term>
5704 The name of a server-header tagger, as defined in one of the
5705 <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link>.
5714 Server-header taggers are applied to each header on its own,
5715 and as the header isn't modified, each tagger <quote>sees</quote>
5719 Server-header taggers are executed before all other header actions
5720 that modify server headers. Their tags can be used to control
5721 all of the other server-header actions, the content filters
5722 and the crunch actions (<link linkend="redirect">redirect</link>
5723 and <link linkend="block">block</link>).
5726 Obviously crunching based on tags created by server-header taggers
5727 doesn't prevent the request from showing up in the server's log file.
5734 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
5738 # Tag every request with the declared content type
5739 {+client-header-filter{content-type}}
5750 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5751 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="session-cookies-only">
5752 <title>session-cookies-only</title>
5756 <term>Typical use:</term>
5759 Allow only temporary <quote>session</quote> cookies (for the current
5760 browser session <emphasis>only</emphasis>).
5766 <term>Effect:</term>
5769 Deletes the <quote>expires</quote> field from <quote>Set-Cookie:</quote>
5770 server headers. Most browsers will not store such cookies permanently and
5771 forget them in between sessions.
5778 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5780 <para>Boolean.</para>
5785 <term>Parameter:</term>
5797 This is less strict than <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal> /
5798 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal> and allows you to browse
5799 websites that insist or rely on setting cookies, without compromising your privacy too badly.
5802 Most browsers will not permanently store cookies that have been processed by
5803 <literal>session-cookies-only</literal> and will forget about them between sessions.
5804 This makes profiling cookies useless, but won't break sites which require cookies so
5805 that you can log in for transactions. This is generally turned on for all
5806 sites, and is the recommended setting.
5809 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use <literal>session-cookies-only</literal>
5810 together with <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal> or
5811 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>. If you do, cookies
5812 will be plainly killed.
5815 Note that it is up to the browser how it handles such cookies without an <quote>expires</quote>
5816 field. If you use an exotic browser, you might want to try it out to be sure.
5819 This setting also has no effect on cookies that may have been stored
5820 previously by the browser before starting <application>Privoxy</application>.
5821 These would have to be removed manually.
5824 <application>Privoxy</application> also uses
5825 the <link linkend="filter-content-cookies">content-cookies filter</link>
5826 to block some types of cookies. Content cookies are not effected by
5827 <literal>session-cookies-only</literal>.
5833 <term>Example usage:</term>
5836 <screen>+session-cookies-only</screen>
5844 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5845 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="set-image-blocker">
5846 <title>set-image-blocker</title>
5850 <term>Typical use:</term>
5852 <para>Choose the replacement for blocked images</para>
5857 <term>Effect:</term>
5860 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. If <emphasis>both</emphasis>
5861 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> <emphasis>and</emphasis> <literal><link
5862 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> <emphasis>also</emphasis>
5863 apply, i.e. if the request is to be blocked as an image,
5864 <emphasis>then</emphasis> the parameter of this action decides what will be
5865 sent as a replacement.
5872 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5874 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5879 <term>Parameter:</term>
5884 <quote>pattern</quote> to send a built-in checkerboard pattern image. The image is visually
5885 decent, scales very well, and makes it obvious where banners were busted.
5890 <quote>blank</quote> to send a built-in transparent image. This makes banners disappear
5891 completely, but makes it hard to detect where <application>Privoxy</application> has blocked
5892 images on a given page and complicates troubleshooting if <application>Privoxy</application>
5893 has blocked innocent images, like navigation icons.
5898 <quote><replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable></quote> to
5899 send a redirect to <replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable>. You can redirect
5900 to any image anywhere, even in your local filesystem via <quote>file:///</quote> URL.
5901 (But note that not all browsers support redirecting to a local file system).
5904 A good application of redirects is to use special <application>Privoxy</application>-built-in
5905 URLs, which send the built-in images, as <replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable>.
5906 This has the same visual effect as specifying <quote>blank</quote> or <quote>pattern</quote> in
5907 the first place, but enables your browser to cache the replacement image, instead of requesting
5908 it over and over again.
5919 The URLs for the built-in images are <quote>http://config.privoxy.org/send-banner?type=<replaceable
5920 class="parameter">type</replaceable></quote>, where <replaceable class="parameter">type</replaceable> is
5921 either <quote>blank</quote> or <quote>pattern</quote>.
5924 There is a third (advanced) type, called <quote>auto</quote>. It is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> to be
5925 used in <literal>set-image-blocker</literal>, but meant for use from <link linkend="filter-file">filters</link>.
5926 Auto will select the type of image that would have applied to the referring page, had it been an image.
5932 <term>Example usage:</term>
5938 <screen>+set-image-blocker{pattern}</screen>
5941 Redirect to the BSD daemon:
5944 <screen>+set-image-blocker{http://www.freebsd.org/gifs/dae_up3.gif}</screen>
5947 Redirect to the built-in pattern for better caching:
5950 <screen>+set-image-blocker{http://config.privoxy.org/send-banner?type=pattern}</screen>
5958 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5959 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks">
5960 <title>treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks</title>
5966 <term>Typical use:</term>
5968 <para>Block forbidden connects with an easy to find error message.</para>
5973 <term>Effect:</term>
5976 If this action is enabled, <application>Privoxy</application> no longer
5977 makes a difference between forbidden connects and ordinary blocks.
5984 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5986 <para>Boolean</para>
5991 <term>Parameter:</term>
6001 By default <application>Privoxy</application> answers
6002 <link linkend="limit-connect">forbidden <quote>Connect</quote> requests</link>
6003 with a short error message inside the headers. If the browser doesn't display
6004 headers (most don't), you just see an empty page.
6007 With this action enabled, <application>Privoxy</application> displays
6008 the message that is used for ordinary blocks instead. If you decide
6009 to make an exception for the page in question, you can do so by
6010 following the <quote>See why</quote> link.
6013 For <quote>Connect</quote> requests the clients tell
6014 <application>Privoxy</application> which host they are interested
6015 in, but not which document they plan to get later. As a result, the
6016 <quote>Go there anyway</quote> wouldn't work and is therefore suppressed.
6022 <term>Example usage:</term>
6025 <screen>+treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks</screen>
6033 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6035 <title>Summary</title>
6037 Note that many of these actions have the potential to cause a page to
6038 misbehave, possibly even not to display at all. There are many ways
6039 a site designer may choose to design his site, and what HTTP header
6040 content, and other criteria, he may depend on. There is no way to have hard
6041 and fast rules for all sites. See the <link
6042 linkend="ACTIONSANAT">Appendix</link> for a brief example on troubleshooting
6048 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6049 <sect2 id="aliases">
6050 <title>Aliases</title>
6052 Custom <quote>actions</quote>, known to <application>Privoxy</application>
6053 as <quote>aliases</quote>, can be defined by combining other actions.
6054 These can in turn be invoked just like the built-in actions.
6055 Currently, an alias name can contain any character except space, tab,
6057 <quote>{</quote> and <quote>}</quote>, but we <emphasis>strongly
6058 recommend</emphasis> that you only use <quote>a</quote> to <quote>z</quote>,
6059 <quote>0</quote> to <quote>9</quote>, <quote>+</quote>, and <quote>-</quote>.
6060 Alias names are not case sensitive, and are not required to start with a
6061 <quote>+</quote> or <quote>-</quote> sign, since they are merely textually
6065 Aliases can be used throughout the actions file, but they <emphasis>must be
6066 defined in a special section at the top of the file!</emphasis>
6067 And there can only be one such section per actions file. Each actions file may
6068 have its own alias section, and the aliases defined in it are only visible
6072 There are two main reasons to use aliases: One is to save typing for frequently
6073 used combinations of actions, the other one is a gain in flexibility: If you
6074 decide once how you want to handle shops by defining an alias called
6075 <quote>shop</quote>, you can later change your policy on shops in
6076 <emphasis>one</emphasis> place, and your changes will take effect everywhere
6077 in the actions file where the <quote>shop</quote> alias is used. Calling aliases
6078 by their purpose also makes your actions files more readable.
6081 Currently, there is one big drawback to using aliases, though:
6082 <application>Privoxy</application>'s built-in web-based action file
6083 editor honors aliases when reading the actions files, but it expands
6084 them before writing. So the effects of your aliases are of course preserved,
6085 but the aliases themselves are lost when you edit sections that use aliases
6090 Now let's define some aliases...
6095 # Useful custom aliases we can use later.
6097 # Note the (required!) section header line and that this section
6098 # must be at the top of the actions file!
6102 # These aliases just save typing later:
6103 # (Note that some already use other aliases!)
6105 +crunch-all-cookies = +<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> +<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
6106 -crunch-all-cookies = -<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> -<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
6107 +block-as-image = +block +handle-as-image
6108 allow-all-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> -<link linkend="FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</link>
6110 # These aliases define combinations of actions
6111 # that are useful for certain types of sites:
6113 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> -<link linkend="PREVENT-COMPRESSION">prevent-compression</link>
6115 shop = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{all-popups}</link> -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link>
6117 # Short names for other aliases, for really lazy people ;-)
6119 c0 = +crunch-all-cookies
6120 c1 = -crunch-all-cookies</screen>
6124 ...and put them to use. These sections would appear in the lower part of an
6125 actions file and define exceptions to the default actions (as specified further
6126 up for the <quote>/</quote> pattern):
6131 # These sites are either very complex or very keen on
6132 # user data and require minimal interference to work:
6135 .office.microsoft.com
6136 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com
6137 # Gmail is really mail.google.com, not gmail.com
6141 # Allow cookies (for setting and retrieving your customer data)
6145 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
6148 # These shops require pop-ups:
6150 {-kill-popups -filter{all-popups} -filter{unsolicited-popups}}
6152 .overclockers.co.uk</screen>
6156 Aliases like <quote>shop</quote> and <quote>fragile</quote> are typically used for
6157 <quote>problem</quote> sites that require more than one action to be disabled
6158 in order to function properly.
6164 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6165 <sect2 id="act-examples">
6166 <title>Actions Files Tutorial</title>
6168 The above chapters have shown <link linkend="actions-file">which actions files
6169 there are and how they are organized</link>, how actions are <link
6170 linkend="actions">specified</link> and <link linkend="actions-apply">applied
6171 to URLs</link>, how <link linkend="af-patterns">patterns</link> work, and how to
6172 define and use <link linkend="aliases">aliases</link>. Now, let's look at an
6173 example <filename>default.action</filename> and <filename>user.action</filename>
6174 file and see how all these pieces come together:
6177 <sect3><title>default.action</title>
6180 Every config file should start with a short comment stating its purpose:
6184 <screen># Sample default.action file <ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net></screen>
6188 Then, since this is the <filename>default.action</filename> file, the
6189 first section is a special section for internal use that you needn't
6190 change or worry about:
6195 ##########################################################################
6196 # Settings -- Don't change! For internal Privoxy use ONLY.
6197 ##########################################################################
6200 for-privoxy-version=3.0</screen>
6204 After that comes the (optional) alias section. We'll use the example
6205 section from the above <link linkend="aliases">chapter on aliases</link>,
6206 that also explains why and how aliases are used:
6211 ##########################################################################
6213 ##########################################################################
6216 # These aliases just save typing later:
6217 # (Note that some already use other aliases!)
6219 +crunch-all-cookies = +<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> +<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
6220 -crunch-all-cookies = -<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> -<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
6221 +block-as-image = +block +handle-as-image
6222 mercy-for-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> -<link linkend="FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</link>
6224 # These aliases define combinations of actions
6225 # that are useful for certain types of sites:
6227 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>
6228 shop = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{all-popups}</link> -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link></screen>
6232 Now come the regular sections, i.e. sets of actions, accompanied
6233 by URL patterns to which they apply. Remember <emphasis>all actions
6234 are disabled when matching starts</emphasis>, so we have to explicitly
6235 enable the ones we want.
6239 The first regular section is probably the most important. It has only
6240 one pattern, <quote><literal>/</literal></quote>, but this pattern
6241 <link linkend="af-patterns">matches all URLs</link>. Therefore, the
6242 set of actions used in this <quote>default</quote> section <emphasis>will
6243 be applied to all requests as a start</emphasis>. It can be partly or
6244 wholly overridden by later matches further down this file, or in user.action,
6245 but it will still be largely responsible for your overall browsing
6250 Again, at the start of matching, all actions are disabled, so there is
6251 no real need to disable any actions here, but we will do that nonetheless,
6252 to have a complete listing for your reference. (Remember: a <quote>+</quote>
6253 preceding the action name enables the action, a <quote>-</quote> disables!).
6254 Also note how this long line has been made more readable by splitting it into
6255 multiple lines with line continuation.
6260 ##########################################################################
6261 # "Defaults" section:
6262 ##########################################################################
6264 -<link linkend="ADD-HEADER">add-header</link> \
6265 -<link linkend="CLIENT-HEADER-FILTER">client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation}</link> \
6266 -<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> \
6267 -<link linkend="CONTENT-TYPE-OVERWRITE">content-type-overwrite</link> \
6268 -<link linkend="CRUNCH-CLIENT-HEADER">crunch-client-header</link> \
6269 -<link linkend="CRUNCH-IF-NONE-MATCH">crunch-if-none-match</link> \
6270 -<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> \
6271 -<link linkend="CRUNCH-SERVER-HEADER">crunch-server-header</link> \
6272 -<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link> \
6273 +<link linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS">deanimate-gifs</link> \
6274 -<link linkend="DOWNGRADE-HTTP-VERSION">downgrade-http-version</link> \
6275 -<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects{check-decoded-url}</link> \
6276 -<link linkend="FILTER-JS-ANNOYANCES">filter{js-annoyances}</link> \
6277 -<link linkend="FILTER-JS-EVENTS">filter{js-events}</link> \
6278 +<link linkend="FILTER-HTML-ANNOYANCES">filter{html-annoyances}</link> \
6279 -<link linkend="FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</link> \
6280 +<link linkend="FILTER-REFRESH-TAGS">filter{refresh-tags}</link> \
6281 -<link linkend="FILTER-UNSOLICITED-POPUPS">filter{unsolicited-popups}</link> \
6282 -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{all-popups}</link> \
6283 -<link linkend="FILTER-IMG-REORDER">filter{img-reorder}</link> \
6284 -<link linkend="FILTER-BANNERS-BY-SIZE">filter{banners-by-size}</link> \
6285 -<link linkend="FILTER-BANNERS-BY-LINK">filter{banners-by-link}</link> \
6286 +<link linkend="FILTER-WEBBUGS">filter{webbugs}</link> \
6287 -<link linkend="FILTER-TINY-TEXTFORMS">filter{tiny-textforms}</link> \
6288 -<link linkend="FILTER-JUMPING-WINDOWS">filter{jumping-windows}</link> \
6289 -<link linkend="FILTER-FRAMESET-BORDERS">filter{frameset-borders}</link> \
6290 -<link linkend="FILTER-DEMORONIZER">filter{demoronizer}</link> \
6291 -<link linkend="FILTER-SHOCKWAVE-FLASH">filter{shockwave-flash}</link> \
6292 -<link linkend="FILTER-QUICKTIME-KIOSKMODE">filter{quicktime-kioskmode}</link> \
6293 -<link linkend="FILTER-FUN">filter{fun}</link> \
6294 -<link linkend="FILTER-CRUDE-PARENTAL">filter{crude-parental}</link> \
6295 +<link linkend="FILTER-IE-EXPLOITS">filter{ie-exploits}</link> \
6296 -<link linkend="FILTER-GOOGLE">filter{google}</link> \
6297 -<link linkend="FILTER-YAHOO">filter{yahoo}</link> \
6298 -<link linkend="FILTER-MSN">filter{msn}</link> \
6299 -<link linkend="FILTER-BLOGSPOT">filter{blogspot}</link> \
6300 -<link linkend="FILTER-NO-PING">filter{no-ping}</link> \
6301 -<link linkend="FORCE-TEXT-MODE">force-text-mode</link> \
6302 -<link linkend="HANDLE-AS-EMPTY-DOCUMENT">handle-as-empty-document</link> \
6303 -<link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">handle-as-image</link> \
6304 -<link linkend="HIDE-ACCEPT-LANGUAGE">hide-accept-language</link> \
6305 -<link linkend="HIDE-CONTENT-DISPOSITION">hide-content-disposition</link> \
6306 -<link linkend="HIDE-IF-MODIFIED-SINCE">hide-if-modified-since</link> \
6307 +<link linkend="HIDE-FORWARDED-FOR-HEADERS">hide-forwarded-for-headers</link> \
6308 +<link linkend="HIDE-FROM-HEADER">hide-from-header{block}</link> \
6309 +<link linkend="HIDE-REFERER">hide-referrer{forge}</link> \
6310 -<link linkend="HIDE-USER-AGENT">hide-user-agent</link> \
6311 -<link linkend="INSPECT-JPEGS">inspect-jpegs</link> \
6312 -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link> \
6313 -<link linkend="LIMIT-CONNECT">limit-connect</link> \
6314 +<link linkend="PREVENT-COMPRESSION">prevent-compression</link> \
6315 -<link linkend="OVERWRITE-LAST-MODIFIED">overwrite-last-modified</link> \
6316 -<link linkend="REDIRECT">redirect</link> \
6317 -<link linkend="SEND-VANILLA-WAFER">send-vanilla-wafer</link> \
6318 -<link linkend="SEND-WAFER">send-wafer</link> \
6319 -<link linkend="SERVER-HEADER-FILTER">server-header-filter{xml-to-html}</link> \
6320 -<link linkend="SERVER-HEADER-FILTER">server-header-filter{html-to-xml}</link> \
6321 +<link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> \
6322 +<link linkend="SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER">set-image-blocker{pattern}</link> \
6323 -<link linkend="TREAT-FORBIDDEN-CONNECTS-LIKE-BLOCKS">treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks</link> \
6325 / # forward slash will match *all* potential URL patterns.</screen>
6329 The default behavior is now set. Note that some actions, like not hiding
6330 the user agent, are part of a <quote>general policy</quote> that applies
6331 universally and won't get any exceptions defined later. Other choices,
6332 like not blocking (which is <emphasis>understandably</emphasis> the
6333 default!) need exceptions, i.e. we need to specify explicitly what we
6334 want to block in later sections.
6338 The first of our specialized sections is concerned with <quote>fragile</quote>
6339 sites, i.e. sites that require minimum interference, because they are either
6340 very complex or very keen on tracking you (and have mechanisms in place that
6341 make them unusable for people who avoid being tracked). We will simply use
6342 our pre-defined <literal>fragile</literal> alias instead of stating the list
6343 of actions explicitly:
6348 ##########################################################################
6349 # Exceptions for sites that'll break under the default action set:
6350 ##########################################################################
6352 # "Fragile" Use a minimum set of actions for these sites (see alias above):
6355 .office.microsoft.com # surprise, surprise!
6356 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com
6357 mail.google.com</screen>
6361 Shopping sites are not as fragile, but they typically
6362 require cookies to log in, and pop-up windows for shopping
6363 carts or item details. Again, we'll use a pre-defined alias:
6372 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
6374 .scan.co.uk</screen>
6377 <!-- No longer needed BEGIN OF COMMENTED OUT BLOCK
6380 Then, there are sites which rely on pop-up windows (yuck!) to work.
6381 Since we made pop-up-killing our default above, we need to make exceptions
6382 now. <ulink url="http://www.mozilla.org/">Mozilla</ulink> users, who
6383 can turn on smart handling of unwanted pop-ups in their browsers, can
6385 -<literal><link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{popups}</link></literal> (and
6386 -<literal><link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link></literal>) above
6387 and hence don't need this section. Anyway, disabling an already disabled
6388 action doesn't hurt, so we'll define our exceptions regardless of what was
6389 chosen in the defaults section:
6394 # These sites require pop-ups too :(
6396 { -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link> -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{popups}</link> }
6399 .deutsche-bank-24.de</screen>
6402 END OF COMMENTED OUT BLOCK -->
6405 The <literal><link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link></literal>
6406 action, which we enabled per default above, breaks some sites. So disable
6407 it for popular sites where we know it misbehaves:
6412 { -<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link> }
6416 .altavista.com/.*(like|url|link):http
6417 .altavista.com/trans.*urltext=http
6418 .nytimes.com</screen>
6422 It is important that <application>Privoxy</application> knows which
6423 URLs belong to images, so that <emphasis>if</emphasis> they are to
6424 be blocked, a substitute image can be sent, rather than an HTML page.
6425 Contacting the remote site to find out is not an option, since it
6426 would destroy the loading time advantage of banner blocking, and it
6427 would feed the advertisers (in terms of money <emphasis>and</emphasis>
6428 information). We can mark any URL as an image with the <literal><link
6429 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> action,
6430 and marking all URLs that end in a known image file extension is a
6436 ##########################################################################
6438 ##########################################################################
6440 # Define which file types will be treated as images, in case they get
6441 # blocked further down this file:
6443 { +<link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">handle-as-image</link> }
6444 /.*\.(gif|jpe?g|png|bmp|ico)$</screen>
6448 And then there are known banner sources. They often use scripts to
6449 generate the banners, so it won't be visible from the URL that the
6450 request is for an image. Hence we block them <emphasis>and</emphasis>
6451 mark them as images in one go, with the help of our
6452 <literal>+block-as-image</literal> alias defined above. (We could of
6453 course just as well use <literal>+<link linkend="block">block</link>
6454 +<link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> here.)
6455 Remember that the type of the replacement image is chosen by the
6456 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>
6457 action. Since all URLs have matched the default section with its
6458 <literal>+<link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link>{pattern}</literal>
6459 action before, it still applies and needn't be repeated:
6464 # Known ad generators:
6469 .ad.*.doubleclick.net
6470 .a.yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$
6471 .a[0-9].yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$
6477 One of the most important jobs of <application>Privoxy</application>
6478 is to block banners. Many of these can be <quote>blocked</quote>
6479 by the <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link>{banners-by-size}</literal>
6480 action, which we enabled above, and which deletes the references to banner
6481 images from the pages while they are loaded, so the browser doesn't request
6482 them anymore, and hence they don't need to be blocked here. But this naturally
6483 doesn't catch all banners, and some people choose not to use filters, so we
6484 need a comprehensive list of patterns for banner URLs here, and apply the
6485 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action to them.
6488 First comes many generic patterns, which do most of the work, by
6489 matching typical domain and path name components of banners. Then comes
6490 a list of individual patterns for specific sites, which is omitted here
6491 to keep the example short:
6496 ##########################################################################
6497 # Block these fine banners:
6498 ##########################################################################
6499 { <link linkend="BLOCK">+block</link> }
6507 /.*count(er)?\.(pl|cgi|exe|dll|asp|php[34]?)
6508 /(?:.*/)?(publicite|werbung|rekla(ma|me|am)|annonse|maino(kset|nta|s)?)/
6510 # Site-specific patterns (abbreviated):
6512 .hitbox.com</screen>
6516 It's quite remarkable how many advertisers actually call their banner
6517 servers ads.<replaceable>company</replaceable>.com, or call the directory
6518 in which the banners are stored simply <quote>banners</quote>. So the above
6519 generic patterns are surprisingly effective.
6522 But being very generic, they necessarily also catch URLs that we don't want
6523 to block. The pattern <literal>.*ads.</literal> e.g. catches
6524 <quote>nasty-<emphasis>ads</emphasis>.nasty-corp.com</quote> as intended,
6525 but also <quote>downlo<emphasis>ads</emphasis>.sourcefroge.net</quote> or
6526 <quote><emphasis>ads</emphasis>l.some-provider.net.</quote> So here come some
6527 well-known exceptions to the <literal>+<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal>
6531 Note that these are exceptions to exceptions from the default! Consider the URL
6532 <quote>downloads.sourcefroge.net</quote>: Initially, all actions are deactivated,
6533 so it wouldn't get blocked. Then comes the defaults section, which matches the
6534 URL, but just deactivates the <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal>
6535 action once again. Then it matches <literal>.*ads.</literal>, an exception to the
6536 general non-blocking policy, and suddenly
6537 <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">+block</link></literal> applies. And now, it'll match
6538 <literal>.*loads.</literal>, where <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">-block</link></literal>
6539 applies, so (unless it matches <emphasis>again</emphasis> further down) it ends up
6540 with no <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal> action applying.
6545 ##########################################################################
6546 # Save some innocent victims of the above generic block patterns:
6547 ##########################################################################
6551 { -<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> }
6552 adv[io]*. # (for advogato.org and advice.*)
6553 adsl. # (has nothing to do with ads)
6554 adobe. # (has nothing to do with ads either)
6555 ad[ud]*. # (adult.* and add.*)
6556 .edu # (universities don't host banners (yet!))
6557 .*loads. # (downloads, uploads etc)
6565 www.globalintersec.com/adv # (adv = advanced)
6566 www.ugu.com/sui/ugu/adv</screen>
6570 Filtering source code can have nasty side effects,
6571 so make an exception for our friends at sourceforge.net,
6572 and all paths with <quote>cvs</quote> in them. Note that
6573 <literal>-<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link></literal>
6574 disables <emphasis>all</emphasis> filters in one fell swoop!
6579 # Don't filter code!
6581 { -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> }
6586 .sourceforge.net</screen>
6590 The actual <filename>default.action</filename> is of course much more
6591 comprehensive, but we hope this example made clear how it works.
6596 <sect3><title>user.action</title>
6599 So far we are painting with a broad brush by setting general policies,
6600 which would be a reasonable starting point for many people. Now,
6601 you might want to be more specific and have customized rules that
6602 are more suitable to your personal habits and preferences. These would
6603 be for narrowly defined situations like your ISP or your bank, and should
6604 be placed in <filename>user.action</filename>, which is parsed after all other
6605 actions files and hence has the last word, over-riding any previously
6606 defined actions. <filename>user.action</filename> is also a
6607 <emphasis>safe</emphasis> place for your personal settings, since
6608 <filename>default.action</filename> is actively maintained by the
6609 <application>Privoxy</application> developers and you'll probably want
6610 to install updated versions from time to time.
6614 So let's look at a few examples of things that one might typically do in
6615 <filename>user.action</filename>:
6619 <!-- brief sample user.action here -->
6623 # My user.action file. <fred@foobar.com></screen>
6627 As <link linkend="aliases">aliases</link> are local to the actions
6628 file that they are defined in, you can't use the ones from
6629 <filename>default.action</filename>, unless you repeat them here:
6634 # Aliases are local to the file they are defined in.
6635 # (Re-)define aliases for this file:
6639 # These aliases just save typing later, and the alias names should
6640 # be self explanatory.
6642 +crunch-all-cookies = +crunch-incoming-cookies +crunch-outgoing-cookies
6643 -crunch-all-cookies = -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-cookies
6644 allow-all-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -session-cookies-only
6645 allow-popups = -filter{all-popups} -kill-popups
6646 +block-as-image = +block +handle-as-image
6647 -block-as-image = -block
6649 # These aliases define combinations of actions that are useful for
6650 # certain types of sites:
6652 fragile = -block -crunch-all-cookies -filter -fast-redirects -hide-referrer -kill-popups
6653 shop = -crunch-all-cookies allow-popups
6655 # Allow ads for selected useful free sites:
6657 allow-ads = -block -filter{banners-by-size} -filter{banners-by-link}
6659 # Alias for specific file types that are text, but might have conflicting
6660 # MIME types. We want the browser to force these to be text documents.
6661 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>
6666 Say you have accounts on some sites that you visit regularly, and
6667 you don't want to have to log in manually each time. So you'd like
6668 to allow persistent cookies for these sites. The
6669 <literal>allow-all-cookies</literal> alias defined above does exactly
6670 that, i.e. it disables crunching of cookies in any direction, and the
6671 processing of cookies to make them only temporary.
6676 { allow-all-cookies }
6680 .redhat.com</screen>
6684 Your bank is allergic to some filter, but you don't know which, so you disable them all:
6689 { -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> }
6690 .your-home-banking-site.com</screen>
6694 Some file types you may not want to filter for various reasons:
6699 # Technical documentation is likely to contain strings that might
6700 # erroneously get altered by the JavaScript-oriented filters:
6705 # And this stupid host sends streaming video with a wrong MIME type,
6706 # so that Privoxy thinks it is getting HTML and starts filtering:
6708 stupid-server.example.com/</screen>
6712 Example of a simple <link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> action. Say you've
6713 seen an ad on your favourite page on example.com that you want to get rid of.
6714 You have right-clicked the image, selected <quote>copy image location</quote>
6715 and pasted the URL below while removing the leading http://, into a
6716 <literal>{ +block }</literal> section. Note that <literal>{ +handle-as-image
6717 }</literal> need not be specified, since all URLs ending in
6718 <literal>.gif</literal> will be tagged as images by the general rules as set
6719 in default.action anyway:
6724 { +<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> }
6725 www.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor\.gif
6726 another.popular.site.net/more/junk/here/</screen>
6730 The URLs of dynamically generated banners, especially from large banner
6731 farms, often don't use the well-known image file name extensions, which
6732 makes it impossible for <application>Privoxy</application> to guess
6733 the file type just by looking at the URL.
6734 You can use the <literal>+block-as-image</literal> alias defined above for
6736 Note that objects which match this rule but then turn out NOT to be an
6737 image are typically rendered as a <quote>broken image</quote> icon by the
6738 browser. Use cautiously.
6747 ar.atwola.com/</screen>
6751 Now you noticed that the default configuration breaks Forbes Magazine,
6752 but you were too lazy to find out which action is the culprit, and you
6753 were again too lazy to give <link linkend="contact">feedback</link>, so
6754 you just used the <literal>fragile</literal> alias on the site, and
6755 -- <emphasis>whoa!</emphasis> -- it worked. The <literal>fragile</literal>
6756 aliases disables those actions that are most likely to break a site. Also,
6757 good for testing purposes to see if it is <application>Privoxy</application>
6758 that is causing the problem or not. We later find other regular sites
6759 that misbehave, and add those to our personalized list of troublemakers:
6767 .mybank.com</screen>
6771 You like the <quote>fun</quote> text replacements in <filename>default.filter</filename>,
6772 but it is disabled in the distributed actions file. (My colleagues on the team just
6773 don't have a sense of humour, that's why! ;-). So you'd like to turn it on in your private,
6774 update-safe config, once and for all:
6779 { +<link linkend="filter-fun">filter{fun}</link> }
6780 / # For ALL sites!</screen>
6784 Note that the above is not really a good idea: There are exceptions
6785 to the filters in <filename>default.action</filename> for things that
6786 really shouldn't be filtered, like code on CVS->Web interfaces. Since
6787 <filename>user.action</filename> has the last word, these exceptions
6788 won't be valid for the <quote>fun</quote> filtering specified here.
6792 You might also worry about how your favourite free websites are
6793 funded, and find that they rely on displaying banner advertisements
6794 to survive. So you might want to specifically allow banners for those
6795 sites that you feel provide value to you:
6807 Note that <literal>allow-ads</literal> has been aliased to
6808 <literal>-<link linkend="block">block</link></literal>,
6809 <literal>-<link linkend="filter-banners-by-size">filter{banners-by-size}</link></literal>, and
6810 <literal>-<link linkend="filter-banners-by-link">filter{banners-by-link}</link></literal> above.
6814 Invoke another alias here to force an over-ride of the MIME type <literal>
6815 application/x-sh</literal> which typically would open a download type
6816 dialog. In my case, I want to look at the shell script, and then I can save
6817 it should I choose to.
6827 <filename>user.action</filename> is generally the best place to define
6828 exceptions and additions to the default policies of
6829 <filename>default.action</filename>. Some actions are safe to have their
6830 default policies set here though. So let's set a default policy to have a
6831 <quote>blank</quote> image as opposed to the checkerboard pattern for
6832 <emphasis>ALL</emphasis> sites. <quote>/</quote> of course matches all URL
6838 { +<link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker{blank}</link> }
6839 / # ALL sites</screen>
6845 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
6849 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
6851 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
6853 <sect1 id="filter-file">
6854 <title>Filter Files</title>
6857 On-the-fly text substitutions need
6858 to be defined in a <quote>filter file</quote>. Once defined, they
6859 can then be invoked as an <quote>action</quote>.
6863 &my-app; supports three different filter actions:
6864 <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> to
6865 rewrite the content that is send to the client,
6866 <literal><link linkend="client-header-filter">client-header-filter</link></literal>
6867 to rewrite headers that are send by the client, and
6868 <literal><link linkend="server-header-filter">server-header-filter</link></literal>
6869 to rewrite headers that are send by the server, and
6873 &my-app; also supports two tagger actions:
6874 <literal><link linkend="client-header-tagger">client-header-tagger</link></literal>
6876 <literal><link linkend="server-header-tagger">server-header-tagger</link></literal>.
6877 Taggers and filters use the same syntax in the filter files, the differnce
6878 is that taggers don't modify the text they are filtering, but use a rewritten
6879 version of the filtered text as tag. The tags can then be used to change the
6880 applying actions through sections with <link linkend="tag-pattern">tag-patterns</link>.
6885 Multiple filter files can be defined through the <literal> <link
6886 linkend="filterfile">filterfile</link></literal> config directive. The filters
6887 as supplied by the developers will be found in
6888 <filename>default.filter</filename>. It is recommended that any locally
6889 defined or modified filters go in a separately defined file such as
6890 <filename>user.filter</filename>.
6895 Command tasks for content filters are to eliminate common annoyances in
6896 HTML and JavaScript, such as pop-up windows,
6897 exit consoles, crippled windows without navigation tools, the
6898 infamous <BLINK> tag etc, to suppress images with certain
6899 width and height attributes (standard banner sizes or web-bugs),
6900 or just to have fun.
6904 Content filtering works on any text-based document type, including
6905 HTML, JavaScript, CSS etc. (all <literal>text/*</literal>
6906 MIME types, <emphasis>except</emphasis> <literal>text/plain</literal>).
6907 Substitutions are made at the source level, so if you want to <quote>roll
6908 your own</quote> filters, you should first be familiar with HTML syntax,
6909 and, of course, regular expressions.
6913 Just like the <link linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>, the
6914 filter file is organized in sections, which are called <emphasis>filters</emphasis>
6915 here. Each filter consists of a heading line, that starts with one of the
6916 <emphasis>keywords</emphasis> <literal>FILTER:</literal>,
6917 <literal>CLIENT-HEADER-FILTER:</literal> or <literal>SERVER-HEADER-FILTER:</literal>
6918 followed by the filter's <emphasis>name</emphasis>, and a short (one line)
6919 <emphasis>description</emphasis> of what it does. Below that line
6920 come the <emphasis>jobs</emphasis>, i.e. lines that define the actual
6921 text substitutions. By convention, the name of a filter
6922 should describe what the filter <emphasis>eliminates</emphasis>. The
6923 comment is used in the <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">web-based
6924 user interface</ulink>.
6928 Once a filter called <replaceable>name</replaceable> has been defined
6929 in the filter file, it can be invoked by using an action of the form
6930 +<literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link>{<replaceable>name</replaceable>}</literal>
6931 in any <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link>.
6935 Filter definitions start with a header line that contains the filter
6936 type, the filter name and the filter description.
6937 A content filter header line for a filter called <quote>foo</quote> could look
6942 <screen>FILTER: foo Replace all "foo" with "bar"</screen>
6946 Below that line, and up to the next header line, come the jobs that
6947 define what text replacements the filter executes. They are specified
6948 in a syntax that imitates <ulink url="http://www.perl.org/">Perl</ulink>'s
6949 <literal>s///</literal> operator. If you are familiar with Perl, you
6950 will find this to be quite intuitive, and may want to look at the
6951 PCRS documentation for the subtle differences to Perl behaviour. Most
6952 notably, the non-standard option letter <literal>U</literal> is supported,
6953 which turns the default to ungreedy matching.
6958 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
6959 Expressions</quote></ulink>, you might want to take a look at
6960 the <link linkend="regex">Appendix on regular expressions</link>, and
6961 see the <ulink url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html">Perl
6963 <ulink url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlop.html">the
6964 <literal>s///</literal> operator's syntax</ulink> and <ulink
6965 url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html">Perl-style regular
6966 expressions</ulink> in general.
6967 The below examples might also help to get you started.
6971 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
6973 <sect2><title>Filter File Tutorial</title>
6975 Now, let's complete our <quote>foo</quote> content filter. We have already defined
6976 the heading, but the jobs are still missing. Since all it does is to replace
6977 <quote>foo</quote> with <quote>bar</quote>, there is only one (trivial) job
6982 <screen>s/foo/bar/</screen>
6986 But wait! Didn't the comment say that <emphasis>all</emphasis> occurrences
6987 of <quote>foo</quote> should be replaced? Our current job will only take
6988 care of the first <quote>foo</quote> on each page. For global substitution,
6989 we'll need to add the <literal>g</literal> option:
6993 <screen>s/foo/bar/g</screen>
6997 Our complete filter now looks like this:
7000 <screen>FILTER: foo Replace all "foo" with "bar"
7001 s/foo/bar/g</screen>
7005 Let's look at some real filters for more interesting examples. Here you see
7006 a filter that protects against some common annoyances that arise from JavaScript
7007 abuse. Let's look at its jobs one after the other:
7013 FILTER: js-annoyances Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse
7015 # Get rid of JavaScript referrer tracking. Test page: http://www.randomoddness.com/untitled.htm
7017 s|(<script.*)document\.referrer(.*</script>)|$1"Not Your Business!"$2|Usg</screen>
7021 Following the header line and a comment, you see the job. Note that it uses
7022 <literal>|</literal> as the delimiter instead of <literal>/</literal>, because
7023 the pattern contains a forward slash, which would otherwise have to be escaped
7024 by a backslash (<literal>\</literal>).
7028 Now, let's examine the pattern: it starts with the text <literal><script.*</literal>
7029 enclosed in parentheses. Since the dot matches any character, and <literal>*</literal>
7030 means: <quote>Match an arbitrary number of the element left of myself</quote>, this
7031 matches <quote><script</quote>, followed by <emphasis>any</emphasis> text, i.e.
7032 it matches the whole page, from the start of the first <script> tag.
7036 That's more than we want, but the pattern continues: <literal>document\.referrer</literal>
7037 matches only the exact string <quote>document.referrer</quote>. The dot needed to
7038 be <emphasis>escaped</emphasis>, i.e. preceded by a backslash, to take away its
7039 special meaning as a joker, and make it just a regular dot. So far, the meaning is:
7040 Match from the start of the first <script> tag in a the page, up to, and including,
7041 the text <quote>document.referrer</quote>, if <emphasis>both</emphasis> are present
7042 in the page (and appear in that order).
7046 But there's still more pattern to go. The next element, again enclosed in parentheses,
7047 is <literal>.*</script></literal>. You already know what <literal>.*</literal>
7048 means, so the whole pattern translates to: Match from the start of the first <script>
7049 tag in a page to the end of the last <script> tag, provided that the text
7050 <quote>document.referrer</quote> appears somewhere in between.
7054 This is still not the whole story, since we have ignored the options and the parentheses:
7055 The portions of the page matched by sub-patterns that are enclosed in parentheses, will be
7056 remembered and be available through the variables <literal>$1, $2, ...</literal> in
7057 the substitute. The <literal>U</literal> option switches to ungreedy matching, which means
7058 that the first <literal>.*</literal> in the pattern will only <quote>eat up</quote> all
7059 text in between <quote><script</quote> and the <emphasis>first</emphasis> occurrence
7060 of <quote>document.referrer</quote>, and that the second <literal>.*</literal> will
7061 only span the text up to the <emphasis>first</emphasis> <quote></script></quote>
7062 tag. Furthermore, the <literal>s</literal> option says that the match may span
7063 multiple lines in the page, and the <literal>g</literal> option again means that the
7064 substitution is global.
7068 So, to summarize, the pattern means: Match all scripts that contain the text
7069 <quote>document.referrer</quote>. Remember the parts of the script from
7070 (and including) the start tag up to (and excluding) the string
7071 <quote>document.referrer</quote> as <literal>$1</literal>, and the part following
7072 that string, up to and including the closing tag, as <literal>$2</literal>.
7076 Now the pattern is deciphered, but wasn't this about substituting things? So
7077 lets look at the substitute: <literal>$1"Not Your Business!"$2</literal> is
7078 easy to read: The text remembered as <literal>$1</literal>, followed by
7079 <literal>"Not Your Business!"</literal> (<emphasis>including</emphasis>
7080 the quotation marks!), followed by the text remembered as <literal>$2</literal>.
7081 This produces an exact copy of the original string, with the middle part
7082 (the <quote>document.referrer</quote>) replaced by <literal>"Not Your
7083 Business!"</literal>.
7087 The whole job now reads: Replace <quote>document.referrer</quote> by
7088 <literal>"Not Your Business!"</literal> wherever it appears inside a
7089 <script> tag. Note that this job won't break JavaScript syntax,
7090 since both the original and the replacement are syntactically valid
7091 string objects. The script just won't have access to the referrer
7092 information anymore.
7096 We'll show you two other jobs from the JavaScript taming department, but
7097 this time only point out the constructs of special interest:
7102 # The status bar is for displaying link targets, not pointless blahblah
7104 s/window\.status\s*=\s*(['"]).*?\1/dUmMy=1/ig</screen>
7108 <literal>\s</literal> stands for whitespace characters (space, tab, newline,
7109 carriage return, form feed), so that <literal>\s*</literal> means: <quote>zero
7110 or more whitespace</quote>. The <literal>?</literal> in <literal>.*?</literal>
7111 makes this matching of arbitrary text ungreedy. (Note that the <literal>U</literal>
7112 option is not set). The <literal>['"]</literal> construct means: <quote>a single
7113 <emphasis>or</emphasis> a double quote</quote>. Finally, <literal>\1</literal> is
7114 a back-reference to the first parenthesis just like <literal>$1</literal> above,
7115 with the difference that in the <emphasis>pattern</emphasis>, a backslash indicates
7116 a back-reference, whereas in the <emphasis>substitute</emphasis>, it's the dollar.
7120 So what does this job do? It replaces assignments of single- or double-quoted
7121 strings to the <quote>window.status</quote> object with a dummy assignment
7122 (using a variable name that is hopefully odd enough not to conflict with
7123 real variables in scripts). Thus, it catches many cases where e.g. pointless
7124 descriptions are displayed in the status bar instead of the link target when
7125 you move your mouse over links.
7130 # Kill OnUnload popups. Yummy. Test: http://www.zdnet.com/zdsubs/yahoo/tree/yfs.html
7132 s/(<body [^>]*)onunload(.*>)/$1never$2/iU</screen>
7137 <ulink url="http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-DOM-Level-2-Events-20001113/events.html#Events-eventgroupings-htmlevents">OnUnload
7138 event binding</ulink> in the HTML DOM was a <emphasis>CRIME</emphasis>.
7139 When I close a browser window, I want it to close and die. Basta.
7140 This job replaces the <quote>onunload</quote> attribute in
7141 <quote><body></quote> tags with the dummy word <literal>never</literal>.
7142 Note that the <literal>i</literal> option makes the pattern matching
7143 case-insensitive. Also note that ungreedy matching alone doesn't always guarantee
7144 a minimal match: In the first parenthesis, we had to use <literal>[^>]*</literal>
7145 instead of <literal>.*</literal> to prevent the match from exceeding the
7146 <body> tag if it doesn't contain <quote>OnUnload</quote>, but the page's
7151 The last example is from the fun department:
7156 FILTER: fun Fun text replacements
7158 # Spice the daily news:
7160 s/microsoft(?!\.com)/MicroSuck/ig</screen>
7164 Note the <literal>(?!\.com)</literal> part (a so-called negative lookahead)
7165 in the job's pattern, which means: Don't match, if the string
7166 <quote>.com</quote> appears directly following <quote>microsoft</quote>
7167 in the page. This prevents links to microsoft.com from being trashed, while
7168 still replacing the word everywhere else.
7173 # Buzzword Bingo (example for extended regex syntax)
7175 s* industry[ -]leading \
7177 | customer[ -]focused \
7178 | market[ -]driven \
7179 | award[ -]winning # Comments are OK, too! \
7180 | high[ -]performance \
7181 | solutions[ -]based \
7185 *<font color="red"><b>BINGO!</b></font> \
7190 The <literal>x</literal> option in this job turns on extended syntax, and allows for
7191 e.g. the liberal use of (non-interpreted!) whitespace for nicer formatting.
7199 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
7201 <sect2 id="predefined-filters"><title>The Pre-defined Filters</title>
7205 Note each filter is also listed in the +filter action section above. Please
7206 keep these listings in sync.
7211 The distribution <filename>default.filter</filename> file contains a selection of
7212 pre-defined filters for your convenience:
7217 <term><emphasis>js-annoyances</emphasis></term>
7220 The purpose of this filter is to get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse.
7225 replaces JavaScript references to the browser's referrer information
7226 with the string "Not Your Business!". This compliments the <literal><link
7227 linkend="hide-referrer">hide-referrer</link></literal> action on the content level.
7232 removes the bindings to the DOM's
7233 <ulink url="http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-DOM-Level-2-Events-20001113/events.html#Events-eventgroupings-htmlevents">unload
7234 event</ulink> which we feel has no right to exist and is responsible for most <quote>exit consoles</quote>, i.e.
7235 nasty windows that pop up when you close another one.
7240 removes code that causes new windows to be opened with undesired properties, such as being
7241 full-screen, non-resizeable, without location, status or menu bar etc.
7247 Use with caution. This is an aggressive filter, and can break sites that
7248 rely heavily on JavaScript.
7254 <term><emphasis>js-events</emphasis></term>
7257 This is a very radical measure. It removes virtually all JavaScript event bindings, which
7258 means that scripts can not react to user actions such as mouse movements or clicks, window
7259 resizing etc, anymore. Use with caution!
7262 We <emphasis>strongly discourage</emphasis> using this filter as a default since it breaks
7263 many legitimate scripts. It is meant for use only on extra-nasty sites (should you really
7270 <term><emphasis>html-annoyances</emphasis></term>
7273 This filter will undo many common instances of HTML based abuse.
7276 The <literal>BLINK</literal> and <literal>MARQUEE</literal> tags
7277 are neutralized (yeah baby!), and browser windows will be created as
7278 resizeable (as of course they should be!), and will have location,
7279 scroll and menu bars -- even if specified otherwise.
7285 <term><emphasis>content-cookies</emphasis></term>
7288 Most cookies are set in the HTTP dialog, where they can be intercepted
7290 <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal>
7291 and <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>
7292 actions. But web sites increasingly make use of HTML meta tags and JavaScript
7293 to sneak cookies to the browser on the content level.
7296 This filter disables most HTML and JavaScript code that reads or sets
7297 cookies. It cannot detect all clever uses of these types of code, so it
7298 should not be relied on as an absolute fix. Use it wherever you would also
7299 use the cookie crunch actions.
7305 <term><emphasis>refresh tags</emphasis></term>
7308 Disable any refresh tags if the interval is greater than nine seconds (so
7309 that redirections done via refresh tags are not destroyed). This is useful
7310 for dial-on-demand setups, or for those who find this HTML feature
7317 <term><emphasis>unsolicited-popups</emphasis></term>
7320 This filter attempts to prevent only <quote>unsolicited</quote> pop-up
7321 windows from opening, yet still allow pop-up windows that the user
7322 has explicitly chosen to open. It was added in version 3.0.1,
7323 as an improvement over earlier such filters.
7326 Technical note: The filter works by redefining the window.open JavaScript
7327 function to a dummy function, <literal>PrivoxyWindowOpen()</literal>,
7328 during the loading and rendering phase of each HTML page access, and
7329 restoring the function afterward.
7332 This is recommended only for browsers that cannot perform this function
7333 reliably themselves. And be aware that some sites require such windows
7334 in order to function normally. Use with caution.
7340 <term><emphasis>all-popups</emphasis></term>
7343 Attempt to prevent <emphasis>all</emphasis> pop-up windows from opening.
7344 Note this should be used with even more discretion than the above, since
7345 it is more likely to break some sites that require pop-ups for normal
7346 usage. Use with caution.
7352 <term><emphasis>img-reorder</emphasis></term>
7355 This is a helper filter that has no value if used alone. It makes the
7356 <literal>banners-by-size</literal> and <literal>banners-by-link</literal>
7357 (see below) filters more effective and should be enabled together with them.
7363 <term><emphasis>banners-by-size</emphasis></term>
7366 This filter removes image tags purely based on what size they are. Fortunately
7367 for us, many ads and banner images tend to conform to certain standardized
7368 sizes, which makes this filter quite effective for ad stripping purposes.
7371 Occasionally this filter will cause false positives on images that are not ads,
7372 but just happen to be of one of the standard banner sizes.
7375 Recommended only for those who require extreme ad blocking. The default
7376 block rules should catch 95+% of all ads <emphasis>without</emphasis> this filter enabled.
7382 <term><emphasis>banners-by-link</emphasis></term>
7385 This is an experimental filter that attempts to kill any banners if
7386 their URLs seem to point to known or suspected click trackers. It is currently
7387 not of much value and is not recommended for use by default.
7393 <term><emphasis>webbugs</emphasis></term>
7396 Webbugs are small, invisible images (technically 1X1 GIF images), that
7397 are used to track users across websites, and collect information on them.
7398 As an HTML page is loaded by the browser, an embedded image tag causes the
7399 browser to contact a third-party site, disclosing the tracking information
7400 through the requested URL and/or cookies for that third-party domain, without
7401 the user ever becoming aware of the interaction with the third-party site.
7402 HTML-ized spam also uses a similar technique to verify email addresses.
7405 This filter removes the HTML code that loads such <quote>webbugs</quote>.
7411 <term><emphasis>tiny-textforms</emphasis></term>
7414 A rather special-purpose filter that can be used to enlarge textareas (those
7415 multi-line text boxes in web forms) and turn off hard word wrap in them.
7416 It was written for the sourceforge.net tracker system where such boxes are
7417 a nuisance, but it can be handy on other sites, too.
7420 It is not recommended to use this filter as a default.
7426 <term><emphasis>jumping-windows</emphasis></term>
7429 Many consider windows that move, or resize themselves to be abusive. This filter
7430 neutralizes the related JavaScript code. Note that some sites might not display
7431 or behave as intended when using this filter. Use with caution.
7437 <term><emphasis>frameset-borders</emphasis></term>
7440 Some web designers seem to assume that everyone in the world will view their
7441 web sites using the same browser brand and version, screen resolution etc,
7442 because only that assumption could explain why they'd use static frame sizes,
7443 yet prevent their frames from being resized by the user, should they be too
7444 small to show their whole content.
7447 This filter removes the related HTML code. It should only be applied to sites
7454 <term><emphasis>demoronizer</emphasis></term>
7457 Many Microsoft products that generate HTML use non-standard extensions (read:
7458 violations) of the ISO 8859-1 aka Latin-1 character set. This can cause those
7459 HTML documents to display with errors on standard-compliant platforms.
7462 This filter translates the MS-only characters into Latin-1 equivalents.
7463 It is not necessary when using MS products, and will cause corruption of
7464 all documents that use 8-bit character sets other than Latin-1. It's mostly
7465 worthwhile for Europeans on non-MS platforms, if weird garbage characters
7466 sometimes appear on some pages, or user agents that don't correct for this on
7469 My version of Mozilla (ancient) shows litte square boxes for quote
7470 characters, and apostrophes on moronized pages. So many pages have this, I
7471 can read them fine now. HB 08/27/06
7478 <term><emphasis>shockwave-flash</emphasis></term>
7481 A filter for shockwave haters. As the name suggests, this filter strips code
7482 out of web pages that is used to embed shockwave flash objects.
7490 <term><emphasis>quicktime-kioskmode</emphasis></term>
7493 Change HTML code that embeds Quicktime objects so that kioskmode, which
7494 prevents saving, is disabled.
7500 <term><emphasis>fun</emphasis></term>
7503 Text replacements for subversive browsing fun. Make fun of your favorite
7504 Monopolist or play buzzword bingo.
7510 <term><emphasis>crude-parental</emphasis></term>
7513 A demonstration-only filter that shows how <application>Privoxy</application>
7514 can be used to delete web content on a keyword basis.
7520 <term><emphasis>ie-exploits</emphasis></term>
7523 An experimental collection of text replacements to disable malicious HTML and JavaScript
7524 code that exploits known security holes in Internet Explorer.
7527 Presently, it only protects against Nimda and a cross-site scripting bug, and
7528 would need active maintenance to provide more substantial protection.
7534 <term><emphasis>site-specifics</emphasis></term>
7537 Some web sites have very specific problems, the cure for which doesn't apply
7538 anywhere else, or could even cause damage on other sites.
7541 This is a collection of such site-specific cures which should only be applied
7542 to the sites they were intended for, which is what the supplied
7543 <filename>default.action</filename> file does. Users shouldn't need to change
7544 anything regarding this filter.
7550 <term><emphasis>google</emphasis></term>
7553 A CSS based block for Google text ads. Also removes a width limitation
7554 and the toolbar advertisement.
7560 <term><emphasis>yahoo</emphasis></term>
7563 Another CSS based block, this time for Yahoo text ads. And removes
7564 a width limitation as well.
7570 <term><emphasis>msn</emphasis></term>
7573 Another CSS based block, this time for MSN text ads. And removes
7574 tracking URLs, as well as a width limitation.
7580 <term><emphasis>blogspot</emphasis></term>
7583 Cleans up some Blogspot blogs. Read the fine print before using this one!
7586 This filter also intentionally removes some navigation stuff and sets the
7587 page width to 100%. As a result, some rounded <quote>corners</quote> would
7588 appear to early or not at all and as fixing this would require a browser
7589 that understands background-size (CSS3), they are removed instead.
7595 <term><emphasis>xml-to-html</emphasis></term>
7598 Server-header filter to change the Content-Type from xml to html.
7604 <term><emphasis>html-to-xml</emphasis></term>
7607 Server-header filter to change the Content-Type from html to xml.
7613 <term><emphasis>no-ping</emphasis></term>
7616 Removes the non-standard <literal>ping</literal> attribute from
7617 anchor and area HTML tags.
7623 <term><emphasis>hide-tor-exit-notation</emphasis></term>
7626 Client-header filter to remove the <command>Tor</command> exit node notation
7627 found in Host and Referer headers.
7630 If &my-app; and <command>Tor</command> are chained and &my-app;
7631 is configured to use socks4a, one can use <quote>http://www.example.org.foobar.exit/</quote>
7632 to access the host <quote>www.example.org</quote> through the
7633 <command>Tor</command> exit node <quote>foobar</quote>.
7636 As the HTTP client isn't aware of this notation, it treats the
7637 whole string <quote>www.example.org.foobar.exit</quote> as host and uses it
7638 for the <quote>Host</quote> and <quote>Referer</quote> headers. From the
7639 server's point of view the resulting headers are invalid and can cause problems.
7642 An invalid <quote>Referer</quote> header can trigger <quote>hot-linking</quote>
7643 protections, an invalid <quote>Host</quote> header will make it impossible for
7644 the server to find the right vhost (several domains hosted on the same IP address).
7647 This client-header filter removes the <quote>foo.exit</quote> part in those headers
7648 to prevent the mentioned problems. Note that it only modifies
7649 the HTTP headers, it doesn't make it impossible for the server
7650 to detect your <command>Tor</command> exit node based on the IP address
7651 the request is coming from.
7658 <term><emphasis> </emphasis></term>
7672 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7676 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7678 <sect1 id="templates">
7679 <title>Privoxy's Template Files</title>
7681 All <application>Privoxy</application> built-in pages, i.e. error pages such as the
7682 <ulink url="http://show-the-404-error.page"><quote>404 - No Such Domain</quote>
7683 error page</ulink>, the <ulink
7684 url="http://ads.bannerserver.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor.html"><quote>BLOCKED</quote>
7686 and all pages of its <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">web-based
7687 user interface</ulink>, are generated from <emphasis>templates</emphasis>.
7688 (<application>Privoxy</application> must be running for the above links to work as
7693 These templates are stored in a subdirectory of the <link linkend="confdir">configuration
7694 directory</link> called <filename>templates</filename>. On Unixish platforms,
7696 <ulink url="file:///etc/privoxy/templates/"><filename>/etc/privoxy/templates/</filename></ulink>.
7700 The templates are basically normal HTML files, but with place-holders (called symbols
7701 or exports), which <application>Privoxy</application> fills at run time. You can
7702 edit the templates with a normal text editor, should you want to customize them.
7703 (<emphasis>Not recommended for the casual user</emphasis>). Note that
7704 just like in configuration files, lines starting with <literal>#</literal> are
7705 ignored when the templates are filled in.
7709 The place-holders are of the form <literal>@name@</literal>, and you will
7710 find a list of available symbols, which vary from template to template,
7711 in the comments at the start of each file. Note that these comments are not
7712 always accurate, and that it's probably best to look at the existing HTML
7713 code to find out which symbols are supported and what they are filled in with.
7717 A special application of this substitution mechanism is to make whole
7718 blocks of HTML code disappear when a specific symbol is set. We use this
7719 for many purposes, one of them being to include the beta warning in all
7720 our user interface (CGI) pages when <application>Privoxy</application>
7721 is in an alpha or beta development stage:
7726 <!-- @if-unstable-start -->
7728 ... beta warning HTML code goes here ...
7730 <!-- if-unstable-end@ --></screen>
7734 If the "unstable" symbol is set, everything in between and including
7735 <literal>@if-unstable-start</literal> and <literal>if-unstable-end@</literal>
7736 will disappear, leaving nothing but an empty comment:
7740 <screen><!-- --></screen>
7744 There's also an if-then-else construct and an <literal>#include</literal>
7745 mechanism, but you'll sure find out if you are inclined to edit the
7750 All templates refer to a style located at
7751 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/send-stylesheet"><literal>http://config.privoxy.org/send-stylesheet</literal></ulink>.
7752 This is, of course, locally served by <application>Privoxy</application>
7753 and the source for it can be found and edited in the
7754 <filename>cgi-style.css</filename> template.
7759 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7763 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7765 <sect1 id="contact"><title>Contacting the Developers, Bug Reporting and Feature
7768 <!-- Include contacting.sgml boilerplate: -->
7770 <!-- end boilerplate -->
7774 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7777 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7778 <sect1 id="copyright"><title>Privoxy Copyright, License and History</title>
7780 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
7782 <!-- end copyright -->
7784 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7785 <sect2><title>License</title>
7786 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
7788 <!-- end copyright -->
7790 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7793 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7795 <sect2 id="history"><title>History</title>
7796 <!-- Include history.sgml: -->
7798 <!-- end history -->
7801 <sect2 id="authors"><title>Authors</title>
7802 <!-- Include p-authors.sgml: -->
7804 <!-- end authors -->
7809 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7812 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7813 <sect1 id="seealso"><title>See Also</title>
7814 <!-- Include seealso.sgml: -->
7816 <!-- end seealso -->
7821 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7822 <sect1 id="appendix"><title>Appendix</title>
7825 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7827 <title>Regular Expressions</title>
7829 <application>Privoxy</application> uses Perl-style <quote>regular
7830 expressions</quote> in its <link linkend="actions-file">actions
7831 files</link> and <link linkend="filter-file">filter file</link>,
7832 through the <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/">PCRE</ulink> and
7835 <ulink url="http://www.oesterhelt.org/pcrs/">PCRS</ulink> libraries.
7837 <application>PCRS</application> libraries.
7841 If you are reading this, you probably don't understand what <quote>regular
7842 expressions</quote> are, or what they can do. So this will be a very brief
7843 introduction only. A full explanation would require a <ulink
7844 url="http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/regex/">book</ulink> ;-)
7848 Regular expressions provide a language to describe patterns that can be
7849 run against strings of characters (letter, numbers, etc), to see if they
7850 match the string or not. The patterns are themselves (sometimes complex)
7851 strings of literal characters, combined with wild-cards, and other special
7852 characters, called meta-characters. The <quote>meta-characters</quote> have
7853 special meanings and are used to build complex patterns to be matched against.
7854 Perl Compatible Regular Expressions are an especially convenient
7855 <quote>dialect</quote> of the regular expression language.
7859 To make a simple analogy, we do something similar when we use wild-card
7860 characters when listing files with the <command>dir</command> command in DOS.
7861 <literal>*.*</literal> matches all filenames. The <quote>special</quote>
7862 character here is the asterisk which matches any and all characters. We can be
7863 more specific and use <literal>?</literal> to match just individual
7864 characters. So <quote>dir file?.text</quote> would match
7865 <quote>file1.txt</quote>, <quote>file2.txt</quote>, etc. We are pattern
7866 matching, using a similar technique to <quote>regular expressions</quote>!
7870 Regular expressions do essentially the same thing, but are much, much more
7871 powerful. There are many more <quote>special characters</quote> and ways of
7872 building complex patterns however. Let's look at a few of the common ones,
7873 and then some examples:
7878 <emphasis>.</emphasis> - Matches any single character, e.g. <quote>a</quote>,
7879 <quote>A</quote>, <quote>4</quote>, <quote>:</quote>, or <quote>@</quote>.
7881 </simplelist></para>
7885 <emphasis>?</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or ONE
7888 </simplelist></para>
7892 <emphasis>+</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ONE or MORE
7895 </simplelist></para>
7899 <emphasis>*</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or MORE
7902 </simplelist></para>
7906 <emphasis>\</emphasis> - The <quote>escape</quote> character denotes that
7907 the following character should be taken literally. This is used where one of the
7908 special characters (e.g. <quote>.</quote>) needs to be taken literally and
7909 not as a special meta-character. Example: <quote>example\.com</quote>, makes
7910 sure the period is recognized only as a period (and not expanded to its
7911 meta-character meaning of any single character).
7913 </simplelist></para>
7917 <emphasis>[ ]</emphasis> - Characters enclosed in brackets will be matched if
7918 any of the enclosed characters are encountered. For instance, <quote>[0-9]</quote>
7919 matches any numeric digit (zero through nine). As an example, we can combine
7920 this with <quote>+</quote> to match any digit one of more times: <quote>[0-9]+</quote>.
7922 </simplelist></para>
7926 <emphasis>( )</emphasis> - parentheses are used to group a sub-expression,
7927 or multiple sub-expressions.
7929 </simplelist></para>
7933 <emphasis>|</emphasis> - The <quote>bar</quote> character works like an
7934 <quote>or</quote> conditional statement. A match is successful if the
7935 sub-expression on either side of <quote>|</quote> matches. As an example:
7936 <quote>/(this|that) example/</quote> uses grouping and the bar character
7937 and would match either <quote>this example</quote> or <quote>that
7938 example</quote>, and nothing else.
7940 </simplelist></para>
7943 These are just some of the ones you are likely to use when matching URLs with
7944 <application>Privoxy</application>, and is a long way from a definitive
7945 list. This is enough to get us started with a few simple examples which may
7946 be more illuminating:
7950 <emphasis><literal>/.*/banners/.*</literal></emphasis> - A simple example
7951 that uses the common combination of <quote>.</quote> and <quote>*</quote> to
7952 denote any character, zero or more times. In other words, any string at all.
7953 So we start with a literal forward slash, then our regular expression pattern
7954 (<quote>.*</quote>) another literal forward slash, the string
7955 <quote>banners</quote>, another forward slash, and lastly another
7956 <quote>.*</quote>. We are building
7957 a directory path here. This will match any file with the path that has a
7958 directory named <quote>banners</quote> in it. The <quote>.*</quote> matches
7959 any characters, and this could conceivably be more forward slashes, so it
7960 might expand into a much longer looking path. For example, this could match:
7961 <quote>/eye/hate/spammers/banners/annoy_me_please.gif</quote>, or just
7962 <quote>/banners/annoying.html</quote>, or almost an infinite number of other
7963 possible combinations, just so it has <quote>banners</quote> in the path
7968 And now something a little more complex:
7972 <emphasis><literal>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))?/</literal></emphasis> -
7973 We have several literal forward slashes again (<quote>/</quote>), so we are
7974 building another expression that is a file path statement. We have another
7975 <quote>.*</quote>, so we are matching against any conceivable sub-path, just so
7976 it matches our expression. The only true literal that <emphasis>must
7977 match</emphasis> our pattern is <application>adv</application>, together with
7978 the forward slashes. What comes after the <quote>adv</quote> string is the
7983 Remember the <quote>?</quote> means the preceding expression (either a
7984 literal character or anything grouped with <quote>(...)</quote> in this case)
7985 can exist or not, since this means either zero or one match. So
7986 <quote>((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))</quote> is optional, as are the
7987 individual sub-expressions: <quote>(er)</quote>,
7988 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, and the <quote>s</quote>. The <quote>|</quote>
7989 means <quote>or</quote>. We have two of those. For instance,
7990 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, can expand to match either <quote>ing</quote>
7991 <emphasis>OR</emphasis> <quote>ements?</quote>. What is being done here, is an
7992 attempt at matching as many variations of <quote>advertisement</quote>, and
7993 similar, as possible. So this would expand to match just <quote>adv</quote>,
7994 or <quote>advert</quote>, or <quote>adverts</quote>, or
7995 <quote>advertising</quote>, or <quote>advertisement</quote>, or
7996 <quote>advertisements</quote>. You get the idea. But it would not match
7997 <quote>advertizements</quote> (with a <quote>z</quote>). We could fix that by
7998 changing our regular expression to:
7999 <quote>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|erti(s|z)(ing|ements?))?/</quote>, which would then match
8004 <emphasis><literal>/.*/advert[0-9]+\.(gif|jpe?g)</literal></emphasis> - Again
8005 another path statement with forward slashes. Anything in the square brackets
8006 <quote>[ ]</quote> can be matched. This is using <quote>0-9</quote> as a
8007 shorthand expression to mean any digit one through nine. It is the same as
8008 saying <quote>0123456789</quote>. So any digit matches. The <quote>+</quote>
8009 means one or more of the preceding expression must be included. The preceding
8010 expression here is what is in the square brackets -- in this case, any digit
8011 one through nine. Then, at the end, we have a grouping: <quote>(gif|jpe?g)</quote>.
8012 This includes a <quote>|</quote>, so this needs to match the expression on
8013 either side of that bar character also. A simple <quote>gif</quote> on one side, and the other
8014 side will in turn match either <quote>jpeg</quote> or <quote>jpg</quote>,
8015 since the <quote>?</quote> means the letter <quote>e</quote> is optional and
8016 can be matched once or not at all. So we are building an expression here to
8017 match image GIF or JPEG type image file. It must include the literal
8018 string <quote>advert</quote>, then one or more digits, and a <quote>.</quote>
8019 (which is now a literal, and not a special character, since it is escaped
8020 with <quote>\</quote>), and lastly either <quote>gif</quote>, or
8021 <quote>jpeg</quote>, or <quote>jpg</quote>. Some possible matches would
8022 include: <quote>//advert1.jpg</quote>,
8023 <quote>/nasty/ads/advert1234.gif</quote>,
8024 <quote>/banners/from/hell/advert99.jpg</quote>. It would not match
8025 <quote>advert1.gif</quote> (no leading slash), or
8026 <quote>/adverts232.jpg</quote> (the expression does not include an
8027 <quote>s</quote>), or <quote>/advert1.jsp</quote> (<quote>jsp</quote> is not
8028 in the expression anywhere).
8032 We are barely scratching the surface of regular expressions here so that you
8033 can understand the default <application>Privoxy</application>
8034 configuration files, and maybe use this knowledge to customize your own
8035 installation. There is much, much more that can be done with regular
8036 expressions. Now that you know enough to get started, you can learn more on
8041 More reading on Perl Compatible Regular expressions:
8042 <ulink url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html">http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html</ulink>
8046 For information on regular expression based substitutions and their applications
8047 in filters, please see the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file tutorial</link>
8052 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
8055 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
8057 <title>Privoxy's Internal Pages</title>
8060 Since <application>Privoxy</application> proxies each requested
8061 web page, it is easy for <application>Privoxy</application> to
8062 trap certain special URLs. In this way, we can talk directly to
8063 <application>Privoxy</application>, and see how it is
8064 configured, see how our rules are being applied, change these
8065 rules and other configuration options, and even turn
8066 <application>Privoxy's</application> filtering off, all with
8072 The URLs listed below are the special ones that allow direct access
8073 to <application>Privoxy</application>. Of course,
8074 <application>Privoxy</application> must be running to access these. If
8075 not, you will get a friendly error message. Internet access is not
8088 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
8092 There is a shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink> (But it
8093 doesn't provide a fall-back to a real page, in case the request is not
8094 sent through <application>Privoxy</application>)
8100 Show information about the current configuration, including viewing and
8101 editing of actions files:
8105 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
8112 Show the source code version numbers:
8116 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-version">http://config.privoxy.org/show-version</ulink>
8123 Show the browser's request headers:
8127 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request">http://config.privoxy.org/show-request</ulink>
8134 Show which actions apply to a URL and why:
8138 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
8145 Toggle Privoxy on or off. In this case, <quote>Privoxy</quote> continues
8146 to run, but only as a pass-through proxy, with no actions taking place:
8150 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</ulink>
8154 Short cuts. Turn off, then on:
8158 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable</ulink>
8163 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable</ulink>
8172 These may be bookmarked for quick reference. See next.
8176 <sect3 id="bookmarklets">
8177 <title>Bookmarklets</title>
8179 Below are some <quote>bookmarklets</quote> to allow you to easily access a
8180 <quote>mini</quote> version of some of <application>Privoxy's</application>
8181 special pages. They are designed for MS Internet Explorer, but should work
8182 equally well in Netscape, Mozilla, and other browsers which support
8183 JavaScript. They are designed to run directly from your bookmarks - not by
8184 clicking the links below (although that should work for testing).
8187 To save them, right-click the link and choose <quote>Add to Favorites</quote>
8188 (IE) or <quote>Add Bookmark</quote> (Netscape). You will get a warning that
8189 the bookmark <quote>may not be safe</quote> - just click OK. Then you can run the
8190 Bookmarklet directly from your favorites/bookmarks. For even faster access,
8191 you can put them on the <quote>Links</quote> bar (IE) or the <quote>Personal
8192 Toolbar</quote> (Netscape), and run them with a single click.
8201 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>
8208 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>
8215 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)
8222 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>
8228 <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>
8234 <ulink url="javascript:void(window.open('http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info?url='+escape(location.href),'Why').focus());">Privoxy - Why?</ulink>
8241 Credit: The site which gave us the general idea for these bookmarklets is
8242 <ulink url="http://www.bookmarklets.com/">www.bookmarklets.com</ulink>. They
8243 have more information about bookmarklets.
8252 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
8254 <title>Chain of Events</title>
8256 Let's take a quick look at how some of <application>Privoxy's</application>
8257 core features are triggered, and the ensuing sequence of events when a web
8258 page is requested by your browser:
8265 First, your web browser requests a web page. The browser knows to send
8266 the request to <application>Privoxy</application>, which will in turn,
8267 relay the request to the remote web server after passing the following
8273 <application>Privoxy</application> traps any request for its own internal CGI
8274 pages (e.g <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>) and sends the CGI page back to the browser.
8279 Next, <application>Privoxy</application> checks to see if the URL
8281 linkend="BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></link> patterns. If
8282 so, the URL is then blocked, and the remote web server will not be contacted.
8283 <link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></link>
8285 <link linkend="HANDLE-AS-EMPTY-DOCUMENT"><quote>+handle-as-empty-document</quote></link>
8286 are then checked, and if there is no match, an
8287 HTML <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page is sent back to the browser. Otherwise, if
8288 it does match, an image is returned for the former, and an empty text
8289 document for the latter. The type of image would depend on the setting of
8290 <link linkend="SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"><quote>+set-image-blocker</quote></link>
8291 (blank, checkerboard pattern, or an HTTP redirect to an image elsewhere).
8296 Untrusted URLs are blocked. If URLs are being added to the
8297 <filename>trust</filename> file, then that is done.
8302 If the URL pattern matches the <link
8303 linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS"><quote>+fast-redirects</quote></link> action,
8304 it is then processed. Unwanted parts of the requested URL are stripped.
8309 Now the rest of the client browser's request headers are processed. If any
8310 of these match any of the relevant actions (e.g. <link
8311 linkend="HIDE-USER-AGENT"><quote>+hide-user-agent</quote></link>,
8312 etc.), headers are suppressed or forged as determined by these actions and
8318 Now the web server starts sending its response back (i.e. typically a web
8324 First, the server headers are read and processed to determine, among other
8325 things, the MIME type (document type) and encoding. The headers are then
8326 filtered as determined by the
8327 <link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES"><quote>+crunch-incoming-cookies</quote></link>,
8328 <link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"><quote>+session-cookies-only</quote></link>,
8329 and <link linkend="DOWNGRADE-HTTP-VERSION"><quote>+downgrade-http-version</quote></link>
8335 If the <link linkend="KILL-POPUPS"><quote>+kill-popups</quote></link>
8336 action applies, and it is an HTML or JavaScript document, the popup-code in the
8337 response is filtered on-the-fly as it is received.
8342 If any <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> action
8344 linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS"><quote>+deanimate-gifs</quote></link>
8345 action applies (and the document type fits the action), the rest of the page is
8346 read into memory (up to a configurable limit). Then the filter rules (from
8347 <filename>default.filter</filename> and any other filter files) are
8348 processed against the buffered content. Filters are applied in the order
8349 they are specified in one of the filter files. Animated GIFs, if present,
8350 are reduced to either the first or last frame, depending on the action
8351 setting.The entire page, which is now filtered, is then sent by
8352 <application>Privoxy</application> back to your browser.
8355 If neither a <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> action
8357 linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS"><quote>+deanimate-gifs</quote></link>
8358 matches, then <application>Privoxy</application> passes the raw data through
8359 to the client browser as it becomes available.
8364 As the browser receives the now (possibly filtered) page content, it
8365 reads and then requests any URLs that may be embedded within the page
8366 source, e.g. ad images, stylesheets, JavaScript, other HTML documents (e.g.
8367 frames), sounds, etc. For each of these objects, the browser issues a
8368 separate request (this is easily viewable in <application>Privoxy's</application>
8369 logs). And each such request is in turn processed just as above. Note that a
8370 complex web page will have many, many such embedded URLs. If these
8371 secondary requests are to a different server, then quite possibly a very
8372 differing set of actions is triggered.
8379 NOTE: This is somewhat of a simplistic overview of what happens with each URL
8380 request. For the sake of brevity and simplicity, we have focused on
8381 <application>Privoxy's</application> core features only.
8387 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
8388 <sect2 id="actionsanat">
8389 <title>Troubleshooting: Anatomy of an Action</title>
8392 The way <application>Privoxy</application> applies
8393 <link linkend="ACTIONS">actions</link> and <link linkend="FILTER">filters</link>
8394 to any given URL can be complex, and not always so
8395 easy to understand what is happening. And sometimes we need to be able to
8396 <emphasis>see</emphasis> just what <application>Privoxy</application> is
8397 doing. Especially, if something <application>Privoxy</application> is doing
8398 is causing us a problem inadvertently. It can be a little daunting to look at
8399 the actions and filters files themselves, since they tend to be filled with
8400 <link linkend="regex">regular expressions</link> whose consequences are not
8405 One quick test to see if <application>Privoxy</application> is causing a problem
8406 or not, is to disable it temporarily. This should be the first troubleshooting
8407 step. See <link linkend="bookmarklets">the Bookmarklets</link> section on a quick
8408 and easy way to do this (be sure to flush caches afterward!). Looking at the
8409 logs is a good idea too.
8412 Another easy troubleshooting step to try is if you have done any
8413 customization of your installation, revert back to the installed
8414 defaults and see if that helps. There are times the developers get complaints
8415 about one thing or another, and the problem is more related to a customized
8416 configuration issue.
8420 <application>Privoxy</application> also provides the
8421 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
8422 page that can show us very specifically how <application>actions</application>
8423 are being applied to any given URL. This is a big help for troubleshooting.
8427 First, enter one URL (or partial URL) at the prompt, and then
8428 <application>Privoxy</application> will tell us
8429 how the current configuration will handle it. This will not
8430 help with filtering effects (i.e. the <link
8431 linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> action) from
8432 one of the filter files since this is handled very
8433 differently and not so easy to trap! It also will not tell you about any other
8434 URLs that may be embedded within the URL you are testing. For instance, images
8435 such as ads are expressed as URLs within the raw page source of HTML pages. So
8436 you will only get info for the actual URL that is pasted into the prompt area
8437 -- not any sub-URLs. If you want to know about embedded URLs like ads, you
8438 will have to dig those out of the HTML source. Use your browser's <quote>View
8439 Page Source</quote> option for this. Or right click on the ad, and grab the
8444 Let's try an example, <ulink url="http://google.com">google.com</ulink>,
8445 and look at it one section at a time in a sample configuration (your real
8446 configuration may vary):
8451 Matches for http://google.com:
8453 In file: default.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
8457 -client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation}
8458 -content-type-overwrite
8459 -crunch-client-header
8460 -crunch-if-none-match
8461 -crunch-incoming-cookies
8462 -crunch-outgoing-cookies
8463 -crunch-server-header
8464 +deanimate-gifs {last}
8465 -downgrade-http-version
8466 +fast-redirects {check-decoded-url}
8468 -filter {content-cookies}
8469 -filter {all-popups}
8470 -filter {banners-by-link}
8471 -filter {tiny-textforms}
8472 -filter {frameset-borders}
8473 -filter {demoronizer}
8474 -filter {shockwave-flash}
8475 -filter {quicktime-kioskmode}
8477 -filter {crude-parental}
8478 -filter {site-specifics}
8479 -filter {js-annoyances}
8480 -filter {html-annoyances}
8481 +filter {refresh-tags}
8482 -filter {unsolicited-popups}
8483 +filter {img-reorder}
8484 +filter {banners-by-size}
8486 +filter {jumping-windows}
8487 +filter {ie-exploits}
8494 -handle-as-empty-document
8496 -hide-accept-language
8497 -hide-content-disposition
8498 +hide-forwarded-for-headers
8499 +hide-from-header {block}
8500 -hide-if-modified-since
8501 +hide-referrer {forge}
8506 -overwrite-last-modified
8507 +prevent-compression
8511 -server-header-filter{xml-to-html}
8512 -server-header-filter{html-to-xml}
8513 +session-cookies-only
8514 +set-image-blocker {pattern}
8515 -treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks }
8518 { -session-cookies-only }
8524 In file: user.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
8525 (no matches in this file)
8530 This is telling us how we have defined our
8531 <link linkend="ACTIONS"><quote>actions</quote></link>, and
8532 which ones match for our test case, <quote>google.com</quote>.
8533 Displayed is all the actions that are available to us. Remember,
8534 the <literal>+</literal> sign denotes <quote>on</quote>. <literal>-</literal>
8535 denotes <quote>off</quote>. So some are <quote>on</quote> here, but many
8536 are <quote>off</quote>. Each example we try may provide a slightly different
8537 end result, depending on our configuration directives.
8541 is for our <filename>default.action</filename> file. The large, multi-line
8542 listing, is how the actions are set to match for all URLs, i.e. our default
8543 settings. If you look at your <quote>actions</quote> file, this would be the
8544 section just below the <quote>aliases</quote> section near the top. This
8545 will apply to all URLs as signified by the single forward slash at the end
8546 of the listing -- <quote> / </quote>.
8550 But we have defined additional actions that would be exceptions to these general
8551 rules, and then we list specific URLs (or patterns) that these exceptions
8552 would apply to. Last match wins. Just below this then are two explicit
8553 matches for <quote>.google.com</quote>. The first is negating our previous
8554 cookie setting, which was for <link
8555 linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"><quote>+session-cookies-only</quote></link>
8556 (i.e. not persistent). So we will allow persistent cookies for google, at
8557 least that is how it is in this example. The second turns
8558 <emphasis>off</emphasis> any <link
8559 linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS"><quote>+fast-redirects</quote></link>
8560 action, allowing this to take place unmolested. Note that there is a leading
8561 dot here -- <quote>.google.com</quote>. This will match any hosts and
8562 sub-domains, in the google.com domain also, such as
8563 <quote>www.google.com</quote> or <quote>mail.google.com</quote>. But it would not
8564 match <quote>www.google.de</quote>! So, apparently, we have these two actions
8565 defined as exceptions to the general rules at the top somewhere in the lower
8566 part of our <filename>default.action</filename> file, and
8567 <quote>google.com</quote> is referenced somewhere in these latter sections.
8571 Then, for our <filename>user.action</filename> file, we again have no hits.
8572 So there is nothing google-specific that we might have added to our own, local
8573 configuration. If there was, those actions would over-rule any actions from
8574 previously processed files, such as <filename>default.action</filename>.
8575 <filename>user.action</filename> typically has the last word. This is the
8576 best place to put hard and fast exceptions,
8580 And finally we pull it all together in the bottom section and summarize how
8581 <application>Privoxy</application> is applying all its <quote>actions</quote>
8582 to <quote>google.com</quote>:
8593 -client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation}
8594 -content-type-overwrite
8595 -crunch-client-header
8596 -crunch-if-none-match
8597 -crunch-incoming-cookies
8598 -crunch-outgoing-cookies
8599 -crunch-server-header
8600 +deanimate-gifs {last}
8601 -downgrade-http-version
8602 +fast-redirects {check-decoded-url}
8604 -filter {content-cookies}
8605 -filter {all-popups}
8606 -filter {banners-by-link}
8607 -filter {tiny-textforms}
8608 -filter {frameset-borders}
8609 -filter {demoronizer}
8610 -filter {shockwave-flash}
8611 -filter {quicktime-kioskmode}
8613 -filter {crude-parental}
8614 -filter {site-specifics}
8615 -filter {js-annoyances}
8616 -filter {html-annoyances}
8617 +filter {refresh-tags}
8618 -filter {unsolicited-popups}
8619 +filter {img-reorder}
8620 +filter {banners-by-size}
8622 +filter {jumping-windows}
8623 +filter {ie-exploits}
8630 -handle-as-empty-document
8632 -hide-accept-language
8633 -hide-content-disposition
8634 +hide-forwarded-for-headers
8635 +hide-from-header {block}
8636 -hide-if-modified-since
8637 +hide-referrer {forge}
8642 -overwrite-last-modified
8643 +prevent-compression
8647 -server-header-filter{xml-to-html}
8648 -server-header-filter{html-to-xml}
8649 -session-cookies-only
8650 +set-image-blocker {pattern}
8651 -treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks </screen>
8655 Notice the only difference here to the previous listing, is to
8656 <quote>fast-redirects</quote> and <quote>session-cookies-only</quote>,
8657 which are activated specifically for this site in our configuration,
8658 and thus show in the <quote>Final Results</quote>.
8662 Now another example, <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>:
8674 { +block +handle-as-image }
8675 .[a-vx-z]*.doubleclick.net
8680 We'll just show the interesting part here - the explicit matches. It is
8681 matched three different times. Two <quote>+block</quote> sections,
8682 and a <quote>+block +handle-as-image</quote>,
8683 which is the expanded form of one of our aliases that had been defined as:
8684 <quote>+block-as-image</quote>. (<link
8685 linkend="ALIASES"><quote>Aliases</quote></link> are defined in
8686 the first section of the actions file and typically used to combine more
8691 Any one of these would have done the trick and blocked this as an unwanted
8692 image. This is unnecessarily redundant since the last case effectively
8693 would also cover the first. No point in taking chances with these guys
8694 though ;-) Note that if you want an ad or obnoxious
8695 URL to be invisible, it should be defined as <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>
8696 is done here -- as both a <link
8697 linkend="BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></link>
8698 <emphasis>and</emphasis> an
8699 <link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></link>.
8700 The custom alias <quote><literal>+block-as-image</literal></quote> just
8701 simplifies the process and make it more readable.
8705 One last example. Let's try <quote>http://www.example.net/adsl/HOWTO/</quote>.
8706 This one is giving us problems. We are getting a blank page. Hmmm ...
8712 Matches for http://www.example.net/adsl/HOWTO/:
8714 In file: default.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
8718 -client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation}
8719 -content-type-overwrite
8720 -crunch-client-header
8721 -crunch-if-none-match
8722 -crunch-incoming-cookies
8723 -crunch-outgoing-cookies
8724 -crunch-server-header
8726 -downgrade-http-version
8727 +fast-redirects {check-decoded-url}
8729 -filter {content-cookies}
8730 -filter {all-popups}
8731 -filter {banners-by-link}
8732 -filter {tiny-textforms}
8733 -filter {frameset-borders}
8734 -filter {demoronizer}
8735 -filter {shockwave-flash}
8736 -filter {quicktime-kioskmode}
8738 -filter {crude-parental}
8739 -filter {site-specifics}
8740 -filter {js-annoyances}
8741 -filter {html-annoyances}
8742 +filter {refresh-tags}
8743 -filter {unsolicited-popups}
8744 +filter {img-reorder}
8745 +filter {banners-by-size}
8747 +filter {jumping-windows}
8748 +filter {ie-exploits}
8755 -handle-as-empty-document
8757 -hide-accept-language
8758 -hide-content-disposition
8759 +hide-forwarded-for-headers
8760 +hide-from-header{block}
8761 +hide-referer{forge}
8765 -overwrite-last-modified
8766 +prevent-compression
8770 -server-header-filter{xml-to-html}
8771 -server-header-filter{html-to-xml}
8772 +session-cookies-only
8773 +set-image-blocker{blank}
8774 -treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks }
8777 { +block +handle-as-image }
8783 Ooops, the <quote>/adsl/</quote> is matching <quote>/ads</quote> in our
8784 configuration! But we did not want this at all! Now we see why we get the
8785 blank page. It is actually triggering two different actions here, and
8786 the effects are aggregated so that the URL is blocked, and &my-app; is told
8787 to treat the block as if it were an image. But this is, of course, all wrong.
8788 We could now add a new action below this (or better in our own
8789 <filename>user.action</filename> file) that explicitly
8790 <emphasis>un</emphasis> blocks (
8791 <link linkend="BLOCK"><quote>{-block}</quote></link>) paths with
8792 <quote>adsl</quote> in them (remember, last match in the configuration
8793 wins). There are various ways to handle such exceptions. Example:
8805 Now the page displays ;-)
8806 Remember to flush your browser's caches when making these kinds of changes to
8807 your configuration to insure that you get a freshly delivered page! Or, try
8808 using <literal>Shift+Reload</literal>.
8812 But now what about a situation where we get no explicit matches like
8819 { +block +handle-as-image }
8825 That actually was very helpful and pointed us quickly to where the problem
8826 was. If you don't get this kind of match, then it means one of the default
8827 rules in the first section of <filename>default.action</filename> is causing
8828 the problem. This would require some guesswork, and maybe a little trial and
8829 error to isolate the offending rule. One likely cause would be one of the
8830 <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> actions.
8831 These tend to be harder to troubleshoot.
8832 Try adding the URL for the site to one of aliases that turn off
8833 <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link>:
8841 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
8849 <quote><literal>{ shop }</literal></quote> is an <quote>alias</quote> that expands to
8850 <quote><literal>{ -filter -session-cookies-only }</literal></quote>.
8851 Or you could do your own exception to negate filtering:
8859 # Disable ALL filter actions for sites in this section
8867 This would turn off all filtering for these sites. This is best
8868 put in <filename>user.action</filename>, for local site
8869 exceptions. Note that when a simple domain pattern is used by itself (without
8870 the subsequent path portion), all sub-pages within that domain are included
8871 automatically in the scope of the action.
8875 Images that are inexplicably being blocked, may well be hitting the
8876 <link linkend="FILTER-BANNERS-BY-SIZE"><quote>+filter{banners-by-size}</quote></link>
8878 that images of certain sizes are ad banners (works well
8879 <emphasis>most of the time</emphasis> since these tend to be standardized).
8883 <quote><literal>{ fragile }</literal></quote> is an alias that disables most
8884 actions that are the most likely to cause trouble. This can be used as a
8885 last resort for problem sites.
8891 # Handle with care: easy to break
8893 mybank.example.com</screen>
8898 <emphasis>Remember to flush caches!</emphasis> Note that the
8899 <literal>mail.google</literal> reference lacks the TLD portion (e.g.
8900 <quote>.com</quote>. This will effectively match any TLD with
8901 <literal>google</literal> in it, such as <literal>mail.google.de</literal>,
8905 If this still does not work, you will have to go through the remaining
8906 actions one by one to find which one(s) is causing the problem.
8915 This program is free software; you can redistribute it
8916 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
8917 Public License as published by the Free Software
8918 Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at
8919 your option) any later version.
8921 This program is distributed in the hope that it will
8922 be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the
8923 implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
8924 PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public
8925 License for more details.
8927 The GNU General Public License should be included with
8928 this file. If not, you can view it at
8929 http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
8930 or write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
8931 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301,
8934 $Log: user-manual.sgml,v $
8935 Revision 2.32 2007/06/07 12:36:22 fabiankeil
8936 Apply Roland's 29_usermanual.dpatch to fix a bunch
8937 of syntax errors I collected over the last months.
8939 Revision 2.31 2007/06/02 14:01:37 fabiankeil
8940 Start to document forward-override{}.
8942 Revision 2.30 2007/04/25 15:10:36 fabiankeil
8943 - Describe installation for FreeBSD.
8944 - Start to document taggers and tag patterns.
8945 - Don't confuse devils and daemons.
8947 Revision 2.29 2007/04/05 11:47:51 fabiankeil
8948 Some updates regarding header filtering,
8949 handling of compressed content and redirect's
8950 support for pcrs commands.
8952 Revision 2.28 2006/12/10 23:42:48 hal9
8953 Fix various typos reported by Adam P. Thanks.
8955 Revision 2.27 2006/11/14 01:57:47 hal9
8956 Dump all docs prior to 3.0.6 release. Various minor changes to faq and user
8959 Revision 2.26 2006/10/24 11:16:44 hal9
8962 Revision 2.25 2006/10/18 10:50:33 hal9
8963 Add note that since filters are off in Cautious, compression is ON. Turn off
8964 compression to make filters work on all sites.
8966 Revision 2.24 2006/10/03 11:13:54 hal9
8967 More references to the new filters. Include html this time around.
8969 Revision 2.23 2006/10/02 22:43:53 hal9
8970 Contains new filter definitions from Fabian, and few other miscellaneous
8973 Revision 2.22 2006/09/22 01:27:55 hal9
8974 Final commit of probably various minor changes here and there. Unless
8975 something changes this should be ready for pending release.
8977 Revision 2.21 2006/09/20 03:21:36 david__schmidt
8978 Just the tiniest tweak. Wafer thin!
8980 Revision 2.20 2006/09/10 14:53:54 hal9
8981 Results of spell check. User manual has some updates to standard.actions file
8984 Revision 2.19 2006/09/08 12:19:02 fabiankeil
8985 Adjust hide-if-modified-since example values
8986 to reflect the recent changes.
8988 Revision 2.18 2006/09/08 02:38:57 hal9
8990 -Fix a number of broken links.
8991 -Migrate the new Windows service command line options, and reference as
8993 -Rebuild so that can be used with the new "user-manual" config capabilities.
8996 Revision 2.17 2006/09/05 13:25:12 david__schmidt
8997 Add Windows service invocation stuff (duplicated) in FAQ and in user manual under Windows startup. One probably ought to reference the other.
8999 Revision 2.16 2006/09/02 12:49:37 hal9
9000 Various small updates for new actions, filterfiles, etc.
9002 Revision 2.15 2006/08/30 11:15:22 hal9
9003 More work on the new actions, especially filter-*-headers, and What's New
9004 section. User Manual is close to final form for 3.0.4 release. Some tinkering
9005 and proof reading left to do.
9007 Revision 2.14 2006/08/29 10:59:36 hal9
9008 Add a "Whats New in this release" Section. Further work on multiple filter
9009 files, and assorted other minor changes.
9011 Revision 2.13 2006/08/22 11:04:59 hal9
9012 Silence warnings and errors. This should build now. New filters were only
9013 stubbed in. More to be done.
9015 Revision 2.12 2006/08/14 08:40:39 fabiankeil
9016 Documented new actions that were part of
9017 the "minor Privoxy improvements".
9019 Revision 2.11 2006/07/18 14:48:51 david__schmidt
9020 Reorganizing the repository: swapping out what was HEAD (the old 3.1 branch)
9021 with what was really the latest development (the v_3_0_branch branch)
9023 Revision 1.123.2.43 2005/05/23 09:59:10 hal9
9026 Revision 1.123.2.42 2004/12/04 14:39:57 hal9
9027 Fix two minor typos per bug SF report.
9029 Revision 1.123.2.41 2004/03/23 12:58:42 oes
9032 Revision 1.123.2.40 2004/02/27 12:48:49 hal9
9033 Add comment re: redirecting to local file system for set-image-blocker may
9034 is dependent on browser.
9036 Revision 1.123.2.39 2004/01/30 22:31:40 oes
9037 Added a hint re bookmarklets to Quickstart section
9039 Revision 1.123.2.38 2004/01/30 16:47:51 oes
9040 Some minor clarifications
9042 Revision 1.123.2.37 2004/01/29 22:36:11 hal9
9043 Updates for no longer filtering text/plain, and demoronizer default settings,
9044 and copyright notice dates.
9046 Revision 1.123.2.36 2003/12/10 02:26:26 hal9
9047 Changed the demoronizer filter description.
9049 Revision 1.123.2.35 2003/11/06 13:36:37 oes
9050 Updated link to nightly CVS tarball
9052 Revision 1.123.2.34 2003/06/26 23:50:16 hal9
9053 Add a small bit on filtering and problems re: source code being corrupted.
9055 Revision 1.123.2.33 2003/05/08 18:17:33 roro
9056 Use apt-get instead of dpkg to install Debian package, which is more
9057 solid, uses the correct and most recent Debian version automatically.
9059 Revision 1.123.2.32 2003/04/11 03:13:57 hal9
9060 Add small note about only one filterfile (as opposed to multiple actions
9063 Revision 1.123.2.31 2003/03/26 02:03:43 oes
9064 Updated hard-coded copyright dates
9066 Revision 1.123.2.30 2003/03/24 12:58:56 hal9
9067 Add new section on Predefined Filters.
9069 Revision 1.123.2.29 2003/03/20 02:45:29 hal9
9070 More problems with \-\-chroot causing markup problems :(
9072 Revision 1.123.2.28 2003/03/19 00:35:24 hal9
9073 Manual edit of revision log because 'chroot' (even inside a comment) was
9074 causing Docbook to hang here (due to double hyphen and the processor thinking
9077 Revision 1.123.2.27 2003/03/18 19:37:14 oes
9078 s/Advanced|Radical/Adventuresome/g to avoid complaints re fun filter
9080 Revision 1.123.2.26 2003/03/17 16:50:53 oes
9081 Added documentation for new chroot option
9083 Revision 1.123.2.25 2003/03/15 18:36:55 oes
9084 Adapted to the new filters
9086 Revision 1.123.2.24 2002/11/17 06:41:06 hal9
9087 Move default profiles table from FAQ to U-M, and other minor related changes.
9090 Revision 1.123.2.23 2002/10/21 02:32:01 hal9
9091 Updates to the user.action examples section. A few new ones.
9093 Revision 1.123.2.22 2002/10/12 00:51:53 hal9
9094 Add demoronizer to filter section.
9096 Revision 1.123.2.21 2002/10/10 04:09:35 hal9
9097 s/Advanced/Radical/ and added very brief note.
9099 Revision 1.123.2.20 2002/10/10 03:49:21 hal9
9100 Add notes to session-cookies-only and Quickstart about pre-existing
9101 cookies. Also, note content-cookies work differently.
9103 Revision 1.123.2.19 2002/09/26 01:25:36 hal9
9104 More explanation on Privoxy patterns, more on content-cookies and SSL.
9106 Revision 1.123.2.18 2002/08/22 23:47:58 hal9
9107 Add 'Documentation' to Privoxy Menu shot in Configuration section to match
9110 Revision 1.123.2.17 2002/08/18 01:13:05 hal9
9111 Spell checked (only one typo this time!).
9113 Revision 1.123.2.16 2002/08/09 19:20:54 david__schmidt
9114 Update to Mac OSX startup script name
9116 Revision 1.123.2.15 2002/08/07 17:32:11 oes
9117 Converted some internal links from ulink to link for PDF creation; no content changed
9119 Revision 1.123.2.14 2002/08/06 09:16:13 oes
9120 Nits re: actions file download
9122 Revision 1.123.2.13 2002/08/02 18:23:19 g_sauthoff
9123 Just 2 small corrections to the Gentoo sections
9125 Revision 1.123.2.12 2002/08/02 18:17:21 g_sauthoff
9126 Added 2 Gentoo sections
9128 Revision 1.123.2.11 2002/07/26 15:20:31 oes
9129 - Added version info to title
9130 - Added info on new filters
9131 - Revised parts of the filter file tutorial
9132 - Added info on where to get updated actions files
9134 Revision 1.123.2.10 2002/07/25 21:42:29 hal9
9135 Add brief notes on not proxying non-HTTP protocols.
9137 Revision 1.123.2.9 2002/07/11 03:40:28 david__schmidt
9139 Updated Mac OSX sections due to installation location change
9141 Revision 1.123.2.8 2002/06/09 16:36:32 hal9
9142 Clarifications on filtering and MIME. Hardcode 'latest release' in index.html.
9144 Revision 1.123.2.7 2002/06/09 00:29:34 hal9
9145 Touch ups on filtering, in actions section and Anatomy.
9147 Revision 1.123.2.6 2002/06/06 23:11:03 hal9
9148 Fix broken link. Linkchecked all docs.
9150 Revision 1.123.2.5 2002/05/29 02:01:02 hal9
9151 This is break out of the entire config section from u-m, so it can
9152 eventually be used to generate the comments, etc in the main config file
9153 so that these are in sync with each other.
9155 Revision 1.123.2.4 2002/05/27 03:28:45 hal9
9156 Ooops missed something from David.
9158 Revision 1.123.2.3 2002/05/27 03:23:17 hal9
9159 Fix FIXMEs for OS2 and OSX startup. Fix Redhat typos (should be Red Hat).
9160 That's a wrap, I think.
9162 Revision 1.123.2.2 2002/05/26 19:02:09 hal9
9163 Move Amiga stuff around to take of FIXME in start up section.
9165 Revision 1.123.2.1 2002/05/26 17:04:25 hal9
9166 -Spellcheck, very minor edits, and sync across branches
9168 Revision 1.123 2002/05/24 23:19:23 hal9
9169 Include new image (Proxy setup). More fun with guibutton.
9170 Minor corrections/clarifications here and there.
9172 Revision 1.122 2002/05/24 13:24:08 oes
9173 Added Bookmarklet for one-click pre-filled access to show-url-info
9175 Revision 1.121 2002/05/23 23:20:17 oes
9176 - Changed more (all?) references to actions to the
9177 <literal><link> style.
9178 - Small fixes in the actions chapter
9179 - Small clarifications in the quickstart to ad blocking
9180 - Removed <emphasis> from <title>s since the new doc CSS
9181 renders them red (bad in TOC).
9183 Revision 1.120 2002/05/23 19:16:43 roro
9184 Correct Debian specials (installation and startup).
9186 Revision 1.119 2002/05/22 17:17:05 oes
9189 Revision 1.118 2002/05/21 04:54:55 hal9
9190 -New Section: Quickstart to Ad Blocking
9191 -Reformat Actions Anatomy to match new CGI layout
9193 Revision 1.117 2002/05/17 13:56:16 oes
9194 - Reworked & extended Templates chapter
9195 - Small changes to Regex appendix
9196 - #included authors.sgml into (C) and hist chapter
9198 Revision 1.116 2002/05/17 03:23:46 hal9
9199 Fixing merge conflict in Quickstart section.
9201 Revision 1.115 2002/05/16 16:25:00 oes
9202 Extended the Filter File chapter & minor fixes
9204 Revision 1.114 2002/05/16 09:42:50 oes
9205 More ulink->link, added some hints to Quickstart section
9207 Revision 1.113 2002/05/15 21:07:25 oes
9208 Extended and further commented the example actions files
9210 Revision 1.112 2002/05/15 03:57:14 hal9
9211 Spell check. A few minor edits here and there for better syntax and
9214 Revision 1.111 2002/05/14 23:01:36 oes
9217 Revision 1.110 2002/05/14 19:10:45 oes
9218 Restored alphabetical order of actions
9220 Revision 1.109 2002/05/14 17:23:11 oes
9221 Renamed the prevent-*-cookies actions, extended aliases section and moved it before the example AFs
9223 Revision 1.108 2002/05/14 15:29:12 oes
9224 Completed proofreading the actions chapter
9226 Revision 1.107 2002/05/12 03:20:41 hal9
9227 Small clarifications for 127.0.0.1 vs localhost for listen-address since this
9228 apparently an important distinction for some OS's.
9230 Revision 1.106 2002/05/10 01:48:20 hal9
9231 This is mostly proposed copyright/licensing additions and changes. Docs
9232 are still GPL, but licensing and copyright are more visible. Also, copyright
9233 changed in doc header comments (eliminate references to JB except FAQ).
9235 Revision 1.105 2002/05/05 20:26:02 hal9
9236 Sorting out license vs copyright in these docs.
9238 Revision 1.104 2002/05/04 08:44:45 swa
9241 Revision 1.103 2002/05/04 00:40:53 hal9
9242 -Remove the TOC first page kludge. It's fixed proper now in ldp.dsl.in.
9243 -Some minor additions to Quickstart.
9245 Revision 1.102 2002/05/03 17:46:00 oes
9246 Further proofread & reactivated short build instructions
9248 Revision 1.101 2002/05/03 03:58:30 hal9
9249 Move the user-manual config directive to top of section. Add note about
9250 Privoxy needing read permissions for configs, and write for logs.
9252 Revision 1.100 2002/04/29 03:05:55 hal9
9253 Add clarification on differences of new actions files.
9255 Revision 1.99 2002/04/28 16:59:05 swa
9256 more structure in starting section
9258 Revision 1.98 2002/04/28 05:43:59 hal9
9259 This is the break up of configuration.html into multiple files. This
9260 will probably break links elsewhere :(
9262 Revision 1.97 2002/04/27 21:04:42 hal9
9263 -Rewrite of Actions File example.
9264 -Add section for user-manual directive in config.
9266 Revision 1.96 2002/04/27 05:32:00 hal9
9267 -Add short section to Filter Files to tie in with +filter action.
9268 -Start rewrite of examples in Actions Examples (not finished).
9270 Revision 1.95 2002/04/26 17:23:29 swa
9271 bookmarks cleaned, changed structure of user manual, screen and programlisting cleanups, and numerous other changes that I forgot
9273 Revision 1.94 2002/04/26 05:24:36 hal9
9274 -Add most of Andreas suggestions to Chain of Events section.
9275 -A few other minor corrections and touch up.
9277 Revision 1.92 2002/04/25 18:55:13 hal9
9278 More catchups on new actions files, and new actions names.
9279 Other assorted cleanups, and minor modifications.
9281 Revision 1.91 2002/04/24 02:39:31 hal9
9282 Add 'Chain of Events' section.
9284 Revision 1.90 2002/04/23 21:41:25 hal9
9285 Linuxconf is deprecated on RH, substitute chkconfig.
9287 Revision 1.89 2002/04/23 21:05:28 oes
9288 Added hint for startup on Red Hat
9290 Revision 1.88 2002/04/23 05:37:54 hal9
9291 Add AmigaOS install stuff.
9293 Revision 1.87 2002/04/23 02:53:15 david__schmidt
9294 Updated OSX installation section
9295 Added a few English tweaks here an there
9297 Revision 1.86 2002/04/21 01:46:32 hal9
9298 Re-write actions section.
9300 Revision 1.85 2002/04/18 21:23:23 hal9
9301 Fix ugly typo (mine).
9303 Revision 1.84 2002/04/18 21:17:13 hal9
9304 Spell Redhat correctly (ie Red Hat). A few minor grammar corrections.
9306 Revision 1.83 2002/04/18 18:21:12 oes
9307 Added RPM install detail
9309 Revision 1.82 2002/04/18 12:04:50 oes
9312 Revision 1.81 2002/04/18 11:50:24 oes
9313 Extended Install section - needs fixing by packagers
9315 Revision 1.80 2002/04/18 10:45:19 oes
9316 Moved text to buildsource.sgml, renamed some filters, details
9318 Revision 1.79 2002/04/18 03:18:06 hal9
9319 Spellcheck, and minor touchups.
9321 Revision 1.78 2002/04/17 18:04:16 oes
9324 Revision 1.77 2002/04/17 13:51:23 oes
9325 Proofreading, part one
9327 Revision 1.76 2002/04/16 04:25:51 hal9
9328 -Added 'Note to Upgraders' and re-ordered the 'Quickstart' section.
9329 -Note about proxy may need requests to re-read config files.
9331 Revision 1.75 2002/04/12 02:08:48 david__schmidt
9332 Remove OS/2 building info... it is already in the developer-manual
9334 Revision 1.74 2002/04/11 00:54:38 hal9
9335 Add small section on submitting actions.
9337 Revision 1.73 2002/04/10 18:45:15 swa
9340 Revision 1.72 2002/04/10 04:06:19 hal9
9341 Added actions feedback to Bookmarklets section
9343 Revision 1.71 2002/04/08 22:59:26 hal9
9344 Version update. Spell chkconfig correctly :)
9346 Revision 1.70 2002/04/08 20:53:56 swa
9349 Revision 1.69 2002/04/06 05:07:29 hal9
9350 -Add privoxy-man-page.sgml, for man page.
9351 -Add authors.sgml for AUTHORS (and p-authors.sgml)
9352 -Reworked various aspects of various docs.
9353 -Added additional comments to sub-docs.
9355 Revision 1.68 2002/04/04 18:46:47 swa
9356 consistent look. reuse of copyright, history et. al.
9358 Revision 1.67 2002/04/04 17:27:57 swa
9359 more single file to be included at multiple points. make maintaining easier
9361 Revision 1.66 2002/04/04 06:48:37 hal9
9362 Structural changes to allow for conditional inclusion/exclusion of content
9363 based on entity toggles, e.g. 'entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE"'. And
9364 definition of internal entities, e.g. 'entity p-version "2.9.13"' that will
9365 eventually be set by Makefile.
9366 More boilerplate text for use across multiple docs.
9368 Revision 1.65 2002/04/03 19:52:07 swa
9369 enhance squid section due to user suggestion
9371 Revision 1.64 2002/04/03 03:53:43 hal9
9372 A few minor bug fixes, and touch ups. Ready for review.
9374 Revision 1.63 2002/04/01 16:24:49 hal9
9375 Define entities to include boilerplate text. See doc/source/*.
9377 Revision 1.62 2002/03/30 04:15:53 hal9
9378 - Fix privoxy.org/config links.
9379 - Paste in Bookmarklets from Toggle page.
9380 - Move Quickstart nearer top, and minor rework.
9382 Revision 1.61 2002/03/29 01:31:08 hal9
9385 Revision 1.60 2002/03/27 01:57:34 hal9
9386 Added more to Anatomy section.
9388 Revision 1.59 2002/03/27 00:54:33 hal9
9389 Touch up intro for new name.
9391 Revision 1.58 2002/03/26 22:29:55 swa
9392 we have a new homepage!
9394 Revision 1.57 2002/03/24 20:33:30 hal9
9395 A few minor catch ups with name change.
9397 Revision 1.56 2002/03/24 16:17:06 swa
9398 configure needs to be generated.
9400 Revision 1.55 2002/03/24 16:08:08 swa
9401 we are too lazy to make a block-built
9402 privoxy logo. hence removed the option.
9404 Revision 1.54 2002/03/24 15:46:20 swa
9405 name change related issue.
9407 Revision 1.53 2002/03/24 11:51:00 swa
9408 name change. changed filenames.
9410 Revision 1.52 2002/03/24 11:01:06 swa
9413 Revision 1.51 2002/03/23 15:13:11 swa
9414 renamed every reference to the old name with foobar.
9415 fixed "application foobar application" tag, fixed
9416 "the foobar" with "foobar". left junkbustser in cvs
9417 comments and remarks to history untouched.
9419 Revision 1.50 2002/03/23 05:06:21 hal9
9422 Revision 1.49 2002/03/21 17:01:05 hal9
9423 New section in Appendix.
9425 Revision 1.48 2002/03/12 06:33:01 hal9
9426 Catching up to Andreas and re_filterfile changes.
9428 Revision 1.47 2002/03/11 13:13:27 swa
9429 correct feedback channels
9431 Revision 1.46 2002/03/10 00:51:08 hal9
9432 Added section on JB internal pages in Appendix.
9434 Revision 1.45 2002/03/09 17:43:53 swa
9437 Revision 1.44 2002/03/09 17:08:48 hal9
9438 New section on Jon's actions file editor, and move some stuff around.
9440 Revision 1.43 2002/03/08 00:47:32 hal9
9441 Added imageblock{pattern}.
9443 Revision 1.42 2002/03/07 18:16:55 swa
9446 Revision 1.41 2002/03/07 16:46:43 hal9
9447 Fix a few markup problems for jade.
9449 Revision 1.40 2002/03/07 16:28:39 swa
9450 provide correct feedback channels
9452 Revision 1.39 2002/03/06 16:19:28 hal9
9453 Note on perceived filtering slowdown per FR.
9455 Revision 1.38 2002/03/05 23:55:14 hal9
9456 Stupid I did it again. Double hyphen in comment breaks jade.
9458 Revision 1.37 2002/03/05 23:53:49 hal9
9459 jade barfs on '- -' embedded in comments. - -user option broke it.
9461 Revision 1.36 2002/03/05 22:53:28 hal9
9462 Add new - - user option.
9464 Revision 1.35 2002/03/05 00:17:27 hal9
9465 Added section on command line options.
9467 Revision 1.34 2002/03/04 19:32:07 oes
9468 Changed default port to 8118
9470 Revision 1.33 2002/03/03 19:46:13 hal9
9471 Emphasis on where/how to report bugs, etc
9473 Revision 1.32 2002/03/03 09:26:06 joergs
9474 AmigaOS changes, config is now loaded from PROGDIR: instead of
9475 AmiTCP:db/junkbuster/ if no configuration file is specified on the
9478 Revision 1.31 2002/03/02 22:45:52 david__schmidt
9481 Revision 1.30 2002/03/02 22:00:14 hal9
9482 Updated 'New Features' list. Ran through spell-checker.
9484 Revision 1.29 2002/03/02 20:34:07 david__schmidt
9485 Update OS/2 build section
9487 Revision 1.28 2002/02/24 14:34:24 jongfoster
9488 Formatting changes. Now changing the doctype to DocBook XML 4.1
9489 will work - no other changes are needed.
9491 Revision 1.27 2002/01/11 14:14:32 hal9
9492 Added a very short section on Templates
9494 Revision 1.26 2002/01/09 20:02:50 hal9
9495 Fix bug re: auto-detect config file changes.
9497 Revision 1.25 2002/01/09 18:20:30 hal9
9498 Touch ups for *.action files.
9500 Revision 1.24 2001/12/02 01:13:42 hal9
9503 Revision 1.23 2001/12/02 00:20:41 hal9
9504 Updates for recent changes.
9506 Revision 1.22 2001/11/05 23:57:51 hal9
9507 Minor update for startup now daemon mode.
9509 Revision 1.21 2001/10/31 21:11:03 hal9
9510 Correct 2 minor errors
9512 Revision 1.18 2001/10/24 18:45:26 hal9
9513 *** empty log message ***
9515 Revision 1.17 2001/10/24 17:10:55 hal9
9516 Catching up with Jon's recent work, and a few other things.
9518 Revision 1.16 2001/10/21 17:19:21 swa
9519 wrong url in documentation
9521 Revision 1.15 2001/10/14 23:46:24 hal9
9522 Various minor changes. Fleshed out SEE ALSO section.
9524 Revision 1.13 2001/10/10 17:28:33 hal9
9527 Revision 1.12 2001/09/28 02:57:04 hal9
9530 Revision 1.11 2001/09/28 02:25:20 hal9
9533 Revision 1.9 2001/09/27 23:50:29 hal9
9534 A few changes. A short section on regular expression in appendix.
9536 Revision 1.8 2001/09/25 00:34:59 hal9
9537 Some additions, and re-arranging.
9539 Revision 1.7 2001/09/24 14:31:36 hal9
9542 Revision 1.6 2001/09/24 14:10:32 hal9
9543 Including David's OS/2 installation instructions.
9545 Revision 1.2 2001/09/13 15:27:40 swa
9548 Revision 1.1 2001/09/12 15:36:41 swa
9549 source files for junkbuster documentation
9551 Revision 1.3 2001/09/10 17:43:59 swa
9552 first proposal of a structure.
9554 Revision 1.2 2001/06/13 14:28:31 swa
9555 docs should have an author.
9557 Revision 1.1 2001/06/13 14:20:37 swa
9558 first import of project's documentation for the webserver.