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40 <h1 class="SECT1"><a name="CONFIGURATION" id="CONFIGURATION">6. Privoxy
41 Configuration</a></h1>
43 <p>All <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> configuration is stored
44 in text files. These files can be edited with a text editor. Many
45 important aspects of <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> can also be
46 controlled easily with a web browser.</p>
49 <h2 class="SECT2"><a name="AEN860" id="AEN860">6.1. Controlling Privoxy
50 with Your Web Browser</a></h2>
52 <p><span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span>'s user interface can be
53 reached through the special URL <a href="http://config.privoxy.org/"
54 target="_top">http://config.privoxy.org/</a> (shortcut: <a href=
55 "http://p.p/" target="_top">http://p.p/</a>), which is a built-in page
56 and works without Internet access. You will see the following
59 <table border="0" bgcolor="#E0E0E0" width="100%">
66 <h2 class="BRIDGEHEAD"><a name="AEN868" id=
67 "AEN868"></a> Privoxy Menu</h2>
75 ▪ <a href="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status"
76 target="_top">View & change the current
77 configuration</a></td>
82 ▪ <a href="http://config.privoxy.org/show-version"
83 target="_top">View the source code version numbers</a></td>
88 ▪ <a href="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request"
89 target="_top">View the request headers.</a></td>
94 ▪ <a href="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info"
95 target="_top">Look up which actions apply to a URL and
101 ▪ <a href="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle"
102 target="_top">Toggle Privoxy on or off</a></td>
107 ▪ <a href="http://www.privoxy.org/3.0.22/user-manual/"
108 target="_top">Documentation</a></td>
116 <p>This should be self-explanatory. Note the first item leads to an
117 editor for the <a href="actions-file.html">actions files</a>, which is
118 where the ad, banner, cookie, and URL blocking magic is configured as
119 well as other advanced features of <span class=
120 "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span>. This is an easy way to adjust various
121 aspects of <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> configuration. The
122 actions file, and other configuration files, are explained in detail
125 <p><span class="QUOTE">"Toggle Privoxy On or Off"</span> is handy for
126 sites that might have problems with your current actions and filters.
127 You can in fact use it as a test to see whether it is <span class=
128 "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> causing the problem or not. <span class=
129 "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> continues to run as a proxy in this case,
130 but all manipulation is disabled, i.e. <span class=
131 "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> acts like a normal forwarding proxy.</p>
133 <p>Note that several of the features described above are disabled by
134 default in <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> 3.0.7 beta and
135 later. Check the <a href="config.html" target="_top">configuration
136 file</a> to learn why and in which cases it's safe to enable them
141 <h2 class="SECT2"><a name="CONFOVERVIEW" id="CONFOVERVIEW">6.2.
142 Configuration Files Overview</a></h2>
144 <p>For Unix, *BSD and Linux, all configuration files are located in
145 <tt class="FILENAME">/etc/privoxy/</tt> by default. For MS Windows,
146 OS/2, and AmigaOS these are all in the same directory as the
147 <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> executable.</p>
149 <p>The installed defaults provide a reasonable starting point, though
150 some settings may be aggressive by some standards. For the time being,
151 the principle configuration files are:</p>
155 <p>The <a href="config.html">main configuration file</a> is named
156 <tt class="FILENAME">config</tt> on Linux, Unix, BSD, OS/2, and
157 AmigaOS and <tt class="FILENAME">config.txt</tt> on Windows. This
158 is a required file.</p>
162 <p><tt class="FILENAME">match-all.action</tt> is used to define
163 which <span class="QUOTE">"actions"</span> relating to
164 banner-blocking, images, pop-ups, content modification, cookie
165 handling etc should be applied by default. It should be the first
166 actions file loaded.</p>
168 <p><tt class="FILENAME">default.action</tt> defines many exceptions
169 (both positive and negative) from the default set of actions that's
170 configured in <tt class="FILENAME">match-all.action</tt>. It should
171 be the second actions file loaded and shouldn't be edited by the
174 <p>Multiple actions files may be defined in <tt class=
175 "FILENAME">config</tt>. These are processed in the order they are
176 defined. Local customizations and locally preferred exceptions to
177 the default policies as defined in <tt class=
178 "FILENAME">match-all.action</tt> (which you will most probably want
179 to define sooner or later) are best applied in <tt class=
180 "FILENAME">user.action</tt>, where you can preserve them across
181 upgrades. The file isn't installed by all installers, but you can
182 easily create it yourself with a text editor.</p>
184 <p>There is also a web based editor that can be accessed from
185 <a href="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status" target=
186 "_top">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</a> (Shortcut:
187 <a href="http://p.p/show-status" target=
188 "_top">http://p.p/show-status</a>) for the various actions
193 <p><span class="QUOTE">"Filter files"</span> (the <a href=
194 "filter-file.html">filter file</a>) can be used to re-write the raw
195 page content, including viewable text as well as embedded HTML and
196 JavaScript, and whatever else lurks on any given web page. The
197 filtering jobs are only pre-defined here; whether to apply them or
198 not is up to the actions files. <tt class=
199 "FILENAME">default.filter</tt> includes various filters made
200 available for use by the developers. Some are much more intrusive
201 than others, and all should be used with caution. You may define
202 additional filter files in <tt class="FILENAME">config</tt> as you
203 can with actions files. We suggest <tt class=
204 "FILENAME">user.filter</tt> for any locally defined filters or
209 <p>The syntax of the configuration and filter files may change between
210 different Privoxy versions, unfortunately some enhancements cost
211 backwards compatibility.</p>
213 <p>All files use the <span class="QUOTE">"<tt class=
214 "LITERAL">#</tt>"</span> character to denote a comment (the rest of the
215 line will be ignored) and understand line continuation through placing
216 a backslash ("<tt class="LITERAL">\</tt>") as the very last character
217 in a line. If the <tt class="LITERAL">#</tt> is preceded by a
218 backslash, it looses its special function. Placing a <tt class=
219 "LITERAL">#</tt> in front of an otherwise valid configuration line to
220 prevent it from being interpreted is called "commenting out" that line.
221 Blank lines are ignored.</p>
223 <p>The actions files and filter files can use Perl style <a href=
224 "appendix.html#REGEX">regular expressions</a> for maximum
227 <p>After making any changes, there is no need to restart <span class=
228 "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> in order for the changes to take effect.
229 <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> detects such changes
230 automatically. Note, however, that it may take one or two additional
231 requests for the change to take effect. When changing the listening
232 address of <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span>, these <span class=
233 "QUOTE">"wake up"</span> requests must obviously be sent to the
234 <span class="emphasis"><i class="EMPHASIS">old</i></span> listening
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260 <td width="33%" align="right" valign="top">The Main Configuration