1 <!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook V3.1//EN" [
2 <!entity % dummy "INCLUDE">
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 p-version "2.9.14">
12 <!entity p-status "beta">
13 <!entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE">
14 <!entity % p-stable "IGNORE">
15 <!entity % p-text "IGNORE"> <!-- define we are not a text only doc -->
16 <!entity % p-doc "INCLUDE"> <!-- and we are a formal doc -->
17 <!entity % p-readme "IGNORE">
18 <!entity % p-supp-userman "IGNORE"> <!-- Omit some from supported.sgml -->
21 File : $Source: /cvsroot/ijbswa/current/doc/source/user-manual.sgml,v $
24 This file belongs into
25 ijbswa.sourceforge.net:/home/groups/i/ij/ijbswa/htdocs/
27 $Id: user-manual.sgml,v 1.79 2002/04/18 03:18:06 hal9 Exp $
29 Written by and Copyright (C) 2001 the SourceForge
30 Privoxy team. http://www.privoxy.org/
32 Based on the Internet Junkbuster originally written
33 by and Copyright (C) 1997 Anonymous Coders and
34 Junkbusters Corporation. http://www.junkbusters.com
37 ========================================================================
38 NOTE: Please read developer-manual/documentation.html before touching
39 anything in this, or other Privoxy documentation.
40 ========================================================================
46 <title>Privoxy User Manual</title>
48 <pubdate>$Id: user-manual.sgml,v 1.79 2002/04/18 03:18:06 hal9 Exp $</pubdate>
53 <orgname>By: Privoxy Developers</orgname>
62 This is here to keep vim syntax file from breaking :/
63 If I knew enough to fix it, I would.
64 PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE! HB: hal@foobox.net
70 The user manual gives users information on how to install, configure and use
72 url="http://www.privoxy.org/"><application>Privoxy</application></ulink>.
75 <!-- Include privoxy.sgml boilerplate: -->
77 <!-- end privoxy.sgml -->
80 You can find the latest version of the user manual at <ulink
81 url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/">http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/</ulink>.
82 Please see the <ulink url="contact.html">Contact section</ulink> on how to
83 contact the developers.
87 <!-- Feel free to send a note to the developers at <email>ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net</email>. -->
93 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
94 <sect1 id="intro" label=""><title></title>
95 <!-- dummy section to force TOC on page by itself -->
96 <!-- DO NOT REMOVE! please ;) -->
100 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
102 <sect1 label="1" id="introduction"><title>Introduction</title>
105 This documentation is included with the current &p-status; version of
106 <application>Privoxy</application>, v.&p-version;<![%p-not-stable;[,
107 and is mostly complete at this point. The most up to date reference for the
108 time being is still the comments in the source files and in the individual
109 configuration files. Development of version 3.0 is currently nearing
110 completion, and includes many significant changes and enhancements over
111 earlier versions. The target release date for
112 stable v3.0 is <quote>soon</quote> ;-)]]>.
116 <!-- include only in non-stable versions -->
118 Since this is a &p-status; version, not all new features are well tested. This
119 documentation may be slightly out of sync as a result (especially with
120 CVS sources). And there <emphasis>may be</emphasis> bugs, though hopefully
125 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
126 <sect2 id="newfeatures">
127 <title>New Features</title>
129 In addition to <application>Internet Junkbuster's</application> traditional
130 features of ad and banner blocking and cookie management,
131 <application>Privoxy</application> provides new features<![%p-not-stable;[,
132 some of them currently under development]]>:
133 <anchor id="testing"/>
136 <!-- Include newfeatures.sgml boilerplate here: -->
138 <!-- end boilerplate -->
143 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
146 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
147 <sect1 id="installation"><title>Installation</title>
149 <application>Privoxy</application> is available both in convenient pre-compiled
150 packages for a wide range of operating systems, and as raw source code.
151 For most users, we recommend using the packages, which can be downloaded from our
152 <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ijbswa/">Privoxy Project Page</ulink>.
155 If you like to live on the bleeding edge and are not afraid of using
156 possibly unstable development versions, you can check out the up-to-the-minute
157 version directly from <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/cvs/?group_id=11118">the
158 CVS repository</ulink> or simply download <ulink
159 url="http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cvstarballs/ijbswa-cvsroot.tar.gz">the nightly CVS
163 <!-- Include supported.sgml boilerplate -->
165 <!-- end boilerplate -->
167 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
168 <sect2 id="installation-packages"><title>Binary Packages</title>
170 Binary packages can be downloaded from our <ulink
171 url="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ijbswa/">Privoxy Project Page</ulink>.
175 How to install them depends on your operating system:
178 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
179 <sect3 id="installation-pack-rpm"><title>Redhat and SuSE RPMs</title>
182 RPMs can be installed with <literal>rpm -Uvh <name-of-rpm.rpm></literal>,
183 and will use <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> for configuration files.
187 Note that if you have a <application>Junkbuster</application> RPM installed
188 on your system, you need to remove it first, because the packages conflict.
192 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
193 <sect3 id="installation-pack-bintgz"><title>Solaris, NetBSD, HP-UX</title>
196 Create a new directory, <literal>cd</literal> to it, then unzip and
197 untar the archive. For the most part, you'll have to figure out where
202 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
203 <sect3 id="installation-pack-win"><title>Windows</title>
206 Just double-click the installer, which will guide you through
207 the installation process.
211 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
212 <sect3 id="installation-os2"><title>OS/2</title>
215 Just double-click the WarpIN self-installing archive, which will guide
216 you through the installation process. A shadow of the
217 <application>Privoxy</application> executable will be placed in your
218 startup folder so it will start automatically whenever OS/2 starts.
222 The directory you choose to install <application>Privoxy</application>
223 into will contain all of the configuration files.
227 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
228 <sect3 id="installation-deb"><title>Debian</title>
234 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
235 <sect3 id="installation-amiga"><title>AmigaOS</title>
237 Unpack the <literal>.lha</literal> archive, then FIXME.
242 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
243 <sect2 id="installation-source"><title>Building from Source</title>
245 <!-- include buildsource.sgml boilerplate: -->
247 <!-- end boilerplate -->
252 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
255 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
257 <sect1 id="quickstart"><title>Quickstart to Using <application>Privoxy</application></title>
260 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
261 <sect2 id="upgradersnote">
262 <title>Note to Upgraders</title>
264 There are very significant changes from older versions of
265 <application>Junkbuster</application> to the current
266 <application>Privoxy</application>. Configuration is substantially
267 changed. <application>Junkbuster 2.0.x</application> and earlier
268 configuration files will not migrate. The functionality of the old
269 <filename>blockfile</filename>, <filename>cookiefile</filename> and
270 <filename>imagelist</filename>, are now combined into the
271 <quote>actions file</quote> (<filename>default.action</filename>
272 for most installations).
275 A <quote>filter file</quote> (typically <filename>default.filter</filename>)
276 is new with <application>Privoxy 2.9.x</application>, and provides some
277 of the new sophistication (explained below). <filename>config</filename> is
278 much the same as before.
281 If upgrading from a 2.0.x version, you will have to use the new config
282 files, and possibly adapt any personal rules from your older files.
283 When porting personal rules over from the old <filename>blockfile</filename>
284 to the new actions file, please note that even the pattern syntax has
286 If upgrading from 2.9.x development versions, it is still recommended
287 to use the new configuration files.
290 A quick list of things to be aware of before upgrading:
298 The default listening port is now 8118 due to a conflict with another
304 Some installers may remove earlier versions completely. Save any
305 important configuration files!
310 <application>Privoxy</application> is controllable with a web browser
311 at the special URL: <ulink
312 url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
313 (Shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>). Many
314 aspects of configuration can be done here, including temporarily disabling
315 <application>Privoxy</application>.
320 The primary configuration file for cookie management, ad and banner
321 blocking, and many other aspects of <application>Privoxy</application>
322 configuration is <filename>default.action</filename>. It is strongly
323 recommended to become familiar with the new actions concept below,
324 before modifying this file.
329 <!-- I think it is best to keep this somewhat vague, in case -->
330 <!-- the situation changes under our feet. -->
331 Some installers may not automatically start
332 <application>Privoxy</application> after installation.
341 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
343 <title>Starting <application>Privoxy</application></title>
345 Before launching <application>Privoxy</application> for the first time, you
346 will want to configure your browser(s) to use <application>Privoxy</application>
347 as a HTTP and HTTPS proxy. The default is localhost for the proxy address,
348 and port 8118 (earlier versions used port 8000). This is the one required
349 configuration that must be done!
353 With <application>Netscape</application> (and
354 <application>Mozilla</application>), this can be set under <literal>Edit
355 -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Proxies -> HTTP Proxy</literal>.
356 For <application>Internet Explorer</application>: <literal>Tools ->
357 Internet Properties -> Connections -> LAN Setting</literal>. Then,
358 check <quote>Use Proxy</quote> and fill in the appropriate info (Address:
359 localhost, Port: 8118). Include if HTTPS proxy support too.
363 After doing this, flush your browser's disk and memory caches to force a
364 re-reading of all pages and to get rid of any ads that may be cached. You
365 are now ready to start enjoying the benefits of using
366 <application>Privoxy</application>.
371 <application>Privoxy</application> is typically started by specifying the
372 main configuration file to be used on the command line. Example Unix startup
379 # /usr/sbin/privoxy /etc/privoxy/config
385 An init script is provided for SuSE and Redhat.
389 For for SuSE: <command>rcprivoxy start</command>
393 For RedHat: <command>/etc/rc.d/init.d/privoxy start</command>
398 If no configuration file is specified on the command line,
399 <application>Privoxy</application> will look for a file named
400 <filename>config</filename> in the current directory. Except on Win32 where
401 it will try <filename>config.txt</filename>. If no file is specified on the
402 command line and no default configuration file can be found,
403 <application>Privoxy</application> will fail to start.
408 The included default configuration files should give a reasonable starting
409 point. Most of the per site configuration is done in the
410 <quote>actions</quote> files. These are where various cookie actions are
411 defined, ad and banner blocking, and other aspects of
412 <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. There are several such
413 files included, with varying levels of aggressiveness.
417 You will probably want to keep an eye out for sites that require persistent
418 cookies, and add these to <filename>default.action</filename> as needed. By
419 default, most of these will be accepted only during the current browser
420 session (aka <quote>session cookies</quote>), until you add them to the
421 configuration. If you want the browser to handle this instead, you will need
422 to edit <filename>default.action</filename> and disable this feature. If you
423 use more than one browser, it would make more sense to let
424 <application>Privoxy</application> handle this. In which case, the
425 browser(s) should be set to accept all cookies.
429 Another feature where you will probably want to define exceptions for trusted
430 sites is the popup-killing (through the <literal>+popup</literal> and
431 <literal>+filter{popups}</literal> actions), because your favorite shopping,
432 banking, or leisure site may need popups.
436 <application>Privoxy</application> is HTTP/1.1 compliant, but not all of
437 the optional 1.1 features are as yet supported. In the unlikely event that
438 you experience inexplicable problems with browsers that use HTTP/1.1 per default
439 (like <application>Mozilla</application> or recent versions of I.E.), you might
440 try to force HTTP/1.0 compatibility. For Mozilla, look under <literal>Edit ->
441 Preferences -> Debug -> Networking</literal>.
442 Alternatively, set the <quote>+downgrade</quote> config option in
443 <filename>default.action</filename> which will downgrade your browser's HTTP
444 requests from HTTP/1.1 to HTTP/1.0 before processing them.
448 After running <application>Privoxy</application> for a while, you can
449 start to fine tune the configuration to suit your personal, or site,
450 preferences and requirements. There are many, many aspects that can
451 be customized. <quote>Actions</quote> (as specified in <filename>default.action</filename>)
452 can be adjusted by pointing your browser to
453 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
454 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
455 and then follow the link to <quote>edit the actions list</quote>.
456 (This is an internal page and does not require Internet access.)
460 In fact, various aspects of <application>Privoxy</application>
461 configuration can be viewed from this page, including
462 current configuration parameters, source code version numbers,
463 the browser's request headers, and <quote>actions</quote> that apply
464 to a given URL. In addition to the <filename>default.action</filename> file
465 editor mentioned above, <application>Privoxy</application> can also
466 be turned <quote>on</quote> and <quote>off</quote> (toggled) from this page.
470 If you encounter problems, try loading the page without
471 <application>Privoxy</application>. If that helps, enter the URL where
472 you have the problems into <ulink url="http://p.p/show-url-info">the browser
473 based rule tracing utility</ulink>. See which rules apply and why, and
474 then try turning them off for that site one after the other, until the problem
475 is gone. When you have found the culprit, you might want to turn the rest on
480 If the above paragraph sounds gibberish to you, you might want to <ulink
481 url="configuration.html#ACTIONSFILE">read more about the actions concept</ulink>
482 or even dive deep into the <ulink url="appendix.html#ACTIONSANAT">Appendix
487 If you can't get rid of the problem at all, think you've found a bug in
488 Privoxy, want to propose a new feature or smarter rules, please see the
489 chapter "Contacting the Developers, .." below.
495 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
497 <title>Command Line Options</title>
499 <application>Privoxy</application> may be invoked with the following
500 command-line options:
508 <emphasis>--version</emphasis>
511 Print version info and exit, Unix only.
516 <emphasis>--help</emphasis>
519 Print a short usage info and exit, Unix only.
524 <emphasis>--no-daemon</emphasis>
527 Don't become a daemon, i.e. don't fork and become process group
528 leader, don't detach from controlling tty. Unix only.
533 <emphasis>--pidfile FILE</emphasis>
537 On startup, write the process ID to <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>. Delete the
538 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> on exit. Failure to create or delete the
539 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> is non-fatal. If no <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>
540 option is given, no PID file will be used. Unix only.
545 <emphasis>--user USER[.GROUP]</emphasis>
549 After (optionally) writing the PID file, assume the user ID of
550 <emphasis>USER</emphasis>, and if included the GID of GROUP. Exit if the
551 privileges are not sufficient to do so. Unix only.
556 <emphasis>configfile</emphasis>
559 If no <emphasis>configfile</emphasis> is included on the command line,
560 <application>Privoxy</application> will look for a file named
561 <quote>config</quote> in the current directory (except on Win32
562 where it will look for <quote>config.txt</quote> instead). Specify
563 full path to avoid confusion.
574 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
577 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
578 <sect1 id="configuration"><title><application>Privoxy</application> Configuration</title>
580 All <application>Privoxy</application> configuration is stored
581 in text files. These files can be edited with a text editor.
582 Many important aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> can
583 also be controlled easily with a web browser.
588 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
591 <title>Controlling <application>Privoxy</application> with Your Web Browser</title>
593 <application>Privoxy</application>'s user interface can be reached through the special
594 URL <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
595 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
596 which is a built-in page and works without Internet access.
597 You will see the following section:
604 Please choose from the following options:
607 * Show information about the current configuration
608 * Show the source code version numbers
609 * Show the request headers.
610 * Show which actions apply to a URL and why
611 * Toggle Privoxy on or off
612 * Edit the actions list
618 This should be self-explanatory. Note the last item is an editor for the
619 <quote>actions list</quote>, which is where much of the ad, banner, cookie,
620 and URL blocking magic is configured as well as other advanced features of
621 <application>Privoxy</application>. This is an easy way to adjust various
622 aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. The actions
623 file, and other configuration files, are explained in detail below.
627 <quote>Toggle Privoxy On or Off</quote> is handy for sites that might
628 have problems with your current actions and filters. You can in fact use
629 it as a test to see whether it is <application>Privoxy</application>
630 causing the problem or not. <application>Privoxy</application> continues
631 to run as a proxy in this case, but all filtering is disabled. There
632 is even a toggle Bookmarklet offered, so that you can toggle
633 <application>Privoxy</application> with one click from your browser.
639 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
644 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
647 <title>Configuration Files Overview</title>
649 For Unix, *BSD and Linux, all configuration files are located in
650 <filename>/etc/privoxy/</filename> by default. For MS Windows, OS/2, and
651 AmigaOS these are all in the same directory as the
652 <application>Privoxy</application> executable. <![%p-not-stable;[ The name
653 and number of configuration files has changed from previous versions, and is
654 subject to change as development progresses.]]>
658 The installed defaults provide a reasonable starting point, though possibly
659 aggressive by some standards. For the time being, there are only three
660 default configuration files (this may change in time):
668 The main configuration file is named <filename>config</filename>
669 on Linux, Unix, BSD, OS/2, and AmigaOS and <filename>config.txt</filename>
676 <filename>default.action</filename> (the actions file) is used to define
677 which of a set of various <quote>actions</quote> relating to images, banners,
678 pop-ups, access restrictions, banners and cookies are to be applied where.
679 There is a web based editor for this file that can be accessed at <ulink
680 url="http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions/">http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions/</ulink>
681 (Shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/edit-actions/">http://p.p/edit-actions/</ulink>).
682 (Other actions files are included as well with differing levels of filtering
683 and blocking, e.g. <filename>basic.action</filename>.)
689 <filename>default.filter</filename> (the filter file) can be used to re-write the raw
690 page content, including viewable text as well as embedded HTML and JavaScript,
691 and whatever else lurks on any given web page. The filtering jobs are only
692 pre-defined here; whether to apply them or not is up to the actions file.
700 All files use the <quote><literal>#</literal></quote> character to denote a
701 comment (the rest of the line will be ignored) and understand line continuation
702 through placing a backslash ("<literal>\</literal>") as the very last character
703 in a line. If the <literal>#</literal> is preceded by a backslash, it looses
704 its special function. Placing a <literal>#</literal> in front of an otherwise
705 valid configuration line to prevent it from being interpreted is called "commenting
710 <filename>default.action</filename> and <filename>default.filter</filename>
711 can use Perl style regular expressions for maximum flexibility.
715 After making any changes, there is no need to restart
716 <application>Privoxy</application> in order for the changes to take
717 effect. <application>Privoxy</application> detects such changes
718 automatically. Note, however, that it may take one or two additional
719 requests for the change to take effect. When changing the listening address
720 of <application>Privoxy</application>, these <quote>wake up</quote> requests
721 must obviously be sent to the <emphasis>old</emphasis> listening address.
726 While under development, the configuration content is subject to change.
727 The below documentation may not be accurate by the time you read this.
728 Also, what constitutes a <quote>default</quote> setting, may change, so
729 please check all your configuration files on important issues.
735 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
738 <title>The Main Configuration File</title>
740 Again, the main configuration file is named <filename>config</filename> on
741 Linux/Unix/BSD and OS/2, and <filename>config.txt</filename> on Windows.
742 Configuration lines consist of an initial keyword followed by a list of
743 values, all separated by whitespace (any number of spaces or tabs). For
751 <emphasis>confdir /etc/privoxy</emphasis>
758 Assigns the value <literal>/etc/privoxy</literal> to the option
759 <literal>confdir</literal> and thus indicates that the configuration
760 directory is named <quote>/etc/privoxy/</quote>.
764 All options in the config file except for <literal>confdir</literal> and
765 <literal>logdir</literal> are optional. Watch out in the below description
766 for what happens if you leave them unset.
770 The main config file controls all aspects of <application>Privoxy</application>'s
771 operation that are not location dependent (i.e. they apply universally, no matter
772 where you may be surfing).
776 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
779 <title>Configuration and Log File Locations</title>
782 <application>Privoxy</application> can (and normally does) use a number of
783 other files for additional configuration and logging.
784 This section of the configuration file tells <application>Privoxy</application>
785 where to find those other files.
789 <sect4><title>confdir</title>
793 <term>Specifies:</term>
795 <para>The directory where the other configuration files are located</para>
799 <term>Type of value:</term>
801 <para>Path name</para>
805 <term>Default value:</term>
807 <para>/etc/privoxy (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> <application>Privoxy</application> installation dir (Windows) </para>
811 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
813 <para><emphasis>Mandatory</emphasis></para>
820 No trailing <quote><literal>/</literal></quote>, please
823 When development goes modular and multi-user, the blocker, filter, and
824 per-user config will be stored in subdirectories of <quote>confdir</quote>.
825 For now, the configuration directory structure is flat, except for
826 <filename>confdir/templates</filename>, where the HTML templates for CGI
827 output reside (e.g. <application>Privoxy's</application> 404 error page).
835 <sect4><title>logdir</title>
839 <term>Specifies:</term>
842 The directory where all logging takes place (i.e. where <filename>logfile</filename> and
843 <filename>jarfile</filename> are located)
848 <term>Type of value:</term>
850 <para>Path name</para>
854 <term>Default value:</term>
856 <para>/var/log/privoxy (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> <application>Privoxy</application> installation dir (Windows) </para>
860 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
862 <para><emphasis>Mandatory</emphasis></para>
869 No trailing <quote><literal>/</literal></quote>, please
876 <sect4><title>actionsfile</title>
880 <term>Specifies:</term>
883 The actions file to use
888 <term>Type of value:</term>
890 <para>File name, relative to <literal>confdir</literal></para>
894 <term>Default value:</term>
896 <para>default.action (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> default.action.txt (Windows)</para>
900 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
903 No action is taken at all. Simple neutral proxying.
911 There is no point in using <application>Privoxy</application> without
912 an actions file. There are three different actions files included in the
913 distribution, with varying degrees of aggressiveness:
914 <filename>default.action</filename>, <filename>intermediate.action</filename> and
915 <filename>advanced.action</filename>.
922 <sect4><title>filterfile</title>
926 <term>Specifies:</term>
929 The filter file to use
934 <term>Type of value:</term>
936 <para>File name, relative to <literal>confdir</literal></para>
940 <term>Default value:</term>
942 <para>default.filter (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> default.filter.txt (Windows)</para>
946 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
949 No textual content filtering takes place, i.e. all
950 <literal>+filter{<replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable>}</literal>
951 actions in the actions file are turned off
959 The <quote>default.filter</quote> file contains content modification rules
960 that use <quote>regular expressions</quote>. These rules permit powerful
961 changes on the content of Web pages, e.g., you could disable your favorite
962 JavaScript annoyances, re-write the actual displayed text, or just have some
963 fun replacing <quote>Microsoft</quote> with <quote>MicroSuck</quote> wherever
964 it appears on a Web page.
971 <sect4><title>logfile</title>
975 <term>Specifies:</term>
983 <term>Type of value:</term>
985 <para>File name, relative to <literal>logdir</literal></para>
989 <term>Default value:</term>
991 <para>logfile (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> privoxy.log (Windows)</para>
995 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
998 No log file is used, all log messages go to the console (<literal>stderr</literal>).
1006 The windows version will additionally log to the console.
1009 The logfile is where all logging and error messages are written. The level
1010 of detail and number of messages are set with the <literal>debug</literal>
1011 option (see below). The logfile can be useful for tracking down a problem with
1012 <application>Privoxy</application> (e.g., it's not blocking an ad you
1013 think it should block) but in most cases you probably will never look at it.
1016 Your logfile will grow indefinitely, and you will probably want to
1017 periodically remove it. On Unix systems, you can do this with a cron job
1018 (see <quote>man cron</quote>). For Redhat, a <command>logrotate</command>
1019 script has been included.
1022 On SuSE Linux systems, you can place a line like <quote>/var/log/privoxy.*
1023 +1024k 644 nobody.nogroup</quote> in <filename>/etc/logfiles</filename>, with
1024 the effect that cron.daily will automatically archive, gzip, and empty the
1025 log, when it exceeds 1M size.
1032 <sect4><title>jarfile</title>
1036 <term>Specifies:</term>
1039 The file to store intercepted cookies in
1044 <term>Type of value:</term>
1046 <para>File name, relative to <literal>logdir</literal></para>
1050 <term>Default value:</term>
1052 <para>jarfile (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> privoxy.jar (Windows)</para>
1056 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1059 Intercepted cookies are not stored at all.
1067 The jarfile may grow to ridiculous sizes over time.
1074 <sect4><title>trustfile</title>
1078 <term>Specifies:</term>
1081 The trust file to use
1086 <term>Type of value:</term>
1088 <para>File name, relative to <literal>confdir</literal></para>
1092 <term>Default value:</term>
1094 <para><emphasis>Unset (commented out)</emphasis>. When activated: trust (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> trust.txt (Windows)</para>
1098 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1101 The whole trust mechanism is turned off.
1109 The trust mechanism is an experimental feature for building white-lists and should
1110 be used with care. It is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> recommended for the casual user.
1113 If you specify a trust file, <application>Privoxy</application> will only allow
1114 access to sites that are named in the trustfile.
1115 You can also mark sites as trusted referrers (with <literal>+</literal>), with
1116 the effect that access to untrusted sites will be granted, if a link from a
1117 trusted referrer was used.
1118 The link target will then be added to the <quote>trustfile</quote>.
1119 Possible applications include limiting Internet access for children.
1122 If you use <literal>+</literal> operator in the trust file, it may grow considerably over time.
1131 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1135 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1138 <title>Local Set-up Documentation</title>
1141 If you intend to operate <application>Privoxy</application> for more users
1142 that just yourself, it might be a good idea to let them know how to reach
1143 you, what you block and why you do that, your policies etc.
1146 <sect4><title>trust-info-url</title>
1150 <term>Specifies:</term>
1153 A URL to be displayed in the error page that users will see if access to an untrusted page is denied.
1158 <term>Type of value:</term>
1164 <term>Default value:</term>
1166 <para>Two example URL are provided</para>
1170 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1173 No links are displayed on the "untrusted" error page.
1181 The value of this option only matters if the experimental trust mechanism has been
1182 activated. (See <literal>trustfile</literal> above.)
1185 If you use the trust mechanism, it is a good idea to write up some on-line
1186 documentation about your trust policy and to specify the URL(s) here.
1187 Use multiple times for multiple URLs.
1190 The URL(s) should be added to the trustfile as well, so users don't end up
1191 locked out from the information on why they were locked out in the first place!
1198 <sect4><title>admin-address</title>
1202 <term>Specifies:</term>
1205 An email address to reach the proxy administrator.
1210 <term>Type of value:</term>
1212 <para>Email address</para>
1216 <term>Default value:</term>
1218 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
1222 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1225 No email address is displayed on error pages and the CGI user interface.
1233 If both <literal>admin-address</literal> and <literal>proxy-info-url</literal>
1234 are unset, the whole "Local Privoxy Support" box on all generated pages will
1242 <sect4><title>proxy-info-url</title>
1246 <term>Specifies:</term>
1249 A URL to documentation about the local <application>Privoxy</application> setup,
1250 configuration or policies.
1255 <term>Type of value:</term>
1261 <term>Default value:</term>
1263 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
1267 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1270 No link to local documentation is displayed on error pages and the CGI user interface.
1278 If both <literal>admin-address</literal> and <literal>proxy-info-url</literal>
1279 are unset, the whole "Local Privoxy Support" box on all generated pages will
1283 This URL shouldn't be blocked ;-)
1291 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1293 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1296 <title>Debugging</title>
1299 These options are mainly useful when tracing a problem.
1300 Note that you might also want to invoke
1301 <application>Privoxy</application> with the <literal>--no-daemon</literal>
1302 command line option when debugging.
1305 <sect4><title>debug</title>
1309 <term>Specifies:</term>
1312 Key values that determine what information gets logged.
1317 <term>Type of value:</term>
1319 <para>Integer values</para>
1323 <term>Default value:</term>
1325 <para>12289 (i.e.: URLs plus informational and warning messages)</para>
1329 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1332 Nothing gets logged.
1340 The available debug levels are:
1344 debug 1 # show each GET/POST/CONNECT request
1345 debug 2 # show each connection status
1346 debug 4 # show I/O status
1347 debug 8 # show header parsing
1348 debug 16 # log all data into the logfile
1349 debug 32 # debug force feature
1350 debug 64 # debug regular expression filter
1351 debug 128 # debug fast redirects
1352 debug 256 # debug GIF de-animation
1353 debug 512 # Common Log Format
1354 debug 1024 # debug kill pop-ups
1355 debug 4096 # Startup banner and warnings.
1356 debug 8192 # Non-fatal errors
1360 To select multiple debug levels, you can either add them or use
1361 multiple <literal>debug</literal> lines.
1364 A debug level of 1 is informative because it will show you each request
1365 as it happens. <emphasis>1, 4096 and 8192 are highly recommended</emphasis>
1366 so that you will notice when things go wrong. The other levels are probably
1367 only of interest if you are hunting down a specific problem. They can produce
1368 a hell of an output (especially 16).
1372 The reporting of <emphasis>fatal</emphasis> errors (i.e. ones which crash
1373 <application>Privoxy</application>) is always on and cannot be disabled.
1376 If you want to use CLF (Common Log Format), you should set <quote>debug
1377 512</quote> <emphasis>ONLY</emphasis> and not enable anything else.
1384 <sect4><title>single-threaded</title>
1388 <term>Specifies:</term>
1391 Whether to run only one server thread
1396 <term>Type of value:</term>
1398 <para><emphasis>None</emphasis></para>
1402 <term>Default value:</term>
1404 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
1408 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1411 Multi-threaded (or, where unavailable: forked) operation, i.e. the ability to
1412 serve multiple requests simultaneously.
1420 This option is only there for debug purposes and you should never
1421 need to use it. <emphasis>It will drastically reduce performance.</emphasis>
1430 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1433 <title>Access Control and Security</title>
1436 This section of the config file controls the security-relevant aspects
1437 of <application>Privoxy</application>'s configuration.
1440 <sect4><title>listen-address</title>
1444 <term>Specifies:</term>
1447 The IP address and TCP port on which <application>Privoxy</application> will
1448 listen for client requests.
1453 <term>Type of value:</term>
1455 <para>[<replaceable class="parameter">IP-Address</replaceable>]:<replaceable class="parameter">Port</replaceable></para>
1459 <term>Default value:</term>
1461 <para>localhost:8118</para>
1465 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1468 Bind to localhost (127.0.0.1), port 8118. This is suitable and recommended for
1469 home users who run <application>Privoxy</application> on the same machine as
1478 You will need to configure your browser(s) to this proxy address and port.
1481 If you already have another service running on port 8118, or if you want to
1482 serve requests from other machines (e.g. on your local network) as well, you
1483 will need to override the default.
1486 If you leave out the IP address, <application>Privoxy</application> will
1487 bind to all interfaces (addresses) on your machine and may become reachable
1488 from the Internet. In that case, consider using access control lists (acl's)
1489 (see <quote>ACLs</quote> below), or a firewall.
1494 <term>Example:</term>
1497 Suppose you are running <application>Privoxy</application> on
1498 a machine which has the address 192.168.0.1 on your local private network
1499 (192.168.0.0) and has another outside connection with a different address.
1500 You want it to serve requests from inside only:
1504 listen-address 192.168.0.1:8118
1512 <sect4><title>toggle</title>
1516 <term>Specifies:</term>
1519 Initial state of "toggle" status
1524 <term>Type of value:</term>
1530 <term>Default value:</term>
1536 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1539 Act as if toggled on
1547 If set to 0, <application>Privoxy</application> will start in
1548 <quote>toggled off</quote> mode, i.e. behave like a normal, content-neutral
1549 proxy. See <literal>enable-remote-toggle</literal>
1550 below. This is not really useful anymore, since toggling is much easier
1551 via <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">the web
1552 interface</ulink> then via editing the <filename>conf</filename> file.
1555 The windows version will only display the toggle icon in the system tray
1556 if this option is present.
1564 <sect4><title>enable-remote-toggle</title>
1567 <term>Specifies:</term>
1570 Whether or not the <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">web-based toggle
1571 feature</ulink> may be used
1576 <term>Type of value:</term>
1582 <term>Default value:</term>
1588 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1591 The web-based toggle feature is disabled.
1599 When toggled off, <application>Privoxy</application> acts like a normal,
1600 content-neutral proxy, i.e. it acts as if none of the actions applied to
1604 For the time being, access to the toggle feature can <emphasis>not</emphasis> be
1605 controlled separately by <quote>ACLs</quote> or HTTP authentication,
1606 so that everybody who can access <application>Privoxy</application> (see
1607 <quote>ACLs</quote> and <literal>listen-address</literal> above) can
1608 toggle it for all users. So this option is <emphasis>not recommended</emphasis>
1609 for multi-user environments with untrusted users.
1612 Note that you must have compiled <application>Privoxy</application> with
1613 support for this feature, otherwise this option has no effect.
1621 <sect4><title>enable-edit-actions</title>
1624 <term>Specifies:</term>
1627 Whether or not the <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions">web-based actions
1628 file editor</ulink> may be used
1633 <term>Type of value:</term>
1639 <term>Default value:</term>
1645 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1648 The web-based actions file editor is disabled.
1656 For the time being, access to the editor can <emphasis>not</emphasis> be
1657 controlled separately by <quote>ACLs</quote> or HTTP authentication,
1658 so that everybody who can access <application>Privoxy</application> (see
1659 <quote>ACLs</quote> and <literal>listen-address</literal> above) can
1660 modify its configuration for all users. So this option is <emphasis>not
1661 recommended</emphasis> for multi-user environments with untrusted users.
1664 Note that you must have compiled <application>Privoxy</application> with
1665 support for this feature, otherwise this option has no effect.
1672 <sect4><title>ACLs: permit-access and deny-access</title>
1675 <term>Specifies:</term>
1678 Who can access what.
1683 <term>Type of value:</term>
1686 <replaceable class="parameter">src_addr</replaceable>[/<replaceable class="parameter">src_masklen</replaceable>]
1687 [<replaceable class="parameter">dst_addr</replaceable>[/<replaceable class="parameter">dst_masklen</replaceable>]]
1690 Where <replaceable class="parameter">src_addr</replaceable> and
1691 <replaceable class="parameter">dst_addr</replaceable> are IP addresses in dotted decimal notation or valid
1692 DNS names, and <replaceable class="parameter">src_masklen</replaceable> and
1693 <replaceable class="parameter">dst_masklen</replaceable> are subnet masks in CIDR notation, i.e. integer
1694 values from 2 to 30 representing the length (in bits) of the network address. The masks and the whole
1695 destination part are optional.
1700 <term>Default value:</term>
1702 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
1706 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1709 Don't restrict access further than implied by <literal>listen-address</literal>
1717 Access controls are included at the request of ISPs and systems
1718 administrators, and <emphasis>are not usually needed by individual users</emphasis>.
1719 For a typical home user, it will normally suffice to ensure that
1720 <application>Privoxy</application> only listens on the localhost or internal (home)
1721 network address by means of the <literal>listen-address</literal> option.
1724 Please see the warnings in the FAQ that this proxy is not intended to be a substitute
1725 for a firewall or to encourage anyone to defer addressing basic security
1729 Multiple ACL lines are OK.
1730 If any ACLs are specified, then the <application>Privoxy</application>
1731 talks only to IP addresses that match at least one <literal>permit-access</literal> line
1732 and don't match any subsequent <literal>deny-access</literal> line. In other words, the
1733 last match wins, with the default being <literal>deny-access</literal>.
1736 If <application>Privoxy</application> is using a forwarder (see <literal>forward</literal> below)
1737 for a particular destination URL, the <replaceable class="parameter">dst_addr</replaceable>
1738 that is examined is the address of the forwarder and <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> the address
1739 of the ultimate target. This is necessary because it may be impossible for the local
1740 <application>Privoxy</application> to determine the IP address of the
1741 ultimate target (that's often what gateways are used for).
1744 You should prefer using IP addresses over DNS names, because the address lookups take
1745 time. All DNS names must resolve! You can <emphasis>not</emphasis> use domain patterns
1746 like <quote>*.org</quote> or partial domain names. If a DNS name resolves to multiple
1747 IP addresses, only the first one is used.
1750 Denying access to particular sites by ACL may have undesired side effects
1751 if the site in question is hosted on a machine which also hosts other sites.
1756 <term>Examples:</term>
1759 Explicitly define the default behavior if no ACL and
1760 <literal>listen-address</literal> are set: <quote>localhost</quote>
1761 is OK. The absence of a <replaceable class="parameter">dst_addr</replaceable> implies that
1762 <emphasis>all</emphasis> destination addresses are OK:
1766 permit-access localhost
1770 Allow any host on the same class C subnet as www.privoxy.org access to
1771 nothing but www.example.com:
1775 permit-access www.privoxy.org/24 www.example.com/32
1779 Allow access from any host on the 26-bit subnet 192.168.45.64 to anywhere,
1780 with the exception that 192.168.45.73 may not access www.dirty-stuff.example.com:
1784 permit-access 192.168.45.64/26
1785 deny-access 192.168.45.73 www.dirty-stuff.example.com
1793 <sect4><title>buffer-limit</title>
1797 <term>Specifies:</term>
1800 Maximum size of the buffer for content filtering.
1805 <term>Type of value:</term>
1807 <para>Size in Kbytes</para>
1811 <term>Default value:</term>
1817 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1820 Use a 4MB (4096 KB) limit.
1828 For content filtering, i.e. the <literal>+filter</literal> and
1829 <literal>+deanimate-gif</literal> actions, it is necessary that
1830 <application>Privoxy</application> buffers the entire document body.
1831 This can be potentially dangerous, since a server could just keep sending
1832 data indefinitely and wait for your RAM to exhaust -- with nasty consequences.
1836 When a document buffer size reaches the <literal>buffer-limit</literal>, it is
1837 flushed to the client unfiltered and no further attempt to
1838 filter the rest of the document is made. Remember that there may be multiple threads
1839 running, which might require up to <literal>buffer-limit</literal> Kbytes
1840 <emphasis>each</emphasis>, unless you have enabled <quote>single-threaded</quote>
1850 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1853 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1855 <sect3 id="forwarding">
1856 <title>Forwarding</title>
1859 This feature allows routing of HTTP requests through a chain of
1861 It can be used to better protect privacy and confidentiality when
1862 accessing specific domains by routing requests to those domains
1863 through an anonymous public proxy (see e.g. <ulink
1864 url="http://www.multiproxy.org/anon_list.htm">http://www.multiproxy.org/anon_list.htm</ulink>)
1865 Or to use a caching proxy to speed up browsing. Or chaining to a parent
1866 proxy may be necessary because the machine that <application>Privoxy</application>
1867 runs on has no direct Internet access.
1871 Also specified here are SOCKS proxies. <application>Privoxy</application>
1872 supports the SOCKS 4 and SOCKS 4A protocols.
1875 <sect4><title>forward</title>
1878 <term>Specifies:</term>
1881 To which parent HTTP proxy specific requests should be routed.
1886 <term>Type of value:</term>
1889 <replaceable class="parameter">target_domain</replaceable>[:<replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable>]
1890 <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable>[/<replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable>]
1893 Where <replaceable class="parameter">target_domain</replaceable> is a domain name pattern (see the
1894 chapter on domain matching in the actions file),
1895 <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable> is the address of the parent HTTP proxy
1896 as an IP addresses in dotted decimal notation or as a valid DNS name (or <quote>.</quote> to denote
1897 <quote>no forwarding</quote>, and the optional
1898 <replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable> parameters are TCP ports, i.e. integer
1899 values from 1 to 64535
1904 <term>Default value:</term>
1906 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
1910 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1913 Don't use parent HTTP proxies.
1921 If <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable> is <quote>.</quote>, then requests are not
1922 forwarded to another HTTP proxy but are made directly to the web servers.
1925 Multiple lines are OK, they are checked in sequence, and the last match wins.
1930 <term>Examples:</term>
1933 Everything goes to an example anonymizing proxy, except SSL on port 443 (which it doesn't handle):
1937 forward .* anon-proxy.example.org:8080
1942 Everything goes to our example ISP's caching proxy, except for requests
1943 to that ISP's sites:
1947 forward .*. caching-proxy.example-isp.net:8000
1948 forward .example-isp.net .
1956 <sect4><title>forward-socks4 and forward-socks4a</title>
1959 <term>Specifies:</term>
1962 Through which SOCKS proxy (and to which parent HTTP proxy) specific requests should be routed.
1967 <term>Type of value:</term>
1970 <replaceable class="parameter">target_domain</replaceable>[:<replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable>]
1971 <replaceable class="parameter">socks_proxy</replaceable>[/<replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable>]
1972 <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable>[/<replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable>]
1975 Where <replaceable class="parameter">target_domain</replaceable> is a domain name pattern (see the
1976 chapter on domain matching in the actions file),
1977 <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable> and <replaceable class="parameter">socks_proxy</replaceable>
1978 are IP addresses in dotted decimal notation or valid DNS names (<replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable>
1979 may be <quote>.</quote> to denote <quote>no HTTP forwarding</quote>), and the optional
1980 <replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable> parameters are TCP ports, i.e. integer values from 1 to 64535
1985 <term>Default value:</term>
1987 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
1991 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1994 Don't use SOCKS proxies.
2002 Multiple lines are OK, they are checked in sequence, and the last match wins.
2005 The difference between <literal>forward-socks4</literal> and <literal>forward-socks4a</literal>
2006 is that in the SOCKS 4A protocol, the DNS resolution of the target hostname happens on the SOCKS
2007 server, while in SOCKS 4 it happens locally.
2010 If <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable> is <quote>.</quote>, then requests are not
2011 forwarded to another HTTP proxy but are made (HTTP-wise) directly to the web servers, albeit through
2017 <term>Examples:</term>
2020 From the company example.com, direct connections are made to all
2021 <quote>internal</quote> domains, but everything outbound goes through
2022 their ISP's proxy by way of example.com's corporate SOCKS 4A gateway to
2027 forward-socks4a .*. socks-gw.example.com:1080 www-cache.example-isp.net:8080
2028 forward .example.com .
2032 A rule that uses a SOCKS 4 gateway for all destinations but no HTTP parent looks like this:
2036 forward-socks4 .*. socks-gw.example.com:1080 .
2044 <sect4><title>Advanced Forwarding Examples</title>
2047 If you have links to multiple ISPs that provide various special content
2048 only to their subscribers, you can configure multiple <application>Privoxies</application>
2049 which have connections to the respective ISPs to act as forwarders to each other, so that
2050 <emphasis>your</emphasis> users can see the internal content of all ISPs.
2054 Assume that host-a has a PPP connection to isp-a.net. And host-b has a PPP connection to
2055 isp-b.net. Both run <application>Privoxy</application>. Their forwarding
2056 configuration can look like this:
2066 forward .isp-b.net host-b:8118
2077 forward .isp-a.net host-a:8118
2082 Now, your users can set their browser's proxy to use either
2083 host-a or host-b and be able to browse the internal content
2084 of both isp-a and isp-b.
2088 If you intend to chain <application>Privoxy</application> and
2089 <application>squid</application> locally, then chain as
2090 <literal>browser -> squid -> privoxy</literal> is the recommended way.
2094 Assuming that <application>Privoxy</application> and <application>squid</application>
2095 run on the same box, your squid configuration could then look like this:
2100 # Define Privoxy as parent proxy (without ICP)
2101 cache_peer 127.0.0.1 parent 8118 7 no-query
2103 # Define ACL for protocol FTP
2106 # Do not forward FTP requests to Privoxy
2107 always_direct allow ftp
2109 # Forward all the rest to Privoxy
2110 never_direct allow all
2115 You would then need to change your browser's proxy settings to <application>squid</application>'s address and port.
2116 Squid normally uses port 3128. If unsure consult <literal>http_port</literal> in <filename>squid.conf</filename>.
2123 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2126 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2129 <title>Windows GUI Options</title>
2131 Removed references to Win32. HB 09/23/01
2134 <application>Privoxy</application> has a number of options specific to the
2135 Windows GUI interface:
2139 If <quote>activity-animation</quote> is set to 1, the
2140 <application>Privoxy</application> icon will animate when
2141 <quote>Privoxy</quote> is active. To turn off, set to 0.
2148 <emphasis>activity-animation 1</emphasis>
2155 If <quote>log-messages</quote> is set to 1,
2156 <application>Privoxy</application> will log messages to the console
2164 <emphasis>log-messages 1</emphasis>
2171 If <quote>log-buffer-size</quote> is set to 1, the size of the log buffer,
2172 i.e. the amount of memory used for the log messages displayed in the
2173 console window, will be limited to <quote>log-max-lines</quote> (see below).
2177 Warning: Setting this to 0 will result in the buffer to grow infinitely and
2178 eat up all your memory!
2185 <emphasis>log-buffer-size 1</emphasis>
2192 <application>log-max-lines</application> is the maximum number of lines held
2193 in the log buffer. See above.
2200 <emphasis>log-max-lines 200</emphasis>
2207 If <quote>log-highlight-messages</quote> is set to 1,
2208 <application>Privoxy</application> will highlight portions of the log
2209 messages with a bold-faced font:
2216 <emphasis>log-highlight-messages 1</emphasis>
2223 The font used in the console window:
2230 <emphasis>log-font-name Comic Sans MS</emphasis>
2237 Font size used in the console window:
2244 <emphasis>log-font-size 8</emphasis>
2251 <quote>show-on-task-bar</quote> controls whether or not
2252 <application>Privoxy</application> will appear as a button on the Task bar
2260 <emphasis>show-on-task-bar 0</emphasis>
2267 If <quote>close-button-minimizes</quote> is set to 1, the Windows close
2268 button will minimize <application>Privoxy</application> instead of closing
2269 the program (close with the exit option on the File menu).
2276 <emphasis>close-button-minimizes 1</emphasis>
2283 The <quote>hide-console</quote> option is specific to the MS-Win console
2284 version of <application>Privoxy</application>. If this option is used,
2285 <application>Privoxy</application> will disconnect from and hide the
2302 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2305 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2306 <sect2 id="actionsfile">
2307 <title>The Actions File</title>
2310 The actions file (<filename>default.action</filename>, formerly:
2311 <filename>actionsfile</filename> or <filename>ijb.action</filename>) is used
2312 to define what actions <application>Privoxy</application> takes for which
2313 URLs, and thus determines how ad images, cookies and various other aspects
2314 of HTTP content and transactions are handled on which sites (or even parts
2319 Anything you want can blocked, including ads, banners, or just some obnoxious
2320 URL that you would rather not see. Cookies can be accepted or rejected, or
2321 accepted only during the current browser session (i.e. not written to disk),
2322 content can be modified, JavaScripts tamed, user-tracking fooled, and much more.
2323 See below for a complete list of available actions.
2326 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2328 <title>Finding the Right Mix</title>
2330 Note that some actions like cookie suppression or script disabling may
2331 render some sites unusable, which rely on these techniques to work properly.
2332 Finding the right mix of actions is not easy and certainly a matter of personal
2333 taste. In general, it can be said that the more <quote>aggressive</quote>
2334 your default settings (in the top section of the actions file) are,
2335 the more exceptions for <quote>trusted</quote> sites you will have to
2336 make later. If, for example, you want to kill popup windows per default, you'll
2337 have to make exceptions from that rule for sites that you regularly use
2338 and that require popups for actually useful content, like maybe your bank,
2339 favorite shop, or newspaper.
2343 We have tried to provide you with reasonable rules to start from in the
2344 distribution actions file. But there is no general rule of thumb on these
2345 things. There just are too many variables, and sites are constantly changing.
2346 Sooner or later you will want to change the rules (and read this chapter).
2350 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2352 <title>How to Edit</title>
2354 The easiest way to edit the <quote>actions</quote> file is with a browser by
2355 using our browser-based editor, which is available at <ulink
2356 url="http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions">http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions</ulink>.
2360 If you prefer plain text editing to GUIs, you can of course also directly edit the
2361 <filename>default.action</filename> file.
2367 <title>How Actions are Applied to URLs</title>
2369 The actions file is divided into sections. There are special sections,
2370 like the alias sections which will be discussed later. For now let's
2371 concentrate on regular sections: They have a heading line (often split
2372 up to multiple lines for readability) which consist of a list of actions,
2373 separated by whitespace and enclosed in curly braces. Below that, there
2374 is a list of URL patterns, each on a separate line.
2378 To determine which actions apply to a request, the URL of the request is
2379 compared to all patterns in this file. Every time it matches, the list of
2380 applicable actions for the URL is incrementally updated, using the heading
2381 of the section in which the pattern is located. If multiple matches for
2382 the same URL set the same action differently, the last match wins.
2386 You can trace this process by visiting <ulink
2387 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>.
2391 More detail on this is provided in the Appendix, <link linkend="ACTIONSANAT">
2392 Anatomy of an Action</link>.
2396 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2398 <title>Patterns</title>
2400 Generally, a pattern has the form <literal><domain>/<path></literal>,
2401 where both the <literal><domain></literal> and <literal><path></literal>
2402 are optional. (This is why the pattern <literal>/</literal> matches all URLs).
2407 <term><literal>www.example.com/</literal></term>
2410 is a domain-only pattern and will match any request to <literal>www.example.com</literal>,
2411 regardless of which document on that server is requested.
2416 <term><literal>www.example.com</literal></term>
2419 means exactly the same. For domain-only patterns, the trailing <literal>/</literal> may
2425 <term><literal>www.example.com/index.html</literal></term>
2428 matches only the single document <literal>/index.html</literal>
2429 on <literal>www.example.com</literal>.
2434 <term><literal>/index.html</literal></term>
2437 matches the document <literal>/index.html</literal>, regardless of the domain,
2438 i.e. on <emphasis>any</emphasis> web server.
2443 <term><literal>index.html</literal></term>
2446 matches nothing, since it would be interpreted as a domain name and
2447 there is no top-level domain called <literal>.html</literal>.
2453 <sect4><title>The Domain Pattern</title>
2456 The matching of the domain part offers some flexible options: if the
2457 domain starts or ends with a dot, it becomes unanchored at that end.
2463 <term><literal>.example.com</literal></term>
2466 matches any domain that <emphasis>ENDS</emphasis> in
2467 <literal>.example.com</literal>
2472 <term><literal>www.</literal></term>
2475 matches any domain that <emphasis>STARTS</emphasis> with
2476 <literal>www.</literal>
2481 <term><literal>.example.</literal></term>
2484 matches any domain that <emphasis>CONTAINS</emphasis> <literal>.example.</literal>
2485 (Correctly speaking: It matches any FQDN that contains <literal>example</literal> as a domain.)
2492 Additionally, there are wild-cards that you can use in the domain names
2493 themselves. They work pretty similar to shell wild-cards: <quote>*</quote>
2494 stands for zero or more arbitrary characters, <quote>?</quote> stands for
2495 any single character, you can define character classes in square
2496 brackets and all of that can be freely mixed:
2501 <term><literal>ad*.example.com</literal></term>
2504 matches <quote>adserver.example.com</quote>,
2505 <quote>ads.example.com</quote>, etc but not <quote>sfads.example.com</quote>
2510 <term><literal>*ad*.example.com</literal></term>
2513 matches all of the above, and then some.
2518 <term><literal>.?pix.com</literal></term>
2521 matches <literal>www.ipix.com</literal>,
2522 <literal>pictures.epix.com</literal>, <literal>a.b.c.d.e.upix.com</literal> etc.
2527 <term><literal>www[1-9a-ez].example.c*</literal></term>
2530 matches <literal>www1.example.com</literal>,
2531 <literal>www4.example.cc</literal>, <literal>wwwd.example.cy</literal>,
2532 <literal>wwwz.example.com</literal> etc., but <emphasis>not</emphasis>
2533 <literal>wwww.example.com</literal>.
2541 <sect4><title>The Path Pattern</title>
2544 <application>Privoxy</application> uses Perl compatible regular expressions
2545 (through the <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/">PCRE</ulink> library) for
2550 There is an <link linkend="regex">Appendix</link> with a brief quick-start into regular
2551 expressions, and full (very technical) documentation on PCRE regex syntax is available on-line
2552 at <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/man.txt">http://www.pcre.org/man.txt</ulink>.
2553 You might also find the Perl man page on regular expressions (<literal>man perlre</literal>)
2554 useful, which is available on-line at <ulink
2555 url="http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html">http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html</ulink>.
2559 Note that the path pattern is automatically left-anchored at the <quote>/</quote>,
2560 i.e. it matches as if it would start with a <quote>^</quote>.
2564 Please also note that matching in the path is case
2565 <emphasis>INSENSITIVE</emphasis> by default, but you can switch to case
2566 sensitive at any point in the pattern by using the
2567 <quote>(?-i)</quote> switch:
2568 <literal>www.example.com/(?-i)PaTtErN.*</literal> will match only
2569 documents whose path starts with <literal>PaTtErN</literal> in
2570 <emphasis>exactly</emphasis> this capitalization.
2576 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2580 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2583 <title>Actions</title>
2585 Actions are enabled if preceded with a <quote>+</quote>, and disabled if
2586 preceded with a <quote>-</quote>. Actions are invoked by enclosing the
2587 action name in curly braces (e.g. {+some_action}), followed by a list of
2588 URLs to which the action applies. There are three classes of actions:
2596 Boolean (e.g. <quote>+/-block</quote>):
2602 <emphasis>{+name}</emphasis> # enable this action
2603 <emphasis>{-name}</emphasis> # disable this action
2613 parameterized (e.g. <quote>+/-hide-user-agent</quote>):
2619 <emphasis>{+name{param}}</emphasis> # enable action and set parameter to <quote>param</quote>
2620 <emphasis>{-name}</emphasis> # disable action
2629 Multi-value (e.g. <quote>{+/-add-header{Name: value}}</quote>, <quote>{+/-wafer{name=value}}</quote>):
2635 <emphasis>{+name{param}}</emphasis> # enable action and add parameter <quote>param</quote>
2636 <emphasis>{-name{param}}</emphasis> # remove the parameter <quote>param</quote>
2637 <emphasis>{-name}</emphasis> # disable this action totally
2648 If nothing is specified in this file, no <quote>actions</quote> are taken.
2649 So in this case <application>Privoxy</application> would just be a
2650 normal, non-blocking, non-anonymizing proxy. You must specifically
2651 enable the privacy and blocking features you need (although the
2652 provided default <filename>default.action</filename> file will
2653 give a good starting point).
2657 Later defined actions always over-ride earlier ones. So exceptions
2658 to any rules you make, should come in the latter part of the file. For
2659 multi-valued actions, the actions are applied in the order they are
2664 The list of valid <application>Privoxy</application> <quote>actions</quote> are:
2672 Add the specified HTTP header, which is not checked for validity.
2673 You may specify this many times to specify many different headers:
2679 <emphasis>+add-header{Name: value}</emphasis>
2689 Block this URL totally. In a default installation, a <quote>blocked</quote>
2690 URL will result in bright red banner that says <quote>BLOCKED</quote>,
2691 with a reason why it is being blocked, and an option to see it anyway.
2692 The page displayed for this is the <quote>blocked</quote> template
2699 <emphasis>+block</emphasis>
2709 De-animate all animated GIF images, i.e. reduce them to their last frame.
2710 This will also shrink the images considerably (in bytes, not pixels!). If
2711 the option <quote>first</quote> is given, the first frame of the animation
2712 is used as the replacement. If <quote>last</quote> is given, the last frame
2713 of the animation is used instead, which probably makes more sense for most
2714 banner animations, but also has the risk of not showing the entire last
2715 frame (if it is only a delta to an earlier frame).
2721 <emphasis>+deanimate-gifs{last}</emphasis>
2722 <emphasis>+deanimate-gifs{first}</emphasis>
2731 <quote>+downgrade</quote> will downgrade HTTP/1.1 client requests to
2732 HTTP/1.0 and downgrade the responses as well. Use this action for servers
2733 that use HTTP/1.1 protocol features that
2734 <application>Privoxy</application> doesn't handle well yet. HTTP/1.1
2735 is only partially implemented. Default is not to downgrade requests.
2741 <emphasis>+downgrade</emphasis>
2750 Many sites, like yahoo.com, don't just link to other sites. Instead, they
2751 will link to some script on their own server, giving the destination as a
2752 parameter, which will then redirect you to the final target. URLs resulting
2753 from this scheme typically look like:
2754 <emphasis>http://some.place/some_script?http://some.where-else</emphasis>.
2757 Sometimes, there are even multiple consecutive redirects encoded in the
2758 URL. These redirections via scripts make your web browsing more traceable,
2759 since the server from which you follow such a link can see where you go to.
2760 Apart from that, valuable bandwidth and time is wasted, while your browser
2761 ask the server for one redirect after the other. Plus, it feeds the
2765 The <quote>+fast-redirects</quote> option enables interception of these
2766 types of requests by <application>Privoxy</application>, who will cut off
2767 all but the last valid URL in the request and send a local redirect back to
2768 your browser without contacting the intermediate site(s).
2774 <emphasis>+fast-redirects</emphasis>
2783 Apply the filters in the <literal>section_header</literal>
2784 section of the <filename>default.filter</filename> file to the site(s).
2785 <filename>default.filter</filename> sections are grouped according to like
2786 functionality. <application>Filters</application> can be used to
2787 re-write any of the raw page content. This is a potentially a
2788 very powerful feature!
2795 <emphasis>+filter{section_header}</emphasis>
2802 Filter sections that are pre-defined in the supplied
2803 <filename>default.filter</filename> include:
2809 <emphasis>html-annoyances</emphasis>: Get rid of particularly annoying HTML abuse.
2814 <emphasis>js-annoyances</emphasis>: Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse
2819 <emphasis>content-cookies</emphasis>: Kill cookies that come in the HTML or JS content
2824 <emphasis>popups</emphasis>: Kill all popups in JS and HTML
2829 <emphasis>frameset-borders</emphasis>: Give frames a border and make them resizable
2834 <emphasis>webbugs</emphasis>: Squish WebBugs (1x1 invisible GIFs used for user tracking)
2839 <emphasis>refresh-tags</emphasis>: Kill automatic refresh tags (for dial-on-demand setups)
2844 <emphasis>fun</emphasis>: Text replacements for subversive browsing fun!
2849 <emphasis>nimda</emphasis>: Remove Nimda (virus) code.
2854 <emphasis>banners-by-size</emphasis>: Kill banners by size (<emphasis>very</emphasis> efficient!)
2859 <emphasis>shockwave-flash</emphasis>: Kill embedded Shockwave Flash objects
2864 <emphasis>crude-parental</emphasis>: Kill all web pages that contain the words "sex" or "warez"
2871 Note: Filtering requires buffering the page content, which may appear to slow down
2872 page rendering since nothing is displayed until all content has passed
2873 the filters. (It does not really take longer, but seems that way since
2874 the page is not incrementally displayed.) This effect will be more noticeable
2875 on slower connections.
2882 Block any existing X-Forwarded-for header, and do not add a new one:
2888 <emphasis>+hide-forwarded</emphasis>
2897 If the browser sends a <quote>From:</quote> header containing your e-mail
2898 address, this either completely removes the header (<quote>block</quote>), or
2899 changes it to the specified e-mail address.
2905 <emphasis>+hide-from{block}</emphasis>
2906 <emphasis>+hide-from{spam@sittingduck.xqq}</emphasis>
2915 Don't send the <quote>Referer:</quote> (sic) header to the web site. You
2916 can block it, forge a URL to the same server as the request (which is
2917 preferred because some sites will not send images otherwise) or set it to a
2918 constant, user defined string of your choice.
2924 <emphasis>+hide-referer{block}</emphasis>
2925 <emphasis>+hide-referer{forge}</emphasis>
2926 <emphasis>+hide-referer{http://nowhere.com}</emphasis>
2935 Alternative spelling of <quote>+hide-referer</quote>. It has the same
2936 parameters, and can be freely mixed with, <quote>+hide-referer</quote>.
2937 (<quote>referrer</quote> is the correct English spelling, however the HTTP
2938 specification has a bug - it requires it to be spelled <quote>referer</quote>.)
2944 <emphasis>+hide-referrer{...}</emphasis>
2953 Change the <quote>User-Agent:</quote> header so web servers can't tell your
2954 browser type. Warning! This breaks many web sites. Specify the
2955 user-agent value you want. Example, pretend to be using Netscape on
2962 <emphasis>+hide-user-agent{Mozilla (X11; I; Linux 2.0.32 i586)}</emphasis>
2969 Or to identify yourself explicitly as a <application>Privoxy</application> user:
2975 <emphasis>+hide-user-agent{Privoxy/1.0}</emphasis>
2980 (Don't change the version number from 1.0 - after all, why tell them?)
2987 <emphasis>+hide-user-agent{browser-type}</emphasis>
2997 Treat this URL as an image. This only matters if it's also <quote>+block</quote>ed,
2998 in which case a <quote>blocked</quote> image can be sent rather than a HTML page.
2999 See <quote>+image-blocker{}</quote> below for the control over what is actually sent.
3000 If you want <emphasis>invisible</emphasis> ads, they should be defined as
3001 <emphasis>images</emphasis> and <emphasis>blocked</emphasis>. And also,
3002 <quote>image-blocker</quote> should be set to <quote>blank</quote>. Note you
3003 cannot treat HTML pages as images in most cases. For instance, frames
3004 require an HTML page to display. So a frame that is an ad, cannot be
3005 treated as an image. Forcing an <quote>image</quote> in this
3006 situation just will not work.
3012 <emphasis>+image</emphasis>
3020 <para> Decides what to do with URLs that end up tagged with <quote>{+block
3021 +image}</quote>, e.g an advertisement. There are four options.
3022 <quote>-image-blocker</quote> will send a HTML <quote>blocked</quote> page,
3023 usually resulting in a <quote>broken image</quote> icon.
3024 <!-- <quote>+image-blocker{logo}</quote> will send a -->
3025 <!-- <application>Privoxy</application> logo -->
3027 <quote>+image-blocker{blank}</quote> will send a 1x1 transparent GIF
3028 image. And finally, <quote>+image-blocker{http://xyz.com}</quote> will send a
3029 HTTP temporary redirect to the specified image. This has the advantage of the
3030 icon being being cached by the browser, which will speed up the display.
3031 <quote>+image-blocker{pattern}</quote> will send a checkerboard type pattern:
3033 <!-- which scales better than the logo (which can get blocky if the browser -->
3034 <!-- enlarges it too much). -->
3040 <!-- <emphasis>+image-blocker{logo}</emphasis> -->
3041 <emphasis>+image-blocker{blank}</emphasis>
3042 <emphasis>+image-blocker{pattern}</emphasis>
3043 <emphasis>+image-blocker{http://p.p/send-banner}</emphasis>
3052 By default (i.e. in the absence of a <quote>+limit-connect</quote>
3053 action), <application>Privoxy</application> will only allow CONNECT
3054 requests to port 443, which is the standard port for https as a
3059 The CONNECT methods exists in HTTP to allow access to secure websites
3060 (https:// URLs) through proxies. It works very simply: the proxy
3061 connects to the server on the specified port, and then short-circuits
3062 its connections to the client <emphasis>and</emphasis> to the remote proxy.
3063 This can be a big security hole, since CONNECT-enabled proxies can
3064 be abused as TCP relays very easily.
3068 If you want to allow CONNECT for more ports than this, or want to forbid
3069 CONNECT altogether, you can specify a comma separated list of ports and
3070 port ranges (the latter using dashes, with the minimum defaulting to 0 and
3078 <emphasis>+limit-connect{443} # This is the default and need no be specified.</emphasis>
3079 <emphasis>+limit-connect{80,443} # Ports 80 and 443 are OK.</emphasis>
3080 <emphasis>+limit-connect{-3, 7, 20-100, 500-} # Port less than 3, 7, 20 to 100</emphasis>
3081 <emphasis> #and above 500 are OK.</emphasis>
3091 <quote>+no-compression</quote> prevents the website from compressing the
3092 data. Some websites do this, which can be a problem for
3093 <application>Privoxy</application>, since <quote>+filter</quote>,
3094 <quote>+no-popup</quote> and <quote>+gif-deanimate</quote> will not work on
3095 compressed data. This will slow down connections to those websites,
3096 though. Default is <quote>no-compression</quote> is turned on.
3103 <emphasis>+nocompression</emphasis>
3112 If the website sets cookies, <quote>no-cookies-keep</quote> will make sure
3113 they are erased when you exit and restart your web browser. This makes
3114 profiling cookies useless, but won't break sites which require cookies so
3115 that you can log in for transactions. Default: on.
3121 <emphasis>+no-cookies-keep</emphasis>
3130 Prevent the website from reading cookies:
3136 <emphasis>+no-cookies-read</emphasis>
3145 Prevent the website from setting cookies:
3151 <emphasis>+no-cookies-set</emphasis>
3160 Filter the website through a built-in filter to disable those obnoxious
3161 JavaScript pop-up windows via window.open(), etc. The two alternative
3162 spellings are equivalent.
3168 <emphasis>+no-popup</emphasis>
3169 <emphasis>+no-popups</emphasis>
3178 This action only applies if you are using a <filename>jarfile</filename>
3179 for saving cookies. It sends a cookie to every site stating that you do not
3180 accept any copyright on cookies sent to you, and asking them not to track
3181 you. Of course, this is a (relatively) unique header they could use to
3188 <emphasis>+vanilla-wafer</emphasis>
3197 This allows you to add an arbitrary cookie. It can be specified multiple
3198 times in order to add as many cookies as you like.
3204 <emphasis>+wafer{name=value}</emphasis>
3215 The meaning of any of the above is reversed by preceding the action with a
3216 <quote>-</quote>, in place of the <quote>+</quote>.
3224 Turn off cookies by default, then allow a few through for specified sites:
3231 # Turn off all persistent cookies
3232 { +no-cookies-read }
3234 # Allow cookies for this browser session ONLY
3235 { +no-cookies-keep }
3237 # Exceptions to the above, sites that benefit from persistent cookies
3238 { -no-cookies-read }
3240 { -no-cookies-keep }
3247 # Alternative way of saying the same thing
3248 {-no-cookies-set -no-cookies-read -no-cookies-keep}
3257 Now turn off <quote>fast redirects</quote>, and then we allow two exceptions:
3267 # Reverse it for these two sites, which don't work right without it.
3269 www.ukc.ac.uk/cgi-bin/wac\.cgi\?
3277 Turn on page filtering according to rules in the defined sections
3278 of <filename>default.filter</filename>, and make one exception for
3286 # Run everything through the filter file, using only the
3287 # specified sections:
3288 +filter{html-annoyances} +filter{js-annoyances} +filter{no-popups}\
3289 +filter{webbugs} +filter{nimda} +filter{banners-by-size}
3291 # Then disable filtering of code from sourceforge!
3293 .cvs.sourceforge.net
3300 Now some URLs that we want <quote>blocked</quote> (normally generates
3301 the <quote>blocked</quote> banner). Many of these use regular expressions
3302 that will expand to match multiple URLs:
3311 /.*/(.*[-_.])?ads?[0-9]?(/|[-_.].*|\.(gif|jpe?g))
3312 /.*/(.*[-_.])?count(er)?(\.cgi|\.dll|\.exe|[?/])
3313 /.*/(ng)?adclient\.cgi
3314 /.*/(plain|live|rotate)[-_.]?ads?/
3315 /.*/(sponsor)s?[0-9]?/
3316 /.*/_?(plain|live)?ads?(-banners)?/
3318 /.*/ad(sdna_image|gifs?)/
3319 /.*/ad(server|stream|juggler)\.(cgi|pl|dll|exe)
3323 /.*/adv((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))?/
3327 /.*/cgi-bin/centralad/getimage
3328 /.*/images/addver\.gif
3329 /.*/images/marketing/.*\.(gif|jpe?g)
3333 /.*/sponsors?[0-9]?/
3334 /.*/advert[0-9]+\.jpg
3341 /graphics/defaultAd/
3343 /image\.ng/transactionID
3344 /images/.*/.*_anim\.gif # alvin brattli
3345 /ip_img/.*\.(gif|jpe?g)
3349 /cgi-bin/nph-adclick.exe/
3350 /.*/Image/BannerAdvertising/
3352 /.*/adlib/server\.cgi
3360 Note that many of these actions have the potential to cause a page to
3361 misbehave, possibly even not to display at all. There are many ways
3362 a site designer may choose to design his site, and what HTTP header
3363 content he may depend on. There is no way to have hard and fast rules
3364 for all sites. See the <link linkend="ACTIONSANAT">Appendix</link>
3365 for a brief example on troubleshooting actions.
3370 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
3373 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3375 <title>Aliases</title>
3377 Custom <quote>actions</quote>, known to <application>Privoxy</application>
3378 as <quote>aliases</quote>, can be defined by combining other <quote>actions</quote>.
3379 These can in turn be invoked just like the built-in <quote>actions</quote>.
3380 Currently, an alias can contain any character except space, tab, <quote>=</quote>,
3381 <quote>{</quote> or <quote>}</quote>. But please use only <quote>a</quote>-
3382 <quote>z</quote>, <quote>0</quote>-<quote>9</quote>, <quote>+</quote>, and
3383 <quote>-</quote>. Alias names are not case sensitive, and
3384 <emphasis>must be defined before anything</emphasis> else in the
3385 <filename>default.action</filename>file! And there can only be one set of
3386 <quote>aliases</quote> defined.
3390 Now let's define a few aliases:
3397 # Useful custom aliases we can use later. These must come first!
3399 +no-cookies = +no-cookies-set +no-cookies-read
3400 -no-cookies = -no-cookies-set -no-cookies-read
3401 fragile = -block -no-cookies -filter -fast-redirects -hide-referer -no-popups
3402 shop = -no-cookies -filter -fast-redirects
3403 +imageblock = +block +image
3405 #For people who don't like to type too much: ;-)
3408 c2 = -no-cookies-set +no-cookies-read
3409 c3 = +no-cookies-set -no-cookies-read
3410 #... etc. Customize to your heart's content.
3417 Some examples using our <quote>shop</quote> and <quote>fragile</quote>
3425 # These sites are very complex and require
3426 # minimal interference.
3428 .office.microsoft.com
3429 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com
3432 # Shopping sites - still want to block ads.
3435 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
3439 # These shops require pop-ups
3449 The <quote>shop</quote> and <quote>fragile</quote> aliases are often used for
3450 <quote>problem</quote> sites that require most actions to be disabled
3451 in order to function properly.
3458 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
3461 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3462 <sect2 id="filterfile">
3463 <title>The Filter File</title>
3465 Any web page can be dynamically modified with the filter file. This
3466 modification can be removal, or re-writing, of any web page content,
3467 including tags and non-visible content. The default filter file is
3468 <filename>default.filter</filename>, located in the config directory.
3472 This is potentially a very powerful feature, and requires knowledge of both
3473 <quote>regular expression</quote> and HTML in order create custom
3474 filters. But, there are a number of useful filters included with
3475 <application>Privoxy</application> for many common situations.
3479 The included example file is divided into sections. Each section begins
3480 with the <literal>FILTER</literal> keyword, followed by the identifier
3481 for that section, e.g. <quote>FILTER: webbugs</quote>. Each section performs
3482 a similar type of filtering, such as <quote>html-annoyances</quote>.
3486 This file uses regular expressions to alter or remove any string in the
3487 target page. The expressions can only operate on one line at a time. Some
3488 examples from the included default <filename>default.filter</filename>:
3492 Stop web pages from displaying annoying messages in the status bar by
3493 deleting such references:
3500 FILTER: html-annoyances
3502 # New browser windows should be resizeable and have a location and status
3505 s/resizable="?(no|0)"?/resizable=1/ig s/noresize/yesresize/ig
3506 s/location="?(no|0)"?/location=1/ig s/status="?(no|0)"?/status=1/ig
3507 s/scrolling="?(no|0|Auto)"?/scrolling=1/ig
3508 s/menubar="?(no|0)"?/menubar=1/ig
3510 # The <BLINK> tag was a crime!
3512 s*<blink>|</blink>**ig
3516 #s/framespacing="?(no|0)"?//ig
3517 #s/margin(height|width)=[0-9]*//gi
3524 Just for kicks, replace any occurrence of <quote>Microsoft</quote> with
3525 <quote>MicroSuck</quote>, and have a little fun with topical buzzwords:
3534 s/microsoft(?!.com)/MicroSuck/ig
3538 s/industry-leading|cutting-edge|award-winning/<font color=red><b>BINGO!</b></font>/ig
3545 Kill those pesky little web-bugs:
3552 # webbugs: Squish WebBugs (1x1 invisible GIFs used for user tracking)
3555 s/<img\s+[^>]*?(width|height)\s*=\s*['"]?1\D[^>]*?(width|height)\s*=\s*['"]?1(\D[^>]*?)?>/<!-- Squished WebBug -->/sig
3563 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
3567 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3570 <title>Templates</title>
3572 When <application>Privoxy</application> displays one of its internal
3573 pages, such as a 404 Not Found error page, it uses the appropriate template.
3574 On Linux, BSD, and Unix, these are located in
3575 <filename>/etc/privoxy/templates</filename> by default. These may be
3576 customized, if desired. <filename>cgi-style.css</filename> is
3577 used to control the HTML attributes (fonts, etc).
3580 The default <quote>Blocked</quote> banner page with the bright red top
3581 banner, is called just <quote><filename>blocked</filename></quote>. This
3582 may be customized or replaced with something else if desired.
3589 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
3593 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3595 <sect1 id="contact"><title>Contacting the Developers, Bug Reporting and Feature
3598 <!-- Include contacting.sgml boilerplate: -->
3600 <!-- end boilerplate -->
3603 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3604 <sect2 id="submitactions">
3605 <title>Submitting Ads and <quote>Action</quote> Problems</title>
3607 Ads and banners that are not stopped by <application>Privoxy</application>
3608 can be submitted to the developers by accessing a special page and filling
3609 out the brief, required form. Conversely, you can also report pages, images,
3610 etc. that <application>Privoxy</application> is blocking, but should not.
3611 The form itself does require Internet access.
3614 To do this, point your browser to <application>Privoxy</application>
3615 at <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
3616 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>), and then select
3617 <ulink url="javascript:w=Math.floor(screen.width/2);h=Math.floor(screen.height*0.9);void(window.open('http://www.privoxy.org/actions','Feedback','screenx='+w+',width='+w+',height='+h+',scrollbars=yes,toolbar=no,location=no,directories=no,status=no,menubar=no,copyhistory=no').focus());">Actions file feedback system</ulink>,
3618 near the bottom of the page. Paste in the URL that is the cause of the
3619 unwanted behavior, and follow the prompts. The developers will
3620 try to incorporate a fix for the problem you reported into future versions.
3624 New <filename>default.actions</filename> files will occasionally be made
3625 available based on your feedback. These
3626 will be announced on the
3628 url="http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ijbswa-announce">ijbswa-announce</ulink>
3636 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3637 <sect1 id="copyright"><title>Copyright and History</title>
3639 <sect2><title>Copyright</title>
3640 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
3642 <!-- end copyright -->
3645 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
3648 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3650 <sect2 id="history"><title>History</title>
3651 <!-- Include history.sgml: -->
3653 <!-- end history -->
3657 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3658 <sect1 id="seealso"><title>See Also</title>
3659 <!-- Include seealso.sgml: -->
3661 <!-- end seealso -->
3666 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3667 <sect1 id="appendix"><title>Appendix</title>
3670 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3672 <title>Regular Expressions</title>
3674 <application>Privoxy</application> can use <quote>regular expressions</quote>
3675 in various config files. Assuming support for <quote>pcre</quote> (Perl
3676 Compatible Regular Expressions) is compiled in, which is the default. Such
3677 configuration directives do not require regular expressions, but they can be
3678 used to increase flexibility by matching a pattern with wild-cards against
3683 If you are reading this, you probably don't understand what <quote>regular
3684 expressions</quote> are, or what they can do. So this will be a very brief
3685 introduction only. A full explanation would require a book ;-)
3689 <quote>Regular expressions</quote> is a way of matching one character
3690 expression against another to see if it matches or not. One of the
3691 <quote>expressions</quote> is a literal string of readable characters
3692 (letter, numbers, etc), and the other is a complex string of literal
3693 characters combined with wild-cards, and other special characters, called
3694 meta-characters. The <quote>meta-characters</quote> have special meanings and
3695 are used to build the complex pattern to be matched against. Perl Compatible
3696 Regular Expressions is an enhanced form of the regular expression language
3697 with backward compatibility.
3701 To make a simple analogy, we do something similar when we use wild-card
3702 characters when listing files with the <command>dir</command> command in DOS.
3703 <literal>*.*</literal> matches all filenames. The <quote>special</quote>
3704 character here is the asterisk which matches any and all characters. We can be
3705 more specific and use <literal>?</literal> to match just individual
3706 characters. So <quote>dir file?.text</quote> would match
3707 <quote>file1.txt</quote>, <quote>file2.txt</quote>, etc. We are pattern
3708 matching, using a similar technique to <quote>regular expressions</quote>!
3712 Regular expressions do essentially the same thing, but are much, much more
3713 powerful. There are many more <quote>special characters</quote> and ways of
3714 building complex patterns however. Let's look at a few of the common ones,
3715 and then some examples:
3720 <emphasis>.</emphasis> - Matches any single character, e.g. <quote>a</quote>,
3721 <quote>A</quote>, <quote>4</quote>, <quote>:</quote>, or <quote>@</quote>.
3723 </simplelist></para>
3727 <emphasis>?</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or ONE
3730 </simplelist></para>
3734 <emphasis>+</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ONE or MORE
3737 </simplelist></para>
3741 <emphasis>*</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or MORE
3744 </simplelist></para>
3748 <emphasis>\</emphasis> - The <quote>escape</quote> character denotes that
3749 the following character should be taken literally. This is used where one of the
3750 special characters (e.g. <quote>.</quote>) needs to be taken literally and
3751 not as a special meta-character.
3753 </simplelist></para>
3757 <emphasis>[]</emphasis> - Characters enclosed in brackets will be matched if
3758 any of the enclosed characters are encountered.
3760 </simplelist></para>
3764 <emphasis>()</emphasis> - parentheses are used to group a sub-expression,
3765 or multiple sub-expressions.
3767 </simplelist></para>
3771 <emphasis>|</emphasis> - The <quote>bar</quote> character works like an
3772 <quote>or</quote> conditional statement. A match is successful if the
3773 sub-expression on either side of <quote>|</quote> matches.
3775 </simplelist></para>
3779 <emphasis>s/string1/string2/g</emphasis> - This is used to rewrite strings of text.
3780 <quote>string1</quote> is replaced by <quote>string2</quote> in this
3783 </simplelist></para>
3786 These are just some of the ones you are likely to use when matching URLs with
3787 <application>Privoxy</application>, and is a long way from a definitive
3788 list. This is enough to get us started with a few simple examples which may
3789 be more illuminating:
3793 <emphasis><literal>/.*/banners/.*</literal></emphasis> - A simple example
3794 that uses the common combination of <quote>.</quote> and <quote>*</quote> to
3795 denote any character, zero or more times. In other words, any string at all.
3796 So we start with a literal forward slash, then our regular expression pattern
3797 (<quote>.*</quote>) another literal forward slash, the string
3798 <quote>banners</quote>, another forward slash, and lastly another
3799 <quote>.*</quote>. We are building
3800 a directory path here. This will match any file with the path that has a
3801 directory named <quote>banners</quote> in it. The <quote>.*</quote> matches
3802 any characters, and this could conceivably be more forward slashes, so it
3803 might expand into a much longer looking path. For example, this could match:
3804 <quote>/eye/hate/spammers/banners/annoy_me_please.gif</quote>, or just
3805 <quote>/banners/annoying.html</quote>, or almost an infinite number of other
3806 possible combinations, just so it has <quote>banners</quote> in the path
3811 A now something a little more complex:
3815 <emphasis><literal>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))?/</literal></emphasis> -
3816 We have several literal forward slashes again (<quote>/</quote>), so we are
3817 building another expression that is a file path statement. We have another
3818 <quote>.*</quote>, so we are matching against any conceivable sub-path, just so
3819 it matches our expression. The only true literal that <emphasis>must
3820 match</emphasis> our pattern is <application>adv</application>, together with
3821 the forward slashes. What comes after the <quote>adv</quote> string is the
3826 Remember the <quote>?</quote> means the preceding expression (either a
3827 literal character or anything grouped with <quote>(...)</quote> in this case)
3828 can exist or not, since this means either zero or one match. So
3829 <quote>((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))</quote> is optional, as are the
3830 individual sub-expressions: <quote>(er)</quote>,
3831 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, and the <quote>s</quote>. The <quote>|</quote>
3832 means <quote>or</quote>. We have two of those. For instance,
3833 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, can expand to match either <quote>ing</quote>
3834 <emphasis>OR</emphasis> <quote>ements?</quote>. What is being done here, is an
3835 attempt at matching as many variations of <quote>advertisement</quote>, and
3836 similar, as possible. So this would expand to match just <quote>adv</quote>,
3837 or <quote>advert</quote>, or <quote>adverts</quote>, or
3838 <quote>advertising</quote>, or <quote>advertisement</quote>, or
3839 <quote>advertisements</quote>. You get the idea. But it would not match
3840 <quote>advertizements</quote> (with a <quote>z</quote>). We could fix that by
3841 changing our regular expression to:
3842 <quote>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|erti(s|z)(ing|ements?))?/</quote>, which would then match
3847 <emphasis><literal>/.*/advert[0-9]+\.(gif|jpe?g)</literal></emphasis> - Again
3848 another path statement with forward slashes. Anything in the square brackets
3849 <quote>[]</quote> can be matched. This is using <quote>0-9</quote> as a
3850 shorthand expression to mean any digit one through nine. It is the same as
3851 saying <quote>0123456789</quote>. So any digit matches. The <quote>+</quote>
3852 means one or more of the preceding expression must be included. The preceding
3853 expression here is what is in the square brackets -- in this case, any digit
3854 one through nine. Then, at the end, we have a grouping: <quote>(gif|jpe?g)</quote>.
3855 This includes a <quote>|</quote>, so this needs to match the expression on
3856 either side of that bar character also. A simple <quote>gif</quote> on one side, and the other
3857 side will in turn match either <quote>jpeg</quote> or <quote>jpg</quote>,
3858 since the <quote>?</quote> means the letter <quote>e</quote> is optional and
3859 can be matched once or not at all. So we are building an expression here to
3860 match image GIF or JPEG type image file. It must include the literal
3861 string <quote>advert</quote>, then one or more digits, and a <quote>.</quote>
3862 (which is now a literal, and not a special character, since it is escaped
3863 with <quote>\</quote>), and lastly either <quote>gif</quote>, or
3864 <quote>jpeg</quote>, or <quote>jpg</quote>. Some possible matches would
3865 include: <quote>//advert1.jpg</quote>,
3866 <quote>/nasty/ads/advert1234.gif</quote>,
3867 <quote>/banners/from/hell/advert99.jpg</quote>. It would not match
3868 <quote>advert1.gif</quote> (no leading slash), or
3869 <quote>/adverts232.jpg</quote> (the expression does not include an
3870 <quote>s</quote>), or <quote>/advert1.jsp</quote> (<quote>jsp</quote> is not
3871 in the expression anywhere).
3875 <emphasis><literal>s/microsoft(?!.com)/MicroSuck/i</literal></emphasis> - This is
3876 a substitution. <quote>MicroSuck</quote> will replace any occurrence of
3877 <quote>microsoft</quote>. The <quote>i</quote> at the end of the expression
3878 means ignore case. The <quote>(?!.com)</quote> means
3879 the match should fail if <quote>microsoft</quote> is followed by
3880 <quote>.com</quote>. In other words, this acts like a <quote>NOT</quote>
3881 modifier. In case this is a hyperlink, we don't want to break it ;-).
3885 We are barely scratching the surface of regular expressions here so that you
3886 can understand the default <application>Privoxy</application>
3887 configuration files, and maybe use this knowledge to customize your own
3888 installation. There is much, much more that can be done with regular
3889 expressions. Now that you know enough to get started, you can learn more on
3894 More reading on Perl Compatible Regular expressions:
3895 <ulink url="http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html">http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html</ulink>
3900 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
3903 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3905 <title><application>Privoxy</application>'s Internal Pages</title>
3908 Since <application>Privoxy</application> proxies each requested
3909 web page, it is easy for <application>Privoxy</application> to
3910 trap certain special URLs. In this way, we can talk directly to
3911 <application>Privoxy</application>, and see how it is
3912 configured, see how our rules are being applied, change these
3913 rules and other configuration options, and even turn
3914 <application>Privoxy's</application> filtering off, all with
3920 The URLs listed below are the special ones that allow direct access
3921 to <application>Privoxy</application>. Of course,
3922 <application>Privoxy</application> must be running to access these. If
3923 not, you will get a friendly error message. Internet access is not
3936 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
3940 Alternately, this may be reached at <ulink
3941 url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>, but this
3942 variation may not work as reliably as the above in some configurations.
3948 Show information about the current configuration:
3952 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
3959 Show the source code version numbers:
3963 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-version">http://config.privoxy.org/show-version</ulink>
3970 Show the client's request headers:
3974 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request">http://config.privoxy.org/show-request</ulink>
3981 Show which actions apply to a URL and why:
3985 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
3992 Toggle Privoxy on or off. In this case, <quote>Privoxy</quote> continues
3993 to run, but only as a pass-through proxy, with no actions taking place:
3997 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</ulink>
4001 Short cuts. Turn off, then on:
4005 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable</ulink>
4010 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable</ulink>
4017 Edit the actions list file:
4021 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions">http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions</ulink>
4030 These may be bookmarked for quick reference.
4034 <sect3 id="bookmarklets">
4035 <title>Bookmarklets</title>
4037 Below are some <quote>bookmarklets</quote> to allow you to easily access a
4038 <quote>mini</quote> version of some of <application>Privoxy's</application>
4039 special pages. They are designed for MS Internet Explorer, but should work
4040 equally well in Netscape, Mozilla, and other browsers which support
4041 JavaScript. They are designed to run directly from your bookmarks - not by
4042 clicking the links below (although that should work for testing).
4045 To save them, right-click the link and choose <quote>Add to Favorites</quote>
4046 (IE) or <quote>Add Bookmark</quote> (Netscape). You will get a warning that
4047 the bookmark <quote>may not be safe</quote> - just click OK. Then you can run the
4048 Bookmarklet directly from your favorites/bookmarks. For even faster access,
4049 you can put them on the <quote>Links</quote> bar (IE) or the <quote>Personal
4050 Toolbar</quote> (Netscape), and run them with a single click.
4058 <ulink 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());">Enable Privoxy</ulink>
4064 <ulink 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());">Disable Privoxy</ulink>
4070 <ulink 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());">Toggle Privoxy</ulink> (Toggles between enabled and disabled)
4076 <ulink 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());">View Privoxy Status</ulink>
4082 <ulink url="javascript:w=Math.floor(screen.width/2);h=Math.floor(screen.height*0.9);void(window.open('http://www.privoxy.org/actions','Feedback','screenx='+w+',width='+w+',height='+h+',scrollbars=yes,toolbar=no,location=no,directories=no,status=no,menubar=no,copyhistory=no').focus());">Actions file feedback system</ulink>
4092 Credit: The site which gave me the general idea for these bookmarklets is
4093 <ulink url="http://www.bookmarklets.com">www.bookmarklets.com</ulink>. They
4094 have more information about bookmarklets.
4103 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4104 <sect2 id="actionsanat">
4105 <title>Anatomy of an Action</title>
4108 The way <application>Privoxy</application> applies <quote>actions</quote>
4109 and <quote>filters</quote> to any given URL can be complex, and not always so
4110 easy to understand what is happening. And sometimes we need to be able to
4111 <emphasis>see</emphasis> just what <application>Privoxy</application> is
4112 doing. Especially, if something <application>Privoxy</application> is doing
4113 is causing us a problem inadvertently. It can be a little daunting to look at
4114 the actions and filters files themselves, since they tend to be filled with
4115 <quote>regular expressions</quote> whose consequences are not always
4116 so obvious. <application>Privoxy</application> provides the
4117 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
4118 page that can show us very specifically how <application>actions</application>
4119 are being applied to any given URL. This is a big help for troubleshooting.
4123 First, enter one URL (or partial URL) at the prompt, and then
4124 <application>Privoxy</application> will tell us
4125 how the current configuration will handle it. This will not
4126 help with filtering effects from the <filename>default.filter</filename> file! It
4127 also will not tell you about any other URLs that may be embedded within the
4128 URL you are testing (i.e. a web page). For instance, images such as ads are expressed as URLs
4129 within the raw page source of HTML pages. So you will only get info for the
4130 actual URL that is pasted into the prompt area -- not any sub-URLs. If you
4131 want to know about embedded URLs like ads, you will have to dig those out of
4132 the HTML source. Use your browser's <quote>View Page Source</quote> option
4133 for this. Or right click on the ad, and grab the URL.
4137 Let's look at an example, <ulink url="http://google.com">google.com</ulink>,
4138 one section at a time:
4143 System default actions:
4145 { -add-header -block -deanimate-gifs -downgrade -fast-redirects -filter
4146 -hide-forwarded -hide-from -hide-referer -hide-user-agent -image
4147 -image-blocker -limit-connect -no-compression -no-cookies-keep
4148 -no-cookies-read -no-cookies-set -no-popups -vanilla-wafer -wafer }
4154 This is the top section, and only tells us of the compiled in defaults. This
4155 is basically what <application>Privoxy</application> would do if there
4156 were not any <quote>actions</quote> defined, i.e. it does nothing. Every action
4157 is disabled. This is not particularly informative for our purposes here. OK,
4164 Matches for http://google.com:
4166 { -add-header -block +deanimate-gifs -downgrade +fast-redirects
4167 +filter{html-annoyances} +filter{js-annoyances} +filter{no-popups}
4168 +filter{webbugs} +filter{nimda} +filter{banners-by-size} +filter{hal}
4169 +filter{fun} +hide-forwarded +hide-from{block} +hide-referer{forge}
4170 -hide-user-agent -image +image-blocker{blank} +no-compression
4171 +no-cookies-keep -no-cookies-read -no-cookies-set +no-popups
4172 -vanilla-wafer -wafer }
4175 { -no-cookies-keep -no-cookies-read -no-cookies-set }
4185 This is much more informative, and tells us how we have defined our
4186 <quote>actions</quote>, and which ones match for our example,
4187 <quote>google.com</quote>. The first grouping shows our default
4188 settings, which would apply to all URLs. If you look at your <quote>actions</quote>
4189 file, this would be the section just below the <quote>aliases</quote> section
4190 near the top. This applies to all URLs as signified by the single forward
4191 slash -- <quote>/</quote>.
4196 These are the default actions we have enabled. But we can define additional
4197 actions that would be exceptions to these general rules, and then list
4198 specific URLs that these exceptions would apply to. Last match wins.
4199 Just below this then are two explicit matches for <quote>.google.com</quote>.
4200 The first is negating our various cookie blocking actions (i.e. we will allow
4201 cookies here). The second is allowing <quote>fast-redirects</quote>. Note
4202 that there is a leading dot here -- <quote>.google.com</quote>. This will
4203 match any hosts and sub-domains, in the google.com domain also, such as
4204 <quote>www.google.com</quote>. So, apparently, we have these actions defined
4205 somewhere in the lower part of our actions file, and
4206 <quote>google.com</quote> is referenced in these sections.
4211 And now we pull it altogether in the bottom section and summarize how
4212 <application>Privoxy</application> is applying all its <quote>actions</quote>
4213 to <quote>google.com</quote>:
4222 -add-header -block -deanimate-gifs -downgrade -fast-redirects
4223 +filter{html-annoyances} +filter{js-annoyances} +filter{no-popups}
4224 +filter{webbugs} +filter{nimda} +filter{banners-by-size} +filter{hal}
4225 +filter{fun} +hide-forwarded +hide-from{block} +hide-referer{forge}
4226 -hide-user-agent -image +image-blocker{blank} -limit-connect +no-compression
4227 -no-cookies-keep -no-cookies-read -no-cookies-set +no-popups -vanilla-wafer
4234 Now another example, <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>:
4253 We'll just show the interesting part here, the explicit matches. It is
4254 matched three different times. Each as an <quote>+block +image</quote>,
4255 which is the expanded form of one of our aliases that had been defined as:
4256 <quote>+imageblock</quote>. (<quote>Aliases</quote> are defined in the
4257 first section of the actions file and typically used to combine more
4262 Any one of these would have done the trick and blocked this as an unwanted
4263 image. This is unnecessarily redundant since the last case effectively
4264 would also cover the first. No point in taking chances with these guys
4265 though ;-) Note that if you want an ad or obnoxious
4266 URL to be invisible, it should be defined as <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>
4267 is done here -- as both a <quote>+block</quote> <emphasis>and</emphasis> an
4268 <quote>+image</quote>. The custom alias <quote>+imageblock</quote> does this
4273 One last example. Let's try <quote>http://www.rhapsodyk.net/adsl/HOWTO/</quote>.
4274 This one is giving us problems. We are getting a blank page. Hmmm...
4280 Matches for http://www.rhapsodyk.net/adsl/HOWTO/:
4282 { -add-header -block +deanimate-gifs -downgrade +fast-redirects
4283 +filter{html-annoyances} +filter{js-annoyances} +filter{no-popups}
4284 +filter{webbugs} +filter{nimda} +filter{banners-by-size} +filter{hal}
4285 +filter{fun} +hide-forwarded +hide-from{block} +hide-referer{forge}
4286 -hide-user-agent -image +image-blocker{blank} +no-compression
4287 +no-cookies-keep -no-cookies-read -no-cookies-set +no-popups
4288 -vanilla-wafer -wafer }
4298 Ooops, the <quote>/adsl/</quote> is matching <quote>/ads</quote>! But
4299 we did not want this at all! Now we see why we get the blank page. We could
4300 now add a new action below this that explicitly does <emphasis>not</emphasis>
4301 block (-block) pages with <quote>adsl</quote>. There are various ways to
4302 handle such exceptions. Example:
4315 Now the page displays ;-) Be sure to flush your browser's caches when
4316 making such changes. Or, try using <literal>Shift+Reload</literal>.
4320 But now what about a situation where we get no explicit matches like
4334 That actually was very telling and pointed us quickly to where the problem
4335 was. If you don't get this kind of match, then it means one of the default
4336 rules in the first section is causing the problem. This would require some
4337 guesswork, and maybe a little trial and error to isolate the offending rule.
4338 One likely cause would be one of the <quote>{+filter}</quote> actions. Try
4339 adding the URL for the site to one of aliases that turn off <quote>+filter</quote>:
4347 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
4356 <quote>{shop}</quote> is an <quote>alias</quote> that expands to
4357 <quote>{ -filter -no-cookies -no-cookies-keep }</quote>. Or you could do
4358 your own exception to negate filtering:
4372 <quote>{fragile}</quote> is an alias that disables most actions. This can be
4373 used as a last resort for problem sites. Remember to flush caches! If this
4374 still does not work, you will have to go through the remaining actions one by
4375 one to find which one(s) is causing the problem.
4384 This program is free software; you can redistribute it
4385 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
4386 Public License as published by the Free Software
4387 Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at
4388 your option) any later version.
4390 This program is distributed in the hope that it will
4391 be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the
4392 implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
4393 PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public
4394 License for more details.
4396 The GNU General Public License should be included with
4397 this file. If not, you can view it at
4398 http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
4399 or write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59
4400 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
4402 $Log: user-manual.sgml,v $
4403 Revision 1.79 2002/04/18 03:18:06 hal9
4404 Spellcheck, and minor touchups.
4406 Revision 1.78 2002/04/17 18:04:16 oes
4409 Revision 1.77 2002/04/17 13:51:23 oes
4410 Proofreading, part one
4412 Revision 1.76 2002/04/16 04:25:51 hal9
4413 -Added 'Note to Upgraders' and re-ordered the 'Quickstart' section.
4414 -Note about proxy may need requests to re-read config files.
4416 Revision 1.75 2002/04/12 02:08:48 david__schmidt
4417 Remove OS/2 building info... it is already in the developer-manual
4419 Revision 1.74 2002/04/11 00:54:38 hal9
4420 Add small section on submitting actions.
4422 Revision 1.73 2002/04/10 18:45:15 swa
4425 Revision 1.72 2002/04/10 04:06:19 hal9
4426 Added actions feedback to Bookmarklets section
4428 Revision 1.71 2002/04/08 22:59:26 hal9
4429 Version update. Spell chkconfig correctly :)
4431 Revision 1.70 2002/04/08 20:53:56 swa
4434 Revision 1.69 2002/04/06 05:07:29 hal9
4435 -Add privoxy-man-page.sgml, for man page.
4436 -Add authors.sgml for AUTHORS (and p-authors.sgml)
4437 -Reworked various aspects of various docs.
4438 -Added additional comments to sub-docs.
4440 Revision 1.68 2002/04/04 18:46:47 swa
4441 consistent look. reuse of copyright, history et. al.
4443 Revision 1.67 2002/04/04 17:27:57 swa
4444 more single file to be included at multiple points. make maintaining easier
4446 Revision 1.66 2002/04/04 06:48:37 hal9
4447 Structural changes to allow for conditional inclusion/exclusion of content
4448 based on entity toggles, e.g. 'entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE"'. And
4449 definition of internal entities, e.g. 'entity p-version "2.9.13"' that will
4450 eventually be set by Makefile.
4451 More boilerplate text for use across multiple docs.
4453 Revision 1.65 2002/04/03 19:52:07 swa
4454 enhance squid section due to user suggestion
4456 Revision 1.64 2002/04/03 03:53:43 hal9
4457 A few minor bug fixes, and touch ups. Ready for review.
4459 Revision 1.63 2002/04/01 16:24:49 hal9
4460 Define entities to include boilerplate text. See doc/source/*.
4462 Revision 1.62 2002/03/30 04:15:53 hal9
4463 - Fix privoxy.org/config links.
4464 - Paste in Bookmarklets from Toggle page.
4465 - Move Quickstart nearer top, and minor rework.
4467 Revision 1.61 2002/03/29 01:31:08 hal9
4470 Revision 1.60 2002/03/27 01:57:34 hal9
4471 Added more to Anatomy section.
4473 Revision 1.59 2002/03/27 00:54:33 hal9
4474 Touch up intro for new name.
4476 Revision 1.58 2002/03/26 22:29:55 swa
4477 we have a new homepage!
4479 Revision 1.57 2002/03/24 20:33:30 hal9
4480 A few minor catch ups with name change.
4482 Revision 1.56 2002/03/24 16:17:06 swa
4483 configure needs to be generated.
4485 Revision 1.55 2002/03/24 16:08:08 swa
4486 we are too lazy to make a block-built
4487 privoxy logo. hence removed the option.
4489 Revision 1.54 2002/03/24 15:46:20 swa
4490 name change related issue.
4492 Revision 1.53 2002/03/24 11:51:00 swa
4493 name change. changed filenames.
4495 Revision 1.52 2002/03/24 11:01:06 swa
4498 Revision 1.51 2002/03/23 15:13:11 swa
4499 renamed every reference to the old name with foobar.
4500 fixed "application foobar application" tag, fixed
4501 "the foobar" with "foobar". left junkbustser in cvs
4502 comments and remarks to history untouched.
4504 Revision 1.50 2002/03/23 05:06:21 hal9
4507 Revision 1.49 2002/03/21 17:01:05 hal9
4508 New section in Appendix.
4510 Revision 1.48 2002/03/12 06:33:01 hal9
4511 Catching up to Andreas and re_filterfile changes.
4513 Revision 1.47 2002/03/11 13:13:27 swa
4514 correct feedback channels
4516 Revision 1.46 2002/03/10 00:51:08 hal9
4517 Added section on JB internal pages in Appendix.
4519 Revision 1.45 2002/03/09 17:43:53 swa
4522 Revision 1.44 2002/03/09 17:08:48 hal9
4523 New section on Jon's actions file editor, and move some stuff around.
4525 Revision 1.43 2002/03/08 00:47:32 hal9
4526 Added imageblock{pattern}.
4528 Revision 1.42 2002/03/07 18:16:55 swa
4531 Revision 1.41 2002/03/07 16:46:43 hal9
4532 Fix a few markup problems for jade.
4534 Revision 1.40 2002/03/07 16:28:39 swa
4535 provide correct feedback channels
4537 Revision 1.39 2002/03/06 16:19:28 hal9
4538 Note on perceived filtering slowdown per FR.
4540 Revision 1.38 2002/03/05 23:55:14 hal9
4541 Stupid I did it again. Double hyphen in comment breaks jade.
4543 Revision 1.37 2002/03/05 23:53:49 hal9
4544 jade barfs on '- -' embedded in comments. - -user option broke it.
4546 Revision 1.36 2002/03/05 22:53:28 hal9
4547 Add new - - user option.
4549 Revision 1.35 2002/03/05 00:17:27 hal9
4550 Added section on command line options.
4552 Revision 1.34 2002/03/04 19:32:07 oes
4553 Changed default port to 8118
4555 Revision 1.33 2002/03/03 19:46:13 hal9
4556 Emphasis on where/how to report bugs, etc
4558 Revision 1.32 2002/03/03 09:26:06 joergs
4559 AmigaOS changes, config is now loaded from PROGDIR: instead of
4560 AmiTCP:db/junkbuster/ if no configuration file is specified on the
4563 Revision 1.31 2002/03/02 22:45:52 david__schmidt
4566 Revision 1.30 2002/03/02 22:00:14 hal9
4567 Updated 'New Features' list. Ran through spell-checker.
4569 Revision 1.29 2002/03/02 20:34:07 david__schmidt
4570 Update OS/2 build section
4572 Revision 1.28 2002/02/24 14:34:24 jongfoster
4573 Formatting changes. Now changing the doctype to DocBook XML 4.1
4574 will work - no other changes are needed.
4576 Revision 1.27 2002/01/11 14:14:32 hal9
4577 Added a very short section on Templates
4579 Revision 1.26 2002/01/09 20:02:50 hal9
4580 Fix bug re: auto-detect config file changes.
4582 Revision 1.25 2002/01/09 18:20:30 hal9
4583 Touch ups for *.action files.
4585 Revision 1.24 2001/12/02 01:13:42 hal9
4588 Revision 1.23 2001/12/02 00:20:41 hal9
4589 Updates for recent changes.
4591 Revision 1.22 2001/11/05 23:57:51 hal9
4592 Minor update for startup now daemon mode.
4594 Revision 1.21 2001/10/31 21:11:03 hal9
4595 Correct 2 minor errors
4597 Revision 1.18 2001/10/24 18:45:26 hal9
4598 *** empty log message ***
4600 Revision 1.17 2001/10/24 17:10:55 hal9
4601 Catching up with Jon's recent work, and a few other things.
4603 Revision 1.16 2001/10/21 17:19:21 swa
4604 wrong url in documentation
4606 Revision 1.15 2001/10/14 23:46:24 hal9
4607 Various minor changes. Fleshed out SEE ALSO section.
4609 Revision 1.13 2001/10/10 17:28:33 hal9
4612 Revision 1.12 2001/09/28 02:57:04 hal9
4615 Revision 1.11 2001/09/28 02:25:20 hal9
4618 Revision 1.9 2001/09/27 23:50:29 hal9
4619 A few changes. A short section on regular expression in appendix.
4621 Revision 1.8 2001/09/25 00:34:59 hal9
4622 Some additions, and re-arranging.
4624 Revision 1.7 2001/09/24 14:31:36 hal9
4627 Revision 1.6 2001/09/24 14:10:32 hal9
4628 Including David's OS/2 installation instructions.
4630 Revision 1.2 2001/09/13 15:27:40 swa
4633 Revision 1.1 2001/09/12 15:36:41 swa
4634 source files for junkbuster documentation
4636 Revision 1.3 2001/09/10 17:43:59 swa
4637 first proposal of a structure.
4639 Revision 1.2 2001/06/13 14:28:31 swa
4640 docs should have an author.
4642 Revision 1.1 2001/06/13 14:20:37 swa
4643 first import of project's documentation for the webserver.