NAME
privoxy - Privacy enhancing Proxy
SYNOPSIS
privoxy [--help] [--version] [--no-daemon] [--pidfile pid
file] [--user user[.group]] [configfile] (Unix)
privoxy.exe [configfile] (Windows)
OPTIONS
Privoxy may be invoked with the following command-line
options:
--version (unix only)
Print version info and exit.
--help (unix only)
Print a short usage info and exit.
--no-daemon (unix only)
Don't become a daemon, i.e. don't fork and become
process group leader, don't detach from controlling
tty, and do all logging there.
--pidfile pidfile (unix only)
On startup, write the process ID to pidfile. Delete
the pidfile on exit. Failiure to create or delete
the pidfile is non-fatal. If no --pidfile option is
given, no PID file will be used.
--user user[.group] (unix only)
After (optionally) writing the PID file, assume the
user ID of user and the GID of group, or, if the
optional group was not given, the default group of
user. Exit if the privileges are not sufficient to
do so.
If the configfile is not specified on the command line,
Privoxy will look for a file named config in the current
directory (except on Win32 where it will try config.txt).
DESCRIPTION
Privoxy is a web proxy with advanced filtering capabili
ties for protecting privacy, filtering web page content,
managing cookies, controlling access, and removing ads,
banners, pop-ups and other obnoxious Internet junk.
Privoxy has a very flexible configuration and can be cus
tomized to suit individual needs and tastes. Privoxy has
application for both stand-alone systems and multi-user
Junkbuster was originally written by JunkBusters Corpora
tion, and was released as free open-source software under
the GNU GPL. Stefan Waldherr made many improvements, and
started the SourceForge project to continue development.
INSTALLATION AND USE
Browsers must be individually configured to use Privoxy as
a HTTP proxy. The default setting is for localhost, on
port 8118 (configurable in the main config file). To set
the HTTP proxy in Netscape and Mozilla, go through: Edit;
Preferences; Advanced; Proxies; Manual Proxy Configura
tion; View.
For Internet Explorer, go through: Tools; Internet Proper
ties; Connections; LAN Settings.
The Secure (SSL) Proxy should also be set to the same val
ues, otherwise https: URLs will not be proxied.
For other browsers, check the documentation.
CONFIGURATION
Privoxy can be configured with the various configuration
files. The default configuration files are: config,
default.action, and default.filter. These are well com
mented. On Unix and Unix-like systems, these are located
in /etc/privoxy/ by default. On Windows, OS/2 and AmigaOS,
these files are in the same directory as the Privoxy exe
cutable.
The name and number of configuration files has changed
from previous versions, and is subject to change as devel
opment progresses. In fact, the configuration itself is
changed and much more sophisticated. See the user-manual
for a brief explanation of all configuration options.
The actions list (ad blocks, etc) can also be configured
with your web browser at http://www.privoxy.org/config.
Privoxy's configuration parameters can also be viewed at
the same page. In addition, Privoxy can be toggled on/off.
This is an internal page.
SAMPLE CONFIGURATION
A brief example of what a default.action configuration
might look like:
# Define a few useful custom aliases for later use
{{alias}}
+no-cookies = +no-cookies-set +no-cookies-read
# Do accept cookies
-no-cookies = -no-cookies-set -no-cookies-read
# Treat these blocked URLs as images.
+imageblock = +block +image
# Define page filters we want to use.
myfilters = +filter{html-annoyances} +filter{js-annoyances}\
+filter{no-popups} +filter{webbugs}
## Default Policies (actions) ############################
{ \
-block \
-downgrade \
+fast-redirects \
myfilters \
+no-compression \
+hide-forwarded \
+hide-from{block} \
+hide-referer{forge} \
-hide-user-agent \
-image \
+image-blocker{blank} \
+no-cookies-keep \
-no-cookies-read \
-no-cookies-set \
+no-popups \
-vanilla-wafer \
-wafer \
}
/
# Now set exceptions to the above defined policies #######
# Sites where we want persistant cookies
{-no-cookies -no-cookies-keep}
.redhat.com
.sun.com
.yahoo.com
.msdn.microsoft.com
# This site requires cookies AND 'fast-redirects' on
{-no-cookies -no-cookies-keep -fast-redirects}
.nytimes.com
# Add custom headers, and turn off filtering of page source
{+add-header{X-Privacy: Yes please} #-add-header{*} \
+add-header{X-User-Tracking: No thanks!} -filter}
privacy.net
.adforce.imgis.com
.ad.preferences.com/image.*
.ads.web.aol.com
.ad-adex3.flycast.com
.ad.doubleclick.net
.ln.doubleclick.net
.ad.de.doubleclick.net
/.*/count\.cgi\?.*df=
194.221.183.22[1-7]
a196.g.akamai.net/7/196/2670/000[12]/images.gmx.net/i4/images/.*/
# Block any URLs that match these patterns
{+block}
/.*/(.*[-_.])?ads?[0-9]?(/|[-_.].*|\.(gif|jpe?g))
/.*/(plain|live|rotate)[-_.]?ads?/
/.*/(sponsor)s?[0-9]?/
/.*/ad(server|stream|juggler)\.(cgi|pl|dll|exe)
/.*/adbanners/
/.*/adv((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))?/
/.*/banners?/
/.*/popupads/
/.*/advert[0-9]+\.jpg
/ad_images/
/.*/ads/
/images/.*/.*_anim\.gif
/rotations/
/.*(ms)?backoff(ice)?.*\.(gif|jpe?g)
195.63.104.*/(inbox|log|meld|folderlu|folderru|log(in|out)[lmr]u|)
.images.nytimes.com
.images.yahoo.com/adv/
/.*cnnstore\.gif
See the comments in the configuration files themselves, or
the user-manual for explanations of the above syntax, and
other Privoxy configuration options.
FILES
/usr/sbin/privoxy
/etc/privoxy/config
/etc/privoxy/default.action
/etc/privoxy/advanced.action
/etc/privoxy/basic.action
/etc/privoxy/intermediate.action
/etc/privoxy/default.filter
/etc/privoxy/trust
/etc/privoxy/templates/*
/var/log/privoxy/logfile
mentation should be included in the local documentation
directory, though is not complete at this time.
SIGNALS
Privoxy terminates on the SIGINT, SIGTERM and SIGABRT sig
nals. Log rotation scripts may cause a re-opening of the
logfile by sending a SIGHUP to Privoxy. Note that unlike
other daemons, Privoxy does not need to be made aware of
config file changes by SIGHUP -- it will detect them auto
matically.
NOTES
This is a BETA version of Privoxy. Not all features are
well tested.
Please see the user-maual on how to contact the developers
for feature requests, reporting problems, and other ques
tions.
BUGS
Probably. Please see the user-manual for how and where to
report bugs.
SEE ALSO
http://www.privoxy.org/
http://config.privoxy.org/
http://www.privoxy.org/faq/
http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/
http://www.privoxy.org/developer-manual/
http://sourceforge.net/projects/ijbswa (Privoxy Project
Page)
http://www.waldherr.org/junkbuster/
http://www.junkbusters.com/ht/en/cookies.html
http://privacy.net/analyze/
http://www.squid-cache.org/
http://linuxalpha.ch/steudten/software/
DEVELOPMENT TEAM
Stefan Waldherr
Andreas Oesterhelt
Jon Foster
Markus Breitenbach
Thomas Steudten
David Schmidt
Haroon Rafique
Joerg Strohmayer
Shamim Mohamed
John Venvertloh
Hal Burgiss
Rodrigo Barbosa
Gábor Lipták
COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE
This program is free software; you can redistribute it
and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public
License as published by the Free Software Foundation;
either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any
later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be
useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied
warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more
details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public
License along with this program; if not, write to the Free
Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330,
Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
Internet Junkbuster Proxy is a trademark of Junkbusters
Corporation.