1 <!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook V3.1//EN" [
2 <!entity % dummy "IGNORE">
3 <!entity supported SYSTEM "supported.sgml">
4 <!entity newfeatures SYSTEM "newfeatures.sgml">
5 <!entity p-intro SYSTEM "privoxy.sgml">
6 <!entity seealso SYSTEM "seealso.sgml">
7 <!entity buildsource SYSTEM "buildsource.sgml">
8 <!entity contacting SYSTEM "contacting.sgml">
9 <!entity history SYSTEM "history.sgml">
10 <!entity copyright SYSTEM "copyright.sgml">
11 <!entity license SYSTEM "license.sgml">
12 <!entity p-authors SYSTEM "p-authors.sgml">
13 <!entity config SYSTEM "p-config.sgml">
14 <!entity p-version "3.0.16">
15 <!entity p-status "UNRELEASED">
16 <!entity % p-authors-formal "INCLUDE"> <!-- include additional text, etc -->
17 <!entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE">
18 <!entity % p-stable "IGNORE">
19 <!entity % p-text "IGNORE"> <!-- define we are not a text only doc -->
20 <!entity % p-doc "INCLUDE"> <!-- and we are a formal doc -->
21 <!entity % p-readme "IGNORE">
22 <!entity % user-man "IGNORE">
23 <!entity % config-file "IGNORE">
24 <!entity % p-supp-userman "IGNORE"> <!-- Omit some from supported.sgml -->
25 <!entity my-copy "©"> <!-- kludge for docbook2man -->
26 <!entity % draft "IGNORE"> <!-- WIP stuff -->
27 <!entity % seealso-extra "INCLUDE"> <!-- extra stuff from seealso.sgml -->
28 <!entity my-app "<application>Privoxy</application>">
31 File : $Source: /cvsroot/ijbswa/current/doc/source/user-manual.sgml,v $
34 This file belongs into
35 ijbswa.sourceforge.net:/home/groups/i/ij/ijbswa/htdocs/
37 $Id: user-manual.sgml,v 2.117 2010/01/11 12:56:04 fabiankeil Exp $
39 Copyright (C) 2001-2010 Privoxy Developers http://www.privoxy.org/
42 ========================================================================
43 NOTE: Please read developer-manual/documentation.html before touching
44 anything in this, or other Privoxy documentation.
45 ========================================================================
52 <title>Privoxy &p-version; User Manual</title>
56 <!-- Completely the wrong markup, but very little is allowed -->
57 <!-- in this part of an article. FIXME -->
58 <link linkend="copyright">Copyright</link> &my-copy; 2001-2010 by
59 <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/">Privoxy Developers</ulink>
63 <pubdate>$Id: user-manual.sgml,v 2.117 2010/01/11 12:56:04 fabiankeil Exp $</pubdate>
67 Note: the following should generate a separate page, and a live link to it,
68 all nicely done. But it doesn't for some mysterious reason. Please leave
69 commented unless it can be fixed proper. For the time being, the
70 copyright/license declarations will be in their own sgml.
83 This is here to keep vim syntax file from breaking :/
84 If I knew enough to fix it, I would.
85 PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE! HB: hal@foobox.net
91 The <citetitle>Privoxy User Manual</citetitle> gives users information on how to
92 install, configure and use <ulink
93 url="http://www.privoxy.org/">Privoxy</ulink>.
96 <!-- Include privoxy.sgml boilerplate: -->
98 <!-- end privoxy.sgml -->
101 You can find the latest version of the <citetitle>Privoxy User Manual</citetitle> at <ulink
102 url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/">http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/</ulink>.
103 Please see the <link linkend="contact">Contact section</link> on how to
104 contact the developers.
108 <!-- Feel free to send a note to the developers at <email>ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net</email>. -->
114 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
115 <sect1 label="1" id="introduction"><title>Introduction</title>
117 This documentation is included with the current &p-status; version of
118 <application>Privoxy</application>, v.&p-version;<![%p-not-stable;[,
119 and is mostly complete at this point. The most up to date reference for the
120 time being is still the comments in the source files and in the individual
121 configuration files. Development of a new version is currently nearing
122 completion, and includes significant changes and enhancements over
126 <!-- include only in non-stable versions -->
129 Since this is a &p-status; version, not all new features are well tested. This
130 documentation may be slightly out of sync as a result (especially with
131 CVS sources). And there <emphasis>may be</emphasis> bugs, though hopefully
136 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
137 <sect2 id="features"><title>Features</title>
139 In addition to the core
140 features of ad blocking and
141 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookie</ulink> management,
142 <application>Privoxy</application> provides many supplemental
143 features<![%p-not-stable;[, some of them currently under development]]>,
144 that give the end-user more control, more privacy and more freedom:
146 <!-- Include newfeatures.sgml boilerplate here: -->
148 <!-- end boilerplate -->
153 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
156 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
157 <sect1 id="installation"><title>Installation</title>
160 <application>Privoxy</application> is available both in convenient pre-compiled
161 packages for a wide range of operating systems, and as raw source code.
162 For most users, we recommend using the packages, which can be downloaded from our
163 <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ijbswa/">Privoxy Project
169 On some platforms, the installer may remove previously installed versions, if
170 found. (See below for your platform). In any case <emphasis>be sure to backup
171 your old configuration if it is valuable to you.</emphasis> See the <link
172 linkend="upgradersnote">note to upgraders</link> section below.
175 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
176 <sect2 id="installation-packages"><title>Binary Packages</title>
178 How to install the binary packages depends on your operating system:
181 <!-- XXX: The installation sections should be sorted -->
183 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
184 <sect3 id="installation-pack-rpm"><title>Red Hat and Fedora RPMs</title>
187 RPMs can be installed with <literal>rpm -Uvh privoxy-&p-version;-1.rpm</literal>,
188 and will use <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> for the location
189 of configuration files.
193 Note that on Red Hat, <application>Privoxy</application> will
194 <emphasis>not</emphasis> be automatically started on system boot. You will
195 need to enable that using <command>chkconfig</command>,
196 <command>ntsysv</command>, or similar methods.
200 If you have problems with failed dependencies, try rebuilding the SRC RPM:
201 <literal>rpm --rebuild privoxy-&p-version;-1.src.rpm</literal>. This
202 will use your locally installed libraries and RPM version.
206 Also note that if you have a <application>Junkbuster</application> RPM installed
207 on your system, you need to remove it first, because the packages conflict.
208 Otherwise, RPM will try to remove <application>Junkbuster</application>
209 automatically if found, before installing <application>Privoxy</application>.
213 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
214 <sect3 id="installation-deb"><title>Debian and Ubuntu</title>
216 DEBs can be installed with <literal>apt-get install privoxy</literal>,
217 and will use <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> for the location of
222 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
223 <sect3 id="installation-pack-win"><title>Windows</title>
226 Just double-click the installer, which will guide you through
227 the installation process. You will find the configuration files
228 in the same directory as you installed <application>Privoxy</application> in.
231 Version 3.0.5 beta introduced full <application>Windows</application> service
232 functionality. On Windows only, the <application>Privoxy</application>
233 program has two new command line arguments to install and uninstall
234 <application>Privoxy</application> as a <emphasis>service</emphasis>.
238 <term>Arguments:</term>
241 <replaceable class="parameter">--install</replaceable>[:<replaceable class="parameter">service_name</replaceable>]
244 <replaceable class="parameter">--uninstall</replaceable>[:<replaceable class="parameter">service_name</replaceable>]
250 After invoking <application>Privoxy</application> with
251 <command>--install</command>, you will need to bring up the
252 <application>Windows</application> service console to assign the user you
253 want <application>Privoxy</application> to run under, and whether or not you
254 want it to run whenever the system starts. You can start the
255 <application>Windows</application> services console with the following
256 command: <command>services.msc</command>. If you do not take the manual step
257 of modifying <application>Privoxy's</application> service settings, it will
258 not start. Note too that you will need to give Privoxy a user account that
259 actually exists, or it will not be permitted to
260 write to its log and configuration files.
265 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
266 <sect3 id="installation-pack-bintgz"><title>Solaris <!--, NetBSD, HP-UX--></title>
269 Create a new directory, <literal>cd</literal> to it, then unzip and
270 untar the archive. For the most part, you'll have to figure out where
271 things go. <!-- FIXME, more info needed? -->
275 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
276 <sect3 id="installation-os2"><title>OS/2</title>
279 First, make sure that no previous installations of
280 <application>Junkbuster</application> and / or
281 <application>Privoxy</application> are left on your
282 system. Check that no <application>Junkbuster</application>
283 or <application>Privoxy</application> objects are in
289 Then, just double-click the WarpIN self-installing archive, which will
290 guide you through the installation process. A shadow of the
291 <application>Privoxy</application> executable will be placed in your
292 startup folder so it will start automatically whenever OS/2 starts.
296 The directory you choose to install <application>Privoxy</application>
297 into will contain all of the configuration files.
301 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
302 <sect3 id="installation-mac"><title>Mac OS X</title>
304 Unzip the downloaded file (you can either double-click on the zip file
305 icon from the Finder, or from the desktop if you downloaded it there).
306 Then, double-click on the package installer icon and follow the
307 installation process.
310 The privoxy service will automatically start after a successful
311 installation (in addition to every time your computer starts up). To
312 prevent the privoxy service from automatically starting when your
313 computer starts up, remove or rename the folder named
314 <literal>/Library/StartupItems/Privoxy</literal>.
317 To manually start or stop the privoxy service, use the Privoxy Utility
318 for Mac OS X. This application controls the privoxy service (e.g.
319 starting and stopping the service as well as uninstalling the software).
323 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
324 <sect3 id="installation-amiga"><title>AmigaOS</title>
326 Copy and then unpack the <filename>lha</filename> archive to a suitable location.
327 All necessary files will be installed into <application>Privoxy</application>
328 directory, including all configuration and log files. To uninstall, just
329 remove this directory.
333 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
334 <sect3 id="installation-tbz"><title>FreeBSD</title>
337 Privoxy is part of FreeBSD's Ports Collection, you can build and install
338 it with <literal>cd /usr/ports/www/privoxy; make install clean</literal>.
341 If you don't use the ports, you can fetch and install
342 the package with <literal>pkg_add -r privoxy</literal>.
345 The port skeleton and the package can also be downloaded from the
346 <ulink url="https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118">File Release
347 Page</ulink>, but there's no reason to use them unless you're interested in the
348 beta releases which are only available there.
352 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
353 <sect3 id="installattion-gentoo"><title>Gentoo</title>
355 Gentoo source packages (Ebuilds) for <application>Privoxy</application> are
356 contained in the Gentoo Portage Tree (they are not on the download page,
357 but there is a Gentoo section, where you can see when a new
358 <application>Privoxy</application> Version is added to the Portage Tree).
361 Before installing <application>Privoxy</application> under Gentoo just do
362 first <literal>emerge --sync</literal> to get the latest changes from the
363 Portage tree. With <literal>emerge privoxy</literal> you install the latest
367 Configuration files are in <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename>, the
368 documentation is in <filename>/usr/share/doc/privoxy-&p-version;</filename>
369 and the Log directory is in <filename>/var/log/privoxy</filename>.
375 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
376 <sect2 id="installation-source"><title>Building from Source</title>
379 The most convenient way to obtain the <application>Privoxy</application> sources
380 is to download the source tarball from our
381 <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118&package_id=10571">project download
386 If you like to live on the bleeding edge and are not afraid of using
387 possibly unstable development versions, you can check out the up-to-the-minute
388 version directly from <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/cvs/?group_id=11118">the
389 CVS repository</ulink>.
391 deprecated...out of business.
392 or simply download <ulink
393 url="http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cvstarballs/ijbswa-cvsroot.tar.bz2">the nightly CVS
398 <!-- include buildsource.sgml boilerplate: -->
400 <!-- end boilerplate -->
403 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
404 <sect2 id="installation-keepupdated"><title>Keeping your Installation Up-to-Date</title>
406 As user feedback comes in and development continues, we will make updated versions
407 of both the main <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link> (as a <ulink
408 url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118&release_id=103670">separate
409 package</ulink>) and the software itself (including the actions file) available for
414 If you wish to receive an email notification whenever we release updates of
415 <application>Privoxy</application> or the actions file, <ulink
416 url="http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ijbswa-announce/">subscribe
417 to our announce mailing list</ulink>, ijbswa-announce@lists.sourceforge.net.
421 In order not to lose your personal changes and adjustments when updating
422 to the latest <literal>default.action</literal> file we <emphasis>strongly
423 recommend</emphasis> that you use <literal>user.action</literal> and
424 <literal>user.filter</literal> for your local
425 customizations of <application>Privoxy</application>. See the <link
426 linkend="actions-file">Chapter on actions files</link> for details.
434 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
436 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
437 <sect1 id="whatsnew">
438 <title>What's New in this Release</title>
440 <application>Privoxy 3.0.15 beta</application> is a bug-fix release
441 for the previous beta. The changes since 3.0.14 are:
448 In case of missing server data, no error message is send to the
449 client if the request arrived on a reused connection. The client
450 is then supposed to silently retry the request without bothering
451 the user. This should significantly reduce the frequency of the
452 "No server or forwarder data received" error message many users
458 More reliable detection of prematurely closed client sockets
459 with keep-alive enabled.
464 FEATURE_CONNECTION_KEEP_ALIVE is decoupled from
465 FEATURE_CONNECTION_SHARING and now available on
471 Improved handling of POST requests on reused connections.
472 Should fix problems with stalled connections after submitting
473 form data with some browser configurations.
478 Fixed various latency calculation issues.
483 Allows the client to pass NTLM authentication requests to a
484 forwarding proxy. This was already assumed and hinted to work
485 in 3.0.13 beta but actually didn't. Now it's confirmed to work
486 with IE, Firefox and Chrome.
487 Thanks to Francois Botha and Wan-Teh Chang
492 Fixed a calculation problem if receiving the server headers
493 takes more than two reads, that could cause Privoxy to terminate
494 the connection prematurely. Reported by Oliver.
499 Compiles again on platforms such as OpenBSD and systems
500 using earlier glibc version that don't support AI_ADDRCONFIG.
501 Anonymously submitted in #2872591.
506 A bunch of MS VC project files and Suse and Redhat RPM spec
507 files have been removed as they were no longer maintained for
513 Overly long action lines are properly rejected with a proper
514 error message. Previously they would be either rejected as
515 invalid or cause a core dump through abort().
520 Already timed-out connections are no longer temporarily remembered.
521 They weren't reused anyway, but wasted a socket slot.
526 len refers to the number of bytes actually read which might
527 differ from the ones received. Adjust log messages accordingly.
532 The optional JavaScript on the CGI page uses encodeURIComponent()
533 instead of escape() which doesn't encode all characters that matter.
534 Anonymously reported in #2832722.
539 Fix gcc45 warnings in decompress_iob().
544 Various log message improvements.
549 Privoxy-Regression-Test supports redirect tests.
554 Privoxy-Log-Parser can gather some connection statistics.
561 If you missed the previous two beta versions, you may also be
562 interested in the additional changes since 3.0.12, the
570 Added IPv6 support. Thanks to Petr Pisar who not only provided
571 the initial patch but also helped a lot with the integration.
576 Added client-side keep-alive support.
581 The connection sharing code is only used if the connection-sharing
587 The latency is taken into account when evaluating whether or not to
588 reuse a connection. This should significantly reduce the number of
589 connections problems several users reported.
594 The max-client-connections option has been added to restrict
595 the number of client connections below a value enforced by
596 the operating system.
601 If the server doesn't specify how long the connection stays alive,
602 Privoxy errs on the safe side of caution and assumes it's only a second.
607 Setting keep-alive-timeout to 0 disables keep-alive support. Previously
608 Privoxy would claim to allow persistence but not reuse the connection.
613 Pipelined requests are less likely to be mistaken for the request
614 body of the previous request. Note that Privoxy still has no real
615 pipeline support and will either serialize pipelined requests or
616 drop them in which case the client has to resent them.
621 Fixed a crash on some Windows versions when header randomization
622 is enabled and the date couldn't be parsed.
627 Privoxy's keep-alive timeout for the current connection is reduced
628 to the one specified in the client's Keep-Alive header.
633 For HTTP/1.1 requests, Privoxy implies keep-alive support by not
634 setting any Connection header instead of using 'Connection: keep-alive'.
639 If the socket isn't reusable, Privoxy doesn't temporarily waste
640 a socket slot to remember the connection.
645 If keep-alive support is disabled but compiled in, the client's
646 Keep-Alive header is removed.
651 Fixed a bug on mingw32 where downloading large files failed if
652 keep-alive support was enabled.
657 Fixed a bug that (at least theoretically) could cause log
658 timestamps to be occasionally off by about a second.
663 The configure script respects the $PATH variable when searching
669 Compressed content with extra fields couldn't be decompressed
670 and would get passed to the client unfiltered. This problem
671 has only be detected through statical analysis with clang as
672 nobody seems to be using extra fields anyway.
677 If the server resets the Connection after sending only the headers
678 Privoxy forwards what it got to the client. Previously Privoxy
679 would deliver an error message instead.
684 Error messages in case of connection timeouts use the right
690 If spawning a child to handle a request fails, the client
691 gets an error message and Privoxy continues to listen for
692 new requests right away.
697 The error messages in case of server-connection timeouts or
698 prematurely closed server connections are now template-based.
703 If zlib support isn't compiled in, Privoxy no longer tries to
704 filter compressed content unless explicitly asked to do so.
709 In case of connections that are denied based on ACL directives,
710 the memory used for the client IP is no longer leaked.
715 Fixed another small memory leak if the client request times out
716 while waiting for client headers other than the request line.
721 The client socket is kept open until the server socket has
722 been marked as unused. This should increase the chances that
723 the still-open connection will be reused for the client's next
724 request to the same destination. Note that this only matters
725 if connection-sharing is enabled.
730 A TODO list has been added to the source tarballs to give potential
731 volunteers a better idea of what the current goals are. Donations
732 are still welcome too: http://www.privoxy.org/faq/general.html#DONATE
739 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
741 <sect2 id="upgradersnote">
742 <title>Note to Upgraders</title>
745 A quick list of things to be aware of before upgrading from earlier
746 versions of <application>Privoxy</application>:
754 The recommended way to upgrade &my-app; is to backup your old
755 configuration files, install the new ones, verify that &my-app;
756 is working correctly and finally merge back your changes using
757 <application>diff</application> and maybe <application>patch</application>.
760 There are a number of new features in each &my-app; release and
761 most of them have to be explicitly enabled in the configuration
762 files. Old configuration files obviously don't do that and due
763 to syntax changes using old configuration files with a new
764 &my-app; isn't always possible anyway.
769 Note that some installers remove earlier versions completely,
770 including configuration files, therefore you should really save
771 any important configuration files!
776 On the other hand, other installers don't overwrite existing configuration
777 files, thinking you will want to do that yourself.
782 <filename>standard.action</filename> has been merged into
783 the <filename>default.action</filename> file.
788 In the default configuration only fatal errors are logged now.
789 You can change that in the <link linkend="DEBUG">debug section</link>
790 of the configuration file. You may also want to enable more verbose
791 logging until you verified that the new &my-app; version is working
798 Three other config file settings are now off by default:
799 <link linkend="enable-remote-toggle">enable-remote-toggle</link>,
800 <link linkend="enable-remote-http-toggle">enable-remote-http-toggle</link>,
801 and <link linkend="enable-edit-actions">enable-edit-actions</link>.
802 If you use or want these, you will need to explicitly enable them, and
803 be aware of the security issues involved.
810 What constitutes a <quote>default</quote> configuration has changed,
811 and you may want to review which actions are <quote>on</quote> by
812 default. This is primarily a matter of emphasis, but some features
813 you may have been used to, may now be <quote>off</quote> by default.
814 There are also a number of new actions and filters you may want to
815 consider, most of which are not fully incorporated into the default
816 settings as yet (see above).
823 The default actions setting is now <literal>Cautious</literal>. Previous
824 releases had a default setting of <literal>Medium</literal>. Experienced
825 users may want to adjust this, as it is fairly conservative by &my-app;
826 standards and past practices. See <ulink
827 url="http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions-list?f=default">
828 http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions-list?f=default</ulink>. New users
829 should try the default settings for a while before turning up the volume.
835 The default setting has filtering turned <emphasis>off</emphasis>, which
836 subsequently means that compression is <emphasis>on</emphasis>. Remember
837 that filtering does not work on compressed pages, so if you use, or want to
838 use, filtering, you will need to force compression off. Example:
842 { +<link linkend="filter">filter</link>{google} +<link linkend="prevent-compression">prevent-compression</link> }
846 Or if you use a number of filters, or filter many sites, you may just want
847 to turn off compression for all sites in
848 <filename>default.action</filename> (or
849 <filename>user.action</filename>).
856 Also, <link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> is
857 off by default now. If you've liked this feature in the past, you may want
858 to turn it back on in <filename>user.action</filename> now.
865 Some installers may not automatically start
866 <application>Privoxy</application> after installation.
877 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
878 <sect1 id="quickstart"><title>Quickstart to Using Privoxy</title>
884 Install <application>Privoxy</application>. See the <link
885 linkend="installation">Installation Section</link> below for platform specific
892 Advanced users and those who want to offer <application>Privoxy</application>
893 service to more than just their local machine should check the <link
894 linkend="config">main config file</link>, especially the <link
895 linkend="access-control">security-relevant</link> options. These are
902 Start <application>Privoxy</application>, if the installation program has
903 not done this already (may vary according to platform). See the section
904 <link linkend="startup">Starting <application>Privoxy</application></link>.
910 Set your browser to use <application>Privoxy</application> as HTTP and
911 HTTPS (SSL) <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_server">proxy</ulink>
912 by setting the proxy configuration for address of
913 <literal>127.0.0.1</literal> and port <literal>8118</literal>.
914 <emphasis>DO NOT</emphasis> activate proxying for <literal>FTP</literal> or
915 any protocols besides HTTP and HTTPS (SSL) unless you intend to prevent your
916 browser from using these protocols.
922 Flush your browser's disk and memory caches, to remove any cached ad images.
923 If using <application>Privoxy</application> to manage
924 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>,
925 you should remove any currently stored cookies too.
931 A default installation should provide a reasonable starting point for
932 most. There will undoubtedly be occasions where you will want to adjust the
933 configuration, but that can be dealt with as the need arises. Little
934 to no initial configuration is required in most cases, you may want
936 <ulink url="config.html#ENABLE-EDIT-ACTIONS">web-based action editor</ulink> though.
937 Be sure to read the warnings first.
940 See the <link linkend="configuration">Configuration section</link> for more
941 configuration options, and how to customize your installation.
942 You might also want to look at the <link
943 linkend="quickstart-ad-blocking">next section</link> for a quick
944 introduction to how <application>Privoxy</application> blocks ads and
951 If you experience ads that slip through, innocent images that are
952 blocked, or otherwise feel the need to fine-tune
953 <application>Privoxy's</application> behavior, take a look at the <link
954 linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>. As a quick start, you might
955 find the <link linkend="act-examples">richly commented examples</link>
956 helpful. You can also view and edit the actions files through the <ulink
957 url="http://config.privoxy.org">web-based user interface</ulink>. The
958 Appendix <quote><link linkend="actionsanat">Troubleshooting: Anatomy of an
959 Action</link></quote> has hints on how to understand and debug actions that
960 <quote>misbehave</quote>.
965 Did anyone test these lately?
969 For easy access to &my-app;'s most important controls, drag the provided
970 <link linkend="bookmarklets">Bookmarklets</link> into your browser's
978 Please see the section <link linkend="contact">Contacting the
979 Developers</link> on how to report bugs, problems with websites or to get
986 Now enjoy surfing with enhanced control, comfort and privacy!
994 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
996 <sect2 id="quickstart-ad-blocking">
997 <title>Quickstart to Ad Blocking</title>
999 NOTE: This section is deliberately redundant for those that don't
1000 want to read the whole thing (which is getting lengthy).
1003 Ad blocking is but one of <application>Privoxy's</application>
1004 array of features. Many of these features are for the technically minded advanced
1005 user. But, ad and banner blocking is surely common ground for everybody.
1008 This section will provide a quick summary of ad blocking so
1009 you can get up to speed quickly without having to read the more extensive
1010 information provided below, though this is highly recommended.
1013 First a bit of a warning ... blocking ads is much like blocking SPAM: the
1014 more aggressive you are about it, the more likely you are to block
1015 things that were not intended. And the more likely that some things
1016 may not work as intended. So there is a trade off here. If you want
1017 extreme ad free browsing, be prepared to deal with more
1018 <quote>problem</quote> sites, and to spend more time adjusting the
1019 configuration to solve these unintended consequences. In short, there is
1020 not an easy way to eliminate <emphasis>all</emphasis> ads. Either take
1021 the easy way and settle for <emphasis>most</emphasis> ads blocked with the
1022 default configuration, or jump in and tweak it for your personal surfing
1023 habits and preferences.
1026 Secondly, a brief explanation of <application>Privoxy's </application>
1027 <quote>actions</quote>. <quote>Actions</quote> in this context, are
1028 the directives we use to tell <application>Privoxy</application> to perform
1029 some task relating to HTTP transactions (i.e. web browsing). We tell
1030 <application>Privoxy</application> to take some <quote>action</quote>. Each
1031 action has a unique name and function. While there are many potential
1032 <application>actions</application> in <application>Privoxy's</application>
1033 arsenal, only a few are used for ad blocking. <link
1034 linkend="actions">Actions</link>, and <link linkend="actions-file">action
1035 configuration files</link>, are explained in depth below.
1038 Actions are specified in <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration,
1039 followed by one or more URLs to which the action should apply. URLs
1040 can actually be URL type <link linkend="af-patterns">patterns</link> that use
1041 wildcards so they can apply potentially to a range of similar URLs. The
1042 actions, together with the URL patterns are called a section.
1045 When you connect to a website, the full URL will either match one or more
1046 of the sections as defined in <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration,
1047 or not. If so, then <application>Privoxy</application> will perform the
1048 respective actions. If not, then nothing special happens. Furthermore, web
1049 pages may contain embedded, secondary URLs that your web browser will
1050 use to load additional components of the page, as it parses the
1051 original page's HTML content. An ad image for instance, is just an URL
1052 embedded in the page somewhere. The image itself may be on the same server,
1053 or a server somewhere else on the Internet. Complex web pages will have many
1054 such embedded URLs. &my-app; can deal with each URL individually, so, for
1055 instance, the main page text is not touched, but images from such-and-such
1060 The most important actions for basic ad blocking are: <literal><link
1061 linkend="block">block</link></literal>, <literal><link
1062 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>,
1064 linkend="handle-as-empty-document">handle-as-empty-document</link></literal>,and
1065 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>:
1073 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> - this is perhaps
1074 the single most used action, and is particularly important for ad blocking.
1075 This action stops any contact between your browser and any URL patterns
1076 that match this action's configuration. It can be used for blocking ads,
1077 but also anything that is determined to be unwanted. By itself, it simply
1078 stops any communication with the remote server and sends
1079 <application>Privoxy</application>'s own built-in BLOCKED page instead to
1080 let you now what has happened (with some exceptions, see below).
1086 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> -
1087 tells <application>Privoxy</application> to treat this URL as an image.
1088 <application>Privoxy</application>'s default configuration already does this
1089 for all common image types (e.g. GIF), but there are many situations where this
1090 is not so easy to determine. So we'll force it in these cases. This is particularly
1091 important for ad blocking, since only if we know that it's an image of
1092 some kind, can we replace it with an image of our choosing, instead of the
1093 <application>Privoxy</application> BLOCKED page (which would only result in
1094 a <quote>broken image</quote> icon). There are some limitations to this
1095 though. For instance, you can't just brute-force an image substitution for
1096 an entire HTML page in most situations.
1102 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-empty-document">handle-as-empty-document</link></literal> -
1103 sends an empty document instead of <application>Privoxy's</application>
1104 normal BLOCKED HTML page. This is useful for file types that are neither
1105 HTML nor images, such as blocking JavaScript files.
1112 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal> - tells
1113 <application>Privoxy</application> what to display in place of an ad image that
1114 has hit a block rule. For this to come into play, the URL must match a
1115 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action somewhere in the
1116 configuration, <emphasis>and</emphasis>, it must also match an
1117 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> action.
1120 The configuration options on what to display instead of the ad are:
1124 <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> - a checkerboard pattern, so that an ad
1125 replacement is obvious. This is the default.
1130 <emphasis>blank</emphasis> - A very small empty GIF image is displayed.
1131 This is the so-called <quote>invisible</quote> configuration option.
1136 <emphasis>http://<URL></emphasis> - A redirect to any image anywhere
1137 of the user's choosing (advanced usage).
1146 Advanced users will eventually want to explore &my-app;
1147 <literal><link linkend="filter">filters</link></literal> as well. Filters
1148 are very different from <literal><link
1149 linkend="block">blocks</link></literal>.
1150 A <quote>block</quote> blocks a site, page, or unwanted contented. Filters
1151 are a way of filtering or modifying what is actually on the page. An example
1152 filter usage: a text replacement of <quote>no-no</quote> for
1153 <quote>nasty-word</quote>. That is a very simple example. This process can be
1154 used for ad blocking, but it is more in the realm of advanced usage and has
1155 some pitfalls to be wary off.
1159 The quickest way to adjust any of these settings is with your browser through
1160 the special <application>Privoxy</application> editor at <ulink
1161 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
1162 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/show-status</ulink>). This
1163 is an internal page, and does not require Internet access.
1167 Note that as of <application>Privoxy</application> 3.0.7 beta the
1168 action editor is disabled by default. Check the
1169 <ulink url="config.html#ENABLE-EDIT-ACTIONS">enable-edit-actions
1170 section in the configuration file</ulink> to learn why and in which
1171 cases it's safe to enable again.
1175 If you decided to enable the action editor, select the appropriate
1176 <quote>actions</quote> file, and click
1177 <quote><guibutton>Edit</guibutton></quote>. It is best to put personal or
1178 local preferences in <filename>user.action</filename> since this is not
1179 meant to be overwritten during upgrades, and will over-ride the settings in
1180 other files. Here you can insert new <quote>actions</quote>, and URLs for ad
1181 blocking or other purposes, and make other adjustments to the configuration.
1182 <application>Privoxy</application> will detect these changes automatically.
1186 A quick and simple step by step example:
1194 Right click on the ad image to be blocked, then select
1195 <quote><guimenuitem>Copy Link Location</guimenuitem></quote> from the
1203 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
1208 Find <filename>user.action</filename> in the top section, and click
1209 on <quote><guibutton>Edit</guibutton></quote>:
1212 <!-- image of editor and actions files selections -->
1214 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Actions Files in Use</title>
1217 <imagedata fileref="files-in-use.jpg" format="jpg">
1220 <phrase>[ Screenshot of Actions Files in Use ]</phrase>
1229 You should have a section with only
1230 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> listed under
1231 <quote>Actions:</quote>.
1232 If not, click a <quote><guibutton>Insert new section below</guibutton></quote>
1233 button, and in the new section that just appeared, click the
1234 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> button right under the word <quote>Actions:</quote>.
1235 This will bring up a list of all actions. Find
1236 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> near the top, and click
1237 in the <quote>Enabled</quote> column, then <quote><guibutton>Submit</guibutton></quote>
1238 just below the list.
1243 Now, in the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> actions section,
1244 click the <quote><guibutton>Add</guibutton></quote> button, and paste the URL the
1245 browser got from <quote><guimenuitem>Copy Link Location</guimenuitem></quote>.
1246 Remove the <literal>http://</literal> at the beginning of the URL. Then, click
1247 <quote><guibutton>Submit</guibutton></quote> (or
1248 <quote><guibutton>OK</guibutton></quote> if in a pop-up window).
1253 Now go back to the original page, and press <keycap>SHIFT-Reload</keycap>
1254 (or flush all browser caches). The image should be gone now.
1262 This is a very crude and simple example. There might be good reasons to use a
1263 wildcard pattern match to include potentially similar images from the same
1264 site. For a more extensive explanation of <quote>patterns</quote>, and
1265 the entire actions concept, see <link linkend="actions-file">the Actions
1270 For advanced users who want to hand edit their config files, you might want
1271 to now go to the <link linkend="act-examples">Actions Files Tutorial</link>.
1272 The ideas explained therein also apply to the web-based editor.
1275 There are also various
1276 <link linkend="filter">filters</link> that can be used for ad blocking
1277 (filters are a special subset of actions). These
1278 fall into the <quote>advanced</quote> usage category, and are explained in
1279 depth in later sections.
1286 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1289 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1290 <sect1 id="startup">
1291 <title>Starting Privoxy</title>
1293 Before launching <application>Privoxy</application> for the first time, you
1294 will want to configure your browser(s) to use
1295 <application>Privoxy</application> as a HTTP and HTTPS (SSL)
1296 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_server">proxy</ulink>. The default is
1297 127.0.0.1 (or localhost) for the proxy address, and port 8118 (earlier versions
1298 used port 8000). This is the one configuration step <emphasis>that must be done
1302 Please note that <application>Privoxy</application> can only proxy HTTP and
1303 HTTPS traffic. It will not work with FTP or other protocols.
1306 <!-- image of Mozilla Proxy configuration -->
1308 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Proxy Configuration Showing
1309 Mozilla/Netscape HTTP and HTTPS (SSL) Settings</title>
1312 <imagedata fileref="proxy_setup.jpg" format="jpg">
1315 <phrase>[ Screenshot of Mozilla Proxy Configuration ]</phrase>
1323 With <application>Firefox</application>, this is typically set under:
1327 <guibutton>Tools</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Options</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Advanced</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Network</guibutton> -><guibutton>Connection</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Settings</guibutton>
1332 Or optionally on some platforms:
1336 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Preferences</guibutton> -> <guibutton>General</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Connection Settings</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Manual Proxy Configuration</guibutton>
1342 With <application>Netscape</application> (and
1343 <application>Mozilla</application>), this can be set under:
1348 <!-- Mix ascii and gui art, something for everybody -->
1349 <!-- spacing on this is tricky -->
1350 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Preferences</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Advanced</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Proxies</guibutton> -> <guibutton>HTTP Proxy</guibutton>
1355 For <application>Internet Explorer v.5-7</application>:
1359 <guibutton>Tools</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Internet Options</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Connections</guibutton> -> <guibutton>LAN Settings</guibutton>
1363 Then, check <quote>Use Proxy</quote> and fill in the appropriate info
1364 (Address: 127.0.0.1, Port: 8118). Include HTTPS (SSL), if you want HTTPS
1365 proxy support too (sometimes labeled <quote>Secure</quote>). Make sure any
1366 checkboxes like <quote>Use the same proxy server for all protocols</quote> is
1367 <emphasis>UNCHECKED</emphasis>. You want only HTTP and HTTPS (SSL)!
1370 <!-- image of IE Proxy configuration -->
1372 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Proxy Configuration Showing
1373 Internet Explorer HTTP and HTTPS (Secure) Settings</title>
1376 <imagedata fileref="proxy2.jpg" format="jpg">
1379 <phrase>[ Screenshot of IE Proxy Configuration ]</phrase>
1387 After doing this, flush your browser's disk and memory caches to force a
1388 re-reading of all pages and to get rid of any ads that may be cached. Remove
1389 any <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>,
1390 if you want <application>Privoxy</application> to manage that. You are now
1391 ready to start enjoying the benefits of using
1392 <application>Privoxy</application>!
1396 <application>Privoxy</application> itself is typically started by specifying the
1397 main configuration file to be used on the command line. If no configuration
1398 file is specified on the command line, <application>Privoxy</application>
1399 will look for a file named <filename>config</filename> in the current
1400 directory. Except on Win32 where it will try <filename>config.txt</filename>.
1403 <sect2 id="start-redhat">
1404 <title>Red Hat and Fedora</title>
1406 A default Red Hat installation may not start &my-app; upon boot. It will use
1407 the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename> as its main configuration
1412 # /etc/rc.d/init.d/privoxy start
1420 # service privoxy start
1425 <sect2 id="start-debian">
1426 <title>Debian</title>
1428 We use a script. Note that Debian typically starts &my-app; upon booting per
1429 default. It will use the file
1430 <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename> as its main configuration
1435 # /etc/init.d/privoxy start
1440 <sect2 id="start-windows">
1441 <title>Windows</title>
1443 Click on the &my-app; Icon to start <application>Privoxy</application>. If no configuration file is
1444 specified on the command line, <application>Privoxy</application> will look
1445 for a file named <filename>config.txt</filename>. Note that Windows will
1446 automatically start &my-app; when the system starts if you chose that option
1450 <application>Privoxy</application> can run with full Windows service functionality.
1451 On Windows only, the &my-app; program has two new command line arguments
1452 to install and uninstall &my-app; as a service. See the
1453 <link linkend="installation-pack-win">Windows Installation
1454 instructions</link> for details.
1458 <sect2 id="start-unices">
1459 <title>Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD, HP-UX and others</title>
1461 Example Unix startup command:
1465 # /usr/sbin/privoxy /etc/privoxy/config
1470 <sect2 id="start-os2">
1473 During installation, <application>Privoxy</application> is configured to
1474 start automatically when the system restarts. You can start it manually by
1475 double-clicking on the <application>Privoxy</application> icon in the
1476 <application>Privoxy</application> folder.
1480 <sect2 id="start-macosx">
1481 <title>Mac OS X</title>
1483 After downloading the privoxy software, unzip the downloaded file by
1484 double-clicking on the zip file icon. Then, double-click on the
1485 installer package icon and follow the installation process.
1488 The privoxy service will automatically start after a successful
1489 installation. In addition, the privoxy service will automatically
1490 start every time your computer starts up.
1493 To prevent the privoxy service from automatically starting when your
1494 computer starts up, remove or rename the folder named
1495 /Library/StartupItems/Privoxy.
1498 A simple application named Privoxy Utility has been created which
1499 enables administrators to easily start and stop the privoxy service.
1502 In addition, the Privoxy Utility presents a simple way for
1503 administrators to edit the various privoxy config files. A method
1504 to uninstall the software is also available.
1507 An administrator username and password must be supplied in order for
1508 the Privoxy Utility to perform any of the tasks.
1513 <sect2 id="start-amigaos">
1514 <title>AmigaOS</title>
1516 Start <application>Privoxy</application> (with RUN <>NIL:) in your
1517 <filename>startnet</filename> script (AmiTCP), in
1518 <filename>s:user-startup</filename> (RoadShow), as startup program in your
1519 startup script (Genesis), or as startup action (Miami and MiamiDx).
1520 <application>Privoxy</application> will automatically quit when you quit your
1521 TCP/IP stack (just ignore the harmless warning your TCP/IP stack may display that
1522 <application>Privoxy</application> is still running).
1526 <sect2 id="start-gentoo">
1527 <title>Gentoo</title>
1529 A script is again used. It will use the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config
1530 </filename> as its main configuration file.
1534 /etc/init.d/privoxy start
1538 Note that <application>Privoxy</application> is not automatically started at
1539 boot time by default. You can change this with the <literal>rc-update</literal>
1544 rc-update add privoxy default
1552 See the section <link linkend="cmdoptions">Command line options</link> for
1556 must find a better place for this paragraph
1559 The included default configuration files should give a reasonable starting
1560 point. Most of the per site configuration is done in the
1561 <ulink url="actions-file.html"><quote>actions</quote></ulink> files. These are
1562 where various cookie actions are defined, ad and banner blocking, and other
1563 aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. There are several
1564 such files included, with varying levels of aggressiveness.
1568 You will probably want to keep an eye out for sites for which you may prefer
1569 persistent cookies, and add these to your actions configuration as needed. By
1570 default, most of these will be accepted only during the current browser
1571 session (aka <quote>session cookies</quote>), unless you add them to the
1572 configuration. If you want the browser to handle this instead, you will need
1573 to edit <filename>user.action</filename> (or through the web based interface)
1574 and disable this feature. If you use more than one browser, it would make
1575 more sense to let <application>Privoxy</application> handle this. In which
1576 case, the browser(s) should be set to accept all cookies.
1580 Another feature where you will probably want to define exceptions for trusted
1581 sites is the popup-killing (through <ulink
1582 url="actions-file.html#FILTER-POPUPS"><quote>+filter{popups}</quote></ulink>),
1583 because your favorite shopping, banking, or leisure site may need
1584 popups (explained below).
1588 <application>Privoxy</application> does not support all of the optional HTTP/1.1
1589 features yet. In the unlikely event that you experience inexplicable problems
1590 with browsers that use HTTP/1.1 per default
1591 (like <application>Mozilla</application> or recent versions of I.E.), you might
1592 try to force HTTP/1.0 compatibility. For Mozilla, look under <literal>Edit ->
1593 Preferences -> Debug -> Networking</literal>.
1594 Alternatively, set the <quote>+downgrade-http-version</quote> config option in
1595 <filename>default.action</filename> which will downgrade your browser's HTTP
1596 requests from HTTP/1.1 to HTTP/1.0 before processing them.
1600 After running <application>Privoxy</application> for a while, you can
1601 start to fine tune the configuration to suit your personal, or site,
1602 preferences and requirements. There are many, many aspects that can
1603 be customized. <quote>Actions</quote>
1604 can be adjusted by pointing your browser to
1605 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
1606 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
1607 and then follow the link to <quote>View & Change the Current Configuration</quote>.
1608 (This is an internal page and does not require Internet access.)
1612 In fact, various aspects of <application>Privoxy</application>
1613 configuration can be viewed from this page, including
1614 current configuration parameters, source code version numbers,
1615 the browser's request headers, and <quote>actions</quote> that apply
1616 to a given URL. In addition to the actions file
1617 editor mentioned above, <application>Privoxy</application> can also
1618 be turned <quote>on</quote> and <quote>off</quote> (toggled) from this page.
1622 If you encounter problems, try loading the page without
1623 <application>Privoxy</application>. If that helps, enter the URL where
1624 you have the problems into <ulink url="http://p.p/show-url-info">the browser
1625 based rule tracing utility</ulink>. See which rules apply and why, and
1626 then try turning them off for that site one after the other, until the problem
1627 is gone. When you have found the culprit, you might want to turn the rest on
1632 If the above paragraph sounds gibberish to you, you might want to <link
1633 linkend="actions-file">read more about the actions concept</link>
1634 or even dive deep into the <link linkend="actionsanat">Appendix
1639 If you can't get rid of the problem at all, think you've found a bug in
1640 Privoxy, want to propose a new feature or smarter rules, please see the
1641 section <link linkend="contact"><quote>Contacting the
1642 Developers</quote></link> below.
1647 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1648 <sect2 id="cmdoptions">
1649 <title>Command Line Options</title>
1651 <application>Privoxy</application> may be invoked with the following
1652 command-line options:
1660 <emphasis>--version</emphasis>
1663 Print version info and exit. Unix only.
1668 <emphasis>--help</emphasis>
1671 Print short usage info and exit. Unix only.
1676 <emphasis>--no-daemon</emphasis>
1679 Don't become a daemon, i.e. don't fork and become process group
1680 leader, and don't detach from controlling tty. Unix only.
1685 <emphasis>--pidfile FILE</emphasis>
1688 On startup, write the process ID to <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>. Delete the
1689 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> on exit. Failure to create or delete the
1690 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> is non-fatal. If no <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>
1691 option is given, no PID file will be used. Unix only.
1696 <emphasis>--user USER[.GROUP]</emphasis>
1699 After (optionally) writing the PID file, assume the user ID of
1700 <emphasis>USER</emphasis>, and if included the GID of GROUP. Exit if the
1701 privileges are not sufficient to do so. Unix only.
1706 <emphasis>--chroot</emphasis>
1709 Before changing to the user ID given in the <emphasis>--user</emphasis> option,
1710 chroot to that user's home directory, i.e. make the kernel pretend to the &my-app;
1711 process that the directory tree starts there. If set up carefully, this can limit
1712 the impact of possible vulnerabilities in &my-app; to the files contained in that hierarchy.
1718 <emphasis>--pre-chroot-nslookup hostname</emphasis>
1721 Specifies a hostname to look up before doing a chroot. On some systems, initializing the
1722 resolver library involves reading config files from /etc and/or loading additional shared
1723 libraries from /lib. On these systems, doing a hostname lookup before the chroot reduces
1724 the number of files that must be copied into the chroot tree.
1727 For fastest startup speed, a good value is a hostname that is not in /etc/hosts but that
1728 your local name server (listed in /etc/resolv.conf) can resolve without recursion
1729 (that is, without having to ask any other name servers). The hostname need not exist,
1730 but if it doesn't, an error message (which can be ignored) will be output.
1736 <emphasis>configfile</emphasis>
1739 If no <emphasis>configfile</emphasis> is included on the command line,
1740 <application>Privoxy</application> will look for a file named
1741 <quote>config</quote> in the current directory (except on Win32
1742 where it will look for <quote>config.txt</quote> instead). Specify
1743 full path to avoid confusion. If no config file is found,
1744 <application>Privoxy</application> will fail to start.
1752 On <application>MS Windows</application> only there are two additional
1753 command-line options to allow <application>Privoxy</application> to install and
1754 run as a <emphasis>service</emphasis>. See the
1755 <link linkend="installation-pack-win">Window Installation section</link>
1763 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1766 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1767 <sect1 id="configuration"><title>Privoxy Configuration</title>
1769 All <application>Privoxy</application> configuration is stored
1770 in text files. These files can be edited with a text editor.
1771 Many important aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> can
1772 also be controlled easily with a web browser.
1776 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1779 <title>Controlling Privoxy with Your Web Browser</title>
1781 <application>Privoxy</application>'s user interface can be reached through the special
1782 URL <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
1783 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
1784 which is a built-in page and works without Internet access.
1785 You will see the following section:
1789 <!-- Needs to be put in a table and colorized -->
1792 <bridgehead renderas="sect2"> Privoxy Menu</bridgehead>
1796 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">View & change the current configuration</ulink>
1799 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-version">View the source code version numbers</ulink>
1802 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request">View the request headers.</ulink>
1805 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">Look up which actions apply to a URL and why</ulink>
1808 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">Toggle Privoxy on or off</ulink>
1811 ▪ <ulink
1812 url="http://www.privoxy.org/&p-version;/user-manual/">Documentation</ulink>
1820 This should be self-explanatory. Note the first item leads to an editor for the
1821 <link linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>, which is where the ad, banner,
1822 cookie, and URL blocking magic is configured as well as other advanced features of
1823 <application>Privoxy</application>. This is an easy way to adjust various
1824 aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. The actions
1825 file, and other configuration files, are explained in detail below.
1829 <quote>Toggle Privoxy On or Off</quote> is handy for sites that might
1830 have problems with your current actions and filters. You can in fact use
1831 it as a test to see whether it is <application>Privoxy</application>
1832 causing the problem or not. <application>Privoxy</application> continues
1833 to run as a proxy in this case, but all manipulation is disabled, i.e.
1834 <application>Privoxy</application> acts like a normal forwarding proxy. There
1835 is even a toggle <link linkend="bookmarklets">Bookmarklet</link> offered, so
1836 that you can toggle <application>Privoxy</application> with one click from
1841 Note that several of the features described above are disabled by default
1842 in <application>Privoxy</application> 3.0.7 beta and later.
1844 <ulink url="config.html">configuration file</ulink> to learn why
1845 and in which cases it's safe to enable them again.
1850 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1855 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1857 <sect2 id="confoverview">
1858 <title>Configuration Files Overview</title>
1860 For Unix, *BSD and Linux, all configuration files are located in
1861 <filename>/etc/privoxy/</filename> by default. For MS Windows, OS/2, and
1862 AmigaOS these are all in the same directory as the
1863 <application>Privoxy</application> executable. <![%p-not-stable;[ The name
1864 and number of configuration files has changed from previous versions, and is
1865 subject to change as development progresses.]]>
1869 The installed defaults provide a reasonable starting point, though
1870 some settings may be aggressive by some standards. For the time being, the
1871 principle configuration files are:
1879 The <link linkend="config">main configuration file</link> is named <filename>config</filename>
1880 on Linux, Unix, BSD, OS/2, and AmigaOS and <filename>config.txt</filename>
1881 on Windows. This is a required file.
1887 <filename>match-all.action</filename> is used to define which <quote>actions</quote>
1888 relating to banner-blocking, images, pop-ups, content modification, cookie handling
1889 etc should be applied by default. It should be the first actions file loaded.
1892 <filename>default.action</filename> defines many exceptions (both positive and negative)
1893 from the default set of actions that's configured in <filename>match-all.action</filename>.
1894 It should be the second actions file loaded and shouldn't be edited by the user.
1897 Multiple actions files may be defined in <filename>config</filename>. These
1898 are processed in the order they are defined. Local customizations and locally
1899 preferred exceptions to the default policies as defined in
1900 <filename>match-all.action</filename> (which you will most probably want
1901 to define sooner or later) are best applied in <filename>user.action</filename>,
1902 where you can preserve them across upgrades. The file isn't installed by all
1903 installers, but you can easily create it yourself with a text editor.
1906 There is also a web based editor that can be accessed from
1908 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
1910 url="http://p.p/show-status">http://p.p/show-status</ulink>) for the
1911 various actions files.
1917 <quote>Filter files</quote> (the <link linkend="filter-file">filter
1918 file</link>) can be used to re-write the raw page content, including
1919 viewable text as well as embedded HTML and JavaScript, and whatever else
1920 lurks on any given web page. The filtering jobs are only pre-defined here;
1921 whether to apply them or not is up to the actions files.
1922 <filename>default.filter</filename> includes various filters made
1923 available for use by the developers. Some are much more intrusive than
1924 others, and all should be used with caution. You may define additional
1925 filter files in <filename>config</filename> as you can with
1926 actions files. We suggest <filename>user.filter</filename> for any
1927 locally defined filters or customizations.
1935 The syntax of the configuration and filter files may change between different
1936 Privoxy versions, unfortunately some enhancements cost backwards compatibility.
1937 <!-- Add link to documentation-->
1941 All files use the <quote><literal>#</literal></quote> character to denote a
1942 comment (the rest of the line will be ignored) and understand line continuation
1943 through placing a backslash ("<literal>\</literal>") as the very last character
1944 in a line. If the <literal>#</literal> is preceded by a backslash, it looses
1945 its special function. Placing a <literal>#</literal> in front of an otherwise
1946 valid configuration line to prevent it from being interpreted is called "commenting
1947 out" that line. Blank lines are ignored.
1951 The actions files and filter files
1952 can use Perl style <link linkend="regex">regular expressions</link> for
1953 maximum flexibility.
1957 After making any changes, there is no need to restart
1958 <application>Privoxy</application> in order for the changes to take
1959 effect. <application>Privoxy</application> detects such changes
1960 automatically. Note, however, that it may take one or two additional
1961 requests for the change to take effect. When changing the listening address
1962 of <application>Privoxy</application>, these <quote>wake up</quote> requests
1963 must obviously be sent to the <emphasis>old</emphasis> listening address.
1968 While under development, the configuration content is subject to change.
1969 The below documentation may not be accurate by the time you read this.
1970 Also, what constitutes a <quote>default</quote> setting, may change, so
1971 please check all your configuration files on important issues.
1977 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1980 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
1982 <!-- **************************************************** -->
1983 <!-- Include config.sgml here -->
1984 <!-- This is where the entire config file is detailed. -->
1986 <!-- end include -->
1989 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1993 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
1995 <sect1 id="actions-file"><title>Actions Files</title>
1999 XXX: similar descriptions are in the Configuration Files sections.
2000 We should only describe them at one place.
2003 The actions files are used to define what <emphasis>actions</emphasis>
2004 <application>Privoxy</application> takes for which URLs, and thus determines
2005 how ad images, cookies and various other aspects of HTTP content and
2006 transactions are handled, and on which sites (or even parts thereof).
2007 There are a number of such actions, with a wide range of functionality.
2008 Each action does something a little different.
2009 These actions give us a veritable arsenal of tools with which to exert
2010 our control, preferences and independence. Actions can be combined so that
2011 their effects are aggregated when applied against a given set of URLs.
2015 are three action files included with <application>Privoxy</application> with
2022 <filename>match-all.action</filename> - is used to define which
2023 <quote>actions</quote> relating to banner-blocking, images, pop-ups,
2024 content modification, cookie handling etc should be applied by default.
2025 It should be the first actions file loaded
2030 <filename>default.action</filename> - defines many exceptions (both
2031 positive and negative) from the default set of actions that's configured
2032 in <filename>match-all.action</filename>. It is a set of rules that should
2033 work reasonably well as-is for most users. This file is only supposed to
2034 be edited by the developers. It should be the second actions file loaded.
2039 <filename>user.action</filename> - is intended to be for local site
2040 preferences and exceptions. As an example, if your ISP or your bank
2041 has specific requirements, and need special handling, this kind of
2042 thing should go here. This file will not be upgraded.
2047 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> <guibutton>Set to Cautious</guibutton> <guibutton>Set to Medium</guibutton> <guibutton>Set to Advanced</guibutton>
2050 These have increasing levels of aggressiveness <emphasis>and have no
2051 influence on your browsing unless you select them explicitly in the
2052 editor</emphasis>. A default installation should be pre-set to
2053 <literal>Cautious</literal>. New users should try this for a while before
2054 adjusting the settings to more aggressive levels. The more aggressive
2055 the settings, then the more likelihood there is of problems such as sites
2056 not working as they should.
2059 The <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> button allows you to turn each
2060 action on/off individually for fine-tuning. The <guibutton>Cautious</guibutton>
2061 button changes the actions list to low/safe settings which will activate
2062 ad blocking and a minimal set of &my-app;'s features, and subsequently
2063 there will be less of a chance for accidental problems. The
2064 <guibutton>Medium</guibutton> button sets the list to a medium level of
2065 other features and a low level set of privacy features. The
2066 <guibutton>Advanced</guibutton> button sets the list to a high level of
2067 ad blocking and medium level of privacy. See the chart below. The latter
2068 three buttons over-ride any changes via with the
2069 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> button. More fine-tuning can be done in the
2070 lower sections of this internal page.
2073 While the actions file editor allows to enable these settings in all
2074 actions files, they are only supposed to be enabled in the first one
2075 to make sure you don't unintentionally overrule earlier rules.
2078 The default profiles, and their associated actions, as pre-defined in
2079 <filename>default.action</filename> are:
2082 <table frame=all><title>Default Configurations</title>
2083 <tgroup cols=4 align=left colsep=1 rowsep=1>
2084 <colspec colname=c1>
2085 <colspec colname=c2>
2086 <colspec colname=c3>
2087 <colspec colname=c4>
2090 <entry>Feature</entry>
2091 <entry>Cautious</entry>
2092 <entry>Medium</entry>
2093 <entry>Advanced</entry>
2098 <!-- <entry>f1</entry> -->
2099 <!-- <entry>f2</entry> -->
2100 <!-- <entry>f3</entry> -->
2101 <!-- <entry>f4</entry> -->
2107 <entry>Ad-blocking Aggressiveness</entry>
2108 <entry>medium</entry>
2114 <entry>Ad-filtering by size</entry>
2121 <entry>Ad-filtering by link</entry>
2127 <entry>Pop-up killing</entry>
2128 <entry>blocks only</entry>
2129 <entry>blocks only</entry>
2130 <entry>blocks only</entry>
2134 <entry>Privacy Features</entry>
2136 <entry>medium</entry>
2137 <entry>medium/high</entry>
2141 <entry>Cookie handling</entry>
2143 <entry>session-only</entry>
2148 <entry>Referer forging</entry>
2155 <entry>GIF de-animation</entry>
2162 <entry>Fast redirects</entry>
2169 <entry>HTML taming</entry>
2176 <entry>JavaScript taming</entry>
2183 <entry>Web-bug killing</entry>
2190 <entry>Image tag reordering</entry>
2206 The list of actions files to be used are defined in the main configuration
2207 file, and are processed in the order they are defined (e.g.
2208 <filename>default.action</filename> is typically processed before
2209 <filename>user.action</filename>). The content of these can all be viewed and
2211 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
2212 The over-riding principle when applying actions, is that the last action that
2213 matches a given URL wins. The broadest, most general rules go first
2214 (defined in <filename>default.action</filename>),
2215 followed by any exceptions (typically also in
2216 <filename>default.action</filename>), which are then followed lastly by any
2217 local preferences (typically in <emphasis>user</emphasis><filename>.action</filename>).
2218 Generally, <filename>user.action</filename> has the last word.
2222 An actions file typically has multiple sections. If you want to use
2223 <quote>aliases</quote> in an actions file, you have to place the (optional)
2224 <link linkend="aliases">alias section</link> at the top of that file.
2225 Then comes the default set of rules which will apply universally to all
2226 sites and pages (be <emphasis>very careful</emphasis> with using such a
2227 universal set in <filename>user.action</filename> or any other actions file after
2228 <filename>default.action</filename>, because it will override the result
2229 from consulting any previous file). And then below that,
2230 exceptions to the defined universal policies. You can regard
2231 <filename>user.action</filename> as an appendix to <filename>default.action</filename>,
2232 with the advantage that it is a separate file, which makes preserving your
2233 personal settings across <application>Privoxy</application> upgrades easier.
2237 Actions can be used to block anything you want, including ads, banners, or
2238 just some obnoxious URL whose content you would rather not see. Cookies can be accepted
2239 or rejected, or accepted only during the current browser session (i.e. not
2240 written to disk), content can be modified, some JavaScripts tamed, user-tracking
2241 fooled, and much more. See below for a <link linkend="actions">complete list
2245 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2247 <title>Finding the Right Mix</title>
2249 Note that some <link linkend="actions">actions</link>, like cookie suppression
2250 or script disabling, may render some sites unusable that rely on these
2251 techniques to work properly. Finding the right mix of actions is not always easy and
2252 certainly a matter of personal taste. And, things can always change, requiring
2253 refinements in the configuration. In general, it can be said that the more
2254 <quote>aggressive</quote> your default settings (in the top section of the
2255 actions file) are, the more exceptions for <quote>trusted</quote> sites you
2256 will have to make later. If, for example, you want to crunch all cookies per
2257 default, you'll have to make exceptions from that rule for sites that you
2258 regularly use and that require cookies for actually useful purposes, like maybe
2259 your bank, favorite shop, or newspaper.
2263 We have tried to provide you with reasonable rules to start from in the
2264 distribution actions files. But there is no general rule of thumb on these
2265 things. There just are too many variables, and sites are constantly changing.
2266 Sooner or later you will want to change the rules (and read this chapter again :).
2270 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2272 <title>How to Edit</title>
2274 The easiest way to edit the actions files is with a browser by
2275 using our browser-based editor, which can be reached from <ulink
2276 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
2277 Note: the config file option <link
2278 linkend="enable-edit-actions">enable-edit-actions</link> must be enabled for
2279 this to work. The editor allows both fine-grained control over every single
2280 feature on a per-URL basis, and easy choosing from wholesale sets of defaults
2281 like <quote>Cautious</quote>, <quote>Medium</quote> or
2282 <quote>Advanced</quote>. Warning: the <quote>Advanced</quote> setting is more
2283 aggressive, and will be more likely to cause problems for some sites.
2284 Experienced users only!
2288 If you prefer plain text editing to GUIs, you can of course also directly edit the
2289 the actions files with your favorite text editor. Look at
2290 <filename>default.action</filename> which is richly commented with many
2296 <sect2 id="actions-apply">
2297 <title>How Actions are Applied to Requests</title>
2299 Actions files are divided into sections. There are special sections,
2300 like the <quote><link linkend="aliases">alias</link></quote> sections which will
2301 be discussed later. For now let's concentrate on regular sections: They have a
2302 heading line (often split up to multiple lines for readability) which consist
2303 of a list of actions, separated by whitespace and enclosed in curly braces.
2304 Below that, there is a list of URL and tag patterns, each on a separate line.
2308 To determine which actions apply to a request, the URL of the request is
2309 compared to all URL patterns in each <quote>action file</quote>.
2310 Every time it matches, the list of applicable actions for the request is
2311 incrementally updated, using the heading of the section in which the
2312 pattern is located. The same is done again for tags and tag patterns later on.
2316 If multiple applying sections set the same action differently,
2317 the last match wins. If not, the effects are aggregated.
2318 E.g. a URL might match a regular section with a heading line of <literal>{
2319 +<link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link> }</literal>,
2320 then later another one with just <literal>{
2321 +<link linkend="block">block</link> }</literal>, resulting
2322 in <emphasis>both</emphasis> actions to apply. And there may well be
2323 cases where you will want to combine actions together. Such a section then
2329 { +<literal>handle-as-image</literal> +<literal>block{Banner ads.}</literal> }
2330 # Block these as if they were images. Send no block page.
2332 media.example.com/.*banners
2333 .example.com/images/ads/</screen>
2337 You can trace this process for URL patterns and any given URL by visiting <ulink
2338 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>.
2342 Examples and more detail on this is provided in the Appendix, <link linkend="ACTIONSANAT">
2343 Troubleshooting: Anatomy of an Action</link> section.
2347 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2348 <sect2 id="af-patterns">
2349 <title>Patterns</title>
2351 As mentioned, <application>Privoxy</application> uses <quote>patterns</quote>
2352 to determine what <emphasis>actions</emphasis> might apply to which sites and
2353 pages your browser attempts to access. These <quote>patterns</quote> use wild
2354 card type <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> matching to achieve a high degree of
2355 flexibility. This allows one expression to be expanded and potentially match
2356 against many similar patterns.
2360 Generally, an URL pattern has the form
2361 <literal><domain><port>/<path></literal>, where the
2362 <literal><domain></literal>, the <literal><port></literal>
2363 and the <literal><path></literal> are optional. (This is why the special
2364 <literal>/</literal> pattern matches all URLs). Note that the protocol
2365 portion of the URL pattern (e.g. <literal>http://</literal>) should
2366 <emphasis>not</emphasis> be included in the pattern. This is assumed already!
2369 The pattern matching syntax is different for the domain and path parts of
2370 the URL. The domain part uses a simple globbing type matching technique,
2371 while the path part uses more flexible
2372 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
2373 Expressions</quote></ulink> (POSIX 1003.2).
2376 The port part of a pattern is a decimal port number preceded by a colon
2377 (<literal>:</literal>). If the domain part contains a numerical IPv6 address,
2378 it has to be put into angle brackets
2379 (<literal><</literal>, <literal>></literal>).
2384 <term><literal>www.example.com/</literal></term>
2387 is a domain-only pattern and will match any request to <literal>www.example.com</literal>,
2388 regardless of which document on that server is requested. So ALL pages in
2389 this domain would be covered by the scope of this action. Note that a
2390 simple <literal>example.com</literal> is different and would NOT match.
2395 <term><literal>www.example.com</literal></term>
2398 means exactly the same. For domain-only patterns, the trailing <literal>/</literal> may
2404 <term><literal>www.example.com/index.html</literal></term>
2407 matches all the documents on <literal>www.example.com</literal>
2408 whose name starts with <literal>/index.html</literal>.
2413 <term><literal>www.example.com/index.html$</literal></term>
2416 matches only the single document <literal>/index.html</literal>
2417 on <literal>www.example.com</literal>.
2422 <term><literal>/index.html$</literal></term>
2425 matches the document <literal>/index.html</literal>, regardless of the domain,
2426 i.e. on <emphasis>any</emphasis> web server anywhere.
2431 <term><literal>:8000/</literal></term>
2434 Matches any URL pointing to TCP port 8000.
2439 <term><literal><2001:db8::1>/</literal></term>
2442 Matches any URL with the host address <literal>2001:db8::1</literal>.
2443 (Note that the real URL uses plain brackets, not angle brackets.)
2448 <term><literal>index.html</literal></term>
2451 matches nothing, since it would be interpreted as a domain name and
2452 there is no top-level domain called <literal>.html</literal>. So its
2460 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2461 <sect3><title>The Domain Pattern</title>
2464 The matching of the domain part offers some flexible options: if the
2465 domain starts or ends with a dot, it becomes unanchored at that end.
2471 <term><literal>.example.com</literal></term>
2474 matches any domain with first-level domain <literal>com</literal>
2475 and second-level domain <literal>example</literal>.
2476 For example <literal>www.example.com</literal>,
2477 <literal>example.com</literal> and <literal>foo.bar.baz.example.com</literal>.
2478 Note that it wouldn't match if the second-level domain was <literal>another-example</literal>.
2483 <term><literal>www.</literal></term>
2486 matches any domain that <emphasis>STARTS</emphasis> with
2487 <literal>www.</literal> (It also matches the domain
2488 <literal>www</literal> but most of the time that doesn't matter.)
2493 <term><literal>.example.</literal></term>
2496 matches any domain that <emphasis>CONTAINS</emphasis> <literal>.example.</literal>.
2497 And, by the way, also included would be any files or documents that exist
2498 within that domain since no path limitations are specified. (Correctly
2499 speaking: It matches any FQDN that contains <literal>example</literal> as
2500 a domain.) This might be <literal>www.example.com</literal>,
2501 <literal>news.example.de</literal>, or
2502 <literal>www.example.net/cgi/testing.pl</literal> for instance. All these
2510 Additionally, there are wild-cards that you can use in the domain names
2511 themselves. These work similarly to shell globbing type wild-cards:
2512 <quote>*</quote> represents zero or more arbitrary characters (this is
2514 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
2515 Expression</quote></ulink> based syntax of <quote>.*</quote>),
2516 <quote>?</quote> represents any single character (this is equivalent to the
2517 regular expression syntax of a simple <quote>.</quote>), and you can define
2518 <quote>character classes</quote> in square brackets which is similar to
2519 the same regular expression technique. All of this can be freely mixed:
2524 <term><literal>ad*.example.com</literal></term>
2527 matches <quote>adserver.example.com</quote>,
2528 <quote>ads.example.com</quote>, etc but not <quote>sfads.example.com</quote>
2533 <term><literal>*ad*.example.com</literal></term>
2536 matches all of the above, and then some.
2541 <term><literal>.?pix.com</literal></term>
2544 matches <literal>www.ipix.com</literal>,
2545 <literal>pictures.epix.com</literal>, <literal>a.b.c.d.e.upix.com</literal> etc.
2550 <term><literal>www[1-9a-ez].example.c*</literal></term>
2553 matches <literal>www1.example.com</literal>,
2554 <literal>www4.example.cc</literal>, <literal>wwwd.example.cy</literal>,
2555 <literal>wwwz.example.com</literal> etc., but <emphasis>not</emphasis>
2556 <literal>wwww.example.com</literal>.
2563 While flexible, this is not the sophistication of full regular expression based syntax.
2568 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2571 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2572 <sect3><title>The Path Pattern</title>
2575 <application>Privoxy</application> uses <quote>modern</quote> POSIX 1003.2
2576 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
2577 Expressions</quote></ulink> for matching the path portion (after the slash),
2578 and is thus more flexible.
2582 There is an <link linkend="regex">Appendix</link> with a brief quick-start into regular
2583 expressions, you also might want to have a look at your operating system's documentation
2584 on regular expressions (try <literal>man re_format</literal>).
2588 Note that the path pattern is automatically left-anchored at the <quote>/</quote>,
2589 i.e. it matches as if it would start with a <quote>^</quote> (regular expression speak
2590 for the beginning of a line).
2594 Please also note that matching in the path is <emphasis>CASE INSENSITIVE</emphasis>
2595 by default, but you can switch to case sensitive at any point in the pattern by using the
2596 <quote>(?-i)</quote> switch: <literal>www.example.com/(?-i)PaTtErN.*</literal> will match
2597 only documents whose path starts with <literal>PaTtErN</literal> in
2598 <emphasis>exactly</emphasis> this capitalization.
2603 <term><literal>.example.com/.*</literal></term>
2606 Is equivalent to just <quote>.example.com</quote>, since any documents
2607 within that domain are matched with or without the <quote>.*</quote>
2608 regular expression. This is redundant
2613 <term><literal>.example.com/.*/index.html$</literal></term>
2616 Will match any page in the domain of <quote>example.com</quote> that is
2617 named <quote>index.html</quote>, and that is part of some path. For
2618 example, it matches <quote>www.example.com/testing/index.html</quote> but
2619 NOT <quote>www.example.com/index.html</quote> because the regular
2620 expression called for at least two <quote>/'s</quote>, thus the path
2621 requirement. It also would match
2622 <quote>www.example.com/testing/index_html</quote>, because of the
2623 special meta-character <quote>.</quote>.
2628 <term><literal>.example.com/(.*/)?index\.html$</literal></term>
2631 This regular expression is conditional so it will match any page
2632 named <quote>index.html</quote> regardless of path which in this case can
2633 have one or more <quote>/'s</quote>. And this one must contain exactly
2634 <quote>.html</quote> (but does not have to end with that!).
2639 <term><literal>.example.com/(.*/)(ads|banners?|junk)</literal></term>
2642 This regular expression will match any path of <quote>example.com</quote>
2643 that contains any of the words <quote>ads</quote>, <quote>banner</quote>,
2644 <quote>banners</quote> (because of the <quote>?</quote>) or <quote>junk</quote>.
2645 The path does not have to end in these words, just contain them.
2650 <term><literal>.example.com/(.*/)(ads|banners?|junk)/.*\.(jpe?g|gif|png)$</literal></term>
2653 This is very much the same as above, except now it must end in either
2654 <quote>.jpg</quote>, <quote>.jpeg</quote>, <quote>.gif</quote> or <quote>.png</quote>. So this
2655 one is limited to common image formats.
2662 There are many, many good examples to be found in <filename>default.action</filename>,
2663 and more tutorials below in <link linkend="regex">Appendix on regular expressions</link>.
2668 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2671 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2672 <sect3 id="tag-pattern"><title>The Tag Pattern</title>
2675 Tag patterns are used to change the applying actions based on the
2676 request's tags. Tags can be created with either the
2677 <link linkend="CLIENT-HEADER-TAGGER">client-header-tagger</link>
2678 or the <link linkend="SERVER-HEADER-TAGGER">server-header-tagger</link> action.
2682 Tag patterns have to start with <quote>TAG:</quote>, so &my-app;
2683 can tell them apart from URL patterns. Everything after the colon
2684 including white space, is interpreted as a regular expression with
2685 path pattern syntax, except that tag patterns aren't left-anchored
2686 automatically (&my-app; doesn't silently add a <quote>^</quote>,
2687 you have to do it yourself if you need it).
2691 To match all requests that are tagged with <quote>foo</quote>
2692 your pattern line should be <quote>TAG:^foo$</quote>,
2693 <quote>TAG:foo</quote> would work as well, but it would also
2694 match requests whose tags contain <quote>foo</quote> somewhere.
2695 <quote>TAG: foo</quote> wouldn't work as it requires white space.
2699 Sections can contain URL and tag patterns at the same time,
2700 but tag patterns are checked after the URL patterns and thus
2701 always overrule them, even if they are located before the URL patterns.
2705 Once a new tag is added, Privoxy checks right away if it's matched by one
2706 of the tag patterns and updates the action settings accordingly. As a result
2707 tags can be used to activate other tagger actions, as long as these other
2708 taggers look for headers that haven't already be parsed.
2712 For example you could tag client requests which use the
2713 <literal>POST</literal> method,
2714 then use this tag to activate another tagger that adds a tag if cookies
2715 are sent, and then use a block action based on the cookie tag. This allows
2716 the outcome of one action, to be input into a subsequent action. However if
2717 you'd reverse the position of the described taggers, and activated the
2718 method tagger based on the cookie tagger, no method tags would be created.
2719 The method tagger would look for the request line, but at the time
2720 the cookie tag is created, the request line has already been parsed.
2724 While this is a limitation you should be aware of, this kind of
2725 indirection is seldom needed anyway and even the example doesn't
2726 make too much sense.
2733 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2736 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2738 <sect2 id="actions">
2739 <title>Actions</title>
2741 All actions are disabled by default, until they are explicitly enabled
2742 somewhere in an actions file. Actions are turned on if preceded with a
2743 <quote>+</quote>, and turned off if preceded with a <quote>-</quote>. So a
2744 <literal>+action</literal> means <quote>do that action</quote>, e.g.
2745 <literal>+block</literal> means <quote>please block URLs that match the
2746 following patterns</quote>, and <literal>-block</literal> means <quote>don't
2747 block URLs that match the following patterns, even if <literal>+block</literal>
2748 previously applied.</quote>
2753 Again, actions are invoked by placing them on a line, enclosed in curly braces and
2754 separated by whitespace, like in
2755 <literal>{+some-action -some-other-action{some-parameter}}</literal>,
2756 followed by a list of URL patterns, one per line, to which they apply.
2757 Together, the actions line and the following pattern lines make up a section
2758 of the actions file.
2762 Actions fall into three categories:
2769 Boolean, i.e the action can only be <quote>enabled</quote> or
2770 <quote>disabled</quote>. Syntax:
2774 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # enable action <replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable>
2775 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # disable action <replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable></screen>
2778 Example: <literal>+handle-as-image</literal>
2785 Parameterized, where some value is required in order to enable this type of action.
2790 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # enable action and set parameter to <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>,
2791 # overwriting parameter from previous match if necessary
2792 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # disable action. The parameter can be omitted</screen>
2795 Note that if the URL matches multiple positive forms of a parameterized action,
2796 the last match wins, i.e. the params from earlier matches are simply ignored.
2799 Example: <literal>+hide-user-agent{Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; FreeBSD i386; en-US; rv:1.8.1.4) Gecko/20070602 Firefox/2.0.0.4}</literal>
2805 Multi-value. These look exactly like parameterized actions,
2806 but they behave differently: If the action applies multiple times to the
2807 same URL, but with different parameters, <emphasis>all</emphasis> the parameters
2808 from <emphasis>all</emphasis> matches are remembered. This is used for actions
2809 that can be executed for the same request repeatedly, like adding multiple
2810 headers, or filtering through multiple filters. Syntax:
2814 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # enable action and add <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable> to the list of parameters
2815 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # remove the parameter <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable> from the list of parameters
2816 # If it was the last one left, disable the action.
2817 <replaceable class="parameter">-name</replaceable> # disable this action completely and remove all parameters from the list</screen>
2820 Examples: <literal>+add-header{X-Fun-Header: Some text}</literal> and
2821 <literal>+filter{html-annoyances}</literal>
2829 If nothing is specified in any actions file, no <quote>actions</quote> are
2830 taken. So in this case <application>Privoxy</application> would just be a
2831 normal, non-blocking, non-filtering proxy. You must specifically enable the
2832 privacy and blocking features you need (although the provided default actions
2833 files will give a good starting point).
2837 Later defined action sections always over-ride earlier ones of the same type.
2838 So exceptions to any rules you make, should come in the latter part of the file (or
2839 in a file that is processed later when using multiple actions files such
2840 as <filename>user.action</filename>). For multi-valued actions, the actions
2841 are applied in the order they are specified. Actions files are processed in
2842 the order they are defined in <filename>config</filename> (the default
2843 installation has three actions files). It also quite possible for any given
2844 URL to match more than one <quote>pattern</quote> (because of wildcards and
2845 regular expressions), and thus to trigger more than one set of actions! Last
2849 <!-- start actions listing -->
2851 The list of valid <application>Privoxy</application> actions are:
2855 <!-- ********************************************************** -->
2856 <!-- Please note the below defined actions use id's that are -->
2857 <!-- probably linked from other places, so please don't change. -->
2859 <!-- ********************************************************** -->
2862 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2864 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="add-header">
2865 <title>add-header</title>
2869 <term>Typical use:</term>
2871 <para>Confuse log analysis, custom applications</para>
2876 <term>Effect:</term>
2879 Sends a user defined HTTP header to the web server.
2886 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2888 <para>Multi-value.</para>
2893 <term>Parameter:</term>
2896 Any string value is possible. Validity of the defined HTTP headers is not checked.
2897 It is recommended that you use the <quote><literal>X-</literal></quote> prefix
2907 This action may be specified multiple times, in order to define multiple
2908 headers. This is rarely needed for the typical user. If you don't know what
2909 <quote>HTTP headers</quote> are, you definitely don't need to worry about this
2913 Headers added by this action are not modified by other actions.
2919 <term>Example usage:</term>
2922 <screen>+add-header{X-User-Tracking: sucks}</screen>
2930 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2931 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="block">
2932 <title>block</title>
2936 <term>Typical use:</term>
2938 <para>Block ads or other unwanted content</para>
2943 <term>Effect:</term>
2946 Requests for URLs to which this action applies are blocked, i.e. the
2947 requests are trapped by &my-app; and the requested URL is never retrieved,
2948 but is answered locally with a substitute page or image, as determined by
2950 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>,
2952 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>, and
2954 linkend="handle-as-empty-document">handle-as-empty-document</link></literal> actions.
2962 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2964 <para>Parameterized.</para>
2969 <term>Parameter:</term>
2971 <para>A block reason that should be given to the user.</para>
2979 <application>Privoxy</application> sends a special <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page
2980 for requests to blocked pages. This page contains the block reason given as
2981 parameter, a link to find out why the block action applies, and a click-through
2982 to the blocked content (the latter only if the force feature is available and
2986 A very important exception occurs if <emphasis>both</emphasis>
2987 <literal>block</literal> and <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>,
2988 apply to the same request: it will then be replaced by an image. If
2989 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>
2990 (see below) also applies, the type of image will be determined by its parameter,
2991 if not, the standard checkerboard pattern is sent.
2994 It is important to understand this process, in order
2995 to understand how <application>Privoxy</application> deals with
2996 ads and other unwanted content. Blocking is a core feature, and one
2997 upon which various other features depend.
3000 The <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>
3001 action can perform a very similar task, by <quote>blocking</quote>
3002 banner images and other content through rewriting the relevant URLs in the
3003 document's HTML source, so they don't get requested in the first place.
3004 Note that this is a totally different technique, and it's easy to confuse the two.
3010 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3013 <screen>{+block{No nasty stuff for you.}}
3014 # Block and replace with "blocked" page
3015 .nasty-stuff.example.com
3017 {+block{Doubleclick banners.} +handle-as-image}
3018 # Block and replace with image
3022 {+block{Layered ads.} +handle-as-empty-document}
3023 # Block and then ignore
3024 adserver.example.net/.*\.js$</screen>
3034 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3035 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="change-x-forwarded-for">
3036 <title>change-x-forwarded-for</title>
3040 <term>Typical use:</term>
3042 <para>Improve privacy by not forwarding the source of the request in the HTTP headers.</para>
3047 <term>Effect:</term>
3050 Deletes the <quote>X-Forwarded-For:</quote> HTTP header from the client request,
3058 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3060 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3065 <term>Parameter:</term>
3069 <para><quote>block</quote> to delete the header.</para>
3073 <quote>add</quote> to create the header (or append
3074 the client's IP address to an already existing one).
3085 It is safe and recommended to use <literal>block</literal>.
3088 Forwarding the source address of the request may make
3089 sense in some multi-user setups but is also a privacy risk.
3094 <term>Example usage:</term>
3097 <screen>+change-x-forwarded-for{block}</screen>
3104 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3105 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="client-header-filter">
3106 <title>client-header-filter</title>
3110 <term>Typical use:</term>
3113 Rewrite or remove single client headers.
3119 <term>Effect:</term>
3122 All client headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly through
3123 the specified regular expression based substitutions.
3130 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3132 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3137 <term>Parameter:</term>
3140 The name of a client-header filter, as defined in one of the
3141 <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link>.
3150 Client-header filters are applied to each header on its own, not to
3151 all at once. This makes it easier to diagnose problems, but on the downside
3152 you can't write filters that only change header x if header y's value is z.
3153 You can do that by using tags though.
3156 Client-header filters are executed after the other header actions have finished
3157 and use their output as input.
3160 If the request URL gets changed, &my-app; will detect that and use the new
3161 one. This can be used to rewrite the request destination behind the client's
3162 back, for example to specify a Tor exit relay for certain requests.
3165 Please refer to the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file chapter</link>
3166 to learn which client-header filters are available by default, and how to
3174 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3178 # Hide Tor exit notation in Host and Referer Headers
3179 {+client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation}}
3190 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3191 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="client-header-tagger">
3192 <title>client-header-tagger</title>
3196 <term>Typical use:</term>
3199 Block requests based on their headers.
3205 <term>Effect:</term>
3208 Client headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly through
3209 the specified regular expression based substitutions, the result is used as
3217 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3219 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3224 <term>Parameter:</term>
3227 The name of a client-header tagger, as defined in one of the
3228 <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link>.
3237 Client-header taggers are applied to each header on its own,
3238 and as the header isn't modified, each tagger <quote>sees</quote>
3242 Client-header taggers are the first actions that are executed
3243 and their tags can be used to control every other action.
3249 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3253 # Tag every request with the User-Agent header
3254 {+client-header-tagger{user-agent}}
3257 # Tagging itself doesn't change the action
3258 # settings, sections with TAG patterns do:
3260 # If it's a download agent, use a different forwarding proxy,
3261 # show the real User-Agent and make sure resume works.
3262 {+forward-override{forward-socks5 10.0.0.2:2222 .} \
3263 -hide-if-modified-since \
3264 -overwrite-last-modified \
3269 TAG:^User-Agent: NetBSD-ftp/
3270 TAG:^User-Agent: Novell ZYPP Installer
3271 TAG:^User-Agent: RPM APT-HTTP/
3272 TAG:^User-Agent: fetch libfetch/
3273 TAG:^User-Agent: Ubuntu APT-HTTP/
3274 TAG:^User-Agent: MPlayer/
3284 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3285 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="content-type-overwrite">
3286 <title>content-type-overwrite</title>
3290 <term>Typical use:</term>
3292 <para>Stop useless download menus from popping up, or change the browser's rendering mode</para>
3297 <term>Effect:</term>
3300 Replaces the <quote>Content-Type:</quote> HTTP server header.
3307 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3309 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3314 <term>Parameter:</term>
3326 The <quote>Content-Type:</quote> HTTP server header is used by the
3327 browser to decide what to do with the document. The value of this
3328 header can cause the browser to open a download menu instead of
3329 displaying the document by itself, even if the document's format is
3330 supported by the browser.
3333 The declared content type can also affect which rendering mode
3334 the browser chooses. If XHTML is delivered as <quote>text/html</quote>,
3335 many browsers treat it as yet another broken HTML document.
3336 If it is send as <quote>application/xml</quote>, browsers with
3337 XHTML support will only display it, if the syntax is correct.
3340 If you see a web site that proudly uses XHTML buttons, but sets
3341 <quote>Content-Type: text/html</quote>, you can use &my-app;
3342 to overwrite it with <quote>application/xml</quote> and validate
3343 the web master's claim inside your XHTML-supporting browser.
3344 If the syntax is incorrect, the browser will complain loudly.
3347 You can also go the opposite direction: if your browser prints
3348 error messages instead of rendering a document falsely declared
3349 as XHTML, you can overwrite the content type with
3350 <quote>text/html</quote> and have it rendered as broken HTML document.
3353 By default <literal>content-type-overwrite</literal> only replaces
3354 <quote>Content-Type:</quote> headers that look like some kind of text.
3355 If you want to overwrite it unconditionally, you have to combine it with
3356 <literal><link linkend="force-text-mode">force-text-mode</link></literal>.
3357 This limitation exists for a reason, think twice before circumventing it.
3360 Most of the time it's easier to replace this action with a custom
3361 <literal><link linkend="server-header-filter">server-header filter</link></literal>.
3362 It allows you to activate it for every document of a certain site and it will still
3363 only replace the content types you aimed at.
3366 Of course you can apply <literal>content-type-overwrite</literal>
3367 to a whole site and then make URL based exceptions, but it's a lot
3368 more work to get the same precision.
3374 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
3377 <screen># Check if www.example.net/ really uses valid XHTML
3378 { +content-type-overwrite{application/xml} }
3381 # but leave the content type unmodified if the URL looks like a style sheet
3382 {-content-type-overwrite}
3383 www.example.net/.*\.css$
3384 www.example.net/.*style
3393 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3394 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-client-header">
3398 <title>crunch-client-header</title>
3402 <term>Typical use:</term>
3404 <para>Remove a client header <application>Privoxy</application> has no dedicated action for.</para>
3409 <term>Effect:</term>
3412 Deletes every header sent by the client that contains the string the user supplied as parameter.
3419 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3421 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3426 <term>Parameter:</term>
3438 This action allows you to block client headers for which no dedicated
3439 <application>Privoxy</application> action exists.
3440 <application>Privoxy</application> will remove every client header that
3441 contains the string you supplied as parameter.
3444 Regular expressions are <emphasis>not supported</emphasis> and you can't
3445 use this action to block different headers in the same request, unless
3446 they contain the same string.
3449 <literal>crunch-client-header</literal> is only meant for quick tests.
3450 If you have to block several different headers, or only want to modify
3451 parts of them, you should use a
3452 <literal><link linkend="client-header-filter">client-header filter</link></literal>.
3456 Don't block any header without understanding the consequences.
3463 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3466 <screen># Block the non-existent "Privacy-Violation:" client header
3467 { +crunch-client-header{Privacy-Violation:} }
3477 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3478 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-if-none-match">
3479 <title>crunch-if-none-match</title>
3485 <term>Typical use:</term>
3487 <para>Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.</para>
3492 <term>Effect:</term>
3495 Deletes the <quote>If-None-Match:</quote> HTTP client header.
3502 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3504 <para>Boolean.</para>
3509 <term>Parameter:</term>
3521 Removing the <quote>If-None-Match:</quote> HTTP client header
3522 is useful for filter testing, where you want to force a real
3523 reload instead of getting status code <quote>304</quote> which
3524 would cause the browser to use a cached copy of the page.
3527 It is also useful to make sure the header isn't used as a cookie
3528 replacement (unlikely but possible).
3531 Blocking the <quote>If-None-Match:</quote> header shouldn't cause any
3532 caching problems, as long as the <quote>If-Modified-Since:</quote> header
3533 isn't blocked or missing as well.
3536 It is recommended to use this action together with
3537 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hide-if-modified-since</link></literal>
3539 <literal><link linkend="overwrite-last-modified">overwrite-last-modified</link></literal>.
3545 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3548 <screen># Let the browser revalidate cached documents but don't
3549 # allow the server to use the revalidation headers for user tracking.
3550 {+hide-if-modified-since{-60} \
3551 +overwrite-last-modified{randomize} \
3552 +crunch-if-none-match}
3561 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3562 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-incoming-cookies">
3563 <title>crunch-incoming-cookies</title>
3567 <term>Typical use:</term>
3570 Prevent the web server from setting HTTP cookies on your system
3576 <term>Effect:</term>
3579 Deletes any <quote>Set-Cookie:</quote> HTTP headers from server replies.
3586 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3588 <para>Boolean.</para>
3593 <term>Parameter:</term>
3605 This action is only concerned with <emphasis>incoming</emphasis> HTTP cookies. For
3606 <emphasis>outgoing</emphasis> HTTP cookies, use
3607 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>.
3608 Use <emphasis>both</emphasis> to disable HTTP cookies completely.
3611 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use this action in conjunction
3612 with the <literal><link linkend="session-cookies-only">session-cookies-only</link></literal> action,
3613 since it would prevent the session cookies from being set. See also
3614 <literal><link linkend="filter-content-cookies">filter-content-cookies</link></literal>.
3620 <term>Example usage:</term>
3623 <screen>+crunch-incoming-cookies</screen>
3631 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3632 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-server-header">
3633 <title>crunch-server-header</title>
3639 <term>Typical use:</term>
3641 <para>Remove a server header <application>Privoxy</application> has no dedicated action for.</para>
3646 <term>Effect:</term>
3649 Deletes every header sent by the server that contains the string the user supplied as parameter.
3656 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3658 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3663 <term>Parameter:</term>
3675 This action allows you to block server headers for which no dedicated
3676 <application>Privoxy</application> action exists. <application>Privoxy</application>
3677 will remove every server header that contains the string you supplied as parameter.
3680 Regular expressions are <emphasis>not supported</emphasis> and you can't
3681 use this action to block different headers in the same request, unless
3682 they contain the same string.
3685 <literal>crunch-server-header</literal> is only meant for quick tests.
3686 If you have to block several different headers, or only want to modify
3687 parts of them, you should use a custom
3688 <literal><link linkend="server-header-filter">server-header filter</link></literal>.
3692 Don't block any header without understanding the consequences.
3699 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3702 <screen># Crunch server headers that try to prevent caching
3703 { +crunch-server-header{no-cache} }
3712 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3713 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-outgoing-cookies">
3714 <title>crunch-outgoing-cookies</title>
3718 <term>Typical use:</term>
3721 Prevent the web server from reading any HTTP cookies from your system
3727 <term>Effect:</term>
3730 Deletes any <quote>Cookie:</quote> HTTP headers from client requests.
3737 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3739 <para>Boolean.</para>
3744 <term>Parameter:</term>
3756 This action is only concerned with <emphasis>outgoing</emphasis> HTTP cookies. For
3757 <emphasis>incoming</emphasis> HTTP cookies, use
3758 <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal>.
3759 Use <emphasis>both</emphasis> to disable HTTP cookies completely.
3762 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use this action in conjunction
3763 with the <literal><link linkend="session-cookies-only">session-cookies-only</link></literal> action,
3764 since it would prevent the session cookies from being read.
3770 <term>Example usage:</term>
3773 <screen>+crunch-outgoing-cookies</screen>
3782 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3783 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="deanimate-gifs">
3784 <title>deanimate-gifs</title>
3788 <term>Typical use:</term>
3790 <para>Stop those annoying, distracting animated GIF images.</para>
3795 <term>Effect:</term>
3798 De-animate GIF animations, i.e. reduce them to their first or last image.
3805 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3807 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3812 <term>Parameter:</term>
3815 <quote>last</quote> or <quote>first</quote>
3824 This will also shrink the images considerably (in bytes, not pixels!). If
3825 the option <quote>first</quote> is given, the first frame of the animation
3826 is used as the replacement. If <quote>last</quote> is given, the last
3827 frame of the animation is used instead, which probably makes more sense for
3828 most banner animations, but also has the risk of not showing the entire
3829 last frame (if it is only a delta to an earlier frame).
3832 You can safely use this action with patterns that will also match non-GIF
3833 objects, because no attempt will be made at anything that doesn't look like
3840 <term>Example usage:</term>
3843 <screen>+deanimate-gifs{last}</screen>
3850 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3851 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="downgrade-http-version">
3852 <title>downgrade-http-version</title>
3856 <term>Typical use:</term>
3858 <para>Work around (very rare) problems with HTTP/1.1</para>
3863 <term>Effect:</term>
3866 Downgrades HTTP/1.1 client requests and server replies to HTTP/1.0.
3873 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3875 <para>Boolean.</para>
3880 <term>Parameter:</term>
3892 This is a left-over from the time when <application>Privoxy</application>
3893 didn't support important HTTP/1.1 features well. It is left here for the
3894 unlikely case that you experience HTTP/1.1 related problems with some server
3895 out there. Not all HTTP/1.1 features and requirements are supported yet,
3896 so there is a chance you might need this action.
3902 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3905 <screen>{+downgrade-http-version}
3906 problem-host.example.com</screen>
3914 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3915 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="fast-redirects">
3916 <title>fast-redirects</title>
3920 <term>Typical use:</term>
3922 <para>Fool some click-tracking scripts and speed up indirect links.</para>
3927 <term>Effect:</term>
3930 Detects redirection URLs and redirects the browser without contacting
3931 the redirection server first.
3938 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3940 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3945 <term>Parameter:</term>
3950 <quote>simple-check</quote> to just search for the string <quote>http://</quote>
3951 to detect redirection URLs.
3956 <quote>check-decoded-url</quote> to decode URLs (if necessary) before searching
3957 for redirection URLs.
3968 Many sites, like yahoo.com, don't just link to other sites. Instead, they
3969 will link to some script on their own servers, giving the destination as a
3970 parameter, which will then redirect you to the final target. URLs
3971 resulting from this scheme typically look like:
3972 <quote>http://www.example.org/click-tracker.cgi?target=http%3a//www.example.net/</quote>.
3975 Sometimes, there are even multiple consecutive redirects encoded in the
3976 URL. These redirections via scripts make your web browsing more traceable,
3977 since the server from which you follow such a link can see where you go
3978 to. Apart from that, valuable bandwidth and time is wasted, while your
3979 browser asks the server for one redirect after the other. Plus, it feeds
3983 This feature is currently not very smart and is scheduled for improvement.
3984 If it is enabled by default, you will have to create some exceptions to
3985 this action. It can lead to failures in several ways:
3988 Not every URLs with other URLs as parameters is evil.
3989 Some sites offer a real service that requires this information to work.
3990 For example a validation service needs to know, which document to validate.
3991 <literal>fast-redirects</literal> assumes that every URL parameter that
3992 looks like another URL is a redirection target, and will always redirect to
3993 the last one. Most of the time the assumption is correct, but if it isn't,
3994 the user gets redirected anyway.
3997 Another failure occurs if the URL contains other parameters after the URL parameter.
3999 <quote>http://www.example.org/?redirect=http%3a//www.example.net/&foo=bar</quote>.
4000 contains the redirection URL <quote>http://www.example.net/</quote>,
4001 followed by another parameter. <literal>fast-redirects</literal> doesn't know that
4002 and will cause a redirect to <quote>http://www.example.net/&foo=bar</quote>.
4003 Depending on the target server configuration, the parameter will be silently ignored
4004 or lead to a <quote>page not found</quote> error. You can prevent this problem by
4005 first using the <literal><link linkend="redirect">redirect</link></literal> action
4006 to remove the last part of the URL, but it requires a little effort.
4009 To detect a redirection URL, <literal>fast-redirects</literal> only
4010 looks for the string <quote>http://</quote>, either in plain text
4011 (invalid but often used) or encoded as <quote>http%3a//</quote>.
4012 Some sites use their own URL encoding scheme, encrypt the address
4013 of the target server or replace it with a database id. In theses cases
4014 <literal>fast-redirects</literal> is fooled and the request reaches the
4015 redirection server where it probably gets logged.
4021 <term>Example usage:</term>
4025 { +fast-redirects{simple-check} }
4028 { +fast-redirects{check-decoded-url} }
4029 another.example.com/testing</screen>
4038 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4039 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="filter">
4040 <title>filter</title>
4044 <term>Typical use:</term>
4046 <para>Get rid of HTML and JavaScript annoyances, banner advertisements (by size),
4047 do fun text replacements, add personalized effects, etc.</para>
4052 <term>Effect:</term>
4055 All instances of text-based type, most notably HTML and JavaScript, to which
4056 this action applies, can be filtered on-the-fly through the specified regular
4057 expression based substitutions. (Note: as of version 3.0.3 plain text documents
4058 are exempted from filtering, because web servers often use the
4059 <literal>text/plain</literal> MIME type for all files whose type they don't know.)
4066 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
4068 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4073 <term>Parameter:</term>
4076 The name of a content filter, as defined in the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file</link>.
4077 Filters can be defined in one or more files as defined by the
4078 <literal><link linkend="filterfile">filterfile</link></literal>
4079 option in the <link linkend="config">config file</link>.
4080 <filename>default.filter</filename> is the collection of filters
4081 supplied by the developers. Locally defined filters should go
4082 in their own file, such as <filename>user.filter</filename>.
4085 When used in its negative form,
4086 and without parameters, <emphasis>all</emphasis> filtering is completely disabled.
4095 For your convenience, there are a number of pre-defined filters available
4096 in the distribution filter file that you can use. See the examples below for
4100 Filtering requires buffering the page content, which may appear to
4101 slow down page rendering since nothing is displayed until all content has
4102 passed the filters. (It does not really take longer, but seems that way
4103 since the page is not incrementally displayed.) This effect will be more
4104 noticeable on slower connections.
4107 <quote>Rolling your own</quote>
4108 filters requires a knowledge of
4109 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
4110 Expressions</quote></ulink> and
4111 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Html"><quote>HTML</quote></ulink>.
4112 This is very powerful feature, and potentially very intrusive.
4113 Filters should be used with caution, and where an equivalent
4114 <quote>action</quote> is not available.
4117 The amount of data that can be filtered is limited to the
4118 <literal><link linkend="buffer-limit">buffer-limit</link></literal>
4119 option in the main <link linkend="config">config file</link>. The
4120 default is 4096 KB (4 Megs). Once this limit is exceeded, the buffered
4121 data, and all pending data, is passed through unfiltered.
4124 Inappropriate MIME types, such as zipped files, are not filtered at all.
4125 (Again, only text-based types except plain text). Encrypted SSL data
4126 (from HTTPS servers) cannot be filtered either, since this would violate
4127 the integrity of the secure transaction. In some situations it might
4128 be necessary to protect certain text, like source code, from filtering
4129 by defining appropriate <literal>-filter</literal> exceptions.
4132 Compressed content can't be filtered either, unless &my-app;
4133 is compiled with zlib support (requires at least &my-app; 3.0.7),
4134 in which case &my-app; will decompress the content before filtering
4138 If you use a &my-app; version without zlib support, but want filtering to work on
4139 as much documents as possible, even those that would normally be sent compressed,
4140 you must use the <literal><link linkend="prevent-compression">prevent-compression</link></literal>
4141 action in conjunction with <literal>filter</literal>.
4144 Content filtering can achieve some of the same effects as the
4145 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>
4146 action, i.e. it can be used to block ads and banners. But the mechanism
4147 works quite differently. One effective use, is to block ad banners
4148 based on their size (see below), since many of these seem to be somewhat
4152 <link linkend="contact">Feedback</link> with suggestions for new or
4153 improved filters is particularly welcome!
4156 The below list has only the names and a one-line description of each
4157 predefined filter. There are <link linkend="predefined-filters">more
4158 verbose explanations</link> of what these filters do in the <link
4159 linkend="filter-file">filter file chapter</link>.
4165 <term>Example usage (with filters from the distribution <filename>default.filter</filename> file).
4166 See <link linkend="PREDEFINED-FILTERS">the Predefined Filters section</link> for
4167 more explanation on each:</term>
4170 <anchor id="filter-js-annoyances">
4171 <screen>+filter{js-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse.</screen>
4174 <anchor id="filter-js-events">
4175 <screen>+filter{js-events} # Kill all JS event bindings and timers (Radically destructive! Only for extra nasty sites).</screen>
4178 <anchor id="filter-html-annoyances">
4179 <screen>+filter{html-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying HTML abuse.</screen>
4182 <anchor id="filter-content-cookies">
4183 <screen>+filter{content-cookies} # Kill cookies that come in the HTML or JS content.</screen>
4186 <anchor id="filter-refresh-tags">
4187 <screen>+filter{refresh-tags} # Kill automatic refresh tags (for dial-on-demand setups).</screen>
4190 <anchor id="filter-unsolicited-popups">
4191 <screen>+filter{unsolicited-popups} # Disable only unsolicited pop-up windows. Useful if your browser lacks this ability.</screen>
4194 <anchor id="filter-all-popups">
4195 <screen>+filter{all-popups} # Kill all popups in JavaScript and HTML. Useful if your browser lacks this ability.</screen>
4198 <anchor id="filter-img-reorder">
4199 <screen>+filter{img-reorder} # Reorder attributes in <img> tags to make the banners-by-* filters more effective.</screen>
4202 <anchor id="filter-banners-by-size">
4203 <screen>+filter{banners-by-size} # Kill banners by size.</screen>
4206 <anchor id="filter-banners-by-link">
4207 <screen>+filter{banners-by-link} # Kill banners by their links to known clicktrackers.</screen>
4210 <anchor id="filter-webbugs">
4211 <screen>+filter{webbugs} # Squish WebBugs (1x1 invisible GIFs used for user tracking).</screen>
4214 <anchor id="filter-tiny-textforms">
4215 <screen>+filter{tiny-textforms} # Extend those tiny textareas up to 40x80 and kill the hard wrap.</screen>
4218 <anchor id="filter-jumping-windows">
4219 <screen>+filter{jumping-windows} # Prevent windows from resizing and moving themselves.</screen>
4222 <anchor id="filter-frameset-borders">
4223 <screen>+filter{frameset-borders} # Give frames a border and make them resizable.</screen>
4226 <anchor id="filter-demoronizer">
4227 <screen>+filter{demoronizer} # Fix MS's non-standard use of standard charsets.</screen>
4230 <anchor id="filter-shockwave-flash">
4231 <screen>+filter{shockwave-flash} # Kill embedded Shockwave Flash objects.</screen>
4234 <anchor id="filter-quicktime-kioskmode">
4235 <screen>+filter{quicktime-kioskmode} # Make Quicktime movies saveable.</screen>
4238 <anchor id="filter-fun">
4239 <screen>+filter{fun} # Text replacements for subversive browsing fun!</screen>
4242 <anchor id="filter-crude-parental">
4243 <screen>+filter{crude-parental} # Crude parental filtering. Note that this filter doesn't work reliably.</screen>
4246 <anchor id="filter-ie-exploits">
4247 <screen>+filter{ie-exploits} # Disable some known Internet Explorer bug exploits.</screen>
4250 <anchor id="filter-site-specifics">
4251 <screen>+filter{site-specifics} # Cure for site-specific problems. Don't apply generally!</screen>
4254 <anchor id="filter-no-ping">
4255 <screen>+filter{no-ping} # Removes non-standard ping attributes in <a> and <area> tags.</screen>
4258 <anchor id="filter-google">
4259 <screen>+filter{google} # CSS-based block for Google text ads. Also removes a width limitation and the toolbar advertisement.</screen>
4262 <anchor id="filter-yahoo">
4263 <screen>+filter{yahoo} # CSS-based block for Yahoo text ads. Also removes a width limitation.</screen>
4266 <anchor id="filter-msn">
4267 <screen>+filter{msn} # CSS-based block for MSN text ads. Also removes tracking URLs and a width limitation.</screen>
4270 <anchor id="filter-blogspot">
4271 <screen>+filter{blogspot} # Cleans up some Blogspot blogs. Read the fine print before using this.</screen>
4279 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4280 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="force-text-mode">
4281 <title>force-text-mode</title>
4287 <term>Typical use:</term>
4289 <para>Force <application>Privoxy</application> to treat a document as if it was in some kind of <emphasis>text</emphasis> format. </para>
4294 <term>Effect:</term>
4297 Declares a document as text, even if the <quote>Content-Type:</quote> isn't detected as such.
4304 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4306 <para>Boolean.</para>
4311 <term>Parameter:</term>
4323 As explained <literal><link linkend="filter">above</link></literal>,
4324 <application>Privoxy</application> tries to only filter files that are
4325 in some kind of text format. The same restrictions apply to
4326 <literal><link linkend="content-type-overwrite">content-type-overwrite</link></literal>.
4327 <literal>force-text-mode</literal> declares a document as text,
4328 without looking at the <quote>Content-Type:</quote> first.
4332 Think twice before activating this action. Filtering binary data
4333 with regular expressions can cause file damage.
4340 <term>Example usage:</term>
4353 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4354 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="forward-override">
4355 <title>forward-override</title>
4361 <term>Typical use:</term>
4363 <para>Change the forwarding settings based on User-Agent or request origin</para>
4368 <term>Effect:</term>
4371 Overrules the forward directives in the configuration file.
4378 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4380 <para>Multi-value.</para>
4385 <term>Parameter:</term>
4389 <para><quote>forward .</quote> to use a direct connection without any additional proxies.</para>
4393 <quote>forward 127.0.0.1:8123</quote> to use the HTTP proxy listening at 127.0.0.1 port 8123.
4398 <quote>forward-socks4a 127.0.0.1:9050 .</quote> to use the socks4a proxy listening at
4399 127.0.0.1 port 9050. Replace <quote>forward-socks4a</quote> with <quote>forward-socks4</quote>
4400 to use a socks4 connection (with local DNS resolution) instead, use <quote>forward-socks5</quote>
4401 for socks5 connections (with remote DNS resolution).
4406 <quote>forward-socks4a 127.0.0.1:9050 proxy.example.org:8000</quote> to use the socks4a proxy
4407 listening at 127.0.0.1 port 9050 to reach the HTTP proxy listening at proxy.example.org port 8000.
4408 Replace <quote>forward-socks4a</quote> with <quote>forward-socks4</quote> to use a socks4 connection
4409 (with local DNS resolution) instead, use <quote>forward-socks5</quote>
4410 for socks5 connections (with remote DNS resolution).
4421 This action takes parameters similar to the
4422 <link linkend="forwarding">forward</link> directives in the configuration
4423 file, but without the URL pattern. It can be used as replacement, but normally it's only
4424 used in cases where matching based on the request URL isn't sufficient.
4428 Please read the description for the <link linkend="forwarding">forward</link> directives before
4429 using this action. Forwarding to the wrong people will reduce your privacy and increase the
4430 chances of man-in-the-middle attacks.
4433 If the ports are missing or invalid, default values will be used. This might change
4434 in the future and you shouldn't rely on it. Otherwise incorrect syntax causes Privoxy
4438 Use the <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">show-url-info CGI page</ulink>
4439 to verify that your forward settings do what you thought the do.
4446 <term>Example usage:</term>
4450 # Always use direct connections for requests previously tagged as
4451 # <quote>User-Agent: fetch libfetch/2.0</quote> and make sure
4452 # resuming downloads continues to work.
4453 # This way you can continue to use Tor for your normal browsing,
4454 # without overloading the Tor network with your FreeBSD ports updates
4455 # or downloads of bigger files like ISOs.
4456 # Note that HTTP headers are easy to fake and therefore their
4457 # values are as (un)trustworthy as your clients and users.
4458 {+forward-override{forward .} \
4459 -hide-if-modified-since \
4460 -overwrite-last-modified \
4462 TAG:^User-Agent: fetch libfetch/2\.0$
4471 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4472 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="handle-as-empty-document">
4473 <title>handle-as-empty-document</title>
4479 <term>Typical use:</term>
4481 <para>Mark URLs that should be replaced by empty documents <emphasis>if they get blocked</emphasis></para>
4486 <term>Effect:</term>
4489 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. It just marks URLs.
4490 If the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action <emphasis>also applies</emphasis>,
4491 the presence or absence of this mark decides whether an HTML <quote>BLOCKED</quote>
4492 page, or an empty document will be sent to the client as a substitute for the blocked content.
4493 The <emphasis>empty</emphasis> document isn't literally empty, but actually contains a single space.
4500 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4502 <para>Boolean.</para>
4507 <term>Parameter:</term>
4519 Some browsers complain about syntax errors if JavaScript documents
4520 are blocked with <application>Privoxy's</application>
4521 default HTML page; this option can be used to silence them.
4522 And of course this action can also be used to eliminate the &my-app;
4523 BLOCKED message in frames.
4526 The content type for the empty document can be specified with
4527 <literal><link linkend="content-type-overwrite">content-type-overwrite{}</link></literal>,
4528 but usually this isn't necessary.
4534 <term>Example usage:</term>
4537 <screen># Block all documents on example.org that end with ".js",
4538 # but send an empty document instead of the usual HTML message.
4539 {+block{Blocked JavaScript} +handle-as-empty-document}
4549 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4550 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="handle-as-image">
4551 <title>handle-as-image</title>
4555 <term>Typical use:</term>
4557 <para>Mark URLs as belonging to images (so they'll be replaced by images <emphasis>if they do get blocked</emphasis>, rather than HTML pages)</para>
4562 <term>Effect:</term>
4565 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. It just marks URLs as images.
4566 If the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action <emphasis>also applies</emphasis>,
4567 the presence or absence of this mark decides whether an HTML <quote>blocked</quote>
4568 page, or a replacement image (as determined by the <literal><link
4569 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal> action) will be sent to the
4570 client as a substitute for the blocked content.
4577 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4579 <para>Boolean.</para>
4584 <term>Parameter:</term>
4596 The below generic example section is actually part of <filename>default.action</filename>.
4597 It marks all URLs with well-known image file name extensions as images and should
4601 Users will probably only want to use the handle-as-image action in conjunction with
4602 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>, to block sources of banners, whose URLs don't
4603 reflect the file type, like in the second example section.
4606 Note that you cannot treat HTML pages as images in most cases. For instance, (in-line) ad
4607 frames require an HTML page to be sent, or they won't display properly.
4608 Forcing <literal>handle-as-image</literal> in this situation will not replace the
4609 ad frame with an image, but lead to error messages.
4615 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
4618 <screen># Generic image extensions:
4621 /.*\.(gif|jpg|jpeg|png|bmp|ico)$
4623 # These don't look like images, but they're banners and should be
4624 # blocked as images:
4626 {+block{Nasty banners.} +handle-as-image}
4627 nasty-banner-server.example.com/junk.cgi\?output=trash
4636 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4637 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-accept-language">
4638 <title>hide-accept-language</title>
4644 <term>Typical use:</term>
4646 <para>Pretend to use different language settings.</para>
4651 <term>Effect:</term>
4654 Deletes or replaces the <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> HTTP header in client requests.
4661 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4663 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4668 <term>Parameter:</term>
4671 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
4680 Faking the browser's language settings can be useful to make a
4681 foreign User-Agent set with
4682 <literal><link linkend="hide-user-agent">hide-user-agent</link></literal>
4686 However some sites with content in different languages check the
4687 <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> to decide which one to take by default.
4688 Sometimes it isn't possible to later switch to another language without
4689 changing the <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> header first.
4692 Therefore it's a good idea to either only change the
4693 <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> header to languages you understand,
4694 or to languages that aren't wide spread.
4697 Before setting the <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> header
4698 to a rare language, you should consider that it helps to
4699 make your requests unique and thus easier to trace.
4700 If you don't plan to change this header frequently,
4701 you should stick to a common language.
4707 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
4710 <screen># Pretend to use Canadian language settings.
4711 {+hide-accept-language{en-ca} \
4712 +hide-user-agent{Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; OpenBSD i386; en-CA; rv:1.8.0.4) Gecko/20060628 Firefox/1.5.0.4} \
4722 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4723 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-content-disposition">
4724 <title>hide-content-disposition</title>
4730 <term>Typical use:</term>
4732 <para>Prevent download menus for content you prefer to view inside the browser.</para>
4737 <term>Effect:</term>
4740 Deletes or replaces the <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> HTTP header set by some servers.
4747 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4749 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4754 <term>Parameter:</term>
4757 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
4766 Some servers set the <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> HTTP header for
4767 documents they assume you want to save locally before viewing them.
4768 The <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> header contains the file name
4769 the browser is supposed to use by default.
4772 In most browsers that understand this header, it makes it impossible to
4773 <emphasis>just view</emphasis> the document, without downloading it first,
4774 even if it's just a simple text file or an image.
4777 Removing the <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> header helps
4778 to prevent this annoyance, but some browsers additionally check the
4779 <quote>Content-Type:</quote> header, before they decide if they can
4780 display a document without saving it first. In these cases, you have
4781 to change this header as well, before the browser stops displaying
4785 It is also possible to change the server's file name suggestion
4786 to another one, but in most cases it isn't worth the time to set
4790 This action will probably be removed in the future,
4791 use server-header filters instead.
4797 <term>Example usage:</term>
4800 <screen># Disarm the download link in Sourceforge's patch tracker
4802 +content-type-overwrite{text/plain}\
4803 +hide-content-disposition{block} }
4804 .sourceforge.net/tracker/download\.php</screen>
4812 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4813 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-if-modified-since">
4814 <title>hide-if-modified-since</title>
4820 <term>Typical use:</term>
4822 <para>Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.</para>
4827 <term>Effect:</term>
4830 Deletes the <quote>If-Modified-Since:</quote> HTTP client header or modifies its value.
4837 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4839 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4844 <term>Parameter:</term>
4847 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or a user defined value that specifies a range of hours.
4856 Removing this header is useful for filter testing, where you want to force a real
4857 reload instead of getting status code <quote>304</quote>, which would cause the
4858 browser to use a cached copy of the page.
4861 Instead of removing the header, <literal>hide-if-modified-since</literal> can
4862 also add or subtract a random amount of time to/from the header's value.
4863 You specify a range of minutes where the random factor should be chosen from and
4864 <application>Privoxy</application> does the rest. A negative value means
4865 subtracting, a positive value adding.
4868 Randomizing the value of the <quote>If-Modified-Since:</quote> makes
4869 it less likely that the server can use the time as a cookie replacement,
4870 but you will run into caching problems if the random range is too high.
4873 It is a good idea to only use a small negative value and let
4874 <literal><link linkend="overwrite-last-modified">overwrite-last-modified</link></literal>
4875 handle the greater changes.
4878 It is also recommended to use this action together with
4879 <literal><link linkend="crunch-if-none-match">crunch-if-none-match</link></literal>,
4880 otherwise it's more or less pointless.
4886 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
4889 <screen># Let the browser revalidate but make tracking based on the time less likely.
4890 {+hide-if-modified-since{-60} \
4891 +overwrite-last-modified{randomize} \
4892 +crunch-if-none-match}
4901 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4902 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-from-header">
4903 <title>hide-from-header</title>
4907 <term>Typical use:</term>
4909 <para>Keep your (old and ill) browser from telling web servers your email address</para>
4914 <term>Effect:</term>
4917 Deletes any existing <quote>From:</quote> HTTP header, or replaces it with the
4925 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4927 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4932 <term>Parameter:</term>
4935 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
4944 The keyword <quote>block</quote> will completely remove the header
4945 (not to be confused with the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>
4949 Alternately, you can specify any value you prefer to be sent to the web
4950 server. If you do, it is a matter of fairness not to use any address that
4951 is actually used by a real person.
4954 This action is rarely needed, as modern web browsers don't send
4955 <quote>From:</quote> headers anymore.
4961 <term>Example usage:</term>
4964 <screen>+hide-from-header{block}</screen> or
4965 <screen>+hide-from-header{spam-me-senseless@sittingduck.example.com}</screen>
4973 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4974 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-referrer">
4975 <title>hide-referrer</title>
4976 <anchor id="hide-referer">
4979 <term>Typical use:</term>
4981 <para>Conceal which link you followed to get to a particular site</para>
4986 <term>Effect:</term>
4989 Deletes the <quote>Referer:</quote> (sic) HTTP header from the client request,
4990 or replaces it with a forged one.
4997 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4999 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5004 <term>Parameter:</term>
5008 <para><quote>conditional-block</quote> to delete the header completely if the host has changed.</para>
5011 <para><quote>conditional-forge</quote> to forge the header if the host has changed.</para>
5014 <para><quote>block</quote> to delete the header unconditionally.</para>
5017 <para><quote>forge</quote> to pretend to be coming from the homepage of the server we are talking to.</para>
5020 <para>Any other string to set a user defined referrer.</para>
5030 <literal>conditional-block</literal> is the only parameter,
5031 that isn't easily detected in the server's log file. If it blocks the
5032 referrer, the request will look like the visitor used a bookmark or
5033 typed in the address directly.
5036 Leaving the referrer unmodified for requests on the same host
5037 allows the server owner to see the visitor's <quote>click path</quote>,
5038 but in most cases she could also get that information by comparing
5039 other parts of the log file: for example the User-Agent if it isn't
5040 a very common one, or the user's IP address if it doesn't change between
5044 Always blocking the referrer, or using a custom one, can lead to
5045 failures on servers that check the referrer before they answer any
5046 requests, in an attempt to prevent their content from being
5047 embedded or linked to elsewhere.
5050 Both <literal>conditional-block</literal> and <literal>forge</literal>
5051 will work with referrer checks, as long as content and valid referring page
5052 are on the same host. Most of the time that's the case.
5055 <literal>hide-referer</literal> is an alternate spelling of
5056 <literal>hide-referrer</literal> and the two can be can be freely
5057 substituted with each other. (<quote>referrer</quote> is the
5058 correct English spelling, however the HTTP specification has a bug - it
5059 requires it to be spelled as <quote>referer</quote>.)
5065 <term>Example usage:</term>
5068 <screen>+hide-referrer{forge}</screen> or
5069 <screen>+hide-referrer{http://www.yahoo.com/}</screen>
5077 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5078 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-user-agent">
5079 <title>hide-user-agent</title>
5083 <term>Typical use:</term>
5085 <para>Try to conceal your type of browser and client operating system</para>
5090 <term>Effect:</term>
5093 Replaces the value of the <quote>User-Agent:</quote> HTTP header
5094 in client requests with the specified value.
5101 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5103 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5108 <term>Parameter:</term>
5111 Any user-defined string.
5121 This can lead to problems on web sites that depend on looking at this header in
5122 order to customize their content for different browsers (which, by the
5123 way, is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> the right thing to do: good web sites
5124 work browser-independently).
5128 Using this action in multi-user setups or wherever different types of
5129 browsers will access the same <application>Privoxy</application> is
5130 <emphasis>not recommended</emphasis>. In single-user, single-browser
5131 setups, you might use it to delete your OS version information from
5132 the headers, because it is an invitation to exploit known bugs for your
5133 OS. It is also occasionally useful to forge this in order to access
5134 sites that won't let you in otherwise (though there may be a good
5135 reason in some cases). Example of this: some MSN sites will not
5136 let <application>Mozilla</application> enter, yet forging to a
5137 <application>Netscape 6.1</application> user-agent works just fine.
5138 (Must be just a silly MS goof, I'm sure :-).
5141 More information on known user-agent strings can be found at
5142 <ulink url="http://www.user-agents.org/">http://www.user-agents.org/</ulink>
5144 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_agent">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_agent</ulink>.
5150 <term>Example usage:</term>
5153 <screen>+hide-user-agent{Netscape 6.1 (X11; I; Linux 2.4.18 i686)}</screen>
5161 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5162 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="limit-connect">
5163 <title>limit-connect</title>
5167 <term>Typical use:</term>
5169 <para>Prevent abuse of <application>Privoxy</application> as a TCP proxy relay or disable SSL for untrusted sites</para>
5174 <term>Effect:</term>
5177 Specifies to which ports HTTP CONNECT requests are allowable.
5184 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5186 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5191 <term>Parameter:</term>
5194 A comma-separated list of ports or port ranges (the latter using dashes, with the minimum
5195 defaulting to 0 and the maximum to 65K).
5204 By default, i.e. if no <literal>limit-connect</literal> action applies,
5205 <application>Privoxy</application> allows HTTP CONNECT requests to all
5206 ports. Use <literal>limit-connect</literal> if fine-grained control
5207 is desired for some or all destinations.
5210 The CONNECT methods exists in HTTP to allow access to secure websites
5211 (<quote>https://</quote> URLs) through proxies. It works very simply:
5212 the proxy connects to the server on the specified port, and then
5213 short-circuits its connections to the client and to the remote server.
5214 This means CONNECT-enabled proxies can be used as TCP relays very easily.
5217 <application>Privoxy</application> relays HTTPS traffic without seeing
5218 the decoded content. Websites can leverage this limitation to circumvent &my-app;'s
5219 filters. By specifying an invalid port range you can disable HTTPS entirely.
5225 <term>Example usages:</term>
5227 <!-- I had trouble getting the spacing to look right in my browser -->
5228 <!-- I probably have the wrong font setup, bollocks. -->
5229 <!-- Apparently the emphasis tag uses a proportional font no matter what -->
5231 <screen>+limit-connect{443} # Port 443 is OK.
5232 +limit-connect{80,443} # Ports 80 and 443 are OK.
5233 +limit-connect{-3, 7, 20-100, 500-} # Ports less than 3, 7, 20 to 100 and above 500 are OK.
5234 +limit-connect{-} # All ports are OK
5235 +limit-connect{,} # No HTTPS/SSL traffic is allowed</screen>
5242 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5243 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="prevent-compression">
5244 <title>prevent-compression</title>
5248 <term>Typical use:</term>
5251 Ensure that servers send the content uncompressed, so it can be
5252 passed through <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>s.
5258 <term>Effect:</term>
5261 Removes the Accept-Encoding header which can be used to ask for compressed transfer.
5268 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5270 <para>Boolean.</para>
5275 <term>Parameter:</term>
5287 More and more websites send their content compressed by default, which
5288 is generally a good idea and saves bandwidth. But the <literal><link
5289 linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> and
5290 <literal><link linkend="deanimate-gifs">deanimate-gifs</link></literal>
5291 actions need access to the uncompressed data.
5294 When compiled with zlib support (available since &my-app; 3.0.7), content that should be
5295 filtered is decompressed on-the-fly and you don't have to worry about this action.
5296 If you are using an older &my-app; version, or one that hasn't been compiled with zlib
5297 support, this action can be used to convince the server to send the content uncompressed.
5300 Most text-based instances compress very well, the size is seldom decreased by less than 50%,
5301 for markup-heavy instances like news feeds saving more than 90% of the original size isn't
5305 Not using compression will therefore slow down the transfer, and you should only
5306 enable this action if you really need it. As of &my-app; 3.0.7 it's disabled in all
5307 predefined action settings.
5310 Note that some (rare) ill-configured sites don't handle requests for uncompressed
5311 documents correctly. Broken PHP applications tend to send an empty document body,
5312 some IIS versions only send the beginning of the content. If you enable
5313 <literal>prevent-compression</literal> per default, you might want to add
5314 exceptions for those sites. See the example for how to do that.
5320 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
5324 # Selectively turn off compression, and enable a filter
5326 { +filter{tiny-textforms} +prevent-compression }
5327 # Match only these sites
5332 # Or instead, we could set a universal default:
5334 { +prevent-compression }
5337 # Then maybe make exceptions for broken sites:
5339 { -prevent-compression }
5340 .compusa.com/</screen>
5349 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5350 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="overwrite-last-modified">
5351 <title>overwrite-last-modified</title>
5357 <term>Typical use:</term>
5359 <para>Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.</para>
5364 <term>Effect:</term>
5367 Deletes the <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> HTTP server header or modifies its value.
5374 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5376 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5381 <term>Parameter:</term>
5384 One of the keywords: <quote>block</quote>, <quote>reset-to-request-time</quote>
5385 and <quote>randomize</quote>
5394 Removing the <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header is useful for filter
5395 testing, where you want to force a real reload instead of getting status
5396 code <quote>304</quote>, which would cause the browser to reuse the old
5397 version of the page.
5400 The <quote>randomize</quote> option overwrites the value of the
5401 <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header with a randomly chosen time
5402 between the original value and the current time. In theory the server
5403 could send each document with a different <quote>Last-Modified:</quote>
5404 header to track visits without using cookies. <quote>Randomize</quote>
5405 makes it impossible and the browser can still revalidate cached documents.
5408 <quote>reset-to-request-time</quote> overwrites the value of the
5409 <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header with the current time. You could use
5410 this option together with
5411 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hide-if-modified-since</link></literal>
5412 to further customize your random range.
5415 The preferred parameter here is <quote>randomize</quote>. It is safe
5416 to use, as long as the time settings are more or less correct.
5417 If the server sets the <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header to the time
5418 of the request, the random range becomes zero and the value stays the same.
5419 Therefore you should later randomize it a second time with
5420 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hided-if-modified-since</link></literal>,
5424 It is also recommended to use this action together with
5425 <literal><link linkend="crunch-if-none-match">crunch-if-none-match</link></literal>.
5431 <term>Example usage:</term>
5434 <screen># Let the browser revalidate without being tracked across sessions
5435 { +hide-if-modified-since{-60} \
5436 +overwrite-last-modified{randomize} \
5437 +crunch-if-none-match}
5446 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5447 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="redirect">
5448 <title>redirect</title>
5454 <term>Typical use:</term>
5457 Redirect requests to other sites.
5463 <term>Effect:</term>
5466 Convinces the browser that the requested document has been moved
5467 to another location and the browser should get it from there.
5474 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5476 <para>Parameterized</para>
5481 <term>Parameter:</term>
5484 An absolute URL or a single pcrs command.
5493 Requests to which this action applies are answered with a
5494 HTTP redirect to URLs of your choosing. The new URL is
5495 either provided as parameter, or derived by applying a
5496 single pcrs command to the original URL.
5499 This action will be ignored if you use it together with
5500 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>.
5501 It can be combined with
5502 <literal><link linkend="fast-redirects">fast-redirects{check-decoded-url}</link></literal>
5503 to redirect to a decoded version of a rewritten URL.
5506 Use this action carefully, make sure not to create redirection loops
5507 and be aware that using your own redirects might make it
5508 possible to fingerprint your requests.
5511 In case of problems with your redirects, or simply to watch
5512 them working, enable <link linkend="DEBUG">debug 128</link>.
5518 <term>Example usages:</term>
5521 <screen># Replace example.com's style sheet with another one
5522 { +redirect{http://localhost/css-replacements/example.com.css} }
5523 example.com/stylesheet\.css
5525 # Create a short, easy to remember nickname for a favorite site
5526 # (relies on the browser accept and forward invalid URLs to &my-app;)
5527 { +redirect{http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/actions-file.html} }
5530 # Always use the expanded view for Undeadly.org articles
5531 # (Note the $ at the end of the URL pattern to make sure
5532 # the request for the rewritten URL isn't redirected as well)
5533 {+redirect{s@$@&mode=expanded@}}
5534 undeadly.org/cgi\?action=article&sid=\d*$
5536 # Redirect Google search requests to MSN
5537 {+redirect{s@^http://[^/]*/search\?q=([^&]*).*@http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=$1@}}
5540 # Redirect MSN search requests to Yahoo
5541 {+redirect{s@^http://[^/]*/results\.aspx\?q=([^&]*).*@http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=$1@}}
5542 search.msn.com//results\.aspx\?q=
5544 # Redirect remote requests for this manual
5545 # to the local version delivered by Privoxy
5546 {+redirect{s@^http://www@http://config@}}
5547 www.privoxy.org/user-manual/</screen>
5556 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5557 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="server-header-filter">
5558 <title>server-header-filter</title>
5562 <term>Typical use:</term>
5565 Rewrite or remove single server headers.
5571 <term>Effect:</term>
5574 All server headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly
5575 through the specified regular expression based substitutions.
5582 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
5584 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5589 <term>Parameter:</term>
5592 The name of a server-header filter, as defined in one of the
5593 <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link>.
5602 Server-header filters are applied to each header on its own, not to
5603 all at once. This makes it easier to diagnose problems, but on the downside
5604 you can't write filters that only change header x if header y's value is z.
5605 You can do that by using tags though.
5608 Server-header filters are executed after the other header actions have finished
5609 and use their output as input.
5612 Please refer to the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file chapter</link>
5613 to learn which server-header filters are available by default, and how to
5620 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
5624 {+server-header-filter{html-to-xml}}
5625 example.org/xml-instance-that-is-delivered-as-html
5627 {+server-header-filter{xml-to-html}}
5628 example.org/instance-that-is-delivered-as-xml-but-is-not
5638 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5639 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="server-header-tagger">
5640 <title>server-header-tagger</title>
5644 <term>Typical use:</term>
5647 Enable or disable filters based on the Content-Type header.
5653 <term>Effect:</term>
5656 Server headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly through
5657 the specified regular expression based substitutions, the result is used as
5665 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
5667 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5672 <term>Parameter:</term>
5675 The name of a server-header tagger, as defined in one of the
5676 <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link>.
5685 Server-header taggers are applied to each header on its own,
5686 and as the header isn't modified, each tagger <quote>sees</quote>
5690 Server-header taggers are executed before all other header actions
5691 that modify server headers. Their tags can be used to control
5692 all of the other server-header actions, the content filters
5693 and the crunch actions (<link linkend="redirect">redirect</link>
5694 and <link linkend="block">block</link>).
5697 Obviously crunching based on tags created by server-header taggers
5698 doesn't prevent the request from showing up in the server's log file.
5705 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
5709 # Tag every request with the content type declared by the server
5710 {+server-header-tagger{content-type}}
5721 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5722 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="session-cookies-only">
5723 <title>session-cookies-only</title>
5727 <term>Typical use:</term>
5730 Allow only temporary <quote>session</quote> cookies (for the current
5731 browser session <emphasis>only</emphasis>).
5737 <term>Effect:</term>
5740 Deletes the <quote>expires</quote> field from <quote>Set-Cookie:</quote>
5741 server headers. Most browsers will not store such cookies permanently and
5742 forget them in between sessions.
5749 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5751 <para>Boolean.</para>
5756 <term>Parameter:</term>
5768 This is less strict than <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal> /
5769 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal> and allows you to browse
5770 websites that insist or rely on setting cookies, without compromising your privacy too badly.
5773 Most browsers will not permanently store cookies that have been processed by
5774 <literal>session-cookies-only</literal> and will forget about them between sessions.
5775 This makes profiling cookies useless, but won't break sites which require cookies so
5776 that you can log in for transactions. This is generally turned on for all
5777 sites, and is the recommended setting.
5780 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use <literal>session-cookies-only</literal>
5781 together with <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal> or
5782 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>. If you do, cookies
5783 will be plainly killed.
5786 Note that it is up to the browser how it handles such cookies without an <quote>expires</quote>
5787 field. If you use an exotic browser, you might want to try it out to be sure.
5790 This setting also has no effect on cookies that may have been stored
5791 previously by the browser before starting <application>Privoxy</application>.
5792 These would have to be removed manually.
5795 <application>Privoxy</application> also uses
5796 the <link linkend="filter-content-cookies">content-cookies filter</link>
5797 to block some types of cookies. Content cookies are not effected by
5798 <literal>session-cookies-only</literal>.
5804 <term>Example usage:</term>
5807 <screen>+session-cookies-only</screen>
5815 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5816 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="set-image-blocker">
5817 <title>set-image-blocker</title>
5821 <term>Typical use:</term>
5823 <para>Choose the replacement for blocked images</para>
5828 <term>Effect:</term>
5831 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. If <emphasis>both</emphasis>
5832 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> <emphasis>and</emphasis> <literal><link
5833 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> <emphasis>also</emphasis>
5834 apply, i.e. if the request is to be blocked as an image,
5835 <emphasis>then</emphasis> the parameter of this action decides what will be
5836 sent as a replacement.
5843 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5845 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5850 <term>Parameter:</term>
5855 <quote>pattern</quote> to send a built-in checkerboard pattern image. The image is visually
5856 decent, scales very well, and makes it obvious where banners were busted.
5861 <quote>blank</quote> to send a built-in transparent image. This makes banners disappear
5862 completely, but makes it hard to detect where <application>Privoxy</application> has blocked
5863 images on a given page and complicates troubleshooting if <application>Privoxy</application>
5864 has blocked innocent images, like navigation icons.
5869 <quote><replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable></quote> to
5870 send a redirect to <replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable>. You can redirect
5871 to any image anywhere, even in your local filesystem via <quote>file:///</quote> URL.
5872 (But note that not all browsers support redirecting to a local file system).
5875 A good application of redirects is to use special <application>Privoxy</application>-built-in
5876 URLs, which send the built-in images, as <replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable>.
5877 This has the same visual effect as specifying <quote>blank</quote> or <quote>pattern</quote> in
5878 the first place, but enables your browser to cache the replacement image, instead of requesting
5879 it over and over again.
5890 The URLs for the built-in images are <quote>http://config.privoxy.org/send-banner?type=<replaceable
5891 class="parameter">type</replaceable></quote>, where <replaceable class="parameter">type</replaceable> is
5892 either <quote>blank</quote> or <quote>pattern</quote>.
5895 There is a third (advanced) type, called <quote>auto</quote>. It is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> to be
5896 used in <literal>set-image-blocker</literal>, but meant for use from <link linkend="filter-file">filters</link>.
5897 Auto will select the type of image that would have applied to the referring page, had it been an image.
5903 <term>Example usage:</term>
5909 <screen>+set-image-blocker{pattern}</screen>
5912 Redirect to the BSD daemon:
5915 <screen>+set-image-blocker{http://www.freebsd.org/gifs/dae_up3.gif}</screen>
5918 Redirect to the built-in pattern for better caching:
5921 <screen>+set-image-blocker{http://config.privoxy.org/send-banner?type=pattern}</screen>
5929 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5931 <title>Summary</title>
5933 Note that many of these actions have the potential to cause a page to
5934 misbehave, possibly even not to display at all. There are many ways
5935 a site designer may choose to design his site, and what HTTP header
5936 content, and other criteria, he may depend on. There is no way to have hard
5937 and fast rules for all sites. See the <link
5938 linkend="ACTIONSANAT">Appendix</link> for a brief example on troubleshooting
5944 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5945 <sect2 id="aliases">
5946 <title>Aliases</title>
5948 Custom <quote>actions</quote>, known to <application>Privoxy</application>
5949 as <quote>aliases</quote>, can be defined by combining other actions.
5950 These can in turn be invoked just like the built-in actions.
5951 Currently, an alias name can contain any character except space, tab,
5953 <quote>{</quote> and <quote>}</quote>, but we <emphasis>strongly
5954 recommend</emphasis> that you only use <quote>a</quote> to <quote>z</quote>,
5955 <quote>0</quote> to <quote>9</quote>, <quote>+</quote>, and <quote>-</quote>.
5956 Alias names are not case sensitive, and are not required to start with a
5957 <quote>+</quote> or <quote>-</quote> sign, since they are merely textually
5961 Aliases can be used throughout the actions file, but they <emphasis>must be
5962 defined in a special section at the top of the file!</emphasis>
5963 And there can only be one such section per actions file. Each actions file may
5964 have its own alias section, and the aliases defined in it are only visible
5968 There are two main reasons to use aliases: One is to save typing for frequently
5969 used combinations of actions, the other one is a gain in flexibility: If you
5970 decide once how you want to handle shops by defining an alias called
5971 <quote>shop</quote>, you can later change your policy on shops in
5972 <emphasis>one</emphasis> place, and your changes will take effect everywhere
5973 in the actions file where the <quote>shop</quote> alias is used. Calling aliases
5974 by their purpose also makes your actions files more readable.
5977 Currently, there is one big drawback to using aliases, though:
5978 <application>Privoxy</application>'s built-in web-based action file
5979 editor honors aliases when reading the actions files, but it expands
5980 them before writing. So the effects of your aliases are of course preserved,
5981 but the aliases themselves are lost when you edit sections that use aliases
5986 Now let's define some aliases...
5991 # Useful custom aliases we can use later.
5993 # Note the (required!) section header line and that this section
5994 # must be at the top of the actions file!
5998 # These aliases just save typing later:
5999 # (Note that some already use other aliases!)
6001 +crunch-all-cookies = +<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> +<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
6002 -crunch-all-cookies = -<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> -<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
6003 +block-as-image = +block{Blocked image.} +handle-as-image
6004 allow-all-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> -<link linkend="FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</link>
6006 # These aliases define combinations of actions
6007 # that are useful for certain types of sites:
6009 fragile = -<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link> -<link linkend="HIDE-REFERER">hide-referrer</link> -<link linkend="PREVENT-COMPRESSION">prevent-compression</link>
6011 shop = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{all-popups}</link>
6013 # Short names for other aliases, for really lazy people ;-)
6015 c0 = +crunch-all-cookies
6016 c1 = -crunch-all-cookies</screen>
6020 ...and put them to use. These sections would appear in the lower part of an
6021 actions file and define exceptions to the default actions (as specified further
6022 up for the <quote>/</quote> pattern):
6027 # These sites are either very complex or very keen on
6028 # user data and require minimal interference to work:
6031 .office.microsoft.com
6032 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com
6033 # Gmail is really mail.google.com, not gmail.com
6037 # Allow cookies (for setting and retrieving your customer data)
6041 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
6044 # These shops require pop-ups:
6046 {-filter{all-popups} -filter{unsolicited-popups}}
6048 .overclockers.co.uk</screen>
6052 Aliases like <quote>shop</quote> and <quote>fragile</quote> are typically used for
6053 <quote>problem</quote> sites that require more than one action to be disabled
6054 in order to function properly.
6060 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6061 <sect2 id="act-examples">
6062 <title>Actions Files Tutorial</title>
6064 The above chapters have shown <link linkend="actions-file">which actions files
6065 there are and how they are organized</link>, how actions are <link
6066 linkend="actions">specified</link> and <link linkend="actions-apply">applied
6067 to URLs</link>, how <link linkend="af-patterns">patterns</link> work, and how to
6068 define and use <link linkend="aliases">aliases</link>. Now, let's look at an
6069 example <filename>match-all.action</filename>, <filename>default.action</filename>
6070 and <filename>user.action</filename> file and see how all these pieces come together:
6074 <title>match-all.action</title>
6076 Remember <emphasis>all actions are disabled when matching starts</emphasis>,
6077 so we have to explicitly enable the ones we want.
6081 While the <filename>match-all.action</filename> file only contains a
6082 single section, it is probably the most important one. It has only one
6083 pattern, <quote><literal>/</literal></quote>, but this pattern
6084 <link linkend="af-patterns">matches all URLs</link>. Therefore, the set of
6085 actions used in this <quote>default</quote> section <emphasis>will
6086 be applied to all requests as a start</emphasis>. It can be partly or
6087 wholly overridden by other actions files like <filename>default.action</filename>
6088 and <filename>user.action</filename>, but it will still be largely responsible
6089 for your overall browsing experience.
6093 Again, at the start of matching, all actions are disabled, so there is
6094 no need to disable any actions here. (Remember: a <quote>+</quote>
6095 preceding the action name enables the action, a <quote>-</quote> disables!).
6096 Also note how this long line has been made more readable by splitting it into
6097 multiple lines with line continuation.
6103 +<link linkend="CHANGE-X-FORWARDED-FOR">change-x-forwarded-for{block}</link> \
6104 +<link linkend="HIDE-FROM-HEADER">hide-from-header{block}</link> \
6105 +<link linkend="SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER">set-image-blocker{pattern}</link> \
6112 The default behavior is now set.
6117 <title>default.action</title>
6120 If you aren't a developer, there's no need for you to edit the
6121 <filename>default.action</filename> file. It is maintained by
6122 the &my-app; developers and if you disagree with some of the
6123 sections, you should overrule them in your <filename>user.action</filename>.
6127 Understanding the <filename>default.action</filename> file can
6128 help you with your <filename>user.action</filename>, though.
6132 The first section in this file is a special section for internal use
6133 that prevents older &my-app; versions from reading the file:
6138 ##########################################################################
6139 # Settings -- Don't change! For internal Privoxy use ONLY.
6140 ##########################################################################
6142 for-privoxy-version=3.0.11</screen>
6146 After that comes the (optional) alias section. We'll use the example
6147 section from the above <link linkend="aliases">chapter on aliases</link>,
6148 that also explains why and how aliases are used:
6153 ##########################################################################
6155 ##########################################################################
6158 # These aliases just save typing later:
6159 # (Note that some already use other aliases!)
6161 +crunch-all-cookies = +<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> +<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
6162 -crunch-all-cookies = -<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> -<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
6163 +block-as-image = +block{Blocked image.} +handle-as-image
6164 mercy-for-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> -<link linkend="FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</link>
6166 # These aliases define combinations of actions
6167 # that are useful for certain types of sites:
6169 fragile = -<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link> -<link linkend="HIDE-REFERER">hide-referrer</link>
6170 shop = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{all-popups}</link></screen>
6174 The first of our specialized sections is concerned with <quote>fragile</quote>
6175 sites, i.e. sites that require minimum interference, because they are either
6176 very complex or very keen on tracking you (and have mechanisms in place that
6177 make them unusable for people who avoid being tracked). We will simply use
6178 our pre-defined <literal>fragile</literal> alias instead of stating the list
6179 of actions explicitly:
6184 ##########################################################################
6185 # Exceptions for sites that'll break under the default action set:
6186 ##########################################################################
6188 # "Fragile" Use a minimum set of actions for these sites (see alias above):
6191 .office.microsoft.com # surprise, surprise!
6192 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com
6193 mail.google.com</screen>
6197 Shopping sites are not as fragile, but they typically
6198 require cookies to log in, and pop-up windows for shopping
6199 carts or item details. Again, we'll use a pre-defined alias:
6208 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
6210 .scan.co.uk</screen>
6214 The <literal><link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link></literal>
6215 action, which may have been enabled in <filename>match-all.action</filename>,
6216 breaks some sites. So disable it for popular sites where we know it misbehaves:
6221 { -<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link> }
6225 .altavista.com/.*(like|url|link):http
6226 .altavista.com/trans.*urltext=http
6227 .nytimes.com</screen>
6231 It is important that <application>Privoxy</application> knows which
6232 URLs belong to images, so that <emphasis>if</emphasis> they are to
6233 be blocked, a substitute image can be sent, rather than an HTML page.
6234 Contacting the remote site to find out is not an option, since it
6235 would destroy the loading time advantage of banner blocking, and it
6236 would feed the advertisers information about you. We can mark any
6237 URL as an image with the <literal><link
6238 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> action,
6239 and marking all URLs that end in a known image file extension is a
6245 ##########################################################################
6247 ##########################################################################
6249 # Define which file types will be treated as images, in case they get
6250 # blocked further down this file:
6252 { +<link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">handle-as-image</link> }
6253 /.*\.(gif|jpe?g|png|bmp|ico)$</screen>
6257 And then there are known banner sources. They often use scripts to
6258 generate the banners, so it won't be visible from the URL that the
6259 request is for an image. Hence we block them <emphasis>and</emphasis>
6260 mark them as images in one go, with the help of our
6261 <literal>+block-as-image</literal> alias defined above. (We could of
6262 course just as well use <literal>+<link linkend="block">block</link>
6263 +<link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> here.)
6264 Remember that the type of the replacement image is chosen by the
6265 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>
6266 action. Since all URLs have matched the default section with its
6267 <literal>+<link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link>{pattern}</literal>
6268 action before, it still applies and needn't be repeated:
6273 # Known ad generators:
6278 .ad.*.doubleclick.net
6279 .a.yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$
6280 .a[0-9].yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$
6286 One of the most important jobs of <application>Privoxy</application>
6287 is to block banners. Many of these can be <quote>blocked</quote>
6288 by the <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link>{banners-by-size}</literal>
6289 action, which we enabled above, and which deletes the references to banner
6290 images from the pages while they are loaded, so the browser doesn't request
6291 them anymore, and hence they don't need to be blocked here. But this naturally
6292 doesn't catch all banners, and some people choose not to use filters, so we
6293 need a comprehensive list of patterns for banner URLs here, and apply the
6294 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action to them.
6297 First comes many generic patterns, which do most of the work, by
6298 matching typical domain and path name components of banners. Then comes
6299 a list of individual patterns for specific sites, which is omitted here
6300 to keep the example short:
6305 ##########################################################################
6306 # Block these fine banners:
6307 ##########################################################################
6308 { <link linkend="BLOCK">+block{Banner ads.}</link> }
6316 /.*count(er)?\.(pl|cgi|exe|dll|asp|php[34]?)
6317 /(?:.*/)?(publicite|werbung|rekla(ma|me|am)|annonse|maino(kset|nta|s)?)/
6319 # Site-specific patterns (abbreviated):
6321 .hitbox.com</screen>
6325 It's quite remarkable how many advertisers actually call their banner
6326 servers ads.<replaceable>company</replaceable>.com, or call the directory
6327 in which the banners are stored simply <quote>banners</quote>. So the above
6328 generic patterns are surprisingly effective.
6331 But being very generic, they necessarily also catch URLs that we don't want
6332 to block. The pattern <literal>.*ads.</literal> e.g. catches
6333 <quote>nasty-<emphasis>ads</emphasis>.nasty-corp.com</quote> as intended,
6334 but also <quote>downlo<emphasis>ads</emphasis>.sourcefroge.net</quote> or
6335 <quote><emphasis>ads</emphasis>l.some-provider.net.</quote> So here come some
6336 well-known exceptions to the <literal>+<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal>
6340 Note that these are exceptions to exceptions from the default! Consider the URL
6341 <quote>downloads.sourcefroge.net</quote>: Initially, all actions are deactivated,
6342 so it wouldn't get blocked. Then comes the defaults section, which matches the
6343 URL, but just deactivates the <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal>
6344 action once again. Then it matches <literal>.*ads.</literal>, an exception to the
6345 general non-blocking policy, and suddenly
6346 <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">+block</link></literal> applies. And now, it'll match
6347 <literal>.*loads.</literal>, where <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">-block</link></literal>
6348 applies, so (unless it matches <emphasis>again</emphasis> further down) it ends up
6349 with no <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal> action applying.
6354 ##########################################################################
6355 # Save some innocent victims of the above generic block patterns:
6356 ##########################################################################
6360 { -<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> }
6361 adv[io]*. # (for advogato.org and advice.*)
6362 adsl. # (has nothing to do with ads)
6363 adobe. # (has nothing to do with ads either)
6364 ad[ud]*. # (adult.* and add.*)
6365 .edu # (universities don't host banners (yet!))
6366 .*loads. # (downloads, uploads etc)
6374 www.globalintersec.com/adv # (adv = advanced)
6375 www.ugu.com/sui/ugu/adv</screen>
6379 Filtering source code can have nasty side effects,
6380 so make an exception for our friends at sourceforge.net,
6381 and all paths with <quote>cvs</quote> in them. Note that
6382 <literal>-<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link></literal>
6383 disables <emphasis>all</emphasis> filters in one fell swoop!
6388 # Don't filter code!
6390 { -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> }
6395 .sourceforge.net</screen>
6399 The actual <filename>default.action</filename> is of course much more
6400 comprehensive, but we hope this example made clear how it works.
6405 <sect3><title>user.action</title>
6408 So far we are painting with a broad brush by setting general policies,
6409 which would be a reasonable starting point for many people. Now,
6410 you might want to be more specific and have customized rules that
6411 are more suitable to your personal habits and preferences. These would
6412 be for narrowly defined situations like your ISP or your bank, and should
6413 be placed in <filename>user.action</filename>, which is parsed after all other
6414 actions files and hence has the last word, over-riding any previously
6415 defined actions. <filename>user.action</filename> is also a
6416 <emphasis>safe</emphasis> place for your personal settings, since
6417 <filename>default.action</filename> is actively maintained by the
6418 <application>Privoxy</application> developers and you'll probably want
6419 to install updated versions from time to time.
6423 So let's look at a few examples of things that one might typically do in
6424 <filename>user.action</filename>:
6428 <!-- brief sample user.action here -->
6432 # My user.action file. <fred@example.com></screen>
6436 As <link linkend="aliases">aliases</link> are local to the actions
6437 file that they are defined in, you can't use the ones from
6438 <filename>default.action</filename>, unless you repeat them here:
6443 # Aliases are local to the file they are defined in.
6444 # (Re-)define aliases for this file:
6448 # These aliases just save typing later, and the alias names should
6449 # be self explanatory.
6451 +crunch-all-cookies = +crunch-incoming-cookies +crunch-outgoing-cookies
6452 -crunch-all-cookies = -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-cookies
6453 allow-all-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -session-cookies-only
6454 allow-popups = -filter{all-popups}
6455 +block-as-image = +block{Blocked as image.} +handle-as-image
6456 -block-as-image = -block
6458 # These aliases define combinations of actions that are useful for
6459 # certain types of sites:
6461 fragile = -block -crunch-all-cookies -filter -fast-redirects -hide-referrer
6462 shop = -crunch-all-cookies allow-popups
6464 # Allow ads for selected useful free sites:
6466 allow-ads = -block -filter{banners-by-size} -filter{banners-by-link}
6468 # Alias for specific file types that are text, but might have conflicting
6469 # MIME types. We want the browser to force these to be text documents.
6470 handle-as-text = -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> +-<link linkend="content-type-overwrite">content-type-overwrite{text/plain}</link> +-<link linkend="FORCE-TEXT-MODE">force-text-mode</link> -<link linkend="HIDE-CONTENT-DISPOSITION">hide-content-disposition</link></screen>
6475 Say you have accounts on some sites that you visit regularly, and
6476 you don't want to have to log in manually each time. So you'd like
6477 to allow persistent cookies for these sites. The
6478 <literal>allow-all-cookies</literal> alias defined above does exactly
6479 that, i.e. it disables crunching of cookies in any direction, and the
6480 processing of cookies to make them only temporary.
6485 { allow-all-cookies }
6489 .redhat.com</screen>
6493 Your bank is allergic to some filter, but you don't know which, so you disable them all:
6498 { -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> }
6499 .your-home-banking-site.com</screen>
6503 Some file types you may not want to filter for various reasons:
6508 # Technical documentation is likely to contain strings that might
6509 # erroneously get altered by the JavaScript-oriented filters:
6514 # And this stupid host sends streaming video with a wrong MIME type,
6515 # so that Privoxy thinks it is getting HTML and starts filtering:
6517 stupid-server.example.com/</screen>
6521 Example of a simple <link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> action. Say you've
6522 seen an ad on your favourite page on example.com that you want to get rid of.
6523 You have right-clicked the image, selected <quote>copy image location</quote>
6524 and pasted the URL below while removing the leading http://, into a
6525 <literal>{ +block{} }</literal> section. Note that <literal>{ +handle-as-image
6526 }</literal> need not be specified, since all URLs ending in
6527 <literal>.gif</literal> will be tagged as images by the general rules as set
6528 in default.action anyway:
6533 { +<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link>{Nasty ads.} }
6534 www.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor\.gif
6535 another.example.net/more/junk/here/</screen>
6539 The URLs of dynamically generated banners, especially from large banner
6540 farms, often don't use the well-known image file name extensions, which
6541 makes it impossible for <application>Privoxy</application> to guess
6542 the file type just by looking at the URL.
6543 You can use the <literal>+block-as-image</literal> alias defined above for
6545 Note that objects which match this rule but then turn out NOT to be an
6546 image are typically rendered as a <quote>broken image</quote> icon by the
6547 browser. Use cautiously.
6556 ar.atwola.com/</screen>
6560 Now you noticed that the default configuration breaks Forbes Magazine,
6561 but you were too lazy to find out which action is the culprit, and you
6562 were again too lazy to give <link linkend="contact">feedback</link>, so
6563 you just used the <literal>fragile</literal> alias on the site, and
6564 -- <emphasis>whoa!</emphasis> -- it worked. The <literal>fragile</literal>
6565 aliases disables those actions that are most likely to break a site. Also,
6566 good for testing purposes to see if it is <application>Privoxy</application>
6567 that is causing the problem or not. We later find other regular sites
6568 that misbehave, and add those to our personalized list of troublemakers:
6576 .mybank.com</screen>
6580 You like the <quote>fun</quote> text replacements in <filename>default.filter</filename>,
6581 but it is disabled in the distributed actions file.
6582 So you'd like to turn it on in your private,
6583 update-safe config, once and for all:
6588 { +<link linkend="filter-fun">filter{fun}</link> }
6589 / # For ALL sites!</screen>
6593 Note that the above is not really a good idea: There are exceptions
6594 to the filters in <filename>default.action</filename> for things that
6595 really shouldn't be filtered, like code on CVS->Web interfaces. Since
6596 <filename>user.action</filename> has the last word, these exceptions
6597 won't be valid for the <quote>fun</quote> filtering specified here.
6601 You might also worry about how your favourite free websites are
6602 funded, and find that they rely on displaying banner advertisements
6603 to survive. So you might want to specifically allow banners for those
6604 sites that you feel provide value to you:
6616 Note that <literal>allow-ads</literal> has been aliased to
6617 <literal>-<link linkend="block">block</link></literal>,
6618 <literal>-<link linkend="filter-banners-by-size">filter{banners-by-size}</link></literal>, and
6619 <literal>-<link linkend="filter-banners-by-link">filter{banners-by-link}</link></literal> above.
6623 Invoke another alias here to force an over-ride of the MIME type <literal>
6624 application/x-sh</literal> which typically would open a download type
6625 dialog. In my case, I want to look at the shell script, and then I can save
6626 it should I choose to.
6636 <filename>user.action</filename> is generally the best place to define
6637 exceptions and additions to the default policies of
6638 <filename>default.action</filename>. Some actions are safe to have their
6639 default policies set here though. So let's set a default policy to have a
6640 <quote>blank</quote> image as opposed to the checkerboard pattern for
6641 <emphasis>ALL</emphasis> sites. <quote>/</quote> of course matches all URL
6647 { +<link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker{blank}</link> }
6648 / # ALL sites</screen>
6654 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
6658 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
6660 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
6662 <sect1 id="filter-file">
6663 <title>Filter Files</title>
6666 On-the-fly text substitutions need
6667 to be defined in a <quote>filter file</quote>. Once defined, they
6668 can then be invoked as an <quote>action</quote>.
6672 &my-app; supports three different filter actions:
6673 <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> to
6674 rewrite the content that is send to the client,
6675 <literal><link linkend="client-header-filter">client-header-filter</link></literal>
6676 to rewrite headers that are send by the client, and
6677 <literal><link linkend="server-header-filter">server-header-filter</link></literal>
6678 to rewrite headers that are send by the server.
6682 &my-app; also supports two tagger actions:
6683 <literal><link linkend="client-header-tagger">client-header-tagger</link></literal>
6685 <literal><link linkend="server-header-tagger">server-header-tagger</link></literal>.
6686 Taggers and filters use the same syntax in the filter files, the difference
6687 is that taggers don't modify the text they are filtering, but use a rewritten
6688 version of the filtered text as tag. The tags can then be used to change the
6689 applying actions through sections with <link linkend="tag-pattern">tag-patterns</link>.
6694 Multiple filter files can be defined through the <literal> <link
6695 linkend="filterfile">filterfile</link></literal> config directive. The filters
6696 as supplied by the developers are located in
6697 <filename>default.filter</filename>. It is recommended that any locally
6698 defined or modified filters go in a separately defined file such as
6699 <filename>user.filter</filename>.
6703 Common tasks for content filters are to eliminate common annoyances in
6704 HTML and JavaScript, such as pop-up windows,
6705 exit consoles, crippled windows without navigation tools, the
6706 infamous <BLINK> tag etc, to suppress images with certain
6707 width and height attributes (standard banner sizes or web-bugs),
6708 or just to have fun.
6712 Enabled content filters are applied to any content whose
6713 <quote>Content Type</quote> header is recognised as a sign
6714 of text-based content, with the exception of <literal>text/plain</literal>.
6715 Use the <link linkend="FORCE-TEXT-MODE">force-text-mode</link> action
6716 to also filter other content.
6720 Substitutions are made at the source level, so if you want to <quote>roll
6721 your own</quote> filters, you should first be familiar with HTML syntax,
6722 and, of course, regular expressions.
6726 Just like the <link linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>, the
6727 filter file is organized in sections, which are called <emphasis>filters</emphasis>
6728 here. Each filter consists of a heading line, that starts with one of the
6729 <emphasis>keywords</emphasis> <literal>FILTER:</literal>,
6730 <literal>CLIENT-HEADER-FILTER:</literal> or <literal>SERVER-HEADER-FILTER:</literal>
6731 followed by the filter's <emphasis>name</emphasis>, and a short (one line)
6732 <emphasis>description</emphasis> of what it does. Below that line
6733 come the <emphasis>jobs</emphasis>, i.e. lines that define the actual
6734 text substitutions. By convention, the name of a filter
6735 should describe what the filter <emphasis>eliminates</emphasis>. The
6736 comment is used in the <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">web-based
6737 user interface</ulink>.
6741 Once a filter called <replaceable>name</replaceable> has been defined
6742 in the filter file, it can be invoked by using an action of the form
6743 +<literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link>{<replaceable>name</replaceable>}</literal>
6744 in any <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link>.
6748 Filter definitions start with a header line that contains the filter
6749 type, the filter name and the filter description.
6750 A content filter header line for a filter called <quote>foo</quote> could look
6755 <screen>FILTER: foo Replace all "foo" with "bar"</screen>
6759 Below that line, and up to the next header line, come the jobs that
6760 define what text replacements the filter executes. They are specified
6761 in a syntax that imitates <ulink url="http://www.perl.org/">Perl</ulink>'s
6762 <literal>s///</literal> operator. If you are familiar with Perl, you
6763 will find this to be quite intuitive, and may want to look at the
6764 PCRS documentation for the subtle differences to Perl behaviour. Most
6765 notably, the non-standard option letter <literal>U</literal> is supported,
6766 which turns the default to ungreedy matching.
6771 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
6772 Expressions</quote></ulink>, you might want to take a look at
6773 the <link linkend="regex">Appendix on regular expressions</link>, and
6774 see the <ulink url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html">Perl
6776 <ulink url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlop.html">the
6777 <literal>s///</literal> operator's syntax</ulink> and <ulink
6778 url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html">Perl-style regular
6779 expressions</ulink> in general.
6780 The below examples might also help to get you started.
6784 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
6786 <sect2><title>Filter File Tutorial</title>
6788 Now, let's complete our <quote>foo</quote> content filter. We have already defined
6789 the heading, but the jobs are still missing. Since all it does is to replace
6790 <quote>foo</quote> with <quote>bar</quote>, there is only one (trivial) job
6795 <screen>s/foo/bar/</screen>
6799 But wait! Didn't the comment say that <emphasis>all</emphasis> occurrences
6800 of <quote>foo</quote> should be replaced? Our current job will only take
6801 care of the first <quote>foo</quote> on each page. For global substitution,
6802 we'll need to add the <literal>g</literal> option:
6806 <screen>s/foo/bar/g</screen>
6810 Our complete filter now looks like this:
6813 <screen>FILTER: foo Replace all "foo" with "bar"
6814 s/foo/bar/g</screen>
6818 Let's look at some real filters for more interesting examples. Here you see
6819 a filter that protects against some common annoyances that arise from JavaScript
6820 abuse. Let's look at its jobs one after the other:
6826 FILTER: js-annoyances Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse
6828 # Get rid of JavaScript referrer tracking. Test page: http://www.randomoddness.com/untitled.htm
6830 s|(<script.*)document\.referrer(.*</script>)|$1"Not Your Business!"$2|Usg</screen>
6834 Following the header line and a comment, you see the job. Note that it uses
6835 <literal>|</literal> as the delimiter instead of <literal>/</literal>, because
6836 the pattern contains a forward slash, which would otherwise have to be escaped
6837 by a backslash (<literal>\</literal>).
6841 Now, let's examine the pattern: it starts with the text <literal><script.*</literal>
6842 enclosed in parentheses. Since the dot matches any character, and <literal>*</literal>
6843 means: <quote>Match an arbitrary number of the element left of myself</quote>, this
6844 matches <quote><script</quote>, followed by <emphasis>any</emphasis> text, i.e.
6845 it matches the whole page, from the start of the first <script> tag.
6849 That's more than we want, but the pattern continues: <literal>document\.referrer</literal>
6850 matches only the exact string <quote>document.referrer</quote>. The dot needed to
6851 be <emphasis>escaped</emphasis>, i.e. preceded by a backslash, to take away its
6852 special meaning as a joker, and make it just a regular dot. So far, the meaning is:
6853 Match from the start of the first <script> tag in a the page, up to, and including,
6854 the text <quote>document.referrer</quote>, if <emphasis>both</emphasis> are present
6855 in the page (and appear in that order).
6859 But there's still more pattern to go. The next element, again enclosed in parentheses,
6860 is <literal>.*</script></literal>. You already know what <literal>.*</literal>
6861 means, so the whole pattern translates to: Match from the start of the first <script>
6862 tag in a page to the end of the last <script> tag, provided that the text
6863 <quote>document.referrer</quote> appears somewhere in between.
6867 This is still not the whole story, since we have ignored the options and the parentheses:
6868 The portions of the page matched by sub-patterns that are enclosed in parentheses, will be
6869 remembered and be available through the variables <literal>$1, $2, ...</literal> in
6870 the substitute. The <literal>U</literal> option switches to ungreedy matching, which means
6871 that the first <literal>.*</literal> in the pattern will only <quote>eat up</quote> all
6872 text in between <quote><script</quote> and the <emphasis>first</emphasis> occurrence
6873 of <quote>document.referrer</quote>, and that the second <literal>.*</literal> will
6874 only span the text up to the <emphasis>first</emphasis> <quote></script></quote>
6875 tag. Furthermore, the <literal>s</literal> option says that the match may span
6876 multiple lines in the page, and the <literal>g</literal> option again means that the
6877 substitution is global.
6881 So, to summarize, the pattern means: Match all scripts that contain the text
6882 <quote>document.referrer</quote>. Remember the parts of the script from
6883 (and including) the start tag up to (and excluding) the string
6884 <quote>document.referrer</quote> as <literal>$1</literal>, and the part following
6885 that string, up to and including the closing tag, as <literal>$2</literal>.
6889 Now the pattern is deciphered, but wasn't this about substituting things? So
6890 lets look at the substitute: <literal>$1"Not Your Business!"$2</literal> is
6891 easy to read: The text remembered as <literal>$1</literal>, followed by
6892 <literal>"Not Your Business!"</literal> (<emphasis>including</emphasis>
6893 the quotation marks!), followed by the text remembered as <literal>$2</literal>.
6894 This produces an exact copy of the original string, with the middle part
6895 (the <quote>document.referrer</quote>) replaced by <literal>"Not Your
6896 Business!"</literal>.
6900 The whole job now reads: Replace <quote>document.referrer</quote> by
6901 <literal>"Not Your Business!"</literal> wherever it appears inside a
6902 <script> tag. Note that this job won't break JavaScript syntax,
6903 since both the original and the replacement are syntactically valid
6904 string objects. The script just won't have access to the referrer
6905 information anymore.
6909 We'll show you two other jobs from the JavaScript taming department, but
6910 this time only point out the constructs of special interest:
6915 # The status bar is for displaying link targets, not pointless blahblah
6917 s/window\.status\s*=\s*(['"]).*?\1/dUmMy=1/ig</screen>
6921 <literal>\s</literal> stands for whitespace characters (space, tab, newline,
6922 carriage return, form feed), so that <literal>\s*</literal> means: <quote>zero
6923 or more whitespace</quote>. The <literal>?</literal> in <literal>.*?</literal>
6924 makes this matching of arbitrary text ungreedy. (Note that the <literal>U</literal>
6925 option is not set). The <literal>['"]</literal> construct means: <quote>a single
6926 <emphasis>or</emphasis> a double quote</quote>. Finally, <literal>\1</literal> is
6927 a back-reference to the first parenthesis just like <literal>$1</literal> above,
6928 with the difference that in the <emphasis>pattern</emphasis>, a backslash indicates
6929 a back-reference, whereas in the <emphasis>substitute</emphasis>, it's the dollar.
6933 So what does this job do? It replaces assignments of single- or double-quoted
6934 strings to the <quote>window.status</quote> object with a dummy assignment
6935 (using a variable name that is hopefully odd enough not to conflict with
6936 real variables in scripts). Thus, it catches many cases where e.g. pointless
6937 descriptions are displayed in the status bar instead of the link target when
6938 you move your mouse over links.
6943 # Kill OnUnload popups. Yummy. Test: http://www.zdnet.com/zdsubs/yahoo/tree/yfs.html
6945 s/(<body [^>]*)onunload(.*>)/$1never$2/iU</screen>
6950 <ulink url="http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-DOM-Level-2-Events-20001113/events.html#Events-eventgroupings-htmlevents">OnUnload
6951 event binding</ulink> in the HTML DOM was a <emphasis>CRIME</emphasis>.
6952 When I close a browser window, I want it to close and die. Basta.
6953 This job replaces the <quote>onunload</quote> attribute in
6954 <quote><body></quote> tags with the dummy word <literal>never</literal>.
6955 Note that the <literal>i</literal> option makes the pattern matching
6956 case-insensitive. Also note that ungreedy matching alone doesn't always guarantee
6957 a minimal match: In the first parenthesis, we had to use <literal>[^>]*</literal>
6958 instead of <literal>.*</literal> to prevent the match from exceeding the
6959 <body> tag if it doesn't contain <quote>OnUnload</quote>, but the page's
6964 The last example is from the fun department:
6969 FILTER: fun Fun text replacements
6971 # Spice the daily news:
6973 s/microsoft(?!\.com)/MicroSuck/ig</screen>
6977 Note the <literal>(?!\.com)</literal> part (a so-called negative lookahead)
6978 in the job's pattern, which means: Don't match, if the string
6979 <quote>.com</quote> appears directly following <quote>microsoft</quote>
6980 in the page. This prevents links to microsoft.com from being trashed, while
6981 still replacing the word everywhere else.
6986 # Buzzword Bingo (example for extended regex syntax)
6988 s* industry[ -]leading \
6990 | customer[ -]focused \
6991 | market[ -]driven \
6992 | award[ -]winning # Comments are OK, too! \
6993 | high[ -]performance \
6994 | solutions[ -]based \
6998 *<font color="red"><b>BINGO!</b></font> \
7003 The <literal>x</literal> option in this job turns on extended syntax, and allows for
7004 e.g. the liberal use of (non-interpreted!) whitespace for nicer formatting.
7012 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
7014 <sect2 id="predefined-filters"><title>The Pre-defined Filters</title>
7018 Note each filter is also listed in the +filter action section above. Please
7019 keep these listings in sync.
7024 The distribution <filename>default.filter</filename> file contains a selection of
7025 pre-defined filters for your convenience:
7030 <term><emphasis>js-annoyances</emphasis></term>
7033 The purpose of this filter is to get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse.
7038 replaces JavaScript references to the browser's referrer information
7039 with the string "Not Your Business!". This compliments the <literal><link
7040 linkend="hide-referrer">hide-referrer</link></literal> action on the content level.
7045 removes the bindings to the DOM's
7046 <ulink url="http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-DOM-Level-2-Events-20001113/events.html#Events-eventgroupings-htmlevents">unload
7047 event</ulink> which we feel has no right to exist and is responsible for most <quote>exit consoles</quote>, i.e.
7048 nasty windows that pop up when you close another one.
7053 removes code that causes new windows to be opened with undesired properties, such as being
7054 full-screen, non-resizeable, without location, status or menu bar etc.
7060 Use with caution. This is an aggressive filter, and can break sites that
7061 rely heavily on JavaScript.
7067 <term><emphasis>js-events</emphasis></term>
7070 This is a very radical measure. It removes virtually all JavaScript event bindings, which
7071 means that scripts can not react to user actions such as mouse movements or clicks, window
7072 resizing etc, anymore. Use with caution!
7075 We <emphasis>strongly discourage</emphasis> using this filter as a default since it breaks
7076 many legitimate scripts. It is meant for use only on extra-nasty sites (should you really
7083 <term><emphasis>html-annoyances</emphasis></term>
7086 This filter will undo many common instances of HTML based abuse.
7089 The <literal>BLINK</literal> and <literal>MARQUEE</literal> tags
7090 are neutralized (yeah baby!), and browser windows will be created as
7091 resizeable (as of course they should be!), and will have location,
7092 scroll and menu bars -- even if specified otherwise.
7098 <term><emphasis>content-cookies</emphasis></term>
7101 Most cookies are set in the HTTP dialog, where they can be intercepted
7103 <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal>
7104 and <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>
7105 actions. But web sites increasingly make use of HTML meta tags and JavaScript
7106 to sneak cookies to the browser on the content level.
7109 This filter disables most HTML and JavaScript code that reads or sets
7110 cookies. It cannot detect all clever uses of these types of code, so it
7111 should not be relied on as an absolute fix. Use it wherever you would also
7112 use the cookie crunch actions.
7118 <term><emphasis>refresh tags</emphasis></term>
7121 Disable any refresh tags if the interval is greater than nine seconds (so
7122 that redirections done via refresh tags are not destroyed). This is useful
7123 for dial-on-demand setups, or for those who find this HTML feature
7130 <term><emphasis>unsolicited-popups</emphasis></term>
7133 This filter attempts to prevent only <quote>unsolicited</quote> pop-up
7134 windows from opening, yet still allow pop-up windows that the user
7135 has explicitly chosen to open. It was added in version 3.0.1,
7136 as an improvement over earlier such filters.
7139 Technical note: The filter works by redefining the window.open JavaScript
7140 function to a dummy function, <literal>PrivoxyWindowOpen()</literal>,
7141 during the loading and rendering phase of each HTML page access, and
7142 restoring the function afterward.
7145 This is recommended only for browsers that cannot perform this function
7146 reliably themselves. And be aware that some sites require such windows
7147 in order to function normally. Use with caution.
7153 <term><emphasis>all-popups</emphasis></term>
7156 Attempt to prevent <emphasis>all</emphasis> pop-up windows from opening.
7157 Note this should be used with even more discretion than the above, since
7158 it is more likely to break some sites that require pop-ups for normal
7159 usage. Use with caution.
7165 <term><emphasis>img-reorder</emphasis></term>
7168 This is a helper filter that has no value if used alone. It makes the
7169 <literal>banners-by-size</literal> and <literal>banners-by-link</literal>
7170 (see below) filters more effective and should be enabled together with them.
7176 <term><emphasis>banners-by-size</emphasis></term>
7179 This filter removes image tags purely based on what size they are. Fortunately
7180 for us, many ads and banner images tend to conform to certain standardized
7181 sizes, which makes this filter quite effective for ad stripping purposes.
7184 Occasionally this filter will cause false positives on images that are not ads,
7185 but just happen to be of one of the standard banner sizes.
7188 Recommended only for those who require extreme ad blocking. The default
7189 block rules should catch 95+% of all ads <emphasis>without</emphasis> this filter enabled.
7195 <term><emphasis>banners-by-link</emphasis></term>
7198 This is an experimental filter that attempts to kill any banners if
7199 their URLs seem to point to known or suspected click trackers. It is currently
7200 not of much value and is not recommended for use by default.
7206 <term><emphasis>webbugs</emphasis></term>
7209 Webbugs are small, invisible images (technically 1X1 GIF images), that
7210 are used to track users across websites, and collect information on them.
7211 As an HTML page is loaded by the browser, an embedded image tag causes the
7212 browser to contact a third-party site, disclosing the tracking information
7213 through the requested URL and/or cookies for that third-party domain, without
7214 the user ever becoming aware of the interaction with the third-party site.
7215 HTML-ized spam also uses a similar technique to verify email addresses.
7218 This filter removes the HTML code that loads such <quote>webbugs</quote>.
7224 <term><emphasis>tiny-textforms</emphasis></term>
7227 A rather special-purpose filter that can be used to enlarge textareas (those
7228 multi-line text boxes in web forms) and turn off hard word wrap in them.
7229 It was written for the sourceforge.net tracker system where such boxes are
7230 a nuisance, but it can be handy on other sites, too.
7233 It is not recommended to use this filter as a default.
7239 <term><emphasis>jumping-windows</emphasis></term>
7242 Many consider windows that move, or resize themselves to be abusive. This filter
7243 neutralizes the related JavaScript code. Note that some sites might not display
7244 or behave as intended when using this filter. Use with caution.
7250 <term><emphasis>frameset-borders</emphasis></term>
7253 Some web designers seem to assume that everyone in the world will view their
7254 web sites using the same browser brand and version, screen resolution etc,
7255 because only that assumption could explain why they'd use static frame sizes,
7256 yet prevent their frames from being resized by the user, should they be too
7257 small to show their whole content.
7260 This filter removes the related HTML code. It should only be applied to sites
7267 <term><emphasis>demoronizer</emphasis></term>
7270 Many Microsoft products that generate HTML use non-standard extensions (read:
7271 violations) of the ISO 8859-1 aka Latin-1 character set. This can cause those
7272 HTML documents to display with errors on standard-compliant platforms.
7275 This filter translates the MS-only characters into Latin-1 equivalents.
7276 It is not necessary when using MS products, and will cause corruption of
7277 all documents that use 8-bit character sets other than Latin-1. It's mostly
7278 worthwhile for Europeans on non-MS platforms, if weird garbage characters
7279 sometimes appear on some pages, or user agents that don't correct for this on
7282 My version of Mozilla (ancient) shows litte square boxes for quote
7283 characters, and apostrophes on moronized pages. So many pages have this, I
7284 can read them fine now. HB 08/27/06
7291 <term><emphasis>shockwave-flash</emphasis></term>
7294 A filter for shockwave haters. As the name suggests, this filter strips code
7295 out of web pages that is used to embed shockwave flash objects.
7303 <term><emphasis>quicktime-kioskmode</emphasis></term>
7306 Change HTML code that embeds Quicktime objects so that kioskmode, which
7307 prevents saving, is disabled.
7313 <term><emphasis>fun</emphasis></term>
7316 Text replacements for subversive browsing fun. Make fun of your favorite
7317 Monopolist or play buzzword bingo.
7323 <term><emphasis>crude-parental</emphasis></term>
7326 A demonstration-only filter that shows how <application>Privoxy</application>
7327 can be used to delete web content on a keyword basis.
7333 <term><emphasis>ie-exploits</emphasis></term>
7336 An experimental collection of text replacements to disable malicious HTML and JavaScript
7337 code that exploits known security holes in Internet Explorer.
7340 Presently, it only protects against Nimda and a cross-site scripting bug, and
7341 would need active maintenance to provide more substantial protection.
7347 <term><emphasis>site-specifics</emphasis></term>
7350 Some web sites have very specific problems, the cure for which doesn't apply
7351 anywhere else, or could even cause damage on other sites.
7354 This is a collection of such site-specific cures which should only be applied
7355 to the sites they were intended for, which is what the supplied
7356 <filename>default.action</filename> file does. Users shouldn't need to change
7357 anything regarding this filter.
7363 <term><emphasis>google</emphasis></term>
7366 A CSS based block for Google text ads. Also removes a width limitation
7367 and the toolbar advertisement.
7373 <term><emphasis>yahoo</emphasis></term>
7376 Another CSS based block, this time for Yahoo text ads. And removes
7377 a width limitation as well.
7383 <term><emphasis>msn</emphasis></term>
7386 Another CSS based block, this time for MSN text ads. And removes
7387 tracking URLs, as well as a width limitation.
7393 <term><emphasis>blogspot</emphasis></term>
7396 Cleans up some Blogspot blogs. Read the fine print before using this one!
7399 This filter also intentionally removes some navigation stuff and sets the
7400 page width to 100%. As a result, some rounded <quote>corners</quote> would
7401 appear to early or not at all and as fixing this would require a browser
7402 that understands background-size (CSS3), they are removed instead.
7408 <term><emphasis>xml-to-html</emphasis></term>
7411 Server-header filter to change the Content-Type from xml to html.
7417 <term><emphasis>html-to-xml</emphasis></term>
7420 Server-header filter to change the Content-Type from html to xml.
7426 <term><emphasis>no-ping</emphasis></term>
7429 Removes the non-standard <literal>ping</literal> attribute from
7430 anchor and area HTML tags.
7436 <term><emphasis>hide-tor-exit-notation</emphasis></term>
7439 Client-header filter to remove the <command>Tor</command> exit node notation
7440 found in Host and Referer headers.
7443 If &my-app; and <command>Tor</command> are chained and &my-app;
7444 is configured to use socks4a, one can use <quote>http://www.example.org.foobar.exit/</quote>
7445 to access the host <quote>www.example.org</quote> through the
7446 <command>Tor</command> exit node <quote>foobar</quote>.
7449 As the HTTP client isn't aware of this notation, it treats the
7450 whole string <quote>www.example.org.foobar.exit</quote> as host and uses it
7451 for the <quote>Host</quote> and <quote>Referer</quote> headers. From the
7452 server's point of view the resulting headers are invalid and can cause problems.
7455 An invalid <quote>Referer</quote> header can trigger <quote>hot-linking</quote>
7456 protections, an invalid <quote>Host</quote> header will make it impossible for
7457 the server to find the right vhost (several domains hosted on the same IP address).
7460 This client-header filter removes the <quote>foo.exit</quote> part in those headers
7461 to prevent the mentioned problems. Note that it only modifies
7462 the HTTP headers, it doesn't make it impossible for the server
7463 to detect your <command>Tor</command> exit node based on the IP address
7464 the request is coming from.
7471 <term><emphasis> </emphasis></term>
7485 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7489 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7491 <sect1 id="templates">
7492 <title>Privoxy's Template Files</title>
7494 All <application>Privoxy</application> built-in pages, i.e. error pages such as the
7495 <ulink url="http://show-the-404-error.page"><quote>404 - No Such Domain</quote>
7496 error page</ulink>, the <ulink
7497 url="http://ads.bannerserver.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor.html"><quote>BLOCKED</quote>
7499 and all pages of its <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">web-based
7500 user interface</ulink>, are generated from <emphasis>templates</emphasis>.
7501 (<application>Privoxy</application> must be running for the above links to work as
7506 These templates are stored in a subdirectory of the <link linkend="confdir">configuration
7507 directory</link> called <filename>templates</filename>. On Unixish platforms,
7509 <ulink url="file:///etc/privoxy/templates/"><filename>/etc/privoxy/templates/</filename></ulink>.
7513 The templates are basically normal HTML files, but with place-holders (called symbols
7514 or exports), which <application>Privoxy</application> fills at run time. It
7515 is possible to edit the templates with a normal text editor, should you want
7516 to customize them. (<emphasis>Not recommended for the casual
7517 user</emphasis>). Should you create your own custom templates, you should use
7518 the <filename>config</filename> setting <link linkend="templdir">templdir</link>
7519 to specify an alternate location, so your templates do not get overwritten
7523 Note that just like in configuration files, lines starting
7524 with <literal>#</literal> are ignored when the templates are filled in.
7528 The place-holders are of the form <literal>@name@</literal>, and you will
7529 find a list of available symbols, which vary from template to template,
7530 in the comments at the start of each file. Note that these comments are not
7531 always accurate, and that it's probably best to look at the existing HTML
7532 code to find out which symbols are supported and what they are filled in with.
7536 A special application of this substitution mechanism is to make whole
7537 blocks of HTML code disappear when a specific symbol is set. We use this
7538 for many purposes, one of them being to include the beta warning in all
7539 our user interface (CGI) pages when <application>Privoxy</application>
7540 is in an alpha or beta development stage:
7545 <!-- @if-unstable-start -->
7547 ... beta warning HTML code goes here ...
7549 <!-- if-unstable-end@ --></screen>
7553 If the "unstable" symbol is set, everything in between and including
7554 <literal>@if-unstable-start</literal> and <literal>if-unstable-end@</literal>
7555 will disappear, leaving nothing but an empty comment:
7559 <screen><!-- --></screen>
7563 There's also an if-then-else construct and an <literal>#include</literal>
7564 mechanism, but you'll sure find out if you are inclined to edit the
7569 All templates refer to a style located at
7570 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/send-stylesheet"><literal>http://config.privoxy.org/send-stylesheet</literal></ulink>.
7571 This is, of course, locally served by <application>Privoxy</application>
7572 and the source for it can be found and edited in the
7573 <filename>cgi-style.css</filename> template.
7578 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7582 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7584 <sect1 id="contact"><title>Contacting the Developers, Bug Reporting and Feature
7587 <!-- Include contacting.sgml boilerplate: -->
7589 <!-- end boilerplate -->
7593 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7596 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7597 <sect1 id="copyright"><title>Privoxy Copyright, License and History</title>
7599 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
7601 <!-- end copyright -->
7603 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7604 <sect2><title>License</title>
7605 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
7607 <!-- end copyright -->
7609 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7612 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7614 <sect2 id="history"><title>History</title>
7615 <!-- Include history.sgml: -->
7617 <!-- end history -->
7620 <sect2 id="authors"><title>Authors</title>
7621 <!-- Include p-authors.sgml: -->
7623 <!-- end authors -->
7628 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7631 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7632 <sect1 id="seealso"><title>See Also</title>
7633 <!-- Include seealso.sgml: -->
7635 <!-- end seealso -->
7640 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7641 <sect1 id="appendix"><title>Appendix</title>
7644 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7646 <title>Regular Expressions</title>
7648 <application>Privoxy</application> uses Perl-style <quote>regular
7649 expressions</quote> in its <link linkend="actions-file">actions
7650 files</link> and <link linkend="filter-file">filter file</link>,
7651 through the <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/">PCRE</ulink> and
7654 <ulink url="http://www.oesterhelt.org/pcrs/">PCRS</ulink> libraries.
7656 <application>PCRS</application> libraries.
7660 If you are reading this, you probably don't understand what <quote>regular
7661 expressions</quote> are, or what they can do. So this will be a very brief
7662 introduction only. A full explanation would require a <ulink
7663 url="http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/regex/">book</ulink> ;-)
7667 Regular expressions provide a language to describe patterns that can be
7668 run against strings of characters (letter, numbers, etc), to see if they
7669 match the string or not. The patterns are themselves (sometimes complex)
7670 strings of literal characters, combined with wild-cards, and other special
7671 characters, called meta-characters. The <quote>meta-characters</quote> have
7672 special meanings and are used to build complex patterns to be matched against.
7673 Perl Compatible Regular Expressions are an especially convenient
7674 <quote>dialect</quote> of the regular expression language.
7678 To make a simple analogy, we do something similar when we use wild-card
7679 characters when listing files with the <command>dir</command> command in DOS.
7680 <literal>*.*</literal> matches all filenames. The <quote>special</quote>
7681 character here is the asterisk which matches any and all characters. We can be
7682 more specific and use <literal>?</literal> to match just individual
7683 characters. So <quote>dir file?.text</quote> would match
7684 <quote>file1.txt</quote>, <quote>file2.txt</quote>, etc. We are pattern
7685 matching, using a similar technique to <quote>regular expressions</quote>!
7689 Regular expressions do essentially the same thing, but are much, much more
7690 powerful. There are many more <quote>special characters</quote> and ways of
7691 building complex patterns however. Let's look at a few of the common ones,
7692 and then some examples:
7697 <emphasis>.</emphasis> - Matches any single character, e.g. <quote>a</quote>,
7698 <quote>A</quote>, <quote>4</quote>, <quote>:</quote>, or <quote>@</quote>.
7700 </simplelist></para>
7704 <emphasis>?</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or ONE
7707 </simplelist></para>
7711 <emphasis>+</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ONE or MORE
7714 </simplelist></para>
7718 <emphasis>*</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or MORE
7721 </simplelist></para>
7725 <emphasis>\</emphasis> - The <quote>escape</quote> character denotes that
7726 the following character should be taken literally. This is used where one of the
7727 special characters (e.g. <quote>.</quote>) needs to be taken literally and
7728 not as a special meta-character. Example: <quote>example\.com</quote>, makes
7729 sure the period is recognized only as a period (and not expanded to its
7730 meta-character meaning of any single character).
7732 </simplelist></para>
7736 <emphasis>[ ]</emphasis> - Characters enclosed in brackets will be matched if
7737 any of the enclosed characters are encountered. For instance, <quote>[0-9]</quote>
7738 matches any numeric digit (zero through nine). As an example, we can combine
7739 this with <quote>+</quote> to match any digit one of more times: <quote>[0-9]+</quote>.
7741 </simplelist></para>
7745 <emphasis>( )</emphasis> - parentheses are used to group a sub-expression,
7746 or multiple sub-expressions.
7748 </simplelist></para>
7752 <emphasis>|</emphasis> - The <quote>bar</quote> character works like an
7753 <quote>or</quote> conditional statement. A match is successful if the
7754 sub-expression on either side of <quote>|</quote> matches. As an example:
7755 <quote>/(this|that) example/</quote> uses grouping and the bar character
7756 and would match either <quote>this example</quote> or <quote>that
7757 example</quote>, and nothing else.
7759 </simplelist></para>
7762 These are just some of the ones you are likely to use when matching URLs with
7763 <application>Privoxy</application>, and is a long way from a definitive
7764 list. This is enough to get us started with a few simple examples which may
7765 be more illuminating:
7769 <emphasis><literal>/.*/banners/.*</literal></emphasis> - A simple example
7770 that uses the common combination of <quote>.</quote> and <quote>*</quote> to
7771 denote any character, zero or more times. In other words, any string at all.
7772 So we start with a literal forward slash, then our regular expression pattern
7773 (<quote>.*</quote>) another literal forward slash, the string
7774 <quote>banners</quote>, another forward slash, and lastly another
7775 <quote>.*</quote>. We are building
7776 a directory path here. This will match any file with the path that has a
7777 directory named <quote>banners</quote> in it. The <quote>.*</quote> matches
7778 any characters, and this could conceivably be more forward slashes, so it
7779 might expand into a much longer looking path. For example, this could match:
7780 <quote>/eye/hate/spammers/banners/annoy_me_please.gif</quote>, or just
7781 <quote>/banners/annoying.html</quote>, or almost an infinite number of other
7782 possible combinations, just so it has <quote>banners</quote> in the path
7787 And now something a little more complex:
7791 <emphasis><literal>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))?/</literal></emphasis> -
7792 We have several literal forward slashes again (<quote>/</quote>), so we are
7793 building another expression that is a file path statement. We have another
7794 <quote>.*</quote>, so we are matching against any conceivable sub-path, just so
7795 it matches our expression. The only true literal that <emphasis>must
7796 match</emphasis> our pattern is <application>adv</application>, together with
7797 the forward slashes. What comes after the <quote>adv</quote> string is the
7802 Remember the <quote>?</quote> means the preceding expression (either a
7803 literal character or anything grouped with <quote>(...)</quote> in this case)
7804 can exist or not, since this means either zero or one match. So
7805 <quote>((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))</quote> is optional, as are the
7806 individual sub-expressions: <quote>(er)</quote>,
7807 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, and the <quote>s</quote>. The <quote>|</quote>
7808 means <quote>or</quote>. We have two of those. For instance,
7809 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, can expand to match either <quote>ing</quote>
7810 <emphasis>OR</emphasis> <quote>ements?</quote>. What is being done here, is an
7811 attempt at matching as many variations of <quote>advertisement</quote>, and
7812 similar, as possible. So this would expand to match just <quote>adv</quote>,
7813 or <quote>advert</quote>, or <quote>adverts</quote>, or
7814 <quote>advertising</quote>, or <quote>advertisement</quote>, or
7815 <quote>advertisements</quote>. You get the idea. But it would not match
7816 <quote>advertizements</quote> (with a <quote>z</quote>). We could fix that by
7817 changing our regular expression to:
7818 <quote>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|erti(s|z)(ing|ements?))?/</quote>, which would then match
7823 <emphasis><literal>/.*/advert[0-9]+\.(gif|jpe?g)</literal></emphasis> - Again
7824 another path statement with forward slashes. Anything in the square brackets
7825 <quote>[ ]</quote> can be matched. This is using <quote>0-9</quote> as a
7826 shorthand expression to mean any digit one through nine. It is the same as
7827 saying <quote>0123456789</quote>. So any digit matches. The <quote>+</quote>
7828 means one or more of the preceding expression must be included. The preceding
7829 expression here is what is in the square brackets -- in this case, any digit
7830 one through nine. Then, at the end, we have a grouping: <quote>(gif|jpe?g)</quote>.
7831 This includes a <quote>|</quote>, so this needs to match the expression on
7832 either side of that bar character also. A simple <quote>gif</quote> on one side, and the other
7833 side will in turn match either <quote>jpeg</quote> or <quote>jpg</quote>,
7834 since the <quote>?</quote> means the letter <quote>e</quote> is optional and
7835 can be matched once or not at all. So we are building an expression here to
7836 match image GIF or JPEG type image file. It must include the literal
7837 string <quote>advert</quote>, then one or more digits, and a <quote>.</quote>
7838 (which is now a literal, and not a special character, since it is escaped
7839 with <quote>\</quote>), and lastly either <quote>gif</quote>, or
7840 <quote>jpeg</quote>, or <quote>jpg</quote>. Some possible matches would
7841 include: <quote>//advert1.jpg</quote>,
7842 <quote>/nasty/ads/advert1234.gif</quote>,
7843 <quote>/banners/from/hell/advert99.jpg</quote>. It would not match
7844 <quote>advert1.gif</quote> (no leading slash), or
7845 <quote>/adverts232.jpg</quote> (the expression does not include an
7846 <quote>s</quote>), or <quote>/advert1.jsp</quote> (<quote>jsp</quote> is not
7847 in the expression anywhere).
7851 We are barely scratching the surface of regular expressions here so that you
7852 can understand the default <application>Privoxy</application>
7853 configuration files, and maybe use this knowledge to customize your own
7854 installation. There is much, much more that can be done with regular
7855 expressions. Now that you know enough to get started, you can learn more on
7860 More reading on Perl Compatible Regular expressions:
7861 <ulink url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html">http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html</ulink>
7865 For information on regular expression based substitutions and their applications
7866 in filters, please see the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file tutorial</link>
7871 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7874 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7876 <title>Privoxy's Internal Pages</title>
7879 Since <application>Privoxy</application> proxies each requested
7880 web page, it is easy for <application>Privoxy</application> to
7881 trap certain special URLs. In this way, we can talk directly to
7882 <application>Privoxy</application>, and see how it is
7883 configured, see how our rules are being applied, change these
7884 rules and other configuration options, and even turn
7885 <application>Privoxy's</application> filtering off, all with
7891 The URLs listed below are the special ones that allow direct access
7892 to <application>Privoxy</application>. Of course,
7893 <application>Privoxy</application> must be running to access these. If
7894 not, you will get a friendly error message. Internet access is not
7907 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
7911 There is a shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink> (But it
7912 doesn't provide a fall-back to a real page, in case the request is not
7913 sent through <application>Privoxy</application>)
7919 Show information about the current configuration, including viewing and
7920 editing of actions files:
7924 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
7931 Show the source code version numbers:
7935 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-version">http://config.privoxy.org/show-version</ulink>
7942 Show the browser's request headers:
7946 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request">http://config.privoxy.org/show-request</ulink>
7953 Show which actions apply to a URL and why:
7957 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
7964 Toggle Privoxy on or off. This feature can be turned off/on in the main
7965 <filename>config</filename> file. When toggled <quote>off</quote>, <quote>Privoxy</quote>
7966 continues to run, but only as a pass-through proxy, with no actions taking
7971 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</ulink>
7975 Short cuts. Turn off, then on:
7979 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable</ulink>
7984 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable</ulink>
7993 These may be bookmarked for quick reference. See next.
7997 <sect3 id="bookmarklets">
7998 <title>Bookmarklets</title>
8000 Below are some <quote>bookmarklets</quote> to allow you to easily access a
8001 <quote>mini</quote> version of some of <application>Privoxy's</application>
8002 special pages. They are designed for MS Internet Explorer, but should work
8003 equally well in Netscape, Mozilla, and other browsers which support
8004 JavaScript. They are designed to run directly from your bookmarks - not by
8005 clicking the links below (although that should work for testing).
8008 To save them, right-click the link and choose <quote>Add to Favorites</quote>
8009 (IE) or <quote>Add Bookmark</quote> (Netscape). You will get a warning that
8010 the bookmark <quote>may not be safe</quote> - just click OK. Then you can run the
8011 Bookmarklet directly from your favorites/bookmarks. For even faster access,
8012 you can put them on the <quote>Links</quote> bar (IE) or the <quote>Personal
8013 Toolbar</quote> (Netscape), and run them with a single click.
8022 url="javascript:void(window.open('http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?mini=y&set=enabled','ijbstatus','width=250,height=100,resizable=yes,scrollbars=no,toolbar=no,location=no,directories=no,status=no,menubar=no,copyhistory=no').focus());">Privoxy - Enable</ulink>
8029 url="javascript:void(window.open('http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?mini=y&set=disabled','ijbstatus','width=250,height=100,resizable=yes,scrollbars=no,toolbar=no,location=no,directories=no,status=no,menubar=no,copyhistory=no').focus());">Privoxy - Disable</ulink>
8036 url="javascript:void(window.open('http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?mini=y&set=toggle','ijbstatus','width=250,height=100,resizable=yes,scrollbars=no,toolbar=no,location=no,directories=no,status=no,menubar=no,copyhistory=no').focus());">Privoxy - Toggle Privoxy</ulink> (Toggles between enabled and disabled)
8043 url="javascript:void(window.open('http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?mini=y','ijbstatus','width=250,height=2,resizable=yes,scrollbars=no,toolbar=no,location=no,directories=no,status=no,menubar=no,copyhistory=no').focus());">Privoxy- View Status</ulink>
8049 <ulink url="javascript:w=Math.floor(screen.width/2);h=Math.floor(screen.height*0.9);void(window.open('http://www.privoxy.org/actions/index.php?url='+escape(location.href),'Feedback','screenx='+w+',width='+w+',height='+h+',scrollbars=yes,toolbar=no,location=no,directories=no,status=no,menubar=no,copyhistory=no').focus());">Privoxy - Submit Actions File Feedback</ulink>
8055 <ulink url="javascript:void(window.open('http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info?url='+escape(location.href),'Why').focus());">Privoxy - Why?</ulink>
8062 Credit: The site which gave us the general idea for these bookmarklets is
8063 <ulink url="http://www.bookmarklets.com/">www.bookmarklets.com</ulink>. They
8064 have more information about bookmarklets.
8073 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
8075 <title>Chain of Events</title>
8077 Let's take a quick look at how some of <application>Privoxy's</application>
8078 core features are triggered, and the ensuing sequence of events when a web
8079 page is requested by your browser:
8086 First, your web browser requests a web page. The browser knows to send
8087 the request to <application>Privoxy</application>, which will in turn,
8088 relay the request to the remote web server after passing the following
8094 <application>Privoxy</application> traps any request for its own internal CGI
8095 pages (e.g <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>) and sends the CGI page back to the browser.
8100 Next, <application>Privoxy</application> checks to see if the URL
8102 linkend="BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></link> patterns. If
8103 so, the URL is then blocked, and the remote web server will not be contacted.
8104 <link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></link>
8106 <link linkend="HANDLE-AS-EMPTY-DOCUMENT"><quote>+handle-as-empty-document</quote></link>
8107 are then checked, and if there is no match, an
8108 HTML <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page is sent back to the browser. Otherwise, if
8109 it does match, an image is returned for the former, and an empty text
8110 document for the latter. The type of image would depend on the setting of
8111 <link linkend="SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"><quote>+set-image-blocker</quote></link>
8112 (blank, checkerboard pattern, or an HTTP redirect to an image elsewhere).
8117 Untrusted URLs are blocked. If URLs are being added to the
8118 <filename>trust</filename> file, then that is done.
8123 If the URL pattern matches the <link
8124 linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS"><quote>+fast-redirects</quote></link> action,
8125 it is then processed. Unwanted parts of the requested URL are stripped.
8130 Now the rest of the client browser's request headers are processed. If any
8131 of these match any of the relevant actions (e.g. <link
8132 linkend="HIDE-USER-AGENT"><quote>+hide-user-agent</quote></link>,
8133 etc.), headers are suppressed or forged as determined by these actions and
8139 Now the web server starts sending its response back (i.e. typically a web
8145 First, the server headers are read and processed to determine, among other
8146 things, the MIME type (document type) and encoding. The headers are then
8147 filtered as determined by the
8148 <link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES"><quote>+crunch-incoming-cookies</quote></link>,
8149 <link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"><quote>+session-cookies-only</quote></link>,
8150 and <link linkend="DOWNGRADE-HTTP-VERSION"><quote>+downgrade-http-version</quote></link>
8156 If any <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> action
8158 linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS"><quote>+deanimate-gifs</quote></link>
8159 action applies (and the document type fits the action), the rest of the page is
8160 read into memory (up to a configurable limit). Then the filter rules (from
8161 <filename>default.filter</filename> and any other filter files) are
8162 processed against the buffered content. Filters are applied in the order
8163 they are specified in one of the filter files. Animated GIFs, if present,
8164 are reduced to either the first or last frame, depending on the action
8165 setting.The entire page, which is now filtered, is then sent by
8166 <application>Privoxy</application> back to your browser.
8169 If neither a <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> action
8171 linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS"><quote>+deanimate-gifs</quote></link>
8172 matches, then <application>Privoxy</application> passes the raw data through
8173 to the client browser as it becomes available.
8178 As the browser receives the now (possibly filtered) page content, it
8179 reads and then requests any URLs that may be embedded within the page
8180 source, e.g. ad images, stylesheets, JavaScript, other HTML documents (e.g.
8181 frames), sounds, etc. For each of these objects, the browser issues a
8182 separate request (this is easily viewable in <application>Privoxy's</application>
8183 logs). And each such request is in turn processed just as above. Note that a
8184 complex web page will have many, many such embedded URLs. If these
8185 secondary requests are to a different server, then quite possibly a very
8186 differing set of actions is triggered.
8193 NOTE: This is somewhat of a simplistic overview of what happens with each URL
8194 request. For the sake of brevity and simplicity, we have focused on
8195 <application>Privoxy's</application> core features only.
8201 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
8202 <sect2 id="actionsanat">
8203 <title>Troubleshooting: Anatomy of an Action</title>
8206 The way <application>Privoxy</application> applies
8207 <link linkend="ACTIONS">actions</link> and <link linkend="FILTER">filters</link>
8208 to any given URL can be complex, and not always so
8209 easy to understand what is happening. And sometimes we need to be able to
8210 <emphasis>see</emphasis> just what <application>Privoxy</application> is
8211 doing. Especially, if something <application>Privoxy</application> is doing
8212 is causing us a problem inadvertently. It can be a little daunting to look at
8213 the actions and filters files themselves, since they tend to be filled with
8214 <link linkend="regex">regular expressions</link> whose consequences are not
8219 One quick test to see if <application>Privoxy</application> is causing a problem
8220 or not, is to disable it temporarily. This should be the first troubleshooting
8221 step. See <link linkend="bookmarklets">the Bookmarklets</link> section on a quick
8222 and easy way to do this (be sure to flush caches afterward!). Looking at the
8223 logs is a good idea too. (Note that both the toggle feature and logging are
8224 enabled via <filename>config</filename> file settings, and may need to be
8225 turned <quote>on</quote>.)
8228 Another easy troubleshooting step to try is if you have done any
8229 customization of your installation, revert back to the installed
8230 defaults and see if that helps. There are times the developers get complaints
8231 about one thing or another, and the problem is more related to a customized
8232 configuration issue.
8236 <application>Privoxy</application> also provides the
8237 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
8238 page that can show us very specifically how <application>actions</application>
8239 are being applied to any given URL. This is a big help for troubleshooting.
8243 First, enter one URL (or partial URL) at the prompt, and then
8244 <application>Privoxy</application> will tell us
8245 how the current configuration will handle it. This will not
8246 help with filtering effects (i.e. the <link
8247 linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> action) from
8248 one of the filter files since this is handled very
8249 differently and not so easy to trap! It also will not tell you about any other
8250 URLs that may be embedded within the URL you are testing. For instance, images
8251 such as ads are expressed as URLs within the raw page source of HTML pages. So
8252 you will only get info for the actual URL that is pasted into the prompt area
8253 -- not any sub-URLs. If you want to know about embedded URLs like ads, you
8254 will have to dig those out of the HTML source. Use your browser's <quote>View
8255 Page Source</quote> option for this. Or right click on the ad, and grab the
8260 Let's try an example, <ulink url="http://google.com">google.com</ulink>,
8261 and look at it one section at a time in a sample configuration (your real
8262 configuration may vary):
8267 Matches for http://www.google.com:
8269 In file: default.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
8271 {+change-x-forwarded-for{block}
8272 +deanimate-gifs {last}
8273 +fast-redirects {check-decoded-url}
8274 +filter {refresh-tags}
8275 +filter {img-reorder}
8276 +filter {banners-by-size}
8278 +filter {jumping-windows}
8279 +filter {ie-exploits}
8280 +hide-from-header {block}
8281 +hide-referrer {forge}
8282 +session-cookies-only
8283 +set-image-blocker {pattern}
8286 { -session-cookies-only }
8292 In file: user.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
8293 (no matches in this file)
8298 This is telling us how we have defined our
8299 <link linkend="ACTIONS"><quote>actions</quote></link>, and
8300 which ones match for our test case, <quote>google.com</quote>.
8301 Displayed is all the actions that are available to us. Remember,
8302 the <literal>+</literal> sign denotes <quote>on</quote>. <literal>-</literal>
8303 denotes <quote>off</quote>. So some are <quote>on</quote> here, but many
8304 are <quote>off</quote>. Each example we try may provide a slightly different
8305 end result, depending on our configuration directives.
8309 is for our <filename>default.action</filename> file. The large, multi-line
8310 listing, is how the actions are set to match for all URLs, i.e. our default
8311 settings. If you look at your <quote>actions</quote> file, this would be the
8312 section just below the <quote>aliases</quote> section near the top. This
8313 will apply to all URLs as signified by the single forward slash at the end
8314 of the listing -- <quote> / </quote>.
8318 But we have defined additional actions that would be exceptions to these general
8319 rules, and then we list specific URLs (or patterns) that these exceptions
8320 would apply to. Last match wins. Just below this then are two explicit
8321 matches for <quote>.google.com</quote>. The first is negating our previous
8322 cookie setting, which was for <link
8323 linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"><quote>+session-cookies-only</quote></link>
8324 (i.e. not persistent). So we will allow persistent cookies for google, at
8325 least that is how it is in this example. The second turns
8326 <emphasis>off</emphasis> any <link
8327 linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS"><quote>+fast-redirects</quote></link>
8328 action, allowing this to take place unmolested. Note that there is a leading
8329 dot here -- <quote>.google.com</quote>. This will match any hosts and
8330 sub-domains, in the google.com domain also, such as
8331 <quote>www.google.com</quote> or <quote>mail.google.com</quote>. But it would not
8332 match <quote>www.google.de</quote>! So, apparently, we have these two actions
8333 defined as exceptions to the general rules at the top somewhere in the lower
8334 part of our <filename>default.action</filename> file, and
8335 <quote>google.com</quote> is referenced somewhere in these latter sections.
8339 Then, for our <filename>user.action</filename> file, we again have no hits.
8340 So there is nothing google-specific that we might have added to our own, local
8341 configuration. If there was, those actions would over-rule any actions from
8342 previously processed files, such as <filename>default.action</filename>.
8343 <filename>user.action</filename> typically has the last word. This is the
8344 best place to put hard and fast exceptions,
8348 And finally we pull it all together in the bottom section and summarize how
8349 <application>Privoxy</application> is applying all its <quote>actions</quote>
8350 to <quote>google.com</quote>:
8361 +change-x-forwarded-for{block}
8362 -client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation}
8363 -content-type-overwrite
8364 -crunch-client-header
8365 -crunch-if-none-match
8366 -crunch-incoming-cookies
8367 -crunch-outgoing-cookies
8368 -crunch-server-header
8369 +deanimate-gifs {last}
8370 -downgrade-http-version
8373 -filter {content-cookies}
8374 -filter {all-popups}
8375 -filter {banners-by-link}
8376 -filter {tiny-textforms}
8377 -filter {frameset-borders}
8378 -filter {demoronizer}
8379 -filter {shockwave-flash}
8380 -filter {quicktime-kioskmode}
8382 -filter {crude-parental}
8383 -filter {site-specifics}
8384 -filter {js-annoyances}
8385 -filter {html-annoyances}
8386 +filter {refresh-tags}
8387 -filter {unsolicited-popups}
8388 +filter {img-reorder}
8389 +filter {banners-by-size}
8391 +filter {jumping-windows}
8392 +filter {ie-exploits}
8399 -handle-as-empty-document
8401 -hide-accept-language
8402 -hide-content-disposition
8403 +hide-from-header {block}
8404 -hide-if-modified-since
8405 +hide-referrer {forge}
8408 -overwrite-last-modified
8409 -prevent-compression
8411 -server-header-filter{xml-to-html}
8412 -server-header-filter{html-to-xml}
8413 -session-cookies-only
8414 +set-image-blocker {pattern} </screen>
8418 Notice the only difference here to the previous listing, is to
8419 <quote>fast-redirects</quote> and <quote>session-cookies-only</quote>,
8420 which are activated specifically for this site in our configuration,
8421 and thus show in the <quote>Final Results</quote>.
8425 Now another example, <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>:
8431 { +block{Domains starts with "ad"} }
8434 { +block{Domain contains "ad"} }
8437 { +block{Doubleclick banner server} +handle-as-image }
8438 .[a-vx-z]*.doubleclick.net
8443 We'll just show the interesting part here - the explicit matches. It is
8444 matched three different times. Two <quote>+block{}</quote> sections,
8445 and a <quote>+block{} +handle-as-image</quote>,
8446 which is the expanded form of one of our aliases that had been defined as:
8447 <quote>+block-as-image</quote>. (<link
8448 linkend="ALIASES"><quote>Aliases</quote></link> are defined in
8449 the first section of the actions file and typically used to combine more
8454 Any one of these would have done the trick and blocked this as an unwanted
8455 image. This is unnecessarily redundant since the last case effectively
8456 would also cover the first. No point in taking chances with these guys
8457 though ;-) Note that if you want an ad or obnoxious
8458 URL to be invisible, it should be defined as <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>
8459 is done here -- as both a <link
8460 linkend="BLOCK"><quote>+block{}</quote></link>
8461 <emphasis>and</emphasis> an
8462 <link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></link>.
8463 The custom alias <quote><literal>+block-as-image</literal></quote> just
8464 simplifies the process and make it more readable.
8468 One last example. Let's try <quote>http://www.example.net/adsl/HOWTO/</quote>.
8469 This one is giving us problems. We are getting a blank page. Hmmm ...
8475 Matches for http://www.example.net/adsl/HOWTO/:
8477 In file: default.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
8481 +change-x-forwarded-for{block}
8482 -client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation}
8483 -content-type-overwrite
8484 -crunch-client-header
8485 -crunch-if-none-match
8486 -crunch-incoming-cookies
8487 -crunch-outgoing-cookies
8488 -crunch-server-header
8490 -downgrade-http-version
8491 +fast-redirects {check-decoded-url}
8493 -filter {content-cookies}
8494 -filter {all-popups}
8495 -filter {banners-by-link}
8496 -filter {tiny-textforms}
8497 -filter {frameset-borders}
8498 -filter {demoronizer}
8499 -filter {shockwave-flash}
8500 -filter {quicktime-kioskmode}
8502 -filter {crude-parental}
8503 -filter {site-specifics}
8504 -filter {js-annoyances}
8505 -filter {html-annoyances}
8506 +filter {refresh-tags}
8507 -filter {unsolicited-popups}
8508 +filter {img-reorder}
8509 +filter {banners-by-size}
8511 +filter {jumping-windows}
8512 +filter {ie-exploits}
8519 -handle-as-empty-document
8521 -hide-accept-language
8522 -hide-content-disposition
8523 +hide-from-header{block}
8524 +hide-referer{forge}
8526 -overwrite-last-modified
8527 +prevent-compression
8529 -server-header-filter{xml-to-html}
8530 -server-header-filter{html-to-xml}
8531 +session-cookies-only
8532 +set-image-blocker{blank} }
8535 { +block{Path contains "ads".} +handle-as-image }
8541 Ooops, the <quote>/adsl/</quote> is matching <quote>/ads</quote> in our
8542 configuration! But we did not want this at all! Now we see why we get the
8543 blank page. It is actually triggering two different actions here, and
8544 the effects are aggregated so that the URL is blocked, and &my-app; is told
8545 to treat the block as if it were an image. But this is, of course, all wrong.
8546 We could now add a new action below this (or better in our own
8547 <filename>user.action</filename> file) that explicitly
8548 <emphasis>un</emphasis> blocks (
8549 <link linkend="BLOCK"><quote>{-block}</quote></link>) paths with
8550 <quote>adsl</quote> in them (remember, last match in the configuration
8551 wins). There are various ways to handle such exceptions. Example:
8563 Now the page displays ;-)
8564 Remember to flush your browser's caches when making these kinds of changes to
8565 your configuration to insure that you get a freshly delivered page! Or, try
8566 using <literal>Shift+Reload</literal>.
8570 But now what about a situation where we get no explicit matches like
8577 { +block{Path starts with "ads".} +handle-as-image }
8583 That actually was very helpful and pointed us quickly to where the problem
8584 was. If you don't get this kind of match, then it means one of the default
8585 rules in the first section of <filename>default.action</filename> is causing
8586 the problem. This would require some guesswork, and maybe a little trial and
8587 error to isolate the offending rule. One likely cause would be one of the
8588 <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> actions.
8589 These tend to be harder to troubleshoot.
8590 Try adding the URL for the site to one of aliases that turn off
8591 <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link>:
8599 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
8607 <quote><literal>{ shop }</literal></quote> is an <quote>alias</quote> that expands to
8608 <quote><literal>{ -filter -session-cookies-only }</literal></quote>.
8609 Or you could do your own exception to negate filtering:
8617 # Disable ALL filter actions for sites in this section
8625 This would turn off all filtering for these sites. This is best
8626 put in <filename>user.action</filename>, for local site
8627 exceptions. Note that when a simple domain pattern is used by itself (without
8628 the subsequent path portion), all sub-pages within that domain are included
8629 automatically in the scope of the action.
8633 Images that are inexplicably being blocked, may well be hitting the
8634 <link linkend="FILTER-BANNERS-BY-SIZE"><quote>+filter{banners-by-size}</quote></link>
8636 that images of certain sizes are ad banners (works well
8637 <emphasis>most of the time</emphasis> since these tend to be standardized).
8641 <quote><literal>{ fragile }</literal></quote> is an alias that disables most
8642 actions that are the most likely to cause trouble. This can be used as a
8643 last resort for problem sites.
8649 # Handle with care: easy to break
8651 mybank.example.com</screen>
8656 <emphasis>Remember to flush caches!</emphasis> Note that the
8657 <literal>mail.google</literal> reference lacks the TLD portion (e.g.
8658 <quote>.com</quote>). This will effectively match any TLD with
8659 <literal>google</literal> in it, such as <literal>mail.google.de.</literal>,
8663 If this still does not work, you will have to go through the remaining
8664 actions one by one to find which one(s) is causing the problem.
8673 This program is free software; you can redistribute it
8674 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
8675 Public License as published by the Free Software
8676 Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at
8677 your option) any later version.
8679 This program is distributed in the hope that it will
8680 be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the
8681 implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
8682 PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public
8683 License for more details.
8685 The GNU General Public License should be included with
8686 this file. If not, you can view it at
8687 http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
8688 or write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
8689 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301,
8692 $Log: user-manual.sgml,v $
8693 Revision 2.117 2010/01/11 12:56:04 fabiankeil
8694 Bump copyright range as p-config.sgml's copyright line is only used in the config file.
8696 Revision 2.116 2009/11/15 14:24:12 fabiankeil
8697 Prepare to generate docs for 3.0.16 UNRELEASED.
8699 Revision 2.115 2009/10/10 06:19:34 fabiankeil
8700 Ditch a duplicated 'since'.
8702 Revision 2.114 2009/10/10 05:51:48 fabiankeil
8703 Update "What's new" section.
8705 Revision 2.113 2009/10/10 05:48:55 fabiankeil
8706 Prepare for 3.0.15 beta.
8708 Revision 2.112 2009/07/24 12:20:30 fabiankeil
8709 Remove duplicated period.
8711 Revision 2.111 2009/07/18 18:11:11 fabiankeil
8712 Don't claim that NTLM should work when there are multiple reports that it doesn't.
8714 Revision 2.110 2009/07/18 16:25:17 fabiankeil
8715 Fix trailing whitespace.
8717 Revision 2.109 2009/07/18 16:24:39 fabiankeil
8718 Bump entities for 3.0.14 beta.
8720 Revision 2.108 2009/07/18 15:49:23 fabiankeil
8721 Add most of the changes in 3.0.14 to the "What's New" section.
8723 Revision 2.107 2009/06/12 14:30:58 fabiankeil
8724 Update entities for 3.0.13 beta.
8726 Revision 2.106 2009/06/12 11:04:13 fabiankeil
8727 Import ChangeLog for 3.0.13 beta.
8729 Revision 2.105 2009/04/17 11:32:57 fabiankeil
8730 Grammar and spelling fixes.
8732 Revision 2.104 2009/04/17 11:27:49 fabiankeil
8733 Petr Pisar's privoxy-3.0.12-ipv6-3.diff.
8735 Revision 2.103 2009/03/21 10:49:05 fabiankeil
8736 Merge updated ChangeLog.
8738 Revision 2.102 2009/03/15 19:31:36 fabiankeil
8739 Update "What's New in this Release" section.
8741 Revision 2.101 2009/02/25 19:01:56 fabiankeil
8744 Revision 2.100 2009/02/19 17:14:11 fabiankeil
8745 - Copy the release cycle description from announce.txt into
8746 the "What's New" section.
8747 - Stop referring to the ChangeLog for a "complete list of changes".
8748 The "What's New" section already contains the complete list.
8750 Revision 2.99 2009/02/19 02:20:22 hal9
8751 Make some links in seealso conditional. Man page is now privoxy only links.
8753 Revision 2.98 2009/02/16 17:10:33 fabiankeil
8754 Fix entry about shortened log messages. Noticed by Lee.
8756 Revision 2.97 2009/02/14 18:01:00 fabiankeil
8759 Revision 2.96 2009/02/14 13:14:03 fabiankeil
8762 Revision 2.95 2009/02/14 12:51:26 fabiankeil
8763 Mention match-all.action in the "Actions Files Tutorial" section.
8765 Revision 2.94 2009/02/14 11:50:31 fabiankeil
8766 Some indentation fixes.
8768 Revision 2.93 2009/02/14 10:14:42 fabiankeil
8769 Mention match-all.action in the action file descriptions.
8771 Revision 2.92 2009/02/12 16:08:26 fabiankeil
8772 Declare the code stable.
8774 Revision 2.91 2009/01/13 16:50:35 fabiankeil
8775 The standard.action file is gone.
8777 Revision 2.90 2008/09/26 16:53:09 fabiankeil
8778 Update "What's new" section.
8780 Revision 2.89 2008/09/21 15:38:56 fabiankeil
8781 Fix Portage tree sync instructions in Gentoo section.
8782 Anonymously reported at ijbswa-developers@.
8784 Revision 2.88 2008/09/21 14:42:52 fabiankeil
8785 Add documentation for change-x-forwarded-for{},
8786 remove documentation for hide-forwarded-for-headers.
8788 Revision 2.87 2008/08/30 15:37:35 fabiankeil
8791 Revision 2.86 2008/08/16 10:12:23 fabiankeil
8792 Merge two sentences and move the URL to the end of the item.
8794 Revision 2.85 2008/08/16 10:04:59 fabiankeil
8795 Some more syntax fixes. This version actually builds.
8797 Revision 2.84 2008/08/16 09:42:45 fabiankeil
8798 Turns out building docs works better if the syntax is valid.
8800 Revision 2.83 2008/08/16 09:32:02 fabiankeil
8801 Mention changes since 3.0.9 beta.
8803 Revision 2.82 2008/08/16 09:00:52 fabiankeil
8804 Fix example URL pattern (once more with feeling).
8806 Revision 2.81 2008/08/16 08:51:28 fabiankeil
8807 Update version-related entities.
8809 Revision 2.80 2008/07/18 16:54:30 fabiankeil
8810 Remove erroneous whitespace in documentation link.
8811 Reported by John Chronister in #2021611.
8813 Revision 2.79 2008/06/27 18:00:53 markm68k
8814 remove outdated startup information for mac os x
8816 Revision 2.78 2008/06/21 17:03:03 fabiankeil
8819 Revision 2.77 2008/06/14 13:45:22 fabiankeil
8820 Re-add a colon I unintentionally removed a few revisions ago.
8822 Revision 2.76 2008/06/14 13:21:28 fabiankeil
8823 Prepare for the upcoming 3.0.9 beta release.
8825 Revision 2.75 2008/06/13 16:06:48 fabiankeil
8826 Update the "What's New in this Release" section with
8827 the ChangeLog entries changelog2doc.pl could handle.
8829 Revision 2.74 2008/05/26 15:55:46 fabiankeil
8830 - Update "default profiles" table.
8831 - Add some more pcrs redirect examples and note that
8832 enabling debug 128 helps to get redirects working.
8834 Revision 2.73 2008/05/23 14:43:18 fabiankeil
8835 Remove previously out-commented block that caused syntax problems.
8837 Revision 2.72 2008/05/12 10:26:14 fabiankeil
8838 Synchronize content filter descriptions with the ones in default.filter.
8840 Revision 2.71 2008/04/10 17:37:16 fabiankeil
8841 Actually we use "modern" POSIX 1003.2 regular
8842 expressions in path patterns, not PCRE.
8844 Revision 2.70 2008/04/10 15:59:12 fabiankeil
8845 Add another section to the client-header-tagger example that shows
8846 how to actually change the action settings once the tag is created.
8848 Revision 2.69 2008/03/29 12:14:25 fabiankeil
8849 Remove send-wafer and send-vanilla-wafer actions.
8851 Revision 2.68 2008/03/28 15:13:43 fabiankeil
8852 Remove inspect-jpegs action.
8854 Revision 2.67 2008/03/27 18:31:21 fabiankeil
8855 Remove kill-popups action.
8857 Revision 2.66 2008/03/06 16:33:47 fabiankeil
8858 If limit-connect isn't used, don't limit CONNECT requests to port 443.
8860 Revision 2.65 2008/03/04 18:30:40 fabiankeil
8861 Remove the treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks action. We now
8862 use the "blocked" page for forbidden CONNECT requests by default.
8864 Revision 2.64 2008/03/01 14:10:28 fabiankeil
8865 Use new block syntax. Still needs some polishing.
8867 Revision 2.63 2008/02/22 05:50:37 markm68k
8870 Revision 2.62 2008/02/11 11:52:23 hal9
8871 Fix entity ... s/&/&
8873 Revision 2.61 2008/02/11 03:41:47 markm68k
8874 more updates for mac os x
8876 Revision 2.60 2008/02/11 03:40:25 markm68k
8877 more updates for mac os x
8879 Revision 2.59 2008/02/11 00:52:34 markm68k
8880 reflect new changes for mac os x
8882 Revision 2.58 2008/02/03 21:37:40 hal9
8883 Apply patch from Mark: s/OSX/OS X/
8885 Revision 2.57 2008/02/03 19:10:14 fabiankeil
8886 Mention forward-socks5.
8888 Revision 2.56 2008/01/31 19:11:35 fabiankeil
8889 Let the +client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation} example apply
8890 to all requests as "tainted" Referers aren't limited to exit TLDs.
8892 Revision 2.55 2008/01/19 21:26:37 hal9
8893 Add IE7 to configuration section per Gerry.
8895 Revision 2.54 2008/01/19 17:52:39 hal9
8896 Re-commit to fix various minor issues for new release.
8898 Revision 2.53 2008/01/19 15:03:05 hal9
8899 Doc sources tagged for 3.0.8 release.
8901 Revision 2.52 2008/01/17 01:49:51 hal9
8902 Change copyright notice for docs s/2007/2008/. All these will be rebuilt soon
8905 Revision 2.51 2007/12/23 16:48:24 fabiankeil
8906 Use more precise example descriptions for the mysterious domain patterns.
8908 Revision 2.50 2007/12/08 12:44:36 fabiankeil
8909 - Remove already commented out pre-3.0.7 changes.
8910 - Update the "new log defaults" paragraph.
8912 Revision 2.49 2007/12/06 18:21:55 fabiankeil
8913 Update hide-forwarded-for-headers description.
8915 Revision 2.48 2007/11/24 19:07:17 fabiankeil
8916 - Mention request rewriting.
8917 - Enable the conditional-forge paragraph.
8920 Revision 2.47 2007/11/18 14:59:47 fabiankeil
8921 A few "Note to Upgraders" updates.
8923 Revision 2.46 2007/11/17 17:24:44 fabiankeil
8924 - Use new action defaults.
8925 - Minor fixes and rewordings.
8927 Revision 2.45 2007/11/16 11:48:46 hal9
8928 Fix one typo, and add a couple of small refinements.
8930 Revision 2.44 2007/11/15 03:30:20 hal9
8931 Results of spell check.
8933 Revision 2.43 2007/11/14 18:45:39 fabiankeil
8934 - Mention some more contributors in the "New in this Release" list.
8937 Revision 2.42 2007/11/12 03:32:40 hal9
8938 Updates for "What's New" and "Notes to Upgraders". Various other changes in
8939 preparation for new release. User Manual is almost ready.
8941 Revision 2.41 2007/11/11 16:32:11 hal9
8942 This is primarily syncing What's New and Note to Upgraders sections with the many
8943 new features and changes (gleaned from memory but mostly from ChangeLog).
8945 Revision 2.40 2007/11/10 17:10:59 fabiankeil
8946 In the first third of the file, mention several times that
8947 the action editor is disabled by default in 3.0.7 beta and later.
8949 Revision 2.39 2007/11/05 02:34:49 hal9
8950 Various changes in preparation for the upcoming release. Much yet to be done.
8952 Revision 2.38 2007/09/22 16:01:42 fabiankeil
8953 Update embedded show-url-info output.
8955 Revision 2.37 2007/08/27 16:09:55 fabiankeil
8956 Fix pre-chroot-nslookup description which I failed to
8957 copy and paste properly. Reported by Stephen Gildea.
8959 Revision 2.36 2007/08/26 16:47:14 fabiankeil
8960 Add Stephen Gildea's pre-chroot-nslookup patch [#1276666],
8961 extensive comments moved to user manual.
8963 Revision 2.35 2007/08/26 14:59:49 fabiankeil
8964 Minor rewordings and fixes.
8966 Revision 2.34 2007/08/05 15:19:50 fabiankeil
8967 - Don't claim HTTP/1.1 compliance.
8968 - Use $ in some of the path pattern examples.
8969 - Use a hide-user-agent example argument without
8970 leading and trailing space.
8971 - Make it clear that the cookie actions work with
8973 - Rephrase the inspect-jpegs text to underline
8974 that it's only meant to protect against a single
8977 Revision 2.33 2007/07/27 10:57:35 hal9
8978 Add references for user-agent strings for hide-user-agenet
8980 Revision 2.32 2007/06/07 12:36:22 fabiankeil
8981 Apply Roland's 29_usermanual.dpatch to fix a bunch
8982 of syntax errors I collected over the last months.
8984 Revision 2.31 2007/06/02 14:01:37 fabiankeil
8985 Start to document forward-override{}.
8987 Revision 2.30 2007/04/25 15:10:36 fabiankeil
8988 - Describe installation for FreeBSD.
8989 - Start to document taggers and tag patterns.
8990 - Don't confuse devils and daemons.
8992 Revision 2.29 2007/04/05 11:47:51 fabiankeil
8993 Some updates regarding header filtering,
8994 handling of compressed content and redirect's
8995 support for pcrs commands.
8997 Revision 2.28 2006/12/10 23:42:48 hal9
8998 Fix various typos reported by Adam P. Thanks.
9000 Revision 2.27 2006/11/14 01:57:47 hal9
9001 Dump all docs prior to 3.0.6 release. Various minor changes to faq and user
9004 Revision 2.26 2006/10/24 11:16:44 hal9
9007 Revision 2.25 2006/10/18 10:50:33 hal9
9008 Add note that since filters are off in Cautious, compression is ON. Turn off
9009 compression to make filters work on all sites.
9011 Revision 2.24 2006/10/03 11:13:54 hal9
9012 More references to the new filters. Include html this time around.
9014 Revision 2.23 2006/10/02 22:43:53 hal9
9015 Contains new filter definitions from Fabian, and few other miscellaneous
9018 Revision 2.22 2006/09/22 01:27:55 hal9
9019 Final commit of probably various minor changes here and there. Unless
9020 something changes this should be ready for pending release.
9022 Revision 2.21 2006/09/20 03:21:36 david__schmidt
9023 Just the tiniest tweak. Wafer thin!
9025 Revision 2.20 2006/09/10 14:53:54 hal9
9026 Results of spell check. User manual has some updates to standard.actions file
9029 Revision 2.19 2006/09/08 12:19:02 fabiankeil
9030 Adjust hide-if-modified-since example values
9031 to reflect the recent changes.
9033 Revision 2.18 2006/09/08 02:38:57 hal9
9035 -Fix a number of broken links.
9036 -Migrate the new Windows service command line options, and reference as
9038 -Rebuild so that can be used with the new "user-manual" config capabilities.
9041 Revision 2.17 2006/09/05 13:25:12 david__schmidt
9042 Add Windows service invocation stuff (duplicated) in FAQ and in user manual under Windows startup. One probably ought to reference the other.
9044 Revision 2.16 2006/09/02 12:49:37 hal9
9045 Various small updates for new actions, filterfiles, etc.
9047 Revision 2.15 2006/08/30 11:15:22 hal9
9048 More work on the new actions, especially filter-*-headers, and What's New
9049 section. User Manual is close to final form for 3.0.4 release. Some tinkering
9050 and proof reading left to do.
9052 Revision 2.14 2006/08/29 10:59:36 hal9
9053 Add a "Whats New in this release" Section. Further work on multiple filter
9054 files, and assorted other minor changes.
9056 Revision 2.13 2006/08/22 11:04:59 hal9
9057 Silence warnings and errors. This should build now. New filters were only
9058 stubbed in. More to be done.
9060 Revision 2.12 2006/08/14 08:40:39 fabiankeil
9061 Documented new actions that were part of
9062 the "minor Privoxy improvements".
9064 Revision 2.11 2006/07/18 14:48:51 david__schmidt
9065 Reorganizing the repository: swapping out what was HEAD (the old 3.1 branch)
9066 with what was really the latest development (the v_3_0_branch branch)
9068 Revision 1.123.2.43 2005/05/23 09:59:10 hal9
9071 Revision 1.123.2.42 2004/12/04 14:39:57 hal9
9072 Fix two minor typos per bug SF report.
9074 Revision 1.123.2.41 2004/03/23 12:58:42 oes
9077 Revision 1.123.2.40 2004/02/27 12:48:49 hal9
9078 Add comment re: redirecting to local file system for set-image-blocker may
9079 is dependent on browser.
9081 Revision 1.123.2.39 2004/01/30 22:31:40 oes
9082 Added a hint re bookmarklets to Quickstart section
9084 Revision 1.123.2.38 2004/01/30 16:47:51 oes
9085 Some minor clarifications
9087 Revision 1.123.2.37 2004/01/29 22:36:11 hal9
9088 Updates for no longer filtering text/plain, and demoronizer default settings,
9089 and copyright notice dates.
9091 Revision 1.123.2.36 2003/12/10 02:26:26 hal9
9092 Changed the demoronizer filter description.
9094 Revision 1.123.2.35 2003/11/06 13:36:37 oes
9095 Updated link to nightly CVS tarball
9097 Revision 1.123.2.34 2003/06/26 23:50:16 hal9
9098 Add a small bit on filtering and problems re: source code being corrupted.
9100 Revision 1.123.2.33 2003/05/08 18:17:33 roro
9101 Use apt-get instead of dpkg to install Debian package, which is more
9102 solid, uses the correct and most recent Debian version automatically.
9104 Revision 1.123.2.32 2003/04/11 03:13:57 hal9
9105 Add small note about only one filterfile (as opposed to multiple actions
9108 Revision 1.123.2.31 2003/03/26 02:03:43 oes
9109 Updated hard-coded copyright dates
9111 Revision 1.123.2.30 2003/03/24 12:58:56 hal9
9112 Add new section on Predefined Filters.
9114 Revision 1.123.2.29 2003/03/20 02:45:29 hal9
9115 More problems with \-\-chroot causing markup problems :(
9117 Revision 1.123.2.28 2003/03/19 00:35:24 hal9
9118 Manual edit of revision log because 'chroot' (even inside a comment) was
9119 causing Docbook to hang here (due to double hyphen and the processor thinking
9122 Revision 1.123.2.27 2003/03/18 19:37:14 oes
9123 s/Advanced|Radical/Adventuresome/g to avoid complaints re fun filter
9125 Revision 1.123.2.26 2003/03/17 16:50:53 oes
9126 Added documentation for new chroot option
9128 Revision 1.123.2.25 2003/03/15 18:36:55 oes
9129 Adapted to the new filters
9131 Revision 1.123.2.24 2002/11/17 06:41:06 hal9
9132 Move default profiles table from FAQ to U-M, and other minor related changes.
9135 Revision 1.123.2.23 2002/10/21 02:32:01 hal9
9136 Updates to the user.action examples section. A few new ones.
9138 Revision 1.123.2.22 2002/10/12 00:51:53 hal9
9139 Add demoronizer to filter section.
9141 Revision 1.123.2.21 2002/10/10 04:09:35 hal9
9142 s/Advanced/Radical/ and added very brief note.
9144 Revision 1.123.2.20 2002/10/10 03:49:21 hal9
9145 Add notes to session-cookies-only and Quickstart about pre-existing
9146 cookies. Also, note content-cookies work differently.
9148 Revision 1.123.2.19 2002/09/26 01:25:36 hal9
9149 More explanation on Privoxy patterns, more on content-cookies and SSL.
9151 Revision 1.123.2.18 2002/08/22 23:47:58 hal9
9152 Add 'Documentation' to Privoxy Menu shot in Configuration section to match
9155 Revision 1.123.2.17 2002/08/18 01:13:05 hal9
9156 Spell checked (only one typo this time!).
9158 Revision 1.123.2.16 2002/08/09 19:20:54 david__schmidt
9159 Update to Mac OS X startup script name
9161 Revision 1.123.2.15 2002/08/07 17:32:11 oes
9162 Converted some internal links from ulink to link for PDF creation; no content changed
9164 Revision 1.123.2.14 2002/08/06 09:16:13 oes
9165 Nits re: actions file download
9167 Revision 1.123.2.13 2002/08/02 18:23:19 g_sauthoff
9168 Just 2 small corrections to the Gentoo sections
9170 Revision 1.123.2.12 2002/08/02 18:17:21 g_sauthoff
9171 Added 2 Gentoo sections
9173 Revision 1.123.2.11 2002/07/26 15:20:31 oes
9174 - Added version info to title
9175 - Added info on new filters
9176 - Revised parts of the filter file tutorial
9177 - Added info on where to get updated actions files
9179 Revision 1.123.2.10 2002/07/25 21:42:29 hal9
9180 Add brief notes on not proxying non-HTTP protocols.
9182 Revision 1.123.2.9 2002/07/11 03:40:28 david__schmidt
9184 Updated Mac OS X sections due to installation location change
9186 Revision 1.123.2.8 2002/06/09 16:36:32 hal9
9187 Clarifications on filtering and MIME. Hardcode 'latest release' in index.html.
9189 Revision 1.123.2.7 2002/06/09 00:29:34 hal9
9190 Touch ups on filtering, in actions section and Anatomy.
9192 Revision 1.123.2.6 2002/06/06 23:11:03 hal9
9193 Fix broken link. Linkchecked all docs.
9195 Revision 1.123.2.5 2002/05/29 02:01:02 hal9
9196 This is break out of the entire config section from u-m, so it can
9197 eventually be used to generate the comments, etc in the main config file
9198 so that these are in sync with each other.
9200 Revision 1.123.2.4 2002/05/27 03:28:45 hal9
9201 Ooops missed something from David.
9203 Revision 1.123.2.3 2002/05/27 03:23:17 hal9
9204 Fix FIXMEs for OS2 and Mac OS X startup. Fix Redhat typos (should be Red Hat).
9205 That's a wrap, I think.
9207 Revision 1.123.2.2 2002/05/26 19:02:09 hal9
9208 Move Amiga stuff around to take of FIXME in start up section.
9210 Revision 1.123.2.1 2002/05/26 17:04:25 hal9
9211 -Spellcheck, very minor edits, and sync across branches
9213 Revision 1.123 2002/05/24 23:19:23 hal9
9214 Include new image (Proxy setup). More fun with guibutton.
9215 Minor corrections/clarifications here and there.
9217 Revision 1.122 2002/05/24 13:24:08 oes
9218 Added Bookmarklet for one-click pre-filled access to show-url-info
9220 Revision 1.121 2002/05/23 23:20:17 oes
9221 - Changed more (all?) references to actions to the
9222 <literal><link> style.
9223 - Small fixes in the actions chapter
9224 - Small clarifications in the quickstart to ad blocking
9225 - Removed <emphasis> from <title>s since the new doc CSS
9226 renders them red (bad in TOC).
9228 Revision 1.120 2002/05/23 19:16:43 roro
9229 Correct Debian specials (installation and startup).
9231 Revision 1.119 2002/05/22 17:17:05 oes
9234 Revision 1.118 2002/05/21 04:54:55 hal9
9235 -New Section: Quickstart to Ad Blocking
9236 -Reformat Actions Anatomy to match new CGI layout
9238 Revision 1.117 2002/05/17 13:56:16 oes
9239 - Reworked & extended Templates chapter
9240 - Small changes to Regex appendix
9241 - #included authors.sgml into (C) and hist chapter
9243 Revision 1.116 2002/05/17 03:23:46 hal9
9244 Fixing merge conflict in Quickstart section.
9246 Revision 1.115 2002/05/16 16:25:00 oes
9247 Extended the Filter File chapter & minor fixes
9249 Revision 1.114 2002/05/16 09:42:50 oes
9250 More ulink->link, added some hints to Quickstart section
9252 Revision 1.113 2002/05/15 21:07:25 oes
9253 Extended and further commented the example actions files
9255 Revision 1.112 2002/05/15 03:57:14 hal9
9256 Spell check. A few minor edits here and there for better syntax and
9259 Revision 1.111 2002/05/14 23:01:36 oes
9262 Revision 1.110 2002/05/14 19:10:45 oes
9263 Restored alphabetical order of actions
9265 Revision 1.109 2002/05/14 17:23:11 oes
9266 Renamed the prevent-*-cookies actions, extended aliases section and moved it before the example AFs
9268 Revision 1.108 2002/05/14 15:29:12 oes
9269 Completed proofreading the actions chapter
9271 Revision 1.107 2002/05/12 03:20:41 hal9
9272 Small clarifications for 127.0.0.1 vs localhost for listen-address since this
9273 apparently an important distinction for some OS's.
9275 Revision 1.106 2002/05/10 01:48:20 hal9
9276 This is mostly proposed copyright/licensing additions and changes. Docs
9277 are still GPL, but licensing and copyright are more visible. Also, copyright
9278 changed in doc header comments (eliminate references to JB except FAQ).
9280 Revision 1.105 2002/05/05 20:26:02 hal9
9281 Sorting out license vs copyright in these docs.
9283 Revision 1.104 2002/05/04 08:44:45 swa
9286 Revision 1.103 2002/05/04 00:40:53 hal9
9287 -Remove the TOC first page kludge. It's fixed proper now in ldp.dsl.in.
9288 -Some minor additions to Quickstart.
9290 Revision 1.102 2002/05/03 17:46:00 oes
9291 Further proofread & reactivated short build instructions
9293 Revision 1.101 2002/05/03 03:58:30 hal9
9294 Move the user-manual config directive to top of section. Add note about
9295 Privoxy needing read permissions for configs, and write for logs.
9297 Revision 1.100 2002/04/29 03:05:55 hal9
9298 Add clarification on differences of new actions files.
9300 Revision 1.99 2002/04/28 16:59:05 swa
9301 more structure in starting section
9303 Revision 1.98 2002/04/28 05:43:59 hal9
9304 This is the break up of configuration.html into multiple files. This
9305 will probably break links elsewhere :(
9307 Revision 1.97 2002/04/27 21:04:42 hal9
9308 -Rewrite of Actions File example.
9309 -Add section for user-manual directive in config.
9311 Revision 1.96 2002/04/27 05:32:00 hal9
9312 -Add short section to Filter Files to tie in with +filter action.
9313 -Start rewrite of examples in Actions Examples (not finished).
9315 Revision 1.95 2002/04/26 17:23:29 swa
9316 bookmarks cleaned, changed structure of user manual, screen and programlisting cleanups, and numerous other changes that I forgot
9318 Revision 1.94 2002/04/26 05:24:36 hal9
9319 -Add most of Andreas suggestions to Chain of Events section.
9320 -A few other minor corrections and touch up.
9322 Revision 1.92 2002/04/25 18:55:13 hal9
9323 More catchups on new actions files, and new actions names.
9324 Other assorted cleanups, and minor modifications.
9326 Revision 1.91 2002/04/24 02:39:31 hal9
9327 Add 'Chain of Events' section.
9329 Revision 1.90 2002/04/23 21:41:25 hal9
9330 Linuxconf is deprecated on RH, substitute chkconfig.
9332 Revision 1.89 2002/04/23 21:05:28 oes
9333 Added hint for startup on Red Hat
9335 Revision 1.88 2002/04/23 05:37:54 hal9
9336 Add AmigaOS install stuff.
9338 Revision 1.87 2002/04/23 02:53:15 david__schmidt
9339 Updated Mac OS X installation section
9340 Added a few English tweaks here an there
9342 Revision 1.86 2002/04/21 01:46:32 hal9
9343 Re-write actions section.
9345 Revision 1.85 2002/04/18 21:23:23 hal9
9346 Fix ugly typo (mine).
9348 Revision 1.84 2002/04/18 21:17:13 hal9
9349 Spell Redhat correctly (ie Red Hat). A few minor grammar corrections.
9351 Revision 1.83 2002/04/18 18:21:12 oes
9352 Added RPM install detail
9354 Revision 1.82 2002/04/18 12:04:50 oes
9357 Revision 1.81 2002/04/18 11:50:24 oes
9358 Extended Install section - needs fixing by packagers
9360 Revision 1.80 2002/04/18 10:45:19 oes
9361 Moved text to buildsource.sgml, renamed some filters, details
9363 Revision 1.79 2002/04/18 03:18:06 hal9
9364 Spellcheck, and minor touchups.
9366 Revision 1.78 2002/04/17 18:04:16 oes
9369 Revision 1.77 2002/04/17 13:51:23 oes
9370 Proofreading, part one
9372 Revision 1.76 2002/04/16 04:25:51 hal9
9373 -Added 'Note to Upgraders' and re-ordered the 'Quickstart' section.
9374 -Note about proxy may need requests to re-read config files.
9376 Revision 1.75 2002/04/12 02:08:48 david__schmidt
9377 Remove OS/2 building info... it is already in the developer-manual
9379 Revision 1.74 2002/04/11 00:54:38 hal9
9380 Add small section on submitting actions.
9382 Revision 1.73 2002/04/10 18:45:15 swa
9385 Revision 1.72 2002/04/10 04:06:19 hal9
9386 Added actions feedback to Bookmarklets section
9388 Revision 1.71 2002/04/08 22:59:26 hal9
9389 Version update. Spell chkconfig correctly :)
9391 Revision 1.70 2002/04/08 20:53:56 swa
9394 Revision 1.69 2002/04/06 05:07:29 hal9
9395 -Add privoxy-man-page.sgml, for man page.
9396 -Add authors.sgml for AUTHORS (and p-authors.sgml)
9397 -Reworked various aspects of various docs.
9398 -Added additional comments to sub-docs.
9400 Revision 1.68 2002/04/04 18:46:47 swa
9401 consistent look. reuse of copyright, history et. al.
9403 Revision 1.67 2002/04/04 17:27:57 swa
9404 more single file to be included at multiple points. make maintaining easier
9406 Revision 1.66 2002/04/04 06:48:37 hal9
9407 Structural changes to allow for conditional inclusion/exclusion of content
9408 based on entity toggles, e.g. 'entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE"'. And
9409 definition of internal entities, e.g. 'entity p-version "2.9.13"' that will
9410 eventually be set by Makefile.
9411 More boilerplate text for use across multiple docs.
9413 Revision 1.65 2002/04/03 19:52:07 swa
9414 enhance squid section due to user suggestion
9416 Revision 1.64 2002/04/03 03:53:43 hal9
9417 A few minor bug fixes, and touch ups. Ready for review.
9419 Revision 1.63 2002/04/01 16:24:49 hal9
9420 Define entities to include boilerplate text. See doc/source/*.
9422 Revision 1.62 2002/03/30 04:15:53 hal9
9423 - Fix privoxy.org/config links.
9424 - Paste in Bookmarklets from Toggle page.
9425 - Move Quickstart nearer top, and minor rework.
9427 Revision 1.61 2002/03/29 01:31:08 hal9
9430 Revision 1.60 2002/03/27 01:57:34 hal9
9431 Added more to Anatomy section.
9433 Revision 1.59 2002/03/27 00:54:33 hal9
9434 Touch up intro for new name.
9436 Revision 1.58 2002/03/26 22:29:55 swa
9437 we have a new homepage!
9439 Revision 1.57 2002/03/24 20:33:30 hal9
9440 A few minor catch ups with name change.
9442 Revision 1.56 2002/03/24 16:17:06 swa
9443 configure needs to be generated.
9445 Revision 1.55 2002/03/24 16:08:08 swa
9446 we are too lazy to make a block-built
9447 privoxy logo. hence removed the option.
9449 Revision 1.54 2002/03/24 15:46:20 swa
9450 name change related issue.
9452 Revision 1.53 2002/03/24 11:51:00 swa
9453 name change. changed filenames.
9455 Revision 1.52 2002/03/24 11:01:06 swa
9458 Revision 1.51 2002/03/23 15:13:11 swa
9459 renamed every reference to the old name with foobar.
9460 fixed "application foobar application" tag, fixed
9461 "the foobar" with "foobar". left junkbustser in cvs
9462 comments and remarks to history untouched.
9464 Revision 1.50 2002/03/23 05:06:21 hal9
9467 Revision 1.49 2002/03/21 17:01:05 hal9
9468 New section in Appendix.
9470 Revision 1.48 2002/03/12 06:33:01 hal9
9471 Catching up to Andreas and re_filterfile changes.
9473 Revision 1.47 2002/03/11 13:13:27 swa
9474 correct feedback channels
9476 Revision 1.46 2002/03/10 00:51:08 hal9
9477 Added section on JB internal pages in Appendix.
9479 Revision 1.45 2002/03/09 17:43:53 swa
9482 Revision 1.44 2002/03/09 17:08:48 hal9
9483 New section on Jon's actions file editor, and move some stuff around.
9485 Revision 1.43 2002/03/08 00:47:32 hal9
9486 Added imageblock{pattern}.
9488 Revision 1.42 2002/03/07 18:16:55 swa
9491 Revision 1.41 2002/03/07 16:46:43 hal9
9492 Fix a few markup problems for jade.
9494 Revision 1.40 2002/03/07 16:28:39 swa
9495 provide correct feedback channels
9497 Revision 1.39 2002/03/06 16:19:28 hal9
9498 Note on perceived filtering slowdown per FR.
9500 Revision 1.38 2002/03/05 23:55:14 hal9
9501 Stupid I did it again. Double hyphen in comment breaks jade.
9503 Revision 1.37 2002/03/05 23:53:49 hal9
9504 jade barfs on '- -' embedded in comments. - -user option broke it.
9506 Revision 1.36 2002/03/05 22:53:28 hal9
9507 Add new - - user option.
9509 Revision 1.35 2002/03/05 00:17:27 hal9
9510 Added section on command line options.
9512 Revision 1.34 2002/03/04 19:32:07 oes
9513 Changed default port to 8118
9515 Revision 1.33 2002/03/03 19:46:13 hal9
9516 Emphasis on where/how to report bugs, etc
9518 Revision 1.32 2002/03/03 09:26:06 joergs
9519 AmigaOS changes, config is now loaded from PROGDIR: instead of
9520 AmiTCP:db/junkbuster/ if no configuration file is specified on the
9523 Revision 1.31 2002/03/02 22:45:52 david__schmidt
9526 Revision 1.30 2002/03/02 22:00:14 hal9
9527 Updated 'New Features' list. Ran through spell-checker.
9529 Revision 1.29 2002/03/02 20:34:07 david__schmidt
9530 Update OS/2 build section
9532 Revision 1.28 2002/02/24 14:34:24 jongfoster
9533 Formatting changes. Now changing the doctype to DocBook XML 4.1
9534 will work - no other changes are needed.
9536 Revision 1.27 2002/01/11 14:14:32 hal9
9537 Added a very short section on Templates
9539 Revision 1.26 2002/01/09 20:02:50 hal9
9540 Fix bug re: auto-detect config file changes.
9542 Revision 1.25 2002/01/09 18:20:30 hal9
9543 Touch ups for *.action files.
9545 Revision 1.24 2001/12/02 01:13:42 hal9
9548 Revision 1.23 2001/12/02 00:20:41 hal9
9549 Updates for recent changes.
9551 Revision 1.22 2001/11/05 23:57:51 hal9
9552 Minor update for startup now daemon mode.
9554 Revision 1.21 2001/10/31 21:11:03 hal9
9555 Correct 2 minor errors
9557 Revision 1.18 2001/10/24 18:45:26 hal9
9558 *** empty log message ***
9560 Revision 1.17 2001/10/24 17:10:55 hal9
9561 Catching up with Jon's recent work, and a few other things.
9563 Revision 1.16 2001/10/21 17:19:21 swa
9564 wrong url in documentation
9566 Revision 1.15 2001/10/14 23:46:24 hal9
9567 Various minor changes. Fleshed out SEE ALSO section.
9569 Revision 1.13 2001/10/10 17:28:33 hal9
9572 Revision 1.12 2001/09/28 02:57:04 hal9
9575 Revision 1.11 2001/09/28 02:25:20 hal9
9578 Revision 1.9 2001/09/27 23:50:29 hal9
9579 A few changes. A short section on regular expression in appendix.
9581 Revision 1.8 2001/09/25 00:34:59 hal9
9582 Some additions, and re-arranging.
9584 Revision 1.7 2001/09/24 14:31:36 hal9
9587 Revision 1.6 2001/09/24 14:10:32 hal9
9588 Including David's OS/2 installation instructions.
9590 Revision 1.2 2001/09/13 15:27:40 swa
9593 Revision 1.1 2001/09/12 15:36:41 swa
9594 source files for junkbuster documentation
9596 Revision 1.3 2001/09/10 17:43:59 swa
9597 first proposal of a structure.
9599 Revision 1.2 2001/06/13 14:28:31 swa
9600 docs should have an author.
9602 Revision 1.1 2001/06/13 14:20:37 swa
9603 first import of project's documentation for the webserver.