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 "3.0.17">
15 <!entity p-status "stable">
16 <!entity % p-authors-formal "INCLUDE"> <!-- include additional text, etc -->
17 <!entity % p-not-stable "IGNORE">
18 <!entity % p-stable "INCLUDE">
19 <!entity % p-text "IGNORE"> <!-- define we are not a text only doc -->
20 <!entity % p-doc "INCLUDE"> <!-- and we are a formal doc -->
21 <!entity % p-readme "IGNORE">
22 <!entity % user-man "IGNORE">
23 <!entity % config-file "IGNORE">
24 <!entity % p-supp-userman "IGNORE"> <!-- Omit some from supported.sgml -->
25 <!entity my-copy "©"> <!-- kludge for docbook2man -->
26 <!entity % draft "IGNORE"> <!-- WIP stuff -->
27 <!entity % seealso-extra "INCLUDE"> <!-- extra stuff from seealso.sgml -->
28 <!entity my-app "<application>Privoxy</application>">
31 File : $Source: /cvsroot/ijbswa/current/doc/source/user-manual.sgml,v $
34 This file belongs into
35 ijbswa.sourceforge.net:/home/groups/i/ij/ijbswa/htdocs/
37 $Id: user-manual.sgml,v 2.129 2010/11/13 20:17:11 fabiankeil Exp $
39 Copyright (C) 2001-2010 Privoxy Developers http://www.privoxy.org/
42 ========================================================================
43 NOTE: Please read developer-manual/documentation.html before touching
44 anything in this, or other Privoxy documentation.
45 ========================================================================
52 <title>Privoxy &p-version; User Manual</title>
56 <!-- Completely the wrong markup, but very little is allowed -->
57 <!-- in this part of an article. FIXME -->
58 <link linkend="copyright">Copyright</link> &my-copy; 2001-2010 by
59 <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/">Privoxy Developers</ulink>
63 <pubdate>$Id: user-manual.sgml,v 2.129 2010/11/13 20:17:11 fabiankeil Exp $</pubdate>
67 Note: the following should generate a separate page, and a live link to it,
68 all nicely done. But it doesn't for some mysterious reason. Please leave
69 commented unless it can be fixed proper. For the time being, the
70 copyright/license declarations will be in their own sgml.
83 This is here to keep vim syntax file from breaking :/
84 If I knew enough to fix it, I would.
85 PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE! HB: hal@foobox.net
91 The <citetitle>Privoxy User Manual</citetitle> gives users information on how to
92 install, configure and use <ulink
93 url="http://www.privoxy.org/">Privoxy</ulink>.
96 <!-- Include privoxy.sgml boilerplate: -->
98 <!-- end privoxy.sgml -->
101 You can find the latest version of the <citetitle>Privoxy User Manual</citetitle> at <ulink
102 url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/">http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/</ulink>.
103 Please see the <link linkend="contact">Contact section</link> on how to
104 contact the developers.
108 <!-- Feel free to send a note to the developers at <email>ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net</email>. -->
114 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
115 <sect1 label="1" id="introduction"><title>Introduction</title>
117 This documentation is included with the current &p-status; version of
118 <application>Privoxy</application>, v.&p-version;<![%p-not-stable;[,
119 and is mostly complete at this point. The most up to date reference for the
120 time being is still the comments in the source files and in the individual
121 configuration files. Development of a new version is currently nearing
122 completion, and includes significant changes and enhancements over
126 <!-- include only in non-stable versions -->
129 Since this is a &p-status; version, not all new features are well tested. This
130 documentation may be slightly out of sync as a result (especially with
131 CVS sources). And there <emphasis>may be</emphasis> bugs, though hopefully
136 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
137 <sect2 id="features"><title>Features</title>
139 In addition to the core
140 features of ad blocking and
141 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookie</ulink> management,
142 <application>Privoxy</application> provides many supplemental
143 features<![%p-not-stable;[, some of them currently under development]]>,
144 that give the end-user more control, more privacy and more freedom:
146 <!-- Include newfeatures.sgml boilerplate here: -->
148 <!-- end boilerplate -->
153 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
156 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
157 <sect1 id="installation"><title>Installation</title>
160 <application>Privoxy</application> is available both in convenient pre-compiled
161 packages for a wide range of operating systems, and as raw source code.
162 For most users, we recommend using the packages, which can be downloaded from our
163 <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ijbswa/">Privoxy Project
169 On some platforms, the installer may remove previously installed versions, if
170 found. (See below for your platform). In any case <emphasis>be sure to backup
171 your old configuration if it is valuable to you.</emphasis> See the <link
172 linkend="upgradersnote">note to upgraders</link> section below.
175 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
176 <sect2 id="installation-packages"><title>Binary Packages</title>
178 How to install the binary packages depends on your operating system:
181 <!-- XXX: The installation sections should be sorted -->
183 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
184 <sect3 id="installation-pack-rpm"><title>Red Hat and Fedora RPMs</title>
187 RPMs can be installed with <literal>rpm -Uvh privoxy-&p-version;-1.rpm</literal>,
188 and will use <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> for the location
189 of configuration files.
193 Note that on Red Hat, <application>Privoxy</application> will
194 <emphasis>not</emphasis> be automatically started on system boot. You will
195 need to enable that using <command>chkconfig</command>,
196 <command>ntsysv</command>, or similar methods.
200 If you have problems with failed dependencies, try rebuilding the SRC RPM:
201 <literal>rpm --rebuild privoxy-&p-version;-1.src.rpm</literal>. This
202 will use your locally installed libraries and RPM version.
206 Also note that if you have a <application>Junkbuster</application> RPM installed
207 on your system, you need to remove it first, because the packages conflict.
208 Otherwise, RPM will try to remove <application>Junkbuster</application>
209 automatically if found, before installing <application>Privoxy</application>.
213 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
214 <sect3 id="installation-deb"><title>Debian and Ubuntu</title>
216 DEBs can be installed with <literal>apt-get install privoxy</literal>,
217 and will use <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> for the location of
222 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
223 <sect3 id="installation-pack-win"><title>Windows</title>
226 Just double-click the installer, which will guide you through
227 the installation process. You will find the configuration files
228 in the same directory as you installed <application>Privoxy</application> in.
231 Version 3.0.5 beta introduced full <application>Windows</application> service
232 functionality. On Windows only, the <application>Privoxy</application>
233 program has two new command line arguments to install and uninstall
234 <application>Privoxy</application> as a <emphasis>service</emphasis>.
238 <term>Arguments:</term>
241 <replaceable class="parameter">--install</replaceable>[:<replaceable class="parameter">service_name</replaceable>]
244 <replaceable class="parameter">--uninstall</replaceable>[:<replaceable class="parameter">service_name</replaceable>]
250 After invoking <application>Privoxy</application> with
251 <command>--install</command>, you will need to bring up the
252 <application>Windows</application> service console to assign the user you
253 want <application>Privoxy</application> to run under, and whether or not you
254 want it to run whenever the system starts. You can start the
255 <application>Windows</application> services console with the following
256 command: <command>services.msc</command>. If you do not take the manual step
257 of modifying <application>Privoxy's</application> service settings, it will
258 not start. Note too that you will need to give Privoxy a user account that
259 actually exists, or it will not be permitted to
260 write to its log and configuration files.
265 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
266 <sect3 id="installation-pack-bintgz"><title>Solaris <!--, NetBSD, HP-UX--></title>
269 Create a new directory, <literal>cd</literal> to it, then unzip and
270 untar the archive. For the most part, you'll have to figure out where
271 things go. <!-- FIXME, more info needed? -->
275 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
276 <sect3 id="installation-os2"><title>OS/2</title>
279 First, make sure that no previous installations of
280 <application>Junkbuster</application> and / or
281 <application>Privoxy</application> are left on your
282 system. Check that no <application>Junkbuster</application>
283 or <application>Privoxy</application> objects are in
289 Then, just double-click the WarpIN self-installing archive, which will
290 guide you through the installation process. A shadow of the
291 <application>Privoxy</application> executable will be placed in your
292 startup folder so it will start automatically whenever OS/2 starts.
296 The directory you choose to install <application>Privoxy</application>
297 into will contain all of the configuration files.
301 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
302 <sect3 id="installation-mac"><title>Mac OS X</title>
304 Unzip the downloaded file (you can either double-click on the zip file
305 icon from the Finder, or from the desktop if you downloaded it there).
306 Then, double-click on the package installer icon and follow the
307 installation process.
310 The privoxy service will automatically start after a successful
311 installation (in addition to every time your computer starts up). To
312 prevent the privoxy service from automatically starting when your
313 computer starts up, remove or rename the folder named
314 <literal>/Library/StartupItems/Privoxy</literal>.
317 To manually start or stop the privoxy service, use the Privoxy Utility
318 for Mac OS X. This application controls the privoxy service (e.g.
319 starting and stopping the service as well as uninstalling the software).
323 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
324 <sect3 id="installation-amiga"><title>AmigaOS</title>
326 Copy and then unpack the <filename>lha</filename> archive to a suitable location.
327 All necessary files will be installed into <application>Privoxy</application>
328 directory, including all configuration and log files. To uninstall, just
329 remove this directory.
333 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
334 <sect3 id="installation-tbz"><title>FreeBSD</title>
337 Privoxy is part of FreeBSD's Ports Collection, you can build and install
338 it with <literal>cd /usr/ports/www/privoxy; make install clean</literal>.
341 If you don't use the ports, you can fetch and install
342 the package with <literal>pkg_add -r privoxy</literal>.
345 The port skeleton and the package can also be downloaded from the
346 <ulink url="https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118">File Release
347 Page</ulink>, but there's no reason to use them unless you're interested in the
348 beta releases which are only available there.
352 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
353 <sect3 id="installattion-gentoo"><title>Gentoo</title>
355 Gentoo source packages (Ebuilds) for <application>Privoxy</application> are
356 contained in the Gentoo Portage Tree (they are not on the download page,
357 but there is a Gentoo section, where you can see when a new
358 <application>Privoxy</application> Version is added to the Portage Tree).
361 Before installing <application>Privoxy</application> under Gentoo just do
362 first <literal>emerge --sync</literal> to get the latest changes from the
363 Portage tree. With <literal>emerge privoxy</literal> you install the latest
367 Configuration files are in <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename>, the
368 documentation is in <filename>/usr/share/doc/privoxy-&p-version;</filename>
369 and the Log directory is in <filename>/var/log/privoxy</filename>.
375 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
376 <sect2 id="installation-source"><title>Building from Source</title>
379 The most convenient way to obtain the <application>Privoxy</application> sources
380 is to download the source tarball from our
381 <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118&package_id=10571">project download
386 If you like to live on the bleeding edge and are not afraid of using
387 possibly unstable development versions, you can check out the up-to-the-minute
388 version directly from <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/cvs/?group_id=11118">the
389 CVS repository</ulink>.
391 deprecated...out of business.
392 or simply download <ulink
393 url="http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cvstarballs/ijbswa-cvsroot.tar.bz2">the nightly CVS
398 <!-- include buildsource.sgml boilerplate: -->
400 <!-- end boilerplate -->
403 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
404 <sect2 id="installation-keepupdated"><title>Keeping your Installation Up-to-Date</title>
406 As user feedback comes in and development continues, we will make updated versions
407 of both the main <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link> (as a <ulink
408 url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118&release_id=103670">separate
409 package</ulink>) and the software itself (including the actions file) available for
414 If you wish to receive an email notification whenever we release updates of
415 <application>Privoxy</application> or the actions file, <ulink
416 url="http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ijbswa-announce/">subscribe
417 to our announce mailing list</ulink>, ijbswa-announce@lists.sourceforge.net.
421 In order not to lose your personal changes and adjustments when updating
422 to the latest <literal>default.action</literal> file we <emphasis>strongly
423 recommend</emphasis> that you use <literal>user.action</literal> and
424 <literal>user.filter</literal> for your local
425 customizations of <application>Privoxy</application>. See the <link
426 linkend="actions-file">Chapter on actions files</link> for details.
434 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
436 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
437 <sect1 id="whatsnew">
438 <title>What's New in this Release</title>
440 <application>Privoxy 3.0.17</application> is a stable release.
441 The changes since 3.0.16 stable are:
448 Fixed last-chunk-detection for responses where the content was small
449 enough to be read with the body, causing Privoxy to wait for the
450 end of the content until the server closed the connection or the
451 request timed out. Reported by "Karsten" in #3028326.
456 Responses with status code 204 weren't properly detected as body-less
457 like RFC2616 mandates. Like the previous bug, this caused Privoxy to
458 wait for the end of the content until the server closed the connection
459 or the request timed out. Fixes #3022042 and #3025553, reported by a
460 user with no visible name. Most likely also fixes a bunch of other
461 AJAX-related problem reports that got closed in the past due to
462 insufficient information and lack of feedback.
467 Fixed an ACL bug that made it impossible to build a blacklist.
468 Usually the ACL directives are used in a whitelist, which worked
469 as expected, but blacklisting is still useful for public proxies
470 where one only needs to deny known abusers access.
475 Added LOG_LEVEL_RECEIVED to log the not-yet-parsed data read from the
476 network. This should make debugging various parsing issues a lot easier.
481 The IPv6 code is enabled by default on Windows versions that support it.
482 Patch submitted by oCameLo in #2942729.
487 In mingw32 versions, the user.filter file is reachable through the
488 GUI, just like default.filter is. Feature request 3040263.
493 Added the configure option --enable-large-file-support to set a few
494 defines that are required by platforms like GNU/Linux to support files
495 larger then 2GB. Mainly interesting for users without proper logfile
501 Logging with "debug 16" no longer stops at the first nul byte which is
502 pretty useless. Non-printable characters are replaced with their hex value
503 so the result can't span multiple lines making parsing them harder then
509 Privoxy logs when reading an action, filter or trust file.
514 Fixed incorrect regression test markup which caused a test in
515 3.0.16 to fail while Privoxy itself was working correctly.
516 While Privoxy accepts hide-referer, too, the action name is actually
517 hide-referrer which is also the name used one the final results page,
518 where the test expected the alias.
523 CGI interface improvements:
527 In finish_http_response(), continue to add the 'Connection: close'
528 header if the client connection will not be kept alive.
529 Anonymously pointed out in #2987454.
534 Apostrophes in block messages no longer cause parse errors
535 when the blocked page is viewed with JavaScript enabled.
536 Reported by dg1727 in #3062296.
541 Fix a bunch of anchors that used underscores instead of dashes.
546 Allow to keep the client connection alive after crunching the previous request.
547 Already opened server connections can be kept alive, too.
552 In cgi_show_url_info(), don't forget to prefix URLs that only contain
553 http:// or https:// in the path. Fixes #2975765 reported by Adam Piggott.
558 Show the 404 CGI page if cgi_send_user_manual() is called while
559 local user manual delivery is disabled.
567 Action file improvements:
571 Enable user.filter by default. Suggested by David White in #3001830.
576 Block .sitestat.com/. Reported by johnd16 in #3002725.
581 Block .atemda.com/. Reported by johnd16 in #3002723.
586 Block js.adlink.net/. Reported by johnd16 in #3002720.
591 Block .analytics.yahoo.com/. Reported by johnd16 in #3002713.
596 Block sb.scorecardresearch.com, too. Reported by dg1727 in #2992652.
601 Fix problems noticed on Yahoo mail and news pages.
606 Remove the too broad yahoo section, only keeping the
607 fast-redirects exception as discussed on ijbswa-devel@.
612 Don't block adesklets.sourceforge.net. Reported in #2974204.
617 Block chartbeat ping tracking. Reported in #2975895.
622 Tag CSS and image requests with cautious and medium settings, too.
627 Don't handle view.atdmt.com as image. It's used for click-throughs
628 so users should be able to "go there anyway".
629 Reported by Adam Piggott in #2975927.
634 Also let the refresh-tags filter remove invalid refresh tags where
635 the 'url=' part is missing. Anonymously reported in #2986382.
636 While at it, update the description to mention the fact that only
637 refresh tags with refresh times above 9 seconds are covered.
642 javascript needs to be blocked with +handle-as-empty-document to
643 work around Firefox bug 492459. So move .js blockers from
644 +block{Might be a web-bug.} -handle-as-empty-document to
645 +block{Might be a web-bug.} +handle-as-empty-document.
650 ijbswa-Feature Requests-3006719 - Block 160x578 Banners.
655 Block another omniture tracking domain.
660 Added a range-requests tagger.
665 Added two sections to get Flickr's Ajax interface working with
666 default pre-settings. If you change the configuration to block
667 cookies by default, you'll need additional exceptions.
668 Reported by Mathias Homann in #3101419 and by Patrick on ijbswa-users@.
676 Documentation improvements:
680 Explicitly mention how to match all URLs.
685 Consistently recommend socks5 in the Tor FAQ entry and mention
686 its advantage compared to socks4a. Reported by David in #2960129.
691 Slightly improve the explanation of why filtering may appear
697 Grammar fixes for the ACL section.
702 Fixed a link to the 'intercepting' entry and add another one.
707 Rename the 'Other' section to 'Mailing Lists' and reword it
708 to make it clear that nobody is forced to use the trackers
713 Note that 'anonymously' posting on the trackers may not always
719 Suggest to enable debug 32768 when suspecting parsing problems.
727 Privoxy-Log-Parser improvements:
731 Gather statistics for ressources, methods, and HTTP versions
737 Also gather statistics for blocked and redirected requests.
742 Provide the percentage of keep-alive offers the client accepted.
747 Add a --url-statistics-threshold option.
752 Add a --host-statistics-threshold option to also gather
753 statistics about how many request where made per host.
758 Fix a bug in handle_loglevel_header() where a 'scan: ' got lost.
763 Add a --shorten-thread-ids option to replace the thread id with
769 Accept and ignore: Looks like we got the last chunk together
770 with the server headers. We better stop reading.
775 Accept and ignore: Continue hack in da house.
780 Accept and higlight: Rejecting connection from 10.0.0.2.
781 Maximum number of connections reached.
786 Accept and highlight: Loading actions file: /usr/local/etc/privoxy/default.action
791 Accept and highlight: Loading filter file: /usr/local/etc/privoxy/default.filter
796 Accept and highlight: Killed all-caps Host header line: HOST: bestproxydb.com
801 Accept and highlight: Reducing expected bytes to 0. Marking
802 the server socket tainted after throwing 4 bytes away.
807 Accept: Merged multiple header lines to: 'X-FORWARDED-PROTO: http X-HOST: 127.0.0.1'
819 Remove the next member from the client_state struct. Only the main
820 thread needs access to all client states so give it its own struct.
825 Garbage-collect request_contains_null_bytes().
830 Ditch redundant code in unload_configfile().
835 Ditch LogGetURLUnderCursor() which doesn't seem to be used anywhere.
840 In write_socket(), remove the write-only variable write_len in
841 an ifdef __OS2__ block. Spotted by cppcheck.
846 In connect_to(), don't declare the variable 'flags' on OS/2 where
847 it isn't used. Spotted by cppcheck.
852 Limit the scope of various variables. Spotted by cppcheck.
857 In add_to_iob(), turn an interestingly looking for loop into a
863 Code cleanup in preparation for external filters.
868 In listen_loop(), mention the socket on which we accepted the
869 connection, not just the source IP address.
874 In write_socket(), also log the socket we're writing to.
879 In log_error(), assert that escaped characters get logged
880 completely or not at all.
885 In log_error(), assert that ival and sval have reasonable values.
886 There's no reason not to abort() if they don't.
891 Remove an incorrect cgi_error_unknown() call in a
892 cannnot-happen-situation in send_crunch_response().
897 Clean up white-space in http_response definition and
898 move the crunch_reason to the beginning.
903 Turn http_response.reason into an enum and rename it
904 to http_response.crunch_reason.
909 Silence a 'gcc (Debian 4.3.2-1.1) 4.3.2' warning on i686 GNU/Linux.
914 Fix white-space in a log message in remove_chunked_transfer_coding().
915 While at it, add a note that the message doesn't seem to
916 be entirely correct and should be improved later on.
924 GNUmakefile improvements:
928 Use $(SSH) instead of ssh, so one only needs to specify a username once.
933 Removed references to the action feedback thingy that hasn't been
939 Consistently use shell.sourceforge.net instead of shell.sf.net so
940 one doesn't need to check server fingerprints twice.
945 Removed GNUisms in the webserver and webactions targets so they
946 work with standard tar.
956 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
958 <sect2 id="upgradersnote">
959 <title>Note to Upgraders</title>
962 A quick list of things to be aware of before upgrading from earlier
963 versions of <application>Privoxy</application>:
971 The recommended way to upgrade &my-app; is to backup your old
972 configuration files, install the new ones, verify that &my-app;
973 is working correctly and finally merge back your changes using
974 <application>diff</application> and maybe <application>patch</application>.
977 There are a number of new features in each &my-app; release and
978 most of them have to be explicitly enabled in the configuration
979 files. Old configuration files obviously don't do that and due
980 to syntax changes using old configuration files with a new
981 &my-app; isn't always possible anyway.
986 Note that some installers remove earlier versions completely,
987 including configuration files, therefore you should really save
988 any important configuration files!
993 On the other hand, other installers don't overwrite existing configuration
994 files, thinking you will want to do that yourself.
999 <filename>standard.action</filename> has been merged into
1000 the <filename>default.action</filename> file.
1005 In the default configuration only fatal errors are logged now.
1006 You can change that in the <link linkend="DEBUG">debug section</link>
1007 of the configuration file. You may also want to enable more verbose
1008 logging until you verified that the new &my-app; version is working
1015 Three other config file settings are now off by default:
1016 <link linkend="enable-remote-toggle">enable-remote-toggle</link>,
1017 <link linkend="enable-remote-http-toggle">enable-remote-http-toggle</link>,
1018 and <link linkend="enable-edit-actions">enable-edit-actions</link>.
1019 If you use or want these, you will need to explicitly enable them, and
1020 be aware of the security issues involved.
1027 What constitutes a <quote>default</quote> configuration has changed,
1028 and you may want to review which actions are <quote>on</quote> by
1029 default. This is primarily a matter of emphasis, but some features
1030 you may have been used to, may now be <quote>off</quote> by default.
1031 There are also a number of new actions and filters you may want to
1032 consider, most of which are not fully incorporated into the default
1033 settings as yet (see above).
1040 The default actions setting is now <literal>Cautious</literal>. Previous
1041 releases had a default setting of <literal>Medium</literal>. Experienced
1042 users may want to adjust this, as it is fairly conservative by &my-app;
1043 standards and past practices. See <ulink
1044 url="http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions-list?f=default">
1045 http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions-list?f=default</ulink>. New users
1046 should try the default settings for a while before turning up the volume.
1052 The default setting has filtering turned <emphasis>off</emphasis>, which
1053 subsequently means that compression is <emphasis>on</emphasis>. Remember
1054 that filtering does not work on compressed pages, so if you use, or want to
1055 use, filtering, you will need to force compression off. Example:
1059 { +<link linkend="filter">filter</link>{google} +<link linkend="prevent-compression">prevent-compression</link> }
1063 Or if you use a number of filters, or filter many sites, you may just want
1064 to turn off compression for all sites in
1065 <filename>default.action</filename> (or
1066 <filename>user.action</filename>).
1073 Also, <link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> is
1074 off by default now. If you've liked this feature in the past, you may want
1075 to turn it back on in <filename>user.action</filename> now.
1082 Some installers may not automatically start
1083 <application>Privoxy</application> after installation.
1094 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1095 <sect1 id="quickstart"><title>Quickstart to Using Privoxy</title>
1101 Install <application>Privoxy</application>. See the <link
1102 linkend="installation">Installation Section</link> below for platform specific
1109 Advanced users and those who want to offer <application>Privoxy</application>
1110 service to more than just their local machine should check the <link
1111 linkend="config">main config file</link>, especially the <link
1112 linkend="access-control">security-relevant</link> options. These are
1119 Start <application>Privoxy</application>, if the installation program has
1120 not done this already (may vary according to platform). See the section
1121 <link linkend="startup">Starting <application>Privoxy</application></link>.
1127 Set your browser to use <application>Privoxy</application> as HTTP and
1128 HTTPS (SSL) <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_server">proxy</ulink>
1129 by setting the proxy configuration for address of
1130 <literal>127.0.0.1</literal> and port <literal>8118</literal>.
1131 <emphasis>DO NOT</emphasis> activate proxying for <literal>FTP</literal> or
1132 any protocols besides HTTP and HTTPS (SSL) unless you intend to prevent your
1133 browser from using these protocols.
1139 Flush your browser's disk and memory caches, to remove any cached ad images.
1140 If using <application>Privoxy</application> to manage
1141 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>,
1142 you should remove any currently stored cookies too.
1148 A default installation should provide a reasonable starting point for
1149 most. There will undoubtedly be occasions where you will want to adjust the
1150 configuration, but that can be dealt with as the need arises. Little
1151 to no initial configuration is required in most cases, you may want
1153 <ulink url="config.html#ENABLE-EDIT-ACTIONS">web-based action editor</ulink> though.
1154 Be sure to read the warnings first.
1157 See the <link linkend="configuration">Configuration section</link> for more
1158 configuration options, and how to customize your installation.
1159 You might also want to look at the <link
1160 linkend="quickstart-ad-blocking">next section</link> for a quick
1161 introduction to how <application>Privoxy</application> blocks ads and
1168 If you experience ads that slip through, innocent images that are
1169 blocked, or otherwise feel the need to fine-tune
1170 <application>Privoxy's</application> behavior, take a look at the <link
1171 linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>. As a quick start, you might
1172 find the <link linkend="act-examples">richly commented examples</link>
1173 helpful. You can also view and edit the actions files through the <ulink
1174 url="http://config.privoxy.org">web-based user interface</ulink>. The
1175 Appendix <quote><link linkend="actionsanat">Troubleshooting: Anatomy of an
1176 Action</link></quote> has hints on how to understand and debug actions that
1177 <quote>misbehave</quote>.
1182 Did anyone test these lately?
1186 For easy access to &my-app;'s most important controls, drag the provided
1187 <link linkend="bookmarklets">Bookmarklets</link> into your browser's
1195 Please see the section <link linkend="contact">Contacting the
1196 Developers</link> on how to report bugs, problems with websites or to get
1203 Now enjoy surfing with enhanced control, comfort and privacy!
1211 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1213 <sect2 id="quickstart-ad-blocking">
1214 <title>Quickstart to Ad Blocking</title>
1216 NOTE: This section is deliberately redundant for those that don't
1217 want to read the whole thing (which is getting lengthy).
1220 Ad blocking is but one of <application>Privoxy's</application>
1221 array of features. Many of these features are for the technically minded advanced
1222 user. But, ad and banner blocking is surely common ground for everybody.
1225 This section will provide a quick summary of ad blocking so
1226 you can get up to speed quickly without having to read the more extensive
1227 information provided below, though this is highly recommended.
1230 First a bit of a warning ... blocking ads is much like blocking SPAM: the
1231 more aggressive you are about it, the more likely you are to block
1232 things that were not intended. And the more likely that some things
1233 may not work as intended. So there is a trade off here. If you want
1234 extreme ad free browsing, be prepared to deal with more
1235 <quote>problem</quote> sites, and to spend more time adjusting the
1236 configuration to solve these unintended consequences. In short, there is
1237 not an easy way to eliminate <emphasis>all</emphasis> ads. Either take
1238 the easy way and settle for <emphasis>most</emphasis> ads blocked with the
1239 default configuration, or jump in and tweak it for your personal surfing
1240 habits and preferences.
1243 Secondly, a brief explanation of <application>Privoxy's </application>
1244 <quote>actions</quote>. <quote>Actions</quote> in this context, are
1245 the directives we use to tell <application>Privoxy</application> to perform
1246 some task relating to HTTP transactions (i.e. web browsing). We tell
1247 <application>Privoxy</application> to take some <quote>action</quote>. Each
1248 action has a unique name and function. While there are many potential
1249 <application>actions</application> in <application>Privoxy's</application>
1250 arsenal, only a few are used for ad blocking. <link
1251 linkend="actions">Actions</link>, and <link linkend="actions-file">action
1252 configuration files</link>, are explained in depth below.
1255 Actions are specified in <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration,
1256 followed by one or more URLs to which the action should apply. URLs
1257 can actually be URL type <link linkend="af-patterns">patterns</link> that use
1258 wildcards so they can apply potentially to a range of similar URLs. The
1259 actions, together with the URL patterns are called a section.
1262 When you connect to a website, the full URL will either match one or more
1263 of the sections as defined in <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration,
1264 or not. If so, then <application>Privoxy</application> will perform the
1265 respective actions. If not, then nothing special happens. Furthermore, web
1266 pages may contain embedded, secondary URLs that your web browser will
1267 use to load additional components of the page, as it parses the
1268 original page's HTML content. An ad image for instance, is just an URL
1269 embedded in the page somewhere. The image itself may be on the same server,
1270 or a server somewhere else on the Internet. Complex web pages will have many
1271 such embedded URLs. &my-app; can deal with each URL individually, so, for
1272 instance, the main page text is not touched, but images from such-and-such
1277 The most important actions for basic ad blocking are: <literal><link
1278 linkend="block">block</link></literal>, <literal><link
1279 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>,
1281 linkend="handle-as-empty-document">handle-as-empty-document</link></literal>,and
1282 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>:
1290 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> - this is perhaps
1291 the single most used action, and is particularly important for ad blocking.
1292 This action stops any contact between your browser and any URL patterns
1293 that match this action's configuration. It can be used for blocking ads,
1294 but also anything that is determined to be unwanted. By itself, it simply
1295 stops any communication with the remote server and sends
1296 <application>Privoxy</application>'s own built-in BLOCKED page instead to
1297 let you now what has happened (with some exceptions, see below).
1303 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> -
1304 tells <application>Privoxy</application> to treat this URL as an image.
1305 <application>Privoxy</application>'s default configuration already does this
1306 for all common image types (e.g. GIF), but there are many situations where this
1307 is not so easy to determine. So we'll force it in these cases. This is particularly
1308 important for ad blocking, since only if we know that it's an image of
1309 some kind, can we replace it with an image of our choosing, instead of the
1310 <application>Privoxy</application> BLOCKED page (which would only result in
1311 a <quote>broken image</quote> icon). There are some limitations to this
1312 though. For instance, you can't just brute-force an image substitution for
1313 an entire HTML page in most situations.
1319 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-empty-document">handle-as-empty-document</link></literal> -
1320 sends an empty document instead of <application>Privoxy's</application>
1321 normal BLOCKED HTML page. This is useful for file types that are neither
1322 HTML nor images, such as blocking JavaScript files.
1329 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal> - tells
1330 <application>Privoxy</application> what to display in place of an ad image that
1331 has hit a block rule. For this to come into play, the URL must match a
1332 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action somewhere in the
1333 configuration, <emphasis>and</emphasis>, it must also match an
1334 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> action.
1337 The configuration options on what to display instead of the ad are:
1341 <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> - a checkerboard pattern, so that an ad
1342 replacement is obvious. This is the default.
1347 <emphasis>blank</emphasis> - A very small empty GIF image is displayed.
1348 This is the so-called <quote>invisible</quote> configuration option.
1353 <emphasis>http://<URL></emphasis> - A redirect to any image anywhere
1354 of the user's choosing (advanced usage).
1363 Advanced users will eventually want to explore &my-app;
1364 <literal><link linkend="filter">filters</link></literal> as well. Filters
1365 are very different from <literal><link
1366 linkend="block">blocks</link></literal>.
1367 A <quote>block</quote> blocks a site, page, or unwanted contented. Filters
1368 are a way of filtering or modifying what is actually on the page. An example
1369 filter usage: a text replacement of <quote>no-no</quote> for
1370 <quote>nasty-word</quote>. That is a very simple example. This process can be
1371 used for ad blocking, but it is more in the realm of advanced usage and has
1372 some pitfalls to be wary off.
1376 The quickest way to adjust any of these settings is with your browser through
1377 the special <application>Privoxy</application> editor at <ulink
1378 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
1379 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/show-status</ulink>). This
1380 is an internal page, and does not require Internet access.
1384 Note that as of <application>Privoxy</application> 3.0.7 beta the
1385 action editor is disabled by default. Check the
1386 <ulink url="config.html#ENABLE-EDIT-ACTIONS">enable-edit-actions
1387 section in the configuration file</ulink> to learn why and in which
1388 cases it's safe to enable again.
1392 If you decided to enable the action editor, select the appropriate
1393 <quote>actions</quote> file, and click
1394 <quote><guibutton>Edit</guibutton></quote>. It is best to put personal or
1395 local preferences in <filename>user.action</filename> since this is not
1396 meant to be overwritten during upgrades, and will over-ride the settings in
1397 other files. Here you can insert new <quote>actions</quote>, and URLs for ad
1398 blocking or other purposes, and make other adjustments to the configuration.
1399 <application>Privoxy</application> will detect these changes automatically.
1403 A quick and simple step by step example:
1411 Right click on the ad image to be blocked, then select
1412 <quote><guimenuitem>Copy Link Location</guimenuitem></quote> from the
1420 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
1425 Find <filename>user.action</filename> in the top section, and click
1426 on <quote><guibutton>Edit</guibutton></quote>:
1429 <!-- image of editor and actions files selections -->
1431 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Actions Files in Use</title>
1434 <imagedata fileref="files-in-use.jpg" format="jpg">
1437 <phrase>[ Screenshot of Actions Files in Use ]</phrase>
1446 You should have a section with only
1447 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> listed under
1448 <quote>Actions:</quote>.
1449 If not, click a <quote><guibutton>Insert new section below</guibutton></quote>
1450 button, and in the new section that just appeared, click the
1451 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> button right under the word <quote>Actions:</quote>.
1452 This will bring up a list of all actions. Find
1453 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> near the top, and click
1454 in the <quote>Enabled</quote> column, then <quote><guibutton>Submit</guibutton></quote>
1455 just below the list.
1460 Now, in the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> actions section,
1461 click the <quote><guibutton>Add</guibutton></quote> button, and paste the URL the
1462 browser got from <quote><guimenuitem>Copy Link Location</guimenuitem></quote>.
1463 Remove the <literal>http://</literal> at the beginning of the URL. Then, click
1464 <quote><guibutton>Submit</guibutton></quote> (or
1465 <quote><guibutton>OK</guibutton></quote> if in a pop-up window).
1470 Now go back to the original page, and press <keycap>SHIFT-Reload</keycap>
1471 (or flush all browser caches). The image should be gone now.
1479 This is a very crude and simple example. There might be good reasons to use a
1480 wildcard pattern match to include potentially similar images from the same
1481 site. For a more extensive explanation of <quote>patterns</quote>, and
1482 the entire actions concept, see <link linkend="actions-file">the Actions
1487 For advanced users who want to hand edit their config files, you might want
1488 to now go to the <link linkend="act-examples">Actions Files Tutorial</link>.
1489 The ideas explained therein also apply to the web-based editor.
1492 There are also various
1493 <link linkend="filter">filters</link> that can be used for ad blocking
1494 (filters are a special subset of actions). These
1495 fall into the <quote>advanced</quote> usage category, and are explained in
1496 depth in later sections.
1503 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1506 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1507 <sect1 id="startup">
1508 <title>Starting Privoxy</title>
1510 Before launching <application>Privoxy</application> for the first time, you
1511 will want to configure your browser(s) to use
1512 <application>Privoxy</application> as a HTTP and HTTPS (SSL)
1513 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_server">proxy</ulink>. The default is
1514 127.0.0.1 (or localhost) for the proxy address, and port 8118 (earlier versions
1515 used port 8000). This is the one configuration step <emphasis>that must be done
1519 Please note that <application>Privoxy</application> can only proxy HTTP and
1520 HTTPS traffic. It will not work with FTP or other protocols.
1523 <!-- image of Mozilla Proxy configuration -->
1525 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Proxy Configuration Showing
1526 Mozilla/Netscape HTTP and HTTPS (SSL) Settings</title>
1529 <imagedata fileref="proxy_setup.jpg" format="jpg">
1532 <phrase>[ Screenshot of Mozilla Proxy Configuration ]</phrase>
1540 With <application>Firefox</application>, this is typically set under:
1544 <guibutton>Tools</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Options</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Advanced</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Network</guibutton> -><guibutton>Connection</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Settings</guibutton>
1549 Or optionally on some platforms:
1553 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Preferences</guibutton> -> <guibutton>General</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Connection Settings</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Manual Proxy Configuration</guibutton>
1559 With <application>Netscape</application> (and
1560 <application>Mozilla</application>), this can be set under:
1565 <!-- Mix ascii and gui art, something for everybody -->
1566 <!-- spacing on this is tricky -->
1567 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Preferences</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Advanced</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Proxies</guibutton> -> <guibutton>HTTP Proxy</guibutton>
1572 For <application>Internet Explorer v.5-7</application>:
1576 <guibutton>Tools</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Internet Options</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Connections</guibutton> -> <guibutton>LAN Settings</guibutton>
1580 Then, check <quote>Use Proxy</quote> and fill in the appropriate info
1581 (Address: 127.0.0.1, Port: 8118). Include HTTPS (SSL), if you want HTTPS
1582 proxy support too (sometimes labeled <quote>Secure</quote>). Make sure any
1583 checkboxes like <quote>Use the same proxy server for all protocols</quote> is
1584 <emphasis>UNCHECKED</emphasis>. You want only HTTP and HTTPS (SSL)!
1587 <!-- image of IE Proxy configuration -->
1589 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Proxy Configuration Showing
1590 Internet Explorer HTTP and HTTPS (Secure) Settings</title>
1593 <imagedata fileref="proxy2.jpg" format="jpg">
1596 <phrase>[ Screenshot of IE Proxy Configuration ]</phrase>
1604 After doing this, flush your browser's disk and memory caches to force a
1605 re-reading of all pages and to get rid of any ads that may be cached. Remove
1606 any <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>,
1607 if you want <application>Privoxy</application> to manage that. You are now
1608 ready to start enjoying the benefits of using
1609 <application>Privoxy</application>!
1613 <application>Privoxy</application> itself is typically started by specifying the
1614 main configuration file to be used on the command line. If no configuration
1615 file is specified on the command line, <application>Privoxy</application>
1616 will look for a file named <filename>config</filename> in the current
1617 directory. Except on Win32 where it will try <filename>config.txt</filename>.
1620 <sect2 id="start-redhat">
1621 <title>Red Hat and Fedora</title>
1623 A default Red Hat installation may not start &my-app; upon boot. It will use
1624 the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename> as its main configuration
1629 # /etc/rc.d/init.d/privoxy start
1637 # service privoxy start
1642 <sect2 id="start-debian">
1643 <title>Debian</title>
1645 We use a script. Note that Debian typically starts &my-app; upon booting per
1646 default. It will use the file
1647 <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename> as its main configuration
1652 # /etc/init.d/privoxy start
1657 <sect2 id="start-windows">
1658 <title>Windows</title>
1660 Click on the &my-app; Icon to start <application>Privoxy</application>. If no configuration file is
1661 specified on the command line, <application>Privoxy</application> will look
1662 for a file named <filename>config.txt</filename>. Note that Windows will
1663 automatically start &my-app; when the system starts if you chose that option
1667 <application>Privoxy</application> can run with full Windows service functionality.
1668 On Windows only, the &my-app; program has two new command line arguments
1669 to install and uninstall &my-app; as a service. See the
1670 <link linkend="installation-pack-win">Windows Installation
1671 instructions</link> for details.
1675 <sect2 id="start-unices">
1676 <title>Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD, HP-UX and others</title>
1678 Example Unix startup command:
1682 # /usr/sbin/privoxy /etc/privoxy/config
1687 <sect2 id="start-os2">
1690 During installation, <application>Privoxy</application> is configured to
1691 start automatically when the system restarts. You can start it manually by
1692 double-clicking on the <application>Privoxy</application> icon in the
1693 <application>Privoxy</application> folder.
1697 <sect2 id="start-macosx">
1698 <title>Mac OS X</title>
1700 After downloading the privoxy software, unzip the downloaded file by
1701 double-clicking on the zip file icon. Then, double-click on the
1702 installer package icon and follow the installation process.
1705 The privoxy service will automatically start after a successful
1706 installation. In addition, the privoxy service will automatically
1707 start every time your computer starts up.
1710 To prevent the privoxy service from automatically starting when your
1711 computer starts up, remove or rename the folder named
1712 /Library/StartupItems/Privoxy.
1715 A simple application named Privoxy Utility has been created which
1716 enables administrators to easily start and stop the privoxy service.
1719 In addition, the Privoxy Utility presents a simple way for
1720 administrators to edit the various privoxy config files. A method
1721 to uninstall the software is also available.
1724 An administrator username and password must be supplied in order for
1725 the Privoxy Utility to perform any of the tasks.
1730 <sect2 id="start-amigaos">
1731 <title>AmigaOS</title>
1733 Start <application>Privoxy</application> (with RUN <>NIL:) in your
1734 <filename>startnet</filename> script (AmiTCP), in
1735 <filename>s:user-startup</filename> (RoadShow), as startup program in your
1736 startup script (Genesis), or as startup action (Miami and MiamiDx).
1737 <application>Privoxy</application> will automatically quit when you quit your
1738 TCP/IP stack (just ignore the harmless warning your TCP/IP stack may display that
1739 <application>Privoxy</application> is still running).
1743 <sect2 id="start-gentoo">
1744 <title>Gentoo</title>
1746 A script is again used. It will use the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config
1747 </filename> as its main configuration file.
1751 /etc/init.d/privoxy start
1755 Note that <application>Privoxy</application> is not automatically started at
1756 boot time by default. You can change this with the <literal>rc-update</literal>
1761 rc-update add privoxy default
1769 See the section <link linkend="cmdoptions">Command line options</link> for
1773 must find a better place for this paragraph
1776 The included default configuration files should give a reasonable starting
1777 point. Most of the per site configuration is done in the
1778 <ulink url="actions-file.html"><quote>actions</quote></ulink> files. These are
1779 where various cookie actions are defined, ad and banner blocking, and other
1780 aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. There are several
1781 such files included, with varying levels of aggressiveness.
1785 You will probably want to keep an eye out for sites for which you may prefer
1786 persistent cookies, and add these to your actions configuration as needed. By
1787 default, most of these will be accepted only during the current browser
1788 session (aka <quote>session cookies</quote>), unless you add them to the
1789 configuration. If you want the browser to handle this instead, you will need
1790 to edit <filename>user.action</filename> (or through the web based interface)
1791 and disable this feature. If you use more than one browser, it would make
1792 more sense to let <application>Privoxy</application> handle this. In which
1793 case, the browser(s) should be set to accept all cookies.
1797 Another feature where you will probably want to define exceptions for trusted
1798 sites is the popup-killing (through <ulink
1799 url="actions-file.html#FILTER-POPUPS"><quote>+filter{popups}</quote></ulink>),
1800 because your favorite shopping, banking, or leisure site may need
1801 popups (explained below).
1805 <application>Privoxy</application> does not support all of the optional HTTP/1.1
1806 features yet. In the unlikely event that you experience inexplicable problems
1807 with browsers that use HTTP/1.1 per default
1808 (like <application>Mozilla</application> or recent versions of I.E.), you might
1809 try to force HTTP/1.0 compatibility. For Mozilla, look under <literal>Edit ->
1810 Preferences -> Debug -> Networking</literal>.
1811 Alternatively, set the <quote>+downgrade-http-version</quote> config option in
1812 <filename>default.action</filename> which will downgrade your browser's HTTP
1813 requests from HTTP/1.1 to HTTP/1.0 before processing them.
1817 After running <application>Privoxy</application> for a while, you can
1818 start to fine tune the configuration to suit your personal, or site,
1819 preferences and requirements. There are many, many aspects that can
1820 be customized. <quote>Actions</quote>
1821 can be adjusted by pointing your browser to
1822 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
1823 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
1824 and then follow the link to <quote>View & Change the Current Configuration</quote>.
1825 (This is an internal page and does not require Internet access.)
1829 In fact, various aspects of <application>Privoxy</application>
1830 configuration can be viewed from this page, including
1831 current configuration parameters, source code version numbers,
1832 the browser's request headers, and <quote>actions</quote> that apply
1833 to a given URL. In addition to the actions file
1834 editor mentioned above, <application>Privoxy</application> can also
1835 be turned <quote>on</quote> and <quote>off</quote> (toggled) from this page.
1839 If you encounter problems, try loading the page without
1840 <application>Privoxy</application>. If that helps, enter the URL where
1841 you have the problems into <ulink url="http://p.p/show-url-info">the browser
1842 based rule tracing utility</ulink>. See which rules apply and why, and
1843 then try turning them off for that site one after the other, until the problem
1844 is gone. When you have found the culprit, you might want to turn the rest on
1849 If the above paragraph sounds gibberish to you, you might want to <link
1850 linkend="actions-file">read more about the actions concept</link>
1851 or even dive deep into the <link linkend="actionsanat">Appendix
1856 If you can't get rid of the problem at all, think you've found a bug in
1857 Privoxy, want to propose a new feature or smarter rules, please see the
1858 section <link linkend="contact"><quote>Contacting the
1859 Developers</quote></link> below.
1864 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1865 <sect2 id="cmdoptions">
1866 <title>Command Line Options</title>
1868 <application>Privoxy</application> may be invoked with the following
1869 command-line options:
1877 <emphasis>--version</emphasis>
1880 Print version info and exit. Unix only.
1885 <emphasis>--help</emphasis>
1888 Print short usage info and exit. Unix only.
1893 <emphasis>--no-daemon</emphasis>
1896 Don't become a daemon, i.e. don't fork and become process group
1897 leader, and don't detach from controlling tty. Unix only.
1902 <emphasis>--pidfile FILE</emphasis>
1905 On startup, write the process ID to <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>. Delete the
1906 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> on exit. Failure to create or delete the
1907 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> is non-fatal. If no <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>
1908 option is given, no PID file will be used. Unix only.
1913 <emphasis>--user USER[.GROUP]</emphasis>
1916 After (optionally) writing the PID file, assume the user ID of
1917 <emphasis>USER</emphasis>, and if included the GID of GROUP. Exit if the
1918 privileges are not sufficient to do so. Unix only.
1923 <emphasis>--chroot</emphasis>
1926 Before changing to the user ID given in the <emphasis>--user</emphasis> option,
1927 chroot to that user's home directory, i.e. make the kernel pretend to the &my-app;
1928 process that the directory tree starts there. If set up carefully, this can limit
1929 the impact of possible vulnerabilities in &my-app; to the files contained in that hierarchy.
1935 <emphasis>--pre-chroot-nslookup hostname</emphasis>
1938 Specifies a hostname to look up before doing a chroot. On some systems, initializing the
1939 resolver library involves reading config files from /etc and/or loading additional shared
1940 libraries from /lib. On these systems, doing a hostname lookup before the chroot reduces
1941 the number of files that must be copied into the chroot tree.
1944 For fastest startup speed, a good value is a hostname that is not in /etc/hosts but that
1945 your local name server (listed in /etc/resolv.conf) can resolve without recursion
1946 (that is, without having to ask any other name servers). The hostname need not exist,
1947 but if it doesn't, an error message (which can be ignored) will be output.
1953 <emphasis>configfile</emphasis>
1956 If no <emphasis>configfile</emphasis> is included on the command line,
1957 <application>Privoxy</application> will look for a file named
1958 <quote>config</quote> in the current directory (except on Win32
1959 where it will look for <quote>config.txt</quote> instead). Specify
1960 full path to avoid confusion. If no config file is found,
1961 <application>Privoxy</application> will fail to start.
1969 On <application>MS Windows</application> only there are two additional
1970 command-line options to allow <application>Privoxy</application> to install and
1971 run as a <emphasis>service</emphasis>. See the
1972 <link linkend="installation-pack-win">Window Installation section</link>
1980 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1983 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1984 <sect1 id="configuration"><title>Privoxy Configuration</title>
1986 All <application>Privoxy</application> configuration is stored
1987 in text files. These files can be edited with a text editor.
1988 Many important aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> can
1989 also be controlled easily with a web browser.
1993 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1996 <title>Controlling Privoxy with Your Web Browser</title>
1998 <application>Privoxy</application>'s user interface can be reached through the special
1999 URL <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
2000 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
2001 which is a built-in page and works without Internet access.
2002 You will see the following section:
2006 <!-- Needs to be put in a table and colorized -->
2009 <bridgehead renderas="sect2"> Privoxy Menu</bridgehead>
2013 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">View & change the current configuration</ulink>
2016 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-version">View the source code version numbers</ulink>
2019 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request">View the request headers.</ulink>
2022 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">Look up which actions apply to a URL and why</ulink>
2025 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">Toggle Privoxy on or off</ulink>
2028 ▪ <ulink
2029 url="http://www.privoxy.org/&p-version;/user-manual/">Documentation</ulink>
2037 This should be self-explanatory. Note the first item leads to an editor for the
2038 <link linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>, which is where the ad, banner,
2039 cookie, and URL blocking magic is configured as well as other advanced features of
2040 <application>Privoxy</application>. This is an easy way to adjust various
2041 aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. The actions
2042 file, and other configuration files, are explained in detail below.
2046 <quote>Toggle Privoxy On or Off</quote> is handy for sites that might
2047 have problems with your current actions and filters. You can in fact use
2048 it as a test to see whether it is <application>Privoxy</application>
2049 causing the problem or not. <application>Privoxy</application> continues
2050 to run as a proxy in this case, but all manipulation is disabled, i.e.
2051 <application>Privoxy</application> acts like a normal forwarding proxy. There
2052 is even a toggle <link linkend="bookmarklets">Bookmarklet</link> offered, so
2053 that you can toggle <application>Privoxy</application> with one click from
2058 Note that several of the features described above are disabled by default
2059 in <application>Privoxy</application> 3.0.7 beta and later.
2061 <ulink url="config.html">configuration file</ulink> to learn why
2062 and in which cases it's safe to enable them again.
2067 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2072 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2074 <sect2 id="confoverview">
2075 <title>Configuration Files Overview</title>
2077 For Unix, *BSD and Linux, all configuration files are located in
2078 <filename>/etc/privoxy/</filename> by default. For MS Windows, OS/2, and
2079 AmigaOS these are all in the same directory as the
2080 <application>Privoxy</application> executable. <![%p-not-stable;[ The name
2081 and number of configuration files has changed from previous versions, and is
2082 subject to change as development progresses.]]>
2086 The installed defaults provide a reasonable starting point, though
2087 some settings may be aggressive by some standards. For the time being, the
2088 principle configuration files are:
2096 The <link linkend="config">main configuration file</link> is named <filename>config</filename>
2097 on Linux, Unix, BSD, OS/2, and AmigaOS and <filename>config.txt</filename>
2098 on Windows. This is a required file.
2104 <filename>match-all.action</filename> is used to define which <quote>actions</quote>
2105 relating to banner-blocking, images, pop-ups, content modification, cookie handling
2106 etc should be applied by default. It should be the first actions file loaded.
2109 <filename>default.action</filename> defines many exceptions (both positive and negative)
2110 from the default set of actions that's configured in <filename>match-all.action</filename>.
2111 It should be the second actions file loaded and shouldn't be edited by the user.
2114 Multiple actions files may be defined in <filename>config</filename>. These
2115 are processed in the order they are defined. Local customizations and locally
2116 preferred exceptions to the default policies as defined in
2117 <filename>match-all.action</filename> (which you will most probably want
2118 to define sooner or later) are best applied in <filename>user.action</filename>,
2119 where you can preserve them across upgrades. The file isn't installed by all
2120 installers, but you can easily create it yourself with a text editor.
2123 There is also a web based editor that can be accessed from
2125 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
2127 url="http://p.p/show-status">http://p.p/show-status</ulink>) for the
2128 various actions files.
2134 <quote>Filter files</quote> (the <link linkend="filter-file">filter
2135 file</link>) can be used to re-write the raw page content, including
2136 viewable text as well as embedded HTML and JavaScript, and whatever else
2137 lurks on any given web page. The filtering jobs are only pre-defined here;
2138 whether to apply them or not is up to the actions files.
2139 <filename>default.filter</filename> includes various filters made
2140 available for use by the developers. Some are much more intrusive than
2141 others, and all should be used with caution. You may define additional
2142 filter files in <filename>config</filename> as you can with
2143 actions files. We suggest <filename>user.filter</filename> for any
2144 locally defined filters or customizations.
2152 The syntax of the configuration and filter files may change between different
2153 Privoxy versions, unfortunately some enhancements cost backwards compatibility.
2154 <!-- Add link to documentation-->
2158 All files use the <quote><literal>#</literal></quote> character to denote a
2159 comment (the rest of the line will be ignored) and understand line continuation
2160 through placing a backslash ("<literal>\</literal>") as the very last character
2161 in a line. If the <literal>#</literal> is preceded by a backslash, it looses
2162 its special function. Placing a <literal>#</literal> in front of an otherwise
2163 valid configuration line to prevent it from being interpreted is called "commenting
2164 out" that line. Blank lines are ignored.
2168 The actions files and filter files
2169 can use Perl style <link linkend="regex">regular expressions</link> for
2170 maximum flexibility.
2174 After making any changes, there is no need to restart
2175 <application>Privoxy</application> in order for the changes to take
2176 effect. <application>Privoxy</application> detects such changes
2177 automatically. Note, however, that it may take one or two additional
2178 requests for the change to take effect. When changing the listening address
2179 of <application>Privoxy</application>, these <quote>wake up</quote> requests
2180 must obviously be sent to the <emphasis>old</emphasis> listening address.
2185 While under development, the configuration content is subject to change.
2186 The below documentation may not be accurate by the time you read this.
2187 Also, what constitutes a <quote>default</quote> setting, may change, so
2188 please check all your configuration files on important issues.
2194 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2197 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
2199 <!-- **************************************************** -->
2200 <!-- Include config.sgml here -->
2201 <!-- This is where the entire config file is detailed. -->
2203 <!-- end include -->
2206 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2210 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
2212 <sect1 id="actions-file"><title>Actions Files</title>
2216 XXX: similar descriptions are in the Configuration Files sections.
2217 We should only describe them at one place.
2220 The actions files are used to define what <emphasis>actions</emphasis>
2221 <application>Privoxy</application> takes for which URLs, and thus determines
2222 how ad images, cookies and various other aspects of HTTP content and
2223 transactions are handled, and on which sites (or even parts thereof).
2224 There are a number of such actions, with a wide range of functionality.
2225 Each action does something a little different.
2226 These actions give us a veritable arsenal of tools with which to exert
2227 our control, preferences and independence. Actions can be combined so that
2228 their effects are aggregated when applied against a given set of URLs.
2232 are three action files included with <application>Privoxy</application> with
2239 <filename>match-all.action</filename> - is used to define which
2240 <quote>actions</quote> relating to banner-blocking, images, pop-ups,
2241 content modification, cookie handling etc should be applied by default.
2242 It should be the first actions file loaded
2247 <filename>default.action</filename> - defines many exceptions (both
2248 positive and negative) from the default set of actions that's configured
2249 in <filename>match-all.action</filename>. It is a set of rules that should
2250 work reasonably well as-is for most users. This file is only supposed to
2251 be edited by the developers. It should be the second actions file loaded.
2256 <filename>user.action</filename> - is intended to be for local site
2257 preferences and exceptions. As an example, if your ISP or your bank
2258 has specific requirements, and need special handling, this kind of
2259 thing should go here. This file will not be upgraded.
2264 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> <guibutton>Set to Cautious</guibutton> <guibutton>Set to Medium</guibutton> <guibutton>Set to Advanced</guibutton>
2267 These have increasing levels of aggressiveness <emphasis>and have no
2268 influence on your browsing unless you select them explicitly in the
2269 editor</emphasis>. A default installation should be pre-set to
2270 <literal>Cautious</literal>. New users should try this for a while before
2271 adjusting the settings to more aggressive levels. The more aggressive
2272 the settings, then the more likelihood there is of problems such as sites
2273 not working as they should.
2276 The <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> button allows you to turn each
2277 action on/off individually for fine-tuning. The <guibutton>Cautious</guibutton>
2278 button changes the actions list to low/safe settings which will activate
2279 ad blocking and a minimal set of &my-app;'s features, and subsequently
2280 there will be less of a chance for accidental problems. The
2281 <guibutton>Medium</guibutton> button sets the list to a medium level of
2282 other features and a low level set of privacy features. The
2283 <guibutton>Advanced</guibutton> button sets the list to a high level of
2284 ad blocking and medium level of privacy. See the chart below. The latter
2285 three buttons over-ride any changes via with the
2286 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> button. More fine-tuning can be done in the
2287 lower sections of this internal page.
2290 While the actions file editor allows to enable these settings in all
2291 actions files, they are only supposed to be enabled in the first one
2292 to make sure you don't unintentionally overrule earlier rules.
2295 The default profiles, and their associated actions, as pre-defined in
2296 <filename>default.action</filename> are:
2299 <table frame=all><title>Default Configurations</title>
2300 <tgroup cols=4 align=left colsep=1 rowsep=1>
2301 <colspec colname=c1>
2302 <colspec colname=c2>
2303 <colspec colname=c3>
2304 <colspec colname=c4>
2307 <entry>Feature</entry>
2308 <entry>Cautious</entry>
2309 <entry>Medium</entry>
2310 <entry>Advanced</entry>
2315 <!-- <entry>f1</entry> -->
2316 <!-- <entry>f2</entry> -->
2317 <!-- <entry>f3</entry> -->
2318 <!-- <entry>f4</entry> -->
2324 <entry>Ad-blocking Aggressiveness</entry>
2325 <entry>medium</entry>
2331 <entry>Ad-filtering by size</entry>
2338 <entry>Ad-filtering by link</entry>
2344 <entry>Pop-up killing</entry>
2345 <entry>blocks only</entry>
2346 <entry>blocks only</entry>
2347 <entry>blocks only</entry>
2351 <entry>Privacy Features</entry>
2353 <entry>medium</entry>
2354 <entry>medium/high</entry>
2358 <entry>Cookie handling</entry>
2360 <entry>session-only</entry>
2365 <entry>Referer forging</entry>
2372 <entry>GIF de-animation</entry>
2379 <entry>Fast redirects</entry>
2386 <entry>HTML taming</entry>
2393 <entry>JavaScript taming</entry>
2400 <entry>Web-bug killing</entry>
2407 <entry>Image tag reordering</entry>
2423 The list of actions files to be used are defined in the main configuration
2424 file, and are processed in the order they are defined (e.g.
2425 <filename>default.action</filename> is typically processed before
2426 <filename>user.action</filename>). The content of these can all be viewed and
2428 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
2429 The over-riding principle when applying actions, is that the last action that
2430 matches a given URL wins. The broadest, most general rules go first
2431 (defined in <filename>default.action</filename>),
2432 followed by any exceptions (typically also in
2433 <filename>default.action</filename>), which are then followed lastly by any
2434 local preferences (typically in <emphasis>user</emphasis><filename>.action</filename>).
2435 Generally, <filename>user.action</filename> has the last word.
2439 An actions file typically has multiple sections. If you want to use
2440 <quote>aliases</quote> in an actions file, you have to place the (optional)
2441 <link linkend="aliases">alias section</link> at the top of that file.
2442 Then comes the default set of rules which will apply universally to all
2443 sites and pages (be <emphasis>very careful</emphasis> with using such a
2444 universal set in <filename>user.action</filename> or any other actions file after
2445 <filename>default.action</filename>, because it will override the result
2446 from consulting any previous file). And then below that,
2447 exceptions to the defined universal policies. You can regard
2448 <filename>user.action</filename> as an appendix to <filename>default.action</filename>,
2449 with the advantage that it is a separate file, which makes preserving your
2450 personal settings across <application>Privoxy</application> upgrades easier.
2454 Actions can be used to block anything you want, including ads, banners, or
2455 just some obnoxious URL whose content you would rather not see. Cookies can be accepted
2456 or rejected, or accepted only during the current browser session (i.e. not
2457 written to disk), content can be modified, some JavaScripts tamed, user-tracking
2458 fooled, and much more. See below for a <link linkend="actions">complete list
2462 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2464 <title>Finding the Right Mix</title>
2466 Note that some <link linkend="actions">actions</link>, like cookie suppression
2467 or script disabling, may render some sites unusable that rely on these
2468 techniques to work properly. Finding the right mix of actions is not always easy and
2469 certainly a matter of personal taste. And, things can always change, requiring
2470 refinements in the configuration. In general, it can be said that the more
2471 <quote>aggressive</quote> your default settings (in the top section of the
2472 actions file) are, the more exceptions for <quote>trusted</quote> sites you
2473 will have to make later. If, for example, you want to crunch all cookies per
2474 default, you'll have to make exceptions from that rule for sites that you
2475 regularly use and that require cookies for actually useful purposes, like maybe
2476 your bank, favorite shop, or newspaper.
2480 We have tried to provide you with reasonable rules to start from in the
2481 distribution actions files. But there is no general rule of thumb on these
2482 things. There just are too many variables, and sites are constantly changing.
2483 Sooner or later you will want to change the rules (and read this chapter again :).
2487 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2489 <title>How to Edit</title>
2491 The easiest way to edit the actions files is with a browser by
2492 using our browser-based editor, which can be reached from <ulink
2493 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
2494 Note: the config file option <link
2495 linkend="enable-edit-actions">enable-edit-actions</link> must be enabled for
2496 this to work. The editor allows both fine-grained control over every single
2497 feature on a per-URL basis, and easy choosing from wholesale sets of defaults
2498 like <quote>Cautious</quote>, <quote>Medium</quote> or
2499 <quote>Advanced</quote>. Warning: the <quote>Advanced</quote> setting is more
2500 aggressive, and will be more likely to cause problems for some sites.
2501 Experienced users only!
2505 If you prefer plain text editing to GUIs, you can of course also directly edit the
2506 the actions files with your favorite text editor. Look at
2507 <filename>default.action</filename> which is richly commented with many
2513 <sect2 id="actions-apply">
2514 <title>How Actions are Applied to Requests</title>
2516 Actions files are divided into sections. There are special sections,
2517 like the <quote><link linkend="aliases">alias</link></quote> sections which will
2518 be discussed later. For now let's concentrate on regular sections: They have a
2519 heading line (often split up to multiple lines for readability) which consist
2520 of a list of actions, separated by whitespace and enclosed in curly braces.
2521 Below that, there is a list of URL and tag patterns, each on a separate line.
2525 To determine which actions apply to a request, the URL of the request is
2526 compared to all URL patterns in each <quote>action file</quote>.
2527 Every time it matches, the list of applicable actions for the request is
2528 incrementally updated, using the heading of the section in which the
2529 pattern is located. The same is done again for tags and tag patterns later on.
2533 If multiple applying sections set the same action differently,
2534 the last match wins. If not, the effects are aggregated.
2535 E.g. a URL might match a regular section with a heading line of <literal>{
2536 +<link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link> }</literal>,
2537 then later another one with just <literal>{
2538 +<link linkend="block">block</link> }</literal>, resulting
2539 in <emphasis>both</emphasis> actions to apply. And there may well be
2540 cases where you will want to combine actions together. Such a section then
2546 { +<literal>handle-as-image</literal> +<literal>block{Banner ads.}</literal> }
2547 # Block these as if they were images. Send no block page.
2549 media.example.com/.*banners
2550 .example.com/images/ads/</screen>
2554 You can trace this process for URL patterns and any given URL by visiting <ulink
2555 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>.
2559 Examples and more detail on this is provided in the Appendix, <link linkend="ACTIONSANAT">
2560 Troubleshooting: Anatomy of an Action</link> section.
2564 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2565 <sect2 id="af-patterns">
2566 <title>Patterns</title>
2568 As mentioned, <application>Privoxy</application> uses <quote>patterns</quote>
2569 to determine what <emphasis>actions</emphasis> might apply to which sites and
2570 pages your browser attempts to access. These <quote>patterns</quote> use wild
2571 card type <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> matching to achieve a high degree of
2572 flexibility. This allows one expression to be expanded and potentially match
2573 against many similar patterns.
2577 Generally, an URL pattern has the form
2578 <literal><domain><port>/<path></literal>, where the
2579 <literal><domain></literal>, the <literal><port></literal>
2580 and the <literal><path></literal> are optional. (This is why the special
2581 <literal>/</literal> pattern matches all URLs). Note that the protocol
2582 portion of the URL pattern (e.g. <literal>http://</literal>) should
2583 <emphasis>not</emphasis> be included in the pattern. This is assumed already!
2586 The pattern matching syntax is different for the domain and path parts of
2587 the URL. The domain part uses a simple globbing type matching technique,
2588 while the path part uses more flexible
2589 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
2590 Expressions</quote></ulink> (POSIX 1003.2).
2593 The port part of a pattern is a decimal port number preceded by a colon
2594 (<literal>:</literal>). If the domain part contains a numerical IPv6 address,
2595 it has to be put into angle brackets
2596 (<literal><</literal>, <literal>></literal>).
2601 <term><literal>www.example.com/</literal></term>
2604 is a domain-only pattern and will match any request to <literal>www.example.com</literal>,
2605 regardless of which document on that server is requested. So ALL pages in
2606 this domain would be covered by the scope of this action. Note that a
2607 simple <literal>example.com</literal> is different and would NOT match.
2612 <term><literal>www.example.com</literal></term>
2615 means exactly the same. For domain-only patterns, the trailing <literal>/</literal> may
2621 <term><literal>www.example.com/index.html</literal></term>
2624 matches all the documents on <literal>www.example.com</literal>
2625 whose name starts with <literal>/index.html</literal>.
2630 <term><literal>www.example.com/index.html$</literal></term>
2633 matches only the single document <literal>/index.html</literal>
2634 on <literal>www.example.com</literal>.
2639 <term><literal>/index.html$</literal></term>
2642 matches the document <literal>/index.html</literal>, regardless of the domain,
2643 i.e. on <emphasis>any</emphasis> web server anywhere.
2648 <term><literal>/</literal></term>
2651 Matches any URL because there's no requirement for either the
2652 domain or the path to match anything.
2657 <term><literal>:8000/</literal></term>
2660 Matches any URL pointing to TCP port 8000.
2665 <term><literal><2001:db8::1>/</literal></term>
2668 Matches any URL with the host address <literal>2001:db8::1</literal>.
2669 (Note that the real URL uses plain brackets, not angle brackets.)
2674 <term><literal>index.html</literal></term>
2677 matches nothing, since it would be interpreted as a domain name and
2678 there is no top-level domain called <literal>.html</literal>. So its
2686 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2687 <sect3><title>The Domain Pattern</title>
2690 The matching of the domain part offers some flexible options: if the
2691 domain starts or ends with a dot, it becomes unanchored at that end.
2697 <term><literal>.example.com</literal></term>
2700 matches any domain with first-level domain <literal>com</literal>
2701 and second-level domain <literal>example</literal>.
2702 For example <literal>www.example.com</literal>,
2703 <literal>example.com</literal> and <literal>foo.bar.baz.example.com</literal>.
2704 Note that it wouldn't match if the second-level domain was <literal>another-example</literal>.
2709 <term><literal>www.</literal></term>
2712 matches any domain that <emphasis>STARTS</emphasis> with
2713 <literal>www.</literal> (It also matches the domain
2714 <literal>www</literal> but most of the time that doesn't matter.)
2719 <term><literal>.example.</literal></term>
2722 matches any domain that <emphasis>CONTAINS</emphasis> <literal>.example.</literal>.
2723 And, by the way, also included would be any files or documents that exist
2724 within that domain since no path limitations are specified. (Correctly
2725 speaking: It matches any FQDN that contains <literal>example</literal> as
2726 a domain.) This might be <literal>www.example.com</literal>,
2727 <literal>news.example.de</literal>, or
2728 <literal>www.example.net/cgi/testing.pl</literal> for instance. All these
2736 Additionally, there are wild-cards that you can use in the domain names
2737 themselves. These work similarly to shell globbing type wild-cards:
2738 <quote>*</quote> represents zero or more arbitrary characters (this is
2740 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
2741 Expression</quote></ulink> based syntax of <quote>.*</quote>),
2742 <quote>?</quote> represents any single character (this is equivalent to the
2743 regular expression syntax of a simple <quote>.</quote>), and you can define
2744 <quote>character classes</quote> in square brackets which is similar to
2745 the same regular expression technique. All of this can be freely mixed:
2750 <term><literal>ad*.example.com</literal></term>
2753 matches <quote>adserver.example.com</quote>,
2754 <quote>ads.example.com</quote>, etc but not <quote>sfads.example.com</quote>
2759 <term><literal>*ad*.example.com</literal></term>
2762 matches all of the above, and then some.
2767 <term><literal>.?pix.com</literal></term>
2770 matches <literal>www.ipix.com</literal>,
2771 <literal>pictures.epix.com</literal>, <literal>a.b.c.d.e.upix.com</literal> etc.
2776 <term><literal>www[1-9a-ez].example.c*</literal></term>
2779 matches <literal>www1.example.com</literal>,
2780 <literal>www4.example.cc</literal>, <literal>wwwd.example.cy</literal>,
2781 <literal>wwwz.example.com</literal> etc., but <emphasis>not</emphasis>
2782 <literal>wwww.example.com</literal>.
2789 While flexible, this is not the sophistication of full regular expression based syntax.
2794 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2797 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2798 <sect3><title>The Path Pattern</title>
2801 <application>Privoxy</application> uses <quote>modern</quote> POSIX 1003.2
2802 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
2803 Expressions</quote></ulink> for matching the path portion (after the slash),
2804 and is thus more flexible.
2808 There is an <link linkend="regex">Appendix</link> with a brief quick-start into regular
2809 expressions, you also might want to have a look at your operating system's documentation
2810 on regular expressions (try <literal>man re_format</literal>).
2814 Note that the path pattern is automatically left-anchored at the <quote>/</quote>,
2815 i.e. it matches as if it would start with a <quote>^</quote> (regular expression speak
2816 for the beginning of a line).
2820 Please also note that matching in the path is <emphasis>CASE INSENSITIVE</emphasis>
2821 by default, but you can switch to case sensitive at any point in the pattern by using the
2822 <quote>(?-i)</quote> switch: <literal>www.example.com/(?-i)PaTtErN.*</literal> will match
2823 only documents whose path starts with <literal>PaTtErN</literal> in
2824 <emphasis>exactly</emphasis> this capitalization.
2829 <term><literal>.example.com/.*</literal></term>
2832 Is equivalent to just <quote>.example.com</quote>, since any documents
2833 within that domain are matched with or without the <quote>.*</quote>
2834 regular expression. This is redundant
2839 <term><literal>.example.com/.*/index.html$</literal></term>
2842 Will match any page in the domain of <quote>example.com</quote> that is
2843 named <quote>index.html</quote>, and that is part of some path. For
2844 example, it matches <quote>www.example.com/testing/index.html</quote> but
2845 NOT <quote>www.example.com/index.html</quote> because the regular
2846 expression called for at least two <quote>/'s</quote>, thus the path
2847 requirement. It also would match
2848 <quote>www.example.com/testing/index_html</quote>, because of the
2849 special meta-character <quote>.</quote>.
2854 <term><literal>.example.com/(.*/)?index\.html$</literal></term>
2857 This regular expression is conditional so it will match any page
2858 named <quote>index.html</quote> regardless of path which in this case can
2859 have one or more <quote>/'s</quote>. And this one must contain exactly
2860 <quote>.html</quote> (but does not have to end with that!).
2865 <term><literal>.example.com/(.*/)(ads|banners?|junk)</literal></term>
2868 This regular expression will match any path of <quote>example.com</quote>
2869 that contains any of the words <quote>ads</quote>, <quote>banner</quote>,
2870 <quote>banners</quote> (because of the <quote>?</quote>) or <quote>junk</quote>.
2871 The path does not have to end in these words, just contain them.
2876 <term><literal>.example.com/(.*/)(ads|banners?|junk)/.*\.(jpe?g|gif|png)$</literal></term>
2879 This is very much the same as above, except now it must end in either
2880 <quote>.jpg</quote>, <quote>.jpeg</quote>, <quote>.gif</quote> or <quote>.png</quote>. So this
2881 one is limited to common image formats.
2888 There are many, many good examples to be found in <filename>default.action</filename>,
2889 and more tutorials below in <link linkend="regex">Appendix on regular expressions</link>.
2894 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2897 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2898 <sect3 id="tag-pattern"><title>The Tag Pattern</title>
2901 Tag patterns are used to change the applying actions based on the
2902 request's tags. Tags can be created with either the
2903 <link linkend="CLIENT-HEADER-TAGGER">client-header-tagger</link>
2904 or the <link linkend="SERVER-HEADER-TAGGER">server-header-tagger</link> action.
2908 Tag patterns have to start with <quote>TAG:</quote>, so &my-app;
2909 can tell them apart from URL patterns. Everything after the colon
2910 including white space, is interpreted as a regular expression with
2911 path pattern syntax, except that tag patterns aren't left-anchored
2912 automatically (&my-app; doesn't silently add a <quote>^</quote>,
2913 you have to do it yourself if you need it).
2917 To match all requests that are tagged with <quote>foo</quote>
2918 your pattern line should be <quote>TAG:^foo$</quote>,
2919 <quote>TAG:foo</quote> would work as well, but it would also
2920 match requests whose tags contain <quote>foo</quote> somewhere.
2921 <quote>TAG: foo</quote> wouldn't work as it requires white space.
2925 Sections can contain URL and tag patterns at the same time,
2926 but tag patterns are checked after the URL patterns and thus
2927 always overrule them, even if they are located before the URL patterns.
2931 Once a new tag is added, Privoxy checks right away if it's matched by one
2932 of the tag patterns and updates the action settings accordingly. As a result
2933 tags can be used to activate other tagger actions, as long as these other
2934 taggers look for headers that haven't already be parsed.
2938 For example you could tag client requests which use the
2939 <literal>POST</literal> method,
2940 then use this tag to activate another tagger that adds a tag if cookies
2941 are sent, and then use a block action based on the cookie tag. This allows
2942 the outcome of one action, to be input into a subsequent action. However if
2943 you'd reverse the position of the described taggers, and activated the
2944 method tagger based on the cookie tagger, no method tags would be created.
2945 The method tagger would look for the request line, but at the time
2946 the cookie tag is created, the request line has already been parsed.
2950 While this is a limitation you should be aware of, this kind of
2951 indirection is seldom needed anyway and even the example doesn't
2952 make too much sense.
2959 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2962 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2964 <sect2 id="actions">
2965 <title>Actions</title>
2967 All actions are disabled by default, until they are explicitly enabled
2968 somewhere in an actions file. Actions are turned on if preceded with a
2969 <quote>+</quote>, and turned off if preceded with a <quote>-</quote>. So a
2970 <literal>+action</literal> means <quote>do that action</quote>, e.g.
2971 <literal>+block</literal> means <quote>please block URLs that match the
2972 following patterns</quote>, and <literal>-block</literal> means <quote>don't
2973 block URLs that match the following patterns, even if <literal>+block</literal>
2974 previously applied.</quote>
2979 Again, actions are invoked by placing them on a line, enclosed in curly braces and
2980 separated by whitespace, like in
2981 <literal>{+some-action -some-other-action{some-parameter}}</literal>,
2982 followed by a list of URL patterns, one per line, to which they apply.
2983 Together, the actions line and the following pattern lines make up a section
2984 of the actions file.
2988 Actions fall into three categories:
2995 Boolean, i.e the action can only be <quote>enabled</quote> or
2996 <quote>disabled</quote>. Syntax:
3000 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # enable action <replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable>
3001 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # disable action <replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable></screen>
3004 Example: <literal>+handle-as-image</literal>
3011 Parameterized, where some value is required in order to enable this type of action.
3016 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # enable action and set parameter to <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>,
3017 # overwriting parameter from previous match if necessary
3018 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # disable action. The parameter can be omitted</screen>
3021 Note that if the URL matches multiple positive forms of a parameterized action,
3022 the last match wins, i.e. the params from earlier matches are simply ignored.
3025 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>
3031 Multi-value. These look exactly like parameterized actions,
3032 but they behave differently: If the action applies multiple times to the
3033 same URL, but with different parameters, <emphasis>all</emphasis> the parameters
3034 from <emphasis>all</emphasis> matches are remembered. This is used for actions
3035 that can be executed for the same request repeatedly, like adding multiple
3036 headers, or filtering through multiple filters. Syntax:
3040 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # enable action and add <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable> to the list of parameters
3041 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # remove the parameter <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable> from the list of parameters
3042 # If it was the last one left, disable the action.
3043 <replaceable class="parameter">-name</replaceable> # disable this action completely and remove all parameters from the list</screen>
3046 Examples: <literal>+add-header{X-Fun-Header: Some text}</literal> and
3047 <literal>+filter{html-annoyances}</literal>
3055 If nothing is specified in any actions file, no <quote>actions</quote> are
3056 taken. So in this case <application>Privoxy</application> would just be a
3057 normal, non-blocking, non-filtering proxy. You must specifically enable the
3058 privacy and blocking features you need (although the provided default actions
3059 files will give a good starting point).
3063 Later defined action sections always over-ride earlier ones of the same type.
3064 So exceptions to any rules you make, should come in the latter part of the file (or
3065 in a file that is processed later when using multiple actions files such
3066 as <filename>user.action</filename>). For multi-valued actions, the actions
3067 are applied in the order they are specified. Actions files are processed in
3068 the order they are defined in <filename>config</filename> (the default
3069 installation has three actions files). It also quite possible for any given
3070 URL to match more than one <quote>pattern</quote> (because of wildcards and
3071 regular expressions), and thus to trigger more than one set of actions! Last
3075 <!-- start actions listing -->
3077 The list of valid <application>Privoxy</application> actions are:
3081 <!-- ********************************************************** -->
3082 <!-- Please note the below defined actions use id's that are -->
3083 <!-- probably linked from other places, so please don't change. -->
3085 <!-- ********************************************************** -->
3088 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3090 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="add-header">
3091 <title>add-header</title>
3095 <term>Typical use:</term>
3097 <para>Confuse log analysis, custom applications</para>
3102 <term>Effect:</term>
3105 Sends a user defined HTTP header to the web server.
3112 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3114 <para>Multi-value.</para>
3119 <term>Parameter:</term>
3122 Any string value is possible. Validity of the defined HTTP headers is not checked.
3123 It is recommended that you use the <quote><literal>X-</literal></quote> prefix
3133 This action may be specified multiple times, in order to define multiple
3134 headers. This is rarely needed for the typical user. If you don't know what
3135 <quote>HTTP headers</quote> are, you definitely don't need to worry about this
3139 Headers added by this action are not modified by other actions.
3145 <term>Example usage:</term>
3148 <screen>+add-header{X-User-Tracking: sucks}</screen>
3156 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3157 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="block">
3158 <title>block</title>
3162 <term>Typical use:</term>
3164 <para>Block ads or other unwanted content</para>
3169 <term>Effect:</term>
3172 Requests for URLs to which this action applies are blocked, i.e. the
3173 requests are trapped by &my-app; and the requested URL is never retrieved,
3174 but is answered locally with a substitute page or image, as determined by
3176 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>,
3178 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>, and
3180 linkend="handle-as-empty-document">handle-as-empty-document</link></literal> actions.
3188 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3190 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3195 <term>Parameter:</term>
3197 <para>A block reason that should be given to the user.</para>
3205 <application>Privoxy</application> sends a special <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page
3206 for requests to blocked pages. This page contains the block reason given as
3207 parameter, a link to find out why the block action applies, and a click-through
3208 to the blocked content (the latter only if the force feature is available and
3212 A very important exception occurs if <emphasis>both</emphasis>
3213 <literal>block</literal> and <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>,
3214 apply to the same request: it will then be replaced by an image. If
3215 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>
3216 (see below) also applies, the type of image will be determined by its parameter,
3217 if not, the standard checkerboard pattern is sent.
3220 It is important to understand this process, in order
3221 to understand how <application>Privoxy</application> deals with
3222 ads and other unwanted content. Blocking is a core feature, and one
3223 upon which various other features depend.
3226 The <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>
3227 action can perform a very similar task, by <quote>blocking</quote>
3228 banner images and other content through rewriting the relevant URLs in the
3229 document's HTML source, so they don't get requested in the first place.
3230 Note that this is a totally different technique, and it's easy to confuse the two.
3236 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3239 <screen>{+block{No nasty stuff for you.}}
3240 # Block and replace with "blocked" page
3241 .nasty-stuff.example.com
3243 {+block{Doubleclick banners.} +handle-as-image}
3244 # Block and replace with image
3248 {+block{Layered ads.} +handle-as-empty-document}
3249 # Block and then ignore
3250 adserver.example.net/.*\.js$</screen>
3260 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3261 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="change-x-forwarded-for">
3262 <title>change-x-forwarded-for</title>
3266 <term>Typical use:</term>
3268 <para>Improve privacy by not forwarding the source of the request in the HTTP headers.</para>
3273 <term>Effect:</term>
3276 Deletes the <quote>X-Forwarded-For:</quote> HTTP header from the client request,
3284 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3286 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3291 <term>Parameter:</term>
3295 <para><quote>block</quote> to delete the header.</para>
3299 <quote>add</quote> to create the header (or append
3300 the client's IP address to an already existing one).
3311 It is safe and recommended to use <literal>block</literal>.
3314 Forwarding the source address of the request may make
3315 sense in some multi-user setups but is also a privacy risk.
3320 <term>Example usage:</term>
3323 <screen>+change-x-forwarded-for{block}</screen>
3330 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3331 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="client-header-filter">
3332 <title>client-header-filter</title>
3336 <term>Typical use:</term>
3339 Rewrite or remove single client headers.
3345 <term>Effect:</term>
3348 All client headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly through
3349 the specified regular expression based substitutions.
3356 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3358 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3363 <term>Parameter:</term>
3366 The name of a client-header filter, as defined in one of the
3367 <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link>.
3376 Client-header filters are applied to each header on its own, not to
3377 all at once. This makes it easier to diagnose problems, but on the downside
3378 you can't write filters that only change header x if header y's value is z.
3379 You can do that by using tags though.
3382 Client-header filters are executed after the other header actions have finished
3383 and use their output as input.
3386 If the request URL gets changed, &my-app; will detect that and use the new
3387 one. This can be used to rewrite the request destination behind the client's
3388 back, for example to specify a Tor exit relay for certain requests.
3391 Please refer to the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file chapter</link>
3392 to learn which client-header filters are available by default, and how to
3400 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3404 # Hide Tor exit notation in Host and Referer Headers
3405 {+client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation}}
3416 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3417 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="client-header-tagger">
3418 <title>client-header-tagger</title>
3422 <term>Typical use:</term>
3425 Block requests based on their headers.
3431 <term>Effect:</term>
3434 Client headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly through
3435 the specified regular expression based substitutions, the result is used as
3443 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3445 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3450 <term>Parameter:</term>
3453 The name of a client-header tagger, as defined in one of the
3454 <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link>.
3463 Client-header taggers are applied to each header on its own,
3464 and as the header isn't modified, each tagger <quote>sees</quote>
3468 Client-header taggers are the first actions that are executed
3469 and their tags can be used to control every other action.
3475 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3479 # Tag every request with the User-Agent header
3480 {+client-header-tagger{user-agent}}
3483 # Tagging itself doesn't change the action
3484 # settings, sections with TAG patterns do:
3486 # If it's a download agent, use a different forwarding proxy,
3487 # show the real User-Agent and make sure resume works.
3488 {+forward-override{forward-socks5 10.0.0.2:2222 .} \
3489 -hide-if-modified-since \
3490 -overwrite-last-modified \
3495 TAG:^User-Agent: NetBSD-ftp/
3496 TAG:^User-Agent: Novell ZYPP Installer
3497 TAG:^User-Agent: RPM APT-HTTP/
3498 TAG:^User-Agent: fetch libfetch/
3499 TAG:^User-Agent: Ubuntu APT-HTTP/
3500 TAG:^User-Agent: MPlayer/
3510 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3511 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="content-type-overwrite">
3512 <title>content-type-overwrite</title>
3516 <term>Typical use:</term>
3518 <para>Stop useless download menus from popping up, or change the browser's rendering mode</para>
3523 <term>Effect:</term>
3526 Replaces the <quote>Content-Type:</quote> HTTP server header.
3533 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3535 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3540 <term>Parameter:</term>
3552 The <quote>Content-Type:</quote> HTTP server header is used by the
3553 browser to decide what to do with the document. The value of this
3554 header can cause the browser to open a download menu instead of
3555 displaying the document by itself, even if the document's format is
3556 supported by the browser.
3559 The declared content type can also affect which rendering mode
3560 the browser chooses. If XHTML is delivered as <quote>text/html</quote>,
3561 many browsers treat it as yet another broken HTML document.
3562 If it is send as <quote>application/xml</quote>, browsers with
3563 XHTML support will only display it, if the syntax is correct.
3566 If you see a web site that proudly uses XHTML buttons, but sets
3567 <quote>Content-Type: text/html</quote>, you can use &my-app;
3568 to overwrite it with <quote>application/xml</quote> and validate
3569 the web master's claim inside your XHTML-supporting browser.
3570 If the syntax is incorrect, the browser will complain loudly.
3573 You can also go the opposite direction: if your browser prints
3574 error messages instead of rendering a document falsely declared
3575 as XHTML, you can overwrite the content type with
3576 <quote>text/html</quote> and have it rendered as broken HTML document.
3579 By default <literal>content-type-overwrite</literal> only replaces
3580 <quote>Content-Type:</quote> headers that look like some kind of text.
3581 If you want to overwrite it unconditionally, you have to combine it with
3582 <literal><link linkend="force-text-mode">force-text-mode</link></literal>.
3583 This limitation exists for a reason, think twice before circumventing it.
3586 Most of the time it's easier to replace this action with a custom
3587 <literal><link linkend="server-header-filter">server-header filter</link></literal>.
3588 It allows you to activate it for every document of a certain site and it will still
3589 only replace the content types you aimed at.
3592 Of course you can apply <literal>content-type-overwrite</literal>
3593 to a whole site and then make URL based exceptions, but it's a lot
3594 more work to get the same precision.
3600 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
3603 <screen># Check if www.example.net/ really uses valid XHTML
3604 { +content-type-overwrite{application/xml} }
3607 # but leave the content type unmodified if the URL looks like a style sheet
3608 {-content-type-overwrite}
3609 www.example.net/.*\.css$
3610 www.example.net/.*style
3619 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3620 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-client-header">
3624 <title>crunch-client-header</title>
3628 <term>Typical use:</term>
3630 <para>Remove a client header <application>Privoxy</application> has no dedicated action for.</para>
3635 <term>Effect:</term>
3638 Deletes every header sent by the client that contains the string the user supplied as parameter.
3645 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3647 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3652 <term>Parameter:</term>
3664 This action allows you to block client headers for which no dedicated
3665 <application>Privoxy</application> action exists.
3666 <application>Privoxy</application> will remove every client header that
3667 contains the string you supplied as parameter.
3670 Regular expressions are <emphasis>not supported</emphasis> and you can't
3671 use this action to block different headers in the same request, unless
3672 they contain the same string.
3675 <literal>crunch-client-header</literal> is only meant for quick tests.
3676 If you have to block several different headers, or only want to modify
3677 parts of them, you should use a
3678 <literal><link linkend="client-header-filter">client-header filter</link></literal>.
3682 Don't block any header without understanding the consequences.
3689 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3692 <screen># Block the non-existent "Privacy-Violation:" client header
3693 { +crunch-client-header{Privacy-Violation:} }
3703 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3704 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-if-none-match">
3705 <title>crunch-if-none-match</title>
3711 <term>Typical use:</term>
3713 <para>Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.</para>
3718 <term>Effect:</term>
3721 Deletes the <quote>If-None-Match:</quote> HTTP client header.
3728 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3730 <para>Boolean.</para>
3735 <term>Parameter:</term>
3747 Removing the <quote>If-None-Match:</quote> HTTP client header
3748 is useful for filter testing, where you want to force a real
3749 reload instead of getting status code <quote>304</quote> which
3750 would cause the browser to use a cached copy of the page.
3753 It is also useful to make sure the header isn't used as a cookie
3754 replacement (unlikely but possible).
3757 Blocking the <quote>If-None-Match:</quote> header shouldn't cause any
3758 caching problems, as long as the <quote>If-Modified-Since:</quote> header
3759 isn't blocked or missing as well.
3762 It is recommended to use this action together with
3763 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hide-if-modified-since</link></literal>
3765 <literal><link linkend="overwrite-last-modified">overwrite-last-modified</link></literal>.
3771 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3774 <screen># Let the browser revalidate cached documents but don't
3775 # allow the server to use the revalidation headers for user tracking.
3776 {+hide-if-modified-since{-60} \
3777 +overwrite-last-modified{randomize} \
3778 +crunch-if-none-match}
3787 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3788 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-incoming-cookies">
3789 <title>crunch-incoming-cookies</title>
3793 <term>Typical use:</term>
3796 Prevent the web server from setting HTTP cookies on your system
3802 <term>Effect:</term>
3805 Deletes any <quote>Set-Cookie:</quote> HTTP headers from server replies.
3812 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3814 <para>Boolean.</para>
3819 <term>Parameter:</term>
3831 This action is only concerned with <emphasis>incoming</emphasis> HTTP cookies. For
3832 <emphasis>outgoing</emphasis> HTTP cookies, use
3833 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>.
3834 Use <emphasis>both</emphasis> to disable HTTP cookies completely.
3837 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use this action in conjunction
3838 with the <literal><link linkend="session-cookies-only">session-cookies-only</link></literal> action,
3839 since it would prevent the session cookies from being set. See also
3840 <literal><link linkend="filter-content-cookies">filter-content-cookies</link></literal>.
3846 <term>Example usage:</term>
3849 <screen>+crunch-incoming-cookies</screen>
3857 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3858 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-server-header">
3859 <title>crunch-server-header</title>
3865 <term>Typical use:</term>
3867 <para>Remove a server header <application>Privoxy</application> has no dedicated action for.</para>
3872 <term>Effect:</term>
3875 Deletes every header sent by the server that contains the string the user supplied as parameter.
3882 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3884 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3889 <term>Parameter:</term>
3901 This action allows you to block server headers for which no dedicated
3902 <application>Privoxy</application> action exists. <application>Privoxy</application>
3903 will remove every server header that contains the string you supplied as parameter.
3906 Regular expressions are <emphasis>not supported</emphasis> and you can't
3907 use this action to block different headers in the same request, unless
3908 they contain the same string.
3911 <literal>crunch-server-header</literal> is only meant for quick tests.
3912 If you have to block several different headers, or only want to modify
3913 parts of them, you should use a custom
3914 <literal><link linkend="server-header-filter">server-header filter</link></literal>.
3918 Don't block any header without understanding the consequences.
3925 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3928 <screen># Crunch server headers that try to prevent caching
3929 { +crunch-server-header{no-cache} }
3938 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3939 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-outgoing-cookies">
3940 <title>crunch-outgoing-cookies</title>
3944 <term>Typical use:</term>
3947 Prevent the web server from reading any HTTP cookies from your system
3953 <term>Effect:</term>
3956 Deletes any <quote>Cookie:</quote> HTTP headers from client requests.
3963 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3965 <para>Boolean.</para>
3970 <term>Parameter:</term>
3982 This action is only concerned with <emphasis>outgoing</emphasis> HTTP cookies. For
3983 <emphasis>incoming</emphasis> HTTP cookies, use
3984 <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal>.
3985 Use <emphasis>both</emphasis> to disable HTTP cookies completely.
3988 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use this action in conjunction
3989 with the <literal><link linkend="session-cookies-only">session-cookies-only</link></literal> action,
3990 since it would prevent the session cookies from being read.
3996 <term>Example usage:</term>
3999 <screen>+crunch-outgoing-cookies</screen>
4008 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4009 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="deanimate-gifs">
4010 <title>deanimate-gifs</title>
4014 <term>Typical use:</term>
4016 <para>Stop those annoying, distracting animated GIF images.</para>
4021 <term>Effect:</term>
4024 De-animate GIF animations, i.e. reduce them to their first or last image.
4031 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
4033 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4038 <term>Parameter:</term>
4041 <quote>last</quote> or <quote>first</quote>
4050 This will also shrink the images considerably (in bytes, not pixels!). If
4051 the option <quote>first</quote> is given, the first frame of the animation
4052 is used as the replacement. If <quote>last</quote> is given, the last
4053 frame of the animation is used instead, which probably makes more sense for
4054 most banner animations, but also has the risk of not showing the entire
4055 last frame (if it is only a delta to an earlier frame).
4058 You can safely use this action with patterns that will also match non-GIF
4059 objects, because no attempt will be made at anything that doesn't look like
4066 <term>Example usage:</term>
4069 <screen>+deanimate-gifs{last}</screen>
4076 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4077 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="downgrade-http-version">
4078 <title>downgrade-http-version</title>
4082 <term>Typical use:</term>
4084 <para>Work around (very rare) problems with HTTP/1.1</para>
4089 <term>Effect:</term>
4092 Downgrades HTTP/1.1 client requests and server replies to HTTP/1.0.
4099 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
4101 <para>Boolean.</para>
4106 <term>Parameter:</term>
4118 This is a left-over from the time when <application>Privoxy</application>
4119 didn't support important HTTP/1.1 features well. It is left here for the
4120 unlikely case that you experience HTTP/1.1 related problems with some server
4121 out there. Not all HTTP/1.1 features and requirements are supported yet,
4122 so there is a chance you might need this action.
4128 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
4131 <screen>{+downgrade-http-version}
4132 problem-host.example.com</screen>
4140 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4141 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="fast-redirects">
4142 <title>fast-redirects</title>
4146 <term>Typical use:</term>
4148 <para>Fool some click-tracking scripts and speed up indirect links.</para>
4153 <term>Effect:</term>
4156 Detects redirection URLs and redirects the browser without contacting
4157 the redirection server first.
4164 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
4166 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4171 <term>Parameter:</term>
4176 <quote>simple-check</quote> to just search for the string <quote>http://</quote>
4177 to detect redirection URLs.
4182 <quote>check-decoded-url</quote> to decode URLs (if necessary) before searching
4183 for redirection URLs.
4194 Many sites, like yahoo.com, don't just link to other sites. Instead, they
4195 will link to some script on their own servers, giving the destination as a
4196 parameter, which will then redirect you to the final target. URLs
4197 resulting from this scheme typically look like:
4198 <quote>http://www.example.org/click-tracker.cgi?target=http%3a//www.example.net/</quote>.
4201 Sometimes, there are even multiple consecutive redirects encoded in the
4202 URL. These redirections via scripts make your web browsing more traceable,
4203 since the server from which you follow such a link can see where you go
4204 to. Apart from that, valuable bandwidth and time is wasted, while your
4205 browser asks the server for one redirect after the other. Plus, it feeds
4209 This feature is currently not very smart and is scheduled for improvement.
4210 If it is enabled by default, you will have to create some exceptions to
4211 this action. It can lead to failures in several ways:
4214 Not every URLs with other URLs as parameters is evil.
4215 Some sites offer a real service that requires this information to work.
4216 For example a validation service needs to know, which document to validate.
4217 <literal>fast-redirects</literal> assumes that every URL parameter that
4218 looks like another URL is a redirection target, and will always redirect to
4219 the last one. Most of the time the assumption is correct, but if it isn't,
4220 the user gets redirected anyway.
4223 Another failure occurs if the URL contains other parameters after the URL parameter.
4225 <quote>http://www.example.org/?redirect=http%3a//www.example.net/&foo=bar</quote>.
4226 contains the redirection URL <quote>http://www.example.net/</quote>,
4227 followed by another parameter. <literal>fast-redirects</literal> doesn't know that
4228 and will cause a redirect to <quote>http://www.example.net/&foo=bar</quote>.
4229 Depending on the target server configuration, the parameter will be silently ignored
4230 or lead to a <quote>page not found</quote> error. You can prevent this problem by
4231 first using the <literal><link linkend="redirect">redirect</link></literal> action
4232 to remove the last part of the URL, but it requires a little effort.
4235 To detect a redirection URL, <literal>fast-redirects</literal> only
4236 looks for the string <quote>http://</quote>, either in plain text
4237 (invalid but often used) or encoded as <quote>http%3a//</quote>.
4238 Some sites use their own URL encoding scheme, encrypt the address
4239 of the target server or replace it with a database id. In theses cases
4240 <literal>fast-redirects</literal> is fooled and the request reaches the
4241 redirection server where it probably gets logged.
4247 <term>Example usage:</term>
4251 { +fast-redirects{simple-check} }
4254 { +fast-redirects{check-decoded-url} }
4255 another.example.com/testing</screen>
4264 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4265 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="filter">
4266 <title>filter</title>
4270 <term>Typical use:</term>
4272 <para>Get rid of HTML and JavaScript annoyances, banner advertisements (by size),
4273 do fun text replacements, add personalized effects, etc.</para>
4278 <term>Effect:</term>
4281 All instances of text-based type, most notably HTML and JavaScript, to which
4282 this action applies, can be filtered on-the-fly through the specified regular
4283 expression based substitutions. (Note: as of version 3.0.3 plain text documents
4284 are exempted from filtering, because web servers often use the
4285 <literal>text/plain</literal> MIME type for all files whose type they don't know.)
4292 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
4294 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4299 <term>Parameter:</term>
4302 The name of a content filter, as defined in the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file</link>.
4303 Filters can be defined in one or more files as defined by the
4304 <literal><link linkend="filterfile">filterfile</link></literal>
4305 option in the <link linkend="config">config file</link>.
4306 <filename>default.filter</filename> is the collection of filters
4307 supplied by the developers. Locally defined filters should go
4308 in their own file, such as <filename>user.filter</filename>.
4311 When used in its negative form,
4312 and without parameters, <emphasis>all</emphasis> filtering is completely disabled.
4321 For your convenience, there are a number of pre-defined filters available
4322 in the distribution filter file that you can use. See the examples below for
4326 Filtering requires buffering the page content, which may appear to
4327 slow down page rendering since nothing is displayed until all content has
4328 passed the filters. (The total time until the page is completely rendered
4329 doesn't change much, but it may be perceived as slower since the page is
4330 not incrementally displayed.)
4331 This effect will be more noticeable on slower connections.
4334 <quote>Rolling your own</quote>
4335 filters requires a knowledge of
4336 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
4337 Expressions</quote></ulink> and
4338 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Html"><quote>HTML</quote></ulink>.
4339 This is very powerful feature, and potentially very intrusive.
4340 Filters should be used with caution, and where an equivalent
4341 <quote>action</quote> is not available.
4344 The amount of data that can be filtered is limited to the
4345 <literal><link linkend="buffer-limit">buffer-limit</link></literal>
4346 option in the main <link linkend="config">config file</link>. The
4347 default is 4096 KB (4 Megs). Once this limit is exceeded, the buffered
4348 data, and all pending data, is passed through unfiltered.
4351 Inappropriate MIME types, such as zipped files, are not filtered at all.
4352 (Again, only text-based types except plain text). Encrypted SSL data
4353 (from HTTPS servers) cannot be filtered either, since this would violate
4354 the integrity of the secure transaction. In some situations it might
4355 be necessary to protect certain text, like source code, from filtering
4356 by defining appropriate <literal>-filter</literal> exceptions.
4359 Compressed content can't be filtered either, unless &my-app;
4360 is compiled with zlib support (requires at least &my-app; 3.0.7),
4361 in which case &my-app; will decompress the content before filtering
4365 If you use a &my-app; version without zlib support, but want filtering to work on
4366 as much documents as possible, even those that would normally be sent compressed,
4367 you must use the <literal><link linkend="prevent-compression">prevent-compression</link></literal>
4368 action in conjunction with <literal>filter</literal>.
4371 Content filtering can achieve some of the same effects as the
4372 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>
4373 action, i.e. it can be used to block ads and banners. But the mechanism
4374 works quite differently. One effective use, is to block ad banners
4375 based on their size (see below), since many of these seem to be somewhat
4379 <link linkend="contact">Feedback</link> with suggestions for new or
4380 improved filters is particularly welcome!
4383 The below list has only the names and a one-line description of each
4384 predefined filter. There are <link linkend="predefined-filters">more
4385 verbose explanations</link> of what these filters do in the <link
4386 linkend="filter-file">filter file chapter</link>.
4392 <term>Example usage (with filters from the distribution <filename>default.filter</filename> file).
4393 See <link linkend="PREDEFINED-FILTERS">the Predefined Filters section</link> for
4394 more explanation on each:</term>
4397 <anchor id="filter-js-annoyances">
4398 <screen>+filter{js-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse.</screen>
4401 <anchor id="filter-js-events">
4402 <screen>+filter{js-events} # Kill all JS event bindings and timers (Radically destructive! Only for extra nasty sites).</screen>
4405 <anchor id="filter-html-annoyances">
4406 <screen>+filter{html-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying HTML abuse.</screen>
4409 <anchor id="filter-content-cookies">
4410 <screen>+filter{content-cookies} # Kill cookies that come in the HTML or JS content.</screen>
4413 <anchor id="filter-refresh-tags">
4414 <screen>+filter{refresh-tags} # Kill automatic refresh tags (for dial-on-demand setups).</screen>
4417 <anchor id="filter-unsolicited-popups">
4418 <screen>+filter{unsolicited-popups} # Disable only unsolicited pop-up windows. Useful if your browser lacks this ability.</screen>
4421 <anchor id="filter-all-popups">
4422 <screen>+filter{all-popups} # Kill all popups in JavaScript and HTML. Useful if your browser lacks this ability.</screen>
4425 <anchor id="filter-img-reorder">
4426 <screen>+filter{img-reorder} # Reorder attributes in <img> tags to make the banners-by-* filters more effective.</screen>
4429 <anchor id="filter-banners-by-size">
4430 <screen>+filter{banners-by-size} # Kill banners by size.</screen>
4433 <anchor id="filter-banners-by-link">
4434 <screen>+filter{banners-by-link} # Kill banners by their links to known clicktrackers.</screen>
4437 <anchor id="filter-webbugs">
4438 <screen>+filter{webbugs} # Squish WebBugs (1x1 invisible GIFs used for user tracking).</screen>
4441 <anchor id="filter-tiny-textforms">
4442 <screen>+filter{tiny-textforms} # Extend those tiny textareas up to 40x80 and kill the hard wrap.</screen>
4445 <anchor id="filter-jumping-windows">
4446 <screen>+filter{jumping-windows} # Prevent windows from resizing and moving themselves.</screen>
4449 <anchor id="filter-frameset-borders">
4450 <screen>+filter{frameset-borders} # Give frames a border and make them resizable.</screen>
4453 <anchor id="filter-demoronizer">
4454 <screen>+filter{demoronizer} # Fix MS's non-standard use of standard charsets.</screen>
4457 <anchor id="filter-shockwave-flash">
4458 <screen>+filter{shockwave-flash} # Kill embedded Shockwave Flash objects.</screen>
4461 <anchor id="filter-quicktime-kioskmode">
4462 <screen>+filter{quicktime-kioskmode} # Make Quicktime movies saveable.</screen>
4465 <anchor id="filter-fun">
4466 <screen>+filter{fun} # Text replacements for subversive browsing fun!</screen>
4469 <anchor id="filter-crude-parental">
4470 <screen>+filter{crude-parental} # Crude parental filtering. Note that this filter doesn't work reliably.</screen>
4473 <anchor id="filter-ie-exploits">
4474 <screen>+filter{ie-exploits} # Disable some known Internet Explorer bug exploits.</screen>
4477 <anchor id="filter-site-specifics">
4478 <screen>+filter{site-specifics} # Cure for site-specific problems. Don't apply generally!</screen>
4481 <anchor id="filter-no-ping">
4482 <screen>+filter{no-ping} # Removes non-standard ping attributes in <a> and <area> tags.</screen>
4485 <anchor id="filter-google">
4486 <screen>+filter{google} # CSS-based block for Google text ads. Also removes a width limitation and the toolbar advertisement.</screen>
4489 <anchor id="filter-yahoo">
4490 <screen>+filter{yahoo} # CSS-based block for Yahoo text ads. Also removes a width limitation.</screen>
4493 <anchor id="filter-msn">
4494 <screen>+filter{msn} # CSS-based block for MSN text ads. Also removes tracking URLs and a width limitation.</screen>
4497 <anchor id="filter-blogspot">
4498 <screen>+filter{blogspot} # Cleans up some Blogspot blogs. Read the fine print before using this.</screen>
4506 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4507 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="force-text-mode">
4508 <title>force-text-mode</title>
4514 <term>Typical use:</term>
4516 <para>Force <application>Privoxy</application> to treat a document as if it was in some kind of <emphasis>text</emphasis> format. </para>
4521 <term>Effect:</term>
4524 Declares a document as text, even if the <quote>Content-Type:</quote> isn't detected as such.
4531 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4533 <para>Boolean.</para>
4538 <term>Parameter:</term>
4550 As explained <literal><link linkend="filter">above</link></literal>,
4551 <application>Privoxy</application> tries to only filter files that are
4552 in some kind of text format. The same restrictions apply to
4553 <literal><link linkend="content-type-overwrite">content-type-overwrite</link></literal>.
4554 <literal>force-text-mode</literal> declares a document as text,
4555 without looking at the <quote>Content-Type:</quote> first.
4559 Think twice before activating this action. Filtering binary data
4560 with regular expressions can cause file damage.
4567 <term>Example usage:</term>
4580 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4581 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="forward-override">
4582 <title>forward-override</title>
4588 <term>Typical use:</term>
4590 <para>Change the forwarding settings based on User-Agent or request origin</para>
4595 <term>Effect:</term>
4598 Overrules the forward directives in the configuration file.
4605 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4607 <para>Multi-value.</para>
4612 <term>Parameter:</term>
4616 <para><quote>forward .</quote> to use a direct connection without any additional proxies.</para>
4620 <quote>forward 127.0.0.1:8123</quote> to use the HTTP proxy listening at 127.0.0.1 port 8123.
4625 <quote>forward-socks4a 127.0.0.1:9050 .</quote> to use the socks4a proxy listening at
4626 127.0.0.1 port 9050. Replace <quote>forward-socks4a</quote> with <quote>forward-socks4</quote>
4627 to use a socks4 connection (with local DNS resolution) instead, use <quote>forward-socks5</quote>
4628 for socks5 connections (with remote DNS resolution).
4633 <quote>forward-socks4a 127.0.0.1:9050 proxy.example.org:8000</quote> to use the socks4a proxy
4634 listening at 127.0.0.1 port 9050 to reach the HTTP proxy listening at proxy.example.org port 8000.
4635 Replace <quote>forward-socks4a</quote> with <quote>forward-socks4</quote> to use a socks4 connection
4636 (with local DNS resolution) instead, use <quote>forward-socks5</quote>
4637 for socks5 connections (with remote DNS resolution).
4648 This action takes parameters similar to the
4649 <link linkend="forwarding">forward</link> directives in the configuration
4650 file, but without the URL pattern. It can be used as replacement, but normally it's only
4651 used in cases where matching based on the request URL isn't sufficient.
4655 Please read the description for the <link linkend="forwarding">forward</link> directives before
4656 using this action. Forwarding to the wrong people will reduce your privacy and increase the
4657 chances of man-in-the-middle attacks.
4660 If the ports are missing or invalid, default values will be used. This might change
4661 in the future and you shouldn't rely on it. Otherwise incorrect syntax causes Privoxy
4665 Use the <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">show-url-info CGI page</ulink>
4666 to verify that your forward settings do what you thought the do.
4673 <term>Example usage:</term>
4677 # Always use direct connections for requests previously tagged as
4678 # <quote>User-Agent: fetch libfetch/2.0</quote> and make sure
4679 # resuming downloads continues to work.
4680 # This way you can continue to use Tor for your normal browsing,
4681 # without overloading the Tor network with your FreeBSD ports updates
4682 # or downloads of bigger files like ISOs.
4683 # Note that HTTP headers are easy to fake and therefore their
4684 # values are as (un)trustworthy as your clients and users.
4685 {+forward-override{forward .} \
4686 -hide-if-modified-since \
4687 -overwrite-last-modified \
4689 TAG:^User-Agent: fetch libfetch/2\.0$
4698 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4699 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="handle-as-empty-document">
4700 <title>handle-as-empty-document</title>
4706 <term>Typical use:</term>
4708 <para>Mark URLs that should be replaced by empty documents <emphasis>if they get blocked</emphasis></para>
4713 <term>Effect:</term>
4716 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. It just marks URLs.
4717 If the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action <emphasis>also applies</emphasis>,
4718 the presence or absence of this mark decides whether an HTML <quote>BLOCKED</quote>
4719 page, or an empty document will be sent to the client as a substitute for the blocked content.
4720 The <emphasis>empty</emphasis> document isn't literally empty, but actually contains a single space.
4727 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4729 <para>Boolean.</para>
4734 <term>Parameter:</term>
4746 Some browsers complain about syntax errors if JavaScript documents
4747 are blocked with <application>Privoxy's</application>
4748 default HTML page; this option can be used to silence them.
4749 And of course this action can also be used to eliminate the &my-app;
4750 BLOCKED message in frames.
4753 The content type for the empty document can be specified with
4754 <literal><link linkend="content-type-overwrite">content-type-overwrite{}</link></literal>,
4755 but usually this isn't necessary.
4761 <term>Example usage:</term>
4764 <screen># Block all documents on example.org that end with ".js",
4765 # but send an empty document instead of the usual HTML message.
4766 {+block{Blocked JavaScript} +handle-as-empty-document}
4776 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4777 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="handle-as-image">
4778 <title>handle-as-image</title>
4782 <term>Typical use:</term>
4784 <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>
4789 <term>Effect:</term>
4792 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. It just marks URLs as images.
4793 If the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action <emphasis>also applies</emphasis>,
4794 the presence or absence of this mark decides whether an HTML <quote>blocked</quote>
4795 page, or a replacement image (as determined by the <literal><link
4796 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal> action) will be sent to the
4797 client as a substitute for the blocked content.
4804 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4806 <para>Boolean.</para>
4811 <term>Parameter:</term>
4823 The below generic example section is actually part of <filename>default.action</filename>.
4824 It marks all URLs with well-known image file name extensions as images and should
4828 Users will probably only want to use the handle-as-image action in conjunction with
4829 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>, to block sources of banners, whose URLs don't
4830 reflect the file type, like in the second example section.
4833 Note that you cannot treat HTML pages as images in most cases. For instance, (in-line) ad
4834 frames require an HTML page to be sent, or they won't display properly.
4835 Forcing <literal>handle-as-image</literal> in this situation will not replace the
4836 ad frame with an image, but lead to error messages.
4842 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
4845 <screen># Generic image extensions:
4848 /.*\.(gif|jpg|jpeg|png|bmp|ico)$
4850 # These don't look like images, but they're banners and should be
4851 # blocked as images:
4853 {+block{Nasty banners.} +handle-as-image}
4854 nasty-banner-server.example.com/junk.cgi\?output=trash
4863 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4864 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-accept-language">
4865 <title>hide-accept-language</title>
4871 <term>Typical use:</term>
4873 <para>Pretend to use different language settings.</para>
4878 <term>Effect:</term>
4881 Deletes or replaces the <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> HTTP header in client requests.
4888 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4890 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4895 <term>Parameter:</term>
4898 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
4907 Faking the browser's language settings can be useful to make a
4908 foreign User-Agent set with
4909 <literal><link linkend="hide-user-agent">hide-user-agent</link></literal>
4913 However some sites with content in different languages check the
4914 <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> to decide which one to take by default.
4915 Sometimes it isn't possible to later switch to another language without
4916 changing the <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> header first.
4919 Therefore it's a good idea to either only change the
4920 <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> header to languages you understand,
4921 or to languages that aren't wide spread.
4924 Before setting the <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> header
4925 to a rare language, you should consider that it helps to
4926 make your requests unique and thus easier to trace.
4927 If you don't plan to change this header frequently,
4928 you should stick to a common language.
4934 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
4937 <screen># Pretend to use Canadian language settings.
4938 {+hide-accept-language{en-ca} \
4939 +hide-user-agent{Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; OpenBSD i386; en-CA; rv:1.8.0.4) Gecko/20060628 Firefox/1.5.0.4} \
4949 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4950 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-content-disposition">
4951 <title>hide-content-disposition</title>
4957 <term>Typical use:</term>
4959 <para>Prevent download menus for content you prefer to view inside the browser.</para>
4964 <term>Effect:</term>
4967 Deletes or replaces the <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> HTTP header set by some servers.
4974 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4976 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4981 <term>Parameter:</term>
4984 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
4993 Some servers set the <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> HTTP header for
4994 documents they assume you want to save locally before viewing them.
4995 The <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> header contains the file name
4996 the browser is supposed to use by default.
4999 In most browsers that understand this header, it makes it impossible to
5000 <emphasis>just view</emphasis> the document, without downloading it first,
5001 even if it's just a simple text file or an image.
5004 Removing the <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> header helps
5005 to prevent this annoyance, but some browsers additionally check the
5006 <quote>Content-Type:</quote> header, before they decide if they can
5007 display a document without saving it first. In these cases, you have
5008 to change this header as well, before the browser stops displaying
5012 It is also possible to change the server's file name suggestion
5013 to another one, but in most cases it isn't worth the time to set
5017 This action will probably be removed in the future,
5018 use server-header filters instead.
5024 <term>Example usage:</term>
5027 <screen># Disarm the download link in Sourceforge's patch tracker
5029 +content-type-overwrite{text/plain}\
5030 +hide-content-disposition{block} }
5031 .sourceforge.net/tracker/download\.php</screen>
5039 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5040 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-if-modified-since">
5041 <title>hide-if-modified-since</title>
5047 <term>Typical use:</term>
5049 <para>Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.</para>
5054 <term>Effect:</term>
5057 Deletes the <quote>If-Modified-Since:</quote> HTTP client header or modifies its value.
5064 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5066 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5071 <term>Parameter:</term>
5074 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or a user defined value that specifies a range of hours.
5083 Removing this header is useful for filter testing, where you want to force a real
5084 reload instead of getting status code <quote>304</quote>, which would cause the
5085 browser to use a cached copy of the page.
5088 Instead of removing the header, <literal>hide-if-modified-since</literal> can
5089 also add or subtract a random amount of time to/from the header's value.
5090 You specify a range of minutes where the random factor should be chosen from and
5091 <application>Privoxy</application> does the rest. A negative value means
5092 subtracting, a positive value adding.
5095 Randomizing the value of the <quote>If-Modified-Since:</quote> makes
5096 it less likely that the server can use the time as a cookie replacement,
5097 but you will run into caching problems if the random range is too high.
5100 It is a good idea to only use a small negative value and let
5101 <literal><link linkend="overwrite-last-modified">overwrite-last-modified</link></literal>
5102 handle the greater changes.
5105 It is also recommended to use this action together with
5106 <literal><link linkend="crunch-if-none-match">crunch-if-none-match</link></literal>,
5107 otherwise it's more or less pointless.
5113 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
5116 <screen># Let the browser revalidate but make tracking based on the time less likely.
5117 {+hide-if-modified-since{-60} \
5118 +overwrite-last-modified{randomize} \
5119 +crunch-if-none-match}
5128 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5129 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-from-header">
5130 <title>hide-from-header</title>
5134 <term>Typical use:</term>
5136 <para>Keep your (old and ill) browser from telling web servers your email address</para>
5141 <term>Effect:</term>
5144 Deletes any existing <quote>From:</quote> HTTP header, or replaces it with the
5152 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5154 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5159 <term>Parameter:</term>
5162 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
5171 The keyword <quote>block</quote> will completely remove the header
5172 (not to be confused with the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>
5176 Alternately, you can specify any value you prefer to be sent to the web
5177 server. If you do, it is a matter of fairness not to use any address that
5178 is actually used by a real person.
5181 This action is rarely needed, as modern web browsers don't send
5182 <quote>From:</quote> headers anymore.
5188 <term>Example usage:</term>
5191 <screen>+hide-from-header{block}</screen> or
5192 <screen>+hide-from-header{spam-me-senseless@sittingduck.example.com}</screen>
5200 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5201 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-referrer">
5202 <title>hide-referrer</title>
5203 <anchor id="hide-referer">
5206 <term>Typical use:</term>
5208 <para>Conceal which link you followed to get to a particular site</para>
5213 <term>Effect:</term>
5216 Deletes the <quote>Referer:</quote> (sic) HTTP header from the client request,
5217 or replaces it with a forged one.
5224 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5226 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5231 <term>Parameter:</term>
5235 <para><quote>conditional-block</quote> to delete the header completely if the host has changed.</para>
5238 <para><quote>conditional-forge</quote> to forge the header if the host has changed.</para>
5241 <para><quote>block</quote> to delete the header unconditionally.</para>
5244 <para><quote>forge</quote> to pretend to be coming from the homepage of the server we are talking to.</para>
5247 <para>Any other string to set a user defined referrer.</para>
5257 <literal>conditional-block</literal> is the only parameter,
5258 that isn't easily detected in the server's log file. If it blocks the
5259 referrer, the request will look like the visitor used a bookmark or
5260 typed in the address directly.
5263 Leaving the referrer unmodified for requests on the same host
5264 allows the server owner to see the visitor's <quote>click path</quote>,
5265 but in most cases she could also get that information by comparing
5266 other parts of the log file: for example the User-Agent if it isn't
5267 a very common one, or the user's IP address if it doesn't change between
5271 Always blocking the referrer, or using a custom one, can lead to
5272 failures on servers that check the referrer before they answer any
5273 requests, in an attempt to prevent their content from being
5274 embedded or linked to elsewhere.
5277 Both <literal>conditional-block</literal> and <literal>forge</literal>
5278 will work with referrer checks, as long as content and valid referring page
5279 are on the same host. Most of the time that's the case.
5282 <literal>hide-referer</literal> is an alternate spelling of
5283 <literal>hide-referrer</literal> and the two can be can be freely
5284 substituted with each other. (<quote>referrer</quote> is the
5285 correct English spelling, however the HTTP specification has a bug - it
5286 requires it to be spelled as <quote>referer</quote>.)
5292 <term>Example usage:</term>
5295 <screen>+hide-referrer{forge}</screen> or
5296 <screen>+hide-referrer{http://www.yahoo.com/}</screen>
5304 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5305 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-user-agent">
5306 <title>hide-user-agent</title>
5310 <term>Typical use:</term>
5312 <para>Try to conceal your type of browser and client operating system</para>
5317 <term>Effect:</term>
5320 Replaces the value of the <quote>User-Agent:</quote> HTTP header
5321 in client requests with the specified value.
5328 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5330 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5335 <term>Parameter:</term>
5338 Any user-defined string.
5348 This can lead to problems on web sites that depend on looking at this header in
5349 order to customize their content for different browsers (which, by the
5350 way, is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> the right thing to do: good web sites
5351 work browser-independently).
5355 Using this action in multi-user setups or wherever different types of
5356 browsers will access the same <application>Privoxy</application> is
5357 <emphasis>not recommended</emphasis>. In single-user, single-browser
5358 setups, you might use it to delete your OS version information from
5359 the headers, because it is an invitation to exploit known bugs for your
5360 OS. It is also occasionally useful to forge this in order to access
5361 sites that won't let you in otherwise (though there may be a good
5362 reason in some cases). Example of this: some MSN sites will not
5363 let <application>Mozilla</application> enter, yet forging to a
5364 <application>Netscape 6.1</application> user-agent works just fine.
5365 (Must be just a silly MS goof, I'm sure :-).
5368 More information on known user-agent strings can be found at
5369 <ulink url="http://www.user-agents.org/">http://www.user-agents.org/</ulink>
5371 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_agent">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_agent</ulink>.
5377 <term>Example usage:</term>
5380 <screen>+hide-user-agent{Netscape 6.1 (X11; I; Linux 2.4.18 i686)}</screen>
5388 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5389 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="limit-connect">
5390 <title>limit-connect</title>
5394 <term>Typical use:</term>
5396 <para>Prevent abuse of <application>Privoxy</application> as a TCP proxy relay or disable SSL for untrusted sites</para>
5401 <term>Effect:</term>
5404 Specifies to which ports HTTP CONNECT requests are allowable.
5411 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5413 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5418 <term>Parameter:</term>
5421 A comma-separated list of ports or port ranges (the latter using dashes, with the minimum
5422 defaulting to 0 and the maximum to 65K).
5431 By default, i.e. if no <literal>limit-connect</literal> action applies,
5432 <application>Privoxy</application> allows HTTP CONNECT requests to all
5433 ports. Use <literal>limit-connect</literal> if fine-grained control
5434 is desired for some or all destinations.
5437 The CONNECT methods exists in HTTP to allow access to secure websites
5438 (<quote>https://</quote> URLs) through proxies. It works very simply:
5439 the proxy connects to the server on the specified port, and then
5440 short-circuits its connections to the client and to the remote server.
5441 This means CONNECT-enabled proxies can be used as TCP relays very easily.
5444 <application>Privoxy</application> relays HTTPS traffic without seeing
5445 the decoded content. Websites can leverage this limitation to circumvent &my-app;'s
5446 filters. By specifying an invalid port range you can disable HTTPS entirely.
5452 <term>Example usages:</term>
5454 <!-- I had trouble getting the spacing to look right in my browser -->
5455 <!-- I probably have the wrong font setup, bollocks. -->
5456 <!-- Apparently the emphasis tag uses a proportional font no matter what -->
5458 <screen>+limit-connect{443} # Port 443 is OK.
5459 +limit-connect{80,443} # Ports 80 and 443 are OK.
5460 +limit-connect{-3, 7, 20-100, 500-} # Ports less than 3, 7, 20 to 100 and above 500 are OK.
5461 +limit-connect{-} # All ports are OK
5462 +limit-connect{,} # No HTTPS/SSL traffic is allowed</screen>
5469 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5470 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="prevent-compression">
5471 <title>prevent-compression</title>
5475 <term>Typical use:</term>
5478 Ensure that servers send the content uncompressed, so it can be
5479 passed through <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>s.
5485 <term>Effect:</term>
5488 Removes the Accept-Encoding header which can be used to ask for compressed transfer.
5495 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5497 <para>Boolean.</para>
5502 <term>Parameter:</term>
5514 More and more websites send their content compressed by default, which
5515 is generally a good idea and saves bandwidth. But the <literal><link
5516 linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> and
5517 <literal><link linkend="deanimate-gifs">deanimate-gifs</link></literal>
5518 actions need access to the uncompressed data.
5521 When compiled with zlib support (available since &my-app; 3.0.7), content that should be
5522 filtered is decompressed on-the-fly and you don't have to worry about this action.
5523 If you are using an older &my-app; version, or one that hasn't been compiled with zlib
5524 support, this action can be used to convince the server to send the content uncompressed.
5527 Most text-based instances compress very well, the size is seldom decreased by less than 50%,
5528 for markup-heavy instances like news feeds saving more than 90% of the original size isn't
5532 Not using compression will therefore slow down the transfer, and you should only
5533 enable this action if you really need it. As of &my-app; 3.0.7 it's disabled in all
5534 predefined action settings.
5537 Note that some (rare) ill-configured sites don't handle requests for uncompressed
5538 documents correctly. Broken PHP applications tend to send an empty document body,
5539 some IIS versions only send the beginning of the content. If you enable
5540 <literal>prevent-compression</literal> per default, you might want to add
5541 exceptions for those sites. See the example for how to do that.
5547 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
5551 # Selectively turn off compression, and enable a filter
5553 { +filter{tiny-textforms} +prevent-compression }
5554 # Match only these sites
5559 # Or instead, we could set a universal default:
5561 { +prevent-compression }
5564 # Then maybe make exceptions for broken sites:
5566 { -prevent-compression }
5567 .compusa.com/</screen>
5576 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5577 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="overwrite-last-modified">
5578 <title>overwrite-last-modified</title>
5584 <term>Typical use:</term>
5586 <para>Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.</para>
5591 <term>Effect:</term>
5594 Deletes the <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> HTTP server header or modifies its value.
5601 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5603 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5608 <term>Parameter:</term>
5611 One of the keywords: <quote>block</quote>, <quote>reset-to-request-time</quote>
5612 and <quote>randomize</quote>
5621 Removing the <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header is useful for filter
5622 testing, where you want to force a real reload instead of getting status
5623 code <quote>304</quote>, which would cause the browser to reuse the old
5624 version of the page.
5627 The <quote>randomize</quote> option overwrites the value of the
5628 <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header with a randomly chosen time
5629 between the original value and the current time. In theory the server
5630 could send each document with a different <quote>Last-Modified:</quote>
5631 header to track visits without using cookies. <quote>Randomize</quote>
5632 makes it impossible and the browser can still revalidate cached documents.
5635 <quote>reset-to-request-time</quote> overwrites the value of the
5636 <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header with the current time. You could use
5637 this option together with
5638 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hide-if-modified-since</link></literal>
5639 to further customize your random range.
5642 The preferred parameter here is <quote>randomize</quote>. It is safe
5643 to use, as long as the time settings are more or less correct.
5644 If the server sets the <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header to the time
5645 of the request, the random range becomes zero and the value stays the same.
5646 Therefore you should later randomize it a second time with
5647 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hided-if-modified-since</link></literal>,
5651 It is also recommended to use this action together with
5652 <literal><link linkend="crunch-if-none-match">crunch-if-none-match</link></literal>.
5658 <term>Example usage:</term>
5661 <screen># Let the browser revalidate without being tracked across sessions
5662 { +hide-if-modified-since{-60} \
5663 +overwrite-last-modified{randomize} \
5664 +crunch-if-none-match}
5673 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5674 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="redirect">
5675 <title>redirect</title>
5681 <term>Typical use:</term>
5684 Redirect requests to other sites.
5690 <term>Effect:</term>
5693 Convinces the browser that the requested document has been moved
5694 to another location and the browser should get it from there.
5701 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5703 <para>Parameterized</para>
5708 <term>Parameter:</term>
5711 An absolute URL or a single pcrs command.
5720 Requests to which this action applies are answered with a
5721 HTTP redirect to URLs of your choosing. The new URL is
5722 either provided as parameter, or derived by applying a
5723 single pcrs command to the original URL.
5726 This action will be ignored if you use it together with
5727 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>.
5728 It can be combined with
5729 <literal><link linkend="fast-redirects">fast-redirects{check-decoded-url}</link></literal>
5730 to redirect to a decoded version of a rewritten URL.
5733 Use this action carefully, make sure not to create redirection loops
5734 and be aware that using your own redirects might make it
5735 possible to fingerprint your requests.
5738 In case of problems with your redirects, or simply to watch
5739 them working, enable <link linkend="DEBUG">debug 128</link>.
5745 <term>Example usages:</term>
5748 <screen># Replace example.com's style sheet with another one
5749 { +redirect{http://localhost/css-replacements/example.com.css} }
5750 example.com/stylesheet\.css
5752 # Create a short, easy to remember nickname for a favorite site
5753 # (relies on the browser accept and forward invalid URLs to &my-app;)
5754 { +redirect{http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/actions-file.html} }
5757 # Always use the expanded view for Undeadly.org articles
5758 # (Note the $ at the end of the URL pattern to make sure
5759 # the request for the rewritten URL isn't redirected as well)
5760 {+redirect{s@$@&mode=expanded@}}
5761 undeadly.org/cgi\?action=article&sid=\d*$
5763 # Redirect Google search requests to MSN
5764 {+redirect{s@^http://[^/]*/search\?q=([^&]*).*@http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=$1@}}
5767 # Redirect MSN search requests to Yahoo
5768 {+redirect{s@^http://[^/]*/results\.aspx\?q=([^&]*).*@http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=$1@}}
5769 search.msn.com//results\.aspx\?q=
5771 # Redirect remote requests for this manual
5772 # to the local version delivered by Privoxy
5773 {+redirect{s@^http://www@http://config@}}
5774 www.privoxy.org/user-manual/</screen>
5783 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5784 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="server-header-filter">
5785 <title>server-header-filter</title>
5789 <term>Typical use:</term>
5792 Rewrite or remove single server headers.
5798 <term>Effect:</term>
5801 All server headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly
5802 through the specified regular expression based substitutions.
5809 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
5811 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5816 <term>Parameter:</term>
5819 The name of a server-header filter, as defined in one of the
5820 <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link>.
5829 Server-header filters are applied to each header on its own, not to
5830 all at once. This makes it easier to diagnose problems, but on the downside
5831 you can't write filters that only change header x if header y's value is z.
5832 You can do that by using tags though.
5835 Server-header filters are executed after the other header actions have finished
5836 and use their output as input.
5839 Please refer to the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file chapter</link>
5840 to learn which server-header filters are available by default, and how to
5847 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
5851 {+server-header-filter{html-to-xml}}
5852 example.org/xml-instance-that-is-delivered-as-html
5854 {+server-header-filter{xml-to-html}}
5855 example.org/instance-that-is-delivered-as-xml-but-is-not
5865 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5866 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="server-header-tagger">
5867 <title>server-header-tagger</title>
5871 <term>Typical use:</term>
5874 Enable or disable filters based on the Content-Type header.
5880 <term>Effect:</term>
5883 Server headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly through
5884 the specified regular expression based substitutions, the result is used as
5892 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
5894 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5899 <term>Parameter:</term>
5902 The name of a server-header tagger, as defined in one of the
5903 <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link>.
5912 Server-header taggers are applied to each header on its own,
5913 and as the header isn't modified, each tagger <quote>sees</quote>
5917 Server-header taggers are executed before all other header actions
5918 that modify server headers. Their tags can be used to control
5919 all of the other server-header actions, the content filters
5920 and the crunch actions (<link linkend="redirect">redirect</link>
5921 and <link linkend="block">block</link>).
5924 Obviously crunching based on tags created by server-header taggers
5925 doesn't prevent the request from showing up in the server's log file.
5932 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
5936 # Tag every request with the content type declared by the server
5937 {+server-header-tagger{content-type}}
5948 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5949 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="session-cookies-only">
5950 <title>session-cookies-only</title>
5954 <term>Typical use:</term>
5957 Allow only temporary <quote>session</quote> cookies (for the current
5958 browser session <emphasis>only</emphasis>).
5964 <term>Effect:</term>
5967 Deletes the <quote>expires</quote> field from <quote>Set-Cookie:</quote>
5968 server headers. Most browsers will not store such cookies permanently and
5969 forget them in between sessions.
5976 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5978 <para>Boolean.</para>
5983 <term>Parameter:</term>
5995 This is less strict than <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal> /
5996 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal> and allows you to browse
5997 websites that insist or rely on setting cookies, without compromising your privacy too badly.
6000 Most browsers will not permanently store cookies that have been processed by
6001 <literal>session-cookies-only</literal> and will forget about them between sessions.
6002 This makes profiling cookies useless, but won't break sites which require cookies so
6003 that you can log in for transactions. This is generally turned on for all
6004 sites, and is the recommended setting.
6007 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use <literal>session-cookies-only</literal>
6008 together with <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal> or
6009 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>. If you do, cookies
6010 will be plainly killed.
6013 Note that it is up to the browser how it handles such cookies without an <quote>expires</quote>
6014 field. If you use an exotic browser, you might want to try it out to be sure.
6017 This setting also has no effect on cookies that may have been stored
6018 previously by the browser before starting <application>Privoxy</application>.
6019 These would have to be removed manually.
6022 <application>Privoxy</application> also uses
6023 the <link linkend="filter-content-cookies">content-cookies filter</link>
6024 to block some types of cookies. Content cookies are not effected by
6025 <literal>session-cookies-only</literal>.
6031 <term>Example usage:</term>
6034 <screen>+session-cookies-only</screen>
6042 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6043 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="set-image-blocker">
6044 <title>set-image-blocker</title>
6048 <term>Typical use:</term>
6050 <para>Choose the replacement for blocked images</para>
6055 <term>Effect:</term>
6058 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. If <emphasis>both</emphasis>
6059 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> <emphasis>and</emphasis> <literal><link
6060 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> <emphasis>also</emphasis>
6061 apply, i.e. if the request is to be blocked as an image,
6062 <emphasis>then</emphasis> the parameter of this action decides what will be
6063 sent as a replacement.
6070 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
6072 <para>Parameterized.</para>
6077 <term>Parameter:</term>
6082 <quote>pattern</quote> to send a built-in checkerboard pattern image. The image is visually
6083 decent, scales very well, and makes it obvious where banners were busted.
6088 <quote>blank</quote> to send a built-in transparent image. This makes banners disappear
6089 completely, but makes it hard to detect where <application>Privoxy</application> has blocked
6090 images on a given page and complicates troubleshooting if <application>Privoxy</application>
6091 has blocked innocent images, like navigation icons.
6096 <quote><replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable></quote> to
6097 send a redirect to <replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable>. You can redirect
6098 to any image anywhere, even in your local filesystem via <quote>file:///</quote> URL.
6099 (But note that not all browsers support redirecting to a local file system).
6102 A good application of redirects is to use special <application>Privoxy</application>-built-in
6103 URLs, which send the built-in images, as <replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable>.
6104 This has the same visual effect as specifying <quote>blank</quote> or <quote>pattern</quote> in
6105 the first place, but enables your browser to cache the replacement image, instead of requesting
6106 it over and over again.
6117 The URLs for the built-in images are <quote>http://config.privoxy.org/send-banner?type=<replaceable
6118 class="parameter">type</replaceable></quote>, where <replaceable class="parameter">type</replaceable> is
6119 either <quote>blank</quote> or <quote>pattern</quote>.
6122 There is a third (advanced) type, called <quote>auto</quote>. It is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> to be
6123 used in <literal>set-image-blocker</literal>, but meant for use from <link linkend="filter-file">filters</link>.
6124 Auto will select the type of image that would have applied to the referring page, had it been an image.
6130 <term>Example usage:</term>
6136 <screen>+set-image-blocker{pattern}</screen>
6139 Redirect to the BSD daemon:
6142 <screen>+set-image-blocker{http://www.freebsd.org/gifs/dae_up3.gif}</screen>
6145 Redirect to the built-in pattern for better caching:
6148 <screen>+set-image-blocker{http://config.privoxy.org/send-banner?type=pattern}</screen>
6156 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6158 <title>Summary</title>
6160 Note that many of these actions have the potential to cause a page to
6161 misbehave, possibly even not to display at all. There are many ways
6162 a site designer may choose to design his site, and what HTTP header
6163 content, and other criteria, he may depend on. There is no way to have hard
6164 and fast rules for all sites. See the <link
6165 linkend="ACTIONSANAT">Appendix</link> for a brief example on troubleshooting
6171 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6172 <sect2 id="aliases">
6173 <title>Aliases</title>
6175 Custom <quote>actions</quote>, known to <application>Privoxy</application>
6176 as <quote>aliases</quote>, can be defined by combining other actions.
6177 These can in turn be invoked just like the built-in actions.
6178 Currently, an alias name can contain any character except space, tab,
6180 <quote>{</quote> and <quote>}</quote>, but we <emphasis>strongly
6181 recommend</emphasis> that you only use <quote>a</quote> to <quote>z</quote>,
6182 <quote>0</quote> to <quote>9</quote>, <quote>+</quote>, and <quote>-</quote>.
6183 Alias names are not case sensitive, and are not required to start with a
6184 <quote>+</quote> or <quote>-</quote> sign, since they are merely textually
6188 Aliases can be used throughout the actions file, but they <emphasis>must be
6189 defined in a special section at the top of the file!</emphasis>
6190 And there can only be one such section per actions file. Each actions file may
6191 have its own alias section, and the aliases defined in it are only visible
6195 There are two main reasons to use aliases: One is to save typing for frequently
6196 used combinations of actions, the other one is a gain in flexibility: If you
6197 decide once how you want to handle shops by defining an alias called
6198 <quote>shop</quote>, you can later change your policy on shops in
6199 <emphasis>one</emphasis> place, and your changes will take effect everywhere
6200 in the actions file where the <quote>shop</quote> alias is used. Calling aliases
6201 by their purpose also makes your actions files more readable.
6204 Currently, there is one big drawback to using aliases, though:
6205 <application>Privoxy</application>'s built-in web-based action file
6206 editor honors aliases when reading the actions files, but it expands
6207 them before writing. So the effects of your aliases are of course preserved,
6208 but the aliases themselves are lost when you edit sections that use aliases
6213 Now let's define some aliases...
6218 # Useful custom aliases we can use later.
6220 # Note the (required!) section header line and that this section
6221 # must be at the top of the actions file!
6225 # These aliases just save typing later:
6226 # (Note that some already use other aliases!)
6228 +crunch-all-cookies = +<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> +<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
6229 -crunch-all-cookies = -<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> -<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
6230 +block-as-image = +block{Blocked image.} +handle-as-image
6231 allow-all-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> -<link linkend="FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</link>
6233 # These aliases define combinations of actions
6234 # that are useful for certain types of sites:
6236 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>
6238 shop = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{all-popups}</link>
6240 # Short names for other aliases, for really lazy people ;-)
6242 c0 = +crunch-all-cookies
6243 c1 = -crunch-all-cookies</screen>
6247 ...and put them to use. These sections would appear in the lower part of an
6248 actions file and define exceptions to the default actions (as specified further
6249 up for the <quote>/</quote> pattern):
6254 # These sites are either very complex or very keen on
6255 # user data and require minimal interference to work:
6258 .office.microsoft.com
6259 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com
6260 # Gmail is really mail.google.com, not gmail.com
6264 # Allow cookies (for setting and retrieving your customer data)
6268 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
6271 # These shops require pop-ups:
6273 {-filter{all-popups} -filter{unsolicited-popups}}
6275 .overclockers.co.uk</screen>
6279 Aliases like <quote>shop</quote> and <quote>fragile</quote> are typically used for
6280 <quote>problem</quote> sites that require more than one action to be disabled
6281 in order to function properly.
6287 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6288 <sect2 id="act-examples">
6289 <title>Actions Files Tutorial</title>
6291 The above chapters have shown <link linkend="actions-file">which actions files
6292 there are and how they are organized</link>, how actions are <link
6293 linkend="actions">specified</link> and <link linkend="actions-apply">applied
6294 to URLs</link>, how <link linkend="af-patterns">patterns</link> work, and how to
6295 define and use <link linkend="aliases">aliases</link>. Now, let's look at an
6296 example <filename>match-all.action</filename>, <filename>default.action</filename>
6297 and <filename>user.action</filename> file and see how all these pieces come together:
6301 <title>match-all.action</title>
6303 Remember <emphasis>all actions are disabled when matching starts</emphasis>,
6304 so we have to explicitly enable the ones we want.
6308 While the <filename>match-all.action</filename> file only contains a
6309 single section, it is probably the most important one. It has only one
6310 pattern, <quote><literal>/</literal></quote>, but this pattern
6311 <link linkend="af-patterns">matches all URLs</link>. Therefore, the set of
6312 actions used in this <quote>default</quote> section <emphasis>will
6313 be applied to all requests as a start</emphasis>. It can be partly or
6314 wholly overridden by other actions files like <filename>default.action</filename>
6315 and <filename>user.action</filename>, but it will still be largely responsible
6316 for your overall browsing experience.
6320 Again, at the start of matching, all actions are disabled, so there is
6321 no need to disable any actions here. (Remember: a <quote>+</quote>
6322 preceding the action name enables the action, a <quote>-</quote> disables!).
6323 Also note how this long line has been made more readable by splitting it into
6324 multiple lines with line continuation.
6330 +<link linkend="CHANGE-X-FORWARDED-FOR">change-x-forwarded-for{block}</link> \
6331 +<link linkend="HIDE-FROM-HEADER">hide-from-header{block}</link> \
6332 +<link linkend="SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER">set-image-blocker{pattern}</link> \
6339 The default behavior is now set.
6344 <title>default.action</title>
6347 If you aren't a developer, there's no need for you to edit the
6348 <filename>default.action</filename> file. It is maintained by
6349 the &my-app; developers and if you disagree with some of the
6350 sections, you should overrule them in your <filename>user.action</filename>.
6354 Understanding the <filename>default.action</filename> file can
6355 help you with your <filename>user.action</filename>, though.
6359 The first section in this file is a special section for internal use
6360 that prevents older &my-app; versions from reading the file:
6365 ##########################################################################
6366 # Settings -- Don't change! For internal Privoxy use ONLY.
6367 ##########################################################################
6369 for-privoxy-version=3.0.11</screen>
6373 After that comes the (optional) alias section. We'll use the example
6374 section from the above <link linkend="aliases">chapter on aliases</link>,
6375 that also explains why and how aliases are used:
6380 ##########################################################################
6382 ##########################################################################
6385 # These aliases just save typing later:
6386 # (Note that some already use other aliases!)
6388 +crunch-all-cookies = +<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> +<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
6389 -crunch-all-cookies = -<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> -<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
6390 +block-as-image = +block{Blocked image.} +handle-as-image
6391 mercy-for-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> -<link linkend="FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</link>
6393 # These aliases define combinations of actions
6394 # that are useful for certain types of sites:
6396 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>
6397 shop = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{all-popups}</link></screen>
6401 The first of our specialized sections is concerned with <quote>fragile</quote>
6402 sites, i.e. sites that require minimum interference, because they are either
6403 very complex or very keen on tracking you (and have mechanisms in place that
6404 make them unusable for people who avoid being tracked). We will simply use
6405 our pre-defined <literal>fragile</literal> alias instead of stating the list
6406 of actions explicitly:
6411 ##########################################################################
6412 # Exceptions for sites that'll break under the default action set:
6413 ##########################################################################
6415 # "Fragile" Use a minimum set of actions for these sites (see alias above):
6418 .office.microsoft.com # surprise, surprise!
6419 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com
6420 mail.google.com</screen>
6424 Shopping sites are not as fragile, but they typically
6425 require cookies to log in, and pop-up windows for shopping
6426 carts or item details. Again, we'll use a pre-defined alias:
6435 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
6437 .scan.co.uk</screen>
6441 The <literal><link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link></literal>
6442 action, which may have been enabled in <filename>match-all.action</filename>,
6443 breaks some sites. So disable it for popular sites where we know it misbehaves:
6448 { -<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link> }
6452 .altavista.com/.*(like|url|link):http
6453 .altavista.com/trans.*urltext=http
6454 .nytimes.com</screen>
6458 It is important that <application>Privoxy</application> knows which
6459 URLs belong to images, so that <emphasis>if</emphasis> they are to
6460 be blocked, a substitute image can be sent, rather than an HTML page.
6461 Contacting the remote site to find out is not an option, since it
6462 would destroy the loading time advantage of banner blocking, and it
6463 would feed the advertisers information about you. We can mark any
6464 URL as an image with the <literal><link
6465 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> action,
6466 and marking all URLs that end in a known image file extension is a
6472 ##########################################################################
6474 ##########################################################################
6476 # Define which file types will be treated as images, in case they get
6477 # blocked further down this file:
6479 { +<link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">handle-as-image</link> }
6480 /.*\.(gif|jpe?g|png|bmp|ico)$</screen>
6484 And then there are known banner sources. They often use scripts to
6485 generate the banners, so it won't be visible from the URL that the
6486 request is for an image. Hence we block them <emphasis>and</emphasis>
6487 mark them as images in one go, with the help of our
6488 <literal>+block-as-image</literal> alias defined above. (We could of
6489 course just as well use <literal>+<link linkend="block">block</link>
6490 +<link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> here.)
6491 Remember that the type of the replacement image is chosen by the
6492 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>
6493 action. Since all URLs have matched the default section with its
6494 <literal>+<link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link>{pattern}</literal>
6495 action before, it still applies and needn't be repeated:
6500 # Known ad generators:
6505 .ad.*.doubleclick.net
6506 .a.yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$
6507 .a[0-9].yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$
6513 One of the most important jobs of <application>Privoxy</application>
6514 is to block banners. Many of these can be <quote>blocked</quote>
6515 by the <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link>{banners-by-size}</literal>
6516 action, which we enabled above, and which deletes the references to banner
6517 images from the pages while they are loaded, so the browser doesn't request
6518 them anymore, and hence they don't need to be blocked here. But this naturally
6519 doesn't catch all banners, and some people choose not to use filters, so we
6520 need a comprehensive list of patterns for banner URLs here, and apply the
6521 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action to them.
6524 First comes many generic patterns, which do most of the work, by
6525 matching typical domain and path name components of banners. Then comes
6526 a list of individual patterns for specific sites, which is omitted here
6527 to keep the example short:
6532 ##########################################################################
6533 # Block these fine banners:
6534 ##########################################################################
6535 { <link linkend="BLOCK">+block{Banner ads.}</link> }
6543 /.*count(er)?\.(pl|cgi|exe|dll|asp|php[34]?)
6544 /(?:.*/)?(publicite|werbung|rekla(ma|me|am)|annonse|maino(kset|nta|s)?)/
6546 # Site-specific patterns (abbreviated):
6548 .hitbox.com</screen>
6552 It's quite remarkable how many advertisers actually call their banner
6553 servers ads.<replaceable>company</replaceable>.com, or call the directory
6554 in which the banners are stored simply <quote>banners</quote>. So the above
6555 generic patterns are surprisingly effective.
6558 But being very generic, they necessarily also catch URLs that we don't want
6559 to block. The pattern <literal>.*ads.</literal> e.g. catches
6560 <quote>nasty-<emphasis>ads</emphasis>.nasty-corp.com</quote> as intended,
6561 but also <quote>downlo<emphasis>ads</emphasis>.sourcefroge.net</quote> or
6562 <quote><emphasis>ads</emphasis>l.some-provider.net.</quote> So here come some
6563 well-known exceptions to the <literal>+<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal>
6567 Note that these are exceptions to exceptions from the default! Consider the URL
6568 <quote>downloads.sourcefroge.net</quote>: Initially, all actions are deactivated,
6569 so it wouldn't get blocked. Then comes the defaults section, which matches the
6570 URL, but just deactivates the <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal>
6571 action once again. Then it matches <literal>.*ads.</literal>, an exception to the
6572 general non-blocking policy, and suddenly
6573 <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">+block</link></literal> applies. And now, it'll match
6574 <literal>.*loads.</literal>, where <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">-block</link></literal>
6575 applies, so (unless it matches <emphasis>again</emphasis> further down) it ends up
6576 with no <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal> action applying.
6581 ##########################################################################
6582 # Save some innocent victims of the above generic block patterns:
6583 ##########################################################################
6587 { -<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> }
6588 adv[io]*. # (for advogato.org and advice.*)
6589 adsl. # (has nothing to do with ads)
6590 adobe. # (has nothing to do with ads either)
6591 ad[ud]*. # (adult.* and add.*)
6592 .edu # (universities don't host banners (yet!))
6593 .*loads. # (downloads, uploads etc)
6601 www.globalintersec.com/adv # (adv = advanced)
6602 www.ugu.com/sui/ugu/adv</screen>
6606 Filtering source code can have nasty side effects,
6607 so make an exception for our friends at sourceforge.net,
6608 and all paths with <quote>cvs</quote> in them. Note that
6609 <literal>-<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link></literal>
6610 disables <emphasis>all</emphasis> filters in one fell swoop!
6615 # Don't filter code!
6617 { -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> }
6622 .sourceforge.net</screen>
6626 The actual <filename>default.action</filename> is of course much more
6627 comprehensive, but we hope this example made clear how it works.
6632 <sect3><title>user.action</title>
6635 So far we are painting with a broad brush by setting general policies,
6636 which would be a reasonable starting point for many people. Now,
6637 you might want to be more specific and have customized rules that
6638 are more suitable to your personal habits and preferences. These would
6639 be for narrowly defined situations like your ISP or your bank, and should
6640 be placed in <filename>user.action</filename>, which is parsed after all other
6641 actions files and hence has the last word, over-riding any previously
6642 defined actions. <filename>user.action</filename> is also a
6643 <emphasis>safe</emphasis> place for your personal settings, since
6644 <filename>default.action</filename> is actively maintained by the
6645 <application>Privoxy</application> developers and you'll probably want
6646 to install updated versions from time to time.
6650 So let's look at a few examples of things that one might typically do in
6651 <filename>user.action</filename>:
6655 <!-- brief sample user.action here -->
6659 # My user.action file. <fred@example.com></screen>
6663 As <link linkend="aliases">aliases</link> are local to the actions
6664 file that they are defined in, you can't use the ones from
6665 <filename>default.action</filename>, unless you repeat them here:
6670 # Aliases are local to the file they are defined in.
6671 # (Re-)define aliases for this file:
6675 # These aliases just save typing later, and the alias names should
6676 # be self explanatory.
6678 +crunch-all-cookies = +crunch-incoming-cookies +crunch-outgoing-cookies
6679 -crunch-all-cookies = -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-cookies
6680 allow-all-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -session-cookies-only
6681 allow-popups = -filter{all-popups}
6682 +block-as-image = +block{Blocked as image.} +handle-as-image
6683 -block-as-image = -block
6685 # These aliases define combinations of actions that are useful for
6686 # certain types of sites:
6688 fragile = -block -crunch-all-cookies -filter -fast-redirects -hide-referrer
6689 shop = -crunch-all-cookies allow-popups
6691 # Allow ads for selected useful free sites:
6693 allow-ads = -block -filter{banners-by-size} -filter{banners-by-link}
6695 # Alias for specific file types that are text, but might have conflicting
6696 # MIME types. We want the browser to force these to be text documents.
6697 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>
6702 Say you have accounts on some sites that you visit regularly, and
6703 you don't want to have to log in manually each time. So you'd like
6704 to allow persistent cookies for these sites. The
6705 <literal>allow-all-cookies</literal> alias defined above does exactly
6706 that, i.e. it disables crunching of cookies in any direction, and the
6707 processing of cookies to make them only temporary.
6712 { allow-all-cookies }
6716 .redhat.com</screen>
6720 Your bank is allergic to some filter, but you don't know which, so you disable them all:
6725 { -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> }
6726 .your-home-banking-site.com</screen>
6730 Some file types you may not want to filter for various reasons:
6735 # Technical documentation is likely to contain strings that might
6736 # erroneously get altered by the JavaScript-oriented filters:
6741 # And this stupid host sends streaming video with a wrong MIME type,
6742 # so that Privoxy thinks it is getting HTML and starts filtering:
6744 stupid-server.example.com/</screen>
6748 Example of a simple <link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> action. Say you've
6749 seen an ad on your favourite page on example.com that you want to get rid of.
6750 You have right-clicked the image, selected <quote>copy image location</quote>
6751 and pasted the URL below while removing the leading http://, into a
6752 <literal>{ +block{} }</literal> section. Note that <literal>{ +handle-as-image
6753 }</literal> need not be specified, since all URLs ending in
6754 <literal>.gif</literal> will be tagged as images by the general rules as set
6755 in default.action anyway:
6760 { +<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link>{Nasty ads.} }
6761 www.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor\.gif
6762 another.example.net/more/junk/here/</screen>
6766 The URLs of dynamically generated banners, especially from large banner
6767 farms, often don't use the well-known image file name extensions, which
6768 makes it impossible for <application>Privoxy</application> to guess
6769 the file type just by looking at the URL.
6770 You can use the <literal>+block-as-image</literal> alias defined above for
6772 Note that objects which match this rule but then turn out NOT to be an
6773 image are typically rendered as a <quote>broken image</quote> icon by the
6774 browser. Use cautiously.
6783 ar.atwola.com/</screen>
6787 Now you noticed that the default configuration breaks Forbes Magazine,
6788 but you were too lazy to find out which action is the culprit, and you
6789 were again too lazy to give <link linkend="contact">feedback</link>, so
6790 you just used the <literal>fragile</literal> alias on the site, and
6791 -- <emphasis>whoa!</emphasis> -- it worked. The <literal>fragile</literal>
6792 aliases disables those actions that are most likely to break a site. Also,
6793 good for testing purposes to see if it is <application>Privoxy</application>
6794 that is causing the problem or not. We later find other regular sites
6795 that misbehave, and add those to our personalized list of troublemakers:
6803 .mybank.com</screen>
6807 You like the <quote>fun</quote> text replacements in <filename>default.filter</filename>,
6808 but it is disabled in the distributed actions file.
6809 So you'd like to turn it on in your private,
6810 update-safe config, once and for all:
6815 { +<link linkend="filter-fun">filter{fun}</link> }
6816 / # For ALL sites!</screen>
6820 Note that the above is not really a good idea: There are exceptions
6821 to the filters in <filename>default.action</filename> for things that
6822 really shouldn't be filtered, like code on CVS->Web interfaces. Since
6823 <filename>user.action</filename> has the last word, these exceptions
6824 won't be valid for the <quote>fun</quote> filtering specified here.
6828 You might also worry about how your favourite free websites are
6829 funded, and find that they rely on displaying banner advertisements
6830 to survive. So you might want to specifically allow banners for those
6831 sites that you feel provide value to you:
6843 Note that <literal>allow-ads</literal> has been aliased to
6844 <literal>-<link linkend="block">block</link></literal>,
6845 <literal>-<link linkend="filter-banners-by-size">filter{banners-by-size}</link></literal>, and
6846 <literal>-<link linkend="filter-banners-by-link">filter{banners-by-link}</link></literal> above.
6850 Invoke another alias here to force an over-ride of the MIME type <literal>
6851 application/x-sh</literal> which typically would open a download type
6852 dialog. In my case, I want to look at the shell script, and then I can save
6853 it should I choose to.
6863 <filename>user.action</filename> is generally the best place to define
6864 exceptions and additions to the default policies of
6865 <filename>default.action</filename>. Some actions are safe to have their
6866 default policies set here though. So let's set a default policy to have a
6867 <quote>blank</quote> image as opposed to the checkerboard pattern for
6868 <emphasis>ALL</emphasis> sites. <quote>/</quote> of course matches all URL
6874 { +<link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker{blank}</link> }
6875 / # ALL sites</screen>
6881 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
6885 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
6887 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
6889 <sect1 id="filter-file">
6890 <title>Filter Files</title>
6893 On-the-fly text substitutions need
6894 to be defined in a <quote>filter file</quote>. Once defined, they
6895 can then be invoked as an <quote>action</quote>.
6899 &my-app; supports three different filter actions:
6900 <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> to
6901 rewrite the content that is send to the client,
6902 <literal><link linkend="client-header-filter">client-header-filter</link></literal>
6903 to rewrite headers that are send by the client, and
6904 <literal><link linkend="server-header-filter">server-header-filter</link></literal>
6905 to rewrite headers that are send by the server.
6909 &my-app; also supports two tagger actions:
6910 <literal><link linkend="client-header-tagger">client-header-tagger</link></literal>
6912 <literal><link linkend="server-header-tagger">server-header-tagger</link></literal>.
6913 Taggers and filters use the same syntax in the filter files, the difference
6914 is that taggers don't modify the text they are filtering, but use a rewritten
6915 version of the filtered text as tag. The tags can then be used to change the
6916 applying actions through sections with <link linkend="tag-pattern">tag-patterns</link>.
6921 Multiple filter files can be defined through the <literal> <link
6922 linkend="filterfile">filterfile</link></literal> config directive. The filters
6923 as supplied by the developers are located in
6924 <filename>default.filter</filename>. It is recommended that any locally
6925 defined or modified filters go in a separately defined file such as
6926 <filename>user.filter</filename>.
6930 Common tasks for content filters are to eliminate common annoyances in
6931 HTML and JavaScript, such as pop-up windows,
6932 exit consoles, crippled windows without navigation tools, the
6933 infamous <BLINK> tag etc, to suppress images with certain
6934 width and height attributes (standard banner sizes or web-bugs),
6935 or just to have fun.
6939 Enabled content filters are applied to any content whose
6940 <quote>Content Type</quote> header is recognised as a sign
6941 of text-based content, with the exception of <literal>text/plain</literal>.
6942 Use the <link linkend="FORCE-TEXT-MODE">force-text-mode</link> action
6943 to also filter other content.
6947 Substitutions are made at the source level, so if you want to <quote>roll
6948 your own</quote> filters, you should first be familiar with HTML syntax,
6949 and, of course, regular expressions.
6953 Just like the <link linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>, the
6954 filter file is organized in sections, which are called <emphasis>filters</emphasis>
6955 here. Each filter consists of a heading line, that starts with one of the
6956 <emphasis>keywords</emphasis> <literal>FILTER:</literal>,
6957 <literal>CLIENT-HEADER-FILTER:</literal> or <literal>SERVER-HEADER-FILTER:</literal>
6958 followed by the filter's <emphasis>name</emphasis>, and a short (one line)
6959 <emphasis>description</emphasis> of what it does. Below that line
6960 come the <emphasis>jobs</emphasis>, i.e. lines that define the actual
6961 text substitutions. By convention, the name of a filter
6962 should describe what the filter <emphasis>eliminates</emphasis>. The
6963 comment is used in the <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">web-based
6964 user interface</ulink>.
6968 Once a filter called <replaceable>name</replaceable> has been defined
6969 in the filter file, it can be invoked by using an action of the form
6970 +<literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link>{<replaceable>name</replaceable>}</literal>
6971 in any <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link>.
6975 Filter definitions start with a header line that contains the filter
6976 type, the filter name and the filter description.
6977 A content filter header line for a filter called <quote>foo</quote> could look
6982 <screen>FILTER: foo Replace all "foo" with "bar"</screen>
6986 Below that line, and up to the next header line, come the jobs that
6987 define what text replacements the filter executes. They are specified
6988 in a syntax that imitates <ulink url="http://www.perl.org/">Perl</ulink>'s
6989 <literal>s///</literal> operator. If you are familiar with Perl, you
6990 will find this to be quite intuitive, and may want to look at the
6991 PCRS documentation for the subtle differences to Perl behaviour. Most
6992 notably, the non-standard option letter <literal>U</literal> is supported,
6993 which turns the default to ungreedy matching.
6998 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
6999 Expressions</quote></ulink>, you might want to take a look at
7000 the <link linkend="regex">Appendix on regular expressions</link>, and
7001 see the <ulink url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html">Perl
7003 <ulink url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlop.html">the
7004 <literal>s///</literal> operator's syntax</ulink> and <ulink
7005 url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html">Perl-style regular
7006 expressions</ulink> in general.
7007 The below examples might also help to get you started.
7011 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
7013 <sect2><title>Filter File Tutorial</title>
7015 Now, let's complete our <quote>foo</quote> content filter. We have already defined
7016 the heading, but the jobs are still missing. Since all it does is to replace
7017 <quote>foo</quote> with <quote>bar</quote>, there is only one (trivial) job
7022 <screen>s/foo/bar/</screen>
7026 But wait! Didn't the comment say that <emphasis>all</emphasis> occurrences
7027 of <quote>foo</quote> should be replaced? Our current job will only take
7028 care of the first <quote>foo</quote> on each page. For global substitution,
7029 we'll need to add the <literal>g</literal> option:
7033 <screen>s/foo/bar/g</screen>
7037 Our complete filter now looks like this:
7040 <screen>FILTER: foo Replace all "foo" with "bar"
7041 s/foo/bar/g</screen>
7045 Let's look at some real filters for more interesting examples. Here you see
7046 a filter that protects against some common annoyances that arise from JavaScript
7047 abuse. Let's look at its jobs one after the other:
7053 FILTER: js-annoyances Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse
7055 # Get rid of JavaScript referrer tracking. Test page: http://www.randomoddness.com/untitled.htm
7057 s|(<script.*)document\.referrer(.*</script>)|$1"Not Your Business!"$2|Usg</screen>
7061 Following the header line and a comment, you see the job. Note that it uses
7062 <literal>|</literal> as the delimiter instead of <literal>/</literal>, because
7063 the pattern contains a forward slash, which would otherwise have to be escaped
7064 by a backslash (<literal>\</literal>).
7068 Now, let's examine the pattern: it starts with the text <literal><script.*</literal>
7069 enclosed in parentheses. Since the dot matches any character, and <literal>*</literal>
7070 means: <quote>Match an arbitrary number of the element left of myself</quote>, this
7071 matches <quote><script</quote>, followed by <emphasis>any</emphasis> text, i.e.
7072 it matches the whole page, from the start of the first <script> tag.
7076 That's more than we want, but the pattern continues: <literal>document\.referrer</literal>
7077 matches only the exact string <quote>document.referrer</quote>. The dot needed to
7078 be <emphasis>escaped</emphasis>, i.e. preceded by a backslash, to take away its
7079 special meaning as a joker, and make it just a regular dot. So far, the meaning is:
7080 Match from the start of the first <script> tag in a the page, up to, and including,
7081 the text <quote>document.referrer</quote>, if <emphasis>both</emphasis> are present
7082 in the page (and appear in that order).
7086 But there's still more pattern to go. The next element, again enclosed in parentheses,
7087 is <literal>.*</script></literal>. You already know what <literal>.*</literal>
7088 means, so the whole pattern translates to: Match from the start of the first <script>
7089 tag in a page to the end of the last <script> tag, provided that the text
7090 <quote>document.referrer</quote> appears somewhere in between.
7094 This is still not the whole story, since we have ignored the options and the parentheses:
7095 The portions of the page matched by sub-patterns that are enclosed in parentheses, will be
7096 remembered and be available through the variables <literal>$1, $2, ...</literal> in
7097 the substitute. The <literal>U</literal> option switches to ungreedy matching, which means
7098 that the first <literal>.*</literal> in the pattern will only <quote>eat up</quote> all
7099 text in between <quote><script</quote> and the <emphasis>first</emphasis> occurrence
7100 of <quote>document.referrer</quote>, and that the second <literal>.*</literal> will
7101 only span the text up to the <emphasis>first</emphasis> <quote></script></quote>
7102 tag. Furthermore, the <literal>s</literal> option says that the match may span
7103 multiple lines in the page, and the <literal>g</literal> option again means that the
7104 substitution is global.
7108 So, to summarize, the pattern means: Match all scripts that contain the text
7109 <quote>document.referrer</quote>. Remember the parts of the script from
7110 (and including) the start tag up to (and excluding) the string
7111 <quote>document.referrer</quote> as <literal>$1</literal>, and the part following
7112 that string, up to and including the closing tag, as <literal>$2</literal>.
7116 Now the pattern is deciphered, but wasn't this about substituting things? So
7117 lets look at the substitute: <literal>$1"Not Your Business!"$2</literal> is
7118 easy to read: The text remembered as <literal>$1</literal>, followed by
7119 <literal>"Not Your Business!"</literal> (<emphasis>including</emphasis>
7120 the quotation marks!), followed by the text remembered as <literal>$2</literal>.
7121 This produces an exact copy of the original string, with the middle part
7122 (the <quote>document.referrer</quote>) replaced by <literal>"Not Your
7123 Business!"</literal>.
7127 The whole job now reads: Replace <quote>document.referrer</quote> by
7128 <literal>"Not Your Business!"</literal> wherever it appears inside a
7129 <script> tag. Note that this job won't break JavaScript syntax,
7130 since both the original and the replacement are syntactically valid
7131 string objects. The script just won't have access to the referrer
7132 information anymore.
7136 We'll show you two other jobs from the JavaScript taming department, but
7137 this time only point out the constructs of special interest:
7142 # The status bar is for displaying link targets, not pointless blahblah
7144 s/window\.status\s*=\s*(['"]).*?\1/dUmMy=1/ig</screen>
7148 <literal>\s</literal> stands for whitespace characters (space, tab, newline,
7149 carriage return, form feed), so that <literal>\s*</literal> means: <quote>zero
7150 or more whitespace</quote>. The <literal>?</literal> in <literal>.*?</literal>
7151 makes this matching of arbitrary text ungreedy. (Note that the <literal>U</literal>
7152 option is not set). The <literal>['"]</literal> construct means: <quote>a single
7153 <emphasis>or</emphasis> a double quote</quote>. Finally, <literal>\1</literal> is
7154 a back-reference to the first parenthesis just like <literal>$1</literal> above,
7155 with the difference that in the <emphasis>pattern</emphasis>, a backslash indicates
7156 a back-reference, whereas in the <emphasis>substitute</emphasis>, it's the dollar.
7160 So what does this job do? It replaces assignments of single- or double-quoted
7161 strings to the <quote>window.status</quote> object with a dummy assignment
7162 (using a variable name that is hopefully odd enough not to conflict with
7163 real variables in scripts). Thus, it catches many cases where e.g. pointless
7164 descriptions are displayed in the status bar instead of the link target when
7165 you move your mouse over links.
7170 # Kill OnUnload popups. Yummy. Test: http://www.zdnet.com/zdsubs/yahoo/tree/yfs.html
7172 s/(<body [^>]*)onunload(.*>)/$1never$2/iU</screen>
7177 <ulink url="http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-DOM-Level-2-Events-20001113/events.html#Events-eventgroupings-htmlevents">OnUnload
7178 event binding</ulink> in the HTML DOM was a <emphasis>CRIME</emphasis>.
7179 When I close a browser window, I want it to close and die. Basta.
7180 This job replaces the <quote>onunload</quote> attribute in
7181 <quote><body></quote> tags with the dummy word <literal>never</literal>.
7182 Note that the <literal>i</literal> option makes the pattern matching
7183 case-insensitive. Also note that ungreedy matching alone doesn't always guarantee
7184 a minimal match: In the first parenthesis, we had to use <literal>[^>]*</literal>
7185 instead of <literal>.*</literal> to prevent the match from exceeding the
7186 <body> tag if it doesn't contain <quote>OnUnload</quote>, but the page's
7191 The last example is from the fun department:
7196 FILTER: fun Fun text replacements
7198 # Spice the daily news:
7200 s/microsoft(?!\.com)/MicroSuck/ig</screen>
7204 Note the <literal>(?!\.com)</literal> part (a so-called negative lookahead)
7205 in the job's pattern, which means: Don't match, if the string
7206 <quote>.com</quote> appears directly following <quote>microsoft</quote>
7207 in the page. This prevents links to microsoft.com from being trashed, while
7208 still replacing the word everywhere else.
7213 # Buzzword Bingo (example for extended regex syntax)
7215 s* industry[ -]leading \
7217 | customer[ -]focused \
7218 | market[ -]driven \
7219 | award[ -]winning # Comments are OK, too! \
7220 | high[ -]performance \
7221 | solutions[ -]based \
7225 *<font color="red"><b>BINGO!</b></font> \
7230 The <literal>x</literal> option in this job turns on extended syntax, and allows for
7231 e.g. the liberal use of (non-interpreted!) whitespace for nicer formatting.
7239 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
7241 <sect2 id="predefined-filters"><title>The Pre-defined Filters</title>
7245 Note each filter is also listed in the +filter action section above. Please
7246 keep these listings in sync.
7251 The distribution <filename>default.filter</filename> file contains a selection of
7252 pre-defined filters for your convenience:
7257 <term><emphasis>js-annoyances</emphasis></term>
7260 The purpose of this filter is to get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse.
7265 replaces JavaScript references to the browser's referrer information
7266 with the string "Not Your Business!". This compliments the <literal><link
7267 linkend="hide-referrer">hide-referrer</link></literal> action on the content level.
7272 removes the bindings to the DOM's
7273 <ulink url="http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-DOM-Level-2-Events-20001113/events.html#Events-eventgroupings-htmlevents">unload
7274 event</ulink> which we feel has no right to exist and is responsible for most <quote>exit consoles</quote>, i.e.
7275 nasty windows that pop up when you close another one.
7280 removes code that causes new windows to be opened with undesired properties, such as being
7281 full-screen, non-resizeable, without location, status or menu bar etc.
7287 Use with caution. This is an aggressive filter, and can break sites that
7288 rely heavily on JavaScript.
7294 <term><emphasis>js-events</emphasis></term>
7297 This is a very radical measure. It removes virtually all JavaScript event bindings, which
7298 means that scripts can not react to user actions such as mouse movements or clicks, window
7299 resizing etc, anymore. Use with caution!
7302 We <emphasis>strongly discourage</emphasis> using this filter as a default since it breaks
7303 many legitimate scripts. It is meant for use only on extra-nasty sites (should you really
7310 <term><emphasis>html-annoyances</emphasis></term>
7313 This filter will undo many common instances of HTML based abuse.
7316 The <literal>BLINK</literal> and <literal>MARQUEE</literal> tags
7317 are neutralized (yeah baby!), and browser windows will be created as
7318 resizeable (as of course they should be!), and will have location,
7319 scroll and menu bars -- even if specified otherwise.
7325 <term><emphasis>content-cookies</emphasis></term>
7328 Most cookies are set in the HTTP dialog, where they can be intercepted
7330 <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal>
7331 and <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>
7332 actions. But web sites increasingly make use of HTML meta tags and JavaScript
7333 to sneak cookies to the browser on the content level.
7336 This filter disables most HTML and JavaScript code that reads or sets
7337 cookies. It cannot detect all clever uses of these types of code, so it
7338 should not be relied on as an absolute fix. Use it wherever you would also
7339 use the cookie crunch actions.
7345 <term><emphasis>refresh tags</emphasis></term>
7348 Disable any refresh tags if the interval is greater than nine seconds (so
7349 that redirections done via refresh tags are not destroyed). This is useful
7350 for dial-on-demand setups, or for those who find this HTML feature
7357 <term><emphasis>unsolicited-popups</emphasis></term>
7360 This filter attempts to prevent only <quote>unsolicited</quote> pop-up
7361 windows from opening, yet still allow pop-up windows that the user
7362 has explicitly chosen to open. It was added in version 3.0.1,
7363 as an improvement over earlier such filters.
7366 Technical note: The filter works by redefining the window.open JavaScript
7367 function to a dummy function, <literal>PrivoxyWindowOpen()</literal>,
7368 during the loading and rendering phase of each HTML page access, and
7369 restoring the function afterward.
7372 This is recommended only for browsers that cannot perform this function
7373 reliably themselves. And be aware that some sites require such windows
7374 in order to function normally. Use with caution.
7380 <term><emphasis>all-popups</emphasis></term>
7383 Attempt to prevent <emphasis>all</emphasis> pop-up windows from opening.
7384 Note this should be used with even more discretion than the above, since
7385 it is more likely to break some sites that require pop-ups for normal
7386 usage. Use with caution.
7392 <term><emphasis>img-reorder</emphasis></term>
7395 This is a helper filter that has no value if used alone. It makes the
7396 <literal>banners-by-size</literal> and <literal>banners-by-link</literal>
7397 (see below) filters more effective and should be enabled together with them.
7403 <term><emphasis>banners-by-size</emphasis></term>
7406 This filter removes image tags purely based on what size they are. Fortunately
7407 for us, many ads and banner images tend to conform to certain standardized
7408 sizes, which makes this filter quite effective for ad stripping purposes.
7411 Occasionally this filter will cause false positives on images that are not ads,
7412 but just happen to be of one of the standard banner sizes.
7415 Recommended only for those who require extreme ad blocking. The default
7416 block rules should catch 95+% of all ads <emphasis>without</emphasis> this filter enabled.
7422 <term><emphasis>banners-by-link</emphasis></term>
7425 This is an experimental filter that attempts to kill any banners if
7426 their URLs seem to point to known or suspected click trackers. It is currently
7427 not of much value and is not recommended for use by default.
7433 <term><emphasis>webbugs</emphasis></term>
7436 Webbugs are small, invisible images (technically 1X1 GIF images), that
7437 are used to track users across websites, and collect information on them.
7438 As an HTML page is loaded by the browser, an embedded image tag causes the
7439 browser to contact a third-party site, disclosing the tracking information
7440 through the requested URL and/or cookies for that third-party domain, without
7441 the user ever becoming aware of the interaction with the third-party site.
7442 HTML-ized spam also uses a similar technique to verify email addresses.
7445 This filter removes the HTML code that loads such <quote>webbugs</quote>.
7451 <term><emphasis>tiny-textforms</emphasis></term>
7454 A rather special-purpose filter that can be used to enlarge textareas (those
7455 multi-line text boxes in web forms) and turn off hard word wrap in them.
7456 It was written for the sourceforge.net tracker system where such boxes are
7457 a nuisance, but it can be handy on other sites, too.
7460 It is not recommended to use this filter as a default.
7466 <term><emphasis>jumping-windows</emphasis></term>
7469 Many consider windows that move, or resize themselves to be abusive. This filter
7470 neutralizes the related JavaScript code. Note that some sites might not display
7471 or behave as intended when using this filter. Use with caution.
7477 <term><emphasis>frameset-borders</emphasis></term>
7480 Some web designers seem to assume that everyone in the world will view their
7481 web sites using the same browser brand and version, screen resolution etc,
7482 because only that assumption could explain why they'd use static frame sizes,
7483 yet prevent their frames from being resized by the user, should they be too
7484 small to show their whole content.
7487 This filter removes the related HTML code. It should only be applied to sites
7494 <term><emphasis>demoronizer</emphasis></term>
7497 Many Microsoft products that generate HTML use non-standard extensions (read:
7498 violations) of the ISO 8859-1 aka Latin-1 character set. This can cause those
7499 HTML documents to display with errors on standard-compliant platforms.
7502 This filter translates the MS-only characters into Latin-1 equivalents.
7503 It is not necessary when using MS products, and will cause corruption of
7504 all documents that use 8-bit character sets other than Latin-1. It's mostly
7505 worthwhile for Europeans on non-MS platforms, if weird garbage characters
7506 sometimes appear on some pages, or user agents that don't correct for this on
7509 My version of Mozilla (ancient) shows litte square boxes for quote
7510 characters, and apostrophes on moronized pages. So many pages have this, I
7511 can read them fine now. HB 08/27/06
7518 <term><emphasis>shockwave-flash</emphasis></term>
7521 A filter for shockwave haters. As the name suggests, this filter strips code
7522 out of web pages that is used to embed shockwave flash objects.
7530 <term><emphasis>quicktime-kioskmode</emphasis></term>
7533 Change HTML code that embeds Quicktime objects so that kioskmode, which
7534 prevents saving, is disabled.
7540 <term><emphasis>fun</emphasis></term>
7543 Text replacements for subversive browsing fun. Make fun of your favorite
7544 Monopolist or play buzzword bingo.
7550 <term><emphasis>crude-parental</emphasis></term>
7553 A demonstration-only filter that shows how <application>Privoxy</application>
7554 can be used to delete web content on a keyword basis.
7560 <term><emphasis>ie-exploits</emphasis></term>
7563 An experimental collection of text replacements to disable malicious HTML and JavaScript
7564 code that exploits known security holes in Internet Explorer.
7567 Presently, it only protects against Nimda and a cross-site scripting bug, and
7568 would need active maintenance to provide more substantial protection.
7574 <term><emphasis>site-specifics</emphasis></term>
7577 Some web sites have very specific problems, the cure for which doesn't apply
7578 anywhere else, or could even cause damage on other sites.
7581 This is a collection of such site-specific cures which should only be applied
7582 to the sites they were intended for, which is what the supplied
7583 <filename>default.action</filename> file does. Users shouldn't need to change
7584 anything regarding this filter.
7590 <term><emphasis>google</emphasis></term>
7593 A CSS based block for Google text ads. Also removes a width limitation
7594 and the toolbar advertisement.
7600 <term><emphasis>yahoo</emphasis></term>
7603 Another CSS based block, this time for Yahoo text ads. And removes
7604 a width limitation as well.
7610 <term><emphasis>msn</emphasis></term>
7613 Another CSS based block, this time for MSN text ads. And removes
7614 tracking URLs, as well as a width limitation.
7620 <term><emphasis>blogspot</emphasis></term>
7623 Cleans up some Blogspot blogs. Read the fine print before using this one!
7626 This filter also intentionally removes some navigation stuff and sets the
7627 page width to 100%. As a result, some rounded <quote>corners</quote> would
7628 appear to early or not at all and as fixing this would require a browser
7629 that understands background-size (CSS3), they are removed instead.
7635 <term><emphasis>xml-to-html</emphasis></term>
7638 Server-header filter to change the Content-Type from xml to html.
7644 <term><emphasis>html-to-xml</emphasis></term>
7647 Server-header filter to change the Content-Type from html to xml.
7653 <term><emphasis>no-ping</emphasis></term>
7656 Removes the non-standard <literal>ping</literal> attribute from
7657 anchor and area HTML tags.
7663 <term><emphasis>hide-tor-exit-notation</emphasis></term>
7666 Client-header filter to remove the <command>Tor</command> exit node notation
7667 found in Host and Referer headers.
7670 If &my-app; and <command>Tor</command> are chained and &my-app;
7671 is configured to use socks4a, one can use <quote>http://www.example.org.foobar.exit/</quote>
7672 to access the host <quote>www.example.org</quote> through the
7673 <command>Tor</command> exit node <quote>foobar</quote>.
7676 As the HTTP client isn't aware of this notation, it treats the
7677 whole string <quote>www.example.org.foobar.exit</quote> as host and uses it
7678 for the <quote>Host</quote> and <quote>Referer</quote> headers. From the
7679 server's point of view the resulting headers are invalid and can cause problems.
7682 An invalid <quote>Referer</quote> header can trigger <quote>hot-linking</quote>
7683 protections, an invalid <quote>Host</quote> header will make it impossible for
7684 the server to find the right vhost (several domains hosted on the same IP address).
7687 This client-header filter removes the <quote>foo.exit</quote> part in those headers
7688 to prevent the mentioned problems. Note that it only modifies
7689 the HTTP headers, it doesn't make it impossible for the server
7690 to detect your <command>Tor</command> exit node based on the IP address
7691 the request is coming from.
7698 <term><emphasis> </emphasis></term>
7712 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7716 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7718 <sect1 id="templates">
7719 <title>Privoxy's Template Files</title>
7721 All <application>Privoxy</application> built-in pages, i.e. error pages such as the
7722 <ulink url="http://show-the-404-error.page"><quote>404 - No Such Domain</quote>
7723 error page</ulink>, the <ulink
7724 url="http://ads.bannerserver.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor.html"><quote>BLOCKED</quote>
7726 and all pages of its <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">web-based
7727 user interface</ulink>, are generated from <emphasis>templates</emphasis>.
7728 (<application>Privoxy</application> must be running for the above links to work as
7733 These templates are stored in a subdirectory of the <link linkend="confdir">configuration
7734 directory</link> called <filename>templates</filename>. On Unixish platforms,
7736 <ulink url="file:///etc/privoxy/templates/"><filename>/etc/privoxy/templates/</filename></ulink>.
7740 The templates are basically normal HTML files, but with place-holders (called symbols
7741 or exports), which <application>Privoxy</application> fills at run time. It
7742 is possible to edit the templates with a normal text editor, should you want
7743 to customize them. (<emphasis>Not recommended for the casual
7744 user</emphasis>). Should you create your own custom templates, you should use
7745 the <filename>config</filename> setting <link linkend="templdir">templdir</link>
7746 to specify an alternate location, so your templates do not get overwritten
7750 Note that just like in configuration files, lines starting
7751 with <literal>#</literal> are ignored when the templates are filled in.
7755 The place-holders are of the form <literal>@name@</literal>, and you will
7756 find a list of available symbols, which vary from template to template,
7757 in the comments at the start of each file. Note that these comments are not
7758 always accurate, and that it's probably best to look at the existing HTML
7759 code to find out which symbols are supported and what they are filled in with.
7763 A special application of this substitution mechanism is to make whole
7764 blocks of HTML code disappear when a specific symbol is set. We use this
7765 for many purposes, one of them being to include the beta warning in all
7766 our user interface (CGI) pages when <application>Privoxy</application>
7767 is in an alpha or beta development stage:
7772 <!-- @if-unstable-start -->
7774 ... beta warning HTML code goes here ...
7776 <!-- if-unstable-end@ --></screen>
7780 If the "unstable" symbol is set, everything in between and including
7781 <literal>@if-unstable-start</literal> and <literal>if-unstable-end@</literal>
7782 will disappear, leaving nothing but an empty comment:
7786 <screen><!-- --></screen>
7790 There's also an if-then-else construct and an <literal>#include</literal>
7791 mechanism, but you'll sure find out if you are inclined to edit the
7796 All templates refer to a style located at
7797 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/send-stylesheet"><literal>http://config.privoxy.org/send-stylesheet</literal></ulink>.
7798 This is, of course, locally served by <application>Privoxy</application>
7799 and the source for it can be found and edited in the
7800 <filename>cgi-style.css</filename> template.
7805 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7809 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7811 <sect1 id="contact"><title>Contacting the Developers, Bug Reporting and Feature
7814 <!-- Include contacting.sgml boilerplate: -->
7816 <!-- end boilerplate -->
7820 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7823 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7824 <sect1 id="copyright"><title>Privoxy Copyright, License and History</title>
7826 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
7828 <!-- end copyright -->
7830 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7831 <sect2><title>License</title>
7832 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
7834 <!-- end copyright -->
7836 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7839 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7841 <sect2 id="history"><title>History</title>
7842 <!-- Include history.sgml: -->
7844 <!-- end history -->
7847 <sect2 id="authors"><title>Authors</title>
7848 <!-- Include p-authors.sgml: -->
7850 <!-- end authors -->
7855 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7858 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7859 <sect1 id="seealso"><title>See Also</title>
7860 <!-- Include seealso.sgml: -->
7862 <!-- end seealso -->
7867 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7868 <sect1 id="appendix"><title>Appendix</title>
7871 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7873 <title>Regular Expressions</title>
7875 <application>Privoxy</application> uses Perl-style <quote>regular
7876 expressions</quote> in its <link linkend="actions-file">actions
7877 files</link> and <link linkend="filter-file">filter file</link>,
7878 through the <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/">PCRE</ulink> and
7881 <ulink url="http://www.oesterhelt.org/pcrs/">PCRS</ulink> libraries.
7883 <application>PCRS</application> libraries.
7887 If you are reading this, you probably don't understand what <quote>regular
7888 expressions</quote> are, or what they can do. So this will be a very brief
7889 introduction only. A full explanation would require a <ulink
7890 url="http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/regex/">book</ulink> ;-)
7894 Regular expressions provide a language to describe patterns that can be
7895 run against strings of characters (letter, numbers, etc), to see if they
7896 match the string or not. The patterns are themselves (sometimes complex)
7897 strings of literal characters, combined with wild-cards, and other special
7898 characters, called meta-characters. The <quote>meta-characters</quote> have
7899 special meanings and are used to build complex patterns to be matched against.
7900 Perl Compatible Regular Expressions are an especially convenient
7901 <quote>dialect</quote> of the regular expression language.
7905 To make a simple analogy, we do something similar when we use wild-card
7906 characters when listing files with the <command>dir</command> command in DOS.
7907 <literal>*.*</literal> matches all filenames. The <quote>special</quote>
7908 character here is the asterisk which matches any and all characters. We can be
7909 more specific and use <literal>?</literal> to match just individual
7910 characters. So <quote>dir file?.text</quote> would match
7911 <quote>file1.txt</quote>, <quote>file2.txt</quote>, etc. We are pattern
7912 matching, using a similar technique to <quote>regular expressions</quote>!
7916 Regular expressions do essentially the same thing, but are much, much more
7917 powerful. There are many more <quote>special characters</quote> and ways of
7918 building complex patterns however. Let's look at a few of the common ones,
7919 and then some examples:
7924 <emphasis>.</emphasis> - Matches any single character, e.g. <quote>a</quote>,
7925 <quote>A</quote>, <quote>4</quote>, <quote>:</quote>, or <quote>@</quote>.
7927 </simplelist></para>
7931 <emphasis>?</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or ONE
7934 </simplelist></para>
7938 <emphasis>+</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ONE or MORE
7941 </simplelist></para>
7945 <emphasis>*</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or MORE
7948 </simplelist></para>
7952 <emphasis>\</emphasis> - The <quote>escape</quote> character denotes that
7953 the following character should be taken literally. This is used where one of the
7954 special characters (e.g. <quote>.</quote>) needs to be taken literally and
7955 not as a special meta-character. Example: <quote>example\.com</quote>, makes
7956 sure the period is recognized only as a period (and not expanded to its
7957 meta-character meaning of any single character).
7959 </simplelist></para>
7963 <emphasis>[ ]</emphasis> - Characters enclosed in brackets will be matched if
7964 any of the enclosed characters are encountered. For instance, <quote>[0-9]</quote>
7965 matches any numeric digit (zero through nine). As an example, we can combine
7966 this with <quote>+</quote> to match any digit one of more times: <quote>[0-9]+</quote>.
7968 </simplelist></para>
7972 <emphasis>( )</emphasis> - parentheses are used to group a sub-expression,
7973 or multiple sub-expressions.
7975 </simplelist></para>
7979 <emphasis>|</emphasis> - The <quote>bar</quote> character works like an
7980 <quote>or</quote> conditional statement. A match is successful if the
7981 sub-expression on either side of <quote>|</quote> matches. As an example:
7982 <quote>/(this|that) example/</quote> uses grouping and the bar character
7983 and would match either <quote>this example</quote> or <quote>that
7984 example</quote>, and nothing else.
7986 </simplelist></para>
7989 These are just some of the ones you are likely to use when matching URLs with
7990 <application>Privoxy</application>, and is a long way from a definitive
7991 list. This is enough to get us started with a few simple examples which may
7992 be more illuminating:
7996 <emphasis><literal>/.*/banners/.*</literal></emphasis> - A simple example
7997 that uses the common combination of <quote>.</quote> and <quote>*</quote> to
7998 denote any character, zero or more times. In other words, any string at all.
7999 So we start with a literal forward slash, then our regular expression pattern
8000 (<quote>.*</quote>) another literal forward slash, the string
8001 <quote>banners</quote>, another forward slash, and lastly another
8002 <quote>.*</quote>. We are building
8003 a directory path here. This will match any file with the path that has a
8004 directory named <quote>banners</quote> in it. The <quote>.*</quote> matches
8005 any characters, and this could conceivably be more forward slashes, so it
8006 might expand into a much longer looking path. For example, this could match:
8007 <quote>/eye/hate/spammers/banners/annoy_me_please.gif</quote>, or just
8008 <quote>/banners/annoying.html</quote>, or almost an infinite number of other
8009 possible combinations, just so it has <quote>banners</quote> in the path
8014 And now something a little more complex:
8018 <emphasis><literal>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))?/</literal></emphasis> -
8019 We have several literal forward slashes again (<quote>/</quote>), so we are
8020 building another expression that is a file path statement. We have another
8021 <quote>.*</quote>, so we are matching against any conceivable sub-path, just so
8022 it matches our expression. The only true literal that <emphasis>must
8023 match</emphasis> our pattern is <application>adv</application>, together with
8024 the forward slashes. What comes after the <quote>adv</quote> string is the
8029 Remember the <quote>?</quote> means the preceding expression (either a
8030 literal character or anything grouped with <quote>(...)</quote> in this case)
8031 can exist or not, since this means either zero or one match. So
8032 <quote>((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))</quote> is optional, as are the
8033 individual sub-expressions: <quote>(er)</quote>,
8034 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, and the <quote>s</quote>. The <quote>|</quote>
8035 means <quote>or</quote>. We have two of those. For instance,
8036 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, can expand to match either <quote>ing</quote>
8037 <emphasis>OR</emphasis> <quote>ements?</quote>. What is being done here, is an
8038 attempt at matching as many variations of <quote>advertisement</quote>, and
8039 similar, as possible. So this would expand to match just <quote>adv</quote>,
8040 or <quote>advert</quote>, or <quote>adverts</quote>, or
8041 <quote>advertising</quote>, or <quote>advertisement</quote>, or
8042 <quote>advertisements</quote>. You get the idea. But it would not match
8043 <quote>advertizements</quote> (with a <quote>z</quote>). We could fix that by
8044 changing our regular expression to:
8045 <quote>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|erti(s|z)(ing|ements?))?/</quote>, which would then match
8050 <emphasis><literal>/.*/advert[0-9]+\.(gif|jpe?g)</literal></emphasis> - Again
8051 another path statement with forward slashes. Anything in the square brackets
8052 <quote>[ ]</quote> can be matched. This is using <quote>0-9</quote> as a
8053 shorthand expression to mean any digit one through nine. It is the same as
8054 saying <quote>0123456789</quote>. So any digit matches. The <quote>+</quote>
8055 means one or more of the preceding expression must be included. The preceding
8056 expression here is what is in the square brackets -- in this case, any digit
8057 one through nine. Then, at the end, we have a grouping: <quote>(gif|jpe?g)</quote>.
8058 This includes a <quote>|</quote>, so this needs to match the expression on
8059 either side of that bar character also. A simple <quote>gif</quote> on one side, and the other
8060 side will in turn match either <quote>jpeg</quote> or <quote>jpg</quote>,
8061 since the <quote>?</quote> means the letter <quote>e</quote> is optional and
8062 can be matched once or not at all. So we are building an expression here to
8063 match image GIF or JPEG type image file. It must include the literal
8064 string <quote>advert</quote>, then one or more digits, and a <quote>.</quote>
8065 (which is now a literal, and not a special character, since it is escaped
8066 with <quote>\</quote>), and lastly either <quote>gif</quote>, or
8067 <quote>jpeg</quote>, or <quote>jpg</quote>. Some possible matches would
8068 include: <quote>//advert1.jpg</quote>,
8069 <quote>/nasty/ads/advert1234.gif</quote>,
8070 <quote>/banners/from/hell/advert99.jpg</quote>. It would not match
8071 <quote>advert1.gif</quote> (no leading slash), or
8072 <quote>/adverts232.jpg</quote> (the expression does not include an
8073 <quote>s</quote>), or <quote>/advert1.jsp</quote> (<quote>jsp</quote> is not
8074 in the expression anywhere).
8078 We are barely scratching the surface of regular expressions here so that you
8079 can understand the default <application>Privoxy</application>
8080 configuration files, and maybe use this knowledge to customize your own
8081 installation. There is much, much more that can be done with regular
8082 expressions. Now that you know enough to get started, you can learn more on
8087 More reading on Perl Compatible Regular expressions:
8088 <ulink url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html">http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html</ulink>
8092 For information on regular expression based substitutions and their applications
8093 in filters, please see the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file tutorial</link>
8098 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
8101 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
8103 <title>Privoxy's Internal Pages</title>
8106 Since <application>Privoxy</application> proxies each requested
8107 web page, it is easy for <application>Privoxy</application> to
8108 trap certain special URLs. In this way, we can talk directly to
8109 <application>Privoxy</application>, and see how it is
8110 configured, see how our rules are being applied, change these
8111 rules and other configuration options, and even turn
8112 <application>Privoxy's</application> filtering off, all with
8118 The URLs listed below are the special ones that allow direct access
8119 to <application>Privoxy</application>. Of course,
8120 <application>Privoxy</application> must be running to access these. If
8121 not, you will get a friendly error message. Internet access is not
8134 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
8138 There is a shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink> (But it
8139 doesn't provide a fall-back to a real page, in case the request is not
8140 sent through <application>Privoxy</application>)
8146 Show information about the current configuration, including viewing and
8147 editing of actions files:
8151 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
8158 Show the source code version numbers:
8162 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-version">http://config.privoxy.org/show-version</ulink>
8169 Show the browser's request headers:
8173 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request">http://config.privoxy.org/show-request</ulink>
8180 Show which actions apply to a URL and why:
8184 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
8191 Toggle Privoxy on or off. This feature can be turned off/on in the main
8192 <filename>config</filename> file. When toggled <quote>off</quote>, <quote>Privoxy</quote>
8193 continues to run, but only as a pass-through proxy, with no actions taking
8198 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</ulink>
8202 Short cuts. Turn off, then on:
8206 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable</ulink>
8211 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable</ulink>
8220 These may be bookmarked for quick reference. See next.
8224 <sect3 id="bookmarklets">
8225 <title>Bookmarklets</title>
8227 Below are some <quote>bookmarklets</quote> to allow you to easily access a
8228 <quote>mini</quote> version of some of <application>Privoxy's</application>
8229 special pages. They are designed for MS Internet Explorer, but should work
8230 equally well in Netscape, Mozilla, and other browsers which support
8231 JavaScript. They are designed to run directly from your bookmarks - not by
8232 clicking the links below (although that should work for testing).
8235 To save them, right-click the link and choose <quote>Add to Favorites</quote>
8236 (IE) or <quote>Add Bookmark</quote> (Netscape). You will get a warning that
8237 the bookmark <quote>may not be safe</quote> - just click OK. Then you can run the
8238 Bookmarklet directly from your favorites/bookmarks. For even faster access,
8239 you can put them on the <quote>Links</quote> bar (IE) or the <quote>Personal
8240 Toolbar</quote> (Netscape), and run them with a single click.
8249 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>
8256 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>
8263 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)
8270 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>
8276 <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>
8282 <ulink url="javascript:void(window.open('http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info?url='+escape(location.href),'Why').focus());">Privoxy - Why?</ulink>
8289 Credit: The site which gave us the general idea for these bookmarklets is
8290 <ulink url="http://www.bookmarklets.com/">www.bookmarklets.com</ulink>. They
8291 have more information about bookmarklets.
8300 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
8302 <title>Chain of Events</title>
8304 Let's take a quick look at how some of <application>Privoxy's</application>
8305 core features are triggered, and the ensuing sequence of events when a web
8306 page is requested by your browser:
8313 First, your web browser requests a web page. The browser knows to send
8314 the request to <application>Privoxy</application>, which will in turn,
8315 relay the request to the remote web server after passing the following
8321 <application>Privoxy</application> traps any request for its own internal CGI
8322 pages (e.g <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>) and sends the CGI page back to the browser.
8327 Next, <application>Privoxy</application> checks to see if the URL
8329 linkend="BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></link> patterns. If
8330 so, the URL is then blocked, and the remote web server will not be contacted.
8331 <link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></link>
8333 <link linkend="HANDLE-AS-EMPTY-DOCUMENT"><quote>+handle-as-empty-document</quote></link>
8334 are then checked, and if there is no match, an
8335 HTML <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page is sent back to the browser. Otherwise, if
8336 it does match, an image is returned for the former, and an empty text
8337 document for the latter. The type of image would depend on the setting of
8338 <link linkend="SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"><quote>+set-image-blocker</quote></link>
8339 (blank, checkerboard pattern, or an HTTP redirect to an image elsewhere).
8344 Untrusted URLs are blocked. If URLs are being added to the
8345 <filename>trust</filename> file, then that is done.
8350 If the URL pattern matches the <link
8351 linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS"><quote>+fast-redirects</quote></link> action,
8352 it is then processed. Unwanted parts of the requested URL are stripped.
8357 Now the rest of the client browser's request headers are processed. If any
8358 of these match any of the relevant actions (e.g. <link
8359 linkend="HIDE-USER-AGENT"><quote>+hide-user-agent</quote></link>,
8360 etc.), headers are suppressed or forged as determined by these actions and
8366 Now the web server starts sending its response back (i.e. typically a web
8372 First, the server headers are read and processed to determine, among other
8373 things, the MIME type (document type) and encoding. The headers are then
8374 filtered as determined by the
8375 <link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES"><quote>+crunch-incoming-cookies</quote></link>,
8376 <link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"><quote>+session-cookies-only</quote></link>,
8377 and <link linkend="DOWNGRADE-HTTP-VERSION"><quote>+downgrade-http-version</quote></link>
8383 If any <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> action
8385 linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS"><quote>+deanimate-gifs</quote></link>
8386 action applies (and the document type fits the action), the rest of the page is
8387 read into memory (up to a configurable limit). Then the filter rules (from
8388 <filename>default.filter</filename> and any other filter files) are
8389 processed against the buffered content. Filters are applied in the order
8390 they are specified in one of the filter files. Animated GIFs, if present,
8391 are reduced to either the first or last frame, depending on the action
8392 setting.The entire page, which is now filtered, is then sent by
8393 <application>Privoxy</application> back to your browser.
8396 If neither a <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> action
8398 linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS"><quote>+deanimate-gifs</quote></link>
8399 matches, then <application>Privoxy</application> passes the raw data through
8400 to the client browser as it becomes available.
8405 As the browser receives the now (possibly filtered) page content, it
8406 reads and then requests any URLs that may be embedded within the page
8407 source, e.g. ad images, stylesheets, JavaScript, other HTML documents (e.g.
8408 frames), sounds, etc. For each of these objects, the browser issues a
8409 separate request (this is easily viewable in <application>Privoxy's</application>
8410 logs). And each such request is in turn processed just as above. Note that a
8411 complex web page will have many, many such embedded URLs. If these
8412 secondary requests are to a different server, then quite possibly a very
8413 differing set of actions is triggered.
8420 NOTE: This is somewhat of a simplistic overview of what happens with each URL
8421 request. For the sake of brevity and simplicity, we have focused on
8422 <application>Privoxy's</application> core features only.
8428 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
8429 <sect2 id="actionsanat">
8430 <title>Troubleshooting: Anatomy of an Action</title>
8433 The way <application>Privoxy</application> applies
8434 <link linkend="ACTIONS">actions</link> and <link linkend="FILTER">filters</link>
8435 to any given URL can be complex, and not always so
8436 easy to understand what is happening. And sometimes we need to be able to
8437 <emphasis>see</emphasis> just what <application>Privoxy</application> is
8438 doing. Especially, if something <application>Privoxy</application> is doing
8439 is causing us a problem inadvertently. It can be a little daunting to look at
8440 the actions and filters files themselves, since they tend to be filled with
8441 <link linkend="regex">regular expressions</link> whose consequences are not
8446 One quick test to see if <application>Privoxy</application> is causing a problem
8447 or not, is to disable it temporarily. This should be the first troubleshooting
8448 step. See <link linkend="bookmarklets">the Bookmarklets</link> section on a quick
8449 and easy way to do this (be sure to flush caches afterward!). Looking at the
8450 logs is a good idea too. (Note that both the toggle feature and logging are
8451 enabled via <filename>config</filename> file settings, and may need to be
8452 turned <quote>on</quote>.)
8455 Another easy troubleshooting step to try is if you have done any
8456 customization of your installation, revert back to the installed
8457 defaults and see if that helps. There are times the developers get complaints
8458 about one thing or another, and the problem is more related to a customized
8459 configuration issue.
8463 <application>Privoxy</application> also provides the
8464 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
8465 page that can show us very specifically how <application>actions</application>
8466 are being applied to any given URL. This is a big help for troubleshooting.
8470 First, enter one URL (or partial URL) at the prompt, and then
8471 <application>Privoxy</application> will tell us
8472 how the current configuration will handle it. This will not
8473 help with filtering effects (i.e. the <link
8474 linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> action) from
8475 one of the filter files since this is handled very
8476 differently and not so easy to trap! It also will not tell you about any other
8477 URLs that may be embedded within the URL you are testing. For instance, images
8478 such as ads are expressed as URLs within the raw page source of HTML pages. So
8479 you will only get info for the actual URL that is pasted into the prompt area
8480 -- not any sub-URLs. If you want to know about embedded URLs like ads, you
8481 will have to dig those out of the HTML source. Use your browser's <quote>View
8482 Page Source</quote> option for this. Or right click on the ad, and grab the
8487 Let's try an example, <ulink url="http://google.com">google.com</ulink>,
8488 and look at it one section at a time in a sample configuration (your real
8489 configuration may vary):
8494 Matches for http://www.google.com:
8496 In file: default.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
8498 {+change-x-forwarded-for{block}
8499 +deanimate-gifs {last}
8500 +fast-redirects {check-decoded-url}
8501 +filter {refresh-tags}
8502 +filter {img-reorder}
8503 +filter {banners-by-size}
8505 +filter {jumping-windows}
8506 +filter {ie-exploits}
8507 +hide-from-header {block}
8508 +hide-referrer {forge}
8509 +session-cookies-only
8510 +set-image-blocker {pattern}
8513 { -session-cookies-only }
8519 In file: user.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
8520 (no matches in this file)
8525 This is telling us how we have defined our
8526 <link linkend="ACTIONS"><quote>actions</quote></link>, and
8527 which ones match for our test case, <quote>google.com</quote>.
8528 Displayed is all the actions that are available to us. Remember,
8529 the <literal>+</literal> sign denotes <quote>on</quote>. <literal>-</literal>
8530 denotes <quote>off</quote>. So some are <quote>on</quote> here, but many
8531 are <quote>off</quote>. Each example we try may provide a slightly different
8532 end result, depending on our configuration directives.
8536 is for our <filename>default.action</filename> file. The large, multi-line
8537 listing, is how the actions are set to match for all URLs, i.e. our default
8538 settings. If you look at your <quote>actions</quote> file, this would be the
8539 section just below the <quote>aliases</quote> section near the top. This
8540 will apply to all URLs as signified by the single forward slash at the end
8541 of the listing -- <quote> / </quote>.
8545 But we have defined additional actions that would be exceptions to these general
8546 rules, and then we list specific URLs (or patterns) that these exceptions
8547 would apply to. Last match wins. Just below this then are two explicit
8548 matches for <quote>.google.com</quote>. The first is negating our previous
8549 cookie setting, which was for <link
8550 linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"><quote>+session-cookies-only</quote></link>
8551 (i.e. not persistent). So we will allow persistent cookies for google, at
8552 least that is how it is in this example. The second turns
8553 <emphasis>off</emphasis> any <link
8554 linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS"><quote>+fast-redirects</quote></link>
8555 action, allowing this to take place unmolested. Note that there is a leading
8556 dot here -- <quote>.google.com</quote>. This will match any hosts and
8557 sub-domains, in the google.com domain also, such as
8558 <quote>www.google.com</quote> or <quote>mail.google.com</quote>. But it would not
8559 match <quote>www.google.de</quote>! So, apparently, we have these two actions
8560 defined as exceptions to the general rules at the top somewhere in the lower
8561 part of our <filename>default.action</filename> file, and
8562 <quote>google.com</quote> is referenced somewhere in these latter sections.
8566 Then, for our <filename>user.action</filename> file, we again have no hits.
8567 So there is nothing google-specific that we might have added to our own, local
8568 configuration. If there was, those actions would over-rule any actions from
8569 previously processed files, such as <filename>default.action</filename>.
8570 <filename>user.action</filename> typically has the last word. This is the
8571 best place to put hard and fast exceptions,
8575 And finally we pull it all together in the bottom section and summarize how
8576 <application>Privoxy</application> is applying all its <quote>actions</quote>
8577 to <quote>google.com</quote>:
8588 +change-x-forwarded-for{block}
8589 -client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation}
8590 -content-type-overwrite
8591 -crunch-client-header
8592 -crunch-if-none-match
8593 -crunch-incoming-cookies
8594 -crunch-outgoing-cookies
8595 -crunch-server-header
8596 +deanimate-gifs {last}
8597 -downgrade-http-version
8600 -filter {content-cookies}
8601 -filter {all-popups}
8602 -filter {banners-by-link}
8603 -filter {tiny-textforms}
8604 -filter {frameset-borders}
8605 -filter {demoronizer}
8606 -filter {shockwave-flash}
8607 -filter {quicktime-kioskmode}
8609 -filter {crude-parental}
8610 -filter {site-specifics}
8611 -filter {js-annoyances}
8612 -filter {html-annoyances}
8613 +filter {refresh-tags}
8614 -filter {unsolicited-popups}
8615 +filter {img-reorder}
8616 +filter {banners-by-size}
8618 +filter {jumping-windows}
8619 +filter {ie-exploits}
8626 -handle-as-empty-document
8628 -hide-accept-language
8629 -hide-content-disposition
8630 +hide-from-header {block}
8631 -hide-if-modified-since
8632 +hide-referrer {forge}
8635 -overwrite-last-modified
8636 -prevent-compression
8638 -server-header-filter{xml-to-html}
8639 -server-header-filter{html-to-xml}
8640 -session-cookies-only
8641 +set-image-blocker {pattern} </screen>
8645 Notice the only difference here to the previous listing, is to
8646 <quote>fast-redirects</quote> and <quote>session-cookies-only</quote>,
8647 which are activated specifically for this site in our configuration,
8648 and thus show in the <quote>Final Results</quote>.
8652 Now another example, <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>:
8658 { +block{Domains starts with "ad"} }
8661 { +block{Domain contains "ad"} }
8664 { +block{Doubleclick banner server} +handle-as-image }
8665 .[a-vx-z]*.doubleclick.net
8670 We'll just show the interesting part here - the explicit matches. It is
8671 matched three different times. Two <quote>+block{}</quote> sections,
8672 and a <quote>+block{} +handle-as-image</quote>,
8673 which is the expanded form of one of our aliases that had been defined as:
8674 <quote>+block-as-image</quote>. (<link
8675 linkend="ALIASES"><quote>Aliases</quote></link> are defined in
8676 the first section of the actions file and typically used to combine more
8681 Any one of these would have done the trick and blocked this as an unwanted
8682 image. This is unnecessarily redundant since the last case effectively
8683 would also cover the first. No point in taking chances with these guys
8684 though ;-) Note that if you want an ad or obnoxious
8685 URL to be invisible, it should be defined as <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>
8686 is done here -- as both a <link
8687 linkend="BLOCK"><quote>+block{}</quote></link>
8688 <emphasis>and</emphasis> an
8689 <link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></link>.
8690 The custom alias <quote><literal>+block-as-image</literal></quote> just
8691 simplifies the process and make it more readable.
8695 One last example. Let's try <quote>http://www.example.net/adsl/HOWTO/</quote>.
8696 This one is giving us problems. We are getting a blank page. Hmmm ...
8702 Matches for http://www.example.net/adsl/HOWTO/:
8704 In file: default.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
8708 +change-x-forwarded-for{block}
8709 -client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation}
8710 -content-type-overwrite
8711 -crunch-client-header
8712 -crunch-if-none-match
8713 -crunch-incoming-cookies
8714 -crunch-outgoing-cookies
8715 -crunch-server-header
8717 -downgrade-http-version
8718 +fast-redirects {check-decoded-url}
8720 -filter {content-cookies}
8721 -filter {all-popups}
8722 -filter {banners-by-link}
8723 -filter {tiny-textforms}
8724 -filter {frameset-borders}
8725 -filter {demoronizer}
8726 -filter {shockwave-flash}
8727 -filter {quicktime-kioskmode}
8729 -filter {crude-parental}
8730 -filter {site-specifics}
8731 -filter {js-annoyances}
8732 -filter {html-annoyances}
8733 +filter {refresh-tags}
8734 -filter {unsolicited-popups}
8735 +filter {img-reorder}
8736 +filter {banners-by-size}
8738 +filter {jumping-windows}
8739 +filter {ie-exploits}
8746 -handle-as-empty-document
8748 -hide-accept-language
8749 -hide-content-disposition
8750 +hide-from-header{block}
8751 +hide-referer{forge}
8753 -overwrite-last-modified
8754 +prevent-compression
8756 -server-header-filter{xml-to-html}
8757 -server-header-filter{html-to-xml}
8758 +session-cookies-only
8759 +set-image-blocker{blank} }
8762 { +block{Path contains "ads".} +handle-as-image }
8768 Ooops, the <quote>/adsl/</quote> is matching <quote>/ads</quote> in our
8769 configuration! But we did not want this at all! Now we see why we get the
8770 blank page. It is actually triggering two different actions here, and
8771 the effects are aggregated so that the URL is blocked, and &my-app; is told
8772 to treat the block as if it were an image. But this is, of course, all wrong.
8773 We could now add a new action below this (or better in our own
8774 <filename>user.action</filename> file) that explicitly
8775 <emphasis>un</emphasis> blocks (
8776 <link linkend="BLOCK"><quote>{-block}</quote></link>) paths with
8777 <quote>adsl</quote> in them (remember, last match in the configuration
8778 wins). There are various ways to handle such exceptions. Example:
8790 Now the page displays ;-)
8791 Remember to flush your browser's caches when making these kinds of changes to
8792 your configuration to insure that you get a freshly delivered page! Or, try
8793 using <literal>Shift+Reload</literal>.
8797 But now what about a situation where we get no explicit matches like
8804 { +block{Path starts with "ads".} +handle-as-image }
8810 That actually was very helpful and pointed us quickly to where the problem
8811 was. If you don't get this kind of match, then it means one of the default
8812 rules in the first section of <filename>default.action</filename> is causing
8813 the problem. This would require some guesswork, and maybe a little trial and
8814 error to isolate the offending rule. One likely cause would be one of the
8815 <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> actions.
8816 These tend to be harder to troubleshoot.
8817 Try adding the URL for the site to one of aliases that turn off
8818 <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link>:
8826 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
8834 <quote><literal>{ shop }</literal></quote> is an <quote>alias</quote> that expands to
8835 <quote><literal>{ -filter -session-cookies-only }</literal></quote>.
8836 Or you could do your own exception to negate filtering:
8844 # Disable ALL filter actions for sites in this section
8852 This would turn off all filtering for these sites. This is best
8853 put in <filename>user.action</filename>, for local site
8854 exceptions. Note that when a simple domain pattern is used by itself (without
8855 the subsequent path portion), all sub-pages within that domain are included
8856 automatically in the scope of the action.
8860 Images that are inexplicably being blocked, may well be hitting the
8861 <link linkend="FILTER-BANNERS-BY-SIZE"><quote>+filter{banners-by-size}</quote></link>
8863 that images of certain sizes are ad banners (works well
8864 <emphasis>most of the time</emphasis> since these tend to be standardized).
8868 <quote><literal>{ fragile }</literal></quote> is an alias that disables most
8869 actions that are the most likely to cause trouble. This can be used as a
8870 last resort for problem sites.
8876 # Handle with care: easy to break
8878 mybank.example.com</screen>
8883 <emphasis>Remember to flush caches!</emphasis> Note that the
8884 <literal>mail.google</literal> reference lacks the TLD portion (e.g.
8885 <quote>.com</quote>). This will effectively match any TLD with
8886 <literal>google</literal> in it, such as <literal>mail.google.de.</literal>,
8890 If this still does not work, you will have to go through the remaining
8891 actions one by one to find which one(s) is causing the problem.
8900 This program is free software; you can redistribute it
8901 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
8902 Public License as published by the Free Software
8903 Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at
8904 your option) any later version.
8906 This program is distributed in the hope that it will
8907 be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the
8908 implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
8909 PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public
8910 License for more details.
8912 The GNU General Public License should be included with
8913 this file. If not, you can view it at
8914 http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
8915 or write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
8916 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301,
8919 $Log: user-manual.sgml,v $
8920 Revision 2.129 2010/11/13 20:17:11 fabiankeil
8921 Merge ChangeLog updates
8923 Revision 2.128 2010/11/10 22:00:13 fabiankeil
8924 Update the first paragraph of the 'What's New' section.
8926 Revision 2.127 2010/11/10 21:48:54 fabiankeil
8927 Update the "What's New" section.
8929 Revision 2.126 2010/11/06 12:55:48 fabiankeil
8930 Set p-version to 3.0.17
8932 Revision 2.125 2010/09/03 17:39:37 fabiankeil
8933 Slightly improve the explanation of why filtering may appear slower than it is.
8935 Revision 2.124 2010/05/01 18:21:30 fabiankeil
8936 Explicitly mention how to match any URL.
8938 Revision 2.123 2010/02/19 16:00:38 fabiankeil
8941 Revision 2.122 2010/02/19 15:22:47 fabiankeil
8944 Revision 2.121 2010/02/15 15:30:13 fabiankeil
8945 Mention the use of the no-such-domain template for DNS problems with FEATURE_IPV6_SUPPORT enabled.
8947 Revision 2.120 2010/02/13 17:38:39 fabiankeil
8948 Update entities for 3.0.16 stable.
8950 Revision 2.119 2010/02/13 16:37:37 fabiankeil
8951 Update 'What's new?' section.
8953 Revision 2.118 2010/02/11 13:59:48 fabiankeil
8954 Mention that the headers added by the add-header action aren't modified by other actions.
8956 Revision 2.117 2010/01/11 12:56:04 fabiankeil
8957 Bump copyright range as p-config.sgml's copyright line is only used in the config file.
8959 Revision 2.116 2009/11/15 14:24:12 fabiankeil
8960 Prepare to generate docs for 3.0.16 UNRELEASED.
8962 Revision 2.115 2009/10/10 06:19:34 fabiankeil
8963 Ditch a duplicated 'since'.
8965 Revision 2.114 2009/10/10 05:51:48 fabiankeil
8966 Update "What's new" section.
8968 Revision 2.113 2009/10/10 05:48:55 fabiankeil
8969 Prepare for 3.0.15 beta.
8971 Revision 2.112 2009/07/24 12:20:30 fabiankeil
8972 Remove duplicated period.
8974 Revision 2.111 2009/07/18 18:11:11 fabiankeil
8975 Don't claim that NTLM should work when there are multiple reports that it doesn't.
8977 Revision 2.110 2009/07/18 16:25:17 fabiankeil
8978 Fix trailing whitespace.
8980 Revision 2.109 2009/07/18 16:24:39 fabiankeil
8981 Bump entities for 3.0.14 beta.
8983 Revision 2.108 2009/07/18 15:49:23 fabiankeil
8984 Add most of the changes in 3.0.14 to the "What's New" section.
8986 Revision 2.107 2009/06/12 14:30:58 fabiankeil
8987 Update entities for 3.0.13 beta.
8989 Revision 2.106 2009/06/12 11:04:13 fabiankeil
8990 Import ChangeLog for 3.0.13 beta.
8992 Revision 2.105 2009/04/17 11:32:57 fabiankeil
8993 Grammar and spelling fixes.
8995 Revision 2.104 2009/04/17 11:27:49 fabiankeil
8996 Petr Pisar's privoxy-3.0.12-ipv6-3.diff.
8998 Revision 2.103 2009/03/21 10:49:05 fabiankeil
8999 Merge updated ChangeLog.
9001 Revision 2.102 2009/03/15 19:31:36 fabiankeil
9002 Update "What's New in this Release" section.
9004 Revision 2.101 2009/02/25 19:01:56 fabiankeil
9007 Revision 2.100 2009/02/19 17:14:11 fabiankeil
9008 - Copy the release cycle description from announce.txt into
9009 the "What's New" section.
9010 - Stop referring to the ChangeLog for a "complete list of changes".
9011 The "What's New" section already contains the complete list.
9013 Revision 2.99 2009/02/19 02:20:22 hal9
9014 Make some links in seealso conditional. Man page is now privoxy only links.
9016 Revision 2.98 2009/02/16 17:10:33 fabiankeil
9017 Fix entry about shortened log messages. Noticed by Lee.
9019 Revision 2.97 2009/02/14 18:01:00 fabiankeil
9022 Revision 2.96 2009/02/14 13:14:03 fabiankeil
9025 Revision 2.95 2009/02/14 12:51:26 fabiankeil
9026 Mention match-all.action in the "Actions Files Tutorial" section.
9028 Revision 2.94 2009/02/14 11:50:31 fabiankeil
9029 Some indentation fixes.
9031 Revision 2.93 2009/02/14 10:14:42 fabiankeil
9032 Mention match-all.action in the action file descriptions.
9034 Revision 2.92 2009/02/12 16:08:26 fabiankeil
9035 Declare the code stable.
9037 Revision 2.91 2009/01/13 16:50:35 fabiankeil
9038 The standard.action file is gone.
9040 Revision 2.90 2008/09/26 16:53:09 fabiankeil
9041 Update "What's new" section.
9043 Revision 2.89 2008/09/21 15:38:56 fabiankeil
9044 Fix Portage tree sync instructions in Gentoo section.
9045 Anonymously reported at ijbswa-developers@.
9047 Revision 2.88 2008/09/21 14:42:52 fabiankeil
9048 Add documentation for change-x-forwarded-for{},
9049 remove documentation for hide-forwarded-for-headers.
9051 Revision 2.87 2008/08/30 15:37:35 fabiankeil
9054 Revision 2.86 2008/08/16 10:12:23 fabiankeil
9055 Merge two sentences and move the URL to the end of the item.
9057 Revision 2.85 2008/08/16 10:04:59 fabiankeil
9058 Some more syntax fixes. This version actually builds.
9060 Revision 2.84 2008/08/16 09:42:45 fabiankeil
9061 Turns out building docs works better if the syntax is valid.
9063 Revision 2.83 2008/08/16 09:32:02 fabiankeil
9064 Mention changes since 3.0.9 beta.
9066 Revision 2.82 2008/08/16 09:00:52 fabiankeil
9067 Fix example URL pattern (once more with feeling).
9069 Revision 2.81 2008/08/16 08:51:28 fabiankeil
9070 Update version-related entities.
9072 Revision 2.80 2008/07/18 16:54:30 fabiankeil
9073 Remove erroneous whitespace in documentation link.
9074 Reported by John Chronister in #2021611.
9076 Revision 2.79 2008/06/27 18:00:53 markm68k
9077 remove outdated startup information for mac os x
9079 Revision 2.78 2008/06/21 17:03:03 fabiankeil
9082 Revision 2.77 2008/06/14 13:45:22 fabiankeil
9083 Re-add a colon I unintentionally removed a few revisions ago.
9085 Revision 2.76 2008/06/14 13:21:28 fabiankeil
9086 Prepare for the upcoming 3.0.9 beta release.
9088 Revision 2.75 2008/06/13 16:06:48 fabiankeil
9089 Update the "What's New in this Release" section with
9090 the ChangeLog entries changelog2doc.pl could handle.
9092 Revision 2.74 2008/05/26 15:55:46 fabiankeil
9093 - Update "default profiles" table.
9094 - Add some more pcrs redirect examples and note that
9095 enabling debug 128 helps to get redirects working.
9097 Revision 2.73 2008/05/23 14:43:18 fabiankeil
9098 Remove previously out-commented block that caused syntax problems.
9100 Revision 2.72 2008/05/12 10:26:14 fabiankeil
9101 Synchronize content filter descriptions with the ones in default.filter.
9103 Revision 2.71 2008/04/10 17:37:16 fabiankeil
9104 Actually we use "modern" POSIX 1003.2 regular
9105 expressions in path patterns, not PCRE.
9107 Revision 2.70 2008/04/10 15:59:12 fabiankeil
9108 Add another section to the client-header-tagger example that shows
9109 how to actually change the action settings once the tag is created.
9111 Revision 2.69 2008/03/29 12:14:25 fabiankeil
9112 Remove send-wafer and send-vanilla-wafer actions.
9114 Revision 2.68 2008/03/28 15:13:43 fabiankeil
9115 Remove inspect-jpegs action.
9117 Revision 2.67 2008/03/27 18:31:21 fabiankeil
9118 Remove kill-popups action.
9120 Revision 2.66 2008/03/06 16:33:47 fabiankeil
9121 If limit-connect isn't used, don't limit CONNECT requests to port 443.
9123 Revision 2.65 2008/03/04 18:30:40 fabiankeil
9124 Remove the treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks action. We now
9125 use the "blocked" page for forbidden CONNECT requests by default.
9127 Revision 2.64 2008/03/01 14:10:28 fabiankeil
9128 Use new block syntax. Still needs some polishing.
9130 Revision 2.63 2008/02/22 05:50:37 markm68k
9133 Revision 2.62 2008/02/11 11:52:23 hal9
9134 Fix entity ... s/&/&
9136 Revision 2.61 2008/02/11 03:41:47 markm68k
9137 more updates for mac os x
9139 Revision 2.60 2008/02/11 03:40:25 markm68k
9140 more updates for mac os x
9142 Revision 2.59 2008/02/11 00:52:34 markm68k
9143 reflect new changes for mac os x
9145 Revision 2.58 2008/02/03 21:37:40 hal9
9146 Apply patch from Mark: s/OSX/OS X/
9148 Revision 2.57 2008/02/03 19:10:14 fabiankeil
9149 Mention forward-socks5.
9151 Revision 2.56 2008/01/31 19:11:35 fabiankeil
9152 Let the +client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation} example apply
9153 to all requests as "tainted" Referers aren't limited to exit TLDs.
9155 Revision 2.55 2008/01/19 21:26:37 hal9
9156 Add IE7 to configuration section per Gerry.
9158 Revision 2.54 2008/01/19 17:52:39 hal9
9159 Re-commit to fix various minor issues for new release.
9161 Revision 2.53 2008/01/19 15:03:05 hal9
9162 Doc sources tagged for 3.0.8 release.
9164 Revision 2.52 2008/01/17 01:49:51 hal9
9165 Change copyright notice for docs s/2007/2008/. All these will be rebuilt soon
9168 Revision 2.51 2007/12/23 16:48:24 fabiankeil
9169 Use more precise example descriptions for the mysterious domain patterns.
9171 Revision 2.50 2007/12/08 12:44:36 fabiankeil
9172 - Remove already commented out pre-3.0.7 changes.
9173 - Update the "new log defaults" paragraph.
9175 Revision 2.49 2007/12/06 18:21:55 fabiankeil
9176 Update hide-forwarded-for-headers description.
9178 Revision 2.48 2007/11/24 19:07:17 fabiankeil
9179 - Mention request rewriting.
9180 - Enable the conditional-forge paragraph.
9183 Revision 2.47 2007/11/18 14:59:47 fabiankeil
9184 A few "Note to Upgraders" updates.
9186 Revision 2.46 2007/11/17 17:24:44 fabiankeil
9187 - Use new action defaults.
9188 - Minor fixes and rewordings.
9190 Revision 2.45 2007/11/16 11:48:46 hal9
9191 Fix one typo, and add a couple of small refinements.
9193 Revision 2.44 2007/11/15 03:30:20 hal9
9194 Results of spell check.
9196 Revision 2.43 2007/11/14 18:45:39 fabiankeil
9197 - Mention some more contributors in the "New in this Release" list.
9200 Revision 2.42 2007/11/12 03:32:40 hal9
9201 Updates for "What's New" and "Notes to Upgraders". Various other changes in
9202 preparation for new release. User Manual is almost ready.
9204 Revision 2.41 2007/11/11 16:32:11 hal9
9205 This is primarily syncing What's New and Note to Upgraders sections with the many
9206 new features and changes (gleaned from memory but mostly from ChangeLog).
9208 Revision 2.40 2007/11/10 17:10:59 fabiankeil
9209 In the first third of the file, mention several times that
9210 the action editor is disabled by default in 3.0.7 beta and later.
9212 Revision 2.39 2007/11/05 02:34:49 hal9
9213 Various changes in preparation for the upcoming release. Much yet to be done.
9215 Revision 2.38 2007/09/22 16:01:42 fabiankeil
9216 Update embedded show-url-info output.
9218 Revision 2.37 2007/08/27 16:09:55 fabiankeil
9219 Fix pre-chroot-nslookup description which I failed to
9220 copy and paste properly. Reported by Stephen Gildea.
9222 Revision 2.36 2007/08/26 16:47:14 fabiankeil
9223 Add Stephen Gildea's pre-chroot-nslookup patch [#1276666],
9224 extensive comments moved to user manual.
9226 Revision 2.35 2007/08/26 14:59:49 fabiankeil
9227 Minor rewordings and fixes.
9229 Revision 2.34 2007/08/05 15:19:50 fabiankeil
9230 - Don't claim HTTP/1.1 compliance.
9231 - Use $ in some of the path pattern examples.
9232 - Use a hide-user-agent example argument without
9233 leading and trailing space.
9234 - Make it clear that the cookie actions work with
9236 - Rephrase the inspect-jpegs text to underline
9237 that it's only meant to protect against a single
9240 Revision 2.33 2007/07/27 10:57:35 hal9
9241 Add references for user-agent strings for hide-user-agenet
9243 Revision 2.32 2007/06/07 12:36:22 fabiankeil
9244 Apply Roland's 29_usermanual.dpatch to fix a bunch
9245 of syntax errors I collected over the last months.
9247 Revision 2.31 2007/06/02 14:01:37 fabiankeil
9248 Start to document forward-override{}.
9250 Revision 2.30 2007/04/25 15:10:36 fabiankeil
9251 - Describe installation for FreeBSD.
9252 - Start to document taggers and tag patterns.
9253 - Don't confuse devils and daemons.
9255 Revision 2.29 2007/04/05 11:47:51 fabiankeil
9256 Some updates regarding header filtering,
9257 handling of compressed content and redirect's
9258 support for pcrs commands.
9260 Revision 2.28 2006/12/10 23:42:48 hal9
9261 Fix various typos reported by Adam P. Thanks.
9263 Revision 2.27 2006/11/14 01:57:47 hal9
9264 Dump all docs prior to 3.0.6 release. Various minor changes to faq and user
9267 Revision 2.26 2006/10/24 11:16:44 hal9
9270 Revision 2.25 2006/10/18 10:50:33 hal9
9271 Add note that since filters are off in Cautious, compression is ON. Turn off
9272 compression to make filters work on all sites.
9274 Revision 2.24 2006/10/03 11:13:54 hal9
9275 More references to the new filters. Include html this time around.
9277 Revision 2.23 2006/10/02 22:43:53 hal9
9278 Contains new filter definitions from Fabian, and few other miscellaneous
9281 Revision 2.22 2006/09/22 01:27:55 hal9
9282 Final commit of probably various minor changes here and there. Unless
9283 something changes this should be ready for pending release.
9285 Revision 2.21 2006/09/20 03:21:36 david__schmidt
9286 Just the tiniest tweak. Wafer thin!
9288 Revision 2.20 2006/09/10 14:53:54 hal9
9289 Results of spell check. User manual has some updates to standard.actions file
9292 Revision 2.19 2006/09/08 12:19:02 fabiankeil
9293 Adjust hide-if-modified-since example values
9294 to reflect the recent changes.
9296 Revision 2.18 2006/09/08 02:38:57 hal9
9298 -Fix a number of broken links.
9299 -Migrate the new Windows service command line options, and reference as
9301 -Rebuild so that can be used with the new "user-manual" config capabilities.
9304 Revision 2.17 2006/09/05 13:25:12 david__schmidt
9305 Add Windows service invocation stuff (duplicated) in FAQ and in user manual under Windows startup. One probably ought to reference the other.
9307 Revision 2.16 2006/09/02 12:49:37 hal9
9308 Various small updates for new actions, filterfiles, etc.
9310 Revision 2.15 2006/08/30 11:15:22 hal9
9311 More work on the new actions, especially filter-*-headers, and What's New
9312 section. User Manual is close to final form for 3.0.4 release. Some tinkering
9313 and proof reading left to do.
9315 Revision 2.14 2006/08/29 10:59:36 hal9
9316 Add a "Whats New in this release" Section. Further work on multiple filter
9317 files, and assorted other minor changes.
9319 Revision 2.13 2006/08/22 11:04:59 hal9
9320 Silence warnings and errors. This should build now. New filters were only
9321 stubbed in. More to be done.
9323 Revision 2.12 2006/08/14 08:40:39 fabiankeil
9324 Documented new actions that were part of
9325 the "minor Privoxy improvements".
9327 Revision 2.11 2006/07/18 14:48:51 david__schmidt
9328 Reorganizing the repository: swapping out what was HEAD (the old 3.1 branch)
9329 with what was really the latest development (the v_3_0_branch branch)
9331 Revision 1.123.2.43 2005/05/23 09:59:10 hal9
9334 Revision 1.123.2.42 2004/12/04 14:39:57 hal9
9335 Fix two minor typos per bug SF report.
9337 Revision 1.123.2.41 2004/03/23 12:58:42 oes
9340 Revision 1.123.2.40 2004/02/27 12:48:49 hal9
9341 Add comment re: redirecting to local file system for set-image-blocker may
9342 is dependent on browser.
9344 Revision 1.123.2.39 2004/01/30 22:31:40 oes
9345 Added a hint re bookmarklets to Quickstart section
9347 Revision 1.123.2.38 2004/01/30 16:47:51 oes
9348 Some minor clarifications
9350 Revision 1.123.2.37 2004/01/29 22:36:11 hal9
9351 Updates for no longer filtering text/plain, and demoronizer default settings,
9352 and copyright notice dates.
9354 Revision 1.123.2.36 2003/12/10 02:26:26 hal9
9355 Changed the demoronizer filter description.
9357 Revision 1.123.2.35 2003/11/06 13:36:37 oes
9358 Updated link to nightly CVS tarball
9360 Revision 1.123.2.34 2003/06/26 23:50:16 hal9
9361 Add a small bit on filtering and problems re: source code being corrupted.
9363 Revision 1.123.2.33 2003/05/08 18:17:33 roro
9364 Use apt-get instead of dpkg to install Debian package, which is more
9365 solid, uses the correct and most recent Debian version automatically.
9367 Revision 1.123.2.32 2003/04/11 03:13:57 hal9
9368 Add small note about only one filterfile (as opposed to multiple actions
9371 Revision 1.123.2.31 2003/03/26 02:03:43 oes
9372 Updated hard-coded copyright dates
9374 Revision 1.123.2.30 2003/03/24 12:58:56 hal9
9375 Add new section on Predefined Filters.
9377 Revision 1.123.2.29 2003/03/20 02:45:29 hal9
9378 More problems with \-\-chroot causing markup problems :(
9380 Revision 1.123.2.28 2003/03/19 00:35:24 hal9
9381 Manual edit of revision log because 'chroot' (even inside a comment) was
9382 causing Docbook to hang here (due to double hyphen and the processor thinking
9385 Revision 1.123.2.27 2003/03/18 19:37:14 oes
9386 s/Advanced|Radical/Adventuresome/g to avoid complaints re fun filter
9388 Revision 1.123.2.26 2003/03/17 16:50:53 oes
9389 Added documentation for new chroot option
9391 Revision 1.123.2.25 2003/03/15 18:36:55 oes
9392 Adapted to the new filters
9394 Revision 1.123.2.24 2002/11/17 06:41:06 hal9
9395 Move default profiles table from FAQ to U-M, and other minor related changes.
9398 Revision 1.123.2.23 2002/10/21 02:32:01 hal9
9399 Updates to the user.action examples section. A few new ones.
9401 Revision 1.123.2.22 2002/10/12 00:51:53 hal9
9402 Add demoronizer to filter section.
9404 Revision 1.123.2.21 2002/10/10 04:09:35 hal9
9405 s/Advanced/Radical/ and added very brief note.
9407 Revision 1.123.2.20 2002/10/10 03:49:21 hal9
9408 Add notes to session-cookies-only and Quickstart about pre-existing
9409 cookies. Also, note content-cookies work differently.
9411 Revision 1.123.2.19 2002/09/26 01:25:36 hal9
9412 More explanation on Privoxy patterns, more on content-cookies and SSL.
9414 Revision 1.123.2.18 2002/08/22 23:47:58 hal9
9415 Add 'Documentation' to Privoxy Menu shot in Configuration section to match
9418 Revision 1.123.2.17 2002/08/18 01:13:05 hal9
9419 Spell checked (only one typo this time!).
9421 Revision 1.123.2.16 2002/08/09 19:20:54 david__schmidt
9422 Update to Mac OS X startup script name
9424 Revision 1.123.2.15 2002/08/07 17:32:11 oes
9425 Converted some internal links from ulink to link for PDF creation; no content changed
9427 Revision 1.123.2.14 2002/08/06 09:16:13 oes
9428 Nits re: actions file download
9430 Revision 1.123.2.13 2002/08/02 18:23:19 g_sauthoff
9431 Just 2 small corrections to the Gentoo sections
9433 Revision 1.123.2.12 2002/08/02 18:17:21 g_sauthoff
9434 Added 2 Gentoo sections
9436 Revision 1.123.2.11 2002/07/26 15:20:31 oes
9437 - Added version info to title
9438 - Added info on new filters
9439 - Revised parts of the filter file tutorial
9440 - Added info on where to get updated actions files
9442 Revision 1.123.2.10 2002/07/25 21:42:29 hal9
9443 Add brief notes on not proxying non-HTTP protocols.
9445 Revision 1.123.2.9 2002/07/11 03:40:28 david__schmidt
9447 Updated Mac OS X sections due to installation location change
9449 Revision 1.123.2.8 2002/06/09 16:36:32 hal9
9450 Clarifications on filtering and MIME. Hardcode 'latest release' in index.html.
9452 Revision 1.123.2.7 2002/06/09 00:29:34 hal9
9453 Touch ups on filtering, in actions section and Anatomy.
9455 Revision 1.123.2.6 2002/06/06 23:11:03 hal9
9456 Fix broken link. Linkchecked all docs.
9458 Revision 1.123.2.5 2002/05/29 02:01:02 hal9
9459 This is break out of the entire config section from u-m, so it can
9460 eventually be used to generate the comments, etc in the main config file
9461 so that these are in sync with each other.
9463 Revision 1.123.2.4 2002/05/27 03:28:45 hal9
9464 Ooops missed something from David.
9466 Revision 1.123.2.3 2002/05/27 03:23:17 hal9
9467 Fix FIXMEs for OS2 and Mac OS X startup. Fix Redhat typos (should be Red Hat).
9468 That's a wrap, I think.
9470 Revision 1.123.2.2 2002/05/26 19:02:09 hal9
9471 Move Amiga stuff around to take of FIXME in start up section.
9473 Revision 1.123.2.1 2002/05/26 17:04:25 hal9
9474 -Spellcheck, very minor edits, and sync across branches
9476 Revision 1.123 2002/05/24 23:19:23 hal9
9477 Include new image (Proxy setup). More fun with guibutton.
9478 Minor corrections/clarifications here and there.
9480 Revision 1.122 2002/05/24 13:24:08 oes
9481 Added Bookmarklet for one-click pre-filled access to show-url-info
9483 Revision 1.121 2002/05/23 23:20:17 oes
9484 - Changed more (all?) references to actions to the
9485 <literal><link> style.
9486 - Small fixes in the actions chapter
9487 - Small clarifications in the quickstart to ad blocking
9488 - Removed <emphasis> from <title>s since the new doc CSS
9489 renders them red (bad in TOC).
9491 Revision 1.120 2002/05/23 19:16:43 roro
9492 Correct Debian specials (installation and startup).
9494 Revision 1.119 2002/05/22 17:17:05 oes
9497 Revision 1.118 2002/05/21 04:54:55 hal9
9498 -New Section: Quickstart to Ad Blocking
9499 -Reformat Actions Anatomy to match new CGI layout
9501 Revision 1.117 2002/05/17 13:56:16 oes
9502 - Reworked & extended Templates chapter
9503 - Small changes to Regex appendix
9504 - #included authors.sgml into (C) and hist chapter
9506 Revision 1.116 2002/05/17 03:23:46 hal9
9507 Fixing merge conflict in Quickstart section.
9509 Revision 1.115 2002/05/16 16:25:00 oes
9510 Extended the Filter File chapter & minor fixes
9512 Revision 1.114 2002/05/16 09:42:50 oes
9513 More ulink->link, added some hints to Quickstart section
9515 Revision 1.113 2002/05/15 21:07:25 oes
9516 Extended and further commented the example actions files
9518 Revision 1.112 2002/05/15 03:57:14 hal9
9519 Spell check. A few minor edits here and there for better syntax and
9522 Revision 1.111 2002/05/14 23:01:36 oes
9525 Revision 1.110 2002/05/14 19:10:45 oes
9526 Restored alphabetical order of actions
9528 Revision 1.109 2002/05/14 17:23:11 oes
9529 Renamed the prevent-*-cookies actions, extended aliases section and moved it before the example AFs
9531 Revision 1.108 2002/05/14 15:29:12 oes
9532 Completed proofreading the actions chapter
9534 Revision 1.107 2002/05/12 03:20:41 hal9
9535 Small clarifications for 127.0.0.1 vs localhost for listen-address since this
9536 apparently an important distinction for some OS's.
9538 Revision 1.106 2002/05/10 01:48:20 hal9
9539 This is mostly proposed copyright/licensing additions and changes. Docs
9540 are still GPL, but licensing and copyright are more visible. Also, copyright
9541 changed in doc header comments (eliminate references to JB except FAQ).
9543 Revision 1.105 2002/05/05 20:26:02 hal9
9544 Sorting out license vs copyright in these docs.
9546 Revision 1.104 2002/05/04 08:44:45 swa
9549 Revision 1.103 2002/05/04 00:40:53 hal9
9550 -Remove the TOC first page kludge. It's fixed proper now in ldp.dsl.in.
9551 -Some minor additions to Quickstart.
9553 Revision 1.102 2002/05/03 17:46:00 oes
9554 Further proofread & reactivated short build instructions
9556 Revision 1.101 2002/05/03 03:58:30 hal9
9557 Move the user-manual config directive to top of section. Add note about
9558 Privoxy needing read permissions for configs, and write for logs.
9560 Revision 1.100 2002/04/29 03:05:55 hal9
9561 Add clarification on differences of new actions files.
9563 Revision 1.99 2002/04/28 16:59:05 swa
9564 more structure in starting section
9566 Revision 1.98 2002/04/28 05:43:59 hal9
9567 This is the break up of configuration.html into multiple files. This
9568 will probably break links elsewhere :(
9570 Revision 1.97 2002/04/27 21:04:42 hal9
9571 -Rewrite of Actions File example.
9572 -Add section for user-manual directive in config.
9574 Revision 1.96 2002/04/27 05:32:00 hal9
9575 -Add short section to Filter Files to tie in with +filter action.
9576 -Start rewrite of examples in Actions Examples (not finished).
9578 Revision 1.95 2002/04/26 17:23:29 swa
9579 bookmarks cleaned, changed structure of user manual, screen and programlisting cleanups, and numerous other changes that I forgot
9581 Revision 1.94 2002/04/26 05:24:36 hal9
9582 -Add most of Andreas suggestions to Chain of Events section.
9583 -A few other minor corrections and touch up.
9585 Revision 1.92 2002/04/25 18:55:13 hal9
9586 More catchups on new actions files, and new actions names.
9587 Other assorted cleanups, and minor modifications.
9589 Revision 1.91 2002/04/24 02:39:31 hal9
9590 Add 'Chain of Events' section.
9592 Revision 1.90 2002/04/23 21:41:25 hal9
9593 Linuxconf is deprecated on RH, substitute chkconfig.
9595 Revision 1.89 2002/04/23 21:05:28 oes
9596 Added hint for startup on Red Hat
9598 Revision 1.88 2002/04/23 05:37:54 hal9
9599 Add AmigaOS install stuff.
9601 Revision 1.87 2002/04/23 02:53:15 david__schmidt
9602 Updated Mac OS X installation section
9603 Added a few English tweaks here an there
9605 Revision 1.86 2002/04/21 01:46:32 hal9
9606 Re-write actions section.
9608 Revision 1.85 2002/04/18 21:23:23 hal9
9609 Fix ugly typo (mine).
9611 Revision 1.84 2002/04/18 21:17:13 hal9
9612 Spell Redhat correctly (ie Red Hat). A few minor grammar corrections.
9614 Revision 1.83 2002/04/18 18:21:12 oes
9615 Added RPM install detail
9617 Revision 1.82 2002/04/18 12:04:50 oes
9620 Revision 1.81 2002/04/18 11:50:24 oes
9621 Extended Install section - needs fixing by packagers
9623 Revision 1.80 2002/04/18 10:45:19 oes
9624 Moved text to buildsource.sgml, renamed some filters, details
9626 Revision 1.79 2002/04/18 03:18:06 hal9
9627 Spellcheck, and minor touchups.
9629 Revision 1.78 2002/04/17 18:04:16 oes
9632 Revision 1.77 2002/04/17 13:51:23 oes
9633 Proofreading, part one
9635 Revision 1.76 2002/04/16 04:25:51 hal9
9636 -Added 'Note to Upgraders' and re-ordered the 'Quickstart' section.
9637 -Note about proxy may need requests to re-read config files.
9639 Revision 1.75 2002/04/12 02:08:48 david__schmidt
9640 Remove OS/2 building info... it is already in the developer-manual
9642 Revision 1.74 2002/04/11 00:54:38 hal9
9643 Add small section on submitting actions.
9645 Revision 1.73 2002/04/10 18:45:15 swa
9648 Revision 1.72 2002/04/10 04:06:19 hal9
9649 Added actions feedback to Bookmarklets section
9651 Revision 1.71 2002/04/08 22:59:26 hal9
9652 Version update. Spell chkconfig correctly :)
9654 Revision 1.70 2002/04/08 20:53:56 swa
9657 Revision 1.69 2002/04/06 05:07:29 hal9
9658 -Add privoxy-man-page.sgml, for man page.
9659 -Add authors.sgml for AUTHORS (and p-authors.sgml)
9660 -Reworked various aspects of various docs.
9661 -Added additional comments to sub-docs.
9663 Revision 1.68 2002/04/04 18:46:47 swa
9664 consistent look. reuse of copyright, history et. al.
9666 Revision 1.67 2002/04/04 17:27:57 swa
9667 more single file to be included at multiple points. make maintaining easier
9669 Revision 1.66 2002/04/04 06:48:37 hal9
9670 Structural changes to allow for conditional inclusion/exclusion of content
9671 based on entity toggles, e.g. 'entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE"'. And
9672 definition of internal entities, e.g. 'entity p-version "2.9.13"' that will
9673 eventually be set by Makefile.
9674 More boilerplate text for use across multiple docs.
9676 Revision 1.65 2002/04/03 19:52:07 swa
9677 enhance squid section due to user suggestion
9679 Revision 1.64 2002/04/03 03:53:43 hal9
9680 A few minor bug fixes, and touch ups. Ready for review.
9682 Revision 1.63 2002/04/01 16:24:49 hal9
9683 Define entities to include boilerplate text. See doc/source/*.
9685 Revision 1.62 2002/03/30 04:15:53 hal9
9686 - Fix privoxy.org/config links.
9687 - Paste in Bookmarklets from Toggle page.
9688 - Move Quickstart nearer top, and minor rework.
9690 Revision 1.61 2002/03/29 01:31:08 hal9
9693 Revision 1.60 2002/03/27 01:57:34 hal9
9694 Added more to Anatomy section.
9696 Revision 1.59 2002/03/27 00:54:33 hal9
9697 Touch up intro for new name.
9699 Revision 1.58 2002/03/26 22:29:55 swa
9700 we have a new homepage!
9702 Revision 1.57 2002/03/24 20:33:30 hal9
9703 A few minor catch ups with name change.
9705 Revision 1.56 2002/03/24 16:17:06 swa
9706 configure needs to be generated.
9708 Revision 1.55 2002/03/24 16:08:08 swa
9709 we are too lazy to make a block-built
9710 privoxy logo. hence removed the option.
9712 Revision 1.54 2002/03/24 15:46:20 swa
9713 name change related issue.
9715 Revision 1.53 2002/03/24 11:51:00 swa
9716 name change. changed filenames.
9718 Revision 1.52 2002/03/24 11:01:06 swa
9721 Revision 1.51 2002/03/23 15:13:11 swa
9722 renamed every reference to the old name with foobar.
9723 fixed "application foobar application" tag, fixed
9724 "the foobar" with "foobar". left junkbustser in cvs
9725 comments and remarks to history untouched.
9727 Revision 1.50 2002/03/23 05:06:21 hal9
9730 Revision 1.49 2002/03/21 17:01:05 hal9
9731 New section in Appendix.
9733 Revision 1.48 2002/03/12 06:33:01 hal9
9734 Catching up to Andreas and re_filterfile changes.
9736 Revision 1.47 2002/03/11 13:13:27 swa
9737 correct feedback channels
9739 Revision 1.46 2002/03/10 00:51:08 hal9
9740 Added section on JB internal pages in Appendix.
9742 Revision 1.45 2002/03/09 17:43:53 swa
9745 Revision 1.44 2002/03/09 17:08:48 hal9
9746 New section on Jon's actions file editor, and move some stuff around.
9748 Revision 1.43 2002/03/08 00:47:32 hal9
9749 Added imageblock{pattern}.
9751 Revision 1.42 2002/03/07 18:16:55 swa
9754 Revision 1.41 2002/03/07 16:46:43 hal9
9755 Fix a few markup problems for jade.
9757 Revision 1.40 2002/03/07 16:28:39 swa
9758 provide correct feedback channels
9760 Revision 1.39 2002/03/06 16:19:28 hal9
9761 Note on perceived filtering slowdown per FR.
9763 Revision 1.38 2002/03/05 23:55:14 hal9
9764 Stupid I did it again. Double hyphen in comment breaks jade.
9766 Revision 1.37 2002/03/05 23:53:49 hal9
9767 jade barfs on '- -' embedded in comments. - -user option broke it.
9769 Revision 1.36 2002/03/05 22:53:28 hal9
9770 Add new - - user option.
9772 Revision 1.35 2002/03/05 00:17:27 hal9
9773 Added section on command line options.
9775 Revision 1.34 2002/03/04 19:32:07 oes
9776 Changed default port to 8118
9778 Revision 1.33 2002/03/03 19:46:13 hal9
9779 Emphasis on where/how to report bugs, etc
9781 Revision 1.32 2002/03/03 09:26:06 joergs
9782 AmigaOS changes, config is now loaded from PROGDIR: instead of
9783 AmiTCP:db/junkbuster/ if no configuration file is specified on the
9786 Revision 1.31 2002/03/02 22:45:52 david__schmidt
9789 Revision 1.30 2002/03/02 22:00:14 hal9
9790 Updated 'New Features' list. Ran through spell-checker.
9792 Revision 1.29 2002/03/02 20:34:07 david__schmidt
9793 Update OS/2 build section
9795 Revision 1.28 2002/02/24 14:34:24 jongfoster
9796 Formatting changes. Now changing the doctype to DocBook XML 4.1
9797 will work - no other changes are needed.
9799 Revision 1.27 2002/01/11 14:14:32 hal9
9800 Added a very short section on Templates
9802 Revision 1.26 2002/01/09 20:02:50 hal9
9803 Fix bug re: auto-detect config file changes.
9805 Revision 1.25 2002/01/09 18:20:30 hal9
9806 Touch ups for *.action files.
9808 Revision 1.24 2001/12/02 01:13:42 hal9
9811 Revision 1.23 2001/12/02 00:20:41 hal9
9812 Updates for recent changes.
9814 Revision 1.22 2001/11/05 23:57:51 hal9
9815 Minor update for startup now daemon mode.
9817 Revision 1.21 2001/10/31 21:11:03 hal9
9818 Correct 2 minor errors
9820 Revision 1.18 2001/10/24 18:45:26 hal9
9821 *** empty log message ***
9823 Revision 1.17 2001/10/24 17:10:55 hal9
9824 Catching up with Jon's recent work, and a few other things.
9826 Revision 1.16 2001/10/21 17:19:21 swa
9827 wrong url in documentation
9829 Revision 1.15 2001/10/14 23:46:24 hal9
9830 Various minor changes. Fleshed out SEE ALSO section.
9832 Revision 1.13 2001/10/10 17:28:33 hal9
9835 Revision 1.12 2001/09/28 02:57:04 hal9
9838 Revision 1.11 2001/09/28 02:25:20 hal9
9841 Revision 1.9 2001/09/27 23:50:29 hal9
9842 A few changes. A short section on regular expression in appendix.
9844 Revision 1.8 2001/09/25 00:34:59 hal9
9845 Some additions, and re-arranging.
9847 Revision 1.7 2001/09/24 14:31:36 hal9
9850 Revision 1.6 2001/09/24 14:10:32 hal9
9851 Including David's OS/2 installation instructions.
9853 Revision 1.2 2001/09/13 15:27:40 swa
9856 Revision 1.1 2001/09/12 15:36:41 swa
9857 source files for junkbuster documentation
9859 Revision 1.3 2001/09/10 17:43:59 swa
9860 first proposal of a structure.
9862 Revision 1.2 2001/06/13 14:28:31 swa
9863 docs should have an author.
9865 Revision 1.1 2001/06/13 14:20:37 swa
9866 first import of project's documentation for the webserver.