This file belongs into
ijbswa.sourceforge.net:/home/groups/i/ij/ijbswa/htdocs/
- $Id: user-manual.sgml,v 1.77 2002/04/17 13:51:23 oes Exp $
+ $Id: user-manual.sgml,v 1.78 2002/04/17 18:04:16 oes Exp $
Written by and Copyright (C) 2001 the SourceForge
Privoxy team. http://www.privoxy.org/
<artheader>
<title>Privoxy User Manual</title>
-<pubdate>$Id: user-manual.sgml,v 1.77 2002/04/17 13:51:23 oes Exp $</pubdate>
+<pubdate>$Id: user-manual.sgml,v 1.78 2002/04/17 18:04:16 oes Exp $</pubdate>
<authorgroup>
<author>
<title>New Features</title>
<para>
In addition to <application>Internet Junkbuster's</application> traditional
- feature of ad and banner blocking and cookie management,
+ features of ad and banner blocking and cookie management,
<application>Privoxy</application> provides new features<![%p-not-stable;[,
some of them currently under development]]>:
<anchor id="testing"/>
</para>
<!-- Include supported.sgml boilerplate -->
-&supported;
+ &supported;
<!-- end boilerplate -->
<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
<sect2 id="installation-packages"><title>Binary Packages</title>
<para>
- The packages can be downloaded from our <ulink
+ Binary packages can be downloaded from our <ulink
url="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ijbswa/">Privoxy Project Page</ulink>.
</para>
<sect3 id="installation-pack-rpm"><title>Redhat and SuSE RPMs</title>
<para>
- RPMs can be installed with <literal>rpm -i <name-of-rpm.rpm></literal>,
+ RPMs can be installed with <literal>rpm -Uvh <name-of-rpm.rpm></literal>,
and will use <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> for configuration files.
</para>
<para>
- Note that if you have a Junkbuster RPM installed on your system, you
- need to remove it first, because the packages conflict.
+ Note that if you have a <application>Junkbuster</application> RPM installed
+ on your system, you need to remove it first, because the packages conflict.
</para>
</sect3>
<para>
For more detailed instructions, on how to build Redhat and SuSE RPMs,
- Windows self-extracting installers etc, please consult the <ulink
- url="../developer-manual/newrelease.html">developer manual</ulink>.
+ Windows self-extracting installers etc, and for building from CVS sources,
+ please consult the <ulink url="../developer-manual/newrelease.html">developer
+ manual</ulink>.
</para>
</sect2>
<para>
A <quote>filter file</quote> (typically <filename>default.filter</filename>)
is new with <application>Privoxy 2.9.x</application>, and provides some
- of the new sophisticaton (explained below). <filename>config</filename> is
+ of the new sophistication (explained below). <filename>config</filename> is
much the same as before.
</para>
<para>
The primary configuration file for cookie management, ad and banner
blocking, and many other aspects of <application>Privoxy</application>
configuration is <filename>default.action</filename>. It is strongly
- recommended to make oneself familiar with the new actions concept below
- before modifying that file.
+ recommended to become familiar with the new actions concept below,
+ before modifying this file.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
After doing this, flush your browser's disk and memory caches to force a
- re-reading of all pages and get rid of any ads that may be cached. You
+ re-reading of all pages and to get rid of any ads that may be cached. You
are now ready to start enjoying the benefits of using
<application>Privoxy</application>.
</para>
</para>
<para>
- Another feature where you will propably want to define exceptions for trusted
+ Another feature where you will probably want to define exceptions for trusted
sites is the popup-killing (through the <literal>+popup</literal> and
- <literal>+filter{popups}</literal> actions), because your favourite shopping,
+ <literal>+filter{popups}</literal> actions), because your favorite shopping,
banking, or leisure site may need popups.
</para>
try to force HTTP/1.0 compatibility. For Mozilla, look under <literal>Edit ->
Preferences -> Debug -> Networking</literal>.
Alternatively, set the <quote>+downgrade</quote> config option in
- <filename>default.action</filename> which will downgrade you brower's HTTP
+ <filename>default.action</filename> which will downgrade your browser's HTTP
requests from HTTP/1.1 to HTTP/1.0 before processing them.
</para>
If you encounter problems, try loading the page without
<application>Privoxy</application>. If that helps, enter the URL where
you have the problems into <ulink url="http://p.p/show-url-info">the browser
- based rule tracing utility</ulink>. Watch out which rules apply and why, and
+ based rule tracing utility</ulink>. See which rules apply and why, and
then try turning them off for that site one after the other, until the problem
is gone. When you have found the culprit, you might want to turn the rest on
again.
</para>
<para>
On startup, write the process ID to <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>. Delete the
- <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> on exit. Failiure to create or delete the
+ <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> on exit. Failure to create or delete the
<emphasis>FILE</emphasis> is non-fatal. If no <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>
option is given, no PID file will be used. Unix only.
</para>
<application>Privoxy</application>'s user interface can be reached through the special
URL <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
(shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
- which is a built-in page and works without internet access.
+ which is a built-in page and works without Internet access.
You will see the following section:
</para>
<para>
The main config file controls all aspects of <application>Privoxy</application>'s
- operation that are not location dependent (i.e. that apply invariantly no matter
- where in the web you are surfing).
+ operation that are not location dependent (i.e. they apply to all URLs, no matter
+ where you may be surfing).
</para>
<para>
<application>Privoxy</application> can (and normally does) use a number of
- other files for addidtional configuration and logging.
+ other files for additional configuration and logging.
This section of the configuration file tells <application>Privoxy</application>
where to find those other files.
</para>
<para>
When development goes modular and multi-user, the blocker, filter, and
per-user config will be stored in subdirectories of <quote>confdir</quote>.
- For now, the configuration dir structure is flat, except for
+ For now, the configuration directory structure is flat, except for
<filename>confdir/templates</filename>, where the HTML templates for CGI
- output reside.
+ output reside (e.g. <application>Privoxy's</application> 404 error page).
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<sect4><title>actionsfile</title>
-<variablelist>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Specifies:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- The actions file to use
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Type of value:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>File name, relative to <literal>confdir</literal></para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Default value:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>default.action (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> default.action.txt (Windows)</para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Effect if unset:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- No action is taken at all. Simple neutral proxying.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Notes:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- There is no point in using <application>Privoxy</application> without
- an actions file.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-</variablelist>
-</sect4>
-
-<sect4><title>actionsfile</title>
-
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term>Specifies:</term>
<listitem>
<para>
There is no point in using <application>Privoxy</application> without
- an actions file. There are three diffrent actions files included in the
+ an actions file. There are three different actions files included in the
distribution, with varying degrees of aggressiveness:
<filename>default.action</filename>, <filename>intermediate.action</filename> and
<filename>advanced.action</filename>.
<term>Notes:</term>
<listitem>
<para>
- The windows version will additionally log to the console
+ The windows version will additionally log to the console.
</para>
<para>
The logfile is where all logging and error messages are written. The level
<term>Effect if unset:</term>
<listitem>
<para>
- The whole trust mechansim is turned off.
+ The whole trust mechanism is turned off.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<term>Notes:</term>
<listitem>
<para>
- The trust mechansim is an experimental feature for building whitelists and should
+ The trust mechanism is an experimental feature for building white-lists and should
be used with care. It is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> recommended for the casual user.
</para>
<para>
the effect that access to untrusted sites will be granted, if a link from a
trusted referrer was used.
The link target will then be added to the <quote>trustfile</quote>.
- Possible applications include limiting internet access for children.
+ Possible applications include limiting Internet access for children.
</para>
<para>
If you use <literal>+</literal> operator in the trust file, it may grow considerably over time.
<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
<sect3>
-<title>Local Setup Documentation</title>
+<title>Local Set-up Documentation</title>
<para>
If you intend to operate <application>Privoxy</application> for more users
activated. (See <literal>trustfile</literal> above.)
</para>
<para>
- If you use the trust mechanism, it is a good idea to write up some online
+ If you use the trust mechanism, it is a good idea to write up some on-line
documentation about your trust policy and to specify the URL(s) here.
Use multiple times for multiple URLs.
</para>
<term>Specifies:</term>
<listitem>
<para>
- Keys that determine what information gets logged.
+ Key values that determine what information gets logged.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
as it happens. <emphasis>1, 4096 and 8192 are highly recommended</emphasis>
so that you will notice when things go wrong. The other levels are probably
only of interest if you are hunting down a specific problem. They can produce
- a hell of output (especially 16).
+ a hell of an output (especially 16).
+ <!-- LOL -->
</para>
<para>
The reporting of <emphasis>fatal</emphasis> errors (i.e. ones which crash
<varlistentry>
<term>Type of value:</term>
<listitem>
- <para>[<replaceable class="parameter">IP-Adddress</replaceable>]:<replaceable class="parameter">Port</replaceable></para>
+ <para>[<replaceable class="parameter">IP-Address</replaceable>]:<replaceable class="parameter">Port</replaceable></para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
If you leave out the IP address, <application>Privoxy</application> will
bind to all interfaces (addresses) on your machine and may become reachable
from the Internet. In that case, consider using access control lists (acl's)
- (see <quote>Acls</quote> below), or a firewall.
+ (see <quote>ACLs</quote> below), or a firewall.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</para>
<para>
For the time being, access to the toggle feature can <emphasis>not</emphasis> be
- controlled separately by <quote>Acls</quote> or HTTP authentication,
+ controlled separately by <quote>ACLs</quote> or HTTP authentication,
so that everybody who can access <application>Privoxy</application> (see
- <quote>Acls</quote> and <literal>listen-address</literal> above) can
+ <quote>ACLs</quote> and <literal>listen-address</literal> above) can
toggle it for all users. So this option is <emphasis>not recommended</emphasis>
for multi-user environments with untrusted users.
</para>
<listitem>
<para>
For the time being, access to the editor can <emphasis>not</emphasis> be
- controlled separately by <quote>Acls</quote> or HTTP authentication,
+ controlled separately by <quote>ACLs</quote> or HTTP authentication,
so that everybody who can access <application>Privoxy</application> (see
- <quote>Acls</quote> and <literal>listen-address</literal> above) can
+ <quote>ACLs</quote> and <literal>listen-address</literal> above) can
modify its configuration for all users. So this option is <emphasis>not
recommended</emphasis> for multi-user environments with untrusted users.
</para>
</variablelist>
</sect4>
-<sect4><title>Acls: permit-access and deny-access</title>
+<sect4><title>ACLs: permit-access and deny-access</title>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term>Specifies:</term>
weaknesses.
</para>
<para>
- Multiple acl lines are OK.
- If any acls are specified, then the <application>Privoxy</application>
+ Multiple ACL lines are OK.
+ If any ACLs are specified, then the <application>Privoxy</application>
talks only to IP addresses that match at least one <literal>permit-access</literal> line
and don't match any subsequent <literal>deny-access</literal> line. In other words, the
last match wins, with the default being <literal>deny-access</literal>.
IP addresses, only the first one is used.
</para>
<para>
- Denying access to particular sites by acl may have undesired side effects
+ Denying access to particular sites by ACL may have undesired side effects
if the site in question is hosted on a machine which also hosts other sites.
</para>
</listitem>
<term>Examples:</term>
<listitem>
<para>
- Explicitly define the defauklt behaviour if no acl and
+ Explicitly define the default behavior if no ACL and
<literal>listen-address</literal> are set: <quote>localhost</quote>
is OK. The absence of a <replaceable class="parameter">dst_addr</replaceable> implies that
<emphasis>all</emphasis> destination addresses are OK:
through an anonymous public proxy (see e.g. <ulink
url="http://www.multiproxy.org/anon_list.htm">http://www.multiproxy.org/anon_list.htm</ulink>)
Or to use a caching proxy to speed up browsing. Or chaining to a parent
- proxy may be necessary because the mackine that <application>Privoxy</application>
- runs on has no direct internet access.
+ proxy may be necessary because the machine that <application>Privoxy</application>
+ runs on has no direct Internet access.
</para>
<para>
<term>Examples:</term>
<listitem>
<para>
- From the company example.com, direct connections are made to all <quote>internal</quote>
- domains, but everything outbound goes through their ISP's proxy by way example.com's
- corporate SOCKS 4A gateway to the Internet.
+ From the company example.com, direct connections are made to all
+ <quote>internal</quote> domains, but everything outbound goes through
+ their ISP's proxy by way of example.com's corporate SOCKS 4A gateway to
+ the Internet.
</para>
<para>
<screen>
</para>
<para>
- Now, you users can set their browser's proxy to use either
+ Now, your users can set their browser's proxy to use either
host-a or host-b and be able to browse the internal content
on both isp-a or isp-b.
</para>
<para>
Note that some actions like cookie suppression or script disabling may
render some sites unusable, which rely on these techniques to work properly.
- Finding the right mix of actions is not easy and sure a matter of personal
+ Finding the right mix of actions is not easy and a matter of personal
taste. In general, it can be said that the more <quote>aggressive</quote>
your default settings (in the top section of the actions file) are,
- the more exceptions for <quote>trustes</quote> sites you will have to
+ the more exceptions for <quote>trusted</quote> sites you will have to
make later. If, for example, you want to kill popup windows per default, you'll
have to make exceptions from that rule for sites that you regularly use
and that require popups for actually useful content, like maybe your bank,
- favourite shop, or newspaper.
+ favorite shop, or newspaper.
</para>
<para>
<sect3>
<title>How Actions are Applied to URLs</title>
<para>
- The actions file is separated into sections. There are special sections,
+ The actions file is divided into sections. There are special sections,
like the alias sections which will be discussed later. For now let's
- concentrate on regular sectiions: They have a heading line (often split
+ concentrate on regular sections: They have a heading line (often split
up to multiple lines for readability) which consist of a list of actions,
separated by whitespace and enclosed in curly braces. Below that, there
is a list of URL patterns, each on a separate line.
</para>
<para>
- More detail on this is provided in the Appendix <quote>Anatomy of an Action</quote>.
+ More detail on this is provided in the Appendix, <link linkend="ACTIONSANAT">
+ Anatomy of an Action</link>.
</para>
</sect3>
</para>
<para>
- There is an <link linkend="regex">Appendix</link> with a brief quickstart into regular
- expressions, and full (very technical) documentation on PCRE regex syntax is available online
+ There is an <link linkend="regex">Appendix</link> with a brief quick-start into regular
+ expressions, and full (very technical) documentation on PCRE regex syntax is available on-line
at <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/man.txt">http://www.pcre.org/man.txt</ulink>.
You might also find the Perl man page on regular expressions (<literal>man perlre</literal>)
- useful, which is available online at <ulink
+ useful, which is available on-line at <ulink
url="http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html">http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html</ulink>.
</para>
</simplelist>
<simplelist>
<member>
- <emphasis>no-poups</emphasis>: Kill all popups in JS and HTML
+ <emphasis>no-popups</emphasis>: Kill all popups in JS and HTML
</member>
</simplelist>
<simplelist>
<listitem>
<para> Decides what to do with URLs that end up tagged with <quote>{+block
- +image}</quote>, e.g an advertizement. There are five options.
+ +image}</quote>, e.g an advertisement. There are four options.
<quote>-image-blocker</quote> will send a HTML <quote>blocked</quote> page,
usually resulting in a <quote>broken image</quote> icon.
<!-- <quote>+image-blocker{logo}</quote> will send a -->
image. And finally, <quote>+image-blocker{http://xyz.com}</quote> will send a
HTTP temporary redirect to the specified image. This has the advantage of the
icon being being cached by the browser, which will speed up the display.
-<quote>+image-blocker{pattern}</quote> will send a checkboard type pattern
+<quote>+image-blocker{pattern}</quote> will send a checkerboard type pattern:
<!-- , -->
<!-- which scales better than the logo (which can get blocky if the browser -->
<!-- enlarges it too much). -->
<para>
Turn on page filtering according to rules in the defined sections
- of <filename>refilterfile</filename>, and make one exception for
- sourceforge:
+ of <filename>default.filter</filename>, and make one exception for
+ Sourceforge:
</para>
<para>
To save them, right-click the link and choose <quote>Add to Favorites</quote>
(IE) or <quote>Add Bookmark</quote> (Netscape). You will get a warning that
the bookmark <quote>may not be safe</quote> - just click OK. Then you can run the
- Bookmarklet directly from your favourites/bookmarks. For even faster access,
+ Bookmarklet directly from your favorites/bookmarks. For even faster access,
you can put them on the <quote>Links</quote> bar (IE) or the <quote>Personal
Toolbar</quote> (Netscape), and run them with a single click.
</para>
easy to understand what is happening. And sometimes we need to be able to
<emphasis>see</emphasis> just what <application>Privoxy</application> is
doing. Especially, if something <application>Privoxy</application> is doing
- is causing us a problem inadvertantly. It can be a little daunting to look at
+ is causing us a problem inadvertently. It can be a little daunting to look at
the actions and filters files themselves, since they tend to be filled with
<quote>regular expressions</quote> whose consequences are not always
so obvious. <application>Privoxy</application> provides the
how the current configuration will handle it. This will not
help with filtering effects from the <filename>default.filter</filename> file! It
also will not tell you about any other URLs that may be embedded within the
- URL you are testing. For instance, images such as ads are expressed as URLs
+ URL you are testing (i.e. a web page). For instance, images such as ads are expressed as URLs
within the raw page source of HTML pages. So you will only get info for the
actual URL that is pasted into the prompt area -- not any sub-URLs. If you
want to know about embedded URLs like ads, you will have to dig those out of
These are the default actions we have enabled. But we can define additional
actions that would be exceptions to these general rules, and then list
specific URLs that these exceptions would apply to. Last match wins.
- Just below this then are two explict matches for <quote>.google.com</quote>.
+ Just below this then are two explicit matches for <quote>.google.com</quote>.
The first is negating our various cookie blocking actions (i.e. we will allow
cookies here). The second is allowing <quote>fast-redirects</quote>. Note
that there is a leading dot here -- <quote>.google.com</quote>. This will
<para>
And now we pull it altogether in the bottom section and summarize how
- <application>Privoxy</application> is appying all its <quote>actions</quote>
+ <application>Privoxy</application> is applying all its <quote>actions</quote>
to <quote>google.com</quote>:
</para>
<para>
Ooops, the <quote>/adsl/</quote> is matching <quote>/ads</quote>! But
we did not want this at all! Now we see why we get the blank page. We could
- now add a new action below this that explictly does <emphasis>not</emphasis>
+ now add a new action below this that explicitly does <emphasis>not</emphasis>
block (-block) pages with <quote>adsl</quote>. There are various ways to
handle such exceptions. Example:
</para>
Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
$Log: user-manual.sgml,v $
+ Revision 1.78 2002/04/17 18:04:16 oes
+ Proofreading part 2
+
Revision 1.77 2002/04/17 13:51:23 oes
Proofreading, part one