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 "3.0.9">
15 <!entity p-status "UNRELEASED">
16 <!entity % p-authors-formal "INCLUDE"> <!-- include additional text, etc -->
17 <!entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE">
18 <!entity % p-stable "IGNORE">
19 <!entity % p-text "IGNORE"> <!-- define we are not a text only doc -->
20 <!entity % p-doc "INCLUDE"> <!-- and we are a formal doc -->
21 <!entity % p-readme "IGNORE">
22 <!entity % user-man "IGNORE">
23 <!entity % config-file "IGNORE">
24 <!entity % p-supp-userman "IGNORE"> <!-- Omit some from supported.sgml -->
25 <!entity my-copy "©"> <!-- kludge for docbook2man -->
26 <!entity % draft "IGNORE"> <!-- WIP stuff -->
27 <!entity my-app "<application>Privoxy</application>">
30 File : $Source: /cvsroot/ijbswa/current/doc/source/user-manual.sgml,v $
33 This file belongs into
34 ijbswa.sourceforge.net:/home/groups/i/ij/ijbswa/htdocs/
36 $Id: user-manual.sgml,v 2.71 2008/04/10 17:37:16 fabiankeil Exp $
38 Copyright (C) 2001-2008 Privoxy Developers http://www.privoxy.org/
41 ========================================================================
42 NOTE: Please read developer-manual/documentation.html before touching
43 anything in this, or other Privoxy documentation.
44 ========================================================================
51 <title>Privoxy &p-version; User Manual</title>
55 <!-- Completely the wrong markup, but very little is allowed -->
56 <!-- in this part of an article. FIXME -->
57 <link linkend="copyright">Copyright</link> &my-copy; 2001 - 2008 by
58 <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/">Privoxy Developers</ulink>
62 <pubdate>$Id: user-manual.sgml,v 2.71 2008/04/10 17:37:16 fabiankeil Exp $</pubdate>
66 Note: the following should generate a separate page, and a live link to it,
67 all nicely done. But it doesn't for some mysterious reason. Please leave
68 commented unless it can be fixed proper. For the time being, the
69 copyright/license declarations will be in their own sgml.
82 This is here to keep vim syntax file from breaking :/
83 If I knew enough to fix it, I would.
84 PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE! HB: hal@foobox.net
90 The <citetitle>Privoxy User Manual</citetitle> gives users information on how to
91 install, configure and use <ulink
92 url="http://www.privoxy.org/">Privoxy</ulink>.
95 <!-- Include privoxy.sgml boilerplate: -->
97 <!-- end privoxy.sgml -->
100 You can find the latest version of the <citetitle>Privoxy User Manual</citetitle> at <ulink
101 url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/">http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/</ulink>.
102 Please see the <link linkend="contact">Contact section</link> on how to
103 contact the developers.
107 <!-- Feel free to send a note to the developers at <email>ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net</email>. -->
113 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
114 <sect1 label="1" id="introduction"><title>Introduction</title>
116 This documentation is included with the current &p-status; version of
117 <application>Privoxy</application>, v.&p-version;<![%p-not-stable;[,
118 and is mostly complete at this point. The most up to date reference for the
119 time being is still the comments in the source files and in the individual
120 configuration files. Development of a new version is currently nearing
121 completion, and includes significant changes and enhancements over
122 earlier versions. ]]>.
125 <!-- include only in non-stable versions -->
128 Since this is a &p-status; version, not all new features are well tested. This
129 documentation may be slightly out of sync as a result (especially with
130 CVS sources). And there <emphasis>may be</emphasis> bugs, though hopefully
135 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
136 <sect2 id="features"><title>Features</title>
138 In addition to the core
139 features of ad blocking and
140 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookie</ulink> management,
141 <application>Privoxy</application> provides many supplemental
142 features<![%p-not-stable;[, some of them currently under development]]>,
143 that give the end-user more control, more privacy and more freedom:
145 <!-- Include newfeatures.sgml boilerplate here: -->
147 <!-- end boilerplate -->
152 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
155 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
156 <sect1 id="installation"><title>Installation</title>
159 <application>Privoxy</application> is available both in convenient pre-compiled
160 packages for a wide range of operating systems, and as raw source code.
161 For most users, we recommend using the packages, which can be downloaded from our
162 <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ijbswa/">Privoxy Project
168 On some platforms, the installer may remove previously installed versions, if
169 found. (See below for your platform). In any case <emphasis>be sure to backup
170 your old configuration if it is valuable to you.</emphasis> See the <link
171 linkend="upgradersnote">note to upgraders</link> section below.
174 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
175 <sect2 id="installation-packages"><title>Binary Packages</title>
177 How to install the binary packages depends on your operating system:
180 <!-- XXX: The installation sections should be sorted -->
182 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
183 <sect3 id="installation-pack-rpm"><title>Red Hat and Fedora RPMs</title>
186 RPMs can be installed with <literal>rpm -Uvh privoxy-&p-version;-1.rpm</literal>,
187 and will use <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> for the location
188 of configuration files.
192 Note that on Red Hat, <application>Privoxy</application> will
193 <emphasis>not</emphasis> be automatically started on system boot. You will
194 need to enable that using <command>chkconfig</command>,
195 <command>ntsysv</command>, or similar methods.
199 If you have problems with failed dependencies, try rebuilding the SRC RPM:
200 <literal>rpm --rebuild privoxy-&p-version;-1.src.rpm</literal>. This
201 will use your locally installed libraries and RPM version.
205 Also note that if you have a <application>Junkbuster</application> RPM installed
206 on your system, you need to remove it first, because the packages conflict.
207 Otherwise, RPM will try to remove <application>Junkbuster</application>
208 automatically if found, before installing <application>Privoxy</application>.
212 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
213 <sect3 id="installation-deb"><title>Debian and Ubuntu</title>
215 DEBs can be installed with <literal>apt-get install privoxy</literal>,
216 and will use <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> for the location of
221 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
222 <sect3 id="installation-pack-win"><title>Windows</title>
225 Just double-click the installer, which will guide you through
226 the installation process. You will find the configuration files
227 in the same directory as you installed <application>Privoxy</application> in.
230 Version 3.0.5 beta introduced full <application>Windows</application> service
231 functionality. On Windows only, the <application>Privoxy</application>
232 program has two new command line arguments to install and uninstall
233 <application>Privoxy</application> as a <emphasis>service</emphasis>.
237 <term>Arguments:</term>
240 <replaceable class="parameter">--install</replaceable>[:<replaceable class="parameter">service_name</replaceable>]
243 <replaceable class="parameter">--uninstall</replaceable>[:<replaceable class="parameter">service_name</replaceable>]
249 After invoking <application>Privoxy</application> with
250 <command>--install</command>, you will need to bring up the
251 <application>Windows</application> service console to assign the user you
252 want <application>Privoxy</application> to run under, and whether or not you
253 want it to run whenever the system starts. You can start the
254 <application>Windows</application> services console with the following
255 command: <command>services.msc</command>. If you do not take the manual step
256 of modifying <application>Privoxy's</application> service settings, it will
257 not start. Note too that you will need to give Privoxy a user account that
258 actually exists, or it will not be permitted to
259 write to its log and configuration files.
264 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
265 <sect3 id="installation-pack-bintgz"><title>Solaris <!--, NetBSD, HP-UX--></title>
268 Create a new directory, <literal>cd</literal> to it, then unzip and
269 untar the archive. For the most part, you'll have to figure out where
270 things go. <!-- FIXME, more info needed? -->
274 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
275 <sect3 id="installation-os2"><title>OS/2</title>
278 First, make sure that no previous installations of
279 <application>Junkbuster</application> and / or
280 <application>Privoxy</application> are left on your
281 system. Check that no <application>Junkbuster</application>
282 or <application>Privoxy</application> objects are in
288 Then, just double-click the WarpIN self-installing archive, which will
289 guide you through the installation process. A shadow of the
290 <application>Privoxy</application> executable will be placed in your
291 startup folder so it will start automatically whenever OS/2 starts.
295 The directory you choose to install <application>Privoxy</application>
296 into will contain all of the configuration files.
300 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
301 <sect3 id="installation-mac"><title>Mac OS X</title>
303 Unzip the downloaded file (you can either double-click on the zip file
304 icon from the Finder, or from the desktop if you downloaded it there).
305 Then, double-click on the package installer icon and follow the
306 installation process.
309 The privoxy service will automatically start after a successful
310 installation (in addition to every time your computer starts up). To
311 prevent the privoxy service from automatically starting when your
312 computer starts up, remove or rename the folder named
313 <literal>/Library/StartupItems/Privoxy</literal>.
316 To manually start or stop the privoxy service, use the Privoxy Utility
317 for Mac OS X. This application controls the privoxy service (e.g.
318 starting and stopping the service as well as uninstalling the software).
322 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
323 <sect3 id="installation-amiga"><title>AmigaOS</title>
325 Copy and then unpack the <filename>lha</filename> archive to a suitable location.
326 All necessary files will be installed into <application>Privoxy</application>
327 directory, including all configuration and log files. To uninstall, just
328 remove this directory.
332 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
333 <sect3 id="installation-tbz"><title>FreeBSD</title>
336 Privoxy is part of FreeBSD's Ports Collection, you can build and install
337 it with <literal>cd /usr/ports/www/privoxy; make install clean</literal>.
340 If you don't use the ports, you can fetch and install
341 the package with <literal>pkg_add -r privoxy</literal>.
344 The port skeleton and the package can also be downloaded from the
345 <ulink url="https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118">File Release
346 Page</ulink>, but there's no reason to use them unless you're interested in the
347 beta releases which are only available there.
351 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
352 <sect3 id="installattion-gentoo"><title>Gentoo</title>
354 Gentoo source packages (Ebuilds) for <application>Privoxy</application> are
355 contained in the Gentoo Portage Tree (they are not on the download page,
356 but there is a Gentoo section, where you can see when a new
357 <application>Privoxy</application> Version is added to the Portage Tree).
360 Before installing <application>Privoxy</application> under Gentoo just do
361 first <literal>emerge rsync</literal> to get the latest changes from the
362 Portage tree. With <literal>emerge privoxy</literal> you install the latest
366 Configuration files are in <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename>, the
367 documentation is in <filename>/usr/share/doc/privoxy-&p-version;</filename>
368 and the Log directory is in <filename>/var/log/privoxy</filename>.
374 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
375 <sect2 id="installation-source"><title>Building from Source</title>
378 The most convenient way to obtain the <application>Privoxy</application> sources
379 is to download the source tarball from our
380 <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118&package_id=10571">project download
385 If you like to live on the bleeding edge and are not afraid of using
386 possibly unstable development versions, you can check out the up-to-the-minute
387 version directly from <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/cvs/?group_id=11118">the
388 CVS repository</ulink>.
390 deprecated...out of business.
391 or simply download <ulink
392 url="http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cvstarballs/ijbswa-cvsroot.tar.bz2">the nightly CVS
397 <!-- include buildsource.sgml boilerplate: -->
399 <!-- end boilerplate -->
402 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
403 <sect2 id="installation-keepupdated"><title>Keeping your Installation Up-to-Date</title>
405 As user feedback comes in and development continues, we will make updated versions
406 of both the main <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link> (as a <ulink
407 url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118&release_id=103670">separate
408 package</ulink>) and the software itself (including the actions file) available for
413 If you wish to receive an email notification whenever we release updates of
414 <application>Privoxy</application> or the actions file, <ulink
415 url="http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ijbswa-announce/">subscribe
416 to our announce mailing list</ulink>, ijbswa-announce@lists.sourceforge.net.
420 In order not to lose your personal changes and adjustments when updating
421 to the latest <literal>default.action</literal> file we <emphasis>strongly
422 recommend</emphasis> that you use <literal>user.action</literal> and
423 <literal>user.filter</literal> for your local
424 customizations of <application>Privoxy</application>. See the <link
425 linkend="actions-file">Chapter on actions files</link> for details.
433 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
435 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
436 <sect1 id="whatsnew">
437 <title>What's New in this Release</title>
439 There are many improvements and new features since <application>Privoxy 3.0.6</application>, the last stable release:
446 Two new actions <link
447 linkend="server-header-tagger">server-header-tagger</link>
449 linkend="client-header-tagger">client-header-tagger</link>
450 that can be used to create arbitrary <quote>tags</quote>
451 based on client and server headers.
452 These <quote>tags</quote> can then subsequently be used
453 to control the other actions used for the current request,
454 greatly increasing &my-app;'s flexibility and selectivity. See <link
455 linkend="tag-pattern">tag patterns</link> for more information on tags.
461 Header filtering is done with dedicated header filters now. As a result
462 the actions <quote>filter-client-headers</quote> and <quote>filter-server-headers</quote>
463 that were introduced with <application>Privoxy 3.0.5</application> to apply
464 content filters to the headers have been removed.
465 See the new actions <link
466 linkend="server-header-filter">server-header-filter</link>
468 linkend="client-header-filter">client-header-filter</link> for details.
473 There are four new options for the main <filename>config</filename> file:
480 linkend="allow-cgi-request-crunching">allow-cgi-request-crunching</link>
481 which allows requests for Privoxy's internal CGI pages to be
482 blocked, redirected or (un)trusted like ordinary requests.
488 linkend="split-large-forms">split-large-forms</link>
489 that will work around a browser bug that caused IE6 and IE7 to
490 ignore the Submit button on the Privoxy's edit-actions-for-url CGI
497 linkend="accept-intercepted-requests">accept-intercepted-requests</link>
498 which allows to combine Privoxy with any packet filter to create an
499 intercepting proxy for HTTP/1.1 requests (and for HTTP/1.0 requests
500 with Host header set). This means clients can be forced to use
501 &my-app; even if their proxy settings are configured differently.
507 linkend="templdir">templdir</link>
508 to designate an alternate location for &my-app;'s
509 locally customized CGI templates so that
510 these are not overwritten during upgrades.
518 A new command line option <literal>--pre-chroot-nslookup hostname</literal> to
519 initialize the resolver library before chroot'ing. On some systems this
520 reduces the number of files that must be copied into the chroot tree.
521 (Patch provided by Stephen Gildea)
528 linkend="forward-override">forward-override</link> action
529 allows changing of the forwarding settings through the actions files.
530 Combined with tags, this allows to choose the forwarder based on
531 client headers like the <literal>User-Agent</literal>, or the request origin.
538 linkend="redirect">redirect</link> action can now use regular
539 expression substitutions against the original URL.
545 <application>zlib</application> support is now available as a compile
546 time option to filter compressed content. Patch provided by Wil Mahan.
551 Improve various filters, and add new ones.
558 Include support for RFC 3253 so that <filename>Subversion</filename> works
559 with &my-app;. Patch provided by Petr Kadlec.
565 Logging can be completely turned off by not specifying a logfile directive.
572 A number of improvements to Privoxy's internal CGI pages, including the
573 use of favicons for error and control pages.
579 Many bugfixes, memory leaks addressed, code improvements, and logging
587 For a more detailed list of changes please have a look at the ChangeLog.
590 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
592 <sect2 id="upgradersnote">
593 <title>Note to Upgraders</title>
596 A quick list of things to be aware of before upgrading from earlier
597 versions of <application>Privoxy</application>:
605 The recommended way to upgrade &my-app; is to backup your old
606 configuration files, install the new ones, verify that &my-app;
607 is working correctly and finally merge back your changes using
608 <application>diff</application> and maybe <application>patch</application>.
611 There are a number of new features in each &my-app; release and
612 most of them have to be explicitly enabled in the configuration
613 files. Old configuration files obviously don't do that and due
614 to syntax changes using old configuration files with a new
615 &my-app; isn't always possible anyway.
620 Note that some installers remove earlier versions completely,
621 including configuration files, therefore you should really save
622 any important configuration files!
627 On the other hand, other installers don't overwrite existing configuration
628 files, thinking you will want to do that yourself.
633 <filename>standard.action</filename> now only includes the enabled actions.
634 Not all actions as before.
639 In the default configuration only fatal errors are logged now.
640 You can change that in the <link linkend="DEBUG">debug section</link>
641 of the configuration file. You may also want to enable more verbose
642 logging until you verified that the new &my-app; version is working
649 Three other config file settings are now off by default:
650 <link linkend="enable-remote-toggle">enable-remote-toggle</link>,
651 <link linkend="enable-remote-http-toggle">enable-remote-http-toggle</link>,
652 and <link linkend="enable-edit-actions">enable-edit-actions</link>.
653 If you use or want these, you will need to explicitly enable them, and
654 be aware of the security issues involved.
660 The <quote>filter-client-headers</quote> and
661 <quote>filter-server-headers</quote> actions that were introduced with
662 <application>Privoxy 3.0.5</application> to apply content filters to
663 the headers have been removed and replaced with new actions.
665 linkend="whatsnew">What's New section</link> above.
673 What constitutes a <quote>default</quote> configuration has changed,
674 and you may want to review which actions are <quote>on</quote> by
675 default. This is primarily a matter of emphasis, but some features
676 you may have been used to, may now be <quote>off</quote> by default.
677 There are also a number of new actions and filters you may want to
678 consider, most of which are not fully incorporated into the default
679 settings as yet (see above).
686 The default actions setting is now <literal>Cautious</literal>. Previous
687 releases had a default setting of <literal>Medium</literal>. Experienced
688 users may want to adjust this, as it is fairly conservative by &my-app;
689 standards and past practices. See <ulink
690 url="http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions-list?f=default">
691 http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions-list?f=default</ulink>. New users
692 should try the default settings for a while before turning up the volume.
698 The default setting has filtering turned <emphasis>off</emphasis>, which
699 subsequently means that compression is <emphasis>on</emphasis>. Remember
700 that filtering does not work on compressed pages, so if you use, or want to
701 use, filtering, you will need to force compression off. Example:
705 { +<link linkend="filter">filter</link>{google} +<link linkend="prevent-compression">prevent-compression</link> }
709 Or if you use a number of filters, or filter many sites, you may just want
710 to turn off compression for all sites in
711 <filename>default.action</filename> (or
712 <filename>user.action</filename>).
719 Also, <link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> is
720 off by default now. If you've liked this feature in the past, you may want
721 to turn it back on in <filename>user.action</filename> now.
728 Some installers may not automatically start
729 <application>Privoxy</application> after installation.
740 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
741 <sect1 id="quickstart"><title>Quickstart to Using Privoxy</title>
747 Install <application>Privoxy</application>. See the <link
748 linkend="installation">Installation Section</link> below for platform specific
755 Advanced users and those who want to offer <application>Privoxy</application>
756 service to more than just their local machine should check the <link
757 linkend="config">main config file</link>, especially the <link
758 linkend="access-control">security-relevant</link> options. These are
765 Start <application>Privoxy</application>, if the installation program has
766 not done this already (may vary according to platform). See the section
767 <link linkend="startup">Starting <application>Privoxy</application></link>.
773 Set your browser to use <application>Privoxy</application> as HTTP and
774 HTTPS (SSL) <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_server">proxy</ulink>
775 by setting the proxy configuration for address of
776 <literal>127.0.0.1</literal> and port <literal>8118</literal>.
777 <emphasis>DO NOT</emphasis> activate proxying for <literal>FTP</literal> or
778 any protocols besides HTTP and HTTPS (SSL) unless you intend to prevent your
779 browser from using these protocols.
785 Flush your browser's disk and memory caches, to remove any cached ad images.
786 If using <application>Privoxy</application> to manage
787 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>,
788 you should remove any currently stored cookies too.
794 A default installation should provide a reasonable starting point for
795 most. There will undoubtedly be occasions where you will want to adjust the
796 configuration, but that can be dealt with as the need arises. Little
797 to no initial configuration is required in most cases, you may want
799 <ulink url="config.html#ENABLE-EDIT-ACTIONS">web-based action editor</ulink> though.
800 Be sure to read the warnings first.
803 See the <link linkend="configuration">Configuration section</link> for more
804 configuration options, and how to customize your installation.
805 You might also want to look at the <link
806 linkend="quickstart-ad-blocking">next section</link> for a quick
807 introduction to how <application>Privoxy</application> blocks ads and
814 If you experience ads that slip through, innocent images that are
815 blocked, or otherwise feel the need to fine-tune
816 <application>Privoxy's</application> behavior, take a look at the <link
817 linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>. As a quick start, you might
818 find the <link linkend="act-examples">richly commented examples</link>
819 helpful. You can also view and edit the actions files through the <ulink
820 url="http://config.privoxy.org">web-based user interface</ulink>. The
821 Appendix <quote><link linkend="actionsanat">Troubleshooting: Anatomy of an
822 Action</link></quote> has hints on how to understand and debug actions that
823 <quote>misbehave</quote>.
828 Did anyone test these lately?
832 For easy access to &my-app;'s most important controls, drag the provided
833 <link linkend="bookmarklets">Bookmarklets</link> into your browser's
841 Please see the section <link linkend="contact">Contacting the
842 Developers</link> on how to report bugs, problems with websites or to get
849 Now enjoy surfing with enhanced control, comfort and privacy!
857 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
859 <sect2 id="quickstart-ad-blocking">
860 <title>Quickstart to Ad Blocking</title>
862 NOTE: This section is deliberately redundant for those that don't
863 want to read the whole thing (which is getting lengthy).
866 Ad blocking is but one of <application>Privoxy's</application>
867 array of features. Many of these features are for the technically minded advanced
868 user. But, ad and banner blocking is surely common ground for everybody.
871 This section will provide a quick summary of ad blocking so
872 you can get up to speed quickly without having to read the more extensive
873 information provided below, though this is highly recommended.
876 First a bit of a warning ... blocking ads is much like blocking SPAM: the
877 more aggressive you are about it, the more likely you are to block
878 things that were not intended. And the more likely that some things
879 may not work as intended. So there is a trade off here. If you want
880 extreme ad free browsing, be prepared to deal with more
881 <quote>problem</quote> sites, and to spend more time adjusting the
882 configuration to solve these unintended consequences. In short, there is
883 not an easy way to eliminate <emphasis>all</emphasis> ads. Either take
884 the easy way and settle for <emphasis>most</emphasis> ads blocked with the
885 default configuration, or jump in and tweak it for your personal surfing
886 habits and preferences.
889 Secondly, a brief explanation of <application>Privoxy's </application>
890 <quote>actions</quote>. <quote>Actions</quote> in this context, are
891 the directives we use to tell <application>Privoxy</application> to perform
892 some task relating to HTTP transactions (i.e. web browsing). We tell
893 <application>Privoxy</application> to take some <quote>action</quote>. Each
894 action has a unique name and function. While there are many potential
895 <application>actions</application> in <application>Privoxy's</application>
896 arsenal, only a few are used for ad blocking. <link
897 linkend="actions">Actions</link>, and <link linkend="actions-file">action
898 configuration files</link>, are explained in depth below.
901 Actions are specified in <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration,
902 followed by one or more URLs to which the action should apply. URLs
903 can actually be URL type <link linkend="af-patterns">patterns</link> that use
904 wildcards so they can apply potentially to a range of similar URLs. The
905 actions, together with the URL patterns are called a section.
908 When you connect to a website, the full URL will either match one or more
909 of the sections as defined in <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration,
910 or not. If so, then <application>Privoxy</application> will perform the
911 respective actions. If not, then nothing special happens. Furthermore, web
912 pages may contain embedded, secondary URLs that your web browser will
913 use to load additional components of the page, as it parses the
914 original page's HTML content. An ad image for instance, is just an URL
915 embedded in the page somewhere. The image itself may be on the same server,
916 or a server somewhere else on the Internet. Complex web pages will have many
917 such embedded URLs. &my-app; can deal with each URL individually, so, for
918 instance, the main page text is not touched, but images from such-and-such
923 The most important actions for basic ad blocking are: <literal><link
924 linkend="block">block</link></literal>, <literal><link
925 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>,
927 linkend="handle-as-empty-document">handle-as-empty-document</link></literal>,and
928 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>:
936 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> - this is perhaps
937 the single most used action, and is particularly important for ad blocking.
938 This action stops any contact between your browser and any URL patterns
939 that match this action's configuration. It can be used for blocking ads,
940 but also anything that is determined to be unwanted. By itself, it simply
941 stops any communication with the remote server and sends
942 <application>Privoxy</application>'s own built-in BLOCKED page instead to
943 let you now what has happened (with some exceptions, see below).
949 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> -
950 tells <application>Privoxy</application> to treat this URL as an image.
951 <application>Privoxy</application>'s default configuration already does this
952 for all common image types (e.g. GIF), but there are many situations where this
953 is not so easy to determine. So we'll force it in these cases. This is particularly
954 important for ad blocking, since only if we know that it's an image of
955 some kind, can we replace it with an image of our choosing, instead of the
956 <application>Privoxy</application> BLOCKED page (which would only result in
957 a <quote>broken image</quote> icon). There are some limitations to this
958 though. For instance, you can't just brute-force an image substitution for
959 an entire HTML page in most situations.
965 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-empty-document">handle-as-empty-document</link></literal> -
966 sends an empty document instead of <application>Privoxy's</application>
967 normal BLOCKED HTML page. This is useful for file types that are neither
968 HTML nor images, such as blocking JavaScript files.
975 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal> - tells
976 <application>Privoxy</application> what to display in place of an ad image that
977 has hit a block rule. For this to come into play, the URL must match a
978 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action somewhere in the
979 configuration, <emphasis>and</emphasis>, it must also match an
980 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> action.
983 The configuration options on what to display instead of the ad are:
987 <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> - a checkerboard pattern, so that an ad
988 replacement is obvious. This is the default.
993 <emphasis>blank</emphasis> - A very small empty GIF image is displayed.
994 This is the so-called <quote>invisible</quote> configuration option.
999 <emphasis>http://<URL></emphasis> - A redirect to any image anywhere
1000 of the user's choosing (advanced usage).
1009 Advanced users will eventually want to explore &my-app;
1010 <literal><link linkend="filter">filters</link></literal> as well. Filters
1011 are very different from <literal><link
1012 linkend="block">blocks</link></literal>.
1013 A <quote>block</quote> blocks a site, page, or unwanted contented. Filters
1014 are a way of filtering or modifying what is actually on the page. An example
1015 filter usage: a text replacement of <quote>no-no</quote> for
1016 <quote>nasty-word</quote>. That is a very simple example. This process can be
1017 used for ad blocking, but it is more in the realm of advanced usage and has
1018 some pitfalls to be wary off.
1022 The quickest way to adjust any of these settings is with your browser through
1023 the special <application>Privoxy</application> editor at <ulink
1024 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
1025 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/show-status</ulink>). This
1026 is an internal page, and does not require Internet access.
1030 Note that as of <application>Privoxy</application> 3.0.7 beta the
1031 action editor is disabled by default. Check the
1032 <ulink url="config.html#ENABLE-EDIT-ACTIONS">enable-edit-actions
1033 section in the configuration file</ulink> to learn why and in which
1034 cases it's safe to enable again.
1038 If you decided to enable the action editor, select the appropriate
1039 <quote>actions</quote> file, and click
1040 <quote><guibutton>Edit</guibutton></quote>. It is best to put personal or
1041 local preferences in <filename>user.action</filename> since this is not
1042 meant to be overwritten during upgrades, and will over-ride the settings in
1043 other files. Here you can insert new <quote>actions</quote>, and URLs for ad
1044 blocking or other purposes, and make other adjustments to the configuration.
1045 <application>Privoxy</application> will detect these changes automatically.
1049 A quick and simple step by step example:
1057 Right click on the ad image to be blocked, then select
1058 <quote><guimenuitem>Copy Link Location</guimenuitem></quote> from the
1066 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
1071 Find <filename>user.action</filename> in the top section, and click
1072 on <quote><guibutton>Edit</guibutton></quote>:
1075 <!-- image of editor and actions files selections -->
1077 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Actions Files in Use</title>
1080 <imagedata fileref="files-in-use.jpg" format="jpg">
1083 <phrase>[ Screenshot of Actions Files in Use ]</phrase>
1092 You should have a section with only
1093 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> listed under
1094 <quote>Actions:</quote>.
1095 If not, click a <quote><guibutton>Insert new section below</guibutton></quote>
1096 button, and in the new section that just appeared, click the
1097 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> button right under the word <quote>Actions:</quote>.
1098 This will bring up a list of all actions. Find
1099 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> near the top, and click
1100 in the <quote>Enabled</quote> column, then <quote><guibutton>Submit</guibutton></quote>
1101 just below the list.
1106 Now, in the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> actions section,
1107 click the <quote><guibutton>Add</guibutton></quote> button, and paste the URL the
1108 browser got from <quote><guimenuitem>Copy Link Location</guimenuitem></quote>.
1109 Remove the <literal>http://</literal> at the beginning of the URL. Then, click
1110 <quote><guibutton>Submit</guibutton></quote> (or
1111 <quote><guibutton>OK</guibutton></quote> if in a pop-up window).
1116 Now go back to the original page, and press <keycap>SHIFT-Reload</keycap>
1117 (or flush all browser caches). The image should be gone now.
1125 This is a very crude and simple example. There might be good reasons to use a
1126 wildcard pattern match to include potentially similar images from the same
1127 site. For a more extensive explanation of <quote>patterns</quote>, and
1128 the entire actions concept, see <link linkend="actions-file">the Actions
1133 For advanced users who want to hand edit their config files, you might want
1134 to now go to the <link linkend="act-examples">Actions Files Tutorial</link>.
1135 The ideas explained therein also apply to the web-based editor.
1138 There are also various
1139 <link linkend="filter">filters</link> that can be used for ad blocking
1140 (filters are a special subset of actions). These
1141 fall into the <quote>advanced</quote> usage category, and are explained in
1142 depth in later sections.
1149 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1152 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1153 <sect1 id="startup">
1154 <title>Starting Privoxy</title>
1156 Before launching <application>Privoxy</application> for the first time, you
1157 will want to configure your browser(s) to use
1158 <application>Privoxy</application> as a HTTP and HTTPS (SSL)
1159 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_server">proxy</ulink>. The default is
1160 127.0.0.1 (or localhost) for the proxy address, and port 8118 (earlier versions
1161 used port 8000). This is the one configuration step <emphasis>that must be done
1165 Please note that <application>Privoxy</application> can only proxy HTTP and
1166 HTTPS traffic. It will not work with FTP or other protocols.
1169 <!-- image of Mozilla Proxy configuration -->
1171 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Proxy Configuration Showing
1172 Mozilla/Netscape HTTP and HTTPS (SSL) Settings</title>
1175 <imagedata fileref="proxy_setup.jpg" format="jpg">
1178 <phrase>[ Screenshot of Mozilla Proxy Configuration ]</phrase>
1186 With <application>Firefox</application>, this is typically set under:
1190 <guibutton>Tools</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Options</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Advanced</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Network</guibutton> -><guibutton>Connection</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Settings</guibutton>
1195 Or optionally on some platforms:
1199 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Preferences</guibutton> -> <guibutton>General</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Connection Settings</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Manual Proxy Configuration</guibutton>
1205 With <application>Netscape</application> (and
1206 <application>Mozilla</application>), this can be set under:
1211 <!-- Mix ascii and gui art, something for everybody -->
1212 <!-- spacing on this is tricky -->
1213 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Preferences</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Advanced</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Proxies</guibutton> -> <guibutton>HTTP Proxy</guibutton>
1218 For <application>Internet Explorer v.5-7</application>:
1222 <guibutton>Tools</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Internet Options</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Connections</guibutton> -> <guibutton>LAN Settings</guibutton>
1226 Then, check <quote>Use Proxy</quote> and fill in the appropriate info
1227 (Address: 127.0.0.1, Port: 8118). Include HTTPS (SSL), if you want HTTPS
1228 proxy support too (sometimes labeled <quote>Secure</quote>). Make sure any
1229 checkboxes like <quote>Use the same proxy server for all protocols</quote> is
1230 <emphasis>UNCHECKED</emphasis>. You want only HTTP and HTTPS (SSL)!
1233 <!-- image of IE Proxy configuration -->
1235 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Proxy Configuration Showing
1236 Internet Explorer HTTP and HTTPS (Secure) Settings</title>
1239 <imagedata fileref="proxy2.jpg" format="jpg">
1242 <phrase>[ Screenshot of IE Proxy Configuration ]</phrase>
1250 After doing this, flush your browser's disk and memory caches to force a
1251 re-reading of all pages and to get rid of any ads that may be cached. Remove
1252 any <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>,
1253 if you want <application>Privoxy</application> to manage that. You are now
1254 ready to start enjoying the benefits of using
1255 <application>Privoxy</application>!
1259 <application>Privoxy</application> itself is typically started by specifying the
1260 main configuration file to be used on the command line. If no configuration
1261 file is specified on the command line, <application>Privoxy</application>
1262 will look for a file named <filename>config</filename> in the current
1263 directory. Except on Win32 where it will try <filename>config.txt</filename>.
1266 <sect2 id="start-redhat">
1267 <title>Red Hat and Fedora</title>
1269 A default Red Hat installation may not start &my-app; upon boot. It will use
1270 the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename> as its main configuration
1275 # /etc/rc.d/init.d/privoxy start
1283 # service privoxy start
1288 <sect2 id="start-debian">
1289 <title>Debian</title>
1291 We use a script. Note that Debian typically starts &my-app; upon booting per
1292 default. It will use the file
1293 <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename> as its main configuration
1298 # /etc/init.d/privoxy start
1303 <sect2 id="start-windows">
1304 <title>Windows</title>
1306 Click on the &my-app; Icon to start <application>Privoxy</application>. If no configuration file is
1307 specified on the command line, <application>Privoxy</application> will look
1308 for a file named <filename>config.txt</filename>. Note that Windows will
1309 automatically start &my-app; when the system starts if you chose that option
1313 <application>Privoxy</application> can run with full Windows service functionality.
1314 On Windows only, the &my-app; program has two new command line arguments
1315 to install and uninstall &my-app; as a service. See the
1316 <link linkend="installation-pack-win">Windows Installation
1317 instructions</link> for details.
1321 <sect2 id="start-unices">
1322 <title>Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD, HP-UX and others</title>
1324 Example Unix startup command:
1328 # /usr/sbin/privoxy /etc/privoxy/config
1333 <sect2 id="start-os2">
1336 During installation, <application>Privoxy</application> is configured to
1337 start automatically when the system restarts. You can start it manually by
1338 double-clicking on the <application>Privoxy</application> icon in the
1339 <application>Privoxy</application> folder.
1343 <sect2 id="start-macosx">
1344 <title>Mac OS X</title>
1346 After downloading the privoxy software, unzip the downloaded file by
1347 double-clicking on the zip file icon. Then, double-click on the
1348 installer package icon and follow the installation process.
1351 The privoxy service will automatically start after a successful
1352 installation. In addition, the privoxy service will automatically
1353 start every time your computer starts up.
1356 To prevent the privoxy service from automatically starting when your
1357 computer starts up, remove or rename the folder named
1358 /Library/StartupItems/Privoxy.
1361 A simple application named Privoxy Utility has been created which
1362 enables administrators to easily start and stop the privoxy service.
1365 In addition, the Privoxy Utility presents a simple way for
1366 administrators to edit the various privoxy config files. A method
1367 to uninstall the software is also available.
1370 An administrator username and password must be supplied in order for
1371 the Privoxy Utility to perform any of the tasks.
1374 During installation, <application>Privoxy</application> is configured to
1375 start automatically when the system restarts. To start &my-app; manually,
1376 double-click on the <literal>StartPrivoxy.command</literal> icon in the
1377 <literal>/Library/Privoxy</literal> folder. Or, type this command
1382 /Library/Privoxy/StartPrivoxy.command
1386 You will be prompted for the administrator password.
1391 <sect2 id="start-amigaos">
1392 <title>AmigaOS</title>
1394 Start <application>Privoxy</application> (with RUN <>NIL:) in your
1395 <filename>startnet</filename> script (AmiTCP), in
1396 <filename>s:user-startup</filename> (RoadShow), as startup program in your
1397 startup script (Genesis), or as startup action (Miami and MiamiDx).
1398 <application>Privoxy</application> will automatically quit when you quit your
1399 TCP/IP stack (just ignore the harmless warning your TCP/IP stack may display that
1400 <application>Privoxy</application> is still running).
1404 <sect2 id="start-gentoo">
1405 <title>Gentoo</title>
1407 A script is again used. It will use the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config
1408 </filename> as its main configuration file.
1412 /etc/init.d/privoxy start
1416 Note that <application>Privoxy</application> is not automatically started at
1417 boot time by default. You can change this with the <literal>rc-update</literal>
1422 rc-update add privoxy default
1430 See the section <link linkend="cmdoptions">Command line options</link> for
1434 must find a better place for this paragraph
1437 The included default configuration files should give a reasonable starting
1438 point. Most of the per site configuration is done in the
1439 <ulink url="actions-file.html"><quote>actions</quote></ulink> files. These are
1440 where various cookie actions are defined, ad and banner blocking, and other
1441 aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. There are several
1442 such files included, with varying levels of aggressiveness.
1446 You will probably want to keep an eye out for sites for which you may prefer
1447 persistent cookies, and add these to your actions configuration as needed. By
1448 default, most of these will be accepted only during the current browser
1449 session (aka <quote>session cookies</quote>), unless you add them to the
1450 configuration. If you want the browser to handle this instead, you will need
1451 to edit <filename>user.action</filename> (or through the web based interface)
1452 and disable this feature. If you use more than one browser, it would make
1453 more sense to let <application>Privoxy</application> handle this. In which
1454 case, the browser(s) should be set to accept all cookies.
1458 Another feature where you will probably want to define exceptions for trusted
1459 sites is the popup-killing (through <ulink
1460 url="actions-file.html#FILTER-POPUPS"><quote>+filter{popups}</quote></ulink>),
1461 because your favorite shopping, banking, or leisure site may need
1462 popups (explained below).
1466 <application>Privoxy</application> does not support all of the optional HTTP/1.1
1467 features yet. In the unlikely event that you experience inexplicable problems
1468 with browsers that use HTTP/1.1 per default
1469 (like <application>Mozilla</application> or recent versions of I.E.), you might
1470 try to force HTTP/1.0 compatibility. For Mozilla, look under <literal>Edit ->
1471 Preferences -> Debug -> Networking</literal>.
1472 Alternatively, set the <quote>+downgrade-http-version</quote> config option in
1473 <filename>default.action</filename> which will downgrade your browser's HTTP
1474 requests from HTTP/1.1 to HTTP/1.0 before processing them.
1478 After running <application>Privoxy</application> for a while, you can
1479 start to fine tune the configuration to suit your personal, or site,
1480 preferences and requirements. There are many, many aspects that can
1481 be customized. <quote>Actions</quote>
1482 can be adjusted by pointing your browser to
1483 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
1484 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
1485 and then follow the link to <quote>View & Change the Current Configuration</quote>.
1486 (This is an internal page and does not require Internet access.)
1490 In fact, various aspects of <application>Privoxy</application>
1491 configuration can be viewed from this page, including
1492 current configuration parameters, source code version numbers,
1493 the browser's request headers, and <quote>actions</quote> that apply
1494 to a given URL. In addition to the actions file
1495 editor mentioned above, <application>Privoxy</application> can also
1496 be turned <quote>on</quote> and <quote>off</quote> (toggled) from this page.
1500 If you encounter problems, try loading the page without
1501 <application>Privoxy</application>. If that helps, enter the URL where
1502 you have the problems into <ulink url="http://p.p/show-url-info">the browser
1503 based rule tracing utility</ulink>. See which rules apply and why, and
1504 then try turning them off for that site one after the other, until the problem
1505 is gone. When you have found the culprit, you might want to turn the rest on
1510 If the above paragraph sounds gibberish to you, you might want to <link
1511 linkend="actions-file">read more about the actions concept</link>
1512 or even dive deep into the <link linkend="actionsanat">Appendix
1517 If you can't get rid of the problem at all, think you've found a bug in
1518 Privoxy, want to propose a new feature or smarter rules, please see the
1519 section <link linkend="contact"><quote>Contacting the
1520 Developers</quote></link> below.
1525 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1526 <sect2 id="cmdoptions">
1527 <title>Command Line Options</title>
1529 <application>Privoxy</application> may be invoked with the following
1530 command-line options:
1538 <emphasis>--version</emphasis>
1541 Print version info and exit. Unix only.
1546 <emphasis>--help</emphasis>
1549 Print short usage info and exit. Unix only.
1554 <emphasis>--no-daemon</emphasis>
1557 Don't become a daemon, i.e. don't fork and become process group
1558 leader, and don't detach from controlling tty. Unix only.
1563 <emphasis>--pidfile FILE</emphasis>
1566 On startup, write the process ID to <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>. Delete the
1567 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> on exit. Failure to create or delete the
1568 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> is non-fatal. If no <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>
1569 option is given, no PID file will be used. Unix only.
1574 <emphasis>--user USER[.GROUP]</emphasis>
1577 After (optionally) writing the PID file, assume the user ID of
1578 <emphasis>USER</emphasis>, and if included the GID of GROUP. Exit if the
1579 privileges are not sufficient to do so. Unix only.
1584 <emphasis>--chroot</emphasis>
1587 Before changing to the user ID given in the <emphasis>--user</emphasis> option,
1588 chroot to that user's home directory, i.e. make the kernel pretend to the &my-app;
1589 process that the directory tree starts there. If set up carefully, this can limit
1590 the impact of possible vulnerabilities in &my-app; to the files contained in that hierarchy.
1596 <emphasis>--pre-chroot-nslookup hostname</emphasis>
1599 Specifies a hostname to look up before doing a chroot. On some systems, initializing the
1600 resolver library involves reading config files from /etc and/or loading additional shared
1601 libraries from /lib. On these systems, doing a hostname lookup before the chroot reduces
1602 the number of files that must be copied into the chroot tree.
1605 For fastest startup speed, a good value is a hostname that is not in /etc/hosts but that
1606 your local name server (listed in /etc/resolv.conf) can resolve without recursion
1607 (that is, without having to ask any other name servers). The hostname need not exist,
1608 but if it doesn't, an error message (which can be ignored) will be output.
1614 <emphasis>configfile</emphasis>
1617 If no <emphasis>configfile</emphasis> is included on the command line,
1618 <application>Privoxy</application> will look for a file named
1619 <quote>config</quote> in the current directory (except on Win32
1620 where it will look for <quote>config.txt</quote> instead). Specify
1621 full path to avoid confusion. If no config file is found,
1622 <application>Privoxy</application> will fail to start.
1630 On <application>MS Windows</application> only there are two additional
1631 command-line options to allow <application>Privoxy</application> to install and
1632 run as a <emphasis>service</emphasis>. See the
1633 <link linkend="installation-pack-win">Window Installation section</link>
1641 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1644 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1645 <sect1 id="configuration"><title>Privoxy Configuration</title>
1647 All <application>Privoxy</application> configuration is stored
1648 in text files. These files can be edited with a text editor.
1649 Many important aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> can
1650 also be controlled easily with a web browser.
1654 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1657 <title>Controlling Privoxy with Your Web Browser</title>
1659 <application>Privoxy</application>'s user interface can be reached through the special
1660 URL <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
1661 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
1662 which is a built-in page and works without Internet access.
1663 You will see the following section:
1667 <!-- Needs to be put in a table and colorized -->
1670 <bridgehead renderas="sect2"> Privoxy Menu</bridgehead>
1674 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">View & change the current configuration</ulink>
1677 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-version">View the source code version numbers</ulink>
1680 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request">View the request headers.</ulink>
1683 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">Look up which actions apply to a URL and why</ulink>
1686 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">Toggle Privoxy on or off</ulink>
1689 ▪ <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/
1690 &p-version;/user-manual/">Documentation</ulink>
1698 This should be self-explanatory. Note the first item leads to an editor for the
1699 <link linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>, which is where the ad, banner,
1700 cookie, and URL blocking magic is configured as well as other advanced features of
1701 <application>Privoxy</application>. This is an easy way to adjust various
1702 aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. The actions
1703 file, and other configuration files, are explained in detail below.
1707 <quote>Toggle Privoxy On or Off</quote> is handy for sites that might
1708 have problems with your current actions and filters. You can in fact use
1709 it as a test to see whether it is <application>Privoxy</application>
1710 causing the problem or not. <application>Privoxy</application> continues
1711 to run as a proxy in this case, but all manipulation is disabled, i.e.
1712 <application>Privoxy</application> acts like a normal forwarding proxy. There
1713 is even a toggle <link linkend="bookmarklets">Bookmarklet</link> offered, so
1714 that you can toggle <application>Privoxy</application> with one click from
1719 Note that several of the features described above are disabled by default
1720 in <application>Privoxy</application> 3.0.7 beta and later.
1722 <ulink url="config.html">configuration file</ulink> to learn why
1723 and in which cases it's safe to enable them again.
1728 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1733 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1735 <sect2 id="confoverview">
1736 <title>Configuration Files Overview</title>
1738 For Unix, *BSD and Linux, all configuration files are located in
1739 <filename>/etc/privoxy/</filename> by default. For MS Windows, OS/2, and
1740 AmigaOS these are all in the same directory as the
1741 <application>Privoxy</application> executable. <![%p-not-stable;[ The name
1742 and number of configuration files has changed from previous versions, and is
1743 subject to change as development progresses.]]>
1747 The installed defaults provide a reasonable starting point, though
1748 some settings may be aggressive by some standards. For the time being, the
1749 principle configuration files are:
1757 The <link linkend="config">main configuration file</link> is named <filename>config</filename>
1758 on Linux, Unix, BSD, OS/2, and AmigaOS and <filename>config.txt</filename>
1759 on Windows. This is a required file.
1765 <filename>default.action</filename> (the main <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link>)
1766 is used to define which <quote>actions</quote> relating to banner-blocking, images, pop-ups,
1767 content modification, cookie handling etc should be applied by default. It also defines many
1768 exceptions (both positive and negative) from this default set of actions that enable
1769 <application>Privoxy</application> to selectively eliminate the junk, and only the junk, on
1770 as many websites as possible.
1773 Multiple actions files may be defined in <filename>config</filename>. These
1774 are processed in the order they are defined. Local customizations and locally
1775 preferred exceptions to the default policies as defined in
1776 <filename>default.action</filename> (which you will most probably want
1777 to define sooner or later) are probably best applied in
1778 <filename>user.action</filename>, where you can preserve them across
1779 upgrades. <filename>standard.action</filename> is only for
1780 <application>Privoxy's</application> internal use.
1783 There is also a web based editor that can be accessed from
1785 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
1787 url="http://p.p/show-status">http://p.p/show-status</ulink>) for the
1788 various actions files.
1794 <quote>Filter files</quote> (the <link linkend="filter-file">filter
1795 file</link>) can be used to re-write the raw page content, including
1796 viewable text as well as embedded HTML and JavaScript, and whatever else
1797 lurks on any given web page. The filtering jobs are only pre-defined here;
1798 whether to apply them or not is up to the actions files.
1799 <filename>default.filter</filename> includes various filters made
1800 available for use by the developers. Some are much more intrusive than
1801 others, and all should be used with caution. You may define additional
1802 filter files in <filename>config</filename> as you can with
1803 actions files. We suggest <filename>user.filter</filename> for any
1804 locally defined filters or customizations.
1812 The syntax of the configuration and filter files may change between different
1813 Privoxy versions, unfortunately some enhancements cost backwards compatibility.
1814 <!-- Add link to documentation-->
1818 All files use the <quote><literal>#</literal></quote> character to denote a
1819 comment (the rest of the line will be ignored) and understand line continuation
1820 through placing a backslash ("<literal>\</literal>") as the very last character
1821 in a line. If the <literal>#</literal> is preceded by a backslash, it looses
1822 its special function. Placing a <literal>#</literal> in front of an otherwise
1823 valid configuration line to prevent it from being interpreted is called "commenting
1824 out" that line. Blank lines are ignored.
1828 The actions files and filter files
1829 can use Perl style <link linkend="regex">regular expressions</link> for
1830 maximum flexibility.
1834 After making any changes, there is no need to restart
1835 <application>Privoxy</application> in order for the changes to take
1836 effect. <application>Privoxy</application> detects such changes
1837 automatically. Note, however, that it may take one or two additional
1838 requests for the change to take effect. When changing the listening address
1839 of <application>Privoxy</application>, these <quote>wake up</quote> requests
1840 must obviously be sent to the <emphasis>old</emphasis> listening address.
1845 While under development, the configuration content is subject to change.
1846 The below documentation may not be accurate by the time you read this.
1847 Also, what constitutes a <quote>default</quote> setting, may change, so
1848 please check all your configuration files on important issues.
1854 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1857 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
1859 <!-- **************************************************** -->
1860 <!-- Include config.sgml here -->
1861 <!-- This is where the entire config file is detailed. -->
1863 <!-- end include -->
1866 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1870 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
1872 <sect1 id="actions-file"><title>Actions Files</title>
1875 The actions files are used to define what <emphasis>actions</emphasis>
1876 <application>Privoxy</application> takes for which URLs, and thus determines
1877 how ad images, cookies and various other aspects of HTTP content and
1878 transactions are handled, and on which sites (or even parts thereof).
1879 There are a number of such actions, with a wide range of functionality.
1880 Each action does something a little different.
1881 These actions give us a veritable arsenal of tools with which to exert
1882 our control, preferences and independence. Actions can be combined so that
1883 their effects are aggregated when applied against a given set of URLs.
1887 are three action files included with <application>Privoxy</application> with
1895 <filename>default.action</filename> - is the primary action file
1896 that sets the initial values for all actions. It is intended to
1897 provide a base level of functionality for
1898 <application>Privoxy's</application> array of features. So it is
1899 a set of broad rules that should work reasonably well as-is for most users.
1900 This is the file that the developers are keeping updated, and <link
1901 linkend="installation-keepupdated">making available to users</link>.
1902 The user's preferences as set in <filename>standard.action</filename>,
1903 e.g. either <literal>Cautious</literal> (the default),
1904 <literal>Medium</literal>, or <literal>Advanced</literal> (see
1910 <filename>user.action</filename> - is intended to be for local site
1911 preferences and exceptions. As an example, if your ISP or your bank
1912 has specific requirements, and need special handling, this kind of
1913 thing should go here. This file will not be upgraded.
1918 <filename>standard.action</filename> - is used only by the web based editor
1919 at <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions-list?f=default">
1920 http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions-list?f=default</ulink>,
1921 to set various pre-defined sets of rules for the default actions section
1922 in <filename>default.action</filename>.
1925 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> <guibutton>Set to Cautious</guibutton> <guibutton>Set to Medium</guibutton> <guibutton>Set to Advanced</guibutton>
1928 These have increasing levels of aggressiveness <emphasis>and have no
1929 influence on your browsing unless you select them explicitly in the
1930 editor</emphasis>. A default installation should be pre-set to
1931 <literal>Cautious</literal> (versions prior to 3.0.5 were set to
1932 <literal>Medium</literal>). New users should try this for a while before
1933 adjusting the settings to more aggressive levels. The more aggressive
1934 the settings, then the more likelihood there is of problems such as sites
1935 not working as they should.
1938 The <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> button allows you to turn each
1939 action on/off individually for fine-tuning. The <guibutton>Cautious</guibutton>
1940 button changes the actions list to low/safe settings which will activate
1941 ad blocking and a minimal set of &my-app;'s features, and subsequently
1942 there will be less of a chance for accidental problems. The
1943 <guibutton>Medium</guibutton> button sets the list to a medium level of
1944 other features and a low level set of privacy features. The
1945 <guibutton>Advanced</guibutton> button sets the list to a high level of
1946 ad blocking and medium level of privacy. See the chart below. The latter
1947 three buttons over-ride any changes via with the
1948 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> button. More fine-tuning can be done in the
1949 lower sections of this internal page.
1952 It is not recommend to edit the <filename>standard.action</filename> file
1956 The default profiles, and their associated actions, as pre-defined in
1957 <filename>standard.action</filename> are<!-- different than this table which is out of date -->:
1960 <table frame=all><title>Default Configurations</title>
1961 <tgroup cols=4 align=left colsep=1 rowsep=1>
1962 <colspec colname=c1>
1963 <colspec colname=c2>
1964 <colspec colname=c3>
1965 <colspec colname=c4>
1968 <entry>Feature</entry>
1969 <entry>Cautious</entry>
1970 <entry>Medium</entry>
1971 <entry>Advanced</entry>
1976 <!-- <entry>f1</entry> -->
1977 <!-- <entry>f2</entry> -->
1978 <!-- <entry>f3</entry> -->
1979 <!-- <entry>f4</entry> -->
1985 <entry>Ad-blocking Aggressiveness</entry>
1986 <entry>medium</entry>
1992 <entry>Ad-filtering by size</entry>
1999 <entry>Ad-filtering by link</entry>
2005 <entry>Pop-up killing</entry>
2006 <entry>blocks only</entry>
2007 <entry>blocks only</entry>
2008 <entry>blocks only</entry>
2012 <entry>Privacy Features</entry>
2014 <entry>medium</entry>
2015 <entry>medium/high</entry>
2019 <entry>Cookie handling</entry>
2021 <entry>session-only</entry>
2026 <entry>Referer forging</entry>
2034 <entry>GIF de-animation</entry>
2042 <entry>Fast redirects</entry>
2049 <entry>HTML taming</entry>
2056 <entry>JavaScript taming</entry>
2063 <entry>Web-bug killing</entry>
2070 <entry>Image tag reordering</entry>
2086 The list of actions files to be used are defined in the main configuration
2087 file, and are processed in the order they are defined (e.g.
2088 <filename>default.action</filename> is typically processed before
2089 <filename>user.action</filename>). The content of these can all be viewed and
2091 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
2092 The over-riding principle when applying actions, is that the last action that
2093 matches a given URL wins. The broadest, most general rules go first
2094 (defined in <filename>default.action</filename>),
2095 followed by any exceptions (typically also in
2096 <filename>default.action</filename>), which are then followed lastly by any
2097 local preferences (typically in <emphasis>user</emphasis><filename>.action</filename>).
2098 Generally, <filename>user.action</filename> has the last word.
2102 An actions file typically has multiple sections. If you want to use
2103 <quote>aliases</quote> in an actions file, you have to place the (optional)
2104 <link linkend="aliases">alias section</link> at the top of that file.
2105 Then comes the default set of rules which will apply universally to all
2106 sites and pages (be <emphasis>very careful</emphasis> with using such a
2107 universal set in <filename>user.action</filename> or any other actions file after
2108 <filename>default.action</filename>, because it will override the result
2109 from consulting any previous file). And then below that,
2110 exceptions to the defined universal policies. You can regard
2111 <filename>user.action</filename> as an appendix to <filename>default.action</filename>,
2112 with the advantage that it is a separate file, which makes preserving your
2113 personal settings across <application>Privoxy</application> upgrades easier.
2117 Actions can be used to block anything you want, including ads, banners, or
2118 just some obnoxious URL whose content you would rather not see. Cookies can be accepted
2119 or rejected, or accepted only during the current browser session (i.e. not
2120 written to disk), content can be modified, some JavaScripts tamed, user-tracking
2121 fooled, and much more. See below for a <link linkend="actions">complete list
2125 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2127 <title>Finding the Right Mix</title>
2129 Note that some <link linkend="actions">actions</link>, like cookie suppression
2130 or script disabling, may render some sites unusable that rely on these
2131 techniques to work properly. Finding the right mix of actions is not always easy and
2132 certainly a matter of personal taste. And, things can always change, requiring
2133 refinements in the configuration. In general, it can be said that the more
2134 <quote>aggressive</quote> your default settings (in the top section of the
2135 actions file) are, the more exceptions for <quote>trusted</quote> sites you
2136 will have to make later. If, for example, you want to crunch all cookies per
2137 default, you'll have to make exceptions from that rule for sites that you
2138 regularly use and that require cookies for actually useful purposes, like maybe
2139 your bank, favorite shop, or newspaper.
2143 We have tried to provide you with reasonable rules to start from in the
2144 distribution actions files. But there is no general rule of thumb on these
2145 things. There just are too many variables, and sites are constantly changing.
2146 Sooner or later you will want to change the rules (and read this chapter again :).
2150 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2152 <title>How to Edit</title>
2154 The easiest way to edit the actions files is with a browser by
2155 using our browser-based editor, which can be reached from <ulink
2156 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
2157 Note: the config file option <link
2158 linkend="enable-edit-actions">enable-edit-actions</link> must be enabled for
2159 this to work. The editor allows both fine-grained control over every single
2160 feature on a per-URL basis, and easy choosing from wholesale sets of defaults
2161 like <quote>Cautious</quote>, <quote>Medium</quote> or
2162 <quote>Advanced</quote>. Warning: the <quote>Advanced</quote> setting is more
2163 aggressive, and will be more likely to cause problems for some sites.
2164 Experienced users only!
2168 If you prefer plain text editing to GUIs, you can of course also directly edit the
2169 the actions files with your favorite text editor. Look at
2170 <filename>default.action</filename> which is richly commented with many
2176 <sect2 id="actions-apply">
2177 <title>How Actions are Applied to Requests</title>
2179 Actions files are divided into sections. There are special sections,
2180 like the <quote><link linkend="aliases">alias</link></quote> sections which will
2181 be discussed later. For now let's concentrate on regular sections: They have a
2182 heading line (often split up to multiple lines for readability) which consist
2183 of a list of actions, separated by whitespace and enclosed in curly braces.
2184 Below that, there is a list of URL and tag patterns, each on a separate line.
2188 To determine which actions apply to a request, the URL of the request is
2189 compared to all URL patterns in each <quote>action file</quote>.
2190 Every time it matches, the list of applicable actions for the request is
2191 incrementally updated, using the heading of the section in which the
2192 pattern is located. The same is done again for tags and tag patterns later on.
2196 If multiple applying sections set the same action differently,
2197 the last match wins. If not, the effects are aggregated.
2198 E.g. a URL might match a regular section with a heading line of <literal>{
2199 +<link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link> }</literal>,
2200 then later another one with just <literal>{
2201 +<link linkend="block">block</link> }</literal>, resulting
2202 in <emphasis>both</emphasis> actions to apply. And there may well be
2203 cases where you will want to combine actions together. Such a section then
2209 { +<literal>handle-as-image</literal> +<literal>block{Banner ads.}</literal> }
2210 # Block these as if they were images. Send no block page.
2212 media.example.com/.*banners
2213 .example.com/images/ads/</screen>
2217 You can trace this process for URL patterns and any given URL by visiting <ulink
2218 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>.
2222 Examples and more detail on this is provided in the Appendix, <link linkend="ACTIONSANAT">
2223 Troubleshooting: Anatomy of an Action</link> section.
2227 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2228 <sect2 id="af-patterns">
2229 <title>Patterns</title>
2231 As mentioned, <application>Privoxy</application> uses <quote>patterns</quote>
2232 to determine what <emphasis>actions</emphasis> might apply to which sites and
2233 pages your browser attempts to access. These <quote>patterns</quote> use wild
2234 card type <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> matching to achieve a high degree of
2235 flexibility. This allows one expression to be expanded and potentially match
2236 against many similar patterns.
2240 Generally, an URL pattern has the form
2241 <literal><domain>/<path></literal>, where both the
2242 <literal><domain></literal> and <literal><path></literal> are
2243 optional. (This is why the special <literal>/</literal> pattern matches all
2244 URLs). Note that the protocol portion of the URL pattern (e.g.
2245 <literal>http://</literal>) should <emphasis>not</emphasis> be included in
2246 the pattern. This is assumed already!
2249 The pattern matching syntax is different for the domain and path parts of
2250 the URL. The domain part uses a simple globbing type matching technique,
2251 while the path part uses more flexible
2252 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
2253 Expressions</quote></ulink> (POSIX 1003.2).
2258 <term><literal>www.example.com/</literal></term>
2261 is a domain-only pattern and will match any request to <literal>www.example.com</literal>,
2262 regardless of which document on that server is requested. So ALL pages in
2263 this domain would be covered by the scope of this action. Note that a
2264 simple <literal>example.com</literal> is different and would NOT match.
2269 <term><literal>www.example.com</literal></term>
2272 means exactly the same. For domain-only patterns, the trailing <literal>/</literal> may
2278 <term><literal>www.example.com/index.html$</literal></term>
2281 matches all the documents on <literal>www.example.com</literal>
2282 whose name starts with <literal>/index.html</literal>.
2287 <term><literal>www.example.com/index.html$</literal></term>
2290 matches only the single document <literal>/index.html</literal>
2291 on <literal>www.example.com</literal>.
2296 <term><literal>/index.html$</literal></term>
2299 matches the document <literal>/index.html</literal>, regardless of the domain,
2300 i.e. on <emphasis>any</emphasis> web server anywhere.
2305 <term><literal>index.html</literal></term>
2308 matches nothing, since it would be interpreted as a domain name and
2309 there is no top-level domain called <literal>.html</literal>. So its
2317 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2318 <sect3><title>The Domain Pattern</title>
2321 The matching of the domain part offers some flexible options: if the
2322 domain starts or ends with a dot, it becomes unanchored at that end.
2328 <term><literal>.example.com</literal></term>
2331 matches any domain with first-level domain <literal>com</literal>
2332 and second-level domain <literal>example</literal>.
2333 For example <literal>www.example.com</literal>,
2334 <literal>example.com</literal> and <literal>foo.bar.baz.example.com</literal>.
2335 Note that it wouldn't match if the second-level domain was <literal>another-example</literal>.
2340 <term><literal>www.</literal></term>
2343 matches any domain that <emphasis>STARTS</emphasis> with
2344 <literal>www.</literal> (It also matches the domain
2345 <literal>www</literal> but most of the time that doesn't matter.)
2350 <term><literal>.example.</literal></term>
2353 matches any domain that <emphasis>CONTAINS</emphasis> <literal>.example.</literal>.
2354 And, by the way, also included would be any files or documents that exist
2355 within that domain since no path limitations are specified. (Correctly
2356 speaking: It matches any FQDN that contains <literal>example</literal> as
2357 a domain.) This might be <literal>www.example.com</literal>,
2358 <literal>news.example.de</literal>, or
2359 <literal>www.example.net/cgi/testing.pl</literal> for instance. All these
2367 Additionally, there are wild-cards that you can use in the domain names
2368 themselves. These work similarly to shell globbing type wild-cards:
2369 <quote>*</quote> represents zero or more arbitrary characters (this is
2371 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
2372 Expression</quote></ulink> based syntax of <quote>.*</quote>),
2373 <quote>?</quote> represents any single character (this is equivalent to the
2374 regular expression syntax of a simple <quote>.</quote>), and you can define
2375 <quote>character classes</quote> in square brackets which is similar to
2376 the same regular expression technique. All of this can be freely mixed:
2381 <term><literal>ad*.example.com</literal></term>
2384 matches <quote>adserver.example.com</quote>,
2385 <quote>ads.example.com</quote>, etc but not <quote>sfads.example.com</quote>
2390 <term><literal>*ad*.example.com</literal></term>
2393 matches all of the above, and then some.
2398 <term><literal>.?pix.com</literal></term>
2401 matches <literal>www.ipix.com</literal>,
2402 <literal>pictures.epix.com</literal>, <literal>a.b.c.d.e.upix.com</literal> etc.
2407 <term><literal>www[1-9a-ez].example.c*</literal></term>
2410 matches <literal>www1.example.com</literal>,
2411 <literal>www4.example.cc</literal>, <literal>wwwd.example.cy</literal>,
2412 <literal>wwwz.example.com</literal> etc., but <emphasis>not</emphasis>
2413 <literal>wwww.example.com</literal>.
2420 While flexible, this is not the sophistication of full regular expression based syntax.
2425 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2428 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2429 <sect3><title>The Path Pattern</title>
2432 <application>Privoxy</application> uses <quote>modern</quote> POSIX 1003.2
2433 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
2434 Expressions</quote></ulink> for matching the path portion (after the slash),
2435 and is thus more flexible.
2439 There is an <link linkend="regex">Appendix</link> with a brief quick-start into regular
2440 expressions, you also might want to have a look at your operating system's documentation
2441 on regular expressions (try <literal>man re_format</literal>).
2445 Note that the path pattern is automatically left-anchored at the <quote>/</quote>,
2446 i.e. it matches as if it would start with a <quote>^</quote> (regular expression speak
2447 for the beginning of a line).
2451 Please also note that matching in the path is <emphasis>CASE INSENSITIVE</emphasis>
2452 by default, but you can switch to case sensitive at any point in the pattern by using the
2453 <quote>(?-i)</quote> switch: <literal>www.example.com/(?-i)PaTtErN.*</literal> will match
2454 only documents whose path starts with <literal>PaTtErN</literal> in
2455 <emphasis>exactly</emphasis> this capitalization.
2460 <term><literal>.example.com/.*</literal></term>
2463 Is equivalent to just <quote>.example.com</quote>, since any documents
2464 within that domain are matched with or without the <quote>.*</quote>
2465 regular expression. This is redundant
2470 <term><literal>.example.com/.*/index.html$</literal></term>
2473 Will match any page in the domain of <quote>example.com</quote> that is
2474 named <quote>index.html</quote>, and that is part of some path. For
2475 example, it matches <quote>www.example.com/testing/index.html</quote> but
2476 NOT <quote>www.example.com/index.html</quote> because the regular
2477 expression called for at least two <quote>/'s</quote>, thus the path
2478 requirement. It also would match
2479 <quote>www.example.com/testing/index_html</quote>, because of the
2480 special meta-character <quote>.</quote>.
2485 <term><literal>.example.com/(.*/)?index\.html$</literal></term>
2488 This regular expression is conditional so it will match any page
2489 named <quote>index.html</quote> regardless of path which in this case can
2490 have one or more <quote>/'s</quote>. And this one must contain exactly
2491 <quote>.html</quote> (but does not have to end with that!).
2496 <term><literal>.example.com/(.*/)(ads|banners?|junk)</literal></term>
2499 This regular expression will match any path of <quote>example.com</quote>
2500 that contains any of the words <quote>ads</quote>, <quote>banner</quote>,
2501 <quote>banners</quote> (because of the <quote>?</quote>) or <quote>junk</quote>.
2502 The path does not have to end in these words, just contain them.
2507 <term><literal>.example.com/(.*/)(ads|banners?|junk)/.*\.(jpe?g|gif|png)$</literal></term>
2510 This is very much the same as above, except now it must end in either
2511 <quote>.jpg</quote>, <quote>.jpeg</quote>, <quote>.gif</quote> or <quote>.png</quote>. So this
2512 one is limited to common image formats.
2519 There are many, many good examples to be found in <filename>default.action</filename>,
2520 and more tutorials below in <link linkend="regex">Appendix on regular expressions</link>.
2525 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2528 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2529 <sect3 id="tag-pattern"><title>The Tag Pattern</title>
2532 Tag patterns are used to change the applying actions based on the
2533 request's tags. Tags can be created with either the
2534 <link linkend="CLIENT-HEADER-TAGGER">client-header-tagger</link>
2535 or the <link linkend="SERVER-HEADER-TAGGER">server-header-tagger</link> action.
2539 Tag patterns have to start with <quote>TAG:</quote>, so &my-app;
2540 can tell them apart from URL patterns. Everything after the colon
2541 including white space, is interpreted as a regular expression with
2542 path pattern syntax, except that tag patterns aren't left-anchored
2543 automatically (&my-app; doesn't silently add a <quote>^</quote>,
2544 you have to do it yourself if you need it).
2548 To match all requests that are tagged with <quote>foo</quote>
2549 your pattern line should be <quote>TAG:^foo$</quote>,
2550 <quote>TAG:foo</quote> would work as well, but it would also
2551 match requests whose tags contain <quote>foo</quote> somewhere.
2552 <quote>TAG: foo</quote> wouldn't work as it requires white space.
2556 Sections can contain URL and tag patterns at the same time,
2557 but tag patterns are checked after the URL patterns and thus
2558 always overrule them, even if they are located before the URL patterns.
2562 Once a new tag is added, Privoxy checks right away if it's matched by one
2563 of the tag patterns and updates the action settings accordingly. As a result
2564 tags can be used to activate other tagger actions, as long as these other
2565 taggers look for headers that haven't already be parsed.
2569 For example you could tag client requests which use the
2570 <literal>POST</literal> method,
2571 then use this tag to activate another tagger that adds a tag if cookies
2572 are sent, and then use a block action based on the cookie tag. This allows
2573 the outcome of one action, to be input into a subsequent action. However if
2574 you'd reverse the position of the described taggers, and activated the
2575 method tagger based on the cookie tagger, no method tags would be created.
2576 The method tagger would look for the request line, but at the time
2577 the cookie tag is created, the request line has already been parsed.
2581 While this is a limitation you should be aware of, this kind of
2582 indirection is seldom needed anyway and even the example doesn't
2583 make too much sense.
2590 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2593 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2595 <sect2 id="actions">
2596 <title>Actions</title>
2598 All actions are disabled by default, until they are explicitly enabled
2599 somewhere in an actions file. Actions are turned on if preceded with a
2600 <quote>+</quote>, and turned off if preceded with a <quote>-</quote>. So a
2601 <literal>+action</literal> means <quote>do that action</quote>, e.g.
2602 <literal>+block</literal> means <quote>please block URLs that match the
2603 following patterns</quote>, and <literal>-block</literal> means <quote>don't
2604 block URLs that match the following patterns, even if <literal>+block</literal>
2605 previously applied.</quote>
2610 Again, actions are invoked by placing them on a line, enclosed in curly braces and
2611 separated by whitespace, like in
2612 <literal>{+some-action -some-other-action{some-parameter}}</literal>,
2613 followed by a list of URL patterns, one per line, to which they apply.
2614 Together, the actions line and the following pattern lines make up a section
2615 of the actions file.
2619 Actions fall into three categories:
2626 Boolean, i.e the action can only be <quote>enabled</quote> or
2627 <quote>disabled</quote>. Syntax:
2631 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # enable action <replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable>
2632 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # disable action <replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable></screen>
2635 Example: <literal>+handle-as-image</literal>
2642 Parameterized, where some value is required in order to enable this type of action.
2647 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # enable action and set parameter to <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>,
2648 # overwriting parameter from previous match if necessary
2649 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # disable action. The parameter can be omitted</screen>
2652 Note that if the URL matches multiple positive forms of a parameterized action,
2653 the last match wins, i.e. the params from earlier matches are simply ignored.
2656 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>
2662 Multi-value. These look exactly like parameterized actions,
2663 but they behave differently: If the action applies multiple times to the
2664 same URL, but with different parameters, <emphasis>all</emphasis> the parameters
2665 from <emphasis>all</emphasis> matches are remembered. This is used for actions
2666 that can be executed for the same request repeatedly, like adding multiple
2667 headers, or filtering through multiple filters. Syntax:
2671 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # enable action and add <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable> to the list of parameters
2672 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # remove the parameter <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable> from the list of parameters
2673 # If it was the last one left, disable the action.
2674 <replaceable class="parameter">-name</replaceable> # disable this action completely and remove all parameters from the list</screen>
2677 Examples: <literal>+add-header{X-Fun-Header: Some text}</literal> and
2678 <literal>+filter{html-annoyances}</literal>
2686 If nothing is specified in any actions file, no <quote>actions</quote> are
2687 taken. So in this case <application>Privoxy</application> would just be a
2688 normal, non-blocking, non-filtering proxy. You must specifically enable the
2689 privacy and blocking features you need (although the provided default actions
2690 files will give a good starting point).
2694 Later defined action sections always over-ride earlier ones of the same type.
2695 So exceptions to any rules you make, should come in the latter part of the file (or
2696 in a file that is processed later when using multiple actions files such
2697 as <filename>user.action</filename>). For multi-valued actions, the actions
2698 are applied in the order they are specified. Actions files are processed in
2699 the order they are defined in <filename>config</filename> (the default
2700 installation has three actions files). It also quite possible for any given
2701 URL to match more than one <quote>pattern</quote> (because of wildcards and
2702 regular expressions), and thus to trigger more than one set of actions! Last
2706 <!-- start actions listing -->
2708 The list of valid <application>Privoxy</application> actions are:
2712 <!-- ********************************************************** -->
2713 <!-- Please note the below defined actions use id's that are -->
2714 <!-- probably linked from other places, so please don't change. -->
2716 <!-- ********************************************************** -->
2719 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2721 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="add-header">
2722 <title>add-header</title>
2726 <term>Typical use:</term>
2728 <para>Confuse log analysis, custom applications</para>
2733 <term>Effect:</term>
2736 Sends a user defined HTTP header to the web server.
2743 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2745 <para>Multi-value.</para>
2750 <term>Parameter:</term>
2753 Any string value is possible. Validity of the defined HTTP headers is not checked.
2754 It is recommended that you use the <quote><literal>X-</literal></quote> prefix
2764 This action may be specified multiple times, in order to define multiple
2765 headers. This is rarely needed for the typical user. If you don't know what
2766 <quote>HTTP headers</quote> are, you definitely don't need to worry about this
2773 <term>Example usage:</term>
2776 <screen>+add-header{X-User-Tracking: sucks}</screen>
2784 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2785 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="block">
2786 <title>block</title>
2790 <term>Typical use:</term>
2792 <para>Block ads or other unwanted content</para>
2797 <term>Effect:</term>
2800 Requests for URLs to which this action applies are blocked, i.e. the
2801 requests are trapped by &my-app; and the requested URL is never retrieved,
2802 but is answered locally with a substitute page or image, as determined by
2804 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>,
2806 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>, and
2808 linkend="handle-as-empty-document">handle-as-empty-document</link></literal> actions.
2816 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2818 <para>Parameterized.</para>
2823 <term>Parameter:</term>
2825 <para>A block reason that should be given to the user.</para>
2833 <application>Privoxy</application> sends a special <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page
2834 for requests to blocked pages. This page contains the block reason given as
2835 parameter, a link to find out why the block action applies, and a click-through
2836 to the blocked content (the latter only if the force feature is available and
2840 This doesn't actually work in all browser configuration and the user probably doesn't care anyway.
2842 The <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page adapts to the available
2843 screen space -- it displays full-blown if space allows, or miniaturized and text-only
2844 if loaded into a small frame or window. If you are using <application>Privoxy</application>
2845 right now, you can take a look at the
2846 <ulink url="http://ads.bannerserver.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor.html"><quote>BLOCKED</quote>
2851 A very important exception occurs if <emphasis>both</emphasis>
2852 <literal>block</literal> and <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>,
2853 apply to the same request: it will then be replaced by an image. If
2854 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>
2855 (see below) also applies, the type of image will be determined by its parameter,
2856 if not, the standard checkerboard pattern is sent.
2859 It is important to understand this process, in order
2860 to understand how <application>Privoxy</application> deals with
2861 ads and other unwanted content. Blocking is a core feature, and one
2862 upon which various other features depend.
2865 The <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>
2866 action can perform a very similar task, by <quote>blocking</quote>
2867 banner images and other content through rewriting the relevant URLs in the
2868 document's HTML source, so they don't get requested in the first place.
2869 Note that this is a totally different technique, and it's easy to confuse the two.
2875 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
2878 <screen>{+block{No nasty stuff for you.}}
2879 # Block and replace with "blocked" page
2880 .nasty-stuff.example.com
2882 {+block{Doubleclick banners.} +handle-as-image}
2883 # Block and replace with image
2887 {+block{Layered ads.} +handle-as-empty-document}
2888 # Block and then ignore
2889 adserver.example.net/.*\.js$</screen>
2899 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2900 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="client-header-filter">
2901 <title>client-header-filter</title>
2905 <term>Typical use:</term>
2908 Rewrite or remove single client headers.
2914 <term>Effect:</term>
2917 All client headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly through
2918 the specified regular expression based substitutions.
2925 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2927 <para>Parameterized.</para>
2932 <term>Parameter:</term>
2935 The name of a client-header filter, as defined in one of the
2936 <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link>.
2945 Client-header filters are applied to each header on its own, not to
2946 all at once. This makes it easier to diagnose problems, but on the downside
2947 you can't write filters that only change header x if header y's value is z.
2948 You can do that by using tags though.
2951 Client-header filters are executed after the other header actions have finished
2952 and use their output as input.
2955 If the request URL gets changed, &my-app; will detect that and use the new
2956 one. This can be used to rewrite the request destination behind the client's
2957 back, for example to specify a Tor exit relay for certain requests.
2960 Please refer to the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file chapter</link>
2961 to learn which client-header filters are available by default, and how to
2969 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
2973 # Hide Tor exit notation in Host and Referer Headers
2974 {+client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation}}
2985 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2986 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="client-header-tagger">
2987 <title>client-header-tagger</title>
2991 <term>Typical use:</term>
2994 Block requests based on their headers.
3000 <term>Effect:</term>
3003 Client headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly through
3004 the specified regular expression based substitutions, the result is used as
3012 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3014 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3019 <term>Parameter:</term>
3022 The name of a client-header tagger, as defined in one of the
3023 <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link>.
3032 Client-header taggers are applied to each header on its own,
3033 and as the header isn't modified, each tagger <quote>sees</quote>
3037 Client-header taggers are the first actions that are executed
3038 and their tags can be used to control every other action.
3044 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3048 # Tag every request with the User-Agent header
3049 {+client-header-tagger{user-agent}}
3052 # Tagging itself doesn't change the action
3053 # settings, sections with TAG patterns do:
3055 # If it's a download agent, use a different forwarding proxy,
3056 # show the real User-Agent and make sure resume works.
3057 {+forward-override{forward-socks5 10.0.0.2:2222 .} \
3058 -hide-if-modified-since \
3059 -overwrite-last-modified \
3064 TAG:^User-Agent: NetBSD-ftp/
3065 TAG:^User-Agent: Novell ZYPP Installer
3066 TAG:^User-Agent: RPM APT-HTTP/
3067 TAG:^User-Agent: fetch libfetch/
3068 TAG:^User-Agent: Ubuntu APT-HTTP/
3069 TAG:^User-Agent: MPlayer/
3079 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3080 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="content-type-overwrite">
3081 <title>content-type-overwrite</title>
3085 <term>Typical use:</term>
3087 <para>Stop useless download menus from popping up, or change the browser's rendering mode</para>
3092 <term>Effect:</term>
3095 Replaces the <quote>Content-Type:</quote> HTTP server header.
3102 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3104 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3109 <term>Parameter:</term>
3121 The <quote>Content-Type:</quote> HTTP server header is used by the
3122 browser to decide what to do with the document. The value of this
3123 header can cause the browser to open a download menu instead of
3124 displaying the document by itself, even if the document's format is
3125 supported by the browser.
3128 The declared content type can also affect which rendering mode
3129 the browser chooses. If XHTML is delivered as <quote>text/html</quote>,
3130 many browsers treat it as yet another broken HTML document.
3131 If it is send as <quote>application/xml</quote>, browsers with
3132 XHTML support will only display it, if the syntax is correct.
3135 If you see a web site that proudly uses XHTML buttons, but sets
3136 <quote>Content-Type: text/html</quote>, you can use &my-app;
3137 to overwrite it with <quote>application/xml</quote> and validate
3138 the web master's claim inside your XHTML-supporting browser.
3139 If the syntax is incorrect, the browser will complain loudly.
3142 You can also go the opposite direction: if your browser prints
3143 error messages instead of rendering a document falsely declared
3144 as XHTML, you can overwrite the content type with
3145 <quote>text/html</quote> and have it rendered as broken HTML document.
3148 By default <literal>content-type-overwrite</literal> only replaces
3149 <quote>Content-Type:</quote> headers that look like some kind of text.
3150 If you want to overwrite it unconditionally, you have to combine it with
3151 <literal><link linkend="force-text-mode">force-text-mode</link></literal>.
3152 This limitation exists for a reason, think twice before circumventing it.
3155 Most of the time it's easier to replace this action with a custom
3156 <literal><link linkend="server-header-filter">server-header filter</link></literal>.
3157 It allows you to activate it for every document of a certain site and it will still
3158 only replace the content types you aimed at.
3161 Of course you can apply <literal>content-type-overwrite</literal>
3162 to a whole site and then make URL based exceptions, but it's a lot
3163 more work to get the same precision.
3169 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
3172 <screen># Check if www.example.net/ really uses valid XHTML
3173 { +content-type-overwrite{application/xml} }
3176 # but leave the content type unmodified if the URL looks like a style sheet
3177 {-content-type-overwrite}
3178 www.example.net/.*\.css$
3179 www.example.net/.*style
3188 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3189 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-client-header">
3193 <title>crunch-client-header</title>
3197 <term>Typical use:</term>
3199 <para>Remove a client header <application>Privoxy</application> has no dedicated action for.</para>
3204 <term>Effect:</term>
3207 Deletes every header sent by the client that contains the string the user supplied as parameter.
3214 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3216 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3221 <term>Parameter:</term>
3233 This action allows you to block client headers for which no dedicated
3234 <application>Privoxy</application> action exists.
3235 <application>Privoxy</application> will remove every client header that
3236 contains the string you supplied as parameter.
3239 Regular expressions are <emphasis>not supported</emphasis> and you can't
3240 use this action to block different headers in the same request, unless
3241 they contain the same string.
3244 <literal>crunch-client-header</literal> is only meant for quick tests.
3245 If you have to block several different headers, or only want to modify
3246 parts of them, you should use a
3247 <literal><link linkend="client-header-filter">client-header filter</link></literal>.
3251 Don't block any header without understanding the consequences.
3258 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3261 <screen># Block the non-existent "Privacy-Violation:" client header
3262 { +crunch-client-header{Privacy-Violation:} }
3272 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3273 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-if-none-match">
3274 <title>crunch-if-none-match</title>
3280 <term>Typical use:</term>
3282 <para>Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.</para>
3287 <term>Effect:</term>
3290 Deletes the <quote>If-None-Match:</quote> HTTP client header.
3297 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3299 <para>Boolean.</para>
3304 <term>Parameter:</term>
3316 Removing the <quote>If-None-Match:</quote> HTTP client header
3317 is useful for filter testing, where you want to force a real
3318 reload instead of getting status code <quote>304</quote> which
3319 would cause the browser to use a cached copy of the page.
3322 It is also useful to make sure the header isn't used as a cookie
3323 replacement (unlikely but possible).
3326 Blocking the <quote>If-None-Match:</quote> header shouldn't cause any
3327 caching problems, as long as the <quote>If-Modified-Since:</quote> header
3328 isn't blocked or missing as well.
3331 It is recommended to use this action together with
3332 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hide-if-modified-since</link></literal>
3334 <literal><link linkend="overwrite-last-modified">overwrite-last-modified</link></literal>.
3340 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3343 <screen># Let the browser revalidate cached documents but don't
3344 # allow the server to use the revalidation headers for user tracking.
3345 {+hide-if-modified-since{-60} \
3346 +overwrite-last-modified{randomize} \
3347 +crunch-if-none-match}
3356 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3357 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-incoming-cookies">
3358 <title>crunch-incoming-cookies</title>
3362 <term>Typical use:</term>
3365 Prevent the web server from setting HTTP cookies on your system
3371 <term>Effect:</term>
3374 Deletes any <quote>Set-Cookie:</quote> HTTP headers from server replies.
3381 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3383 <para>Boolean.</para>
3388 <term>Parameter:</term>
3400 This action is only concerned with <emphasis>incoming</emphasis> HTTP cookies. For
3401 <emphasis>outgoing</emphasis> HTTP cookies, use
3402 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>.
3403 Use <emphasis>both</emphasis> to disable HTTP cookies completely.
3406 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use this action in conjunction
3407 with the <literal><link linkend="session-cookies-only">session-cookies-only</link></literal> action,
3408 since it would prevent the session cookies from being set. See also
3409 <literal><link linkend="filter-content-cookies">filter-content-cookies</link></literal>.
3415 <term>Example usage:</term>
3418 <screen>+crunch-incoming-cookies</screen>
3426 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3427 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-server-header">
3428 <title>crunch-server-header</title>
3434 <term>Typical use:</term>
3436 <para>Remove a server header <application>Privoxy</application> has no dedicated action for.</para>
3441 <term>Effect:</term>
3444 Deletes every header sent by the server that contains the string the user supplied as parameter.
3451 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3453 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3458 <term>Parameter:</term>
3470 This action allows you to block server headers for which no dedicated
3471 <application>Privoxy</application> action exists. <application>Privoxy</application>
3472 will remove every server header that contains the string you supplied as parameter.
3475 Regular expressions are <emphasis>not supported</emphasis> and you can't
3476 use this action to block different headers in the same request, unless
3477 they contain the same string.
3480 <literal>crunch-server-header</literal> is only meant for quick tests.
3481 If you have to block several different headers, or only want to modify
3482 parts of them, you should use a custom
3483 <literal><link linkend="server-header-filter">server-header filter</link></literal>.
3487 Don't block any header without understanding the consequences.
3494 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3497 <screen># Crunch server headers that try to prevent caching
3498 { +crunch-server-header{no-cache} }
3507 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3508 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-outgoing-cookies">
3509 <title>crunch-outgoing-cookies</title>
3513 <term>Typical use:</term>
3516 Prevent the web server from reading any HTTP cookies from your system
3522 <term>Effect:</term>
3525 Deletes any <quote>Cookie:</quote> HTTP headers from client requests.
3532 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3534 <para>Boolean.</para>
3539 <term>Parameter:</term>
3551 This action is only concerned with <emphasis>outgoing</emphasis> HTTP cookies. For
3552 <emphasis>incoming</emphasis> HTTP cookies, use
3553 <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal>.
3554 Use <emphasis>both</emphasis> to disable HTTP cookies completely.
3557 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use this action in conjunction
3558 with the <literal><link linkend="session-cookies-only">session-cookies-only</link></literal> action,
3559 since it would prevent the session cookies from being read.
3565 <term>Example usage:</term>
3568 <screen>+crunch-outgoing-cookies</screen>
3577 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3578 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="deanimate-gifs">
3579 <title>deanimate-gifs</title>
3583 <term>Typical use:</term>
3585 <para>Stop those annoying, distracting animated GIF images.</para>
3590 <term>Effect:</term>
3593 De-animate GIF animations, i.e. reduce them to their first or last image.
3600 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3602 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3607 <term>Parameter:</term>
3610 <quote>last</quote> or <quote>first</quote>
3619 This will also shrink the images considerably (in bytes, not pixels!). If
3620 the option <quote>first</quote> is given, the first frame of the animation
3621 is used as the replacement. If <quote>last</quote> is given, the last
3622 frame of the animation is used instead, which probably makes more sense for
3623 most banner animations, but also has the risk of not showing the entire
3624 last frame (if it is only a delta to an earlier frame).
3627 You can safely use this action with patterns that will also match non-GIF
3628 objects, because no attempt will be made at anything that doesn't look like
3635 <term>Example usage:</term>
3638 <screen>+deanimate-gifs{last}</screen>
3645 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3646 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="downgrade-http-version">
3647 <title>downgrade-http-version</title>
3651 <term>Typical use:</term>
3653 <para>Work around (very rare) problems with HTTP/1.1</para>
3658 <term>Effect:</term>
3661 Downgrades HTTP/1.1 client requests and server replies to HTTP/1.0.
3668 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3670 <para>Boolean.</para>
3675 <term>Parameter:</term>
3687 This is a left-over from the time when <application>Privoxy</application>
3688 didn't support important HTTP/1.1 features well. It is left here for the
3689 unlikely case that you experience HTTP/1.1 related problems with some server
3690 out there. Not all HTTP/1.1 features and requirements are supported yet,
3691 so there is a chance you might need this action.
3697 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3700 <screen>{+downgrade-http-version}
3701 problem-host.example.com</screen>
3709 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3710 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="fast-redirects">
3711 <title>fast-redirects</title>
3715 <term>Typical use:</term>
3717 <para>Fool some click-tracking scripts and speed up indirect links.</para>
3722 <term>Effect:</term>
3725 Detects redirection URLs and redirects the browser without contacting
3726 the redirection server first.
3733 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3735 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3740 <term>Parameter:</term>
3745 <quote>simple-check</quote> to just search for the string <quote>http://</quote>
3746 to detect redirection URLs.
3751 <quote>check-decoded-url</quote> to decode URLs (if necessary) before searching
3752 for redirection URLs.
3763 Many sites, like yahoo.com, don't just link to other sites. Instead, they
3764 will link to some script on their own servers, giving the destination as a
3765 parameter, which will then redirect you to the final target. URLs
3766 resulting from this scheme typically look like:
3767 <quote>http://www.example.org/click-tracker.cgi?target=http%3a//www.example.net/</quote>.
3770 Sometimes, there are even multiple consecutive redirects encoded in the
3771 URL. These redirections via scripts make your web browsing more traceable,
3772 since the server from which you follow such a link can see where you go
3773 to. Apart from that, valuable bandwidth and time is wasted, while your
3774 browser asks the server for one redirect after the other. Plus, it feeds
3778 This feature is currently not very smart and is scheduled for improvement.
3779 If it is enabled by default, you will have to create some exceptions to
3780 this action. It can lead to failures in several ways:
3783 Not every URLs with other URLs as parameters is evil.
3784 Some sites offer a real service that requires this information to work.
3785 For example a validation service needs to know, which document to validate.
3786 <literal>fast-redirects</literal> assumes that every URL parameter that
3787 looks like another URL is a redirection target, and will always redirect to
3788 the last one. Most of the time the assumption is correct, but if it isn't,
3789 the user gets redirected anyway.
3792 Another failure occurs if the URL contains other parameters after the URL parameter.
3794 <quote>http://www.example.org/?redirect=http%3a//www.example.net/&foo=bar</quote>.
3795 contains the redirection URL <quote>http://www.example.net/</quote>,
3796 followed by another parameter. <literal>fast-redirects</literal> doesn't know that
3797 and will cause a redirect to <quote>http://www.example.net/&foo=bar</quote>.
3798 Depending on the target server configuration, the parameter will be silently ignored
3799 or lead to a <quote>page not found</quote> error. You can prevent this problem by
3800 first using the <literal><link linkend="redirect">redirect</link></literal> action
3801 to remove the last part of the URL, but it requires a little effort.
3804 To detect a redirection URL, <literal>fast-redirects</literal> only
3805 looks for the string <quote>http://</quote>, either in plain text
3806 (invalid but often used) or encoded as <quote>http%3a//</quote>.
3807 Some sites use their own URL encoding scheme, encrypt the address
3808 of the target server or replace it with a database id. In theses cases
3809 <literal>fast-redirects</literal> is fooled and the request reaches the
3810 redirection server where it probably gets logged.
3816 <term>Example usage:</term>
3820 { +fast-redirects{simple-check} }
3823 { +fast-redirects{check-decoded-url} }
3824 another.example.com/testing</screen>
3833 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3834 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="filter">
3835 <title>filter</title>
3839 <term>Typical use:</term>
3841 <para>Get rid of HTML and JavaScript annoyances, banner advertisements (by size),
3842 do fun text replacements, add personalized effects, etc.</para>
3847 <term>Effect:</term>
3850 All instances of text-based type, most notably HTML and JavaScript, to which
3851 this action applies, can be filtered on-the-fly through the specified regular
3852 expression based substitutions. (Note: as of version 3.0.3 plain text documents
3853 are exempted from filtering, because web servers often use the
3854 <literal>text/plain</literal> MIME type for all files whose type they don't know.)
3861 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3863 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3868 <term>Parameter:</term>
3871 The name of a content filter, as defined in the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file</link>.
3872 Filters can be defined in one or more files as defined by the
3873 <literal><link linkend="filterfile">filterfile</link></literal>
3874 option in the <link linkend="config">config file</link>.
3875 <filename>default.filter</filename> is the collection of filters
3876 supplied by the developers. Locally defined filters should go
3877 in their own file, such as <filename>user.filter</filename>.
3880 When used in its negative form,
3881 and without parameters, <emphasis>all</emphasis> filtering is completely disabled.
3890 For your convenience, there are a number of pre-defined filters available
3891 in the distribution filter file that you can use. See the examples below for
3895 Filtering requires buffering the page content, which may appear to
3896 slow down page rendering since nothing is displayed until all content has
3897 passed the filters. (It does not really take longer, but seems that way
3898 since the page is not incrementally displayed.) This effect will be more
3899 noticeable on slower connections.
3902 <quote>Rolling your own</quote>
3903 filters requires a knowledge of
3904 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
3905 Expressions</quote></ulink> and
3906 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Html"><quote>HTML</quote></ulink>.
3907 This is very powerful feature, and potentially very intrusive.
3908 Filters should be used with caution, and where an equivalent
3909 <quote>action</quote> is not available.
3912 The amount of data that can be filtered is limited to the
3913 <literal><link linkend="buffer-limit">buffer-limit</link></literal>
3914 option in the main <link linkend="config">config file</link>. The
3915 default is 4096 KB (4 Megs). Once this limit is exceeded, the buffered
3916 data, and all pending data, is passed through unfiltered.
3919 Inappropriate MIME types, such as zipped files, are not filtered at all.
3920 (Again, only text-based types except plain text). Encrypted SSL data
3921 (from HTTPS servers) cannot be filtered either, since this would violate
3922 the integrity of the secure transaction. In some situations it might
3923 be necessary to protect certain text, like source code, from filtering
3924 by defining appropriate <literal>-filter</literal> exceptions.
3927 Compressed content can't be filtered either, unless &my-app;
3928 is compiled with zlib support (requires at least &my-app; 3.0.7),
3929 in which case &my-app; will decompress the content before filtering
3933 If you use a &my-app; version without zlib support, but want filtering to work on
3934 as much documents as possible, even those that would normally be sent compressed,
3935 you must use the <literal><link linkend="prevent-compression">prevent-compression</link></literal>
3936 action in conjunction with <literal>filter</literal>.
3939 Content filtering can achieve some of the same effects as the
3940 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>
3941 action, i.e. it can be used to block ads and banners. But the mechanism
3942 works quite differently. One effective use, is to block ad banners
3943 based on their size (see below), since many of these seem to be somewhat
3947 <link linkend="contact">Feedback</link> with suggestions for new or
3948 improved filters is particularly welcome!
3951 The below list has only the names and a one-line description of each
3952 predefined filter. There are <link linkend="predefined-filters">more
3953 verbose explanations</link> of what these filters do in the <link
3954 linkend="filter-file">filter file chapter</link>.
3960 <term>Example usage (with filters from the distribution <filename>default.filter</filename> file).
3961 See <link linkend="PREDEFINED-FILTERS">the Predefined Filters section</link> for
3962 more explanation on each:</term>
3965 <anchor id="filter-js-annoyances">
3966 <screen>+filter{js-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse.</screen>
3969 <anchor id="filter-js-events">
3970 <screen>+filter{js-events} # Kill all JS event bindings and timers (Radically destructive! Only for extra nasty sites).</screen>
3973 <anchor id="filter-html-annoyances">
3974 <screen>+filter{html-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying HTML abuse.</screen>
3977 <anchor id="filter-content-cookies">
3978 <screen>+filter{content-cookies} # Kill cookies that come in the HTML or JS content.</screen>
3981 <anchor id="filter-refresh-tags">
3982 <screen>+filter{refresh-tags} # Kill automatic refresh tags (for dial-on-demand setups).</screen>
3985 <anchor id="filter-unsolicited-popups">
3986 <screen>+filter{unsolicited-popups} # Disable only unsolicited pop-up windows. Useful if your browser lacks this ability.</screen>
3989 <anchor id="filter-all-popups">
3990 <screen>+filter{all-popups} # Kill all popups in JavaScript and HTML. Useful if your browser lacks this ability.</screen>
3993 <anchor id="filter-img-reorder">
3994 <screen>+filter{img-reorder} # Reorder attributes in <img> tags to make the banners-by-* filters more effective.</screen>
3997 <anchor id="filter-banners-by-size">
3998 <screen>+filter{banners-by-size} # Kill banners by size.</screen>
4001 <anchor id="filter-banners-by-link">
4002 <screen>+filter{banners-by-link} # Kill banners by their links to known clicktrackers.</screen>
4005 <anchor id="filter-webbugs">
4006 <screen>+filter{webbugs} # Squish WebBugs (1x1 invisible GIFs used for user tracking).</screen>
4009 <anchor id="filter-tiny-textforms">
4010 <screen>+filter{tiny-textforms} # Extend those tiny textareas up to 40x80 and kill the hard wrap.</screen>
4013 <anchor id="filter-jumping-windows">
4014 <screen>+filter{jumping-windows} # Prevent windows from resizing and moving themselves.</screen>
4017 <anchor id="filter-frameset-borders">
4018 <screen>+filter{frameset-borders} # Give frames a border and make them resizable.</screen>
4021 <anchor id="filter-demoronizer">
4022 <screen>+filter{demoronizer} # Fix MS's non-standard use of standard charsets.</screen>
4025 <anchor id="filter-shockwave-flash">
4026 <screen>+filter{shockwave-flash} # Kill embedded Shockwave Flash objects.</screen>
4029 <anchor id="filter-quicktime-kioskmode">
4030 <screen>+filter{quicktime-kioskmode} # Make Quicktime movies saveable.</screen>
4033 <anchor id="filter-fun">
4034 <screen>+filter{fun} # Text replacements for subversive browsing fun!</screen>
4037 <anchor id="filter-crude-parental">
4038 <screen>+filter{crude-parental} # Crude parental filtering. Note that this filter doesn't work reliable.</screen>
4041 <anchor id="filter-ie-exploits">
4042 <screen>+filter{ie-exploits} # Disable some known Internet Explorer bug exploits.</screen>
4045 <anchor id="filter-site-specifics">
4046 <screen>+filter{site-specifics} # Cure for site-specific problems. Don't apply generally!</screen>
4049 <anchor id="filter-no-ping">
4050 <screen>+filter{no-ping} # Removes non-standard ping attributes in <a> and <area> tags.</screen>
4053 <anchor id="filter-google">
4054 <screen>+filter{google} # CSS-based block for Google text ads. Also removes a width limitation and the toolbar advertisement.</screen>
4057 <anchor id="filter-yahoo">
4058 <screen>+filter{yahoo} # CSS-based block for Yahoo text ads. Also removes a width limitation.</screen>
4061 <anchor id="filter-msn">
4062 <screen>+filter{msn} # CSS-based block for MSN text ads. Also removes tracking URLs and a width limitation.</screen>
4065 <anchor id="filter-blogspot">
4066 <screen>+filter{blogspot} # Cleans up some Blogspot blogs. Read the fine print before using this.</screen>
4074 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4075 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="force-text-mode">
4076 <title>force-text-mode</title>
4082 <term>Typical use:</term>
4084 <para>Force <application>Privoxy</application> to treat a document as if it was in some kind of <emphasis>text</emphasis> format. </para>
4089 <term>Effect:</term>
4092 Declares a document as text, even if the <quote>Content-Type:</quote> isn't detected as such.
4099 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4101 <para>Boolean.</para>
4106 <term>Parameter:</term>
4118 As explained <literal><link linkend="filter">above</link></literal>,
4119 <application>Privoxy</application> tries to only filter files that are
4120 in some kind of text format. The same restrictions apply to
4121 <literal><link linkend="content-type-overwrite">content-type-overwrite</link></literal>.
4122 <literal>force-text-mode</literal> declares a document as text,
4123 without looking at the <quote>Content-Type:</quote> first.
4127 Think twice before activating this action. Filtering binary data
4128 with regular expressions can cause file damage.
4135 <term>Example usage:</term>
4148 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4149 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="forward-override">
4150 <title>forward-override</title>
4156 <term>Typical use:</term>
4158 <para>Change the forwarding settings based on User-Agent or request origin</para>
4163 <term>Effect:</term>
4166 Overrules the forward directives in the configuration file.
4173 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4175 <para>Multi-value.</para>
4180 <term>Parameter:</term>
4184 <para><quote>forward .</quote> to use a direct connection without any additional proxies.</para>
4188 <quote>forward 127.0.0.1:8123</quote> to use the HTTP proxy listening at 127.0.0.1 port 8123.
4193 <quote>forward-socks4a 127.0.0.1:9050 .</quote> to use the socks4a proxy listening at
4194 127.0.0.1 port 9050. Replace <quote>forward-socks4a</quote> with <quote>forward-socks4</quote>
4195 to use a socks4 connection (with local DNS resolution) instead, use <quote>forward-socks5</quote>
4196 for socks5 connections (with remote DNS resolution).
4201 <quote>forward-socks4a 127.0.0.1:9050 proxy.example.org:8000</quote> to use the socks4a proxy
4202 listening at 127.0.0.1 port 9050 to reach the HTTP proxy listening at proxy.example.org port 8000.
4203 Replace <quote>forward-socks4a</quote> with <quote>forward-socks4</quote> to use a socks4 connection
4204 (with local DNS resolution) instead, use <quote>forward-socks5</quote>
4205 for socks5 connections (with remote DNS resolution).
4216 This action takes parameters similar to the
4217 <link linkend="forwarding">forward</link> directives in the configuration
4218 file, but without the URL pattern. It can be used as replacement, but normally it's only
4219 used in cases where matching based on the request URL isn't sufficient.
4223 Please read the description for the <link linkend="forwarding">forward</link> directives before
4224 using this action. Forwarding to the wrong people will reduce your privacy and increase the
4225 chances of man-in-the-middle attacks.
4228 If the ports are missing or invalid, default values will be used. This might change
4229 in the future and you shouldn't rely on it. Otherwise incorrect syntax causes Privoxy
4233 Use the <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">show-url-info CGI page</ulink>
4234 to verify that your forward settings do what you thought the do.
4241 <term>Example usage:</term>
4245 # Always use direct connections for requests previously tagged as
4246 # <quote>User-Agent: fetch libfetch/2.0</quote> and make sure
4247 # resuming downloads continues to work.
4248 # This way you can continue to use Tor for your normal browsing,
4249 # without overloading the Tor network with your FreeBSD ports updates
4250 # or downloads of bigger files like ISOs.
4251 # Note that HTTP headers are easy to fake and therefore their
4252 # values are as (un)trustworthy as your clients and users.
4253 {+forward-override{forward .} \
4254 -hide-if-modified-since \
4255 -overwrite-last-modified \
4257 TAG:^User-Agent: fetch libfetch/2\.0$
4266 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4267 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="handle-as-empty-document">
4268 <title>handle-as-empty-document</title>
4274 <term>Typical use:</term>
4276 <para>Mark URLs that should be replaced by empty documents <emphasis>if they get blocked</emphasis></para>
4281 <term>Effect:</term>
4284 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. It just marks URLs.
4285 If the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action <emphasis>also applies</emphasis>,
4286 the presence or absence of this mark decides whether an HTML <quote>BLOCKED</quote>
4287 page, or an empty document will be sent to the client as a substitute for the blocked content.
4288 The <emphasis>empty</emphasis> document isn't literally empty, but actually contains a single space.
4295 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4297 <para>Boolean.</para>
4302 <term>Parameter:</term>
4314 Some browsers complain about syntax errors if JavaScript documents
4315 are blocked with <application>Privoxy's</application>
4316 default HTML page; this option can be used to silence them.
4317 And of course this action can also be used to eliminate the &my-app;
4318 BLOCKED message in frames.
4321 The content type for the empty document can be specified with
4322 <literal><link linkend="content-type-overwrite">content-type-overwrite{}</link></literal>,
4323 but usually this isn't necessary.
4329 <term>Example usage:</term>
4332 <screen># Block all documents on example.org that end with ".js",
4333 # but send an empty document instead of the usual HTML message.
4334 {+block{Blocked JavaScript} +handle-as-empty-document}
4344 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4345 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="handle-as-image">
4346 <title>handle-as-image</title>
4350 <term>Typical use:</term>
4352 <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>
4357 <term>Effect:</term>
4360 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. It just marks URLs as images.
4361 If the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action <emphasis>also applies</emphasis>,
4362 the presence or absence of this mark decides whether an HTML <quote>blocked</quote>
4363 page, or a replacement image (as determined by the <literal><link
4364 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal> action) will be sent to the
4365 client as a substitute for the blocked content.
4372 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4374 <para>Boolean.</para>
4379 <term>Parameter:</term>
4391 The below generic example section is actually part of <filename>default.action</filename>.
4392 It marks all URLs with well-known image file name extensions as images and should
4396 Users will probably only want to use the handle-as-image action in conjunction with
4397 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>, to block sources of banners, whose URLs don't
4398 reflect the file type, like in the second example section.
4401 Note that you cannot treat HTML pages as images in most cases. For instance, (in-line) ad
4402 frames require an HTML page to be sent, or they won't display properly.
4403 Forcing <literal>handle-as-image</literal> in this situation will not replace the
4404 ad frame with an image, but lead to error messages.
4410 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
4413 <screen># Generic image extensions:
4416 /.*\.(gif|jpg|jpeg|png|bmp|ico)$
4418 # These don't look like images, but they're banners and should be
4419 # blocked as images:
4421 {+block{Nasty banners.} +handle-as-image}
4422 nasty-banner-server.example.com/junk.cgi\?output=trash
4431 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4432 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-accept-language">
4433 <title>hide-accept-language</title>
4439 <term>Typical use:</term>
4441 <para>Pretend to use different language settings.</para>
4446 <term>Effect:</term>
4449 Deletes or replaces the <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> HTTP header in client requests.
4456 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4458 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4463 <term>Parameter:</term>
4466 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
4475 Faking the browser's language settings can be useful to make a
4476 foreign User-Agent set with
4477 <literal><link linkend="hide-user-agent">hide-user-agent</link></literal>
4481 However some sites with content in different languages check the
4482 <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> to decide which one to take by default.
4483 Sometimes it isn't possible to later switch to another language without
4484 changing the <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> header first.
4487 Therefore it's a good idea to either only change the
4488 <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> header to languages you understand,
4489 or to languages that aren't wide spread.
4492 Before setting the <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> header
4493 to a rare language, you should consider that it helps to
4494 make your requests unique and thus easier to trace.
4495 If you don't plan to change this header frequently,
4496 you should stick to a common language.
4502 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
4505 <screen># Pretend to use Canadian language settings.
4506 {+hide-accept-language{en-ca} \
4507 +hide-user-agent{Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; OpenBSD i386; en-CA; rv:1.8.0.4) Gecko/20060628 Firefox/1.5.0.4} \
4517 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4518 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-content-disposition">
4519 <title>hide-content-disposition</title>
4525 <term>Typical use:</term>
4527 <para>Prevent download menus for content you prefer to view inside the browser.</para>
4532 <term>Effect:</term>
4535 Deletes or replaces the <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> HTTP header set by some servers.
4542 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4544 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4549 <term>Parameter:</term>
4552 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
4561 Some servers set the <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> HTTP header for
4562 documents they assume you want to save locally before viewing them.
4563 The <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> header contains the file name
4564 the browser is supposed to use by default.
4567 In most browsers that understand this header, it makes it impossible to
4568 <emphasis>just view</emphasis> the document, without downloading it first,
4569 even if it's just a simple text file or an image.
4572 Removing the <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> header helps
4573 to prevent this annoyance, but some browsers additionally check the
4574 <quote>Content-Type:</quote> header, before they decide if they can
4575 display a document without saving it first. In these cases, you have
4576 to change this header as well, before the browser stops displaying
4580 It is also possible to change the server's file name suggestion
4581 to another one, but in most cases it isn't worth the time to set
4585 This action will probably be removed in the future,
4586 use server-header filters instead.
4592 <term>Example usage:</term>
4595 <screen># Disarm the download link in Sourceforge's patch tracker
4597 +content-type-overwrite{text/plain}\
4598 +hide-content-disposition{block} }
4599 .sourceforge.net/tracker/download\.php</screen>
4607 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4608 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-if-modified-since">
4609 <title>hide-if-modified-since</title>
4615 <term>Typical use:</term>
4617 <para>Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.</para>
4622 <term>Effect:</term>
4625 Deletes the <quote>If-Modified-Since:</quote> HTTP client header or modifies its value.
4632 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4634 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4639 <term>Parameter:</term>
4642 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or a user defined value that specifies a range of hours.
4651 Removing this header is useful for filter testing, where you want to force a real
4652 reload instead of getting status code <quote>304</quote>, which would cause the
4653 browser to use a cached copy of the page.
4656 Instead of removing the header, <literal>hide-if-modified-since</literal> can
4657 also add or subtract a random amount of time to/from the header's value.
4658 You specify a range of minutes where the random factor should be chosen from and
4659 <application>Privoxy</application> does the rest. A negative value means
4660 subtracting, a positive value adding.
4663 Randomizing the value of the <quote>If-Modified-Since:</quote> makes
4664 it less likely that the server can use the time as a cookie replacement,
4665 but you will run into caching problems if the random range is too high.
4668 It is a good idea to only use a small negative value and let
4669 <literal><link linkend="overwrite-last-modified">overwrite-last-modified</link></literal>
4670 handle the greater changes.
4673 It is also recommended to use this action together with
4674 <literal><link linkend="crunch-if-none-match">crunch-if-none-match</link></literal>,
4675 otherwise it's more or less pointless.
4681 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
4684 <screen># Let the browser revalidate but make tracking based on the time less likely.
4685 {+hide-if-modified-since{-60} \
4686 +overwrite-last-modified{randomize} \
4687 +crunch-if-none-match}
4696 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4697 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-forwarded-for-headers">
4698 <title>hide-forwarded-for-headers</title>
4701 <term>Typical use:</term>
4703 <para>Improve privacy by not forwarding the source of the request in the HTTP headers.</para>
4708 <term>Effect:</term>
4711 Deletes any existing <quote>X-Forwarded-for:</quote> HTTP header from client requests.
4718 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4720 <para>Boolean.</para>
4725 <term>Parameter:</term>
4737 It is safe and recommended to leave this on.
4743 <term>Example usage:</term>
4746 <screen>+hide-forwarded-for-headers</screen>
4754 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4755 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-from-header">
4756 <title>hide-from-header</title>
4760 <term>Typical use:</term>
4762 <para>Keep your (old and ill) browser from telling web servers your email address</para>
4767 <term>Effect:</term>
4770 Deletes any existing <quote>From:</quote> HTTP header, or replaces it with the
4778 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4780 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4785 <term>Parameter:</term>
4788 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
4797 The keyword <quote>block</quote> will completely remove the header
4798 (not to be confused with the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>
4802 Alternately, you can specify any value you prefer to be sent to the web
4803 server. If you do, it is a matter of fairness not to use any address that
4804 is actually used by a real person.
4807 This action is rarely needed, as modern web browsers don't send
4808 <quote>From:</quote> headers anymore.
4814 <term>Example usage:</term>
4817 <screen>+hide-from-header{block}</screen> or
4818 <screen>+hide-from-header{spam-me-senseless@sittingduck.example.com}</screen>
4826 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4827 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-referrer">
4828 <title>hide-referrer</title>
4829 <anchor id="hide-referer">
4832 <term>Typical use:</term>
4834 <para>Conceal which link you followed to get to a particular site</para>
4839 <term>Effect:</term>
4842 Deletes the <quote>Referer:</quote> (sic) HTTP header from the client request,
4843 or replaces it with a forged one.
4850 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4852 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4857 <term>Parameter:</term>
4861 <para><quote>conditional-block</quote> to delete the header completely if the host has changed.</para>
4864 <para><quote>conditional-forge</quote> to forge the header if the host has changed.</para>
4867 <para><quote>block</quote> to delete the header unconditionally.</para>
4870 <para><quote>forge</quote> to pretend to be coming from the homepage of the server we are talking to.</para>
4873 <para>Any other string to set a user defined referrer.</para>
4883 <literal>conditional-block</literal> is the only parameter,
4884 that isn't easily detected in the server's log file. If it blocks the
4885 referrer, the request will look like the visitor used a bookmark or
4886 typed in the address directly.
4889 Leaving the referrer unmodified for requests on the same host
4890 allows the server owner to see the visitor's <quote>click path</quote>,
4891 but in most cases she could also get that information by comparing
4892 other parts of the log file: for example the User-Agent if it isn't
4893 a very common one, or the user's IP address if it doesn't change between
4897 Always blocking the referrer, or using a custom one, can lead to
4898 failures on servers that check the referrer before they answer any
4899 requests, in an attempt to prevent their content from being
4900 embedded or linked to elsewhere.
4903 Both <literal>conditional-block</literal> and <literal>forge</literal>
4904 will work with referrer checks, as long as content and valid referring page
4905 are on the same host. Most of the time that's the case.
4908 <literal>hide-referer</literal> is an alternate spelling of
4909 <literal>hide-referrer</literal> and the two can be can be freely
4910 substituted with each other. (<quote>referrer</quote> is the
4911 correct English spelling, however the HTTP specification has a bug - it
4912 requires it to be spelled as <quote>referer</quote>.)
4918 <term>Example usage:</term>
4921 <screen>+hide-referrer{forge}</screen> or
4922 <screen>+hide-referrer{http://www.yahoo.com/}</screen>
4930 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4931 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-user-agent">
4932 <title>hide-user-agent</title>
4936 <term>Typical use:</term>
4938 <para>Try to conceal your type of browser and client operating system</para>
4943 <term>Effect:</term>
4946 Replaces the value of the <quote>User-Agent:</quote> HTTP header
4947 in client requests with the specified value.
4954 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4956 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4961 <term>Parameter:</term>
4964 Any user-defined string.
4974 This can lead to problems on web sites that depend on looking at this header in
4975 order to customize their content for different browsers (which, by the
4976 way, is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> the right thing to do: good web sites
4977 work browser-independently).
4981 Using this action in multi-user setups or wherever different types of
4982 browsers will access the same <application>Privoxy</application> is
4983 <emphasis>not recommended</emphasis>. In single-user, single-browser
4984 setups, you might use it to delete your OS version information from
4985 the headers, because it is an invitation to exploit known bugs for your
4986 OS. It is also occasionally useful to forge this in order to access
4987 sites that won't let you in otherwise (though there may be a good
4988 reason in some cases). Example of this: some MSN sites will not
4989 let <application>Mozilla</application> enter, yet forging to a
4990 <application>Netscape 6.1</application> user-agent works just fine.
4991 (Must be just a silly MS goof, I'm sure :-).
4994 More information on known user-agent strings can be found at
4995 <ulink url="http://www.user-agents.org/">http://www.user-agents.org/</ulink>
4997 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_agent">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_agent</ulink>.
5003 <term>Example usage:</term>
5006 <screen>+hide-user-agent{Netscape 6.1 (X11; I; Linux 2.4.18 i686)}</screen>
5014 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5015 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="limit-connect">
5016 <title>limit-connect</title>
5020 <term>Typical use:</term>
5022 <para>Prevent abuse of <application>Privoxy</application> as a TCP proxy relay or disable SSL for untrusted sites</para>
5027 <term>Effect:</term>
5030 Specifies to which ports HTTP CONNECT requests are allowable.
5037 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5039 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5044 <term>Parameter:</term>
5047 A comma-separated list of ports or port ranges (the latter using dashes, with the minimum
5048 defaulting to 0 and the maximum to 65K).
5057 By default, i.e. if no <literal>limit-connect</literal> action applies,
5058 <application>Privoxy</application> allows HTTP CONNECT requests to all
5059 ports. Use <literal>limit-connect</literal> if fine-grained control
5060 is desired for some or all destinations.
5063 The CONNECT methods exists in HTTP to allow access to secure websites
5064 (<quote>https://</quote> URLs) through proxies. It works very simply:
5065 the proxy connects to the server on the specified port, and then
5066 short-circuits its connections to the client and to the remote server.
5067 This means CONNECT-enabled proxies can be used as TCP relays very easily.
5070 <application>Privoxy</application> relays HTTPS traffic without seeing
5071 the decoded content. Websites can leverage this limitation to circumvent &my-app;'s
5072 filters. By specifying an invalid port range you can disable HTTPS entirely.
5078 <term>Example usages:</term>
5080 <!-- I had trouble getting the spacing to look right in my browser -->
5081 <!-- I probably have the wrong font setup, bollocks. -->
5082 <!-- Apparently the emphasis tag uses a proportional font no matter what -->
5084 <screen>+limit-connect{443} # Port 443 is OK.
5085 +limit-connect{80,443} # Ports 80 and 443 are OK.
5086 +limit-connect{-3, 7, 20-100, 500-} # Ports less than 3, 7, 20 to 100 and above 500 are OK.
5087 +limit-connect{-} # All ports are OK
5088 +limit-connect{,} # No HTTPS/SSL traffic is allowed</screen>
5095 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5096 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="prevent-compression">
5097 <title>prevent-compression</title>
5101 <term>Typical use:</term>
5104 Ensure that servers send the content uncompressed, so it can be
5105 passed through <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>s.
5111 <term>Effect:</term>
5114 Removes the Accept-Encoding header which can be used to ask for compressed transfer.
5121 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5123 <para>Boolean.</para>
5128 <term>Parameter:</term>
5140 More and more websites send their content compressed by default, which
5141 is generally a good idea and saves bandwidth. But the <literal><link
5142 linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> and
5143 <literal><link linkend="deanimate-gifs">deanimate-gifs</link></literal>
5144 actions need access to the uncompressed data.
5147 When compiled with zlib support (available since &my-app; 3.0.7), content that should be
5148 filtered is decompressed on-the-fly and you don't have to worry about this action.
5149 If you are using an older &my-app; version, or one that hasn't been compiled with zlib
5150 support, this action can be used to convince the server to send the content uncompressed.
5153 Most text-based instances compress very well, the size is seldom decreased by less than 50%,
5154 for markup-heavy instances like news feeds saving more than 90% of the original size isn't
5158 Not using compression will therefore slow down the transfer, and you should only
5159 enable this action if you really need it. As of &my-app; 3.0.7 it's disabled in all
5160 predefined action settings.
5163 Note that some (rare) ill-configured sites don't handle requests for uncompressed
5164 documents correctly. Broken PHP applications tend to send an empty document body,
5165 some IIS versions only send the beginning of the content. If you enable
5166 <literal>prevent-compression</literal> per default, you might want to add
5167 exceptions for those sites. See the example for how to do that.
5173 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
5177 # Selectively turn off compression, and enable a filter
5179 { +filter{tiny-textforms} +prevent-compression }
5180 # Match only these sites
5185 # Or instead, we could set a universal default:
5187 { +prevent-compression }
5190 # Then maybe make exceptions for broken sites:
5192 { -prevent-compression }
5193 .compusa.com/</screen>
5202 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5203 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="overwrite-last-modified">
5204 <title>overwrite-last-modified</title>
5210 <term>Typical use:</term>
5212 <para>Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.</para>
5217 <term>Effect:</term>
5220 Deletes the <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> HTTP server header or modifies its value.
5227 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5229 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5234 <term>Parameter:</term>
5237 One of the keywords: <quote>block</quote>, <quote>reset-to-request-time</quote>
5238 and <quote>randomize</quote>
5247 Removing the <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header is useful for filter
5248 testing, where you want to force a real reload instead of getting status
5249 code <quote>304</quote>, which would cause the browser to reuse the old
5250 version of the page.
5253 The <quote>randomize</quote> option overwrites the value of the
5254 <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header with a randomly chosen time
5255 between the original value and the current time. In theory the server
5256 could send each document with a different <quote>Last-Modified:</quote>
5257 header to track visits without using cookies. <quote>Randomize</quote>
5258 makes it impossible and the browser can still revalidate cached documents.
5261 <quote>reset-to-request-time</quote> overwrites the value of the
5262 <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header with the current time. You could use
5263 this option together with
5264 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hided-if-modified-since</link></literal>
5265 to further customize your random range.
5268 The preferred parameter here is <quote>randomize</quote>. It is safe
5269 to use, as long as the time settings are more or less correct.
5270 If the server sets the <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header to the time
5271 of the request, the random range becomes zero and the value stays the same.
5272 Therefore you should later randomize it a second time with
5273 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hided-if-modified-since</link></literal>,
5277 It is also recommended to use this action together with
5278 <literal><link linkend="crunch-if-none-match">crunch-if-none-match</link></literal>.
5284 <term>Example usage:</term>
5287 <screen># Let the browser revalidate without being tracked across sessions
5288 { +hide-if-modified-since{-60} \
5289 +overwrite-last-modified{randomize} \
5290 +crunch-if-none-match}
5299 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5300 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="redirect">
5301 <title>redirect</title>
5307 <term>Typical use:</term>
5310 Redirect requests to other sites.
5316 <term>Effect:</term>
5319 Convinces the browser that the requested document has been moved
5320 to another location and the browser should get it from there.
5327 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5329 <para>Parameterized</para>
5334 <term>Parameter:</term>
5337 An absolute URL or a single pcrs command.
5346 Requests to which this action applies are answered with a
5347 HTTP redirect to URLs of your choosing. The new URL is
5348 either provided as parameter, or derived by applying a
5349 single pcrs command to the original URL.
5352 This action will be ignored if you use it together with
5353 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>.
5354 It can be combined with
5355 <literal><link linkend="fast-redirects">fast-redirects{check-decoded-url}</link></literal>
5356 to redirect to a decoded version of a rewritten URL.
5359 Use this action carefully, make sure not to create redirection loops
5360 and be aware that using your own redirects might make it
5361 possible to fingerprint your requests.
5367 <term>Example usages:</term>
5370 <screen># Replace example.com's style sheet with another one
5371 { +redirect{http://localhost/css-replacements/example.com.css} }
5372 example.com/stylesheet\.css
5374 # Create a short, easy to remember nickname for a favorite site
5375 # (relies on the browser accept and forward invalid URLs to &my-app;)
5376 { +redirect{http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/actions-file.html} }
5379 # Always use the expanded view for Undeadly.org articles
5380 # (Note the $ at the end of the URL pattern to make sure
5381 # the request for the rewritten URL isn't redirected as well)
5382 {+redirect{s@$@&mode=expanded@}}
5383 undeadly.org/cgi\?action=article&sid=\d*$</screen>
5392 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5393 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="server-header-filter">
5394 <title>server-header-filter</title>
5398 <term>Typical use:</term>
5401 Rewrite or remove single server headers.
5407 <term>Effect:</term>
5410 All server headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly
5411 through the specified regular expression based substitutions.
5418 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
5420 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5425 <term>Parameter:</term>
5428 The name of a server-header filter, as defined in one of the
5429 <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link>.
5438 Server-header filters are applied to each header on its own, not to
5439 all at once. This makes it easier to diagnose problems, but on the downside
5440 you can't write filters that only change header x if header y's value is z.
5441 You can do that by using tags though.
5444 Server-header filters are executed after the other header actions have finished
5445 and use their output as input.
5448 Please refer to the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file chapter</link>
5449 to learn which server-header filters are available by default, and how to
5456 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
5460 {+server-header-filter{html-to-xml}}
5461 example.org/xml-instance-that-is-delivered-as-html
5463 {+server-header-filter{xml-to-html}}
5464 example.org/instance-that-is-delivered-as-xml-but-is-not
5474 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5475 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="server-header-tagger">
5476 <title>server-header-tagger</title>
5480 <term>Typical use:</term>
5483 Enable or disable filters based on the Content-Type header.
5489 <term>Effect:</term>
5492 Server headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly through
5493 the specified regular expression based substitutions, the result is used as
5501 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
5503 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5508 <term>Parameter:</term>
5511 The name of a server-header tagger, as defined in one of the
5512 <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link>.
5521 Server-header taggers are applied to each header on its own,
5522 and as the header isn't modified, each tagger <quote>sees</quote>
5526 Server-header taggers are executed before all other header actions
5527 that modify server headers. Their tags can be used to control
5528 all of the other server-header actions, the content filters
5529 and the crunch actions (<link linkend="redirect">redirect</link>
5530 and <link linkend="block">block</link>).
5533 Obviously crunching based on tags created by server-header taggers
5534 doesn't prevent the request from showing up in the server's log file.
5541 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
5545 # Tag every request with the content type declared by the server
5546 {+server-header-tagger{content-type}}
5557 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5558 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="session-cookies-only">
5559 <title>session-cookies-only</title>
5563 <term>Typical use:</term>
5566 Allow only temporary <quote>session</quote> cookies (for the current
5567 browser session <emphasis>only</emphasis>).
5573 <term>Effect:</term>
5576 Deletes the <quote>expires</quote> field from <quote>Set-Cookie:</quote>
5577 server headers. Most browsers will not store such cookies permanently and
5578 forget them in between sessions.
5585 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5587 <para>Boolean.</para>
5592 <term>Parameter:</term>
5604 This is less strict than <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal> /
5605 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal> and allows you to browse
5606 websites that insist or rely on setting cookies, without compromising your privacy too badly.
5609 Most browsers will not permanently store cookies that have been processed by
5610 <literal>session-cookies-only</literal> and will forget about them between sessions.
5611 This makes profiling cookies useless, but won't break sites which require cookies so
5612 that you can log in for transactions. This is generally turned on for all
5613 sites, and is the recommended setting.
5616 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use <literal>session-cookies-only</literal>
5617 together with <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal> or
5618 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>. If you do, cookies
5619 will be plainly killed.
5622 Note that it is up to the browser how it handles such cookies without an <quote>expires</quote>
5623 field. If you use an exotic browser, you might want to try it out to be sure.
5626 This setting also has no effect on cookies that may have been stored
5627 previously by the browser before starting <application>Privoxy</application>.
5628 These would have to be removed manually.
5631 <application>Privoxy</application> also uses
5632 the <link linkend="filter-content-cookies">content-cookies filter</link>
5633 to block some types of cookies. Content cookies are not effected by
5634 <literal>session-cookies-only</literal>.
5640 <term>Example usage:</term>
5643 <screen>+session-cookies-only</screen>
5651 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5652 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="set-image-blocker">
5653 <title>set-image-blocker</title>
5657 <term>Typical use:</term>
5659 <para>Choose the replacement for blocked images</para>
5664 <term>Effect:</term>
5667 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. If <emphasis>both</emphasis>
5668 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> <emphasis>and</emphasis> <literal><link
5669 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> <emphasis>also</emphasis>
5670 apply, i.e. if the request is to be blocked as an image,
5671 <emphasis>then</emphasis> the parameter of this action decides what will be
5672 sent as a replacement.
5679 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5681 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5686 <term>Parameter:</term>
5691 <quote>pattern</quote> to send a built-in checkerboard pattern image. The image is visually
5692 decent, scales very well, and makes it obvious where banners were busted.
5697 <quote>blank</quote> to send a built-in transparent image. This makes banners disappear
5698 completely, but makes it hard to detect where <application>Privoxy</application> has blocked
5699 images on a given page and complicates troubleshooting if <application>Privoxy</application>
5700 has blocked innocent images, like navigation icons.
5705 <quote><replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable></quote> to
5706 send a redirect to <replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable>. You can redirect
5707 to any image anywhere, even in your local filesystem via <quote>file:///</quote> URL.
5708 (But note that not all browsers support redirecting to a local file system).
5711 A good application of redirects is to use special <application>Privoxy</application>-built-in
5712 URLs, which send the built-in images, as <replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable>.
5713 This has the same visual effect as specifying <quote>blank</quote> or <quote>pattern</quote> in
5714 the first place, but enables your browser to cache the replacement image, instead of requesting
5715 it over and over again.
5726 The URLs for the built-in images are <quote>http://config.privoxy.org/send-banner?type=<replaceable
5727 class="parameter">type</replaceable></quote>, where <replaceable class="parameter">type</replaceable> is
5728 either <quote>blank</quote> or <quote>pattern</quote>.
5731 There is a third (advanced) type, called <quote>auto</quote>. It is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> to be
5732 used in <literal>set-image-blocker</literal>, but meant for use from <link linkend="filter-file">filters</link>.
5733 Auto will select the type of image that would have applied to the referring page, had it been an image.
5739 <term>Example usage:</term>
5745 <screen>+set-image-blocker{pattern}</screen>
5748 Redirect to the BSD daemon:
5751 <screen>+set-image-blocker{http://www.freebsd.org/gifs/dae_up3.gif}</screen>
5754 Redirect to the built-in pattern for better caching:
5757 <screen>+set-image-blocker{http://config.privoxy.org/send-banner?type=pattern}</screen>
5765 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5767 <title>Summary</title>
5769 Note that many of these actions have the potential to cause a page to
5770 misbehave, possibly even not to display at all. There are many ways
5771 a site designer may choose to design his site, and what HTTP header
5772 content, and other criteria, he may depend on. There is no way to have hard
5773 and fast rules for all sites. See the <link
5774 linkend="ACTIONSANAT">Appendix</link> for a brief example on troubleshooting
5780 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5781 <sect2 id="aliases">
5782 <title>Aliases</title>
5784 Custom <quote>actions</quote>, known to <application>Privoxy</application>
5785 as <quote>aliases</quote>, can be defined by combining other actions.
5786 These can in turn be invoked just like the built-in actions.
5787 Currently, an alias name can contain any character except space, tab,
5789 <quote>{</quote> and <quote>}</quote>, but we <emphasis>strongly
5790 recommend</emphasis> that you only use <quote>a</quote> to <quote>z</quote>,
5791 <quote>0</quote> to <quote>9</quote>, <quote>+</quote>, and <quote>-</quote>.
5792 Alias names are not case sensitive, and are not required to start with a
5793 <quote>+</quote> or <quote>-</quote> sign, since they are merely textually
5797 Aliases can be used throughout the actions file, but they <emphasis>must be
5798 defined in a special section at the top of the file!</emphasis>
5799 And there can only be one such section per actions file. Each actions file may
5800 have its own alias section, and the aliases defined in it are only visible
5804 There are two main reasons to use aliases: One is to save typing for frequently
5805 used combinations of actions, the other one is a gain in flexibility: If you
5806 decide once how you want to handle shops by defining an alias called
5807 <quote>shop</quote>, you can later change your policy on shops in
5808 <emphasis>one</emphasis> place, and your changes will take effect everywhere
5809 in the actions file where the <quote>shop</quote> alias is used. Calling aliases
5810 by their purpose also makes your actions files more readable.
5813 Currently, there is one big drawback to using aliases, though:
5814 <application>Privoxy</application>'s built-in web-based action file
5815 editor honors aliases when reading the actions files, but it expands
5816 them before writing. So the effects of your aliases are of course preserved,
5817 but the aliases themselves are lost when you edit sections that use aliases
5822 Now let's define some aliases...
5827 # Useful custom aliases we can use later.
5829 # Note the (required!) section header line and that this section
5830 # must be at the top of the actions file!
5834 # These aliases just save typing later:
5835 # (Note that some already use other aliases!)
5837 +crunch-all-cookies = +<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> +<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
5838 -crunch-all-cookies = -<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> -<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
5839 +block-as-image = +block{Blocked image.} +handle-as-image
5840 allow-all-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> -<link linkend="FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</link>
5842 # These aliases define combinations of actions
5843 # that are useful for certain types of sites:
5845 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>
5847 shop = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{all-popups}</link>
5849 # Short names for other aliases, for really lazy people ;-)
5851 c0 = +crunch-all-cookies
5852 c1 = -crunch-all-cookies</screen>
5856 ...and put them to use. These sections would appear in the lower part of an
5857 actions file and define exceptions to the default actions (as specified further
5858 up for the <quote>/</quote> pattern):
5863 # These sites are either very complex or very keen on
5864 # user data and require minimal interference to work:
5867 .office.microsoft.com
5868 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com
5869 # Gmail is really mail.google.com, not gmail.com
5873 # Allow cookies (for setting and retrieving your customer data)
5877 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
5880 # These shops require pop-ups:
5882 {-filter{all-popups} -filter{unsolicited-popups}}
5884 .overclockers.co.uk</screen>
5888 Aliases like <quote>shop</quote> and <quote>fragile</quote> are typically used for
5889 <quote>problem</quote> sites that require more than one action to be disabled
5890 in order to function properly.
5896 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5897 <sect2 id="act-examples">
5898 <title>Actions Files Tutorial</title>
5900 The above chapters have shown <link linkend="actions-file">which actions files
5901 there are and how they are organized</link>, how actions are <link
5902 linkend="actions">specified</link> and <link linkend="actions-apply">applied
5903 to URLs</link>, how <link linkend="af-patterns">patterns</link> work, and how to
5904 define and use <link linkend="aliases">aliases</link>. Now, let's look at an
5905 example <filename>default.action</filename> and <filename>user.action</filename>
5906 file and see how all these pieces come together:
5909 <sect3><title>default.action</title>
5912 Every config file should start with a short comment stating its purpose:
5916 <screen># Sample default.action file <ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net></screen>
5920 Then, since this is the <filename>default.action</filename> file, the
5921 first section is a special section for internal use that you needn't
5922 change or worry about:
5927 ##########################################################################
5928 # Settings -- Don't change! For internal Privoxy use ONLY.
5929 ##########################################################################
5932 for-privoxy-version=3.0</screen>
5936 After that comes the (optional) alias section. We'll use the example
5937 section from the above <link linkend="aliases">chapter on aliases</link>,
5938 that also explains why and how aliases are used:
5943 ##########################################################################
5945 ##########################################################################
5948 # These aliases just save typing later:
5949 # (Note that some already use other aliases!)
5951 +crunch-all-cookies = +<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> +<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
5952 -crunch-all-cookies = -<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> -<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
5953 +block-as-image = +block{Blocked image.} +handle-as-image
5954 mercy-for-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> -<link linkend="FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</link>
5956 # These aliases define combinations of actions
5957 # that are useful for certain types of sites:
5959 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>
5960 shop = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{all-popups}</link></screen>
5964 Now come the regular sections, i.e. sets of actions, accompanied
5965 by URL patterns to which they apply. Remember <emphasis>all actions
5966 are disabled when matching starts</emphasis>, so we have to explicitly
5967 enable the ones we want.
5971 The first regular section is probably the most important. It has only
5972 one pattern, <quote><literal>/</literal></quote>, but this pattern
5973 <link linkend="af-patterns">matches all URLs</link>. Therefore, the
5974 set of actions used in this <quote>default</quote> section <emphasis>will
5975 be applied to all requests as a start</emphasis>. It can be partly or
5976 wholly overridden by later matches further down this file, or in user.action,
5977 but it will still be largely responsible for your overall browsing
5982 Again, at the start of matching, all actions are disabled, so there is
5983 no need to disable any actions here. (Remember: a <quote>+</quote>
5984 preceding the action name enables the action, a <quote>-</quote> disables!).
5985 Also note how this long line has been made more readable by splitting it into
5986 multiple lines with line continuation.
5991 ##########################################################################
5992 # "Defaults" section:
5993 ##########################################################################
5995 +<link linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS">deanimate-gifs</link> \
5996 +<link linkend="FILTER-HTML-ANNOYANCES">filter{html-annoyances}</link> \
5997 +<link linkend="FILTER-REFRESH-TAGS">filter{refresh-tags}</link> \
5998 +<link linkend="FILTER-WEBBUGS">filter{webbugs}</link> \
5999 +<link linkend="FILTER-IE-EXPLOITS">filter{ie-exploits}</link> \
6000 +<link linkend="HIDE-FORWARDED-FOR-HEADERS">hide-forwarded-for-headers</link> \
6001 +<link linkend="HIDE-FROM-HEADER">hide-from-header{block}</link> \
6002 +<link linkend="HIDE-REFERER">hide-referrer{forge}</link> \
6003 +<link linkend="PREVENT-COMPRESSION">prevent-compression</link> \
6004 +<link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> \
6005 +<link linkend="SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER">set-image-blocker{pattern}</link> \
6007 / # forward slash will match *all* potential URL patterns.</screen>
6011 The default behavior is now set.
6013 This needs rewording, but it can wait for now.
6016 Note that some actions, like not hiding
6017 the user agent, are part of a <quote>general policy</quote> that applies
6018 universally and won't get any exceptions defined later. Other choices,
6019 like not blocking (which is <emphasis>understandably</emphasis> the
6020 default!) need exceptions, i.e. we need to specify explicitly what we
6021 want to block in later sections.
6026 The first of our specialized sections is concerned with <quote>fragile</quote>
6027 sites, i.e. sites that require minimum interference, because they are either
6028 very complex or very keen on tracking you (and have mechanisms in place that
6029 make them unusable for people who avoid being tracked). We will simply use
6030 our pre-defined <literal>fragile</literal> alias instead of stating the list
6031 of actions explicitly:
6036 ##########################################################################
6037 # Exceptions for sites that'll break under the default action set:
6038 ##########################################################################
6040 # "Fragile" Use a minimum set of actions for these sites (see alias above):
6043 .office.microsoft.com # surprise, surprise!
6044 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com
6045 mail.google.com</screen>
6049 Shopping sites are not as fragile, but they typically
6050 require cookies to log in, and pop-up windows for shopping
6051 carts or item details. Again, we'll use a pre-defined alias:
6060 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
6062 .scan.co.uk</screen>
6065 <!-- No longer needed BEGIN OF COMMENTED OUT BLOCK
6068 Then, there are sites which rely on pop-up windows (yuck!) to work.
6069 Since we made pop-up-killing our default above, we need to make exceptions
6070 now. <ulink url="http://www.mozilla.org/">Mozilla</ulink> users, who
6071 can turn on smart handling of unwanted pop-ups in their browsers, can
6073 -<literal><link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{popups}</link></literal> above
6074 and hence don't need this section. Anyway, disabling an already disabled
6075 action doesn't hurt, so we'll define our exceptions regardless of what was
6076 chosen in the defaults section:
6081 # These sites require pop-ups too :(
6083 { -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{popups}</link> }
6086 .deutsche-bank-24.de</screen>
6089 END OF COMMENTED OUT BLOCK -->
6092 The <literal><link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link></literal>
6093 action, which we enabled per default above, breaks some sites. So disable
6094 it for popular sites where we know it misbehaves:
6099 { -<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link> }
6103 .altavista.com/.*(like|url|link):http
6104 .altavista.com/trans.*urltext=http
6105 .nytimes.com</screen>
6109 It is important that <application>Privoxy</application> knows which
6110 URLs belong to images, so that <emphasis>if</emphasis> they are to
6111 be blocked, a substitute image can be sent, rather than an HTML page.
6112 Contacting the remote site to find out is not an option, since it
6113 would destroy the loading time advantage of banner blocking, and it
6114 would feed the advertisers (in terms of money <emphasis>and</emphasis>
6115 information). We can mark any URL as an image with the <literal><link
6116 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> action,
6117 and marking all URLs that end in a known image file extension is a
6123 ##########################################################################
6125 ##########################################################################
6127 # Define which file types will be treated as images, in case they get
6128 # blocked further down this file:
6130 { +<link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">handle-as-image</link> }
6131 /.*\.(gif|jpe?g|png|bmp|ico)$</screen>
6135 And then there are known banner sources. They often use scripts to
6136 generate the banners, so it won't be visible from the URL that the
6137 request is for an image. Hence we block them <emphasis>and</emphasis>
6138 mark them as images in one go, with the help of our
6139 <literal>+block-as-image</literal> alias defined above. (We could of
6140 course just as well use <literal>+<link linkend="block">block</link>
6141 +<link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> here.)
6142 Remember that the type of the replacement image is chosen by the
6143 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>
6144 action. Since all URLs have matched the default section with its
6145 <literal>+<link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link>{pattern}</literal>
6146 action before, it still applies and needn't be repeated:
6151 # Known ad generators:
6156 .ad.*.doubleclick.net
6157 .a.yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$
6158 .a[0-9].yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$
6164 One of the most important jobs of <application>Privoxy</application>
6165 is to block banners. Many of these can be <quote>blocked</quote>
6166 by the <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link>{banners-by-size}</literal>
6167 action, which we enabled above, and which deletes the references to banner
6168 images from the pages while they are loaded, so the browser doesn't request
6169 them anymore, and hence they don't need to be blocked here. But this naturally
6170 doesn't catch all banners, and some people choose not to use filters, so we
6171 need a comprehensive list of patterns for banner URLs here, and apply the
6172 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action to them.
6175 First comes many generic patterns, which do most of the work, by
6176 matching typical domain and path name components of banners. Then comes
6177 a list of individual patterns for specific sites, which is omitted here
6178 to keep the example short:
6183 ##########################################################################
6184 # Block these fine banners:
6185 ##########################################################################
6186 { <link linkend="BLOCK">+block{Banner ads.}</link> }
6194 /.*count(er)?\.(pl|cgi|exe|dll|asp|php[34]?)
6195 /(?:.*/)?(publicite|werbung|rekla(ma|me|am)|annonse|maino(kset|nta|s)?)/
6197 # Site-specific patterns (abbreviated):
6199 .hitbox.com</screen>
6203 It's quite remarkable how many advertisers actually call their banner
6204 servers ads.<replaceable>company</replaceable>.com, or call the directory
6205 in which the banners are stored simply <quote>banners</quote>. So the above
6206 generic patterns are surprisingly effective.
6209 But being very generic, they necessarily also catch URLs that we don't want
6210 to block. The pattern <literal>.*ads.</literal> e.g. catches
6211 <quote>nasty-<emphasis>ads</emphasis>.nasty-corp.com</quote> as intended,
6212 but also <quote>downlo<emphasis>ads</emphasis>.sourcefroge.net</quote> or
6213 <quote><emphasis>ads</emphasis>l.some-provider.net.</quote> So here come some
6214 well-known exceptions to the <literal>+<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal>
6218 Note that these are exceptions to exceptions from the default! Consider the URL
6219 <quote>downloads.sourcefroge.net</quote>: Initially, all actions are deactivated,
6220 so it wouldn't get blocked. Then comes the defaults section, which matches the
6221 URL, but just deactivates the <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal>
6222 action once again. Then it matches <literal>.*ads.</literal>, an exception to the
6223 general non-blocking policy, and suddenly
6224 <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">+block</link></literal> applies. And now, it'll match
6225 <literal>.*loads.</literal>, where <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">-block</link></literal>
6226 applies, so (unless it matches <emphasis>again</emphasis> further down) it ends up
6227 with no <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal> action applying.
6232 ##########################################################################
6233 # Save some innocent victims of the above generic block patterns:
6234 ##########################################################################
6238 { -<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> }
6239 adv[io]*. # (for advogato.org and advice.*)
6240 adsl. # (has nothing to do with ads)
6241 adobe. # (has nothing to do with ads either)
6242 ad[ud]*. # (adult.* and add.*)
6243 .edu # (universities don't host banners (yet!))
6244 .*loads. # (downloads, uploads etc)
6252 www.globalintersec.com/adv # (adv = advanced)
6253 www.ugu.com/sui/ugu/adv</screen>
6257 Filtering source code can have nasty side effects,
6258 so make an exception for our friends at sourceforge.net,
6259 and all paths with <quote>cvs</quote> in them. Note that
6260 <literal>-<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link></literal>
6261 disables <emphasis>all</emphasis> filters in one fell swoop!
6266 # Don't filter code!
6268 { -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> }
6273 .sourceforge.net</screen>
6277 The actual <filename>default.action</filename> is of course much more
6278 comprehensive, but we hope this example made clear how it works.
6283 <sect3><title>user.action</title>
6286 So far we are painting with a broad brush by setting general policies,
6287 which would be a reasonable starting point for many people. Now,
6288 you might want to be more specific and have customized rules that
6289 are more suitable to your personal habits and preferences. These would
6290 be for narrowly defined situations like your ISP or your bank, and should
6291 be placed in <filename>user.action</filename>, which is parsed after all other
6292 actions files and hence has the last word, over-riding any previously
6293 defined actions. <filename>user.action</filename> is also a
6294 <emphasis>safe</emphasis> place for your personal settings, since
6295 <filename>default.action</filename> is actively maintained by the
6296 <application>Privoxy</application> developers and you'll probably want
6297 to install updated versions from time to time.
6301 So let's look at a few examples of things that one might typically do in
6302 <filename>user.action</filename>:
6306 <!-- brief sample user.action here -->
6310 # My user.action file. <fred@example.com></screen>
6314 As <link linkend="aliases">aliases</link> are local to the actions
6315 file that they are defined in, you can't use the ones from
6316 <filename>default.action</filename>, unless you repeat them here:
6321 # Aliases are local to the file they are defined in.
6322 # (Re-)define aliases for this file:
6326 # These aliases just save typing later, and the alias names should
6327 # be self explanatory.
6329 +crunch-all-cookies = +crunch-incoming-cookies +crunch-outgoing-cookies
6330 -crunch-all-cookies = -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-cookies
6331 allow-all-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -session-cookies-only
6332 allow-popups = -filter{all-popups}
6333 +block-as-image = +block{Blocked as image.} +handle-as-image
6334 -block-as-image = -block
6336 # These aliases define combinations of actions that are useful for
6337 # certain types of sites:
6339 fragile = -block -crunch-all-cookies -filter -fast-redirects -hide-referrer
6340 shop = -crunch-all-cookies allow-popups
6342 # Allow ads for selected useful free sites:
6344 allow-ads = -block -filter{banners-by-size} -filter{banners-by-link}
6346 # Alias for specific file types that are text, but might have conflicting
6347 # MIME types. We want the browser to force these to be text documents.
6348 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>
6353 Say you have accounts on some sites that you visit regularly, and
6354 you don't want to have to log in manually each time. So you'd like
6355 to allow persistent cookies for these sites. The
6356 <literal>allow-all-cookies</literal> alias defined above does exactly
6357 that, i.e. it disables crunching of cookies in any direction, and the
6358 processing of cookies to make them only temporary.
6363 { allow-all-cookies }
6367 .redhat.com</screen>
6371 Your bank is allergic to some filter, but you don't know which, so you disable them all:
6376 { -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> }
6377 .your-home-banking-site.com</screen>
6381 Some file types you may not want to filter for various reasons:
6386 # Technical documentation is likely to contain strings that might
6387 # erroneously get altered by the JavaScript-oriented filters:
6392 # And this stupid host sends streaming video with a wrong MIME type,
6393 # so that Privoxy thinks it is getting HTML and starts filtering:
6395 stupid-server.example.com/</screen>
6399 Example of a simple <link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> action. Say you've
6400 seen an ad on your favourite page on example.com that you want to get rid of.
6401 You have right-clicked the image, selected <quote>copy image location</quote>
6402 and pasted the URL below while removing the leading http://, into a
6403 <literal>{ +block{} }</literal> section. Note that <literal>{ +handle-as-image
6404 }</literal> need not be specified, since all URLs ending in
6405 <literal>.gif</literal> will be tagged as images by the general rules as set
6406 in default.action anyway:
6411 { +<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link>{Nasty ads.} }
6412 www.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor\.gif
6413 another.example.net/more/junk/here/</screen>
6417 The URLs of dynamically generated banners, especially from large banner
6418 farms, often don't use the well-known image file name extensions, which
6419 makes it impossible for <application>Privoxy</application> to guess
6420 the file type just by looking at the URL.
6421 You can use the <literal>+block-as-image</literal> alias defined above for
6423 Note that objects which match this rule but then turn out NOT to be an
6424 image are typically rendered as a <quote>broken image</quote> icon by the
6425 browser. Use cautiously.
6434 ar.atwola.com/</screen>
6438 Now you noticed that the default configuration breaks Forbes Magazine,
6439 but you were too lazy to find out which action is the culprit, and you
6440 were again too lazy to give <link linkend="contact">feedback</link>, so
6441 you just used the <literal>fragile</literal> alias on the site, and
6442 -- <emphasis>whoa!</emphasis> -- it worked. The <literal>fragile</literal>
6443 aliases disables those actions that are most likely to break a site. Also,
6444 good for testing purposes to see if it is <application>Privoxy</application>
6445 that is causing the problem or not. We later find other regular sites
6446 that misbehave, and add those to our personalized list of troublemakers:
6454 .mybank.com</screen>
6458 You like the <quote>fun</quote> text replacements in <filename>default.filter</filename>,
6459 but it is disabled in the distributed actions file.
6460 So you'd like to turn it on in your private,
6461 update-safe config, once and for all:
6466 { +<link linkend="filter-fun">filter{fun}</link> }
6467 / # For ALL sites!</screen>
6471 Note that the above is not really a good idea: There are exceptions
6472 to the filters in <filename>default.action</filename> for things that
6473 really shouldn't be filtered, like code on CVS->Web interfaces. Since
6474 <filename>user.action</filename> has the last word, these exceptions
6475 won't be valid for the <quote>fun</quote> filtering specified here.
6479 You might also worry about how your favourite free websites are
6480 funded, and find that they rely on displaying banner advertisements
6481 to survive. So you might want to specifically allow banners for those
6482 sites that you feel provide value to you:
6494 Note that <literal>allow-ads</literal> has been aliased to
6495 <literal>-<link linkend="block">block</link></literal>,
6496 <literal>-<link linkend="filter-banners-by-size">filter{banners-by-size}</link></literal>, and
6497 <literal>-<link linkend="filter-banners-by-link">filter{banners-by-link}</link></literal> above.
6501 Invoke another alias here to force an over-ride of the MIME type <literal>
6502 application/x-sh</literal> which typically would open a download type
6503 dialog. In my case, I want to look at the shell script, and then I can save
6504 it should I choose to.
6514 <filename>user.action</filename> is generally the best place to define
6515 exceptions and additions to the default policies of
6516 <filename>default.action</filename>. Some actions are safe to have their
6517 default policies set here though. So let's set a default policy to have a
6518 <quote>blank</quote> image as opposed to the checkerboard pattern for
6519 <emphasis>ALL</emphasis> sites. <quote>/</quote> of course matches all URL
6525 { +<link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker{blank}</link> }
6526 / # ALL sites</screen>
6532 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
6536 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
6538 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
6540 <sect1 id="filter-file">
6541 <title>Filter Files</title>
6544 On-the-fly text substitutions need
6545 to be defined in a <quote>filter file</quote>. Once defined, they
6546 can then be invoked as an <quote>action</quote>.
6550 &my-app; supports three different filter actions:
6551 <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> to
6552 rewrite the content that is send to the client,
6553 <literal><link linkend="client-header-filter">client-header-filter</link></literal>
6554 to rewrite headers that are send by the client, and
6555 <literal><link linkend="server-header-filter">server-header-filter</link></literal>
6556 to rewrite headers that are send by the server.
6560 &my-app; also supports two tagger actions:
6561 <literal><link linkend="client-header-tagger">client-header-tagger</link></literal>
6563 <literal><link linkend="server-header-tagger">server-header-tagger</link></literal>.
6564 Taggers and filters use the same syntax in the filter files, the difference
6565 is that taggers don't modify the text they are filtering, but use a rewritten
6566 version of the filtered text as tag. The tags can then be used to change the
6567 applying actions through sections with <link linkend="tag-pattern">tag-patterns</link>.
6572 Multiple filter files can be defined through the <literal> <link
6573 linkend="filterfile">filterfile</link></literal> config directive. The filters
6574 as supplied by the developers are located in
6575 <filename>default.filter</filename>. It is recommended that any locally
6576 defined or modified filters go in a separately defined file such as
6577 <filename>user.filter</filename>.
6581 Common tasks for content filters are to eliminate common annoyances in
6582 HTML and JavaScript, such as pop-up windows,
6583 exit consoles, crippled windows without navigation tools, the
6584 infamous <BLINK> tag etc, to suppress images with certain
6585 width and height attributes (standard banner sizes or web-bugs),
6586 or just to have fun.
6590 Enabled content filters are applied to any content whose
6591 <quote>Content Type</quote> header is recognised as a sign
6592 of text-based content, with the exception of <literal>text/plain</literal>.
6593 Use the <link linkend="FORCE-TEXT-MODE">force-text-mode</link> action
6594 to also filter other content.
6598 Substitutions are made at the source level, so if you want to <quote>roll
6599 your own</quote> filters, you should first be familiar with HTML syntax,
6600 and, of course, regular expressions.
6604 Just like the <link linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>, the
6605 filter file is organized in sections, which are called <emphasis>filters</emphasis>
6606 here. Each filter consists of a heading line, that starts with one of the
6607 <emphasis>keywords</emphasis> <literal>FILTER:</literal>,
6608 <literal>CLIENT-HEADER-FILTER:</literal> or <literal>SERVER-HEADER-FILTER:</literal>
6609 followed by the filter's <emphasis>name</emphasis>, and a short (one line)
6610 <emphasis>description</emphasis> of what it does. Below that line
6611 come the <emphasis>jobs</emphasis>, i.e. lines that define the actual
6612 text substitutions. By convention, the name of a filter
6613 should describe what the filter <emphasis>eliminates</emphasis>. The
6614 comment is used in the <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">web-based
6615 user interface</ulink>.
6619 Once a filter called <replaceable>name</replaceable> has been defined
6620 in the filter file, it can be invoked by using an action of the form
6621 +<literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link>{<replaceable>name</replaceable>}</literal>
6622 in any <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link>.
6626 Filter definitions start with a header line that contains the filter
6627 type, the filter name and the filter description.
6628 A content filter header line for a filter called <quote>foo</quote> could look
6633 <screen>FILTER: foo Replace all "foo" with "bar"</screen>
6637 Below that line, and up to the next header line, come the jobs that
6638 define what text replacements the filter executes. They are specified
6639 in a syntax that imitates <ulink url="http://www.perl.org/">Perl</ulink>'s
6640 <literal>s///</literal> operator. If you are familiar with Perl, you
6641 will find this to be quite intuitive, and may want to look at the
6642 PCRS documentation for the subtle differences to Perl behaviour. Most
6643 notably, the non-standard option letter <literal>U</literal> is supported,
6644 which turns the default to ungreedy matching.
6649 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
6650 Expressions</quote></ulink>, you might want to take a look at
6651 the <link linkend="regex">Appendix on regular expressions</link>, and
6652 see the <ulink url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html">Perl
6654 <ulink url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlop.html">the
6655 <literal>s///</literal> operator's syntax</ulink> and <ulink
6656 url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html">Perl-style regular
6657 expressions</ulink> in general.
6658 The below examples might also help to get you started.
6662 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
6664 <sect2><title>Filter File Tutorial</title>
6666 Now, let's complete our <quote>foo</quote> content filter. We have already defined
6667 the heading, but the jobs are still missing. Since all it does is to replace
6668 <quote>foo</quote> with <quote>bar</quote>, there is only one (trivial) job
6673 <screen>s/foo/bar/</screen>
6677 But wait! Didn't the comment say that <emphasis>all</emphasis> occurrences
6678 of <quote>foo</quote> should be replaced? Our current job will only take
6679 care of the first <quote>foo</quote> on each page. For global substitution,
6680 we'll need to add the <literal>g</literal> option:
6684 <screen>s/foo/bar/g</screen>
6688 Our complete filter now looks like this:
6691 <screen>FILTER: foo Replace all "foo" with "bar"
6692 s/foo/bar/g</screen>
6696 Let's look at some real filters for more interesting examples. Here you see
6697 a filter that protects against some common annoyances that arise from JavaScript
6698 abuse. Let's look at its jobs one after the other:
6704 FILTER: js-annoyances Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse
6706 # Get rid of JavaScript referrer tracking. Test page: http://www.randomoddness.com/untitled.htm
6708 s|(<script.*)document\.referrer(.*</script>)|$1"Not Your Business!"$2|Usg</screen>
6712 Following the header line and a comment, you see the job. Note that it uses
6713 <literal>|</literal> as the delimiter instead of <literal>/</literal>, because
6714 the pattern contains a forward slash, which would otherwise have to be escaped
6715 by a backslash (<literal>\</literal>).
6719 Now, let's examine the pattern: it starts with the text <literal><script.*</literal>
6720 enclosed in parentheses. Since the dot matches any character, and <literal>*</literal>
6721 means: <quote>Match an arbitrary number of the element left of myself</quote>, this
6722 matches <quote><script</quote>, followed by <emphasis>any</emphasis> text, i.e.
6723 it matches the whole page, from the start of the first <script> tag.
6727 That's more than we want, but the pattern continues: <literal>document\.referrer</literal>
6728 matches only the exact string <quote>document.referrer</quote>. The dot needed to
6729 be <emphasis>escaped</emphasis>, i.e. preceded by a backslash, to take away its
6730 special meaning as a joker, and make it just a regular dot. So far, the meaning is:
6731 Match from the start of the first <script> tag in a the page, up to, and including,
6732 the text <quote>document.referrer</quote>, if <emphasis>both</emphasis> are present
6733 in the page (and appear in that order).
6737 But there's still more pattern to go. The next element, again enclosed in parentheses,
6738 is <literal>.*</script></literal>. You already know what <literal>.*</literal>
6739 means, so the whole pattern translates to: Match from the start of the first <script>
6740 tag in a page to the end of the last <script> tag, provided that the text
6741 <quote>document.referrer</quote> appears somewhere in between.
6745 This is still not the whole story, since we have ignored the options and the parentheses:
6746 The portions of the page matched by sub-patterns that are enclosed in parentheses, will be
6747 remembered and be available through the variables <literal>$1, $2, ...</literal> in
6748 the substitute. The <literal>U</literal> option switches to ungreedy matching, which means
6749 that the first <literal>.*</literal> in the pattern will only <quote>eat up</quote> all
6750 text in between <quote><script</quote> and the <emphasis>first</emphasis> occurrence
6751 of <quote>document.referrer</quote>, and that the second <literal>.*</literal> will
6752 only span the text up to the <emphasis>first</emphasis> <quote></script></quote>
6753 tag. Furthermore, the <literal>s</literal> option says that the match may span
6754 multiple lines in the page, and the <literal>g</literal> option again means that the
6755 substitution is global.
6759 So, to summarize, the pattern means: Match all scripts that contain the text
6760 <quote>document.referrer</quote>. Remember the parts of the script from
6761 (and including) the start tag up to (and excluding) the string
6762 <quote>document.referrer</quote> as <literal>$1</literal>, and the part following
6763 that string, up to and including the closing tag, as <literal>$2</literal>.
6767 Now the pattern is deciphered, but wasn't this about substituting things? So
6768 lets look at the substitute: <literal>$1"Not Your Business!"$2</literal> is
6769 easy to read: The text remembered as <literal>$1</literal>, followed by
6770 <literal>"Not Your Business!"</literal> (<emphasis>including</emphasis>
6771 the quotation marks!), followed by the text remembered as <literal>$2</literal>.
6772 This produces an exact copy of the original string, with the middle part
6773 (the <quote>document.referrer</quote>) replaced by <literal>"Not Your
6774 Business!"</literal>.
6778 The whole job now reads: Replace <quote>document.referrer</quote> by
6779 <literal>"Not Your Business!"</literal> wherever it appears inside a
6780 <script> tag. Note that this job won't break JavaScript syntax,
6781 since both the original and the replacement are syntactically valid
6782 string objects. The script just won't have access to the referrer
6783 information anymore.
6787 We'll show you two other jobs from the JavaScript taming department, but
6788 this time only point out the constructs of special interest:
6793 # The status bar is for displaying link targets, not pointless blahblah
6795 s/window\.status\s*=\s*(['"]).*?\1/dUmMy=1/ig</screen>
6799 <literal>\s</literal> stands for whitespace characters (space, tab, newline,
6800 carriage return, form feed), so that <literal>\s*</literal> means: <quote>zero
6801 or more whitespace</quote>. The <literal>?</literal> in <literal>.*?</literal>
6802 makes this matching of arbitrary text ungreedy. (Note that the <literal>U</literal>
6803 option is not set). The <literal>['"]</literal> construct means: <quote>a single
6804 <emphasis>or</emphasis> a double quote</quote>. Finally, <literal>\1</literal> is
6805 a back-reference to the first parenthesis just like <literal>$1</literal> above,
6806 with the difference that in the <emphasis>pattern</emphasis>, a backslash indicates
6807 a back-reference, whereas in the <emphasis>substitute</emphasis>, it's the dollar.
6811 So what does this job do? It replaces assignments of single- or double-quoted
6812 strings to the <quote>window.status</quote> object with a dummy assignment
6813 (using a variable name that is hopefully odd enough not to conflict with
6814 real variables in scripts). Thus, it catches many cases where e.g. pointless
6815 descriptions are displayed in the status bar instead of the link target when
6816 you move your mouse over links.
6821 # Kill OnUnload popups. Yummy. Test: http://www.zdnet.com/zdsubs/yahoo/tree/yfs.html
6823 s/(<body [^>]*)onunload(.*>)/$1never$2/iU</screen>
6828 <ulink url="http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-DOM-Level-2-Events-20001113/events.html#Events-eventgroupings-htmlevents">OnUnload
6829 event binding</ulink> in the HTML DOM was a <emphasis>CRIME</emphasis>.
6830 When I close a browser window, I want it to close and die. Basta.
6831 This job replaces the <quote>onunload</quote> attribute in
6832 <quote><body></quote> tags with the dummy word <literal>never</literal>.
6833 Note that the <literal>i</literal> option makes the pattern matching
6834 case-insensitive. Also note that ungreedy matching alone doesn't always guarantee
6835 a minimal match: In the first parenthesis, we had to use <literal>[^>]*</literal>
6836 instead of <literal>.*</literal> to prevent the match from exceeding the
6837 <body> tag if it doesn't contain <quote>OnUnload</quote>, but the page's
6842 The last example is from the fun department:
6847 FILTER: fun Fun text replacements
6849 # Spice the daily news:
6851 s/microsoft(?!\.com)/MicroSuck/ig</screen>
6855 Note the <literal>(?!\.com)</literal> part (a so-called negative lookahead)
6856 in the job's pattern, which means: Don't match, if the string
6857 <quote>.com</quote> appears directly following <quote>microsoft</quote>
6858 in the page. This prevents links to microsoft.com from being trashed, while
6859 still replacing the word everywhere else.
6864 # Buzzword Bingo (example for extended regex syntax)
6866 s* industry[ -]leading \
6868 | customer[ -]focused \
6869 | market[ -]driven \
6870 | award[ -]winning # Comments are OK, too! \
6871 | high[ -]performance \
6872 | solutions[ -]based \
6876 *<font color="red"><b>BINGO!</b></font> \
6881 The <literal>x</literal> option in this job turns on extended syntax, and allows for
6882 e.g. the liberal use of (non-interpreted!) whitespace for nicer formatting.
6890 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
6892 <sect2 id="predefined-filters"><title>The Pre-defined Filters</title>
6896 Note each filter is also listed in the +filter action section above. Please
6897 keep these listings in sync.
6902 The distribution <filename>default.filter</filename> file contains a selection of
6903 pre-defined filters for your convenience:
6908 <term><emphasis>js-annoyances</emphasis></term>
6911 The purpose of this filter is to get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse.
6916 replaces JavaScript references to the browser's referrer information
6917 with the string "Not Your Business!". This compliments the <literal><link
6918 linkend="hide-referrer">hide-referrer</link></literal> action on the content level.
6923 removes the bindings to the DOM's
6924 <ulink url="http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-DOM-Level-2-Events-20001113/events.html#Events-eventgroupings-htmlevents">unload
6925 event</ulink> which we feel has no right to exist and is responsible for most <quote>exit consoles</quote>, i.e.
6926 nasty windows that pop up when you close another one.
6931 removes code that causes new windows to be opened with undesired properties, such as being
6932 full-screen, non-resizeable, without location, status or menu bar etc.
6938 Use with caution. This is an aggressive filter, and can break sites that
6939 rely heavily on JavaScript.
6945 <term><emphasis>js-events</emphasis></term>
6948 This is a very radical measure. It removes virtually all JavaScript event bindings, which
6949 means that scripts can not react to user actions such as mouse movements or clicks, window
6950 resizing etc, anymore. Use with caution!
6953 We <emphasis>strongly discourage</emphasis> using this filter as a default since it breaks
6954 many legitimate scripts. It is meant for use only on extra-nasty sites (should you really
6961 <term><emphasis>html-annoyances</emphasis></term>
6964 This filter will undo many common instances of HTML based abuse.
6967 The <literal>BLINK</literal> and <literal>MARQUEE</literal> tags
6968 are neutralized (yeah baby!), and browser windows will be created as
6969 resizeable (as of course they should be!), and will have location,
6970 scroll and menu bars -- even if specified otherwise.
6976 <term><emphasis>content-cookies</emphasis></term>
6979 Most cookies are set in the HTTP dialog, where they can be intercepted
6981 <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal>
6982 and <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>
6983 actions. But web sites increasingly make use of HTML meta tags and JavaScript
6984 to sneak cookies to the browser on the content level.
6987 This filter disables most HTML and JavaScript code that reads or sets
6988 cookies. It cannot detect all clever uses of these types of code, so it
6989 should not be relied on as an absolute fix. Use it wherever you would also
6990 use the cookie crunch actions.
6996 <term><emphasis>refresh tags</emphasis></term>
6999 Disable any refresh tags if the interval is greater than nine seconds (so
7000 that redirections done via refresh tags are not destroyed). This is useful
7001 for dial-on-demand setups, or for those who find this HTML feature
7008 <term><emphasis>unsolicited-popups</emphasis></term>
7011 This filter attempts to prevent only <quote>unsolicited</quote> pop-up
7012 windows from opening, yet still allow pop-up windows that the user
7013 has explicitly chosen to open. It was added in version 3.0.1,
7014 as an improvement over earlier such filters.
7017 Technical note: The filter works by redefining the window.open JavaScript
7018 function to a dummy function, <literal>PrivoxyWindowOpen()</literal>,
7019 during the loading and rendering phase of each HTML page access, and
7020 restoring the function afterward.
7023 This is recommended only for browsers that cannot perform this function
7024 reliably themselves. And be aware that some sites require such windows
7025 in order to function normally. Use with caution.
7031 <term><emphasis>all-popups</emphasis></term>
7034 Attempt to prevent <emphasis>all</emphasis> pop-up windows from opening.
7035 Note this should be used with even more discretion than the above, since
7036 it is more likely to break some sites that require pop-ups for normal
7037 usage. Use with caution.
7043 <term><emphasis>img-reorder</emphasis></term>
7046 This is a helper filter that has no value if used alone. It makes the
7047 <literal>banners-by-size</literal> and <literal>banners-by-link</literal>
7048 (see below) filters more effective and should be enabled together with them.
7054 <term><emphasis>banners-by-size</emphasis></term>
7057 This filter removes image tags purely based on what size they are. Fortunately
7058 for us, many ads and banner images tend to conform to certain standardized
7059 sizes, which makes this filter quite effective for ad stripping purposes.
7062 Occasionally this filter will cause false positives on images that are not ads,
7063 but just happen to be of one of the standard banner sizes.
7066 Recommended only for those who require extreme ad blocking. The default
7067 block rules should catch 95+% of all ads <emphasis>without</emphasis> this filter enabled.
7073 <term><emphasis>banners-by-link</emphasis></term>
7076 This is an experimental filter that attempts to kill any banners if
7077 their URLs seem to point to known or suspected click trackers. It is currently
7078 not of much value and is not recommended for use by default.
7084 <term><emphasis>webbugs</emphasis></term>
7087 Webbugs are small, invisible images (technically 1X1 GIF images), that
7088 are used to track users across websites, and collect information on them.
7089 As an HTML page is loaded by the browser, an embedded image tag causes the
7090 browser to contact a third-party site, disclosing the tracking information
7091 through the requested URL and/or cookies for that third-party domain, without
7092 the user ever becoming aware of the interaction with the third-party site.
7093 HTML-ized spam also uses a similar technique to verify email addresses.
7096 This filter removes the HTML code that loads such <quote>webbugs</quote>.
7102 <term><emphasis>tiny-textforms</emphasis></term>
7105 A rather special-purpose filter that can be used to enlarge textareas (those
7106 multi-line text boxes in web forms) and turn off hard word wrap in them.
7107 It was written for the sourceforge.net tracker system where such boxes are
7108 a nuisance, but it can be handy on other sites, too.
7111 It is not recommended to use this filter as a default.
7117 <term><emphasis>jumping-windows</emphasis></term>
7120 Many consider windows that move, or resize themselves to be abusive. This filter
7121 neutralizes the related JavaScript code. Note that some sites might not display
7122 or behave as intended when using this filter. Use with caution.
7128 <term><emphasis>frameset-borders</emphasis></term>
7131 Some web designers seem to assume that everyone in the world will view their
7132 web sites using the same browser brand and version, screen resolution etc,
7133 because only that assumption could explain why they'd use static frame sizes,
7134 yet prevent their frames from being resized by the user, should they be too
7135 small to show their whole content.
7138 This filter removes the related HTML code. It should only be applied to sites
7145 <term><emphasis>demoronizer</emphasis></term>
7148 Many Microsoft products that generate HTML use non-standard extensions (read:
7149 violations) of the ISO 8859-1 aka Latin-1 character set. This can cause those
7150 HTML documents to display with errors on standard-compliant platforms.
7153 This filter translates the MS-only characters into Latin-1 equivalents.
7154 It is not necessary when using MS products, and will cause corruption of
7155 all documents that use 8-bit character sets other than Latin-1. It's mostly
7156 worthwhile for Europeans on non-MS platforms, if weird garbage characters
7157 sometimes appear on some pages, or user agents that don't correct for this on
7160 My version of Mozilla (ancient) shows litte square boxes for quote
7161 characters, and apostrophes on moronized pages. So many pages have this, I
7162 can read them fine now. HB 08/27/06
7169 <term><emphasis>shockwave-flash</emphasis></term>
7172 A filter for shockwave haters. As the name suggests, this filter strips code
7173 out of web pages that is used to embed shockwave flash objects.
7181 <term><emphasis>quicktime-kioskmode</emphasis></term>
7184 Change HTML code that embeds Quicktime objects so that kioskmode, which
7185 prevents saving, is disabled.
7191 <term><emphasis>fun</emphasis></term>
7194 Text replacements for subversive browsing fun. Make fun of your favorite
7195 Monopolist or play buzzword bingo.
7201 <term><emphasis>crude-parental</emphasis></term>
7204 A demonstration-only filter that shows how <application>Privoxy</application>
7205 can be used to delete web content on a keyword basis.
7211 <term><emphasis>ie-exploits</emphasis></term>
7214 An experimental collection of text replacements to disable malicious HTML and JavaScript
7215 code that exploits known security holes in Internet Explorer.
7218 Presently, it only protects against Nimda and a cross-site scripting bug, and
7219 would need active maintenance to provide more substantial protection.
7225 <term><emphasis>site-specifics</emphasis></term>
7228 Some web sites have very specific problems, the cure for which doesn't apply
7229 anywhere else, or could even cause damage on other sites.
7232 This is a collection of such site-specific cures which should only be applied
7233 to the sites they were intended for, which is what the supplied
7234 <filename>default.action</filename> file does. Users shouldn't need to change
7235 anything regarding this filter.
7241 <term><emphasis>google</emphasis></term>
7244 A CSS based block for Google text ads. Also removes a width limitation
7245 and the toolbar advertisement.
7251 <term><emphasis>yahoo</emphasis></term>
7254 Another CSS based block, this time for Yahoo text ads. And removes
7255 a width limitation as well.
7261 <term><emphasis>msn</emphasis></term>
7264 Another CSS based block, this time for MSN text ads. And removes
7265 tracking URLs, as well as a width limitation.
7271 <term><emphasis>blogspot</emphasis></term>
7274 Cleans up some Blogspot blogs. Read the fine print before using this one!
7277 This filter also intentionally removes some navigation stuff and sets the
7278 page width to 100%. As a result, some rounded <quote>corners</quote> would
7279 appear to early or not at all and as fixing this would require a browser
7280 that understands background-size (CSS3), they are removed instead.
7286 <term><emphasis>xml-to-html</emphasis></term>
7289 Server-header filter to change the Content-Type from xml to html.
7295 <term><emphasis>html-to-xml</emphasis></term>
7298 Server-header filter to change the Content-Type from html to xml.
7304 <term><emphasis>no-ping</emphasis></term>
7307 Removes the non-standard <literal>ping</literal> attribute from
7308 anchor and area HTML tags.
7314 <term><emphasis>hide-tor-exit-notation</emphasis></term>
7317 Client-header filter to remove the <command>Tor</command> exit node notation
7318 found in Host and Referer headers.
7321 If &my-app; and <command>Tor</command> are chained and &my-app;
7322 is configured to use socks4a, one can use <quote>http://www.example.org.foobar.exit/</quote>
7323 to access the host <quote>www.example.org</quote> through the
7324 <command>Tor</command> exit node <quote>foobar</quote>.
7327 As the HTTP client isn't aware of this notation, it treats the
7328 whole string <quote>www.example.org.foobar.exit</quote> as host and uses it
7329 for the <quote>Host</quote> and <quote>Referer</quote> headers. From the
7330 server's point of view the resulting headers are invalid and can cause problems.
7333 An invalid <quote>Referer</quote> header can trigger <quote>hot-linking</quote>
7334 protections, an invalid <quote>Host</quote> header will make it impossible for
7335 the server to find the right vhost (several domains hosted on the same IP address).
7338 This client-header filter removes the <quote>foo.exit</quote> part in those headers
7339 to prevent the mentioned problems. Note that it only modifies
7340 the HTTP headers, it doesn't make it impossible for the server
7341 to detect your <command>Tor</command> exit node based on the IP address
7342 the request is coming from.
7349 <term><emphasis> </emphasis></term>
7363 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7367 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7369 <sect1 id="templates">
7370 <title>Privoxy's Template Files</title>
7372 All <application>Privoxy</application> built-in pages, i.e. error pages such as the
7373 <ulink url="http://show-the-404-error.page"><quote>404 - No Such Domain</quote>
7374 error page</ulink>, the <ulink
7375 url="http://ads.bannerserver.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor.html"><quote>BLOCKED</quote>
7377 and all pages of its <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">web-based
7378 user interface</ulink>, are generated from <emphasis>templates</emphasis>.
7379 (<application>Privoxy</application> must be running for the above links to work as
7384 These templates are stored in a subdirectory of the <link linkend="confdir">configuration
7385 directory</link> called <filename>templates</filename>. On Unixish platforms,
7387 <ulink url="file:///etc/privoxy/templates/"><filename>/etc/privoxy/templates/</filename></ulink>.
7391 The templates are basically normal HTML files, but with place-holders (called symbols
7392 or exports), which <application>Privoxy</application> fills at run time. It
7393 is possible to edit the templates with a normal text editor, should you want
7394 to customize them. (<emphasis>Not recommended for the casual
7395 user</emphasis>). Should you create your own custom templates, you should use
7396 the <filename>config</filename> setting <link linkend="templdir">templdir</link>
7397 to specify an alternate location, so your templates do not get overwritten
7401 Note that just like in configuration files, lines starting
7402 with <literal>#</literal> are ignored when the templates are filled in.
7406 The place-holders are of the form <literal>@name@</literal>, and you will
7407 find a list of available symbols, which vary from template to template,
7408 in the comments at the start of each file. Note that these comments are not
7409 always accurate, and that it's probably best to look at the existing HTML
7410 code to find out which symbols are supported and what they are filled in with.
7414 A special application of this substitution mechanism is to make whole
7415 blocks of HTML code disappear when a specific symbol is set. We use this
7416 for many purposes, one of them being to include the beta warning in all
7417 our user interface (CGI) pages when <application>Privoxy</application>
7418 is in an alpha or beta development stage:
7423 <!-- @if-unstable-start -->
7425 ... beta warning HTML code goes here ...
7427 <!-- if-unstable-end@ --></screen>
7431 If the "unstable" symbol is set, everything in between and including
7432 <literal>@if-unstable-start</literal> and <literal>if-unstable-end@</literal>
7433 will disappear, leaving nothing but an empty comment:
7437 <screen><!-- --></screen>
7441 There's also an if-then-else construct and an <literal>#include</literal>
7442 mechanism, but you'll sure find out if you are inclined to edit the
7447 All templates refer to a style located at
7448 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/send-stylesheet"><literal>http://config.privoxy.org/send-stylesheet</literal></ulink>.
7449 This is, of course, locally served by <application>Privoxy</application>
7450 and the source for it can be found and edited in the
7451 <filename>cgi-style.css</filename> template.
7456 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7460 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7462 <sect1 id="contact"><title>Contacting the Developers, Bug Reporting and Feature
7465 <!-- Include contacting.sgml boilerplate: -->
7467 <!-- end boilerplate -->
7471 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7474 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7475 <sect1 id="copyright"><title>Privoxy Copyright, License and History</title>
7477 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
7479 <!-- end copyright -->
7481 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7482 <sect2><title>License</title>
7483 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
7485 <!-- end copyright -->
7487 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7490 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7492 <sect2 id="history"><title>History</title>
7493 <!-- Include history.sgml: -->
7495 <!-- end history -->
7498 <sect2 id="authors"><title>Authors</title>
7499 <!-- Include p-authors.sgml: -->
7501 <!-- end authors -->
7506 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7509 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7510 <sect1 id="seealso"><title>See Also</title>
7511 <!-- Include seealso.sgml: -->
7513 <!-- end seealso -->
7518 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7519 <sect1 id="appendix"><title>Appendix</title>
7522 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7524 <title>Regular Expressions</title>
7526 <application>Privoxy</application> uses Perl-style <quote>regular
7527 expressions</quote> in its <link linkend="actions-file">actions
7528 files</link> and <link linkend="filter-file">filter file</link>,
7529 through the <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/">PCRE</ulink> and
7532 <ulink url="http://www.oesterhelt.org/pcrs/">PCRS</ulink> libraries.
7534 <application>PCRS</application> libraries.
7538 If you are reading this, you probably don't understand what <quote>regular
7539 expressions</quote> are, or what they can do. So this will be a very brief
7540 introduction only. A full explanation would require a <ulink
7541 url="http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/regex/">book</ulink> ;-)
7545 Regular expressions provide a language to describe patterns that can be
7546 run against strings of characters (letter, numbers, etc), to see if they
7547 match the string or not. The patterns are themselves (sometimes complex)
7548 strings of literal characters, combined with wild-cards, and other special
7549 characters, called meta-characters. The <quote>meta-characters</quote> have
7550 special meanings and are used to build complex patterns to be matched against.
7551 Perl Compatible Regular Expressions are an especially convenient
7552 <quote>dialect</quote> of the regular expression language.
7556 To make a simple analogy, we do something similar when we use wild-card
7557 characters when listing files with the <command>dir</command> command in DOS.
7558 <literal>*.*</literal> matches all filenames. The <quote>special</quote>
7559 character here is the asterisk which matches any and all characters. We can be
7560 more specific and use <literal>?</literal> to match just individual
7561 characters. So <quote>dir file?.text</quote> would match
7562 <quote>file1.txt</quote>, <quote>file2.txt</quote>, etc. We are pattern
7563 matching, using a similar technique to <quote>regular expressions</quote>!
7567 Regular expressions do essentially the same thing, but are much, much more
7568 powerful. There are many more <quote>special characters</quote> and ways of
7569 building complex patterns however. Let's look at a few of the common ones,
7570 and then some examples:
7575 <emphasis>.</emphasis> - Matches any single character, e.g. <quote>a</quote>,
7576 <quote>A</quote>, <quote>4</quote>, <quote>:</quote>, or <quote>@</quote>.
7578 </simplelist></para>
7582 <emphasis>?</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or ONE
7585 </simplelist></para>
7589 <emphasis>+</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ONE or MORE
7592 </simplelist></para>
7596 <emphasis>*</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or MORE
7599 </simplelist></para>
7603 <emphasis>\</emphasis> - The <quote>escape</quote> character denotes that
7604 the following character should be taken literally. This is used where one of the
7605 special characters (e.g. <quote>.</quote>) needs to be taken literally and
7606 not as a special meta-character. Example: <quote>example\.com</quote>, makes
7607 sure the period is recognized only as a period (and not expanded to its
7608 meta-character meaning of any single character).
7610 </simplelist></para>
7614 <emphasis>[ ]</emphasis> - Characters enclosed in brackets will be matched if
7615 any of the enclosed characters are encountered. For instance, <quote>[0-9]</quote>
7616 matches any numeric digit (zero through nine). As an example, we can combine
7617 this with <quote>+</quote> to match any digit one of more times: <quote>[0-9]+</quote>.
7619 </simplelist></para>
7623 <emphasis>( )</emphasis> - parentheses are used to group a sub-expression,
7624 or multiple sub-expressions.
7626 </simplelist></para>
7630 <emphasis>|</emphasis> - The <quote>bar</quote> character works like an
7631 <quote>or</quote> conditional statement. A match is successful if the
7632 sub-expression on either side of <quote>|</quote> matches. As an example:
7633 <quote>/(this|that) example/</quote> uses grouping and the bar character
7634 and would match either <quote>this example</quote> or <quote>that
7635 example</quote>, and nothing else.
7637 </simplelist></para>
7640 These are just some of the ones you are likely to use when matching URLs with
7641 <application>Privoxy</application>, and is a long way from a definitive
7642 list. This is enough to get us started with a few simple examples which may
7643 be more illuminating:
7647 <emphasis><literal>/.*/banners/.*</literal></emphasis> - A simple example
7648 that uses the common combination of <quote>.</quote> and <quote>*</quote> to
7649 denote any character, zero or more times. In other words, any string at all.
7650 So we start with a literal forward slash, then our regular expression pattern
7651 (<quote>.*</quote>) another literal forward slash, the string
7652 <quote>banners</quote>, another forward slash, and lastly another
7653 <quote>.*</quote>. We are building
7654 a directory path here. This will match any file with the path that has a
7655 directory named <quote>banners</quote> in it. The <quote>.*</quote> matches
7656 any characters, and this could conceivably be more forward slashes, so it
7657 might expand into a much longer looking path. For example, this could match:
7658 <quote>/eye/hate/spammers/banners/annoy_me_please.gif</quote>, or just
7659 <quote>/banners/annoying.html</quote>, or almost an infinite number of other
7660 possible combinations, just so it has <quote>banners</quote> in the path
7665 And now something a little more complex:
7669 <emphasis><literal>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))?/</literal></emphasis> -
7670 We have several literal forward slashes again (<quote>/</quote>), so we are
7671 building another expression that is a file path statement. We have another
7672 <quote>.*</quote>, so we are matching against any conceivable sub-path, just so
7673 it matches our expression. The only true literal that <emphasis>must
7674 match</emphasis> our pattern is <application>adv</application>, together with
7675 the forward slashes. What comes after the <quote>adv</quote> string is the
7680 Remember the <quote>?</quote> means the preceding expression (either a
7681 literal character or anything grouped with <quote>(...)</quote> in this case)
7682 can exist or not, since this means either zero or one match. So
7683 <quote>((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))</quote> is optional, as are the
7684 individual sub-expressions: <quote>(er)</quote>,
7685 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, and the <quote>s</quote>. The <quote>|</quote>
7686 means <quote>or</quote>. We have two of those. For instance,
7687 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, can expand to match either <quote>ing</quote>
7688 <emphasis>OR</emphasis> <quote>ements?</quote>. What is being done here, is an
7689 attempt at matching as many variations of <quote>advertisement</quote>, and
7690 similar, as possible. So this would expand to match just <quote>adv</quote>,
7691 or <quote>advert</quote>, or <quote>adverts</quote>, or
7692 <quote>advertising</quote>, or <quote>advertisement</quote>, or
7693 <quote>advertisements</quote>. You get the idea. But it would not match
7694 <quote>advertizements</quote> (with a <quote>z</quote>). We could fix that by
7695 changing our regular expression to:
7696 <quote>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|erti(s|z)(ing|ements?))?/</quote>, which would then match
7701 <emphasis><literal>/.*/advert[0-9]+\.(gif|jpe?g)</literal></emphasis> - Again
7702 another path statement with forward slashes. Anything in the square brackets
7703 <quote>[ ]</quote> can be matched. This is using <quote>0-9</quote> as a
7704 shorthand expression to mean any digit one through nine. It is the same as
7705 saying <quote>0123456789</quote>. So any digit matches. The <quote>+</quote>
7706 means one or more of the preceding expression must be included. The preceding
7707 expression here is what is in the square brackets -- in this case, any digit
7708 one through nine. Then, at the end, we have a grouping: <quote>(gif|jpe?g)</quote>.
7709 This includes a <quote>|</quote>, so this needs to match the expression on
7710 either side of that bar character also. A simple <quote>gif</quote> on one side, and the other
7711 side will in turn match either <quote>jpeg</quote> or <quote>jpg</quote>,
7712 since the <quote>?</quote> means the letter <quote>e</quote> is optional and
7713 can be matched once or not at all. So we are building an expression here to
7714 match image GIF or JPEG type image file. It must include the literal
7715 string <quote>advert</quote>, then one or more digits, and a <quote>.</quote>
7716 (which is now a literal, and not a special character, since it is escaped
7717 with <quote>\</quote>), and lastly either <quote>gif</quote>, or
7718 <quote>jpeg</quote>, or <quote>jpg</quote>. Some possible matches would
7719 include: <quote>//advert1.jpg</quote>,
7720 <quote>/nasty/ads/advert1234.gif</quote>,
7721 <quote>/banners/from/hell/advert99.jpg</quote>. It would not match
7722 <quote>advert1.gif</quote> (no leading slash), or
7723 <quote>/adverts232.jpg</quote> (the expression does not include an
7724 <quote>s</quote>), or <quote>/advert1.jsp</quote> (<quote>jsp</quote> is not
7725 in the expression anywhere).
7729 We are barely scratching the surface of regular expressions here so that you
7730 can understand the default <application>Privoxy</application>
7731 configuration files, and maybe use this knowledge to customize your own
7732 installation. There is much, much more that can be done with regular
7733 expressions. Now that you know enough to get started, you can learn more on
7738 More reading on Perl Compatible Regular expressions:
7739 <ulink url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html">http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html</ulink>
7743 For information on regular expression based substitutions and their applications
7744 in filters, please see the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file tutorial</link>
7749 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7752 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7754 <title>Privoxy's Internal Pages</title>
7757 Since <application>Privoxy</application> proxies each requested
7758 web page, it is easy for <application>Privoxy</application> to
7759 trap certain special URLs. In this way, we can talk directly to
7760 <application>Privoxy</application>, and see how it is
7761 configured, see how our rules are being applied, change these
7762 rules and other configuration options, and even turn
7763 <application>Privoxy's</application> filtering off, all with
7769 The URLs listed below are the special ones that allow direct access
7770 to <application>Privoxy</application>. Of course,
7771 <application>Privoxy</application> must be running to access these. If
7772 not, you will get a friendly error message. Internet access is not
7785 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
7789 There is a shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink> (But it
7790 doesn't provide a fall-back to a real page, in case the request is not
7791 sent through <application>Privoxy</application>)
7797 Show information about the current configuration, including viewing and
7798 editing of actions files:
7802 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
7809 Show the source code version numbers:
7813 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-version">http://config.privoxy.org/show-version</ulink>
7820 Show the browser's request headers:
7824 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request">http://config.privoxy.org/show-request</ulink>
7831 Show which actions apply to a URL and why:
7835 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
7842 Toggle Privoxy on or off. This feature can be turned off/on in the main
7843 <filename>config</filename> file. When toggled <quote>off</quote>, <quote>Privoxy</quote>
7844 continues to run, but only as a pass-through proxy, with no actions taking
7849 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</ulink>
7853 Short cuts. Turn off, then on:
7857 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable</ulink>
7862 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable</ulink>
7871 These may be bookmarked for quick reference. See next.
7875 <sect3 id="bookmarklets">
7876 <title>Bookmarklets</title>
7878 Below are some <quote>bookmarklets</quote> to allow you to easily access a
7879 <quote>mini</quote> version of some of <application>Privoxy's</application>
7880 special pages. They are designed for MS Internet Explorer, but should work
7881 equally well in Netscape, Mozilla, and other browsers which support
7882 JavaScript. They are designed to run directly from your bookmarks - not by
7883 clicking the links below (although that should work for testing).
7886 To save them, right-click the link and choose <quote>Add to Favorites</quote>
7887 (IE) or <quote>Add Bookmark</quote> (Netscape). You will get a warning that
7888 the bookmark <quote>may not be safe</quote> - just click OK. Then you can run the
7889 Bookmarklet directly from your favorites/bookmarks. For even faster access,
7890 you can put them on the <quote>Links</quote> bar (IE) or the <quote>Personal
7891 Toolbar</quote> (Netscape), and run them with a single click.
7900 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>
7907 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>
7914 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)
7921 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>
7927 <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>
7933 <ulink url="javascript:void(window.open('http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info?url='+escape(location.href),'Why').focus());">Privoxy - Why?</ulink>
7940 Credit: The site which gave us the general idea for these bookmarklets is
7941 <ulink url="http://www.bookmarklets.com/">www.bookmarklets.com</ulink>. They
7942 have more information about bookmarklets.
7951 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7953 <title>Chain of Events</title>
7955 Let's take a quick look at how some of <application>Privoxy's</application>
7956 core features are triggered, and the ensuing sequence of events when a web
7957 page is requested by your browser:
7964 First, your web browser requests a web page. The browser knows to send
7965 the request to <application>Privoxy</application>, which will in turn,
7966 relay the request to the remote web server after passing the following
7972 <application>Privoxy</application> traps any request for its own internal CGI
7973 pages (e.g <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>) and sends the CGI page back to the browser.
7978 Next, <application>Privoxy</application> checks to see if the URL
7980 linkend="BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></link> patterns. If
7981 so, the URL is then blocked, and the remote web server will not be contacted.
7982 <link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></link>
7984 <link linkend="HANDLE-AS-EMPTY-DOCUMENT"><quote>+handle-as-empty-document</quote></link>
7985 are then checked, and if there is no match, an
7986 HTML <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page is sent back to the browser. Otherwise, if
7987 it does match, an image is returned for the former, and an empty text
7988 document for the latter. The type of image would depend on the setting of
7989 <link linkend="SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"><quote>+set-image-blocker</quote></link>
7990 (blank, checkerboard pattern, or an HTTP redirect to an image elsewhere).
7995 Untrusted URLs are blocked. If URLs are being added to the
7996 <filename>trust</filename> file, then that is done.
8001 If the URL pattern matches the <link
8002 linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS"><quote>+fast-redirects</quote></link> action,
8003 it is then processed. Unwanted parts of the requested URL are stripped.
8008 Now the rest of the client browser's request headers are processed. If any
8009 of these match any of the relevant actions (e.g. <link
8010 linkend="HIDE-USER-AGENT"><quote>+hide-user-agent</quote></link>,
8011 etc.), headers are suppressed or forged as determined by these actions and
8017 Now the web server starts sending its response back (i.e. typically a web
8023 First, the server headers are read and processed to determine, among other
8024 things, the MIME type (document type) and encoding. The headers are then
8025 filtered as determined by the
8026 <link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES"><quote>+crunch-incoming-cookies</quote></link>,
8027 <link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"><quote>+session-cookies-only</quote></link>,
8028 and <link linkend="DOWNGRADE-HTTP-VERSION"><quote>+downgrade-http-version</quote></link>
8034 If any <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> action
8036 linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS"><quote>+deanimate-gifs</quote></link>
8037 action applies (and the document type fits the action), the rest of the page is
8038 read into memory (up to a configurable limit). Then the filter rules (from
8039 <filename>default.filter</filename> and any other filter files) are
8040 processed against the buffered content. Filters are applied in the order
8041 they are specified in one of the filter files. Animated GIFs, if present,
8042 are reduced to either the first or last frame, depending on the action
8043 setting.The entire page, which is now filtered, is then sent by
8044 <application>Privoxy</application> back to your browser.
8047 If neither a <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> action
8049 linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS"><quote>+deanimate-gifs</quote></link>
8050 matches, then <application>Privoxy</application> passes the raw data through
8051 to the client browser as it becomes available.
8056 As the browser receives the now (possibly filtered) page content, it
8057 reads and then requests any URLs that may be embedded within the page
8058 source, e.g. ad images, stylesheets, JavaScript, other HTML documents (e.g.
8059 frames), sounds, etc. For each of these objects, the browser issues a
8060 separate request (this is easily viewable in <application>Privoxy's</application>
8061 logs). And each such request is in turn processed just as above. Note that a
8062 complex web page will have many, many such embedded URLs. If these
8063 secondary requests are to a different server, then quite possibly a very
8064 differing set of actions is triggered.
8071 NOTE: This is somewhat of a simplistic overview of what happens with each URL
8072 request. For the sake of brevity and simplicity, we have focused on
8073 <application>Privoxy's</application> core features only.
8079 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
8080 <sect2 id="actionsanat">
8081 <title>Troubleshooting: Anatomy of an Action</title>
8084 The way <application>Privoxy</application> applies
8085 <link linkend="ACTIONS">actions</link> and <link linkend="FILTER">filters</link>
8086 to any given URL can be complex, and not always so
8087 easy to understand what is happening. And sometimes we need to be able to
8088 <emphasis>see</emphasis> just what <application>Privoxy</application> is
8089 doing. Especially, if something <application>Privoxy</application> is doing
8090 is causing us a problem inadvertently. It can be a little daunting to look at
8091 the actions and filters files themselves, since they tend to be filled with
8092 <link linkend="regex">regular expressions</link> whose consequences are not
8097 One quick test to see if <application>Privoxy</application> is causing a problem
8098 or not, is to disable it temporarily. This should be the first troubleshooting
8099 step. See <link linkend="bookmarklets">the Bookmarklets</link> section on a quick
8100 and easy way to do this (be sure to flush caches afterward!). Looking at the
8101 logs is a good idea too. (Note that both the toggle feature and logging are
8102 enabled via <filename>config</filename> file settings, and may need to be
8103 turned <quote>on</quote>.)
8106 Another easy troubleshooting step to try is if you have done any
8107 customization of your installation, revert back to the installed
8108 defaults and see if that helps. There are times the developers get complaints
8109 about one thing or another, and the problem is more related to a customized
8110 configuration issue.
8114 <application>Privoxy</application> also provides the
8115 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
8116 page that can show us very specifically how <application>actions</application>
8117 are being applied to any given URL. This is a big help for troubleshooting.
8121 First, enter one URL (or partial URL) at the prompt, and then
8122 <application>Privoxy</application> will tell us
8123 how the current configuration will handle it. This will not
8124 help with filtering effects (i.e. the <link
8125 linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> action) from
8126 one of the filter files since this is handled very
8127 differently and not so easy to trap! It also will not tell you about any other
8128 URLs that may be embedded within the URL you are testing. For instance, images
8129 such as ads are expressed as URLs within the raw page source of HTML pages. So
8130 you will only get info for the actual URL that is pasted into the prompt area
8131 -- not any sub-URLs. If you want to know about embedded URLs like ads, you
8132 will have to dig those out of the HTML source. Use your browser's <quote>View
8133 Page Source</quote> option for this. Or right click on the ad, and grab the
8138 Let's try an example, <ulink url="http://google.com">google.com</ulink>,
8139 and look at it one section at a time in a sample configuration (your real
8140 configuration may vary):
8145 Matches for http://www.google.com:
8147 In file: default.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
8149 {+deanimate-gifs {last}
8150 +fast-redirects {check-decoded-url}
8151 +filter {refresh-tags}
8152 +filter {img-reorder}
8153 +filter {banners-by-size}
8155 +filter {jumping-windows}
8156 +filter {ie-exploits}
8157 +hide-forwarded-for-headers
8158 +hide-from-header {block}
8159 +hide-referrer {forge}
8160 +session-cookies-only
8161 +set-image-blocker {pattern}
8164 { -session-cookies-only }
8170 In file: user.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
8171 (no matches in this file)
8176 This is telling us how we have defined our
8177 <link linkend="ACTIONS"><quote>actions</quote></link>, and
8178 which ones match for our test case, <quote>google.com</quote>.
8179 Displayed is all the actions that are available to us. Remember,
8180 the <literal>+</literal> sign denotes <quote>on</quote>. <literal>-</literal>
8181 denotes <quote>off</quote>. So some are <quote>on</quote> here, but many
8182 are <quote>off</quote>. Each example we try may provide a slightly different
8183 end result, depending on our configuration directives.
8187 is for our <filename>default.action</filename> file. The large, multi-line
8188 listing, is how the actions are set to match for all URLs, i.e. our default
8189 settings. If you look at your <quote>actions</quote> file, this would be the
8190 section just below the <quote>aliases</quote> section near the top. This
8191 will apply to all URLs as signified by the single forward slash at the end
8192 of the listing -- <quote> / </quote>.
8196 But we have defined additional actions that would be exceptions to these general
8197 rules, and then we list specific URLs (or patterns) that these exceptions
8198 would apply to. Last match wins. Just below this then are two explicit
8199 matches for <quote>.google.com</quote>. The first is negating our previous
8200 cookie setting, which was for <link
8201 linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"><quote>+session-cookies-only</quote></link>
8202 (i.e. not persistent). So we will allow persistent cookies for google, at
8203 least that is how it is in this example. The second turns
8204 <emphasis>off</emphasis> any <link
8205 linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS"><quote>+fast-redirects</quote></link>
8206 action, allowing this to take place unmolested. Note that there is a leading
8207 dot here -- <quote>.google.com</quote>. This will match any hosts and
8208 sub-domains, in the google.com domain also, such as
8209 <quote>www.google.com</quote> or <quote>mail.google.com</quote>. But it would not
8210 match <quote>www.google.de</quote>! So, apparently, we have these two actions
8211 defined as exceptions to the general rules at the top somewhere in the lower
8212 part of our <filename>default.action</filename> file, and
8213 <quote>google.com</quote> is referenced somewhere in these latter sections.
8217 Then, for our <filename>user.action</filename> file, we again have no hits.
8218 So there is nothing google-specific that we might have added to our own, local
8219 configuration. If there was, those actions would over-rule any actions from
8220 previously processed files, such as <filename>default.action</filename>.
8221 <filename>user.action</filename> typically has the last word. This is the
8222 best place to put hard and fast exceptions,
8226 And finally we pull it all together in the bottom section and summarize how
8227 <application>Privoxy</application> is applying all its <quote>actions</quote>
8228 to <quote>google.com</quote>:
8239 -client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation}
8240 -content-type-overwrite
8241 -crunch-client-header
8242 -crunch-if-none-match
8243 -crunch-incoming-cookies
8244 -crunch-outgoing-cookies
8245 -crunch-server-header
8246 +deanimate-gifs {last}
8247 -downgrade-http-version
8250 -filter {content-cookies}
8251 -filter {all-popups}
8252 -filter {banners-by-link}
8253 -filter {tiny-textforms}
8254 -filter {frameset-borders}
8255 -filter {demoronizer}
8256 -filter {shockwave-flash}
8257 -filter {quicktime-kioskmode}
8259 -filter {crude-parental}
8260 -filter {site-specifics}
8261 -filter {js-annoyances}
8262 -filter {html-annoyances}
8263 +filter {refresh-tags}
8264 -filter {unsolicited-popups}
8265 +filter {img-reorder}
8266 +filter {banners-by-size}
8268 +filter {jumping-windows}
8269 +filter {ie-exploits}
8276 -handle-as-empty-document
8278 -hide-accept-language
8279 -hide-content-disposition
8280 +hide-forwarded-for-headers
8281 +hide-from-header {block}
8282 -hide-if-modified-since
8283 +hide-referrer {forge}
8286 -overwrite-last-modified
8287 -prevent-compression
8289 -server-header-filter{xml-to-html}
8290 -server-header-filter{html-to-xml}
8291 -session-cookies-only
8292 +set-image-blocker {pattern} </screen>
8296 Notice the only difference here to the previous listing, is to
8297 <quote>fast-redirects</quote> and <quote>session-cookies-only</quote>,
8298 which are activated specifically for this site in our configuration,
8299 and thus show in the <quote>Final Results</quote>.
8303 Now another example, <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>:
8309 { +block{Domains starts with "ad"} }
8312 { +block{Domain contains "ad"} }
8315 { +block{Doubleclick banner server} +handle-as-image }
8316 .[a-vx-z]*.doubleclick.net
8321 We'll just show the interesting part here - the explicit matches. It is
8322 matched three different times. Two <quote>+block{}</quote> sections,
8323 and a <quote>+block{} +handle-as-image</quote>,
8324 which is the expanded form of one of our aliases that had been defined as:
8325 <quote>+block-as-image</quote>. (<link
8326 linkend="ALIASES"><quote>Aliases</quote></link> are defined in
8327 the first section of the actions file and typically used to combine more
8332 Any one of these would have done the trick and blocked this as an unwanted
8333 image. This is unnecessarily redundant since the last case effectively
8334 would also cover the first. No point in taking chances with these guys
8335 though ;-) Note that if you want an ad or obnoxious
8336 URL to be invisible, it should be defined as <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>
8337 is done here -- as both a <link
8338 linkend="BLOCK"><quote>+block{}</quote></link>
8339 <emphasis>and</emphasis> an
8340 <link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></link>.
8341 The custom alias <quote><literal>+block-as-image</literal></quote> just
8342 simplifies the process and make it more readable.
8346 One last example. Let's try <quote>http://www.example.net/adsl/HOWTO/</quote>.
8347 This one is giving us problems. We are getting a blank page. Hmmm ...
8353 Matches for http://www.example.net/adsl/HOWTO/:
8355 In file: default.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
8359 -client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation}
8360 -content-type-overwrite
8361 -crunch-client-header
8362 -crunch-if-none-match
8363 -crunch-incoming-cookies
8364 -crunch-outgoing-cookies
8365 -crunch-server-header
8367 -downgrade-http-version
8368 +fast-redirects {check-decoded-url}
8370 -filter {content-cookies}
8371 -filter {all-popups}
8372 -filter {banners-by-link}
8373 -filter {tiny-textforms}
8374 -filter {frameset-borders}
8375 -filter {demoronizer}
8376 -filter {shockwave-flash}
8377 -filter {quicktime-kioskmode}
8379 -filter {crude-parental}
8380 -filter {site-specifics}
8381 -filter {js-annoyances}
8382 -filter {html-annoyances}
8383 +filter {refresh-tags}
8384 -filter {unsolicited-popups}
8385 +filter {img-reorder}
8386 +filter {banners-by-size}
8388 +filter {jumping-windows}
8389 +filter {ie-exploits}
8396 -handle-as-empty-document
8398 -hide-accept-language
8399 -hide-content-disposition
8400 +hide-forwarded-for-headers
8401 +hide-from-header{block}
8402 +hide-referer{forge}
8404 -overwrite-last-modified
8405 +prevent-compression
8407 -server-header-filter{xml-to-html}
8408 -server-header-filter{html-to-xml}
8409 +session-cookies-only
8410 +set-image-blocker{blank} }
8413 { +block{Path contains "ads".} +handle-as-image }
8419 Ooops, the <quote>/adsl/</quote> is matching <quote>/ads</quote> in our
8420 configuration! But we did not want this at all! Now we see why we get the
8421 blank page. It is actually triggering two different actions here, and
8422 the effects are aggregated so that the URL is blocked, and &my-app; is told
8423 to treat the block as if it were an image. But this is, of course, all wrong.
8424 We could now add a new action below this (or better in our own
8425 <filename>user.action</filename> file) that explicitly
8426 <emphasis>un</emphasis> blocks (
8427 <link linkend="BLOCK"><quote>{-block}</quote></link>) paths with
8428 <quote>adsl</quote> in them (remember, last match in the configuration
8429 wins). There are various ways to handle such exceptions. Example:
8441 Now the page displays ;-)
8442 Remember to flush your browser's caches when making these kinds of changes to
8443 your configuration to insure that you get a freshly delivered page! Or, try
8444 using <literal>Shift+Reload</literal>.
8448 But now what about a situation where we get no explicit matches like
8455 { +block{Path starts with "ads".} +handle-as-image }
8461 That actually was very helpful and pointed us quickly to where the problem
8462 was. If you don't get this kind of match, then it means one of the default
8463 rules in the first section of <filename>default.action</filename> is causing
8464 the problem. This would require some guesswork, and maybe a little trial and
8465 error to isolate the offending rule. One likely cause would be one of the
8466 <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> actions.
8467 These tend to be harder to troubleshoot.
8468 Try adding the URL for the site to one of aliases that turn off
8469 <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link>:
8477 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
8485 <quote><literal>{ shop }</literal></quote> is an <quote>alias</quote> that expands to
8486 <quote><literal>{ -filter -session-cookies-only }</literal></quote>.
8487 Or you could do your own exception to negate filtering:
8495 # Disable ALL filter actions for sites in this section
8503 This would turn off all filtering for these sites. This is best
8504 put in <filename>user.action</filename>, for local site
8505 exceptions. Note that when a simple domain pattern is used by itself (without
8506 the subsequent path portion), all sub-pages within that domain are included
8507 automatically in the scope of the action.
8511 Images that are inexplicably being blocked, may well be hitting the
8512 <link linkend="FILTER-BANNERS-BY-SIZE"><quote>+filter{banners-by-size}</quote></link>
8514 that images of certain sizes are ad banners (works well
8515 <emphasis>most of the time</emphasis> since these tend to be standardized).
8519 <quote><literal>{ fragile }</literal></quote> is an alias that disables most
8520 actions that are the most likely to cause trouble. This can be used as a
8521 last resort for problem sites.
8527 # Handle with care: easy to break
8529 mybank.example.com</screen>
8534 <emphasis>Remember to flush caches!</emphasis> Note that the
8535 <literal>mail.google</literal> reference lacks the TLD portion (e.g.
8536 <quote>.com</quote>). This will effectively match any TLD with
8537 <literal>google</literal> in it, such as <literal>mail.google.de.</literal>,
8541 If this still does not work, you will have to go through the remaining
8542 actions one by one to find which one(s) is causing the problem.
8551 This program is free software; you can redistribute it
8552 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
8553 Public License as published by the Free Software
8554 Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at
8555 your option) any later version.
8557 This program is distributed in the hope that it will
8558 be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the
8559 implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
8560 PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public
8561 License for more details.
8563 The GNU General Public License should be included with
8564 this file. If not, you can view it at
8565 http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
8566 or write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
8567 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301,
8570 $Log: user-manual.sgml,v $
8571 Revision 2.71 2008/04/10 17:37:16 fabiankeil
8572 Actually we use "modern" POSIX 1003.2 regular
8573 expressions in path patterns, not PCRE.
8575 Revision 2.70 2008/04/10 15:59:12 fabiankeil
8576 Add another section to the client-header-tagger example that shows
8577 how to actually change the action settings once the tag is created.
8579 Revision 2.69 2008/03/29 12:14:25 fabiankeil
8580 Remove send-wafer and send-vanilla-wafer actions.
8582 Revision 2.68 2008/03/28 15:13:43 fabiankeil
8583 Remove inspect-jpegs action.
8585 Revision 2.67 2008/03/27 18:31:21 fabiankeil
8586 Remove kill-popups action.
8588 Revision 2.66 2008/03/06 16:33:47 fabiankeil
8589 If limit-connect isn't used, don't limit CONNECT requests to port 443.
8591 Revision 2.65 2008/03/04 18:30:40 fabiankeil
8592 Remove the treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks action. We now
8593 use the "blocked" page for forbidden CONNECT requests by default.
8595 Revision 2.64 2008/03/01 14:10:28 fabiankeil
8596 Use new block syntax. Still needs some polishing.
8598 Revision 2.63 2008/02/22 05:50:37 markm68k
8601 Revision 2.62 2008/02/11 11:52:23 hal9
8602 Fix entity ... s/&/&
8604 Revision 2.61 2008/02/11 03:41:47 markm68k
8605 more updates for mac os x
8607 Revision 2.60 2008/02/11 03:40:25 markm68k
8608 more updates for mac os x
8610 Revision 2.59 2008/02/11 00:52:34 markm68k
8611 reflect new changes for mac os x
8613 Revision 2.58 2008/02/03 21:37:40 hal9
8614 Apply patch from Mark: s/OSX/OS X/
8616 Revision 2.57 2008/02/03 19:10:14 fabiankeil
8617 Mention forward-socks5.
8619 Revision 2.56 2008/01/31 19:11:35 fabiankeil
8620 Let the +client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation} example apply
8621 to all requests as "tainted" Referers aren't limited to exit TLDs.
8623 Revision 2.55 2008/01/19 21:26:37 hal9
8624 Add IE7 to configuration section per Gerry.
8626 Revision 2.54 2008/01/19 17:52:39 hal9
8627 Re-commit to fix various minor issues for new release.
8629 Revision 2.53 2008/01/19 15:03:05 hal9
8630 Doc sources tagged for 3.0.8 release.
8632 Revision 2.52 2008/01/17 01:49:51 hal9
8633 Change copyright notice for docs s/2007/2008/. All these will be rebuilt soon
8636 Revision 2.51 2007/12/23 16:48:24 fabiankeil
8637 Use more precise example descriptions for the mysterious domain patterns.
8639 Revision 2.50 2007/12/08 12:44:36 fabiankeil
8640 - Remove already commented out pre-3.0.7 changes.
8641 - Update the "new log defaults" paragraph.
8643 Revision 2.49 2007/12/06 18:21:55 fabiankeil
8644 Update hide-forwarded-for-headers description.
8646 Revision 2.48 2007/11/24 19:07:17 fabiankeil
8647 - Mention request rewriting.
8648 - Enable the conditional-forge paragraph.
8651 Revision 2.47 2007/11/18 14:59:47 fabiankeil
8652 A few "Note to Upgraders" updates.
8654 Revision 2.46 2007/11/17 17:24:44 fabiankeil
8655 - Use new action defaults.
8656 - Minor fixes and rewordings.
8658 Revision 2.45 2007/11/16 11:48:46 hal9
8659 Fix one typo, and add a couple of small refinements.
8661 Revision 2.44 2007/11/15 03:30:20 hal9
8662 Results of spell check.
8664 Revision 2.43 2007/11/14 18:45:39 fabiankeil
8665 - Mention some more contributors in the "New in this Release" list.
8668 Revision 2.42 2007/11/12 03:32:40 hal9
8669 Updates for "What's New" and "Notes to Upgraders". Various other changes in
8670 preparation for new release. User Manual is almost ready.
8672 Revision 2.41 2007/11/11 16:32:11 hal9
8673 This is primarily syncing What's New and Note to Upgraders sections with the many
8674 new features and changes (gleaned from memory but mostly from ChangeLog).
8676 Revision 2.40 2007/11/10 17:10:59 fabiankeil
8677 In the first third of the file, mention several times that
8678 the action editor is disabled by default in 3.0.7 beta and later.
8680 Revision 2.39 2007/11/05 02:34:49 hal9
8681 Various changes in preparation for the upcoming release. Much yet to be done.
8683 Revision 2.38 2007/09/22 16:01:42 fabiankeil
8684 Update embedded show-url-info output.
8686 Revision 2.37 2007/08/27 16:09:55 fabiankeil
8687 Fix pre-chroot-nslookup description which I failed to
8688 copy and paste properly. Reported by Stephen Gildea.
8690 Revision 2.36 2007/08/26 16:47:14 fabiankeil
8691 Add Stephen Gildea's pre-chroot-nslookup patch [#1276666],
8692 extensive comments moved to user manual.
8694 Revision 2.35 2007/08/26 14:59:49 fabiankeil
8695 Minor rewordings and fixes.
8697 Revision 2.34 2007/08/05 15:19:50 fabiankeil
8698 - Don't claim HTTP/1.1 compliance.
8699 - Use $ in some of the path pattern examples.
8700 - Use a hide-user-agent example argument without
8701 leading and trailing space.
8702 - Make it clear that the cookie actions work with
8704 - Rephrase the inspect-jpegs text to underline
8705 that it's only meant to protect against a single
8708 Revision 2.33 2007/07/27 10:57:35 hal9
8709 Add references for user-agent strings for hide-user-agenet
8711 Revision 2.32 2007/06/07 12:36:22 fabiankeil
8712 Apply Roland's 29_usermanual.dpatch to fix a bunch
8713 of syntax errors I collected over the last months.
8715 Revision 2.31 2007/06/02 14:01:37 fabiankeil
8716 Start to document forward-override{}.
8718 Revision 2.30 2007/04/25 15:10:36 fabiankeil
8719 - Describe installation for FreeBSD.
8720 - Start to document taggers and tag patterns.
8721 - Don't confuse devils and daemons.
8723 Revision 2.29 2007/04/05 11:47:51 fabiankeil
8724 Some updates regarding header filtering,
8725 handling of compressed content and redirect's
8726 support for pcrs commands.
8728 Revision 2.28 2006/12/10 23:42:48 hal9
8729 Fix various typos reported by Adam P. Thanks.
8731 Revision 2.27 2006/11/14 01:57:47 hal9
8732 Dump all docs prior to 3.0.6 release. Various minor changes to faq and user
8735 Revision 2.26 2006/10/24 11:16:44 hal9
8738 Revision 2.25 2006/10/18 10:50:33 hal9
8739 Add note that since filters are off in Cautious, compression is ON. Turn off
8740 compression to make filters work on all sites.
8742 Revision 2.24 2006/10/03 11:13:54 hal9
8743 More references to the new filters. Include html this time around.
8745 Revision 2.23 2006/10/02 22:43:53 hal9
8746 Contains new filter definitions from Fabian, and few other miscellaneous
8749 Revision 2.22 2006/09/22 01:27:55 hal9
8750 Final commit of probably various minor changes here and there. Unless
8751 something changes this should be ready for pending release.
8753 Revision 2.21 2006/09/20 03:21:36 david__schmidt
8754 Just the tiniest tweak. Wafer thin!
8756 Revision 2.20 2006/09/10 14:53:54 hal9
8757 Results of spell check. User manual has some updates to standard.actions file
8760 Revision 2.19 2006/09/08 12:19:02 fabiankeil
8761 Adjust hide-if-modified-since example values
8762 to reflect the recent changes.
8764 Revision 2.18 2006/09/08 02:38:57 hal9
8766 -Fix a number of broken links.
8767 -Migrate the new Windows service command line options, and reference as
8769 -Rebuild so that can be used with the new "user-manual" config capabilities.
8772 Revision 2.17 2006/09/05 13:25:12 david__schmidt
8773 Add Windows service invocation stuff (duplicated) in FAQ and in user manual under Windows startup. One probably ought to reference the other.
8775 Revision 2.16 2006/09/02 12:49:37 hal9
8776 Various small updates for new actions, filterfiles, etc.
8778 Revision 2.15 2006/08/30 11:15:22 hal9
8779 More work on the new actions, especially filter-*-headers, and What's New
8780 section. User Manual is close to final form for 3.0.4 release. Some tinkering
8781 and proof reading left to do.
8783 Revision 2.14 2006/08/29 10:59:36 hal9
8784 Add a "Whats New in this release" Section. Further work on multiple filter
8785 files, and assorted other minor changes.
8787 Revision 2.13 2006/08/22 11:04:59 hal9
8788 Silence warnings and errors. This should build now. New filters were only
8789 stubbed in. More to be done.
8791 Revision 2.12 2006/08/14 08:40:39 fabiankeil
8792 Documented new actions that were part of
8793 the "minor Privoxy improvements".
8795 Revision 2.11 2006/07/18 14:48:51 david__schmidt
8796 Reorganizing the repository: swapping out what was HEAD (the old 3.1 branch)
8797 with what was really the latest development (the v_3_0_branch branch)
8799 Revision 1.123.2.43 2005/05/23 09:59:10 hal9
8802 Revision 1.123.2.42 2004/12/04 14:39:57 hal9
8803 Fix two minor typos per bug SF report.
8805 Revision 1.123.2.41 2004/03/23 12:58:42 oes
8808 Revision 1.123.2.40 2004/02/27 12:48:49 hal9
8809 Add comment re: redirecting to local file system for set-image-blocker may
8810 is dependent on browser.
8812 Revision 1.123.2.39 2004/01/30 22:31:40 oes
8813 Added a hint re bookmarklets to Quickstart section
8815 Revision 1.123.2.38 2004/01/30 16:47:51 oes
8816 Some minor clarifications
8818 Revision 1.123.2.37 2004/01/29 22:36:11 hal9
8819 Updates for no longer filtering text/plain, and demoronizer default settings,
8820 and copyright notice dates.
8822 Revision 1.123.2.36 2003/12/10 02:26:26 hal9
8823 Changed the demoronizer filter description.
8825 Revision 1.123.2.35 2003/11/06 13:36:37 oes
8826 Updated link to nightly CVS tarball
8828 Revision 1.123.2.34 2003/06/26 23:50:16 hal9
8829 Add a small bit on filtering and problems re: source code being corrupted.
8831 Revision 1.123.2.33 2003/05/08 18:17:33 roro
8832 Use apt-get instead of dpkg to install Debian package, which is more
8833 solid, uses the correct and most recent Debian version automatically.
8835 Revision 1.123.2.32 2003/04/11 03:13:57 hal9
8836 Add small note about only one filterfile (as opposed to multiple actions
8839 Revision 1.123.2.31 2003/03/26 02:03:43 oes
8840 Updated hard-coded copyright dates
8842 Revision 1.123.2.30 2003/03/24 12:58:56 hal9
8843 Add new section on Predefined Filters.
8845 Revision 1.123.2.29 2003/03/20 02:45:29 hal9
8846 More problems with \-\-chroot causing markup problems :(
8848 Revision 1.123.2.28 2003/03/19 00:35:24 hal9
8849 Manual edit of revision log because 'chroot' (even inside a comment) was
8850 causing Docbook to hang here (due to double hyphen and the processor thinking
8853 Revision 1.123.2.27 2003/03/18 19:37:14 oes
8854 s/Advanced|Radical/Adventuresome/g to avoid complaints re fun filter
8856 Revision 1.123.2.26 2003/03/17 16:50:53 oes
8857 Added documentation for new chroot option
8859 Revision 1.123.2.25 2003/03/15 18:36:55 oes
8860 Adapted to the new filters
8862 Revision 1.123.2.24 2002/11/17 06:41:06 hal9
8863 Move default profiles table from FAQ to U-M, and other minor related changes.
8866 Revision 1.123.2.23 2002/10/21 02:32:01 hal9
8867 Updates to the user.action examples section. A few new ones.
8869 Revision 1.123.2.22 2002/10/12 00:51:53 hal9
8870 Add demoronizer to filter section.
8872 Revision 1.123.2.21 2002/10/10 04:09:35 hal9
8873 s/Advanced/Radical/ and added very brief note.
8875 Revision 1.123.2.20 2002/10/10 03:49:21 hal9
8876 Add notes to session-cookies-only and Quickstart about pre-existing
8877 cookies. Also, note content-cookies work differently.
8879 Revision 1.123.2.19 2002/09/26 01:25:36 hal9
8880 More explanation on Privoxy patterns, more on content-cookies and SSL.
8882 Revision 1.123.2.18 2002/08/22 23:47:58 hal9
8883 Add 'Documentation' to Privoxy Menu shot in Configuration section to match
8886 Revision 1.123.2.17 2002/08/18 01:13:05 hal9
8887 Spell checked (only one typo this time!).
8889 Revision 1.123.2.16 2002/08/09 19:20:54 david__schmidt
8890 Update to Mac OS X startup script name
8892 Revision 1.123.2.15 2002/08/07 17:32:11 oes
8893 Converted some internal links from ulink to link for PDF creation; no content changed
8895 Revision 1.123.2.14 2002/08/06 09:16:13 oes
8896 Nits re: actions file download
8898 Revision 1.123.2.13 2002/08/02 18:23:19 g_sauthoff
8899 Just 2 small corrections to the Gentoo sections
8901 Revision 1.123.2.12 2002/08/02 18:17:21 g_sauthoff
8902 Added 2 Gentoo sections
8904 Revision 1.123.2.11 2002/07/26 15:20:31 oes
8905 - Added version info to title
8906 - Added info on new filters
8907 - Revised parts of the filter file tutorial
8908 - Added info on where to get updated actions files
8910 Revision 1.123.2.10 2002/07/25 21:42:29 hal9
8911 Add brief notes on not proxying non-HTTP protocols.
8913 Revision 1.123.2.9 2002/07/11 03:40:28 david__schmidt
8915 Updated Mac OS X sections due to installation location change
8917 Revision 1.123.2.8 2002/06/09 16:36:32 hal9
8918 Clarifications on filtering and MIME. Hardcode 'latest release' in index.html.
8920 Revision 1.123.2.7 2002/06/09 00:29:34 hal9
8921 Touch ups on filtering, in actions section and Anatomy.
8923 Revision 1.123.2.6 2002/06/06 23:11:03 hal9
8924 Fix broken link. Linkchecked all docs.
8926 Revision 1.123.2.5 2002/05/29 02:01:02 hal9
8927 This is break out of the entire config section from u-m, so it can
8928 eventually be used to generate the comments, etc in the main config file
8929 so that these are in sync with each other.
8931 Revision 1.123.2.4 2002/05/27 03:28:45 hal9
8932 Ooops missed something from David.
8934 Revision 1.123.2.3 2002/05/27 03:23:17 hal9
8935 Fix FIXMEs for OS2 and Mac OS X startup. Fix Redhat typos (should be Red Hat).
8936 That's a wrap, I think.
8938 Revision 1.123.2.2 2002/05/26 19:02:09 hal9
8939 Move Amiga stuff around to take of FIXME in start up section.
8941 Revision 1.123.2.1 2002/05/26 17:04:25 hal9
8942 -Spellcheck, very minor edits, and sync across branches
8944 Revision 1.123 2002/05/24 23:19:23 hal9
8945 Include new image (Proxy setup). More fun with guibutton.
8946 Minor corrections/clarifications here and there.
8948 Revision 1.122 2002/05/24 13:24:08 oes
8949 Added Bookmarklet for one-click pre-filled access to show-url-info
8951 Revision 1.121 2002/05/23 23:20:17 oes
8952 - Changed more (all?) references to actions to the
8953 <literal><link> style.
8954 - Small fixes in the actions chapter
8955 - Small clarifications in the quickstart to ad blocking
8956 - Removed <emphasis> from <title>s since the new doc CSS
8957 renders them red (bad in TOC).
8959 Revision 1.120 2002/05/23 19:16:43 roro
8960 Correct Debian specials (installation and startup).
8962 Revision 1.119 2002/05/22 17:17:05 oes
8965 Revision 1.118 2002/05/21 04:54:55 hal9
8966 -New Section: Quickstart to Ad Blocking
8967 -Reformat Actions Anatomy to match new CGI layout
8969 Revision 1.117 2002/05/17 13:56:16 oes
8970 - Reworked & extended Templates chapter
8971 - Small changes to Regex appendix
8972 - #included authors.sgml into (C) and hist chapter
8974 Revision 1.116 2002/05/17 03:23:46 hal9
8975 Fixing merge conflict in Quickstart section.
8977 Revision 1.115 2002/05/16 16:25:00 oes
8978 Extended the Filter File chapter & minor fixes
8980 Revision 1.114 2002/05/16 09:42:50 oes
8981 More ulink->link, added some hints to Quickstart section
8983 Revision 1.113 2002/05/15 21:07:25 oes
8984 Extended and further commented the example actions files
8986 Revision 1.112 2002/05/15 03:57:14 hal9
8987 Spell check. A few minor edits here and there for better syntax and
8990 Revision 1.111 2002/05/14 23:01:36 oes
8993 Revision 1.110 2002/05/14 19:10:45 oes
8994 Restored alphabetical order of actions
8996 Revision 1.109 2002/05/14 17:23:11 oes
8997 Renamed the prevent-*-cookies actions, extended aliases section and moved it before the example AFs
8999 Revision 1.108 2002/05/14 15:29:12 oes
9000 Completed proofreading the actions chapter
9002 Revision 1.107 2002/05/12 03:20:41 hal9
9003 Small clarifications for 127.0.0.1 vs localhost for listen-address since this
9004 apparently an important distinction for some OS's.
9006 Revision 1.106 2002/05/10 01:48:20 hal9
9007 This is mostly proposed copyright/licensing additions and changes. Docs
9008 are still GPL, but licensing and copyright are more visible. Also, copyright
9009 changed in doc header comments (eliminate references to JB except FAQ).
9011 Revision 1.105 2002/05/05 20:26:02 hal9
9012 Sorting out license vs copyright in these docs.
9014 Revision 1.104 2002/05/04 08:44:45 swa
9017 Revision 1.103 2002/05/04 00:40:53 hal9
9018 -Remove the TOC first page kludge. It's fixed proper now in ldp.dsl.in.
9019 -Some minor additions to Quickstart.
9021 Revision 1.102 2002/05/03 17:46:00 oes
9022 Further proofread & reactivated short build instructions
9024 Revision 1.101 2002/05/03 03:58:30 hal9
9025 Move the user-manual config directive to top of section. Add note about
9026 Privoxy needing read permissions for configs, and write for logs.
9028 Revision 1.100 2002/04/29 03:05:55 hal9
9029 Add clarification on differences of new actions files.
9031 Revision 1.99 2002/04/28 16:59:05 swa
9032 more structure in starting section
9034 Revision 1.98 2002/04/28 05:43:59 hal9
9035 This is the break up of configuration.html into multiple files. This
9036 will probably break links elsewhere :(
9038 Revision 1.97 2002/04/27 21:04:42 hal9
9039 -Rewrite of Actions File example.
9040 -Add section for user-manual directive in config.
9042 Revision 1.96 2002/04/27 05:32:00 hal9
9043 -Add short section to Filter Files to tie in with +filter action.
9044 -Start rewrite of examples in Actions Examples (not finished).
9046 Revision 1.95 2002/04/26 17:23:29 swa
9047 bookmarks cleaned, changed structure of user manual, screen and programlisting cleanups, and numerous other changes that I forgot
9049 Revision 1.94 2002/04/26 05:24:36 hal9
9050 -Add most of Andreas suggestions to Chain of Events section.
9051 -A few other minor corrections and touch up.
9053 Revision 1.92 2002/04/25 18:55:13 hal9
9054 More catchups on new actions files, and new actions names.
9055 Other assorted cleanups, and minor modifications.
9057 Revision 1.91 2002/04/24 02:39:31 hal9
9058 Add 'Chain of Events' section.
9060 Revision 1.90 2002/04/23 21:41:25 hal9
9061 Linuxconf is deprecated on RH, substitute chkconfig.
9063 Revision 1.89 2002/04/23 21:05:28 oes
9064 Added hint for startup on Red Hat
9066 Revision 1.88 2002/04/23 05:37:54 hal9
9067 Add AmigaOS install stuff.
9069 Revision 1.87 2002/04/23 02:53:15 david__schmidt
9070 Updated Mac OS X installation section
9071 Added a few English tweaks here an there
9073 Revision 1.86 2002/04/21 01:46:32 hal9
9074 Re-write actions section.
9076 Revision 1.85 2002/04/18 21:23:23 hal9
9077 Fix ugly typo (mine).
9079 Revision 1.84 2002/04/18 21:17:13 hal9
9080 Spell Redhat correctly (ie Red Hat). A few minor grammar corrections.
9082 Revision 1.83 2002/04/18 18:21:12 oes
9083 Added RPM install detail
9085 Revision 1.82 2002/04/18 12:04:50 oes
9088 Revision 1.81 2002/04/18 11:50:24 oes
9089 Extended Install section - needs fixing by packagers
9091 Revision 1.80 2002/04/18 10:45:19 oes
9092 Moved text to buildsource.sgml, renamed some filters, details
9094 Revision 1.79 2002/04/18 03:18:06 hal9
9095 Spellcheck, and minor touchups.
9097 Revision 1.78 2002/04/17 18:04:16 oes
9100 Revision 1.77 2002/04/17 13:51:23 oes
9101 Proofreading, part one
9103 Revision 1.76 2002/04/16 04:25:51 hal9
9104 -Added 'Note to Upgraders' and re-ordered the 'Quickstart' section.
9105 -Note about proxy may need requests to re-read config files.
9107 Revision 1.75 2002/04/12 02:08:48 david__schmidt
9108 Remove OS/2 building info... it is already in the developer-manual
9110 Revision 1.74 2002/04/11 00:54:38 hal9
9111 Add small section on submitting actions.
9113 Revision 1.73 2002/04/10 18:45:15 swa
9116 Revision 1.72 2002/04/10 04:06:19 hal9
9117 Added actions feedback to Bookmarklets section
9119 Revision 1.71 2002/04/08 22:59:26 hal9
9120 Version update. Spell chkconfig correctly :)
9122 Revision 1.70 2002/04/08 20:53:56 swa
9125 Revision 1.69 2002/04/06 05:07:29 hal9
9126 -Add privoxy-man-page.sgml, for man page.
9127 -Add authors.sgml for AUTHORS (and p-authors.sgml)
9128 -Reworked various aspects of various docs.
9129 -Added additional comments to sub-docs.
9131 Revision 1.68 2002/04/04 18:46:47 swa
9132 consistent look. reuse of copyright, history et. al.
9134 Revision 1.67 2002/04/04 17:27:57 swa
9135 more single file to be included at multiple points. make maintaining easier
9137 Revision 1.66 2002/04/04 06:48:37 hal9
9138 Structural changes to allow for conditional inclusion/exclusion of content
9139 based on entity toggles, e.g. 'entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE"'. And
9140 definition of internal entities, e.g. 'entity p-version "2.9.13"' that will
9141 eventually be set by Makefile.
9142 More boilerplate text for use across multiple docs.
9144 Revision 1.65 2002/04/03 19:52:07 swa
9145 enhance squid section due to user suggestion
9147 Revision 1.64 2002/04/03 03:53:43 hal9
9148 A few minor bug fixes, and touch ups. Ready for review.
9150 Revision 1.63 2002/04/01 16:24:49 hal9
9151 Define entities to include boilerplate text. See doc/source/*.
9153 Revision 1.62 2002/03/30 04:15:53 hal9
9154 - Fix privoxy.org/config links.
9155 - Paste in Bookmarklets from Toggle page.
9156 - Move Quickstart nearer top, and minor rework.
9158 Revision 1.61 2002/03/29 01:31:08 hal9
9161 Revision 1.60 2002/03/27 01:57:34 hal9
9162 Added more to Anatomy section.
9164 Revision 1.59 2002/03/27 00:54:33 hal9
9165 Touch up intro for new name.
9167 Revision 1.58 2002/03/26 22:29:55 swa
9168 we have a new homepage!
9170 Revision 1.57 2002/03/24 20:33:30 hal9
9171 A few minor catch ups with name change.
9173 Revision 1.56 2002/03/24 16:17:06 swa
9174 configure needs to be generated.
9176 Revision 1.55 2002/03/24 16:08:08 swa
9177 we are too lazy to make a block-built
9178 privoxy logo. hence removed the option.
9180 Revision 1.54 2002/03/24 15:46:20 swa
9181 name change related issue.
9183 Revision 1.53 2002/03/24 11:51:00 swa
9184 name change. changed filenames.
9186 Revision 1.52 2002/03/24 11:01:06 swa
9189 Revision 1.51 2002/03/23 15:13:11 swa
9190 renamed every reference to the old name with foobar.
9191 fixed "application foobar application" tag, fixed
9192 "the foobar" with "foobar". left junkbustser in cvs
9193 comments and remarks to history untouched.
9195 Revision 1.50 2002/03/23 05:06:21 hal9
9198 Revision 1.49 2002/03/21 17:01:05 hal9
9199 New section in Appendix.
9201 Revision 1.48 2002/03/12 06:33:01 hal9
9202 Catching up to Andreas and re_filterfile changes.
9204 Revision 1.47 2002/03/11 13:13:27 swa
9205 correct feedback channels
9207 Revision 1.46 2002/03/10 00:51:08 hal9
9208 Added section on JB internal pages in Appendix.
9210 Revision 1.45 2002/03/09 17:43:53 swa
9213 Revision 1.44 2002/03/09 17:08:48 hal9
9214 New section on Jon's actions file editor, and move some stuff around.
9216 Revision 1.43 2002/03/08 00:47:32 hal9
9217 Added imageblock{pattern}.
9219 Revision 1.42 2002/03/07 18:16:55 swa
9222 Revision 1.41 2002/03/07 16:46:43 hal9
9223 Fix a few markup problems for jade.
9225 Revision 1.40 2002/03/07 16:28:39 swa
9226 provide correct feedback channels
9228 Revision 1.39 2002/03/06 16:19:28 hal9
9229 Note on perceived filtering slowdown per FR.
9231 Revision 1.38 2002/03/05 23:55:14 hal9
9232 Stupid I did it again. Double hyphen in comment breaks jade.
9234 Revision 1.37 2002/03/05 23:53:49 hal9
9235 jade barfs on '- -' embedded in comments. - -user option broke it.
9237 Revision 1.36 2002/03/05 22:53:28 hal9
9238 Add new - - user option.
9240 Revision 1.35 2002/03/05 00:17:27 hal9
9241 Added section on command line options.
9243 Revision 1.34 2002/03/04 19:32:07 oes
9244 Changed default port to 8118
9246 Revision 1.33 2002/03/03 19:46:13 hal9
9247 Emphasis on where/how to report bugs, etc
9249 Revision 1.32 2002/03/03 09:26:06 joergs
9250 AmigaOS changes, config is now loaded from PROGDIR: instead of
9251 AmiTCP:db/junkbuster/ if no configuration file is specified on the
9254 Revision 1.31 2002/03/02 22:45:52 david__schmidt
9257 Revision 1.30 2002/03/02 22:00:14 hal9
9258 Updated 'New Features' list. Ran through spell-checker.
9260 Revision 1.29 2002/03/02 20:34:07 david__schmidt
9261 Update OS/2 build section
9263 Revision 1.28 2002/02/24 14:34:24 jongfoster
9264 Formatting changes. Now changing the doctype to DocBook XML 4.1
9265 will work - no other changes are needed.
9267 Revision 1.27 2002/01/11 14:14:32 hal9
9268 Added a very short section on Templates
9270 Revision 1.26 2002/01/09 20:02:50 hal9
9271 Fix bug re: auto-detect config file changes.
9273 Revision 1.25 2002/01/09 18:20:30 hal9
9274 Touch ups for *.action files.
9276 Revision 1.24 2001/12/02 01:13:42 hal9
9279 Revision 1.23 2001/12/02 00:20:41 hal9
9280 Updates for recent changes.
9282 Revision 1.22 2001/11/05 23:57:51 hal9
9283 Minor update for startup now daemon mode.
9285 Revision 1.21 2001/10/31 21:11:03 hal9
9286 Correct 2 minor errors
9288 Revision 1.18 2001/10/24 18:45:26 hal9
9289 *** empty log message ***
9291 Revision 1.17 2001/10/24 17:10:55 hal9
9292 Catching up with Jon's recent work, and a few other things.
9294 Revision 1.16 2001/10/21 17:19:21 swa
9295 wrong url in documentation
9297 Revision 1.15 2001/10/14 23:46:24 hal9
9298 Various minor changes. Fleshed out SEE ALSO section.
9300 Revision 1.13 2001/10/10 17:28:33 hal9
9303 Revision 1.12 2001/09/28 02:57:04 hal9
9306 Revision 1.11 2001/09/28 02:25:20 hal9
9309 Revision 1.9 2001/09/27 23:50:29 hal9
9310 A few changes. A short section on regular expression in appendix.
9312 Revision 1.8 2001/09/25 00:34:59 hal9
9313 Some additions, and re-arranging.
9315 Revision 1.7 2001/09/24 14:31:36 hal9
9318 Revision 1.6 2001/09/24 14:10:32 hal9
9319 Including David's OS/2 installation instructions.
9321 Revision 1.2 2001/09/13 15:27:40 swa
9324 Revision 1.1 2001/09/12 15:36:41 swa
9325 source files for junkbuster documentation
9327 Revision 1.3 2001/09/10 17:43:59 swa
9328 first proposal of a structure.
9330 Revision 1.2 2001/06/13 14:28:31 swa
9331 docs should have an author.
9333 Revision 1.1 2001/06/13 14:20:37 swa
9334 first import of project's documentation for the webserver.