1 <!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook V3.1//EN" [
2 <!entity % dummy "IGNORE">
3 <!entity supported SYSTEM "supported.sgml">
4 <!entity newfeatures SYSTEM "newfeatures.sgml">
5 <!entity p-intro SYSTEM "privoxy.sgml">
6 <!entity seealso SYSTEM "seealso.sgml">
7 <!entity buildsource SYSTEM "buildsource.sgml">
8 <!entity contacting SYSTEM "contacting.sgml">
9 <!entity history SYSTEM "history.sgml">
10 <!entity copyright SYSTEM "copyright.sgml">
11 <!entity license SYSTEM "license.sgml">
12 <!entity p-authors SYSTEM "p-authors.sgml">
13 <!entity config SYSTEM "p-config.sgml">
14 <!entity p-version "3.0.7">
15 <!entity p-status "beta">
16 <!entity % p-authors-formal "INCLUDE"> <!-- include additional text, etc -->
17 <!entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE">
18 <!entity % p-stable "IGNORE">
19 <!entity % p-text "IGNORE"> <!-- define we are not a text only doc -->
20 <!entity % p-doc "INCLUDE"> <!-- and we are a formal doc -->
21 <!entity % p-readme "IGNORE">
22 <!entity % user-man "IGNORE">
23 <!entity % config-file "IGNORE">
24 <!entity % p-supp-userman "IGNORE"> <!-- Omit some from supported.sgml -->
25 <!entity my-copy "©"> <!-- kludge for docbook2man -->
26 <!entity % draft "IGNORE"> <!-- WIP stuff -->
27 <!entity my-app "<application>Privoxy</application>">
30 File : $Source: /cvsroot/ijbswa/current/doc/source/user-manual.sgml,v $
33 This file belongs into
34 ijbswa.sourceforge.net:/home/groups/i/ij/ijbswa/htdocs/
36 $Id: user-manual.sgml,v 2.49 2007/12/06 18:21:55 fabiankeil Exp $
38 Copyright (C) 2001-2007 Privoxy Developers http://www.privoxy.org/
41 ========================================================================
42 NOTE: Please read developer-manual/documentation.html before touching
43 anything in this, or other Privoxy documentation.
44 ========================================================================
51 <title>Privoxy &p-version; User Manual</title>
55 <!-- Completely the wrong markup, but very little is allowed -->
56 <!-- in this part of an article. FIXME -->
57 <link linkend="copyright">Copyright</link> &my-copy; 2001 - 2007 by
58 <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/">Privoxy Developers</ulink>
62 <pubdate>$Id: user-manual.sgml,v 2.49 2007/12/06 18:21:55 fabiankeil Exp $</pubdate>
66 Note: the following should generate a separate page, and a live link to it,
67 all nicely done. But it doesn't for some mysterious reason. Please leave
68 commented unless it can be fixed proper. For the time being, the
69 copyright/license declarations will be in their own sgml.
82 This is here to keep vim syntax file from breaking :/
83 If I knew enough to fix it, I would.
84 PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE! HB: hal@foobox.net
90 The <citetitle>Privoxy User Manual</citetitle> gives users information on how to
91 install, configure and use <ulink
92 url="http://www.privoxy.org/">Privoxy</ulink>.
95 <!-- Include privoxy.sgml boilerplate: -->
97 <!-- end privoxy.sgml -->
100 You can find the latest version of the <citetitle>Privoxy User Manual</citetitle> at <ulink
101 url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/">http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/</ulink>.
102 Please see the <link linkend="contact">Contact section</link> on how to
103 contact the developers.
107 <!-- Feel free to send a note to the developers at <email>ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net</email>. -->
113 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
114 <sect1 label="1" id="introduction"><title>Introduction</title>
116 This documentation is included with the current &p-status; version of
117 <application>Privoxy</application>, v.&p-version;<![%p-not-stable;[,
118 and is mostly complete at this point. The most up to date reference for the
119 time being is still the comments in the source files and in the individual
120 configuration files. Development of a new version is currently nearing
121 completion, and includes significant changes and enhancements over
122 earlier versions. ]]>.
125 <!-- include only in non-stable versions -->
128 Since this is a &p-status; version, not all new features are well tested. This
129 documentation may be slightly out of sync as a result (especially with
130 CVS sources). And there <emphasis>may be</emphasis> bugs, though hopefully
135 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
136 <sect2 id="features"><title>Features</title>
138 In addition to the core
139 features of ad blocking and
140 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookie</ulink> management,
141 <application>Privoxy</application> provides many supplemental
142 features<![%p-not-stable;[, some of them currently under development]]>,
143 that give the end-user more control, more privacy and more freedom:
145 <!-- Include newfeatures.sgml boilerplate here: -->
147 <!-- end boilerplate -->
152 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
155 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
156 <sect1 id="installation"><title>Installation</title>
159 <application>Privoxy</application> is available both in convenient pre-compiled
160 packages for a wide range of operating systems, and as raw source code.
161 For most users, we recommend using the packages, which can be downloaded from our
162 <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ijbswa/">Privoxy Project
168 On some platforms, the installer may remove previously installed versions, if
169 found. (See below for your platform). In any case <emphasis>be sure to backup
170 your old configuration if it is valuable to you.</emphasis> See the <link
171 linkend="upgradersnote">note to upgraders</link> section below.
174 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
175 <sect2 id="installation-packages"><title>Binary Packages</title>
177 How to install the binary packages depends on your operating system:
180 <!-- XXX: The installation sections should be sorted -->
182 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
183 <sect3 id="installation-pack-rpm"><title>Red Hat and Fedora RPMs</title>
186 RPMs can be installed with <literal>rpm -Uvh privoxy-&p-version;-1.rpm</literal>,
187 and will use <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> for the location
188 of configuration files.
192 Note that on Red Hat, <application>Privoxy</application> will
193 <emphasis>not</emphasis> be automatically started on system boot. You will
194 need to enable that using <command>chkconfig</command>,
195 <command>ntsysv</command>, or similar methods.
199 If you have problems with failed dependencies, try rebuilding the SRC RPM:
200 <literal>rpm --rebuild privoxy-&p-version;-1.src.rpm</literal>. This
201 will use your locally installed libraries and RPM version.
205 Also note that if you have a <application>Junkbuster</application> RPM installed
206 on your system, you need to remove it first, because the packages conflict.
207 Otherwise, RPM will try to remove <application>Junkbuster</application>
208 automatically if found, before installing <application>Privoxy</application>.
212 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
213 <sect3 id="installation-deb"><title>Debian and Ubuntu</title>
215 DEBs can be installed with <literal>apt-get install privoxy</literal>,
216 and will use <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> for the location of
221 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
222 <sect3 id="installation-pack-win"><title>Windows</title>
225 Just double-click the installer, which will guide you through
226 the installation process. You will find the configuration files
227 in the same directory as you installed <application>Privoxy</application> in.
230 Version 3.0.5 beta introduced full <application>Windows</application> service
231 functionality. On Windows only, the <application>Privoxy</application>
232 program has two new command line arguments to install and uninstall
233 <application>Privoxy</application> as a <emphasis>service</emphasis>.
237 <term>Arguments:</term>
240 <replaceable class="parameter">--install</replaceable>[:<replaceable class="parameter">service_name</replaceable>]
243 <replaceable class="parameter">--uninstall</replaceable>[:<replaceable class="parameter">service_name</replaceable>]
249 After invoking <application>Privoxy</application> with
250 <command>--install</command>, you will need to bring up the
251 <application>Windows</application> service console to assign the user you
252 want <application>Privoxy</application> to run under, and whether or not you
253 want it to run whenever the system starts. You can start the
254 <application>Windows</application> services console with the following
255 command: <command>services.msc</command>. If you do not take the manual step
256 of modifying <application>Privoxy's</application> service settings, it will
257 not start. Note too that you will need to give Privoxy a user account that
258 actually exists, or it will not be permitted to
259 write to its log and configuration files.
264 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
265 <sect3 id="installation-pack-bintgz"><title>Solaris <!--, NetBSD, HP-UX--></title>
268 Create a new directory, <literal>cd</literal> to it, then unzip and
269 untar the archive. For the most part, you'll have to figure out where
270 things go. <!-- FIXME, more info needed? -->
274 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
275 <sect3 id="installation-os2"><title>OS/2</title>
278 First, make sure that no previous installations of
279 <application>Junkbuster</application> and / or
280 <application>Privoxy</application> are left on your
281 system. Check that no <application>Junkbuster</application>
282 or <application>Privoxy</application> objects are in
288 Then, just double-click the WarpIN self-installing archive, which will
289 guide you through the installation process. A shadow of the
290 <application>Privoxy</application> executable will be placed in your
291 startup folder so it will start automatically whenever OS/2 starts.
295 The directory you choose to install <application>Privoxy</application>
296 into will contain all of the configuration files.
300 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
301 <sect3 id="installation-mac"><title>Mac OSX</title>
303 Unzip the downloaded file (you can either double-click on the file
304 from the finder, or from the desktop if you downloaded it there).
305 Then, double-click on the package installer icon named
306 <literal>Privoxy.pkg</literal>
307 and follow the installation process.
308 <application>Privoxy</application> will be installed in the folder
309 <literal>/Library/Privoxy</literal>.
310 It will start automatically whenever you start up. To prevent it from
311 starting automatically, remove or rename the folder
312 <literal>/Library/StartupItems/Privoxy</literal>.
315 To start Privoxy by hand, double-click on
316 <literal>StartPrivoxy.command</literal> in the
317 <literal>/Library/Privoxy</literal> folder.
318 Or, type this command in the Terminal:
322 /Library/Privoxy/StartPrivoxy.command
326 You will be prompted for the administrator password.
330 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
331 <sect3 id="installation-amiga"><title>AmigaOS</title>
333 Copy and then unpack the <filename>lha</filename> archive to a suitable location.
334 All necessary files will be installed into <application>Privoxy</application>
335 directory, including all configuration and log files. To uninstall, just
336 remove this directory.
340 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
341 <sect3 id="installation-tbz"><title>FreeBSD</title>
344 Privoxy is part of FreeBSD's Ports Collection, you can build and install
345 it with <literal>cd /usr/ports/www/privoxy; make install clean</literal>.
348 If you don't use the ports, you can fetch and install
349 the package with <literal>pkg_add -r privoxy</literal>.
352 The port skeleton and the package can also be downloaded from the
353 <ulink url="https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118">File Release
354 Page</ulink>, but there's no reason to use them unless you're interested in the
355 beta releases which are only available there.
359 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
360 <sect3 id="installattion-gentoo"><title>Gentoo</title>
362 Gentoo source packages (Ebuilds) for <application>Privoxy</application> are
363 contained in the Gentoo Portage Tree (they are not on the download page,
364 but there is a Gentoo section, where you can see when a new
365 <application>Privoxy</application> Version is added to the Portage Tree).
368 Before installing <application>Privoxy</application> under Gentoo just do
369 first <literal>emerge rsync</literal> to get the latest changes from the
370 Portage tree. With <literal>emerge privoxy</literal> you install the latest
374 Configuration files are in <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename>, the
375 documentation is in <filename>/usr/share/doc/privoxy-&p-version;</filename>
376 and the Log directory is in <filename>/var/log/privoxy</filename>.
382 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
383 <sect2 id="installation-source"><title>Building from Source</title>
386 The most convenient way to obtain the <application>Privoxy</application> sources
387 is to download the source tarball from our
388 <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118&package_id=10571">project download
393 If you like to live on the bleeding edge and are not afraid of using
394 possibly unstable development versions, you can check out the up-to-the-minute
395 version directly from <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/cvs/?group_id=11118">the
396 CVS repository</ulink>.
398 deprecated...out of business.
399 or simply download <ulink
400 url="http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cvstarballs/ijbswa-cvsroot.tar.bz2">the nightly CVS
405 <!-- include buildsource.sgml boilerplate: -->
407 <!-- end boilerplate -->
410 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
411 <sect2 id="installation-keepupdated"><title>Keeping your Installation Up-to-Date</title>
413 As user feedback comes in and development continues, we will make updated versions
414 of both the main <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link> (as a <ulink
415 url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118&release_id=103670">separate
416 package</ulink>) and the software itself (including the actions file) available for
421 If you wish to receive an email notification whenever we release updates of
422 <application>Privoxy</application> or the actions file, <ulink
423 url="http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ijbswa-announce/">subscribe
424 to our announce mailing list</ulink>, ijbswa-announce@lists.sourceforge.net.
428 In order not to lose your personal changes and adjustments when updating
429 to the latest <literal>default.action</literal> file we <emphasis>strongly
430 recommend</emphasis> that you use <literal>user.action</literal> and
431 <literal>user.filter</literal> for your local
432 customizations of <application>Privoxy</application>. See the <link
433 linkend="actions-file">Chapter on actions files</link> for details.
441 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
443 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
444 <sect1 id="whatsnew">
445 <title>What's New in this Release</title>
447 There are many improvements and new features since <application>Privoxy 3.0.6</application>, the last stable release:
454 Two new actions <link
455 linkend="server-header-tagger">server-header-tagger</link>
457 linkend="client-header-tagger">client-header-tagger</link>
458 that can be used to create arbitrary <quote>tags</quote>
459 based on client and server headers.
460 These <quote>tags</quote> can then subsequently be used
461 to control the other actions used for the current request,
462 greatly increasing &my-app;'s flexibility and selectivity. See <link
463 linkend="tag-pattern">tag patterns</link> for more information on tags.
469 Header filtering is done with dedicated header filters now. As a result
470 the actions <quote>filter-client-headers</quote> and <quote>filter-server-headers</quote>
471 that were introduced with <application>Privoxy 3.0.5</application> to apply
472 content filters to the headers have been removed.
473 See the new actions <link
474 linkend="server-header-filter">server-header-filter</link>
476 linkend="client-header-filter">client-header-filter</link> for details.
481 There are four new options for the main <filename>config</filename> file:
488 linkend="allow-cgi-request-crunching">allow-cgi-request-crunching</link>
489 which allows requests for Privoxy's internal CGI pages to be
490 blocked, redirected or (un)trusted like ordinary requests.
496 linkend="split-large-forms">split-large-forms</link>
497 that will work around a browser bug that caused IE6 and IE7 to
498 ignore the Submit button on the Privoxy's edit-actions-for-url CGI
505 linkend="accept-intercepted-requests">accept-intercepted-requests</link>
506 which allows to combine Privoxy with any packet filter to create an
507 intercepting proxy for HTTP/1.1 requests (and for HTTP/1.0 requests
508 with Host header set). This means clients can be forced to use
509 &my-app; even if their proxy settings are configured differently.
515 linkend="templdir">templdir</link>
516 to designate an alternate location for &my-app;'s
517 locally customized CGI templates so that
518 these are not overwritten during upgrades.
526 A new command line option <literal>--pre-chroot-nslookup hostname</literal> to
527 initialize the resolver library before chroot'ing. On some systems this
528 reduces the number of files that must be copied into the chroot tree.
529 (Patch provided by Stephen Gildea)
536 linkend="forward-override">forward-override</link> action
537 allows changing of the forwarding settings through the actions files.
538 Combined with tags, this allows to choose the forwarder based on
539 client headers like the <literal>User-Agent</literal>, or the request origin.
546 linkend="redirect">redirect</link> action can now use regular
547 expression substitutions against the original URL.
553 <application>zlib</application> support is now available as a compile
554 time option to filter compressed content. Patch provided by Wil Mahan.
559 Improve various filters, and add new ones.
566 Include support for RFC 3253 so that <filename>Subversion</filename> works
567 with &my-app;. Patch provided by Petr Kadlec.
573 Logging can be completely turned off by not specifying a logfile directive.
580 A number of improvements to Privoxy's internal CGI pages, including the
581 use of favicons for error and control pages.
587 Many bugfixes, memory leaks addressed, code improvements, and logging
595 For a more detailed list of changes please have a look at the ChangeLog.
598 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
600 <sect2 id="upgradersnote">
601 <title>Note to Upgraders</title>
604 A quick list of things to be aware of before upgrading from earlier
605 versions of <application>Privoxy</application>:
613 The recommended way to upgrade &my-app; is to backup your old
614 configuration files, install the new ones, verify that &my-app;
615 is working correctly and finally merge back your changes using
616 <application>diff</application> and maybe <application>patch</application>.
619 There are a number of new features in each &my-app; release and
620 most of them have to be explicitly enabled in the configuration
621 files. Old configuration files obviously don't do that and due
622 to syntax changes using old configuration files with a new
623 &my-app; isn't always possible anyway.
628 Note that some installers remove earlier versions completely,
629 including configuration files, therefore you should really save
630 any important configuration files!
635 On the other hand, other installers don't overwrite existing configuration
636 files, thinking you will want to do that yourself.
641 <filename>standard.action</filename> now only includes the enabled actions.
642 Not all actions as before.
647 In the default configuration only fatal errors are logged now.
648 You can change that in the <link linkend="DEBUG">debug section</link>
649 of the configuration file. You may also want to enable more verbose
650 logging until you verified that the new &my-app; version is working
657 Three other config file settings are now off by default:
658 <link linkend="enable-remote-toggle">enable-remote-toggle</link>,
659 <link linkend="enable-remote-http-toggle">enable-remote-http-toggle</link>,
660 and <link linkend="enable-edit-actions">enable-edit-actions</link>.
661 If you use or want these, you will need to explicitly enable them, and
662 be aware of the security issues involved.
668 The <quote>filter-client-headers</quote> and
669 <quote>filter-server-headers</quote> actions that were introduced with
670 <application>Privoxy 3.0.5</application> to apply content filters to
671 the headers have been removed and replaced with new actions.
673 linkend="whatsnew">What's New section</link> above.
681 What constitutes a <quote>default</quote> configuration has changed,
682 and you may want to review which actions are <quote>on</quote> by
683 default. This is primarily a matter of emphasis, but some features
684 you may have been used to, may now be <quote>off</quote> by default.
685 There are also a number of new actions and filters you may want to
686 consider, most of which are not fully incorporated into the default
687 settings as yet (see above).
694 The default actions setting is now <literal>Cautious</literal>. Previous
695 releases had a default setting of <literal>Medium</literal>. Experienced
696 users may want to adjust this, as it is fairly conservative by &my-app;
697 standards and past practices. See <ulink
698 url="http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions-list?f=default">
699 http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions-list?f=default</ulink>. New users
700 should try the default settings for a while before turning up the volume.
706 The default setting has filtering turned <emphasis>off</emphasis>, which
707 subsequently means that compression is <emphasis>on</emphasis>. Remember
708 that filtering does not work on compressed pages, so if you use, or want to
709 use, filtering, you will need to force compression off. Example:
713 { +<link linkend="filter">filter</link>{google} +<link linkend="prevent-compression">prevent-compression</link> }
717 Or if you use a number of filters, or filter many sites, you may just want
718 to turn off compression for all sites in
719 <filename>default.action</filename> (or
720 <filename>user.action</filename>).
727 Also, <link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> is
728 off by default now. If you've liked this feature in the past, you may want
729 to turn it back on in <filename>user.action</filename> now.
736 Some installers may not automatically start
737 <application>Privoxy</application> after installation.
748 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
749 <sect1 id="quickstart"><title>Quickstart to Using Privoxy</title>
755 Install <application>Privoxy</application>. See the <link
756 linkend="installation">Installation Section</link> below for platform specific
763 Advanced users and those who want to offer <application>Privoxy</application>
764 service to more than just their local machine should check the <link
765 linkend="config">main config file</link>, especially the <link
766 linkend="access-control">security-relevant</link> options. These are
773 Start <application>Privoxy</application>, if the installation program has
774 not done this already (may vary according to platform). See the section
775 <link linkend="startup">Starting <application>Privoxy</application></link>.
781 Set your browser to use <application>Privoxy</application> as HTTP and
782 HTTPS (SSL) <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_server">proxy</ulink>
783 by setting the proxy configuration for address of
784 <literal>127.0.0.1</literal> and port <literal>8118</literal>.
785 <emphasis>DO NOT</emphasis> activate proxying for <literal>FTP</literal> or
786 any protocols besides HTTP and HTTPS (SSL) unless you intend to prevent your
787 browser from using these protocols.
793 Flush your browser's disk and memory caches, to remove any cached ad images.
794 If using <application>Privoxy</application> to manage
795 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>,
796 you should remove any currently stored cookies too.
802 A default installation should provide a reasonable starting point for
803 most. There will undoubtedly be occasions where you will want to adjust the
804 configuration, but that can be dealt with as the need arises. Little
805 to no initial configuration is required in most cases, you may want
807 <ulink url="config.html#ENABLE-EDIT-ACTIONS">web-based action editor</ulink> though.
808 Be sure to read the warnings first.
811 See the <link linkend="configuration">Configuration section</link> for more
812 configuration options, and how to customize your installation.
813 You might also want to look at the <link
814 linkend="quickstart-ad-blocking">next section</link> for a quick
815 introduction to how <application>Privoxy</application> blocks ads and
822 If you experience ads that slip through, innocent images that are
823 blocked, or otherwise feel the need to fine-tune
824 <application>Privoxy's</application> behavior, take a look at the <link
825 linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>. As a quick start, you might
826 find the <link linkend="act-examples">richly commented examples</link>
827 helpful. You can also view and edit the actions files through the <ulink
828 url="http://config.privoxy.org">web-based user interface</ulink>. The
829 Appendix <quote><link linkend="actionsanat">Troubleshooting: Anatomy of an
830 Action</link></quote> has hints on how to understand and debug actions that
831 <quote>misbehave</quote>.
836 Did anyone test these lately?
840 For easy access to &my-app;'s most important controls, drag the provided
841 <link linkend="bookmarklets">Bookmarklets</link> into your browser's
849 Please see the section <link linkend="contact">Contacting the
850 Developers</link> on how to report bugs, problems with websites or to get
857 Now enjoy surfing with enhanced control, comfort and privacy!
865 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
867 <sect2 id="quickstart-ad-blocking">
868 <title>Quickstart to Ad Blocking</title>
870 NOTE: This section is deliberately redundant for those that don't
871 want to read the whole thing (which is getting lengthy).
874 Ad blocking is but one of <application>Privoxy's</application>
875 array of features. Many of these features are for the technically minded advanced
876 user. But, ad and banner blocking is surely common ground for everybody.
879 This section will provide a quick summary of ad blocking so
880 you can get up to speed quickly without having to read the more extensive
881 information provided below, though this is highly recommended.
884 First a bit of a warning ... blocking ads is much like blocking SPAM: the
885 more aggressive you are about it, the more likely you are to block
886 things that were not intended. And the more likely that some things
887 may not work as intended. So there is a trade off here. If you want
888 extreme ad free browsing, be prepared to deal with more
889 <quote>problem</quote> sites, and to spend more time adjusting the
890 configuration to solve these unintended consequences. In short, there is
891 not an easy way to eliminate <emphasis>all</emphasis> ads. Either take
892 the easy way and settle for <emphasis>most</emphasis> ads blocked with the
893 default configuration, or jump in and tweak it for your personal surfing
894 habits and preferences.
897 Secondly, a brief explanation of <application>Privoxy's </application>
898 <quote>actions</quote>. <quote>Actions</quote> in this context, are
899 the directives we use to tell <application>Privoxy</application> to perform
900 some task relating to HTTP transactions (i.e. web browsing). We tell
901 <application>Privoxy</application> to take some <quote>action</quote>. Each
902 action has a unique name and function. While there are many potential
903 <application>actions</application> in <application>Privoxy's</application>
904 arsenal, only a few are used for ad blocking. <link
905 linkend="actions">Actions</link>, and <link linkend="actions-file">action
906 configuration files</link>, are explained in depth below.
909 Actions are specified in <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration,
910 followed by one or more URLs to which the action should apply. URLs
911 can actually be URL type <link linkend="af-patterns">patterns</link> that use
912 wildcards so they can apply potentially to a range of similar URLs. The
913 actions, together with the URL patterns are called a section.
916 When you connect to a website, the full URL will either match one or more
917 of the sections as defined in <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration,
918 or not. If so, then <application>Privoxy</application> will perform the
919 respective actions. If not, then nothing special happens. Furthermore, web
920 pages may contain embedded, secondary URLs that your web browser will
921 use to load additional components of the page, as it parses the
922 original page's HTML content. An ad image for instance, is just an URL
923 embedded in the page somewhere. The image itself may be on the same server,
924 or a server somewhere else on the Internet. Complex web pages will have many
925 such embedded URLs. &my-app; can deal with each URL individually, so, for
926 instance, the main page text is not touched, but images from such-and-such
931 The most important actions for basic ad blocking are: <literal><link
932 linkend="block">block</link></literal>, <literal><link
933 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>,
935 linkend="handle-as-empty-document">handle-as-empty-document</link></literal>,and
936 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>:
944 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> - this is perhaps
945 the single most used action, and is particularly important for ad blocking.
946 This action stops any contact between your browser and any URL patterns
947 that match this action's configuration. It can be used for blocking ads,
948 but also anything that is determined to be unwanted. By itself, it simply
949 stops any communication with the remote server and sends
950 <application>Privoxy</application>'s own built-in BLOCKED page instead to
951 let you now what has happened (with some exceptions, see below).
957 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> -
958 tells <application>Privoxy</application> to treat this URL as an image.
959 <application>Privoxy</application>'s default configuration already does this
960 for all common image types (e.g. GIF), but there are many situations where this
961 is not so easy to determine. So we'll force it in these cases. This is particularly
962 important for ad blocking, since only if we know that it's an image of
963 some kind, can we replace it with an image of our choosing, instead of the
964 <application>Privoxy</application> BLOCKED page (which would only result in
965 a <quote>broken image</quote> icon). There are some limitations to this
966 though. For instance, you can't just brute-force an image substitution for
967 an entire HTML page in most situations.
973 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-empty-document">handle-as-empty-document</link></literal> -
974 sends an empty document instead of <application>Privoxy's</application>
975 normal BLOCKED HTML page. This is useful for file types that are neither
976 HTML nor images, such as blocking JavaScript files.
983 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal> - tells
984 <application>Privoxy</application> what to display in place of an ad image that
985 has hit a block rule. For this to come into play, the URL must match a
986 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action somewhere in the
987 configuration, <emphasis>and</emphasis>, it must also match an
988 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> action.
991 The configuration options on what to display instead of the ad are:
995 <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> - a checkerboard pattern, so that an ad
996 replacement is obvious. This is the default.
1001 <emphasis>blank</emphasis> - A very small empty GIF image is displayed.
1002 This is the so-called <quote>invisible</quote> configuration option.
1007 <emphasis>http://<URL></emphasis> - A redirect to any image anywhere
1008 of the user's choosing (advanced usage).
1017 Advanced users will eventually want to explore &my-app;
1018 <literal><link linkend="filter">filters</link></literal> as well. Filters
1019 are very different from <literal><link
1020 linkend="block">blocks</link></literal>.
1021 A <quote>block</quote> blocks a site, page, or unwanted contented. Filters
1022 are a way of filtering or modifying what is actually on the page. An example
1023 filter usage: a text replacement of <quote>no-no</quote> for
1024 <quote>nasty-word</quote>. That is a very simple example. This process can be
1025 used for ad blocking, but it is more in the realm of advanced usage and has
1026 some pitfalls to be wary off.
1030 The quickest way to adjust any of these settings is with your browser through
1031 the special <application>Privoxy</application> editor at <ulink
1032 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
1033 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/show-status</ulink>). This
1034 is an internal page, and does not require Internet access.
1038 Note that as of <application>Privoxy</application> 3.0.7 beta the
1039 action editor is disabled by default. Check the
1040 <ulink url="config.html#ENABLE-EDIT-ACTIONS">enable-edit-actions
1041 section in the configuration file</ulink> to learn why and in which
1042 cases it's safe to enable again.
1046 If you decided to enable the action editor, select the appropriate
1047 <quote>actions</quote> file, and click
1048 <quote><guibutton>Edit</guibutton></quote>. It is best to put personal or
1049 local preferences in <filename>user.action</filename> since this is not
1050 meant to be overwritten during upgrades, and will over-ride the settings in
1051 other files. Here you can insert new <quote>actions</quote>, and URLs for ad
1052 blocking or other purposes, and make other adjustments to the configuration.
1053 <application>Privoxy</application> will detect these changes automatically.
1057 A quick and simple step by step example:
1065 Right click on the ad image to be blocked, then select
1066 <quote><guimenuitem>Copy Link Location</guimenuitem></quote> from the
1074 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
1079 Find <filename>user.action</filename> in the top section, and click
1080 on <quote><guibutton>Edit</guibutton></quote>:
1083 <!-- image of editor and actions files selections -->
1085 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Actions Files in Use</title>
1088 <imagedata fileref="files-in-use.jpg" format="jpg">
1091 <phrase>[ Screenshot of Actions Files in Use ]</phrase>
1100 You should have a section with only
1101 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> listed under
1102 <quote>Actions:</quote>.
1103 If not, click a <quote><guibutton>Insert new section below</guibutton></quote>
1104 button, and in the new section that just appeared, click the
1105 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> button right under the word <quote>Actions:</quote>.
1106 This will bring up a list of all actions. Find
1107 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> near the top, and click
1108 in the <quote>Enabled</quote> column, then <quote><guibutton>Submit</guibutton></quote>
1109 just below the list.
1114 Now, in the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> actions section,
1115 click the <quote><guibutton>Add</guibutton></quote> button, and paste the URL the
1116 browser got from <quote><guimenuitem>Copy Link Location</guimenuitem></quote>.
1117 Remove the <literal>http://</literal> at the beginning of the URL. Then, click
1118 <quote><guibutton>Submit</guibutton></quote> (or
1119 <quote><guibutton>OK</guibutton></quote> if in a pop-up window).
1124 Now go back to the original page, and press <keycap>SHIFT-Reload</keycap>
1125 (or flush all browser caches). The image should be gone now.
1133 This is a very crude and simple example. There might be good reasons to use a
1134 wildcard pattern match to include potentially similar images from the same
1135 site. For a more extensive explanation of <quote>patterns</quote>, and
1136 the entire actions concept, see <link linkend="actions-file">the Actions
1141 For advanced users who want to hand edit their config files, you might want
1142 to now go to the <link linkend="act-examples">Actions Files Tutorial</link>.
1143 The ideas explained therein also apply to the web-based editor.
1146 There are also various
1147 <link linkend="filter">filters</link> that can be used for ad blocking
1148 (filters are a special subset of actions). These
1149 fall into the <quote>advanced</quote> usage category, and are explained in
1150 depth in later sections.
1157 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1160 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1161 <sect1 id="startup">
1162 <title>Starting Privoxy</title>
1164 Before launching <application>Privoxy</application> for the first time, you
1165 will want to configure your browser(s) to use
1166 <application>Privoxy</application> as a HTTP and HTTPS (SSL)
1167 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_server">proxy</ulink>. The default is
1168 127.0.0.1 (or localhost) for the proxy address, and port 8118 (earlier versions
1169 used port 8000). This is the one configuration step <emphasis>that must be done
1173 Please note that <application>Privoxy</application> can only proxy HTTP and
1174 HTTPS traffic. It will not work with FTP or other protocols.
1177 <!-- image of Mozilla Proxy configuration -->
1179 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Proxy Configuration Showing
1180 Mozilla/Netscape HTTP and HTTPS (SSL) Settings</title>
1183 <imagedata fileref="proxy_setup.jpg" format="jpg">
1186 <phrase>[ Screenshot of Mozilla Proxy Configuration ]</phrase>
1194 With <application>Firefox</application>, this is typically set under:
1198 <guibutton>Tools</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Options</guibutton> -> <guibutton>General</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Connection Settings</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Manual Proxy Configuration</guibutton>
1203 Or optionally on some platforms:
1207 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Preferences</guibutton> -> <guibutton>General</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Connection Settings</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Manual Proxy Configuration</guibutton>
1213 With <application>Netscape</application> (and
1214 <application>Mozilla</application>), this can be set under:
1219 <!-- Mix ascii and gui art, something for everybody -->
1220 <!-- spacing on this is tricky -->
1221 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Preferences</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Advanced</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Proxies</guibutton> -> <guibutton>HTTP Proxy</guibutton>
1226 For <application>Internet Explorer v.5-6</application>:
1230 <guibutton>Tools</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Internet Options</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Connections</guibutton> -> <guibutton>LAN Settings</guibutton>
1234 Then, check <quote>Use Proxy</quote> and fill in the appropriate info
1235 (Address: 127.0.0.1, Port: 8118). Include HTTPS (SSL), if you want HTTPS
1236 proxy support too (sometimes labeled <quote>Secure</quote>). Make sure any
1237 checkboxes like <quote>Use the same proxy server for all protocols</quote> is
1238 <emphasis>UNCHECKED</emphasis>. You want only HTTP and HTTPS (SSL)!
1241 <!-- image of IE Proxy configuration -->
1243 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Proxy Configuration Showing
1244 Internet Explorer HTTP and HTTPS (Secure) Settings</title>
1247 <imagedata fileref="proxy2.jpg" format="jpg">
1250 <phrase>[ Screenshot of IE Proxy Configuration ]</phrase>
1258 After doing this, flush your browser's disk and memory caches to force a
1259 re-reading of all pages and to get rid of any ads that may be cached. Remove
1260 any <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>,
1261 if you want <application>Privoxy</application> to manage that. You are now
1262 ready to start enjoying the benefits of using
1263 <application>Privoxy</application>!
1267 <application>Privoxy</application> itself is typically started by specifying the
1268 main configuration file to be used on the command line. If no configuration
1269 file is specified on the command line, <application>Privoxy</application>
1270 will look for a file named <filename>config</filename> in the current
1271 directory. Except on Win32 where it will try <filename>config.txt</filename>.
1274 <sect2 id="start-redhat">
1275 <title>Red Hat and Fedora</title>
1277 A default Red Hat installation may not start &my-app; upon boot. It will use
1278 the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename> as its main configuration
1283 # /etc/rc.d/init.d/privoxy start
1291 # service privoxy start
1296 <sect2 id="start-debian">
1297 <title>Debian</title>
1299 We use a script. Note that Debian typically starts &my-app; upon booting per
1300 default. It will use the file
1301 <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename> as its main configuration
1306 # /etc/init.d/privoxy start
1312 omitting 10/31/06 HB
1314 <sect2 id="start-suse">
1317 We use a script. It will use the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename>
1318 as its main configuration file. Note that SuSE starts Privoxy upon booting
1328 <sect2 id="start-windows">
1329 <title>Windows</title>
1331 Click on the &my-app; Icon to start <application>Privoxy</application>. If no configuration file is
1332 specified on the command line, <application>Privoxy</application> will look
1333 for a file named <filename>config.txt</filename>. Note that Windows will
1334 automatically start &my-app; when the system starts if you chose that option
1338 <application>Privoxy</application> can run with full Windows service functionality.
1339 On Windows only, the &my-app; program has two new command line arguments
1340 to install and uninstall &my-app; as a service. See the
1341 <link linkend="installation-pack-win">Windows Installation
1342 instructions</link> for details.
1346 <sect2 id="start-unices">
1347 <title>Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD, HP-UX and others</title>
1349 Example Unix startup command:
1353 # /usr/sbin/privoxy /etc/privoxy/config
1358 <sect2 id="start-os2">
1361 During installation, <application>Privoxy</application> is configured to
1362 start automatically when the system restarts. You can start it manually by
1363 double-clicking on the <application>Privoxy</application> icon in the
1364 <application>Privoxy</application> folder.
1368 <sect2 id="start-macosx">
1369 <title>Mac OSX</title>
1371 During installation, <application>Privoxy</application> is configured to
1372 start automatically when the system restarts. To start &my-app; manually,
1373 double-click on the <literal>StartPrivoxy.command</literal> icon in the
1374 <literal>/Library/Privoxy</literal> folder. Or, type this command
1379 /Library/Privoxy/StartPrivoxy.command
1383 You will be prompted for the administrator password.
1388 <sect2 id="start-amigaos">
1389 <title>AmigaOS</title>
1391 Start <application>Privoxy</application> (with RUN <>NIL:) in your
1392 <filename>startnet</filename> script (AmiTCP), in
1393 <filename>s:user-startup</filename> (RoadShow), as startup program in your
1394 startup script (Genesis), or as startup action (Miami and MiamiDx).
1395 <application>Privoxy</application> will automatically quit when you quit your
1396 TCP/IP stack (just ignore the harmless warning your TCP/IP stack may display that
1397 <application>Privoxy</application> is still running).
1401 <sect2 id="start-gentoo">
1402 <title>Gentoo</title>
1404 A script is again used. It will use the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config
1405 </filename> as its main configuration file.
1409 /etc/init.d/privoxy start
1413 Note that <application>Privoxy</application> is not automatically started at
1414 boot time by default. You can change this with the <literal>rc-update</literal>
1419 rc-update add privoxy default
1427 See the section <link linkend="cmdoptions">Command line options</link> for
1431 must find a better place for this paragraph
1434 The included default configuration files should give a reasonable starting
1435 point. Most of the per site configuration is done in the
1436 <ulink url="actions-file.html"><quote>actions</quote></ulink> files. These are
1437 where various cookie actions are defined, ad and banner blocking, and other
1438 aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. There are several
1439 such files included, with varying levels of aggressiveness.
1443 You will probably want to keep an eye out for sites for which you may prefer
1444 persistent cookies, and add these to your actions configuration as needed. By
1445 default, most of these will be accepted only during the current browser
1446 session (aka <quote>session cookies</quote>), unless you add them to the
1447 configuration. If you want the browser to handle this instead, you will need
1448 to edit <filename>user.action</filename> (or through the web based interface)
1449 and disable this feature. If you use more than one browser, it would make
1450 more sense to let <application>Privoxy</application> handle this. In which
1451 case, the browser(s) should be set to accept all cookies.
1455 Another feature where you will probably want to define exceptions for trusted
1456 sites is the popup-killing (through the <ulink
1457 url="actions-file.html#KILL-POPUPS"><quote>+kill-popups</quote></ulink> and
1459 url="actions-file.html#FILTER-POPUPS"><quote>+filter{popups}</quote></ulink>
1460 actions), because your favorite shopping, banking, or leisure site may need
1461 popups (explained below).
1465 <application>Privoxy</application> does not support all of the optional HTTP/1.1
1466 features yet. In the unlikely event that you experience inexplicable problems
1467 with browsers that use HTTP/1.1 per default
1468 (like <application>Mozilla</application> or recent versions of I.E.), you might
1469 try to force HTTP/1.0 compatibility. For Mozilla, look under <literal>Edit ->
1470 Preferences -> Debug -> Networking</literal>.
1471 Alternatively, set the <quote>+downgrade-http-version</quote> config option in
1472 <filename>default.action</filename> which will downgrade your browser's HTTP
1473 requests from HTTP/1.1 to HTTP/1.0 before processing them.
1477 After running <application>Privoxy</application> for a while, you can
1478 start to fine tune the configuration to suit your personal, or site,
1479 preferences and requirements. There are many, many aspects that can
1480 be customized. <quote>Actions</quote>
1481 can be adjusted by pointing your browser to
1482 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
1483 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
1484 and then follow the link to <quote>View & Change the Current Configuration</quote>.
1485 (This is an internal page and does not require Internet access.)
1489 In fact, various aspects of <application>Privoxy</application>
1490 configuration can be viewed from this page, including
1491 current configuration parameters, source code version numbers,
1492 the browser's request headers, and <quote>actions</quote> that apply
1493 to a given URL. In addition to the actions file
1494 editor mentioned above, <application>Privoxy</application> can also
1495 be turned <quote>on</quote> and <quote>off</quote> (toggled) from this page.
1499 If you encounter problems, try loading the page without
1500 <application>Privoxy</application>. If that helps, enter the URL where
1501 you have the problems into <ulink url="http://p.p/show-url-info">the browser
1502 based rule tracing utility</ulink>. See which rules apply and why, and
1503 then try turning them off for that site one after the other, until the problem
1504 is gone. When you have found the culprit, you might want to turn the rest on
1509 If the above paragraph sounds gibberish to you, you might want to <link
1510 linkend="actions-file">read more about the actions concept</link>
1511 or even dive deep into the <link linkend="actionsanat">Appendix
1516 If you can't get rid of the problem at all, think you've found a bug in
1517 Privoxy, want to propose a new feature or smarter rules, please see the
1518 section <link linkend="contact"><quote>Contacting the
1519 Developers</quote></link> below.
1524 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1525 <sect2 id="cmdoptions">
1526 <title>Command Line Options</title>
1528 <application>Privoxy</application> may be invoked with the following
1529 command-line options:
1537 <emphasis>--version</emphasis>
1540 Print version info and exit. Unix only.
1545 <emphasis>--help</emphasis>
1548 Print short usage info and exit. Unix only.
1553 <emphasis>--no-daemon</emphasis>
1556 Don't become a daemon, i.e. don't fork and become process group
1557 leader, and don't detach from controlling tty. Unix only.
1562 <emphasis>--pidfile FILE</emphasis>
1565 On startup, write the process ID to <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>. Delete the
1566 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> on exit. Failure to create or delete the
1567 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> is non-fatal. If no <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>
1568 option is given, no PID file will be used. Unix only.
1573 <emphasis>--user USER[.GROUP]</emphasis>
1576 After (optionally) writing the PID file, assume the user ID of
1577 <emphasis>USER</emphasis>, and if included the GID of GROUP. Exit if the
1578 privileges are not sufficient to do so. Unix only.
1583 <emphasis>--chroot</emphasis>
1586 Before changing to the user ID given in the <emphasis>--user</emphasis> option,
1587 chroot to that user's home directory, i.e. make the kernel pretend to the &my-app;
1588 process that the directory tree starts there. If set up carefully, this can limit
1589 the impact of possible vulnerabilities in &my-app; to the files contained in that hierarchy.
1595 <emphasis>--pre-chroot-nslookup hostname</emphasis>
1598 Specifies a hostname to look up before doing a chroot. On some systems, initializing the
1599 resolver library involves reading config files from /etc and/or loading additional shared
1600 libraries from /lib. On these systems, doing a hostname lookup before the chroot reduces
1601 the number of files that must be copied into the chroot tree.
1604 For fastest startup speed, a good value is a hostname that is not in /etc/hosts but that
1605 your local name server (listed in /etc/resolv.conf) can resolve without recursion
1606 (that is, without having to ask any other name servers). The hostname need not exist,
1607 but if it doesn't, an error message (which can be ignored) will be output.
1613 <emphasis>configfile</emphasis>
1616 If no <emphasis>configfile</emphasis> is included on the command line,
1617 <application>Privoxy</application> will look for a file named
1618 <quote>config</quote> in the current directory (except on Win32
1619 where it will look for <quote>config.txt</quote> instead). Specify
1620 full path to avoid confusion. If no config file is found,
1621 <application>Privoxy</application> will fail to start.
1629 On <application>MS Windows</application> only there are two additional
1630 command-line options to allow <application>Privoxy</application> to install and
1631 run as a <emphasis>service</emphasis>. See the
1632 <link linkend="installation-pack-win">Window Installation section</link>
1640 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1643 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1644 <sect1 id="configuration"><title>Privoxy Configuration</title>
1646 All <application>Privoxy</application> configuration is stored
1647 in text files. These files can be edited with a text editor.
1648 Many important aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> can
1649 also be controlled easily with a web browser.
1653 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1656 <title>Controlling Privoxy with Your Web Browser</title>
1658 <application>Privoxy</application>'s user interface can be reached through the special
1659 URL <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
1660 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
1661 which is a built-in page and works without Internet access.
1662 You will see the following section:
1666 <!-- Needs to be put in a table and colorized -->
1669 <bridgehead renderas="sect2"> Privoxy Menu</bridgehead>
1673 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">View & change the current configuration</ulink>
1676 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-version">View the source code version numbers</ulink>
1679 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request">View the request headers.</ulink>
1682 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">Look up which actions apply to a URL and why</ulink>
1685 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">Toggle Privoxy on or off</ulink>
1688 ▪ <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/
1689 &p-version;/user-manual/">Documentation</ulink>
1697 This should be self-explanatory. Note the first item leads to an editor for the
1698 <link linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>, which is where the ad, banner,
1699 cookie, and URL blocking magic is configured as well as other advanced features of
1700 <application>Privoxy</application>. This is an easy way to adjust various
1701 aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. The actions
1702 file, and other configuration files, are explained in detail below.
1706 <quote>Toggle Privoxy On or Off</quote> is handy for sites that might
1707 have problems with your current actions and filters. You can in fact use
1708 it as a test to see whether it is <application>Privoxy</application>
1709 causing the problem or not. <application>Privoxy</application> continues
1710 to run as a proxy in this case, but all manipulation is disabled, i.e.
1711 <application>Privoxy</application> acts like a normal forwarding proxy. There
1712 is even a toggle <link linkend="bookmarklets">Bookmarklet</link> offered, so
1713 that you can toggle <application>Privoxy</application> with one click from
1718 Note that several of the features described above are disabled by default
1719 in <application>Privoxy</application> 3.0.7 beta and later.
1721 <ulink url="config.html">configuration file</ulink> to learn why
1722 and in which cases it's safe to enable them again.
1727 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1732 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1734 <sect2 id="confoverview">
1735 <title>Configuration Files Overview</title>
1737 For Unix, *BSD and Linux, all configuration files are located in
1738 <filename>/etc/privoxy/</filename> by default. For MS Windows, OS/2, and
1739 AmigaOS these are all in the same directory as the
1740 <application>Privoxy</application> executable. <![%p-not-stable;[ The name
1741 and number of configuration files has changed from previous versions, and is
1742 subject to change as development progresses.]]>
1746 The installed defaults provide a reasonable starting point, though
1747 some settings may be aggressive by some standards. For the time being, the
1748 principle configuration files are:
1756 The <link linkend="config">main configuration file</link> is named <filename>config</filename>
1757 on Linux, Unix, BSD, OS/2, and AmigaOS and <filename>config.txt</filename>
1758 on Windows. This is a required file.
1764 <filename>default.action</filename> (the main <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link>)
1765 is used to define which <quote>actions</quote> relating to banner-blocking, images, pop-ups,
1766 content modification, cookie handling etc should be applied by default. It also defines many
1767 exceptions (both positive and negative) from this default set of actions that enable
1768 <application>Privoxy</application> to selectively eliminate the junk, and only the junk, on
1769 as many websites as possible.
1772 Multiple actions files may be defined in <filename>config</filename>. These
1773 are processed in the order they are defined. Local customizations and locally
1774 preferred exceptions to the default policies as defined in
1775 <filename>default.action</filename> (which you will most probably want
1776 to define sooner or later) are probably best applied in
1777 <filename>user.action</filename>, where you can preserve them across
1778 upgrades. <filename>standard.action</filename> is only for
1779 <application>Privoxy's</application> internal use.
1782 There is also a web based editor that can be accessed from
1784 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
1786 url="http://p.p/show-status">http://p.p/show-status</ulink>) for the
1787 various actions files.
1793 <quote>Filter files</quote> (the <link linkend="filter-file">filter
1794 file</link>) can be used to re-write the raw page content, including
1795 viewable text as well as embedded HTML and JavaScript, and whatever else
1796 lurks on any given web page. The filtering jobs are only pre-defined here;
1797 whether to apply them or not is up to the actions files.
1798 <filename>default.filter</filename> includes various filters made
1799 available for use by the developers. Some are much more intrusive than
1800 others, and all should be used with caution. You may define additional
1801 filter files in <filename>config</filename> as you can with
1802 actions files. We suggest <filename>user.filter</filename> for any
1803 locally defined filters or customizations.
1811 The syntax of the configuration and filter files may change between different
1812 Privoxy versions, unfortunately some enhancements cost backwards compatibility.
1813 <!-- Add link to documentation-->
1817 All files use the <quote><literal>#</literal></quote> character to denote a
1818 comment (the rest of the line will be ignored) and understand line continuation
1819 through placing a backslash ("<literal>\</literal>") as the very last character
1820 in a line. If the <literal>#</literal> is preceded by a backslash, it looses
1821 its special function. Placing a <literal>#</literal> in front of an otherwise
1822 valid configuration line to prevent it from being interpreted is called "commenting
1823 out" that line. Blank lines are ignored.
1827 The actions files and filter files
1828 can use Perl style <link linkend="regex">regular expressions</link> for
1829 maximum flexibility.
1833 After making any changes, there is no need to restart
1834 <application>Privoxy</application> in order for the changes to take
1835 effect. <application>Privoxy</application> detects such changes
1836 automatically. Note, however, that it may take one or two additional
1837 requests for the change to take effect. When changing the listening address
1838 of <application>Privoxy</application>, these <quote>wake up</quote> requests
1839 must obviously be sent to the <emphasis>old</emphasis> listening address.
1844 While under development, the configuration content is subject to change.
1845 The below documentation may not be accurate by the time you read this.
1846 Also, what constitutes a <quote>default</quote> setting, may change, so
1847 please check all your configuration files on important issues.
1853 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1856 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
1858 <!-- **************************************************** -->
1859 <!-- Include config.sgml here -->
1860 <!-- This is where the entire config file is detailed. -->
1862 <!-- end include -->
1865 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1869 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
1871 <sect1 id="actions-file"><title>Actions Files</title>
1874 The actions files are used to define what <emphasis>actions</emphasis>
1875 <application>Privoxy</application> takes for which URLs, and thus determines
1876 how ad images, cookies and various other aspects of HTTP content and
1877 transactions are handled, and on which sites (or even parts thereof).
1878 There are a number of such actions, with a wide range of functionality.
1879 Each action does something a little different.
1880 These actions give us a veritable arsenal of tools with which to exert
1881 our control, preferences and independence. Actions can be combined so that
1882 their effects are aggregated when applied against a given set of URLs.
1886 are three action files included with <application>Privoxy</application> with
1894 <filename>default.action</filename> - is the primary action file
1895 that sets the initial values for all actions. It is intended to
1896 provide a base level of functionality for
1897 <application>Privoxy's</application> array of features. So it is
1898 a set of broad rules that should work reasonably well as-is for most users.
1899 This is the file that the developers are keeping updated, and <link
1900 linkend="installation-keepupdated">making available to users</link>.
1901 The user's preferences as set in <filename>standard.action</filename>,
1902 e.g. either <literal>Cautious</literal> (the default),
1903 <literal>Medium</literal>, or <literal>Advanced</literal> (see
1909 <filename>user.action</filename> - is intended to be for local site
1910 preferences and exceptions. As an example, if your ISP or your bank
1911 has specific requirements, and need special handling, this kind of
1912 thing should go here. This file will not be upgraded.
1917 <filename>standard.action</filename> - is used only by the web based editor
1918 at <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions-list?f=default">
1919 http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions-list?f=default</ulink>,
1920 to set various pre-defined sets of rules for the default actions section
1921 in <filename>default.action</filename>.
1924 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> <guibutton>Set to Cautious</guibutton> <guibutton>Set to Medium</guibutton> <guibutton>Set to Advanced</guibutton>
1927 These have increasing levels of aggressiveness <emphasis>and have no
1928 influence on your browsing unless you select them explicitly in the
1929 editor</emphasis>. A default installation should be pre-set to
1930 <literal>Cautious</literal> (versions prior to 3.0.5 were set to
1931 <literal>Medium</literal>). New users should try this for a while before
1932 adjusting the settings to more aggressive levels. The more aggressive
1933 the settings, then the more likelihood there is of problems such as sites
1934 not working as they should.
1937 The <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> button allows you to turn each
1938 action on/off individually for fine-tuning. The <guibutton>Cautious</guibutton>
1939 button changes the actions list to low/safe settings which will activate
1940 ad blocking and a minimal set of &my-app;'s features, and subsequently
1941 there will be less of a chance for accidental problems. The
1942 <guibutton>Medium</guibutton> button sets the list to a medium level of
1943 other features and a low level set of privacy features. The
1944 <guibutton>Advanced</guibutton> button sets the list to a high level of
1945 ad blocking and medium level of privacy. See the chart below. The latter
1946 three buttons over-ride any changes via with the
1947 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> button. More fine-tuning can be done in the
1948 lower sections of this internal page.
1951 It is not recommend to edit the <filename>standard.action</filename> file
1955 The default profiles, and their associated actions, as pre-defined in
1956 <filename>standard.action</filename> are<!-- different than this table which is out of date -->:
1959 <table frame=all><title>Default Configurations</title>
1960 <tgroup cols=4 align=left colsep=1 rowsep=1>
1961 <colspec colname=c1>
1962 <colspec colname=c2>
1963 <colspec colname=c3>
1964 <colspec colname=c4>
1967 <entry>Feature</entry>
1968 <entry>Cautious</entry>
1969 <entry>Medium</entry>
1970 <entry>Advanced</entry>
1975 <!-- <entry>f1</entry> -->
1976 <!-- <entry>f2</entry> -->
1977 <!-- <entry>f3</entry> -->
1978 <!-- <entry>f4</entry> -->
1984 <entry>Ad-blocking Aggressiveness</entry>
1985 <entry>medium</entry>
1991 <entry>Ad-filtering by size</entry>
1998 <entry>Ad-filtering by link</entry>
2004 <entry>Pop-up killing</entry>
2005 <entry>blocks only</entry>
2006 <entry>blocks only</entry>
2007 <entry>blocks only</entry>
2011 <entry>Privacy Features</entry>
2013 <entry>medium</entry>
2014 <entry>medium/high</entry>
2018 <entry>Cookie handling</entry>
2020 <entry>session-only</entry>
2025 <entry>Referer forging</entry>
2033 <entry>GIF de-animation</entry>
2041 <entry>Fast redirects</entry>
2048 <entry>HTML taming</entry>
2055 <entry>JavaScript taming</entry>
2062 <entry>Web-bug killing</entry>
2069 <entry>Image tag reordering</entry>
2085 The list of actions files to be used are defined in the main configuration
2086 file, and are processed in the order they are defined (e.g.
2087 <filename>default.action</filename> is typically processed before
2088 <filename>user.action</filename>). The content of these can all be viewed and
2090 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
2091 The over-riding principle when applying actions, is that the last action that
2092 matches a given URL wins. The broadest, most general rules go first
2093 (defined in <filename>default.action</filename>),
2094 followed by any exceptions (typically also in
2095 <filename>default.action</filename>), which are then followed lastly by any
2096 local preferences (typically in <emphasis>user</emphasis><filename>.action</filename>).
2097 Generally, <filename>user.action</filename> has the last word.
2101 An actions file typically has multiple sections. If you want to use
2102 <quote>aliases</quote> in an actions file, you have to place the (optional)
2103 <link linkend="aliases">alias section</link> at the top of that file.
2104 Then comes the default set of rules which will apply universally to all
2105 sites and pages (be <emphasis>very careful</emphasis> with using such a
2106 universal set in <filename>user.action</filename> or any other actions file after
2107 <filename>default.action</filename>, because it will override the result
2108 from consulting any previous file). And then below that,
2109 exceptions to the defined universal policies. You can regard
2110 <filename>user.action</filename> as an appendix to <filename>default.action</filename>,
2111 with the advantage that it is a separate file, which makes preserving your
2112 personal settings across <application>Privoxy</application> upgrades easier.
2116 Actions can be used to block anything you want, including ads, banners, or
2117 just some obnoxious URL whose content you would rather not see. Cookies can be accepted
2118 or rejected, or accepted only during the current browser session (i.e. not
2119 written to disk), content can be modified, some JavaScripts tamed, user-tracking
2120 fooled, and much more. See below for a <link linkend="actions">complete list
2124 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2126 <title>Finding the Right Mix</title>
2128 Note that some <link linkend="actions">actions</link>, like cookie suppression
2129 or script disabling, may render some sites unusable that rely on these
2130 techniques to work properly. Finding the right mix of actions is not always easy and
2131 certainly a matter of personal taste. And, things can always change, requiring
2132 refinements in the configuration. In general, it can be said that the more
2133 <quote>aggressive</quote> your default settings (in the top section of the
2134 actions file) are, the more exceptions for <quote>trusted</quote> sites you
2135 will have to make later. If, for example, you want to crunch all cookies per
2136 default, you'll have to make exceptions from that rule for sites that you
2137 regularly use and that require cookies for actually useful purposes, like maybe
2138 your bank, favorite shop, or newspaper.
2142 We have tried to provide you with reasonable rules to start from in the
2143 distribution actions files. But there is no general rule of thumb on these
2144 things. There just are too many variables, and sites are constantly changing.
2145 Sooner or later you will want to change the rules (and read this chapter again :).
2149 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2151 <title>How to Edit</title>
2153 The easiest way to edit the actions files is with a browser by
2154 using our browser-based editor, which can be reached from <ulink
2155 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
2156 Note: the config file option <link
2157 linkend="enable-edit-actions">enable-edit-actions</link> must be enabled for
2158 this to work. The editor allows both fine-grained control over every single
2159 feature on a per-URL basis, and easy choosing from wholesale sets of defaults
2160 like <quote>Cautious</quote>, <quote>Medium</quote> or
2161 <quote>Advanced</quote>. Warning: the <quote>Advanced</quote> setting is more
2162 aggressive, and will be more likely to cause problems for some sites.
2163 Experienced users only!
2167 If you prefer plain text editing to GUIs, you can of course also directly edit the
2168 the actions files with your favorite text editor. Look at
2169 <filename>default.action</filename> which is richly commented with many
2175 <sect2 id="actions-apply">
2176 <title>How Actions are Applied to Requests</title>
2178 Actions files are divided into sections. There are special sections,
2179 like the <quote><link linkend="aliases">alias</link></quote> sections which will
2180 be discussed later. For now let's concentrate on regular sections: They have a
2181 heading line (often split up to multiple lines for readability) which consist
2182 of a list of actions, separated by whitespace and enclosed in curly braces.
2183 Below that, there is a list of URL and tag patterns, each on a separate line.
2187 To determine which actions apply to a request, the URL of the request is
2188 compared to all URL patterns in each <quote>action file</quote>.
2189 Every time it matches, the list of applicable actions for the request is
2190 incrementally updated, using the heading of the section in which the
2191 pattern is located. The same is done again for tags and tag patterns later on.
2195 If multiple applying sections set the same action differently,
2196 the last match wins. If not, the effects are aggregated.
2197 E.g. a URL might match a regular section with a heading line of <literal>{
2198 +<link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link> }</literal>,
2199 then later another one with just <literal>{
2200 +<link linkend="block">block</link> }</literal>, resulting
2201 in <emphasis>both</emphasis> actions to apply. And there may well be
2202 cases where you will want to combine actions together. Such a section then
2208 { +<literal>handle-as-image</literal> +<literal>block</literal> }
2209 # Block these as if they were images. Send no block page.
2211 media.example.com/.*banners
2212 .example.com/images/ads/</screen>
2216 You can trace this process for URL patterns and any given URL by visiting <ulink
2217 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>.
2221 Examples and more detail on this is provided in the Appendix, <link linkend="ACTIONSANAT">
2222 Troubleshooting: Anatomy of an Action</link> section.
2226 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2227 <sect2 id="af-patterns">
2228 <title>Patterns</title>
2230 As mentioned, <application>Privoxy</application> uses <quote>patterns</quote>
2231 to determine what <emphasis>actions</emphasis> might apply to which sites and
2232 pages your browser attempts to access. These <quote>patterns</quote> use wild
2233 card type <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> matching to achieve a high degree of
2234 flexibility. This allows one expression to be expanded and potentially match
2235 against many similar patterns.
2239 Generally, an URL pattern has the form
2240 <literal><domain>/<path></literal>, where both the
2241 <literal><domain></literal> and <literal><path></literal> are
2242 optional. (This is why the special <literal>/</literal> pattern matches all
2243 URLs). Note that the protocol portion of the URL pattern (e.g.
2244 <literal>http://</literal>) should <emphasis>not</emphasis> be included in
2245 the pattern. This is assumed already!
2248 The pattern matching syntax is different for the domain and path parts of
2249 the URL. The domain part uses a simple globbing type matching technique,
2250 while the path part uses a more flexible
2251 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
2252 Expressions (PCRE)</quote></ulink> based syntax.
2257 <term><literal>www.example.com/</literal></term>
2260 is a domain-only pattern and will match any request to <literal>www.example.com</literal>,
2261 regardless of which document on that server is requested. So ALL pages in
2262 this domain would be covered by the scope of this action. Note that a
2263 simple <literal>example.com</literal> is different and would NOT match.
2268 <term><literal>www.example.com</literal></term>
2271 means exactly the same. For domain-only patterns, the trailing <literal>/</literal> may
2277 <term><literal>www.example.com/index.html$</literal></term>
2280 matches all the documents on <literal>www.example.com</literal>
2281 whose name starts with <literal>/index.html</literal>.
2286 <term><literal>www.example.com/index.html$</literal></term>
2289 matches only the single document <literal>/index.html</literal>
2290 on <literal>www.example.com</literal>.
2295 <term><literal>/index.html$</literal></term>
2298 matches the document <literal>/index.html</literal>, regardless of the domain,
2299 i.e. on <emphasis>any</emphasis> web server anywhere.
2304 <term><literal>index.html</literal></term>
2307 matches nothing, since it would be interpreted as a domain name and
2308 there is no top-level domain called <literal>.html</literal>. So its
2316 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2317 <sect3><title>The Domain Pattern</title>
2320 The matching of the domain part offers some flexible options: if the
2321 domain starts or ends with a dot, it becomes unanchored at that end.
2327 <term><literal>.example.com</literal></term>
2330 matches any domain that <emphasis>ENDS</emphasis> in
2331 <literal>.example.com</literal>
2336 <term><literal>www.</literal></term>
2339 matches any domain that <emphasis>STARTS</emphasis> with
2340 <literal>www.</literal>
2345 <term><literal>.example.</literal></term>
2348 matches any domain that <emphasis>CONTAINS</emphasis> <literal>.example.</literal>.
2349 And, by the way, also included would be any files or documents that exist
2350 within that domain since no path limitations are specified. (Correctly
2351 speaking: It matches any FQDN that contains <literal>example</literal> as
2352 a domain.) This might be <literal>www.example.com</literal>,
2353 <literal>news.example.de</literal>, or
2354 <literal>www.example.net/cgi/testing.pl</literal> for instance. All these
2362 Additionally, there are wild-cards that you can use in the domain names
2363 themselves. These work similarly to shell globbing type wild-cards:
2364 <quote>*</quote> represents zero or more arbitrary characters (this is
2366 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
2367 Expression</quote></ulink> based syntax of <quote>.*</quote>),
2368 <quote>?</quote> represents any single character (this is equivalent to the
2369 regular expression syntax of a simple <quote>.</quote>), and you can define
2370 <quote>character classes</quote> in square brackets which is similar to
2371 the same regular expression technique. All of this can be freely mixed:
2376 <term><literal>ad*.example.com</literal></term>
2379 matches <quote>adserver.example.com</quote>,
2380 <quote>ads.example.com</quote>, etc but not <quote>sfads.example.com</quote>
2385 <term><literal>*ad*.example.com</literal></term>
2388 matches all of the above, and then some.
2393 <term><literal>.?pix.com</literal></term>
2396 matches <literal>www.ipix.com</literal>,
2397 <literal>pictures.epix.com</literal>, <literal>a.b.c.d.e.upix.com</literal> etc.
2402 <term><literal>www[1-9a-ez].example.c*</literal></term>
2405 matches <literal>www1.example.com</literal>,
2406 <literal>www4.example.cc</literal>, <literal>wwwd.example.cy</literal>,
2407 <literal>wwwz.example.com</literal> etc., but <emphasis>not</emphasis>
2408 <literal>wwww.example.com</literal>.
2415 While flexible, this is not the sophistication of full regular expression based syntax.
2420 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2423 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2424 <sect3><title>The Path Pattern</title>
2427 <application>Privoxy</application> uses Perl compatible (PCRE)
2428 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
2429 Expression</quote></ulink> based syntax
2430 (through the <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/">PCRE</ulink> library) for
2431 matching the path portion (after the slash), and is thus more flexible.
2435 There is an <link linkend="regex">Appendix</link> with a brief quick-start into regular
2436 expressions, and full (very technical) documentation on PCRE regex syntax is available on-line
2437 at <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/man.txt">http://www.pcre.org/man.txt</ulink>.
2438 You might also find the Perl man page on regular expressions (<literal>man perlre</literal>)
2439 useful, which is available on-line at <ulink
2440 url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html">http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html</ulink>.
2444 Note that the path pattern is automatically left-anchored at the <quote>/</quote>,
2445 i.e. it matches as if it would start with a <quote>^</quote> (regular expression speak
2446 for the beginning of a line).
2450 Please also note that matching in the path is <emphasis>CASE INSENSITIVE</emphasis>
2451 by default, but you can switch to case sensitive at any point in the pattern by using the
2452 <quote>(?-i)</quote> switch: <literal>www.example.com/(?-i)PaTtErN.*</literal> will match
2453 only documents whose path starts with <literal>PaTtErN</literal> in
2454 <emphasis>exactly</emphasis> this capitalization.
2459 <term><literal>.example.com/.*</literal></term>
2462 Is equivalent to just <quote>.example.com</quote>, since any documents
2463 within that domain are matched with or without the <quote>.*</quote>
2464 regular expression. This is redundant
2469 <term><literal>.example.com/.*/index.html$</literal></term>
2472 Will match any page in the domain of <quote>example.com</quote> that is
2473 named <quote>index.html</quote>, and that is part of some path. For
2474 example, it matches <quote>www.example.com/testing/index.html</quote> but
2475 NOT <quote>www.example.com/index.html</quote> because the regular
2476 expression called for at least two <quote>/'s</quote>, thus the path
2477 requirement. It also would match
2478 <quote>www.example.com/testing/index_html</quote>, because of the
2479 special meta-character <quote>.</quote>.
2484 <term><literal>.example.com/(.*/)?index\.html$</literal></term>
2487 This regular expression is conditional so it will match any page
2488 named <quote>index.html</quote> regardless of path which in this case can
2489 have one or more <quote>/'s</quote>. And this one must contain exactly
2490 <quote>.html</quote> (but does not have to end with that!).
2495 <term><literal>.example.com/(.*/)(ads|banners?|junk)</literal></term>
2498 This regular expression will match any path of <quote>example.com</quote>
2499 that contains any of the words <quote>ads</quote>, <quote>banner</quote>,
2500 <quote>banners</quote> (because of the <quote>?</quote>) or <quote>junk</quote>.
2501 The path does not have to end in these words, just contain them.
2506 <term><literal>.example.com/(.*/)(ads|banners?|junk)/.*\.(jpe?g|gif|png)$</literal></term>
2509 This is very much the same as above, except now it must end in either
2510 <quote>.jpg</quote>, <quote>.jpeg</quote>, <quote>.gif</quote> or <quote>.png</quote>. So this
2511 one is limited to common image formats.
2518 There are many, many good examples to be found in <filename>default.action</filename>,
2519 and more tutorials below in <link linkend="regex">Appendix on regular expressions</link>.
2524 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2527 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2528 <sect3 id="tag-pattern"><title>The Tag Pattern</title>
2531 Tag patterns are used to change the applying actions based on the
2532 request's tags. Tags can be created with either the
2533 <link linkend="CLIENT-HEADER-TAGGER">client-header-tagger</link>
2534 or the <link linkend="SERVER-HEADER-TAGGER">server-header-tagger</link> action.
2538 Tag patterns have to start with <quote>TAG:</quote>, so &my-app;
2539 can tell them apart from URL patterns. Everything after the colon
2540 including white space, is interpreted as a regular expression with
2541 path pattern syntax, except that tag patterns aren't left-anchored
2542 automatically (&my-app; doesn't silently add a <quote>^</quote>,
2543 you have to do it yourself if you need it).
2547 To match all requests that are tagged with <quote>foo</quote>
2548 your pattern line should be <quote>TAG:^foo$</quote>,
2549 <quote>TAG:foo</quote> would work as well, but it would also
2550 match requests whose tags contain <quote>foo</quote> somewhere.
2551 <quote>TAG: foo</quote> wouldn't work as it requires white space.
2555 Sections can contain URL and tag patterns at the same time,
2556 but tag patterns are checked after the URL patterns and thus
2557 always overrule them, even if they are located before the URL patterns.
2561 Once a new tag is added, Privoxy checks right away if it's matched by one
2562 of the tag patterns and updates the action settings accordingly. As a result
2563 tags can be used to activate other tagger actions, as long as these other
2564 taggers look for headers that haven't already be parsed.
2568 For example you could tag client requests which use the
2569 <literal>POST</literal> method,
2570 then use this tag to activate another tagger that adds a tag if cookies
2571 are sent, and then use a block action based on the cookie tag. This allows
2572 the outcome of one action, to be input into a subsequent action. However if
2573 you'd reverse the position of the described taggers, and activated the
2574 method tagger based on the cookie tagger, no method tags would be created.
2575 The method tagger would look for the request line, but at the time
2576 the cookie tag is created, the request line has already been parsed.
2580 While this is a limitation you should be aware of, this kind of
2581 indirection is seldom needed anyway and even the example doesn't
2582 make too much sense.
2589 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2592 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2594 <sect2 id="actions">
2595 <title>Actions</title>
2597 All actions are disabled by default, until they are explicitly enabled
2598 somewhere in an actions file. Actions are turned on if preceded with a
2599 <quote>+</quote>, and turned off if preceded with a <quote>-</quote>. So a
2600 <literal>+action</literal> means <quote>do that action</quote>, e.g.
2601 <literal>+block</literal> means <quote>please block URLs that match the
2602 following patterns</quote>, and <literal>-block</literal> means <quote>don't
2603 block URLs that match the following patterns, even if <literal>+block</literal>
2604 previously applied.</quote>
2609 Again, actions are invoked by placing them on a line, enclosed in curly braces and
2610 separated by whitespace, like in
2611 <literal>{+some-action -some-other-action{some-parameter}}</literal>,
2612 followed by a list of URL patterns, one per line, to which they apply.
2613 Together, the actions line and the following pattern lines make up a section
2614 of the actions file.
2618 Actions fall into three categories:
2625 Boolean, i.e the action can only be <quote>enabled</quote> or
2626 <quote>disabled</quote>. Syntax:
2630 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # enable action <replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable>
2631 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # disable action <replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable></screen>
2634 Example: <literal>+block</literal>
2641 Parameterized, where some value is required in order to enable this type of action.
2646 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # enable action and set parameter to <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>,
2647 # overwriting parameter from previous match if necessary
2648 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # disable action. The parameter can be omitted</screen>
2651 Note that if the URL matches multiple positive forms of a parameterized action,
2652 the last match wins, i.e. the params from earlier matches are simply ignored.
2655 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>
2661 Multi-value. These look exactly like parameterized actions,
2662 but they behave differently: If the action applies multiple times to the
2663 same URL, but with different parameters, <emphasis>all</emphasis> the parameters
2664 from <emphasis>all</emphasis> matches are remembered. This is used for actions
2665 that can be executed for the same request repeatedly, like adding multiple
2666 headers, or filtering through multiple filters. Syntax:
2670 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # enable action and add <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable> to the list of parameters
2671 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # remove the parameter <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable> from the list of parameters
2672 # If it was the last one left, disable the action.
2673 <replaceable class="parameter">-name</replaceable> # disable this action completely and remove all parameters from the list</screen>
2676 Examples: <literal>+add-header{X-Fun-Header: Some text}</literal> and
2677 <literal>+filter{html-annoyances}</literal>
2685 If nothing is specified in any actions file, no <quote>actions</quote> are
2686 taken. So in this case <application>Privoxy</application> would just be a
2687 normal, non-blocking, non-filtering proxy. You must specifically enable the
2688 privacy and blocking features you need (although the provided default actions
2689 files will give a good starting point).
2693 Later defined action sections always over-ride earlier ones of the same type.
2694 So exceptions to any rules you make, should come in the latter part of the file (or
2695 in a file that is processed later when using multiple actions files such
2696 as <filename>user.action</filename>). For multi-valued actions, the actions
2697 are applied in the order they are specified. Actions files are processed in
2698 the order they are defined in <filename>config</filename> (the default
2699 installation has three actions files). It also quite possible for any given
2700 URL to match more than one <quote>pattern</quote> (because of wildcards and
2701 regular expressions), and thus to trigger more than one set of actions! Last
2705 <!-- start actions listing -->
2707 The list of valid <application>Privoxy</application> actions are:
2711 <!-- ********************************************************** -->
2712 <!-- Please note the below defined actions use id's that are -->
2713 <!-- probably linked from other places, so please don't change. -->
2715 <!-- ********************************************************** -->
2718 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2720 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="add-header">
2721 <title>add-header</title>
2725 <term>Typical use:</term>
2727 <para>Confuse log analysis, custom applications</para>
2732 <term>Effect:</term>
2735 Sends a user defined HTTP header to the web server.
2742 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2744 <para>Multi-value.</para>
2749 <term>Parameter:</term>
2752 Any string value is possible. Validity of the defined HTTP headers is not checked.
2753 It is recommended that you use the <quote><literal>X-</literal></quote> prefix
2763 This action may be specified multiple times, in order to define multiple
2764 headers. This is rarely needed for the typical user. If you don't know what
2765 <quote>HTTP headers</quote> are, you definitely don't need to worry about this
2772 <term>Example usage:</term>
2775 <screen>+add-header{X-User-Tracking: sucks}</screen>
2783 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2784 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="block">
2785 <title>block</title>
2789 <term>Typical use:</term>
2791 <para>Block ads or other unwanted content</para>
2796 <term>Effect:</term>
2799 Requests for URLs to which this action applies are blocked, i.e. the
2800 requests are trapped by &my-app; and the requested URL is never retrieved,
2801 but is answered locally with a substitute page or image, as determined by
2803 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>,
2805 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>, and
2807 linkend="handle-as-empty-document">handle-as-empty-document</link></literal> actions.
2815 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2817 <para>Boolean.</para>
2822 <term>Parameter:</term>
2832 <application>Privoxy</application> sends a special <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page
2833 for requests to blocked pages. This page contains links to find out why the request
2834 was blocked, and a click-through to the blocked content (the latter only if compiled with the
2835 force feature enabled). The <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page adapts to the available
2836 screen space -- it displays full-blown if space allows, or miniaturized and text-only
2837 if loaded into a small frame or window. If you are using <application>Privoxy</application>
2838 right now, you can take a look at the
2839 <ulink url="http://ads.bannerserver.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor.html"><quote>BLOCKED</quote>
2843 A very important exception occurs if <emphasis>both</emphasis>
2844 <literal>block</literal> and <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>,
2845 apply to the same request: it will then be replaced by an image. If
2846 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>
2847 (see below) also applies, the type of image will be determined by its parameter,
2848 if not, the standard checkerboard pattern is sent.
2851 It is important to understand this process, in order
2852 to understand how <application>Privoxy</application> deals with
2853 ads and other unwanted content. Blocking is a core feature, and one
2854 upon which various other features depend.
2857 The <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>
2858 action can perform a very similar task, by <quote>blocking</quote>
2859 banner images and other content through rewriting the relevant URLs in the
2860 document's HTML source, so they don't get requested in the first place.
2861 Note that this is a totally different technique, and it's easy to confuse the two.
2867 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
2871 # Block and replace with "blocked" page
2872 .nasty-stuff.example.com
2874 {+block +handle-as-image}
2875 # Block and replace with image
2879 {+block +handle-as-empty-document}
2880 # Block and then ignore
2881 adserver.exampleclick.net/.*\.js$</screen>
2891 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2892 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="client-header-filter">
2893 <title>client-header-filter</title>
2897 <term>Typical use:</term>
2900 Rewrite or remove single client headers.
2906 <term>Effect:</term>
2909 All client headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly through
2910 the specified regular expression based substitutions.
2917 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2919 <para>Parameterized.</para>
2924 <term>Parameter:</term>
2927 The name of a client-header filter, as defined in one of the
2928 <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link>.
2937 Client-header filters are applied to each header on its own, not to
2938 all at once. This makes it easier to diagnose problems, but on the downside
2939 you can't write filters that only change header x if header y's value is z.
2940 You can do that by using tags though.
2943 Client-header filters are executed after the other header actions have finished
2944 and use their output as input.
2947 If the request URL gets changed, &my-app; will detect that and use the new
2948 one. This can be used to rewrite the request destination behind the client's
2949 back, for example to specify a Tor exit relay for certain requests.
2952 Please refer to the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file chapter</link>
2953 to learn which client-header filters are available by default, and how to
2961 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
2965 {+client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation}}
2976 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2977 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="client-header-tagger">
2978 <title>client-header-tagger</title>
2982 <term>Typical use:</term>
2985 Block requests based on their headers.
2991 <term>Effect:</term>
2994 Client headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly through
2995 the specified regular expression based substitutions, the result is used as
3003 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3005 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3010 <term>Parameter:</term>
3013 The name of a client-header tagger, as defined in one of the
3014 <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link>.
3023 Client-header taggers are applied to each header on its own,
3024 and as the header isn't modified, each tagger <quote>sees</quote>
3028 Client-header taggers are the first actions that are executed
3029 and their tags can be used to control every other action.
3035 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3039 # Tag every request with the User-Agent header
3040 {+client-header-tagger{user-agent}}
3051 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3052 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="content-type-overwrite">
3053 <title>content-type-overwrite</title>
3057 <term>Typical use:</term>
3059 <para>Stop useless download menus from popping up, or change the browser's rendering mode</para>
3064 <term>Effect:</term>
3067 Replaces the <quote>Content-Type:</quote> HTTP server header.
3074 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3076 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3081 <term>Parameter:</term>
3093 The <quote>Content-Type:</quote> HTTP server header is used by the
3094 browser to decide what to do with the document. The value of this
3095 header can cause the browser to open a download menu instead of
3096 displaying the document by itself, even if the document's format is
3097 supported by the browser.
3100 The declared content type can also affect which rendering mode
3101 the browser chooses. If XHTML is delivered as <quote>text/html</quote>,
3102 many browsers treat it as yet another broken HTML document.
3103 If it is send as <quote>application/xml</quote>, browsers with
3104 XHTML support will only display it, if the syntax is correct.
3107 If you see a web site that proudly uses XHTML buttons, but sets
3108 <quote>Content-Type: text/html</quote>, you can use &my-app;
3109 to overwrite it with <quote>application/xml</quote> and validate
3110 the web master's claim inside your XHTML-supporting browser.
3111 If the syntax is incorrect, the browser will complain loudly.
3114 You can also go the opposite direction: if your browser prints
3115 error messages instead of rendering a document falsely declared
3116 as XHTML, you can overwrite the content type with
3117 <quote>text/html</quote> and have it rendered as broken HTML document.
3120 By default <literal>content-type-overwrite</literal> only replaces
3121 <quote>Content-Type:</quote> headers that look like some kind of text.
3122 If you want to overwrite it unconditionally, you have to combine it with
3123 <literal><link linkend="force-text-mode">force-text-mode</link></literal>.
3124 This limitation exists for a reason, think twice before circumventing it.
3127 Most of the time it's easier to replace this action with a custom
3128 <literal><link linkend="server-header-filter">server-header filter</link></literal>.
3129 It allows you to activate it for every document of a certain site and it will still
3130 only replace the content types you aimed at.
3133 Of course you can apply <literal>content-type-overwrite</literal>
3134 to a whole site and then make URL based exceptions, but it's a lot
3135 more work to get the same precision.
3141 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
3144 <screen># Check if www.example.net/ really uses valid XHTML
3145 { +content-type-overwrite{application/xml} }
3148 # but leave the content type unmodified if the URL looks like a style sheet
3149 {-content-type-overwrite}
3150 www.example.net/.*\.css$
3151 www.example.net/.*style
3160 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3161 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-client-header">
3165 <title>crunch-client-header</title>
3169 <term>Typical use:</term>
3171 <para>Remove a client header <application>Privoxy</application> has no dedicated action for.</para>
3176 <term>Effect:</term>
3179 Deletes every header sent by the client that contains the string the user supplied as parameter.
3186 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3188 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3193 <term>Parameter:</term>
3205 This action allows you to block client headers for which no dedicated
3206 <application>Privoxy</application> action exists.
3207 <application>Privoxy</application> will remove every client header that
3208 contains the string you supplied as parameter.
3211 Regular expressions are <emphasis>not supported</emphasis> and you can't
3212 use this action to block different headers in the same request, unless
3213 they contain the same string.
3216 <literal>crunch-client-header</literal> is only meant for quick tests.
3217 If you have to block several different headers, or only want to modify
3218 parts of them, you should use a
3219 <literal><link linkend="client-header-filter">client-header filter</link></literal>.
3223 Don't block any header without understanding the consequences.
3230 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3233 <screen># Block the non-existent "Privacy-Violation:" client header
3234 { +crunch-client-header{Privacy-Violation:} }
3244 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3245 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-if-none-match">
3246 <title>crunch-if-none-match</title>
3252 <term>Typical use:</term>
3254 <para>Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.</para>
3259 <term>Effect:</term>
3262 Deletes the <quote>If-None-Match:</quote> HTTP client header.
3269 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3271 <para>Boolean.</para>
3276 <term>Parameter:</term>
3288 Removing the <quote>If-None-Match:</quote> HTTP client header
3289 is useful for filter testing, where you want to force a real
3290 reload instead of getting status code <quote>304</quote> which
3291 would cause the browser to use a cached copy of the page.
3294 It is also useful to make sure the header isn't used as a cookie
3295 replacement (unlikely but possible).
3298 Blocking the <quote>If-None-Match:</quote> header shouldn't cause any
3299 caching problems, as long as the <quote>If-Modified-Since:</quote> header
3300 isn't blocked or missing as well.
3303 It is recommended to use this action together with
3304 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hide-if-modified-since</link></literal>
3306 <literal><link linkend="overwrite-last-modified">overwrite-last-modified</link></literal>.
3312 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3315 <screen># Let the browser revalidate cached documents but don't
3316 # allow the server to use the revalidation headers for user tracking.
3317 {+hide-if-modified-since{-60} \
3318 +overwrite-last-modified{randomize} \
3319 +crunch-if-none-match}
3328 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3329 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-incoming-cookies">
3330 <title>crunch-incoming-cookies</title>
3334 <term>Typical use:</term>
3337 Prevent the web server from setting HTTP cookies on your system
3343 <term>Effect:</term>
3346 Deletes any <quote>Set-Cookie:</quote> HTTP headers from server replies.
3353 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3355 <para>Boolean.</para>
3360 <term>Parameter:</term>
3372 This action is only concerned with <emphasis>incoming</emphasis> HTTP cookies. For
3373 <emphasis>outgoing</emphasis> HTTP cookies, use
3374 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>.
3375 Use <emphasis>both</emphasis> to disable HTTP cookies completely.
3378 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use this action in conjunction
3379 with the <literal><link linkend="session-cookies-only">session-cookies-only</link></literal> action,
3380 since it would prevent the session cookies from being set. See also
3381 <literal><link linkend="filter-content-cookies">filter-content-cookies</link></literal>.
3387 <term>Example usage:</term>
3390 <screen>+crunch-incoming-cookies</screen>
3398 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3399 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-server-header">
3400 <title>crunch-server-header</title>
3406 <term>Typical use:</term>
3408 <para>Remove a server header <application>Privoxy</application> has no dedicated action for.</para>
3413 <term>Effect:</term>
3416 Deletes every header sent by the server that contains the string the user supplied as parameter.
3423 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3425 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3430 <term>Parameter:</term>
3442 This action allows you to block server headers for which no dedicated
3443 <application>Privoxy</application> action exists. <application>Privoxy</application>
3444 will remove every server header that contains the string you supplied as parameter.
3447 Regular expressions are <emphasis>not supported</emphasis> and you can't
3448 use this action to block different headers in the same request, unless
3449 they contain the same string.
3452 <literal>crunch-server-header</literal> is only meant for quick tests.
3453 If you have to block several different headers, or only want to modify
3454 parts of them, you should use a custom
3455 <literal><link linkend="server-header-filter">server-header filter</link></literal>.
3459 Don't block any header without understanding the consequences.
3466 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3469 <screen># Crunch server headers that try to prevent caching
3470 { +crunch-server-header{no-cache} }
3479 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3480 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-outgoing-cookies">
3481 <title>crunch-outgoing-cookies</title>
3485 <term>Typical use:</term>
3488 Prevent the web server from reading any HTTP cookies from your system
3494 <term>Effect:</term>
3497 Deletes any <quote>Cookie:</quote> HTTP headers from client requests.
3504 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3506 <para>Boolean.</para>
3511 <term>Parameter:</term>
3523 This action is only concerned with <emphasis>outgoing</emphasis> HTTP cookies. For
3524 <emphasis>incoming</emphasis> HTTP cookies, use
3525 <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal>.
3526 Use <emphasis>both</emphasis> to disable HTTP cookies completely.
3529 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use this action in conjunction
3530 with the <literal><link linkend="session-cookies-only">session-cookies-only</link></literal> action,
3531 since it would prevent the session cookies from being read.
3537 <term>Example usage:</term>
3540 <screen>+crunch-outgoing-cookies</screen>
3549 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3550 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="deanimate-gifs">
3551 <title>deanimate-gifs</title>
3555 <term>Typical use:</term>
3557 <para>Stop those annoying, distracting animated GIF images.</para>
3562 <term>Effect:</term>
3565 De-animate GIF animations, i.e. reduce them to their first or last image.
3572 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3574 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3579 <term>Parameter:</term>
3582 <quote>last</quote> or <quote>first</quote>
3591 This will also shrink the images considerably (in bytes, not pixels!). If
3592 the option <quote>first</quote> is given, the first frame of the animation
3593 is used as the replacement. If <quote>last</quote> is given, the last
3594 frame of the animation is used instead, which probably makes more sense for
3595 most banner animations, but also has the risk of not showing the entire
3596 last frame (if it is only a delta to an earlier frame).
3599 You can safely use this action with patterns that will also match non-GIF
3600 objects, because no attempt will be made at anything that doesn't look like
3607 <term>Example usage:</term>
3610 <screen>+deanimate-gifs{last}</screen>
3617 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3618 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="downgrade-http-version">
3619 <title>downgrade-http-version</title>
3623 <term>Typical use:</term>
3625 <para>Work around (very rare) problems with HTTP/1.1</para>
3630 <term>Effect:</term>
3633 Downgrades HTTP/1.1 client requests and server replies to HTTP/1.0.
3640 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3642 <para>Boolean.</para>
3647 <term>Parameter:</term>
3659 This is a left-over from the time when <application>Privoxy</application>
3660 didn't support important HTTP/1.1 features well. It is left here for the
3661 unlikely case that you experience HTTP/1.1 related problems with some server
3662 out there. Not all HTTP/1.1 features and requirements are supported yet,
3663 so there is a chance you might need this action.
3669 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3672 <screen>{+downgrade-http-version}
3673 problem-host.example.com</screen>
3681 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3682 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="fast-redirects">
3683 <title>fast-redirects</title>
3687 <term>Typical use:</term>
3689 <para>Fool some click-tracking scripts and speed up indirect links.</para>
3694 <term>Effect:</term>
3697 Detects redirection URLs and redirects the browser without contacting
3698 the redirection server first.
3705 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3707 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3712 <term>Parameter:</term>
3717 <quote>simple-check</quote> to just search for the string <quote>http://</quote>
3718 to detect redirection URLs.
3723 <quote>check-decoded-url</quote> to decode URLs (if necessary) before searching
3724 for redirection URLs.
3735 Many sites, like yahoo.com, don't just link to other sites. Instead, they
3736 will link to some script on their own servers, giving the destination as a
3737 parameter, which will then redirect you to the final target. URLs
3738 resulting from this scheme typically look like:
3739 <quote>http://www.example.org/click-tracker.cgi?target=http%3a//www.example.net/</quote>.
3742 Sometimes, there are even multiple consecutive redirects encoded in the
3743 URL. These redirections via scripts make your web browsing more traceable,
3744 since the server from which you follow such a link can see where you go
3745 to. Apart from that, valuable bandwidth and time is wasted, while your
3746 browser asks the server for one redirect after the other. Plus, it feeds
3750 This feature is currently not very smart and is scheduled for improvement.
3751 If it is enabled by default, you will have to create some exceptions to
3752 this action. It can lead to failures in several ways:
3755 Not every URLs with other URLs as parameters is evil.
3756 Some sites offer a real service that requires this information to work.
3757 For example a validation service needs to know, which document to validate.
3758 <literal>fast-redirects</literal> assumes that every URL parameter that
3759 looks like another URL is a redirection target, and will always redirect to
3760 the last one. Most of the time the assumption is correct, but if it isn't,
3761 the user gets redirected anyway.
3764 Another failure occurs if the URL contains other parameters after the URL parameter.
3766 <quote>http://www.example.org/?redirect=http%3a//www.example.net/&foo=bar</quote>.
3767 contains the redirection URL <quote>http://www.example.net/</quote>,
3768 followed by another parameter. <literal>fast-redirects</literal> doesn't know that
3769 and will cause a redirect to <quote>http://www.example.net/&foo=bar</quote>.
3770 Depending on the target server configuration, the parameter will be silently ignored
3771 or lead to a <quote>page not found</quote> error. You can prevent this problem by
3772 first using the <literal><link linkend="redirect">redirect</link></literal> action
3773 to remove the last part of the URL, but it requires a little effort.
3776 To detect a redirection URL, <literal>fast-redirects</literal> only
3777 looks for the string <quote>http://</quote>, either in plain text
3778 (invalid but often used) or encoded as <quote>http%3a//</quote>.
3779 Some sites use their own URL encoding scheme, encrypt the address
3780 of the target server or replace it with a database id. In theses cases
3781 <literal>fast-redirects</literal> is fooled and the request reaches the
3782 redirection server where it probably gets logged.
3788 <term>Example usage:</term>
3792 { +fast-redirects{simple-check} }
3795 { +fast-redirects{check-decoded-url} }
3796 another.example.com/testing</screen>
3805 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3806 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="filter">
3807 <title>filter</title>
3811 <term>Typical use:</term>
3813 <para>Get rid of HTML and JavaScript annoyances, banner advertisements (by size),
3814 do fun text replacements, add personalized effects, etc.</para>
3819 <term>Effect:</term>
3822 All instances of text-based type, most notably HTML and JavaScript, to which
3823 this action applies, can be filtered on-the-fly through the specified regular
3824 expression based substitutions. (Note: as of version 3.0.3 plain text documents
3825 are exempted from filtering, because web servers often use the
3826 <literal>text/plain</literal> MIME type for all files whose type they don't know.)
3833 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3835 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3840 <term>Parameter:</term>
3843 The name of a content filter, as defined in the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file</link>.
3844 Filters can be defined in one or more files as defined by the
3845 <literal><link linkend="filterfile">filterfile</link></literal>
3846 option in the <link linkend="config">config file</link>.
3847 <filename>default.filter</filename> is the collection of filters
3848 supplied by the developers. Locally defined filters should go
3849 in their own file, such as <filename>user.filter</filename>.
3852 When used in its negative form,
3853 and without parameters, <emphasis>all</emphasis> filtering is completely disabled.
3862 For your convenience, there are a number of pre-defined filters available
3863 in the distribution filter file that you can use. See the examples below for
3867 Filtering requires buffering the page content, which may appear to
3868 slow down page rendering since nothing is displayed until all content has
3869 passed the filters. (It does not really take longer, but seems that way
3870 since the page is not incrementally displayed.) This effect will be more
3871 noticeable on slower connections.
3874 <quote>Rolling your own</quote>
3875 filters requires a knowledge of
3876 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
3877 Expressions</quote></ulink> and
3878 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Html"><quote>HTML</quote></ulink>.
3879 This is very powerful feature, and potentially very intrusive.
3880 Filters should be used with caution, and where an equivalent
3881 <quote>action</quote> is not available.
3884 The amount of data that can be filtered is limited to the
3885 <literal><link linkend="buffer-limit">buffer-limit</link></literal>
3886 option in the main <link linkend="config">config file</link>. The
3887 default is 4096 KB (4 Megs). Once this limit is exceeded, the buffered
3888 data, and all pending data, is passed through unfiltered.
3891 Inappropriate MIME types, such as zipped files, are not filtered at all.
3892 (Again, only text-based types except plain text). Encrypted SSL data
3893 (from HTTPS servers) cannot be filtered either, since this would violate
3894 the integrity of the secure transaction. In some situations it might
3895 be necessary to protect certain text, like source code, from filtering
3896 by defining appropriate <literal>-filter</literal> exceptions.
3899 Compressed content can't be filtered either, unless &my-app;
3900 is compiled with zlib support (requires at least &my-app; 3.0.7),
3901 in which case &my-app; will decompress the content before filtering
3905 If you use a &my-app; version without zlib support, but want filtering to work on
3906 as much documents as possible, even those that would normally be sent compressed,
3907 you must use the <literal><link linkend="prevent-compression">prevent-compression</link></literal>
3908 action in conjunction with <literal>filter</literal>.
3911 Content filtering can achieve some of the same effects as the
3912 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>
3913 action, i.e. it can be used to block ads and banners. But the mechanism
3914 works quite differently. One effective use, is to block ad banners
3915 based on their size (see below), since many of these seem to be somewhat
3919 <link linkend="contact">Feedback</link> with suggestions for new or
3920 improved filters is particularly welcome!
3923 The below list has only the names and a one-line description of each
3924 predefined filter. There are <link linkend="predefined-filters">more
3925 verbose explanations</link> of what these filters do in the <link
3926 linkend="filter-file">filter file chapter</link>.
3932 <term>Example usage (with filters from the distribution <filename>default.filter</filename> file).
3933 See <link linkend="PREDEFINED-FILTERS">the Predefined Filters section</link> for
3934 more explanation on each:</term>
3937 <anchor id="filter-js-annoyances">
3938 <screen>+filter{js-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse</screen>
3941 <anchor id="filter-js-events">
3942 <screen>+filter{js-events} # Kill all JS event bindings (Radically destructive! Only for extra nasty sites)</screen>
3945 <anchor id="filter-html-annoyances">
3946 <screen>+filter{html-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying HTML abuse</screen>
3949 <anchor id="filter-content-cookies">
3950 <screen>+filter{content-cookies} # Kill cookies that come in the HTML or JS content</screen>
3953 <anchor id="filter-refresh-tags">
3954 <screen>+filter{refresh-tags} # Kill automatic refresh tags (for dial-on-demand setups)</screen>
3957 <anchor id="filter-unsolicited-popups">
3958 <screen>+filter{unsolicited-popups} # Disable only unsolicited pop-up windows. Useful if your browser lacks this ability.</screen>
3961 <anchor id="filter-all-popups">
3962 <screen>+filter{all-popups} # Kill all popups in JavaScript and HTML. Useful if your browser lacks this ability.</screen>
3965 <anchor id="filter-img-reorder">
3966 <screen>+filter{img-reorder} # Reorder attributes in <img> tags to make the banners-by-* filters more effective</screen>
3969 <anchor id="filter-banners-by-size">
3970 <screen>+filter{banners-by-size} # Kill banners by size</screen>
3973 <anchor id="filter-banners-by-link">
3974 <screen>+filter{banners-by-link} # Kill banners by their links to known clicktrackers</screen>
3977 <anchor id="filter-webbugs">
3978 <screen>+filter{webbugs} # Squish WebBugs (1x1 invisible GIFs used for user tracking)</screen>
3981 <anchor id="filter-tiny-textforms">
3982 <screen>+filter{tiny-textforms} # Extend those tiny textareas up to 40x80 and kill the hard wrap</screen>
3985 <anchor id="filter-jumping-windows">
3986 <screen>+filter{jumping-windows} # Prevent windows from resizing and moving themselves</screen>
3989 <anchor id="filter-frameset-borders">
3990 <screen>+filter{frameset-borders} # Give frames a border and make them resizeable</screen>
3993 <anchor id="filter-demoronizer">
3994 <screen>+filter{demoronizer} # Fix MS's non-standard use of standard charsets</screen>
3997 <anchor id="filter-shockwave-flash">
3998 <screen>+filter{shockwave-flash} # Kill embedded Shockwave Flash objects</screen>
4001 <anchor id="filter-quicktime-kioskmode">
4002 <screen>+filter{quicktime-kioskmode} # Make Quicktime movies savable</screen>
4005 <anchor id="filter-fun">
4006 <screen>+filter{fun} # Text replacements for subversive browsing fun!</screen>
4009 <anchor id="filter-crude-parental">
4010 <screen>+filter{crude-parental} # Crude parental filtering (demo only)</screen>
4013 <anchor id="filter-ie-exploits">
4014 <screen>+filter{ie-exploits} # Disable a known Internet Explorer bug exploits</screen>
4017 <anchor id="filter-site-specifics">
4018 <screen>+filter{site-specifics} # Custom filters for specific site related problems</screen>
4021 <anchor id="filter-google">
4022 <screen>+filter{google} # Removes text ads and other Google specific improvements</screen>
4025 <anchor id="filter-yahoo">
4026 <screen>+filter{yahoo} # Removes text ads and other Yahoo specific improvements</screen>
4029 <anchor id="filter-msn">
4030 <screen>+filter{msn} # Removes text ads and other MSN specific improvements</screen>
4033 <anchor id="filter-blogspot">
4034 <screen>+filter{blogspot} # Cleans up Blogspot blogs</screen>
4037 <anchor id="filter-no-ping">
4038 <screen>+filter{no-ping} # Removes non-standard ping attributes from anchor and area tags</screen>
4046 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4047 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="force-text-mode">
4048 <title>force-text-mode</title>
4054 <term>Typical use:</term>
4056 <para>Force <application>Privoxy</application> to treat a document as if it was in some kind of <emphasis>text</emphasis> format. </para>
4061 <term>Effect:</term>
4064 Declares a document as text, even if the <quote>Content-Type:</quote> isn't detected as such.
4071 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4073 <para>Boolean.</para>
4078 <term>Parameter:</term>
4090 As explained <literal><link linkend="filter">above</link></literal>,
4091 <application>Privoxy</application> tries to only filter files that are
4092 in some kind of text format. The same restrictions apply to
4093 <literal><link linkend="content-type-overwrite">content-type-overwrite</link></literal>.
4094 <literal>force-text-mode</literal> declares a document as text,
4095 without looking at the <quote>Content-Type:</quote> first.
4099 Think twice before activating this action. Filtering binary data
4100 with regular expressions can cause file damage.
4107 <term>Example usage:</term>
4120 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4121 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="forward-override">
4122 <title>forward-override</title>
4128 <term>Typical use:</term>
4130 <para>Change the forwarding settings based on User-Agent or request origin</para>
4135 <term>Effect:</term>
4138 Overrules the forward directives in the configuration file.
4145 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4147 <para>Multi-value.</para>
4152 <term>Parameter:</term>
4156 <para><quote>forward .</quote> to use a direct connection without any additional proxies.</para>
4160 <quote>forward 127.0.0.1:8123</quote> to use the HTTP proxy listening at 127.0.0.1 port 8123.
4165 <quote>forward-socks4a 127.0.0.1:9050 .</quote> to use the socks4a proxy listening at
4166 127.0.0.1 port 9050. Replace <quote>forward-socks4a</quote> with <quote>forward-socks4</quote>
4167 to use a socks4 connection (with local DNS resolution) instead.
4172 <quote>forward-socks4a 127.0.0.1:9050 proxy.example.org:8000</quote> to use the socks4a proxy
4173 listening at 127.0.0.1 port 9050 to reach the HTTP proxy listening at proxy.example.org port 8000.
4174 Replace <quote>forward-socks4a</quote> with <quote>forward-socks4</quote> to use a socks4 connection
4175 (with local DNS resolution) instead.
4186 This action takes parameters similar to the <!-- I hope this link actual works -->
4187 <link linkend="forwarding">forward</link> directives in the configuration
4188 file, but without the URL pattern. It can be used as replacement, but normally it's only
4189 used in cases where matching based on the request URL isn't sufficient.
4193 Please read the description for the <link linkend="forwarding">forward</link> directives before
4194 using this action. Forwarding to the wrong people will reduce your privacy and increase the
4195 chances of man-in-the-middle attacks.
4198 If the ports are missing or invalid, default values will be used. This might change
4199 in the future and you shouldn't rely on it. Otherwise incorrect syntax causes Privoxy
4203 Use the <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">show-url-info CGI page</ulink>
4204 to verify that your forward settings do what you thought the do.
4211 <term>Example usage:</term>
4215 # Always use direct connections for requests previously tagged as
4216 # <quote>User-Agent: fetch libfetch/2.0</quote> and make sure
4217 # resuming downloads continues to work.
4218 # This way you can continue to use Tor for your normal browsing,
4219 # without overloading the Tor network with your FreeBSD ports updates
4220 # or downloads of bigger files like ISOs.
4221 # Note that HTTP headers are easy to fake and therefore their
4222 # values are as (un)trustworthy as your clients and users.
4223 {+forward-override{forward .} \
4224 -hide-if-modified-since \
4225 -overwrite-last-modified \
4227 TAG:^User-Agent: fetch libfetch/2\.0$
4236 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4237 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="handle-as-empty-document">
4238 <title>handle-as-empty-document</title>
4244 <term>Typical use:</term>
4246 <para>Mark URLs that should be replaced by empty documents <emphasis>if they get blocked</emphasis></para>
4251 <term>Effect:</term>
4254 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. It just marks URLs.
4255 If the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action <emphasis>also applies</emphasis>,
4256 the presence or absence of this mark decides whether an HTML <quote>BLOCKED</quote>
4257 page, or an empty document will be sent to the client as a substitute for the blocked content.
4258 The <emphasis>empty</emphasis> document isn't literally empty, but actually contains a single space.
4265 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4267 <para>Boolean.</para>
4272 <term>Parameter:</term>
4284 Some browsers complain about syntax errors if JavaScript documents
4285 are blocked with <application>Privoxy's</application>
4286 default HTML page; this option can be used to silence them.
4287 And of course this action can also be used to eliminate the &my-app;
4288 BLOCKED message in frames.
4291 The content type for the empty document can be specified with
4292 <literal><link linkend="content-type-overwrite">content-type-overwrite{}</link></literal>,
4293 but usually this isn't necessary.
4299 <term>Example usage:</term>
4302 <screen># Block all documents on example.org that end with ".js",
4303 # but send an empty document instead of the usual HTML message.
4304 {+block +handle-as-empty-document}
4314 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4315 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="handle-as-image">
4316 <title>handle-as-image</title>
4320 <term>Typical use:</term>
4322 <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>
4327 <term>Effect:</term>
4330 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. It just marks URLs as images.
4331 If the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action <emphasis>also applies</emphasis>,
4332 the presence or absence of this mark decides whether an HTML <quote>blocked</quote>
4333 page, or a replacement image (as determined by the <literal><link
4334 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal> action) will be sent to the
4335 client as a substitute for the blocked content.
4342 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4344 <para>Boolean.</para>
4349 <term>Parameter:</term>
4361 The below generic example section is actually part of <filename>default.action</filename>.
4362 It marks all URLs with well-known image file name extensions as images and should
4366 Users will probably only want to use the handle-as-image action in conjunction with
4367 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>, to block sources of banners, whose URLs don't
4368 reflect the file type, like in the second example section.
4371 Note that you cannot treat HTML pages as images in most cases. For instance, (in-line) ad
4372 frames require an HTML page to be sent, or they won't display properly.
4373 Forcing <literal>handle-as-image</literal> in this situation will not replace the
4374 ad frame with an image, but lead to error messages.
4380 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
4383 <screen># Generic image extensions:
4386 /.*\.(gif|jpg|jpeg|png|bmp|ico)$
4388 # These don't look like images, but they're banners and should be
4389 # blocked as images:
4391 {+block +handle-as-image}
4392 some.nasty-banner-server.com/junk.cgi\?output=trash
4394 # Banner source! Who cares if they also have non-image content?
4404 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4405 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-accept-language">
4406 <title>hide-accept-language</title>
4412 <term>Typical use:</term>
4414 <para>Pretend to use different language settings.</para>
4419 <term>Effect:</term>
4422 Deletes or replaces the <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> HTTP header in client requests.
4429 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4431 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4436 <term>Parameter:</term>
4439 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
4448 Faking the browser's language settings can be useful to make a
4449 foreign User-Agent set with
4450 <literal><link linkend="hide-user-agent">hide-user-agent</link></literal>
4454 However some sites with content in different languages check the
4455 <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> to decide which one to take by default.
4456 Sometimes it isn't possible to later switch to another language without
4457 changing the <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> header first.
4460 Therefore it's a good idea to either only change the
4461 <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> header to languages you understand,
4462 or to languages that aren't wide spread.
4465 Before setting the <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> header
4466 to a rare language, you should consider that it helps to
4467 make your requests unique and thus easier to trace.
4468 If you don't plan to change this header frequently,
4469 you should stick to a common language.
4475 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
4478 <screen># Pretend to use Canadian language settings.
4479 {+hide-accept-language{en-ca} \
4480 +hide-user-agent{Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; OpenBSD i386; en-CA; rv:1.8.0.4) Gecko/20060628 Firefox/1.5.0.4} \
4490 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4491 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-content-disposition">
4492 <title>hide-content-disposition</title>
4498 <term>Typical use:</term>
4500 <para>Prevent download menus for content you prefer to view inside the browser.</para>
4505 <term>Effect:</term>
4508 Deletes or replaces the <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> HTTP header set by some servers.
4515 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4517 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4522 <term>Parameter:</term>
4525 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
4534 Some servers set the <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> HTTP header for
4535 documents they assume you want to save locally before viewing them.
4536 The <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> header contains the file name
4537 the browser is supposed to use by default.
4540 In most browsers that understand this header, it makes it impossible to
4541 <emphasis>just view</emphasis> the document, without downloading it first,
4542 even if it's just a simple text file or an image.
4545 Removing the <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> header helps
4546 to prevent this annoyance, but some browsers additionally check the
4547 <quote>Content-Type:</quote> header, before they decide if they can
4548 display a document without saving it first. In these cases, you have
4549 to change this header as well, before the browser stops displaying
4553 It is also possible to change the server's file name suggestion
4554 to another one, but in most cases it isn't worth the time to set
4558 This action will probably be removed in the future,
4559 use server-header filters instead.
4565 <term>Example usage:</term>
4568 <screen># Disarm the download link in Sourceforge's patch tracker
4570 +content-type-overwrite{text/plain}\
4571 +hide-content-disposition{block} }
4572 .sourceforge.net/tracker/download\.php</screen>
4580 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4581 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-if-modified-since">
4582 <title>hide-if-modified-since</title>
4588 <term>Typical use:</term>
4590 <para>Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.</para>
4595 <term>Effect:</term>
4598 Deletes the <quote>If-Modified-Since:</quote> HTTP client header or modifies its value.
4605 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4607 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4612 <term>Parameter:</term>
4615 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or a user defined value that specifies a range of hours.
4624 Removing this header is useful for filter testing, where you want to force a real
4625 reload instead of getting status code <quote>304</quote>, which would cause the
4626 browser to use a cached copy of the page.
4629 Instead of removing the header, <literal>hide-if-modified-since</literal> can
4630 also add or subtract a random amount of time to/from the header's value.
4631 You specify a range of minutes where the random factor should be chosen from and
4632 <application>Privoxy</application> does the rest. A negative value means
4633 subtracting, a positive value adding.
4636 Randomizing the value of the <quote>If-Modified-Since:</quote> makes
4637 it less likely that the server can use the time as a cookie replacement,
4638 but you will run into caching problems if the random range is too high.
4641 It is a good idea to only use a small negative value and let
4642 <literal><link linkend="overwrite-last-modified">overwrite-last-modified</link></literal>
4643 handle the greater changes.
4646 It is also recommended to use this action together with
4647 <literal><link linkend="crunch-if-none-match">crunch-if-none-match</link></literal>,
4648 otherwise it's more or less pointless.
4654 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
4657 <screen># Let the browser revalidate but make tracking based on the time less likely.
4658 {+hide-if-modified-since{-60} \
4659 +overwrite-last-modified{randomize} \
4660 +crunch-if-none-match}
4669 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4670 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-forwarded-for-headers">
4671 <title>hide-forwarded-for-headers</title>
4674 <term>Typical use:</term>
4676 <para>Improve privacy by not forwarding the source of the request in the HTTP headers.</para>
4681 <term>Effect:</term>
4684 Deletes any existing <quote>X-Forwarded-for:</quote> HTTP header from client requests.
4691 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4693 <para>Boolean.</para>
4698 <term>Parameter:</term>
4710 It is safe and recommended to leave this on.
4716 <term>Example usage:</term>
4719 <screen>+hide-forwarded-for-headers</screen>
4727 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4728 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-from-header">
4729 <title>hide-from-header</title>
4733 <term>Typical use:</term>
4735 <para>Keep your (old and ill) browser from telling web servers your email address</para>
4740 <term>Effect:</term>
4743 Deletes any existing <quote>From:</quote> HTTP header, or replaces it with the
4751 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4753 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4758 <term>Parameter:</term>
4761 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
4770 The keyword <quote>block</quote> will completely remove the header
4771 (not to be confused with the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>
4775 Alternately, you can specify any value you prefer to be sent to the web
4776 server. If you do, it is a matter of fairness not to use any address that
4777 is actually used by a real person.
4780 This action is rarely needed, as modern web browsers don't send
4781 <quote>From:</quote> headers anymore.
4787 <term>Example usage:</term>
4790 <screen>+hide-from-header{block}</screen> or
4791 <screen>+hide-from-header{spam-me-senseless@sittingduck.example.com}</screen>
4799 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4800 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-referrer">
4801 <title>hide-referrer</title>
4802 <anchor id="hide-referer">
4805 <term>Typical use:</term>
4807 <para>Conceal which link you followed to get to a particular site</para>
4812 <term>Effect:</term>
4815 Deletes the <quote>Referer:</quote> (sic) HTTP header from the client request,
4816 or replaces it with a forged one.
4823 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4825 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4830 <term>Parameter:</term>
4834 <para><quote>conditional-block</quote> to delete the header completely if the host has changed.</para>
4837 <para><quote>conditional-forge</quote> to forge the header if the host has changed.</para>
4840 <para><quote>block</quote> to delete the header unconditionally.</para>
4843 <para><quote>forge</quote> to pretend to be coming from the homepage of the server we are talking to.</para>
4846 <para>Any other string to set a user defined referrer.</para>
4856 <literal>conditional-block</literal> is the only parameter,
4857 that isn't easily detected in the server's log file. If it blocks the
4858 referrer, the request will look like the visitor used a bookmark or
4859 typed in the address directly.
4862 Leaving the referrer unmodified for requests on the same host
4863 allows the server owner to see the visitor's <quote>click path</quote>,
4864 but in most cases she could also get that information by comparing
4865 other parts of the log file: for example the User-Agent if it isn't
4866 a very common one, or the user's IP address if it doesn't change between
4870 Always blocking the referrer, or using a custom one, can lead to
4871 failures on servers that check the referrer before they answer any
4872 requests, in an attempt to prevent their content from being
4873 embedded or linked to elsewhere.
4876 Both <literal>conditional-block</literal> and <literal>forge</literal>
4877 will work with referrer checks, as long as content and valid referring page
4878 are on the same host. Most of the time that's the case.
4881 <literal>hide-referer</literal> is an alternate spelling of
4882 <literal>hide-referrer</literal> and the two can be can be freely
4883 substituted with each other. (<quote>referrer</quote> is the
4884 correct English spelling, however the HTTP specification has a bug - it
4885 requires it to be spelled as <quote>referer</quote>.)
4891 <term>Example usage:</term>
4894 <screen>+hide-referrer{forge}</screen> or
4895 <screen>+hide-referrer{http://www.yahoo.com/}</screen>
4903 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4904 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-user-agent">
4905 <title>hide-user-agent</title>
4909 <term>Typical use:</term>
4911 <para>Try to conceal your type of browser and client operating system</para>
4916 <term>Effect:</term>
4919 Replaces the value of the <quote>User-Agent:</quote> HTTP header
4920 in client requests with the specified value.
4927 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4929 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4934 <term>Parameter:</term>
4937 Any user-defined string.
4947 This can lead to problems on web sites that depend on looking at this header in
4948 order to customize their content for different browsers (which, by the
4949 way, is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> the right thing to do: good web sites
4950 work browser-independently).
4954 Using this action in multi-user setups or wherever different types of
4955 browsers will access the same <application>Privoxy</application> is
4956 <emphasis>not recommended</emphasis>. In single-user, single-browser
4957 setups, you might use it to delete your OS version information from
4958 the headers, because it is an invitation to exploit known bugs for your
4959 OS. It is also occasionally useful to forge this in order to access
4960 sites that won't let you in otherwise (though there may be a good
4961 reason in some cases). Example of this: some MSN sites will not
4962 let <application>Mozilla</application> enter, yet forging to a
4963 <application>Netscape 6.1</application> user-agent works just fine.
4964 (Must be just a silly MS goof, I'm sure :-).
4967 More information on known user-agent strings can be found at
4968 <ulink url="http://www.user-agents.org/">http://www.user-agents.org/</ulink>
4970 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_agent">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_agent</ulink>.
4976 <term>Example usage:</term>
4979 <screen>+hide-user-agent{Netscape 6.1 (X11; I; Linux 2.4.18 i686)}</screen>
4987 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4988 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="inspect-jpegs">
4989 <title>inspect-jpegs</title>
4992 <term>Typical use:</term>
4994 <para>Try to protect against a MS buffer over-run in JPEG processing</para>
4999 <term>Effect:</term>
5002 Protect against a known exploit
5009 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5011 <para>Boolean.</para>
5016 <term>Parameter:</term>
5028 See Microsoft Security Bulletin MS04-028. JPEG images are one of the most
5029 common image types found across the Internet. The exploit as described can
5030 allow execution of code on the target system, giving an attacker access
5031 to the system in question by merely planting an altered JPEG image, which
5032 would have no obvious indications of what lurks inside. This action
5033 tries to prevent this exploit if delivered through unencrypted HTTP.
5036 Note that the exploit mentioned is several years old
5037 and it's unlikely that your client is still vulnerable
5038 against it. This action may be removed in one of the
5046 <term>Example usage:</term>
5048 <para><screen>+inspect-jpegs</screen></para>
5055 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5056 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="kill-popups">
5057 <title>kill-popups<anchor id="kill-popup"></title>
5061 <term>Typical use:</term>
5063 <para>Eliminate those annoying pop-up windows (deprecated)</para>
5068 <term>Effect:</term>
5071 While loading the document, replace JavaScript code that opens
5072 pop-up windows with (syntactically neutral) dummy code on the fly.
5079 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5081 <para>Boolean.</para>
5086 <term>Parameter:</term>
5098 This action is basically a built-in, hardwired special-purpose filter
5099 action, but there are important differences: For <literal>kill-popups</literal>,
5100 the document need not be buffered, so it can be incrementally rendered while
5101 downloading. But <literal>kill-popups</literal> doesn't catch as many pop-ups as
5103 linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{<replaceable>all-popups</replaceable>}</link></literal>
5104 does and is not as smart as <literal><link
5105 linkend="FILTER-UNSOLICITED-POPUPS">filter{<replaceable>unsolicited-popups</replaceable>}</link>
5109 Think of it as a fast and efficient replacement for a filter that you
5110 can use if you don't want any filtering at all. Note that it doesn't make
5111 sense to combine it with any <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> action,
5112 since as soon as one <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> applies,
5113 the whole document needs to be buffered anyway, which destroys the advantage of
5114 the <literal>kill-popups</literal> action over its filter equivalent.
5117 Killing all pop-ups unconditionally is problematic. Many shops and banks rely on
5118 pop-ups to display forms, shopping carts etc, and the <literal><link
5119 linkend="FILTER-UNSOLICITED-POPUPS">filter{<replaceable>unsolicited-popups</replaceable>}</link>
5120 </literal> does a better job of catching only the unwanted ones.
5123 If the only kind of pop-ups that you want to kill are exit consoles (those
5124 <emphasis>really nasty</emphasis> windows that appear when you close an other
5125 one), you might want to use
5127 linkend="filter">filter</link>{<replaceable>js-annoyances</replaceable>}</literal>
5131 This action is most appropriate for browsers that don't have any controls
5132 for unwanted pop-ups. Not recommended for general usage.
5135 This action doesn't work very reliable and may be removed in future releases.
5141 <term>Example usage:</term>
5143 <para><screen>+kill-popups</screen></para>
5150 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5151 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="limit-connect">
5152 <title>limit-connect</title>
5156 <term>Typical use:</term>
5158 <para>Prevent abuse of <application>Privoxy</application> as a TCP proxy relay or disable SSL for untrusted sites</para>
5163 <term>Effect:</term>
5166 Specifies to which ports HTTP CONNECT requests are allowable.
5173 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5175 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5180 <term>Parameter:</term>
5183 A comma-separated list of ports or port ranges (the latter using dashes, with the minimum
5184 defaulting to 0 and the maximum to 65K).
5193 By default, i.e. if no <literal>limit-connect</literal> action applies,
5194 <application>Privoxy</application> only allows HTTP CONNECT
5195 requests to port 443 (the standard, secure HTTPS port). Use
5196 <literal>limit-connect</literal> if more fine-grained control is desired
5197 for some or all destinations.
5200 The CONNECT methods exists in HTTP to allow access to secure websites
5201 (<quote>https://</quote> URLs) through proxies. It works very simply:
5202 the proxy connects to the server on the specified port, and then
5203 short-circuits its connections to the client and to the remote server.
5204 This means CONNECT-enabled proxies can be used as TCP relays very easily.
5207 <application>Privoxy</application> relays HTTPS traffic without seeing
5208 the decoded content. Websites can leverage this limitation to circumvent &my-app;'s
5209 filters. By specifying an invalid port range you can disable HTTPS entirely.
5210 If you plan to disable SSL by default, consider enabling
5211 <literal><link linkend="treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks ">treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks</link></literal>
5212 as well, to be able to quickly create exceptions.
5218 <term>Example usages:</term>
5220 <!-- I had trouble getting the spacing to look right in my browser -->
5221 <!-- I probably have the wrong font setup, bollocks. -->
5222 <!-- Apparently the emphasis tag uses a proportional font no matter what -->
5224 <screen>+limit-connect{443} # This is the default and need not be specified.
5225 +limit-connect{80,443} # Ports 80 and 443 are OK.
5226 +limit-connect{-3, 7, 20-100, 500-} # Ports less than 3, 7, 20 to 100 and above 500 are OK.
5227 +limit-connect{-} # All ports are OK
5228 +limit-connect{,} # No HTTPS/SSL traffic is allowed</screen>
5235 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5236 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="prevent-compression">
5237 <title>prevent-compression</title>
5241 <term>Typical use:</term>
5244 Ensure that servers send the content uncompressed, so it can be
5245 passed through <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>s.
5251 <term>Effect:</term>
5254 Removes the Accept-Encoding header which can be used to ask for compressed transfer.
5261 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5263 <para>Boolean.</para>
5268 <term>Parameter:</term>
5280 More and more websites send their content compressed by default, which
5281 is generally a good idea and saves bandwidth. But the <literal><link
5282 linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>, <literal><link linkend="deanimate-gifs">deanimate-gifs</link></literal>
5283 and <literal><link linkend="kill-popups">kill-popups</link></literal> actions need
5284 access to the uncompressed data.
5287 When compiled with zlib support (available since &my-app; 3.0.7), content that should be
5288 filtered is decompressed on-the-fly and you don't have to worry about this action.
5289 If you are using an older &my-app; version, or one that hasn't been compiled with zlib
5290 support, this action can be used to convince the server to send the content uncompressed.
5293 Most text-based instances compress very well, the size is seldom decreased by less than 50%,
5294 for markup-heavy instances like news feeds saving more than 90% of the original size isn't
5298 Not using compression will therefore slow down the transfer, and you should only
5299 enable this action if you really need it. As of &my-app; 3.0.7 it's disabled in all
5300 predefined action settings.
5303 Note that some (rare) ill-configured sites don't handle requests for uncompressed
5304 documents correctly. Broken PHP applications tend to send an empty document body,
5305 some IIS versions only send the beginning of the content. If you enable
5306 <literal>prevent-compression</literal> per default, you might want to add
5307 exceptions for those sites. See the example for how to do that.
5313 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
5317 # Selectively turn off compression, and enable a filter
5319 { +filter{tiny-textforms} +prevent-compression }
5320 # Match only these sites
5325 # Or instead, we could set a universal default:
5327 { +prevent-compression }
5330 # Then maybe make exceptions for broken sites:
5332 { -prevent-compression }
5333 .compusa.com/</screen>
5342 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5343 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="overwrite-last-modified">
5344 <title>overwrite-last-modified</title>
5350 <term>Typical use:</term>
5352 <para>Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.</para>
5357 <term>Effect:</term>
5360 Deletes the <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> HTTP server header or modifies its value.
5367 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5369 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5374 <term>Parameter:</term>
5377 One of the keywords: <quote>block</quote>, <quote>reset-to-request-time</quote>
5378 and <quote>randomize</quote>
5387 Removing the <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header is useful for filter
5388 testing, where you want to force a real reload instead of getting status
5389 code <quote>304</quote>, which would cause the browser to reuse the old
5390 version of the page.
5393 The <quote>randomize</quote> option overwrites the value of the
5394 <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header with a randomly chosen time
5395 between the original value and the current time. In theory the server
5396 could send each document with a different <quote>Last-Modified:</quote>
5397 header to track visits without using cookies. <quote>Randomize</quote>
5398 makes it impossible and the browser can still revalidate cached documents.
5401 <quote>reset-to-request-time</quote> overwrites the value of the
5402 <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header with the current time. You could use
5403 this option together with
5404 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hided-if-modified-since</link></literal>
5405 to further customize your random range.
5408 The preferred parameter here is <quote>randomize</quote>. It is safe
5409 to use, as long as the time settings are more or less correct.
5410 If the server sets the <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header to the time
5411 of the request, the random range becomes zero and the value stays the same.
5412 Therefore you should later randomize it a second time with
5413 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hided-if-modified-since</link></literal>,
5417 It is also recommended to use this action together with
5418 <literal><link linkend="crunch-if-none-match">crunch-if-none-match</link></literal>.
5424 <term>Example usage:</term>
5427 <screen># Let the browser revalidate without being tracked across sessions
5428 { +hide-if-modified-since{-60} \
5429 +overwrite-last-modified{randomize} \
5430 +crunch-if-none-match}
5439 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5440 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="redirect">
5441 <title>redirect</title>
5447 <term>Typical use:</term>
5450 Redirect requests to other sites.
5456 <term>Effect:</term>
5459 Convinces the browser that the requested document has been moved
5460 to another location and the browser should get it from there.
5467 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5469 <para>Parameterized</para>
5474 <term>Parameter:</term>
5477 An absolute URL or a single pcrs command.
5486 Requests to which this action applies are answered with a
5487 HTTP redirect to URLs of your choosing. The new URL is
5488 either provided as parameter, or derived by applying a
5489 single pcrs command to the original URL.
5492 This action will be ignored if you use it together with
5493 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>.
5494 It can be combined with
5495 <literal><link linkend="fast-redirects">fast-redirects{check-decoded-url}</link></literal>
5496 to redirect to a decoded version of a rewritten URL.
5499 Use this action carefully, make sure not to create redirection loops
5500 and be aware that using your own redirects might make it
5501 possible to fingerprint your requests.
5507 <term>Example usages:</term>
5510 <screen># Replace example.com's style sheet with another one
5511 { +redirect{http://localhost/css-replacements/example.com.css} }
5512 example.com/stylesheet\.css
5514 # Create a short, easy to remember nickname for a favorite site
5515 # (relies on the browser accept and forward invalid URLs to &my-app;)
5516 { +redirect{http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/actions-file.html} }
5519 # Always use the expanded view for Undeadly.org articles
5520 # (Note the $ at the end of the URL pattern to make sure
5521 # the request for the rewritten URL isn't redirected as well)
5522 {+redirect{s@$@&mode=expanded@}}
5523 undeadly.org/cgi\?action=article&sid=\d*$</screen>
5532 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5533 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="send-vanilla-wafer">
5534 <title>send-vanilla-wafer</title>
5538 <term>Typical use:</term>
5541 Feed log analysis scripts with useless data.
5547 <term>Effect:</term>
5550 Sends a cookie with each request stating that you do not accept any copyright
5551 on cookies sent to you, and asking the site operator not to track you.
5558 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5560 <para>Boolean.</para>
5565 <term>Parameter:</term>
5577 The vanilla wafer is a (relatively) unique header and could conceivably be used to track you.
5580 This action is rarely used and not enabled in the default configuration.
5586 <term>Example usage:</term>
5589 <screen>+send-vanilla-wafer</screen>
5598 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5599 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="send-wafer">
5600 <title>send-wafer</title>
5604 <term>Typical use:</term>
5607 Send custom cookies or feed log analysis scripts with even more useless data.
5613 <term>Effect:</term>
5616 Sends a custom, user-defined cookie with each request.
5623 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5625 <para>Multi-value.</para>
5630 <term>Parameter:</term>
5633 A string of the form <quote><replaceable class="option">name</replaceable>=<replaceable
5634 class="parameter">value</replaceable></quote>.
5643 Being multi-valued, multiple instances of this action can apply to the same request,
5644 resulting in multiple cookies being sent.
5647 This action is rarely used and not enabled in the default configuration.
5652 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
5655 <screen>{+send-wafer{UsingPrivoxy=true}}
5656 my-internal-testing-server.void</screen>
5664 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5665 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="server-header-filter">
5666 <title>server-header-filter</title>
5670 <term>Typical use:</term>
5673 Rewrite or remove single server headers.
5679 <term>Effect:</term>
5682 All server headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly
5683 through the specified regular expression based substitutions.
5690 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
5692 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5697 <term>Parameter:</term>
5700 The name of a server-header filter, as defined in one of the
5701 <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link>.
5710 Server-header filters are applied to each header on its own, not to
5711 all at once. This makes it easier to diagnose problems, but on the downside
5712 you can't write filters that only change header x if header y's value is z.
5713 You can do that by using tags though.
5716 Server-header filters are executed after the other header actions have finished
5717 and use their output as input.
5720 Please refer to the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file chapter</link>
5721 to learn which server-header filters are available by default, and how to
5728 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
5732 {+server-header-filter{html-to-xml}}
5733 example.org/xml-instance-that-is-delivered-as-html
5735 {+server-header-filter{xml-to-html}}
5736 example.org/instance-that-is-delivered-as-xml-but-is-not
5746 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5747 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="server-header-tagger">
5748 <title>server-header-tagger</title>
5752 <term>Typical use:</term>
5755 Enable or disable filters based on the Content-Type header.
5761 <term>Effect:</term>
5764 Server headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly through
5765 the specified regular expression based substitutions, the result is used as
5773 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
5775 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5780 <term>Parameter:</term>
5783 The name of a server-header tagger, as defined in one of the
5784 <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link>.
5793 Server-header taggers are applied to each header on its own,
5794 and as the header isn't modified, each tagger <quote>sees</quote>
5798 Server-header taggers are executed before all other header actions
5799 that modify server headers. Their tags can be used to control
5800 all of the other server-header actions, the content filters
5801 and the crunch actions (<link linkend="redirect">redirect</link>
5802 and <link linkend="block">block</link>).
5805 Obviously crunching based on tags created by server-header taggers
5806 doesn't prevent the request from showing up in the server's log file.
5813 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
5817 # Tag every request with the content type declared by the server
5818 {+server-header-tagger{content-type}}
5829 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5830 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="session-cookies-only">
5831 <title>session-cookies-only</title>
5835 <term>Typical use:</term>
5838 Allow only temporary <quote>session</quote> cookies (for the current
5839 browser session <emphasis>only</emphasis>).
5845 <term>Effect:</term>
5848 Deletes the <quote>expires</quote> field from <quote>Set-Cookie:</quote>
5849 server headers. Most browsers will not store such cookies permanently and
5850 forget them in between sessions.
5857 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5859 <para>Boolean.</para>
5864 <term>Parameter:</term>
5876 This is less strict than <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal> /
5877 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal> and allows you to browse
5878 websites that insist or rely on setting cookies, without compromising your privacy too badly.
5881 Most browsers will not permanently store cookies that have been processed by
5882 <literal>session-cookies-only</literal> and will forget about them between sessions.
5883 This makes profiling cookies useless, but won't break sites which require cookies so
5884 that you can log in for transactions. This is generally turned on for all
5885 sites, and is the recommended setting.
5888 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use <literal>session-cookies-only</literal>
5889 together with <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal> or
5890 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>. If you do, cookies
5891 will be plainly killed.
5894 Note that it is up to the browser how it handles such cookies without an <quote>expires</quote>
5895 field. If you use an exotic browser, you might want to try it out to be sure.
5898 This setting also has no effect on cookies that may have been stored
5899 previously by the browser before starting <application>Privoxy</application>.
5900 These would have to be removed manually.
5903 <application>Privoxy</application> also uses
5904 the <link linkend="filter-content-cookies">content-cookies filter</link>
5905 to block some types of cookies. Content cookies are not effected by
5906 <literal>session-cookies-only</literal>.
5912 <term>Example usage:</term>
5915 <screen>+session-cookies-only</screen>
5923 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5924 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="set-image-blocker">
5925 <title>set-image-blocker</title>
5929 <term>Typical use:</term>
5931 <para>Choose the replacement for blocked images</para>
5936 <term>Effect:</term>
5939 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. If <emphasis>both</emphasis>
5940 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> <emphasis>and</emphasis> <literal><link
5941 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> <emphasis>also</emphasis>
5942 apply, i.e. if the request is to be blocked as an image,
5943 <emphasis>then</emphasis> the parameter of this action decides what will be
5944 sent as a replacement.
5951 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5953 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5958 <term>Parameter:</term>
5963 <quote>pattern</quote> to send a built-in checkerboard pattern image. The image is visually
5964 decent, scales very well, and makes it obvious where banners were busted.
5969 <quote>blank</quote> to send a built-in transparent image. This makes banners disappear
5970 completely, but makes it hard to detect where <application>Privoxy</application> has blocked
5971 images on a given page and complicates troubleshooting if <application>Privoxy</application>
5972 has blocked innocent images, like navigation icons.
5977 <quote><replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable></quote> to
5978 send a redirect to <replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable>. You can redirect
5979 to any image anywhere, even in your local filesystem via <quote>file:///</quote> URL.
5980 (But note that not all browsers support redirecting to a local file system).
5983 A good application of redirects is to use special <application>Privoxy</application>-built-in
5984 URLs, which send the built-in images, as <replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable>.
5985 This has the same visual effect as specifying <quote>blank</quote> or <quote>pattern</quote> in
5986 the first place, but enables your browser to cache the replacement image, instead of requesting
5987 it over and over again.
5998 The URLs for the built-in images are <quote>http://config.privoxy.org/send-banner?type=<replaceable
5999 class="parameter">type</replaceable></quote>, where <replaceable class="parameter">type</replaceable> is
6000 either <quote>blank</quote> or <quote>pattern</quote>.
6003 There is a third (advanced) type, called <quote>auto</quote>. It is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> to be
6004 used in <literal>set-image-blocker</literal>, but meant for use from <link linkend="filter-file">filters</link>.
6005 Auto will select the type of image that would have applied to the referring page, had it been an image.
6011 <term>Example usage:</term>
6017 <screen>+set-image-blocker{pattern}</screen>
6020 Redirect to the BSD daemon:
6023 <screen>+set-image-blocker{http://www.freebsd.org/gifs/dae_up3.gif}</screen>
6026 Redirect to the built-in pattern for better caching:
6029 <screen>+set-image-blocker{http://config.privoxy.org/send-banner?type=pattern}</screen>
6037 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6038 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks">
6039 <title>treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks</title>
6045 <term>Typical use:</term>
6047 <para>Block forbidden connects with an easy to find error message.</para>
6052 <term>Effect:</term>
6055 If this action is enabled, <application>Privoxy</application> no longer
6056 makes a difference between forbidden connects and ordinary blocks.
6063 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
6065 <para>Boolean</para>
6070 <term>Parameter:</term>
6080 By default <application>Privoxy</application> answers
6081 <link linkend="limit-connect">forbidden <quote>Connect</quote> requests</link>
6082 with a short error message inside the headers. If the browser doesn't display
6083 headers (most don't), you just see an empty page.
6086 With this action enabled, <application>Privoxy</application> displays
6087 the message that is used for ordinary blocks instead. If you decide
6088 to make an exception for the page in question, you can do so by
6089 following the <quote>See why</quote> link.
6092 For <quote>Connect</quote> requests the clients tell
6093 <application>Privoxy</application> which host they are interested
6094 in, but not which document they plan to get later. As a result, the
6095 <quote>Go there anyway</quote> wouldn't work and is therefore suppressed.
6101 <term>Example usage:</term>
6104 <screen>+treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks</screen>
6112 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6114 <title>Summary</title>
6116 Note that many of these actions have the potential to cause a page to
6117 misbehave, possibly even not to display at all. There are many ways
6118 a site designer may choose to design his site, and what HTTP header
6119 content, and other criteria, he may depend on. There is no way to have hard
6120 and fast rules for all sites. See the <link
6121 linkend="ACTIONSANAT">Appendix</link> for a brief example on troubleshooting
6127 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6128 <sect2 id="aliases">
6129 <title>Aliases</title>
6131 Custom <quote>actions</quote>, known to <application>Privoxy</application>
6132 as <quote>aliases</quote>, can be defined by combining other actions.
6133 These can in turn be invoked just like the built-in actions.
6134 Currently, an alias name can contain any character except space, tab,
6136 <quote>{</quote> and <quote>}</quote>, but we <emphasis>strongly
6137 recommend</emphasis> that you only use <quote>a</quote> to <quote>z</quote>,
6138 <quote>0</quote> to <quote>9</quote>, <quote>+</quote>, and <quote>-</quote>.
6139 Alias names are not case sensitive, and are not required to start with a
6140 <quote>+</quote> or <quote>-</quote> sign, since they are merely textually
6144 Aliases can be used throughout the actions file, but they <emphasis>must be
6145 defined in a special section at the top of the file!</emphasis>
6146 And there can only be one such section per actions file. Each actions file may
6147 have its own alias section, and the aliases defined in it are only visible
6151 There are two main reasons to use aliases: One is to save typing for frequently
6152 used combinations of actions, the other one is a gain in flexibility: If you
6153 decide once how you want to handle shops by defining an alias called
6154 <quote>shop</quote>, you can later change your policy on shops in
6155 <emphasis>one</emphasis> place, and your changes will take effect everywhere
6156 in the actions file where the <quote>shop</quote> alias is used. Calling aliases
6157 by their purpose also makes your actions files more readable.
6160 Currently, there is one big drawback to using aliases, though:
6161 <application>Privoxy</application>'s built-in web-based action file
6162 editor honors aliases when reading the actions files, but it expands
6163 them before writing. So the effects of your aliases are of course preserved,
6164 but the aliases themselves are lost when you edit sections that use aliases
6169 Now let's define some aliases...
6174 # Useful custom aliases we can use later.
6176 # Note the (required!) section header line and that this section
6177 # must be at the top of the actions file!
6181 # These aliases just save typing later:
6182 # (Note that some already use other aliases!)
6184 +crunch-all-cookies = +<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> +<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
6185 -crunch-all-cookies = -<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> -<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
6186 +block-as-image = +block +handle-as-image
6187 allow-all-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> -<link linkend="FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</link>
6189 # These aliases define combinations of actions
6190 # that are useful for certain types of sites:
6192 fragile = -<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link> -<link linkend="HIDE-REFERER">hide-referrer</link> -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link> -<link linkend="PREVENT-COMPRESSION">prevent-compression</link>
6194 shop = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{all-popups}</link> -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link>
6196 # Short names for other aliases, for really lazy people ;-)
6198 c0 = +crunch-all-cookies
6199 c1 = -crunch-all-cookies</screen>
6203 ...and put them to use. These sections would appear in the lower part of an
6204 actions file and define exceptions to the default actions (as specified further
6205 up for the <quote>/</quote> pattern):
6210 # These sites are either very complex or very keen on
6211 # user data and require minimal interference to work:
6214 .office.microsoft.com
6215 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com
6216 # Gmail is really mail.google.com, not gmail.com
6220 # Allow cookies (for setting and retrieving your customer data)
6224 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
6227 # These shops require pop-ups:
6229 {-kill-popups -filter{all-popups} -filter{unsolicited-popups}}
6231 .overclockers.co.uk</screen>
6235 Aliases like <quote>shop</quote> and <quote>fragile</quote> are typically used for
6236 <quote>problem</quote> sites that require more than one action to be disabled
6237 in order to function properly.
6243 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6244 <sect2 id="act-examples">
6245 <title>Actions Files Tutorial</title>
6247 The above chapters have shown <link linkend="actions-file">which actions files
6248 there are and how they are organized</link>, how actions are <link
6249 linkend="actions">specified</link> and <link linkend="actions-apply">applied
6250 to URLs</link>, how <link linkend="af-patterns">patterns</link> work, and how to
6251 define and use <link linkend="aliases">aliases</link>. Now, let's look at an
6252 example <filename>default.action</filename> and <filename>user.action</filename>
6253 file and see how all these pieces come together:
6256 <sect3><title>default.action</title>
6259 Every config file should start with a short comment stating its purpose:
6263 <screen># Sample default.action file <ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net></screen>
6267 Then, since this is the <filename>default.action</filename> file, the
6268 first section is a special section for internal use that you needn't
6269 change or worry about:
6274 ##########################################################################
6275 # Settings -- Don't change! For internal Privoxy use ONLY.
6276 ##########################################################################
6279 for-privoxy-version=3.0</screen>
6283 After that comes the (optional) alias section. We'll use the example
6284 section from the above <link linkend="aliases">chapter on aliases</link>,
6285 that also explains why and how aliases are used:
6290 ##########################################################################
6292 ##########################################################################
6295 # These aliases just save typing later:
6296 # (Note that some already use other aliases!)
6298 +crunch-all-cookies = +<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> +<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
6299 -crunch-all-cookies = -<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> -<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
6300 +block-as-image = +block +handle-as-image
6301 mercy-for-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> -<link linkend="FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</link>
6303 # These aliases define combinations of actions
6304 # that are useful for certain types of sites:
6306 fragile = -<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link> -<link linkend="HIDE-REFERER">hide-referrer</link> -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link>
6307 shop = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{all-popups}</link> -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link></screen>
6311 Now come the regular sections, i.e. sets of actions, accompanied
6312 by URL patterns to which they apply. Remember <emphasis>all actions
6313 are disabled when matching starts</emphasis>, so we have to explicitly
6314 enable the ones we want.
6318 The first regular section is probably the most important. It has only
6319 one pattern, <quote><literal>/</literal></quote>, but this pattern
6320 <link linkend="af-patterns">matches all URLs</link>. Therefore, the
6321 set of actions used in this <quote>default</quote> section <emphasis>will
6322 be applied to all requests as a start</emphasis>. It can be partly or
6323 wholly overridden by later matches further down this file, or in user.action,
6324 but it will still be largely responsible for your overall browsing
6329 Again, at the start of matching, all actions are disabled, so there is
6330 no need to disable any actions here. (Remember: a <quote>+</quote>
6331 preceding the action name enables the action, a <quote>-</quote> disables!).
6332 Also note how this long line has been made more readable by splitting it into
6333 multiple lines with line continuation.
6338 ##########################################################################
6339 # "Defaults" section:
6340 ##########################################################################
6342 +<link linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS">deanimate-gifs</link> \
6343 +<link linkend="FILTER-HTML-ANNOYANCES">filter{html-annoyances}</link> \
6344 +<link linkend="FILTER-REFRESH-TAGS">filter{refresh-tags}</link> \
6345 +<link linkend="FILTER-WEBBUGS">filter{webbugs}</link> \
6346 +<link linkend="FILTER-IE-EXPLOITS">filter{ie-exploits}</link> \
6347 +<link linkend="HIDE-FORWARDED-FOR-HEADERS">hide-forwarded-for-headers</link> \
6348 +<link linkend="HIDE-FROM-HEADER">hide-from-header{block}</link> \
6349 +<link linkend="HIDE-REFERER">hide-referrer{forge}</link> \
6350 +<link linkend="PREVENT-COMPRESSION">prevent-compression</link> \
6351 +<link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> \
6352 +<link linkend="SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER">set-image-blocker{pattern}</link> \
6354 / # forward slash will match *all* potential URL patterns.</screen>
6358 The default behavior is now set.
6360 This needs rewording, but it can wait for now.
6363 Note that some actions, like not hiding
6364 the user agent, are part of a <quote>general policy</quote> that applies
6365 universally and won't get any exceptions defined later. Other choices,
6366 like not blocking (which is <emphasis>understandably</emphasis> the
6367 default!) need exceptions, i.e. we need to specify explicitly what we
6368 want to block in later sections.
6373 The first of our specialized sections is concerned with <quote>fragile</quote>
6374 sites, i.e. sites that require minimum interference, because they are either
6375 very complex or very keen on tracking you (and have mechanisms in place that
6376 make them unusable for people who avoid being tracked). We will simply use
6377 our pre-defined <literal>fragile</literal> alias instead of stating the list
6378 of actions explicitly:
6383 ##########################################################################
6384 # Exceptions for sites that'll break under the default action set:
6385 ##########################################################################
6387 # "Fragile" Use a minimum set of actions for these sites (see alias above):
6390 .office.microsoft.com # surprise, surprise!
6391 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com
6392 mail.google.com</screen>
6396 Shopping sites are not as fragile, but they typically
6397 require cookies to log in, and pop-up windows for shopping
6398 carts or item details. Again, we'll use a pre-defined alias:
6407 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
6409 .scan.co.uk</screen>
6412 <!-- No longer needed BEGIN OF COMMENTED OUT BLOCK
6415 Then, there are sites which rely on pop-up windows (yuck!) to work.
6416 Since we made pop-up-killing our default above, we need to make exceptions
6417 now. <ulink url="http://www.mozilla.org/">Mozilla</ulink> users, who
6418 can turn on smart handling of unwanted pop-ups in their browsers, can
6420 -<literal><link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{popups}</link></literal> (and
6421 -<literal><link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link></literal>) above
6422 and hence don't need this section. Anyway, disabling an already disabled
6423 action doesn't hurt, so we'll define our exceptions regardless of what was
6424 chosen in the defaults section:
6429 # These sites require pop-ups too :(
6431 { -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link> -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{popups}</link> }
6434 .deutsche-bank-24.de</screen>
6437 END OF COMMENTED OUT BLOCK -->
6440 The <literal><link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link></literal>
6441 action, which we enabled per default above, breaks some sites. So disable
6442 it for popular sites where we know it misbehaves:
6447 { -<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link> }
6451 .altavista.com/.*(like|url|link):http
6452 .altavista.com/trans.*urltext=http
6453 .nytimes.com</screen>
6457 It is important that <application>Privoxy</application> knows which
6458 URLs belong to images, so that <emphasis>if</emphasis> they are to
6459 be blocked, a substitute image can be sent, rather than an HTML page.
6460 Contacting the remote site to find out is not an option, since it
6461 would destroy the loading time advantage of banner blocking, and it
6462 would feed the advertisers (in terms of money <emphasis>and</emphasis>
6463 information). We can mark any URL as an image with the <literal><link
6464 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> action,
6465 and marking all URLs that end in a known image file extension is a
6471 ##########################################################################
6473 ##########################################################################
6475 # Define which file types will be treated as images, in case they get
6476 # blocked further down this file:
6478 { +<link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">handle-as-image</link> }
6479 /.*\.(gif|jpe?g|png|bmp|ico)$</screen>
6483 And then there are known banner sources. They often use scripts to
6484 generate the banners, so it won't be visible from the URL that the
6485 request is for an image. Hence we block them <emphasis>and</emphasis>
6486 mark them as images in one go, with the help of our
6487 <literal>+block-as-image</literal> alias defined above. (We could of
6488 course just as well use <literal>+<link linkend="block">block</link>
6489 +<link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> here.)
6490 Remember that the type of the replacement image is chosen by the
6491 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>
6492 action. Since all URLs have matched the default section with its
6493 <literal>+<link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link>{pattern}</literal>
6494 action before, it still applies and needn't be repeated:
6499 # Known ad generators:
6504 .ad.*.doubleclick.net
6505 .a.yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$
6506 .a[0-9].yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$
6512 One of the most important jobs of <application>Privoxy</application>
6513 is to block banners. Many of these can be <quote>blocked</quote>
6514 by the <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link>{banners-by-size}</literal>
6515 action, which we enabled above, and which deletes the references to banner
6516 images from the pages while they are loaded, so the browser doesn't request
6517 them anymore, and hence they don't need to be blocked here. But this naturally
6518 doesn't catch all banners, and some people choose not to use filters, so we
6519 need a comprehensive list of patterns for banner URLs here, and apply the
6520 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action to them.
6523 First comes many generic patterns, which do most of the work, by
6524 matching typical domain and path name components of banners. Then comes
6525 a list of individual patterns for specific sites, which is omitted here
6526 to keep the example short:
6531 ##########################################################################
6532 # Block these fine banners:
6533 ##########################################################################
6534 { <link linkend="BLOCK">+block</link> }
6542 /.*count(er)?\.(pl|cgi|exe|dll|asp|php[34]?)
6543 /(?:.*/)?(publicite|werbung|rekla(ma|me|am)|annonse|maino(kset|nta|s)?)/
6545 # Site-specific patterns (abbreviated):
6547 .hitbox.com</screen>
6551 It's quite remarkable how many advertisers actually call their banner
6552 servers ads.<replaceable>company</replaceable>.com, or call the directory
6553 in which the banners are stored simply <quote>banners</quote>. So the above
6554 generic patterns are surprisingly effective.
6557 But being very generic, they necessarily also catch URLs that we don't want
6558 to block. The pattern <literal>.*ads.</literal> e.g. catches
6559 <quote>nasty-<emphasis>ads</emphasis>.nasty-corp.com</quote> as intended,
6560 but also <quote>downlo<emphasis>ads</emphasis>.sourcefroge.net</quote> or
6561 <quote><emphasis>ads</emphasis>l.some-provider.net.</quote> So here come some
6562 well-known exceptions to the <literal>+<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal>
6566 Note that these are exceptions to exceptions from the default! Consider the URL
6567 <quote>downloads.sourcefroge.net</quote>: Initially, all actions are deactivated,
6568 so it wouldn't get blocked. Then comes the defaults section, which matches the
6569 URL, but just deactivates the <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal>
6570 action once again. Then it matches <literal>.*ads.</literal>, an exception to the
6571 general non-blocking policy, and suddenly
6572 <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">+block</link></literal> applies. And now, it'll match
6573 <literal>.*loads.</literal>, where <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">-block</link></literal>
6574 applies, so (unless it matches <emphasis>again</emphasis> further down) it ends up
6575 with no <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal> action applying.
6580 ##########################################################################
6581 # Save some innocent victims of the above generic block patterns:
6582 ##########################################################################
6586 { -<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> }
6587 adv[io]*. # (for advogato.org and advice.*)
6588 adsl. # (has nothing to do with ads)
6589 adobe. # (has nothing to do with ads either)
6590 ad[ud]*. # (adult.* and add.*)
6591 .edu # (universities don't host banners (yet!))
6592 .*loads. # (downloads, uploads etc)
6600 www.globalintersec.com/adv # (adv = advanced)
6601 www.ugu.com/sui/ugu/adv</screen>
6605 Filtering source code can have nasty side effects,
6606 so make an exception for our friends at sourceforge.net,
6607 and all paths with <quote>cvs</quote> in them. Note that
6608 <literal>-<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link></literal>
6609 disables <emphasis>all</emphasis> filters in one fell swoop!
6614 # Don't filter code!
6616 { -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> }
6621 .sourceforge.net</screen>
6625 The actual <filename>default.action</filename> is of course much more
6626 comprehensive, but we hope this example made clear how it works.
6631 <sect3><title>user.action</title>
6634 So far we are painting with a broad brush by setting general policies,
6635 which would be a reasonable starting point for many people. Now,
6636 you might want to be more specific and have customized rules that
6637 are more suitable to your personal habits and preferences. These would
6638 be for narrowly defined situations like your ISP or your bank, and should
6639 be placed in <filename>user.action</filename>, which is parsed after all other
6640 actions files and hence has the last word, over-riding any previously
6641 defined actions. <filename>user.action</filename> is also a
6642 <emphasis>safe</emphasis> place for your personal settings, since
6643 <filename>default.action</filename> is actively maintained by the
6644 <application>Privoxy</application> developers and you'll probably want
6645 to install updated versions from time to time.
6649 So let's look at a few examples of things that one might typically do in
6650 <filename>user.action</filename>:
6654 <!-- brief sample user.action here -->
6658 # My user.action file. <fred@example.com></screen>
6662 As <link linkend="aliases">aliases</link> are local to the actions
6663 file that they are defined in, you can't use the ones from
6664 <filename>default.action</filename>, unless you repeat them here:
6669 # Aliases are local to the file they are defined in.
6670 # (Re-)define aliases for this file:
6674 # These aliases just save typing later, and the alias names should
6675 # be self explanatory.
6677 +crunch-all-cookies = +crunch-incoming-cookies +crunch-outgoing-cookies
6678 -crunch-all-cookies = -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-cookies
6679 allow-all-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -session-cookies-only
6680 allow-popups = -filter{all-popups} -kill-popups
6681 +block-as-image = +block +handle-as-image
6682 -block-as-image = -block
6684 # These aliases define combinations of actions that are useful for
6685 # certain types of sites:
6687 fragile = -block -crunch-all-cookies -filter -fast-redirects -hide-referrer -kill-popups
6688 shop = -crunch-all-cookies allow-popups
6690 # Allow ads for selected useful free sites:
6692 allow-ads = -block -filter{banners-by-size} -filter{banners-by-link}
6694 # Alias for specific file types that are text, but might have conflicting
6695 # MIME types. We want the browser to force these to be text documents.
6696 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>
6701 Say you have accounts on some sites that you visit regularly, and
6702 you don't want to have to log in manually each time. So you'd like
6703 to allow persistent cookies for these sites. The
6704 <literal>allow-all-cookies</literal> alias defined above does exactly
6705 that, i.e. it disables crunching of cookies in any direction, and the
6706 processing of cookies to make them only temporary.
6711 { allow-all-cookies }
6715 .redhat.com</screen>
6719 Your bank is allergic to some filter, but you don't know which, so you disable them all:
6724 { -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> }
6725 .your-home-banking-site.com</screen>
6729 Some file types you may not want to filter for various reasons:
6734 # Technical documentation is likely to contain strings that might
6735 # erroneously get altered by the JavaScript-oriented filters:
6740 # And this stupid host sends streaming video with a wrong MIME type,
6741 # so that Privoxy thinks it is getting HTML and starts filtering:
6743 stupid-server.example.com/</screen>
6747 Example of a simple <link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> action. Say you've
6748 seen an ad on your favourite page on example.com that you want to get rid of.
6749 You have right-clicked the image, selected <quote>copy image location</quote>
6750 and pasted the URL below while removing the leading http://, into a
6751 <literal>{ +block }</literal> section. Note that <literal>{ +handle-as-image
6752 }</literal> need not be specified, since all URLs ending in
6753 <literal>.gif</literal> will be tagged as images by the general rules as set
6754 in default.action anyway:
6759 { +<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> }
6760 www.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor\.gif
6761 another.example.net/more/junk/here/</screen>
6765 The URLs of dynamically generated banners, especially from large banner
6766 farms, often don't use the well-known image file name extensions, which
6767 makes it impossible for <application>Privoxy</application> to guess
6768 the file type just by looking at the URL.
6769 You can use the <literal>+block-as-image</literal> alias defined above for
6771 Note that objects which match this rule but then turn out NOT to be an
6772 image are typically rendered as a <quote>broken image</quote> icon by the
6773 browser. Use cautiously.
6782 ar.atwola.com/</screen>
6786 Now you noticed that the default configuration breaks Forbes Magazine,
6787 but you were too lazy to find out which action is the culprit, and you
6788 were again too lazy to give <link linkend="contact">feedback</link>, so
6789 you just used the <literal>fragile</literal> alias on the site, and
6790 -- <emphasis>whoa!</emphasis> -- it worked. The <literal>fragile</literal>
6791 aliases disables those actions that are most likely to break a site. Also,
6792 good for testing purposes to see if it is <application>Privoxy</application>
6793 that is causing the problem or not. We later find other regular sites
6794 that misbehave, and add those to our personalized list of troublemakers:
6802 .mybank.com</screen>
6806 You like the <quote>fun</quote> text replacements in <filename>default.filter</filename>,
6807 but it is disabled in the distributed actions file.
6808 So you'd like to turn it on in your private,
6809 update-safe config, once and for all:
6814 { +<link linkend="filter-fun">filter{fun}</link> }
6815 / # For ALL sites!</screen>
6819 Note that the above is not really a good idea: There are exceptions
6820 to the filters in <filename>default.action</filename> for things that
6821 really shouldn't be filtered, like code on CVS->Web interfaces. Since
6822 <filename>user.action</filename> has the last word, these exceptions
6823 won't be valid for the <quote>fun</quote> filtering specified here.
6827 You might also worry about how your favourite free websites are
6828 funded, and find that they rely on displaying banner advertisements
6829 to survive. So you might want to specifically allow banners for those
6830 sites that you feel provide value to you:
6842 Note that <literal>allow-ads</literal> has been aliased to
6843 <literal>-<link linkend="block">block</link></literal>,
6844 <literal>-<link linkend="filter-banners-by-size">filter{banners-by-size}</link></literal>, and
6845 <literal>-<link linkend="filter-banners-by-link">filter{banners-by-link}</link></literal> above.
6849 Invoke another alias here to force an over-ride of the MIME type <literal>
6850 application/x-sh</literal> which typically would open a download type
6851 dialog. In my case, I want to look at the shell script, and then I can save
6852 it should I choose to.
6862 <filename>user.action</filename> is generally the best place to define
6863 exceptions and additions to the default policies of
6864 <filename>default.action</filename>. Some actions are safe to have their
6865 default policies set here though. So let's set a default policy to have a
6866 <quote>blank</quote> image as opposed to the checkerboard pattern for
6867 <emphasis>ALL</emphasis> sites. <quote>/</quote> of course matches all URL
6873 { +<link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker{blank}</link> }
6874 / # ALL sites</screen>
6880 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
6884 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
6886 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
6888 <sect1 id="filter-file">
6889 <title>Filter Files</title>
6892 On-the-fly text substitutions need
6893 to be defined in a <quote>filter file</quote>. Once defined, they
6894 can then be invoked as an <quote>action</quote>.
6898 &my-app; supports three different filter actions:
6899 <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> to
6900 rewrite the content that is send to the client,
6901 <literal><link linkend="client-header-filter">client-header-filter</link></literal>
6902 to rewrite headers that are send by the client, and
6903 <literal><link linkend="server-header-filter">server-header-filter</link></literal>
6904 to rewrite headers that are send by the server.
6908 &my-app; also supports two tagger actions:
6909 <literal><link linkend="client-header-tagger">client-header-tagger</link></literal>
6911 <literal><link linkend="server-header-tagger">server-header-tagger</link></literal>.
6912 Taggers and filters use the same syntax in the filter files, the difference
6913 is that taggers don't modify the text they are filtering, but use a rewritten
6914 version of the filtered text as tag. The tags can then be used to change the
6915 applying actions through sections with <link linkend="tag-pattern">tag-patterns</link>.
6920 Multiple filter files can be defined through the <literal> <link
6921 linkend="filterfile">filterfile</link></literal> config directive. The filters
6922 as supplied by the developers are located in
6923 <filename>default.filter</filename>. It is recommended that any locally
6924 defined or modified filters go in a separately defined file such as
6925 <filename>user.filter</filename>.
6929 Common tasks for content filters are to eliminate common annoyances in
6930 HTML and JavaScript, such as pop-up windows,
6931 exit consoles, crippled windows without navigation tools, the
6932 infamous <BLINK> tag etc, to suppress images with certain
6933 width and height attributes (standard banner sizes or web-bugs),
6934 or just to have fun.
6938 Enabled content filters are applied to any content whose
6939 <quote>Content Type</quote> header is recognised as a sign
6940 of text-based content, with the exception of <literal>text/plain</literal>.
6941 Use the <link linkend="FORCE-TEXT-MODE">force-text-mode</link> action
6942 to also filter other content.
6946 Substitutions are made at the source level, so if you want to <quote>roll
6947 your own</quote> filters, you should first be familiar with HTML syntax,
6948 and, of course, regular expressions.
6952 Just like the <link linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>, the
6953 filter file is organized in sections, which are called <emphasis>filters</emphasis>
6954 here. Each filter consists of a heading line, that starts with one of the
6955 <emphasis>keywords</emphasis> <literal>FILTER:</literal>,
6956 <literal>CLIENT-HEADER-FILTER:</literal> or <literal>SERVER-HEADER-FILTER:</literal>
6957 followed by the filter's <emphasis>name</emphasis>, and a short (one line)
6958 <emphasis>description</emphasis> of what it does. Below that line
6959 come the <emphasis>jobs</emphasis>, i.e. lines that define the actual
6960 text substitutions. By convention, the name of a filter
6961 should describe what the filter <emphasis>eliminates</emphasis>. The
6962 comment is used in the <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">web-based
6963 user interface</ulink>.
6967 Once a filter called <replaceable>name</replaceable> has been defined
6968 in the filter file, it can be invoked by using an action of the form
6969 +<literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link>{<replaceable>name</replaceable>}</literal>
6970 in any <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link>.
6974 Filter definitions start with a header line that contains the filter
6975 type, the filter name and the filter description.
6976 A content filter header line for a filter called <quote>foo</quote> could look
6981 <screen>FILTER: foo Replace all "foo" with "bar"</screen>
6985 Below that line, and up to the next header line, come the jobs that
6986 define what text replacements the filter executes. They are specified
6987 in a syntax that imitates <ulink url="http://www.perl.org/">Perl</ulink>'s
6988 <literal>s///</literal> operator. If you are familiar with Perl, you
6989 will find this to be quite intuitive, and may want to look at the
6990 PCRS documentation for the subtle differences to Perl behaviour. Most
6991 notably, the non-standard option letter <literal>U</literal> is supported,
6992 which turns the default to ungreedy matching.
6997 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
6998 Expressions</quote></ulink>, you might want to take a look at
6999 the <link linkend="regex">Appendix on regular expressions</link>, and
7000 see the <ulink url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html">Perl
7002 <ulink url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlop.html">the
7003 <literal>s///</literal> operator's syntax</ulink> and <ulink
7004 url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html">Perl-style regular
7005 expressions</ulink> in general.
7006 The below examples might also help to get you started.
7010 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
7012 <sect2><title>Filter File Tutorial</title>
7014 Now, let's complete our <quote>foo</quote> content filter. We have already defined
7015 the heading, but the jobs are still missing. Since all it does is to replace
7016 <quote>foo</quote> with <quote>bar</quote>, there is only one (trivial) job
7021 <screen>s/foo/bar/</screen>
7025 But wait! Didn't the comment say that <emphasis>all</emphasis> occurrences
7026 of <quote>foo</quote> should be replaced? Our current job will only take
7027 care of the first <quote>foo</quote> on each page. For global substitution,
7028 we'll need to add the <literal>g</literal> option:
7032 <screen>s/foo/bar/g</screen>
7036 Our complete filter now looks like this:
7039 <screen>FILTER: foo Replace all "foo" with "bar"
7040 s/foo/bar/g</screen>
7044 Let's look at some real filters for more interesting examples. Here you see
7045 a filter that protects against some common annoyances that arise from JavaScript
7046 abuse. Let's look at its jobs one after the other:
7052 FILTER: js-annoyances Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse
7054 # Get rid of JavaScript referrer tracking. Test page: http://www.randomoddness.com/untitled.htm
7056 s|(<script.*)document\.referrer(.*</script>)|$1"Not Your Business!"$2|Usg</screen>
7060 Following the header line and a comment, you see the job. Note that it uses
7061 <literal>|</literal> as the delimiter instead of <literal>/</literal>, because
7062 the pattern contains a forward slash, which would otherwise have to be escaped
7063 by a backslash (<literal>\</literal>).
7067 Now, let's examine the pattern: it starts with the text <literal><script.*</literal>
7068 enclosed in parentheses. Since the dot matches any character, and <literal>*</literal>
7069 means: <quote>Match an arbitrary number of the element left of myself</quote>, this
7070 matches <quote><script</quote>, followed by <emphasis>any</emphasis> text, i.e.
7071 it matches the whole page, from the start of the first <script> tag.
7075 That's more than we want, but the pattern continues: <literal>document\.referrer</literal>
7076 matches only the exact string <quote>document.referrer</quote>. The dot needed to
7077 be <emphasis>escaped</emphasis>, i.e. preceded by a backslash, to take away its
7078 special meaning as a joker, and make it just a regular dot. So far, the meaning is:
7079 Match from the start of the first <script> tag in a the page, up to, and including,
7080 the text <quote>document.referrer</quote>, if <emphasis>both</emphasis> are present
7081 in the page (and appear in that order).
7085 But there's still more pattern to go. The next element, again enclosed in parentheses,
7086 is <literal>.*</script></literal>. You already know what <literal>.*</literal>
7087 means, so the whole pattern translates to: Match from the start of the first <script>
7088 tag in a page to the end of the last <script> tag, provided that the text
7089 <quote>document.referrer</quote> appears somewhere in between.
7093 This is still not the whole story, since we have ignored the options and the parentheses:
7094 The portions of the page matched by sub-patterns that are enclosed in parentheses, will be
7095 remembered and be available through the variables <literal>$1, $2, ...</literal> in
7096 the substitute. The <literal>U</literal> option switches to ungreedy matching, which means
7097 that the first <literal>.*</literal> in the pattern will only <quote>eat up</quote> all
7098 text in between <quote><script</quote> and the <emphasis>first</emphasis> occurrence
7099 of <quote>document.referrer</quote>, and that the second <literal>.*</literal> will
7100 only span the text up to the <emphasis>first</emphasis> <quote></script></quote>
7101 tag. Furthermore, the <literal>s</literal> option says that the match may span
7102 multiple lines in the page, and the <literal>g</literal> option again means that the
7103 substitution is global.
7107 So, to summarize, the pattern means: Match all scripts that contain the text
7108 <quote>document.referrer</quote>. Remember the parts of the script from
7109 (and including) the start tag up to (and excluding) the string
7110 <quote>document.referrer</quote> as <literal>$1</literal>, and the part following
7111 that string, up to and including the closing tag, as <literal>$2</literal>.
7115 Now the pattern is deciphered, but wasn't this about substituting things? So
7116 lets look at the substitute: <literal>$1"Not Your Business!"$2</literal> is
7117 easy to read: The text remembered as <literal>$1</literal>, followed by
7118 <literal>"Not Your Business!"</literal> (<emphasis>including</emphasis>
7119 the quotation marks!), followed by the text remembered as <literal>$2</literal>.
7120 This produces an exact copy of the original string, with the middle part
7121 (the <quote>document.referrer</quote>) replaced by <literal>"Not Your
7122 Business!"</literal>.
7126 The whole job now reads: Replace <quote>document.referrer</quote> by
7127 <literal>"Not Your Business!"</literal> wherever it appears inside a
7128 <script> tag. Note that this job won't break JavaScript syntax,
7129 since both the original and the replacement are syntactically valid
7130 string objects. The script just won't have access to the referrer
7131 information anymore.
7135 We'll show you two other jobs from the JavaScript taming department, but
7136 this time only point out the constructs of special interest:
7141 # The status bar is for displaying link targets, not pointless blahblah
7143 s/window\.status\s*=\s*(['"]).*?\1/dUmMy=1/ig</screen>
7147 <literal>\s</literal> stands for whitespace characters (space, tab, newline,
7148 carriage return, form feed), so that <literal>\s*</literal> means: <quote>zero
7149 or more whitespace</quote>. The <literal>?</literal> in <literal>.*?</literal>
7150 makes this matching of arbitrary text ungreedy. (Note that the <literal>U</literal>
7151 option is not set). The <literal>['"]</literal> construct means: <quote>a single
7152 <emphasis>or</emphasis> a double quote</quote>. Finally, <literal>\1</literal> is
7153 a back-reference to the first parenthesis just like <literal>$1</literal> above,
7154 with the difference that in the <emphasis>pattern</emphasis>, a backslash indicates
7155 a back-reference, whereas in the <emphasis>substitute</emphasis>, it's the dollar.
7159 So what does this job do? It replaces assignments of single- or double-quoted
7160 strings to the <quote>window.status</quote> object with a dummy assignment
7161 (using a variable name that is hopefully odd enough not to conflict with
7162 real variables in scripts). Thus, it catches many cases where e.g. pointless
7163 descriptions are displayed in the status bar instead of the link target when
7164 you move your mouse over links.
7169 # Kill OnUnload popups. Yummy. Test: http://www.zdnet.com/zdsubs/yahoo/tree/yfs.html
7171 s/(<body [^>]*)onunload(.*>)/$1never$2/iU</screen>
7176 <ulink url="http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-DOM-Level-2-Events-20001113/events.html#Events-eventgroupings-htmlevents">OnUnload
7177 event binding</ulink> in the HTML DOM was a <emphasis>CRIME</emphasis>.
7178 When I close a browser window, I want it to close and die. Basta.
7179 This job replaces the <quote>onunload</quote> attribute in
7180 <quote><body></quote> tags with the dummy word <literal>never</literal>.
7181 Note that the <literal>i</literal> option makes the pattern matching
7182 case-insensitive. Also note that ungreedy matching alone doesn't always guarantee
7183 a minimal match: In the first parenthesis, we had to use <literal>[^>]*</literal>
7184 instead of <literal>.*</literal> to prevent the match from exceeding the
7185 <body> tag if it doesn't contain <quote>OnUnload</quote>, but the page's
7190 The last example is from the fun department:
7195 FILTER: fun Fun text replacements
7197 # Spice the daily news:
7199 s/microsoft(?!\.com)/MicroSuck/ig</screen>
7203 Note the <literal>(?!\.com)</literal> part (a so-called negative lookahead)
7204 in the job's pattern, which means: Don't match, if the string
7205 <quote>.com</quote> appears directly following <quote>microsoft</quote>
7206 in the page. This prevents links to microsoft.com from being trashed, while
7207 still replacing the word everywhere else.
7212 # Buzzword Bingo (example for extended regex syntax)
7214 s* industry[ -]leading \
7216 | customer[ -]focused \
7217 | market[ -]driven \
7218 | award[ -]winning # Comments are OK, too! \
7219 | high[ -]performance \
7220 | solutions[ -]based \
7224 *<font color="red"><b>BINGO!</b></font> \
7229 The <literal>x</literal> option in this job turns on extended syntax, and allows for
7230 e.g. the liberal use of (non-interpreted!) whitespace for nicer formatting.
7238 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
7240 <sect2 id="predefined-filters"><title>The Pre-defined Filters</title>
7244 Note each filter is also listed in the +filter action section above. Please
7245 keep these listings in sync.
7250 The distribution <filename>default.filter</filename> file contains a selection of
7251 pre-defined filters for your convenience:
7256 <term><emphasis>js-annoyances</emphasis></term>
7259 The purpose of this filter is to get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse.
7264 replaces JavaScript references to the browser's referrer information
7265 with the string "Not Your Business!". This compliments the <literal><link
7266 linkend="hide-referrer">hide-referrer</link></literal> action on the content level.
7271 removes the bindings to the DOM's
7272 <ulink url="http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-DOM-Level-2-Events-20001113/events.html#Events-eventgroupings-htmlevents">unload
7273 event</ulink> which we feel has no right to exist and is responsible for most <quote>exit consoles</quote>, i.e.
7274 nasty windows that pop up when you close another one.
7279 removes code that causes new windows to be opened with undesired properties, such as being
7280 full-screen, non-resizeable, without location, status or menu bar etc.
7286 Use with caution. This is an aggressive filter, and can break sites that
7287 rely heavily on JavaScript.
7293 <term><emphasis>js-events</emphasis></term>
7296 This is a very radical measure. It removes virtually all JavaScript event bindings, which
7297 means that scripts can not react to user actions such as mouse movements or clicks, window
7298 resizing etc, anymore. Use with caution!
7301 We <emphasis>strongly discourage</emphasis> using this filter as a default since it breaks
7302 many legitimate scripts. It is meant for use only on extra-nasty sites (should you really
7309 <term><emphasis>html-annoyances</emphasis></term>
7312 This filter will undo many common instances of HTML based abuse.
7315 The <literal>BLINK</literal> and <literal>MARQUEE</literal> tags
7316 are neutralized (yeah baby!), and browser windows will be created as
7317 resizeable (as of course they should be!), and will have location,
7318 scroll and menu bars -- even if specified otherwise.
7324 <term><emphasis>content-cookies</emphasis></term>
7327 Most cookies are set in the HTTP dialog, where they can be intercepted
7329 <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal>
7330 and <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>
7331 actions. But web sites increasingly make use of HTML meta tags and JavaScript
7332 to sneak cookies to the browser on the content level.
7335 This filter disables most HTML and JavaScript code that reads or sets
7336 cookies. It cannot detect all clever uses of these types of code, so it
7337 should not be relied on as an absolute fix. Use it wherever you would also
7338 use the cookie crunch actions.
7344 <term><emphasis>refresh tags</emphasis></term>
7347 Disable any refresh tags if the interval is greater than nine seconds (so
7348 that redirections done via refresh tags are not destroyed). This is useful
7349 for dial-on-demand setups, or for those who find this HTML feature
7356 <term><emphasis>unsolicited-popups</emphasis></term>
7359 This filter attempts to prevent only <quote>unsolicited</quote> pop-up
7360 windows from opening, yet still allow pop-up windows that the user
7361 has explicitly chosen to open. It was added in version 3.0.1,
7362 as an improvement over earlier such filters.
7365 Technical note: The filter works by redefining the window.open JavaScript
7366 function to a dummy function, <literal>PrivoxyWindowOpen()</literal>,
7367 during the loading and rendering phase of each HTML page access, and
7368 restoring the function afterward.
7371 This is recommended only for browsers that cannot perform this function
7372 reliably themselves. And be aware that some sites require such windows
7373 in order to function normally. Use with caution.
7379 <term><emphasis>all-popups</emphasis></term>
7382 Attempt to prevent <emphasis>all</emphasis> pop-up windows from opening.
7383 Note this should be used with even more discretion than the above, since
7384 it is more likely to break some sites that require pop-ups for normal
7385 usage. Use with caution.
7391 <term><emphasis>img-reorder</emphasis></term>
7394 This is a helper filter that has no value if used alone. It makes the
7395 <literal>banners-by-size</literal> and <literal>banners-by-link</literal>
7396 (see below) filters more effective and should be enabled together with them.
7402 <term><emphasis>banners-by-size</emphasis></term>
7405 This filter removes image tags purely based on what size they are. Fortunately
7406 for us, many ads and banner images tend to conform to certain standardized
7407 sizes, which makes this filter quite effective for ad stripping purposes.
7410 Occasionally this filter will cause false positives on images that are not ads,
7411 but just happen to be of one of the standard banner sizes.
7414 Recommended only for those who require extreme ad blocking. The default
7415 block rules should catch 95+% of all ads <emphasis>without</emphasis> this filter enabled.
7421 <term><emphasis>banners-by-link</emphasis></term>
7424 This is an experimental filter that attempts to kill any banners if
7425 their URLs seem to point to known or suspected click trackers. It is currently
7426 not of much value and is not recommended for use by default.
7432 <term><emphasis>webbugs</emphasis></term>
7435 Webbugs are small, invisible images (technically 1X1 GIF images), that
7436 are used to track users across websites, and collect information on them.
7437 As an HTML page is loaded by the browser, an embedded image tag causes the
7438 browser to contact a third-party site, disclosing the tracking information
7439 through the requested URL and/or cookies for that third-party domain, without
7440 the user ever becoming aware of the interaction with the third-party site.
7441 HTML-ized spam also uses a similar technique to verify email addresses.
7444 This filter removes the HTML code that loads such <quote>webbugs</quote>.
7450 <term><emphasis>tiny-textforms</emphasis></term>
7453 A rather special-purpose filter that can be used to enlarge textareas (those
7454 multi-line text boxes in web forms) and turn off hard word wrap in them.
7455 It was written for the sourceforge.net tracker system where such boxes are
7456 a nuisance, but it can be handy on other sites, too.
7459 It is not recommended to use this filter as a default.
7465 <term><emphasis>jumping-windows</emphasis></term>
7468 Many consider windows that move, or resize themselves to be abusive. This filter
7469 neutralizes the related JavaScript code. Note that some sites might not display
7470 or behave as intended when using this filter. Use with caution.
7476 <term><emphasis>frameset-borders</emphasis></term>
7479 Some web designers seem to assume that everyone in the world will view their
7480 web sites using the same browser brand and version, screen resolution etc,
7481 because only that assumption could explain why they'd use static frame sizes,
7482 yet prevent their frames from being resized by the user, should they be too
7483 small to show their whole content.
7486 This filter removes the related HTML code. It should only be applied to sites
7493 <term><emphasis>demoronizer</emphasis></term>
7496 Many Microsoft products that generate HTML use non-standard extensions (read:
7497 violations) of the ISO 8859-1 aka Latin-1 character set. This can cause those
7498 HTML documents to display with errors on standard-compliant platforms.
7501 This filter translates the MS-only characters into Latin-1 equivalents.
7502 It is not necessary when using MS products, and will cause corruption of
7503 all documents that use 8-bit character sets other than Latin-1. It's mostly
7504 worthwhile for Europeans on non-MS platforms, if weird garbage characters
7505 sometimes appear on some pages, or user agents that don't correct for this on
7508 My version of Mozilla (ancient) shows litte square boxes for quote
7509 characters, and apostrophes on moronized pages. So many pages have this, I
7510 can read them fine now. HB 08/27/06
7517 <term><emphasis>shockwave-flash</emphasis></term>
7520 A filter for shockwave haters. As the name suggests, this filter strips code
7521 out of web pages that is used to embed shockwave flash objects.
7529 <term><emphasis>quicktime-kioskmode</emphasis></term>
7532 Change HTML code that embeds Quicktime objects so that kioskmode, which
7533 prevents saving, is disabled.
7539 <term><emphasis>fun</emphasis></term>
7542 Text replacements for subversive browsing fun. Make fun of your favorite
7543 Monopolist or play buzzword bingo.
7549 <term><emphasis>crude-parental</emphasis></term>
7552 A demonstration-only filter that shows how <application>Privoxy</application>
7553 can be used to delete web content on a keyword basis.
7559 <term><emphasis>ie-exploits</emphasis></term>
7562 An experimental collection of text replacements to disable malicious HTML and JavaScript
7563 code that exploits known security holes in Internet Explorer.
7566 Presently, it only protects against Nimda and a cross-site scripting bug, and
7567 would need active maintenance to provide more substantial protection.
7573 <term><emphasis>site-specifics</emphasis></term>
7576 Some web sites have very specific problems, the cure for which doesn't apply
7577 anywhere else, or could even cause damage on other sites.
7580 This is a collection of such site-specific cures which should only be applied
7581 to the sites they were intended for, which is what the supplied
7582 <filename>default.action</filename> file does. Users shouldn't need to change
7583 anything regarding this filter.
7589 <term><emphasis>google</emphasis></term>
7592 A CSS based block for Google text ads. Also removes a width limitation
7593 and the toolbar advertisement.
7599 <term><emphasis>yahoo</emphasis></term>
7602 Another CSS based block, this time for Yahoo text ads. And removes
7603 a width limitation as well.
7609 <term><emphasis>msn</emphasis></term>
7612 Another CSS based block, this time for MSN text ads. And removes
7613 tracking URLs, as well as a width limitation.
7619 <term><emphasis>blogspot</emphasis></term>
7622 Cleans up some Blogspot blogs. Read the fine print before using this one!
7625 This filter also intentionally removes some navigation stuff and sets the
7626 page width to 100%. As a result, some rounded <quote>corners</quote> would
7627 appear to early or not at all and as fixing this would require a browser
7628 that understands background-size (CSS3), they are removed instead.
7634 <term><emphasis>xml-to-html</emphasis></term>
7637 Server-header filter to change the Content-Type from xml to html.
7643 <term><emphasis>html-to-xml</emphasis></term>
7646 Server-header filter to change the Content-Type from html to xml.
7652 <term><emphasis>no-ping</emphasis></term>
7655 Removes the non-standard <literal>ping</literal> attribute from
7656 anchor and area HTML tags.
7662 <term><emphasis>hide-tor-exit-notation</emphasis></term>
7665 Client-header filter to remove the <command>Tor</command> exit node notation
7666 found in Host and Referer headers.
7669 If &my-app; and <command>Tor</command> are chained and &my-app;
7670 is configured to use socks4a, one can use <quote>http://www.example.org.foobar.exit/</quote>
7671 to access the host <quote>www.example.org</quote> through the
7672 <command>Tor</command> exit node <quote>foobar</quote>.
7675 As the HTTP client isn't aware of this notation, it treats the
7676 whole string <quote>www.example.org.foobar.exit</quote> as host and uses it
7677 for the <quote>Host</quote> and <quote>Referer</quote> headers. From the
7678 server's point of view the resulting headers are invalid and can cause problems.
7681 An invalid <quote>Referer</quote> header can trigger <quote>hot-linking</quote>
7682 protections, an invalid <quote>Host</quote> header will make it impossible for
7683 the server to find the right vhost (several domains hosted on the same IP address).
7686 This client-header filter removes the <quote>foo.exit</quote> part in those headers
7687 to prevent the mentioned problems. Note that it only modifies
7688 the HTTP headers, it doesn't make it impossible for the server
7689 to detect your <command>Tor</command> exit node based on the IP address
7690 the request is coming from.
7697 <term><emphasis> </emphasis></term>
7711 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7715 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7717 <sect1 id="templates">
7718 <title>Privoxy's Template Files</title>
7720 All <application>Privoxy</application> built-in pages, i.e. error pages such as the
7721 <ulink url="http://show-the-404-error.page"><quote>404 - No Such Domain</quote>
7722 error page</ulink>, the <ulink
7723 url="http://ads.bannerserver.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor.html"><quote>BLOCKED</quote>
7725 and all pages of its <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">web-based
7726 user interface</ulink>, are generated from <emphasis>templates</emphasis>.
7727 (<application>Privoxy</application> must be running for the above links to work as
7732 These templates are stored in a subdirectory of the <link linkend="confdir">configuration
7733 directory</link> called <filename>templates</filename>. On Unixish platforms,
7735 <ulink url="file:///etc/privoxy/templates/"><filename>/etc/privoxy/templates/</filename></ulink>.
7739 The templates are basically normal HTML files, but with place-holders (called symbols
7740 or exports), which <application>Privoxy</application> fills at run time. It
7741 is possible to edit the templates with a normal text editor, should you want
7742 to customize them. (<emphasis>Not recommended for the casual
7743 user</emphasis>). Should you create your own custom templates, you should use
7744 the <filename>config</filename> setting <link linkend="templdir">templdir</link>
7745 to specify an alternate location, so your templates do not get overwritten
7749 Note that just like in configuration files, lines starting
7750 with <literal>#</literal> are ignored when the templates are filled in.
7754 The place-holders are of the form <literal>@name@</literal>, and you will
7755 find a list of available symbols, which vary from template to template,
7756 in the comments at the start of each file. Note that these comments are not
7757 always accurate, and that it's probably best to look at the existing HTML
7758 code to find out which symbols are supported and what they are filled in with.
7762 A special application of this substitution mechanism is to make whole
7763 blocks of HTML code disappear when a specific symbol is set. We use this
7764 for many purposes, one of them being to include the beta warning in all
7765 our user interface (CGI) pages when <application>Privoxy</application>
7766 is in an alpha or beta development stage:
7771 <!-- @if-unstable-start -->
7773 ... beta warning HTML code goes here ...
7775 <!-- if-unstable-end@ --></screen>
7779 If the "unstable" symbol is set, everything in between and including
7780 <literal>@if-unstable-start</literal> and <literal>if-unstable-end@</literal>
7781 will disappear, leaving nothing but an empty comment:
7785 <screen><!-- --></screen>
7789 There's also an if-then-else construct and an <literal>#include</literal>
7790 mechanism, but you'll sure find out if you are inclined to edit the
7795 All templates refer to a style located at
7796 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/send-stylesheet"><literal>http://config.privoxy.org/send-stylesheet</literal></ulink>.
7797 This is, of course, locally served by <application>Privoxy</application>
7798 and the source for it can be found and edited in the
7799 <filename>cgi-style.css</filename> template.
7804 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7808 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7810 <sect1 id="contact"><title>Contacting the Developers, Bug Reporting and Feature
7813 <!-- Include contacting.sgml boilerplate: -->
7815 <!-- end boilerplate -->
7819 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7822 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7823 <sect1 id="copyright"><title>Privoxy Copyright, License and History</title>
7825 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
7827 <!-- end copyright -->
7829 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7830 <sect2><title>License</title>
7831 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
7833 <!-- end copyright -->
7835 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7838 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7840 <sect2 id="history"><title>History</title>
7841 <!-- Include history.sgml: -->
7843 <!-- end history -->
7846 <sect2 id="authors"><title>Authors</title>
7847 <!-- Include p-authors.sgml: -->
7849 <!-- end authors -->
7854 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7857 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7858 <sect1 id="seealso"><title>See Also</title>
7859 <!-- Include seealso.sgml: -->
7861 <!-- end seealso -->
7866 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7867 <sect1 id="appendix"><title>Appendix</title>
7870 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7872 <title>Regular Expressions</title>
7874 <application>Privoxy</application> uses Perl-style <quote>regular
7875 expressions</quote> in its <link linkend="actions-file">actions
7876 files</link> and <link linkend="filter-file">filter file</link>,
7877 through the <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/">PCRE</ulink> and
7880 <ulink url="http://www.oesterhelt.org/pcrs/">PCRS</ulink> libraries.
7882 <application>PCRS</application> libraries.
7886 If you are reading this, you probably don't understand what <quote>regular
7887 expressions</quote> are, or what they can do. So this will be a very brief
7888 introduction only. A full explanation would require a <ulink
7889 url="http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/regex/">book</ulink> ;-)
7893 Regular expressions provide a language to describe patterns that can be
7894 run against strings of characters (letter, numbers, etc), to see if they
7895 match the string or not. The patterns are themselves (sometimes complex)
7896 strings of literal characters, combined with wild-cards, and other special
7897 characters, called meta-characters. The <quote>meta-characters</quote> have
7898 special meanings and are used to build complex patterns to be matched against.
7899 Perl Compatible Regular Expressions are an especially convenient
7900 <quote>dialect</quote> of the regular expression language.
7904 To make a simple analogy, we do something similar when we use wild-card
7905 characters when listing files with the <command>dir</command> command in DOS.
7906 <literal>*.*</literal> matches all filenames. The <quote>special</quote>
7907 character here is the asterisk which matches any and all characters. We can be
7908 more specific and use <literal>?</literal> to match just individual
7909 characters. So <quote>dir file?.text</quote> would match
7910 <quote>file1.txt</quote>, <quote>file2.txt</quote>, etc. We are pattern
7911 matching, using a similar technique to <quote>regular expressions</quote>!
7915 Regular expressions do essentially the same thing, but are much, much more
7916 powerful. There are many more <quote>special characters</quote> and ways of
7917 building complex patterns however. Let's look at a few of the common ones,
7918 and then some examples:
7923 <emphasis>.</emphasis> - Matches any single character, e.g. <quote>a</quote>,
7924 <quote>A</quote>, <quote>4</quote>, <quote>:</quote>, or <quote>@</quote>.
7926 </simplelist></para>
7930 <emphasis>?</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or ONE
7933 </simplelist></para>
7937 <emphasis>+</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ONE or MORE
7940 </simplelist></para>
7944 <emphasis>*</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or MORE
7947 </simplelist></para>
7951 <emphasis>\</emphasis> - The <quote>escape</quote> character denotes that
7952 the following character should be taken literally. This is used where one of the
7953 special characters (e.g. <quote>.</quote>) needs to be taken literally and
7954 not as a special meta-character. Example: <quote>example\.com</quote>, makes
7955 sure the period is recognized only as a period (and not expanded to its
7956 meta-character meaning of any single character).
7958 </simplelist></para>
7962 <emphasis>[ ]</emphasis> - Characters enclosed in brackets will be matched if
7963 any of the enclosed characters are encountered. For instance, <quote>[0-9]</quote>
7964 matches any numeric digit (zero through nine). As an example, we can combine
7965 this with <quote>+</quote> to match any digit one of more times: <quote>[0-9]+</quote>.
7967 </simplelist></para>
7971 <emphasis>( )</emphasis> - parentheses are used to group a sub-expression,
7972 or multiple sub-expressions.
7974 </simplelist></para>
7978 <emphasis>|</emphasis> - The <quote>bar</quote> character works like an
7979 <quote>or</quote> conditional statement. A match is successful if the
7980 sub-expression on either side of <quote>|</quote> matches. As an example:
7981 <quote>/(this|that) example/</quote> uses grouping and the bar character
7982 and would match either <quote>this example</quote> or <quote>that
7983 example</quote>, and nothing else.
7985 </simplelist></para>
7988 These are just some of the ones you are likely to use when matching URLs with
7989 <application>Privoxy</application>, and is a long way from a definitive
7990 list. This is enough to get us started with a few simple examples which may
7991 be more illuminating:
7995 <emphasis><literal>/.*/banners/.*</literal></emphasis> - A simple example
7996 that uses the common combination of <quote>.</quote> and <quote>*</quote> to
7997 denote any character, zero or more times. In other words, any string at all.
7998 So we start with a literal forward slash, then our regular expression pattern
7999 (<quote>.*</quote>) another literal forward slash, the string
8000 <quote>banners</quote>, another forward slash, and lastly another
8001 <quote>.*</quote>. We are building
8002 a directory path here. This will match any file with the path that has a
8003 directory named <quote>banners</quote> in it. The <quote>.*</quote> matches
8004 any characters, and this could conceivably be more forward slashes, so it
8005 might expand into a much longer looking path. For example, this could match:
8006 <quote>/eye/hate/spammers/banners/annoy_me_please.gif</quote>, or just
8007 <quote>/banners/annoying.html</quote>, or almost an infinite number of other
8008 possible combinations, just so it has <quote>banners</quote> in the path
8013 And now something a little more complex:
8017 <emphasis><literal>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))?/</literal></emphasis> -
8018 We have several literal forward slashes again (<quote>/</quote>), so we are
8019 building another expression that is a file path statement. We have another
8020 <quote>.*</quote>, so we are matching against any conceivable sub-path, just so
8021 it matches our expression. The only true literal that <emphasis>must
8022 match</emphasis> our pattern is <application>adv</application>, together with
8023 the forward slashes. What comes after the <quote>adv</quote> string is the
8028 Remember the <quote>?</quote> means the preceding expression (either a
8029 literal character or anything grouped with <quote>(...)</quote> in this case)
8030 can exist or not, since this means either zero or one match. So
8031 <quote>((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))</quote> is optional, as are the
8032 individual sub-expressions: <quote>(er)</quote>,
8033 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, and the <quote>s</quote>. The <quote>|</quote>
8034 means <quote>or</quote>. We have two of those. For instance,
8035 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, can expand to match either <quote>ing</quote>
8036 <emphasis>OR</emphasis> <quote>ements?</quote>. What is being done here, is an
8037 attempt at matching as many variations of <quote>advertisement</quote>, and
8038 similar, as possible. So this would expand to match just <quote>adv</quote>,
8039 or <quote>advert</quote>, or <quote>adverts</quote>, or
8040 <quote>advertising</quote>, or <quote>advertisement</quote>, or
8041 <quote>advertisements</quote>. You get the idea. But it would not match
8042 <quote>advertizements</quote> (with a <quote>z</quote>). We could fix that by
8043 changing our regular expression to:
8044 <quote>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|erti(s|z)(ing|ements?))?/</quote>, which would then match
8049 <emphasis><literal>/.*/advert[0-9]+\.(gif|jpe?g)</literal></emphasis> - Again
8050 another path statement with forward slashes. Anything in the square brackets
8051 <quote>[ ]</quote> can be matched. This is using <quote>0-9</quote> as a
8052 shorthand expression to mean any digit one through nine. It is the same as
8053 saying <quote>0123456789</quote>. So any digit matches. The <quote>+</quote>
8054 means one or more of the preceding expression must be included. The preceding
8055 expression here is what is in the square brackets -- in this case, any digit
8056 one through nine. Then, at the end, we have a grouping: <quote>(gif|jpe?g)</quote>.
8057 This includes a <quote>|</quote>, so this needs to match the expression on
8058 either side of that bar character also. A simple <quote>gif</quote> on one side, and the other
8059 side will in turn match either <quote>jpeg</quote> or <quote>jpg</quote>,
8060 since the <quote>?</quote> means the letter <quote>e</quote> is optional and
8061 can be matched once or not at all. So we are building an expression here to
8062 match image GIF or JPEG type image file. It must include the literal
8063 string <quote>advert</quote>, then one or more digits, and a <quote>.</quote>
8064 (which is now a literal, and not a special character, since it is escaped
8065 with <quote>\</quote>), and lastly either <quote>gif</quote>, or
8066 <quote>jpeg</quote>, or <quote>jpg</quote>. Some possible matches would
8067 include: <quote>//advert1.jpg</quote>,
8068 <quote>/nasty/ads/advert1234.gif</quote>,
8069 <quote>/banners/from/hell/advert99.jpg</quote>. It would not match
8070 <quote>advert1.gif</quote> (no leading slash), or
8071 <quote>/adverts232.jpg</quote> (the expression does not include an
8072 <quote>s</quote>), or <quote>/advert1.jsp</quote> (<quote>jsp</quote> is not
8073 in the expression anywhere).
8077 We are barely scratching the surface of regular expressions here so that you
8078 can understand the default <application>Privoxy</application>
8079 configuration files, and maybe use this knowledge to customize your own
8080 installation. There is much, much more that can be done with regular
8081 expressions. Now that you know enough to get started, you can learn more on
8086 More reading on Perl Compatible Regular expressions:
8087 <ulink url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html">http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html</ulink>
8091 For information on regular expression based substitutions and their applications
8092 in filters, please see the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file tutorial</link>
8097 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
8100 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
8102 <title>Privoxy's Internal Pages</title>
8105 Since <application>Privoxy</application> proxies each requested
8106 web page, it is easy for <application>Privoxy</application> to
8107 trap certain special URLs. In this way, we can talk directly to
8108 <application>Privoxy</application>, and see how it is
8109 configured, see how our rules are being applied, change these
8110 rules and other configuration options, and even turn
8111 <application>Privoxy's</application> filtering off, all with
8117 The URLs listed below are the special ones that allow direct access
8118 to <application>Privoxy</application>. Of course,
8119 <application>Privoxy</application> must be running to access these. If
8120 not, you will get a friendly error message. Internet access is not
8133 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
8137 There is a shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink> (But it
8138 doesn't provide a fall-back to a real page, in case the request is not
8139 sent through <application>Privoxy</application>)
8145 Show information about the current configuration, including viewing and
8146 editing of actions files:
8150 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
8157 Show the source code version numbers:
8161 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-version">http://config.privoxy.org/show-version</ulink>
8168 Show the browser's request headers:
8172 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request">http://config.privoxy.org/show-request</ulink>
8179 Show which actions apply to a URL and why:
8183 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
8190 Toggle Privoxy on or off. This feature can be turned off/on in the main
8191 <filename>config</filename> file. When toggled <quote>off</quote>, <quote>Privoxy</quote>
8192 continues to run, but only as a pass-through proxy, with no actions taking
8197 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</ulink>
8201 Short cuts. Turn off, then on:
8205 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable</ulink>
8210 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable</ulink>
8219 These may be bookmarked for quick reference. See next.
8223 <sect3 id="bookmarklets">
8224 <title>Bookmarklets</title>
8226 Below are some <quote>bookmarklets</quote> to allow you to easily access a
8227 <quote>mini</quote> version of some of <application>Privoxy's</application>
8228 special pages. They are designed for MS Internet Explorer, but should work
8229 equally well in Netscape, Mozilla, and other browsers which support
8230 JavaScript. They are designed to run directly from your bookmarks - not by
8231 clicking the links below (although that should work for testing).
8234 To save them, right-click the link and choose <quote>Add to Favorites</quote>
8235 (IE) or <quote>Add Bookmark</quote> (Netscape). You will get a warning that
8236 the bookmark <quote>may not be safe</quote> - just click OK. Then you can run the
8237 Bookmarklet directly from your favorites/bookmarks. For even faster access,
8238 you can put them on the <quote>Links</quote> bar (IE) or the <quote>Personal
8239 Toolbar</quote> (Netscape), and run them with a single click.
8248 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>
8255 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>
8262 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)
8269 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>
8275 <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>
8281 <ulink url="javascript:void(window.open('http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info?url='+escape(location.href),'Why').focus());">Privoxy - Why?</ulink>
8288 Credit: The site which gave us the general idea for these bookmarklets is
8289 <ulink url="http://www.bookmarklets.com/">www.bookmarklets.com</ulink>. They
8290 have more information about bookmarklets.
8299 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
8301 <title>Chain of Events</title>
8303 Let's take a quick look at how some of <application>Privoxy's</application>
8304 core features are triggered, and the ensuing sequence of events when a web
8305 page is requested by your browser:
8312 First, your web browser requests a web page. The browser knows to send
8313 the request to <application>Privoxy</application>, which will in turn,
8314 relay the request to the remote web server after passing the following
8320 <application>Privoxy</application> traps any request for its own internal CGI
8321 pages (e.g <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>) and sends the CGI page back to the browser.
8326 Next, <application>Privoxy</application> checks to see if the URL
8328 linkend="BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></link> patterns. If
8329 so, the URL is then blocked, and the remote web server will not be contacted.
8330 <link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></link>
8332 <link linkend="HANDLE-AS-EMPTY-DOCUMENT"><quote>+handle-as-empty-document</quote></link>
8333 are then checked, and if there is no match, an
8334 HTML <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page is sent back to the browser. Otherwise, if
8335 it does match, an image is returned for the former, and an empty text
8336 document for the latter. The type of image would depend on the setting of
8337 <link linkend="SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"><quote>+set-image-blocker</quote></link>
8338 (blank, checkerboard pattern, or an HTTP redirect to an image elsewhere).
8343 Untrusted URLs are blocked. If URLs are being added to the
8344 <filename>trust</filename> file, then that is done.
8349 If the URL pattern matches the <link
8350 linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS"><quote>+fast-redirects</quote></link> action,
8351 it is then processed. Unwanted parts of the requested URL are stripped.
8356 Now the rest of the client browser's request headers are processed. If any
8357 of these match any of the relevant actions (e.g. <link
8358 linkend="HIDE-USER-AGENT"><quote>+hide-user-agent</quote></link>,
8359 etc.), headers are suppressed or forged as determined by these actions and
8365 Now the web server starts sending its response back (i.e. typically a web
8371 First, the server headers are read and processed to determine, among other
8372 things, the MIME type (document type) and encoding. The headers are then
8373 filtered as determined by the
8374 <link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES"><quote>+crunch-incoming-cookies</quote></link>,
8375 <link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"><quote>+session-cookies-only</quote></link>,
8376 and <link linkend="DOWNGRADE-HTTP-VERSION"><quote>+downgrade-http-version</quote></link>
8382 If the <link linkend="KILL-POPUPS"><quote>+kill-popups</quote></link>
8383 action applies, and it is an HTML or JavaScript document, the popup-code in the
8384 response is filtered on-the-fly as it is received.
8389 If any <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> action
8391 linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS"><quote>+deanimate-gifs</quote></link>
8392 action applies (and the document type fits the action), the rest of the page is
8393 read into memory (up to a configurable limit). Then the filter rules (from
8394 <filename>default.filter</filename> and any other filter files) are
8395 processed against the buffered content. Filters are applied in the order
8396 they are specified in one of the filter files. Animated GIFs, if present,
8397 are reduced to either the first or last frame, depending on the action
8398 setting.The entire page, which is now filtered, is then sent by
8399 <application>Privoxy</application> back to your browser.
8402 If neither a <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> action
8404 linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS"><quote>+deanimate-gifs</quote></link>
8405 matches, then <application>Privoxy</application> passes the raw data through
8406 to the client browser as it becomes available.
8411 As the browser receives the now (possibly filtered) page content, it
8412 reads and then requests any URLs that may be embedded within the page
8413 source, e.g. ad images, stylesheets, JavaScript, other HTML documents (e.g.
8414 frames), sounds, etc. For each of these objects, the browser issues a
8415 separate request (this is easily viewable in <application>Privoxy's</application>
8416 logs). And each such request is in turn processed just as above. Note that a
8417 complex web page will have many, many such embedded URLs. If these
8418 secondary requests are to a different server, then quite possibly a very
8419 differing set of actions is triggered.
8426 NOTE: This is somewhat of a simplistic overview of what happens with each URL
8427 request. For the sake of brevity and simplicity, we have focused on
8428 <application>Privoxy's</application> core features only.
8434 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
8435 <sect2 id="actionsanat">
8436 <title>Troubleshooting: Anatomy of an Action</title>
8439 The way <application>Privoxy</application> applies
8440 <link linkend="ACTIONS">actions</link> and <link linkend="FILTER">filters</link>
8441 to any given URL can be complex, and not always so
8442 easy to understand what is happening. And sometimes we need to be able to
8443 <emphasis>see</emphasis> just what <application>Privoxy</application> is
8444 doing. Especially, if something <application>Privoxy</application> is doing
8445 is causing us a problem inadvertently. It can be a little daunting to look at
8446 the actions and filters files themselves, since they tend to be filled with
8447 <link linkend="regex">regular expressions</link> whose consequences are not
8452 One quick test to see if <application>Privoxy</application> is causing a problem
8453 or not, is to disable it temporarily. This should be the first troubleshooting
8454 step. See <link linkend="bookmarklets">the Bookmarklets</link> section on a quick
8455 and easy way to do this (be sure to flush caches afterward!). Looking at the
8456 logs is a good idea too. (Note that both the toggle feature and logging are
8457 enabled via <filename>config</filename> file settings, and may need to be
8458 turned <quote>on</quote>.)
8461 Another easy troubleshooting step to try is if you have done any
8462 customization of your installation, revert back to the installed
8463 defaults and see if that helps. There are times the developers get complaints
8464 about one thing or another, and the problem is more related to a customized
8465 configuration issue.
8469 <application>Privoxy</application> also provides the
8470 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
8471 page that can show us very specifically how <application>actions</application>
8472 are being applied to any given URL. This is a big help for troubleshooting.
8476 First, enter one URL (or partial URL) at the prompt, and then
8477 <application>Privoxy</application> will tell us
8478 how the current configuration will handle it. This will not
8479 help with filtering effects (i.e. the <link
8480 linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> action) from
8481 one of the filter files since this is handled very
8482 differently and not so easy to trap! It also will not tell you about any other
8483 URLs that may be embedded within the URL you are testing. For instance, images
8484 such as ads are expressed as URLs within the raw page source of HTML pages. So
8485 you will only get info for the actual URL that is pasted into the prompt area
8486 -- not any sub-URLs. If you want to know about embedded URLs like ads, you
8487 will have to dig those out of the HTML source. Use your browser's <quote>View
8488 Page Source</quote> option for this. Or right click on the ad, and grab the
8493 Let's try an example, <ulink url="http://google.com">google.com</ulink>,
8494 and look at it one section at a time in a sample configuration (your real
8495 configuration may vary):
8500 Matches for http://www.google.com:
8502 In file: default.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
8504 {+deanimate-gifs {last}
8505 +fast-redirects {check-decoded-url}
8506 +filter {refresh-tags}
8507 +filter {img-reorder}
8508 +filter {banners-by-size}
8510 +filter {jumping-windows}
8511 +filter {ie-exploits}
8512 +hide-forwarded-for-headers
8513 +hide-from-header {block}
8514 +hide-referrer {forge}
8515 +session-cookies-only
8516 +set-image-blocker {pattern}
8519 { -session-cookies-only }
8525 In file: user.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
8526 (no matches in this file)
8531 This is telling us how we have defined our
8532 <link linkend="ACTIONS"><quote>actions</quote></link>, and
8533 which ones match for our test case, <quote>google.com</quote>.
8534 Displayed is all the actions that are available to us. Remember,
8535 the <literal>+</literal> sign denotes <quote>on</quote>. <literal>-</literal>
8536 denotes <quote>off</quote>. So some are <quote>on</quote> here, but many
8537 are <quote>off</quote>. Each example we try may provide a slightly different
8538 end result, depending on our configuration directives.
8542 is for our <filename>default.action</filename> file. The large, multi-line
8543 listing, is how the actions are set to match for all URLs, i.e. our default
8544 settings. If you look at your <quote>actions</quote> file, this would be the
8545 section just below the <quote>aliases</quote> section near the top. This
8546 will apply to all URLs as signified by the single forward slash at the end
8547 of the listing -- <quote> / </quote>.
8551 But we have defined additional actions that would be exceptions to these general
8552 rules, and then we list specific URLs (or patterns) that these exceptions
8553 would apply to. Last match wins. Just below this then are two explicit
8554 matches for <quote>.google.com</quote>. The first is negating our previous
8555 cookie setting, which was for <link
8556 linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"><quote>+session-cookies-only</quote></link>
8557 (i.e. not persistent). So we will allow persistent cookies for google, at
8558 least that is how it is in this example. The second turns
8559 <emphasis>off</emphasis> any <link
8560 linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS"><quote>+fast-redirects</quote></link>
8561 action, allowing this to take place unmolested. Note that there is a leading
8562 dot here -- <quote>.google.com</quote>. This will match any hosts and
8563 sub-domains, in the google.com domain also, such as
8564 <quote>www.google.com</quote> or <quote>mail.google.com</quote>. But it would not
8565 match <quote>www.google.de</quote>! So, apparently, we have these two actions
8566 defined as exceptions to the general rules at the top somewhere in the lower
8567 part of our <filename>default.action</filename> file, and
8568 <quote>google.com</quote> is referenced somewhere in these latter sections.
8572 Then, for our <filename>user.action</filename> file, we again have no hits.
8573 So there is nothing google-specific that we might have added to our own, local
8574 configuration. If there was, those actions would over-rule any actions from
8575 previously processed files, such as <filename>default.action</filename>.
8576 <filename>user.action</filename> typically has the last word. This is the
8577 best place to put hard and fast exceptions,
8581 And finally we pull it all together in the bottom section and summarize how
8582 <application>Privoxy</application> is applying all its <quote>actions</quote>
8583 to <quote>google.com</quote>:
8594 -client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation}
8595 -content-type-overwrite
8596 -crunch-client-header
8597 -crunch-if-none-match
8598 -crunch-incoming-cookies
8599 -crunch-outgoing-cookies
8600 -crunch-server-header
8601 +deanimate-gifs {last}
8602 -downgrade-http-version
8605 -filter {content-cookies}
8606 -filter {all-popups}
8607 -filter {banners-by-link}
8608 -filter {tiny-textforms}
8609 -filter {frameset-borders}
8610 -filter {demoronizer}
8611 -filter {shockwave-flash}
8612 -filter {quicktime-kioskmode}
8614 -filter {crude-parental}
8615 -filter {site-specifics}
8616 -filter {js-annoyances}
8617 -filter {html-annoyances}
8618 +filter {refresh-tags}
8619 -filter {unsolicited-popups}
8620 +filter {img-reorder}
8621 +filter {banners-by-size}
8623 +filter {jumping-windows}
8624 +filter {ie-exploits}
8631 -handle-as-empty-document
8633 -hide-accept-language
8634 -hide-content-disposition
8635 +hide-forwarded-for-headers
8636 +hide-from-header {block}
8637 -hide-if-modified-since
8638 +hide-referrer {forge}
8643 -overwrite-last-modified
8644 -prevent-compression
8648 -server-header-filter{xml-to-html}
8649 -server-header-filter{html-to-xml}
8650 -session-cookies-only
8651 +set-image-blocker {pattern}
8652 -treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks </screen>
8656 Notice the only difference here to the previous listing, is to
8657 <quote>fast-redirects</quote> and <quote>session-cookies-only</quote>,
8658 which are activated specifically for this site in our configuration,
8659 and thus show in the <quote>Final Results</quote>.
8663 Now another example, <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>:
8675 { +block +handle-as-image }
8676 .[a-vx-z]*.doubleclick.net
8681 We'll just show the interesting part here - the explicit matches. It is
8682 matched three different times. Two <quote>+block</quote> sections,
8683 and a <quote>+block +handle-as-image</quote>,
8684 which is the expanded form of one of our aliases that had been defined as:
8685 <quote>+block-as-image</quote>. (<link
8686 linkend="ALIASES"><quote>Aliases</quote></link> are defined in
8687 the first section of the actions file and typically used to combine more
8692 Any one of these would have done the trick and blocked this as an unwanted
8693 image. This is unnecessarily redundant since the last case effectively
8694 would also cover the first. No point in taking chances with these guys
8695 though ;-) Note that if you want an ad or obnoxious
8696 URL to be invisible, it should be defined as <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>
8697 is done here -- as both a <link
8698 linkend="BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></link>
8699 <emphasis>and</emphasis> an
8700 <link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></link>.
8701 The custom alias <quote><literal>+block-as-image</literal></quote> just
8702 simplifies the process and make it more readable.
8706 One last example. Let's try <quote>http://www.example.net/adsl/HOWTO/</quote>.
8707 This one is giving us problems. We are getting a blank page. Hmmm ...
8713 Matches for http://www.example.net/adsl/HOWTO/:
8715 In file: default.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
8719 -client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation}
8720 -content-type-overwrite
8721 -crunch-client-header
8722 -crunch-if-none-match
8723 -crunch-incoming-cookies
8724 -crunch-outgoing-cookies
8725 -crunch-server-header
8727 -downgrade-http-version
8728 +fast-redirects {check-decoded-url}
8730 -filter {content-cookies}
8731 -filter {all-popups}
8732 -filter {banners-by-link}
8733 -filter {tiny-textforms}
8734 -filter {frameset-borders}
8735 -filter {demoronizer}
8736 -filter {shockwave-flash}
8737 -filter {quicktime-kioskmode}
8739 -filter {crude-parental}
8740 -filter {site-specifics}
8741 -filter {js-annoyances}
8742 -filter {html-annoyances}
8743 +filter {refresh-tags}
8744 -filter {unsolicited-popups}
8745 +filter {img-reorder}
8746 +filter {banners-by-size}
8748 +filter {jumping-windows}
8749 +filter {ie-exploits}
8756 -handle-as-empty-document
8758 -hide-accept-language
8759 -hide-content-disposition
8760 +hide-forwarded-for-headers
8761 +hide-from-header{block}
8762 +hide-referer{forge}
8766 -overwrite-last-modified
8767 +prevent-compression
8771 -server-header-filter{xml-to-html}
8772 -server-header-filter{html-to-xml}
8773 +session-cookies-only
8774 +set-image-blocker{blank}
8775 -treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks }
8778 { +block +handle-as-image }
8784 Ooops, the <quote>/adsl/</quote> is matching <quote>/ads</quote> in our
8785 configuration! But we did not want this at all! Now we see why we get the
8786 blank page. It is actually triggering two different actions here, and
8787 the effects are aggregated so that the URL is blocked, and &my-app; is told
8788 to treat the block as if it were an image. But this is, of course, all wrong.
8789 We could now add a new action below this (or better in our own
8790 <filename>user.action</filename> file) that explicitly
8791 <emphasis>un</emphasis> blocks (
8792 <link linkend="BLOCK"><quote>{-block}</quote></link>) paths with
8793 <quote>adsl</quote> in them (remember, last match in the configuration
8794 wins). There are various ways to handle such exceptions. Example:
8806 Now the page displays ;-)
8807 Remember to flush your browser's caches when making these kinds of changes to
8808 your configuration to insure that you get a freshly delivered page! Or, try
8809 using <literal>Shift+Reload</literal>.
8813 But now what about a situation where we get no explicit matches like
8820 { +block +handle-as-image }
8826 That actually was very helpful and pointed us quickly to where the problem
8827 was. If you don't get this kind of match, then it means one of the default
8828 rules in the first section of <filename>default.action</filename> is causing
8829 the problem. This would require some guesswork, and maybe a little trial and
8830 error to isolate the offending rule. One likely cause would be one of the
8831 <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> actions.
8832 These tend to be harder to troubleshoot.
8833 Try adding the URL for the site to one of aliases that turn off
8834 <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link>:
8842 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
8850 <quote><literal>{ shop }</literal></quote> is an <quote>alias</quote> that expands to
8851 <quote><literal>{ -filter -session-cookies-only }</literal></quote>.
8852 Or you could do your own exception to negate filtering:
8860 # Disable ALL filter actions for sites in this section
8868 This would turn off all filtering for these sites. This is best
8869 put in <filename>user.action</filename>, for local site
8870 exceptions. Note that when a simple domain pattern is used by itself (without
8871 the subsequent path portion), all sub-pages within that domain are included
8872 automatically in the scope of the action.
8876 Images that are inexplicably being blocked, may well be hitting the
8877 <link linkend="FILTER-BANNERS-BY-SIZE"><quote>+filter{banners-by-size}</quote></link>
8879 that images of certain sizes are ad banners (works well
8880 <emphasis>most of the time</emphasis> since these tend to be standardized).
8884 <quote><literal>{ fragile }</literal></quote> is an alias that disables most
8885 actions that are the most likely to cause trouble. This can be used as a
8886 last resort for problem sites.
8892 # Handle with care: easy to break
8894 mybank.example.com</screen>
8899 <emphasis>Remember to flush caches!</emphasis> Note that the
8900 <literal>mail.google</literal> reference lacks the TLD portion (e.g.
8901 <quote>.com</quote>). This will effectively match any TLD with
8902 <literal>google</literal> in it, such as <literal>mail.google.de.</literal>,
8906 If this still does not work, you will have to go through the remaining
8907 actions one by one to find which one(s) is causing the problem.
8916 This program is free software; you can redistribute it
8917 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
8918 Public License as published by the Free Software
8919 Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at
8920 your option) any later version.
8922 This program is distributed in the hope that it will
8923 be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the
8924 implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
8925 PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public
8926 License for more details.
8928 The GNU General Public License should be included with
8929 this file. If not, you can view it at
8930 http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
8931 or write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
8932 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301,
8935 $Log: user-manual.sgml,v $
8936 Revision 2.49 2007/12/06 18:21:55 fabiankeil
8937 Update hide-forwarded-for-headers description.
8939 Revision 2.48 2007/11/24 19:07:17 fabiankeil
8940 - Mention request rewriting.
8941 - Enable the conditional-forge paragraph.
8944 Revision 2.47 2007/11/18 14:59:47 fabiankeil
8945 A few "Note to Upgraders" updates.
8947 Revision 2.46 2007/11/17 17:24:44 fabiankeil
8948 - Use new action defaults.
8949 - Minor fixes and rewordings.
8951 Revision 2.45 2007/11/16 11:48:46 hal9
8952 Fix one typo, and add a couple of small refinements.
8954 Revision 2.44 2007/11/15 03:30:20 hal9
8955 Results of spell check.
8957 Revision 2.43 2007/11/14 18:45:39 fabiankeil
8958 - Mention some more contributors in the "New in this Release" list.
8961 Revision 2.42 2007/11/12 03:32:40 hal9
8962 Updates for "What's New" and "Notes to Upgraders". Various other changes in
8963 preparation for new release. User Manual is almost ready.
8965 Revision 2.41 2007/11/11 16:32:11 hal9
8966 This is primarily syncing What's New and Note to Upgraders sections with the many
8967 new features and changes (gleaned from memory but mostly from ChangeLog).
8969 Revision 2.40 2007/11/10 17:10:59 fabiankeil
8970 In the first third of the file, mention several times that
8971 the action editor is disabled by default in 3.0.7 beta and later.
8973 Revision 2.39 2007/11/05 02:34:49 hal9
8974 Various changes in preparation for the upcoming release. Much yet to be done.
8976 Revision 2.38 2007/09/22 16:01:42 fabiankeil
8977 Update embedded show-url-info output.
8979 Revision 2.37 2007/08/27 16:09:55 fabiankeil
8980 Fix pre-chroot-nslookup description which I failed to
8981 copy and paste properly. Reported by Stephen Gildea.
8983 Revision 2.36 2007/08/26 16:47:14 fabiankeil
8984 Add Stephen Gildea's pre-chroot-nslookup patch [#1276666],
8985 extensive comments moved to user manual.
8987 Revision 2.35 2007/08/26 14:59:49 fabiankeil
8988 Minor rewordings and fixes.
8990 Revision 2.34 2007/08/05 15:19:50 fabiankeil
8991 - Don't claim HTTP/1.1 compliance.
8992 - Use $ in some of the path pattern examples.
8993 - Use a hide-user-agent example argument without
8994 leading and trailing space.
8995 - Make it clear that the cookie actions work with
8997 - Rephrase the inspect-jpegs text to underline
8998 that it's only meant to protect against a single
9001 Revision 2.33 2007/07/27 10:57:35 hal9
9002 Add references for user-agent strings for hide-user-agenet
9004 Revision 2.32 2007/06/07 12:36:22 fabiankeil
9005 Apply Roland's 29_usermanual.dpatch to fix a bunch
9006 of syntax errors I collected over the last months.
9008 Revision 2.31 2007/06/02 14:01:37 fabiankeil
9009 Start to document forward-override{}.
9011 Revision 2.30 2007/04/25 15:10:36 fabiankeil
9012 - Describe installation for FreeBSD.
9013 - Start to document taggers and tag patterns.
9014 - Don't confuse devils and daemons.
9016 Revision 2.29 2007/04/05 11:47:51 fabiankeil
9017 Some updates regarding header filtering,
9018 handling of compressed content and redirect's
9019 support for pcrs commands.
9021 Revision 2.28 2006/12/10 23:42:48 hal9
9022 Fix various typos reported by Adam P. Thanks.
9024 Revision 2.27 2006/11/14 01:57:47 hal9
9025 Dump all docs prior to 3.0.6 release. Various minor changes to faq and user
9028 Revision 2.26 2006/10/24 11:16:44 hal9
9031 Revision 2.25 2006/10/18 10:50:33 hal9
9032 Add note that since filters are off in Cautious, compression is ON. Turn off
9033 compression to make filters work on all sites.
9035 Revision 2.24 2006/10/03 11:13:54 hal9
9036 More references to the new filters. Include html this time around.
9038 Revision 2.23 2006/10/02 22:43:53 hal9
9039 Contains new filter definitions from Fabian, and few other miscellaneous
9042 Revision 2.22 2006/09/22 01:27:55 hal9
9043 Final commit of probably various minor changes here and there. Unless
9044 something changes this should be ready for pending release.
9046 Revision 2.21 2006/09/20 03:21:36 david__schmidt
9047 Just the tiniest tweak. Wafer thin!
9049 Revision 2.20 2006/09/10 14:53:54 hal9
9050 Results of spell check. User manual has some updates to standard.actions file
9053 Revision 2.19 2006/09/08 12:19:02 fabiankeil
9054 Adjust hide-if-modified-since example values
9055 to reflect the recent changes.
9057 Revision 2.18 2006/09/08 02:38:57 hal9
9059 -Fix a number of broken links.
9060 -Migrate the new Windows service command line options, and reference as
9062 -Rebuild so that can be used with the new "user-manual" config capabilities.
9065 Revision 2.17 2006/09/05 13:25:12 david__schmidt
9066 Add Windows service invocation stuff (duplicated) in FAQ and in user manual under Windows startup. One probably ought to reference the other.
9068 Revision 2.16 2006/09/02 12:49:37 hal9
9069 Various small updates for new actions, filterfiles, etc.
9071 Revision 2.15 2006/08/30 11:15:22 hal9
9072 More work on the new actions, especially filter-*-headers, and What's New
9073 section. User Manual is close to final form for 3.0.4 release. Some tinkering
9074 and proof reading left to do.
9076 Revision 2.14 2006/08/29 10:59:36 hal9
9077 Add a "Whats New in this release" Section. Further work on multiple filter
9078 files, and assorted other minor changes.
9080 Revision 2.13 2006/08/22 11:04:59 hal9
9081 Silence warnings and errors. This should build now. New filters were only
9082 stubbed in. More to be done.
9084 Revision 2.12 2006/08/14 08:40:39 fabiankeil
9085 Documented new actions that were part of
9086 the "minor Privoxy improvements".
9088 Revision 2.11 2006/07/18 14:48:51 david__schmidt
9089 Reorganizing the repository: swapping out what was HEAD (the old 3.1 branch)
9090 with what was really the latest development (the v_3_0_branch branch)
9092 Revision 1.123.2.43 2005/05/23 09:59:10 hal9
9095 Revision 1.123.2.42 2004/12/04 14:39:57 hal9
9096 Fix two minor typos per bug SF report.
9098 Revision 1.123.2.41 2004/03/23 12:58:42 oes
9101 Revision 1.123.2.40 2004/02/27 12:48:49 hal9
9102 Add comment re: redirecting to local file system for set-image-blocker may
9103 is dependent on browser.
9105 Revision 1.123.2.39 2004/01/30 22:31:40 oes
9106 Added a hint re bookmarklets to Quickstart section
9108 Revision 1.123.2.38 2004/01/30 16:47:51 oes
9109 Some minor clarifications
9111 Revision 1.123.2.37 2004/01/29 22:36:11 hal9
9112 Updates for no longer filtering text/plain, and demoronizer default settings,
9113 and copyright notice dates.
9115 Revision 1.123.2.36 2003/12/10 02:26:26 hal9
9116 Changed the demoronizer filter description.
9118 Revision 1.123.2.35 2003/11/06 13:36:37 oes
9119 Updated link to nightly CVS tarball
9121 Revision 1.123.2.34 2003/06/26 23:50:16 hal9
9122 Add a small bit on filtering and problems re: source code being corrupted.
9124 Revision 1.123.2.33 2003/05/08 18:17:33 roro
9125 Use apt-get instead of dpkg to install Debian package, which is more
9126 solid, uses the correct and most recent Debian version automatically.
9128 Revision 1.123.2.32 2003/04/11 03:13:57 hal9
9129 Add small note about only one filterfile (as opposed to multiple actions
9132 Revision 1.123.2.31 2003/03/26 02:03:43 oes
9133 Updated hard-coded copyright dates
9135 Revision 1.123.2.30 2003/03/24 12:58:56 hal9
9136 Add new section on Predefined Filters.
9138 Revision 1.123.2.29 2003/03/20 02:45:29 hal9
9139 More problems with \-\-chroot causing markup problems :(
9141 Revision 1.123.2.28 2003/03/19 00:35:24 hal9
9142 Manual edit of revision log because 'chroot' (even inside a comment) was
9143 causing Docbook to hang here (due to double hyphen and the processor thinking
9146 Revision 1.123.2.27 2003/03/18 19:37:14 oes
9147 s/Advanced|Radical/Adventuresome/g to avoid complaints re fun filter
9149 Revision 1.123.2.26 2003/03/17 16:50:53 oes
9150 Added documentation for new chroot option
9152 Revision 1.123.2.25 2003/03/15 18:36:55 oes
9153 Adapted to the new filters
9155 Revision 1.123.2.24 2002/11/17 06:41:06 hal9
9156 Move default profiles table from FAQ to U-M, and other minor related changes.
9159 Revision 1.123.2.23 2002/10/21 02:32:01 hal9
9160 Updates to the user.action examples section. A few new ones.
9162 Revision 1.123.2.22 2002/10/12 00:51:53 hal9
9163 Add demoronizer to filter section.
9165 Revision 1.123.2.21 2002/10/10 04:09:35 hal9
9166 s/Advanced/Radical/ and added very brief note.
9168 Revision 1.123.2.20 2002/10/10 03:49:21 hal9
9169 Add notes to session-cookies-only and Quickstart about pre-existing
9170 cookies. Also, note content-cookies work differently.
9172 Revision 1.123.2.19 2002/09/26 01:25:36 hal9
9173 More explanation on Privoxy patterns, more on content-cookies and SSL.
9175 Revision 1.123.2.18 2002/08/22 23:47:58 hal9
9176 Add 'Documentation' to Privoxy Menu shot in Configuration section to match
9179 Revision 1.123.2.17 2002/08/18 01:13:05 hal9
9180 Spell checked (only one typo this time!).
9182 Revision 1.123.2.16 2002/08/09 19:20:54 david__schmidt
9183 Update to Mac OSX startup script name
9185 Revision 1.123.2.15 2002/08/07 17:32:11 oes
9186 Converted some internal links from ulink to link for PDF creation; no content changed
9188 Revision 1.123.2.14 2002/08/06 09:16:13 oes
9189 Nits re: actions file download
9191 Revision 1.123.2.13 2002/08/02 18:23:19 g_sauthoff
9192 Just 2 small corrections to the Gentoo sections
9194 Revision 1.123.2.12 2002/08/02 18:17:21 g_sauthoff
9195 Added 2 Gentoo sections
9197 Revision 1.123.2.11 2002/07/26 15:20:31 oes
9198 - Added version info to title
9199 - Added info on new filters
9200 - Revised parts of the filter file tutorial
9201 - Added info on where to get updated actions files
9203 Revision 1.123.2.10 2002/07/25 21:42:29 hal9
9204 Add brief notes on not proxying non-HTTP protocols.
9206 Revision 1.123.2.9 2002/07/11 03:40:28 david__schmidt
9208 Updated Mac OSX sections due to installation location change
9210 Revision 1.123.2.8 2002/06/09 16:36:32 hal9
9211 Clarifications on filtering and MIME. Hardcode 'latest release' in index.html.
9213 Revision 1.123.2.7 2002/06/09 00:29:34 hal9
9214 Touch ups on filtering, in actions section and Anatomy.
9216 Revision 1.123.2.6 2002/06/06 23:11:03 hal9
9217 Fix broken link. Linkchecked all docs.
9219 Revision 1.123.2.5 2002/05/29 02:01:02 hal9
9220 This is break out of the entire config section from u-m, so it can
9221 eventually be used to generate the comments, etc in the main config file
9222 so that these are in sync with each other.
9224 Revision 1.123.2.4 2002/05/27 03:28:45 hal9
9225 Ooops missed something from David.
9227 Revision 1.123.2.3 2002/05/27 03:23:17 hal9
9228 Fix FIXMEs for OS2 and OSX startup. Fix Redhat typos (should be Red Hat).
9229 That's a wrap, I think.
9231 Revision 1.123.2.2 2002/05/26 19:02:09 hal9
9232 Move Amiga stuff around to take of FIXME in start up section.
9234 Revision 1.123.2.1 2002/05/26 17:04:25 hal9
9235 -Spellcheck, very minor edits, and sync across branches
9237 Revision 1.123 2002/05/24 23:19:23 hal9
9238 Include new image (Proxy setup). More fun with guibutton.
9239 Minor corrections/clarifications here and there.
9241 Revision 1.122 2002/05/24 13:24:08 oes
9242 Added Bookmarklet for one-click pre-filled access to show-url-info
9244 Revision 1.121 2002/05/23 23:20:17 oes
9245 - Changed more (all?) references to actions to the
9246 <literal><link> style.
9247 - Small fixes in the actions chapter
9248 - Small clarifications in the quickstart to ad blocking
9249 - Removed <emphasis> from <title>s since the new doc CSS
9250 renders them red (bad in TOC).
9252 Revision 1.120 2002/05/23 19:16:43 roro
9253 Correct Debian specials (installation and startup).
9255 Revision 1.119 2002/05/22 17:17:05 oes
9258 Revision 1.118 2002/05/21 04:54:55 hal9
9259 -New Section: Quickstart to Ad Blocking
9260 -Reformat Actions Anatomy to match new CGI layout
9262 Revision 1.117 2002/05/17 13:56:16 oes
9263 - Reworked & extended Templates chapter
9264 - Small changes to Regex appendix
9265 - #included authors.sgml into (C) and hist chapter
9267 Revision 1.116 2002/05/17 03:23:46 hal9
9268 Fixing merge conflict in Quickstart section.
9270 Revision 1.115 2002/05/16 16:25:00 oes
9271 Extended the Filter File chapter & minor fixes
9273 Revision 1.114 2002/05/16 09:42:50 oes
9274 More ulink->link, added some hints to Quickstart section
9276 Revision 1.113 2002/05/15 21:07:25 oes
9277 Extended and further commented the example actions files
9279 Revision 1.112 2002/05/15 03:57:14 hal9
9280 Spell check. A few minor edits here and there for better syntax and
9283 Revision 1.111 2002/05/14 23:01:36 oes
9286 Revision 1.110 2002/05/14 19:10:45 oes
9287 Restored alphabetical order of actions
9289 Revision 1.109 2002/05/14 17:23:11 oes
9290 Renamed the prevent-*-cookies actions, extended aliases section and moved it before the example AFs
9292 Revision 1.108 2002/05/14 15:29:12 oes
9293 Completed proofreading the actions chapter
9295 Revision 1.107 2002/05/12 03:20:41 hal9
9296 Small clarifications for 127.0.0.1 vs localhost for listen-address since this
9297 apparently an important distinction for some OS's.
9299 Revision 1.106 2002/05/10 01:48:20 hal9
9300 This is mostly proposed copyright/licensing additions and changes. Docs
9301 are still GPL, but licensing and copyright are more visible. Also, copyright
9302 changed in doc header comments (eliminate references to JB except FAQ).
9304 Revision 1.105 2002/05/05 20:26:02 hal9
9305 Sorting out license vs copyright in these docs.
9307 Revision 1.104 2002/05/04 08:44:45 swa
9310 Revision 1.103 2002/05/04 00:40:53 hal9
9311 -Remove the TOC first page kludge. It's fixed proper now in ldp.dsl.in.
9312 -Some minor additions to Quickstart.
9314 Revision 1.102 2002/05/03 17:46:00 oes
9315 Further proofread & reactivated short build instructions
9317 Revision 1.101 2002/05/03 03:58:30 hal9
9318 Move the user-manual config directive to top of section. Add note about
9319 Privoxy needing read permissions for configs, and write for logs.
9321 Revision 1.100 2002/04/29 03:05:55 hal9
9322 Add clarification on differences of new actions files.
9324 Revision 1.99 2002/04/28 16:59:05 swa
9325 more structure in starting section
9327 Revision 1.98 2002/04/28 05:43:59 hal9
9328 This is the break up of configuration.html into multiple files. This
9329 will probably break links elsewhere :(
9331 Revision 1.97 2002/04/27 21:04:42 hal9
9332 -Rewrite of Actions File example.
9333 -Add section for user-manual directive in config.
9335 Revision 1.96 2002/04/27 05:32:00 hal9
9336 -Add short section to Filter Files to tie in with +filter action.
9337 -Start rewrite of examples in Actions Examples (not finished).
9339 Revision 1.95 2002/04/26 17:23:29 swa
9340 bookmarks cleaned, changed structure of user manual, screen and programlisting cleanups, and numerous other changes that I forgot
9342 Revision 1.94 2002/04/26 05:24:36 hal9
9343 -Add most of Andreas suggestions to Chain of Events section.
9344 -A few other minor corrections and touch up.
9346 Revision 1.92 2002/04/25 18:55:13 hal9
9347 More catchups on new actions files, and new actions names.
9348 Other assorted cleanups, and minor modifications.
9350 Revision 1.91 2002/04/24 02:39:31 hal9
9351 Add 'Chain of Events' section.
9353 Revision 1.90 2002/04/23 21:41:25 hal9
9354 Linuxconf is deprecated on RH, substitute chkconfig.
9356 Revision 1.89 2002/04/23 21:05:28 oes
9357 Added hint for startup on Red Hat
9359 Revision 1.88 2002/04/23 05:37:54 hal9
9360 Add AmigaOS install stuff.
9362 Revision 1.87 2002/04/23 02:53:15 david__schmidt
9363 Updated OSX installation section
9364 Added a few English tweaks here an there
9366 Revision 1.86 2002/04/21 01:46:32 hal9
9367 Re-write actions section.
9369 Revision 1.85 2002/04/18 21:23:23 hal9
9370 Fix ugly typo (mine).
9372 Revision 1.84 2002/04/18 21:17:13 hal9
9373 Spell Redhat correctly (ie Red Hat). A few minor grammar corrections.
9375 Revision 1.83 2002/04/18 18:21:12 oes
9376 Added RPM install detail
9378 Revision 1.82 2002/04/18 12:04:50 oes
9381 Revision 1.81 2002/04/18 11:50:24 oes
9382 Extended Install section - needs fixing by packagers
9384 Revision 1.80 2002/04/18 10:45:19 oes
9385 Moved text to buildsource.sgml, renamed some filters, details
9387 Revision 1.79 2002/04/18 03:18:06 hal9
9388 Spellcheck, and minor touchups.
9390 Revision 1.78 2002/04/17 18:04:16 oes
9393 Revision 1.77 2002/04/17 13:51:23 oes
9394 Proofreading, part one
9396 Revision 1.76 2002/04/16 04:25:51 hal9
9397 -Added 'Note to Upgraders' and re-ordered the 'Quickstart' section.
9398 -Note about proxy may need requests to re-read config files.
9400 Revision 1.75 2002/04/12 02:08:48 david__schmidt
9401 Remove OS/2 building info... it is already in the developer-manual
9403 Revision 1.74 2002/04/11 00:54:38 hal9
9404 Add small section on submitting actions.
9406 Revision 1.73 2002/04/10 18:45:15 swa
9409 Revision 1.72 2002/04/10 04:06:19 hal9
9410 Added actions feedback to Bookmarklets section
9412 Revision 1.71 2002/04/08 22:59:26 hal9
9413 Version update. Spell chkconfig correctly :)
9415 Revision 1.70 2002/04/08 20:53:56 swa
9418 Revision 1.69 2002/04/06 05:07:29 hal9
9419 -Add privoxy-man-page.sgml, for man page.
9420 -Add authors.sgml for AUTHORS (and p-authors.sgml)
9421 -Reworked various aspects of various docs.
9422 -Added additional comments to sub-docs.
9424 Revision 1.68 2002/04/04 18:46:47 swa
9425 consistent look. reuse of copyright, history et. al.
9427 Revision 1.67 2002/04/04 17:27:57 swa
9428 more single file to be included at multiple points. make maintaining easier
9430 Revision 1.66 2002/04/04 06:48:37 hal9
9431 Structural changes to allow for conditional inclusion/exclusion of content
9432 based on entity toggles, e.g. 'entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE"'. And
9433 definition of internal entities, e.g. 'entity p-version "2.9.13"' that will
9434 eventually be set by Makefile.
9435 More boilerplate text for use across multiple docs.
9437 Revision 1.65 2002/04/03 19:52:07 swa
9438 enhance squid section due to user suggestion
9440 Revision 1.64 2002/04/03 03:53:43 hal9
9441 A few minor bug fixes, and touch ups. Ready for review.
9443 Revision 1.63 2002/04/01 16:24:49 hal9
9444 Define entities to include boilerplate text. See doc/source/*.
9446 Revision 1.62 2002/03/30 04:15:53 hal9
9447 - Fix privoxy.org/config links.
9448 - Paste in Bookmarklets from Toggle page.
9449 - Move Quickstart nearer top, and minor rework.
9451 Revision 1.61 2002/03/29 01:31:08 hal9
9454 Revision 1.60 2002/03/27 01:57:34 hal9
9455 Added more to Anatomy section.
9457 Revision 1.59 2002/03/27 00:54:33 hal9
9458 Touch up intro for new name.
9460 Revision 1.58 2002/03/26 22:29:55 swa
9461 we have a new homepage!
9463 Revision 1.57 2002/03/24 20:33:30 hal9
9464 A few minor catch ups with name change.
9466 Revision 1.56 2002/03/24 16:17:06 swa
9467 configure needs to be generated.
9469 Revision 1.55 2002/03/24 16:08:08 swa
9470 we are too lazy to make a block-built
9471 privoxy logo. hence removed the option.
9473 Revision 1.54 2002/03/24 15:46:20 swa
9474 name change related issue.
9476 Revision 1.53 2002/03/24 11:51:00 swa
9477 name change. changed filenames.
9479 Revision 1.52 2002/03/24 11:01:06 swa
9482 Revision 1.51 2002/03/23 15:13:11 swa
9483 renamed every reference to the old name with foobar.
9484 fixed "application foobar application" tag, fixed
9485 "the foobar" with "foobar". left junkbustser in cvs
9486 comments and remarks to history untouched.
9488 Revision 1.50 2002/03/23 05:06:21 hal9
9491 Revision 1.49 2002/03/21 17:01:05 hal9
9492 New section in Appendix.
9494 Revision 1.48 2002/03/12 06:33:01 hal9
9495 Catching up to Andreas and re_filterfile changes.
9497 Revision 1.47 2002/03/11 13:13:27 swa
9498 correct feedback channels
9500 Revision 1.46 2002/03/10 00:51:08 hal9
9501 Added section on JB internal pages in Appendix.
9503 Revision 1.45 2002/03/09 17:43:53 swa
9506 Revision 1.44 2002/03/09 17:08:48 hal9
9507 New section on Jon's actions file editor, and move some stuff around.
9509 Revision 1.43 2002/03/08 00:47:32 hal9
9510 Added imageblock{pattern}.
9512 Revision 1.42 2002/03/07 18:16:55 swa
9515 Revision 1.41 2002/03/07 16:46:43 hal9
9516 Fix a few markup problems for jade.
9518 Revision 1.40 2002/03/07 16:28:39 swa
9519 provide correct feedback channels
9521 Revision 1.39 2002/03/06 16:19:28 hal9
9522 Note on perceived filtering slowdown per FR.
9524 Revision 1.38 2002/03/05 23:55:14 hal9
9525 Stupid I did it again. Double hyphen in comment breaks jade.
9527 Revision 1.37 2002/03/05 23:53:49 hal9
9528 jade barfs on '- -' embedded in comments. - -user option broke it.
9530 Revision 1.36 2002/03/05 22:53:28 hal9
9531 Add new - - user option.
9533 Revision 1.35 2002/03/05 00:17:27 hal9
9534 Added section on command line options.
9536 Revision 1.34 2002/03/04 19:32:07 oes
9537 Changed default port to 8118
9539 Revision 1.33 2002/03/03 19:46:13 hal9
9540 Emphasis on where/how to report bugs, etc
9542 Revision 1.32 2002/03/03 09:26:06 joergs
9543 AmigaOS changes, config is now loaded from PROGDIR: instead of
9544 AmiTCP:db/junkbuster/ if no configuration file is specified on the
9547 Revision 1.31 2002/03/02 22:45:52 david__schmidt
9550 Revision 1.30 2002/03/02 22:00:14 hal9
9551 Updated 'New Features' list. Ran through spell-checker.
9553 Revision 1.29 2002/03/02 20:34:07 david__schmidt
9554 Update OS/2 build section
9556 Revision 1.28 2002/02/24 14:34:24 jongfoster
9557 Formatting changes. Now changing the doctype to DocBook XML 4.1
9558 will work - no other changes are needed.
9560 Revision 1.27 2002/01/11 14:14:32 hal9
9561 Added a very short section on Templates
9563 Revision 1.26 2002/01/09 20:02:50 hal9
9564 Fix bug re: auto-detect config file changes.
9566 Revision 1.25 2002/01/09 18:20:30 hal9
9567 Touch ups for *.action files.
9569 Revision 1.24 2001/12/02 01:13:42 hal9
9572 Revision 1.23 2001/12/02 00:20:41 hal9
9573 Updates for recent changes.
9575 Revision 1.22 2001/11/05 23:57:51 hal9
9576 Minor update for startup now daemon mode.
9578 Revision 1.21 2001/10/31 21:11:03 hal9
9579 Correct 2 minor errors
9581 Revision 1.18 2001/10/24 18:45:26 hal9
9582 *** empty log message ***
9584 Revision 1.17 2001/10/24 17:10:55 hal9
9585 Catching up with Jon's recent work, and a few other things.
9587 Revision 1.16 2001/10/21 17:19:21 swa
9588 wrong url in documentation
9590 Revision 1.15 2001/10/14 23:46:24 hal9
9591 Various minor changes. Fleshed out SEE ALSO section.
9593 Revision 1.13 2001/10/10 17:28:33 hal9
9596 Revision 1.12 2001/09/28 02:57:04 hal9
9599 Revision 1.11 2001/09/28 02:25:20 hal9
9602 Revision 1.9 2001/09/27 23:50:29 hal9
9603 A few changes. A short section on regular expression in appendix.
9605 Revision 1.8 2001/09/25 00:34:59 hal9
9606 Some additions, and re-arranging.
9608 Revision 1.7 2001/09/24 14:31:36 hal9
9611 Revision 1.6 2001/09/24 14:10:32 hal9
9612 Including David's OS/2 installation instructions.
9614 Revision 1.2 2001/09/13 15:27:40 swa
9617 Revision 1.1 2001/09/12 15:36:41 swa
9618 source files for junkbuster documentation
9620 Revision 1.3 2001/09/10 17:43:59 swa
9621 first proposal of a structure.
9623 Revision 1.2 2001/06/13 14:28:31 swa
9624 docs should have an author.
9626 Revision 1.1 2001/06/13 14:20:37 swa
9627 first import of project's documentation for the webserver.