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 "3.0.18">
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 % seealso-extra "INCLUDE"> <!-- extra stuff from seealso.sgml -->
28 <!entity my-app "<application>Privoxy</application>">
31 File : $Source: /cvsroot/ijbswa/current/doc/source/user-manual.sgml,v $
34 This file belongs into
35 ijbswa.sourceforge.net:/home/groups/i/ij/ijbswa/htdocs/
37 $Id: user-manual.sgml,v 2.139 2011/11/18 16:49:29 fabiankeil Exp $
39 Copyright (C) 2001-2011 Privoxy Developers http://www.privoxy.org/
42 ========================================================================
43 NOTE: Please read developer-manual/documentation.html before touching
44 anything in this, or other Privoxy documentation.
45 ========================================================================
52 <title>Privoxy &p-version; User Manual</title>
56 <!-- Completely the wrong markup, but very little is allowed -->
57 <!-- in this part of an article. FIXME -->
58 <link linkend="copyright">Copyright</link> &my-copy; 2001-2011 by
59 <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/">Privoxy Developers</ulink>
63 <pubdate>$Id: user-manual.sgml,v 2.139 2011/11/18 16:49:29 fabiankeil Exp $</pubdate>
67 Note: the following should generate a separate page, and a live link to it,
68 all nicely done. But it doesn't for some mysterious reason. Please leave
69 commented unless it can be fixed proper. For the time being, the
70 copyright/license declarations will be in their own sgml.
83 This is here to keep vim syntax file from breaking :/
84 If I knew enough to fix it, I would.
85 PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE! HB: hal@foobox.net
91 The <citetitle>Privoxy User Manual</citetitle> gives users information on how to
92 install, configure and use <ulink
93 url="http://www.privoxy.org/">Privoxy</ulink>.
96 <!-- Include privoxy.sgml boilerplate: -->
98 <!-- end privoxy.sgml -->
101 You can find the latest version of the <citetitle>Privoxy User Manual</citetitle> at <ulink
102 url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/">http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/</ulink>.
103 Please see the <link linkend="contact">Contact section</link> on how to
104 contact the developers.
108 <!-- Feel free to send a note to the developers at <email>ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net</email>. -->
114 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
115 <sect1 label="1" id="introduction"><title>Introduction</title>
117 This documentation is included with the current &p-status; version of
118 <application>Privoxy</application>, v.&p-version;<![%p-not-stable;[,
119 and is mostly complete at this point. The most up to date reference for the
120 time being is still the comments in the source files and in the individual
121 configuration files. Development of a new version is currently nearing
122 completion, and includes significant changes and enhancements over
126 <!-- include only in non-stable versions -->
129 Since this is a &p-status; version, not all new features are well tested. This
130 documentation may be slightly out of sync as a result (especially with
131 CVS sources). And there <emphasis>may be</emphasis> bugs, though hopefully
136 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
137 <sect2 id="features"><title>Features</title>
139 In addition to the core
140 features of ad blocking and
141 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookie</ulink> management,
142 <application>Privoxy</application> provides many supplemental
143 features<![%p-not-stable;[, some of them currently under development]]>,
144 that give the end-user more control, more privacy and more freedom:
146 <!-- Include newfeatures.sgml boilerplate here: -->
148 <!-- end boilerplate -->
153 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
156 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
157 <sect1 id="installation"><title>Installation</title>
160 <application>Privoxy</application> is available both in convenient pre-compiled
161 packages for a wide range of operating systems, and as raw source code.
162 For most users, we recommend using the packages, which can be downloaded from our
163 <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ijbswa/">Privoxy Project
169 On some platforms, the installer may remove previously installed versions, if
170 found. (See below for your platform). In any case <emphasis>be sure to backup
171 your old configuration if it is valuable to you.</emphasis> See the <link
172 linkend="upgradersnote">note to upgraders</link> section below.
175 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
176 <sect2 id="installation-packages"><title>Binary Packages</title>
178 How to install the binary packages depends on your operating system:
181 <!-- XXX: The installation sections should be sorted -->
183 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
184 <sect3 id="installation-pack-rpm"><title>Red Hat and Fedora RPMs</title>
187 RPMs can be installed with <literal>rpm -Uvh privoxy-&p-version;-1.rpm</literal>,
188 and will use <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> for the location
189 of configuration files.
193 Note that on Red Hat, <application>Privoxy</application> will
194 <emphasis>not</emphasis> be automatically started on system boot. You will
195 need to enable that using <command>chkconfig</command>,
196 <command>ntsysv</command>, or similar methods.
200 If you have problems with failed dependencies, try rebuilding the SRC RPM:
201 <literal>rpm --rebuild privoxy-&p-version;-1.src.rpm</literal>. This
202 will use your locally installed libraries and RPM version.
206 Also note that if you have a <application>Junkbuster</application> RPM installed
207 on your system, you need to remove it first, because the packages conflict.
208 Otherwise, RPM will try to remove <application>Junkbuster</application>
209 automatically if found, before installing <application>Privoxy</application>.
213 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
214 <sect3 id="installation-deb"><title>Debian and Ubuntu</title>
216 DEBs can be installed with <literal>apt-get install privoxy</literal>,
217 and will use <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> for the location of
222 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
223 <sect3 id="installation-pack-win"><title>Windows</title>
226 Just double-click the installer, which will guide you through
227 the installation process. You will find the configuration files
228 in the same directory as you installed <application>Privoxy</application> in.
231 Version 3.0.5 beta introduced full <application>Windows</application> service
232 functionality. On Windows only, the <application>Privoxy</application>
233 program has two new command line arguments to install and uninstall
234 <application>Privoxy</application> as a <emphasis>service</emphasis>.
238 <term>Arguments:</term>
241 <replaceable class="parameter">--install</replaceable>[:<replaceable class="parameter">service_name</replaceable>]
244 <replaceable class="parameter">--uninstall</replaceable>[:<replaceable class="parameter">service_name</replaceable>]
250 After invoking <application>Privoxy</application> with
251 <command>--install</command>, you will need to bring up the
252 <application>Windows</application> service console to assign the user you
253 want <application>Privoxy</application> to run under, and whether or not you
254 want it to run whenever the system starts. You can start the
255 <application>Windows</application> services console with the following
256 command: <command>services.msc</command>. If you do not take the manual step
257 of modifying <application>Privoxy's</application> service settings, it will
258 not start. Note too that you will need to give Privoxy a user account that
259 actually exists, or it will not be permitted to
260 write to its log and configuration files.
265 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
266 <sect3 id="installation-pack-bintgz"><title>Solaris <!--, NetBSD, HP-UX--></title>
269 Create a new directory, <literal>cd</literal> to it, then unzip and
270 untar the archive. For the most part, you'll have to figure out where
271 things go. <!-- FIXME, more info needed? -->
275 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
276 <sect3 id="installation-os2"><title>OS/2</title>
279 First, make sure that no previous installations of
280 <application>Junkbuster</application> and / or
281 <application>Privoxy</application> are left on your
282 system. Check that no <application>Junkbuster</application>
283 or <application>Privoxy</application> objects are in
289 Then, just double-click the WarpIN self-installing archive, which will
290 guide you through the installation process. A shadow of the
291 <application>Privoxy</application> executable will be placed in your
292 startup folder so it will start automatically whenever OS/2 starts.
296 The directory you choose to install <application>Privoxy</application>
297 into will contain all of the configuration files.
301 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
302 <sect3 id="installation-mac"><title>Mac OS X</title>
304 Unzip the downloaded file (you can either double-click on the zip file
305 icon from the Finder, or from the desktop if you downloaded it there).
306 Then, double-click on the package installer icon and follow the
307 installation process.
310 The privoxy service will automatically start after a successful
311 installation (in addition to every time your computer starts up). To
312 prevent the privoxy service from automatically starting when your
313 computer starts up, remove or rename the folder named
314 <literal>/Library/StartupItems/Privoxy</literal>.
317 To manually start or stop the privoxy service, use the Privoxy Utility
318 for Mac OS X. This application controls the privoxy service (e.g.
319 starting and stopping the service as well as uninstalling the software).
323 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
324 <sect3 id="installation-amiga"><title>AmigaOS</title>
326 Copy and then unpack the <filename>lha</filename> archive to a suitable location.
327 All necessary files will be installed into <application>Privoxy</application>
328 directory, including all configuration and log files. To uninstall, just
329 remove this directory.
333 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
334 <sect3 id="installation-tbz"><title>FreeBSD</title>
337 Privoxy is part of FreeBSD's Ports Collection, you can build and install
338 it with <literal>cd /usr/ports/www/privoxy; make install clean</literal>.
341 If you don't use the ports, you can fetch and install
342 the package with <literal>pkg_add -r privoxy</literal>.
345 The port skeleton and the package can also be downloaded from the
346 <ulink url="https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118">File Release
347 Page</ulink>, but there's no reason to use them unless you're interested in the
348 beta releases which are only available there.
352 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
353 <sect3 id="installattion-gentoo"><title>Gentoo</title>
355 Gentoo source packages (Ebuilds) for <application>Privoxy</application> are
356 contained in the Gentoo Portage Tree (they are not on the download page,
357 but there is a Gentoo section, where you can see when a new
358 <application>Privoxy</application> Version is added to the Portage Tree).
361 Before installing <application>Privoxy</application> under Gentoo just do
362 first <literal>emerge --sync</literal> to get the latest changes from the
363 Portage tree. With <literal>emerge privoxy</literal> you install the latest
367 Configuration files are in <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename>, the
368 documentation is in <filename>/usr/share/doc/privoxy-&p-version;</filename>
369 and the Log directory is in <filename>/var/log/privoxy</filename>.
375 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
376 <sect2 id="installation-source"><title>Building from Source</title>
379 The most convenient way to obtain the <application>Privoxy</application> sources
380 is to download the source tarball from our
381 <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118&package_id=10571">project download
386 If you like to live on the bleeding edge and are not afraid of using
387 possibly unstable development versions, you can check out the up-to-the-minute
388 version directly from <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/cvs/?group_id=11118">the
389 CVS repository</ulink>.
391 deprecated...out of business.
392 or simply download <ulink
393 url="http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cvstarballs/ijbswa-cvsroot.tar.bz2">the nightly CVS
398 <!-- include buildsource.sgml boilerplate: -->
400 <!-- end boilerplate -->
403 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
404 <sect2 id="installation-keepupdated"><title>Keeping your Installation Up-to-Date</title>
406 As user feedback comes in and development continues, we will make updated versions
407 of both the main <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link> (as a <ulink
408 url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118&release_id=103670">separate
409 package</ulink>) and the software itself (including the actions file) available for
414 If you wish to receive an email notification whenever we release updates of
415 <application>Privoxy</application> or the actions file, <ulink
416 url="http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ijbswa-announce/">subscribe
417 to our announce mailing list</ulink>, ijbswa-announce@lists.sourceforge.net.
421 In order not to lose your personal changes and adjustments when updating
422 to the latest <literal>default.action</literal> file we <emphasis>strongly
423 recommend</emphasis> that you use <literal>user.action</literal> and
424 <literal>user.filter</literal> for your local
425 customizations of <application>Privoxy</application>. See the <link
426 linkend="actions-file">Chapter on actions files</link> for details.
434 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
436 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
437 <sect1 id="whatsnew">
438 <title>What's New in this Release</title>
440 <application>Privoxy 3.0.18</application> is a stable release.
441 The changes since 3.0.17 stable are:
452 Fix a logic bug that could cause Privoxy to reuse a server
453 socket after it got tainted by a server-header-tagger-induced
454 block that was triggered before the whole server response had
455 been read. If keep-alive was enabled and the request following
456 the blocked one was to the same host and using the same forwarding
457 settings, Privoxy would send it on the tainted server socket.
458 While the server would simply treat it as a pipelined request,
459 Privoxy would later on fail to properly parse the server's
460 response as it would try to parse the unread data from the
461 first response as server headers for the second one.
462 Regression introduced in 3.0.17.
467 When implying keep-alive in client_connection(), remember that
468 the client didn't. Fixes a regression introduced in 3.0.13 that
469 would cause Privoxy to wait for additional client requests after
470 receiving a HTTP/1.1 request with "Connection: close" set
471 and connection sharing enabled.
472 With clients which terminates the client connection after detecting
473 that the whole body has been received it doesn't really matter,
474 but with clients that don't the connection would be kept open until
480 Fix a subtle race condition between prepare_csp_for_next_request()
481 and sweep() A thread preparing itself for the next client request
482 could briefly appear to be inactive.
483 If all other threads were already using more recent files,
484 the thread could get its files swept away under its feet.
485 So far this has only been reproduced while stress testing in
486 valgrind while touching action files in a loop. It's unlikely
487 to have caused any actual problems in the real world.
492 Disable filters if SDCH compression is used unless filtering is forced.
493 If SDCH was combined with a supported compression algorithm, Privoxy
494 previously could try to decompress it and ditch the Content-Encoding
495 header even though the SDCH compression wasn't dealt with.
496 Reported by zebul666 in #3225863.
501 Make a copy of the --user value and only mess with that when splitting
502 user and group. On some operating systems modifying the value directly
503 is reflected in the output of ps and friends and can be misleading.
504 Reported by zepard in #3292710.
509 If forwarded-connect-retries is set, only retry if Privoxy is actually
510 forwarding the request. Previously direct connections would be retried
516 Fixed a small memory leak when retrying connections with IPv6 support
522 Remove an incorrect assertion in compile_dynamic_pcrs_job_list()
523 It could be triggered by a pcrs job with an invalid pcre
524 pattern (for example one that contains a lone quantifier).
529 If the --user argument user[.group] contains a dot, always bail out
530 if no group has been specified. Previously the intended, but undocumented
531 (and apparently untested), behaviour was to try interpreting the whole
532 argument as user name, but the detection was flawed and checked for '0'
533 instead of '\0', thus merely preventing group names beginning with a zero.
538 In html_code_map[], use a numeric character reference instead of '
539 which wasn't standardized before XHTML 1.0.
544 Fix an invalid free when compiled with FEATURE_GRACEFUL_TERMINATION
545 and shut down through http://config.privoxy.org/die
550 In get_actions(), fix the "temporary" backwards compatibility hack
551 to accept block actions without reason.
552 It also covered other actions that should be rejected as invalid.
553 Reported by Billy Crook.
561 General improvements:
565 Privoxy can (re)compress buffered content before delivering
566 it to the client. Disabled by default as most users wouldn't
572 The +fast-redirects{check-decoded-url} action checks URL
573 segments separately. If there are other parameters behind
574 the redirect URL, this makes it unnecessary to cut them off
575 by additionally using a +redirect{} pcrs command.
576 Initial patch submitted by Jamie Zawinski in #3429848.
581 When loading action sections, verify that the referenced filters
582 exist. Currently missing filters only result in an error message,
583 but eventually the severity will be upgraded to fatal.
588 Allow to bind to multiple separate addresses.
589 Patch set submitted by Petr Pisar in #3354485.
594 Set socket_error to errno if connecting fails in rfc2553_connect_to()
595 Previously rejected direct connections could be incorrectly reported
596 as DNS issues if Privoxy was compiled with IPv6 support.
601 Adjust url_code_map[] so spaces are replaced with %20 instead of '+'
602 While '+' can be used by client's submitting form data, this is not
603 actually what Privoxy is using the lookups for. This is more of a
604 cosmetic issue and doesn't fix any known problems.
609 When compiled without FEATURE_FAST_REDIRECTS, do not silently
610 ignore +fast-redirect{} directives
615 Added a workaround for GNU libc's strptime() reporting negative
616 year values when the parsed year is only specified with two digits.
617 On affected systems cookies with such a date would not be turned
618 into session cookies by the +session-cookies-only action.
619 Reported by Vaeinoe in #3403560
624 Fixed bind failures with certain GNU libc versions if no non-loopback
625 IP address has been configured on the system. This is mainly an issue
626 if the system is using DHCP and Privoxy is started before the network
627 is completely configured.
628 Reported by Raphael Marichez in #3349356.
629 Additional insight from Petr Pisar.
634 Privoxy log messages now use the ISO 8601 date format %Y-%m-%d.
635 It's only slightly longer than the old format, but contains
636 the full date including the year and allows sorting by date
637 (when grepping in multiple log files) without hassle.
642 In get_last_url(), do not bother trying to decode URLs that do
643 not contain at least one '%' sign. It reduces the log noise and
644 a number of unnecessary memory allocations.
649 In case of SOCKS5 failures, dump the socks response in the log message.
654 Simplify the signal setup in main()
659 Streamline socks5_connect() slightly
664 In socks5_connect(), require a complete socks response from the server
665 Previously Privoxy didn't care how much data the server response
666 contained as long as the first two bytes contained the expected
667 values. While at it, shrink the buffer size so Privoxy can't read
668 more than a whole socks response.
673 In chat(), do not bother to generate a client request in case of
674 direct CONNECT requests. It will not be used anyway.
679 Reduce server_last_modified()'s stack size.
684 Shorten get_http_time() by using strftime().
689 Constify the known_http_methods pointers in unknown_method().
694 Constify the time_formats pointers in parse_header_time().
699 Constify the formerly_valid_actions pointers in action_used_to_be_valid().
704 Introduce a GNUMakefile MAN_PAGE variable that defaults to privoxy.1.
705 The Debian package uses section 8 for the man page and this
706 should simplify the patch.
711 Deduplicate the INADDR_NONE definition for Solaris by moving it to jbsockets.h
716 In block_url(), ditch the obsolete workaround for ancient Netscape versions
717 that supposedly couldn't properly deal with status code 403.
722 Remove a useless NULL pointer check in load_trustfile().
727 Remove two useless NULL pointer checks in load_one_re_filterfile().
732 Change url_code_map[] from an array of pointers to an array of arrays
733 It removes an unnecessary layer of indirection and on 64bit system reduces
734 the size of the binary a bit.
739 Fix various typos. Fixes taken from Debian's 29_typos.dpatch by Roland Rosenfeld.
744 Add a dok-tidy GNUMakefile target to clean up the messy HTML
745 generated by the other dok targets.
750 GNUisms in the GNUMakefile have been removed.
755 Change the HTTP version in static responses to 1.1
760 Synced config.sub and config.guess with upstream
761 2011-11-11/386c7218162c145f5f9e1ff7f558a3fbb66c37c5.
766 Add a dedicated function to parse the values of toggles. Reduces duplicated
767 code in load_config() and provides better error handling. Invalid or missing
768 toggle values are now a fatal error instead of being silently ignored.
773 Terminate HTML lines in static error messages with \n instead of \r\n.
778 Simplify cgi_error_unknown() a bit.
783 In LogPutString(), don't bother looking at pszText when not
784 actually logging anything.
789 Change ssplit()'s fourth parameter from int to size_t.
790 Fixes a clang complaint.
795 Add a warning that the statistics currently can't be trusted.
796 Mention Privoxy-Log-Parser's --statistics option as
797 an alternative for the time being.
802 In rfc2553_connect_to(), start setting cgi->error_message on error
807 Change the expected status code returned for http://p.p/die depending
808 on whether or not FEATURE_GRACEFUL_TERMINATION is available.
813 In cgi_die(), mark the client connection for closing.
814 If the client will fetch the style sheet through another connection
815 it gets the main thread out of the accept() state and should thus
816 trigger the actual shutdown.
821 Add a proper CGI message for cgi_die().
826 Don't enforce a logical line length limit in read_config_line()
831 Slightly refactor server_last_modified() to remove useless gmtime*() calls
836 In get_content_type(), also recognize '.jpeg' as JPEG extension
841 Add '.png' to the list of recognized file extenstions in get_content_type()
846 In block_url(), consistently use the block reason "Request blocked by Privoxy"
847 In two places the reason was "Request for blocked URL" which hides the
848 fact that the request got blocked by Privoxy and isn't necessarily
849 correct as the block may be due to tags.
854 In listen_loop(), reload the configuration files after accepting
855 a new connection instead of before.
856 Previously the first connection that arrived after a configuration
857 change would still be handled with the old configuration.
862 In chat()'s receive-data loop, skip a client socket check if
863 the socket will be written to right away anyway. This can
864 increase the transfer speed for unfiltered content on fast
870 The socket timeout is used for SOCKS negotiations as well which
871 previously couldn't timeout.
876 Don't keep the client connection alive if any configuration file
877 changed since the time the connection came in. This is closer to
878 Privoxy's behaviour before keep-alive support for client connection
879 has been added and also less confusing in general.
884 Treat all Content-Type header values containing the pattern
885 'script' as a sign of text. Reported by pribog in #3134970.
893 Action file improvements:
897 Moved the site-specific block pattern section below the one for the
898 generic patterns so for requests that are matched in both, the block
899 reason for the domain is shown which is usually more useful than showing
900 the one for the generic pattern.
905 Remove -prevent-compression from the fragile alias It's no longer
906 used anywhere by default and isn't known to break stuff anyway.
911 Add a (disabled) section to block various Facebook tracking URLs
912 Reported by Dan Stahlke in #3421764.
917 Add a (disabled) section to rewrite and redirect click-tracking
918 URLs used on news.google.com
919 Reported by Dan Stahlke in #3421755.
924 Unblock linuxcounter.net/
925 Reported by Dan Stahlke in #3422612.
930 Block 'www91.intel.com/' which is used by Omniture.
931 Reported by Adam Piggott in #3167370.
936 Disable the handle-as-empty-doc-returns-ok option and mark it as deprecated.
937 Reminded by tceverling in #2790091.
942 Add ".ivwbox.de/" to the "Cross-site user tracking" section.
943 Reported by Nettozahler in #3172525.
948 Unblock and fast-redirect ".awin1.com/.*=http://"
949 Reported by Adam Piggott in #3170921.
954 Block "b.collective-media.net/".
959 Widen the Debian popcon exception to "qa.debian.org/popcon".
960 Seen in Debian's 05_default_action.dpatch by Roland Rosenfeld.
965 Block ".gemius.pl/" which only seems to be used for user tracking.
966 Reported by johnd16 in #3002731. Additional input from Lee and movax.
971 Disable banners-by-size filters for '.thinkgeek.com/'
972 The filter only seems to catch pictures of the inventory.
977 Block requests for 'go.idmnet.bbelements.com/please/showit/'
978 Reported by kacperdominik in #3372959.
983 Unblock adainitiative.org/
988 Add a fast-redirects exception for '.googleusercontent.com/.*=cache'
993 Add a fast-redirects exception for webcache.googleusercontent.com/
998 Unblock http://adassier.wordpress.com/ and http://adassier.files.wordpress.com/
1006 Filter file improvements:
1010 Let the yahoo filter hide '.ads'
1015 Let the msn filter hide overlay ads for Facebook 'likes' in search
1016 results and elements with the id 's_notf_div'. They only seem to be
1017 used to advertise site 'enhancements'.
1022 Let the js-events filter additionally disarm setInterval()
1023 Suggested by dg1727 in #3423775.
1031 Documentation improvements:
1035 Clarify the effect of compiling Privoxy with zlib support
1036 Suggested by dg1727 in #3423782.
1041 Point out that the SourceForge messaging system works like a black
1042 hole and should thus not be used to contact individual developers.
1047 Mention some of the problems one can experience when not explicitly
1048 configuring an IP addresses as listen address.
1053 Explicitly mention that hostnames can be used instead of IP addresses
1054 for the listen-address, that only the first address returned will be
1055 used and what happens if the address is invalid.
1056 Requested by Calestyo in #3302213.
1064 Log message improvements:
1068 If only the server connection is kept alive, do not pretent to
1069 wait for a new client request.
1074 Remove a superfluos log message in forget_connection()
1079 In chat(), properly report missing server responses as such
1080 instead of calling them empty
1085 In forwarded_connect(), fix a log message nobody should ever see
1090 Fix a log message in socks5_connect(), a failed write operation
1091 was logged as failed read operation
1096 Let load_one_actions_file() properly complain about a missing
1097 '{' at the beginning of the file
1098 Simply stating that a line is invalid isn't particularly helpful.
1103 Do not claim to listen on a socket until Privoxy actually does.
1104 Patch submitted by Petr Pisar #3354485
1109 Prevent a duplicated LOG_LEVEL_CLF message when sending out
1110 the "no-server-data" response
1115 Also log the client socket when dropping a connection.
1120 Include the destination host in the 'Request ... marked for
1121 blocking. limit-connect{...} doesn't allow CONNECT ...' message
1122 Patch submitted by Saperski in #3296250.
1127 Prevent a duplicated log message if none of the resolved IP
1128 addresses were reachable
1133 In connect_to(), do not pretend to retry if forwarded-connect-retries
1139 When a specified user or group can't be found, put the name in
1140 single-quotes when logging it.
1145 In rfc2553_connect_to(), explain getnameinfo() errors better.
1150 Remove a useless log message in chat()
1155 When retrying to connect, also log the maximum number of connection
1161 Rephrase a log message in compile_dynamic_pcrs_job_list().
1162 Divide the error code and its meaning with a colon. Call the pcrs
1163 job dynamic and not the filter. Filters may contain dynamic and
1164 non-dynamic pcrs jobs at the same time. Only mention the name of
1165 the filter or tagger, but don't claim it's a filter when it could
1171 In a fatal error message in load_one_actions_file(), cover both
1172 URL and TAG patterns.
1177 In pcrs_strerror(), properly report unknown positive error code
1178 values as such. Previously they were handled like 0 (no error).
1183 In compile_dynamic_pcrs_job_list(), also log the actual error code as
1184 pcrs_strerror() doesn't handle all errors reported by pcre
1189 Don't bother trying to continue chatting if the client didn't ask for it.
1190 Reduces log noise a bit.
1195 Make two fatal error message in load_one_actions_file() more descriptive
1200 In cgi_send_user_manual(), log when rejecting a file name due to '/' or '..'
1205 In load_file(), log a message if opening a file failed
1206 The CGI error message alone isn't too helpful.
1211 In connection_destination_matches(), improve two log messages
1212 to help understand why the destinations don't match.
1217 Rephrase a log message in serve(). Client request arrival
1218 should be differentiated from closed client connections now.
1223 In serve(), log if a client connection isn't reused due to a
1224 configuration file change.
1229 Let mark_server_socket_tainted() always mark the server socket tainted,
1230 just don't talk about it in cases where it has no effect. It doesn't change
1231 Privoxy's behaviour, but makes understanding the log file easier.
1243 Added a --disable-ipv6-support switch for platforms where support
1244 is detected but doesn't actually work.
1249 Do not check for the existence of strerror() and memmove() twice
1254 Remove a useless test for setpgrp(2). Privoxy doesn't need it and
1255 it can cause problems when cross-compiling.
1260 Rename the --disable-acl-files switch to --disable-acl-support.
1261 Since about 2001, ACL directives are specified in the standard
1267 Update the URL of the 'Removing outdated PCRE version after the
1268 next stable release' posting. The old URL stopped working after
1269 one of SF's recent site "optimizations". Reported by Han Liu.
1277 Privoxy-Regression-Test:
1281 Added --shuffle-tests option to increase the chances of detection race conditions.
1286 Added a --local-test-file option that allows to use Privoxy-Regression-Test without Privoxy
1291 Added tests for missing socks4 and socks4a forwarders
1296 The --privoxy-address option now works with IPv6 addresses containing brackets, too
1301 Perform limited sanity checks for parameters that are supposed to have numerical values.
1306 Added a --sleep-time option to specify a number of seconds to
1307 sleep between tests, defaults to 0.
1312 Disable the range-requests tagger for tests that break if it's enabled
1317 Log messages use the ISO 8601 date format %Y-%m-%d.
1322 Fix spelling in two error messages.
1327 In the --help output, include a list of supported tests and their default levels.
1332 Adjust the tests to properly deal with FEATURE_TOGGLE being disabled.
1344 Perform limited sanity checks for command line parameters that
1345 are supposed to have numerical values.
1350 Implement a --unbreak-lines-only option to try to revert MUA breakage.
1355 Accept and highlight: Added header: Content-Encoding: deflate
1360 Accept and highlight: Compressed content from 29258 to 8630 bytes.
1365 Accept and highlight: Client request arrived in time on socket 21.
1370 Highlight: Didn't receive data in time: a.fsdn.com:443
1375 Accept log messages with ISO 8601 time stamps, too
1387 Bump generated Firefox version to 8.0
1392 Only randomize the release date if the new --randomize-release-date
1393 option is enabled. Firefox versions after 4 use a fixed date string
1404 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1406 <sect2 id="upgradersnote">
1407 <title>Note to Upgraders</title>
1410 A quick list of things to be aware of before upgrading from earlier
1411 versions of <application>Privoxy</application>:
1419 The recommended way to upgrade &my-app; is to backup your old
1420 configuration files, install the new ones, verify that &my-app;
1421 is working correctly and finally merge back your changes using
1422 <application>diff</application> and maybe <application>patch</application>.
1425 There are a number of new features in each &my-app; release and
1426 most of them have to be explicitly enabled in the configuration
1427 files. Old configuration files obviously don't do that and due
1428 to syntax changes using old configuration files with a new
1429 &my-app; isn't always possible anyway.
1434 Note that some installers remove earlier versions completely,
1435 including configuration files, therefore you should really save
1436 any important configuration files!
1441 On the other hand, other installers don't overwrite existing configuration
1442 files, thinking you will want to do that yourself.
1447 <filename>standard.action</filename> has been merged into
1448 the <filename>default.action</filename> file.
1453 In the default configuration only fatal errors are logged now.
1454 You can change that in the <link linkend="DEBUG">debug section</link>
1455 of the configuration file. You may also want to enable more verbose
1456 logging until you verified that the new &my-app; version is working
1463 Three other config file settings are now off by default:
1464 <link linkend="enable-remote-toggle">enable-remote-toggle</link>,
1465 <link linkend="enable-remote-http-toggle">enable-remote-http-toggle</link>,
1466 and <link linkend="enable-edit-actions">enable-edit-actions</link>.
1467 If you use or want these, you will need to explicitly enable them, and
1468 be aware of the security issues involved.
1475 What constitutes a <quote>default</quote> configuration has changed,
1476 and you may want to review which actions are <quote>on</quote> by
1477 default. This is primarily a matter of emphasis, but some features
1478 you may have been used to, may now be <quote>off</quote> by default.
1479 There are also a number of new actions and filters you may want to
1480 consider, most of which are not fully incorporated into the default
1481 settings as yet (see above).
1488 The default actions setting is now <literal>Cautious</literal>. Previous
1489 releases had a default setting of <literal>Medium</literal>. Experienced
1490 users may want to adjust this, as it is fairly conservative by &my-app;
1491 standards and past practices. See <ulink
1492 url="http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions-list?f=default">
1493 http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions-list?f=default</ulink>. New users
1494 should try the default settings for a while before turning up the volume.
1500 The default setting has filtering turned <emphasis>off</emphasis>, which
1501 subsequently means that compression is <emphasis>on</emphasis>. Remember
1502 that filtering does not work on compressed pages, so if you use, or want to
1503 use, filtering, you will need to force compression off. Example:
1507 { +<link linkend="filter">filter</link>{google} +<link linkend="prevent-compression">prevent-compression</link> }
1511 Or if you use a number of filters, or filter many sites, you may just want
1512 to turn off compression for all sites in
1513 <filename>default.action</filename> (or
1514 <filename>user.action</filename>).
1521 Also, <link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> is
1522 off by default now. If you've liked this feature in the past, you may want
1523 to turn it back on in <filename>user.action</filename> now.
1530 Some installers may not automatically start
1531 <application>Privoxy</application> after installation.
1542 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1543 <sect1 id="quickstart"><title>Quickstart to Using Privoxy</title>
1549 Install <application>Privoxy</application>. See the <link
1550 linkend="installation">Installation Section</link> below for platform specific
1557 Advanced users and those who want to offer <application>Privoxy</application>
1558 service to more than just their local machine should check the <link
1559 linkend="config">main config file</link>, especially the <link
1560 linkend="access-control">security-relevant</link> options. These are
1567 Start <application>Privoxy</application>, if the installation program has
1568 not done this already (may vary according to platform). See the section
1569 <link linkend="startup">Starting <application>Privoxy</application></link>.
1575 Set your browser to use <application>Privoxy</application> as HTTP and
1576 HTTPS (SSL) <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_server">proxy</ulink>
1577 by setting the proxy configuration for address of
1578 <literal>127.0.0.1</literal> and port <literal>8118</literal>.
1579 <emphasis>DO NOT</emphasis> activate proxying for <literal>FTP</literal> or
1580 any protocols besides HTTP and HTTPS (SSL) unless you intend to prevent your
1581 browser from using these protocols.
1587 Flush your browser's disk and memory caches, to remove any cached ad images.
1588 If using <application>Privoxy</application> to manage
1589 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>,
1590 you should remove any currently stored cookies too.
1596 A default installation should provide a reasonable starting point for
1597 most. There will undoubtedly be occasions where you will want to adjust the
1598 configuration, but that can be dealt with as the need arises. Little
1599 to no initial configuration is required in most cases, you may want
1601 <ulink url="config.html#ENABLE-EDIT-ACTIONS">web-based action editor</ulink> though.
1602 Be sure to read the warnings first.
1605 See the <link linkend="configuration">Configuration section</link> for more
1606 configuration options, and how to customize your installation.
1607 You might also want to look at the <link
1608 linkend="quickstart-ad-blocking">next section</link> for a quick
1609 introduction to how <application>Privoxy</application> blocks ads and
1616 If you experience ads that slip through, innocent images that are
1617 blocked, or otherwise feel the need to fine-tune
1618 <application>Privoxy's</application> behavior, take a look at the <link
1619 linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>. As a quick start, you might
1620 find the <link linkend="act-examples">richly commented examples</link>
1621 helpful. You can also view and edit the actions files through the <ulink
1622 url="http://config.privoxy.org">web-based user interface</ulink>. The
1623 Appendix <quote><link linkend="actionsanat">Troubleshooting: Anatomy of an
1624 Action</link></quote> has hints on how to understand and debug actions that
1625 <quote>misbehave</quote>.
1630 Did anyone test these lately?
1634 For easy access to &my-app;'s most important controls, drag the provided
1635 <link linkend="bookmarklets">Bookmarklets</link> into your browser's
1643 Please see the section <link linkend="contact">Contacting the
1644 Developers</link> on how to report bugs, problems with websites or to get
1651 Now enjoy surfing with enhanced control, comfort and privacy!
1659 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1661 <sect2 id="quickstart-ad-blocking">
1662 <title>Quickstart to Ad Blocking</title>
1664 NOTE: This section is deliberately redundant for those that don't
1665 want to read the whole thing (which is getting lengthy).
1668 Ad blocking is but one of <application>Privoxy's</application>
1669 array of features. Many of these features are for the technically minded advanced
1670 user. But, ad and banner blocking is surely common ground for everybody.
1673 This section will provide a quick summary of ad blocking so
1674 you can get up to speed quickly without having to read the more extensive
1675 information provided below, though this is highly recommended.
1678 First a bit of a warning ... blocking ads is much like blocking SPAM: the
1679 more aggressive you are about it, the more likely you are to block
1680 things that were not intended. And the more likely that some things
1681 may not work as intended. So there is a trade off here. If you want
1682 extreme ad free browsing, be prepared to deal with more
1683 <quote>problem</quote> sites, and to spend more time adjusting the
1684 configuration to solve these unintended consequences. In short, there is
1685 not an easy way to eliminate <emphasis>all</emphasis> ads. Either take
1686 the easy way and settle for <emphasis>most</emphasis> ads blocked with the
1687 default configuration, or jump in and tweak it for your personal surfing
1688 habits and preferences.
1691 Secondly, a brief explanation of <application>Privoxy's </application>
1692 <quote>actions</quote>. <quote>Actions</quote> in this context, are
1693 the directives we use to tell <application>Privoxy</application> to perform
1694 some task relating to HTTP transactions (i.e. web browsing). We tell
1695 <application>Privoxy</application> to take some <quote>action</quote>. Each
1696 action has a unique name and function. While there are many potential
1697 <application>actions</application> in <application>Privoxy's</application>
1698 arsenal, only a few are used for ad blocking. <link
1699 linkend="actions">Actions</link>, and <link linkend="actions-file">action
1700 configuration files</link>, are explained in depth below.
1703 Actions are specified in <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration,
1704 followed by one or more URLs to which the action should apply. URLs
1705 can actually be URL type <link linkend="af-patterns">patterns</link> that use
1706 wildcards so they can apply potentially to a range of similar URLs. The
1707 actions, together with the URL patterns are called a section.
1710 When you connect to a website, the full URL will either match one or more
1711 of the sections as defined in <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration,
1712 or not. If so, then <application>Privoxy</application> will perform the
1713 respective actions. If not, then nothing special happens. Furthermore, web
1714 pages may contain embedded, secondary URLs that your web browser will
1715 use to load additional components of the page, as it parses the
1716 original page's HTML content. An ad image for instance, is just an URL
1717 embedded in the page somewhere. The image itself may be on the same server,
1718 or a server somewhere else on the Internet. Complex web pages will have many
1719 such embedded URLs. &my-app; can deal with each URL individually, so, for
1720 instance, the main page text is not touched, but images from such-and-such
1725 The most important actions for basic ad blocking are: <literal><link
1726 linkend="block">block</link></literal>, <literal><link
1727 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>,
1729 linkend="handle-as-empty-document">handle-as-empty-document</link></literal>,and
1730 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>:
1738 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> - this is perhaps
1739 the single most used action, and is particularly important for ad blocking.
1740 This action stops any contact between your browser and any URL patterns
1741 that match this action's configuration. It can be used for blocking ads,
1742 but also anything that is determined to be unwanted. By itself, it simply
1743 stops any communication with the remote server and sends
1744 <application>Privoxy</application>'s own built-in BLOCKED page instead to
1745 let you now what has happened (with some exceptions, see below).
1751 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> -
1752 tells <application>Privoxy</application> to treat this URL as an image.
1753 <application>Privoxy</application>'s default configuration already does this
1754 for all common image types (e.g. GIF), but there are many situations where this
1755 is not so easy to determine. So we'll force it in these cases. This is particularly
1756 important for ad blocking, since only if we know that it's an image of
1757 some kind, can we replace it with an image of our choosing, instead of the
1758 <application>Privoxy</application> BLOCKED page (which would only result in
1759 a <quote>broken image</quote> icon). There are some limitations to this
1760 though. For instance, you can't just brute-force an image substitution for
1761 an entire HTML page in most situations.
1767 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-empty-document">handle-as-empty-document</link></literal> -
1768 sends an empty document instead of <application>Privoxy's</application>
1769 normal BLOCKED HTML page. This is useful for file types that are neither
1770 HTML nor images, such as blocking JavaScript files.
1777 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal> - tells
1778 <application>Privoxy</application> what to display in place of an ad image that
1779 has hit a block rule. For this to come into play, the URL must match a
1780 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action somewhere in the
1781 configuration, <emphasis>and</emphasis>, it must also match an
1782 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> action.
1785 The configuration options on what to display instead of the ad are:
1789 <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> - a checkerboard pattern, so that an ad
1790 replacement is obvious. This is the default.
1795 <emphasis>blank</emphasis> - A very small empty GIF image is displayed.
1796 This is the so-called <quote>invisible</quote> configuration option.
1801 <emphasis>http://<URL></emphasis> - A redirect to any image anywhere
1802 of the user's choosing (advanced usage).
1811 Advanced users will eventually want to explore &my-app;
1812 <literal><link linkend="filter">filters</link></literal> as well. Filters
1813 are very different from <literal><link
1814 linkend="block">blocks</link></literal>.
1815 A <quote>block</quote> blocks a site, page, or unwanted contented. Filters
1816 are a way of filtering or modifying what is actually on the page. An example
1817 filter usage: a text replacement of <quote>no-no</quote> for
1818 <quote>nasty-word</quote>. That is a very simple example. This process can be
1819 used for ad blocking, but it is more in the realm of advanced usage and has
1820 some pitfalls to be wary off.
1824 The quickest way to adjust any of these settings is with your browser through
1825 the special <application>Privoxy</application> editor at <ulink
1826 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
1827 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/show-status</ulink>). This
1828 is an internal page, and does not require Internet access.
1832 Note that as of <application>Privoxy</application> 3.0.7 beta the
1833 action editor is disabled by default. Check the
1834 <ulink url="config.html#ENABLE-EDIT-ACTIONS">enable-edit-actions
1835 section in the configuration file</ulink> to learn why and in which
1836 cases it's safe to enable again.
1840 If you decided to enable the action editor, select the appropriate
1841 <quote>actions</quote> file, and click
1842 <quote><guibutton>Edit</guibutton></quote>. It is best to put personal or
1843 local preferences in <filename>user.action</filename> since this is not
1844 meant to be overwritten during upgrades, and will over-ride the settings in
1845 other files. Here you can insert new <quote>actions</quote>, and URLs for ad
1846 blocking or other purposes, and make other adjustments to the configuration.
1847 <application>Privoxy</application> will detect these changes automatically.
1851 A quick and simple step by step example:
1859 Right click on the ad image to be blocked, then select
1860 <quote><guimenuitem>Copy Link Location</guimenuitem></quote> from the
1868 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
1873 Find <filename>user.action</filename> in the top section, and click
1874 on <quote><guibutton>Edit</guibutton></quote>:
1877 <!-- image of editor and actions files selections -->
1879 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Actions Files in Use</title>
1882 <imagedata fileref="files-in-use.jpg" format="jpg">
1885 <phrase>[ Screenshot of Actions Files in Use ]</phrase>
1894 You should have a section with only
1895 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> listed under
1896 <quote>Actions:</quote>.
1897 If not, click a <quote><guibutton>Insert new section below</guibutton></quote>
1898 button, and in the new section that just appeared, click the
1899 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> button right under the word <quote>Actions:</quote>.
1900 This will bring up a list of all actions. Find
1901 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> near the top, and click
1902 in the <quote>Enabled</quote> column, then <quote><guibutton>Submit</guibutton></quote>
1903 just below the list.
1908 Now, in the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> actions section,
1909 click the <quote><guibutton>Add</guibutton></quote> button, and paste the URL the
1910 browser got from <quote><guimenuitem>Copy Link Location</guimenuitem></quote>.
1911 Remove the <literal>http://</literal> at the beginning of the URL. Then, click
1912 <quote><guibutton>Submit</guibutton></quote> (or
1913 <quote><guibutton>OK</guibutton></quote> if in a pop-up window).
1918 Now go back to the original page, and press <keycap>SHIFT-Reload</keycap>
1919 (or flush all browser caches). The image should be gone now.
1927 This is a very crude and simple example. There might be good reasons to use a
1928 wildcard pattern match to include potentially similar images from the same
1929 site. For a more extensive explanation of <quote>patterns</quote>, and
1930 the entire actions concept, see <link linkend="actions-file">the Actions
1935 For advanced users who want to hand edit their config files, you might want
1936 to now go to the <link linkend="act-examples">Actions Files Tutorial</link>.
1937 The ideas explained therein also apply to the web-based editor.
1940 There are also various
1941 <link linkend="filter">filters</link> that can be used for ad blocking
1942 (filters are a special subset of actions). These
1943 fall into the <quote>advanced</quote> usage category, and are explained in
1944 depth in later sections.
1951 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1954 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1955 <sect1 id="startup">
1956 <title>Starting Privoxy</title>
1958 Before launching <application>Privoxy</application> for the first time, you
1959 will want to configure your browser(s) to use
1960 <application>Privoxy</application> as a HTTP and HTTPS (SSL)
1961 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_server">proxy</ulink>. The default is
1962 127.0.0.1 (or localhost) for the proxy address, and port 8118 (earlier versions
1963 used port 8000). This is the one configuration step <emphasis>that must be done
1967 Please note that <application>Privoxy</application> can only proxy HTTP and
1968 HTTPS traffic. It will not work with FTP or other protocols.
1971 <!-- image of Mozilla Proxy configuration -->
1973 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Proxy Configuration Showing
1974 Mozilla/Netscape HTTP and HTTPS (SSL) Settings</title>
1977 <imagedata fileref="proxy_setup.jpg" format="jpg">
1980 <phrase>[ Screenshot of Mozilla Proxy Configuration ]</phrase>
1988 With <application>Firefox</application>, this is typically set under:
1992 <guibutton>Tools</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Options</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Advanced</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Network</guibutton> -><guibutton>Connection</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Settings</guibutton>
1997 Or optionally on some platforms:
2001 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Preferences</guibutton> -> <guibutton>General</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Connection Settings</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Manual Proxy Configuration</guibutton>
2007 With <application>Netscape</application> (and
2008 <application>Mozilla</application>), this can be set under:
2013 <!-- Mix ascii and gui art, something for everybody -->
2014 <!-- spacing on this is tricky -->
2015 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Preferences</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Advanced</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Proxies</guibutton> -> <guibutton>HTTP Proxy</guibutton>
2020 For <application>Internet Explorer v.5-7</application>:
2024 <guibutton>Tools</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Internet Options</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Connections</guibutton> -> <guibutton>LAN Settings</guibutton>
2028 Then, check <quote>Use Proxy</quote> and fill in the appropriate info
2029 (Address: 127.0.0.1, Port: 8118). Include HTTPS (SSL), if you want HTTPS
2030 proxy support too (sometimes labeled <quote>Secure</quote>). Make sure any
2031 checkboxes like <quote>Use the same proxy server for all protocols</quote> is
2032 <emphasis>UNCHECKED</emphasis>. You want only HTTP and HTTPS (SSL)!
2035 <!-- image of IE Proxy configuration -->
2037 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Proxy Configuration Showing
2038 Internet Explorer HTTP and HTTPS (Secure) Settings</title>
2041 <imagedata fileref="proxy2.jpg" format="jpg">
2044 <phrase>[ Screenshot of IE Proxy Configuration ]</phrase>
2052 After doing this, flush your browser's disk and memory caches to force a
2053 re-reading of all pages and to get rid of any ads that may be cached. Remove
2054 any <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>,
2055 if you want <application>Privoxy</application> to manage that. You are now
2056 ready to start enjoying the benefits of using
2057 <application>Privoxy</application>!
2061 <application>Privoxy</application> itself is typically started by specifying the
2062 main configuration file to be used on the command line. If no configuration
2063 file is specified on the command line, <application>Privoxy</application>
2064 will look for a file named <filename>config</filename> in the current
2065 directory. Except on Win32 where it will try <filename>config.txt</filename>.
2068 <sect2 id="start-redhat">
2069 <title>Red Hat and Fedora</title>
2071 A default Red Hat installation may not start &my-app; upon boot. It will use
2072 the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename> as its main configuration
2077 # /etc/rc.d/init.d/privoxy start
2085 # service privoxy start
2090 <sect2 id="start-debian">
2091 <title>Debian</title>
2093 We use a script. Note that Debian typically starts &my-app; upon booting per
2094 default. It will use the file
2095 <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename> as its main configuration
2100 # /etc/init.d/privoxy start
2105 <sect2 id="start-windows">
2106 <title>Windows</title>
2108 Click on the &my-app; Icon to start <application>Privoxy</application>. If no configuration file is
2109 specified on the command line, <application>Privoxy</application> will look
2110 for a file named <filename>config.txt</filename>. Note that Windows will
2111 automatically start &my-app; when the system starts if you chose that option
2115 <application>Privoxy</application> can run with full Windows service functionality.
2116 On Windows only, the &my-app; program has two new command line arguments
2117 to install and uninstall &my-app; as a service. See the
2118 <link linkend="installation-pack-win">Windows Installation
2119 instructions</link> for details.
2123 <sect2 id="start-unices">
2124 <title>Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD, HP-UX and others</title>
2126 Example Unix startup command:
2130 # /usr/sbin/privoxy /etc/privoxy/config
2135 <sect2 id="start-os2">
2138 During installation, <application>Privoxy</application> is configured to
2139 start automatically when the system restarts. You can start it manually by
2140 double-clicking on the <application>Privoxy</application> icon in the
2141 <application>Privoxy</application> folder.
2145 <sect2 id="start-macosx">
2146 <title>Mac OS X</title>
2148 After downloading the privoxy software, unzip the downloaded file by
2149 double-clicking on the zip file icon. Then, double-click on the
2150 installer package icon and follow the installation process.
2153 The privoxy service will automatically start after a successful
2154 installation. In addition, the privoxy service will automatically
2155 start every time your computer starts up.
2158 To prevent the privoxy service from automatically starting when your
2159 computer starts up, remove or rename the folder named
2160 /Library/StartupItems/Privoxy.
2163 A simple application named Privoxy Utility has been created which
2164 enables administrators to easily start and stop the privoxy service.
2167 In addition, the Privoxy Utility presents a simple way for
2168 administrators to edit the various privoxy config files. A method
2169 to uninstall the software is also available.
2172 An administrator username and password must be supplied in order for
2173 the Privoxy Utility to perform any of the tasks.
2178 <sect2 id="start-amigaos">
2179 <title>AmigaOS</title>
2181 Start <application>Privoxy</application> (with RUN <>NIL:) in your
2182 <filename>startnet</filename> script (AmiTCP), in
2183 <filename>s:user-startup</filename> (RoadShow), as startup program in your
2184 startup script (Genesis), or as startup action (Miami and MiamiDx).
2185 <application>Privoxy</application> will automatically quit when you quit your
2186 TCP/IP stack (just ignore the harmless warning your TCP/IP stack may display that
2187 <application>Privoxy</application> is still running).
2191 <sect2 id="start-gentoo">
2192 <title>Gentoo</title>
2194 A script is again used. It will use the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config
2195 </filename> as its main configuration file.
2199 /etc/init.d/privoxy start
2203 Note that <application>Privoxy</application> is not automatically started at
2204 boot time by default. You can change this with the <literal>rc-update</literal>
2209 rc-update add privoxy default
2217 See the section <link linkend="cmdoptions">Command line options</link> for
2221 must find a better place for this paragraph
2224 The included default configuration files should give a reasonable starting
2225 point. Most of the per site configuration is done in the
2226 <ulink url="actions-file.html"><quote>actions</quote></ulink> files. These are
2227 where various cookie actions are defined, ad and banner blocking, and other
2228 aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. There are several
2229 such files included, with varying levels of aggressiveness.
2233 You will probably want to keep an eye out for sites for which you may prefer
2234 persistent cookies, and add these to your actions configuration as needed. By
2235 default, most of these will be accepted only during the current browser
2236 session (aka <quote>session cookies</quote>), unless you add them to the
2237 configuration. If you want the browser to handle this instead, you will need
2238 to edit <filename>user.action</filename> (or through the web based interface)
2239 and disable this feature. If you use more than one browser, it would make
2240 more sense to let <application>Privoxy</application> handle this. In which
2241 case, the browser(s) should be set to accept all cookies.
2245 Another feature where you will probably want to define exceptions for trusted
2246 sites is the popup-killing (through <ulink
2247 url="actions-file.html#FILTER-POPUPS"><quote>+filter{popups}</quote></ulink>),
2248 because your favorite shopping, banking, or leisure site may need
2249 popups (explained below).
2253 <application>Privoxy</application> does not support all of the optional HTTP/1.1
2254 features yet. In the unlikely event that you experience inexplicable problems
2255 with browsers that use HTTP/1.1 per default
2256 (like <application>Mozilla</application> or recent versions of I.E.), you might
2257 try to force HTTP/1.0 compatibility. For Mozilla, look under <literal>Edit ->
2258 Preferences -> Debug -> Networking</literal>.
2259 Alternatively, set the <quote>+downgrade-http-version</quote> config option in
2260 <filename>default.action</filename> which will downgrade your browser's HTTP
2261 requests from HTTP/1.1 to HTTP/1.0 before processing them.
2265 After running <application>Privoxy</application> for a while, you can
2266 start to fine tune the configuration to suit your personal, or site,
2267 preferences and requirements. There are many, many aspects that can
2268 be customized. <quote>Actions</quote>
2269 can be adjusted by pointing your browser to
2270 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
2271 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
2272 and then follow the link to <quote>View & Change the Current Configuration</quote>.
2273 (This is an internal page and does not require Internet access.)
2277 In fact, various aspects of <application>Privoxy</application>
2278 configuration can be viewed from this page, including
2279 current configuration parameters, source code version numbers,
2280 the browser's request headers, and <quote>actions</quote> that apply
2281 to a given URL. In addition to the actions file
2282 editor mentioned above, <application>Privoxy</application> can also
2283 be turned <quote>on</quote> and <quote>off</quote> (toggled) from this page.
2287 If you encounter problems, try loading the page without
2288 <application>Privoxy</application>. If that helps, enter the URL where
2289 you have the problems into <ulink url="http://p.p/show-url-info">the browser
2290 based rule tracing utility</ulink>. See which rules apply and why, and
2291 then try turning them off for that site one after the other, until the problem
2292 is gone. When you have found the culprit, you might want to turn the rest on
2297 If the above paragraph sounds gibberish to you, you might want to <link
2298 linkend="actions-file">read more about the actions concept</link>
2299 or even dive deep into the <link linkend="actionsanat">Appendix
2304 If you can't get rid of the problem at all, think you've found a bug in
2305 Privoxy, want to propose a new feature or smarter rules, please see the
2306 section <link linkend="contact"><quote>Contacting the
2307 Developers</quote></link> below.
2312 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2313 <sect2 id="cmdoptions">
2314 <title>Command Line Options</title>
2316 <application>Privoxy</application> may be invoked with the following
2317 command-line options:
2325 <emphasis>--version</emphasis>
2328 Print version info and exit. Unix only.
2333 <emphasis>--help</emphasis>
2336 Print short usage info and exit. Unix only.
2341 <emphasis>--no-daemon</emphasis>
2344 Don't become a daemon, i.e. don't fork and become process group
2345 leader, and don't detach from controlling tty. Unix only.
2350 <emphasis>--pidfile FILE</emphasis>
2353 On startup, write the process ID to <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>. Delete the
2354 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> on exit. Failure to create or delete the
2355 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> is non-fatal. If no <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>
2356 option is given, no PID file will be used. Unix only.
2361 <emphasis>--user USER[.GROUP]</emphasis>
2364 After (optionally) writing the PID file, assume the user ID of
2365 <emphasis>USER</emphasis>, and if included the GID of GROUP. Exit if the
2366 privileges are not sufficient to do so. Unix only.
2371 <emphasis>--chroot</emphasis>
2374 Before changing to the user ID given in the <emphasis>--user</emphasis> option,
2375 chroot to that user's home directory, i.e. make the kernel pretend to the &my-app;
2376 process that the directory tree starts there. If set up carefully, this can limit
2377 the impact of possible vulnerabilities in &my-app; to the files contained in that hierarchy.
2383 <emphasis>--pre-chroot-nslookup hostname</emphasis>
2386 Specifies a hostname to look up before doing a chroot. On some systems, initializing the
2387 resolver library involves reading config files from /etc and/or loading additional shared
2388 libraries from /lib. On these systems, doing a hostname lookup before the chroot reduces
2389 the number of files that must be copied into the chroot tree.
2392 For fastest startup speed, a good value is a hostname that is not in /etc/hosts but that
2393 your local name server (listed in /etc/resolv.conf) can resolve without recursion
2394 (that is, without having to ask any other name servers). The hostname need not exist,
2395 but if it doesn't, an error message (which can be ignored) will be output.
2401 <emphasis>configfile</emphasis>
2404 If no <emphasis>configfile</emphasis> is included on the command line,
2405 <application>Privoxy</application> will look for a file named
2406 <quote>config</quote> in the current directory (except on Win32
2407 where it will look for <quote>config.txt</quote> instead). Specify
2408 full path to avoid confusion. If no config file is found,
2409 <application>Privoxy</application> will fail to start.
2417 On <application>MS Windows</application> only there are two additional
2418 command-line options to allow <application>Privoxy</application> to install and
2419 run as a <emphasis>service</emphasis>. See the
2420 <link linkend="installation-pack-win">Window Installation section</link>
2428 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2431 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2432 <sect1 id="configuration"><title>Privoxy Configuration</title>
2434 All <application>Privoxy</application> configuration is stored
2435 in text files. These files can be edited with a text editor.
2436 Many important aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> can
2437 also be controlled easily with a web browser.
2441 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2444 <title>Controlling Privoxy with Your Web Browser</title>
2446 <application>Privoxy</application>'s user interface can be reached through the special
2447 URL <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
2448 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
2449 which is a built-in page and works without Internet access.
2450 You will see the following section:
2454 <!-- Needs to be put in a table and colorized -->
2457 <bridgehead renderas="sect2"> Privoxy Menu</bridgehead>
2461 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">View & change the current configuration</ulink>
2464 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-version">View the source code version numbers</ulink>
2467 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request">View the request headers.</ulink>
2470 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">Look up which actions apply to a URL and why</ulink>
2473 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">Toggle Privoxy on or off</ulink>
2476 ▪ <ulink
2477 url="http://www.privoxy.org/&p-version;/user-manual/">Documentation</ulink>
2485 This should be self-explanatory. Note the first item leads to an editor for the
2486 <link linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>, which is where the ad, banner,
2487 cookie, and URL blocking magic is configured as well as other advanced features of
2488 <application>Privoxy</application>. This is an easy way to adjust various
2489 aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. The actions
2490 file, and other configuration files, are explained in detail below.
2494 <quote>Toggle Privoxy On or Off</quote> is handy for sites that might
2495 have problems with your current actions and filters. You can in fact use
2496 it as a test to see whether it is <application>Privoxy</application>
2497 causing the problem or not. <application>Privoxy</application> continues
2498 to run as a proxy in this case, but all manipulation is disabled, i.e.
2499 <application>Privoxy</application> acts like a normal forwarding proxy. There
2500 is even a toggle <link linkend="bookmarklets">Bookmarklet</link> offered, so
2501 that you can toggle <application>Privoxy</application> with one click from
2506 Note that several of the features described above are disabled by default
2507 in <application>Privoxy</application> 3.0.7 beta and later.
2509 <ulink url="config.html">configuration file</ulink> to learn why
2510 and in which cases it's safe to enable them again.
2515 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2520 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2522 <sect2 id="confoverview">
2523 <title>Configuration Files Overview</title>
2525 For Unix, *BSD and Linux, all configuration files are located in
2526 <filename>/etc/privoxy/</filename> by default. For MS Windows, OS/2, and
2527 AmigaOS these are all in the same directory as the
2528 <application>Privoxy</application> executable. <![%p-not-stable;[ The name
2529 and number of configuration files has changed from previous versions, and is
2530 subject to change as development progresses.]]>
2534 The installed defaults provide a reasonable starting point, though
2535 some settings may be aggressive by some standards. For the time being, the
2536 principle configuration files are:
2544 The <link linkend="config">main configuration file</link> is named <filename>config</filename>
2545 on Linux, Unix, BSD, OS/2, and AmigaOS and <filename>config.txt</filename>
2546 on Windows. This is a required file.
2552 <filename>match-all.action</filename> is used to define which <quote>actions</quote>
2553 relating to banner-blocking, images, pop-ups, content modification, cookie handling
2554 etc should be applied by default. It should be the first actions file loaded.
2557 <filename>default.action</filename> defines many exceptions (both positive and negative)
2558 from the default set of actions that's configured in <filename>match-all.action</filename>.
2559 It should be the second actions file loaded and shouldn't be edited by the user.
2562 Multiple actions files may be defined in <filename>config</filename>. These
2563 are processed in the order they are defined. Local customizations and locally
2564 preferred exceptions to the default policies as defined in
2565 <filename>match-all.action</filename> (which you will most probably want
2566 to define sooner or later) are best applied in <filename>user.action</filename>,
2567 where you can preserve them across upgrades. The file isn't installed by all
2568 installers, but you can easily create it yourself with a text editor.
2571 There is also a web based editor that can be accessed from
2573 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
2575 url="http://p.p/show-status">http://p.p/show-status</ulink>) for the
2576 various actions files.
2582 <quote>Filter files</quote> (the <link linkend="filter-file">filter
2583 file</link>) can be used to re-write the raw page content, including
2584 viewable text as well as embedded HTML and JavaScript, and whatever else
2585 lurks on any given web page. The filtering jobs are only pre-defined here;
2586 whether to apply them or not is up to the actions files.
2587 <filename>default.filter</filename> includes various filters made
2588 available for use by the developers. Some are much more intrusive than
2589 others, and all should be used with caution. You may define additional
2590 filter files in <filename>config</filename> as you can with
2591 actions files. We suggest <filename>user.filter</filename> for any
2592 locally defined filters or customizations.
2600 The syntax of the configuration and filter files may change between different
2601 Privoxy versions, unfortunately some enhancements cost backwards compatibility.
2602 <!-- Add link to documentation-->
2606 All files use the <quote><literal>#</literal></quote> character to denote a
2607 comment (the rest of the line will be ignored) and understand line continuation
2608 through placing a backslash ("<literal>\</literal>") as the very last character
2609 in a line. If the <literal>#</literal> is preceded by a backslash, it looses
2610 its special function. Placing a <literal>#</literal> in front of an otherwise
2611 valid configuration line to prevent it from being interpreted is called "commenting
2612 out" that line. Blank lines are ignored.
2616 The actions files and filter files
2617 can use Perl style <link linkend="regex">regular expressions</link> for
2618 maximum flexibility.
2622 After making any changes, there is no need to restart
2623 <application>Privoxy</application> in order for the changes to take
2624 effect. <application>Privoxy</application> detects such changes
2625 automatically. Note, however, that it may take one or two additional
2626 requests for the change to take effect. When changing the listening address
2627 of <application>Privoxy</application>, these <quote>wake up</quote> requests
2628 must obviously be sent to the <emphasis>old</emphasis> listening address.
2633 While under development, the configuration content is subject to change.
2634 The below documentation may not be accurate by the time you read this.
2635 Also, what constitutes a <quote>default</quote> setting, may change, so
2636 please check all your configuration files on important issues.
2642 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2645 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
2647 <!-- **************************************************** -->
2648 <!-- Include config.sgml here -->
2649 <!-- This is where the entire config file is detailed. -->
2651 <!-- end include -->
2654 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2658 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
2660 <sect1 id="actions-file"><title>Actions Files</title>
2664 XXX: similar descriptions are in the Configuration Files sections.
2665 We should only describe them at one place.
2668 The actions files are used to define what <emphasis>actions</emphasis>
2669 <application>Privoxy</application> takes for which URLs, and thus determines
2670 how ad images, cookies and various other aspects of HTTP content and
2671 transactions are handled, and on which sites (or even parts thereof).
2672 There are a number of such actions, with a wide range of functionality.
2673 Each action does something a little different.
2674 These actions give us a veritable arsenal of tools with which to exert
2675 our control, preferences and independence. Actions can be combined so that
2676 their effects are aggregated when applied against a given set of URLs.
2680 are three action files included with <application>Privoxy</application> with
2687 <filename>match-all.action</filename> - is used to define which
2688 <quote>actions</quote> relating to banner-blocking, images, pop-ups,
2689 content modification, cookie handling etc should be applied by default.
2690 It should be the first actions file loaded
2695 <filename>default.action</filename> - defines many exceptions (both
2696 positive and negative) from the default set of actions that's configured
2697 in <filename>match-all.action</filename>. It is a set of rules that should
2698 work reasonably well as-is for most users. This file is only supposed to
2699 be edited by the developers. It should be the second actions file loaded.
2704 <filename>user.action</filename> - is intended to be for local site
2705 preferences and exceptions. As an example, if your ISP or your bank
2706 has specific requirements, and need special handling, this kind of
2707 thing should go here. This file will not be upgraded.
2712 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> <guibutton>Set to Cautious</guibutton> <guibutton>Set to Medium</guibutton> <guibutton>Set to Advanced</guibutton>
2715 These have increasing levels of aggressiveness <emphasis>and have no
2716 influence on your browsing unless you select them explicitly in the
2717 editor</emphasis>. A default installation should be pre-set to
2718 <literal>Cautious</literal>. New users should try this for a while before
2719 adjusting the settings to more aggressive levels. The more aggressive
2720 the settings, then the more likelihood there is of problems such as sites
2721 not working as they should.
2724 The <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> button allows you to turn each
2725 action on/off individually for fine-tuning. The <guibutton>Cautious</guibutton>
2726 button changes the actions list to low/safe settings which will activate
2727 ad blocking and a minimal set of &my-app;'s features, and subsequently
2728 there will be less of a chance for accidental problems. The
2729 <guibutton>Medium</guibutton> button sets the list to a medium level of
2730 other features and a low level set of privacy features. The
2731 <guibutton>Advanced</guibutton> button sets the list to a high level of
2732 ad blocking and medium level of privacy. See the chart below. The latter
2733 three buttons over-ride any changes via with the
2734 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> button. More fine-tuning can be done in the
2735 lower sections of this internal page.
2738 While the actions file editor allows to enable these settings in all
2739 actions files, they are only supposed to be enabled in the first one
2740 to make sure you don't unintentionally overrule earlier rules.
2743 The default profiles, and their associated actions, as pre-defined in
2744 <filename>default.action</filename> are:
2747 <table frame=all><title>Default Configurations</title>
2748 <tgroup cols=4 align=left colsep=1 rowsep=1>
2749 <colspec colname=c1>
2750 <colspec colname=c2>
2751 <colspec colname=c3>
2752 <colspec colname=c4>
2755 <entry>Feature</entry>
2756 <entry>Cautious</entry>
2757 <entry>Medium</entry>
2758 <entry>Advanced</entry>
2763 <!-- <entry>f1</entry> -->
2764 <!-- <entry>f2</entry> -->
2765 <!-- <entry>f3</entry> -->
2766 <!-- <entry>f4</entry> -->
2772 <entry>Ad-blocking Aggressiveness</entry>
2773 <entry>medium</entry>
2779 <entry>Ad-filtering by size</entry>
2786 <entry>Ad-filtering by link</entry>
2792 <entry>Pop-up killing</entry>
2793 <entry>blocks only</entry>
2794 <entry>blocks only</entry>
2795 <entry>blocks only</entry>
2799 <entry>Privacy Features</entry>
2801 <entry>medium</entry>
2802 <entry>medium/high</entry>
2806 <entry>Cookie handling</entry>
2808 <entry>session-only</entry>
2813 <entry>Referer forging</entry>
2820 <entry>GIF de-animation</entry>
2827 <entry>Fast redirects</entry>
2834 <entry>HTML taming</entry>
2841 <entry>JavaScript taming</entry>
2848 <entry>Web-bug killing</entry>
2855 <entry>Image tag reordering</entry>
2871 The list of actions files to be used are defined in the main configuration
2872 file, and are processed in the order they are defined (e.g.
2873 <filename>default.action</filename> is typically processed before
2874 <filename>user.action</filename>). The content of these can all be viewed and
2876 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
2877 The over-riding principle when applying actions, is that the last action that
2878 matches a given URL wins. The broadest, most general rules go first
2879 (defined in <filename>default.action</filename>),
2880 followed by any exceptions (typically also in
2881 <filename>default.action</filename>), which are then followed lastly by any
2882 local preferences (typically in <emphasis>user</emphasis><filename>.action</filename>).
2883 Generally, <filename>user.action</filename> has the last word.
2887 An actions file typically has multiple sections. If you want to use
2888 <quote>aliases</quote> in an actions file, you have to place the (optional)
2889 <link linkend="aliases">alias section</link> at the top of that file.
2890 Then comes the default set of rules which will apply universally to all
2891 sites and pages (be <emphasis>very careful</emphasis> with using such a
2892 universal set in <filename>user.action</filename> or any other actions file after
2893 <filename>default.action</filename>, because it will override the result
2894 from consulting any previous file). And then below that,
2895 exceptions to the defined universal policies. You can regard
2896 <filename>user.action</filename> as an appendix to <filename>default.action</filename>,
2897 with the advantage that it is a separate file, which makes preserving your
2898 personal settings across <application>Privoxy</application> upgrades easier.
2902 Actions can be used to block anything you want, including ads, banners, or
2903 just some obnoxious URL whose content you would rather not see. Cookies can be accepted
2904 or rejected, or accepted only during the current browser session (i.e. not
2905 written to disk), content can be modified, some JavaScripts tamed, user-tracking
2906 fooled, and much more. See below for a <link linkend="actions">complete list
2910 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2912 <title>Finding the Right Mix</title>
2914 Note that some <link linkend="actions">actions</link>, like cookie suppression
2915 or script disabling, may render some sites unusable that rely on these
2916 techniques to work properly. Finding the right mix of actions is not always easy and
2917 certainly a matter of personal taste. And, things can always change, requiring
2918 refinements in the configuration. In general, it can be said that the more
2919 <quote>aggressive</quote> your default settings (in the top section of the
2920 actions file) are, the more exceptions for <quote>trusted</quote> sites you
2921 will have to make later. If, for example, you want to crunch all cookies per
2922 default, you'll have to make exceptions from that rule for sites that you
2923 regularly use and that require cookies for actually useful purposes, like maybe
2924 your bank, favorite shop, or newspaper.
2928 We have tried to provide you with reasonable rules to start from in the
2929 distribution actions files. But there is no general rule of thumb on these
2930 things. There just are too many variables, and sites are constantly changing.
2931 Sooner or later you will want to change the rules (and read this chapter again :).
2935 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2937 <title>How to Edit</title>
2939 The easiest way to edit the actions files is with a browser by
2940 using our browser-based editor, which can be reached from <ulink
2941 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
2942 Note: the config file option <link
2943 linkend="enable-edit-actions">enable-edit-actions</link> must be enabled for
2944 this to work. The editor allows both fine-grained control over every single
2945 feature on a per-URL basis, and easy choosing from wholesale sets of defaults
2946 like <quote>Cautious</quote>, <quote>Medium</quote> or
2947 <quote>Advanced</quote>. Warning: the <quote>Advanced</quote> setting is more
2948 aggressive, and will be more likely to cause problems for some sites.
2949 Experienced users only!
2953 If you prefer plain text editing to GUIs, you can of course also directly edit the
2954 the actions files with your favorite text editor. Look at
2955 <filename>default.action</filename> which is richly commented with many
2961 <sect2 id="actions-apply">
2962 <title>How Actions are Applied to Requests</title>
2964 Actions files are divided into sections. There are special sections,
2965 like the <quote><link linkend="aliases">alias</link></quote> sections which will
2966 be discussed later. For now let's concentrate on regular sections: They have a
2967 heading line (often split up to multiple lines for readability) which consist
2968 of a list of actions, separated by whitespace and enclosed in curly braces.
2969 Below that, there is a list of URL and tag patterns, each on a separate line.
2973 To determine which actions apply to a request, the URL of the request is
2974 compared to all URL patterns in each <quote>action file</quote>.
2975 Every time it matches, the list of applicable actions for the request is
2976 incrementally updated, using the heading of the section in which the
2977 pattern is located. The same is done again for tags and tag patterns later on.
2981 If multiple applying sections set the same action differently,
2982 the last match wins. If not, the effects are aggregated.
2983 E.g. a URL might match a regular section with a heading line of <literal>{
2984 +<link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link> }</literal>,
2985 then later another one with just <literal>{
2986 +<link linkend="block">block</link> }</literal>, resulting
2987 in <emphasis>both</emphasis> actions to apply. And there may well be
2988 cases where you will want to combine actions together. Such a section then
2994 { +<literal>handle-as-image</literal> +<literal>block{Banner ads.}</literal> }
2995 # Block these as if they were images. Send no block page.
2997 media.example.com/.*banners
2998 .example.com/images/ads/</screen>
3002 You can trace this process for URL patterns and any given URL by visiting <ulink
3003 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>.
3007 Examples and more detail on this is provided in the Appendix, <link linkend="ACTIONSANAT">
3008 Troubleshooting: Anatomy of an Action</link> section.
3012 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3013 <sect2 id="af-patterns">
3014 <title>Patterns</title>
3016 As mentioned, <application>Privoxy</application> uses <quote>patterns</quote>
3017 to determine what <emphasis>actions</emphasis> might apply to which sites and
3018 pages your browser attempts to access. These <quote>patterns</quote> use wild
3019 card type <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> matching to achieve a high degree of
3020 flexibility. This allows one expression to be expanded and potentially match
3021 against many similar patterns.
3025 Generally, an URL pattern has the form
3026 <literal><domain><port>/<path></literal>, where the
3027 <literal><domain></literal>, the <literal><port></literal>
3028 and the <literal><path></literal> are optional. (This is why the special
3029 <literal>/</literal> pattern matches all URLs). Note that the protocol
3030 portion of the URL pattern (e.g. <literal>http://</literal>) should
3031 <emphasis>not</emphasis> be included in the pattern. This is assumed already!
3034 The pattern matching syntax is different for the domain and path parts of
3035 the URL. The domain part uses a simple globbing type matching technique,
3036 while the path part uses more flexible
3037 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
3038 Expressions</quote></ulink> (POSIX 1003.2).
3041 The port part of a pattern is a decimal port number preceded by a colon
3042 (<literal>:</literal>). If the domain part contains a numerical IPv6 address,
3043 it has to be put into angle brackets
3044 (<literal><</literal>, <literal>></literal>).
3049 <term><literal>www.example.com/</literal></term>
3052 is a domain-only pattern and will match any request to <literal>www.example.com</literal>,
3053 regardless of which document on that server is requested. So ALL pages in
3054 this domain would be covered by the scope of this action. Note that a
3055 simple <literal>example.com</literal> is different and would NOT match.
3060 <term><literal>www.example.com</literal></term>
3063 means exactly the same. For domain-only patterns, the trailing <literal>/</literal> may
3069 <term><literal>www.example.com/index.html</literal></term>
3072 matches all the documents on <literal>www.example.com</literal>
3073 whose name starts with <literal>/index.html</literal>.
3078 <term><literal>www.example.com/index.html$</literal></term>
3081 matches only the single document <literal>/index.html</literal>
3082 on <literal>www.example.com</literal>.
3087 <term><literal>/index.html$</literal></term>
3090 matches the document <literal>/index.html</literal>, regardless of the domain,
3091 i.e. on <emphasis>any</emphasis> web server anywhere.
3096 <term><literal>/</literal></term>
3099 Matches any URL because there's no requirement for either the
3100 domain or the path to match anything.
3105 <term><literal>:8000/</literal></term>
3108 Matches any URL pointing to TCP port 8000.
3113 <term><literal><2001:db8::1>/</literal></term>
3116 Matches any URL with the host address <literal>2001:db8::1</literal>.
3117 (Note that the real URL uses plain brackets, not angle brackets.)
3122 <term><literal>index.html</literal></term>
3125 matches nothing, since it would be interpreted as a domain name and
3126 there is no top-level domain called <literal>.html</literal>. So its
3134 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3135 <sect3><title>The Domain Pattern</title>
3138 The matching of the domain part offers some flexible options: if the
3139 domain starts or ends with a dot, it becomes unanchored at that end.
3145 <term><literal>.example.com</literal></term>
3148 matches any domain with first-level domain <literal>com</literal>
3149 and second-level domain <literal>example</literal>.
3150 For example <literal>www.example.com</literal>,
3151 <literal>example.com</literal> and <literal>foo.bar.baz.example.com</literal>.
3152 Note that it wouldn't match if the second-level domain was <literal>another-example</literal>.
3157 <term><literal>www.</literal></term>
3160 matches any domain that <emphasis>STARTS</emphasis> with
3161 <literal>www.</literal> (It also matches the domain
3162 <literal>www</literal> but most of the time that doesn't matter.)
3167 <term><literal>.example.</literal></term>
3170 matches any domain that <emphasis>CONTAINS</emphasis> <literal>.example.</literal>.
3171 And, by the way, also included would be any files or documents that exist
3172 within that domain since no path limitations are specified. (Correctly
3173 speaking: It matches any FQDN that contains <literal>example</literal> as
3174 a domain.) This might be <literal>www.example.com</literal>,
3175 <literal>news.example.de</literal>, or
3176 <literal>www.example.net/cgi/testing.pl</literal> for instance. All these
3184 Additionally, there are wild-cards that you can use in the domain names
3185 themselves. These work similarly to shell globbing type wild-cards:
3186 <quote>*</quote> represents zero or more arbitrary characters (this is
3188 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
3189 Expression</quote></ulink> based syntax of <quote>.*</quote>),
3190 <quote>?</quote> represents any single character (this is equivalent to the
3191 regular expression syntax of a simple <quote>.</quote>), and you can define
3192 <quote>character classes</quote> in square brackets which is similar to
3193 the same regular expression technique. All of this can be freely mixed:
3198 <term><literal>ad*.example.com</literal></term>
3201 matches <quote>adserver.example.com</quote>,
3202 <quote>ads.example.com</quote>, etc but not <quote>sfads.example.com</quote>
3207 <term><literal>*ad*.example.com</literal></term>
3210 matches all of the above, and then some.
3215 <term><literal>.?pix.com</literal></term>
3218 matches <literal>www.ipix.com</literal>,
3219 <literal>pictures.epix.com</literal>, <literal>a.b.c.d.e.upix.com</literal> etc.
3224 <term><literal>www[1-9a-ez].example.c*</literal></term>
3227 matches <literal>www1.example.com</literal>,
3228 <literal>www4.example.cc</literal>, <literal>wwwd.example.cy</literal>,
3229 <literal>wwwz.example.com</literal> etc., but <emphasis>not</emphasis>
3230 <literal>wwww.example.com</literal>.
3237 While flexible, this is not the sophistication of full regular expression based syntax.
3242 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
3245 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3246 <sect3><title>The Path Pattern</title>
3249 <application>Privoxy</application> uses <quote>modern</quote> POSIX 1003.2
3250 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
3251 Expressions</quote></ulink> for matching the path portion (after the slash),
3252 and is thus more flexible.
3256 There is an <link linkend="regex">Appendix</link> with a brief quick-start into regular
3257 expressions, you also might want to have a look at your operating system's documentation
3258 on regular expressions (try <literal>man re_format</literal>).
3262 Note that the path pattern is automatically left-anchored at the <quote>/</quote>,
3263 i.e. it matches as if it would start with a <quote>^</quote> (regular expression speak
3264 for the beginning of a line).
3268 Please also note that matching in the path is <emphasis>CASE INSENSITIVE</emphasis>
3269 by default, but you can switch to case sensitive at any point in the pattern by using the
3270 <quote>(?-i)</quote> switch: <literal>www.example.com/(?-i)PaTtErN.*</literal> will match
3271 only documents whose path starts with <literal>PaTtErN</literal> in
3272 <emphasis>exactly</emphasis> this capitalization.
3277 <term><literal>.example.com/.*</literal></term>
3280 Is equivalent to just <quote>.example.com</quote>, since any documents
3281 within that domain are matched with or without the <quote>.*</quote>
3282 regular expression. This is redundant
3287 <term><literal>.example.com/.*/index.html$</literal></term>
3290 Will match any page in the domain of <quote>example.com</quote> that is
3291 named <quote>index.html</quote>, and that is part of some path. For
3292 example, it matches <quote>www.example.com/testing/index.html</quote> but
3293 NOT <quote>www.example.com/index.html</quote> because the regular
3294 expression called for at least two <quote>/'s</quote>, thus the path
3295 requirement. It also would match
3296 <quote>www.example.com/testing/index_html</quote>, because of the
3297 special meta-character <quote>.</quote>.
3302 <term><literal>.example.com/(.*/)?index\.html$</literal></term>
3305 This regular expression is conditional so it will match any page
3306 named <quote>index.html</quote> regardless of path which in this case can
3307 have one or more <quote>/'s</quote>. And this one must contain exactly
3308 <quote>.html</quote> (but does not have to end with that!).
3313 <term><literal>.example.com/(.*/)(ads|banners?|junk)</literal></term>
3316 This regular expression will match any path of <quote>example.com</quote>
3317 that contains any of the words <quote>ads</quote>, <quote>banner</quote>,
3318 <quote>banners</quote> (because of the <quote>?</quote>) or <quote>junk</quote>.
3319 The path does not have to end in these words, just contain them.
3324 <term><literal>.example.com/(.*/)(ads|banners?|junk)/.*\.(jpe?g|gif|png)$</literal></term>
3327 This is very much the same as above, except now it must end in either
3328 <quote>.jpg</quote>, <quote>.jpeg</quote>, <quote>.gif</quote> or <quote>.png</quote>. So this
3329 one is limited to common image formats.
3336 There are many, many good examples to be found in <filename>default.action</filename>,
3337 and more tutorials below in <link linkend="regex">Appendix on regular expressions</link>.
3342 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
3345 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3346 <sect3 id="tag-pattern"><title>The Tag Pattern</title>
3349 Tag patterns are used to change the applying actions based on the
3350 request's tags. Tags can be created with either the
3351 <link linkend="CLIENT-HEADER-TAGGER">client-header-tagger</link>
3352 or the <link linkend="SERVER-HEADER-TAGGER">server-header-tagger</link> action.
3356 Tag patterns have to start with <quote>TAG:</quote>, so &my-app;
3357 can tell them apart from URL patterns. Everything after the colon
3358 including white space, is interpreted as a regular expression with
3359 path pattern syntax, except that tag patterns aren't left-anchored
3360 automatically (&my-app; doesn't silently add a <quote>^</quote>,
3361 you have to do it yourself if you need it).
3365 To match all requests that are tagged with <quote>foo</quote>
3366 your pattern line should be <quote>TAG:^foo$</quote>,
3367 <quote>TAG:foo</quote> would work as well, but it would also
3368 match requests whose tags contain <quote>foo</quote> somewhere.
3369 <quote>TAG: foo</quote> wouldn't work as it requires white space.
3373 Sections can contain URL and tag patterns at the same time,
3374 but tag patterns are checked after the URL patterns and thus
3375 always overrule them, even if they are located before the URL patterns.
3379 Once a new tag is added, Privoxy checks right away if it's matched by one
3380 of the tag patterns and updates the action settings accordingly. As a result
3381 tags can be used to activate other tagger actions, as long as these other
3382 taggers look for headers that haven't already be parsed.
3386 For example you could tag client requests which use the
3387 <literal>POST</literal> method,
3388 then use this tag to activate another tagger that adds a tag if cookies
3389 are sent, and then use a block action based on the cookie tag. This allows
3390 the outcome of one action, to be input into a subsequent action. However if
3391 you'd reverse the position of the described taggers, and activated the
3392 method tagger based on the cookie tagger, no method tags would be created.
3393 The method tagger would look for the request line, but at the time
3394 the cookie tag is created, the request line has already been parsed.
3398 While this is a limitation you should be aware of, this kind of
3399 indirection is seldom needed anyway and even the example doesn't
3400 make too much sense.
3407 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
3410 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3412 <sect2 id="actions">
3413 <title>Actions</title>
3415 All actions are disabled by default, until they are explicitly enabled
3416 somewhere in an actions file. Actions are turned on if preceded with a
3417 <quote>+</quote>, and turned off if preceded with a <quote>-</quote>. So a
3418 <literal>+action</literal> means <quote>do that action</quote>, e.g.
3419 <literal>+block</literal> means <quote>please block URLs that match the
3420 following patterns</quote>, and <literal>-block</literal> means <quote>don't
3421 block URLs that match the following patterns, even if <literal>+block</literal>
3422 previously applied.</quote>
3427 Again, actions are invoked by placing them on a line, enclosed in curly braces and
3428 separated by whitespace, like in
3429 <literal>{+some-action -some-other-action{some-parameter}}</literal>,
3430 followed by a list of URL patterns, one per line, to which they apply.
3431 Together, the actions line and the following pattern lines make up a section
3432 of the actions file.
3436 Actions fall into three categories:
3443 Boolean, i.e the action can only be <quote>enabled</quote> or
3444 <quote>disabled</quote>. Syntax:
3448 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # enable action <replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable>
3449 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # disable action <replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable></screen>
3452 Example: <literal>+handle-as-image</literal>
3459 Parameterized, where some value is required in order to enable this type of action.
3464 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # enable action and set parameter to <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>,
3465 # overwriting parameter from previous match if necessary
3466 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # disable action. The parameter can be omitted</screen>
3469 Note that if the URL matches multiple positive forms of a parameterized action,
3470 the last match wins, i.e. the params from earlier matches are simply ignored.
3473 Example: <literal>+hide-user-agent{Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; FreeBSD i386; en-US; rv:1.8.1.4) Gecko/20070602 Firefox/2.0.0.4}</literal>
3479 Multi-value. These look exactly like parameterized actions,
3480 but they behave differently: If the action applies multiple times to the
3481 same URL, but with different parameters, <emphasis>all</emphasis> the parameters
3482 from <emphasis>all</emphasis> matches are remembered. This is used for actions
3483 that can be executed for the same request repeatedly, like adding multiple
3484 headers, or filtering through multiple filters. Syntax:
3488 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # enable action and add <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable> to the list of parameters
3489 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # remove the parameter <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable> from the list of parameters
3490 # If it was the last one left, disable the action.
3491 <replaceable class="parameter">-name</replaceable> # disable this action completely and remove all parameters from the list</screen>
3494 Examples: <literal>+add-header{X-Fun-Header: Some text}</literal> and
3495 <literal>+filter{html-annoyances}</literal>
3503 If nothing is specified in any actions file, no <quote>actions</quote> are
3504 taken. So in this case <application>Privoxy</application> would just be a
3505 normal, non-blocking, non-filtering proxy. You must specifically enable the
3506 privacy and blocking features you need (although the provided default actions
3507 files will give a good starting point).
3511 Later defined action sections always over-ride earlier ones of the same type.
3512 So exceptions to any rules you make, should come in the latter part of the file (or
3513 in a file that is processed later when using multiple actions files such
3514 as <filename>user.action</filename>). For multi-valued actions, the actions
3515 are applied in the order they are specified. Actions files are processed in
3516 the order they are defined in <filename>config</filename> (the default
3517 installation has three actions files). It also quite possible for any given
3518 URL to match more than one <quote>pattern</quote> (because of wildcards and
3519 regular expressions), and thus to trigger more than one set of actions! Last
3523 <!-- start actions listing -->
3525 The list of valid <application>Privoxy</application> actions are:
3529 <!-- ********************************************************** -->
3530 <!-- Please note the below defined actions use id's that are -->
3531 <!-- probably linked from other places, so please don't change. -->
3533 <!-- ********************************************************** -->
3536 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3538 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="add-header">
3539 <title>add-header</title>
3543 <term>Typical use:</term>
3545 <para>Confuse log analysis, custom applications</para>
3550 <term>Effect:</term>
3553 Sends a user defined HTTP header to the web server.
3560 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3562 <para>Multi-value.</para>
3567 <term>Parameter:</term>
3570 Any string value is possible. Validity of the defined HTTP headers is not checked.
3571 It is recommended that you use the <quote><literal>X-</literal></quote> prefix
3581 This action may be specified multiple times, in order to define multiple
3582 headers. This is rarely needed for the typical user. If you don't know what
3583 <quote>HTTP headers</quote> are, you definitely don't need to worry about this
3587 Headers added by this action are not modified by other actions.
3593 <term>Example usage:</term>
3596 <screen>+add-header{X-User-Tracking: sucks}</screen>
3604 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3605 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="block">
3606 <title>block</title>
3610 <term>Typical use:</term>
3612 <para>Block ads or other unwanted content</para>
3617 <term>Effect:</term>
3620 Requests for URLs to which this action applies are blocked, i.e. the
3621 requests are trapped by &my-app; and the requested URL is never retrieved,
3622 but is answered locally with a substitute page or image, as determined by
3624 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>,
3626 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>, and
3628 linkend="handle-as-empty-document">handle-as-empty-document</link></literal> actions.
3636 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3638 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3643 <term>Parameter:</term>
3645 <para>A block reason that should be given to the user.</para>
3653 <application>Privoxy</application> sends a special <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page
3654 for requests to blocked pages. This page contains the block reason given as
3655 parameter, a link to find out why the block action applies, and a click-through
3656 to the blocked content (the latter only if the force feature is available and
3660 A very important exception occurs if <emphasis>both</emphasis>
3661 <literal>block</literal> and <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>,
3662 apply to the same request: it will then be replaced by an image. If
3663 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>
3664 (see below) also applies, the type of image will be determined by its parameter,
3665 if not, the standard checkerboard pattern is sent.
3668 It is important to understand this process, in order
3669 to understand how <application>Privoxy</application> deals with
3670 ads and other unwanted content. Blocking is a core feature, and one
3671 upon which various other features depend.
3674 The <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>
3675 action can perform a very similar task, by <quote>blocking</quote>
3676 banner images and other content through rewriting the relevant URLs in the
3677 document's HTML source, so they don't get requested in the first place.
3678 Note that this is a totally different technique, and it's easy to confuse the two.
3684 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3687 <screen>{+block{No nasty stuff for you.}}
3688 # Block and replace with "blocked" page
3689 .nasty-stuff.example.com
3691 {+block{Doubleclick banners.} +handle-as-image}
3692 # Block and replace with image
3696 {+block{Layered ads.} +handle-as-empty-document}
3697 # Block and then ignore
3698 adserver.example.net/.*\.js$</screen>
3708 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3709 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="change-x-forwarded-for">
3710 <title>change-x-forwarded-for</title>
3714 <term>Typical use:</term>
3716 <para>Improve privacy by not forwarding the source of the request in the HTTP headers.</para>
3721 <term>Effect:</term>
3724 Deletes the <quote>X-Forwarded-For:</quote> HTTP header from the client request,
3732 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3734 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3739 <term>Parameter:</term>
3743 <para><quote>block</quote> to delete the header.</para>
3747 <quote>add</quote> to create the header (or append
3748 the client's IP address to an already existing one).
3759 It is safe and recommended to use <literal>block</literal>.
3762 Forwarding the source address of the request may make
3763 sense in some multi-user setups but is also a privacy risk.
3768 <term>Example usage:</term>
3771 <screen>+change-x-forwarded-for{block}</screen>
3778 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3779 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="client-header-filter">
3780 <title>client-header-filter</title>
3784 <term>Typical use:</term>
3787 Rewrite or remove single client headers.
3793 <term>Effect:</term>
3796 All client headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly through
3797 the specified regular expression based substitutions.
3804 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3806 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3811 <term>Parameter:</term>
3814 The name of a client-header filter, as defined in one of the
3815 <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link>.
3824 Client-header filters are applied to each header on its own, not to
3825 all at once. This makes it easier to diagnose problems, but on the downside
3826 you can't write filters that only change header x if header y's value is z.
3827 You can do that by using tags though.
3830 Client-header filters are executed after the other header actions have finished
3831 and use their output as input.
3834 If the request URL gets changed, &my-app; will detect that and use the new
3835 one. This can be used to rewrite the request destination behind the client's
3836 back, for example to specify a Tor exit relay for certain requests.
3839 Please refer to the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file chapter</link>
3840 to learn which client-header filters are available by default, and how to
3848 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3852 # Hide Tor exit notation in Host and Referer Headers
3853 {+client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation}}
3864 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3865 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="client-header-tagger">
3866 <title>client-header-tagger</title>
3870 <term>Typical use:</term>
3873 Block requests based on their headers.
3879 <term>Effect:</term>
3882 Client headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly through
3883 the specified regular expression based substitutions, the result is used as
3891 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3893 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3898 <term>Parameter:</term>
3901 The name of a client-header tagger, as defined in one of the
3902 <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link>.
3911 Client-header taggers are applied to each header on its own,
3912 and as the header isn't modified, each tagger <quote>sees</quote>
3916 Client-header taggers are the first actions that are executed
3917 and their tags can be used to control every other action.
3923 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3927 # Tag every request with the User-Agent header
3928 {+client-header-tagger{user-agent}}
3931 # Tagging itself doesn't change the action
3932 # settings, sections with TAG patterns do:
3934 # If it's a download agent, use a different forwarding proxy,
3935 # show the real User-Agent and make sure resume works.
3936 {+forward-override{forward-socks5 10.0.0.2:2222 .} \
3937 -hide-if-modified-since \
3938 -overwrite-last-modified \
3943 TAG:^User-Agent: NetBSD-ftp/
3944 TAG:^User-Agent: Novell ZYPP Installer
3945 TAG:^User-Agent: RPM APT-HTTP/
3946 TAG:^User-Agent: fetch libfetch/
3947 TAG:^User-Agent: Ubuntu APT-HTTP/
3948 TAG:^User-Agent: MPlayer/
3958 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3959 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="content-type-overwrite">
3960 <title>content-type-overwrite</title>
3964 <term>Typical use:</term>
3966 <para>Stop useless download menus from popping up, or change the browser's rendering mode</para>
3971 <term>Effect:</term>
3974 Replaces the <quote>Content-Type:</quote> HTTP server header.
3981 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3983 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3988 <term>Parameter:</term>
4000 The <quote>Content-Type:</quote> HTTP server header is used by the
4001 browser to decide what to do with the document. The value of this
4002 header can cause the browser to open a download menu instead of
4003 displaying the document by itself, even if the document's format is
4004 supported by the browser.
4007 The declared content type can also affect which rendering mode
4008 the browser chooses. If XHTML is delivered as <quote>text/html</quote>,
4009 many browsers treat it as yet another broken HTML document.
4010 If it is send as <quote>application/xml</quote>, browsers with
4011 XHTML support will only display it, if the syntax is correct.
4014 If you see a web site that proudly uses XHTML buttons, but sets
4015 <quote>Content-Type: text/html</quote>, you can use &my-app;
4016 to overwrite it with <quote>application/xml</quote> and validate
4017 the web master's claim inside your XHTML-supporting browser.
4018 If the syntax is incorrect, the browser will complain loudly.
4021 You can also go the opposite direction: if your browser prints
4022 error messages instead of rendering a document falsely declared
4023 as XHTML, you can overwrite the content type with
4024 <quote>text/html</quote> and have it rendered as broken HTML document.
4027 By default <literal>content-type-overwrite</literal> only replaces
4028 <quote>Content-Type:</quote> headers that look like some kind of text.
4029 If you want to overwrite it unconditionally, you have to combine it with
4030 <literal><link linkend="force-text-mode">force-text-mode</link></literal>.
4031 This limitation exists for a reason, think twice before circumventing it.
4034 Most of the time it's easier to replace this action with a custom
4035 <literal><link linkend="server-header-filter">server-header filter</link></literal>.
4036 It allows you to activate it for every document of a certain site and it will still
4037 only replace the content types you aimed at.
4040 Of course you can apply <literal>content-type-overwrite</literal>
4041 to a whole site and then make URL based exceptions, but it's a lot
4042 more work to get the same precision.
4048 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
4051 <screen># Check if www.example.net/ really uses valid XHTML
4052 { +content-type-overwrite{application/xml} }
4055 # but leave the content type unmodified if the URL looks like a style sheet
4056 {-content-type-overwrite}
4057 www.example.net/.*\.css$
4058 www.example.net/.*style
4067 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4068 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-client-header">
4072 <title>crunch-client-header</title>
4076 <term>Typical use:</term>
4078 <para>Remove a client header <application>Privoxy</application> has no dedicated action for.</para>
4083 <term>Effect:</term>
4086 Deletes every header sent by the client that contains the string the user supplied as parameter.
4093 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4095 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4100 <term>Parameter:</term>
4112 This action allows you to block client headers for which no dedicated
4113 <application>Privoxy</application> action exists.
4114 <application>Privoxy</application> will remove every client header that
4115 contains the string you supplied as parameter.
4118 Regular expressions are <emphasis>not supported</emphasis> and you can't
4119 use this action to block different headers in the same request, unless
4120 they contain the same string.
4123 <literal>crunch-client-header</literal> is only meant for quick tests.
4124 If you have to block several different headers, or only want to modify
4125 parts of them, you should use a
4126 <literal><link linkend="client-header-filter">client-header filter</link></literal>.
4130 Don't block any header without understanding the consequences.
4137 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
4140 <screen># Block the non-existent "Privacy-Violation:" client header
4141 { +crunch-client-header{Privacy-Violation:} }
4151 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4152 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-if-none-match">
4153 <title>crunch-if-none-match</title>
4159 <term>Typical use:</term>
4161 <para>Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.</para>
4166 <term>Effect:</term>
4169 Deletes the <quote>If-None-Match:</quote> HTTP client header.
4176 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4178 <para>Boolean.</para>
4183 <term>Parameter:</term>
4195 Removing the <quote>If-None-Match:</quote> HTTP client header
4196 is useful for filter testing, where you want to force a real
4197 reload instead of getting status code <quote>304</quote> which
4198 would cause the browser to use a cached copy of the page.
4201 It is also useful to make sure the header isn't used as a cookie
4202 replacement (unlikely but possible).
4205 Blocking the <quote>If-None-Match:</quote> header shouldn't cause any
4206 caching problems, as long as the <quote>If-Modified-Since:</quote> header
4207 isn't blocked or missing as well.
4210 It is recommended to use this action together with
4211 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hide-if-modified-since</link></literal>
4213 <literal><link linkend="overwrite-last-modified">overwrite-last-modified</link></literal>.
4219 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
4222 <screen># Let the browser revalidate cached documents but don't
4223 # allow the server to use the revalidation headers for user tracking.
4224 {+hide-if-modified-since{-60} \
4225 +overwrite-last-modified{randomize} \
4226 +crunch-if-none-match}
4235 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4236 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-incoming-cookies">
4237 <title>crunch-incoming-cookies</title>
4241 <term>Typical use:</term>
4244 Prevent the web server from setting HTTP cookies on your system
4250 <term>Effect:</term>
4253 Deletes any <quote>Set-Cookie:</quote> HTTP headers from server replies.
4260 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4262 <para>Boolean.</para>
4267 <term>Parameter:</term>
4279 This action is only concerned with <emphasis>incoming</emphasis> HTTP cookies. For
4280 <emphasis>outgoing</emphasis> HTTP cookies, use
4281 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>.
4282 Use <emphasis>both</emphasis> to disable HTTP cookies completely.
4285 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use this action in conjunction
4286 with the <literal><link linkend="session-cookies-only">session-cookies-only</link></literal> action,
4287 since it would prevent the session cookies from being set. See also
4288 <literal><link linkend="filter-content-cookies">filter-content-cookies</link></literal>.
4294 <term>Example usage:</term>
4297 <screen>+crunch-incoming-cookies</screen>
4305 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4306 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-server-header">
4307 <title>crunch-server-header</title>
4313 <term>Typical use:</term>
4315 <para>Remove a server header <application>Privoxy</application> has no dedicated action for.</para>
4320 <term>Effect:</term>
4323 Deletes every header sent by the server that contains the string the user supplied as parameter.
4330 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4332 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4337 <term>Parameter:</term>
4349 This action allows you to block server headers for which no dedicated
4350 <application>Privoxy</application> action exists. <application>Privoxy</application>
4351 will remove every server header that contains the string you supplied as parameter.
4354 Regular expressions are <emphasis>not supported</emphasis> and you can't
4355 use this action to block different headers in the same request, unless
4356 they contain the same string.
4359 <literal>crunch-server-header</literal> is only meant for quick tests.
4360 If you have to block several different headers, or only want to modify
4361 parts of them, you should use a custom
4362 <literal><link linkend="server-header-filter">server-header filter</link></literal>.
4366 Don't block any header without understanding the consequences.
4373 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
4376 <screen># Crunch server headers that try to prevent caching
4377 { +crunch-server-header{no-cache} }
4386 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4387 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-outgoing-cookies">
4388 <title>crunch-outgoing-cookies</title>
4392 <term>Typical use:</term>
4395 Prevent the web server from reading any HTTP cookies from your system
4401 <term>Effect:</term>
4404 Deletes any <quote>Cookie:</quote> HTTP headers from client requests.
4411 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4413 <para>Boolean.</para>
4418 <term>Parameter:</term>
4430 This action is only concerned with <emphasis>outgoing</emphasis> HTTP cookies. For
4431 <emphasis>incoming</emphasis> HTTP cookies, use
4432 <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal>.
4433 Use <emphasis>both</emphasis> to disable HTTP cookies completely.
4436 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use this action in conjunction
4437 with the <literal><link linkend="session-cookies-only">session-cookies-only</link></literal> action,
4438 since it would prevent the session cookies from being read.
4444 <term>Example usage:</term>
4447 <screen>+crunch-outgoing-cookies</screen>
4456 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4457 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="deanimate-gifs">
4458 <title>deanimate-gifs</title>
4462 <term>Typical use:</term>
4464 <para>Stop those annoying, distracting animated GIF images.</para>
4469 <term>Effect:</term>
4472 De-animate GIF animations, i.e. reduce them to their first or last image.
4479 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
4481 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4486 <term>Parameter:</term>
4489 <quote>last</quote> or <quote>first</quote>
4498 This will also shrink the images considerably (in bytes, not pixels!). If
4499 the option <quote>first</quote> is given, the first frame of the animation
4500 is used as the replacement. If <quote>last</quote> is given, the last
4501 frame of the animation is used instead, which probably makes more sense for
4502 most banner animations, but also has the risk of not showing the entire
4503 last frame (if it is only a delta to an earlier frame).
4506 You can safely use this action with patterns that will also match non-GIF
4507 objects, because no attempt will be made at anything that doesn't look like
4514 <term>Example usage:</term>
4517 <screen>+deanimate-gifs{last}</screen>
4524 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4525 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="downgrade-http-version">
4526 <title>downgrade-http-version</title>
4530 <term>Typical use:</term>
4532 <para>Work around (very rare) problems with HTTP/1.1</para>
4537 <term>Effect:</term>
4540 Downgrades HTTP/1.1 client requests and server replies to HTTP/1.0.
4547 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
4549 <para>Boolean.</para>
4554 <term>Parameter:</term>
4566 This is a left-over from the time when <application>Privoxy</application>
4567 didn't support important HTTP/1.1 features well. It is left here for the
4568 unlikely case that you experience HTTP/1.1 related problems with some server
4569 out there. Not all HTTP/1.1 features and requirements are supported yet,
4570 so there is a chance you might need this action.
4576 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
4579 <screen>{+downgrade-http-version}
4580 problem-host.example.com</screen>
4588 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4589 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="fast-redirects">
4590 <title>fast-redirects</title>
4594 <term>Typical use:</term>
4596 <para>Fool some click-tracking scripts and speed up indirect links.</para>
4601 <term>Effect:</term>
4604 Detects redirection URLs and redirects the browser without contacting
4605 the redirection server first.
4612 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
4614 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4619 <term>Parameter:</term>
4624 <quote>simple-check</quote> to just search for the string <quote>http://</quote>
4625 to detect redirection URLs.
4630 <quote>check-decoded-url</quote> to decode URLs (if necessary) before searching
4631 for redirection URLs.
4642 Many sites, like yahoo.com, don't just link to other sites. Instead, they
4643 will link to some script on their own servers, giving the destination as a
4644 parameter, which will then redirect you to the final target. URLs
4645 resulting from this scheme typically look like:
4646 <quote>http://www.example.org/click-tracker.cgi?target=http%3a//www.example.net/</quote>.
4649 Sometimes, there are even multiple consecutive redirects encoded in the
4650 URL. These redirections via scripts make your web browsing more traceable,
4651 since the server from which you follow such a link can see where you go
4652 to. Apart from that, valuable bandwidth and time is wasted, while your
4653 browser asks the server for one redirect after the other. Plus, it feeds
4657 This feature is currently not very smart and is scheduled for improvement.
4658 If it is enabled by default, you will have to create some exceptions to
4659 this action. It can lead to failures in several ways:
4662 Not every URLs with other URLs as parameters is evil.
4663 Some sites offer a real service that requires this information to work.
4664 For example a validation service needs to know, which document to validate.
4665 <literal>fast-redirects</literal> assumes that every URL parameter that
4666 looks like another URL is a redirection target, and will always redirect to
4667 the last one. Most of the time the assumption is correct, but if it isn't,
4668 the user gets redirected anyway.
4671 Another failure occurs if the URL contains other parameters after the URL parameter.
4673 <quote>http://www.example.org/?redirect=http%3a//www.example.net/&foo=bar</quote>.
4674 contains the redirection URL <quote>http://www.example.net/</quote>,
4675 followed by another parameter. <literal>fast-redirects</literal> doesn't know that
4676 and will cause a redirect to <quote>http://www.example.net/&foo=bar</quote>.
4677 Depending on the target server configuration, the parameter will be silently ignored
4678 or lead to a <quote>page not found</quote> error. You can prevent this problem by
4679 first using the <literal><link linkend="redirect">redirect</link></literal> action
4680 to remove the last part of the URL, but it requires a little effort.
4683 To detect a redirection URL, <literal>fast-redirects</literal> only
4684 looks for the string <quote>http://</quote>, either in plain text
4685 (invalid but often used) or encoded as <quote>http%3a//</quote>.
4686 Some sites use their own URL encoding scheme, encrypt the address
4687 of the target server or replace it with a database id. In theses cases
4688 <literal>fast-redirects</literal> is fooled and the request reaches the
4689 redirection server where it probably gets logged.
4695 <term>Example usage:</term>
4699 { +fast-redirects{simple-check} }
4702 { +fast-redirects{check-decoded-url} }
4703 another.example.com/testing</screen>
4712 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4713 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="filter">
4714 <title>filter</title>
4718 <term>Typical use:</term>
4720 <para>Get rid of HTML and JavaScript annoyances, banner advertisements (by size),
4721 do fun text replacements, add personalized effects, etc.</para>
4726 <term>Effect:</term>
4729 All instances of text-based type, most notably HTML and JavaScript, to which
4730 this action applies, can be filtered on-the-fly through the specified regular
4731 expression based substitutions. (Note: as of version 3.0.3 plain text documents
4732 are exempted from filtering, because web servers often use the
4733 <literal>text/plain</literal> MIME type for all files whose type they don't know.)
4740 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
4742 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4747 <term>Parameter:</term>
4750 The name of a content filter, as defined in the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file</link>.
4751 Filters can be defined in one or more files as defined by the
4752 <literal><link linkend="filterfile">filterfile</link></literal>
4753 option in the <link linkend="config">config file</link>.
4754 <filename>default.filter</filename> is the collection of filters
4755 supplied by the developers. Locally defined filters should go
4756 in their own file, such as <filename>user.filter</filename>.
4759 When used in its negative form,
4760 and without parameters, <emphasis>all</emphasis> filtering is completely disabled.
4769 For your convenience, there are a number of pre-defined filters available
4770 in the distribution filter file that you can use. See the examples below for
4774 Filtering requires buffering the page content, which may appear to
4775 slow down page rendering since nothing is displayed until all content has
4776 passed the filters. (The total time until the page is completely rendered
4777 doesn't change much, but it may be perceived as slower since the page is
4778 not incrementally displayed.)
4779 This effect will be more noticeable on slower connections.
4782 <quote>Rolling your own</quote>
4783 filters requires a knowledge of
4784 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
4785 Expressions</quote></ulink> and
4786 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Html"><quote>HTML</quote></ulink>.
4787 This is very powerful feature, and potentially very intrusive.
4788 Filters should be used with caution, and where an equivalent
4789 <quote>action</quote> is not available.
4792 The amount of data that can be filtered is limited to the
4793 <literal><link linkend="buffer-limit">buffer-limit</link></literal>
4794 option in the main <link linkend="config">config file</link>. The
4795 default is 4096 KB (4 Megs). Once this limit is exceeded, the buffered
4796 data, and all pending data, is passed through unfiltered.
4799 Inappropriate MIME types, such as zipped files, are not filtered at all.
4800 (Again, only text-based types except plain text). Encrypted SSL data
4801 (from HTTPS servers) cannot be filtered either, since this would violate
4802 the integrity of the secure transaction. In some situations it might
4803 be necessary to protect certain text, like source code, from filtering
4804 by defining appropriate <literal>-filter</literal> exceptions.
4807 Compressed content can't be filtered either, but if &my-app;
4808 is compiled with zlib support and a supported compression algorithm
4809 is used (gzip or deflate), &my-app; can first decompress the content
4813 If you use a &my-app; version without zlib support, but want filtering to work on
4814 as much documents as possible, even those that would normally be sent compressed,
4815 you must use the <literal><link linkend="prevent-compression">prevent-compression</link></literal>
4816 action in conjunction with <literal>filter</literal>.
4819 Content filtering can achieve some of the same effects as the
4820 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>
4821 action, i.e. it can be used to block ads and banners. But the mechanism
4822 works quite differently. One effective use, is to block ad banners
4823 based on their size (see below), since many of these seem to be somewhat
4827 <link linkend="contact">Feedback</link> with suggestions for new or
4828 improved filters is particularly welcome!
4831 The below list has only the names and a one-line description of each
4832 predefined filter. There are <link linkend="predefined-filters">more
4833 verbose explanations</link> of what these filters do in the <link
4834 linkend="filter-file">filter file chapter</link>.
4840 <term>Example usage (with filters from the distribution <filename>default.filter</filename> file).
4841 See <link linkend="PREDEFINED-FILTERS">the Predefined Filters section</link> for
4842 more explanation on each:</term>
4845 <anchor id="filter-js-annoyances">
4846 <screen>+filter{js-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse.</screen>
4849 <anchor id="filter-js-events">
4850 <screen>+filter{js-events} # Kill all JS event bindings and timers (Radically destructive! Only for extra nasty sites).</screen>
4853 <anchor id="filter-html-annoyances">
4854 <screen>+filter{html-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying HTML abuse.</screen>
4857 <anchor id="filter-content-cookies">
4858 <screen>+filter{content-cookies} # Kill cookies that come in the HTML or JS content.</screen>
4861 <anchor id="filter-refresh-tags">
4862 <screen>+filter{refresh-tags} # Kill automatic refresh tags (for dial-on-demand setups).</screen>
4865 <anchor id="filter-unsolicited-popups">
4866 <screen>+filter{unsolicited-popups} # Disable only unsolicited pop-up windows. Useful if your browser lacks this ability.</screen>
4869 <anchor id="filter-all-popups">
4870 <screen>+filter{all-popups} # Kill all popups in JavaScript and HTML. Useful if your browser lacks this ability.</screen>
4873 <anchor id="filter-img-reorder">
4874 <screen>+filter{img-reorder} # Reorder attributes in <img> tags to make the banners-by-* filters more effective.</screen>
4877 <anchor id="filter-banners-by-size">
4878 <screen>+filter{banners-by-size} # Kill banners by size.</screen>
4881 <anchor id="filter-banners-by-link">
4882 <screen>+filter{banners-by-link} # Kill banners by their links to known clicktrackers.</screen>
4885 <anchor id="filter-webbugs">
4886 <screen>+filter{webbugs} # Squish WebBugs (1x1 invisible GIFs used for user tracking).</screen>
4889 <anchor id="filter-tiny-textforms">
4890 <screen>+filter{tiny-textforms} # Extend those tiny textareas up to 40x80 and kill the hard wrap.</screen>
4893 <anchor id="filter-jumping-windows">
4894 <screen>+filter{jumping-windows} # Prevent windows from resizing and moving themselves.</screen>
4897 <anchor id="filter-frameset-borders">
4898 <screen>+filter{frameset-borders} # Give frames a border and make them resizable.</screen>
4901 <anchor id="filter-demoronizer">
4902 <screen>+filter{demoronizer} # Fix MS's non-standard use of standard charsets.</screen>
4905 <anchor id="filter-shockwave-flash">
4906 <screen>+filter{shockwave-flash} # Kill embedded Shockwave Flash objects.</screen>
4909 <anchor id="filter-quicktime-kioskmode">
4910 <screen>+filter{quicktime-kioskmode} # Make Quicktime movies saveable.</screen>
4913 <anchor id="filter-fun">
4914 <screen>+filter{fun} # Text replacements for subversive browsing fun!</screen>
4917 <anchor id="filter-crude-parental">
4918 <screen>+filter{crude-parental} # Crude parental filtering. Note that this filter doesn't work reliably.</screen>
4921 <anchor id="filter-ie-exploits">
4922 <screen>+filter{ie-exploits} # Disable some known Internet Explorer bug exploits.</screen>
4925 <anchor id="filter-site-specifics">
4926 <screen>+filter{site-specifics} # Cure for site-specific problems. Don't apply generally!</screen>
4929 <anchor id="filter-no-ping">
4930 <screen>+filter{no-ping} # Removes non-standard ping attributes in <a> and <area> tags.</screen>
4933 <anchor id="filter-google">
4934 <screen>+filter{google} # CSS-based block for Google text ads. Also removes a width limitation and the toolbar advertisement.</screen>
4937 <anchor id="filter-yahoo">
4938 <screen>+filter{yahoo} # CSS-based block for Yahoo text ads. Also removes a width limitation.</screen>
4941 <anchor id="filter-msn">
4942 <screen>+filter{msn} # CSS-based block for MSN text ads. Also removes tracking URLs and a width limitation.</screen>
4945 <anchor id="filter-blogspot">
4946 <screen>+filter{blogspot} # Cleans up some Blogspot blogs. Read the fine print before using this.</screen>
4954 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4955 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="force-text-mode">
4956 <title>force-text-mode</title>
4962 <term>Typical use:</term>
4964 <para>Force <application>Privoxy</application> to treat a document as if it was in some kind of <emphasis>text</emphasis> format. </para>
4969 <term>Effect:</term>
4972 Declares a document as text, even if the <quote>Content-Type:</quote> isn't detected as such.
4979 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4981 <para>Boolean.</para>
4986 <term>Parameter:</term>
4998 As explained <literal><link linkend="filter">above</link></literal>,
4999 <application>Privoxy</application> tries to only filter files that are
5000 in some kind of text format. The same restrictions apply to
5001 <literal><link linkend="content-type-overwrite">content-type-overwrite</link></literal>.
5002 <literal>force-text-mode</literal> declares a document as text,
5003 without looking at the <quote>Content-Type:</quote> first.
5007 Think twice before activating this action. Filtering binary data
5008 with regular expressions can cause file damage.
5015 <term>Example usage:</term>
5028 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5029 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="forward-override">
5030 <title>forward-override</title>
5036 <term>Typical use:</term>
5038 <para>Change the forwarding settings based on User-Agent or request origin</para>
5043 <term>Effect:</term>
5046 Overrules the forward directives in the configuration file.
5053 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5055 <para>Multi-value.</para>
5060 <term>Parameter:</term>
5064 <para><quote>forward .</quote> to use a direct connection without any additional proxies.</para>
5068 <quote>forward 127.0.0.1:8123</quote> to use the HTTP proxy listening at 127.0.0.1 port 8123.
5073 <quote>forward-socks4a 127.0.0.1:9050 .</quote> to use the socks4a proxy listening at
5074 127.0.0.1 port 9050. Replace <quote>forward-socks4a</quote> with <quote>forward-socks4</quote>
5075 to use a socks4 connection (with local DNS resolution) instead, use <quote>forward-socks5</quote>
5076 for socks5 connections (with remote DNS resolution).
5081 <quote>forward-socks4a 127.0.0.1:9050 proxy.example.org:8000</quote> to use the socks4a proxy
5082 listening at 127.0.0.1 port 9050 to reach the HTTP proxy listening at proxy.example.org port 8000.
5083 Replace <quote>forward-socks4a</quote> with <quote>forward-socks4</quote> to use a socks4 connection
5084 (with local DNS resolution) instead, use <quote>forward-socks5</quote>
5085 for socks5 connections (with remote DNS resolution).
5096 This action takes parameters similar to the
5097 <link linkend="forwarding">forward</link> directives in the configuration
5098 file, but without the URL pattern. It can be used as replacement, but normally it's only
5099 used in cases where matching based on the request URL isn't sufficient.
5103 Please read the description for the <link linkend="forwarding">forward</link> directives before
5104 using this action. Forwarding to the wrong people will reduce your privacy and increase the
5105 chances of man-in-the-middle attacks.
5108 If the ports are missing or invalid, default values will be used. This might change
5109 in the future and you shouldn't rely on it. Otherwise incorrect syntax causes Privoxy
5113 Use the <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">show-url-info CGI page</ulink>
5114 to verify that your forward settings do what you thought the do.
5121 <term>Example usage:</term>
5125 # Always use direct connections for requests previously tagged as
5126 # <quote>User-Agent: fetch libfetch/2.0</quote> and make sure
5127 # resuming downloads continues to work.
5128 # This way you can continue to use Tor for your normal browsing,
5129 # without overloading the Tor network with your FreeBSD ports updates
5130 # or downloads of bigger files like ISOs.
5131 # Note that HTTP headers are easy to fake and therefore their
5132 # values are as (un)trustworthy as your clients and users.
5133 {+forward-override{forward .} \
5134 -hide-if-modified-since \
5135 -overwrite-last-modified \
5137 TAG:^User-Agent: fetch libfetch/2\.0$
5146 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5147 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="handle-as-empty-document">
5148 <title>handle-as-empty-document</title>
5154 <term>Typical use:</term>
5156 <para>Mark URLs that should be replaced by empty documents <emphasis>if they get blocked</emphasis></para>
5161 <term>Effect:</term>
5164 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. It just marks URLs.
5165 If the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action <emphasis>also applies</emphasis>,
5166 the presence or absence of this mark decides whether an HTML <quote>BLOCKED</quote>
5167 page, or an empty document will be sent to the client as a substitute for the blocked content.
5168 The <emphasis>empty</emphasis> document isn't literally empty, but actually contains a single space.
5175 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5177 <para>Boolean.</para>
5182 <term>Parameter:</term>
5194 Some browsers complain about syntax errors if JavaScript documents
5195 are blocked with <application>Privoxy's</application>
5196 default HTML page; this option can be used to silence them.
5197 And of course this action can also be used to eliminate the &my-app;
5198 BLOCKED message in frames.
5201 The content type for the empty document can be specified with
5202 <literal><link linkend="content-type-overwrite">content-type-overwrite{}</link></literal>,
5203 but usually this isn't necessary.
5209 <term>Example usage:</term>
5212 <screen># Block all documents on example.org that end with ".js",
5213 # but send an empty document instead of the usual HTML message.
5214 {+block{Blocked JavaScript} +handle-as-empty-document}
5224 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5225 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="handle-as-image">
5226 <title>handle-as-image</title>
5230 <term>Typical use:</term>
5232 <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>
5237 <term>Effect:</term>
5240 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. It just marks URLs as images.
5241 If the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action <emphasis>also applies</emphasis>,
5242 the presence or absence of this mark decides whether an HTML <quote>blocked</quote>
5243 page, or a replacement image (as determined by the <literal><link
5244 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal> action) will be sent to the
5245 client as a substitute for the blocked content.
5252 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5254 <para>Boolean.</para>
5259 <term>Parameter:</term>
5271 The below generic example section is actually part of <filename>default.action</filename>.
5272 It marks all URLs with well-known image file name extensions as images and should
5276 Users will probably only want to use the handle-as-image action in conjunction with
5277 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>, to block sources of banners, whose URLs don't
5278 reflect the file type, like in the second example section.
5281 Note that you cannot treat HTML pages as images in most cases. For instance, (in-line) ad
5282 frames require an HTML page to be sent, or they won't display properly.
5283 Forcing <literal>handle-as-image</literal> in this situation will not replace the
5284 ad frame with an image, but lead to error messages.
5290 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
5293 <screen># Generic image extensions:
5296 /.*\.(gif|jpg|jpeg|png|bmp|ico)$
5298 # These don't look like images, but they're banners and should be
5299 # blocked as images:
5301 {+block{Nasty banners.} +handle-as-image}
5302 nasty-banner-server.example.com/junk.cgi\?output=trash
5311 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5312 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-accept-language">
5313 <title>hide-accept-language</title>
5319 <term>Typical use:</term>
5321 <para>Pretend to use different language settings.</para>
5326 <term>Effect:</term>
5329 Deletes or replaces the <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> HTTP header in client requests.
5336 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5338 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5343 <term>Parameter:</term>
5346 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
5355 Faking the browser's language settings can be useful to make a
5356 foreign User-Agent set with
5357 <literal><link linkend="hide-user-agent">hide-user-agent</link></literal>
5361 However some sites with content in different languages check the
5362 <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> to decide which one to take by default.
5363 Sometimes it isn't possible to later switch to another language without
5364 changing the <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> header first.
5367 Therefore it's a good idea to either only change the
5368 <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> header to languages you understand,
5369 or to languages that aren't wide spread.
5372 Before setting the <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> header
5373 to a rare language, you should consider that it helps to
5374 make your requests unique and thus easier to trace.
5375 If you don't plan to change this header frequently,
5376 you should stick to a common language.
5382 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
5385 <screen># Pretend to use Canadian language settings.
5386 {+hide-accept-language{en-ca} \
5387 +hide-user-agent{Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; OpenBSD i386; en-CA; rv:1.8.0.4) Gecko/20060628 Firefox/1.5.0.4} \
5397 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5398 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-content-disposition">
5399 <title>hide-content-disposition</title>
5405 <term>Typical use:</term>
5407 <para>Prevent download menus for content you prefer to view inside the browser.</para>
5412 <term>Effect:</term>
5415 Deletes or replaces the <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> HTTP header set by some servers.
5422 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5424 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5429 <term>Parameter:</term>
5432 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
5441 Some servers set the <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> HTTP header for
5442 documents they assume you want to save locally before viewing them.
5443 The <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> header contains the file name
5444 the browser is supposed to use by default.
5447 In most browsers that understand this header, it makes it impossible to
5448 <emphasis>just view</emphasis> the document, without downloading it first,
5449 even if it's just a simple text file or an image.
5452 Removing the <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> header helps
5453 to prevent this annoyance, but some browsers additionally check the
5454 <quote>Content-Type:</quote> header, before they decide if they can
5455 display a document without saving it first. In these cases, you have
5456 to change this header as well, before the browser stops displaying
5460 It is also possible to change the server's file name suggestion
5461 to another one, but in most cases it isn't worth the time to set
5465 This action will probably be removed in the future,
5466 use server-header filters instead.
5472 <term>Example usage:</term>
5475 <screen># Disarm the download link in Sourceforge's patch tracker
5477 +content-type-overwrite{text/plain}\
5478 +hide-content-disposition{block} }
5479 .sourceforge.net/tracker/download\.php</screen>
5487 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5488 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-if-modified-since">
5489 <title>hide-if-modified-since</title>
5495 <term>Typical use:</term>
5497 <para>Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.</para>
5502 <term>Effect:</term>
5505 Deletes the <quote>If-Modified-Since:</quote> HTTP client header or modifies its value.
5512 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5514 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5519 <term>Parameter:</term>
5522 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or a user defined value that specifies a range of hours.
5531 Removing this header is useful for filter testing, where you want to force a real
5532 reload instead of getting status code <quote>304</quote>, which would cause the
5533 browser to use a cached copy of the page.
5536 Instead of removing the header, <literal>hide-if-modified-since</literal> can
5537 also add or subtract a random amount of time to/from the header's value.
5538 You specify a range of minutes where the random factor should be chosen from and
5539 <application>Privoxy</application> does the rest. A negative value means
5540 subtracting, a positive value adding.
5543 Randomizing the value of the <quote>If-Modified-Since:</quote> makes
5544 it less likely that the server can use the time as a cookie replacement,
5545 but you will run into caching problems if the random range is too high.
5548 It is a good idea to only use a small negative value and let
5549 <literal><link linkend="overwrite-last-modified">overwrite-last-modified</link></literal>
5550 handle the greater changes.
5553 It is also recommended to use this action together with
5554 <literal><link linkend="crunch-if-none-match">crunch-if-none-match</link></literal>,
5555 otherwise it's more or less pointless.
5561 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
5564 <screen># Let the browser revalidate but make tracking based on the time less likely.
5565 {+hide-if-modified-since{-60} \
5566 +overwrite-last-modified{randomize} \
5567 +crunch-if-none-match}
5576 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5577 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-from-header">
5578 <title>hide-from-header</title>
5582 <term>Typical use:</term>
5584 <para>Keep your (old and ill) browser from telling web servers your email address</para>
5589 <term>Effect:</term>
5592 Deletes any existing <quote>From:</quote> HTTP header, or replaces it with the
5600 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5602 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5607 <term>Parameter:</term>
5610 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
5619 The keyword <quote>block</quote> will completely remove the header
5620 (not to be confused with the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>
5624 Alternately, you can specify any value you prefer to be sent to the web
5625 server. If you do, it is a matter of fairness not to use any address that
5626 is actually used by a real person.
5629 This action is rarely needed, as modern web browsers don't send
5630 <quote>From:</quote> headers anymore.
5636 <term>Example usage:</term>
5639 <screen>+hide-from-header{block}</screen> or
5640 <screen>+hide-from-header{spam-me-senseless@sittingduck.example.com}</screen>
5648 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5649 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-referrer">
5650 <title>hide-referrer</title>
5651 <anchor id="hide-referer">
5654 <term>Typical use:</term>
5656 <para>Conceal which link you followed to get to a particular site</para>
5661 <term>Effect:</term>
5664 Deletes the <quote>Referer:</quote> (sic) HTTP header from the client request,
5665 or replaces it with a forged one.
5672 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5674 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5679 <term>Parameter:</term>
5683 <para><quote>conditional-block</quote> to delete the header completely if the host has changed.</para>
5686 <para><quote>conditional-forge</quote> to forge the header if the host has changed.</para>
5689 <para><quote>block</quote> to delete the header unconditionally.</para>
5692 <para><quote>forge</quote> to pretend to be coming from the homepage of the server we are talking to.</para>
5695 <para>Any other string to set a user defined referrer.</para>
5705 <literal>conditional-block</literal> is the only parameter,
5706 that isn't easily detected in the server's log file. If it blocks the
5707 referrer, the request will look like the visitor used a bookmark or
5708 typed in the address directly.
5711 Leaving the referrer unmodified for requests on the same host
5712 allows the server owner to see the visitor's <quote>click path</quote>,
5713 but in most cases she could also get that information by comparing
5714 other parts of the log file: for example the User-Agent if it isn't
5715 a very common one, or the user's IP address if it doesn't change between
5719 Always blocking the referrer, or using a custom one, can lead to
5720 failures on servers that check the referrer before they answer any
5721 requests, in an attempt to prevent their content from being
5722 embedded or linked to elsewhere.
5725 Both <literal>conditional-block</literal> and <literal>forge</literal>
5726 will work with referrer checks, as long as content and valid referring page
5727 are on the same host. Most of the time that's the case.
5730 <literal>hide-referer</literal> is an alternate spelling of
5731 <literal>hide-referrer</literal> and the two can be can be freely
5732 substituted with each other. (<quote>referrer</quote> is the
5733 correct English spelling, however the HTTP specification has a bug - it
5734 requires it to be spelled as <quote>referer</quote>.)
5740 <term>Example usage:</term>
5743 <screen>+hide-referrer{forge}</screen> or
5744 <screen>+hide-referrer{http://www.yahoo.com/}</screen>
5752 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5753 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-user-agent">
5754 <title>hide-user-agent</title>
5758 <term>Typical use:</term>
5760 <para>Try to conceal your type of browser and client operating system</para>
5765 <term>Effect:</term>
5768 Replaces the value of the <quote>User-Agent:</quote> HTTP header
5769 in client requests with the specified value.
5776 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5778 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5783 <term>Parameter:</term>
5786 Any user-defined string.
5796 This can lead to problems on web sites that depend on looking at this header in
5797 order to customize their content for different browsers (which, by the
5798 way, is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> the right thing to do: good web sites
5799 work browser-independently).
5803 Using this action in multi-user setups or wherever different types of
5804 browsers will access the same <application>Privoxy</application> is
5805 <emphasis>not recommended</emphasis>. In single-user, single-browser
5806 setups, you might use it to delete your OS version information from
5807 the headers, because it is an invitation to exploit known bugs for your
5808 OS. It is also occasionally useful to forge this in order to access
5809 sites that won't let you in otherwise (though there may be a good
5810 reason in some cases).
5813 More information on known user-agent strings can be found at
5814 <ulink url="http://www.user-agents.org/">http://www.user-agents.org/</ulink>
5816 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_agent">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_agent</ulink>.
5822 <term>Example usage:</term>
5825 <screen>+hide-user-agent{Netscape 6.1 (X11; I; Linux 2.4.18 i686)}</screen>
5833 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5834 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="limit-connect">
5835 <title>limit-connect</title>
5839 <term>Typical use:</term>
5841 <para>Prevent abuse of <application>Privoxy</application> as a TCP proxy relay or disable SSL for untrusted sites</para>
5846 <term>Effect:</term>
5849 Specifies to which ports HTTP CONNECT requests are allowable.
5856 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5858 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5863 <term>Parameter:</term>
5866 A comma-separated list of ports or port ranges (the latter using dashes, with the minimum
5867 defaulting to 0 and the maximum to 65K).
5876 By default, i.e. if no <literal>limit-connect</literal> action applies,
5877 <application>Privoxy</application> allows HTTP CONNECT requests to all
5878 ports. Use <literal>limit-connect</literal> if fine-grained control
5879 is desired for some or all destinations.
5882 The CONNECT methods exists in HTTP to allow access to secure websites
5883 (<quote>https://</quote> URLs) through proxies. It works very simply:
5884 the proxy connects to the server on the specified port, and then
5885 short-circuits its connections to the client and to the remote server.
5886 This means CONNECT-enabled proxies can be used as TCP relays very easily.
5889 <application>Privoxy</application> relays HTTPS traffic without seeing
5890 the decoded content. Websites can leverage this limitation to circumvent &my-app;'s
5891 filters. By specifying an invalid port range you can disable HTTPS entirely.
5897 <term>Example usages:</term>
5899 <!-- I had trouble getting the spacing to look right in my browser -->
5900 <!-- I probably have the wrong font setup, bollocks. -->
5901 <!-- Apparently the emphasis tag uses a proportional font no matter what -->
5903 <screen>+limit-connect{443} # Port 443 is OK.
5904 +limit-connect{80,443} # Ports 80 and 443 are OK.
5905 +limit-connect{-3, 7, 20-100, 500-} # Ports less than 3, 7, 20 to 100 and above 500 are OK.
5906 +limit-connect{-} # All ports are OK
5907 +limit-connect{,} # No HTTPS/SSL traffic is allowed</screen>
5914 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5915 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="prevent-compression">
5916 <title>prevent-compression</title>
5920 <term>Typical use:</term>
5923 Ensure that servers send the content uncompressed, so it can be
5924 passed through <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>s.
5930 <term>Effect:</term>
5933 Removes the Accept-Encoding header which can be used to ask for compressed transfer.
5940 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5942 <para>Boolean.</para>
5947 <term>Parameter:</term>
5959 More and more websites send their content compressed by default, which
5960 is generally a good idea and saves bandwidth. But the <literal><link
5961 linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> and
5962 <literal><link linkend="deanimate-gifs">deanimate-gifs</link></literal>
5963 actions need access to the uncompressed data.
5966 When compiled with zlib support (available since &my-app; 3.0.7), content that should be
5967 filtered is decompressed on-the-fly and you don't have to worry about this action.
5968 If you are using an older &my-app; version, or one that hasn't been compiled with zlib
5969 support, this action can be used to convince the server to send the content uncompressed.
5972 Most text-based instances compress very well, the size is seldom decreased by less than 50%,
5973 for markup-heavy instances like news feeds saving more than 90% of the original size isn't
5977 Not using compression will therefore slow down the transfer, and you should only
5978 enable this action if you really need it. As of &my-app; 3.0.7 it's disabled in all
5979 predefined action settings.
5982 Note that some (rare) ill-configured sites don't handle requests for uncompressed
5983 documents correctly. Broken PHP applications tend to send an empty document body,
5984 some IIS versions only send the beginning of the content. If you enable
5985 <literal>prevent-compression</literal> per default, you might want to add
5986 exceptions for those sites. See the example for how to do that.
5992 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
5996 # Selectively turn off compression, and enable a filter
5998 { +filter{tiny-textforms} +prevent-compression }
5999 # Match only these sites
6004 # Or instead, we could set a universal default:
6006 { +prevent-compression }
6009 # Then maybe make exceptions for broken sites:
6011 { -prevent-compression }
6012 .compusa.com/</screen>
6021 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6022 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="overwrite-last-modified">
6023 <title>overwrite-last-modified</title>
6029 <term>Typical use:</term>
6031 <para>Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.</para>
6036 <term>Effect:</term>
6039 Deletes the <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> HTTP server header or modifies its value.
6046 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
6048 <para>Parameterized.</para>
6053 <term>Parameter:</term>
6056 One of the keywords: <quote>block</quote>, <quote>reset-to-request-time</quote>
6057 and <quote>randomize</quote>
6066 Removing the <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header is useful for filter
6067 testing, where you want to force a real reload instead of getting status
6068 code <quote>304</quote>, which would cause the browser to reuse the old
6069 version of the page.
6072 The <quote>randomize</quote> option overwrites the value of the
6073 <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header with a randomly chosen time
6074 between the original value and the current time. In theory the server
6075 could send each document with a different <quote>Last-Modified:</quote>
6076 header to track visits without using cookies. <quote>Randomize</quote>
6077 makes it impossible and the browser can still revalidate cached documents.
6080 <quote>reset-to-request-time</quote> overwrites the value of the
6081 <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header with the current time. You could use
6082 this option together with
6083 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hide-if-modified-since</link></literal>
6084 to further customize your random range.
6087 The preferred parameter here is <quote>randomize</quote>. It is safe
6088 to use, as long as the time settings are more or less correct.
6089 If the server sets the <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header to the time
6090 of the request, the random range becomes zero and the value stays the same.
6091 Therefore you should later randomize it a second time with
6092 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hided-if-modified-since</link></literal>,
6096 It is also recommended to use this action together with
6097 <literal><link linkend="crunch-if-none-match">crunch-if-none-match</link></literal>.
6103 <term>Example usage:</term>
6106 <screen># Let the browser revalidate without being tracked across sessions
6107 { +hide-if-modified-since{-60} \
6108 +overwrite-last-modified{randomize} \
6109 +crunch-if-none-match}
6118 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6119 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="redirect">
6120 <title>redirect</title>
6126 <term>Typical use:</term>
6129 Redirect requests to other sites.
6135 <term>Effect:</term>
6138 Convinces the browser that the requested document has been moved
6139 to another location and the browser should get it from there.
6146 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
6148 <para>Parameterized</para>
6153 <term>Parameter:</term>
6156 An absolute URL or a single pcrs command.
6165 Requests to which this action applies are answered with a
6166 HTTP redirect to URLs of your choosing. The new URL is
6167 either provided as parameter, or derived by applying a
6168 single pcrs command to the original URL.
6171 This action will be ignored if you use it together with
6172 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>.
6173 It can be combined with
6174 <literal><link linkend="fast-redirects">fast-redirects{check-decoded-url}</link></literal>
6175 to redirect to a decoded version of a rewritten URL.
6178 Use this action carefully, make sure not to create redirection loops
6179 and be aware that using your own redirects might make it
6180 possible to fingerprint your requests.
6183 In case of problems with your redirects, or simply to watch
6184 them working, enable <link linkend="DEBUG">debug 128</link>.
6190 <term>Example usages:</term>
6193 <screen># Replace example.com's style sheet with another one
6194 { +redirect{http://localhost/css-replacements/example.com.css} }
6195 example.com/stylesheet\.css
6197 # Create a short, easy to remember nickname for a favorite site
6198 # (relies on the browser accept and forward invalid URLs to &my-app;)
6199 { +redirect{http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/actions-file.html} }
6202 # Always use the expanded view for Undeadly.org articles
6203 # (Note the $ at the end of the URL pattern to make sure
6204 # the request for the rewritten URL isn't redirected as well)
6205 {+redirect{s@$@&mode=expanded@}}
6206 undeadly.org/cgi\?action=article&sid=\d*$
6208 # Redirect Google search requests to MSN
6209 {+redirect{s@^http://[^/]*/search\?q=([^&]*).*@http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=$1@}}
6212 # Redirect MSN search requests to Yahoo
6213 {+redirect{s@^http://[^/]*/results\.aspx\?q=([^&]*).*@http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=$1@}}
6214 search.msn.com//results\.aspx\?q=
6216 # Redirect remote requests for this manual
6217 # to the local version delivered by Privoxy
6218 {+redirect{s@^http://www@http://config@}}
6219 www.privoxy.org/user-manual/</screen>
6228 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6229 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="server-header-filter">
6230 <title>server-header-filter</title>
6234 <term>Typical use:</term>
6237 Rewrite or remove single server headers.
6243 <term>Effect:</term>
6246 All server headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly
6247 through the specified regular expression based substitutions.
6254 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
6256 <para>Parameterized.</para>
6261 <term>Parameter:</term>
6264 The name of a server-header filter, as defined in one of the
6265 <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link>.
6274 Server-header filters are applied to each header on its own, not to
6275 all at once. This makes it easier to diagnose problems, but on the downside
6276 you can't write filters that only change header x if header y's value is z.
6277 You can do that by using tags though.
6280 Server-header filters are executed after the other header actions have finished
6281 and use their output as input.
6284 Please refer to the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file chapter</link>
6285 to learn which server-header filters are available by default, and how to
6292 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
6296 {+server-header-filter{html-to-xml}}
6297 example.org/xml-instance-that-is-delivered-as-html
6299 {+server-header-filter{xml-to-html}}
6300 example.org/instance-that-is-delivered-as-xml-but-is-not
6310 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6311 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="server-header-tagger">
6312 <title>server-header-tagger</title>
6316 <term>Typical use:</term>
6319 Enable or disable filters based on the Content-Type header.
6325 <term>Effect:</term>
6328 Server headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly through
6329 the specified regular expression based substitutions, the result is used as
6337 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
6339 <para>Parameterized.</para>
6344 <term>Parameter:</term>
6347 The name of a server-header tagger, as defined in one of the
6348 <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link>.
6357 Server-header taggers are applied to each header on its own,
6358 and as the header isn't modified, each tagger <quote>sees</quote>
6362 Server-header taggers are executed before all other header actions
6363 that modify server headers. Their tags can be used to control
6364 all of the other server-header actions, the content filters
6365 and the crunch actions (<link linkend="redirect">redirect</link>
6366 and <link linkend="block">block</link>).
6369 Obviously crunching based on tags created by server-header taggers
6370 doesn't prevent the request from showing up in the server's log file.
6377 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
6381 # Tag every request with the content type declared by the server
6382 {+server-header-tagger{content-type}}
6393 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6394 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="session-cookies-only">
6395 <title>session-cookies-only</title>
6399 <term>Typical use:</term>
6402 Allow only temporary <quote>session</quote> cookies (for the current
6403 browser session <emphasis>only</emphasis>).
6409 <term>Effect:</term>
6412 Deletes the <quote>expires</quote> field from <quote>Set-Cookie:</quote>
6413 server headers. Most browsers will not store such cookies permanently and
6414 forget them in between sessions.
6421 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
6423 <para>Boolean.</para>
6428 <term>Parameter:</term>
6440 This is less strict than <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal> /
6441 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal> and allows you to browse
6442 websites that insist or rely on setting cookies, without compromising your privacy too badly.
6445 Most browsers will not permanently store cookies that have been processed by
6446 <literal>session-cookies-only</literal> and will forget about them between sessions.
6447 This makes profiling cookies useless, but won't break sites which require cookies so
6448 that you can log in for transactions. This is generally turned on for all
6449 sites, and is the recommended setting.
6452 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use <literal>session-cookies-only</literal>
6453 together with <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal> or
6454 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>. If you do, cookies
6455 will be plainly killed.
6458 Note that it is up to the browser how it handles such cookies without an <quote>expires</quote>
6459 field. If you use an exotic browser, you might want to try it out to be sure.
6462 This setting also has no effect on cookies that may have been stored
6463 previously by the browser before starting <application>Privoxy</application>.
6464 These would have to be removed manually.
6467 <application>Privoxy</application> also uses
6468 the <link linkend="filter-content-cookies">content-cookies filter</link>
6469 to block some types of cookies. Content cookies are not effected by
6470 <literal>session-cookies-only</literal>.
6476 <term>Example usage:</term>
6479 <screen>+session-cookies-only</screen>
6487 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6488 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="set-image-blocker">
6489 <title>set-image-blocker</title>
6493 <term>Typical use:</term>
6495 <para>Choose the replacement for blocked images</para>
6500 <term>Effect:</term>
6503 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. If <emphasis>both</emphasis>
6504 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> <emphasis>and</emphasis> <literal><link
6505 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> <emphasis>also</emphasis>
6506 apply, i.e. if the request is to be blocked as an image,
6507 <emphasis>then</emphasis> the parameter of this action decides what will be
6508 sent as a replacement.
6515 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
6517 <para>Parameterized.</para>
6522 <term>Parameter:</term>
6527 <quote>pattern</quote> to send a built-in checkerboard pattern image. The image is visually
6528 decent, scales very well, and makes it obvious where banners were busted.
6533 <quote>blank</quote> to send a built-in transparent image. This makes banners disappear
6534 completely, but makes it hard to detect where <application>Privoxy</application> has blocked
6535 images on a given page and complicates troubleshooting if <application>Privoxy</application>
6536 has blocked innocent images, like navigation icons.
6541 <quote><replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable></quote> to
6542 send a redirect to <replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable>. You can redirect
6543 to any image anywhere, even in your local filesystem via <quote>file:///</quote> URL.
6544 (But note that not all browsers support redirecting to a local file system).
6547 A good application of redirects is to use special <application>Privoxy</application>-built-in
6548 URLs, which send the built-in images, as <replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable>.
6549 This has the same visual effect as specifying <quote>blank</quote> or <quote>pattern</quote> in
6550 the first place, but enables your browser to cache the replacement image, instead of requesting
6551 it over and over again.
6562 The URLs for the built-in images are <quote>http://config.privoxy.org/send-banner?type=<replaceable
6563 class="parameter">type</replaceable></quote>, where <replaceable class="parameter">type</replaceable> is
6564 either <quote>blank</quote> or <quote>pattern</quote>.
6567 There is a third (advanced) type, called <quote>auto</quote>. It is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> to be
6568 used in <literal>set-image-blocker</literal>, but meant for use from <link linkend="filter-file">filters</link>.
6569 Auto will select the type of image that would have applied to the referring page, had it been an image.
6575 <term>Example usage:</term>
6581 <screen>+set-image-blocker{pattern}</screen>
6584 Redirect to the BSD daemon:
6587 <screen>+set-image-blocker{http://www.freebsd.org/gifs/dae_up3.gif}</screen>
6590 Redirect to the built-in pattern for better caching:
6593 <screen>+set-image-blocker{http://config.privoxy.org/send-banner?type=pattern}</screen>
6601 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6603 <title>Summary</title>
6605 Note that many of these actions have the potential to cause a page to
6606 misbehave, possibly even not to display at all. There are many ways
6607 a site designer may choose to design his site, and what HTTP header
6608 content, and other criteria, he may depend on. There is no way to have hard
6609 and fast rules for all sites. See the <link
6610 linkend="ACTIONSANAT">Appendix</link> for a brief example on troubleshooting
6616 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6617 <sect2 id="aliases">
6618 <title>Aliases</title>
6620 Custom <quote>actions</quote>, known to <application>Privoxy</application>
6621 as <quote>aliases</quote>, can be defined by combining other actions.
6622 These can in turn be invoked just like the built-in actions.
6623 Currently, an alias name can contain any character except space, tab,
6625 <quote>{</quote> and <quote>}</quote>, but we <emphasis>strongly
6626 recommend</emphasis> that you only use <quote>a</quote> to <quote>z</quote>,
6627 <quote>0</quote> to <quote>9</quote>, <quote>+</quote>, and <quote>-</quote>.
6628 Alias names are not case sensitive, and are not required to start with a
6629 <quote>+</quote> or <quote>-</quote> sign, since they are merely textually
6633 Aliases can be used throughout the actions file, but they <emphasis>must be
6634 defined in a special section at the top of the file!</emphasis>
6635 And there can only be one such section per actions file. Each actions file may
6636 have its own alias section, and the aliases defined in it are only visible
6640 There are two main reasons to use aliases: One is to save typing for frequently
6641 used combinations of actions, the other one is a gain in flexibility: If you
6642 decide once how you want to handle shops by defining an alias called
6643 <quote>shop</quote>, you can later change your policy on shops in
6644 <emphasis>one</emphasis> place, and your changes will take effect everywhere
6645 in the actions file where the <quote>shop</quote> alias is used. Calling aliases
6646 by their purpose also makes your actions files more readable.
6649 Currently, there is one big drawback to using aliases, though:
6650 <application>Privoxy</application>'s built-in web-based action file
6651 editor honors aliases when reading the actions files, but it expands
6652 them before writing. So the effects of your aliases are of course preserved,
6653 but the aliases themselves are lost when you edit sections that use aliases
6658 Now let's define some aliases...
6663 # Useful custom aliases we can use later.
6665 # Note the (required!) section header line and that this section
6666 # must be at the top of the actions file!
6670 # These aliases just save typing later:
6671 # (Note that some already use other aliases!)
6673 +crunch-all-cookies = +<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> +<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
6674 -crunch-all-cookies = -<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> -<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
6675 +block-as-image = +block{Blocked image.} +handle-as-image
6676 allow-all-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> -<link linkend="FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</link>
6678 # These aliases define combinations of actions
6679 # that are useful for certain types of sites:
6681 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="PREVENT-COMPRESSION">prevent-compression</link>
6683 shop = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{all-popups}</link>
6685 # Short names for other aliases, for really lazy people ;-)
6687 c0 = +crunch-all-cookies
6688 c1 = -crunch-all-cookies</screen>
6692 ...and put them to use. These sections would appear in the lower part of an
6693 actions file and define exceptions to the default actions (as specified further
6694 up for the <quote>/</quote> pattern):
6699 # These sites are either very complex or very keen on
6700 # user data and require minimal interference to work:
6703 .office.microsoft.com
6704 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com
6705 # Gmail is really mail.google.com, not gmail.com
6709 # Allow cookies (for setting and retrieving your customer data)
6713 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
6716 # These shops require pop-ups:
6718 {-filter{all-popups} -filter{unsolicited-popups}}
6720 .overclockers.co.uk</screen>
6724 Aliases like <quote>shop</quote> and <quote>fragile</quote> are typically used for
6725 <quote>problem</quote> sites that require more than one action to be disabled
6726 in order to function properly.
6732 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6733 <sect2 id="act-examples">
6734 <title>Actions Files Tutorial</title>
6736 The above chapters have shown <link linkend="actions-file">which actions files
6737 there are and how they are organized</link>, how actions are <link
6738 linkend="actions">specified</link> and <link linkend="actions-apply">applied
6739 to URLs</link>, how <link linkend="af-patterns">patterns</link> work, and how to
6740 define and use <link linkend="aliases">aliases</link>. Now, let's look at an
6741 example <filename>match-all.action</filename>, <filename>default.action</filename>
6742 and <filename>user.action</filename> file and see how all these pieces come together:
6746 <title>match-all.action</title>
6748 Remember <emphasis>all actions are disabled when matching starts</emphasis>,
6749 so we have to explicitly enable the ones we want.
6753 While the <filename>match-all.action</filename> file only contains a
6754 single section, it is probably the most important one. It has only one
6755 pattern, <quote><literal>/</literal></quote>, but this pattern
6756 <link linkend="af-patterns">matches all URLs</link>. Therefore, the set of
6757 actions used in this <quote>default</quote> section <emphasis>will
6758 be applied to all requests as a start</emphasis>. It can be partly or
6759 wholly overridden by other actions files like <filename>default.action</filename>
6760 and <filename>user.action</filename>, but it will still be largely responsible
6761 for your overall browsing experience.
6765 Again, at the start of matching, all actions are disabled, so there is
6766 no need to disable any actions here. (Remember: a <quote>+</quote>
6767 preceding the action name enables the action, a <quote>-</quote> disables!).
6768 Also note how this long line has been made more readable by splitting it into
6769 multiple lines with line continuation.
6775 +<link linkend="CHANGE-X-FORWARDED-FOR">change-x-forwarded-for{block}</link> \
6776 +<link linkend="HIDE-FROM-HEADER">hide-from-header{block}</link> \
6777 +<link linkend="SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER">set-image-blocker{pattern}</link> \
6784 The default behavior is now set.
6789 <title>default.action</title>
6792 If you aren't a developer, there's no need for you to edit the
6793 <filename>default.action</filename> file. It is maintained by
6794 the &my-app; developers and if you disagree with some of the
6795 sections, you should overrule them in your <filename>user.action</filename>.
6799 Understanding the <filename>default.action</filename> file can
6800 help you with your <filename>user.action</filename>, though.
6804 The first section in this file is a special section for internal use
6805 that prevents older &my-app; versions from reading the file:
6810 ##########################################################################
6811 # Settings -- Don't change! For internal Privoxy use ONLY.
6812 ##########################################################################
6814 for-privoxy-version=3.0.11</screen>
6818 After that comes the (optional) alias section. We'll use the example
6819 section from the above <link linkend="aliases">chapter on aliases</link>,
6820 that also explains why and how aliases are used:
6825 ##########################################################################
6827 ##########################################################################
6830 # These aliases just save typing later:
6831 # (Note that some already use other aliases!)
6833 +crunch-all-cookies = +<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> +<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
6834 -crunch-all-cookies = -<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> -<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
6835 +block-as-image = +block{Blocked image.} +handle-as-image
6836 mercy-for-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> -<link linkend="FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</link>
6838 # These aliases define combinations of actions
6839 # that are useful for certain types of sites:
6841 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>
6842 shop = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{all-popups}</link></screen>
6846 The first of our specialized sections is concerned with <quote>fragile</quote>
6847 sites, i.e. sites that require minimum interference, because they are either
6848 very complex or very keen on tracking you (and have mechanisms in place that
6849 make them unusable for people who avoid being tracked). We will simply use
6850 our pre-defined <literal>fragile</literal> alias instead of stating the list
6851 of actions explicitly:
6856 ##########################################################################
6857 # Exceptions for sites that'll break under the default action set:
6858 ##########################################################################
6860 # "Fragile" Use a minimum set of actions for these sites (see alias above):
6863 .office.microsoft.com # surprise, surprise!
6864 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com
6865 mail.google.com</screen>
6869 Shopping sites are not as fragile, but they typically
6870 require cookies to log in, and pop-up windows for shopping
6871 carts or item details. Again, we'll use a pre-defined alias:
6880 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
6882 .scan.co.uk</screen>
6886 The <literal><link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link></literal>
6887 action, which may have been enabled in <filename>match-all.action</filename>,
6888 breaks some sites. So disable it for popular sites where we know it misbehaves:
6893 { -<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link> }
6897 .altavista.com/.*(like|url|link):http
6898 .altavista.com/trans.*urltext=http
6899 .nytimes.com</screen>
6903 It is important that <application>Privoxy</application> knows which
6904 URLs belong to images, so that <emphasis>if</emphasis> they are to
6905 be blocked, a substitute image can be sent, rather than an HTML page.
6906 Contacting the remote site to find out is not an option, since it
6907 would destroy the loading time advantage of banner blocking, and it
6908 would feed the advertisers information about you. We can mark any
6909 URL as an image with the <literal><link
6910 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> action,
6911 and marking all URLs that end in a known image file extension is a
6917 ##########################################################################
6919 ##########################################################################
6921 # Define which file types will be treated as images, in case they get
6922 # blocked further down this file:
6924 { +<link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">handle-as-image</link> }
6925 /.*\.(gif|jpe?g|png|bmp|ico)$</screen>
6929 And then there are known banner sources. They often use scripts to
6930 generate the banners, so it won't be visible from the URL that the
6931 request is for an image. Hence we block them <emphasis>and</emphasis>
6932 mark them as images in one go, with the help of our
6933 <literal>+block-as-image</literal> alias defined above. (We could of
6934 course just as well use <literal>+<link linkend="block">block</link>
6935 +<link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> here.)
6936 Remember that the type of the replacement image is chosen by the
6937 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>
6938 action. Since all URLs have matched the default section with its
6939 <literal>+<link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link>{pattern}</literal>
6940 action before, it still applies and needn't be repeated:
6945 # Known ad generators:
6950 .ad.*.doubleclick.net
6951 .a.yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$
6952 .a[0-9].yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$
6958 One of the most important jobs of <application>Privoxy</application>
6959 is to block banners. Many of these can be <quote>blocked</quote>
6960 by the <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link>{banners-by-size}</literal>
6961 action, which we enabled above, and which deletes the references to banner
6962 images from the pages while they are loaded, so the browser doesn't request
6963 them anymore, and hence they don't need to be blocked here. But this naturally
6964 doesn't catch all banners, and some people choose not to use filters, so we
6965 need a comprehensive list of patterns for banner URLs here, and apply the
6966 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action to them.
6969 First comes many generic patterns, which do most of the work, by
6970 matching typical domain and path name components of banners. Then comes
6971 a list of individual patterns for specific sites, which is omitted here
6972 to keep the example short:
6977 ##########################################################################
6978 # Block these fine banners:
6979 ##########################################################################
6980 { <link linkend="BLOCK">+block{Banner ads.}</link> }
6988 /.*count(er)?\.(pl|cgi|exe|dll|asp|php[34]?)
6989 /(?:.*/)?(publicite|werbung|rekla(ma|me|am)|annonse|maino(kset|nta|s)?)/
6991 # Site-specific patterns (abbreviated):
6993 .hitbox.com</screen>
6997 It's quite remarkable how many advertisers actually call their banner
6998 servers ads.<replaceable>company</replaceable>.com, or call the directory
6999 in which the banners are stored simply <quote>banners</quote>. So the above
7000 generic patterns are surprisingly effective.
7003 But being very generic, they necessarily also catch URLs that we don't want
7004 to block. The pattern <literal>.*ads.</literal> e.g. catches
7005 <quote>nasty-<emphasis>ads</emphasis>.nasty-corp.com</quote> as intended,
7006 but also <quote>downlo<emphasis>ads</emphasis>.sourcefroge.net</quote> or
7007 <quote><emphasis>ads</emphasis>l.some-provider.net.</quote> So here come some
7008 well-known exceptions to the <literal>+<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal>
7012 Note that these are exceptions to exceptions from the default! Consider the URL
7013 <quote>downloads.sourcefroge.net</quote>: Initially, all actions are deactivated,
7014 so it wouldn't get blocked. Then comes the defaults section, which matches the
7015 URL, but just deactivates the <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal>
7016 action once again. Then it matches <literal>.*ads.</literal>, an exception to the
7017 general non-blocking policy, and suddenly
7018 <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">+block</link></literal> applies. And now, it'll match
7019 <literal>.*loads.</literal>, where <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">-block</link></literal>
7020 applies, so (unless it matches <emphasis>again</emphasis> further down) it ends up
7021 with no <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal> action applying.
7026 ##########################################################################
7027 # Save some innocent victims of the above generic block patterns:
7028 ##########################################################################
7032 { -<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> }
7033 adv[io]*. # (for advogato.org and advice.*)
7034 adsl. # (has nothing to do with ads)
7035 adobe. # (has nothing to do with ads either)
7036 ad[ud]*. # (adult.* and add.*)
7037 .edu # (universities don't host banners (yet!))
7038 .*loads. # (downloads, uploads etc)
7046 www.globalintersec.com/adv # (adv = advanced)
7047 www.ugu.com/sui/ugu/adv</screen>
7051 Filtering source code can have nasty side effects,
7052 so make an exception for our friends at sourceforge.net,
7053 and all paths with <quote>cvs</quote> in them. Note that
7054 <literal>-<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link></literal>
7055 disables <emphasis>all</emphasis> filters in one fell swoop!
7060 # Don't filter code!
7062 { -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> }
7067 .sourceforge.net</screen>
7071 The actual <filename>default.action</filename> is of course much more
7072 comprehensive, but we hope this example made clear how it works.
7077 <sect3><title>user.action</title>
7080 So far we are painting with a broad brush by setting general policies,
7081 which would be a reasonable starting point for many people. Now,
7082 you might want to be more specific and have customized rules that
7083 are more suitable to your personal habits and preferences. These would
7084 be for narrowly defined situations like your ISP or your bank, and should
7085 be placed in <filename>user.action</filename>, which is parsed after all other
7086 actions files and hence has the last word, over-riding any previously
7087 defined actions. <filename>user.action</filename> is also a
7088 <emphasis>safe</emphasis> place for your personal settings, since
7089 <filename>default.action</filename> is actively maintained by the
7090 <application>Privoxy</application> developers and you'll probably want
7091 to install updated versions from time to time.
7095 So let's look at a few examples of things that one might typically do in
7096 <filename>user.action</filename>:
7100 <!-- brief sample user.action here -->
7104 # My user.action file. <fred@example.com></screen>
7108 As <link linkend="aliases">aliases</link> are local to the actions
7109 file that they are defined in, you can't use the ones from
7110 <filename>default.action</filename>, unless you repeat them here:
7115 # Aliases are local to the file they are defined in.
7116 # (Re-)define aliases for this file:
7120 # These aliases just save typing later, and the alias names should
7121 # be self explanatory.
7123 +crunch-all-cookies = +crunch-incoming-cookies +crunch-outgoing-cookies
7124 -crunch-all-cookies = -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-cookies
7125 allow-all-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -session-cookies-only
7126 allow-popups = -filter{all-popups}
7127 +block-as-image = +block{Blocked as image.} +handle-as-image
7128 -block-as-image = -block
7130 # These aliases define combinations of actions that are useful for
7131 # certain types of sites:
7133 fragile = -block -crunch-all-cookies -filter -fast-redirects -hide-referrer
7134 shop = -crunch-all-cookies allow-popups
7136 # Allow ads for selected useful free sites:
7138 allow-ads = -block -filter{banners-by-size} -filter{banners-by-link}
7140 # Alias for specific file types that are text, but might have conflicting
7141 # MIME types. We want the browser to force these to be text documents.
7142 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>
7147 Say you have accounts on some sites that you visit regularly, and
7148 you don't want to have to log in manually each time. So you'd like
7149 to allow persistent cookies for these sites. The
7150 <literal>allow-all-cookies</literal> alias defined above does exactly
7151 that, i.e. it disables crunching of cookies in any direction, and the
7152 processing of cookies to make them only temporary.
7157 { allow-all-cookies }
7161 .redhat.com</screen>
7165 Your bank is allergic to some filter, but you don't know which, so you disable them all:
7170 { -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> }
7171 .your-home-banking-site.com</screen>
7175 Some file types you may not want to filter for various reasons:
7180 # Technical documentation is likely to contain strings that might
7181 # erroneously get altered by the JavaScript-oriented filters:
7186 # And this stupid host sends streaming video with a wrong MIME type,
7187 # so that Privoxy thinks it is getting HTML and starts filtering:
7189 stupid-server.example.com/</screen>
7193 Example of a simple <link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> action. Say you've
7194 seen an ad on your favourite page on example.com that you want to get rid of.
7195 You have right-clicked the image, selected <quote>copy image location</quote>
7196 and pasted the URL below while removing the leading http://, into a
7197 <literal>{ +block{} }</literal> section. Note that <literal>{ +handle-as-image
7198 }</literal> need not be specified, since all URLs ending in
7199 <literal>.gif</literal> will be tagged as images by the general rules as set
7200 in default.action anyway:
7205 { +<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link>{Nasty ads.} }
7206 www.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor\.gif
7207 another.example.net/more/junk/here/</screen>
7211 The URLs of dynamically generated banners, especially from large banner
7212 farms, often don't use the well-known image file name extensions, which
7213 makes it impossible for <application>Privoxy</application> to guess
7214 the file type just by looking at the URL.
7215 You can use the <literal>+block-as-image</literal> alias defined above for
7217 Note that objects which match this rule but then turn out NOT to be an
7218 image are typically rendered as a <quote>broken image</quote> icon by the
7219 browser. Use cautiously.
7228 ar.atwola.com/</screen>
7232 Now you noticed that the default configuration breaks Forbes Magazine,
7233 but you were too lazy to find out which action is the culprit, and you
7234 were again too lazy to give <link linkend="contact">feedback</link>, so
7235 you just used the <literal>fragile</literal> alias on the site, and
7236 -- <emphasis>whoa!</emphasis> -- it worked. The <literal>fragile</literal>
7237 aliases disables those actions that are most likely to break a site. Also,
7238 good for testing purposes to see if it is <application>Privoxy</application>
7239 that is causing the problem or not. We later find other regular sites
7240 that misbehave, and add those to our personalized list of troublemakers:
7248 .mybank.com</screen>
7252 You like the <quote>fun</quote> text replacements in <filename>default.filter</filename>,
7253 but it is disabled in the distributed actions file.
7254 So you'd like to turn it on in your private,
7255 update-safe config, once and for all:
7260 { +<link linkend="filter-fun">filter{fun}</link> }
7261 / # For ALL sites!</screen>
7265 Note that the above is not really a good idea: There are exceptions
7266 to the filters in <filename>default.action</filename> for things that
7267 really shouldn't be filtered, like code on CVS->Web interfaces. Since
7268 <filename>user.action</filename> has the last word, these exceptions
7269 won't be valid for the <quote>fun</quote> filtering specified here.
7273 You might also worry about how your favourite free websites are
7274 funded, and find that they rely on displaying banner advertisements
7275 to survive. So you might want to specifically allow banners for those
7276 sites that you feel provide value to you:
7288 Note that <literal>allow-ads</literal> has been aliased to
7289 <literal>-<link linkend="block">block</link></literal>,
7290 <literal>-<link linkend="filter-banners-by-size">filter{banners-by-size}</link></literal>, and
7291 <literal>-<link linkend="filter-banners-by-link">filter{banners-by-link}</link></literal> above.
7295 Invoke another alias here to force an over-ride of the MIME type <literal>
7296 application/x-sh</literal> which typically would open a download type
7297 dialog. In my case, I want to look at the shell script, and then I can save
7298 it should I choose to.
7308 <filename>user.action</filename> is generally the best place to define
7309 exceptions and additions to the default policies of
7310 <filename>default.action</filename>. Some actions are safe to have their
7311 default policies set here though. So let's set a default policy to have a
7312 <quote>blank</quote> image as opposed to the checkerboard pattern for
7313 <emphasis>ALL</emphasis> sites. <quote>/</quote> of course matches all URL
7319 { +<link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker{blank}</link> }
7320 / # ALL sites</screen>
7326 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7330 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7332 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
7334 <sect1 id="filter-file">
7335 <title>Filter Files</title>
7338 On-the-fly text substitutions need
7339 to be defined in a <quote>filter file</quote>. Once defined, they
7340 can then be invoked as an <quote>action</quote>.
7344 &my-app; supports three different filter actions:
7345 <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> to
7346 rewrite the content that is send to the client,
7347 <literal><link linkend="client-header-filter">client-header-filter</link></literal>
7348 to rewrite headers that are send by the client, and
7349 <literal><link linkend="server-header-filter">server-header-filter</link></literal>
7350 to rewrite headers that are send by the server.
7354 &my-app; also supports two tagger actions:
7355 <literal><link linkend="client-header-tagger">client-header-tagger</link></literal>
7357 <literal><link linkend="server-header-tagger">server-header-tagger</link></literal>.
7358 Taggers and filters use the same syntax in the filter files, the difference
7359 is that taggers don't modify the text they are filtering, but use a rewritten
7360 version of the filtered text as tag. The tags can then be used to change the
7361 applying actions through sections with <link linkend="tag-pattern">tag-patterns</link>.
7366 Multiple filter files can be defined through the <literal> <link
7367 linkend="filterfile">filterfile</link></literal> config directive. The filters
7368 as supplied by the developers are located in
7369 <filename>default.filter</filename>. It is recommended that any locally
7370 defined or modified filters go in a separately defined file such as
7371 <filename>user.filter</filename>.
7375 Common tasks for content filters are to eliminate common annoyances in
7376 HTML and JavaScript, such as pop-up windows,
7377 exit consoles, crippled windows without navigation tools, the
7378 infamous <BLINK> tag etc, to suppress images with certain
7379 width and height attributes (standard banner sizes or web-bugs),
7380 or just to have fun.
7384 Enabled content filters are applied to any content whose
7385 <quote>Content Type</quote> header is recognised as a sign
7386 of text-based content, with the exception of <literal>text/plain</literal>.
7387 Use the <link linkend="FORCE-TEXT-MODE">force-text-mode</link> action
7388 to also filter other content.
7392 Substitutions are made at the source level, so if you want to <quote>roll
7393 your own</quote> filters, you should first be familiar with HTML syntax,
7394 and, of course, regular expressions.
7398 Just like the <link linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>, the
7399 filter file is organized in sections, which are called <emphasis>filters</emphasis>
7400 here. Each filter consists of a heading line, that starts with one of the
7401 <emphasis>keywords</emphasis> <literal>FILTER:</literal>,
7402 <literal>CLIENT-HEADER-FILTER:</literal> or <literal>SERVER-HEADER-FILTER:</literal>
7403 followed by the filter's <emphasis>name</emphasis>, and a short (one line)
7404 <emphasis>description</emphasis> of what it does. Below that line
7405 come the <emphasis>jobs</emphasis>, i.e. lines that define the actual
7406 text substitutions. By convention, the name of a filter
7407 should describe what the filter <emphasis>eliminates</emphasis>. The
7408 comment is used in the <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">web-based
7409 user interface</ulink>.
7413 Once a filter called <replaceable>name</replaceable> has been defined
7414 in the filter file, it can be invoked by using an action of the form
7415 +<literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link>{<replaceable>name</replaceable>}</literal>
7416 in any <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link>.
7420 Filter definitions start with a header line that contains the filter
7421 type, the filter name and the filter description.
7422 A content filter header line for a filter called <quote>foo</quote> could look
7427 <screen>FILTER: foo Replace all "foo" with "bar"</screen>
7431 Below that line, and up to the next header line, come the jobs that
7432 define what text replacements the filter executes. They are specified
7433 in a syntax that imitates <ulink url="http://www.perl.org/">Perl</ulink>'s
7434 <literal>s///</literal> operator. If you are familiar with Perl, you
7435 will find this to be quite intuitive, and may want to look at the
7436 PCRS documentation for the subtle differences to Perl behaviour. Most
7437 notably, the non-standard option letter <literal>U</literal> is supported,
7438 which turns the default to ungreedy matching.
7443 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
7444 Expressions</quote></ulink>, you might want to take a look at
7445 the <link linkend="regex">Appendix on regular expressions</link>, and
7446 see the <ulink url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html">Perl
7448 <ulink url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlop.html">the
7449 <literal>s///</literal> operator's syntax</ulink> and <ulink
7450 url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html">Perl-style regular
7451 expressions</ulink> in general.
7452 The below examples might also help to get you started.
7456 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
7458 <sect2><title>Filter File Tutorial</title>
7460 Now, let's complete our <quote>foo</quote> content filter. We have already defined
7461 the heading, but the jobs are still missing. Since all it does is to replace
7462 <quote>foo</quote> with <quote>bar</quote>, there is only one (trivial) job
7467 <screen>s/foo/bar/</screen>
7471 But wait! Didn't the comment say that <emphasis>all</emphasis> occurrences
7472 of <quote>foo</quote> should be replaced? Our current job will only take
7473 care of the first <quote>foo</quote> on each page. For global substitution,
7474 we'll need to add the <literal>g</literal> option:
7478 <screen>s/foo/bar/g</screen>
7482 Our complete filter now looks like this:
7485 <screen>FILTER: foo Replace all "foo" with "bar"
7486 s/foo/bar/g</screen>
7490 Let's look at some real filters for more interesting examples. Here you see
7491 a filter that protects against some common annoyances that arise from JavaScript
7492 abuse. Let's look at its jobs one after the other:
7498 FILTER: js-annoyances Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse
7500 # Get rid of JavaScript referrer tracking. Test page: http://www.randomoddness.com/untitled.htm
7502 s|(<script.*)document\.referrer(.*</script>)|$1"Not Your Business!"$2|Usg</screen>
7506 Following the header line and a comment, you see the job. Note that it uses
7507 <literal>|</literal> as the delimiter instead of <literal>/</literal>, because
7508 the pattern contains a forward slash, which would otherwise have to be escaped
7509 by a backslash (<literal>\</literal>).
7513 Now, let's examine the pattern: it starts with the text <literal><script.*</literal>
7514 enclosed in parentheses. Since the dot matches any character, and <literal>*</literal>
7515 means: <quote>Match an arbitrary number of the element left of myself</quote>, this
7516 matches <quote><script</quote>, followed by <emphasis>any</emphasis> text, i.e.
7517 it matches the whole page, from the start of the first <script> tag.
7521 That's more than we want, but the pattern continues: <literal>document\.referrer</literal>
7522 matches only the exact string <quote>document.referrer</quote>. The dot needed to
7523 be <emphasis>escaped</emphasis>, i.e. preceded by a backslash, to take away its
7524 special meaning as a joker, and make it just a regular dot. So far, the meaning is:
7525 Match from the start of the first <script> tag in a the page, up to, and including,
7526 the text <quote>document.referrer</quote>, if <emphasis>both</emphasis> are present
7527 in the page (and appear in that order).
7531 But there's still more pattern to go. The next element, again enclosed in parentheses,
7532 is <literal>.*</script></literal>. You already know what <literal>.*</literal>
7533 means, so the whole pattern translates to: Match from the start of the first <script>
7534 tag in a page to the end of the last <script> tag, provided that the text
7535 <quote>document.referrer</quote> appears somewhere in between.
7539 This is still not the whole story, since we have ignored the options and the parentheses:
7540 The portions of the page matched by sub-patterns that are enclosed in parentheses, will be
7541 remembered and be available through the variables <literal>$1, $2, ...</literal> in
7542 the substitute. The <literal>U</literal> option switches to ungreedy matching, which means
7543 that the first <literal>.*</literal> in the pattern will only <quote>eat up</quote> all
7544 text in between <quote><script</quote> and the <emphasis>first</emphasis> occurrence
7545 of <quote>document.referrer</quote>, and that the second <literal>.*</literal> will
7546 only span the text up to the <emphasis>first</emphasis> <quote></script></quote>
7547 tag. Furthermore, the <literal>s</literal> option says that the match may span
7548 multiple lines in the page, and the <literal>g</literal> option again means that the
7549 substitution is global.
7553 So, to summarize, the pattern means: Match all scripts that contain the text
7554 <quote>document.referrer</quote>. Remember the parts of the script from
7555 (and including) the start tag up to (and excluding) the string
7556 <quote>document.referrer</quote> as <literal>$1</literal>, and the part following
7557 that string, up to and including the closing tag, as <literal>$2</literal>.
7561 Now the pattern is deciphered, but wasn't this about substituting things? So
7562 lets look at the substitute: <literal>$1"Not Your Business!"$2</literal> is
7563 easy to read: The text remembered as <literal>$1</literal>, followed by
7564 <literal>"Not Your Business!"</literal> (<emphasis>including</emphasis>
7565 the quotation marks!), followed by the text remembered as <literal>$2</literal>.
7566 This produces an exact copy of the original string, with the middle part
7567 (the <quote>document.referrer</quote>) replaced by <literal>"Not Your
7568 Business!"</literal>.
7572 The whole job now reads: Replace <quote>document.referrer</quote> by
7573 <literal>"Not Your Business!"</literal> wherever it appears inside a
7574 <script> tag. Note that this job won't break JavaScript syntax,
7575 since both the original and the replacement are syntactically valid
7576 string objects. The script just won't have access to the referrer
7577 information anymore.
7581 We'll show you two other jobs from the JavaScript taming department, but
7582 this time only point out the constructs of special interest:
7587 # The status bar is for displaying link targets, not pointless blahblah
7589 s/window\.status\s*=\s*(['"]).*?\1/dUmMy=1/ig</screen>
7593 <literal>\s</literal> stands for whitespace characters (space, tab, newline,
7594 carriage return, form feed), so that <literal>\s*</literal> means: <quote>zero
7595 or more whitespace</quote>. The <literal>?</literal> in <literal>.*?</literal>
7596 makes this matching of arbitrary text ungreedy. (Note that the <literal>U</literal>
7597 option is not set). The <literal>['"]</literal> construct means: <quote>a single
7598 <emphasis>or</emphasis> a double quote</quote>. Finally, <literal>\1</literal> is
7599 a back-reference to the first parenthesis just like <literal>$1</literal> above,
7600 with the difference that in the <emphasis>pattern</emphasis>, a backslash indicates
7601 a back-reference, whereas in the <emphasis>substitute</emphasis>, it's the dollar.
7605 So what does this job do? It replaces assignments of single- or double-quoted
7606 strings to the <quote>window.status</quote> object with a dummy assignment
7607 (using a variable name that is hopefully odd enough not to conflict with
7608 real variables in scripts). Thus, it catches many cases where e.g. pointless
7609 descriptions are displayed in the status bar instead of the link target when
7610 you move your mouse over links.
7615 # Kill OnUnload popups. Yummy. Test: http://www.zdnet.com/zdsubs/yahoo/tree/yfs.html
7617 s/(<body [^>]*)onunload(.*>)/$1never$2/iU</screen>
7622 <ulink url="http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-DOM-Level-2-Events-20001113/events.html#Events-eventgroupings-htmlevents">OnUnload
7623 event binding</ulink> in the HTML DOM was a <emphasis>CRIME</emphasis>.
7624 When I close a browser window, I want it to close and die. Basta.
7625 This job replaces the <quote>onunload</quote> attribute in
7626 <quote><body></quote> tags with the dummy word <literal>never</literal>.
7627 Note that the <literal>i</literal> option makes the pattern matching
7628 case-insensitive. Also note that ungreedy matching alone doesn't always guarantee
7629 a minimal match: In the first parenthesis, we had to use <literal>[^>]*</literal>
7630 instead of <literal>.*</literal> to prevent the match from exceeding the
7631 <body> tag if it doesn't contain <quote>OnUnload</quote>, but the page's
7636 The last example is from the fun department:
7641 FILTER: fun Fun text replacements
7643 # Spice the daily news:
7645 s/microsoft(?!\.com)/MicroSuck/ig</screen>
7649 Note the <literal>(?!\.com)</literal> part (a so-called negative lookahead)
7650 in the job's pattern, which means: Don't match, if the string
7651 <quote>.com</quote> appears directly following <quote>microsoft</quote>
7652 in the page. This prevents links to microsoft.com from being trashed, while
7653 still replacing the word everywhere else.
7658 # Buzzword Bingo (example for extended regex syntax)
7660 s* industry[ -]leading \
7662 | customer[ -]focused \
7663 | market[ -]driven \
7664 | award[ -]winning # Comments are OK, too! \
7665 | high[ -]performance \
7666 | solutions[ -]based \
7670 *<font color="red"><b>BINGO!</b></font> \
7675 The <literal>x</literal> option in this job turns on extended syntax, and allows for
7676 e.g. the liberal use of (non-interpreted!) whitespace for nicer formatting.
7684 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
7686 <sect2 id="predefined-filters"><title>The Pre-defined Filters</title>
7690 Note each filter is also listed in the +filter action section above. Please
7691 keep these listings in sync.
7696 The distribution <filename>default.filter</filename> file contains a selection of
7697 pre-defined filters for your convenience:
7702 <term><emphasis>js-annoyances</emphasis></term>
7705 The purpose of this filter is to get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse.
7710 replaces JavaScript references to the browser's referrer information
7711 with the string "Not Your Business!". This compliments the <literal><link
7712 linkend="hide-referrer">hide-referrer</link></literal> action on the content level.
7717 removes the bindings to the DOM's
7718 <ulink url="http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-DOM-Level-2-Events-20001113/events.html#Events-eventgroupings-htmlevents">unload
7719 event</ulink> which we feel has no right to exist and is responsible for most <quote>exit consoles</quote>, i.e.
7720 nasty windows that pop up when you close another one.
7725 removes code that causes new windows to be opened with undesired properties, such as being
7726 full-screen, non-resizeable, without location, status or menu bar etc.
7732 Use with caution. This is an aggressive filter, and can break sites that
7733 rely heavily on JavaScript.
7739 <term><emphasis>js-events</emphasis></term>
7742 This is a very radical measure. It removes virtually all JavaScript event bindings, which
7743 means that scripts can not react to user actions such as mouse movements or clicks, window
7744 resizing etc, anymore. Use with caution!
7747 We <emphasis>strongly discourage</emphasis> using this filter as a default since it breaks
7748 many legitimate scripts. It is meant for use only on extra-nasty sites (should you really
7755 <term><emphasis>html-annoyances</emphasis></term>
7758 This filter will undo many common instances of HTML based abuse.
7761 The <literal>BLINK</literal> and <literal>MARQUEE</literal> tags
7762 are neutralized (yeah baby!), and browser windows will be created as
7763 resizeable (as of course they should be!), and will have location,
7764 scroll and menu bars -- even if specified otherwise.
7770 <term><emphasis>content-cookies</emphasis></term>
7773 Most cookies are set in the HTTP dialog, where they can be intercepted
7775 <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal>
7776 and <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>
7777 actions. But web sites increasingly make use of HTML meta tags and JavaScript
7778 to sneak cookies to the browser on the content level.
7781 This filter disables most HTML and JavaScript code that reads or sets
7782 cookies. It cannot detect all clever uses of these types of code, so it
7783 should not be relied on as an absolute fix. Use it wherever you would also
7784 use the cookie crunch actions.
7790 <term><emphasis>refresh tags</emphasis></term>
7793 Disable any refresh tags if the interval is greater than nine seconds (so
7794 that redirections done via refresh tags are not destroyed). This is useful
7795 for dial-on-demand setups, or for those who find this HTML feature
7802 <term><emphasis>unsolicited-popups</emphasis></term>
7805 This filter attempts to prevent only <quote>unsolicited</quote> pop-up
7806 windows from opening, yet still allow pop-up windows that the user
7807 has explicitly chosen to open. It was added in version 3.0.1,
7808 as an improvement over earlier such filters.
7811 Technical note: The filter works by redefining the window.open JavaScript
7812 function to a dummy function, <literal>PrivoxyWindowOpen()</literal>,
7813 during the loading and rendering phase of each HTML page access, and
7814 restoring the function afterward.
7817 This is recommended only for browsers that cannot perform this function
7818 reliably themselves. And be aware that some sites require such windows
7819 in order to function normally. Use with caution.
7825 <term><emphasis>all-popups</emphasis></term>
7828 Attempt to prevent <emphasis>all</emphasis> pop-up windows from opening.
7829 Note this should be used with even more discretion than the above, since
7830 it is more likely to break some sites that require pop-ups for normal
7831 usage. Use with caution.
7837 <term><emphasis>img-reorder</emphasis></term>
7840 This is a helper filter that has no value if used alone. It makes the
7841 <literal>banners-by-size</literal> and <literal>banners-by-link</literal>
7842 (see below) filters more effective and should be enabled together with them.
7848 <term><emphasis>banners-by-size</emphasis></term>
7851 This filter removes image tags purely based on what size they are. Fortunately
7852 for us, many ads and banner images tend to conform to certain standardized
7853 sizes, which makes this filter quite effective for ad stripping purposes.
7856 Occasionally this filter will cause false positives on images that are not ads,
7857 but just happen to be of one of the standard banner sizes.
7860 Recommended only for those who require extreme ad blocking. The default
7861 block rules should catch 95+% of all ads <emphasis>without</emphasis> this filter enabled.
7867 <term><emphasis>banners-by-link</emphasis></term>
7870 This is an experimental filter that attempts to kill any banners if
7871 their URLs seem to point to known or suspected click trackers. It is currently
7872 not of much value and is not recommended for use by default.
7878 <term><emphasis>webbugs</emphasis></term>
7881 Webbugs are small, invisible images (technically 1X1 GIF images), that
7882 are used to track users across websites, and collect information on them.
7883 As an HTML page is loaded by the browser, an embedded image tag causes the
7884 browser to contact a third-party site, disclosing the tracking information
7885 through the requested URL and/or cookies for that third-party domain, without
7886 the user ever becoming aware of the interaction with the third-party site.
7887 HTML-ized spam also uses a similar technique to verify email addresses.
7890 This filter removes the HTML code that loads such <quote>webbugs</quote>.
7896 <term><emphasis>tiny-textforms</emphasis></term>
7899 A rather special-purpose filter that can be used to enlarge textareas (those
7900 multi-line text boxes in web forms) and turn off hard word wrap in them.
7901 It was written for the sourceforge.net tracker system where such boxes are
7902 a nuisance, but it can be handy on other sites, too.
7905 It is not recommended to use this filter as a default.
7911 <term><emphasis>jumping-windows</emphasis></term>
7914 Many consider windows that move, or resize themselves to be abusive. This filter
7915 neutralizes the related JavaScript code. Note that some sites might not display
7916 or behave as intended when using this filter. Use with caution.
7922 <term><emphasis>frameset-borders</emphasis></term>
7925 Some web designers seem to assume that everyone in the world will view their
7926 web sites using the same browser brand and version, screen resolution etc,
7927 because only that assumption could explain why they'd use static frame sizes,
7928 yet prevent their frames from being resized by the user, should they be too
7929 small to show their whole content.
7932 This filter removes the related HTML code. It should only be applied to sites
7939 <term><emphasis>demoronizer</emphasis></term>
7942 Many Microsoft products that generate HTML use non-standard extensions (read:
7943 violations) of the ISO 8859-1 aka Latin-1 character set. This can cause those
7944 HTML documents to display with errors on standard-compliant platforms.
7947 This filter translates the MS-only characters into Latin-1 equivalents.
7948 It is not necessary when using MS products, and will cause corruption of
7949 all documents that use 8-bit character sets other than Latin-1. It's mostly
7950 worthwhile for Europeans on non-MS platforms, if weird garbage characters
7951 sometimes appear on some pages, or user agents that don't correct for this on
7954 My version of Mozilla (ancient) shows litte square boxes for quote
7955 characters, and apostrophes on moronized pages. So many pages have this, I
7956 can read them fine now. HB 08/27/06
7963 <term><emphasis>shockwave-flash</emphasis></term>
7966 A filter for shockwave haters. As the name suggests, this filter strips code
7967 out of web pages that is used to embed shockwave flash objects.
7975 <term><emphasis>quicktime-kioskmode</emphasis></term>
7978 Change HTML code that embeds Quicktime objects so that kioskmode, which
7979 prevents saving, is disabled.
7985 <term><emphasis>fun</emphasis></term>
7988 Text replacements for subversive browsing fun. Make fun of your favorite
7989 Monopolist or play buzzword bingo.
7995 <term><emphasis>crude-parental</emphasis></term>
7998 A demonstration-only filter that shows how <application>Privoxy</application>
7999 can be used to delete web content on a keyword basis.
8005 <term><emphasis>ie-exploits</emphasis></term>
8008 An experimental collection of text replacements to disable malicious HTML and JavaScript
8009 code that exploits known security holes in Internet Explorer.
8012 Presently, it only protects against Nimda and a cross-site scripting bug, and
8013 would need active maintenance to provide more substantial protection.
8019 <term><emphasis>site-specifics</emphasis></term>
8022 Some web sites have very specific problems, the cure for which doesn't apply
8023 anywhere else, or could even cause damage on other sites.
8026 This is a collection of such site-specific cures which should only be applied
8027 to the sites they were intended for, which is what the supplied
8028 <filename>default.action</filename> file does. Users shouldn't need to change
8029 anything regarding this filter.
8035 <term><emphasis>google</emphasis></term>
8038 A CSS based block for Google text ads. Also removes a width limitation
8039 and the toolbar advertisement.
8045 <term><emphasis>yahoo</emphasis></term>
8048 Another CSS based block, this time for Yahoo text ads. And removes
8049 a width limitation as well.
8055 <term><emphasis>msn</emphasis></term>
8058 Another CSS based block, this time for MSN text ads. And removes
8059 tracking URLs, as well as a width limitation.
8065 <term><emphasis>blogspot</emphasis></term>
8068 Cleans up some Blogspot blogs. Read the fine print before using this one!
8071 This filter also intentionally removes some navigation stuff and sets the
8072 page width to 100%. As a result, some rounded <quote>corners</quote> would
8073 appear to early or not at all and as fixing this would require a browser
8074 that understands background-size (CSS3), they are removed instead.
8080 <term><emphasis>xml-to-html</emphasis></term>
8083 Server-header filter to change the Content-Type from xml to html.
8089 <term><emphasis>html-to-xml</emphasis></term>
8092 Server-header filter to change the Content-Type from html to xml.
8098 <term><emphasis>no-ping</emphasis></term>
8101 Removes the non-standard <literal>ping</literal> attribute from
8102 anchor and area HTML tags.
8108 <term><emphasis>hide-tor-exit-notation</emphasis></term>
8111 Client-header filter to remove the <command>Tor</command> exit node notation
8112 found in Host and Referer headers.
8115 If &my-app; and <command>Tor</command> are chained and &my-app;
8116 is configured to use socks4a, one can use <quote>http://www.example.org.foobar.exit/</quote>
8117 to access the host <quote>www.example.org</quote> through the
8118 <command>Tor</command> exit node <quote>foobar</quote>.
8121 As the HTTP client isn't aware of this notation, it treats the
8122 whole string <quote>www.example.org.foobar.exit</quote> as host and uses it
8123 for the <quote>Host</quote> and <quote>Referer</quote> headers. From the
8124 server's point of view the resulting headers are invalid and can cause problems.
8127 An invalid <quote>Referer</quote> header can trigger <quote>hot-linking</quote>
8128 protections, an invalid <quote>Host</quote> header will make it impossible for
8129 the server to find the right vhost (several domains hosted on the same IP address).
8132 This client-header filter removes the <quote>foo.exit</quote> part in those headers
8133 to prevent the mentioned problems. Note that it only modifies
8134 the HTTP headers, it doesn't make it impossible for the server
8135 to detect your <command>Tor</command> exit node based on the IP address
8136 the request is coming from.
8143 <term><emphasis> </emphasis></term>
8157 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
8161 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
8163 <sect1 id="templates">
8164 <title>Privoxy's Template Files</title>
8166 All <application>Privoxy</application> built-in pages, i.e. error pages such as the
8167 <ulink url="http://show-the-404-error.page"><quote>404 - No Such Domain</quote>
8168 error page</ulink>, the <ulink
8169 url="http://ads.bannerserver.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor.html"><quote>BLOCKED</quote>
8171 and all pages of its <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">web-based
8172 user interface</ulink>, are generated from <emphasis>templates</emphasis>.
8173 (<application>Privoxy</application> must be running for the above links to work as
8178 These templates are stored in a subdirectory of the <link linkend="confdir">configuration
8179 directory</link> called <filename>templates</filename>. On Unixish platforms,
8181 <ulink url="file:///etc/privoxy/templates/"><filename>/etc/privoxy/templates/</filename></ulink>.
8185 The templates are basically normal HTML files, but with place-holders (called symbols
8186 or exports), which <application>Privoxy</application> fills at run time. It
8187 is possible to edit the templates with a normal text editor, should you want
8188 to customize them. (<emphasis>Not recommended for the casual
8189 user</emphasis>). Should you create your own custom templates, you should use
8190 the <filename>config</filename> setting <link linkend="templdir">templdir</link>
8191 to specify an alternate location, so your templates do not get overwritten
8195 Note that just like in configuration files, lines starting
8196 with <literal>#</literal> are ignored when the templates are filled in.
8200 The place-holders are of the form <literal>@name@</literal>, and you will
8201 find a list of available symbols, which vary from template to template,
8202 in the comments at the start of each file. Note that these comments are not
8203 always accurate, and that it's probably best to look at the existing HTML
8204 code to find out which symbols are supported and what they are filled in with.
8208 A special application of this substitution mechanism is to make whole
8209 blocks of HTML code disappear when a specific symbol is set. We use this
8210 for many purposes, one of them being to include the beta warning in all
8211 our user interface (CGI) pages when <application>Privoxy</application>
8212 is in an alpha or beta development stage:
8217 <!-- @if-unstable-start -->
8219 ... beta warning HTML code goes here ...
8221 <!-- if-unstable-end@ --></screen>
8225 If the "unstable" symbol is set, everything in between and including
8226 <literal>@if-unstable-start</literal> and <literal>if-unstable-end@</literal>
8227 will disappear, leaving nothing but an empty comment:
8231 <screen><!-- --></screen>
8235 There's also an if-then-else construct and an <literal>#include</literal>
8236 mechanism, but you'll sure find out if you are inclined to edit the
8241 All templates refer to a style located at
8242 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/send-stylesheet"><literal>http://config.privoxy.org/send-stylesheet</literal></ulink>.
8243 This is, of course, locally served by <application>Privoxy</application>
8244 and the source for it can be found and edited in the
8245 <filename>cgi-style.css</filename> template.
8250 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
8254 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
8256 <sect1 id="contact"><title>Contacting the Developers, Bug Reporting and Feature
8259 <!-- Include contacting.sgml boilerplate: -->
8261 <!-- end boilerplate -->
8265 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
8268 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
8269 <sect1 id="copyright"><title>Privoxy Copyright, License and History</title>
8271 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
8273 <!-- end copyright -->
8275 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
8276 <sect2><title>License</title>
8277 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
8279 <!-- end copyright -->
8281 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
8284 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
8286 <sect2 id="history"><title>History</title>
8287 <!-- Include history.sgml: -->
8289 <!-- end history -->
8292 <sect2 id="authors"><title>Authors</title>
8293 <!-- Include p-authors.sgml: -->
8295 <!-- end authors -->
8300 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
8303 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
8304 <sect1 id="seealso"><title>See Also</title>
8305 <!-- Include seealso.sgml: -->
8307 <!-- end seealso -->
8312 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
8313 <sect1 id="appendix"><title>Appendix</title>
8316 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
8318 <title>Regular Expressions</title>
8320 <application>Privoxy</application> uses Perl-style <quote>regular
8321 expressions</quote> in its <link linkend="actions-file">actions
8322 files</link> and <link linkend="filter-file">filter file</link>,
8323 through the <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/">PCRE</ulink> and
8326 <ulink url="http://www.oesterhelt.org/pcrs/">PCRS</ulink> libraries.
8328 <application>PCRS</application> libraries.
8332 If you are reading this, you probably don't understand what <quote>regular
8333 expressions</quote> are, or what they can do. So this will be a very brief
8334 introduction only. A full explanation would require a <ulink
8335 url="http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/regex/">book</ulink> ;-)
8339 Regular expressions provide a language to describe patterns that can be
8340 run against strings of characters (letter, numbers, etc), to see if they
8341 match the string or not. The patterns are themselves (sometimes complex)
8342 strings of literal characters, combined with wild-cards, and other special
8343 characters, called meta-characters. The <quote>meta-characters</quote> have
8344 special meanings and are used to build complex patterns to be matched against.
8345 Perl Compatible Regular Expressions are an especially convenient
8346 <quote>dialect</quote> of the regular expression language.
8350 To make a simple analogy, we do something similar when we use wild-card
8351 characters when listing files with the <command>dir</command> command in DOS.
8352 <literal>*.*</literal> matches all filenames. The <quote>special</quote>
8353 character here is the asterisk which matches any and all characters. We can be
8354 more specific and use <literal>?</literal> to match just individual
8355 characters. So <quote>dir file?.text</quote> would match
8356 <quote>file1.txt</quote>, <quote>file2.txt</quote>, etc. We are pattern
8357 matching, using a similar technique to <quote>regular expressions</quote>!
8361 Regular expressions do essentially the same thing, but are much, much more
8362 powerful. There are many more <quote>special characters</quote> and ways of
8363 building complex patterns however. Let's look at a few of the common ones,
8364 and then some examples:
8369 <emphasis>.</emphasis> - Matches any single character, e.g. <quote>a</quote>,
8370 <quote>A</quote>, <quote>4</quote>, <quote>:</quote>, or <quote>@</quote>.
8372 </simplelist></para>
8376 <emphasis>?</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or ONE
8379 </simplelist></para>
8383 <emphasis>+</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ONE or MORE
8386 </simplelist></para>
8390 <emphasis>*</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or MORE
8393 </simplelist></para>
8397 <emphasis>\</emphasis> - The <quote>escape</quote> character denotes that
8398 the following character should be taken literally. This is used where one of the
8399 special characters (e.g. <quote>.</quote>) needs to be taken literally and
8400 not as a special meta-character. Example: <quote>example\.com</quote>, makes
8401 sure the period is recognized only as a period (and not expanded to its
8402 meta-character meaning of any single character).
8404 </simplelist></para>
8408 <emphasis>[ ]</emphasis> - Characters enclosed in brackets will be matched if
8409 any of the enclosed characters are encountered. For instance, <quote>[0-9]</quote>
8410 matches any numeric digit (zero through nine). As an example, we can combine
8411 this with <quote>+</quote> to match any digit one of more times: <quote>[0-9]+</quote>.
8413 </simplelist></para>
8417 <emphasis>( )</emphasis> - parentheses are used to group a sub-expression,
8418 or multiple sub-expressions.
8420 </simplelist></para>
8424 <emphasis>|</emphasis> - The <quote>bar</quote> character works like an
8425 <quote>or</quote> conditional statement. A match is successful if the
8426 sub-expression on either side of <quote>|</quote> matches. As an example:
8427 <quote>/(this|that) example/</quote> uses grouping and the bar character
8428 and would match either <quote>this example</quote> or <quote>that
8429 example</quote>, and nothing else.
8431 </simplelist></para>
8434 These are just some of the ones you are likely to use when matching URLs with
8435 <application>Privoxy</application>, and is a long way from a definitive
8436 list. This is enough to get us started with a few simple examples which may
8437 be more illuminating:
8441 <emphasis><literal>/.*/banners/.*</literal></emphasis> - A simple example
8442 that uses the common combination of <quote>.</quote> and <quote>*</quote> to
8443 denote any character, zero or more times. In other words, any string at all.
8444 So we start with a literal forward slash, then our regular expression pattern
8445 (<quote>.*</quote>) another literal forward slash, the string
8446 <quote>banners</quote>, another forward slash, and lastly another
8447 <quote>.*</quote>. We are building
8448 a directory path here. This will match any file with the path that has a
8449 directory named <quote>banners</quote> in it. The <quote>.*</quote> matches
8450 any characters, and this could conceivably be more forward slashes, so it
8451 might expand into a much longer looking path. For example, this could match:
8452 <quote>/eye/hate/spammers/banners/annoy_me_please.gif</quote>, or just
8453 <quote>/banners/annoying.html</quote>, or almost an infinite number of other
8454 possible combinations, just so it has <quote>banners</quote> in the path
8459 And now something a little more complex:
8463 <emphasis><literal>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))?/</literal></emphasis> -
8464 We have several literal forward slashes again (<quote>/</quote>), so we are
8465 building another expression that is a file path statement. We have another
8466 <quote>.*</quote>, so we are matching against any conceivable sub-path, just so
8467 it matches our expression. The only true literal that <emphasis>must
8468 match</emphasis> our pattern is <application>adv</application>, together with
8469 the forward slashes. What comes after the <quote>adv</quote> string is the
8474 Remember the <quote>?</quote> means the preceding expression (either a
8475 literal character or anything grouped with <quote>(...)</quote> in this case)
8476 can exist or not, since this means either zero or one match. So
8477 <quote>((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))</quote> is optional, as are the
8478 individual sub-expressions: <quote>(er)</quote>,
8479 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, and the <quote>s</quote>. The <quote>|</quote>
8480 means <quote>or</quote>. We have two of those. For instance,
8481 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, can expand to match either <quote>ing</quote>
8482 <emphasis>OR</emphasis> <quote>ements?</quote>. What is being done here, is an
8483 attempt at matching as many variations of <quote>advertisement</quote>, and
8484 similar, as possible. So this would expand to match just <quote>adv</quote>,
8485 or <quote>advert</quote>, or <quote>adverts</quote>, or
8486 <quote>advertising</quote>, or <quote>advertisement</quote>, or
8487 <quote>advertisements</quote>. You get the idea. But it would not match
8488 <quote>advertizements</quote> (with a <quote>z</quote>). We could fix that by
8489 changing our regular expression to:
8490 <quote>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|erti(s|z)(ing|ements?))?/</quote>, which would then match
8495 <emphasis><literal>/.*/advert[0-9]+\.(gif|jpe?g)</literal></emphasis> - Again
8496 another path statement with forward slashes. Anything in the square brackets
8497 <quote>[ ]</quote> can be matched. This is using <quote>0-9</quote> as a
8498 shorthand expression to mean any digit one through nine. It is the same as
8499 saying <quote>0123456789</quote>. So any digit matches. The <quote>+</quote>
8500 means one or more of the preceding expression must be included. The preceding
8501 expression here is what is in the square brackets -- in this case, any digit
8502 one through nine. Then, at the end, we have a grouping: <quote>(gif|jpe?g)</quote>.
8503 This includes a <quote>|</quote>, so this needs to match the expression on
8504 either side of that bar character also. A simple <quote>gif</quote> on one side, and the other
8505 side will in turn match either <quote>jpeg</quote> or <quote>jpg</quote>,
8506 since the <quote>?</quote> means the letter <quote>e</quote> is optional and
8507 can be matched once or not at all. So we are building an expression here to
8508 match image GIF or JPEG type image file. It must include the literal
8509 string <quote>advert</quote>, then one or more digits, and a <quote>.</quote>
8510 (which is now a literal, and not a special character, since it is escaped
8511 with <quote>\</quote>), and lastly either <quote>gif</quote>, or
8512 <quote>jpeg</quote>, or <quote>jpg</quote>. Some possible matches would
8513 include: <quote>//advert1.jpg</quote>,
8514 <quote>/nasty/ads/advert1234.gif</quote>,
8515 <quote>/banners/from/hell/advert99.jpg</quote>. It would not match
8516 <quote>advert1.gif</quote> (no leading slash), or
8517 <quote>/adverts232.jpg</quote> (the expression does not include an
8518 <quote>s</quote>), or <quote>/advert1.jsp</quote> (<quote>jsp</quote> is not
8519 in the expression anywhere).
8523 We are barely scratching the surface of regular expressions here so that you
8524 can understand the default <application>Privoxy</application>
8525 configuration files, and maybe use this knowledge to customize your own
8526 installation. There is much, much more that can be done with regular
8527 expressions. Now that you know enough to get started, you can learn more on
8532 More reading on Perl Compatible Regular expressions:
8533 <ulink url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html">http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html</ulink>
8537 For information on regular expression based substitutions and their applications
8538 in filters, please see the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file tutorial</link>
8543 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
8546 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
8548 <title>Privoxy's Internal Pages</title>
8551 Since <application>Privoxy</application> proxies each requested
8552 web page, it is easy for <application>Privoxy</application> to
8553 trap certain special URLs. In this way, we can talk directly to
8554 <application>Privoxy</application>, and see how it is
8555 configured, see how our rules are being applied, change these
8556 rules and other configuration options, and even turn
8557 <application>Privoxy's</application> filtering off, all with
8563 The URLs listed below are the special ones that allow direct access
8564 to <application>Privoxy</application>. Of course,
8565 <application>Privoxy</application> must be running to access these. If
8566 not, you will get a friendly error message. Internet access is not
8579 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
8583 There is a shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink> (But it
8584 doesn't provide a fall-back to a real page, in case the request is not
8585 sent through <application>Privoxy</application>)
8591 Show information about the current configuration, including viewing and
8592 editing of actions files:
8596 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
8603 Show the source code version numbers:
8607 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-version">http://config.privoxy.org/show-version</ulink>
8614 Show the browser's request headers:
8618 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request">http://config.privoxy.org/show-request</ulink>
8625 Show which actions apply to a URL and why:
8629 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
8636 Toggle Privoxy on or off. This feature can be turned off/on in the main
8637 <filename>config</filename> file. When toggled <quote>off</quote>, <quote>Privoxy</quote>
8638 continues to run, but only as a pass-through proxy, with no actions taking
8643 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</ulink>
8647 Short cuts. Turn off, then on:
8651 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable</ulink>
8656 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable</ulink>
8665 These may be bookmarked for quick reference. See next.
8669 <sect3 id="bookmarklets">
8670 <title>Bookmarklets</title>
8672 Below are some <quote>bookmarklets</quote> to allow you to easily access a
8673 <quote>mini</quote> version of some of <application>Privoxy's</application>
8674 special pages. They are designed for MS Internet Explorer, but should work
8675 equally well in Netscape, Mozilla, and other browsers which support
8676 JavaScript. They are designed to run directly from your bookmarks - not by
8677 clicking the links below (although that should work for testing).
8680 To save them, right-click the link and choose <quote>Add to Favorites</quote>
8681 (IE) or <quote>Add Bookmark</quote> (Netscape). You will get a warning that
8682 the bookmark <quote>may not be safe</quote> - just click OK. Then you can run the
8683 Bookmarklet directly from your favorites/bookmarks. For even faster access,
8684 you can put them on the <quote>Links</quote> bar (IE) or the <quote>Personal
8685 Toolbar</quote> (Netscape), and run them with a single click.
8694 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>
8701 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>
8708 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)
8715 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>
8721 <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>
8727 <ulink url="javascript:void(window.open('http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info?url='+escape(location.href),'Why').focus());">Privoxy - Why?</ulink>
8734 Credit: The site which gave us the general idea for these bookmarklets is
8735 <ulink url="http://www.bookmarklets.com/">www.bookmarklets.com</ulink>. They
8736 have more information about bookmarklets.
8745 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
8747 <title>Chain of Events</title>
8749 Let's take a quick look at how some of <application>Privoxy's</application>
8750 core features are triggered, and the ensuing sequence of events when a web
8751 page is requested by your browser:
8758 First, your web browser requests a web page. The browser knows to send
8759 the request to <application>Privoxy</application>, which will in turn,
8760 relay the request to the remote web server after passing the following
8766 <application>Privoxy</application> traps any request for its own internal CGI
8767 pages (e.g <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>) and sends the CGI page back to the browser.
8772 Next, <application>Privoxy</application> checks to see if the URL
8774 linkend="BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></link> patterns. If
8775 so, the URL is then blocked, and the remote web server will not be contacted.
8776 <link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></link>
8778 <link linkend="HANDLE-AS-EMPTY-DOCUMENT"><quote>+handle-as-empty-document</quote></link>
8779 are then checked, and if there is no match, an
8780 HTML <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page is sent back to the browser. Otherwise, if
8781 it does match, an image is returned for the former, and an empty text
8782 document for the latter. The type of image would depend on the setting of
8783 <link linkend="SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"><quote>+set-image-blocker</quote></link>
8784 (blank, checkerboard pattern, or an HTTP redirect to an image elsewhere).
8789 Untrusted URLs are blocked. If URLs are being added to the
8790 <filename>trust</filename> file, then that is done.
8795 If the URL pattern matches the <link
8796 linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS"><quote>+fast-redirects</quote></link> action,
8797 it is then processed. Unwanted parts of the requested URL are stripped.
8802 Now the rest of the client browser's request headers are processed. If any
8803 of these match any of the relevant actions (e.g. <link
8804 linkend="HIDE-USER-AGENT"><quote>+hide-user-agent</quote></link>,
8805 etc.), headers are suppressed or forged as determined by these actions and
8811 Now the web server starts sending its response back (i.e. typically a web
8817 First, the server headers are read and processed to determine, among other
8818 things, the MIME type (document type) and encoding. The headers are then
8819 filtered as determined by the
8820 <link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES"><quote>+crunch-incoming-cookies</quote></link>,
8821 <link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"><quote>+session-cookies-only</quote></link>,
8822 and <link linkend="DOWNGRADE-HTTP-VERSION"><quote>+downgrade-http-version</quote></link>
8828 If any <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> action
8830 linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS"><quote>+deanimate-gifs</quote></link>
8831 action applies (and the document type fits the action), the rest of the page is
8832 read into memory (up to a configurable limit). Then the filter rules (from
8833 <filename>default.filter</filename> and any other filter files) are
8834 processed against the buffered content. Filters are applied in the order
8835 they are specified in one of the filter files. Animated GIFs, if present,
8836 are reduced to either the first or last frame, depending on the action
8837 setting.The entire page, which is now filtered, is then sent by
8838 <application>Privoxy</application> back to your browser.
8841 If neither a <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> action
8843 linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS"><quote>+deanimate-gifs</quote></link>
8844 matches, then <application>Privoxy</application> passes the raw data through
8845 to the client browser as it becomes available.
8850 As the browser receives the now (possibly filtered) page content, it
8851 reads and then requests any URLs that may be embedded within the page
8852 source, e.g. ad images, stylesheets, JavaScript, other HTML documents (e.g.
8853 frames), sounds, etc. For each of these objects, the browser issues a
8854 separate request (this is easily viewable in <application>Privoxy's</application>
8855 logs). And each such request is in turn processed just as above. Note that a
8856 complex web page will have many, many such embedded URLs. If these
8857 secondary requests are to a different server, then quite possibly a very
8858 differing set of actions is triggered.
8865 NOTE: This is somewhat of a simplistic overview of what happens with each URL
8866 request. For the sake of brevity and simplicity, we have focused on
8867 <application>Privoxy's</application> core features only.
8873 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
8874 <sect2 id="actionsanat">
8875 <title>Troubleshooting: Anatomy of an Action</title>
8878 The way <application>Privoxy</application> applies
8879 <link linkend="ACTIONS">actions</link> and <link linkend="FILTER">filters</link>
8880 to any given URL can be complex, and not always so
8881 easy to understand what is happening. And sometimes we need to be able to
8882 <emphasis>see</emphasis> just what <application>Privoxy</application> is
8883 doing. Especially, if something <application>Privoxy</application> is doing
8884 is causing us a problem inadvertently. It can be a little daunting to look at
8885 the actions and filters files themselves, since they tend to be filled with
8886 <link linkend="regex">regular expressions</link> whose consequences are not
8891 One quick test to see if <application>Privoxy</application> is causing a problem
8892 or not, is to disable it temporarily. This should be the first troubleshooting
8893 step. See <link linkend="bookmarklets">the Bookmarklets</link> section on a quick
8894 and easy way to do this (be sure to flush caches afterward!). Looking at the
8895 logs is a good idea too. (Note that both the toggle feature and logging are
8896 enabled via <filename>config</filename> file settings, and may need to be
8897 turned <quote>on</quote>.)
8900 Another easy troubleshooting step to try is if you have done any
8901 customization of your installation, revert back to the installed
8902 defaults and see if that helps. There are times the developers get complaints
8903 about one thing or another, and the problem is more related to a customized
8904 configuration issue.
8908 <application>Privoxy</application> also provides the
8909 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
8910 page that can show us very specifically how <application>actions</application>
8911 are being applied to any given URL. This is a big help for troubleshooting.
8915 First, enter one URL (or partial URL) at the prompt, and then
8916 <application>Privoxy</application> will tell us
8917 how the current configuration will handle it. This will not
8918 help with filtering effects (i.e. the <link
8919 linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> action) from
8920 one of the filter files since this is handled very
8921 differently and not so easy to trap! It also will not tell you about any other
8922 URLs that may be embedded within the URL you are testing. For instance, images
8923 such as ads are expressed as URLs within the raw page source of HTML pages. So
8924 you will only get info for the actual URL that is pasted into the prompt area
8925 -- not any sub-URLs. If you want to know about embedded URLs like ads, you
8926 will have to dig those out of the HTML source. Use your browser's <quote>View
8927 Page Source</quote> option for this. Or right click on the ad, and grab the
8932 Let's try an example, <ulink url="http://google.com">google.com</ulink>,
8933 and look at it one section at a time in a sample configuration (your real
8934 configuration may vary):
8939 Matches for http://www.google.com:
8941 In file: default.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
8943 {+change-x-forwarded-for{block}
8944 +deanimate-gifs {last}
8945 +fast-redirects {check-decoded-url}
8946 +filter {refresh-tags}
8947 +filter {img-reorder}
8948 +filter {banners-by-size}
8950 +filter {jumping-windows}
8951 +filter {ie-exploits}
8952 +hide-from-header {block}
8953 +hide-referrer {forge}
8954 +session-cookies-only
8955 +set-image-blocker {pattern}
8958 { -session-cookies-only }
8964 In file: user.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
8965 (no matches in this file)
8970 This is telling us how we have defined our
8971 <link linkend="ACTIONS"><quote>actions</quote></link>, and
8972 which ones match for our test case, <quote>google.com</quote>.
8973 Displayed is all the actions that are available to us. Remember,
8974 the <literal>+</literal> sign denotes <quote>on</quote>. <literal>-</literal>
8975 denotes <quote>off</quote>. So some are <quote>on</quote> here, but many
8976 are <quote>off</quote>. Each example we try may provide a slightly different
8977 end result, depending on our configuration directives.
8981 is for our <filename>default.action</filename> file. The large, multi-line
8982 listing, is how the actions are set to match for all URLs, i.e. our default
8983 settings. If you look at your <quote>actions</quote> file, this would be the
8984 section just below the <quote>aliases</quote> section near the top. This
8985 will apply to all URLs as signified by the single forward slash at the end
8986 of the listing -- <quote> / </quote>.
8990 But we have defined additional actions that would be exceptions to these general
8991 rules, and then we list specific URLs (or patterns) that these exceptions
8992 would apply to. Last match wins. Just below this then are two explicit
8993 matches for <quote>.google.com</quote>. The first is negating our previous
8994 cookie setting, which was for <link
8995 linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"><quote>+session-cookies-only</quote></link>
8996 (i.e. not persistent). So we will allow persistent cookies for google, at
8997 least that is how it is in this example. The second turns
8998 <emphasis>off</emphasis> any <link
8999 linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS"><quote>+fast-redirects</quote></link>
9000 action, allowing this to take place unmolested. Note that there is a leading
9001 dot here -- <quote>.google.com</quote>. This will match any hosts and
9002 sub-domains, in the google.com domain also, such as
9003 <quote>www.google.com</quote> or <quote>mail.google.com</quote>. But it would not
9004 match <quote>www.google.de</quote>! So, apparently, we have these two actions
9005 defined as exceptions to the general rules at the top somewhere in the lower
9006 part of our <filename>default.action</filename> file, and
9007 <quote>google.com</quote> is referenced somewhere in these latter sections.
9011 Then, for our <filename>user.action</filename> file, we again have no hits.
9012 So there is nothing google-specific that we might have added to our own, local
9013 configuration. If there was, those actions would over-rule any actions from
9014 previously processed files, such as <filename>default.action</filename>.
9015 <filename>user.action</filename> typically has the last word. This is the
9016 best place to put hard and fast exceptions,
9020 And finally we pull it all together in the bottom section and summarize how
9021 <application>Privoxy</application> is applying all its <quote>actions</quote>
9022 to <quote>google.com</quote>:
9033 +change-x-forwarded-for{block}
9034 -client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation}
9035 -content-type-overwrite
9036 -crunch-client-header
9037 -crunch-if-none-match
9038 -crunch-incoming-cookies
9039 -crunch-outgoing-cookies
9040 -crunch-server-header
9041 +deanimate-gifs {last}
9042 -downgrade-http-version
9045 -filter {content-cookies}
9046 -filter {all-popups}
9047 -filter {banners-by-link}
9048 -filter {tiny-textforms}
9049 -filter {frameset-borders}
9050 -filter {demoronizer}
9051 -filter {shockwave-flash}
9052 -filter {quicktime-kioskmode}
9054 -filter {crude-parental}
9055 -filter {site-specifics}
9056 -filter {js-annoyances}
9057 -filter {html-annoyances}
9058 +filter {refresh-tags}
9059 -filter {unsolicited-popups}
9060 +filter {img-reorder}
9061 +filter {banners-by-size}
9063 +filter {jumping-windows}
9064 +filter {ie-exploits}
9071 -handle-as-empty-document
9073 -hide-accept-language
9074 -hide-content-disposition
9075 +hide-from-header {block}
9076 -hide-if-modified-since
9077 +hide-referrer {forge}
9080 -overwrite-last-modified
9081 -prevent-compression
9083 -server-header-filter{xml-to-html}
9084 -server-header-filter{html-to-xml}
9085 -session-cookies-only
9086 +set-image-blocker {pattern} </screen>
9090 Notice the only difference here to the previous listing, is to
9091 <quote>fast-redirects</quote> and <quote>session-cookies-only</quote>,
9092 which are activated specifically for this site in our configuration,
9093 and thus show in the <quote>Final Results</quote>.
9097 Now another example, <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>:
9103 { +block{Domains starts with "ad"} }
9106 { +block{Domain contains "ad"} }
9109 { +block{Doubleclick banner server} +handle-as-image }
9110 .[a-vx-z]*.doubleclick.net
9115 We'll just show the interesting part here - the explicit matches. It is
9116 matched three different times. Two <quote>+block{}</quote> sections,
9117 and a <quote>+block{} +handle-as-image</quote>,
9118 which is the expanded form of one of our aliases that had been defined as:
9119 <quote>+block-as-image</quote>. (<link
9120 linkend="ALIASES"><quote>Aliases</quote></link> are defined in
9121 the first section of the actions file and typically used to combine more
9126 Any one of these would have done the trick and blocked this as an unwanted
9127 image. This is unnecessarily redundant since the last case effectively
9128 would also cover the first. No point in taking chances with these guys
9129 though ;-) Note that if you want an ad or obnoxious
9130 URL to be invisible, it should be defined as <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>
9131 is done here -- as both a <link
9132 linkend="BLOCK"><quote>+block{}</quote></link>
9133 <emphasis>and</emphasis> an
9134 <link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></link>.
9135 The custom alias <quote><literal>+block-as-image</literal></quote> just
9136 simplifies the process and make it more readable.
9140 One last example. Let's try <quote>http://www.example.net/adsl/HOWTO/</quote>.
9141 This one is giving us problems. We are getting a blank page. Hmmm ...
9147 Matches for http://www.example.net/adsl/HOWTO/:
9149 In file: default.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
9153 +change-x-forwarded-for{block}
9154 -client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation}
9155 -content-type-overwrite
9156 -crunch-client-header
9157 -crunch-if-none-match
9158 -crunch-incoming-cookies
9159 -crunch-outgoing-cookies
9160 -crunch-server-header
9162 -downgrade-http-version
9163 +fast-redirects {check-decoded-url}
9165 -filter {content-cookies}
9166 -filter {all-popups}
9167 -filter {banners-by-link}
9168 -filter {tiny-textforms}
9169 -filter {frameset-borders}
9170 -filter {demoronizer}
9171 -filter {shockwave-flash}
9172 -filter {quicktime-kioskmode}
9174 -filter {crude-parental}
9175 -filter {site-specifics}
9176 -filter {js-annoyances}
9177 -filter {html-annoyances}
9178 +filter {refresh-tags}
9179 -filter {unsolicited-popups}
9180 +filter {img-reorder}
9181 +filter {banners-by-size}
9183 +filter {jumping-windows}
9184 +filter {ie-exploits}
9191 -handle-as-empty-document
9193 -hide-accept-language
9194 -hide-content-disposition
9195 +hide-from-header{block}
9196 +hide-referer{forge}
9198 -overwrite-last-modified
9199 +prevent-compression
9201 -server-header-filter{xml-to-html}
9202 -server-header-filter{html-to-xml}
9203 +session-cookies-only
9204 +set-image-blocker{blank} }
9207 { +block{Path contains "ads".} +handle-as-image }
9213 Ooops, the <quote>/adsl/</quote> is matching <quote>/ads</quote> in our
9214 configuration! But we did not want this at all! Now we see why we get the
9215 blank page. It is actually triggering two different actions here, and
9216 the effects are aggregated so that the URL is blocked, and &my-app; is told
9217 to treat the block as if it were an image. But this is, of course, all wrong.
9218 We could now add a new action below this (or better in our own
9219 <filename>user.action</filename> file) that explicitly
9220 <emphasis>un</emphasis> blocks (
9221 <link linkend="BLOCK"><quote>{-block}</quote></link>) paths with
9222 <quote>adsl</quote> in them (remember, last match in the configuration
9223 wins). There are various ways to handle such exceptions. Example:
9235 Now the page displays ;-)
9236 Remember to flush your browser's caches when making these kinds of changes to
9237 your configuration to insure that you get a freshly delivered page! Or, try
9238 using <literal>Shift+Reload</literal>.
9242 But now what about a situation where we get no explicit matches like
9249 { +block{Path starts with "ads".} +handle-as-image }
9255 That actually was very helpful and pointed us quickly to where the problem
9256 was. If you don't get this kind of match, then it means one of the default
9257 rules in the first section of <filename>default.action</filename> is causing
9258 the problem. This would require some guesswork, and maybe a little trial and
9259 error to isolate the offending rule. One likely cause would be one of the
9260 <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> actions.
9261 These tend to be harder to troubleshoot.
9262 Try adding the URL for the site to one of aliases that turn off
9263 <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link>:
9271 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
9279 <quote><literal>{ shop }</literal></quote> is an <quote>alias</quote> that expands to
9280 <quote><literal>{ -filter -session-cookies-only }</literal></quote>.
9281 Or you could do your own exception to negate filtering:
9289 # Disable ALL filter actions for sites in this section
9297 This would turn off all filtering for these sites. This is best
9298 put in <filename>user.action</filename>, for local site
9299 exceptions. Note that when a simple domain pattern is used by itself (without
9300 the subsequent path portion), all sub-pages within that domain are included
9301 automatically in the scope of the action.
9305 Images that are inexplicably being blocked, may well be hitting the
9306 <link linkend="FILTER-BANNERS-BY-SIZE"><quote>+filter{banners-by-size}</quote></link>
9308 that images of certain sizes are ad banners (works well
9309 <emphasis>most of the time</emphasis> since these tend to be standardized).
9313 <quote><literal>{ fragile }</literal></quote> is an alias that disables most
9314 actions that are the most likely to cause trouble. This can be used as a
9315 last resort for problem sites.
9321 # Handle with care: easy to break
9323 mybank.example.com</screen>
9328 <emphasis>Remember to flush caches!</emphasis> Note that the
9329 <literal>mail.google</literal> reference lacks the TLD portion (e.g.
9330 <quote>.com</quote>). This will effectively match any TLD with
9331 <literal>google</literal> in it, such as <literal>mail.google.de.</literal>,
9335 If this still does not work, you will have to go through the remaining
9336 actions one by one to find which one(s) is causing the problem.
9345 This program is free software; you can redistribute it
9346 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
9347 Public License as published by the Free Software
9348 Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at
9349 your option) any later version.
9351 This program is distributed in the hope that it will
9352 be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the
9353 implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
9354 PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public
9355 License for more details.
9357 The GNU General Public License should be included with
9358 this file. If not, you can view it at
9359 http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
9360 or write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
9361 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301,
9364 $Log: user-manual.sgml,v $
9365 Revision 2.139 2011/11/18 16:49:29 fabiankeil
9368 Revision 2.138 2011/11/13 17:03:54 fabiankeil
9369 Bump entities for 3.0.18 stable
9371 Revision 2.137 2011/11/13 17:02:59 fabiankeil
9372 Import the first ChangeLog draft for 3.0.18 stable
9374 Revision 2.136 2011/10/14 16:53:10 fabiankeil
9375 Clarify the effect of compiling Privoxy with zlib support
9377 Suggested by dg1727 in #3423782.
9379 zlib support has been available for years now,
9380 so drop the reference to Privoxy 3.0.7
9382 Revision 2.135 2011/09/04 11:10:12 fabiankeil
9383 Ditch trailing whitespace
9385 Revision 2.134 2011/08/18 11:45:02 fabiankeil
9386 Don't use unspecified MSN sites as examples for User-Agent-based descrimination
9388 Without knowing the URLs, nobody can easily verify it and it could
9389 be mistaken as FUD. I also assume that it's no longer an issue anyway.
9391 Revision 2.133 2011/08/18 11:42:50 fabiankeil
9392 Bump some more documentation copyright ranges.
9394 Revision 2.132 2011/08/17 10:40:07 fabiankeil
9395 Update the entities.
9397 This commit is chronological out of order.
9399 Revision 2.131 2011/04/19 13:14:10 fabiankeil
9400 Fix spelling errors in the documentation. Found with codespell.
9402 Revision 2.130 2010/12/01 19:28:28 fabiankeil
9403 Hopefully unbreak the dok target when using some kind of jade.
9407 Revision 2.129 2010/11/13 20:17:11 fabiankeil
9408 Merge ChangeLog updates
9410 Revision 2.128 2010/11/10 22:00:13 fabiankeil
9411 Update the first paragraph of the 'What's New' section.
9413 Revision 2.127 2010/11/10 21:48:54 fabiankeil
9414 Update the "What's New" section.
9416 Revision 2.126 2010/11/06 12:55:48 fabiankeil
9417 Set p-version to 3.0.17
9419 Revision 2.125 2010/09/03 17:39:37 fabiankeil
9420 Slightly improve the explanation of why filtering may appear slower than it is.
9422 Revision 2.124 2010/05/01 18:21:30 fabiankeil
9423 Explicitly mention how to match any URL.
9425 Revision 2.123 2010/02/19 16:00:38 fabiankeil
9428 Revision 2.122 2010/02/19 15:22:47 fabiankeil
9431 Revision 2.121 2010/02/15 15:30:13 fabiankeil
9432 Mention the use of the no-such-domain template for DNS problems with FEATURE_IPV6_SUPPORT enabled.
9434 Revision 2.120 2010/02/13 17:38:39 fabiankeil
9435 Update entities for 3.0.16 stable.
9437 Revision 2.119 2010/02/13 16:37:37 fabiankeil
9438 Update 'What's new?' section.
9440 Revision 2.118 2010/02/11 13:59:48 fabiankeil
9441 Mention that the headers added by the add-header action aren't modified by other actions.
9443 Revision 2.117 2010/01/11 12:56:04 fabiankeil
9444 Bump copyright range as p-config.sgml's copyright line is only used in the config file.
9446 Revision 2.116 2009/11/15 14:24:12 fabiankeil
9447 Prepare to generate docs for 3.0.16 UNRELEASED.
9449 Revision 2.115 2009/10/10 06:19:34 fabiankeil
9450 Ditch a duplicated 'since'.
9452 Revision 2.114 2009/10/10 05:51:48 fabiankeil
9453 Update "What's new" section.
9455 Revision 2.113 2009/10/10 05:48:55 fabiankeil
9456 Prepare for 3.0.15 beta.
9458 Revision 2.112 2009/07/24 12:20:30 fabiankeil
9459 Remove duplicated period.
9461 Revision 2.111 2009/07/18 18:11:11 fabiankeil
9462 Don't claim that NTLM should work when there are multiple reports that it doesn't.
9464 Revision 2.110 2009/07/18 16:25:17 fabiankeil
9465 Fix trailing whitespace.
9467 Revision 2.109 2009/07/18 16:24:39 fabiankeil
9468 Bump entities for 3.0.14 beta.
9470 Revision 2.108 2009/07/18 15:49:23 fabiankeil
9471 Add most of the changes in 3.0.14 to the "What's New" section.
9473 Revision 2.107 2009/06/12 14:30:58 fabiankeil
9474 Update entities for 3.0.13 beta.
9476 Revision 2.106 2009/06/12 11:04:13 fabiankeil
9477 Import ChangeLog for 3.0.13 beta.
9479 Revision 2.105 2009/04/17 11:32:57 fabiankeil
9480 Grammar and spelling fixes.
9482 Revision 2.104 2009/04/17 11:27:49 fabiankeil
9483 Petr Pisar's privoxy-3.0.12-ipv6-3.diff.
9485 Revision 2.103 2009/03/21 10:49:05 fabiankeil
9486 Merge updated ChangeLog.
9488 Revision 2.102 2009/03/15 19:31:36 fabiankeil
9489 Update "What's New in this Release" section.
9491 Revision 2.101 2009/02/25 19:01:56 fabiankeil
9494 Revision 2.100 2009/02/19 17:14:11 fabiankeil
9495 - Copy the release cycle description from announce.txt into
9496 the "What's New" section.
9497 - Stop referring to the ChangeLog for a "complete list of changes".
9498 The "What's New" section already contains the complete list.
9500 Revision 2.99 2009/02/19 02:20:22 hal9
9501 Make some links in seealso conditional. Man page is now privoxy only links.
9503 Revision 2.98 2009/02/16 17:10:33 fabiankeil
9504 Fix entry about shortened log messages. Noticed by Lee.
9506 Revision 2.97 2009/02/14 18:01:00 fabiankeil
9509 Revision 2.96 2009/02/14 13:14:03 fabiankeil
9512 Revision 2.95 2009/02/14 12:51:26 fabiankeil
9513 Mention match-all.action in the "Actions Files Tutorial" section.
9515 Revision 2.94 2009/02/14 11:50:31 fabiankeil
9516 Some indentation fixes.
9518 Revision 2.93 2009/02/14 10:14:42 fabiankeil
9519 Mention match-all.action in the action file descriptions.
9521 Revision 2.92 2009/02/12 16:08:26 fabiankeil
9522 Declare the code stable.
9524 Revision 2.91 2009/01/13 16:50:35 fabiankeil
9525 The standard.action file is gone.
9527 Revision 2.90 2008/09/26 16:53:09 fabiankeil
9528 Update "What's new" section.
9530 Revision 2.89 2008/09/21 15:38:56 fabiankeil
9531 Fix Portage tree sync instructions in Gentoo section.
9532 Anonymously reported at ijbswa-developers@.
9534 Revision 2.88 2008/09/21 14:42:52 fabiankeil
9535 Add documentation for change-x-forwarded-for{},
9536 remove documentation for hide-forwarded-for-headers.
9538 Revision 2.87 2008/08/30 15:37:35 fabiankeil
9541 Revision 2.86 2008/08/16 10:12:23 fabiankeil
9542 Merge two sentences and move the URL to the end of the item.
9544 Revision 2.85 2008/08/16 10:04:59 fabiankeil
9545 Some more syntax fixes. This version actually builds.
9547 Revision 2.84 2008/08/16 09:42:45 fabiankeil
9548 Turns out building docs works better if the syntax is valid.
9550 Revision 2.83 2008/08/16 09:32:02 fabiankeil
9551 Mention changes since 3.0.9 beta.
9553 Revision 2.82 2008/08/16 09:00:52 fabiankeil
9554 Fix example URL pattern (once more with feeling).
9556 Revision 2.81 2008/08/16 08:51:28 fabiankeil
9557 Update version-related entities.
9559 Revision 2.80 2008/07/18 16:54:30 fabiankeil
9560 Remove erroneous whitespace in documentation link.
9561 Reported by John Chronister in #2021611.
9563 Revision 2.79 2008/06/27 18:00:53 markm68k
9564 remove outdated startup information for mac os x
9566 Revision 2.78 2008/06/21 17:03:03 fabiankeil
9569 Revision 2.77 2008/06/14 13:45:22 fabiankeil
9570 Re-add a colon I unintentionally removed a few revisions ago.
9572 Revision 2.76 2008/06/14 13:21:28 fabiankeil
9573 Prepare for the upcoming 3.0.9 beta release.
9575 Revision 2.75 2008/06/13 16:06:48 fabiankeil
9576 Update the "What's New in this Release" section with
9577 the ChangeLog entries changelog2doc.pl could handle.
9579 Revision 2.74 2008/05/26 15:55:46 fabiankeil
9580 - Update "default profiles" table.
9581 - Add some more pcrs redirect examples and note that
9582 enabling debug 128 helps to get redirects working.
9584 Revision 2.73 2008/05/23 14:43:18 fabiankeil
9585 Remove previously out-commented block that caused syntax problems.
9587 Revision 2.72 2008/05/12 10:26:14 fabiankeil
9588 Synchronize content filter descriptions with the ones in default.filter.
9590 Revision 2.71 2008/04/10 17:37:16 fabiankeil
9591 Actually we use "modern" POSIX 1003.2 regular
9592 expressions in path patterns, not PCRE.
9594 Revision 2.70 2008/04/10 15:59:12 fabiankeil
9595 Add another section to the client-header-tagger example that shows
9596 how to actually change the action settings once the tag is created.
9598 Revision 2.69 2008/03/29 12:14:25 fabiankeil
9599 Remove send-wafer and send-vanilla-wafer actions.
9601 Revision 2.68 2008/03/28 15:13:43 fabiankeil
9602 Remove inspect-jpegs action.
9604 Revision 2.67 2008/03/27 18:31:21 fabiankeil
9605 Remove kill-popups action.
9607 Revision 2.66 2008/03/06 16:33:47 fabiankeil
9608 If limit-connect isn't used, don't limit CONNECT requests to port 443.
9610 Revision 2.65 2008/03/04 18:30:40 fabiankeil
9611 Remove the treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks action. We now
9612 use the "blocked" page for forbidden CONNECT requests by default.
9614 Revision 2.64 2008/03/01 14:10:28 fabiankeil
9615 Use new block syntax. Still needs some polishing.
9617 Revision 2.63 2008/02/22 05:50:37 markm68k
9620 Revision 2.62 2008/02/11 11:52:23 hal9
9621 Fix entity ... s/&/&
9623 Revision 2.61 2008/02/11 03:41:47 markm68k
9624 more updates for mac os x
9626 Revision 2.60 2008/02/11 03:40:25 markm68k
9627 more updates for mac os x
9629 Revision 2.59 2008/02/11 00:52:34 markm68k
9630 reflect new changes for mac os x
9632 Revision 2.58 2008/02/03 21:37:40 hal9
9633 Apply patch from Mark: s/OSX/OS X/
9635 Revision 2.57 2008/02/03 19:10:14 fabiankeil
9636 Mention forward-socks5.
9638 Revision 2.56 2008/01/31 19:11:35 fabiankeil
9639 Let the +client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation} example apply
9640 to all requests as "tainted" Referers aren't limited to exit TLDs.
9642 Revision 2.55 2008/01/19 21:26:37 hal9
9643 Add IE7 to configuration section per Gerry.
9645 Revision 2.54 2008/01/19 17:52:39 hal9
9646 Re-commit to fix various minor issues for new release.
9648 Revision 2.53 2008/01/19 15:03:05 hal9
9649 Doc sources tagged for 3.0.8 release.
9651 Revision 2.52 2008/01/17 01:49:51 hal9
9652 Change copyright notice for docs s/2007/2008/. All these will be rebuilt soon
9655 Revision 2.51 2007/12/23 16:48:24 fabiankeil
9656 Use more precise example descriptions for the mysterious domain patterns.
9658 Revision 2.50 2007/12/08 12:44:36 fabiankeil
9659 - Remove already commented out pre-3.0.7 changes.
9660 - Update the "new log defaults" paragraph.
9662 Revision 2.49 2007/12/06 18:21:55 fabiankeil
9663 Update hide-forwarded-for-headers description.
9665 Revision 2.48 2007/11/24 19:07:17 fabiankeil
9666 - Mention request rewriting.
9667 - Enable the conditional-forge paragraph.
9670 Revision 2.47 2007/11/18 14:59:47 fabiankeil
9671 A few "Note to Upgraders" updates.
9673 Revision 2.46 2007/11/17 17:24:44 fabiankeil
9674 - Use new action defaults.
9675 - Minor fixes and rewordings.
9677 Revision 2.45 2007/11/16 11:48:46 hal9
9678 Fix one typo, and add a couple of small refinements.
9680 Revision 2.44 2007/11/15 03:30:20 hal9
9681 Results of spell check.
9683 Revision 2.43 2007/11/14 18:45:39 fabiankeil
9684 - Mention some more contributors in the "New in this Release" list.
9687 Revision 2.42 2007/11/12 03:32:40 hal9
9688 Updates for "What's New" and "Notes to Upgraders". Various other changes in
9689 preparation for new release. User Manual is almost ready.
9691 Revision 2.41 2007/11/11 16:32:11 hal9
9692 This is primarily syncing What's New and Note to Upgraders sections with the many
9693 new features and changes (gleaned from memory but mostly from ChangeLog).
9695 Revision 2.40 2007/11/10 17:10:59 fabiankeil
9696 In the first third of the file, mention several times that
9697 the action editor is disabled by default in 3.0.7 beta and later.
9699 Revision 2.39 2007/11/05 02:34:49 hal9
9700 Various changes in preparation for the upcoming release. Much yet to be done.
9702 Revision 2.38 2007/09/22 16:01:42 fabiankeil
9703 Update embedded show-url-info output.
9705 Revision 2.37 2007/08/27 16:09:55 fabiankeil
9706 Fix pre-chroot-nslookup description which I failed to
9707 copy and paste properly. Reported by Stephen Gildea.
9709 Revision 2.36 2007/08/26 16:47:14 fabiankeil
9710 Add Stephen Gildea's pre-chroot-nslookup patch [#1276666],
9711 extensive comments moved to user manual.
9713 Revision 2.35 2007/08/26 14:59:49 fabiankeil
9714 Minor rewordings and fixes.
9716 Revision 2.34 2007/08/05 15:19:50 fabiankeil
9717 - Don't claim HTTP/1.1 compliance.
9718 - Use $ in some of the path pattern examples.
9719 - Use a hide-user-agent example argument without
9720 leading and trailing space.
9721 - Make it clear that the cookie actions work with
9723 - Rephrase the inspect-jpegs text to underline
9724 that it's only meant to protect against a single
9727 Revision 2.33 2007/07/27 10:57:35 hal9
9728 Add references for user-agent strings for hide-user-agenet
9730 Revision 2.32 2007/06/07 12:36:22 fabiankeil
9731 Apply Roland's 29_usermanual.dpatch to fix a bunch
9732 of syntax errors I collected over the last months.
9734 Revision 2.31 2007/06/02 14:01:37 fabiankeil
9735 Start to document forward-override{}.
9737 Revision 2.30 2007/04/25 15:10:36 fabiankeil
9738 - Describe installation for FreeBSD.
9739 - Start to document taggers and tag patterns.
9740 - Don't confuse devils and daemons.
9742 Revision 2.29 2007/04/05 11:47:51 fabiankeil
9743 Some updates regarding header filtering,
9744 handling of compressed content and redirect's
9745 support for pcrs commands.
9747 Revision 2.28 2006/12/10 23:42:48 hal9
9748 Fix various typos reported by Adam P. Thanks.
9750 Revision 2.27 2006/11/14 01:57:47 hal9
9751 Dump all docs prior to 3.0.6 release. Various minor changes to faq and user
9754 Revision 2.26 2006/10/24 11:16:44 hal9
9757 Revision 2.25 2006/10/18 10:50:33 hal9
9758 Add note that since filters are off in Cautious, compression is ON. Turn off
9759 compression to make filters work on all sites.
9761 Revision 2.24 2006/10/03 11:13:54 hal9
9762 More references to the new filters. Include html this time around.
9764 Revision 2.23 2006/10/02 22:43:53 hal9
9765 Contains new filter definitions from Fabian, and few other miscellaneous
9768 Revision 2.22 2006/09/22 01:27:55 hal9
9769 Final commit of probably various minor changes here and there. Unless
9770 something changes this should be ready for pending release.
9772 Revision 2.21 2006/09/20 03:21:36 david__schmidt
9773 Just the tiniest tweak. Wafer thin!
9775 Revision 2.20 2006/09/10 14:53:54 hal9
9776 Results of spell check. User manual has some updates to standard.actions file
9779 Revision 2.19 2006/09/08 12:19:02 fabiankeil
9780 Adjust hide-if-modified-since example values
9781 to reflect the recent changes.
9783 Revision 2.18 2006/09/08 02:38:57 hal9
9785 -Fix a number of broken links.
9786 -Migrate the new Windows service command line options, and reference as
9788 -Rebuild so that can be used with the new "user-manual" config capabilities.
9791 Revision 2.17 2006/09/05 13:25:12 david__schmidt
9792 Add Windows service invocation stuff (duplicated) in FAQ and in user manual under Windows startup. One probably ought to reference the other.
9794 Revision 2.16 2006/09/02 12:49:37 hal9
9795 Various small updates for new actions, filterfiles, etc.
9797 Revision 2.15 2006/08/30 11:15:22 hal9
9798 More work on the new actions, especially filter-*-headers, and What's New
9799 section. User Manual is close to final form for 3.0.4 release. Some tinkering
9800 and proof reading left to do.
9802 Revision 2.14 2006/08/29 10:59:36 hal9
9803 Add a "Whats New in this release" Section. Further work on multiple filter
9804 files, and assorted other minor changes.
9806 Revision 2.13 2006/08/22 11:04:59 hal9
9807 Silence warnings and errors. This should build now. New filters were only
9808 stubbed in. More to be done.
9810 Revision 2.12 2006/08/14 08:40:39 fabiankeil
9811 Documented new actions that were part of
9812 the "minor Privoxy improvements".
9814 Revision 2.11 2006/07/18 14:48:51 david__schmidt
9815 Reorganizing the repository: swapping out what was HEAD (the old 3.1 branch)
9816 with what was really the latest development (the v_3_0_branch branch)
9818 Revision 1.123.2.43 2005/05/23 09:59:10 hal9
9821 Revision 1.123.2.42 2004/12/04 14:39:57 hal9
9822 Fix two minor typos per bug SF report.
9824 Revision 1.123.2.41 2004/03/23 12:58:42 oes
9827 Revision 1.123.2.40 2004/02/27 12:48:49 hal9
9828 Add comment re: redirecting to local file system for set-image-blocker may
9829 is dependent on browser.
9831 Revision 1.123.2.39 2004/01/30 22:31:40 oes
9832 Added a hint re bookmarklets to Quickstart section
9834 Revision 1.123.2.38 2004/01/30 16:47:51 oes
9835 Some minor clarifications
9837 Revision 1.123.2.37 2004/01/29 22:36:11 hal9
9838 Updates for no longer filtering text/plain, and demoronizer default settings,
9839 and copyright notice dates.
9841 Revision 1.123.2.36 2003/12/10 02:26:26 hal9
9842 Changed the demoronizer filter description.
9844 Revision 1.123.2.35 2003/11/06 13:36:37 oes
9845 Updated link to nightly CVS tarball
9847 Revision 1.123.2.34 2003/06/26 23:50:16 hal9
9848 Add a small bit on filtering and problems re: source code being corrupted.
9850 Revision 1.123.2.33 2003/05/08 18:17:33 roro
9851 Use apt-get instead of dpkg to install Debian package, which is more
9852 solid, uses the correct and most recent Debian version automatically.
9854 Revision 1.123.2.32 2003/04/11 03:13:57 hal9
9855 Add small note about only one filterfile (as opposed to multiple actions
9858 Revision 1.123.2.31 2003/03/26 02:03:43 oes
9859 Updated hard-coded copyright dates
9861 Revision 1.123.2.30 2003/03/24 12:58:56 hal9
9862 Add new section on Predefined Filters.
9864 Revision 1.123.2.29 2003/03/20 02:45:29 hal9
9865 More problems with \-\-chroot causing markup problems :(
9867 Revision 1.123.2.28 2003/03/19 00:35:24 hal9
9868 Manual edit of revision log because 'chroot' (even inside a comment) was
9869 causing Docbook to hang here (due to double hyphen and the processor thinking
9872 Revision 1.123.2.27 2003/03/18 19:37:14 oes
9873 s/Advanced|Radical/Adventuresome/g to avoid complaints re fun filter
9875 Revision 1.123.2.26 2003/03/17 16:50:53 oes
9876 Added documentation for new chroot option
9878 Revision 1.123.2.25 2003/03/15 18:36:55 oes
9879 Adapted to the new filters
9881 Revision 1.123.2.24 2002/11/17 06:41:06 hal9
9882 Move default profiles table from FAQ to U-M, and other minor related changes.
9885 Revision 1.123.2.23 2002/10/21 02:32:01 hal9
9886 Updates to the user.action examples section. A few new ones.
9888 Revision 1.123.2.22 2002/10/12 00:51:53 hal9
9889 Add demoronizer to filter section.
9891 Revision 1.123.2.21 2002/10/10 04:09:35 hal9
9892 s/Advanced/Radical/ and added very brief note.
9894 Revision 1.123.2.20 2002/10/10 03:49:21 hal9
9895 Add notes to session-cookies-only and Quickstart about pre-existing
9896 cookies. Also, note content-cookies work differently.
9898 Revision 1.123.2.19 2002/09/26 01:25:36 hal9
9899 More explanation on Privoxy patterns, more on content-cookies and SSL.
9901 Revision 1.123.2.18 2002/08/22 23:47:58 hal9
9902 Add 'Documentation' to Privoxy Menu shot in Configuration section to match
9905 Revision 1.123.2.17 2002/08/18 01:13:05 hal9
9906 Spell checked (only one typo this time!).
9908 Revision 1.123.2.16 2002/08/09 19:20:54 david__schmidt
9909 Update to Mac OS X startup script name
9911 Revision 1.123.2.15 2002/08/07 17:32:11 oes
9912 Converted some internal links from ulink to link for PDF creation; no content changed
9914 Revision 1.123.2.14 2002/08/06 09:16:13 oes
9915 Nits re: actions file download
9917 Revision 1.123.2.13 2002/08/02 18:23:19 g_sauthoff
9918 Just 2 small corrections to the Gentoo sections
9920 Revision 1.123.2.12 2002/08/02 18:17:21 g_sauthoff
9921 Added 2 Gentoo sections
9923 Revision 1.123.2.11 2002/07/26 15:20:31 oes
9924 - Added version info to title
9925 - Added info on new filters
9926 - Revised parts of the filter file tutorial
9927 - Added info on where to get updated actions files
9929 Revision 1.123.2.10 2002/07/25 21:42:29 hal9
9930 Add brief notes on not proxying non-HTTP protocols.
9932 Revision 1.123.2.9 2002/07/11 03:40:28 david__schmidt
9934 Updated Mac OS X sections due to installation location change
9936 Revision 1.123.2.8 2002/06/09 16:36:32 hal9
9937 Clarifications on filtering and MIME. Hardcode 'latest release' in index.html.
9939 Revision 1.123.2.7 2002/06/09 00:29:34 hal9
9940 Touch ups on filtering, in actions section and Anatomy.
9942 Revision 1.123.2.6 2002/06/06 23:11:03 hal9
9943 Fix broken link. Linkchecked all docs.
9945 Revision 1.123.2.5 2002/05/29 02:01:02 hal9
9946 This is break out of the entire config section from u-m, so it can
9947 eventually be used to generate the comments, etc in the main config file
9948 so that these are in sync with each other.
9950 Revision 1.123.2.4 2002/05/27 03:28:45 hal9
9951 Ooops missed something from David.
9953 Revision 1.123.2.3 2002/05/27 03:23:17 hal9
9954 Fix FIXMEs for OS2 and Mac OS X startup. Fix Redhat typos (should be Red Hat).
9955 That's a wrap, I think.
9957 Revision 1.123.2.2 2002/05/26 19:02:09 hal9
9958 Move Amiga stuff around to take of FIXME in start up section.
9960 Revision 1.123.2.1 2002/05/26 17:04:25 hal9
9961 -Spellcheck, very minor edits, and sync across branches
9963 Revision 1.123 2002/05/24 23:19:23 hal9
9964 Include new image (Proxy setup). More fun with guibutton.
9965 Minor corrections/clarifications here and there.
9967 Revision 1.122 2002/05/24 13:24:08 oes
9968 Added Bookmarklet for one-click pre-filled access to show-url-info
9970 Revision 1.121 2002/05/23 23:20:17 oes
9971 - Changed more (all?) references to actions to the
9972 <literal><link> style.
9973 - Small fixes in the actions chapter
9974 - Small clarifications in the quickstart to ad blocking
9975 - Removed <emphasis> from <title>s since the new doc CSS
9976 renders them red (bad in TOC).
9978 Revision 1.120 2002/05/23 19:16:43 roro
9979 Correct Debian specials (installation and startup).
9981 Revision 1.119 2002/05/22 17:17:05 oes
9984 Revision 1.118 2002/05/21 04:54:55 hal9
9985 -New Section: Quickstart to Ad Blocking
9986 -Reformat Actions Anatomy to match new CGI layout
9988 Revision 1.117 2002/05/17 13:56:16 oes
9989 - Reworked & extended Templates chapter
9990 - Small changes to Regex appendix
9991 - #included authors.sgml into (C) and hist chapter
9993 Revision 1.116 2002/05/17 03:23:46 hal9
9994 Fixing merge conflict in Quickstart section.
9996 Revision 1.115 2002/05/16 16:25:00 oes
9997 Extended the Filter File chapter & minor fixes
9999 Revision 1.114 2002/05/16 09:42:50 oes
10000 More ulink->link, added some hints to Quickstart section
10002 Revision 1.113 2002/05/15 21:07:25 oes
10003 Extended and further commented the example actions files
10005 Revision 1.112 2002/05/15 03:57:14 hal9
10006 Spell check. A few minor edits here and there for better syntax and
10009 Revision 1.111 2002/05/14 23:01:36 oes
10012 Revision 1.110 2002/05/14 19:10:45 oes
10013 Restored alphabetical order of actions
10015 Revision 1.109 2002/05/14 17:23:11 oes
10016 Renamed the prevent-*-cookies actions, extended aliases section and moved it before the example AFs
10018 Revision 1.108 2002/05/14 15:29:12 oes
10019 Completed proofreading the actions chapter
10021 Revision 1.107 2002/05/12 03:20:41 hal9
10022 Small clarifications for 127.0.0.1 vs localhost for listen-address since this
10023 apparently an important distinction for some OS's.
10025 Revision 1.106 2002/05/10 01:48:20 hal9
10026 This is mostly proposed copyright/licensing additions and changes. Docs
10027 are still GPL, but licensing and copyright are more visible. Also, copyright
10028 changed in doc header comments (eliminate references to JB except FAQ).
10030 Revision 1.105 2002/05/05 20:26:02 hal9
10031 Sorting out license vs copyright in these docs.
10033 Revision 1.104 2002/05/04 08:44:45 swa
10036 Revision 1.103 2002/05/04 00:40:53 hal9
10037 -Remove the TOC first page kludge. It's fixed proper now in ldp.dsl.in.
10038 -Some minor additions to Quickstart.
10040 Revision 1.102 2002/05/03 17:46:00 oes
10041 Further proofread & reactivated short build instructions
10043 Revision 1.101 2002/05/03 03:58:30 hal9
10044 Move the user-manual config directive to top of section. Add note about
10045 Privoxy needing read permissions for configs, and write for logs.
10047 Revision 1.100 2002/04/29 03:05:55 hal9
10048 Add clarification on differences of new actions files.
10050 Revision 1.99 2002/04/28 16:59:05 swa
10051 more structure in starting section
10053 Revision 1.98 2002/04/28 05:43:59 hal9
10054 This is the break up of configuration.html into multiple files. This
10055 will probably break links elsewhere :(
10057 Revision 1.97 2002/04/27 21:04:42 hal9
10058 -Rewrite of Actions File example.
10059 -Add section for user-manual directive in config.
10061 Revision 1.96 2002/04/27 05:32:00 hal9
10062 -Add short section to Filter Files to tie in with +filter action.
10063 -Start rewrite of examples in Actions Examples (not finished).
10065 Revision 1.95 2002/04/26 17:23:29 swa
10066 bookmarks cleaned, changed structure of user manual, screen and programlisting cleanups, and numerous other changes that I forgot
10068 Revision 1.94 2002/04/26 05:24:36 hal9
10069 -Add most of Andreas suggestions to Chain of Events section.
10070 -A few other minor corrections and touch up.
10072 Revision 1.92 2002/04/25 18:55:13 hal9
10073 More catchups on new actions files, and new actions names.
10074 Other assorted cleanups, and minor modifications.
10076 Revision 1.91 2002/04/24 02:39:31 hal9
10077 Add 'Chain of Events' section.
10079 Revision 1.90 2002/04/23 21:41:25 hal9
10080 Linuxconf is deprecated on RH, substitute chkconfig.
10082 Revision 1.89 2002/04/23 21:05:28 oes
10083 Added hint for startup on Red Hat
10085 Revision 1.88 2002/04/23 05:37:54 hal9
10086 Add AmigaOS install stuff.
10088 Revision 1.87 2002/04/23 02:53:15 david__schmidt
10089 Updated Mac OS X installation section
10090 Added a few English tweaks here an there
10092 Revision 1.86 2002/04/21 01:46:32 hal9
10093 Re-write actions section.
10095 Revision 1.85 2002/04/18 21:23:23 hal9
10096 Fix ugly typo (mine).
10098 Revision 1.84 2002/04/18 21:17:13 hal9
10099 Spell Redhat correctly (ie Red Hat). A few minor grammar corrections.
10101 Revision 1.83 2002/04/18 18:21:12 oes
10102 Added RPM install detail
10104 Revision 1.82 2002/04/18 12:04:50 oes
10107 Revision 1.81 2002/04/18 11:50:24 oes
10108 Extended Install section - needs fixing by packagers
10110 Revision 1.80 2002/04/18 10:45:19 oes
10111 Moved text to buildsource.sgml, renamed some filters, details
10113 Revision 1.79 2002/04/18 03:18:06 hal9
10114 Spellcheck, and minor touchups.
10116 Revision 1.78 2002/04/17 18:04:16 oes
10117 Proofreading part 2
10119 Revision 1.77 2002/04/17 13:51:23 oes
10120 Proofreading, part one
10122 Revision 1.76 2002/04/16 04:25:51 hal9
10123 -Added 'Note to Upgraders' and re-ordered the 'Quickstart' section.
10124 -Note about proxy may need requests to re-read config files.
10126 Revision 1.75 2002/04/12 02:08:48 david__schmidt
10127 Remove OS/2 building info... it is already in the developer-manual
10129 Revision 1.74 2002/04/11 00:54:38 hal9
10130 Add small section on submitting actions.
10132 Revision 1.73 2002/04/10 18:45:15 swa
10135 Revision 1.72 2002/04/10 04:06:19 hal9
10136 Added actions feedback to Bookmarklets section
10138 Revision 1.71 2002/04/08 22:59:26 hal9
10139 Version update. Spell chkconfig correctly :)
10141 Revision 1.70 2002/04/08 20:53:56 swa
10144 Revision 1.69 2002/04/06 05:07:29 hal9
10145 -Add privoxy-man-page.sgml, for man page.
10146 -Add authors.sgml for AUTHORS (and p-authors.sgml)
10147 -Reworked various aspects of various docs.
10148 -Added additional comments to sub-docs.
10150 Revision 1.68 2002/04/04 18:46:47 swa
10151 consistent look. reuse of copyright, history et. al.
10153 Revision 1.67 2002/04/04 17:27:57 swa
10154 more single file to be included at multiple points. make maintaining easier
10156 Revision 1.66 2002/04/04 06:48:37 hal9
10157 Structural changes to allow for conditional inclusion/exclusion of content
10158 based on entity toggles, e.g. 'entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE"'. And
10159 definition of internal entities, e.g. 'entity p-version "2.9.13"' that will
10160 eventually be set by Makefile.
10161 More boilerplate text for use across multiple docs.
10163 Revision 1.65 2002/04/03 19:52:07 swa
10164 enhance squid section due to user suggestion
10166 Revision 1.64 2002/04/03 03:53:43 hal9
10167 A few minor bug fixes, and touch ups. Ready for review.
10169 Revision 1.63 2002/04/01 16:24:49 hal9
10170 Define entities to include boilerplate text. See doc/source/*.
10172 Revision 1.62 2002/03/30 04:15:53 hal9
10173 - Fix privoxy.org/config links.
10174 - Paste in Bookmarklets from Toggle page.
10175 - Move Quickstart nearer top, and minor rework.
10177 Revision 1.61 2002/03/29 01:31:08 hal9
10180 Revision 1.60 2002/03/27 01:57:34 hal9
10181 Added more to Anatomy section.
10183 Revision 1.59 2002/03/27 00:54:33 hal9
10184 Touch up intro for new name.
10186 Revision 1.58 2002/03/26 22:29:55 swa
10187 we have a new homepage!
10189 Revision 1.57 2002/03/24 20:33:30 hal9
10190 A few minor catch ups with name change.
10192 Revision 1.56 2002/03/24 16:17:06 swa
10193 configure needs to be generated.
10195 Revision 1.55 2002/03/24 16:08:08 swa
10196 we are too lazy to make a block-built
10197 privoxy logo. hence removed the option.
10199 Revision 1.54 2002/03/24 15:46:20 swa
10200 name change related issue.
10202 Revision 1.53 2002/03/24 11:51:00 swa
10203 name change. changed filenames.
10205 Revision 1.52 2002/03/24 11:01:06 swa
10208 Revision 1.51 2002/03/23 15:13:11 swa
10209 renamed every reference to the old name with foobar.
10210 fixed "application foobar application" tag, fixed
10211 "the foobar" with "foobar". left junkbustser in cvs
10212 comments and remarks to history untouched.
10214 Revision 1.50 2002/03/23 05:06:21 hal9
10217 Revision 1.49 2002/03/21 17:01:05 hal9
10218 New section in Appendix.
10220 Revision 1.48 2002/03/12 06:33:01 hal9
10221 Catching up to Andreas and re_filterfile changes.
10223 Revision 1.47 2002/03/11 13:13:27 swa
10224 correct feedback channels
10226 Revision 1.46 2002/03/10 00:51:08 hal9
10227 Added section on JB internal pages in Appendix.
10229 Revision 1.45 2002/03/09 17:43:53 swa
10232 Revision 1.44 2002/03/09 17:08:48 hal9
10233 New section on Jon's actions file editor, and move some stuff around.
10235 Revision 1.43 2002/03/08 00:47:32 hal9
10236 Added imageblock{pattern}.
10238 Revision 1.42 2002/03/07 18:16:55 swa
10241 Revision 1.41 2002/03/07 16:46:43 hal9
10242 Fix a few markup problems for jade.
10244 Revision 1.40 2002/03/07 16:28:39 swa
10245 provide correct feedback channels
10247 Revision 1.39 2002/03/06 16:19:28 hal9
10248 Note on perceived filtering slowdown per FR.
10250 Revision 1.38 2002/03/05 23:55:14 hal9
10251 Stupid I did it again. Double hyphen in comment breaks jade.
10253 Revision 1.37 2002/03/05 23:53:49 hal9
10254 jade barfs on '- -' embedded in comments. - -user option broke it.
10256 Revision 1.36 2002/03/05 22:53:28 hal9
10257 Add new - - user option.
10259 Revision 1.35 2002/03/05 00:17:27 hal9
10260 Added section on command line options.
10262 Revision 1.34 2002/03/04 19:32:07 oes
10263 Changed default port to 8118
10265 Revision 1.33 2002/03/03 19:46:13 hal9
10266 Emphasis on where/how to report bugs, etc
10268 Revision 1.32 2002/03/03 09:26:06 joergs
10269 AmigaOS changes, config is now loaded from PROGDIR: instead of
10270 AmiTCP:db/junkbuster/ if no configuration file is specified on the
10273 Revision 1.31 2002/03/02 22:45:52 david__schmidt
10276 Revision 1.30 2002/03/02 22:00:14 hal9
10277 Updated 'New Features' list. Ran through spell-checker.
10279 Revision 1.29 2002/03/02 20:34:07 david__schmidt
10280 Update OS/2 build section
10282 Revision 1.28 2002/02/24 14:34:24 jongfoster
10283 Formatting changes. Now changing the doctype to DocBook XML 4.1
10284 will work - no other changes are needed.
10286 Revision 1.27 2002/01/11 14:14:32 hal9
10287 Added a very short section on Templates
10289 Revision 1.26 2002/01/09 20:02:50 hal9
10290 Fix bug re: auto-detect config file changes.
10292 Revision 1.25 2002/01/09 18:20:30 hal9
10293 Touch ups for *.action files.
10295 Revision 1.24 2001/12/02 01:13:42 hal9
10298 Revision 1.23 2001/12/02 00:20:41 hal9
10299 Updates for recent changes.
10301 Revision 1.22 2001/11/05 23:57:51 hal9
10302 Minor update for startup now daemon mode.
10304 Revision 1.21 2001/10/31 21:11:03 hal9
10305 Correct 2 minor errors
10307 Revision 1.18 2001/10/24 18:45:26 hal9
10308 *** empty log message ***
10310 Revision 1.17 2001/10/24 17:10:55 hal9
10311 Catching up with Jon's recent work, and a few other things.
10313 Revision 1.16 2001/10/21 17:19:21 swa
10314 wrong url in documentation
10316 Revision 1.15 2001/10/14 23:46:24 hal9
10317 Various minor changes. Fleshed out SEE ALSO section.
10319 Revision 1.13 2001/10/10 17:28:33 hal9
10320 Very minor changes.
10322 Revision 1.12 2001/09/28 02:57:04 hal9
10325 Revision 1.11 2001/09/28 02:25:20 hal9
10328 Revision 1.9 2001/09/27 23:50:29 hal9
10329 A few changes. A short section on regular expression in appendix.
10331 Revision 1.8 2001/09/25 00:34:59 hal9
10332 Some additions, and re-arranging.
10334 Revision 1.7 2001/09/24 14:31:36 hal9
10337 Revision 1.6 2001/09/24 14:10:32 hal9
10338 Including David's OS/2 installation instructions.
10340 Revision 1.2 2001/09/13 15:27:40 swa
10343 Revision 1.1 2001/09/12 15:36:41 swa
10344 source files for junkbuster documentation
10346 Revision 1.3 2001/09/10 17:43:59 swa
10347 first proposal of a structure.
10349 Revision 1.2 2001/06/13 14:28:31 swa
10350 docs should have an author.
10352 Revision 1.1 2001/06/13 14:20:37 swa
10353 first import of project's documentation for the webserver.