2 File : $Source: /cvsroot/ijbswa/current/doc/source/p-config.sgml,v $
4 Purpose : Used with other docs and files only.
6 $Id: p-config.sgml,v 2.83 2012/07/27 17:41:10 fabiankeil Exp $
8 Copyright (C) 2001-2011 Privoxy Developers http://www.privoxy.org/
11 ========================================================================
12 NOTE: Please read developer-manual/documentation.html before touching
13 anything in this, or other Privoxy documentation.
14 ========================================================================
17 This file contains all the config file comments and options. It used to
18 build both the user-manual config sections, and all of config (yes, the main
21 Rationale: This is broken up into two files since a file with a prolog
22 (DTD, etc) cannot be sourced as a secondary file. config.sgml is basically
23 a wrapper for this file.
27 OPTIONS: The actual options are included in this file and prefixed with
28 '@@', and processed by the Makefile to strip the '@@'. Default options
29 that should appear commented out should be listed as: '@@#OPTION'.
30 Otherwise, as '@@OPTION'. Example:
32 @@listen-address 127.0.0.1:8118
34 The Makefile does significant other processing too. The final results
35 should be checked to make sure that the perl processing does not
36 fubar something!!! Makefile processing requires w3m, fmt (shell line
40 This file is included into:
43 config (the actual Privoxy config file)
48 <!-- This part only goes into user-manual -->
50 <title>The Main Configuration File</title>
53 By default, the main configuration file is named <filename>config</filename>,
54 with the exception of Windows, where it is named <filename>config.txt</filename>.
55 Configuration lines consist of an initial keyword followed by a list of
56 values, all separated by whitespace (any number of spaces or tabs). For
64 <emphasis>confdir /etc/privoxy</emphasis></literallayout>
70 Assigns the value <literal>/etc/privoxy</literal> to the option
71 <literal>confdir</literal> and thus indicates that the configuration
72 directory is named <quote>/etc/privoxy/</quote>.
76 All options in the config file except for <literal>confdir</literal> and
77 <literal>logdir</literal> are optional. Watch out in the below description
78 for what happens if you leave them unset.
82 The main config file controls all aspects of <application>Privoxy</application>'s
83 operation that are not location dependent (i.e. they apply universally, no matter
84 where you may be surfing). Like the filter and action files, the config file is
85 a plain text file and can be modified with a text editor like emacs, vim or
93 <!-- This part only goes into the config file -->
96 @@TITLE<!-- between the @@ is stripped by Makefile -->@@
97 Sample Configuration File for Privoxy v&p-version;
100 $Id: p-config.sgml,v 2.83 2012/07/27 17:41:10 fabiankeil Exp $
103 Copyright (C) 2001-2011 Privoxy Developers http://www.privoxy.org/
108 #################################################################
113 II. FORMAT OF THE CONFIGURATION FILE #
115 1. LOCAL SET-UP DOCUMENTATION #
116 2. CONFIGURATION AND LOG FILE LOCATIONS #
118 4. ACCESS CONTROL AND SECURITY #
120 6. WINDOWS GUI OPTIONS #
122 #################################################################
126 <literallayout>I. INTRODUCTION
127 =============== <!-- fuck this madness --></literallayout>
130 This file holds Privoxy's main configuration. Privoxy detects
131 configuration changes automatically, so you don't have to restart it
132 unless you want to load a different configuration file.
135 The configuration will be reloaded with the first request after the
136 change was done, this request itself will still use the old configuration,
137 though. In other words: it takes two requests before you see the result of
138 your changes. Requests that are dropped due to ACL don't trigger reloads.
141 When starting Privoxy on Unix systems, give the location of this
142 file as last argument. On Windows systems, Privoxy will look for
143 this file with the name 'config.txt' in the current working directory
144 of the Privoxy process.
148 <literallayout><!-- funky spacing -->
150 II. FORMAT OF THE CONFIGURATION FILE
151 ====================================</literallayout>
154 Configuration lines consist of an initial keyword followed by a list
155 of values, all separated by whitespace (any number of spaces or
159 actionsfile default.action
162 Indicates that the actionsfile is named 'default.action'.
165 The '#' indicates a comment. Any part of a line following a '#' is
166 ignored, except if the '#' is preceded by a '\'.
169 Thus, by placing a # at the start of an existing configuration line,
170 you can make it a comment and it will be treated as if it weren't there.
171 This is called "commenting out" an option and can be useful. Removing
172 the # again is called "uncommenting".
175 Note that commenting out an option and leaving it at its default
176 are two completely different things! Most options behave very
177 differently when unset. See the "Effect if unset" explanation
178 in each option's description for details.
181 Long lines can be continued on the next line by using a `\' as
187 <!-- ************************************************ -->
188 <!-- The following is common to both outputs (mostly) -->
189 <!-- ************************************************ -->
193 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
194 <sect2 id="local-set-up">
195 <title>Local Set-up Documentation</title>
198 If you intend to operate <application>Privoxy</application> for more users
199 than just yourself, it might be a good idea to let them know how to reach
200 you, what you block and why you do that, your policies, etc.
204 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
205 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="user-manual"><title>user-manual</title>
208 <term>Specifies:</term>
211 Location of the <application>Privoxy</application> User Manual.
216 <term>Type of value:</term>
218 <para>A fully qualified URI</para>
222 <term>Default value:</term>
224 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
228 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
231 <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/">http://www.privoxy.org/<replaceable class="parameter">version</replaceable>/user-manual/</ulink>
232 will be used, where <replaceable class="parameter">version</replaceable> is the <application>Privoxy</application> version.
240 The User Manual URI is the single best source of information on
241 <application>Privoxy</application>, and is used for help links from some
242 of the internal CGI pages. The manual itself is normally packaged with the
243 binary distributions, so you probably want to set this to a locally
251 Unix, in local filesystem (may not work with all browsers):
254 <screen> user-manual file:///usr/share/doc/privoxy-&p-version;/user-manual/</screen>
257 Windows, in local filesystem, <emphasis>must</emphasis> use forward slash notation:
260 <screen> user-manual file:/c:/some-dir/privoxy-&p-version;/user-manual/</screen>
263 Windows, UNC notation (with forward slashes):
266 <screen> user-manual file://///some-server/some-path/privoxy-&p-version;/user-manual/</screen>
270 The best all purpose solution is simply to put the full local
271 <literal>PATH</literal> to where the <citetitle>User Manual</citetitle> is
275 <screen> user-manual /usr/share/doc/privoxy/user-manual</screen>
278 The User Manual is then available to anyone with access to
279 <application>Privoxy</application>, by following the built-in URL:
280 <literal>http://config.privoxy.org/user-manual/</literal>
281 (or the shortcut: <literal>http://p.p/user-manual/</literal>).
284 If the documentation is not on the local system, it can be accessed
285 from a remote server, as:
288 <screen> user-manual http://example.com/privoxy/user-manual/</screen>
291 <!-- this gets hammered in conversion to config. Text repeated below. -->
294 If set, this option should be <emphasis>the first option in the config
295 file</emphasis>, because it is used while the config file is being read
308 If set, this option should be the first option in the config
309 file, because it is used while the config file is being read.
318 <![%config-file;[<literallayout>@@#user-manual http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/</literallayout>]]>
322 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
323 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="trust-info-url"><title>trust-info-url</title>
327 <term>Specifies:</term>
330 A URL to be displayed in the error page that users will see if access to an untrusted page is denied.
335 <term>Type of value:</term>
341 <term>Default value:</term>
343 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
347 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
350 No links are displayed on the "untrusted" error page.
358 The value of this option only matters if the experimental trust mechanism has been
359 activated. (See <link linkend="trustfile"><emphasis>trustfile</emphasis></link> below.)
362 If you use the trust mechanism, it is a good idea to write up some on-line
363 documentation about your trust policy and to specify the URL(s) here.
364 Use multiple times for multiple URLs.
367 The URL(s) should be added to the trustfile as well, so users don't end up
368 locked out from the information on why they were locked out in the first place!
374 <![%config-file;[<literallayout>@@#trust-info-url http://www.example.com/why_we_block.html</literallayout>]]>
375 <![%config-file;[<literallayout>@@#trust-info-url http://www.example.com/what_we_allow.html</literallayout>]]>
379 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
380 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="admin-address"><title>admin-address</title>
384 <term>Specifies:</term>
387 An email address to reach the <application>Privoxy</application> administrator.
392 <term>Type of value:</term>
394 <para>Email address</para>
398 <term>Default value:</term>
400 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
404 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
407 No email address is displayed on error pages and the CGI user interface.
415 If both <literal>admin-address</literal> and <literal>proxy-info-url</literal>
416 are unset, the whole "Local Privoxy Support" box on all generated pages will
423 <![%config-file;[<literallayout>@@#admin-address privoxy-admin@example.com</literallayout>]]>
427 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
428 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="proxy-info-url"><title>proxy-info-url</title>
432 <term>Specifies:</term>
435 A URL to documentation about the local <application>Privoxy</application> setup,
436 configuration or policies.
441 <term>Type of value:</term>
447 <term>Default value:</term>
449 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
453 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
456 No link to local documentation is displayed on error pages and the CGI user interface.
464 If both <literal>admin-address</literal> and <literal>proxy-info-url</literal>
465 are unset, the whole "Local Privoxy Support" box on all generated pages will
469 This URL shouldn't be blocked ;-)
475 <![%config-file;[<literallayout>@@#proxy-info-url http://www.example.com/proxy-service.html</literallayout>]]>
479 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
483 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
485 <sect2 id="conf-log-loc">
486 <title>Configuration and Log File Locations</title>
489 <application>Privoxy</application> can (and normally does) use a number of
490 other files for additional configuration, help and logging.
491 This section of the configuration file tells <application>Privoxy</application>
492 where to find those other files.
496 The user running <application>Privoxy</application>, must have read
497 permission for all configuration files, and write permission to any files
498 that would be modified, such as log files and actions files.
502 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
503 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="confdir"><title>confdir</title>
507 <term>Specifies:</term>
509 <para>The directory where the other configuration files are located.</para>
513 <term>Type of value:</term>
515 <para>Path name</para>
519 <term>Default value:</term>
521 <para>/etc/privoxy (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> <application>Privoxy</application> installation dir (Windows) </para>
525 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
527 <para><emphasis>Mandatory</emphasis></para>
534 No trailing <quote><literal>/</literal></quote>, please.
537 This is really outdated and not likely to happen. HB 09/20/06
539 When development goes modular and multi-user, the blocker, filter, and
540 per-user config will be stored in subdirectories of <quote>confdir</quote>.
541 For now, the configuration directory structure is flat, except for
542 <filename>confdir/templates</filename>, where the HTML templates for CGI
543 output reside (e.g. <application>Privoxy's</application> 404 error page).
550 <![%config-file;[<literallayout>@@confdir .</literallayout>]]>
553 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
554 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="templdir"><title>templdir</title>
558 <term>Specifies:</term>
560 <para>An alternative directory where the templates are loaded from.</para>
564 <term>Type of value:</term>
566 <para>Path name</para>
570 <term>Default value:</term>
576 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
578 <para>The templates are assumed to be located in confdir/template.</para>
585 <application>Privoxy's</application> original templates are usually
586 overwritten with each update. Use this option to relocate customized
587 templates that should be kept. As template variables might change
588 between updates, you shouldn't expect templates to work with
589 <application>Privoxy</application> releases other than the one
590 they were part of, though.
596 <![%config-file;[<literallayout>@@#templdir .</literallayout>]]>
600 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
601 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="logdir"><title>logdir</title>
605 <term>Specifies:</term>
608 The directory where all logging takes place
609 (i.e. where the <filename>logfile</filename> is located).
614 <term>Type of value:</term>
616 <para>Path name</para>
620 <term>Default value:</term>
622 <para>/var/log/privoxy (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> <application>Privoxy</application> installation dir (Windows) </para>
626 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
628 <para><emphasis>Mandatory</emphasis></para>
635 No trailing <quote><literal>/</literal></quote>, please.
641 <![%config-file;[<literallayout>@@logdir .</literallayout>]]>
645 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
646 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="actionsfile"><title>
649 <anchor id="default.action">
650 <anchor id="standard.action">
651 <anchor id="user.action">
652 <!-- Note: slightly modified this section 04/28/02, hal. See NOTE. -->
655 <term>Specifies:</term>
658 The <link linkend="actions-file">actions file(s)</link> to use
663 <term>Type of value:</term>
665 <para>Complete file name, relative to <literal>confdir</literal></para>
669 <term>Default values:</term>
673 <msgtext><literallayout> match-all.action # Actions that are applied to all sites and maybe overruled later on.</literallayout></msgtext>
676 <msgtext><literallayout> default.action # Main actions file</literallayout></msgtext>
679 <msgtext><literallayout> user.action # User customizations</literallayout></msgtext>
685 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
688 No actions are taken at all. More or less neutral proxying.
696 Multiple <literal>actionsfile</literal> lines are permitted, and are in fact recommended!
699 The default values are <filename>default.action</filename>, which is the
700 <quote>main</quote> actions file maintained by the developers, and
701 <filename>user.action</filename>, where you can make your personal additions.
704 Actions files contain all the per site and per URL configuration for
705 ad blocking, cookie management, privacy considerations, etc.
706 There is no point in using <application>Privoxy</application> without at
707 least one actions file.
710 Note that since Privoxy 3.0.7, the complete filename, including the <quote>.action</quote>
711 extension has to be specified. The syntax change was necessary to be consistent
712 with the other file options and to allow previously forbidden characters.
718 <!-- NOTE: alternate markup to make a simpler list doesn't work due to -->
719 <!-- html -> text conversion, blah -->
720 <![%config-file;[<literallayout>@@actionsfile match-all.action # Actions that are applied to all sites and maybe overruled later on.</literallayout>]]>
721 <![%config-file;[<literallayout>@@actionsfile default.action # Main actions file</literallayout>]]>
723 XXX: Like user.filter, user.action should probably be commented out
724 by default as not all packages install it into the default directory.
727 <![%config-file;[<literallayout>@@actionsfile user.action # User customizations</literallayout>]]>
730 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
731 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="filterfile"><title>filterfile</title>
732 <anchor id="default.filter">
735 <term>Specifies:</term>
738 The <link linkend="filter-file">filter file(s)</link> to use
743 <term>Type of value:</term>
745 <para>File name, relative to <literal>confdir</literal></para>
749 <term>Default value:</term>
751 <para>default.filter (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> default.filter.txt (Windows)</para>
755 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
758 No textual content filtering takes place, i.e. all
759 <literal>+<link linkend="filter">filter</link>{<replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable>}</literal>
760 actions in the actions files are turned neutral.
768 Multiple <literal>filterfile</literal> lines are permitted.
771 The <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link> contain content modification
772 rules that use <link linkend="regex">regular expressions</link>. These rules permit
773 powerful changes on the content of Web pages, and optionally the headers
774 as well, e.g., you could try to disable your favorite JavaScript annoyances,
775 re-write the actual displayed text, or just have some fun
776 playing buzzword bingo with web pages.
780 <literal>+<link linkend="filter">filter</link>{<replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable>}</literal>
781 actions rely on the relevant filter (<replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable>)
782 to be defined in a filter file!
785 A pre-defined filter file called <filename>default.filter</filename> that contains
786 a number of useful filters for common problems is included in the distribution.
787 See the section on the <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>
791 It is recommended to place any locally adapted filters into a separate
792 file, such as <filename>user.filter</filename>.
798 <![%config-file;[<literallayout>@@filterfile default.filter</literallayout>]]>
799 <![%config-file;[<literallayout>@@filterfile user.filter # User customizations</literallayout>]]>
803 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
804 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="logfile"><title>logfile</title>
808 <term>Specifies:</term>
816 <term>Type of value:</term>
818 <para>File name, relative to <literal>logdir</literal></para>
822 <term>Default value:</term>
824 <para><emphasis>Unset (commented out)</emphasis>. When activated: logfile (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> privoxy.log (Windows).</para>
828 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
831 No logfile is written.
839 The logfile is where all logging and error messages are written. The level
840 of detail and number of messages are set with the <literal>debug</literal>
841 option (see below). The logfile can be useful for tracking down a problem with
842 <application>Privoxy</application> (e.g., it's not blocking an ad you
843 think it should block) and it can help you to monitor what your browser
847 Depending on the debug options below, the logfile may be a privacy risk
848 if third parties can get access to it. As most users will never look
849 at it, <application>Privoxy</application> 3.0.7 and later only log fatal
853 For most troubleshooting purposes, you will have to change that,
854 please refer to the debugging section for details.
857 Your logfile will grow indefinitely, and you will probably want to
858 periodically remove it. On Unix systems, you can do this with a cron job
859 (see <quote>man cron</quote>). For Red Hat based Linux distributions, a
860 <command>logrotate</command> script has been included.
863 Any log files must be writable by whatever user <application>Privoxy</application>
864 is being run as (on Unix, default user id is <quote>privoxy</quote>).
870 <![%config-file;[<literallayout>@@logfile logfile</literallayout>]]>
874 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
875 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="trustfile"><title>trustfile</title>
878 <term>Specifies:</term>
881 The name of the trust file to use
886 <term>Type of value:</term>
888 <para>File name, relative to <literal>confdir</literal></para>
892 <term>Default value:</term>
894 <para><emphasis>Unset (commented out)</emphasis>. When activated: trust (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> trust.txt (Windows)</para>
898 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
901 The entire trust mechanism is disabled.
909 The trust mechanism is an experimental feature for building white-lists and should
910 be used with care. It is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> recommended for the casual user.
913 If you specify a trust file, <application>Privoxy</application> will only allow
914 access to sites that are specified in the trustfile. Sites can be listed
918 Prepending a <literal>~</literal> character limits access to this site
919 only (and any sub-paths within this site), e.g.
920 <literal>~www.example.com</literal> allows access to
921 <literal>~www.example.com/features/news.html</literal>, etc.
924 Or, you can designate sites as <emphasis>trusted referrers</emphasis>, by
925 prepending the name with a <literal>+</literal> character. The effect is that
926 access to untrusted sites will be granted -- but only if a link from this
927 trusted referrer was used to get there. The link target will then be added
928 to the <quote>trustfile</quote> so that future, direct accesses will be
929 granted. Sites added via this mechanism do not become trusted referrers
930 themselves (i.e. they are added with a <literal>~</literal> designation).
931 There is a limit of 512 such entries, after which new entries will not be
935 If you use the <literal>+</literal> operator in the trust file, it may grow
936 considerably over time.
939 It is recommended that <application>Privoxy</application> be compiled with
940 the <literal>--disable-force</literal>, <literal>--disable-toggle</literal> and
941 <literal> --disable-editor</literal> options, if this feature is to be
945 Possible applications include limiting Internet access for children.
952 <![%config-file;[<literallayout>@@#trustfile trust</literallayout>]]>
956 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
958 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
959 <sect2 id="debugging">
960 <title>Debugging</title>
963 These options are mainly useful when tracing a problem.
964 Note that you might also want to invoke
965 <application>Privoxy</application> with the <literal>--no-daemon</literal>
966 command line option when debugging.
969 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="debug"><title>debug</title>
973 <term>Specifies:</term>
976 Key values that determine what information gets logged.
981 <term>Type of value:</term>
983 <para>Integer values</para>
987 <term>Default value:</term>
989 <para>0 (i.e.: only fatal errors (that cause Privoxy to exit) are logged)</para>
993 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
996 Default value is used (see above).
1004 The available debug levels are:
1008 debug 1 # Log the destination for each request &my-app; let through. See also debug 1024.
1009 debug 2 # show each connection status
1010 debug 4 # show I/O status
1011 debug 8 # show header parsing
1012 debug 16 # log all data written to the network
1013 debug 32 # debug force feature
1014 debug 64 # debug regular expression filters
1015 debug 128 # debug redirects
1016 debug 256 # debug GIF de-animation
1017 debug 512 # Common Log Format
1018 debug 1024 # Log the destination for requests &my-app; didn't let through, and the reason why.
1019 debug 2048 # CGI user interface
1020 debug 4096 # Startup banner and warnings.
1021 debug 8192 # Non-fatal errors
1022 debug 32768 # log all data read from the network
1023 debug 65536 # Log the applying actions
1027 To select multiple debug levels, you can either add them or use
1028 multiple <literal>debug</literal> lines.
1031 A debug level of 1 is informative because it will show you each request
1032 as it happens. <emphasis>1, 1024, 4096 and 8192 are recommended</emphasis>
1033 so that you will notice when things go wrong. The other levels are
1034 probably only of interest if you are hunting down a specific problem.
1035 They can produce a hell of an output (especially 16).
1039 &my-app; used to ship with the debug levels recommended above enabled by
1040 default, but due to privacy concerns 3.0.7 and later are configured to
1041 only log fatal errors.
1044 If you are used to the more verbose settings, simply enable the debug lines
1048 If you want to use pure CLF (Common Log Format), you should set <quote>debug
1049 512</quote> <emphasis>ONLY</emphasis> and not enable anything else.
1052 <application>Privoxy</application> has a hard-coded limit for the
1053 length of log messages. If it's reached, messages are logged truncated
1054 and marked with <quote>... [too long, truncated]</quote>.
1057 Please don't file any support requests without trying to reproduce
1058 the problem with increased debug level first. Once you read the log
1059 messages, you may even be able to solve the problem on your own.
1065 <![%config-file;[<literallayout>@@#debug 1 # Log the destination for each request &my-app; let through.</literallayout>]]>
1066 <![%config-file;[<literallayout>@@#debug 1024 # Log the destination for requests &my-app; didn't let through, and the reason why.</literallayout>]]>
1067 <![%config-file;[<literallayout>@@#debug 4096 # Startup banner and warnings</literallayout>]]>
1068 <![%config-file;[<literallayout>@@#debug 8192 # Non-fatal errors</literallayout>]]>
1072 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1073 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="single-threaded"><title>single-threaded</title>
1077 <term>Specifies:</term>
1080 Whether to run only one server thread.
1085 <term>Type of value:</term>
1087 <para><emphasis>None</emphasis></para>
1091 <term>Default value:</term>
1093 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
1097 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1100 Multi-threaded (or, where unavailable: forked) operation, i.e. the ability to
1101 serve multiple requests simultaneously.
1109 This option is only there for debugging purposes.
1110 <emphasis>It will drastically reduce performance.</emphasis>
1116 <![%config-file;[<literallayout>@@#single-threaded</literallayout>]]>
1119 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1120 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hostname"><title>hostname</title>
1124 <term>Specifies:</term>
1127 The hostname shown on the CGI pages.
1132 <term>Type of value:</term>
1138 <term>Default value:</term>
1140 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
1144 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1147 The hostname provided by the operating system is used.
1155 On some misconfigured systems resolving the hostname fails or
1156 takes too much time and slows Privoxy down. Setting a fixed hostname
1157 works around the problem.
1160 In other circumstances it might be desirable to show a hostname
1161 other than the one returned by the operating system. For example
1162 if the system has several different hostnames and you don't want
1163 to use the first one.
1166 Note that Privoxy does not validate the specified hostname value.
1172 <![%config-file;[<literallayout>@@#hostname hostname.example.org</literallayout>]]>
1177 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1180 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1181 <sect2 id="access-control">
1182 <title>Access Control and Security</title>
1185 This section of the config file controls the security-relevant aspects
1186 of <application>Privoxy</application>'s configuration.
1190 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1191 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="listen-address"><title>listen-address</title>
1195 <term>Specifies:</term>
1198 The address and TCP port on which <application>Privoxy</application> will
1199 listen for client requests.
1204 <term>Type of value:</term>
1206 <para>[<replaceable class="parameter">IP-Address</replaceable>]:<replaceable class="parameter">Port</replaceable></para>
1207 <para>[<replaceable class="parameter">Hostname</replaceable>]:<replaceable class="parameter">Port</replaceable></para>
1212 <term>Default value:</term>
1214 <para>127.0.0.1:8118</para>
1218 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1221 Bind to 127.0.0.1 (IPv4 localhost), port 8118. This is suitable and
1222 recommended for home users who run <application>Privoxy</application> on
1223 the same machine as their browser.
1231 You will need to configure your browser(s) to this proxy address and port.
1234 If you already have another service running on port 8118, or if you want to
1235 serve requests from other machines (e.g. on your local network) as well, you
1236 will need to override the default.
1239 You can use this statement multiple times to make
1240 <application>Privoxy</application> listen on more ports or more
1241 <abbrev>IP</abbrev> addresses. Suitable if your operating system does not
1242 support sharing <abbrev>IPv6</abbrev> and <abbrev>IPv4</abbrev> protocols
1246 If a hostname is used instead of an IP address, <application>Privoxy</application>
1247 will try to resolve it to an IP address and if there are multiple, use the first
1251 If the address for the hostname isn't already known on the system
1252 (for example because it's in /etc/hostname), this may result in DNS
1256 If the specified address isn't available on the system, or if the
1257 hostname can't be resolved, <application>Privoxy</application>
1261 IPv6 addresses containing colons have to be quoted by brackets.
1262 They can only be used if <application>Privoxy</application> has
1263 been compiled with IPv6 support. If you aren't sure if your version
1264 supports it, have a look at
1265 <literal>http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</literal>.
1268 Some operating systems will prefer IPv6 to IPv4 addresses even if the
1269 system has no IPv6 connectivity which is usually not expected by the user.
1270 Some even rely on DNS to resolve localhost which mean the "localhost" address
1271 used may not actually be local.
1274 It is therefore recommended to explicitly configure the intended IP address
1275 instead of relying on the operating system, unless there's a strong reason not to.
1278 If you leave out the address, <application>Privoxy</application> will bind to all
1279 IPv4 interfaces (addresses) on your machine and may become reachable from the
1280 Internet and/or the local network. Be aware that some GNU/Linux distributions
1281 modify that behaviour without updating the documentation. Check for non-standard
1282 patches if your <application>Privoxy</application> version behaves differently.
1285 If you configure <application>Privoxy</application> to be reachable from the
1286 network, consider using <link linkend="acls">access control lists</link>
1287 (ACL's, see below), and/or a firewall.
1290 If you open <application>Privoxy</application> to untrusted users, you will
1291 also want to make sure that the following actions are disabled: <literal><link
1292 linkend="enable-edit-actions">enable-edit-actions</link></literal> and
1293 <literal><link linkend="enable-remote-toggle">enable-remote-toggle</link></literal>
1298 <term>Example:</term>
1301 Suppose you are running <application>Privoxy</application> on
1302 a machine which has the address 192.168.0.1 on your local private network
1303 (192.168.0.0) and has another outside connection with a different address.
1304 You want it to serve requests from inside only:
1308 listen-address 192.168.0.1:8118
1312 Suppose you are running <application>Privoxy</application> on an
1313 IPv6-capable machine and you want it to listen on the IPv6 address
1314 of the loopback device:
1318 listen-address [::1]:8118
1325 <![%config-file;[<literallayout>@@listen-address 127.0.0.1:8118</literallayout>]]>
1329 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1330 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="toggle"><title>toggle</title>
1334 <term>Specifies:</term>
1337 Initial state of "toggle" status
1342 <term>Type of value:</term>
1348 <term>Default value:</term>
1354 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1357 Act as if toggled on
1365 If set to 0, <application>Privoxy</application> will start in
1366 <quote>toggled off</quote> mode, i.e. mostly behave like a normal,
1367 content-neutral proxy with both ad blocking and content filtering
1368 disabled. See <literal>enable-remote-toggle</literal> below.
1370 This is not really useful
1371 anymore, since toggling is much easier via <ulink
1372 url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">the web interface</ulink> than via
1373 editing the <filename>conf</filename> file.
1375 Remote toggling is now disabled by default. fk 2007-11-07)
1379 The windows version will only display the toggle icon in the system tray
1380 if this option is present.
1386 <![%config-file;[<literallayout>@@toggle 1</literallayout>]]>
1390 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1391 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="enable-remote-toggle"><title>enable-remote-toggle</title>
1394 <term>Specifies:</term>
1397 Whether or not the <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">web-based toggle
1398 feature</ulink> may be used
1403 <term>Type of value:</term>
1409 <term>Default value:</term>
1415 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1418 The web-based toggle feature is disabled.
1426 When toggled off, <application>Privoxy</application> mostly acts like a normal,
1427 content-neutral proxy, i.e. doesn't block ads or filter content.
1430 Access to the toggle feature can <emphasis>not</emphasis> be
1431 controlled separately by <quote>ACLs</quote> or HTTP authentication,
1432 so that everybody who can access <application>Privoxy</application> (see
1433 <quote>ACLs</quote> and <literal>listen-address</literal> above) can
1434 toggle it for all users. So this option is <emphasis>not recommended</emphasis>
1435 for multi-user environments with untrusted users.
1438 Note that malicious client side code (e.g Java) is also
1439 capable of using this option.
1442 As a lot of <application>Privoxy</application> users don't read
1443 documentation, this feature is disabled by default.
1446 Note that you must have compiled <application>Privoxy</application> with
1447 support for this feature, otherwise this option has no effect.
1453 <![%config-file;[<literallayout>@@enable-remote-toggle 0</literallayout>]]>
1457 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1458 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="enable-remote-http-toggle"><title>enable-remote-http-toggle</title>
1461 <term>Specifies:</term>
1464 Whether or not Privoxy recognizes special HTTP headers to change its behaviour.
1469 <term>Type of value:</term>
1475 <term>Default value:</term>
1481 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1484 Privoxy ignores special HTTP headers.
1492 When toggled on, the client can change <application>Privoxy's</application>
1493 behaviour by setting special HTTP headers. Currently the only supported
1494 special header is <quote>X-Filter: No</quote>, to disable filtering for
1495 the ongoing request, even if it is enabled in one of the action files.
1498 This feature is disabled by default. If you are using
1499 <application>Privoxy</application> in a environment with trusted clients,
1500 you may enable this feature at your discretion. Note that malicious client
1501 side code (e.g Java) is also capable of using this feature.
1504 This option will be removed in future releases as it has been obsoleted
1505 by the more general header taggers.
1511 <![%config-file;[<literallayout>@@enable-remote-http-toggle 0</literallayout>]]>
1515 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1516 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="enable-edit-actions"><title>enable-edit-actions</title>
1519 <term>Specifies:</term>
1522 Whether or not the <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">web-based actions
1523 file editor</ulink> may be used
1528 <term>Type of value:</term>
1534 <term>Default value:</term>
1540 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1543 The web-based actions file editor is disabled.
1551 Access to the editor can <emphasis>not</emphasis> be
1552 controlled separately by <quote>ACLs</quote> or HTTP authentication,
1553 so that everybody who can access <application>Privoxy</application> (see
1554 <quote>ACLs</quote> and <literal>listen-address</literal> above) can
1555 modify its configuration for all users.
1558 This option is <emphasis>not recommended</emphasis> for environments
1559 with untrusted users and as a lot of <application>Privoxy</application>
1560 users don't read documentation, this feature is disabled by default.
1563 Note that malicious client side code (e.g Java) is also
1564 capable of using the actions editor and you shouldn't enable
1565 this options unless you understand the consequences and are
1566 sure your browser is configured correctly.
1569 Note that you must have compiled <application>Privoxy</application> with
1570 support for this feature, otherwise this option has no effect.
1576 <![%config-file;[<literallayout>@@enable-edit-actions 0</literallayout>]]>
1580 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="enforce-blocks"><title>enforce-blocks</title>
1583 <term>Specifies:</term>
1586 Whether the user is allowed to ignore blocks and can <quote>go there anyway</quote>.
1591 <term>Type of value:</term>
1594 <replaceable>0 or 1</replaceable>
1599 <term>Default value:</term>
1601 <para><emphasis>0</emphasis></para>
1605 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1608 Blocks are not enforced.
1616 <application>Privoxy</application> is mainly used to block and filter
1617 requests as a service to the user, for example to block ads and other
1618 junk that clogs the pipes. <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration
1619 isn't perfect and sometimes innocent pages are blocked. In this situation it
1620 makes sense to allow the user to enforce the request and have
1621 <application>Privoxy</application> ignore the block.
1624 In the default configuration <application>Privoxy's</application>
1625 <quote>Blocked</quote> page contains a <quote>go there anyway</quote>
1626 link to adds a special string (the force prefix) to the request URL.
1627 If that link is used, <application>Privoxy</application> will
1628 detect the force prefix, remove it again and let the request pass.
1631 Of course <application>Privoxy</application> can also be used to enforce
1632 a network policy. In that case the user obviously should not be able to
1633 bypass any blocks, and that's what the <quote>enforce-blocks</quote>
1634 option is for. If it's enabled, <application>Privoxy</application> hides
1635 the <quote>go there anyway</quote> link. If the user adds the force
1636 prefix by hand, it will not be accepted and the circumvention attempt
1642 <term>Examples:</term>
1650 <![%config-file;[<literallayout>@@enforce-blocks 0</literallayout>]]>
1654 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1655 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="acls"><title>
1656 ACLs: permit-access and deny-access</title>
1657 <anchor id="permit-access">
1658 <anchor id="deny-access">
1662 <term>Specifies:</term>
1665 Who can access what.
1670 <term>Type of value:</term>
1673 <replaceable class="parameter">src_addr</replaceable>[:<replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable>][/<replaceable class="parameter">src_masklen</replaceable>]
1674 [<replaceable class="parameter">dst_addr</replaceable>[:<replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable>][/<replaceable class="parameter">dst_masklen</replaceable>]]
1677 Where <replaceable class="parameter">src_addr</replaceable> and
1678 <replaceable class="parameter">dst_addr</replaceable> are IPv4 addresses in dotted decimal notation or valid
1679 DNS names, <replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable> is a port
1680 number, and <replaceable class="parameter">src_masklen</replaceable> and
1681 <replaceable class="parameter">dst_masklen</replaceable> are subnet masks in CIDR notation, i.e. integer
1682 values from 2 to 30 representing the length (in bits) of the network address. The masks and the whole
1683 destination part are optional.
1686 If your system implements
1687 <ulink url="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3493">RFC 3493</ulink>, then
1688 <replaceable class="parameter">src_addr</replaceable> and <replaceable
1689 class="parameter">dst_addr</replaceable> can be IPv6 addresses delimeted by
1690 brackets, <replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable> can be a number
1691 or a service name, and
1692 <replaceable class="parameter">src_masklen</replaceable> and
1693 <replaceable class="parameter">dst_masklen</replaceable> can be a number
1699 <term>Default value:</term>
1701 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
1703 If no <replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable> is specified,
1704 any port will match. If no <replaceable class="parameter">src_masklen</replaceable> or
1705 <replaceable class="parameter">src_masklen</replaceable> is given, the complete IP
1706 address has to match (i.e. 32 bits for IPv4 and 128 bits for IPv6).
1711 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1714 Don't restrict access further than implied by <literal>listen-address</literal>
1722 Access controls are included at the request of ISPs and systems
1723 administrators, and <emphasis>are not usually needed by individual users</emphasis>.
1724 For a typical home user, it will normally suffice to ensure that
1725 <application>Privoxy</application> only listens on the localhost
1726 (127.0.0.1) or internal (home) network address by means of the
1727 <link linkend="listen-address"><emphasis>listen-address</emphasis></link>
1731 Please see the warnings in the FAQ that <application>Privoxy</application>
1732 is not intended to be a substitute for a firewall or to encourage anyone
1733 to defer addressing basic security weaknesses.
1736 Multiple ACL lines are OK.
1737 If any ACLs are specified, <application>Privoxy</application> only talks
1738 to IP addresses that match at least one <literal>permit-access</literal> line
1739 and don't match any subsequent <literal>deny-access</literal> line. In other words, the
1740 last match wins, with the default being <literal>deny-access</literal>.
1743 If <application>Privoxy</application> is using a forwarder (see <literal>forward</literal> below)
1744 for a particular destination URL, the <replaceable class="parameter">dst_addr</replaceable>
1745 that is examined is the address of the forwarder and <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> the address
1746 of the ultimate target. This is necessary because it may be impossible for the local
1747 <application>Privoxy</application> to determine the IP address of the
1748 ultimate target (that's often what gateways are used for).
1751 You should prefer using IP addresses over DNS names, because the address lookups take
1752 time. All DNS names must resolve! You can <emphasis>not</emphasis> use domain patterns
1753 like <quote>*.org</quote> or partial domain names. If a DNS name resolves to multiple
1754 IP addresses, only the first one is used.
1757 Some systems allow IPv4 clients to connect to IPv6 server sockets.
1758 Then the client's IPv4 address will be translated by the system into
1759 IPv6 address space with special prefix ::ffff:0:0/96 (so called IPv4
1760 mapped IPv6 address). <application>Privoxy</application> can handle it
1761 and maps such ACL addresses automatically.
1764 Denying access to particular sites by ACL may have undesired side effects
1765 if the site in question is hosted on a machine which also hosts other sites
1771 <term>Examples:</term>
1774 Explicitly define the default behavior if no ACL and
1775 <literal>listen-address</literal> are set: <quote>localhost</quote>
1776 is OK. The absence of a <replaceable class="parameter">dst_addr</replaceable> implies that
1777 <emphasis>all</emphasis> destination addresses are OK:
1781 permit-access localhost
1785 Allow any host on the same class C subnet as www.privoxy.org access to
1786 nothing but www.example.com (or other domains hosted on the same system):
1790 permit-access www.privoxy.org/24 www.example.com/32
1794 Allow access from any host on the 26-bit subnet 192.168.45.64 to anywhere,
1795 with the exception that 192.168.45.73 may not access the IP address behind
1796 www.dirty-stuff.example.com:
1800 permit-access 192.168.45.64/26
1801 deny-access 192.168.45.73 www.dirty-stuff.example.com
1805 Allow access from the IPv4 network 192.0.2.0/24 even if listening on
1806 an IPv6 wild card address (not supported on all platforms):
1810 permit-access 192.0.2.0/24
1814 This is equivalent to the following line even if listening on an
1815 IPv4 address (not supported on all platforms):
1819 permit-access [::ffff:192.0.2.0]/120
1828 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1829 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="buffer-limit"><title>buffer-limit</title>
1833 <term>Specifies:</term>
1836 Maximum size of the buffer for content filtering.
1841 <term>Type of value:</term>
1843 <para>Size in Kbytes</para>
1847 <term>Default value:</term>
1853 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1856 Use a 4MB (4096 KB) limit.
1864 For content filtering, i.e. the <literal>+filter</literal> and
1865 <literal>+deanimate-gif</literal> actions, it is necessary that
1866 <application>Privoxy</application> buffers the entire document body.
1867 This can be potentially dangerous, since a server could just keep sending
1868 data indefinitely and wait for your RAM to exhaust -- with nasty consequences.
1872 When a document buffer size reaches the <literal>buffer-limit</literal>, it is
1873 flushed to the client unfiltered and no further attempt to
1874 filter the rest of the document is made. Remember that there may be multiple threads
1875 running, which might require up to <literal>buffer-limit</literal> Kbytes
1876 <emphasis>each</emphasis>, unless you have enabled <quote>single-threaded</quote>
1883 <![%config-file;[<literallayout>@@buffer-limit 4096</literallayout>]]>
1888 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1891 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1893 <sect2 id="forwarding">
1894 <title>Forwarding</title>
1897 This feature allows routing of HTTP requests through a chain of
1901 Forwarding can be used to chain Privoxy with a caching proxy to speed
1902 up browsing. Using a parent proxy may also be necessary if the machine
1903 that <application>Privoxy</application> runs on has no direct Internet access.
1906 Note that parent proxies can severely decrease your privacy level.
1907 For example a parent proxy could add your IP address to the request
1908 headers and if it's a caching proxy it may add the <quote>Etag</quote>
1909 header to revalidation requests again, even though you configured Privoxy
1910 to remove it. It may also ignore Privoxy's header time randomization and use the
1911 original values which could be used by the server as cookie replacement
1912 to track your steps between visits.
1916 Also specified here are SOCKS proxies. <application>Privoxy</application>
1917 supports the SOCKS 4 and SOCKS 4A protocols.
1920 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="forward"><title>forward</title>
1923 <term>Specifies:</term>
1926 To which parent HTTP proxy specific requests should be routed.
1931 <term>Type of value:</term>
1934 <replaceable class="parameter">target_pattern</replaceable>
1935 <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable>[:<replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable>]
1938 where <replaceable class="parameter">target_pattern</replaceable> is a <link linkend="af-patterns">URL pattern</link>
1939 that specifies to which requests (i.e. URLs) this forward rule shall apply. Use <literal>/</literal> to
1940 denote <quote>all URLs</quote>.
1941 <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable>[:<replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable>]
1942 is the DNS name or IP address of the parent HTTP proxy through which the requests should be forwarded,
1943 optionally followed by its listening port (default: 8000).
1944 Use a single dot (<literal>.</literal>) to denote <quote>no forwarding</quote>.
1949 <term>Default value:</term>
1951 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
1955 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1958 Don't use parent HTTP proxies.
1966 If <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable> is <quote>.</quote>, then requests are not
1967 forwarded to another HTTP proxy but are made directly to the web servers.
1970 <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable> can be a
1971 numerical IPv6 address (if
1972 <ulink url="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3493">RFC 3493</ulink> is
1973 implemented). To prevent clashes with the port delimiter, the whole IP
1974 address has to be put into brackets. On the other hand a <replaceable
1975 class="parameter">target_pattern</replaceable> containing an IPv6 address
1976 has to be put into angle brackets (normal brackets are reserved for
1977 regular expressions already).
1980 Multiple lines are OK, they are checked in sequence, and the last match wins.
1985 <term>Examples:</term>
1988 Everything goes to an example parent proxy, except SSL on port 443 (which it doesn't handle):
1992 forward / parent-proxy.example.org:8080
1997 Everything goes to our example ISP's caching proxy, except for requests
1998 to that ISP's sites:
2002 forward / caching-proxy.isp.example.net:8000
2003 forward .isp.example.net .
2007 Parent proxy specified by an IPv6 address:
2011 forward / [2001:DB8::1]:8000
2015 Suppose your parent proxy doesn't support IPv6:
2019 forward / parent-proxy.example.org:8000
2020 forward ipv6-server.example.org .
2021 forward <[2-3][0-9a-f][0-9a-f][0-9a-f]:*> .
2030 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2031 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="socks"><title>
2032 forward-socks4, forward-socks4a and forward-socks5</title>
2033 <anchor id="forward-socks4">
2034 <anchor id="forward-socks4a">
2038 <term>Specifies:</term>
2041 Through which SOCKS proxy (and optionally to which parent HTTP proxy) specific requests should be routed.
2046 <term>Type of value:</term>
2049 <replaceable class="parameter">target_pattern</replaceable>
2050 <replaceable class="parameter">socks_proxy</replaceable>[:<replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable>]
2051 <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable>[:<replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable>]
2054 where <replaceable class="parameter">target_pattern</replaceable> is a
2055 <link linkend="af-patterns">URL pattern</link> that specifies to which
2056 requests (i.e. URLs) this forward rule shall apply. Use <literal>/</literal> to
2057 denote <quote>all URLs</quote>. <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable>
2058 and <replaceable class="parameter">socks_proxy</replaceable>
2059 are IP addresses in dotted decimal notation or valid DNS names
2060 (<replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable>
2061 may be <quote>.</quote> to denote <quote>no HTTP forwarding</quote>), and the optional
2062 <replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable> parameters are TCP ports,
2063 i.e. integer values from 1 to 65535
2068 <term>Default value:</term>
2070 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
2074 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
2077 Don't use SOCKS proxies.
2085 Multiple lines are OK, they are checked in sequence, and the last match wins.
2088 The difference between <literal>forward-socks4</literal> and <literal>forward-socks4a</literal>
2089 is that in the SOCKS 4A protocol, the DNS resolution of the target hostname happens on the SOCKS
2090 server, while in SOCKS 4 it happens locally.
2093 With <literal>forward-socks5</literal> the DNS resolution will happen on the remote server as well.
2096 <replaceable class="parameter">socks_proxy</replaceable> and
2097 <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable> can be a
2098 numerical IPv6 address (if
2099 <ulink url="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3493">RFC 3493</ulink> is
2100 implemented). To prevent clashes with the port delimiter, the whole IP
2101 address has to be put into brackets. On the other hand a <replaceable
2102 class="parameter">target_pattern</replaceable> containing an IPv6 address
2103 has to be put into angle brackets (normal brackets are reserved for
2104 regular expressions already).
2107 If <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable> is <quote>.</quote>, then requests are not
2108 forwarded to another HTTP proxy but are made (HTTP-wise) directly to the web servers, albeit through
2114 <term>Examples:</term>
2117 From the company example.com, direct connections are made to all
2118 <quote>internal</quote> domains, but everything outbound goes through
2119 their ISP's proxy by way of example.com's corporate SOCKS 4A gateway to
2124 forward-socks4a / socks-gw.example.com:1080 www-cache.isp.example.net:8080
2125 forward .example.com .
2129 A rule that uses a SOCKS 4 gateway for all destinations but no HTTP parent looks like this:
2133 forward-socks4 / socks-gw.example.com:1080 .
2138 To chain Privoxy and Tor, both running on the same system, you would use
2143 forward-socks5 / 127.0.0.1:9050 .
2148 The public <application>Tor</application> network can't be used to
2149 reach your local network, if you need to access local servers you
2150 therefore might want to make some exceptions:
2154 forward 192.168.*.*/ .
2156 forward 127.*.*.*/ .
2160 Unencrypted connections to systems in these address ranges will
2161 be as (un)secure as the local network is, but the alternative is that you
2162 can't reach the local network through <application>Privoxy</application>
2163 at all. Of course this may actually be desired and there is no reason
2164 to make these exceptions if you aren't sure you need them.
2167 If you also want to be able to reach servers in your local network by
2168 using their names, you will need additional exceptions that look like
2173 forward localhost/ .
2182 <![%user-man;[ <!-- not included in config due to length -->
2183 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2184 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="advanced-forwarding-examples"><title>Advanced Forwarding Examples</title>
2187 If you have links to multiple ISPs that provide various special content
2188 only to their subscribers, you can configure multiple <application>Privoxies</application>
2189 which have connections to the respective ISPs to act as forwarders to each other, so that
2190 <emphasis>your</emphasis> users can see the internal content of all ISPs.
2194 Assume that host-a has a PPP connection to isp-a.example.net. And host-b has a PPP connection to
2195 isp-b.example.org. Both run <application>Privoxy</application>. Their forwarding
2196 configuration can look like this:
2206 forward .isp-b.example.net host-b:8118
2217 forward .isp-a.example.org host-a:8118
2222 Now, your users can set their browser's proxy to use either
2223 host-a or host-b and be able to browse the internal content
2224 of both isp-a and isp-b.
2228 If you intend to chain <application>Privoxy</application> and
2229 <application>squid</application> locally, then chaining as
2230 <literal>browser -> squid -> privoxy</literal> is the recommended way.
2234 Assuming that <application>Privoxy</application> and <application>squid</application>
2235 run on the same box, your <application>squid</application> configuration could then look like this:
2240 # Define Privoxy as parent proxy (without ICP)
2241 cache_peer 127.0.0.1 parent 8118 7 no-query
2243 # Define ACL for protocol FTP
2246 # Do not forward FTP requests to Privoxy
2247 always_direct allow ftp
2249 # Forward all the rest to Privoxy
2250 never_direct allow all</screen>
2254 You would then need to change your browser's proxy settings to <application>squid</application>'s address and port.
2255 Squid normally uses port 3128. If unsure consult <literal>http_port</literal> in <filename>squid.conf</filename>.
2259 You could just as well decide to only forward requests you suspect
2260 of leading to Windows executables through a virus-scanning parent proxy,
2261 say, on <literal>antivir.example.com</literal>, port 8010:
2267 forward /.*\.(exe|com|dll|zip)$ antivir.example.com:8010</screen>
2273 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="forwarded-connect-retries"><title>forwarded-connect-retries</title>
2276 <term>Specifies:</term>
2279 How often Privoxy retries if a forwarded connection request fails.
2284 <term>Type of value:</term>
2287 <replaceable class="parameter">Number of retries.</replaceable>
2292 <term>Default value:</term>
2294 <para><emphasis>0</emphasis></para>
2298 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
2301 Connections forwarded through other proxies are treated like direct connections and no retry attempts are made.
2309 <replaceable class="parameter">forwarded-connect-retries</replaceable> is mainly interesting
2310 for socks4a connections, where <application>Privoxy</application> can't detect why the connections failed.
2311 The connection might have failed because of a DNS timeout in which case a retry makes sense,
2312 but it might also have failed because the server doesn't exist or isn't reachable. In this
2313 case the retry will just delay the appearance of Privoxy's error message.
2316 Note that in the context of this option, <quote>forwarded connections</quote> includes all connections
2317 that Privoxy forwards through other proxies. This option is not limited to the HTTP CONNECT method.
2320 Only use this option, if you are getting lots of forwarding-related error messages
2321 that go away when you try again manually. Start with a small value and check Privoxy's
2322 logfile from time to time, to see how many retries are usually needed.
2327 <term>Examples:</term>
2330 forwarded-connect-retries 1
2335 <![%config-file;[<literallayout>@@forwarded-connect-retries 0</literallayout>]]>
2341 <title>Miscellaneous</title>
2343 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="accept-intercepted-requests"><title>accept-intercepted-requests</title>
2346 <term>Specifies:</term>
2349 Whether intercepted requests should be treated as valid.
2354 <term>Type of value:</term>
2357 <replaceable>0 or 1</replaceable>
2362 <term>Default value:</term>
2364 <para><emphasis>0</emphasis></para>
2368 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
2371 Only proxy requests are accepted, intercepted requests are treated as invalid.
2379 If you don't trust your clients and want to force them
2380 to use <application>Privoxy</application>, enable this
2381 option and configure your packet filter to redirect outgoing
2382 HTTP connections into <application>Privoxy</application>.
2385 Make sure that <application>Privoxy's</application> own requests
2386 aren't redirected as well. Additionally take care that
2387 <application>Privoxy</application> can't intentionally connect
2388 to itself, otherwise you could run into redirection loops if
2389 <application>Privoxy's</application> listening port is reachable
2390 by the outside or an attacker has access to the pages you visit.
2395 <term>Examples:</term>
2398 accept-intercepted-requests 1
2403 <![%config-file;[<literallayout>@@accept-intercepted-requests 0</literallayout>]]>
2406 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="allow-cgi-request-crunching"><title>allow-cgi-request-crunching</title>
2409 <term>Specifies:</term>
2412 Whether requests to <application>Privoxy's</application> CGI pages can be blocked or redirected.
2417 <term>Type of value:</term>
2420 <replaceable>0 or 1</replaceable>
2425 <term>Default value:</term>
2427 <para><emphasis>0</emphasis></para>
2431 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
2434 <application>Privoxy</application> ignores block and redirect actions for its CGI pages.
2442 By default <application>Privoxy</application> ignores block or redirect actions
2443 for its CGI pages. Intercepting these requests can be useful in multi-user
2444 setups to implement fine-grained access control, but it can also render the complete
2445 web interface useless and make debugging problems painful if done without care.
2448 Don't enable this option unless you're sure that you really need it.
2453 <term>Examples:</term>
2456 allow-cgi-request-crunching 1
2461 <![%config-file;[<literallayout>@@allow-cgi-request-crunching 0</literallayout>]]>
2464 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="split-large-forms"><title>split-large-forms</title>
2467 <term>Specifies:</term>
2470 Whether the CGI interface should stay compatible with broken HTTP clients.
2475 <term>Type of value:</term>
2478 <replaceable>0 or 1</replaceable>
2483 <term>Default value:</term>
2485 <para><emphasis>0</emphasis></para>
2489 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
2492 The CGI form generate long GET URLs.
2500 <application>Privoxy's</application> CGI forms can lead to
2501 rather long URLs. This isn't a problem as far as the HTTP
2502 standard is concerned, but it can confuse clients with arbitrary
2503 URL length limitations.
2506 Enabling split-large-forms causes <application>Privoxy</application>
2507 to divide big forms into smaller ones to keep the URL length down.
2508 It makes editing a lot less convenient and you can no longer
2509 submit all changes at once, but at least it works around this
2513 If you don't notice any editing problems, there is no reason
2514 to enable this option, but if one of the submit buttons appears
2515 to be broken, you should give it a try.
2520 <term>Examples:</term>
2528 <![%config-file;[<literallayout>@@split-large-forms 0</literallayout>]]>
2531 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="keep-alive-timeout"><title>keep-alive-timeout</title>
2534 <term>Specifies:</term>
2537 Number of seconds after which an open connection will no longer be reused.
2542 <term>Type of value:</term>
2545 <replaceable>Time in seconds.</replaceable>
2550 <term>Default value:</term>
2556 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
2559 Connections are not kept alive.
2567 This option allows clients to keep the connection to &my-app;
2568 alive. If the server supports it, &my-app; will keep
2569 the connection to the server alive as well. Under certain
2570 circumstances this may result in speed-ups.
2573 By default, &my-app; will close the connection to the server if
2574 the client connection gets closed, or if the specified timeout
2575 has been reached without a new request coming in. This behaviour
2576 can be changed with the <ulink
2577 url="#CONNECTION-SHARING">connection-sharing</ulink> option.
2580 This option has no effect if <application>Privoxy</application>
2581 has been compiled without keep-alive support.
2584 Note that a timeout of five seconds as used in the default
2585 configuration file significantly decreases the number of
2586 connections that will be reused. The value is used because
2587 some browsers limit the number of connections they open to
2588 a single host and apply the same limit to proxies. This can
2589 result in a single website <quote>grabbing</quote> all the
2590 connections the browser allows, which means connections to
2591 other websites can't be opened until the connections currently
2595 Several users have reported this as a Privoxy bug, so the
2596 default value has been reduced. Consider increasing it to
2597 300 seconds or even more if you think your browser can handle
2598 it. If your browser appears to be hanging it can't.
2603 <term>Examples:</term>
2606 keep-alive-timeout 300
2611 <![%config-file;[<literallayout>@@keep-alive-timeout 5</literallayout>]]>
2615 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="default-server-timeout"><title>default-server-timeout</title>
2618 <term>Specifies:</term>
2621 Assumed server-side keep-alive timeout if not specified by the server.
2626 <term>Type of value:</term>
2629 <replaceable>Time in seconds.</replaceable>
2634 <term>Default value:</term>
2640 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
2643 Connections for which the server didn't specify the keep-alive
2644 timeout are not reused.
2652 Enabling this option significantly increases the number of connections
2653 that are reused, provided the <ulink
2654 url="#KEEP-ALIVE-TIMEOUT">keep-alive-timeout</ulink> option
2658 While it also increases the number of connections problems
2659 when &my-app; tries to reuse a connection that already has
2660 been closed on the server side, or is closed while &my-app;
2661 is trying to reuse it, this should only be a problem if it
2662 happens for the first request sent by the client. If it happens
2663 for requests on reused client connections, &my-app; will simply
2664 close the connection and the client is supposed to retry the
2665 request without bothering the user.
2668 Enabling this option is therefore only recommended if the
2670 url="#CONNECTION-SHARING">connection-sharing</ulink> option
2674 It is an error to specify a value larger than the <ulink
2675 url="#KEEP-ALIVE-TIMEOUT">keep-alive-timeout</ulink> value.
2678 This option has no effect if <application>Privoxy</application>
2679 has been compiled without keep-alive support.
2684 <term>Examples:</term>
2687 default-server-timeout 60
2692 <![%config-file;[<literallayout>@@#default-server-timeout 60</literallayout>]]>
2696 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="connection-sharing"><title>connection-sharing</title>
2699 <term>Specifies:</term>
2702 Whether or not outgoing connections that have been kept alive
2703 should be shared between different incoming connections.
2708 <term>Type of value:</term>
2711 <replaceable>0 or 1</replaceable>
2716 <term>Default value:</term>
2722 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
2725 Connections are not shared.
2733 This option has no effect if <application>Privoxy</application>
2734 has been compiled without keep-alive support, or if it's disabled.
2742 Note that reusing connections doesn't necessary cause speedups.
2743 There are also a few privacy implications you should be aware of.
2746 If this option is effective, outgoing connections are shared between
2747 clients (if there are more than one) and closing the browser that initiated
2748 the outgoing connection does no longer affect the connection between &my-app;
2749 and the server unless the client's request hasn't been completed yet.
2752 If the outgoing connection is idle, it will not be closed until either
2753 <application>Privoxy's</application> or the server's timeout is reached.
2754 While it's open, the server knows that the system running &my-app; is still
2758 If there are more than one client (maybe even belonging to multiple users),
2759 they will be able to reuse each others connections. This is potentially
2760 dangerous in case of authentication schemes like NTLM where only the
2761 connection is authenticated, instead of requiring authentication for
2765 If there is only a single client, and if said client can keep connections
2766 alive on its own, enabling this option has next to no effect. If the client
2767 doesn't support connection keep-alive, enabling this option may make sense
2768 as it allows &my-app; to keep outgoing connections alive even if the client
2769 itself doesn't support it.
2772 You should also be aware that enabling this option increases the likelihood
2773 of getting the "No server or forwarder data" error message, especially if you
2774 are using a slow connection to the Internet.
2777 This option should only be used by experienced users who
2778 understand the risks and can weight them against the benefits.
2783 <term>Examples:</term>
2786 connection-sharing 1
2791 <![%config-file;[<literallayout>@@#connection-sharing 1</literallayout>]]>
2795 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="socket-timeout"><title>socket-timeout</title>
2798 <term>Specifies:</term>
2801 Number of seconds after which a socket times out if
2802 no data is received.
2807 <term>Type of value:</term>
2810 <replaceable>Time in seconds.</replaceable>
2815 <term>Default value:</term>
2821 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
2824 A default value of 300 seconds is used.
2832 The default is quite high and you probably want to reduce it.
2833 If you aren't using an occasionally slow proxy like Tor, reducing
2834 it to a few seconds should be fine.
2839 <term>Examples:</term>
2847 <![%config-file;[<literallayout>@@socket-timeout 300</literallayout>]]>
2851 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="max-client-connections"><title>max-client-connections</title>
2854 <term>Specifies:</term>
2857 Maximum number of client connections that will be served.
2862 <term>Type of value:</term>
2865 <replaceable>Positive number.</replaceable>
2870 <term>Default value:</term>
2876 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
2879 Connections are served until a resource limit is reached.
2887 &my-app; creates one thread (or process) for every incoming client
2888 connection that isn't rejected based on the access control settings.
2891 If the system is powerful enough, &my-app; can theoretically deal with
2892 several hundred (or thousand) connections at the same time, but some
2893 operating systems enforce resource limits by shutting down offending
2894 processes and their default limits may be below the ones &my-app; would
2895 require under heavy load.
2898 Configuring &my-app; to enforce a connection limit below the thread
2899 or process limit used by the operating system makes sure this doesn't
2900 happen. Simply increasing the operating system's limit would work too,
2901 but if &my-app; isn't the only application running on the system,
2902 you may actually want to limit the resources used by &my-app;.
2905 If &my-app; is only used by a single trusted user, limiting the
2906 number of client connections is probably unnecessary. If there
2907 are multiple possibly untrusted users you probably still want to
2908 additionally use a packet filter to limit the maximal number of
2909 incoming connections per client. Otherwise a malicious user could
2910 intentionally create a high number of connections to prevent other
2911 users from using &my-app;.
2914 Obviously using this option only makes sense if you choose a limit
2915 below the one enforced by the operating system.
2920 <term>Examples:</term>
2923 max-client-connections 256
2928 <![%config-file;[<literallayout>@@#max-client-connections 256</literallayout>]]>
2932 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="handle-as-empty-doc-returns-ok"><title>handle-as-empty-doc-returns-ok</title>
2935 <term>Specifies:</term>
2938 The status code Privoxy returns for pages blocked with
2939 <!-- URL will only end up in the user manual so the relative link should work. -->
2940 <literal><ulink url="actions-file.html#HANDLE-AS-EMPTY-DOCUMENT">+handle-as-empty-document</ulink></literal>.
2945 <term>Type of value:</term>
2948 <replaceable>0 or 1</replaceable>
2953 <term>Default value:</term>
2959 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
2962 Privoxy returns a status 403(forbidden) for all blocked pages.
2967 <term>Effect if set:</term>
2970 Privoxy returns a status 200(OK) for pages blocked with +handle-as-empty-document
2971 and a status 403(Forbidden) for all other blocked pages.
2979 This is a work-around for Firefox bug 492459:
2981 Websites are no longer rendered if SSL requests for JavaScripts are blocked by a proxy.
2983 (<ulink url="https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=492459"
2984 >https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=492459</ulink>)
2985 As the bug has been fixed for quite some time this option should no longer
2986 be needed and will be removed in a future release. Please speak up if you
2987 have a reason why the option should be kept around.
2992 <![%config-file;[<literallayout>@@#handle-as-empty-doc-returns-ok 1</literallayout>]]>
2996 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="enable-compression"><title>enable-compression</title>
2999 <term>Specifies:</term>
3002 Whether or not buffered content is compressed before delivery.
3007 <term>Type of value:</term>
3010 <replaceable>0 or 1</replaceable>
3015 <term>Default value:</term>
3021 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
3024 Privoxy does not compress buffered content.
3029 <term>Effect if set:</term>
3032 Privoxy compresses buffered content before delivering it to the client,
3033 provided the client supports it.
3041 This directive is only supported if Privoxy has been compiled with
3042 FEATURE_COMPRESSION, which should not to be confused with FEATURE_ZLIB.
3045 Compressing buffered content is mainly useful if Privoxy and the
3046 client are running on different systems. If they are running on the
3047 same system, enabling compression is likely to slow things down.
3048 If you didn't measure otherwise, you should assume that it does
3049 and keep this option disabled.
3052 Privoxy will not compress buffered content below a certain length.
3057 <![%config-file;[<literallayout>@@#enable-compression 1</literallayout>]]>
3061 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="compression-level"><title>compression-level</title>
3064 <term>Specifies:</term>
3067 The compression level that is passed to the zlib library when compressing buffered content.
3072 <term>Type of value:</term>
3075 <replaceable>Positive number ranging from 0 to 9.</replaceable>
3080 <term>Default value:</term>
3089 Compressing the data more takes usually longer than compressing
3090 it less or not compressing it at all. Which level is best depends
3091 on the connection between Privoxy and the client. If you can't
3092 be bothered to benchmark it for yourself, you should stick with
3093 the default and keep compression disabled.
3096 If compression is disabled, the compression level is irrelevant.
3101 <term>Examples:</term>
3105 # Best speed (compared to the other levels)
3109 # No compression. Only useful for testing as the added header
3110 # slightly increases the amount of data that has to be sent.
3111 # If your benchmark shows that using this compression level
3112 # is superior to using no compression at all, the benchmark
3113 # is likely to be flawed.
3120 <![%config-file;[<literallayout>@@#compression-level 1</literallayout>]]>
3124 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="client-header-order"><title>client-header-order</title>
3127 <term>Specifies:</term>
3130 The order in which client headers are sorted before forwarding them.
3135 <term>Type of value:</term>
3138 <replaceable>Client header names delimited by spaces or tabs</replaceable>
3143 <term>Default value:</term>
3152 By default &my-app; leaves the client headers in the order they
3153 were sent by the client. Headers are modified in-place, new headers
3154 are added at the end of the already existing headers.
3157 The header order can be used to fingerprint client requests
3158 independently of other headers like the User-Agent.
3161 This directive allows to sort the headers differently to better
3162 mimic a different User-Agent. Client headers will be emitted
3163 in the order given, headers whose name isn't explicitly specified
3164 are added at the end.
3167 Note that sorting headers in an uncommon way will make fingerprinting
3168 actually easier. Encrypted headers are not affected by this directive.
3173 <![%config-file;[<literallayout>@@#client-header-order Host \
3178 # Proxy-Connection,\
3180 # If-Modified-Since \
3190 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
3193 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3195 <sect2 id="windows-gui">
3196 <title>Windows GUI Options</title>
3198 <application>Privoxy</application> has a number of options specific to the
3199 Windows GUI interface:
3202 <anchor id="activity-animation">
3203 <![%config-file;[<para>@@</para>]]> <!-- for spacing -->
3205 If <quote>activity-animation</quote> is set to 1, the
3206 <application>Privoxy</application> icon will animate when
3207 <quote>Privoxy</quote> is active. To turn off, set to 0.
3210 <![%config-file;[<literallayout>@@#activity-animation 1</literallayout>]]>
3216 <emphasis>activity-animation 1</emphasis>
3223 <anchor id="log-messages">
3224 <![%config-file;[<para>@@</para>]]> <!-- for spacing -->
3226 If <quote>log-messages</quote> is set to 1,
3227 <application>Privoxy</application> copy log messages to the console
3229 The log detail depends on the <link linkend="debug">debug</link> directive.
3232 <![%config-file;[<literallayout>@@#log-messages 1</literallayout>]]>
3238 <emphasis>log-messages 1</emphasis>
3245 <anchor id="log-buffer-size">
3246 <![%config-file;[<para>@@</para>]]> <!-- for spacing -->
3248 If <quote>log-buffer-size</quote> is set to 1, the size of the log buffer,
3249 i.e. the amount of memory used for the log messages displayed in the
3250 console window, will be limited to <quote>log-max-lines</quote> (see below).
3254 Warning: Setting this to 0 will result in the buffer to grow infinitely and
3255 eat up all your memory!
3258 <![%config-file;[<literallayout>@@#log-buffer-size 1</literallayout>]]>
3264 <emphasis>log-buffer-size 1</emphasis>
3271 <anchor id="log-max-lines">
3272 <![%config-file;[<para>@@</para>]]> <!-- for spacing -->
3274 <application>log-max-lines</application> is the maximum number of lines held
3275 in the log buffer. See above.
3278 <![%config-file;[<literallayout>@@#log-max-lines 200</literallayout>]]>
3284 <emphasis>log-max-lines 200</emphasis>
3291 <anchor id="log-highlight-messages">
3292 <![%config-file;[<para>@@</para>]]> <!-- for spacing -->
3294 If <quote>log-highlight-messages</quote> is set to 1,
3295 <application>Privoxy</application> will highlight portions of the log
3296 messages with a bold-faced font:
3299 <![%config-file;[<literallayout>@@#log-highlight-messages 1</literallayout>]]>
3305 <emphasis>log-highlight-messages 1</emphasis>
3312 <anchor id="log-font-name">
3313 <![%config-file;[<para>@@</para>]]> <!-- for spacing -->
3315 The font used in the console window:
3318 <![%config-file;[<literallayout>@@#log-font-name Comic Sans MS</literallayout>]]>
3324 <emphasis>log-font-name Comic Sans MS</emphasis>
3331 <anchor id="log-font-size">
3332 <![%config-file;[<para>@@</para>]]> <!-- for spacing -->
3334 Font size used in the console window:
3337 <![%config-file;[<literallayout>@@#log-font-size 8</literallayout>]]>
3343 <emphasis>log-font-size 8</emphasis>
3350 <anchor id="show-on-task-bar">
3351 <![%config-file;[<para>@@</para>]]> <!-- for spacing -->
3353 <quote>show-on-task-bar</quote> controls whether or not
3354 <application>Privoxy</application> will appear as a button on the Task bar
3358 <![%config-file;[<literallayout>@@#show-on-task-bar 0</literallayout>]]>
3364 <emphasis>show-on-task-bar 0</emphasis>
3371 <anchor id="close-button-minimizes">
3372 <![%config-file;[<para>@@</para>]]> <!-- for spacing -->
3374 If <quote>close-button-minimizes</quote> is set to 1, the Windows close
3375 button will minimize <application>Privoxy</application> instead of closing
3376 the program (close with the exit option on the File menu).
3379 <![%config-file;[<literallayout>@@#close-button-minimizes 1</literallayout>]]>
3385 <emphasis>close-button-minimizes 1</emphasis>
3392 <anchor id="hide-console">
3393 <![%config-file;[<para>@@</para>]]> <!-- for spacing -->
3395 The <quote>hide-console</quote> option is specific to the MS-Win console
3396 version of <application>Privoxy</application>. If this option is used,
3397 <application>Privoxy</application> will disconnect from and hide the
3401 <![%config-file;[<literallayout>@@#hide-console</literallayout>]]>
3407 #<emphasis>hide-console</emphasis>
3417 <!-- end config content common to both outputs -->
3420 <!-- These are dummy anchors to keep the processor quiet -->
3421 <!-- when building config-file only (ie. they are used in u-m only) -->
3424 <anchor id="filter">
3425 <anchor id="filter-file">
3427 <anchor id="actions-file">
3428 <anchor id="af-patterns">
3432 <!-- eof p-config.sgml -->