1 <!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook V3.1//EN" [
2 <!entity % dummy "IGNORE">
3 <!entity supported SYSTEM "supported.sgml">
4 <!entity newfeatures SYSTEM "newfeatures.sgml">
5 <!entity p-intro SYSTEM "privoxy.sgml">
6 <!entity seealso SYSTEM "seealso.sgml">
7 <!entity buildsource SYSTEM "buildsource.sgml">
8 <!entity contacting SYSTEM "contacting.sgml">
9 <!entity history SYSTEM "history.sgml">
10 <!entity copyright SYSTEM "copyright.sgml">
11 <!entity license SYSTEM "license.sgml">
12 <!entity p-authors SYSTEM "p-authors.sgml">
13 <!entity config SYSTEM "p-config.sgml">
14 <!entity p-version "3.0.7">
15 <!entity p-status "beta">
16 <!entity % p-authors-formal "INCLUDE"> <!-- include additional text, etc -->
17 <!entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE">
18 <!entity % p-stable "IGNORE">
19 <!entity % p-text "IGNORE"> <!-- define we are not a text only doc -->
20 <!entity % p-doc "INCLUDE"> <!-- and we are a formal doc -->
21 <!entity % p-readme "IGNORE">
22 <!entity % user-man "IGNORE">
23 <!entity % config-file "IGNORE">
24 <!entity % p-supp-userman "IGNORE"> <!-- Omit some from supported.sgml -->
25 <!entity my-copy "©"> <!-- kludge for docbook2man -->
26 <!entity % draft "IGNORE"> <!-- WIP stuff -->
27 <!entity my-app "<application>Privoxy</application>">
30 File : $Source: /cvsroot/ijbswa/current/doc/source/user-manual.sgml,v $
33 This file belongs into
34 ijbswa.sourceforge.net:/home/groups/i/ij/ijbswa/htdocs/
36 $Id: user-manual.sgml,v 2.48 2007/11/24 19:07:17 fabiankeil Exp $
38 Copyright (C) 2001-2007 Privoxy Developers http://www.privoxy.org/
41 ========================================================================
42 NOTE: Please read developer-manual/documentation.html before touching
43 anything in this, or other Privoxy documentation.
44 ========================================================================
51 <title>Privoxy &p-version; User Manual</title>
55 <!-- Completely the wrong markup, but very little is allowed -->
56 <!-- in this part of an article. FIXME -->
57 <link linkend="copyright">Copyright</link> &my-copy; 2001 - 2007 by
58 <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/">Privoxy Developers</ulink>
62 <pubdate>$Id: user-manual.sgml,v 2.48 2007/11/24 19:07:17 fabiankeil Exp $</pubdate>
66 Note: the following should generate a separate page, and a live link to it,
67 all nicely done. But it doesn't for some mysterious reason. Please leave
68 commented unless it can be fixed proper. For the time being, the
69 copyright/license declarations will be in their own sgml.
82 This is here to keep vim syntax file from breaking :/
83 If I knew enough to fix it, I would.
84 PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE! HB: hal@foobox.net
90 The <citetitle>Privoxy User Manual</citetitle> gives users information on how to
91 install, configure and use <ulink
92 url="http://www.privoxy.org/">Privoxy</ulink>.
95 <!-- Include privoxy.sgml boilerplate: -->
97 <!-- end privoxy.sgml -->
100 You can find the latest version of the <citetitle>Privoxy User Manual</citetitle> at <ulink
101 url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/">http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/</ulink>.
102 Please see the <link linkend="contact">Contact section</link> on how to
103 contact the developers.
107 <!-- Feel free to send a note to the developers at <email>ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net</email>. -->
113 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
114 <sect1 label="1" id="introduction"><title>Introduction</title>
116 This documentation is included with the current &p-status; version of
117 <application>Privoxy</application>, v.&p-version;<![%p-not-stable;[,
118 and is mostly complete at this point. The most up to date reference for the
119 time being is still the comments in the source files and in the individual
120 configuration files. Development of a new version is currently nearing
121 completion, and includes significant changes and enhancements over
122 earlier versions. ]]>.
125 <!-- include only in non-stable versions -->
128 Since this is a &p-status; version, not all new features are well tested. This
129 documentation may be slightly out of sync as a result (especially with
130 CVS sources). And there <emphasis>may be</emphasis> bugs, though hopefully
135 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
136 <sect2 id="features"><title>Features</title>
138 In addition to the core
139 features of ad blocking and
140 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookie</ulink> management,
141 <application>Privoxy</application> provides many supplemental
142 features<![%p-not-stable;[, some of them currently under development]]>,
143 that give the end-user more control, more privacy and more freedom:
145 <!-- Include newfeatures.sgml boilerplate here: -->
147 <!-- end boilerplate -->
152 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
155 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
156 <sect1 id="installation"><title>Installation</title>
159 <application>Privoxy</application> is available both in convenient pre-compiled
160 packages for a wide range of operating systems, and as raw source code.
161 For most users, we recommend using the packages, which can be downloaded from our
162 <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ijbswa/">Privoxy Project
168 On some platforms, the installer may remove previously installed versions, if
169 found. (See below for your platform). In any case <emphasis>be sure to backup
170 your old configuration if it is valuable to you.</emphasis> See the <link
171 linkend="upgradersnote">note to upgraders</link> section below.
174 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
175 <sect2 id="installation-packages"><title>Binary Packages</title>
177 How to install the binary packages depends on your operating system:
180 <!-- XXX: The installation sections should be sorted -->
182 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
183 <sect3 id="installation-pack-rpm"><title>Red Hat and Fedora RPMs</title>
186 RPMs can be installed with <literal>rpm -Uvh privoxy-&p-version;-1.rpm</literal>,
187 and will use <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> for the location
188 of configuration files.
192 Note that on Red Hat, <application>Privoxy</application> will
193 <emphasis>not</emphasis> be automatically started on system boot. You will
194 need to enable that using <command>chkconfig</command>,
195 <command>ntsysv</command>, or similar methods.
199 If you have problems with failed dependencies, try rebuilding the SRC RPM:
200 <literal>rpm --rebuild privoxy-&p-version;-1.src.rpm</literal>. This
201 will use your locally installed libraries and RPM version.
205 Also note that if you have a <application>Junkbuster</application> RPM installed
206 on your system, you need to remove it first, because the packages conflict.
207 Otherwise, RPM will try to remove <application>Junkbuster</application>
208 automatically if found, before installing <application>Privoxy</application>.
212 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
213 <sect3 id="installation-deb"><title>Debian and Ubuntu</title>
215 DEBs can be installed with <literal>apt-get install privoxy</literal>,
216 and will use <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> for the location of
221 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
222 <sect3 id="installation-pack-win"><title>Windows</title>
225 Just double-click the installer, which will guide you through
226 the installation process. You will find the configuration files
227 in the same directory as you installed <application>Privoxy</application> in.
230 Version 3.0.5 beta introduced full <application>Windows</application> service
231 functionality. On Windows only, the <application>Privoxy</application>
232 program has two new command line arguments to install and uninstall
233 <application>Privoxy</application> as a <emphasis>service</emphasis>.
237 <term>Arguments:</term>
240 <replaceable class="parameter">--install</replaceable>[:<replaceable class="parameter">service_name</replaceable>]
243 <replaceable class="parameter">--uninstall</replaceable>[:<replaceable class="parameter">service_name</replaceable>]
249 After invoking <application>Privoxy</application> with
250 <command>--install</command>, you will need to bring up the
251 <application>Windows</application> service console to assign the user you
252 want <application>Privoxy</application> to run under, and whether or not you
253 want it to run whenever the system starts. You can start the
254 <application>Windows</application> services console with the following
255 command: <command>services.msc</command>. If you do not take the manual step
256 of modifying <application>Privoxy's</application> service settings, it will
257 not start. Note too that you will need to give Privoxy a user account that
258 actually exists, or it will not be permitted to
259 write to its log and configuration files.
264 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
265 <sect3 id="installation-pack-bintgz"><title>Solaris <!--, NetBSD, HP-UX--></title>
268 Create a new directory, <literal>cd</literal> to it, then unzip and
269 untar the archive. For the most part, you'll have to figure out where
270 things go. <!-- FIXME, more info needed? -->
274 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
275 <sect3 id="installation-os2"><title>OS/2</title>
278 First, make sure that no previous installations of
279 <application>Junkbuster</application> and / or
280 <application>Privoxy</application> are left on your
281 system. Check that no <application>Junkbuster</application>
282 or <application>Privoxy</application> objects are in
288 Then, just double-click the WarpIN self-installing archive, which will
289 guide you through the installation process. A shadow of the
290 <application>Privoxy</application> executable will be placed in your
291 startup folder so it will start automatically whenever OS/2 starts.
295 The directory you choose to install <application>Privoxy</application>
296 into will contain all of the configuration files.
300 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
301 <sect3 id="installation-mac"><title>Mac OSX</title>
303 Unzip the downloaded file (you can either double-click on the file
304 from the finder, or from the desktop if you downloaded it there).
305 Then, double-click on the package installer icon named
306 <literal>Privoxy.pkg</literal>
307 and follow the installation process.
308 <application>Privoxy</application> will be installed in the folder
309 <literal>/Library/Privoxy</literal>.
310 It will start automatically whenever you start up. To prevent it from
311 starting automatically, remove or rename the folder
312 <literal>/Library/StartupItems/Privoxy</literal>.
315 To start Privoxy by hand, double-click on
316 <literal>StartPrivoxy.command</literal> in the
317 <literal>/Library/Privoxy</literal> folder.
318 Or, type this command in the Terminal:
322 /Library/Privoxy/StartPrivoxy.command
326 You will be prompted for the administrator password.
330 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
331 <sect3 id="installation-amiga"><title>AmigaOS</title>
333 Copy and then unpack the <filename>lha</filename> archive to a suitable location.
334 All necessary files will be installed into <application>Privoxy</application>
335 directory, including all configuration and log files. To uninstall, just
336 remove this directory.
340 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
341 <sect3 id="installation-tbz"><title>FreeBSD</title>
344 Privoxy is part of FreeBSD's Ports Collection, you can build and install
345 it with <literal>cd /usr/ports/www/privoxy; make install clean</literal>.
348 If you don't use the ports, you can fetch and install
349 the package with <literal>pkg_add -r privoxy</literal>.
352 The port skeleton and the package can also be downloaded from the
353 <ulink url="https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118">File Release
354 Page</ulink>, but there's no reason to use them unless you're interested in the
355 beta releases which are only available there.
359 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
360 <sect3 id="installattion-gentoo"><title>Gentoo</title>
362 Gentoo source packages (Ebuilds) for <application>Privoxy</application> are
363 contained in the Gentoo Portage Tree (they are not on the download page,
364 but there is a Gentoo section, where you can see when a new
365 <application>Privoxy</application> Version is added to the Portage Tree).
368 Before installing <application>Privoxy</application> under Gentoo just do
369 first <literal>emerge rsync</literal> to get the latest changes from the
370 Portage tree. With <literal>emerge privoxy</literal> you install the latest
374 Configuration files are in <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename>, the
375 documentation is in <filename>/usr/share/doc/privoxy-&p-version;</filename>
376 and the Log directory is in <filename>/var/log/privoxy</filename>.
382 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
383 <sect2 id="installation-source"><title>Building from Source</title>
386 The most convenient way to obtain the <application>Privoxy</application> sources
387 is to download the source tarball from our
388 <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118&package_id=10571">project download
393 If you like to live on the bleeding edge and are not afraid of using
394 possibly unstable development versions, you can check out the up-to-the-minute
395 version directly from <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/cvs/?group_id=11118">the
396 CVS repository</ulink>.
398 deprecated...out of business.
399 or simply download <ulink
400 url="http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cvstarballs/ijbswa-cvsroot.tar.bz2">the nightly CVS
405 <!-- include buildsource.sgml boilerplate: -->
407 <!-- end boilerplate -->
410 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
411 <sect2 id="installation-keepupdated"><title>Keeping your Installation Up-to-Date</title>
413 As user feedback comes in and development continues, we will make updated versions
414 of both the main <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link> (as a <ulink
415 url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118&release_id=103670">separate
416 package</ulink>) and the software itself (including the actions file) available for
421 If you wish to receive an email notification whenever we release updates of
422 <application>Privoxy</application> or the actions file, <ulink
423 url="http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ijbswa-announce/">subscribe
424 to our announce mailing list</ulink>, ijbswa-announce@lists.sourceforge.net.
428 In order not to lose your personal changes and adjustments when updating
429 to the latest <literal>default.action</literal> file we <emphasis>strongly
430 recommend</emphasis> that you use <literal>user.action</literal> and
431 <literal>user.filter</literal> for your local
432 customizations of <application>Privoxy</application>. See the <link
433 linkend="actions-file">Chapter on actions files</link> for details.
441 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
443 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
444 <sect1 id="whatsnew">
445 <title>What's New in this Release</title>
447 There are many improvements and new features since <application>Privoxy 3.0.6</application>, the last stable release:
454 Two new actions <link
455 linkend="server-header-tagger">server-header-tagger</link>
457 linkend="client-header-tagger">client-header-tagger</link>
458 that can be used to create arbitrary <quote>tags</quote>
459 based on client and server headers.
460 These <quote>tags</quote> can then subsequently be used
461 to control the other actions used for the current request,
462 greatly increasing &my-app;'s flexibility and selectivity. See <link
463 linkend="tag-pattern">tag patterns</link> for more information on tags.
469 Header filtering is done with dedicated header filters now. As a result
470 the actions <quote>filter-client-headers</quote> and <quote>filter-server-headers</quote>
471 that were introduced with <application>Privoxy 3.0.5</application> to apply
472 content filters to the headers have been removed.
473 See the new actions <link
474 linkend="server-header-filter">server-header-filter</link>
476 linkend="client-header-filter">client-header-filter</link> for details.
481 There are four new options for the main <filename>config</filename> file:
488 linkend="allow-cgi-request-crunching">allow-cgi-request-crunching</link>
489 which allows requests for Privoxy's internal CGI pages to be
490 blocked, redirected or (un)trusted like ordinary requests.
496 linkend="split-large-forms">split-large-forms</link>
497 that will work around a browser bug that caused IE6 and IE7 to
498 ignore the Submit button on the Privoxy's edit-actions-for-url CGI
505 linkend="accept-intercepted-requests">accept-intercepted-requests</link>
506 which allows to combine Privoxy with any packet filter to create an
507 intercepting proxy for HTTP/1.1 requests (and for HTTP/1.0 requests
508 with Host header set). This means clients can be forced to use
509 &my-app; even if their proxy settings are configured differently.
515 linkend="templdir">templdir</link>
516 to designate an alternate location for &my-app;'s
517 locally customized CGI templates so that
518 these are not overwritten during upgrades.
526 A new command line option <literal>--pre-chroot-nslookup hostname</literal> to
527 initialize the resolver library before chroot'ing. On some systems this
528 reduces the number of files that must be copied into the chroot tree.
529 (Patch provided by Stephen Gildea)
536 linkend="forward-override">forward-override</link> action
537 allows changing of the forwarding settings through the actions files.
538 Combined with tags, this allows to choose the forwarder based on
539 client headers like the <literal>User-Agent</literal>, or the request origin.
546 linkend="redirect">redirect</link> action can now use regular
547 expression substitutions against the original URL.
553 <application>zlib</application> support is now available as a compile
554 time option to filter compressed content. Patch provided by Wil Mahan.
559 Improve various filters, and add new ones.
566 Include support for RFC 3253 so that <filename>Subversion</filename> works
567 with &my-app;. Patch provided by Petr Kadlec.
573 Logging can be completely turned off by not specifying a logfile directive.
580 A number of improvements to Privoxy's internal CGI pages, including the
581 use of favicons for error and control pages.
587 Many bugfixes, memory leaks addressed, code improvements, and logging
593 <!-- pre-3.0.6 changes:
596 There are a number of new <link linkend="actions-file">actions</link>:
604 <literal><link linkend="content-type-overwrite">content-type-overwrite</link></literal>
609 <literal><link linkend="crunch-client-header">crunch-client-header</link></literal>
614 <literal><link linkend="crunch-if-none-match">crunch-if-none-match</link></literal>
619 <literal><link linkend="crunch-server-header">crunch-server-header</link></literal>
624 <literal><link linkend="filter-client-headers">filter-client-headers</link></literal>
629 <literal><link linkend="filter-server-headers">filter-server-headers</link></literal>
634 <literal><link linkend="force-text-mode">force-text-mode</link></literal>
639 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-empty-document">handle-as-empty-document</link></literal>
644 <literal><link linkend="hide-accept-language">hide-accept-language</link></literal>
649 <literal><link linkend="hide-content-disposition">hide-content-disposition</link></literal>
654 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hide-if-modified-since</link></literal>
659 <literal><link linkend="inspect-jpegs">inspect-jpegs</link></literal>
664 <literal><link linkend="overwrite-last-modified">overwrite-last-modified</link></literal>
669 <literal><link linkend="redirect">redirect</link></literal>
674 <literal><link linkend="treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks">treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks</link></literal>
681 In addition, <literal><link linkend="fast-redirects">fast-redirects</link></literal>
682 has been significantly improved with enhanced syntax.
685 And <literal><link linkend="hide-referrer">hide-referrer</link></literal>
686 has a new option, <literal>conditional block</literal>.
693 <application>MS-Windows</application> versions can now be
695 linkend="installation-pack-win">installed and
696 started as a <emphasis>Windows service</emphasis></link>.
702 <filename>config</filename> has two new options:
704 linkend="enable-remote-http-toggle">enable-remote-http-toggle</link>,
706 linkend="forwarded-connect-retries">forwarded-connect-retries</link>.
709 And there is improved handling of the <link
710 linkend="user-manual">user-manual</link>
711 option, for placing documentation and help files on the local system.
717 There are six new <link linkend="FILTER">filters</link>.
723 Actions files problems and suggestions are now being directed to:
724 <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=11118&atid=460288">http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=11118&atid=460288</ulink>.
725 Please use this to report such configuration related problems as missed
726 ads, sites that don't function properly due to one action or another,
727 innocent images being blocked, etc.
733 In addition, there are numerous bug fixes and significant enhancements,
734 including error pages should no longer be cached if the problem is fixed,
735 much better DNS error handling, various logging improvements, and
736 configuration updates for better ad blocking and junk elimination.
744 For a more detailed list of changes please have a look at the ChangeLog.
747 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
749 <sect2 id="upgradersnote">
750 <title>Note to Upgraders</title>
753 A quick list of things to be aware of before upgrading from earlier
754 versions of <application>Privoxy</application>:
762 The recommended way to upgrade &my-app; is to backup your old
763 configuration files, install the new ones, verify that &my-app;
764 is working correctly and finally merge back your changes using
765 <application>diff</application> and maybe <application>patch</application>.
768 There are a number of new features in each &my-app; release and
769 most of them have to be explicitly enabled in the configuration
770 files. Old configuration files obviously don't do that and due
771 to syntax changes using old configuration files with a new
772 &my-app; isn't always possible anyway.
777 Note that some installers remove earlier versions completely,
778 including configuration files, therefore you should really save
779 any important configuration files!
784 On the other hand, other installers don't overwrite existing configuration
785 files, thinking you will want to do that yourself.
790 <filename>standard.action</filename> now only includes the enabled actions.
791 Not all actions as before.
796 Logging is off by default now. If you need logging, it can be turned on
797 in the <link linkend="logfile">config file</link>. You may also want
798 to enable logging until you verified that the new &my-app; version
799 is working as expected.
805 Three other config file settings are now off by default:
806 <link linkend="enable-remote-toggle">enable-remote-toggle</link>,
807 <link linkend="enable-remote-http-toggle">enable-remote-http-toggle</link>,
808 and <link linkend="enable-edit-actions">enable-edit-actions</link>.
809 If you use or want these, you will need to explicitly enable them, and
810 be aware of the security issues involved.
816 The <quote>filter-client-headers</quote> and
817 <quote>filter-server-headers</quote> actions that were introduced with
818 <application>Privoxy 3.0.5</application> to apply content filters to
819 the headers have been removed and replaced with new actions.
821 linkend="whatsnew">What's New section</link> above.
829 What constitutes a <quote>default</quote> configuration has changed,
830 and you may want to review which actions are <quote>on</quote> by
831 default. This is primarily a matter of emphasis, but some features
832 you may have been used to, may now be <quote>off</quote> by default.
833 There are also a number of new actions and filters you may want to
834 consider, most of which are not fully incorporated into the default
835 settings as yet (see above).
842 The default actions setting is now <literal>Cautious</literal>. Previous
843 releases had a default setting of <literal>Medium</literal>. Experienced
844 users may want to adjust this, as it is fairly conservative by &my-app;
845 standards and past practices. See <ulink
846 url="http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions-list?f=default">
847 http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions-list?f=default</ulink>. New users
848 should try the default settings for a while before turning up the volume.
854 The default setting has filtering turned <emphasis>off</emphasis>, which
855 subsequently means that compression is <emphasis>on</emphasis>. Remember
856 that filtering does not work on compressed pages, so if you use, or want to
857 use, filtering, you will need to force compression off. Example:
861 { +<link linkend="filter">filter</link>{google} +<link linkend="prevent-compression">prevent-compression</link> }
865 Or if you use a number of filters, or filter many sites, you may just want
866 to turn off compression for all sites in
867 <filename>default.action</filename> (or
868 <filename>user.action</filename>).
875 Also, <link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> is
876 off by default now. If you've liked this feature in the past, you may want
877 to turn it back on in <filename>user.action</filename> now.
884 Some installers may not automatically start
885 <application>Privoxy</application> after installation.
896 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
897 <sect1 id="quickstart"><title>Quickstart to Using Privoxy</title>
903 Install <application>Privoxy</application>. See the <link
904 linkend="installation">Installation Section</link> below for platform specific
911 Advanced users and those who want to offer <application>Privoxy</application>
912 service to more than just their local machine should check the <link
913 linkend="config">main config file</link>, especially the <link
914 linkend="access-control">security-relevant</link> options. These are
921 Start <application>Privoxy</application>, if the installation program has
922 not done this already (may vary according to platform). See the section
923 <link linkend="startup">Starting <application>Privoxy</application></link>.
929 Set your browser to use <application>Privoxy</application> as HTTP and
930 HTTPS (SSL) <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_server">proxy</ulink>
931 by setting the proxy configuration for address of
932 <literal>127.0.0.1</literal> and port <literal>8118</literal>.
933 <emphasis>DO NOT</emphasis> activate proxying for <literal>FTP</literal> or
934 any protocols besides HTTP and HTTPS (SSL) unless you intend to prevent your
935 browser from using these protocols.
941 Flush your browser's disk and memory caches, to remove any cached ad images.
942 If using <application>Privoxy</application> to manage
943 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>,
944 you should remove any currently stored cookies too.
950 A default installation should provide a reasonable starting point for
951 most. There will undoubtedly be occasions where you will want to adjust the
952 configuration, but that can be dealt with as the need arises. Little
953 to no initial configuration is required in most cases, you may want
955 <ulink url="config.html#ENABLE-EDIT-ACTIONS">web-based action editor</ulink> though.
956 Be sure to read the warnings first.
959 See the <link linkend="configuration">Configuration section</link> for more
960 configuration options, and how to customize your installation.
961 You might also want to look at the <link
962 linkend="quickstart-ad-blocking">next section</link> for a quick
963 introduction to how <application>Privoxy</application> blocks ads and
970 If you experience ads that slip through, innocent images that are
971 blocked, or otherwise feel the need to fine-tune
972 <application>Privoxy's</application> behavior, take a look at the <link
973 linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>. As a quick start, you might
974 find the <link linkend="act-examples">richly commented examples</link>
975 helpful. You can also view and edit the actions files through the <ulink
976 url="http://config.privoxy.org">web-based user interface</ulink>. The
977 Appendix <quote><link linkend="actionsanat">Troubleshooting: Anatomy of an
978 Action</link></quote> has hints on how to understand and debug actions that
979 <quote>misbehave</quote>.
984 Did anyone test these lately?
988 For easy access to &my-app;'s most important controls, drag the provided
989 <link linkend="bookmarklets">Bookmarklets</link> into your browser's
997 Please see the section <link linkend="contact">Contacting the
998 Developers</link> on how to report bugs, problems with websites or to get
1005 Now enjoy surfing with enhanced control, comfort and privacy!
1013 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1015 <sect2 id="quickstart-ad-blocking">
1016 <title>Quickstart to Ad Blocking</title>
1018 NOTE: This section is deliberately redundant for those that don't
1019 want to read the whole thing (which is getting lengthy).
1022 Ad blocking is but one of <application>Privoxy's</application>
1023 array of features. Many of these features are for the technically minded advanced
1024 user. But, ad and banner blocking is surely common ground for everybody.
1027 This section will provide a quick summary of ad blocking so
1028 you can get up to speed quickly without having to read the more extensive
1029 information provided below, though this is highly recommended.
1032 First a bit of a warning ... blocking ads is much like blocking SPAM: the
1033 more aggressive you are about it, the more likely you are to block
1034 things that were not intended. And the more likely that some things
1035 may not work as intended. So there is a trade off here. If you want
1036 extreme ad free browsing, be prepared to deal with more
1037 <quote>problem</quote> sites, and to spend more time adjusting the
1038 configuration to solve these unintended consequences. In short, there is
1039 not an easy way to eliminate <emphasis>all</emphasis> ads. Either take
1040 the easy way and settle for <emphasis>most</emphasis> ads blocked with the
1041 default configuration, or jump in and tweak it for your personal surfing
1042 habits and preferences.
1045 Secondly, a brief explanation of <application>Privoxy's </application>
1046 <quote>actions</quote>. <quote>Actions</quote> in this context, are
1047 the directives we use to tell <application>Privoxy</application> to perform
1048 some task relating to HTTP transactions (i.e. web browsing). We tell
1049 <application>Privoxy</application> to take some <quote>action</quote>. Each
1050 action has a unique name and function. While there are many potential
1051 <application>actions</application> in <application>Privoxy's</application>
1052 arsenal, only a few are used for ad blocking. <link
1053 linkend="actions">Actions</link>, and <link linkend="actions-file">action
1054 configuration files</link>, are explained in depth below.
1057 Actions are specified in <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration,
1058 followed by one or more URLs to which the action should apply. URLs
1059 can actually be URL type <link linkend="af-patterns">patterns</link> that use
1060 wildcards so they can apply potentially to a range of similar URLs. The
1061 actions, together with the URL patterns are called a section.
1064 When you connect to a website, the full URL will either match one or more
1065 of the sections as defined in <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration,
1066 or not. If so, then <application>Privoxy</application> will perform the
1067 respective actions. If not, then nothing special happens. Furthermore, web
1068 pages may contain embedded, secondary URLs that your web browser will
1069 use to load additional components of the page, as it parses the
1070 original page's HTML content. An ad image for instance, is just an URL
1071 embedded in the page somewhere. The image itself may be on the same server,
1072 or a server somewhere else on the Internet. Complex web pages will have many
1073 such embedded URLs. &my-app; can deal with each URL individually, so, for
1074 instance, the main page text is not touched, but images from such-and-such
1079 The most important actions for basic ad blocking are: <literal><link
1080 linkend="block">block</link></literal>, <literal><link
1081 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>,
1083 linkend="handle-as-empty-document">handle-as-empty-document</link></literal>,and
1084 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>:
1092 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> - this is perhaps
1093 the single most used action, and is particularly important for ad blocking.
1094 This action stops any contact between your browser and any URL patterns
1095 that match this action's configuration. It can be used for blocking ads,
1096 but also anything that is determined to be unwanted. By itself, it simply
1097 stops any communication with the remote server and sends
1098 <application>Privoxy</application>'s own built-in BLOCKED page instead to
1099 let you now what has happened (with some exceptions, see below).
1105 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> -
1106 tells <application>Privoxy</application> to treat this URL as an image.
1107 <application>Privoxy</application>'s default configuration already does this
1108 for all common image types (e.g. GIF), but there are many situations where this
1109 is not so easy to determine. So we'll force it in these cases. This is particularly
1110 important for ad blocking, since only if we know that it's an image of
1111 some kind, can we replace it with an image of our choosing, instead of the
1112 <application>Privoxy</application> BLOCKED page (which would only result in
1113 a <quote>broken image</quote> icon). There are some limitations to this
1114 though. For instance, you can't just brute-force an image substitution for
1115 an entire HTML page in most situations.
1121 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-empty-document">handle-as-empty-document</link></literal> -
1122 sends an empty document instead of <application>Privoxy's</application>
1123 normal BLOCKED HTML page. This is useful for file types that are neither
1124 HTML nor images, such as blocking JavaScript files.
1131 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal> - tells
1132 <application>Privoxy</application> what to display in place of an ad image that
1133 has hit a block rule. For this to come into play, the URL must match a
1134 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action somewhere in the
1135 configuration, <emphasis>and</emphasis>, it must also match an
1136 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> action.
1139 The configuration options on what to display instead of the ad are:
1143 <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> - a checkerboard pattern, so that an ad
1144 replacement is obvious. This is the default.
1149 <emphasis>blank</emphasis> - A very small empty GIF image is displayed.
1150 This is the so-called <quote>invisible</quote> configuration option.
1155 <emphasis>http://<URL></emphasis> - A redirect to any image anywhere
1156 of the user's choosing (advanced usage).
1165 Advanced users will eventually want to explore &my-app;
1166 <literal><link linkend="filter">filters</link></literal> as well. Filters
1167 are very different from <literal><link
1168 linkend="block">blocks</link></literal>.
1169 A <quote>block</quote> blocks a site, page, or unwanted contented. Filters
1170 are a way of filtering or modifying what is actually on the page. An example
1171 filter usage: a text replacement of <quote>no-no</quote> for
1172 <quote>nasty-word</quote>. That is a very simple example. This process can be
1173 used for ad blocking, but it is more in the realm of advanced usage and has
1174 some pitfalls to be wary off.
1178 The quickest way to adjust any of these settings is with your browser through
1179 the special <application>Privoxy</application> editor at <ulink
1180 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
1181 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/show-status</ulink>). This
1182 is an internal page, and does not require Internet access.
1186 Note that as of <application>Privoxy</application> 3.0.7 beta the
1187 action editor is disabled by default. Check the
1188 <ulink url="config.html#ENABLE-EDIT-ACTIONS">enable-edit-actions
1189 section in the configuration file</ulink> to learn why and in which
1190 cases it's safe to enable again.
1194 If you decided to enable the action editor, select the appropriate
1195 <quote>actions</quote> file, and click
1196 <quote><guibutton>Edit</guibutton></quote>. It is best to put personal or
1197 local preferences in <filename>user.action</filename> since this is not
1198 meant to be overwritten during upgrades, and will over-ride the settings in
1199 other files. Here you can insert new <quote>actions</quote>, and URLs for ad
1200 blocking or other purposes, and make other adjustments to the configuration.
1201 <application>Privoxy</application> will detect these changes automatically.
1205 A quick and simple step by step example:
1213 Right click on the ad image to be blocked, then select
1214 <quote><guimenuitem>Copy Link Location</guimenuitem></quote> from the
1222 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
1227 Find <filename>user.action</filename> in the top section, and click
1228 on <quote><guibutton>Edit</guibutton></quote>:
1231 <!-- image of editor and actions files selections -->
1233 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Actions Files in Use</title>
1236 <imagedata fileref="files-in-use.jpg" format="jpg">
1239 <phrase>[ Screenshot of Actions Files in Use ]</phrase>
1248 You should have a section with only
1249 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> listed under
1250 <quote>Actions:</quote>.
1251 If not, click a <quote><guibutton>Insert new section below</guibutton></quote>
1252 button, and in the new section that just appeared, click the
1253 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> button right under the word <quote>Actions:</quote>.
1254 This will bring up a list of all actions. Find
1255 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> near the top, and click
1256 in the <quote>Enabled</quote> column, then <quote><guibutton>Submit</guibutton></quote>
1257 just below the list.
1262 Now, in the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> actions section,
1263 click the <quote><guibutton>Add</guibutton></quote> button, and paste the URL the
1264 browser got from <quote><guimenuitem>Copy Link Location</guimenuitem></quote>.
1265 Remove the <literal>http://</literal> at the beginning of the URL. Then, click
1266 <quote><guibutton>Submit</guibutton></quote> (or
1267 <quote><guibutton>OK</guibutton></quote> if in a pop-up window).
1272 Now go back to the original page, and press <keycap>SHIFT-Reload</keycap>
1273 (or flush all browser caches). The image should be gone now.
1281 This is a very crude and simple example. There might be good reasons to use a
1282 wildcard pattern match to include potentially similar images from the same
1283 site. For a more extensive explanation of <quote>patterns</quote>, and
1284 the entire actions concept, see <link linkend="actions-file">the Actions
1289 For advanced users who want to hand edit their config files, you might want
1290 to now go to the <link linkend="act-examples">Actions Files Tutorial</link>.
1291 The ideas explained therein also apply to the web-based editor.
1294 There are also various
1295 <link linkend="filter">filters</link> that can be used for ad blocking
1296 (filters are a special subset of actions). These
1297 fall into the <quote>advanced</quote> usage category, and are explained in
1298 depth in later sections.
1305 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1308 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1309 <sect1 id="startup">
1310 <title>Starting Privoxy</title>
1312 Before launching <application>Privoxy</application> for the first time, you
1313 will want to configure your browser(s) to use
1314 <application>Privoxy</application> as a HTTP and HTTPS (SSL)
1315 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_server">proxy</ulink>. The default is
1316 127.0.0.1 (or localhost) for the proxy address, and port 8118 (earlier versions
1317 used port 8000). This is the one configuration step <emphasis>that must be done
1321 Please note that <application>Privoxy</application> can only proxy HTTP and
1322 HTTPS traffic. It will not work with FTP or other protocols.
1325 <!-- image of Mozilla Proxy configuration -->
1327 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Proxy Configuration Showing
1328 Mozilla/Netscape HTTP and HTTPS (SSL) Settings</title>
1331 <imagedata fileref="proxy_setup.jpg" format="jpg">
1334 <phrase>[ Screenshot of Mozilla Proxy Configuration ]</phrase>
1342 With <application>Firefox</application>, this is typically set under:
1346 <guibutton>Tools</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Options</guibutton> -> <guibutton>General</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Connection Settings</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Manual Proxy Configuration</guibutton>
1351 Or optionally on some platforms:
1355 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Preferences</guibutton> -> <guibutton>General</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Connection Settings</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Manual Proxy Configuration</guibutton>
1361 With <application>Netscape</application> (and
1362 <application>Mozilla</application>), this can be set under:
1367 <!-- Mix ascii and gui art, something for everybody -->
1368 <!-- spacing on this is tricky -->
1369 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Preferences</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Advanced</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Proxies</guibutton> -> <guibutton>HTTP Proxy</guibutton>
1374 For <application>Internet Explorer v.5-6</application>:
1378 <guibutton>Tools</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Internet Options</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Connections</guibutton> -> <guibutton>LAN Settings</guibutton>
1382 Then, check <quote>Use Proxy</quote> and fill in the appropriate info
1383 (Address: 127.0.0.1, Port: 8118). Include HTTPS (SSL), if you want HTTPS
1384 proxy support too (sometimes labeled <quote>Secure</quote>). Make sure any
1385 checkboxes like <quote>Use the same proxy server for all protocols</quote> is
1386 <emphasis>UNCHECKED</emphasis>. You want only HTTP and HTTPS (SSL)!
1389 <!-- image of IE Proxy configuration -->
1391 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Proxy Configuration Showing
1392 Internet Explorer HTTP and HTTPS (Secure) Settings</title>
1395 <imagedata fileref="proxy2.jpg" format="jpg">
1398 <phrase>[ Screenshot of IE Proxy Configuration ]</phrase>
1406 After doing this, flush your browser's disk and memory caches to force a
1407 re-reading of all pages and to get rid of any ads that may be cached. Remove
1408 any <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>,
1409 if you want <application>Privoxy</application> to manage that. You are now
1410 ready to start enjoying the benefits of using
1411 <application>Privoxy</application>!
1415 <application>Privoxy</application> itself is typically started by specifying the
1416 main configuration file to be used on the command line. If no configuration
1417 file is specified on the command line, <application>Privoxy</application>
1418 will look for a file named <filename>config</filename> in the current
1419 directory. Except on Win32 where it will try <filename>config.txt</filename>.
1422 <sect2 id="start-redhat">
1423 <title>Red Hat and Fedora</title>
1425 A default Red Hat installation may not start &my-app; upon boot. It will use
1426 the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename> as its main configuration
1431 # /etc/rc.d/init.d/privoxy start
1439 # service privoxy start
1444 <sect2 id="start-debian">
1445 <title>Debian</title>
1447 We use a script. Note that Debian typically starts &my-app; upon booting per
1448 default. It will use the file
1449 <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename> as its main configuration
1454 # /etc/init.d/privoxy start
1460 omitting 10/31/06 HB
1462 <sect2 id="start-suse">
1465 We use a script. It will use the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename>
1466 as its main configuration file. Note that SuSE starts Privoxy upon booting
1476 <sect2 id="start-windows">
1477 <title>Windows</title>
1479 Click on the &my-app; Icon to start <application>Privoxy</application>. If no configuration file is
1480 specified on the command line, <application>Privoxy</application> will look
1481 for a file named <filename>config.txt</filename>. Note that Windows will
1482 automatically start &my-app; when the system starts if you chose that option
1486 <application>Privoxy</application> can run with full Windows service functionality.
1487 On Windows only, the &my-app; program has two new command line arguments
1488 to install and uninstall &my-app; as a service. See the
1489 <link linkend="installation-pack-win">Windows Installation
1490 instructions</link> for details.
1494 <sect2 id="start-unices">
1495 <title>Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD, HP-UX and others</title>
1497 Example Unix startup command:
1501 # /usr/sbin/privoxy /etc/privoxy/config
1506 <sect2 id="start-os2">
1509 During installation, <application>Privoxy</application> is configured to
1510 start automatically when the system restarts. You can start it manually by
1511 double-clicking on the <application>Privoxy</application> icon in the
1512 <application>Privoxy</application> folder.
1516 <sect2 id="start-macosx">
1517 <title>Mac OSX</title>
1519 During installation, <application>Privoxy</application> is configured to
1520 start automatically when the system restarts. To start &my-app; manually,
1521 double-click on the <literal>StartPrivoxy.command</literal> icon in the
1522 <literal>/Library/Privoxy</literal> folder. Or, type this command
1527 /Library/Privoxy/StartPrivoxy.command
1531 You will be prompted for the administrator password.
1536 <sect2 id="start-amigaos">
1537 <title>AmigaOS</title>
1539 Start <application>Privoxy</application> (with RUN <>NIL:) in your
1540 <filename>startnet</filename> script (AmiTCP), in
1541 <filename>s:user-startup</filename> (RoadShow), as startup program in your
1542 startup script (Genesis), or as startup action (Miami and MiamiDx).
1543 <application>Privoxy</application> will automatically quit when you quit your
1544 TCP/IP stack (just ignore the harmless warning your TCP/IP stack may display that
1545 <application>Privoxy</application> is still running).
1549 <sect2 id="start-gentoo">
1550 <title>Gentoo</title>
1552 A script is again used. It will use the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config
1553 </filename> as its main configuration file.
1557 /etc/init.d/privoxy start
1561 Note that <application>Privoxy</application> is not automatically started at
1562 boot time by default. You can change this with the <literal>rc-update</literal>
1567 rc-update add privoxy default
1575 See the section <link linkend="cmdoptions">Command line options</link> for
1579 must find a better place for this paragraph
1582 The included default configuration files should give a reasonable starting
1583 point. Most of the per site configuration is done in the
1584 <ulink url="actions-file.html"><quote>actions</quote></ulink> files. These are
1585 where various cookie actions are defined, ad and banner blocking, and other
1586 aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. There are several
1587 such files included, with varying levels of aggressiveness.
1591 You will probably want to keep an eye out for sites for which you may prefer
1592 persistent cookies, and add these to your actions configuration as needed. By
1593 default, most of these will be accepted only during the current browser
1594 session (aka <quote>session cookies</quote>), unless you add them to the
1595 configuration. If you want the browser to handle this instead, you will need
1596 to edit <filename>user.action</filename> (or through the web based interface)
1597 and disable this feature. If you use more than one browser, it would make
1598 more sense to let <application>Privoxy</application> handle this. In which
1599 case, the browser(s) should be set to accept all cookies.
1603 Another feature where you will probably want to define exceptions for trusted
1604 sites is the popup-killing (through the <ulink
1605 url="actions-file.html#KILL-POPUPS"><quote>+kill-popups</quote></ulink> and
1607 url="actions-file.html#FILTER-POPUPS"><quote>+filter{popups}</quote></ulink>
1608 actions), because your favorite shopping, banking, or leisure site may need
1609 popups (explained below).
1613 <application>Privoxy</application> does not support all of the optional HTTP/1.1
1614 features yet. In the unlikely event that you experience inexplicable problems
1615 with browsers that use HTTP/1.1 per default
1616 (like <application>Mozilla</application> or recent versions of I.E.), you might
1617 try to force HTTP/1.0 compatibility. For Mozilla, look under <literal>Edit ->
1618 Preferences -> Debug -> Networking</literal>.
1619 Alternatively, set the <quote>+downgrade-http-version</quote> config option in
1620 <filename>default.action</filename> which will downgrade your browser's HTTP
1621 requests from HTTP/1.1 to HTTP/1.0 before processing them.
1625 After running <application>Privoxy</application> for a while, you can
1626 start to fine tune the configuration to suit your personal, or site,
1627 preferences and requirements. There are many, many aspects that can
1628 be customized. <quote>Actions</quote>
1629 can be adjusted by pointing your browser to
1630 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
1631 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
1632 and then follow the link to <quote>View & Change the Current Configuration</quote>.
1633 (This is an internal page and does not require Internet access.)
1637 In fact, various aspects of <application>Privoxy</application>
1638 configuration can be viewed from this page, including
1639 current configuration parameters, source code version numbers,
1640 the browser's request headers, and <quote>actions</quote> that apply
1641 to a given URL. In addition to the actions file
1642 editor mentioned above, <application>Privoxy</application> can also
1643 be turned <quote>on</quote> and <quote>off</quote> (toggled) from this page.
1647 If you encounter problems, try loading the page without
1648 <application>Privoxy</application>. If that helps, enter the URL where
1649 you have the problems into <ulink url="http://p.p/show-url-info">the browser
1650 based rule tracing utility</ulink>. See which rules apply and why, and
1651 then try turning them off for that site one after the other, until the problem
1652 is gone. When you have found the culprit, you might want to turn the rest on
1657 If the above paragraph sounds gibberish to you, you might want to <link
1658 linkend="actions-file">read more about the actions concept</link>
1659 or even dive deep into the <link linkend="actionsanat">Appendix
1664 If you can't get rid of the problem at all, think you've found a bug in
1665 Privoxy, want to propose a new feature or smarter rules, please see the
1666 section <link linkend="contact"><quote>Contacting the
1667 Developers</quote></link> below.
1672 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1673 <sect2 id="cmdoptions">
1674 <title>Command Line Options</title>
1676 <application>Privoxy</application> may be invoked with the following
1677 command-line options:
1685 <emphasis>--version</emphasis>
1688 Print version info and exit. Unix only.
1693 <emphasis>--help</emphasis>
1696 Print short usage info and exit. Unix only.
1701 <emphasis>--no-daemon</emphasis>
1704 Don't become a daemon, i.e. don't fork and become process group
1705 leader, and don't detach from controlling tty. Unix only.
1710 <emphasis>--pidfile FILE</emphasis>
1713 On startup, write the process ID to <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>. Delete the
1714 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> on exit. Failure to create or delete the
1715 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> is non-fatal. If no <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>
1716 option is given, no PID file will be used. Unix only.
1721 <emphasis>--user USER[.GROUP]</emphasis>
1724 After (optionally) writing the PID file, assume the user ID of
1725 <emphasis>USER</emphasis>, and if included the GID of GROUP. Exit if the
1726 privileges are not sufficient to do so. Unix only.
1731 <emphasis>--chroot</emphasis>
1734 Before changing to the user ID given in the <emphasis>--user</emphasis> option,
1735 chroot to that user's home directory, i.e. make the kernel pretend to the &my-app;
1736 process that the directory tree starts there. If set up carefully, this can limit
1737 the impact of possible vulnerabilities in &my-app; to the files contained in that hierarchy.
1743 <emphasis>--pre-chroot-nslookup hostname</emphasis>
1746 Specifies a hostname to look up before doing a chroot. On some systems, initializing the
1747 resolver library involves reading config files from /etc and/or loading additional shared
1748 libraries from /lib. On these systems, doing a hostname lookup before the chroot reduces
1749 the number of files that must be copied into the chroot tree.
1752 For fastest startup speed, a good value is a hostname that is not in /etc/hosts but that
1753 your local name server (listed in /etc/resolv.conf) can resolve without recursion
1754 (that is, without having to ask any other name servers). The hostname need not exist,
1755 but if it doesn't, an error message (which can be ignored) will be output.
1761 <emphasis>configfile</emphasis>
1764 If no <emphasis>configfile</emphasis> is included on the command line,
1765 <application>Privoxy</application> will look for a file named
1766 <quote>config</quote> in the current directory (except on Win32
1767 where it will look for <quote>config.txt</quote> instead). Specify
1768 full path to avoid confusion. If no config file is found,
1769 <application>Privoxy</application> will fail to start.
1777 On <application>MS Windows</application> only there are two additional
1778 command-line options to allow <application>Privoxy</application> to install and
1779 run as a <emphasis>service</emphasis>. See the
1780 <link linkend="installation-pack-win">Window Installation section</link>
1788 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1791 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1792 <sect1 id="configuration"><title>Privoxy Configuration</title>
1794 All <application>Privoxy</application> configuration is stored
1795 in text files. These files can be edited with a text editor.
1796 Many important aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> can
1797 also be controlled easily with a web browser.
1801 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1804 <title>Controlling Privoxy with Your Web Browser</title>
1806 <application>Privoxy</application>'s user interface can be reached through the special
1807 URL <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
1808 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
1809 which is a built-in page and works without Internet access.
1810 You will see the following section:
1814 <!-- Needs to be put in a table and colorized -->
1817 <bridgehead renderas="sect2"> Privoxy Menu</bridgehead>
1821 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">View & change the current configuration</ulink>
1824 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-version">View the source code version numbers</ulink>
1827 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request">View the request headers.</ulink>
1830 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">Look up which actions apply to a URL and why</ulink>
1833 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">Toggle Privoxy on or off</ulink>
1836 ▪ <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/
1837 &p-version;/user-manual/">Documentation</ulink>
1845 This should be self-explanatory. Note the first item leads to an editor for the
1846 <link linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>, which is where the ad, banner,
1847 cookie, and URL blocking magic is configured as well as other advanced features of
1848 <application>Privoxy</application>. This is an easy way to adjust various
1849 aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. The actions
1850 file, and other configuration files, are explained in detail below.
1854 <quote>Toggle Privoxy On or Off</quote> is handy for sites that might
1855 have problems with your current actions and filters. You can in fact use
1856 it as a test to see whether it is <application>Privoxy</application>
1857 causing the problem or not. <application>Privoxy</application> continues
1858 to run as a proxy in this case, but all manipulation is disabled, i.e.
1859 <application>Privoxy</application> acts like a normal forwarding proxy. There
1860 is even a toggle <link linkend="bookmarklets">Bookmarklet</link> offered, so
1861 that you can toggle <application>Privoxy</application> with one click from
1866 Note that several of the features described above are disabled by default
1867 in <application>Privoxy</application> 3.0.7 beta and later.
1869 <ulink url="config.html">configuration file</ulink> to learn why
1870 and in which cases it's safe to enable them again.
1875 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1880 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1882 <sect2 id="confoverview">
1883 <title>Configuration Files Overview</title>
1885 For Unix, *BSD and Linux, all configuration files are located in
1886 <filename>/etc/privoxy/</filename> by default. For MS Windows, OS/2, and
1887 AmigaOS these are all in the same directory as the
1888 <application>Privoxy</application> executable. <![%p-not-stable;[ The name
1889 and number of configuration files has changed from previous versions, and is
1890 subject to change as development progresses.]]>
1894 The installed defaults provide a reasonable starting point, though
1895 some settings may be aggressive by some standards. For the time being, the
1896 principle configuration files are:
1904 The <link linkend="config">main configuration file</link> is named <filename>config</filename>
1905 on Linux, Unix, BSD, OS/2, and AmigaOS and <filename>config.txt</filename>
1906 on Windows. This is a required file.
1912 <filename>default.action</filename> (the main <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link>)
1913 is used to define which <quote>actions</quote> relating to banner-blocking, images, pop-ups,
1914 content modification, cookie handling etc should be applied by default. It also defines many
1915 exceptions (both positive and negative) from this default set of actions that enable
1916 <application>Privoxy</application> to selectively eliminate the junk, and only the junk, on
1917 as many websites as possible.
1920 Multiple actions files may be defined in <filename>config</filename>. These
1921 are processed in the order they are defined. Local customizations and locally
1922 preferred exceptions to the default policies as defined in
1923 <filename>default.action</filename> (which you will most probably want
1924 to define sooner or later) are probably best applied in
1925 <filename>user.action</filename>, where you can preserve them across
1926 upgrades. <filename>standard.action</filename> is only for
1927 <application>Privoxy's</application> internal use.
1930 There is also a web based editor that can be accessed from
1932 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
1934 url="http://p.p/show-status">http://p.p/show-status</ulink>) for the
1935 various actions files.
1941 <quote>Filter files</quote> (the <link linkend="filter-file">filter
1942 file</link>) can be used to re-write the raw page content, including
1943 viewable text as well as embedded HTML and JavaScript, and whatever else
1944 lurks on any given web page. The filtering jobs are only pre-defined here;
1945 whether to apply them or not is up to the actions files.
1946 <filename>default.filter</filename> includes various filters made
1947 available for use by the developers. Some are much more intrusive than
1948 others, and all should be used with caution. You may define additional
1949 filter files in <filename>config</filename> as you can with
1950 actions files. We suggest <filename>user.filter</filename> for any
1951 locally defined filters or customizations.
1959 The syntax of the configuration and filter files may change between different
1960 Privoxy versions, unfortunately some enhancements cost backwards compatibility.
1961 <!-- Add link to documentation-->
1965 All files use the <quote><literal>#</literal></quote> character to denote a
1966 comment (the rest of the line will be ignored) and understand line continuation
1967 through placing a backslash ("<literal>\</literal>") as the very last character
1968 in a line. If the <literal>#</literal> is preceded by a backslash, it looses
1969 its special function. Placing a <literal>#</literal> in front of an otherwise
1970 valid configuration line to prevent it from being interpreted is called "commenting
1971 out" that line. Blank lines are ignored.
1975 The actions files and filter files
1976 can use Perl style <link linkend="regex">regular expressions</link> for
1977 maximum flexibility.
1981 After making any changes, there is no need to restart
1982 <application>Privoxy</application> in order for the changes to take
1983 effect. <application>Privoxy</application> detects such changes
1984 automatically. Note, however, that it may take one or two additional
1985 requests for the change to take effect. When changing the listening address
1986 of <application>Privoxy</application>, these <quote>wake up</quote> requests
1987 must obviously be sent to the <emphasis>old</emphasis> listening address.
1992 While under development, the configuration content is subject to change.
1993 The below documentation may not be accurate by the time you read this.
1994 Also, what constitutes a <quote>default</quote> setting, may change, so
1995 please check all your configuration files on important issues.
2001 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2004 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
2006 <!-- **************************************************** -->
2007 <!-- Include config.sgml here -->
2008 <!-- This is where the entire config file is detailed. -->
2010 <!-- end include -->
2013 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2017 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
2019 <sect1 id="actions-file"><title>Actions Files</title>
2022 The actions files are used to define what <emphasis>actions</emphasis>
2023 <application>Privoxy</application> takes for which URLs, and thus determines
2024 how ad images, cookies and various other aspects of HTTP content and
2025 transactions are handled, and on which sites (or even parts thereof).
2026 There are a number of such actions, with a wide range of functionality.
2027 Each action does something a little different.
2028 These actions give us a veritable arsenal of tools with which to exert
2029 our control, preferences and independence. Actions can be combined so that
2030 their effects are aggregated when applied against a given set of URLs.
2034 are three action files included with <application>Privoxy</application> with
2042 <filename>default.action</filename> - is the primary action file
2043 that sets the initial values for all actions. It is intended to
2044 provide a base level of functionality for
2045 <application>Privoxy's</application> array of features. So it is
2046 a set of broad rules that should work reasonably well as-is for most users.
2047 This is the file that the developers are keeping updated, and <link
2048 linkend="installation-keepupdated">making available to users</link>.
2049 The user's preferences as set in <filename>standard.action</filename>,
2050 e.g. either <literal>Cautious</literal> (the default),
2051 <literal>Medium</literal>, or <literal>Advanced</literal> (see
2057 <filename>user.action</filename> - is intended to be for local site
2058 preferences and exceptions. As an example, if your ISP or your bank
2059 has specific requirements, and need special handling, this kind of
2060 thing should go here. This file will not be upgraded.
2065 <filename>standard.action</filename> - is used only by the web based editor
2066 at <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions-list?f=default">
2067 http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions-list?f=default</ulink>,
2068 to set various pre-defined sets of rules for the default actions section
2069 in <filename>default.action</filename>.
2072 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> <guibutton>Set to Cautious</guibutton> <guibutton>Set to Medium</guibutton> <guibutton>Set to Advanced</guibutton>
2075 These have increasing levels of aggressiveness <emphasis>and have no
2076 influence on your browsing unless you select them explicitly in the
2077 editor</emphasis>. A default installation should be pre-set to
2078 <literal>Cautious</literal> (versions prior to 3.0.5 were set to
2079 <literal>Medium</literal>). New users should try this for a while before
2080 adjusting the settings to more aggressive levels. The more aggressive
2081 the settings, then the more likelihood there is of problems such as sites
2082 not working as they should.
2085 The <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> button allows you to turn each
2086 action on/off individually for fine-tuning. The <guibutton>Cautious</guibutton>
2087 button changes the actions list to low/safe settings which will activate
2088 ad blocking and a minimal set of &my-app;'s features, and subsequently
2089 there will be less of a chance for accidental problems. The
2090 <guibutton>Medium</guibutton> button sets the list to a medium level of
2091 other features and a low level set of privacy features. The
2092 <guibutton>Advanced</guibutton> button sets the list to a high level of
2093 ad blocking and medium level of privacy. See the chart below. The latter
2094 three buttons over-ride any changes via with the
2095 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> button. More fine-tuning can be done in the
2096 lower sections of this internal page.
2099 It is not recommend to edit the <filename>standard.action</filename> file
2103 The default profiles, and their associated actions, as pre-defined in
2104 <filename>standard.action</filename> are<!-- different than this table which is out of date -->:
2107 <table frame=all><title>Default Configurations</title>
2108 <tgroup cols=4 align=left colsep=1 rowsep=1>
2109 <colspec colname=c1>
2110 <colspec colname=c2>
2111 <colspec colname=c3>
2112 <colspec colname=c4>
2115 <entry>Feature</entry>
2116 <entry>Cautious</entry>
2117 <entry>Medium</entry>
2118 <entry>Advanced</entry>
2123 <!-- <entry>f1</entry> -->
2124 <!-- <entry>f2</entry> -->
2125 <!-- <entry>f3</entry> -->
2126 <!-- <entry>f4</entry> -->
2132 <entry>Ad-blocking Aggressiveness</entry>
2133 <entry>medium</entry>
2139 <entry>Ad-filtering by size</entry>
2146 <entry>Ad-filtering by link</entry>
2152 <entry>Pop-up killing</entry>
2153 <entry>blocks only</entry>
2154 <entry>blocks only</entry>
2155 <entry>blocks only</entry>
2159 <entry>Privacy Features</entry>
2161 <entry>medium</entry>
2162 <entry>medium/high</entry>
2166 <entry>Cookie handling</entry>
2168 <entry>session-only</entry>
2173 <entry>Referer forging</entry>
2181 <entry>GIF de-animation</entry>
2189 <entry>Fast redirects</entry>
2196 <entry>HTML taming</entry>
2203 <entry>JavaScript taming</entry>
2210 <entry>Web-bug killing</entry>
2217 <entry>Image tag reordering</entry>
2233 The list of actions files to be used are defined in the main configuration
2234 file, and are processed in the order they are defined (e.g.
2235 <filename>default.action</filename> is typically processed before
2236 <filename>user.action</filename>). The content of these can all be viewed and
2238 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
2239 The over-riding principle when applying actions, is that the last action that
2240 matches a given URL wins. The broadest, most general rules go first
2241 (defined in <filename>default.action</filename>),
2242 followed by any exceptions (typically also in
2243 <filename>default.action</filename>), which are then followed lastly by any
2244 local preferences (typically in <emphasis>user</emphasis><filename>.action</filename>).
2245 Generally, <filename>user.action</filename> has the last word.
2249 An actions file typically has multiple sections. If you want to use
2250 <quote>aliases</quote> in an actions file, you have to place the (optional)
2251 <link linkend="aliases">alias section</link> at the top of that file.
2252 Then comes the default set of rules which will apply universally to all
2253 sites and pages (be <emphasis>very careful</emphasis> with using such a
2254 universal set in <filename>user.action</filename> or any other actions file after
2255 <filename>default.action</filename>, because it will override the result
2256 from consulting any previous file). And then below that,
2257 exceptions to the defined universal policies. You can regard
2258 <filename>user.action</filename> as an appendix to <filename>default.action</filename>,
2259 with the advantage that it is a separate file, which makes preserving your
2260 personal settings across <application>Privoxy</application> upgrades easier.
2264 Actions can be used to block anything you want, including ads, banners, or
2265 just some obnoxious URL whose content you would rather not see. Cookies can be accepted
2266 or rejected, or accepted only during the current browser session (i.e. not
2267 written to disk), content can be modified, some JavaScripts tamed, user-tracking
2268 fooled, and much more. See below for a <link linkend="actions">complete list
2272 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2274 <title>Finding the Right Mix</title>
2276 Note that some <link linkend="actions">actions</link>, like cookie suppression
2277 or script disabling, may render some sites unusable that rely on these
2278 techniques to work properly. Finding the right mix of actions is not always easy and
2279 certainly a matter of personal taste. And, things can always change, requiring
2280 refinements in the configuration. In general, it can be said that the more
2281 <quote>aggressive</quote> your default settings (in the top section of the
2282 actions file) are, the more exceptions for <quote>trusted</quote> sites you
2283 will have to make later. If, for example, you want to crunch all cookies per
2284 default, you'll have to make exceptions from that rule for sites that you
2285 regularly use and that require cookies for actually useful purposes, like maybe
2286 your bank, favorite shop, or newspaper.
2290 We have tried to provide you with reasonable rules to start from in the
2291 distribution actions files. But there is no general rule of thumb on these
2292 things. There just are too many variables, and sites are constantly changing.
2293 Sooner or later you will want to change the rules (and read this chapter again :).
2297 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2299 <title>How to Edit</title>
2301 The easiest way to edit the actions files is with a browser by
2302 using our browser-based editor, which can be reached from <ulink
2303 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
2304 Note: the config file option <link
2305 linkend="enable-edit-actions">enable-edit-actions</link> must be enabled for
2306 this to work. The editor allows both fine-grained control over every single
2307 feature on a per-URL basis, and easy choosing from wholesale sets of defaults
2308 like <quote>Cautious</quote>, <quote>Medium</quote> or
2309 <quote>Advanced</quote>. Warning: the <quote>Advanced</quote> setting is more
2310 aggressive, and will be more likely to cause problems for some sites.
2311 Experienced users only!
2315 If you prefer plain text editing to GUIs, you can of course also directly edit the
2316 the actions files with your favorite text editor. Look at
2317 <filename>default.action</filename> which is richly commented with many
2323 <sect2 id="actions-apply">
2324 <title>How Actions are Applied to Requests</title>
2326 Actions files are divided into sections. There are special sections,
2327 like the <quote><link linkend="aliases">alias</link></quote> sections which will
2328 be discussed later. For now let's concentrate on regular sections: They have a
2329 heading line (often split up to multiple lines for readability) which consist
2330 of a list of actions, separated by whitespace and enclosed in curly braces.
2331 Below that, there is a list of URL and tag patterns, each on a separate line.
2335 To determine which actions apply to a request, the URL of the request is
2336 compared to all URL patterns in each <quote>action file</quote>.
2337 Every time it matches, the list of applicable actions for the request is
2338 incrementally updated, using the heading of the section in which the
2339 pattern is located. The same is done again for tags and tag patterns later on.
2343 If multiple applying sections set the same action differently,
2344 the last match wins. If not, the effects are aggregated.
2345 E.g. a URL might match a regular section with a heading line of <literal>{
2346 +<link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link> }</literal>,
2347 then later another one with just <literal>{
2348 +<link linkend="block">block</link> }</literal>, resulting
2349 in <emphasis>both</emphasis> actions to apply. And there may well be
2350 cases where you will want to combine actions together. Such a section then
2356 { +<literal>handle-as-image</literal> +<literal>block</literal> }
2357 # Block these as if they were images. Send no block page.
2359 media.example.com/.*banners
2360 .example.com/images/ads/</screen>
2364 You can trace this process for URL patterns and any given URL by visiting <ulink
2365 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>.
2369 Examples and more detail on this is provided in the Appendix, <link linkend="ACTIONSANAT">
2370 Troubleshooting: Anatomy of an Action</link> section.
2374 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2375 <sect2 id="af-patterns">
2376 <title>Patterns</title>
2378 As mentioned, <application>Privoxy</application> uses <quote>patterns</quote>
2379 to determine what <emphasis>actions</emphasis> might apply to which sites and
2380 pages your browser attempts to access. These <quote>patterns</quote> use wild
2381 card type <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> matching to achieve a high degree of
2382 flexibility. This allows one expression to be expanded and potentially match
2383 against many similar patterns.
2387 Generally, an URL pattern has the form
2388 <literal><domain>/<path></literal>, where both the
2389 <literal><domain></literal> and <literal><path></literal> are
2390 optional. (This is why the special <literal>/</literal> pattern matches all
2391 URLs). Note that the protocol portion of the URL pattern (e.g.
2392 <literal>http://</literal>) should <emphasis>not</emphasis> be included in
2393 the pattern. This is assumed already!
2396 The pattern matching syntax is different for the domain and path parts of
2397 the URL. The domain part uses a simple globbing type matching technique,
2398 while the path part uses a more flexible
2399 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
2400 Expressions (PCRE)</quote></ulink> based syntax.
2405 <term><literal>www.example.com/</literal></term>
2408 is a domain-only pattern and will match any request to <literal>www.example.com</literal>,
2409 regardless of which document on that server is requested. So ALL pages in
2410 this domain would be covered by the scope of this action. Note that a
2411 simple <literal>example.com</literal> is different and would NOT match.
2416 <term><literal>www.example.com</literal></term>
2419 means exactly the same. For domain-only patterns, the trailing <literal>/</literal> may
2425 <term><literal>www.example.com/index.html$</literal></term>
2428 matches all the documents on <literal>www.example.com</literal>
2429 whose name starts with <literal>/index.html</literal>.
2434 <term><literal>www.example.com/index.html$</literal></term>
2437 matches only the single document <literal>/index.html</literal>
2438 on <literal>www.example.com</literal>.
2443 <term><literal>/index.html$</literal></term>
2446 matches the document <literal>/index.html</literal>, regardless of the domain,
2447 i.e. on <emphasis>any</emphasis> web server anywhere.
2452 <term><literal>index.html</literal></term>
2455 matches nothing, since it would be interpreted as a domain name and
2456 there is no top-level domain called <literal>.html</literal>. So its
2464 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2465 <sect3><title>The Domain Pattern</title>
2468 The matching of the domain part offers some flexible options: if the
2469 domain starts or ends with a dot, it becomes unanchored at that end.
2475 <term><literal>.example.com</literal></term>
2478 matches any domain that <emphasis>ENDS</emphasis> in
2479 <literal>.example.com</literal>
2484 <term><literal>www.</literal></term>
2487 matches any domain that <emphasis>STARTS</emphasis> with
2488 <literal>www.</literal>
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 Perl compatible (PCRE)
2576 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
2577 Expression</quote></ulink> based syntax
2578 (through the <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/">PCRE</ulink> library) for
2579 matching the path portion (after the slash), and is thus more flexible.
2583 There is an <link linkend="regex">Appendix</link> with a brief quick-start into regular
2584 expressions, and full (very technical) documentation on PCRE regex syntax is available on-line
2585 at <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/man.txt">http://www.pcre.org/man.txt</ulink>.
2586 You might also find the Perl man page on regular expressions (<literal>man perlre</literal>)
2587 useful, which is available on-line at <ulink
2588 url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html">http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html</ulink>.
2592 Note that the path pattern is automatically left-anchored at the <quote>/</quote>,
2593 i.e. it matches as if it would start with a <quote>^</quote> (regular expression speak
2594 for the beginning of a line).
2598 Please also note that matching in the path is <emphasis>CASE INSENSITIVE</emphasis>
2599 by default, but you can switch to case sensitive at any point in the pattern by using the
2600 <quote>(?-i)</quote> switch: <literal>www.example.com/(?-i)PaTtErN.*</literal> will match
2601 only documents whose path starts with <literal>PaTtErN</literal> in
2602 <emphasis>exactly</emphasis> this capitalization.
2607 <term><literal>.example.com/.*</literal></term>
2610 Is equivalent to just <quote>.example.com</quote>, since any documents
2611 within that domain are matched with or without the <quote>.*</quote>
2612 regular expression. This is redundant
2617 <term><literal>.example.com/.*/index.html$</literal></term>
2620 Will match any page in the domain of <quote>example.com</quote> that is
2621 named <quote>index.html</quote>, and that is part of some path. For
2622 example, it matches <quote>www.example.com/testing/index.html</quote> but
2623 NOT <quote>www.example.com/index.html</quote> because the regular
2624 expression called for at least two <quote>/'s</quote>, thus the path
2625 requirement. It also would match
2626 <quote>www.example.com/testing/index_html</quote>, because of the
2627 special meta-character <quote>.</quote>.
2632 <term><literal>.example.com/(.*/)?index\.html$</literal></term>
2635 This regular expression is conditional so it will match any page
2636 named <quote>index.html</quote> regardless of path which in this case can
2637 have one or more <quote>/'s</quote>. And this one must contain exactly
2638 <quote>.html</quote> (but does not have to end with that!).
2643 <term><literal>.example.com/(.*/)(ads|banners?|junk)</literal></term>
2646 This regular expression will match any path of <quote>example.com</quote>
2647 that contains any of the words <quote>ads</quote>, <quote>banner</quote>,
2648 <quote>banners</quote> (because of the <quote>?</quote>) or <quote>junk</quote>.
2649 The path does not have to end in these words, just contain them.
2654 <term><literal>.example.com/(.*/)(ads|banners?|junk)/.*\.(jpe?g|gif|png)$</literal></term>
2657 This is very much the same as above, except now it must end in either
2658 <quote>.jpg</quote>, <quote>.jpeg</quote>, <quote>.gif</quote> or <quote>.png</quote>. So this
2659 one is limited to common image formats.
2666 There are many, many good examples to be found in <filename>default.action</filename>,
2667 and more tutorials below in <link linkend="regex">Appendix on regular expressions</link>.
2672 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2675 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2676 <sect3 id="tag-pattern"><title>The Tag Pattern</title>
2679 Tag patterns are used to change the applying actions based on the
2680 request's tags. Tags can be created with either the
2681 <link linkend="CLIENT-HEADER-TAGGER">client-header-tagger</link>
2682 or the <link linkend="SERVER-HEADER-TAGGER">server-header-tagger</link> action.
2686 Tag patterns have to start with <quote>TAG:</quote>, so &my-app;
2687 can tell them apart from URL patterns. Everything after the colon
2688 including white space, is interpreted as a regular expression with
2689 path pattern syntax, except that tag patterns aren't left-anchored
2690 automatically (&my-app; doesn't silently add a <quote>^</quote>,
2691 you have to do it yourself if you need it).
2695 To match all requests that are tagged with <quote>foo</quote>
2696 your pattern line should be <quote>TAG:^foo$</quote>,
2697 <quote>TAG:foo</quote> would work as well, but it would also
2698 match requests whose tags contain <quote>foo</quote> somewhere.
2699 <quote>TAG: foo</quote> wouldn't work as it requires white space.
2703 Sections can contain URL and tag patterns at the same time,
2704 but tag patterns are checked after the URL patterns and thus
2705 always overrule them, even if they are located before the URL patterns.
2709 Once a new tag is added, Privoxy checks right away if it's matched by one
2710 of the tag patterns and updates the action settings accordingly. As a result
2711 tags can be used to activate other tagger actions, as long as these other
2712 taggers look for headers that haven't already be parsed.
2716 For example you could tag client requests which use the
2717 <literal>POST</literal> method,
2718 then use this tag to activate another tagger that adds a tag if cookies
2719 are sent, and then use a block action based on the cookie tag. This allows
2720 the outcome of one action, to be input into a subsequent action. However if
2721 you'd reverse the position of the described taggers, and activated the
2722 method tagger based on the cookie tagger, no method tags would be created.
2723 The method tagger would look for the request line, but at the time
2724 the cookie tag is created, the request line has already been parsed.
2728 While this is a limitation you should be aware of, this kind of
2729 indirection is seldom needed anyway and even the example doesn't
2730 make too much sense.
2737 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2740 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2742 <sect2 id="actions">
2743 <title>Actions</title>
2745 All actions are disabled by default, until they are explicitly enabled
2746 somewhere in an actions file. Actions are turned on if preceded with a
2747 <quote>+</quote>, and turned off if preceded with a <quote>-</quote>. So a
2748 <literal>+action</literal> means <quote>do that action</quote>, e.g.
2749 <literal>+block</literal> means <quote>please block URLs that match the
2750 following patterns</quote>, and <literal>-block</literal> means <quote>don't
2751 block URLs that match the following patterns, even if <literal>+block</literal>
2752 previously applied.</quote>
2757 Again, actions are invoked by placing them on a line, enclosed in curly braces and
2758 separated by whitespace, like in
2759 <literal>{+some-action -some-other-action{some-parameter}}</literal>,
2760 followed by a list of URL patterns, one per line, to which they apply.
2761 Together, the actions line and the following pattern lines make up a section
2762 of the actions file.
2766 Actions fall into three categories:
2773 Boolean, i.e the action can only be <quote>enabled</quote> or
2774 <quote>disabled</quote>. Syntax:
2778 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # enable action <replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable>
2779 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # disable action <replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable></screen>
2782 Example: <literal>+block</literal>
2789 Parameterized, where some value is required in order to enable this type of action.
2794 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # enable action and set parameter to <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>,
2795 # overwriting parameter from previous match if necessary
2796 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # disable action. The parameter can be omitted</screen>
2799 Note that if the URL matches multiple positive forms of a parameterized action,
2800 the last match wins, i.e. the params from earlier matches are simply ignored.
2803 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>
2809 Multi-value. These look exactly like parameterized actions,
2810 but they behave differently: If the action applies multiple times to the
2811 same URL, but with different parameters, <emphasis>all</emphasis> the parameters
2812 from <emphasis>all</emphasis> matches are remembered. This is used for actions
2813 that can be executed for the same request repeatedly, like adding multiple
2814 headers, or filtering through multiple filters. Syntax:
2818 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # enable action and add <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable> to the list of parameters
2819 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # remove the parameter <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable> from the list of parameters
2820 # If it was the last one left, disable the action.
2821 <replaceable class="parameter">-name</replaceable> # disable this action completely and remove all parameters from the list</screen>
2824 Examples: <literal>+add-header{X-Fun-Header: Some text}</literal> and
2825 <literal>+filter{html-annoyances}</literal>
2833 If nothing is specified in any actions file, no <quote>actions</quote> are
2834 taken. So in this case <application>Privoxy</application> would just be a
2835 normal, non-blocking, non-filtering proxy. You must specifically enable the
2836 privacy and blocking features you need (although the provided default actions
2837 files will give a good starting point).
2841 Later defined action sections always over-ride earlier ones of the same type.
2842 So exceptions to any rules you make, should come in the latter part of the file (or
2843 in a file that is processed later when using multiple actions files such
2844 as <filename>user.action</filename>). For multi-valued actions, the actions
2845 are applied in the order they are specified. Actions files are processed in
2846 the order they are defined in <filename>config</filename> (the default
2847 installation has three actions files). It also quite possible for any given
2848 URL to match more than one <quote>pattern</quote> (because of wildcards and
2849 regular expressions), and thus to trigger more than one set of actions! Last
2853 <!-- start actions listing -->
2855 The list of valid <application>Privoxy</application> actions are:
2859 <!-- ********************************************************** -->
2860 <!-- Please note the below defined actions use id's that are -->
2861 <!-- probably linked from other places, so please don't change. -->
2863 <!-- ********************************************************** -->
2866 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2868 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="add-header">
2869 <title>add-header</title>
2873 <term>Typical use:</term>
2875 <para>Confuse log analysis, custom applications</para>
2880 <term>Effect:</term>
2883 Sends a user defined HTTP header to the web server.
2890 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2892 <para>Multi-value.</para>
2897 <term>Parameter:</term>
2900 Any string value is possible. Validity of the defined HTTP headers is not checked.
2901 It is recommended that you use the <quote><literal>X-</literal></quote> prefix
2911 This action may be specified multiple times, in order to define multiple
2912 headers. This is rarely needed for the typical user. If you don't know what
2913 <quote>HTTP headers</quote> are, you definitely don't need to worry about this
2920 <term>Example usage:</term>
2923 <screen>+add-header{X-User-Tracking: sucks}</screen>
2931 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2932 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="block">
2933 <title>block</title>
2937 <term>Typical use:</term>
2939 <para>Block ads or other unwanted content</para>
2944 <term>Effect:</term>
2947 Requests for URLs to which this action applies are blocked, i.e. the
2948 requests are trapped by &my-app; and the requested URL is never retrieved,
2949 but is answered locally with a substitute page or image, as determined by
2951 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>,
2953 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>, and
2955 linkend="handle-as-empty-document">handle-as-empty-document</link></literal> actions.
2963 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2965 <para>Boolean.</para>
2970 <term>Parameter:</term>
2980 <application>Privoxy</application> sends a special <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page
2981 for requests to blocked pages. This page contains links to find out why the request
2982 was blocked, and a click-through to the blocked content (the latter only if compiled with the
2983 force feature enabled). The <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page adapts to the available
2984 screen space -- it displays full-blown if space allows, or miniaturized and text-only
2985 if loaded into a small frame or window. If you are using <application>Privoxy</application>
2986 right now, you can take a look at the
2987 <ulink url="http://ads.bannerserver.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor.html"><quote>BLOCKED</quote>
2991 A very important exception occurs if <emphasis>both</emphasis>
2992 <literal>block</literal> and <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>,
2993 apply to the same request: it will then be replaced by an image. If
2994 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>
2995 (see below) also applies, the type of image will be determined by its parameter,
2996 if not, the standard checkerboard pattern is sent.
2999 It is important to understand this process, in order
3000 to understand how <application>Privoxy</application> deals with
3001 ads and other unwanted content. Blocking is a core feature, and one
3002 upon which various other features depend.
3005 The <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>
3006 action can perform a very similar task, by <quote>blocking</quote>
3007 banner images and other content through rewriting the relevant URLs in the
3008 document's HTML source, so they don't get requested in the first place.
3009 Note that this is a totally different technique, and it's easy to confuse the two.
3015 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3019 # Block and replace with "blocked" page
3020 .nasty-stuff.example.com
3022 {+block +handle-as-image}
3023 # Block and replace with image
3027 {+block +handle-as-empty-document}
3028 # Block and then ignore
3029 adserver.exampleclick.net/.*\.js$</screen>
3039 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3040 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="client-header-filter">
3041 <title>client-header-filter</title>
3045 <term>Typical use:</term>
3048 Rewrite or remove single client headers.
3054 <term>Effect:</term>
3057 All client headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly through
3058 the specified regular expression based substitutions.
3065 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3067 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3072 <term>Parameter:</term>
3075 The name of a client-header filter, as defined in one of the
3076 <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link>.
3085 Client-header filters are applied to each header on its own, not to
3086 all at once. This makes it easier to diagnose problems, but on the downside
3087 you can't write filters that only change header x if header y's value is z.
3088 You can do that by using tags though.
3091 Client-header filters are executed after the other header actions have finished
3092 and use their output as input.
3095 If the request URL gets changed, &my-app; will detect that and use the new
3096 one. This can be used to rewrite the request destination behind the client's
3097 back, for example to specify a Tor exit relay for certain requests.
3100 Please refer to the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file chapter</link>
3101 to learn which client-header filters are available by default, and how to
3109 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3113 {+client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation}}
3124 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3125 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="client-header-tagger">
3126 <title>client-header-tagger</title>
3130 <term>Typical use:</term>
3133 Block requests based on their headers.
3139 <term>Effect:</term>
3142 Client headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly through
3143 the specified regular expression based substitutions, the result is used as
3151 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3153 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3158 <term>Parameter:</term>
3161 The name of a client-header tagger, as defined in one of the
3162 <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link>.
3171 Client-header taggers are applied to each header on its own,
3172 and as the header isn't modified, each tagger <quote>sees</quote>
3176 Client-header taggers are the first actions that are executed
3177 and their tags can be used to control every other action.
3183 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3187 # Tag every request with the User-Agent header
3188 {+client-header-tagger{user-agent}}
3199 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3200 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="content-type-overwrite">
3201 <title>content-type-overwrite</title>
3205 <term>Typical use:</term>
3207 <para>Stop useless download menus from popping up, or change the browser's rendering mode</para>
3212 <term>Effect:</term>
3215 Replaces the <quote>Content-Type:</quote> HTTP server header.
3222 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3224 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3229 <term>Parameter:</term>
3241 The <quote>Content-Type:</quote> HTTP server header is used by the
3242 browser to decide what to do with the document. The value of this
3243 header can cause the browser to open a download menu instead of
3244 displaying the document by itself, even if the document's format is
3245 supported by the browser.
3248 The declared content type can also affect which rendering mode
3249 the browser chooses. If XHTML is delivered as <quote>text/html</quote>,
3250 many browsers treat it as yet another broken HTML document.
3251 If it is send as <quote>application/xml</quote>, browsers with
3252 XHTML support will only display it, if the syntax is correct.
3255 If you see a web site that proudly uses XHTML buttons, but sets
3256 <quote>Content-Type: text/html</quote>, you can use &my-app;
3257 to overwrite it with <quote>application/xml</quote> and validate
3258 the web master's claim inside your XHTML-supporting browser.
3259 If the syntax is incorrect, the browser will complain loudly.
3262 You can also go the opposite direction: if your browser prints
3263 error messages instead of rendering a document falsely declared
3264 as XHTML, you can overwrite the content type with
3265 <quote>text/html</quote> and have it rendered as broken HTML document.
3268 By default <literal>content-type-overwrite</literal> only replaces
3269 <quote>Content-Type:</quote> headers that look like some kind of text.
3270 If you want to overwrite it unconditionally, you have to combine it with
3271 <literal><link linkend="force-text-mode">force-text-mode</link></literal>.
3272 This limitation exists for a reason, think twice before circumventing it.
3275 Most of the time it's easier to replace this action with a custom
3276 <literal><link linkend="server-header-filter">server-header filter</link></literal>.
3277 It allows you to activate it for every document of a certain site and it will still
3278 only replace the content types you aimed at.
3281 Of course you can apply <literal>content-type-overwrite</literal>
3282 to a whole site and then make URL based exceptions, but it's a lot
3283 more work to get the same precision.
3289 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
3292 <screen># Check if www.example.net/ really uses valid XHTML
3293 { +content-type-overwrite{application/xml} }
3296 # but leave the content type unmodified if the URL looks like a style sheet
3297 {-content-type-overwrite}
3298 www.example.net/.*\.css$
3299 www.example.net/.*style
3308 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3309 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-client-header">
3313 <title>crunch-client-header</title>
3317 <term>Typical use:</term>
3319 <para>Remove a client header <application>Privoxy</application> has no dedicated action for.</para>
3324 <term>Effect:</term>
3327 Deletes every header sent by the client that contains the string the user supplied as parameter.
3334 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3336 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3341 <term>Parameter:</term>
3353 This action allows you to block client headers for which no dedicated
3354 <application>Privoxy</application> action exists.
3355 <application>Privoxy</application> will remove every client header that
3356 contains the string you supplied as parameter.
3359 Regular expressions are <emphasis>not supported</emphasis> and you can't
3360 use this action to block different headers in the same request, unless
3361 they contain the same string.
3364 <literal>crunch-client-header</literal> is only meant for quick tests.
3365 If you have to block several different headers, or only want to modify
3366 parts of them, you should use a
3367 <literal><link linkend="client-header-filter">client-header filter</link></literal>.
3371 Don't block any header without understanding the consequences.
3378 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3381 <screen># Block the non-existent "Privacy-Violation:" client header
3382 { +crunch-client-header{Privacy-Violation:} }
3392 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3393 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-if-none-match">
3394 <title>crunch-if-none-match</title>
3400 <term>Typical use:</term>
3402 <para>Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.</para>
3407 <term>Effect:</term>
3410 Deletes the <quote>If-None-Match:</quote> HTTP client header.
3417 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3419 <para>Boolean.</para>
3424 <term>Parameter:</term>
3436 Removing the <quote>If-None-Match:</quote> HTTP client header
3437 is useful for filter testing, where you want to force a real
3438 reload instead of getting status code <quote>304</quote> which
3439 would cause the browser to use a cached copy of the page.
3442 It is also useful to make sure the header isn't used as a cookie
3443 replacement (unlikely but possible).
3446 Blocking the <quote>If-None-Match:</quote> header shouldn't cause any
3447 caching problems, as long as the <quote>If-Modified-Since:</quote> header
3448 isn't blocked or missing as well.
3451 It is recommended to use this action together with
3452 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hide-if-modified-since</link></literal>
3454 <literal><link linkend="overwrite-last-modified">overwrite-last-modified</link></literal>.
3460 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3463 <screen># Let the browser revalidate cached documents but don't
3464 # allow the server to use the revalidation headers for user tracking.
3465 {+hide-if-modified-since{-60} \
3466 +overwrite-last-modified{randomize} \
3467 +crunch-if-none-match}
3476 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3477 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-incoming-cookies">
3478 <title>crunch-incoming-cookies</title>
3482 <term>Typical use:</term>
3485 Prevent the web server from setting HTTP cookies on your system
3491 <term>Effect:</term>
3494 Deletes any <quote>Set-Cookie:</quote> HTTP headers from server replies.
3501 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3503 <para>Boolean.</para>
3508 <term>Parameter:</term>
3520 This action is only concerned with <emphasis>incoming</emphasis> HTTP cookies. For
3521 <emphasis>outgoing</emphasis> HTTP cookies, use
3522 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>.
3523 Use <emphasis>both</emphasis> to disable HTTP cookies completely.
3526 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use this action in conjunction
3527 with the <literal><link linkend="session-cookies-only">session-cookies-only</link></literal> action,
3528 since it would prevent the session cookies from being set. See also
3529 <literal><link linkend="filter-content-cookies">filter-content-cookies</link></literal>.
3535 <term>Example usage:</term>
3538 <screen>+crunch-incoming-cookies</screen>
3546 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3547 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-server-header">
3548 <title>crunch-server-header</title>
3554 <term>Typical use:</term>
3556 <para>Remove a server header <application>Privoxy</application> has no dedicated action for.</para>
3561 <term>Effect:</term>
3564 Deletes every header sent by the server that contains the string the user supplied as parameter.
3571 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3573 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3578 <term>Parameter:</term>
3590 This action allows you to block server headers for which no dedicated
3591 <application>Privoxy</application> action exists. <application>Privoxy</application>
3592 will remove every server header that contains the string you supplied as parameter.
3595 Regular expressions are <emphasis>not supported</emphasis> and you can't
3596 use this action to block different headers in the same request, unless
3597 they contain the same string.
3600 <literal>crunch-server-header</literal> is only meant for quick tests.
3601 If you have to block several different headers, or only want to modify
3602 parts of them, you should use a custom
3603 <literal><link linkend="server-header-filter">server-header filter</link></literal>.
3607 Don't block any header without understanding the consequences.
3614 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3617 <screen># Crunch server headers that try to prevent caching
3618 { +crunch-server-header{no-cache} }
3627 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3628 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-outgoing-cookies">
3629 <title>crunch-outgoing-cookies</title>
3633 <term>Typical use:</term>
3636 Prevent the web server from reading any HTTP cookies from your system
3642 <term>Effect:</term>
3645 Deletes any <quote>Cookie:</quote> HTTP headers from client requests.
3652 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3654 <para>Boolean.</para>
3659 <term>Parameter:</term>
3671 This action is only concerned with <emphasis>outgoing</emphasis> HTTP cookies. For
3672 <emphasis>incoming</emphasis> HTTP cookies, use
3673 <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal>.
3674 Use <emphasis>both</emphasis> to disable HTTP cookies completely.
3677 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use this action in conjunction
3678 with the <literal><link linkend="session-cookies-only">session-cookies-only</link></literal> action,
3679 since it would prevent the session cookies from being read.
3685 <term>Example usage:</term>
3688 <screen>+crunch-outgoing-cookies</screen>
3697 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3698 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="deanimate-gifs">
3699 <title>deanimate-gifs</title>
3703 <term>Typical use:</term>
3705 <para>Stop those annoying, distracting animated GIF images.</para>
3710 <term>Effect:</term>
3713 De-animate GIF animations, i.e. reduce them to their first or last image.
3720 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3722 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3727 <term>Parameter:</term>
3730 <quote>last</quote> or <quote>first</quote>
3739 This will also shrink the images considerably (in bytes, not pixels!). If
3740 the option <quote>first</quote> is given, the first frame of the animation
3741 is used as the replacement. If <quote>last</quote> is given, the last
3742 frame of the animation is used instead, which probably makes more sense for
3743 most banner animations, but also has the risk of not showing the entire
3744 last frame (if it is only a delta to an earlier frame).
3747 You can safely use this action with patterns that will also match non-GIF
3748 objects, because no attempt will be made at anything that doesn't look like
3755 <term>Example usage:</term>
3758 <screen>+deanimate-gifs{last}</screen>
3765 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3766 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="downgrade-http-version">
3767 <title>downgrade-http-version</title>
3771 <term>Typical use:</term>
3773 <para>Work around (very rare) problems with HTTP/1.1</para>
3778 <term>Effect:</term>
3781 Downgrades HTTP/1.1 client requests and server replies to HTTP/1.0.
3788 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3790 <para>Boolean.</para>
3795 <term>Parameter:</term>
3807 This is a left-over from the time when <application>Privoxy</application>
3808 didn't support important HTTP/1.1 features well. It is left here for the
3809 unlikely case that you experience HTTP/1.1 related problems with some server
3810 out there. Not all HTTP/1.1 features and requirements are supported yet,
3811 so there is a chance you might need this action.
3817 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3820 <screen>{+downgrade-http-version}
3821 problem-host.example.com</screen>
3829 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3830 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="fast-redirects">
3831 <title>fast-redirects</title>
3835 <term>Typical use:</term>
3837 <para>Fool some click-tracking scripts and speed up indirect links.</para>
3842 <term>Effect:</term>
3845 Detects redirection URLs and redirects the browser without contacting
3846 the redirection server first.
3853 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3855 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3860 <term>Parameter:</term>
3865 <quote>simple-check</quote> to just search for the string <quote>http://</quote>
3866 to detect redirection URLs.
3871 <quote>check-decoded-url</quote> to decode URLs (if necessary) before searching
3872 for redirection URLs.
3883 Many sites, like yahoo.com, don't just link to other sites. Instead, they
3884 will link to some script on their own servers, giving the destination as a
3885 parameter, which will then redirect you to the final target. URLs
3886 resulting from this scheme typically look like:
3887 <quote>http://www.example.org/click-tracker.cgi?target=http%3a//www.example.net/</quote>.
3890 Sometimes, there are even multiple consecutive redirects encoded in the
3891 URL. These redirections via scripts make your web browsing more traceable,
3892 since the server from which you follow such a link can see where you go
3893 to. Apart from that, valuable bandwidth and time is wasted, while your
3894 browser asks the server for one redirect after the other. Plus, it feeds
3898 This feature is currently not very smart and is scheduled for improvement.
3899 If it is enabled by default, you will have to create some exceptions to
3900 this action. It can lead to failures in several ways:
3903 Not every URLs with other URLs as parameters is evil.
3904 Some sites offer a real service that requires this information to work.
3905 For example a validation service needs to know, which document to validate.
3906 <literal>fast-redirects</literal> assumes that every URL parameter that
3907 looks like another URL is a redirection target, and will always redirect to
3908 the last one. Most of the time the assumption is correct, but if it isn't,
3909 the user gets redirected anyway.
3912 Another failure occurs if the URL contains other parameters after the URL parameter.
3914 <quote>http://www.example.org/?redirect=http%3a//www.example.net/&foo=bar</quote>.
3915 contains the redirection URL <quote>http://www.example.net/</quote>,
3916 followed by another parameter. <literal>fast-redirects</literal> doesn't know that
3917 and will cause a redirect to <quote>http://www.example.net/&foo=bar</quote>.
3918 Depending on the target server configuration, the parameter will be silently ignored
3919 or lead to a <quote>page not found</quote> error. You can prevent this problem by
3920 first using the <literal><link linkend="redirect">redirect</link></literal> action
3921 to remove the last part of the URL, but it requires a little effort.
3924 To detect a redirection URL, <literal>fast-redirects</literal> only
3925 looks for the string <quote>http://</quote>, either in plain text
3926 (invalid but often used) or encoded as <quote>http%3a//</quote>.
3927 Some sites use their own URL encoding scheme, encrypt the address
3928 of the target server or replace it with a database id. In theses cases
3929 <literal>fast-redirects</literal> is fooled and the request reaches the
3930 redirection server where it probably gets logged.
3936 <term>Example usage:</term>
3940 { +fast-redirects{simple-check} }
3943 { +fast-redirects{check-decoded-url} }
3944 another.example.com/testing</screen>
3953 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3954 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="filter">
3955 <title>filter</title>
3959 <term>Typical use:</term>
3961 <para>Get rid of HTML and JavaScript annoyances, banner advertisements (by size),
3962 do fun text replacements, add personalized effects, etc.</para>
3967 <term>Effect:</term>
3970 All instances of text-based type, most notably HTML and JavaScript, to which
3971 this action applies, can be filtered on-the-fly through the specified regular
3972 expression based substitutions. (Note: as of version 3.0.3 plain text documents
3973 are exempted from filtering, because web servers often use the
3974 <literal>text/plain</literal> MIME type for all files whose type they don't know.)
3981 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3983 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3988 <term>Parameter:</term>
3991 The name of a content filter, as defined in the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file</link>.
3992 Filters can be defined in one or more files as defined by the
3993 <literal><link linkend="filterfile">filterfile</link></literal>
3994 option in the <link linkend="config">config file</link>.
3995 <filename>default.filter</filename> is the collection of filters
3996 supplied by the developers. Locally defined filters should go
3997 in their own file, such as <filename>user.filter</filename>.
4000 When used in its negative form,
4001 and without parameters, <emphasis>all</emphasis> filtering is completely disabled.
4010 For your convenience, there are a number of pre-defined filters available
4011 in the distribution filter file that you can use. See the examples below for
4015 Filtering requires buffering the page content, which may appear to
4016 slow down page rendering since nothing is displayed until all content has
4017 passed the filters. (It does not really take longer, but seems that way
4018 since the page is not incrementally displayed.) This effect will be more
4019 noticeable on slower connections.
4022 <quote>Rolling your own</quote>
4023 filters requires a knowledge of
4024 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
4025 Expressions</quote></ulink> and
4026 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Html"><quote>HTML</quote></ulink>.
4027 This is very powerful feature, and potentially very intrusive.
4028 Filters should be used with caution, and where an equivalent
4029 <quote>action</quote> is not available.
4032 The amount of data that can be filtered is limited to the
4033 <literal><link linkend="buffer-limit">buffer-limit</link></literal>
4034 option in the main <link linkend="config">config file</link>. The
4035 default is 4096 KB (4 Megs). Once this limit is exceeded, the buffered
4036 data, and all pending data, is passed through unfiltered.
4039 Inappropriate MIME types, such as zipped files, are not filtered at all.
4040 (Again, only text-based types except plain text). Encrypted SSL data
4041 (from HTTPS servers) cannot be filtered either, since this would violate
4042 the integrity of the secure transaction. In some situations it might
4043 be necessary to protect certain text, like source code, from filtering
4044 by defining appropriate <literal>-filter</literal> exceptions.
4047 Compressed content can't be filtered either, unless &my-app;
4048 is compiled with zlib support (requires at least &my-app; 3.0.7),
4049 in which case &my-app; will decompress the content before filtering
4053 If you use a &my-app; version without zlib support, but want filtering to work on
4054 as much documents as possible, even those that would normally be sent compressed,
4055 you must use the <literal><link linkend="prevent-compression">prevent-compression</link></literal>
4056 action in conjunction with <literal>filter</literal>.
4059 Content filtering can achieve some of the same effects as the
4060 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>
4061 action, i.e. it can be used to block ads and banners. But the mechanism
4062 works quite differently. One effective use, is to block ad banners
4063 based on their size (see below), since many of these seem to be somewhat
4067 <link linkend="contact">Feedback</link> with suggestions for new or
4068 improved filters is particularly welcome!
4071 The below list has only the names and a one-line description of each
4072 predefined filter. There are <link linkend="predefined-filters">more
4073 verbose explanations</link> of what these filters do in the <link
4074 linkend="filter-file">filter file chapter</link>.
4080 <term>Example usage (with filters from the distribution <filename>default.filter</filename> file).
4081 See <link linkend="PREDEFINED-FILTERS">the Predefined Filters section</link> for
4082 more explanation on each:</term>
4085 <anchor id="filter-js-annoyances">
4086 <screen>+filter{js-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse</screen>
4089 <anchor id="filter-js-events">
4090 <screen>+filter{js-events} # Kill all JS event bindings (Radically destructive! Only for extra nasty sites)</screen>
4093 <anchor id="filter-html-annoyances">
4094 <screen>+filter{html-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying HTML abuse</screen>
4097 <anchor id="filter-content-cookies">
4098 <screen>+filter{content-cookies} # Kill cookies that come in the HTML or JS content</screen>
4101 <anchor id="filter-refresh-tags">
4102 <screen>+filter{refresh-tags} # Kill automatic refresh tags (for dial-on-demand setups)</screen>
4105 <anchor id="filter-unsolicited-popups">
4106 <screen>+filter{unsolicited-popups} # Disable only unsolicited pop-up windows. Useful if your browser lacks this ability.</screen>
4109 <anchor id="filter-all-popups">
4110 <screen>+filter{all-popups} # Kill all popups in JavaScript and HTML. Useful if your browser lacks this ability.</screen>
4113 <anchor id="filter-img-reorder">
4114 <screen>+filter{img-reorder} # Reorder attributes in <img> tags to make the banners-by-* filters more effective</screen>
4117 <anchor id="filter-banners-by-size">
4118 <screen>+filter{banners-by-size} # Kill banners by size</screen>
4121 <anchor id="filter-banners-by-link">
4122 <screen>+filter{banners-by-link} # Kill banners by their links to known clicktrackers</screen>
4125 <anchor id="filter-webbugs">
4126 <screen>+filter{webbugs} # Squish WebBugs (1x1 invisible GIFs used for user tracking)</screen>
4129 <anchor id="filter-tiny-textforms">
4130 <screen>+filter{tiny-textforms} # Extend those tiny textareas up to 40x80 and kill the hard wrap</screen>
4133 <anchor id="filter-jumping-windows">
4134 <screen>+filter{jumping-windows} # Prevent windows from resizing and moving themselves</screen>
4137 <anchor id="filter-frameset-borders">
4138 <screen>+filter{frameset-borders} # Give frames a border and make them resizeable</screen>
4141 <anchor id="filter-demoronizer">
4142 <screen>+filter{demoronizer} # Fix MS's non-standard use of standard charsets</screen>
4145 <anchor id="filter-shockwave-flash">
4146 <screen>+filter{shockwave-flash} # Kill embedded Shockwave Flash objects</screen>
4149 <anchor id="filter-quicktime-kioskmode">
4150 <screen>+filter{quicktime-kioskmode} # Make Quicktime movies savable</screen>
4153 <anchor id="filter-fun">
4154 <screen>+filter{fun} # Text replacements for subversive browsing fun!</screen>
4157 <anchor id="filter-crude-parental">
4158 <screen>+filter{crude-parental} # Crude parental filtering (demo only)</screen>
4161 <anchor id="filter-ie-exploits">
4162 <screen>+filter{ie-exploits} # Disable a known Internet Explorer bug exploits</screen>
4165 <anchor id="filter-site-specifics">
4166 <screen>+filter{site-specifics} # Custom filters for specific site related problems</screen>
4169 <anchor id="filter-google">
4170 <screen>+filter{google} # Removes text ads and other Google specific improvements</screen>
4173 <anchor id="filter-yahoo">
4174 <screen>+filter{yahoo} # Removes text ads and other Yahoo specific improvements</screen>
4177 <anchor id="filter-msn">
4178 <screen>+filter{msn} # Removes text ads and other MSN specific improvements</screen>
4181 <anchor id="filter-blogspot">
4182 <screen>+filter{blogspot} # Cleans up Blogspot blogs</screen>
4185 <anchor id="filter-no-ping">
4186 <screen>+filter{no-ping} # Removes non-standard ping attributes from anchor and area tags</screen>
4194 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4195 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="force-text-mode">
4196 <title>force-text-mode</title>
4202 <term>Typical use:</term>
4204 <para>Force <application>Privoxy</application> to treat a document as if it was in some kind of <emphasis>text</emphasis> format. </para>
4209 <term>Effect:</term>
4212 Declares a document as text, even if the <quote>Content-Type:</quote> isn't detected as such.
4219 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4221 <para>Boolean.</para>
4226 <term>Parameter:</term>
4238 As explained <literal><link linkend="filter">above</link></literal>,
4239 <application>Privoxy</application> tries to only filter files that are
4240 in some kind of text format. The same restrictions apply to
4241 <literal><link linkend="content-type-overwrite">content-type-overwrite</link></literal>.
4242 <literal>force-text-mode</literal> declares a document as text,
4243 without looking at the <quote>Content-Type:</quote> first.
4247 Think twice before activating this action. Filtering binary data
4248 with regular expressions can cause file damage.
4255 <term>Example usage:</term>
4268 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4269 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="forward-override">
4270 <title>forward-override</title>
4276 <term>Typical use:</term>
4278 <para>Change the forwarding settings based on User-Agent or request origin</para>
4283 <term>Effect:</term>
4286 Overrules the forward directives in the configuration file.
4293 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4295 <para>Multi-value.</para>
4300 <term>Parameter:</term>
4304 <para><quote>forward .</quote> to use a direct connection without any additional proxies.</para>
4308 <quote>forward 127.0.0.1:8123</quote> to use the HTTP proxy listening at 127.0.0.1 port 8123.
4313 <quote>forward-socks4a 127.0.0.1:9050 .</quote> to use the socks4a proxy listening at
4314 127.0.0.1 port 9050. Replace <quote>forward-socks4a</quote> with <quote>forward-socks4</quote>
4315 to use a socks4 connection (with local DNS resolution) instead.
4320 <quote>forward-socks4a 127.0.0.1:9050 proxy.example.org:8000</quote> to use the socks4a proxy
4321 listening at 127.0.0.1 port 9050 to reach the HTTP proxy listening at proxy.example.org port 8000.
4322 Replace <quote>forward-socks4a</quote> with <quote>forward-socks4</quote> to use a socks4 connection
4323 (with local DNS resolution) instead.
4334 This action takes parameters similar to the <!-- I hope this link actual works -->
4335 <link linkend="forwarding">forward</link> directives in the configuration
4336 file, but without the URL pattern. It can be used as replacement, but normally it's only
4337 used in cases where matching based on the request URL isn't sufficient.
4341 Please read the description for the <link linkend="forwarding">forward</link> directives before
4342 using this action. Forwarding to the wrong people will reduce your privacy and increase the
4343 chances of man-in-the-middle attacks.
4346 If the ports are missing or invalid, default values will be used. This might change
4347 in the future and you shouldn't rely on it. Otherwise incorrect syntax causes Privoxy
4351 Use the <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">show-url-info CGI page</ulink>
4352 to verify that your forward settings do what you thought the do.
4359 <term>Example usage:</term>
4363 # Always use direct connections for requests previously tagged as
4364 # <quote>User-Agent: fetch libfetch/2.0</quote> and make sure
4365 # resuming downloads continues to work.
4366 # This way you can continue to use Tor for your normal browsing,
4367 # without overloading the Tor network with your FreeBSD ports updates
4368 # or downloads of bigger files like ISOs.
4369 # Note that HTTP headers are easy to fake and therefore their
4370 # values are as (un)trustworthy as your clients and users.
4371 {+forward-override{forward .} \
4372 -hide-if-modified-since \
4373 -overwrite-last-modified \
4375 TAG:^User-Agent: fetch libfetch/2\.0$
4384 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4385 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="handle-as-empty-document">
4386 <title>handle-as-empty-document</title>
4392 <term>Typical use:</term>
4394 <para>Mark URLs that should be replaced by empty documents <emphasis>if they get blocked</emphasis></para>
4399 <term>Effect:</term>
4402 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. It just marks URLs.
4403 If the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action <emphasis>also applies</emphasis>,
4404 the presence or absence of this mark decides whether an HTML <quote>BLOCKED</quote>
4405 page, or an empty document will be sent to the client as a substitute for the blocked content.
4406 The <emphasis>empty</emphasis> document isn't literally empty, but actually contains a single space.
4413 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4415 <para>Boolean.</para>
4420 <term>Parameter:</term>
4432 Some browsers complain about syntax errors if JavaScript documents
4433 are blocked with <application>Privoxy's</application>
4434 default HTML page; this option can be used to silence them.
4435 And of course this action can also be used to eliminate the &my-app;
4436 BLOCKED message in frames.
4439 The content type for the empty document can be specified with
4440 <literal><link linkend="content-type-overwrite">content-type-overwrite{}</link></literal>,
4441 but usually this isn't necessary.
4447 <term>Example usage:</term>
4450 <screen># Block all documents on example.org that end with ".js",
4451 # but send an empty document instead of the usual HTML message.
4452 {+block +handle-as-empty-document}
4462 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4463 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="handle-as-image">
4464 <title>handle-as-image</title>
4468 <term>Typical use:</term>
4470 <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>
4475 <term>Effect:</term>
4478 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. It just marks URLs as images.
4479 If the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action <emphasis>also applies</emphasis>,
4480 the presence or absence of this mark decides whether an HTML <quote>blocked</quote>
4481 page, or a replacement image (as determined by the <literal><link
4482 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal> action) will be sent to the
4483 client as a substitute for the blocked content.
4490 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4492 <para>Boolean.</para>
4497 <term>Parameter:</term>
4509 The below generic example section is actually part of <filename>default.action</filename>.
4510 It marks all URLs with well-known image file name extensions as images and should
4514 Users will probably only want to use the handle-as-image action in conjunction with
4515 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>, to block sources of banners, whose URLs don't
4516 reflect the file type, like in the second example section.
4519 Note that you cannot treat HTML pages as images in most cases. For instance, (in-line) ad
4520 frames require an HTML page to be sent, or they won't display properly.
4521 Forcing <literal>handle-as-image</literal> in this situation will not replace the
4522 ad frame with an image, but lead to error messages.
4528 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
4531 <screen># Generic image extensions:
4534 /.*\.(gif|jpg|jpeg|png|bmp|ico)$
4536 # These don't look like images, but they're banners and should be
4537 # blocked as images:
4539 {+block +handle-as-image}
4540 some.nasty-banner-server.com/junk.cgi\?output=trash
4542 # Banner source! Who cares if they also have non-image content?
4552 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4553 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-accept-language">
4554 <title>hide-accept-language</title>
4560 <term>Typical use:</term>
4562 <para>Pretend to use different language settings.</para>
4567 <term>Effect:</term>
4570 Deletes or replaces the <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> HTTP header in client requests.
4577 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4579 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4584 <term>Parameter:</term>
4587 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
4596 Faking the browser's language settings can be useful to make a
4597 foreign User-Agent set with
4598 <literal><link linkend="hide-user-agent">hide-user-agent</link></literal>
4602 However some sites with content in different languages check the
4603 <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> to decide which one to take by default.
4604 Sometimes it isn't possible to later switch to another language without
4605 changing the <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> header first.
4608 Therefore it's a good idea to either only change the
4609 <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> header to languages you understand,
4610 or to languages that aren't wide spread.
4613 Before setting the <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> header
4614 to a rare language, you should consider that it helps to
4615 make your requests unique and thus easier to trace.
4616 If you don't plan to change this header frequently,
4617 you should stick to a common language.
4623 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
4626 <screen># Pretend to use Canadian language settings.
4627 {+hide-accept-language{en-ca} \
4628 +hide-user-agent{Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; OpenBSD i386; en-CA; rv:1.8.0.4) Gecko/20060628 Firefox/1.5.0.4} \
4638 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4639 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-content-disposition">
4640 <title>hide-content-disposition</title>
4646 <term>Typical use:</term>
4648 <para>Prevent download menus for content you prefer to view inside the browser.</para>
4653 <term>Effect:</term>
4656 Deletes or replaces the <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> HTTP header set by some servers.
4663 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4665 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4670 <term>Parameter:</term>
4673 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
4682 Some servers set the <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> HTTP header for
4683 documents they assume you want to save locally before viewing them.
4684 The <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> header contains the file name
4685 the browser is supposed to use by default.
4688 In most browsers that understand this header, it makes it impossible to
4689 <emphasis>just view</emphasis> the document, without downloading it first,
4690 even if it's just a simple text file or an image.
4693 Removing the <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> header helps
4694 to prevent this annoyance, but some browsers additionally check the
4695 <quote>Content-Type:</quote> header, before they decide if they can
4696 display a document without saving it first. In these cases, you have
4697 to change this header as well, before the browser stops displaying
4701 It is also possible to change the server's file name suggestion
4702 to another one, but in most cases it isn't worth the time to set
4706 This action will probably be removed in the future,
4707 use server-header filters instead.
4713 <term>Example usage:</term>
4716 <screen># Disarm the download link in Sourceforge's patch tracker
4718 +content-type-overwrite{text/plain}\
4719 +hide-content-disposition{block} }
4720 .sourceforge.net/tracker/download\.php</screen>
4728 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4729 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-if-modified-since">
4730 <title>hide-if-modified-since</title>
4736 <term>Typical use:</term>
4738 <para>Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.</para>
4743 <term>Effect:</term>
4746 Deletes the <quote>If-Modified-Since:</quote> HTTP client header or modifies its value.
4753 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4755 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4760 <term>Parameter:</term>
4763 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or a user defined value that specifies a range of hours.
4772 Removing this header is useful for filter testing, where you want to force a real
4773 reload instead of getting status code <quote>304</quote>, which would cause the
4774 browser to use a cached copy of the page.
4777 Instead of removing the header, <literal>hide-if-modified-since</literal> can
4778 also add or subtract a random amount of time to/from the header's value.
4779 You specify a range of minutes where the random factor should be chosen from and
4780 <application>Privoxy</application> does the rest. A negative value means
4781 subtracting, a positive value adding.
4784 Randomizing the value of the <quote>If-Modified-Since:</quote> makes
4785 it less likely that the server can use the time as a cookie replacement,
4786 but you will run into caching problems if the random range is too high.
4789 It is a good idea to only use a small negative value and let
4790 <literal><link linkend="overwrite-last-modified">overwrite-last-modified</link></literal>
4791 handle the greater changes.
4794 It is also recommended to use this action together with
4795 <literal><link linkend="crunch-if-none-match">crunch-if-none-match</link></literal>,
4796 otherwise it's more or less pointless.
4802 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
4805 <screen># Let the browser revalidate but make tracking based on the time less likely.
4806 {+hide-if-modified-since{-60} \
4807 +overwrite-last-modified{randomize} \
4808 +crunch-if-none-match}
4817 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4818 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-forwarded-for-headers">
4819 <title>hide-forwarded-for-headers</title>
4822 <term>Typical use:</term>
4824 <para>Improve privacy by not forwarding the source of the request in the HTTP headers.</para>
4829 <term>Effect:</term>
4832 Deletes any existing <quote>X-Forwarded-for:</quote> HTTP header from client requests.
4839 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4841 <para>Boolean.</para>
4846 <term>Parameter:</term>
4858 It is safe and recommended to leave this on.
4864 <term>Example usage:</term>
4867 <screen>+hide-forwarded-for-headers</screen>
4875 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4876 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-from-header">
4877 <title>hide-from-header</title>
4881 <term>Typical use:</term>
4883 <para>Keep your (old and ill) browser from telling web servers your email address</para>
4888 <term>Effect:</term>
4891 Deletes any existing <quote>From:</quote> HTTP header, or replaces it with the
4899 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4901 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4906 <term>Parameter:</term>
4909 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
4918 The keyword <quote>block</quote> will completely remove the header
4919 (not to be confused with the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>
4923 Alternately, you can specify any value you prefer to be sent to the web
4924 server. If you do, it is a matter of fairness not to use any address that
4925 is actually used by a real person.
4928 This action is rarely needed, as modern web browsers don't send
4929 <quote>From:</quote> headers anymore.
4935 <term>Example usage:</term>
4938 <screen>+hide-from-header{block}</screen> or
4939 <screen>+hide-from-header{spam-me-senseless@sittingduck.example.com}</screen>
4947 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4948 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-referrer">
4949 <title>hide-referrer</title>
4950 <anchor id="hide-referer">
4953 <term>Typical use:</term>
4955 <para>Conceal which link you followed to get to a particular site</para>
4960 <term>Effect:</term>
4963 Deletes the <quote>Referer:</quote> (sic) HTTP header from the client request,
4964 or replaces it with a forged one.
4971 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4973 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4978 <term>Parameter:</term>
4982 <para><quote>conditional-block</quote> to delete the header completely if the host has changed.</para>
4985 <para><quote>conditional-forge</quote> to forge the header if the host has changed.</para>
4988 <para><quote>block</quote> to delete the header unconditionally.</para>
4991 <para><quote>forge</quote> to pretend to be coming from the homepage of the server we are talking to.</para>
4994 <para>Any other string to set a user defined referrer.</para>
5004 <literal>conditional-block</literal> is the only parameter,
5005 that isn't easily detected in the server's log file. If it blocks the
5006 referrer, the request will look like the visitor used a bookmark or
5007 typed in the address directly.
5010 Leaving the referrer unmodified for requests on the same host
5011 allows the server owner to see the visitor's <quote>click path</quote>,
5012 but in most cases she could also get that information by comparing
5013 other parts of the log file: for example the User-Agent if it isn't
5014 a very common one, or the user's IP address if it doesn't change between
5018 Always blocking the referrer, or using a custom one, can lead to
5019 failures on servers that check the referrer before they answer any
5020 requests, in an attempt to prevent their content from being
5021 embedded or linked to elsewhere.
5024 Both <literal>conditional-block</literal> and <literal>forge</literal>
5025 will work with referrer checks, as long as content and valid referring page
5026 are on the same host. Most of the time that's the case.
5029 <literal>hide-referer</literal> is an alternate spelling of
5030 <literal>hide-referrer</literal> and the two can be can be freely
5031 substituted with each other. (<quote>referrer</quote> is the
5032 correct English spelling, however the HTTP specification has a bug - it
5033 requires it to be spelled as <quote>referer</quote>.)
5039 <term>Example usage:</term>
5042 <screen>+hide-referrer{forge}</screen> or
5043 <screen>+hide-referrer{http://www.yahoo.com/}</screen>
5051 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5052 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-user-agent">
5053 <title>hide-user-agent</title>
5057 <term>Typical use:</term>
5059 <para>Try to conceal your type of browser and client operating system</para>
5064 <term>Effect:</term>
5067 Replaces the value of the <quote>User-Agent:</quote> HTTP header
5068 in client requests with the specified value.
5075 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5077 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5082 <term>Parameter:</term>
5085 Any user-defined string.
5095 This can lead to problems on web sites that depend on looking at this header in
5096 order to customize their content for different browsers (which, by the
5097 way, is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> the right thing to do: good web sites
5098 work browser-independently).
5102 Using this action in multi-user setups or wherever different types of
5103 browsers will access the same <application>Privoxy</application> is
5104 <emphasis>not recommended</emphasis>. In single-user, single-browser
5105 setups, you might use it to delete your OS version information from
5106 the headers, because it is an invitation to exploit known bugs for your
5107 OS. It is also occasionally useful to forge this in order to access
5108 sites that won't let you in otherwise (though there may be a good
5109 reason in some cases). Example of this: some MSN sites will not
5110 let <application>Mozilla</application> enter, yet forging to a
5111 <application>Netscape 6.1</application> user-agent works just fine.
5112 (Must be just a silly MS goof, I'm sure :-).
5115 More information on known user-agent strings can be found at
5116 <ulink url="http://www.user-agents.org/">http://www.user-agents.org/</ulink>
5118 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_agent">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_agent</ulink>.
5124 <term>Example usage:</term>
5127 <screen>+hide-user-agent{Netscape 6.1 (X11; I; Linux 2.4.18 i686)}</screen>
5135 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5136 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="inspect-jpegs">
5137 <title>inspect-jpegs</title>
5140 <term>Typical use:</term>
5142 <para>Try to protect against a MS buffer over-run in JPEG processing</para>
5147 <term>Effect:</term>
5150 Protect against a known exploit
5157 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5159 <para>Boolean.</para>
5164 <term>Parameter:</term>
5176 See Microsoft Security Bulletin MS04-028. JPEG images are one of the most
5177 common image types found across the Internet. The exploit as described can
5178 allow execution of code on the target system, giving an attacker access
5179 to the system in question by merely planting an altered JPEG image, which
5180 would have no obvious indications of what lurks inside. This action
5181 tries to prevent this exploit if delivered through unencrypted HTTP.
5184 Note that the exploit mentioned is several years old
5185 and it's unlikely that your client is still vulnerable
5186 against it. This action may be removed in one of the
5194 <term>Example usage:</term>
5196 <para><screen>+inspect-jpegs</screen></para>
5203 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5204 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="kill-popups">
5205 <title>kill-popups<anchor id="kill-popup"></title>
5209 <term>Typical use:</term>
5211 <para>Eliminate those annoying pop-up windows (deprecated)</para>
5216 <term>Effect:</term>
5219 While loading the document, replace JavaScript code that opens
5220 pop-up windows with (syntactically neutral) dummy code on the fly.
5227 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5229 <para>Boolean.</para>
5234 <term>Parameter:</term>
5246 This action is basically a built-in, hardwired special-purpose filter
5247 action, but there are important differences: For <literal>kill-popups</literal>,
5248 the document need not be buffered, so it can be incrementally rendered while
5249 downloading. But <literal>kill-popups</literal> doesn't catch as many pop-ups as
5251 linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{<replaceable>all-popups</replaceable>}</link></literal>
5252 does and is not as smart as <literal><link
5253 linkend="FILTER-UNSOLICITED-POPUPS">filter{<replaceable>unsolicited-popups</replaceable>}</link>
5257 Think of it as a fast and efficient replacement for a filter that you
5258 can use if you don't want any filtering at all. Note that it doesn't make
5259 sense to combine it with any <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> action,
5260 since as soon as one <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> applies,
5261 the whole document needs to be buffered anyway, which destroys the advantage of
5262 the <literal>kill-popups</literal> action over its filter equivalent.
5265 Killing all pop-ups unconditionally is problematic. Many shops and banks rely on
5266 pop-ups to display forms, shopping carts etc, and the <literal><link
5267 linkend="FILTER-UNSOLICITED-POPUPS">filter{<replaceable>unsolicited-popups</replaceable>}</link>
5268 </literal> does a better job of catching only the unwanted ones.
5271 If the only kind of pop-ups that you want to kill are exit consoles (those
5272 <emphasis>really nasty</emphasis> windows that appear when you close an other
5273 one), you might want to use
5275 linkend="filter">filter</link>{<replaceable>js-annoyances</replaceable>}</literal>
5279 This action is most appropriate for browsers that don't have any controls
5280 for unwanted pop-ups. Not recommended for general usage.
5283 This action doesn't work very reliable and may be removed in future releases.
5289 <term>Example usage:</term>
5291 <para><screen>+kill-popups</screen></para>
5298 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5299 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="limit-connect">
5300 <title>limit-connect</title>
5304 <term>Typical use:</term>
5306 <para>Prevent abuse of <application>Privoxy</application> as a TCP proxy relay or disable SSL for untrusted sites</para>
5311 <term>Effect:</term>
5314 Specifies to which ports HTTP CONNECT requests are allowable.
5321 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5323 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5328 <term>Parameter:</term>
5331 A comma-separated list of ports or port ranges (the latter using dashes, with the minimum
5332 defaulting to 0 and the maximum to 65K).
5341 By default, i.e. if no <literal>limit-connect</literal> action applies,
5342 <application>Privoxy</application> only allows HTTP CONNECT
5343 requests to port 443 (the standard, secure HTTPS port). Use
5344 <literal>limit-connect</literal> if more fine-grained control is desired
5345 for some or all destinations.
5348 The CONNECT methods exists in HTTP to allow access to secure websites
5349 (<quote>https://</quote> URLs) through proxies. It works very simply:
5350 the proxy connects to the server on the specified port, and then
5351 short-circuits its connections to the client and to the remote server.
5352 This means CONNECT-enabled proxies can be used as TCP relays very easily.
5355 <application>Privoxy</application> relays HTTPS traffic without seeing
5356 the decoded content. Websites can leverage this limitation to circumvent &my-app;'s
5357 filters. By specifying an invalid port range you can disable HTTPS entirely.
5358 If you plan to disable SSL by default, consider enabling
5359 <literal><link linkend="treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks ">treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks</link></literal>
5360 as well, to be able to quickly create exceptions.
5366 <term>Example usages:</term>
5368 <!-- I had trouble getting the spacing to look right in my browser -->
5369 <!-- I probably have the wrong font setup, bollocks. -->
5370 <!-- Apparently the emphasis tag uses a proportional font no matter what -->
5372 <screen>+limit-connect{443} # This is the default and need not be specified.
5373 +limit-connect{80,443} # Ports 80 and 443 are OK.
5374 +limit-connect{-3, 7, 20-100, 500-} # Ports less than 3, 7, 20 to 100 and above 500 are OK.
5375 +limit-connect{-} # All ports are OK
5376 +limit-connect{,} # No HTTPS/SSL traffic is allowed</screen>
5383 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5384 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="prevent-compression">
5385 <title>prevent-compression</title>
5389 <term>Typical use:</term>
5392 Ensure that servers send the content uncompressed, so it can be
5393 passed through <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>s.
5399 <term>Effect:</term>
5402 Removes the Accept-Encoding header which can be used to ask for compressed transfer.
5409 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5411 <para>Boolean.</para>
5416 <term>Parameter:</term>
5428 More and more websites send their content compressed by default, which
5429 is generally a good idea and saves bandwidth. But the <literal><link
5430 linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>, <literal><link linkend="deanimate-gifs">deanimate-gifs</link></literal>
5431 and <literal><link linkend="kill-popups">kill-popups</link></literal> actions need
5432 access to the uncompressed data.
5435 When compiled with zlib support (available since &my-app; 3.0.7), content that should be
5436 filtered is decompressed on-the-fly and you don't have to worry about this action.
5437 If you are using an older &my-app; version, or one that hasn't been compiled with zlib
5438 support, this action can be used to convince the server to send the content uncompressed.
5441 Most text-based instances compress very well, the size is seldom decreased by less than 50%,
5442 for markup-heavy instances like news feeds saving more than 90% of the original size isn't
5446 Not using compression will therefore slow down the transfer, and you should only
5447 enable this action if you really need it. As of &my-app; 3.0.7 it's disabled in all
5448 predefined action settings.
5451 Note that some (rare) ill-configured sites don't handle requests for uncompressed
5452 documents correctly. Broken PHP applications tend to send an empty document body,
5453 some IIS versions only send the beginning of the content. If you enable
5454 <literal>prevent-compression</literal> per default, you might want to add
5455 exceptions for those sites. See the example for how to do that.
5461 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
5465 # Selectively turn off compression, and enable a filter
5467 { +filter{tiny-textforms} +prevent-compression }
5468 # Match only these sites
5473 # Or instead, we could set a universal default:
5475 { +prevent-compression }
5478 # Then maybe make exceptions for broken sites:
5480 { -prevent-compression }
5481 .compusa.com/</screen>
5490 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5491 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="overwrite-last-modified">
5492 <title>overwrite-last-modified</title>
5498 <term>Typical use:</term>
5500 <para>Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.</para>
5505 <term>Effect:</term>
5508 Deletes the <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> HTTP server header or modifies its value.
5515 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5517 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5522 <term>Parameter:</term>
5525 One of the keywords: <quote>block</quote>, <quote>reset-to-request-time</quote>
5526 and <quote>randomize</quote>
5535 Removing the <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header is useful for filter
5536 testing, where you want to force a real reload instead of getting status
5537 code <quote>304</quote>, which would cause the browser to reuse the old
5538 version of the page.
5541 The <quote>randomize</quote> option overwrites the value of the
5542 <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header with a randomly chosen time
5543 between the original value and the current time. In theory the server
5544 could send each document with a different <quote>Last-Modified:</quote>
5545 header to track visits without using cookies. <quote>Randomize</quote>
5546 makes it impossible and the browser can still revalidate cached documents.
5549 <quote>reset-to-request-time</quote> overwrites the value of the
5550 <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header with the current time. You could use
5551 this option together with
5552 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hided-if-modified-since</link></literal>
5553 to further customize your random range.
5556 The preferred parameter here is <quote>randomize</quote>. It is safe
5557 to use, as long as the time settings are more or less correct.
5558 If the server sets the <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header to the time
5559 of the request, the random range becomes zero and the value stays the same.
5560 Therefore you should later randomize it a second time with
5561 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hided-if-modified-since</link></literal>,
5565 It is also recommended to use this action together with
5566 <literal><link linkend="crunch-if-none-match">crunch-if-none-match</link></literal>.
5572 <term>Example usage:</term>
5575 <screen># Let the browser revalidate without being tracked across sessions
5576 { +hide-if-modified-since{-60} \
5577 +overwrite-last-modified{randomize} \
5578 +crunch-if-none-match}
5587 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5588 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="redirect">
5589 <title>redirect</title>
5595 <term>Typical use:</term>
5598 Redirect requests to other sites.
5604 <term>Effect:</term>
5607 Convinces the browser that the requested document has been moved
5608 to another location and the browser should get it from there.
5615 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5617 <para>Parameterized</para>
5622 <term>Parameter:</term>
5625 An absolute URL or a single pcrs command.
5634 Requests to which this action applies are answered with a
5635 HTTP redirect to URLs of your choosing. The new URL is
5636 either provided as parameter, or derived by applying a
5637 single pcrs command to the original URL.
5640 This action will be ignored if you use it together with
5641 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>.
5642 It can be combined with
5643 <literal><link linkend="fast-redirects">fast-redirects{check-decoded-url}</link></literal>
5644 to redirect to a decoded version of a rewritten URL.
5647 Use this action carefully, make sure not to create redirection loops
5648 and be aware that using your own redirects might make it
5649 possible to fingerprint your requests.
5655 <term>Example usages:</term>
5658 <screen># Replace example.com's style sheet with another one
5659 { +redirect{http://localhost/css-replacements/example.com.css} }
5660 example.com/stylesheet\.css
5662 # Create a short, easy to remember nickname for a favorite site
5663 # (relies on the browser accept and forward invalid URLs to &my-app;)
5664 { +redirect{http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/actions-file.html} }
5667 # Always use the expanded view for Undeadly.org articles
5668 # (Note the $ at the end of the URL pattern to make sure
5669 # the request for the rewritten URL isn't redirected as well)
5670 {+redirect{s@$@&mode=expanded@}}
5671 undeadly.org/cgi\?action=article&sid=\d*$</screen>
5680 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5681 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="send-vanilla-wafer">
5682 <title>send-vanilla-wafer</title>
5686 <term>Typical use:</term>
5689 Feed log analysis scripts with useless data.
5695 <term>Effect:</term>
5698 Sends a cookie with each request stating that you do not accept any copyright
5699 on cookies sent to you, and asking the site operator not to track you.
5706 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5708 <para>Boolean.</para>
5713 <term>Parameter:</term>
5725 The vanilla wafer is a (relatively) unique header and could conceivably be used to track you.
5728 This action is rarely used and not enabled in the default configuration.
5734 <term>Example usage:</term>
5737 <screen>+send-vanilla-wafer</screen>
5746 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5747 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="send-wafer">
5748 <title>send-wafer</title>
5752 <term>Typical use:</term>
5755 Send custom cookies or feed log analysis scripts with even more useless data.
5761 <term>Effect:</term>
5764 Sends a custom, user-defined cookie with each request.
5771 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5773 <para>Multi-value.</para>
5778 <term>Parameter:</term>
5781 A string of the form <quote><replaceable class="option">name</replaceable>=<replaceable
5782 class="parameter">value</replaceable></quote>.
5791 Being multi-valued, multiple instances of this action can apply to the same request,
5792 resulting in multiple cookies being sent.
5795 This action is rarely used and not enabled in the default configuration.
5800 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
5803 <screen>{+send-wafer{UsingPrivoxy=true}}
5804 my-internal-testing-server.void</screen>
5812 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5813 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="server-header-filter">
5814 <title>server-header-filter</title>
5818 <term>Typical use:</term>
5821 Rewrite or remove single server headers.
5827 <term>Effect:</term>
5830 All server headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly
5831 through the specified regular expression based substitutions.
5838 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
5840 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5845 <term>Parameter:</term>
5848 The name of a server-header filter, as defined in one of the
5849 <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link>.
5858 Server-header filters are applied to each header on its own, not to
5859 all at once. This makes it easier to diagnose problems, but on the downside
5860 you can't write filters that only change header x if header y's value is z.
5861 You can do that by using tags though.
5864 Server-header filters are executed after the other header actions have finished
5865 and use their output as input.
5868 Please refer to the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file chapter</link>
5869 to learn which server-header filters are available by default, and how to
5876 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
5880 {+server-header-filter{html-to-xml}}
5881 example.org/xml-instance-that-is-delivered-as-html
5883 {+server-header-filter{xml-to-html}}
5884 example.org/instance-that-is-delivered-as-xml-but-is-not
5894 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5895 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="server-header-tagger">
5896 <title>server-header-tagger</title>
5900 <term>Typical use:</term>
5903 Enable or disable filters based on the Content-Type header.
5909 <term>Effect:</term>
5912 Server headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly through
5913 the specified regular expression based substitutions, the result is used as
5921 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
5923 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5928 <term>Parameter:</term>
5931 The name of a server-header tagger, as defined in one of the
5932 <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link>.
5941 Server-header taggers are applied to each header on its own,
5942 and as the header isn't modified, each tagger <quote>sees</quote>
5946 Server-header taggers are executed before all other header actions
5947 that modify server headers. Their tags can be used to control
5948 all of the other server-header actions, the content filters
5949 and the crunch actions (<link linkend="redirect">redirect</link>
5950 and <link linkend="block">block</link>).
5953 Obviously crunching based on tags created by server-header taggers
5954 doesn't prevent the request from showing up in the server's log file.
5961 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
5965 # Tag every request with the content type declared by the server
5966 {+server-header-tagger{content-type}}
5977 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5978 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="session-cookies-only">
5979 <title>session-cookies-only</title>
5983 <term>Typical use:</term>
5986 Allow only temporary <quote>session</quote> cookies (for the current
5987 browser session <emphasis>only</emphasis>).
5993 <term>Effect:</term>
5996 Deletes the <quote>expires</quote> field from <quote>Set-Cookie:</quote>
5997 server headers. Most browsers will not store such cookies permanently and
5998 forget them in between sessions.
6005 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
6007 <para>Boolean.</para>
6012 <term>Parameter:</term>
6024 This is less strict than <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal> /
6025 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal> and allows you to browse
6026 websites that insist or rely on setting cookies, without compromising your privacy too badly.
6029 Most browsers will not permanently store cookies that have been processed by
6030 <literal>session-cookies-only</literal> and will forget about them between sessions.
6031 This makes profiling cookies useless, but won't break sites which require cookies so
6032 that you can log in for transactions. This is generally turned on for all
6033 sites, and is the recommended setting.
6036 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use <literal>session-cookies-only</literal>
6037 together with <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal> or
6038 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>. If you do, cookies
6039 will be plainly killed.
6042 Note that it is up to the browser how it handles such cookies without an <quote>expires</quote>
6043 field. If you use an exotic browser, you might want to try it out to be sure.
6046 This setting also has no effect on cookies that may have been stored
6047 previously by the browser before starting <application>Privoxy</application>.
6048 These would have to be removed manually.
6051 <application>Privoxy</application> also uses
6052 the <link linkend="filter-content-cookies">content-cookies filter</link>
6053 to block some types of cookies. Content cookies are not effected by
6054 <literal>session-cookies-only</literal>.
6060 <term>Example usage:</term>
6063 <screen>+session-cookies-only</screen>
6071 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6072 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="set-image-blocker">
6073 <title>set-image-blocker</title>
6077 <term>Typical use:</term>
6079 <para>Choose the replacement for blocked images</para>
6084 <term>Effect:</term>
6087 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. If <emphasis>both</emphasis>
6088 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> <emphasis>and</emphasis> <literal><link
6089 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> <emphasis>also</emphasis>
6090 apply, i.e. if the request is to be blocked as an image,
6091 <emphasis>then</emphasis> the parameter of this action decides what will be
6092 sent as a replacement.
6099 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
6101 <para>Parameterized.</para>
6106 <term>Parameter:</term>
6111 <quote>pattern</quote> to send a built-in checkerboard pattern image. The image is visually
6112 decent, scales very well, and makes it obvious where banners were busted.
6117 <quote>blank</quote> to send a built-in transparent image. This makes banners disappear
6118 completely, but makes it hard to detect where <application>Privoxy</application> has blocked
6119 images on a given page and complicates troubleshooting if <application>Privoxy</application>
6120 has blocked innocent images, like navigation icons.
6125 <quote><replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable></quote> to
6126 send a redirect to <replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable>. You can redirect
6127 to any image anywhere, even in your local filesystem via <quote>file:///</quote> URL.
6128 (But note that not all browsers support redirecting to a local file system).
6131 A good application of redirects is to use special <application>Privoxy</application>-built-in
6132 URLs, which send the built-in images, as <replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable>.
6133 This has the same visual effect as specifying <quote>blank</quote> or <quote>pattern</quote> in
6134 the first place, but enables your browser to cache the replacement image, instead of requesting
6135 it over and over again.
6146 The URLs for the built-in images are <quote>http://config.privoxy.org/send-banner?type=<replaceable
6147 class="parameter">type</replaceable></quote>, where <replaceable class="parameter">type</replaceable> is
6148 either <quote>blank</quote> or <quote>pattern</quote>.
6151 There is a third (advanced) type, called <quote>auto</quote>. It is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> to be
6152 used in <literal>set-image-blocker</literal>, but meant for use from <link linkend="filter-file">filters</link>.
6153 Auto will select the type of image that would have applied to the referring page, had it been an image.
6159 <term>Example usage:</term>
6165 <screen>+set-image-blocker{pattern}</screen>
6168 Redirect to the BSD daemon:
6171 <screen>+set-image-blocker{http://www.freebsd.org/gifs/dae_up3.gif}</screen>
6174 Redirect to the built-in pattern for better caching:
6177 <screen>+set-image-blocker{http://config.privoxy.org/send-banner?type=pattern}</screen>
6185 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6186 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks">
6187 <title>treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks</title>
6193 <term>Typical use:</term>
6195 <para>Block forbidden connects with an easy to find error message.</para>
6200 <term>Effect:</term>
6203 If this action is enabled, <application>Privoxy</application> no longer
6204 makes a difference between forbidden connects and ordinary blocks.
6211 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
6213 <para>Boolean</para>
6218 <term>Parameter:</term>
6228 By default <application>Privoxy</application> answers
6229 <link linkend="limit-connect">forbidden <quote>Connect</quote> requests</link>
6230 with a short error message inside the headers. If the browser doesn't display
6231 headers (most don't), you just see an empty page.
6234 With this action enabled, <application>Privoxy</application> displays
6235 the message that is used for ordinary blocks instead. If you decide
6236 to make an exception for the page in question, you can do so by
6237 following the <quote>See why</quote> link.
6240 For <quote>Connect</quote> requests the clients tell
6241 <application>Privoxy</application> which host they are interested
6242 in, but not which document they plan to get later. As a result, the
6243 <quote>Go there anyway</quote> wouldn't work and is therefore suppressed.
6249 <term>Example usage:</term>
6252 <screen>+treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks</screen>
6260 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6262 <title>Summary</title>
6264 Note that many of these actions have the potential to cause a page to
6265 misbehave, possibly even not to display at all. There are many ways
6266 a site designer may choose to design his site, and what HTTP header
6267 content, and other criteria, he may depend on. There is no way to have hard
6268 and fast rules for all sites. See the <link
6269 linkend="ACTIONSANAT">Appendix</link> for a brief example on troubleshooting
6275 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6276 <sect2 id="aliases">
6277 <title>Aliases</title>
6279 Custom <quote>actions</quote>, known to <application>Privoxy</application>
6280 as <quote>aliases</quote>, can be defined by combining other actions.
6281 These can in turn be invoked just like the built-in actions.
6282 Currently, an alias name can contain any character except space, tab,
6284 <quote>{</quote> and <quote>}</quote>, but we <emphasis>strongly
6285 recommend</emphasis> that you only use <quote>a</quote> to <quote>z</quote>,
6286 <quote>0</quote> to <quote>9</quote>, <quote>+</quote>, and <quote>-</quote>.
6287 Alias names are not case sensitive, and are not required to start with a
6288 <quote>+</quote> or <quote>-</quote> sign, since they are merely textually
6292 Aliases can be used throughout the actions file, but they <emphasis>must be
6293 defined in a special section at the top of the file!</emphasis>
6294 And there can only be one such section per actions file. Each actions file may
6295 have its own alias section, and the aliases defined in it are only visible
6299 There are two main reasons to use aliases: One is to save typing for frequently
6300 used combinations of actions, the other one is a gain in flexibility: If you
6301 decide once how you want to handle shops by defining an alias called
6302 <quote>shop</quote>, you can later change your policy on shops in
6303 <emphasis>one</emphasis> place, and your changes will take effect everywhere
6304 in the actions file where the <quote>shop</quote> alias is used. Calling aliases
6305 by their purpose also makes your actions files more readable.
6308 Currently, there is one big drawback to using aliases, though:
6309 <application>Privoxy</application>'s built-in web-based action file
6310 editor honors aliases when reading the actions files, but it expands
6311 them before writing. So the effects of your aliases are of course preserved,
6312 but the aliases themselves are lost when you edit sections that use aliases
6317 Now let's define some aliases...
6322 # Useful custom aliases we can use later.
6324 # Note the (required!) section header line and that this section
6325 # must be at the top of the actions file!
6329 # These aliases just save typing later:
6330 # (Note that some already use other aliases!)
6332 +crunch-all-cookies = +<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> +<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
6333 -crunch-all-cookies = -<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> -<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
6334 +block-as-image = +block +handle-as-image
6335 allow-all-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> -<link linkend="FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</link>
6337 # These aliases define combinations of actions
6338 # that are useful for certain types of sites:
6340 fragile = -<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link> -<link linkend="HIDE-REFERER">hide-referrer</link> -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link> -<link linkend="PREVENT-COMPRESSION">prevent-compression</link>
6342 shop = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{all-popups}</link> -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link>
6344 # Short names for other aliases, for really lazy people ;-)
6346 c0 = +crunch-all-cookies
6347 c1 = -crunch-all-cookies</screen>
6351 ...and put them to use. These sections would appear in the lower part of an
6352 actions file and define exceptions to the default actions (as specified further
6353 up for the <quote>/</quote> pattern):
6358 # These sites are either very complex or very keen on
6359 # user data and require minimal interference to work:
6362 .office.microsoft.com
6363 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com
6364 # Gmail is really mail.google.com, not gmail.com
6368 # Allow cookies (for setting and retrieving your customer data)
6372 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
6375 # These shops require pop-ups:
6377 {-kill-popups -filter{all-popups} -filter{unsolicited-popups}}
6379 .overclockers.co.uk</screen>
6383 Aliases like <quote>shop</quote> and <quote>fragile</quote> are typically used for
6384 <quote>problem</quote> sites that require more than one action to be disabled
6385 in order to function properly.
6391 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6392 <sect2 id="act-examples">
6393 <title>Actions Files Tutorial</title>
6395 The above chapters have shown <link linkend="actions-file">which actions files
6396 there are and how they are organized</link>, how actions are <link
6397 linkend="actions">specified</link> and <link linkend="actions-apply">applied
6398 to URLs</link>, how <link linkend="af-patterns">patterns</link> work, and how to
6399 define and use <link linkend="aliases">aliases</link>. Now, let's look at an
6400 example <filename>default.action</filename> and <filename>user.action</filename>
6401 file and see how all these pieces come together:
6404 <sect3><title>default.action</title>
6407 Every config file should start with a short comment stating its purpose:
6411 <screen># Sample default.action file <ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net></screen>
6415 Then, since this is the <filename>default.action</filename> file, the
6416 first section is a special section for internal use that you needn't
6417 change or worry about:
6422 ##########################################################################
6423 # Settings -- Don't change! For internal Privoxy use ONLY.
6424 ##########################################################################
6427 for-privoxy-version=3.0</screen>
6431 After that comes the (optional) alias section. We'll use the example
6432 section from the above <link linkend="aliases">chapter on aliases</link>,
6433 that also explains why and how aliases are used:
6438 ##########################################################################
6440 ##########################################################################
6443 # These aliases just save typing later:
6444 # (Note that some already use other aliases!)
6446 +crunch-all-cookies = +<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> +<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
6447 -crunch-all-cookies = -<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> -<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
6448 +block-as-image = +block +handle-as-image
6449 mercy-for-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> -<link linkend="FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</link>
6451 # These aliases define combinations of actions
6452 # that are useful for certain types of sites:
6454 fragile = -<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link> -<link linkend="HIDE-REFERER">hide-referrer</link> -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link>
6455 shop = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{all-popups}</link> -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link></screen>
6459 Now come the regular sections, i.e. sets of actions, accompanied
6460 by URL patterns to which they apply. Remember <emphasis>all actions
6461 are disabled when matching starts</emphasis>, so we have to explicitly
6462 enable the ones we want.
6466 The first regular section is probably the most important. It has only
6467 one pattern, <quote><literal>/</literal></quote>, but this pattern
6468 <link linkend="af-patterns">matches all URLs</link>. Therefore, the
6469 set of actions used in this <quote>default</quote> section <emphasis>will
6470 be applied to all requests as a start</emphasis>. It can be partly or
6471 wholly overridden by later matches further down this file, or in user.action,
6472 but it will still be largely responsible for your overall browsing
6477 Again, at the start of matching, all actions are disabled, so there is
6478 no need to disable any actions here. (Remember: a <quote>+</quote>
6479 preceding the action name enables the action, a <quote>-</quote> disables!).
6480 Also note how this long line has been made more readable by splitting it into
6481 multiple lines with line continuation.
6486 ##########################################################################
6487 # "Defaults" section:
6488 ##########################################################################
6490 +<link linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS">deanimate-gifs</link> \
6491 +<link linkend="FILTER-HTML-ANNOYANCES">filter{html-annoyances}</link> \
6492 +<link linkend="FILTER-REFRESH-TAGS">filter{refresh-tags}</link> \
6493 +<link linkend="FILTER-WEBBUGS">filter{webbugs}</link> \
6494 +<link linkend="FILTER-IE-EXPLOITS">filter{ie-exploits}</link> \
6495 +<link linkend="HIDE-FORWARDED-FOR-HEADERS">hide-forwarded-for-headers</link> \
6496 +<link linkend="HIDE-FROM-HEADER">hide-from-header{block}</link> \
6497 +<link linkend="HIDE-REFERER">hide-referrer{forge}</link> \
6498 +<link linkend="PREVENT-COMPRESSION">prevent-compression</link> \
6499 +<link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> \
6500 +<link linkend="SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER">set-image-blocker{pattern}</link> \
6502 / # forward slash will match *all* potential URL patterns.</screen>
6506 The default behavior is now set.
6508 This needs rewording, but it can wait for now.
6511 Note that some actions, like not hiding
6512 the user agent, are part of a <quote>general policy</quote> that applies
6513 universally and won't get any exceptions defined later. Other choices,
6514 like not blocking (which is <emphasis>understandably</emphasis> the
6515 default!) need exceptions, i.e. we need to specify explicitly what we
6516 want to block in later sections.
6521 The first of our specialized sections is concerned with <quote>fragile</quote>
6522 sites, i.e. sites that require minimum interference, because they are either
6523 very complex or very keen on tracking you (and have mechanisms in place that
6524 make them unusable for people who avoid being tracked). We will simply use
6525 our pre-defined <literal>fragile</literal> alias instead of stating the list
6526 of actions explicitly:
6531 ##########################################################################
6532 # Exceptions for sites that'll break under the default action set:
6533 ##########################################################################
6535 # "Fragile" Use a minimum set of actions for these sites (see alias above):
6538 .office.microsoft.com # surprise, surprise!
6539 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com
6540 mail.google.com</screen>
6544 Shopping sites are not as fragile, but they typically
6545 require cookies to log in, and pop-up windows for shopping
6546 carts or item details. Again, we'll use a pre-defined alias:
6555 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
6557 .scan.co.uk</screen>
6560 <!-- No longer needed BEGIN OF COMMENTED OUT BLOCK
6563 Then, there are sites which rely on pop-up windows (yuck!) to work.
6564 Since we made pop-up-killing our default above, we need to make exceptions
6565 now. <ulink url="http://www.mozilla.org/">Mozilla</ulink> users, who
6566 can turn on smart handling of unwanted pop-ups in their browsers, can
6568 -<literal><link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{popups}</link></literal> (and
6569 -<literal><link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link></literal>) above
6570 and hence don't need this section. Anyway, disabling an already disabled
6571 action doesn't hurt, so we'll define our exceptions regardless of what was
6572 chosen in the defaults section:
6577 # These sites require pop-ups too :(
6579 { -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link> -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{popups}</link> }
6582 .deutsche-bank-24.de</screen>
6585 END OF COMMENTED OUT BLOCK -->
6588 The <literal><link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link></literal>
6589 action, which we enabled per default above, breaks some sites. So disable
6590 it for popular sites where we know it misbehaves:
6595 { -<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link> }
6599 .altavista.com/.*(like|url|link):http
6600 .altavista.com/trans.*urltext=http
6601 .nytimes.com</screen>
6605 It is important that <application>Privoxy</application> knows which
6606 URLs belong to images, so that <emphasis>if</emphasis> they are to
6607 be blocked, a substitute image can be sent, rather than an HTML page.
6608 Contacting the remote site to find out is not an option, since it
6609 would destroy the loading time advantage of banner blocking, and it
6610 would feed the advertisers (in terms of money <emphasis>and</emphasis>
6611 information). We can mark any URL as an image with the <literal><link
6612 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> action,
6613 and marking all URLs that end in a known image file extension is a
6619 ##########################################################################
6621 ##########################################################################
6623 # Define which file types will be treated as images, in case they get
6624 # blocked further down this file:
6626 { +<link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">handle-as-image</link> }
6627 /.*\.(gif|jpe?g|png|bmp|ico)$</screen>
6631 And then there are known banner sources. They often use scripts to
6632 generate the banners, so it won't be visible from the URL that the
6633 request is for an image. Hence we block them <emphasis>and</emphasis>
6634 mark them as images in one go, with the help of our
6635 <literal>+block-as-image</literal> alias defined above. (We could of
6636 course just as well use <literal>+<link linkend="block">block</link>
6637 +<link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> here.)
6638 Remember that the type of the replacement image is chosen by the
6639 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>
6640 action. Since all URLs have matched the default section with its
6641 <literal>+<link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link>{pattern}</literal>
6642 action before, it still applies and needn't be repeated:
6647 # Known ad generators:
6652 .ad.*.doubleclick.net
6653 .a.yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$
6654 .a[0-9].yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$
6660 One of the most important jobs of <application>Privoxy</application>
6661 is to block banners. Many of these can be <quote>blocked</quote>
6662 by the <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link>{banners-by-size}</literal>
6663 action, which we enabled above, and which deletes the references to banner
6664 images from the pages while they are loaded, so the browser doesn't request
6665 them anymore, and hence they don't need to be blocked here. But this naturally
6666 doesn't catch all banners, and some people choose not to use filters, so we
6667 need a comprehensive list of patterns for banner URLs here, and apply the
6668 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action to them.
6671 First comes many generic patterns, which do most of the work, by
6672 matching typical domain and path name components of banners. Then comes
6673 a list of individual patterns for specific sites, which is omitted here
6674 to keep the example short:
6679 ##########################################################################
6680 # Block these fine banners:
6681 ##########################################################################
6682 { <link linkend="BLOCK">+block</link> }
6690 /.*count(er)?\.(pl|cgi|exe|dll|asp|php[34]?)
6691 /(?:.*/)?(publicite|werbung|rekla(ma|me|am)|annonse|maino(kset|nta|s)?)/
6693 # Site-specific patterns (abbreviated):
6695 .hitbox.com</screen>
6699 It's quite remarkable how many advertisers actually call their banner
6700 servers ads.<replaceable>company</replaceable>.com, or call the directory
6701 in which the banners are stored simply <quote>banners</quote>. So the above
6702 generic patterns are surprisingly effective.
6705 But being very generic, they necessarily also catch URLs that we don't want
6706 to block. The pattern <literal>.*ads.</literal> e.g. catches
6707 <quote>nasty-<emphasis>ads</emphasis>.nasty-corp.com</quote> as intended,
6708 but also <quote>downlo<emphasis>ads</emphasis>.sourcefroge.net</quote> or
6709 <quote><emphasis>ads</emphasis>l.some-provider.net.</quote> So here come some
6710 well-known exceptions to the <literal>+<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal>
6714 Note that these are exceptions to exceptions from the default! Consider the URL
6715 <quote>downloads.sourcefroge.net</quote>: Initially, all actions are deactivated,
6716 so it wouldn't get blocked. Then comes the defaults section, which matches the
6717 URL, but just deactivates the <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal>
6718 action once again. Then it matches <literal>.*ads.</literal>, an exception to the
6719 general non-blocking policy, and suddenly
6720 <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">+block</link></literal> applies. And now, it'll match
6721 <literal>.*loads.</literal>, where <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">-block</link></literal>
6722 applies, so (unless it matches <emphasis>again</emphasis> further down) it ends up
6723 with no <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal> action applying.
6728 ##########################################################################
6729 # Save some innocent victims of the above generic block patterns:
6730 ##########################################################################
6734 { -<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> }
6735 adv[io]*. # (for advogato.org and advice.*)
6736 adsl. # (has nothing to do with ads)
6737 adobe. # (has nothing to do with ads either)
6738 ad[ud]*. # (adult.* and add.*)
6739 .edu # (universities don't host banners (yet!))
6740 .*loads. # (downloads, uploads etc)
6748 www.globalintersec.com/adv # (adv = advanced)
6749 www.ugu.com/sui/ugu/adv</screen>
6753 Filtering source code can have nasty side effects,
6754 so make an exception for our friends at sourceforge.net,
6755 and all paths with <quote>cvs</quote> in them. Note that
6756 <literal>-<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link></literal>
6757 disables <emphasis>all</emphasis> filters in one fell swoop!
6762 # Don't filter code!
6764 { -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> }
6769 .sourceforge.net</screen>
6773 The actual <filename>default.action</filename> is of course much more
6774 comprehensive, but we hope this example made clear how it works.
6779 <sect3><title>user.action</title>
6782 So far we are painting with a broad brush by setting general policies,
6783 which would be a reasonable starting point for many people. Now,
6784 you might want to be more specific and have customized rules that
6785 are more suitable to your personal habits and preferences. These would
6786 be for narrowly defined situations like your ISP or your bank, and should
6787 be placed in <filename>user.action</filename>, which is parsed after all other
6788 actions files and hence has the last word, over-riding any previously
6789 defined actions. <filename>user.action</filename> is also a
6790 <emphasis>safe</emphasis> place for your personal settings, since
6791 <filename>default.action</filename> is actively maintained by the
6792 <application>Privoxy</application> developers and you'll probably want
6793 to install updated versions from time to time.
6797 So let's look at a few examples of things that one might typically do in
6798 <filename>user.action</filename>:
6802 <!-- brief sample user.action here -->
6806 # My user.action file. <fred@example.com></screen>
6810 As <link linkend="aliases">aliases</link> are local to the actions
6811 file that they are defined in, you can't use the ones from
6812 <filename>default.action</filename>, unless you repeat them here:
6817 # Aliases are local to the file they are defined in.
6818 # (Re-)define aliases for this file:
6822 # These aliases just save typing later, and the alias names should
6823 # be self explanatory.
6825 +crunch-all-cookies = +crunch-incoming-cookies +crunch-outgoing-cookies
6826 -crunch-all-cookies = -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-cookies
6827 allow-all-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -session-cookies-only
6828 allow-popups = -filter{all-popups} -kill-popups
6829 +block-as-image = +block +handle-as-image
6830 -block-as-image = -block
6832 # These aliases define combinations of actions that are useful for
6833 # certain types of sites:
6835 fragile = -block -crunch-all-cookies -filter -fast-redirects -hide-referrer -kill-popups
6836 shop = -crunch-all-cookies allow-popups
6838 # Allow ads for selected useful free sites:
6840 allow-ads = -block -filter{banners-by-size} -filter{banners-by-link}
6842 # Alias for specific file types that are text, but might have conflicting
6843 # MIME types. We want the browser to force these to be text documents.
6844 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>
6849 Say you have accounts on some sites that you visit regularly, and
6850 you don't want to have to log in manually each time. So you'd like
6851 to allow persistent cookies for these sites. The
6852 <literal>allow-all-cookies</literal> alias defined above does exactly
6853 that, i.e. it disables crunching of cookies in any direction, and the
6854 processing of cookies to make them only temporary.
6859 { allow-all-cookies }
6863 .redhat.com</screen>
6867 Your bank is allergic to some filter, but you don't know which, so you disable them all:
6872 { -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> }
6873 .your-home-banking-site.com</screen>
6877 Some file types you may not want to filter for various reasons:
6882 # Technical documentation is likely to contain strings that might
6883 # erroneously get altered by the JavaScript-oriented filters:
6888 # And this stupid host sends streaming video with a wrong MIME type,
6889 # so that Privoxy thinks it is getting HTML and starts filtering:
6891 stupid-server.example.com/</screen>
6895 Example of a simple <link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> action. Say you've
6896 seen an ad on your favourite page on example.com that you want to get rid of.
6897 You have right-clicked the image, selected <quote>copy image location</quote>
6898 and pasted the URL below while removing the leading http://, into a
6899 <literal>{ +block }</literal> section. Note that <literal>{ +handle-as-image
6900 }</literal> need not be specified, since all URLs ending in
6901 <literal>.gif</literal> will be tagged as images by the general rules as set
6902 in default.action anyway:
6907 { +<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> }
6908 www.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor\.gif
6909 another.example.net/more/junk/here/</screen>
6913 The URLs of dynamically generated banners, especially from large banner
6914 farms, often don't use the well-known image file name extensions, which
6915 makes it impossible for <application>Privoxy</application> to guess
6916 the file type just by looking at the URL.
6917 You can use the <literal>+block-as-image</literal> alias defined above for
6919 Note that objects which match this rule but then turn out NOT to be an
6920 image are typically rendered as a <quote>broken image</quote> icon by the
6921 browser. Use cautiously.
6930 ar.atwola.com/</screen>
6934 Now you noticed that the default configuration breaks Forbes Magazine,
6935 but you were too lazy to find out which action is the culprit, and you
6936 were again too lazy to give <link linkend="contact">feedback</link>, so
6937 you just used the <literal>fragile</literal> alias on the site, and
6938 -- <emphasis>whoa!</emphasis> -- it worked. The <literal>fragile</literal>
6939 aliases disables those actions that are most likely to break a site. Also,
6940 good for testing purposes to see if it is <application>Privoxy</application>
6941 that is causing the problem or not. We later find other regular sites
6942 that misbehave, and add those to our personalized list of troublemakers:
6950 .mybank.com</screen>
6954 You like the <quote>fun</quote> text replacements in <filename>default.filter</filename>,
6955 but it is disabled in the distributed actions file.
6956 So you'd like to turn it on in your private,
6957 update-safe config, once and for all:
6962 { +<link linkend="filter-fun">filter{fun}</link> }
6963 / # For ALL sites!</screen>
6967 Note that the above is not really a good idea: There are exceptions
6968 to the filters in <filename>default.action</filename> for things that
6969 really shouldn't be filtered, like code on CVS->Web interfaces. Since
6970 <filename>user.action</filename> has the last word, these exceptions
6971 won't be valid for the <quote>fun</quote> filtering specified here.
6975 You might also worry about how your favourite free websites are
6976 funded, and find that they rely on displaying banner advertisements
6977 to survive. So you might want to specifically allow banners for those
6978 sites that you feel provide value to you:
6990 Note that <literal>allow-ads</literal> has been aliased to
6991 <literal>-<link linkend="block">block</link></literal>,
6992 <literal>-<link linkend="filter-banners-by-size">filter{banners-by-size}</link></literal>, and
6993 <literal>-<link linkend="filter-banners-by-link">filter{banners-by-link}</link></literal> above.
6997 Invoke another alias here to force an over-ride of the MIME type <literal>
6998 application/x-sh</literal> which typically would open a download type
6999 dialog. In my case, I want to look at the shell script, and then I can save
7000 it should I choose to.
7010 <filename>user.action</filename> is generally the best place to define
7011 exceptions and additions to the default policies of
7012 <filename>default.action</filename>. Some actions are safe to have their
7013 default policies set here though. So let's set a default policy to have a
7014 <quote>blank</quote> image as opposed to the checkerboard pattern for
7015 <emphasis>ALL</emphasis> sites. <quote>/</quote> of course matches all URL
7021 { +<link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker{blank}</link> }
7022 / # ALL sites</screen>
7028 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7032 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7034 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
7036 <sect1 id="filter-file">
7037 <title>Filter Files</title>
7040 On-the-fly text substitutions need
7041 to be defined in a <quote>filter file</quote>. Once defined, they
7042 can then be invoked as an <quote>action</quote>.
7046 &my-app; supports three different filter actions:
7047 <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> to
7048 rewrite the content that is send to the client,
7049 <literal><link linkend="client-header-filter">client-header-filter</link></literal>
7050 to rewrite headers that are send by the client, and
7051 <literal><link linkend="server-header-filter">server-header-filter</link></literal>
7052 to rewrite headers that are send by the server.
7056 &my-app; also supports two tagger actions:
7057 <literal><link linkend="client-header-tagger">client-header-tagger</link></literal>
7059 <literal><link linkend="server-header-tagger">server-header-tagger</link></literal>.
7060 Taggers and filters use the same syntax in the filter files, the difference
7061 is that taggers don't modify the text they are filtering, but use a rewritten
7062 version of the filtered text as tag. The tags can then be used to change the
7063 applying actions through sections with <link linkend="tag-pattern">tag-patterns</link>.
7068 Multiple filter files can be defined through the <literal> <link
7069 linkend="filterfile">filterfile</link></literal> config directive. The filters
7070 as supplied by the developers are located in
7071 <filename>default.filter</filename>. It is recommended that any locally
7072 defined or modified filters go in a separately defined file such as
7073 <filename>user.filter</filename>.
7077 Common tasks for content filters are to eliminate common annoyances in
7078 HTML and JavaScript, such as pop-up windows,
7079 exit consoles, crippled windows without navigation tools, the
7080 infamous <BLINK> tag etc, to suppress images with certain
7081 width and height attributes (standard banner sizes or web-bugs),
7082 or just to have fun.
7086 Enabled content filters are applied to any content whose
7087 <quote>Content Type</quote> header is recognised as a sign
7088 of text-based content, with the exception of <literal>text/plain</literal>.
7089 Use the <link linkend="FORCE-TEXT-MODE">force-text-mode</link> action
7090 to also filter other content.
7094 Substitutions are made at the source level, so if you want to <quote>roll
7095 your own</quote> filters, you should first be familiar with HTML syntax,
7096 and, of course, regular expressions.
7100 Just like the <link linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>, the
7101 filter file is organized in sections, which are called <emphasis>filters</emphasis>
7102 here. Each filter consists of a heading line, that starts with one of the
7103 <emphasis>keywords</emphasis> <literal>FILTER:</literal>,
7104 <literal>CLIENT-HEADER-FILTER:</literal> or <literal>SERVER-HEADER-FILTER:</literal>
7105 followed by the filter's <emphasis>name</emphasis>, and a short (one line)
7106 <emphasis>description</emphasis> of what it does. Below that line
7107 come the <emphasis>jobs</emphasis>, i.e. lines that define the actual
7108 text substitutions. By convention, the name of a filter
7109 should describe what the filter <emphasis>eliminates</emphasis>. The
7110 comment is used in the <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">web-based
7111 user interface</ulink>.
7115 Once a filter called <replaceable>name</replaceable> has been defined
7116 in the filter file, it can be invoked by using an action of the form
7117 +<literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link>{<replaceable>name</replaceable>}</literal>
7118 in any <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link>.
7122 Filter definitions start with a header line that contains the filter
7123 type, the filter name and the filter description.
7124 A content filter header line for a filter called <quote>foo</quote> could look
7129 <screen>FILTER: foo Replace all "foo" with "bar"</screen>
7133 Below that line, and up to the next header line, come the jobs that
7134 define what text replacements the filter executes. They are specified
7135 in a syntax that imitates <ulink url="http://www.perl.org/">Perl</ulink>'s
7136 <literal>s///</literal> operator. If you are familiar with Perl, you
7137 will find this to be quite intuitive, and may want to look at the
7138 PCRS documentation for the subtle differences to Perl behaviour. Most
7139 notably, the non-standard option letter <literal>U</literal> is supported,
7140 which turns the default to ungreedy matching.
7145 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
7146 Expressions</quote></ulink>, you might want to take a look at
7147 the <link linkend="regex">Appendix on regular expressions</link>, and
7148 see the <ulink url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html">Perl
7150 <ulink url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlop.html">the
7151 <literal>s///</literal> operator's syntax</ulink> and <ulink
7152 url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html">Perl-style regular
7153 expressions</ulink> in general.
7154 The below examples might also help to get you started.
7158 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
7160 <sect2><title>Filter File Tutorial</title>
7162 Now, let's complete our <quote>foo</quote> content filter. We have already defined
7163 the heading, but the jobs are still missing. Since all it does is to replace
7164 <quote>foo</quote> with <quote>bar</quote>, there is only one (trivial) job
7169 <screen>s/foo/bar/</screen>
7173 But wait! Didn't the comment say that <emphasis>all</emphasis> occurrences
7174 of <quote>foo</quote> should be replaced? Our current job will only take
7175 care of the first <quote>foo</quote> on each page. For global substitution,
7176 we'll need to add the <literal>g</literal> option:
7180 <screen>s/foo/bar/g</screen>
7184 Our complete filter now looks like this:
7187 <screen>FILTER: foo Replace all "foo" with "bar"
7188 s/foo/bar/g</screen>
7192 Let's look at some real filters for more interesting examples. Here you see
7193 a filter that protects against some common annoyances that arise from JavaScript
7194 abuse. Let's look at its jobs one after the other:
7200 FILTER: js-annoyances Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse
7202 # Get rid of JavaScript referrer tracking. Test page: http://www.randomoddness.com/untitled.htm
7204 s|(<script.*)document\.referrer(.*</script>)|$1"Not Your Business!"$2|Usg</screen>
7208 Following the header line and a comment, you see the job. Note that it uses
7209 <literal>|</literal> as the delimiter instead of <literal>/</literal>, because
7210 the pattern contains a forward slash, which would otherwise have to be escaped
7211 by a backslash (<literal>\</literal>).
7215 Now, let's examine the pattern: it starts with the text <literal><script.*</literal>
7216 enclosed in parentheses. Since the dot matches any character, and <literal>*</literal>
7217 means: <quote>Match an arbitrary number of the element left of myself</quote>, this
7218 matches <quote><script</quote>, followed by <emphasis>any</emphasis> text, i.e.
7219 it matches the whole page, from the start of the first <script> tag.
7223 That's more than we want, but the pattern continues: <literal>document\.referrer</literal>
7224 matches only the exact string <quote>document.referrer</quote>. The dot needed to
7225 be <emphasis>escaped</emphasis>, i.e. preceded by a backslash, to take away its
7226 special meaning as a joker, and make it just a regular dot. So far, the meaning is:
7227 Match from the start of the first <script> tag in a the page, up to, and including,
7228 the text <quote>document.referrer</quote>, if <emphasis>both</emphasis> are present
7229 in the page (and appear in that order).
7233 But there's still more pattern to go. The next element, again enclosed in parentheses,
7234 is <literal>.*</script></literal>. You already know what <literal>.*</literal>
7235 means, so the whole pattern translates to: Match from the start of the first <script>
7236 tag in a page to the end of the last <script> tag, provided that the text
7237 <quote>document.referrer</quote> appears somewhere in between.
7241 This is still not the whole story, since we have ignored the options and the parentheses:
7242 The portions of the page matched by sub-patterns that are enclosed in parentheses, will be
7243 remembered and be available through the variables <literal>$1, $2, ...</literal> in
7244 the substitute. The <literal>U</literal> option switches to ungreedy matching, which means
7245 that the first <literal>.*</literal> in the pattern will only <quote>eat up</quote> all
7246 text in between <quote><script</quote> and the <emphasis>first</emphasis> occurrence
7247 of <quote>document.referrer</quote>, and that the second <literal>.*</literal> will
7248 only span the text up to the <emphasis>first</emphasis> <quote></script></quote>
7249 tag. Furthermore, the <literal>s</literal> option says that the match may span
7250 multiple lines in the page, and the <literal>g</literal> option again means that the
7251 substitution is global.
7255 So, to summarize, the pattern means: Match all scripts that contain the text
7256 <quote>document.referrer</quote>. Remember the parts of the script from
7257 (and including) the start tag up to (and excluding) the string
7258 <quote>document.referrer</quote> as <literal>$1</literal>, and the part following
7259 that string, up to and including the closing tag, as <literal>$2</literal>.
7263 Now the pattern is deciphered, but wasn't this about substituting things? So
7264 lets look at the substitute: <literal>$1"Not Your Business!"$2</literal> is
7265 easy to read: The text remembered as <literal>$1</literal>, followed by
7266 <literal>"Not Your Business!"</literal> (<emphasis>including</emphasis>
7267 the quotation marks!), followed by the text remembered as <literal>$2</literal>.
7268 This produces an exact copy of the original string, with the middle part
7269 (the <quote>document.referrer</quote>) replaced by <literal>"Not Your
7270 Business!"</literal>.
7274 The whole job now reads: Replace <quote>document.referrer</quote> by
7275 <literal>"Not Your Business!"</literal> wherever it appears inside a
7276 <script> tag. Note that this job won't break JavaScript syntax,
7277 since both the original and the replacement are syntactically valid
7278 string objects. The script just won't have access to the referrer
7279 information anymore.
7283 We'll show you two other jobs from the JavaScript taming department, but
7284 this time only point out the constructs of special interest:
7289 # The status bar is for displaying link targets, not pointless blahblah
7291 s/window\.status\s*=\s*(['"]).*?\1/dUmMy=1/ig</screen>
7295 <literal>\s</literal> stands for whitespace characters (space, tab, newline,
7296 carriage return, form feed), so that <literal>\s*</literal> means: <quote>zero
7297 or more whitespace</quote>. The <literal>?</literal> in <literal>.*?</literal>
7298 makes this matching of arbitrary text ungreedy. (Note that the <literal>U</literal>
7299 option is not set). The <literal>['"]</literal> construct means: <quote>a single
7300 <emphasis>or</emphasis> a double quote</quote>. Finally, <literal>\1</literal> is
7301 a back-reference to the first parenthesis just like <literal>$1</literal> above,
7302 with the difference that in the <emphasis>pattern</emphasis>, a backslash indicates
7303 a back-reference, whereas in the <emphasis>substitute</emphasis>, it's the dollar.
7307 So what does this job do? It replaces assignments of single- or double-quoted
7308 strings to the <quote>window.status</quote> object with a dummy assignment
7309 (using a variable name that is hopefully odd enough not to conflict with
7310 real variables in scripts). Thus, it catches many cases where e.g. pointless
7311 descriptions are displayed in the status bar instead of the link target when
7312 you move your mouse over links.
7317 # Kill OnUnload popups. Yummy. Test: http://www.zdnet.com/zdsubs/yahoo/tree/yfs.html
7319 s/(<body [^>]*)onunload(.*>)/$1never$2/iU</screen>
7324 <ulink url="http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-DOM-Level-2-Events-20001113/events.html#Events-eventgroupings-htmlevents">OnUnload
7325 event binding</ulink> in the HTML DOM was a <emphasis>CRIME</emphasis>.
7326 When I close a browser window, I want it to close and die. Basta.
7327 This job replaces the <quote>onunload</quote> attribute in
7328 <quote><body></quote> tags with the dummy word <literal>never</literal>.
7329 Note that the <literal>i</literal> option makes the pattern matching
7330 case-insensitive. Also note that ungreedy matching alone doesn't always guarantee
7331 a minimal match: In the first parenthesis, we had to use <literal>[^>]*</literal>
7332 instead of <literal>.*</literal> to prevent the match from exceeding the
7333 <body> tag if it doesn't contain <quote>OnUnload</quote>, but the page's
7338 The last example is from the fun department:
7343 FILTER: fun Fun text replacements
7345 # Spice the daily news:
7347 s/microsoft(?!\.com)/MicroSuck/ig</screen>
7351 Note the <literal>(?!\.com)</literal> part (a so-called negative lookahead)
7352 in the job's pattern, which means: Don't match, if the string
7353 <quote>.com</quote> appears directly following <quote>microsoft</quote>
7354 in the page. This prevents links to microsoft.com from being trashed, while
7355 still replacing the word everywhere else.
7360 # Buzzword Bingo (example for extended regex syntax)
7362 s* industry[ -]leading \
7364 | customer[ -]focused \
7365 | market[ -]driven \
7366 | award[ -]winning # Comments are OK, too! \
7367 | high[ -]performance \
7368 | solutions[ -]based \
7372 *<font color="red"><b>BINGO!</b></font> \
7377 The <literal>x</literal> option in this job turns on extended syntax, and allows for
7378 e.g. the liberal use of (non-interpreted!) whitespace for nicer formatting.
7386 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
7388 <sect2 id="predefined-filters"><title>The Pre-defined Filters</title>
7392 Note each filter is also listed in the +filter action section above. Please
7393 keep these listings in sync.
7398 The distribution <filename>default.filter</filename> file contains a selection of
7399 pre-defined filters for your convenience:
7404 <term><emphasis>js-annoyances</emphasis></term>
7407 The purpose of this filter is to get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse.
7412 replaces JavaScript references to the browser's referrer information
7413 with the string "Not Your Business!". This compliments the <literal><link
7414 linkend="hide-referrer">hide-referrer</link></literal> action on the content level.
7419 removes the bindings to the DOM's
7420 <ulink url="http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-DOM-Level-2-Events-20001113/events.html#Events-eventgroupings-htmlevents">unload
7421 event</ulink> which we feel has no right to exist and is responsible for most <quote>exit consoles</quote>, i.e.
7422 nasty windows that pop up when you close another one.
7427 removes code that causes new windows to be opened with undesired properties, such as being
7428 full-screen, non-resizeable, without location, status or menu bar etc.
7434 Use with caution. This is an aggressive filter, and can break sites that
7435 rely heavily on JavaScript.
7441 <term><emphasis>js-events</emphasis></term>
7444 This is a very radical measure. It removes virtually all JavaScript event bindings, which
7445 means that scripts can not react to user actions such as mouse movements or clicks, window
7446 resizing etc, anymore. Use with caution!
7449 We <emphasis>strongly discourage</emphasis> using this filter as a default since it breaks
7450 many legitimate scripts. It is meant for use only on extra-nasty sites (should you really
7457 <term><emphasis>html-annoyances</emphasis></term>
7460 This filter will undo many common instances of HTML based abuse.
7463 The <literal>BLINK</literal> and <literal>MARQUEE</literal> tags
7464 are neutralized (yeah baby!), and browser windows will be created as
7465 resizeable (as of course they should be!), and will have location,
7466 scroll and menu bars -- even if specified otherwise.
7472 <term><emphasis>content-cookies</emphasis></term>
7475 Most cookies are set in the HTTP dialog, where they can be intercepted
7477 <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal>
7478 and <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>
7479 actions. But web sites increasingly make use of HTML meta tags and JavaScript
7480 to sneak cookies to the browser on the content level.
7483 This filter disables most HTML and JavaScript code that reads or sets
7484 cookies. It cannot detect all clever uses of these types of code, so it
7485 should not be relied on as an absolute fix. Use it wherever you would also
7486 use the cookie crunch actions.
7492 <term><emphasis>refresh tags</emphasis></term>
7495 Disable any refresh tags if the interval is greater than nine seconds (so
7496 that redirections done via refresh tags are not destroyed). This is useful
7497 for dial-on-demand setups, or for those who find this HTML feature
7504 <term><emphasis>unsolicited-popups</emphasis></term>
7507 This filter attempts to prevent only <quote>unsolicited</quote> pop-up
7508 windows from opening, yet still allow pop-up windows that the user
7509 has explicitly chosen to open. It was added in version 3.0.1,
7510 as an improvement over earlier such filters.
7513 Technical note: The filter works by redefining the window.open JavaScript
7514 function to a dummy function, <literal>PrivoxyWindowOpen()</literal>,
7515 during the loading and rendering phase of each HTML page access, and
7516 restoring the function afterward.
7519 This is recommended only for browsers that cannot perform this function
7520 reliably themselves. And be aware that some sites require such windows
7521 in order to function normally. Use with caution.
7527 <term><emphasis>all-popups</emphasis></term>
7530 Attempt to prevent <emphasis>all</emphasis> pop-up windows from opening.
7531 Note this should be used with even more discretion than the above, since
7532 it is more likely to break some sites that require pop-ups for normal
7533 usage. Use with caution.
7539 <term><emphasis>img-reorder</emphasis></term>
7542 This is a helper filter that has no value if used alone. It makes the
7543 <literal>banners-by-size</literal> and <literal>banners-by-link</literal>
7544 (see below) filters more effective and should be enabled together with them.
7550 <term><emphasis>banners-by-size</emphasis></term>
7553 This filter removes image tags purely based on what size they are. Fortunately
7554 for us, many ads and banner images tend to conform to certain standardized
7555 sizes, which makes this filter quite effective for ad stripping purposes.
7558 Occasionally this filter will cause false positives on images that are not ads,
7559 but just happen to be of one of the standard banner sizes.
7562 Recommended only for those who require extreme ad blocking. The default
7563 block rules should catch 95+% of all ads <emphasis>without</emphasis> this filter enabled.
7569 <term><emphasis>banners-by-link</emphasis></term>
7572 This is an experimental filter that attempts to kill any banners if
7573 their URLs seem to point to known or suspected click trackers. It is currently
7574 not of much value and is not recommended for use by default.
7580 <term><emphasis>webbugs</emphasis></term>
7583 Webbugs are small, invisible images (technically 1X1 GIF images), that
7584 are used to track users across websites, and collect information on them.
7585 As an HTML page is loaded by the browser, an embedded image tag causes the
7586 browser to contact a third-party site, disclosing the tracking information
7587 through the requested URL and/or cookies for that third-party domain, without
7588 the user ever becoming aware of the interaction with the third-party site.
7589 HTML-ized spam also uses a similar technique to verify email addresses.
7592 This filter removes the HTML code that loads such <quote>webbugs</quote>.
7598 <term><emphasis>tiny-textforms</emphasis></term>
7601 A rather special-purpose filter that can be used to enlarge textareas (those
7602 multi-line text boxes in web forms) and turn off hard word wrap in them.
7603 It was written for the sourceforge.net tracker system where such boxes are
7604 a nuisance, but it can be handy on other sites, too.
7607 It is not recommended to use this filter as a default.
7613 <term><emphasis>jumping-windows</emphasis></term>
7616 Many consider windows that move, or resize themselves to be abusive. This filter
7617 neutralizes the related JavaScript code. Note that some sites might not display
7618 or behave as intended when using this filter. Use with caution.
7624 <term><emphasis>frameset-borders</emphasis></term>
7627 Some web designers seem to assume that everyone in the world will view their
7628 web sites using the same browser brand and version, screen resolution etc,
7629 because only that assumption could explain why they'd use static frame sizes,
7630 yet prevent their frames from being resized by the user, should they be too
7631 small to show their whole content.
7634 This filter removes the related HTML code. It should only be applied to sites
7641 <term><emphasis>demoronizer</emphasis></term>
7644 Many Microsoft products that generate HTML use non-standard extensions (read:
7645 violations) of the ISO 8859-1 aka Latin-1 character set. This can cause those
7646 HTML documents to display with errors on standard-compliant platforms.
7649 This filter translates the MS-only characters into Latin-1 equivalents.
7650 It is not necessary when using MS products, and will cause corruption of
7651 all documents that use 8-bit character sets other than Latin-1. It's mostly
7652 worthwhile for Europeans on non-MS platforms, if weird garbage characters
7653 sometimes appear on some pages, or user agents that don't correct for this on
7656 My version of Mozilla (ancient) shows litte square boxes for quote
7657 characters, and apostrophes on moronized pages. So many pages have this, I
7658 can read them fine now. HB 08/27/06
7665 <term><emphasis>shockwave-flash</emphasis></term>
7668 A filter for shockwave haters. As the name suggests, this filter strips code
7669 out of web pages that is used to embed shockwave flash objects.
7677 <term><emphasis>quicktime-kioskmode</emphasis></term>
7680 Change HTML code that embeds Quicktime objects so that kioskmode, which
7681 prevents saving, is disabled.
7687 <term><emphasis>fun</emphasis></term>
7690 Text replacements for subversive browsing fun. Make fun of your favorite
7691 Monopolist or play buzzword bingo.
7697 <term><emphasis>crude-parental</emphasis></term>
7700 A demonstration-only filter that shows how <application>Privoxy</application>
7701 can be used to delete web content on a keyword basis.
7707 <term><emphasis>ie-exploits</emphasis></term>
7710 An experimental collection of text replacements to disable malicious HTML and JavaScript
7711 code that exploits known security holes in Internet Explorer.
7714 Presently, it only protects against Nimda and a cross-site scripting bug, and
7715 would need active maintenance to provide more substantial protection.
7721 <term><emphasis>site-specifics</emphasis></term>
7724 Some web sites have very specific problems, the cure for which doesn't apply
7725 anywhere else, or could even cause damage on other sites.
7728 This is a collection of such site-specific cures which should only be applied
7729 to the sites they were intended for, which is what the supplied
7730 <filename>default.action</filename> file does. Users shouldn't need to change
7731 anything regarding this filter.
7737 <term><emphasis>google</emphasis></term>
7740 A CSS based block for Google text ads. Also removes a width limitation
7741 and the toolbar advertisement.
7747 <term><emphasis>yahoo</emphasis></term>
7750 Another CSS based block, this time for Yahoo text ads. And removes
7751 a width limitation as well.
7757 <term><emphasis>msn</emphasis></term>
7760 Another CSS based block, this time for MSN text ads. And removes
7761 tracking URLs, as well as a width limitation.
7767 <term><emphasis>blogspot</emphasis></term>
7770 Cleans up some Blogspot blogs. Read the fine print before using this one!
7773 This filter also intentionally removes some navigation stuff and sets the
7774 page width to 100%. As a result, some rounded <quote>corners</quote> would
7775 appear to early or not at all and as fixing this would require a browser
7776 that understands background-size (CSS3), they are removed instead.
7782 <term><emphasis>xml-to-html</emphasis></term>
7785 Server-header filter to change the Content-Type from xml to html.
7791 <term><emphasis>html-to-xml</emphasis></term>
7794 Server-header filter to change the Content-Type from html to xml.
7800 <term><emphasis>no-ping</emphasis></term>
7803 Removes the non-standard <literal>ping</literal> attribute from
7804 anchor and area HTML tags.
7810 <term><emphasis>hide-tor-exit-notation</emphasis></term>
7813 Client-header filter to remove the <command>Tor</command> exit node notation
7814 found in Host and Referer headers.
7817 If &my-app; and <command>Tor</command> are chained and &my-app;
7818 is configured to use socks4a, one can use <quote>http://www.example.org.foobar.exit/</quote>
7819 to access the host <quote>www.example.org</quote> through the
7820 <command>Tor</command> exit node <quote>foobar</quote>.
7823 As the HTTP client isn't aware of this notation, it treats the
7824 whole string <quote>www.example.org.foobar.exit</quote> as host and uses it
7825 for the <quote>Host</quote> and <quote>Referer</quote> headers. From the
7826 server's point of view the resulting headers are invalid and can cause problems.
7829 An invalid <quote>Referer</quote> header can trigger <quote>hot-linking</quote>
7830 protections, an invalid <quote>Host</quote> header will make it impossible for
7831 the server to find the right vhost (several domains hosted on the same IP address).
7834 This client-header filter removes the <quote>foo.exit</quote> part in those headers
7835 to prevent the mentioned problems. Note that it only modifies
7836 the HTTP headers, it doesn't make it impossible for the server
7837 to detect your <command>Tor</command> exit node based on the IP address
7838 the request is coming from.
7845 <term><emphasis> </emphasis></term>
7859 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7863 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7865 <sect1 id="templates">
7866 <title>Privoxy's Template Files</title>
7868 All <application>Privoxy</application> built-in pages, i.e. error pages such as the
7869 <ulink url="http://show-the-404-error.page"><quote>404 - No Such Domain</quote>
7870 error page</ulink>, the <ulink
7871 url="http://ads.bannerserver.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor.html"><quote>BLOCKED</quote>
7873 and all pages of its <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">web-based
7874 user interface</ulink>, are generated from <emphasis>templates</emphasis>.
7875 (<application>Privoxy</application> must be running for the above links to work as
7880 These templates are stored in a subdirectory of the <link linkend="confdir">configuration
7881 directory</link> called <filename>templates</filename>. On Unixish platforms,
7883 <ulink url="file:///etc/privoxy/templates/"><filename>/etc/privoxy/templates/</filename></ulink>.
7887 The templates are basically normal HTML files, but with place-holders (called symbols
7888 or exports), which <application>Privoxy</application> fills at run time. It
7889 is possible to edit the templates with a normal text editor, should you want
7890 to customize them. (<emphasis>Not recommended for the casual
7891 user</emphasis>). Should you create your own custom templates, you should use
7892 the <filename>config</filename> setting <link linkend="templdir">templdir</link>
7893 to specify an alternate location, so your templates do not get overwritten
7897 Note that just like in configuration files, lines starting
7898 with <literal>#</literal> are ignored when the templates are filled in.
7902 The place-holders are of the form <literal>@name@</literal>, and you will
7903 find a list of available symbols, which vary from template to template,
7904 in the comments at the start of each file. Note that these comments are not
7905 always accurate, and that it's probably best to look at the existing HTML
7906 code to find out which symbols are supported and what they are filled in with.
7910 A special application of this substitution mechanism is to make whole
7911 blocks of HTML code disappear when a specific symbol is set. We use this
7912 for many purposes, one of them being to include the beta warning in all
7913 our user interface (CGI) pages when <application>Privoxy</application>
7914 is in an alpha or beta development stage:
7919 <!-- @if-unstable-start -->
7921 ... beta warning HTML code goes here ...
7923 <!-- if-unstable-end@ --></screen>
7927 If the "unstable" symbol is set, everything in between and including
7928 <literal>@if-unstable-start</literal> and <literal>if-unstable-end@</literal>
7929 will disappear, leaving nothing but an empty comment:
7933 <screen><!-- --></screen>
7937 There's also an if-then-else construct and an <literal>#include</literal>
7938 mechanism, but you'll sure find out if you are inclined to edit the
7943 All templates refer to a style located at
7944 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/send-stylesheet"><literal>http://config.privoxy.org/send-stylesheet</literal></ulink>.
7945 This is, of course, locally served by <application>Privoxy</application>
7946 and the source for it can be found and edited in the
7947 <filename>cgi-style.css</filename> template.
7952 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7956 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7958 <sect1 id="contact"><title>Contacting the Developers, Bug Reporting and Feature
7961 <!-- Include contacting.sgml boilerplate: -->
7963 <!-- end boilerplate -->
7967 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7970 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7971 <sect1 id="copyright"><title>Privoxy Copyright, License and History</title>
7973 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
7975 <!-- end copyright -->
7977 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7978 <sect2><title>License</title>
7979 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
7981 <!-- end copyright -->
7983 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7986 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7988 <sect2 id="history"><title>History</title>
7989 <!-- Include history.sgml: -->
7991 <!-- end history -->
7994 <sect2 id="authors"><title>Authors</title>
7995 <!-- Include p-authors.sgml: -->
7997 <!-- end authors -->
8002 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
8005 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
8006 <sect1 id="seealso"><title>See Also</title>
8007 <!-- Include seealso.sgml: -->
8009 <!-- end seealso -->
8014 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
8015 <sect1 id="appendix"><title>Appendix</title>
8018 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
8020 <title>Regular Expressions</title>
8022 <application>Privoxy</application> uses Perl-style <quote>regular
8023 expressions</quote> in its <link linkend="actions-file">actions
8024 files</link> and <link linkend="filter-file">filter file</link>,
8025 through the <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/">PCRE</ulink> and
8028 <ulink url="http://www.oesterhelt.org/pcrs/">PCRS</ulink> libraries.
8030 <application>PCRS</application> libraries.
8034 If you are reading this, you probably don't understand what <quote>regular
8035 expressions</quote> are, or what they can do. So this will be a very brief
8036 introduction only. A full explanation would require a <ulink
8037 url="http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/regex/">book</ulink> ;-)
8041 Regular expressions provide a language to describe patterns that can be
8042 run against strings of characters (letter, numbers, etc), to see if they
8043 match the string or not. The patterns are themselves (sometimes complex)
8044 strings of literal characters, combined with wild-cards, and other special
8045 characters, called meta-characters. The <quote>meta-characters</quote> have
8046 special meanings and are used to build complex patterns to be matched against.
8047 Perl Compatible Regular Expressions are an especially convenient
8048 <quote>dialect</quote> of the regular expression language.
8052 To make a simple analogy, we do something similar when we use wild-card
8053 characters when listing files with the <command>dir</command> command in DOS.
8054 <literal>*.*</literal> matches all filenames. The <quote>special</quote>
8055 character here is the asterisk which matches any and all characters. We can be
8056 more specific and use <literal>?</literal> to match just individual
8057 characters. So <quote>dir file?.text</quote> would match
8058 <quote>file1.txt</quote>, <quote>file2.txt</quote>, etc. We are pattern
8059 matching, using a similar technique to <quote>regular expressions</quote>!
8063 Regular expressions do essentially the same thing, but are much, much more
8064 powerful. There are many more <quote>special characters</quote> and ways of
8065 building complex patterns however. Let's look at a few of the common ones,
8066 and then some examples:
8071 <emphasis>.</emphasis> - Matches any single character, e.g. <quote>a</quote>,
8072 <quote>A</quote>, <quote>4</quote>, <quote>:</quote>, or <quote>@</quote>.
8074 </simplelist></para>
8078 <emphasis>?</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or ONE
8081 </simplelist></para>
8085 <emphasis>+</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ONE or MORE
8088 </simplelist></para>
8092 <emphasis>*</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or MORE
8095 </simplelist></para>
8099 <emphasis>\</emphasis> - The <quote>escape</quote> character denotes that
8100 the following character should be taken literally. This is used where one of the
8101 special characters (e.g. <quote>.</quote>) needs to be taken literally and
8102 not as a special meta-character. Example: <quote>example\.com</quote>, makes
8103 sure the period is recognized only as a period (and not expanded to its
8104 meta-character meaning of any single character).
8106 </simplelist></para>
8110 <emphasis>[ ]</emphasis> - Characters enclosed in brackets will be matched if
8111 any of the enclosed characters are encountered. For instance, <quote>[0-9]</quote>
8112 matches any numeric digit (zero through nine). As an example, we can combine
8113 this with <quote>+</quote> to match any digit one of more times: <quote>[0-9]+</quote>.
8115 </simplelist></para>
8119 <emphasis>( )</emphasis> - parentheses are used to group a sub-expression,
8120 or multiple sub-expressions.
8122 </simplelist></para>
8126 <emphasis>|</emphasis> - The <quote>bar</quote> character works like an
8127 <quote>or</quote> conditional statement. A match is successful if the
8128 sub-expression on either side of <quote>|</quote> matches. As an example:
8129 <quote>/(this|that) example/</quote> uses grouping and the bar character
8130 and would match either <quote>this example</quote> or <quote>that
8131 example</quote>, and nothing else.
8133 </simplelist></para>
8136 These are just some of the ones you are likely to use when matching URLs with
8137 <application>Privoxy</application>, and is a long way from a definitive
8138 list. This is enough to get us started with a few simple examples which may
8139 be more illuminating:
8143 <emphasis><literal>/.*/banners/.*</literal></emphasis> - A simple example
8144 that uses the common combination of <quote>.</quote> and <quote>*</quote> to
8145 denote any character, zero or more times. In other words, any string at all.
8146 So we start with a literal forward slash, then our regular expression pattern
8147 (<quote>.*</quote>) another literal forward slash, the string
8148 <quote>banners</quote>, another forward slash, and lastly another
8149 <quote>.*</quote>. We are building
8150 a directory path here. This will match any file with the path that has a
8151 directory named <quote>banners</quote> in it. The <quote>.*</quote> matches
8152 any characters, and this could conceivably be more forward slashes, so it
8153 might expand into a much longer looking path. For example, this could match:
8154 <quote>/eye/hate/spammers/banners/annoy_me_please.gif</quote>, or just
8155 <quote>/banners/annoying.html</quote>, or almost an infinite number of other
8156 possible combinations, just so it has <quote>banners</quote> in the path
8161 And now something a little more complex:
8165 <emphasis><literal>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))?/</literal></emphasis> -
8166 We have several literal forward slashes again (<quote>/</quote>), so we are
8167 building another expression that is a file path statement. We have another
8168 <quote>.*</quote>, so we are matching against any conceivable sub-path, just so
8169 it matches our expression. The only true literal that <emphasis>must
8170 match</emphasis> our pattern is <application>adv</application>, together with
8171 the forward slashes. What comes after the <quote>adv</quote> string is the
8176 Remember the <quote>?</quote> means the preceding expression (either a
8177 literal character or anything grouped with <quote>(...)</quote> in this case)
8178 can exist or not, since this means either zero or one match. So
8179 <quote>((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))</quote> is optional, as are the
8180 individual sub-expressions: <quote>(er)</quote>,
8181 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, and the <quote>s</quote>. The <quote>|</quote>
8182 means <quote>or</quote>. We have two of those. For instance,
8183 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, can expand to match either <quote>ing</quote>
8184 <emphasis>OR</emphasis> <quote>ements?</quote>. What is being done here, is an
8185 attempt at matching as many variations of <quote>advertisement</quote>, and
8186 similar, as possible. So this would expand to match just <quote>adv</quote>,
8187 or <quote>advert</quote>, or <quote>adverts</quote>, or
8188 <quote>advertising</quote>, or <quote>advertisement</quote>, or
8189 <quote>advertisements</quote>. You get the idea. But it would not match
8190 <quote>advertizements</quote> (with a <quote>z</quote>). We could fix that by
8191 changing our regular expression to:
8192 <quote>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|erti(s|z)(ing|ements?))?/</quote>, which would then match
8197 <emphasis><literal>/.*/advert[0-9]+\.(gif|jpe?g)</literal></emphasis> - Again
8198 another path statement with forward slashes. Anything in the square brackets
8199 <quote>[ ]</quote> can be matched. This is using <quote>0-9</quote> as a
8200 shorthand expression to mean any digit one through nine. It is the same as
8201 saying <quote>0123456789</quote>. So any digit matches. The <quote>+</quote>
8202 means one or more of the preceding expression must be included. The preceding
8203 expression here is what is in the square brackets -- in this case, any digit
8204 one through nine. Then, at the end, we have a grouping: <quote>(gif|jpe?g)</quote>.
8205 This includes a <quote>|</quote>, so this needs to match the expression on
8206 either side of that bar character also. A simple <quote>gif</quote> on one side, and the other
8207 side will in turn match either <quote>jpeg</quote> or <quote>jpg</quote>,
8208 since the <quote>?</quote> means the letter <quote>e</quote> is optional and
8209 can be matched once or not at all. So we are building an expression here to
8210 match image GIF or JPEG type image file. It must include the literal
8211 string <quote>advert</quote>, then one or more digits, and a <quote>.</quote>
8212 (which is now a literal, and not a special character, since it is escaped
8213 with <quote>\</quote>), and lastly either <quote>gif</quote>, or
8214 <quote>jpeg</quote>, or <quote>jpg</quote>. Some possible matches would
8215 include: <quote>//advert1.jpg</quote>,
8216 <quote>/nasty/ads/advert1234.gif</quote>,
8217 <quote>/banners/from/hell/advert99.jpg</quote>. It would not match
8218 <quote>advert1.gif</quote> (no leading slash), or
8219 <quote>/adverts232.jpg</quote> (the expression does not include an
8220 <quote>s</quote>), or <quote>/advert1.jsp</quote> (<quote>jsp</quote> is not
8221 in the expression anywhere).
8225 We are barely scratching the surface of regular expressions here so that you
8226 can understand the default <application>Privoxy</application>
8227 configuration files, and maybe use this knowledge to customize your own
8228 installation. There is much, much more that can be done with regular
8229 expressions. Now that you know enough to get started, you can learn more on
8234 More reading on Perl Compatible Regular expressions:
8235 <ulink url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html">http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html</ulink>
8239 For information on regular expression based substitutions and their applications
8240 in filters, please see the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file tutorial</link>
8245 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
8248 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
8250 <title>Privoxy's Internal Pages</title>
8253 Since <application>Privoxy</application> proxies each requested
8254 web page, it is easy for <application>Privoxy</application> to
8255 trap certain special URLs. In this way, we can talk directly to
8256 <application>Privoxy</application>, and see how it is
8257 configured, see how our rules are being applied, change these
8258 rules and other configuration options, and even turn
8259 <application>Privoxy's</application> filtering off, all with
8265 The URLs listed below are the special ones that allow direct access
8266 to <application>Privoxy</application>. Of course,
8267 <application>Privoxy</application> must be running to access these. If
8268 not, you will get a friendly error message. Internet access is not
8281 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
8285 There is a shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink> (But it
8286 doesn't provide a fall-back to a real page, in case the request is not
8287 sent through <application>Privoxy</application>)
8293 Show information about the current configuration, including viewing and
8294 editing of actions files:
8298 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
8305 Show the source code version numbers:
8309 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-version">http://config.privoxy.org/show-version</ulink>
8316 Show the browser's request headers:
8320 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request">http://config.privoxy.org/show-request</ulink>
8327 Show which actions apply to a URL and why:
8331 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
8338 Toggle Privoxy on or off. This feature can be turned off/on in the main
8339 <filename>config</filename> file. When toggled <quote>off</quote>, <quote>Privoxy</quote>
8340 continues to run, but only as a pass-through proxy, with no actions taking
8345 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</ulink>
8349 Short cuts. Turn off, then on:
8353 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable</ulink>
8358 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable</ulink>
8367 These may be bookmarked for quick reference. See next.
8371 <sect3 id="bookmarklets">
8372 <title>Bookmarklets</title>
8374 Below are some <quote>bookmarklets</quote> to allow you to easily access a
8375 <quote>mini</quote> version of some of <application>Privoxy's</application>
8376 special pages. They are designed for MS Internet Explorer, but should work
8377 equally well in Netscape, Mozilla, and other browsers which support
8378 JavaScript. They are designed to run directly from your bookmarks - not by
8379 clicking the links below (although that should work for testing).
8382 To save them, right-click the link and choose <quote>Add to Favorites</quote>
8383 (IE) or <quote>Add Bookmark</quote> (Netscape). You will get a warning that
8384 the bookmark <quote>may not be safe</quote> - just click OK. Then you can run the
8385 Bookmarklet directly from your favorites/bookmarks. For even faster access,
8386 you can put them on the <quote>Links</quote> bar (IE) or the <quote>Personal
8387 Toolbar</quote> (Netscape), and run them with a single click.
8396 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>
8403 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>
8410 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)
8417 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>
8423 <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>
8429 <ulink url="javascript:void(window.open('http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info?url='+escape(location.href),'Why').focus());">Privoxy - Why?</ulink>
8436 Credit: The site which gave us the general idea for these bookmarklets is
8437 <ulink url="http://www.bookmarklets.com/">www.bookmarklets.com</ulink>. They
8438 have more information about bookmarklets.
8447 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
8449 <title>Chain of Events</title>
8451 Let's take a quick look at how some of <application>Privoxy's</application>
8452 core features are triggered, and the ensuing sequence of events when a web
8453 page is requested by your browser:
8460 First, your web browser requests a web page. The browser knows to send
8461 the request to <application>Privoxy</application>, which will in turn,
8462 relay the request to the remote web server after passing the following
8468 <application>Privoxy</application> traps any request for its own internal CGI
8469 pages (e.g <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>) and sends the CGI page back to the browser.
8474 Next, <application>Privoxy</application> checks to see if the URL
8476 linkend="BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></link> patterns. If
8477 so, the URL is then blocked, and the remote web server will not be contacted.
8478 <link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></link>
8480 <link linkend="HANDLE-AS-EMPTY-DOCUMENT"><quote>+handle-as-empty-document</quote></link>
8481 are then checked, and if there is no match, an
8482 HTML <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page is sent back to the browser. Otherwise, if
8483 it does match, an image is returned for the former, and an empty text
8484 document for the latter. The type of image would depend on the setting of
8485 <link linkend="SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"><quote>+set-image-blocker</quote></link>
8486 (blank, checkerboard pattern, or an HTTP redirect to an image elsewhere).
8491 Untrusted URLs are blocked. If URLs are being added to the
8492 <filename>trust</filename> file, then that is done.
8497 If the URL pattern matches the <link
8498 linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS"><quote>+fast-redirects</quote></link> action,
8499 it is then processed. Unwanted parts of the requested URL are stripped.
8504 Now the rest of the client browser's request headers are processed. If any
8505 of these match any of the relevant actions (e.g. <link
8506 linkend="HIDE-USER-AGENT"><quote>+hide-user-agent</quote></link>,
8507 etc.), headers are suppressed or forged as determined by these actions and
8513 Now the web server starts sending its response back (i.e. typically a web
8519 First, the server headers are read and processed to determine, among other
8520 things, the MIME type (document type) and encoding. The headers are then
8521 filtered as determined by the
8522 <link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES"><quote>+crunch-incoming-cookies</quote></link>,
8523 <link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"><quote>+session-cookies-only</quote></link>,
8524 and <link linkend="DOWNGRADE-HTTP-VERSION"><quote>+downgrade-http-version</quote></link>
8530 If the <link linkend="KILL-POPUPS"><quote>+kill-popups</quote></link>
8531 action applies, and it is an HTML or JavaScript document, the popup-code in the
8532 response is filtered on-the-fly as it is received.
8537 If any <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> action
8539 linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS"><quote>+deanimate-gifs</quote></link>
8540 action applies (and the document type fits the action), the rest of the page is
8541 read into memory (up to a configurable limit). Then the filter rules (from
8542 <filename>default.filter</filename> and any other filter files) are
8543 processed against the buffered content. Filters are applied in the order
8544 they are specified in one of the filter files. Animated GIFs, if present,
8545 are reduced to either the first or last frame, depending on the action
8546 setting.The entire page, which is now filtered, is then sent by
8547 <application>Privoxy</application> back to your browser.
8550 If neither a <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> action
8552 linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS"><quote>+deanimate-gifs</quote></link>
8553 matches, then <application>Privoxy</application> passes the raw data through
8554 to the client browser as it becomes available.
8559 As the browser receives the now (possibly filtered) page content, it
8560 reads and then requests any URLs that may be embedded within the page
8561 source, e.g. ad images, stylesheets, JavaScript, other HTML documents (e.g.
8562 frames), sounds, etc. For each of these objects, the browser issues a
8563 separate request (this is easily viewable in <application>Privoxy's</application>
8564 logs). And each such request is in turn processed just as above. Note that a
8565 complex web page will have many, many such embedded URLs. If these
8566 secondary requests are to a different server, then quite possibly a very
8567 differing set of actions is triggered.
8574 NOTE: This is somewhat of a simplistic overview of what happens with each URL
8575 request. For the sake of brevity and simplicity, we have focused on
8576 <application>Privoxy's</application> core features only.
8582 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
8583 <sect2 id="actionsanat">
8584 <title>Troubleshooting: Anatomy of an Action</title>
8587 The way <application>Privoxy</application> applies
8588 <link linkend="ACTIONS">actions</link> and <link linkend="FILTER">filters</link>
8589 to any given URL can be complex, and not always so
8590 easy to understand what is happening. And sometimes we need to be able to
8591 <emphasis>see</emphasis> just what <application>Privoxy</application> is
8592 doing. Especially, if something <application>Privoxy</application> is doing
8593 is causing us a problem inadvertently. It can be a little daunting to look at
8594 the actions and filters files themselves, since they tend to be filled with
8595 <link linkend="regex">regular expressions</link> whose consequences are not
8600 One quick test to see if <application>Privoxy</application> is causing a problem
8601 or not, is to disable it temporarily. This should be the first troubleshooting
8602 step. See <link linkend="bookmarklets">the Bookmarklets</link> section on a quick
8603 and easy way to do this (be sure to flush caches afterward!). Looking at the
8604 logs is a good idea too. (Note that both the toggle feature and logging are
8605 enabled via <filename>config</filename> file settings, and may need to be
8606 turned <quote>on</quote>.)
8609 Another easy troubleshooting step to try is if you have done any
8610 customization of your installation, revert back to the installed
8611 defaults and see if that helps. There are times the developers get complaints
8612 about one thing or another, and the problem is more related to a customized
8613 configuration issue.
8617 <application>Privoxy</application> also provides the
8618 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
8619 page that can show us very specifically how <application>actions</application>
8620 are being applied to any given URL. This is a big help for troubleshooting.
8624 First, enter one URL (or partial URL) at the prompt, and then
8625 <application>Privoxy</application> will tell us
8626 how the current configuration will handle it. This will not
8627 help with filtering effects (i.e. the <link
8628 linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> action) from
8629 one of the filter files since this is handled very
8630 differently and not so easy to trap! It also will not tell you about any other
8631 URLs that may be embedded within the URL you are testing. For instance, images
8632 such as ads are expressed as URLs within the raw page source of HTML pages. So
8633 you will only get info for the actual URL that is pasted into the prompt area
8634 -- not any sub-URLs. If you want to know about embedded URLs like ads, you
8635 will have to dig those out of the HTML source. Use your browser's <quote>View
8636 Page Source</quote> option for this. Or right click on the ad, and grab the
8641 Let's try an example, <ulink url="http://google.com">google.com</ulink>,
8642 and look at it one section at a time in a sample configuration (your real
8643 configuration may vary):
8648 Matches for http://www.google.com:
8650 In file: default.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
8652 {+deanimate-gifs {last}
8653 +fast-redirects {check-decoded-url}
8654 +filter {refresh-tags}
8655 +filter {img-reorder}
8656 +filter {banners-by-size}
8658 +filter {jumping-windows}
8659 +filter {ie-exploits}
8660 +hide-forwarded-for-headers
8661 +hide-from-header {block}
8662 +hide-referrer {forge}
8663 +session-cookies-only
8664 +set-image-blocker {pattern}
8667 { -session-cookies-only }
8673 In file: user.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
8674 (no matches in this file)
8679 This is telling us how we have defined our
8680 <link linkend="ACTIONS"><quote>actions</quote></link>, and
8681 which ones match for our test case, <quote>google.com</quote>.
8682 Displayed is all the actions that are available to us. Remember,
8683 the <literal>+</literal> sign denotes <quote>on</quote>. <literal>-</literal>
8684 denotes <quote>off</quote>. So some are <quote>on</quote> here, but many
8685 are <quote>off</quote>. Each example we try may provide a slightly different
8686 end result, depending on our configuration directives.
8690 is for our <filename>default.action</filename> file. The large, multi-line
8691 listing, is how the actions are set to match for all URLs, i.e. our default
8692 settings. If you look at your <quote>actions</quote> file, this would be the
8693 section just below the <quote>aliases</quote> section near the top. This
8694 will apply to all URLs as signified by the single forward slash at the end
8695 of the listing -- <quote> / </quote>.
8699 But we have defined additional actions that would be exceptions to these general
8700 rules, and then we list specific URLs (or patterns) that these exceptions
8701 would apply to. Last match wins. Just below this then are two explicit
8702 matches for <quote>.google.com</quote>. The first is negating our previous
8703 cookie setting, which was for <link
8704 linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"><quote>+session-cookies-only</quote></link>
8705 (i.e. not persistent). So we will allow persistent cookies for google, at
8706 least that is how it is in this example. The second turns
8707 <emphasis>off</emphasis> any <link
8708 linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS"><quote>+fast-redirects</quote></link>
8709 action, allowing this to take place unmolested. Note that there is a leading
8710 dot here -- <quote>.google.com</quote>. This will match any hosts and
8711 sub-domains, in the google.com domain also, such as
8712 <quote>www.google.com</quote> or <quote>mail.google.com</quote>. But it would not
8713 match <quote>www.google.de</quote>! So, apparently, we have these two actions
8714 defined as exceptions to the general rules at the top somewhere in the lower
8715 part of our <filename>default.action</filename> file, and
8716 <quote>google.com</quote> is referenced somewhere in these latter sections.
8720 Then, for our <filename>user.action</filename> file, we again have no hits.
8721 So there is nothing google-specific that we might have added to our own, local
8722 configuration. If there was, those actions would over-rule any actions from
8723 previously processed files, such as <filename>default.action</filename>.
8724 <filename>user.action</filename> typically has the last word. This is the
8725 best place to put hard and fast exceptions,
8729 And finally we pull it all together in the bottom section and summarize how
8730 <application>Privoxy</application> is applying all its <quote>actions</quote>
8731 to <quote>google.com</quote>:
8742 -client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation}
8743 -content-type-overwrite
8744 -crunch-client-header
8745 -crunch-if-none-match
8746 -crunch-incoming-cookies
8747 -crunch-outgoing-cookies
8748 -crunch-server-header
8749 +deanimate-gifs {last}
8750 -downgrade-http-version
8753 -filter {content-cookies}
8754 -filter {all-popups}
8755 -filter {banners-by-link}
8756 -filter {tiny-textforms}
8757 -filter {frameset-borders}
8758 -filter {demoronizer}
8759 -filter {shockwave-flash}
8760 -filter {quicktime-kioskmode}
8762 -filter {crude-parental}
8763 -filter {site-specifics}
8764 -filter {js-annoyances}
8765 -filter {html-annoyances}
8766 +filter {refresh-tags}
8767 -filter {unsolicited-popups}
8768 +filter {img-reorder}
8769 +filter {banners-by-size}
8771 +filter {jumping-windows}
8772 +filter {ie-exploits}
8779 -handle-as-empty-document
8781 -hide-accept-language
8782 -hide-content-disposition
8783 +hide-forwarded-for-headers
8784 +hide-from-header {block}
8785 -hide-if-modified-since
8786 +hide-referrer {forge}
8791 -overwrite-last-modified
8792 -prevent-compression
8796 -server-header-filter{xml-to-html}
8797 -server-header-filter{html-to-xml}
8798 -session-cookies-only
8799 +set-image-blocker {pattern}
8800 -treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks </screen>
8804 Notice the only difference here to the previous listing, is to
8805 <quote>fast-redirects</quote> and <quote>session-cookies-only</quote>,
8806 which are activated specifically for this site in our configuration,
8807 and thus show in the <quote>Final Results</quote>.
8811 Now another example, <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>:
8823 { +block +handle-as-image }
8824 .[a-vx-z]*.doubleclick.net
8829 We'll just show the interesting part here - the explicit matches. It is
8830 matched three different times. Two <quote>+block</quote> sections,
8831 and a <quote>+block +handle-as-image</quote>,
8832 which is the expanded form of one of our aliases that had been defined as:
8833 <quote>+block-as-image</quote>. (<link
8834 linkend="ALIASES"><quote>Aliases</quote></link> are defined in
8835 the first section of the actions file and typically used to combine more
8840 Any one of these would have done the trick and blocked this as an unwanted
8841 image. This is unnecessarily redundant since the last case effectively
8842 would also cover the first. No point in taking chances with these guys
8843 though ;-) Note that if you want an ad or obnoxious
8844 URL to be invisible, it should be defined as <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>
8845 is done here -- as both a <link
8846 linkend="BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></link>
8847 <emphasis>and</emphasis> an
8848 <link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></link>.
8849 The custom alias <quote><literal>+block-as-image</literal></quote> just
8850 simplifies the process and make it more readable.
8854 One last example. Let's try <quote>http://www.example.net/adsl/HOWTO/</quote>.
8855 This one is giving us problems. We are getting a blank page. Hmmm ...
8861 Matches for http://www.example.net/adsl/HOWTO/:
8863 In file: default.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
8867 -client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation}
8868 -content-type-overwrite
8869 -crunch-client-header
8870 -crunch-if-none-match
8871 -crunch-incoming-cookies
8872 -crunch-outgoing-cookies
8873 -crunch-server-header
8875 -downgrade-http-version
8876 +fast-redirects {check-decoded-url}
8878 -filter {content-cookies}
8879 -filter {all-popups}
8880 -filter {banners-by-link}
8881 -filter {tiny-textforms}
8882 -filter {frameset-borders}
8883 -filter {demoronizer}
8884 -filter {shockwave-flash}
8885 -filter {quicktime-kioskmode}
8887 -filter {crude-parental}
8888 -filter {site-specifics}
8889 -filter {js-annoyances}
8890 -filter {html-annoyances}
8891 +filter {refresh-tags}
8892 -filter {unsolicited-popups}
8893 +filter {img-reorder}
8894 +filter {banners-by-size}
8896 +filter {jumping-windows}
8897 +filter {ie-exploits}
8904 -handle-as-empty-document
8906 -hide-accept-language
8907 -hide-content-disposition
8908 +hide-forwarded-for-headers
8909 +hide-from-header{block}
8910 +hide-referer{forge}
8914 -overwrite-last-modified
8915 +prevent-compression
8919 -server-header-filter{xml-to-html}
8920 -server-header-filter{html-to-xml}
8921 +session-cookies-only
8922 +set-image-blocker{blank}
8923 -treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks }
8926 { +block +handle-as-image }
8932 Ooops, the <quote>/adsl/</quote> is matching <quote>/ads</quote> in our
8933 configuration! But we did not want this at all! Now we see why we get the
8934 blank page. It is actually triggering two different actions here, and
8935 the effects are aggregated so that the URL is blocked, and &my-app; is told
8936 to treat the block as if it were an image. But this is, of course, all wrong.
8937 We could now add a new action below this (or better in our own
8938 <filename>user.action</filename> file) that explicitly
8939 <emphasis>un</emphasis> blocks (
8940 <link linkend="BLOCK"><quote>{-block}</quote></link>) paths with
8941 <quote>adsl</quote> in them (remember, last match in the configuration
8942 wins). There are various ways to handle such exceptions. Example:
8954 Now the page displays ;-)
8955 Remember to flush your browser's caches when making these kinds of changes to
8956 your configuration to insure that you get a freshly delivered page! Or, try
8957 using <literal>Shift+Reload</literal>.
8961 But now what about a situation where we get no explicit matches like
8968 { +block +handle-as-image }
8974 That actually was very helpful and pointed us quickly to where the problem
8975 was. If you don't get this kind of match, then it means one of the default
8976 rules in the first section of <filename>default.action</filename> is causing
8977 the problem. This would require some guesswork, and maybe a little trial and
8978 error to isolate the offending rule. One likely cause would be one of the
8979 <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> actions.
8980 These tend to be harder to troubleshoot.
8981 Try adding the URL for the site to one of aliases that turn off
8982 <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link>:
8990 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
8998 <quote><literal>{ shop }</literal></quote> is an <quote>alias</quote> that expands to
8999 <quote><literal>{ -filter -session-cookies-only }</literal></quote>.
9000 Or you could do your own exception to negate filtering:
9008 # Disable ALL filter actions for sites in this section
9016 This would turn off all filtering for these sites. This is best
9017 put in <filename>user.action</filename>, for local site
9018 exceptions. Note that when a simple domain pattern is used by itself (without
9019 the subsequent path portion), all sub-pages within that domain are included
9020 automatically in the scope of the action.
9024 Images that are inexplicably being blocked, may well be hitting the
9025 <link linkend="FILTER-BANNERS-BY-SIZE"><quote>+filter{banners-by-size}</quote></link>
9027 that images of certain sizes are ad banners (works well
9028 <emphasis>most of the time</emphasis> since these tend to be standardized).
9032 <quote><literal>{ fragile }</literal></quote> is an alias that disables most
9033 actions that are the most likely to cause trouble. This can be used as a
9034 last resort for problem sites.
9040 # Handle with care: easy to break
9042 mybank.example.com</screen>
9047 <emphasis>Remember to flush caches!</emphasis> Note that the
9048 <literal>mail.google</literal> reference lacks the TLD portion (e.g.
9049 <quote>.com</quote>). This will effectively match any TLD with
9050 <literal>google</literal> in it, such as <literal>mail.google.de.</literal>,
9054 If this still does not work, you will have to go through the remaining
9055 actions one by one to find which one(s) is causing the problem.
9064 This program is free software; you can redistribute it
9065 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
9066 Public License as published by the Free Software
9067 Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at
9068 your option) any later version.
9070 This program is distributed in the hope that it will
9071 be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the
9072 implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
9073 PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public
9074 License for more details.
9076 The GNU General Public License should be included with
9077 this file. If not, you can view it at
9078 http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
9079 or write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
9080 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301,
9083 $Log: user-manual.sgml,v $
9084 Revision 2.48 2007/11/24 19:07:17 fabiankeil
9085 - Mention request rewriting.
9086 - Enable the conditional-forge paragraph.
9089 Revision 2.47 2007/11/18 14:59:47 fabiankeil
9090 A few "Note to Upgraders" updates.
9092 Revision 2.46 2007/11/17 17:24:44 fabiankeil
9093 - Use new action defaults.
9094 - Minor fixes and rewordings.
9096 Revision 2.45 2007/11/16 11:48:46 hal9
9097 Fix one typo, and add a couple of small refinements.
9099 Revision 2.44 2007/11/15 03:30:20 hal9
9100 Results of spell check.
9102 Revision 2.43 2007/11/14 18:45:39 fabiankeil
9103 - Mention some more contributors in the "New in this Release" list.
9106 Revision 2.42 2007/11/12 03:32:40 hal9
9107 Updates for "What's New" and "Notes to Upgraders". Various other changes in
9108 preparation for new release. User Manual is almost ready.
9110 Revision 2.41 2007/11/11 16:32:11 hal9
9111 This is primarily syncing What's New and Note to Upgraders sections with the many
9112 new features and changes (gleaned from memory but mostly from ChangeLog).
9114 Revision 2.40 2007/11/10 17:10:59 fabiankeil
9115 In the first third of the file, mention several times that
9116 the action editor is disabled by default in 3.0.7 beta and later.
9118 Revision 2.39 2007/11/05 02:34:49 hal9
9119 Various changes in preparation for the upcoming release. Much yet to be done.
9121 Revision 2.38 2007/09/22 16:01:42 fabiankeil
9122 Update embedded show-url-info output.
9124 Revision 2.37 2007/08/27 16:09:55 fabiankeil
9125 Fix pre-chroot-nslookup description which I failed to
9126 copy and paste properly. Reported by Stephen Gildea.
9128 Revision 2.36 2007/08/26 16:47:14 fabiankeil
9129 Add Stephen Gildea's pre-chroot-nslookup patch [#1276666],
9130 extensive comments moved to user manual.
9132 Revision 2.35 2007/08/26 14:59:49 fabiankeil
9133 Minor rewordings and fixes.
9135 Revision 2.34 2007/08/05 15:19:50 fabiankeil
9136 - Don't claim HTTP/1.1 compliance.
9137 - Use $ in some of the path pattern examples.
9138 - Use a hide-user-agent example argument without
9139 leading and trailing space.
9140 - Make it clear that the cookie actions work with
9142 - Rephrase the inspect-jpegs text to underline
9143 that it's only meant to protect against a single
9146 Revision 2.33 2007/07/27 10:57:35 hal9
9147 Add references for user-agent strings for hide-user-agenet
9149 Revision 2.32 2007/06/07 12:36:22 fabiankeil
9150 Apply Roland's 29_usermanual.dpatch to fix a bunch
9151 of syntax errors I collected over the last months.
9153 Revision 2.31 2007/06/02 14:01:37 fabiankeil
9154 Start to document forward-override{}.
9156 Revision 2.30 2007/04/25 15:10:36 fabiankeil
9157 - Describe installation for FreeBSD.
9158 - Start to document taggers and tag patterns.
9159 - Don't confuse devils and daemons.
9161 Revision 2.29 2007/04/05 11:47:51 fabiankeil
9162 Some updates regarding header filtering,
9163 handling of compressed content and redirect's
9164 support for pcrs commands.
9166 Revision 2.28 2006/12/10 23:42:48 hal9
9167 Fix various typos reported by Adam P. Thanks.
9169 Revision 2.27 2006/11/14 01:57:47 hal9
9170 Dump all docs prior to 3.0.6 release. Various minor changes to faq and user
9173 Revision 2.26 2006/10/24 11:16:44 hal9
9176 Revision 2.25 2006/10/18 10:50:33 hal9
9177 Add note that since filters are off in Cautious, compression is ON. Turn off
9178 compression to make filters work on all sites.
9180 Revision 2.24 2006/10/03 11:13:54 hal9
9181 More references to the new filters. Include html this time around.
9183 Revision 2.23 2006/10/02 22:43:53 hal9
9184 Contains new filter definitions from Fabian, and few other miscellaneous
9187 Revision 2.22 2006/09/22 01:27:55 hal9
9188 Final commit of probably various minor changes here and there. Unless
9189 something changes this should be ready for pending release.
9191 Revision 2.21 2006/09/20 03:21:36 david__schmidt
9192 Just the tiniest tweak. Wafer thin!
9194 Revision 2.20 2006/09/10 14:53:54 hal9
9195 Results of spell check. User manual has some updates to standard.actions file
9198 Revision 2.19 2006/09/08 12:19:02 fabiankeil
9199 Adjust hide-if-modified-since example values
9200 to reflect the recent changes.
9202 Revision 2.18 2006/09/08 02:38:57 hal9
9204 -Fix a number of broken links.
9205 -Migrate the new Windows service command line options, and reference as
9207 -Rebuild so that can be used with the new "user-manual" config capabilities.
9210 Revision 2.17 2006/09/05 13:25:12 david__schmidt
9211 Add Windows service invocation stuff (duplicated) in FAQ and in user manual under Windows startup. One probably ought to reference the other.
9213 Revision 2.16 2006/09/02 12:49:37 hal9
9214 Various small updates for new actions, filterfiles, etc.
9216 Revision 2.15 2006/08/30 11:15:22 hal9
9217 More work on the new actions, especially filter-*-headers, and What's New
9218 section. User Manual is close to final form for 3.0.4 release. Some tinkering
9219 and proof reading left to do.
9221 Revision 2.14 2006/08/29 10:59:36 hal9
9222 Add a "Whats New in this release" Section. Further work on multiple filter
9223 files, and assorted other minor changes.
9225 Revision 2.13 2006/08/22 11:04:59 hal9
9226 Silence warnings and errors. This should build now. New filters were only
9227 stubbed in. More to be done.
9229 Revision 2.12 2006/08/14 08:40:39 fabiankeil
9230 Documented new actions that were part of
9231 the "minor Privoxy improvements".
9233 Revision 2.11 2006/07/18 14:48:51 david__schmidt
9234 Reorganizing the repository: swapping out what was HEAD (the old 3.1 branch)
9235 with what was really the latest development (the v_3_0_branch branch)
9237 Revision 1.123.2.43 2005/05/23 09:59:10 hal9
9240 Revision 1.123.2.42 2004/12/04 14:39:57 hal9
9241 Fix two minor typos per bug SF report.
9243 Revision 1.123.2.41 2004/03/23 12:58:42 oes
9246 Revision 1.123.2.40 2004/02/27 12:48:49 hal9
9247 Add comment re: redirecting to local file system for set-image-blocker may
9248 is dependent on browser.
9250 Revision 1.123.2.39 2004/01/30 22:31:40 oes
9251 Added a hint re bookmarklets to Quickstart section
9253 Revision 1.123.2.38 2004/01/30 16:47:51 oes
9254 Some minor clarifications
9256 Revision 1.123.2.37 2004/01/29 22:36:11 hal9
9257 Updates for no longer filtering text/plain, and demoronizer default settings,
9258 and copyright notice dates.
9260 Revision 1.123.2.36 2003/12/10 02:26:26 hal9
9261 Changed the demoronizer filter description.
9263 Revision 1.123.2.35 2003/11/06 13:36:37 oes
9264 Updated link to nightly CVS tarball
9266 Revision 1.123.2.34 2003/06/26 23:50:16 hal9
9267 Add a small bit on filtering and problems re: source code being corrupted.
9269 Revision 1.123.2.33 2003/05/08 18:17:33 roro
9270 Use apt-get instead of dpkg to install Debian package, which is more
9271 solid, uses the correct and most recent Debian version automatically.
9273 Revision 1.123.2.32 2003/04/11 03:13:57 hal9
9274 Add small note about only one filterfile (as opposed to multiple actions
9277 Revision 1.123.2.31 2003/03/26 02:03:43 oes
9278 Updated hard-coded copyright dates
9280 Revision 1.123.2.30 2003/03/24 12:58:56 hal9
9281 Add new section on Predefined Filters.
9283 Revision 1.123.2.29 2003/03/20 02:45:29 hal9
9284 More problems with \-\-chroot causing markup problems :(
9286 Revision 1.123.2.28 2003/03/19 00:35:24 hal9
9287 Manual edit of revision log because 'chroot' (even inside a comment) was
9288 causing Docbook to hang here (due to double hyphen and the processor thinking
9291 Revision 1.123.2.27 2003/03/18 19:37:14 oes
9292 s/Advanced|Radical/Adventuresome/g to avoid complaints re fun filter
9294 Revision 1.123.2.26 2003/03/17 16:50:53 oes
9295 Added documentation for new chroot option
9297 Revision 1.123.2.25 2003/03/15 18:36:55 oes
9298 Adapted to the new filters
9300 Revision 1.123.2.24 2002/11/17 06:41:06 hal9
9301 Move default profiles table from FAQ to U-M, and other minor related changes.
9304 Revision 1.123.2.23 2002/10/21 02:32:01 hal9
9305 Updates to the user.action examples section. A few new ones.
9307 Revision 1.123.2.22 2002/10/12 00:51:53 hal9
9308 Add demoronizer to filter section.
9310 Revision 1.123.2.21 2002/10/10 04:09:35 hal9
9311 s/Advanced/Radical/ and added very brief note.
9313 Revision 1.123.2.20 2002/10/10 03:49:21 hal9
9314 Add notes to session-cookies-only and Quickstart about pre-existing
9315 cookies. Also, note content-cookies work differently.
9317 Revision 1.123.2.19 2002/09/26 01:25:36 hal9
9318 More explanation on Privoxy patterns, more on content-cookies and SSL.
9320 Revision 1.123.2.18 2002/08/22 23:47:58 hal9
9321 Add 'Documentation' to Privoxy Menu shot in Configuration section to match
9324 Revision 1.123.2.17 2002/08/18 01:13:05 hal9
9325 Spell checked (only one typo this time!).
9327 Revision 1.123.2.16 2002/08/09 19:20:54 david__schmidt
9328 Update to Mac OSX startup script name
9330 Revision 1.123.2.15 2002/08/07 17:32:11 oes
9331 Converted some internal links from ulink to link for PDF creation; no content changed
9333 Revision 1.123.2.14 2002/08/06 09:16:13 oes
9334 Nits re: actions file download
9336 Revision 1.123.2.13 2002/08/02 18:23:19 g_sauthoff
9337 Just 2 small corrections to the Gentoo sections
9339 Revision 1.123.2.12 2002/08/02 18:17:21 g_sauthoff
9340 Added 2 Gentoo sections
9342 Revision 1.123.2.11 2002/07/26 15:20:31 oes
9343 - Added version info to title
9344 - Added info on new filters
9345 - Revised parts of the filter file tutorial
9346 - Added info on where to get updated actions files
9348 Revision 1.123.2.10 2002/07/25 21:42:29 hal9
9349 Add brief notes on not proxying non-HTTP protocols.
9351 Revision 1.123.2.9 2002/07/11 03:40:28 david__schmidt
9353 Updated Mac OSX sections due to installation location change
9355 Revision 1.123.2.8 2002/06/09 16:36:32 hal9
9356 Clarifications on filtering and MIME. Hardcode 'latest release' in index.html.
9358 Revision 1.123.2.7 2002/06/09 00:29:34 hal9
9359 Touch ups on filtering, in actions section and Anatomy.
9361 Revision 1.123.2.6 2002/06/06 23:11:03 hal9
9362 Fix broken link. Linkchecked all docs.
9364 Revision 1.123.2.5 2002/05/29 02:01:02 hal9
9365 This is break out of the entire config section from u-m, so it can
9366 eventually be used to generate the comments, etc in the main config file
9367 so that these are in sync with each other.
9369 Revision 1.123.2.4 2002/05/27 03:28:45 hal9
9370 Ooops missed something from David.
9372 Revision 1.123.2.3 2002/05/27 03:23:17 hal9
9373 Fix FIXMEs for OS2 and OSX startup. Fix Redhat typos (should be Red Hat).
9374 That's a wrap, I think.
9376 Revision 1.123.2.2 2002/05/26 19:02:09 hal9
9377 Move Amiga stuff around to take of FIXME in start up section.
9379 Revision 1.123.2.1 2002/05/26 17:04:25 hal9
9380 -Spellcheck, very minor edits, and sync across branches
9382 Revision 1.123 2002/05/24 23:19:23 hal9
9383 Include new image (Proxy setup). More fun with guibutton.
9384 Minor corrections/clarifications here and there.
9386 Revision 1.122 2002/05/24 13:24:08 oes
9387 Added Bookmarklet for one-click pre-filled access to show-url-info
9389 Revision 1.121 2002/05/23 23:20:17 oes
9390 - Changed more (all?) references to actions to the
9391 <literal><link> style.
9392 - Small fixes in the actions chapter
9393 - Small clarifications in the quickstart to ad blocking
9394 - Removed <emphasis> from <title>s since the new doc CSS
9395 renders them red (bad in TOC).
9397 Revision 1.120 2002/05/23 19:16:43 roro
9398 Correct Debian specials (installation and startup).
9400 Revision 1.119 2002/05/22 17:17:05 oes
9403 Revision 1.118 2002/05/21 04:54:55 hal9
9404 -New Section: Quickstart to Ad Blocking
9405 -Reformat Actions Anatomy to match new CGI layout
9407 Revision 1.117 2002/05/17 13:56:16 oes
9408 - Reworked & extended Templates chapter
9409 - Small changes to Regex appendix
9410 - #included authors.sgml into (C) and hist chapter
9412 Revision 1.116 2002/05/17 03:23:46 hal9
9413 Fixing merge conflict in Quickstart section.
9415 Revision 1.115 2002/05/16 16:25:00 oes
9416 Extended the Filter File chapter & minor fixes
9418 Revision 1.114 2002/05/16 09:42:50 oes
9419 More ulink->link, added some hints to Quickstart section
9421 Revision 1.113 2002/05/15 21:07:25 oes
9422 Extended and further commented the example actions files
9424 Revision 1.112 2002/05/15 03:57:14 hal9
9425 Spell check. A few minor edits here and there for better syntax and
9428 Revision 1.111 2002/05/14 23:01:36 oes
9431 Revision 1.110 2002/05/14 19:10:45 oes
9432 Restored alphabetical order of actions
9434 Revision 1.109 2002/05/14 17:23:11 oes
9435 Renamed the prevent-*-cookies actions, extended aliases section and moved it before the example AFs
9437 Revision 1.108 2002/05/14 15:29:12 oes
9438 Completed proofreading the actions chapter
9440 Revision 1.107 2002/05/12 03:20:41 hal9
9441 Small clarifications for 127.0.0.1 vs localhost for listen-address since this
9442 apparently an important distinction for some OS's.
9444 Revision 1.106 2002/05/10 01:48:20 hal9
9445 This is mostly proposed copyright/licensing additions and changes. Docs
9446 are still GPL, but licensing and copyright are more visible. Also, copyright
9447 changed in doc header comments (eliminate references to JB except FAQ).
9449 Revision 1.105 2002/05/05 20:26:02 hal9
9450 Sorting out license vs copyright in these docs.
9452 Revision 1.104 2002/05/04 08:44:45 swa
9455 Revision 1.103 2002/05/04 00:40:53 hal9
9456 -Remove the TOC first page kludge. It's fixed proper now in ldp.dsl.in.
9457 -Some minor additions to Quickstart.
9459 Revision 1.102 2002/05/03 17:46:00 oes
9460 Further proofread & reactivated short build instructions
9462 Revision 1.101 2002/05/03 03:58:30 hal9
9463 Move the user-manual config directive to top of section. Add note about
9464 Privoxy needing read permissions for configs, and write for logs.
9466 Revision 1.100 2002/04/29 03:05:55 hal9
9467 Add clarification on differences of new actions files.
9469 Revision 1.99 2002/04/28 16:59:05 swa
9470 more structure in starting section
9472 Revision 1.98 2002/04/28 05:43:59 hal9
9473 This is the break up of configuration.html into multiple files. This
9474 will probably break links elsewhere :(
9476 Revision 1.97 2002/04/27 21:04:42 hal9
9477 -Rewrite of Actions File example.
9478 -Add section for user-manual directive in config.
9480 Revision 1.96 2002/04/27 05:32:00 hal9
9481 -Add short section to Filter Files to tie in with +filter action.
9482 -Start rewrite of examples in Actions Examples (not finished).
9484 Revision 1.95 2002/04/26 17:23:29 swa
9485 bookmarks cleaned, changed structure of user manual, screen and programlisting cleanups, and numerous other changes that I forgot
9487 Revision 1.94 2002/04/26 05:24:36 hal9
9488 -Add most of Andreas suggestions to Chain of Events section.
9489 -A few other minor corrections and touch up.
9491 Revision 1.92 2002/04/25 18:55:13 hal9
9492 More catchups on new actions files, and new actions names.
9493 Other assorted cleanups, and minor modifications.
9495 Revision 1.91 2002/04/24 02:39:31 hal9
9496 Add 'Chain of Events' section.
9498 Revision 1.90 2002/04/23 21:41:25 hal9
9499 Linuxconf is deprecated on RH, substitute chkconfig.
9501 Revision 1.89 2002/04/23 21:05:28 oes
9502 Added hint for startup on Red Hat
9504 Revision 1.88 2002/04/23 05:37:54 hal9
9505 Add AmigaOS install stuff.
9507 Revision 1.87 2002/04/23 02:53:15 david__schmidt
9508 Updated OSX installation section
9509 Added a few English tweaks here an there
9511 Revision 1.86 2002/04/21 01:46:32 hal9
9512 Re-write actions section.
9514 Revision 1.85 2002/04/18 21:23:23 hal9
9515 Fix ugly typo (mine).
9517 Revision 1.84 2002/04/18 21:17:13 hal9
9518 Spell Redhat correctly (ie Red Hat). A few minor grammar corrections.
9520 Revision 1.83 2002/04/18 18:21:12 oes
9521 Added RPM install detail
9523 Revision 1.82 2002/04/18 12:04:50 oes
9526 Revision 1.81 2002/04/18 11:50:24 oes
9527 Extended Install section - needs fixing by packagers
9529 Revision 1.80 2002/04/18 10:45:19 oes
9530 Moved text to buildsource.sgml, renamed some filters, details
9532 Revision 1.79 2002/04/18 03:18:06 hal9
9533 Spellcheck, and minor touchups.
9535 Revision 1.78 2002/04/17 18:04:16 oes
9538 Revision 1.77 2002/04/17 13:51:23 oes
9539 Proofreading, part one
9541 Revision 1.76 2002/04/16 04:25:51 hal9
9542 -Added 'Note to Upgraders' and re-ordered the 'Quickstart' section.
9543 -Note about proxy may need requests to re-read config files.
9545 Revision 1.75 2002/04/12 02:08:48 david__schmidt
9546 Remove OS/2 building info... it is already in the developer-manual
9548 Revision 1.74 2002/04/11 00:54:38 hal9
9549 Add small section on submitting actions.
9551 Revision 1.73 2002/04/10 18:45:15 swa
9554 Revision 1.72 2002/04/10 04:06:19 hal9
9555 Added actions feedback to Bookmarklets section
9557 Revision 1.71 2002/04/08 22:59:26 hal9
9558 Version update. Spell chkconfig correctly :)
9560 Revision 1.70 2002/04/08 20:53:56 swa
9563 Revision 1.69 2002/04/06 05:07:29 hal9
9564 -Add privoxy-man-page.sgml, for man page.
9565 -Add authors.sgml for AUTHORS (and p-authors.sgml)
9566 -Reworked various aspects of various docs.
9567 -Added additional comments to sub-docs.
9569 Revision 1.68 2002/04/04 18:46:47 swa
9570 consistent look. reuse of copyright, history et. al.
9572 Revision 1.67 2002/04/04 17:27:57 swa
9573 more single file to be included at multiple points. make maintaining easier
9575 Revision 1.66 2002/04/04 06:48:37 hal9
9576 Structural changes to allow for conditional inclusion/exclusion of content
9577 based on entity toggles, e.g. 'entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE"'. And
9578 definition of internal entities, e.g. 'entity p-version "2.9.13"' that will
9579 eventually be set by Makefile.
9580 More boilerplate text for use across multiple docs.
9582 Revision 1.65 2002/04/03 19:52:07 swa
9583 enhance squid section due to user suggestion
9585 Revision 1.64 2002/04/03 03:53:43 hal9
9586 A few minor bug fixes, and touch ups. Ready for review.
9588 Revision 1.63 2002/04/01 16:24:49 hal9
9589 Define entities to include boilerplate text. See doc/source/*.
9591 Revision 1.62 2002/03/30 04:15:53 hal9
9592 - Fix privoxy.org/config links.
9593 - Paste in Bookmarklets from Toggle page.
9594 - Move Quickstart nearer top, and minor rework.
9596 Revision 1.61 2002/03/29 01:31:08 hal9
9599 Revision 1.60 2002/03/27 01:57:34 hal9
9600 Added more to Anatomy section.
9602 Revision 1.59 2002/03/27 00:54:33 hal9
9603 Touch up intro for new name.
9605 Revision 1.58 2002/03/26 22:29:55 swa
9606 we have a new homepage!
9608 Revision 1.57 2002/03/24 20:33:30 hal9
9609 A few minor catch ups with name change.
9611 Revision 1.56 2002/03/24 16:17:06 swa
9612 configure needs to be generated.
9614 Revision 1.55 2002/03/24 16:08:08 swa
9615 we are too lazy to make a block-built
9616 privoxy logo. hence removed the option.
9618 Revision 1.54 2002/03/24 15:46:20 swa
9619 name change related issue.
9621 Revision 1.53 2002/03/24 11:51:00 swa
9622 name change. changed filenames.
9624 Revision 1.52 2002/03/24 11:01:06 swa
9627 Revision 1.51 2002/03/23 15:13:11 swa
9628 renamed every reference to the old name with foobar.
9629 fixed "application foobar application" tag, fixed
9630 "the foobar" with "foobar". left junkbustser in cvs
9631 comments and remarks to history untouched.
9633 Revision 1.50 2002/03/23 05:06:21 hal9
9636 Revision 1.49 2002/03/21 17:01:05 hal9
9637 New section in Appendix.
9639 Revision 1.48 2002/03/12 06:33:01 hal9
9640 Catching up to Andreas and re_filterfile changes.
9642 Revision 1.47 2002/03/11 13:13:27 swa
9643 correct feedback channels
9645 Revision 1.46 2002/03/10 00:51:08 hal9
9646 Added section on JB internal pages in Appendix.
9648 Revision 1.45 2002/03/09 17:43:53 swa
9651 Revision 1.44 2002/03/09 17:08:48 hal9
9652 New section on Jon's actions file editor, and move some stuff around.
9654 Revision 1.43 2002/03/08 00:47:32 hal9
9655 Added imageblock{pattern}.
9657 Revision 1.42 2002/03/07 18:16:55 swa
9660 Revision 1.41 2002/03/07 16:46:43 hal9
9661 Fix a few markup problems for jade.
9663 Revision 1.40 2002/03/07 16:28:39 swa
9664 provide correct feedback channels
9666 Revision 1.39 2002/03/06 16:19:28 hal9
9667 Note on perceived filtering slowdown per FR.
9669 Revision 1.38 2002/03/05 23:55:14 hal9
9670 Stupid I did it again. Double hyphen in comment breaks jade.
9672 Revision 1.37 2002/03/05 23:53:49 hal9
9673 jade barfs on '- -' embedded in comments. - -user option broke it.
9675 Revision 1.36 2002/03/05 22:53:28 hal9
9676 Add new - - user option.
9678 Revision 1.35 2002/03/05 00:17:27 hal9
9679 Added section on command line options.
9681 Revision 1.34 2002/03/04 19:32:07 oes
9682 Changed default port to 8118
9684 Revision 1.33 2002/03/03 19:46:13 hal9
9685 Emphasis on where/how to report bugs, etc
9687 Revision 1.32 2002/03/03 09:26:06 joergs
9688 AmigaOS changes, config is now loaded from PROGDIR: instead of
9689 AmiTCP:db/junkbuster/ if no configuration file is specified on the
9692 Revision 1.31 2002/03/02 22:45:52 david__schmidt
9695 Revision 1.30 2002/03/02 22:00:14 hal9
9696 Updated 'New Features' list. Ran through spell-checker.
9698 Revision 1.29 2002/03/02 20:34:07 david__schmidt
9699 Update OS/2 build section
9701 Revision 1.28 2002/02/24 14:34:24 jongfoster
9702 Formatting changes. Now changing the doctype to DocBook XML 4.1
9703 will work - no other changes are needed.
9705 Revision 1.27 2002/01/11 14:14:32 hal9
9706 Added a very short section on Templates
9708 Revision 1.26 2002/01/09 20:02:50 hal9
9709 Fix bug re: auto-detect config file changes.
9711 Revision 1.25 2002/01/09 18:20:30 hal9
9712 Touch ups for *.action files.
9714 Revision 1.24 2001/12/02 01:13:42 hal9
9717 Revision 1.23 2001/12/02 00:20:41 hal9
9718 Updates for recent changes.
9720 Revision 1.22 2001/11/05 23:57:51 hal9
9721 Minor update for startup now daemon mode.
9723 Revision 1.21 2001/10/31 21:11:03 hal9
9724 Correct 2 minor errors
9726 Revision 1.18 2001/10/24 18:45:26 hal9
9727 *** empty log message ***
9729 Revision 1.17 2001/10/24 17:10:55 hal9
9730 Catching up with Jon's recent work, and a few other things.
9732 Revision 1.16 2001/10/21 17:19:21 swa
9733 wrong url in documentation
9735 Revision 1.15 2001/10/14 23:46:24 hal9
9736 Various minor changes. Fleshed out SEE ALSO section.
9738 Revision 1.13 2001/10/10 17:28:33 hal9
9741 Revision 1.12 2001/09/28 02:57:04 hal9
9744 Revision 1.11 2001/09/28 02:25:20 hal9
9747 Revision 1.9 2001/09/27 23:50:29 hal9
9748 A few changes. A short section on regular expression in appendix.
9750 Revision 1.8 2001/09/25 00:34:59 hal9
9751 Some additions, and re-arranging.
9753 Revision 1.7 2001/09/24 14:31:36 hal9
9756 Revision 1.6 2001/09/24 14:10:32 hal9
9757 Including David's OS/2 installation instructions.
9759 Revision 1.2 2001/09/13 15:27:40 swa
9762 Revision 1.1 2001/09/12 15:36:41 swa
9763 source files for junkbuster documentation
9765 Revision 1.3 2001/09/10 17:43:59 swa
9766 first proposal of a structure.
9768 Revision 1.2 2001/06/13 14:28:31 swa
9769 docs should have an author.
9771 Revision 1.1 2001/06/13 14:20:37 swa
9772 first import of project's documentation for the webserver.