1 <!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook V3.1//EN" [
2 <!entity % dummy "IGNORE">
3 <!entity supported SYSTEM "supported.sgml">
4 <!entity newfeatures SYSTEM "newfeatures.sgml">
5 <!entity p-intro SYSTEM "privoxy.sgml">
6 <!entity seealso SYSTEM "seealso.sgml">
7 <!entity buildsource SYSTEM "buildsource.sgml">
8 <!entity contacting SYSTEM "contacting.sgml">
9 <!entity history SYSTEM "history.sgml">
10 <!entity copyright SYSTEM "copyright.sgml">
11 <!entity license SYSTEM "license.sgml">
12 <!entity p-authors SYSTEM "p-authors.sgml">
13 <!entity config SYSTEM "p-config.sgml">
14 <!entity p-version "3.0.16">
15 <!entity p-status "stable">
16 <!entity % p-authors-formal "INCLUDE"> <!-- include additional text, etc -->
17 <!entity % p-not-stable "IGNORE">
18 <!entity % p-stable "INCLUDE">
19 <!entity % p-text "IGNORE"> <!-- define we are not a text only doc -->
20 <!entity % p-doc "INCLUDE"> <!-- and we are a formal doc -->
21 <!entity % p-readme "IGNORE">
22 <!entity % user-man "IGNORE">
23 <!entity % config-file "IGNORE">
24 <!entity % p-supp-userman "IGNORE"> <!-- Omit some from supported.sgml -->
25 <!entity my-copy "©"> <!-- kludge for docbook2man -->
26 <!entity % draft "IGNORE"> <!-- WIP stuff -->
27 <!entity % seealso-extra "INCLUDE"> <!-- extra stuff from seealso.sgml -->
28 <!entity my-app "<application>Privoxy</application>">
31 File : $Source: /cvsroot/ijbswa/current/doc/source/user-manual.sgml,v $
34 This file belongs into
35 ijbswa.sourceforge.net:/home/groups/i/ij/ijbswa/htdocs/
37 $Id: user-manual.sgml,v 2.120 2010/02/13 17:38:39 fabiankeil Exp $
39 Copyright (C) 2001-2010 Privoxy Developers http://www.privoxy.org/
42 ========================================================================
43 NOTE: Please read developer-manual/documentation.html before touching
44 anything in this, or other Privoxy documentation.
45 ========================================================================
52 <title>Privoxy &p-version; User Manual</title>
56 <!-- Completely the wrong markup, but very little is allowed -->
57 <!-- in this part of an article. FIXME -->
58 <link linkend="copyright">Copyright</link> &my-copy; 2001-2010 by
59 <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/">Privoxy Developers</ulink>
63 <pubdate>$Id: user-manual.sgml,v 2.120 2010/02/13 17:38:39 fabiankeil Exp $</pubdate>
67 Note: the following should generate a separate page, and a live link to it,
68 all nicely done. But it doesn't for some mysterious reason. Please leave
69 commented unless it can be fixed proper. For the time being, the
70 copyright/license declarations will be in their own sgml.
83 This is here to keep vim syntax file from breaking :/
84 If I knew enough to fix it, I would.
85 PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE! HB: hal@foobox.net
91 The <citetitle>Privoxy User Manual</citetitle> gives users information on how to
92 install, configure and use <ulink
93 url="http://www.privoxy.org/">Privoxy</ulink>.
96 <!-- Include privoxy.sgml boilerplate: -->
98 <!-- end privoxy.sgml -->
101 You can find the latest version of the <citetitle>Privoxy User Manual</citetitle> at <ulink
102 url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/">http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/</ulink>.
103 Please see the <link linkend="contact">Contact section</link> on how to
104 contact the developers.
108 <!-- Feel free to send a note to the developers at <email>ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net</email>. -->
114 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
115 <sect1 label="1" id="introduction"><title>Introduction</title>
117 This documentation is included with the current &p-status; version of
118 <application>Privoxy</application>, v.&p-version;<![%p-not-stable;[,
119 and is mostly complete at this point. The most up to date reference for the
120 time being is still the comments in the source files and in the individual
121 configuration files. Development of a new version is currently nearing
122 completion, and includes significant changes and enhancements over
126 <!-- include only in non-stable versions -->
129 Since this is a &p-status; version, not all new features are well tested. This
130 documentation may be slightly out of sync as a result (especially with
131 CVS sources). And there <emphasis>may be</emphasis> bugs, though hopefully
136 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
137 <sect2 id="features"><title>Features</title>
139 In addition to the core
140 features of ad blocking and
141 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookie</ulink> management,
142 <application>Privoxy</application> provides many supplemental
143 features<![%p-not-stable;[, some of them currently under development]]>,
144 that give the end-user more control, more privacy and more freedom:
146 <!-- Include newfeatures.sgml boilerplate here: -->
148 <!-- end boilerplate -->
153 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
156 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
157 <sect1 id="installation"><title>Installation</title>
160 <application>Privoxy</application> is available both in convenient pre-compiled
161 packages for a wide range of operating systems, and as raw source code.
162 For most users, we recommend using the packages, which can be downloaded from our
163 <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ijbswa/">Privoxy Project
169 On some platforms, the installer may remove previously installed versions, if
170 found. (See below for your platform). In any case <emphasis>be sure to backup
171 your old configuration if it is valuable to you.</emphasis> See the <link
172 linkend="upgradersnote">note to upgraders</link> section below.
175 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
176 <sect2 id="installation-packages"><title>Binary Packages</title>
178 How to install the binary packages depends on your operating system:
181 <!-- XXX: The installation sections should be sorted -->
183 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
184 <sect3 id="installation-pack-rpm"><title>Red Hat and Fedora RPMs</title>
187 RPMs can be installed with <literal>rpm -Uvh privoxy-&p-version;-1.rpm</literal>,
188 and will use <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> for the location
189 of configuration files.
193 Note that on Red Hat, <application>Privoxy</application> will
194 <emphasis>not</emphasis> be automatically started on system boot. You will
195 need to enable that using <command>chkconfig</command>,
196 <command>ntsysv</command>, or similar methods.
200 If you have problems with failed dependencies, try rebuilding the SRC RPM:
201 <literal>rpm --rebuild privoxy-&p-version;-1.src.rpm</literal>. This
202 will use your locally installed libraries and RPM version.
206 Also note that if you have a <application>Junkbuster</application> RPM installed
207 on your system, you need to remove it first, because the packages conflict.
208 Otherwise, RPM will try to remove <application>Junkbuster</application>
209 automatically if found, before installing <application>Privoxy</application>.
213 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
214 <sect3 id="installation-deb"><title>Debian and Ubuntu</title>
216 DEBs can be installed with <literal>apt-get install privoxy</literal>,
217 and will use <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> for the location of
222 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
223 <sect3 id="installation-pack-win"><title>Windows</title>
226 Just double-click the installer, which will guide you through
227 the installation process. You will find the configuration files
228 in the same directory as you installed <application>Privoxy</application> in.
231 Version 3.0.5 beta introduced full <application>Windows</application> service
232 functionality. On Windows only, the <application>Privoxy</application>
233 program has two new command line arguments to install and uninstall
234 <application>Privoxy</application> as a <emphasis>service</emphasis>.
238 <term>Arguments:</term>
241 <replaceable class="parameter">--install</replaceable>[:<replaceable class="parameter">service_name</replaceable>]
244 <replaceable class="parameter">--uninstall</replaceable>[:<replaceable class="parameter">service_name</replaceable>]
250 After invoking <application>Privoxy</application> with
251 <command>--install</command>, you will need to bring up the
252 <application>Windows</application> service console to assign the user you
253 want <application>Privoxy</application> to run under, and whether or not you
254 want it to run whenever the system starts. You can start the
255 <application>Windows</application> services console with the following
256 command: <command>services.msc</command>. If you do not take the manual step
257 of modifying <application>Privoxy's</application> service settings, it will
258 not start. Note too that you will need to give Privoxy a user account that
259 actually exists, or it will not be permitted to
260 write to its log and configuration files.
265 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
266 <sect3 id="installation-pack-bintgz"><title>Solaris <!--, NetBSD, HP-UX--></title>
269 Create a new directory, <literal>cd</literal> to it, then unzip and
270 untar the archive. For the most part, you'll have to figure out where
271 things go. <!-- FIXME, more info needed? -->
275 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
276 <sect3 id="installation-os2"><title>OS/2</title>
279 First, make sure that no previous installations of
280 <application>Junkbuster</application> and / or
281 <application>Privoxy</application> are left on your
282 system. Check that no <application>Junkbuster</application>
283 or <application>Privoxy</application> objects are in
289 Then, just double-click the WarpIN self-installing archive, which will
290 guide you through the installation process. A shadow of the
291 <application>Privoxy</application> executable will be placed in your
292 startup folder so it will start automatically whenever OS/2 starts.
296 The directory you choose to install <application>Privoxy</application>
297 into will contain all of the configuration files.
301 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
302 <sect3 id="installation-mac"><title>Mac OS X</title>
304 Unzip the downloaded file (you can either double-click on the zip file
305 icon from the Finder, or from the desktop if you downloaded it there).
306 Then, double-click on the package installer icon and follow the
307 installation process.
310 The privoxy service will automatically start after a successful
311 installation (in addition to every time your computer starts up). To
312 prevent the privoxy service from automatically starting when your
313 computer starts up, remove or rename the folder named
314 <literal>/Library/StartupItems/Privoxy</literal>.
317 To manually start or stop the privoxy service, use the Privoxy Utility
318 for Mac OS X. This application controls the privoxy service (e.g.
319 starting and stopping the service as well as uninstalling the software).
323 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
324 <sect3 id="installation-amiga"><title>AmigaOS</title>
326 Copy and then unpack the <filename>lha</filename> archive to a suitable location.
327 All necessary files will be installed into <application>Privoxy</application>
328 directory, including all configuration and log files. To uninstall, just
329 remove this directory.
333 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
334 <sect3 id="installation-tbz"><title>FreeBSD</title>
337 Privoxy is part of FreeBSD's Ports Collection, you can build and install
338 it with <literal>cd /usr/ports/www/privoxy; make install clean</literal>.
341 If you don't use the ports, you can fetch and install
342 the package with <literal>pkg_add -r privoxy</literal>.
345 The port skeleton and the package can also be downloaded from the
346 <ulink url="https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118">File Release
347 Page</ulink>, but there's no reason to use them unless you're interested in the
348 beta releases which are only available there.
352 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
353 <sect3 id="installattion-gentoo"><title>Gentoo</title>
355 Gentoo source packages (Ebuilds) for <application>Privoxy</application> are
356 contained in the Gentoo Portage Tree (they are not on the download page,
357 but there is a Gentoo section, where you can see when a new
358 <application>Privoxy</application> Version is added to the Portage Tree).
361 Before installing <application>Privoxy</application> under Gentoo just do
362 first <literal>emerge --sync</literal> to get the latest changes from the
363 Portage tree. With <literal>emerge privoxy</literal> you install the latest
367 Configuration files are in <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename>, the
368 documentation is in <filename>/usr/share/doc/privoxy-&p-version;</filename>
369 and the Log directory is in <filename>/var/log/privoxy</filename>.
375 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
376 <sect2 id="installation-source"><title>Building from Source</title>
379 The most convenient way to obtain the <application>Privoxy</application> sources
380 is to download the source tarball from our
381 <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118&package_id=10571">project download
386 If you like to live on the bleeding edge and are not afraid of using
387 possibly unstable development versions, you can check out the up-to-the-minute
388 version directly from <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/cvs/?group_id=11118">the
389 CVS repository</ulink>.
391 deprecated...out of business.
392 or simply download <ulink
393 url="http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cvstarballs/ijbswa-cvsroot.tar.bz2">the nightly CVS
398 <!-- include buildsource.sgml boilerplate: -->
400 <!-- end boilerplate -->
403 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
404 <sect2 id="installation-keepupdated"><title>Keeping your Installation Up-to-Date</title>
406 As user feedback comes in and development continues, we will make updated versions
407 of both the main <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link> (as a <ulink
408 url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118&release_id=103670">separate
409 package</ulink>) and the software itself (including the actions file) available for
414 If you wish to receive an email notification whenever we release updates of
415 <application>Privoxy</application> or the actions file, <ulink
416 url="http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ijbswa-announce/">subscribe
417 to our announce mailing list</ulink>, ijbswa-announce@lists.sourceforge.net.
421 In order not to lose your personal changes and adjustments when updating
422 to the latest <literal>default.action</literal> file we <emphasis>strongly
423 recommend</emphasis> that you use <literal>user.action</literal> and
424 <literal>user.filter</literal> for your local
425 customizations of <application>Privoxy</application>. See the <link
426 linkend="actions-file">Chapter on actions files</link> for details.
434 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
436 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
437 <sect1 id="whatsnew">
438 <title>What's New in this Release</title>
440 <application>Privoxy 3.0.16</application> is a stable release.
441 The changes since 3.0.15 beta are:
448 Added the config file option handle-as-empty-doc-returns-ok to
449 work around Firefox bug #492459, which causes Firefox to hang
450 if JavaScripts are blocked in certain situations. The option is
451 enabled in the default config file.
456 Added the config option default-server-timeout to control the
457 assumed default server timeout. Since Privoxy no longer returns
458 an error message for connection resets on reused client connections,
459 assuming larger server timeout values appears to actually work
460 pretty well as long as connections aren't shared.
465 Added optional support for FreeBSD's accf_http(9). Use the
466 configure option --enable-accept-filter to enable it.
471 Added fancier Privoxy icons for win32. Contributed by Jeff H.
476 In daemon mode, fd 0, 1 and 2 are bound to /dev/null.
481 Resolve localhost using whatever address family the operating
482 system feels like. Previous betas would try to use IPv4 as this
483 is what most users expect, but this didn't work reliable on
489 In the action lists on CGI pages, actions and their parameters are
490 no longer separated with a space. The action file parser doesn't
491 actually allow this and will throw an invalid syntax error if actions
492 and parameters in the action files are separated. Not adding the
493 spaces means copy and pasting CGI output into the action files works.
498 The default keep-alive timeout has been reduced to 5 seconds to work
499 around hangs in clients that treat the proxy like any other host and
500 stop allowing any new connections if the "maximum number of
501 connections per host" is reached.
506 Several webbug URLs that look like they are leading to images are now
507 blocked as image instead of empty documents. Doing the latter causes
508 WebKit-based clients to show a "missing image" icon which may mess up
514 The no-such-domain template if used if for DNS resolution
515 problems with FEATURE_IPV6_SUPPORT enabled. Previously the
516 connect-failed template was used. Reported by 'zebul666'.
521 Accepts quoted expiration dates even though RFC 2109 10.1.2
522 doesn't seem to allow them. Reported anonymously.
527 Don't try to forget connections if connection sharing is disabled.
528 This wasn't a real problem but caused an unnecessary log message.
533 The still undocumented --enable-extended-host-patterns configure
534 option has a better description.
539 Fixed an error message that would claim a write to the server
540 failed when actually writing to the client failed.
545 Log the crunch reason before trying to write to the client.
546 The log is easier to read that way.
551 Several log messages about client connections also mention
557 handle-as-empty-document no longer depends on the image blocking
563 Privoxy-Log-Parser is roughly 40% faster in highlighting mode.
568 uagen, a Firefox User-Agent generator for Privoxy and Mozilla
569 browsers has been imported and is available in the tarballs
575 The scripts in the tools directory treat unknown parameters
583 If you missed the previous two beta versions, you may also be
584 interested in the additional changes since 3.0.12, the
592 Added IPv6 support. Thanks to Petr Pisar who not only provided
593 the initial patch but also helped a lot with the integration.
598 Added client-side keep-alive support.
603 The connection sharing code is only used if the connection-sharing
609 The latency is taken into account when evaluating whether or not to
610 reuse a connection. This should significantly reduce the number of
611 connections problems several users reported.
616 The max-client-connections option has been added to restrict
617 the number of client connections below a value enforced by
618 the operating system.
623 If the server doesn't specify how long the connection stays alive,
624 Privoxy errs on the safe side of caution and assumes it's only a second.
629 Setting keep-alive-timeout to 0 disables keep-alive support. Previously
630 Privoxy would claim to allow persistence but not reuse the connection.
635 Pipelined requests are less likely to be mistaken for the request
636 body of the previous request. Note that Privoxy still has no real
637 pipeline support and will either serialize pipelined requests or
638 drop them in which case the client has to resent them.
643 Fixed a crash on some Windows versions when header randomization
644 is enabled and the date couldn't be parsed.
649 Privoxy's keep-alive timeout for the current connection is reduced
650 to the one specified in the client's Keep-Alive header.
655 For HTTP/1.1 requests, Privoxy implies keep-alive support by not
656 setting any Connection header instead of using 'Connection: keep-alive'.
661 If the socket isn't reusable, Privoxy doesn't temporarily waste
662 a socket slot to remember the connection.
667 If keep-alive support is disabled but compiled in, the client's
668 Keep-Alive header is removed.
673 Fixed a bug on mingw32 where downloading large files failed if
674 keep-alive support was enabled.
679 Fixed a bug that (at least theoretically) could cause log
680 timestamps to be occasionally off by about a second.
685 The configure script respects the $PATH variable when searching
691 Compressed content with extra fields couldn't be decompressed
692 and would get passed to the client unfiltered. This problem
693 has only be detected through statical analysis with clang as
694 nobody seems to be using extra fields anyway.
699 If the server resets the Connection after sending only the headers
700 Privoxy forwards what it got to the client. Previously Privoxy
701 would deliver an error message instead.
706 Error messages in case of connection timeouts use the right
712 If spawning a child to handle a request fails, the client
713 gets an error message and Privoxy continues to listen for
714 new requests right away.
719 The error messages in case of server-connection timeouts or
720 prematurely closed server connections are now template-based.
725 If zlib support isn't compiled in, Privoxy no longer tries to
726 filter compressed content unless explicitly asked to do so.
731 In case of connections that are denied based on ACL directives,
732 the memory used for the client IP is no longer leaked.
737 Fixed another small memory leak if the client request times out
738 while waiting for client headers other than the request line.
743 The client socket is kept open until the server socket has
744 been marked as unused. This should increase the chances that
745 the still-open connection will be reused for the client's next
746 request to the same destination. Note that this only matters
747 if connection-sharing is enabled.
752 A TODO list has been added to the source tarballs to give potential
753 volunteers a better idea of what the current goals are. Donations
754 are still welcome too: http://www.privoxy.org/faq/general.html#DONATE
759 In case of missing server data, no error message is send to the
760 client if the request arrived on a reused connection. The client
761 is then supposed to silently retry the request without bothering
762 the user. This should significantly reduce the frequency of the
763 "No server or forwarder data received" error message many users
769 More reliable detection of prematurely closed client sockets
770 with keep-alive enabled.
775 FEATURE_CONNECTION_KEEP_ALIVE is decoupled from
776 FEATURE_CONNECTION_SHARING and now available on
782 Improved handling of POST requests on reused connections.
783 Should fix problems with stalled connections after submitting
784 form data with some browser configurations.
789 Fixed various latency calculation issues.
794 Allows the client to pass NTLM authentication requests to a
795 forwarding proxy. This was already assumed and hinted to work
796 in 3.0.13 beta but actually didn't. Now it's confirmed to work
797 with IE, Firefox and Chrome.
798 Thanks to Francois Botha and Wan-Teh Chang
803 Fixed a calculation problem if receiving the server headers
804 takes more than two reads, that could cause Privoxy to terminate
805 the connection prematurely. Reported by Oliver.
810 Compiles again on platforms such as OpenBSD and systems
811 using earlier glibc version that don't support AI_ADDRCONFIG.
812 Anonymously submitted in #2872591.
817 A bunch of MS VC project files and Suse and Redhat RPM spec
818 files have been removed as they were no longer maintained for
824 Overly long action lines are properly rejected with a proper
825 error message. Previously they would be either rejected as
826 invalid or cause a core dump through abort().
831 Already timed-out connections are no longer temporarily remembered.
832 They weren't reused anyway, but wasted a socket slot.
837 len refers to the number of bytes actually read which might
838 differ from the ones received. Adjust log messages accordingly.
843 The optional JavaScript on the CGI page uses encodeURIComponent()
844 instead of escape() which doesn't encode all characters that matter.
845 Anonymously reported in #2832722.
850 Fix gcc45 warnings in decompress_iob().
855 Various log message improvements.
860 Privoxy-Regression-Test supports redirect tests.
865 Privoxy-Log-Parser can gather some connection statistics.
873 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
875 <sect2 id="upgradersnote">
876 <title>Note to Upgraders</title>
879 A quick list of things to be aware of before upgrading from earlier
880 versions of <application>Privoxy</application>:
888 The recommended way to upgrade &my-app; is to backup your old
889 configuration files, install the new ones, verify that &my-app;
890 is working correctly and finally merge back your changes using
891 <application>diff</application> and maybe <application>patch</application>.
894 There are a number of new features in each &my-app; release and
895 most of them have to be explicitly enabled in the configuration
896 files. Old configuration files obviously don't do that and due
897 to syntax changes using old configuration files with a new
898 &my-app; isn't always possible anyway.
903 Note that some installers remove earlier versions completely,
904 including configuration files, therefore you should really save
905 any important configuration files!
910 On the other hand, other installers don't overwrite existing configuration
911 files, thinking you will want to do that yourself.
916 <filename>standard.action</filename> has been merged into
917 the <filename>default.action</filename> file.
922 In the default configuration only fatal errors are logged now.
923 You can change that in the <link linkend="DEBUG">debug section</link>
924 of the configuration file. You may also want to enable more verbose
925 logging until you verified that the new &my-app; version is working
932 Three other config file settings are now off by default:
933 <link linkend="enable-remote-toggle">enable-remote-toggle</link>,
934 <link linkend="enable-remote-http-toggle">enable-remote-http-toggle</link>,
935 and <link linkend="enable-edit-actions">enable-edit-actions</link>.
936 If you use or want these, you will need to explicitly enable them, and
937 be aware of the security issues involved.
944 What constitutes a <quote>default</quote> configuration has changed,
945 and you may want to review which actions are <quote>on</quote> by
946 default. This is primarily a matter of emphasis, but some features
947 you may have been used to, may now be <quote>off</quote> by default.
948 There are also a number of new actions and filters you may want to
949 consider, most of which are not fully incorporated into the default
950 settings as yet (see above).
957 The default actions setting is now <literal>Cautious</literal>. Previous
958 releases had a default setting of <literal>Medium</literal>. Experienced
959 users may want to adjust this, as it is fairly conservative by &my-app;
960 standards and past practices. See <ulink
961 url="http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions-list?f=default">
962 http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions-list?f=default</ulink>. New users
963 should try the default settings for a while before turning up the volume.
969 The default setting has filtering turned <emphasis>off</emphasis>, which
970 subsequently means that compression is <emphasis>on</emphasis>. Remember
971 that filtering does not work on compressed pages, so if you use, or want to
972 use, filtering, you will need to force compression off. Example:
976 { +<link linkend="filter">filter</link>{google} +<link linkend="prevent-compression">prevent-compression</link> }
980 Or if you use a number of filters, or filter many sites, you may just want
981 to turn off compression for all sites in
982 <filename>default.action</filename> (or
983 <filename>user.action</filename>).
990 Also, <link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> is
991 off by default now. If you've liked this feature in the past, you may want
992 to turn it back on in <filename>user.action</filename> now.
999 Some installers may not automatically start
1000 <application>Privoxy</application> after installation.
1011 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1012 <sect1 id="quickstart"><title>Quickstart to Using Privoxy</title>
1018 Install <application>Privoxy</application>. See the <link
1019 linkend="installation">Installation Section</link> below for platform specific
1026 Advanced users and those who want to offer <application>Privoxy</application>
1027 service to more than just their local machine should check the <link
1028 linkend="config">main config file</link>, especially the <link
1029 linkend="access-control">security-relevant</link> options. These are
1036 Start <application>Privoxy</application>, if the installation program has
1037 not done this already (may vary according to platform). See the section
1038 <link linkend="startup">Starting <application>Privoxy</application></link>.
1044 Set your browser to use <application>Privoxy</application> as HTTP and
1045 HTTPS (SSL) <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_server">proxy</ulink>
1046 by setting the proxy configuration for address of
1047 <literal>127.0.0.1</literal> and port <literal>8118</literal>.
1048 <emphasis>DO NOT</emphasis> activate proxying for <literal>FTP</literal> or
1049 any protocols besides HTTP and HTTPS (SSL) unless you intend to prevent your
1050 browser from using these protocols.
1056 Flush your browser's disk and memory caches, to remove any cached ad images.
1057 If using <application>Privoxy</application> to manage
1058 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>,
1059 you should remove any currently stored cookies too.
1065 A default installation should provide a reasonable starting point for
1066 most. There will undoubtedly be occasions where you will want to adjust the
1067 configuration, but that can be dealt with as the need arises. Little
1068 to no initial configuration is required in most cases, you may want
1070 <ulink url="config.html#ENABLE-EDIT-ACTIONS">web-based action editor</ulink> though.
1071 Be sure to read the warnings first.
1074 See the <link linkend="configuration">Configuration section</link> for more
1075 configuration options, and how to customize your installation.
1076 You might also want to look at the <link
1077 linkend="quickstart-ad-blocking">next section</link> for a quick
1078 introduction to how <application>Privoxy</application> blocks ads and
1085 If you experience ads that slip through, innocent images that are
1086 blocked, or otherwise feel the need to fine-tune
1087 <application>Privoxy's</application> behavior, take a look at the <link
1088 linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>. As a quick start, you might
1089 find the <link linkend="act-examples">richly commented examples</link>
1090 helpful. You can also view and edit the actions files through the <ulink
1091 url="http://config.privoxy.org">web-based user interface</ulink>. The
1092 Appendix <quote><link linkend="actionsanat">Troubleshooting: Anatomy of an
1093 Action</link></quote> has hints on how to understand and debug actions that
1094 <quote>misbehave</quote>.
1099 Did anyone test these lately?
1103 For easy access to &my-app;'s most important controls, drag the provided
1104 <link linkend="bookmarklets">Bookmarklets</link> into your browser's
1112 Please see the section <link linkend="contact">Contacting the
1113 Developers</link> on how to report bugs, problems with websites or to get
1120 Now enjoy surfing with enhanced control, comfort and privacy!
1128 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1130 <sect2 id="quickstart-ad-blocking">
1131 <title>Quickstart to Ad Blocking</title>
1133 NOTE: This section is deliberately redundant for those that don't
1134 want to read the whole thing (which is getting lengthy).
1137 Ad blocking is but one of <application>Privoxy's</application>
1138 array of features. Many of these features are for the technically minded advanced
1139 user. But, ad and banner blocking is surely common ground for everybody.
1142 This section will provide a quick summary of ad blocking so
1143 you can get up to speed quickly without having to read the more extensive
1144 information provided below, though this is highly recommended.
1147 First a bit of a warning ... blocking ads is much like blocking SPAM: the
1148 more aggressive you are about it, the more likely you are to block
1149 things that were not intended. And the more likely that some things
1150 may not work as intended. So there is a trade off here. If you want
1151 extreme ad free browsing, be prepared to deal with more
1152 <quote>problem</quote> sites, and to spend more time adjusting the
1153 configuration to solve these unintended consequences. In short, there is
1154 not an easy way to eliminate <emphasis>all</emphasis> ads. Either take
1155 the easy way and settle for <emphasis>most</emphasis> ads blocked with the
1156 default configuration, or jump in and tweak it for your personal surfing
1157 habits and preferences.
1160 Secondly, a brief explanation of <application>Privoxy's </application>
1161 <quote>actions</quote>. <quote>Actions</quote> in this context, are
1162 the directives we use to tell <application>Privoxy</application> to perform
1163 some task relating to HTTP transactions (i.e. web browsing). We tell
1164 <application>Privoxy</application> to take some <quote>action</quote>. Each
1165 action has a unique name and function. While there are many potential
1166 <application>actions</application> in <application>Privoxy's</application>
1167 arsenal, only a few are used for ad blocking. <link
1168 linkend="actions">Actions</link>, and <link linkend="actions-file">action
1169 configuration files</link>, are explained in depth below.
1172 Actions are specified in <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration,
1173 followed by one or more URLs to which the action should apply. URLs
1174 can actually be URL type <link linkend="af-patterns">patterns</link> that use
1175 wildcards so they can apply potentially to a range of similar URLs. The
1176 actions, together with the URL patterns are called a section.
1179 When you connect to a website, the full URL will either match one or more
1180 of the sections as defined in <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration,
1181 or not. If so, then <application>Privoxy</application> will perform the
1182 respective actions. If not, then nothing special happens. Furthermore, web
1183 pages may contain embedded, secondary URLs that your web browser will
1184 use to load additional components of the page, as it parses the
1185 original page's HTML content. An ad image for instance, is just an URL
1186 embedded in the page somewhere. The image itself may be on the same server,
1187 or a server somewhere else on the Internet. Complex web pages will have many
1188 such embedded URLs. &my-app; can deal with each URL individually, so, for
1189 instance, the main page text is not touched, but images from such-and-such
1194 The most important actions for basic ad blocking are: <literal><link
1195 linkend="block">block</link></literal>, <literal><link
1196 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>,
1198 linkend="handle-as-empty-document">handle-as-empty-document</link></literal>,and
1199 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>:
1207 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> - this is perhaps
1208 the single most used action, and is particularly important for ad blocking.
1209 This action stops any contact between your browser and any URL patterns
1210 that match this action's configuration. It can be used for blocking ads,
1211 but also anything that is determined to be unwanted. By itself, it simply
1212 stops any communication with the remote server and sends
1213 <application>Privoxy</application>'s own built-in BLOCKED page instead to
1214 let you now what has happened (with some exceptions, see below).
1220 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> -
1221 tells <application>Privoxy</application> to treat this URL as an image.
1222 <application>Privoxy</application>'s default configuration already does this
1223 for all common image types (e.g. GIF), but there are many situations where this
1224 is not so easy to determine. So we'll force it in these cases. This is particularly
1225 important for ad blocking, since only if we know that it's an image of
1226 some kind, can we replace it with an image of our choosing, instead of the
1227 <application>Privoxy</application> BLOCKED page (which would only result in
1228 a <quote>broken image</quote> icon). There are some limitations to this
1229 though. For instance, you can't just brute-force an image substitution for
1230 an entire HTML page in most situations.
1236 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-empty-document">handle-as-empty-document</link></literal> -
1237 sends an empty document instead of <application>Privoxy's</application>
1238 normal BLOCKED HTML page. This is useful for file types that are neither
1239 HTML nor images, such as blocking JavaScript files.
1246 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal> - tells
1247 <application>Privoxy</application> what to display in place of an ad image that
1248 has hit a block rule. For this to come into play, the URL must match a
1249 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action somewhere in the
1250 configuration, <emphasis>and</emphasis>, it must also match an
1251 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> action.
1254 The configuration options on what to display instead of the ad are:
1258 <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> - a checkerboard pattern, so that an ad
1259 replacement is obvious. This is the default.
1264 <emphasis>blank</emphasis> - A very small empty GIF image is displayed.
1265 This is the so-called <quote>invisible</quote> configuration option.
1270 <emphasis>http://<URL></emphasis> - A redirect to any image anywhere
1271 of the user's choosing (advanced usage).
1280 Advanced users will eventually want to explore &my-app;
1281 <literal><link linkend="filter">filters</link></literal> as well. Filters
1282 are very different from <literal><link
1283 linkend="block">blocks</link></literal>.
1284 A <quote>block</quote> blocks a site, page, or unwanted contented. Filters
1285 are a way of filtering or modifying what is actually on the page. An example
1286 filter usage: a text replacement of <quote>no-no</quote> for
1287 <quote>nasty-word</quote>. That is a very simple example. This process can be
1288 used for ad blocking, but it is more in the realm of advanced usage and has
1289 some pitfalls to be wary off.
1293 The quickest way to adjust any of these settings is with your browser through
1294 the special <application>Privoxy</application> editor at <ulink
1295 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
1296 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/show-status</ulink>). This
1297 is an internal page, and does not require Internet access.
1301 Note that as of <application>Privoxy</application> 3.0.7 beta the
1302 action editor is disabled by default. Check the
1303 <ulink url="config.html#ENABLE-EDIT-ACTIONS">enable-edit-actions
1304 section in the configuration file</ulink> to learn why and in which
1305 cases it's safe to enable again.
1309 If you decided to enable the action editor, select the appropriate
1310 <quote>actions</quote> file, and click
1311 <quote><guibutton>Edit</guibutton></quote>. It is best to put personal or
1312 local preferences in <filename>user.action</filename> since this is not
1313 meant to be overwritten during upgrades, and will over-ride the settings in
1314 other files. Here you can insert new <quote>actions</quote>, and URLs for ad
1315 blocking or other purposes, and make other adjustments to the configuration.
1316 <application>Privoxy</application> will detect these changes automatically.
1320 A quick and simple step by step example:
1328 Right click on the ad image to be blocked, then select
1329 <quote><guimenuitem>Copy Link Location</guimenuitem></quote> from the
1337 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
1342 Find <filename>user.action</filename> in the top section, and click
1343 on <quote><guibutton>Edit</guibutton></quote>:
1346 <!-- image of editor and actions files selections -->
1348 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Actions Files in Use</title>
1351 <imagedata fileref="files-in-use.jpg" format="jpg">
1354 <phrase>[ Screenshot of Actions Files in Use ]</phrase>
1363 You should have a section with only
1364 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> listed under
1365 <quote>Actions:</quote>.
1366 If not, click a <quote><guibutton>Insert new section below</guibutton></quote>
1367 button, and in the new section that just appeared, click the
1368 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> button right under the word <quote>Actions:</quote>.
1369 This will bring up a list of all actions. Find
1370 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> near the top, and click
1371 in the <quote>Enabled</quote> column, then <quote><guibutton>Submit</guibutton></quote>
1372 just below the list.
1377 Now, in the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> actions section,
1378 click the <quote><guibutton>Add</guibutton></quote> button, and paste the URL the
1379 browser got from <quote><guimenuitem>Copy Link Location</guimenuitem></quote>.
1380 Remove the <literal>http://</literal> at the beginning of the URL. Then, click
1381 <quote><guibutton>Submit</guibutton></quote> (or
1382 <quote><guibutton>OK</guibutton></quote> if in a pop-up window).
1387 Now go back to the original page, and press <keycap>SHIFT-Reload</keycap>
1388 (or flush all browser caches). The image should be gone now.
1396 This is a very crude and simple example. There might be good reasons to use a
1397 wildcard pattern match to include potentially similar images from the same
1398 site. For a more extensive explanation of <quote>patterns</quote>, and
1399 the entire actions concept, see <link linkend="actions-file">the Actions
1404 For advanced users who want to hand edit their config files, you might want
1405 to now go to the <link linkend="act-examples">Actions Files Tutorial</link>.
1406 The ideas explained therein also apply to the web-based editor.
1409 There are also various
1410 <link linkend="filter">filters</link> that can be used for ad blocking
1411 (filters are a special subset of actions). These
1412 fall into the <quote>advanced</quote> usage category, and are explained in
1413 depth in later sections.
1420 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1423 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1424 <sect1 id="startup">
1425 <title>Starting Privoxy</title>
1427 Before launching <application>Privoxy</application> for the first time, you
1428 will want to configure your browser(s) to use
1429 <application>Privoxy</application> as a HTTP and HTTPS (SSL)
1430 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_server">proxy</ulink>. The default is
1431 127.0.0.1 (or localhost) for the proxy address, and port 8118 (earlier versions
1432 used port 8000). This is the one configuration step <emphasis>that must be done
1436 Please note that <application>Privoxy</application> can only proxy HTTP and
1437 HTTPS traffic. It will not work with FTP or other protocols.
1440 <!-- image of Mozilla Proxy configuration -->
1442 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Proxy Configuration Showing
1443 Mozilla/Netscape HTTP and HTTPS (SSL) Settings</title>
1446 <imagedata fileref="proxy_setup.jpg" format="jpg">
1449 <phrase>[ Screenshot of Mozilla Proxy Configuration ]</phrase>
1457 With <application>Firefox</application>, this is typically set under:
1461 <guibutton>Tools</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Options</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Advanced</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Network</guibutton> -><guibutton>Connection</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Settings</guibutton>
1466 Or optionally on some platforms:
1470 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Preferences</guibutton> -> <guibutton>General</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Connection Settings</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Manual Proxy Configuration</guibutton>
1476 With <application>Netscape</application> (and
1477 <application>Mozilla</application>), this can be set under:
1482 <!-- Mix ascii and gui art, something for everybody -->
1483 <!-- spacing on this is tricky -->
1484 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Preferences</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Advanced</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Proxies</guibutton> -> <guibutton>HTTP Proxy</guibutton>
1489 For <application>Internet Explorer v.5-7</application>:
1493 <guibutton>Tools</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Internet Options</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Connections</guibutton> -> <guibutton>LAN Settings</guibutton>
1497 Then, check <quote>Use Proxy</quote> and fill in the appropriate info
1498 (Address: 127.0.0.1, Port: 8118). Include HTTPS (SSL), if you want HTTPS
1499 proxy support too (sometimes labeled <quote>Secure</quote>). Make sure any
1500 checkboxes like <quote>Use the same proxy server for all protocols</quote> is
1501 <emphasis>UNCHECKED</emphasis>. You want only HTTP and HTTPS (SSL)!
1504 <!-- image of IE Proxy configuration -->
1506 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Proxy Configuration Showing
1507 Internet Explorer HTTP and HTTPS (Secure) Settings</title>
1510 <imagedata fileref="proxy2.jpg" format="jpg">
1513 <phrase>[ Screenshot of IE Proxy Configuration ]</phrase>
1521 After doing this, flush your browser's disk and memory caches to force a
1522 re-reading of all pages and to get rid of any ads that may be cached. Remove
1523 any <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>,
1524 if you want <application>Privoxy</application> to manage that. You are now
1525 ready to start enjoying the benefits of using
1526 <application>Privoxy</application>!
1530 <application>Privoxy</application> itself is typically started by specifying the
1531 main configuration file to be used on the command line. If no configuration
1532 file is specified on the command line, <application>Privoxy</application>
1533 will look for a file named <filename>config</filename> in the current
1534 directory. Except on Win32 where it will try <filename>config.txt</filename>.
1537 <sect2 id="start-redhat">
1538 <title>Red Hat and Fedora</title>
1540 A default Red Hat installation may not start &my-app; upon boot. It will use
1541 the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename> as its main configuration
1546 # /etc/rc.d/init.d/privoxy start
1554 # service privoxy start
1559 <sect2 id="start-debian">
1560 <title>Debian</title>
1562 We use a script. Note that Debian typically starts &my-app; upon booting per
1563 default. It will use the file
1564 <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename> as its main configuration
1569 # /etc/init.d/privoxy start
1574 <sect2 id="start-windows">
1575 <title>Windows</title>
1577 Click on the &my-app; Icon to start <application>Privoxy</application>. If no configuration file is
1578 specified on the command line, <application>Privoxy</application> will look
1579 for a file named <filename>config.txt</filename>. Note that Windows will
1580 automatically start &my-app; when the system starts if you chose that option
1584 <application>Privoxy</application> can run with full Windows service functionality.
1585 On Windows only, the &my-app; program has two new command line arguments
1586 to install and uninstall &my-app; as a service. See the
1587 <link linkend="installation-pack-win">Windows Installation
1588 instructions</link> for details.
1592 <sect2 id="start-unices">
1593 <title>Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD, HP-UX and others</title>
1595 Example Unix startup command:
1599 # /usr/sbin/privoxy /etc/privoxy/config
1604 <sect2 id="start-os2">
1607 During installation, <application>Privoxy</application> is configured to
1608 start automatically when the system restarts. You can start it manually by
1609 double-clicking on the <application>Privoxy</application> icon in the
1610 <application>Privoxy</application> folder.
1614 <sect2 id="start-macosx">
1615 <title>Mac OS X</title>
1617 After downloading the privoxy software, unzip the downloaded file by
1618 double-clicking on the zip file icon. Then, double-click on the
1619 installer package icon and follow the installation process.
1622 The privoxy service will automatically start after a successful
1623 installation. In addition, the privoxy service will automatically
1624 start every time your computer starts up.
1627 To prevent the privoxy service from automatically starting when your
1628 computer starts up, remove or rename the folder named
1629 /Library/StartupItems/Privoxy.
1632 A simple application named Privoxy Utility has been created which
1633 enables administrators to easily start and stop the privoxy service.
1636 In addition, the Privoxy Utility presents a simple way for
1637 administrators to edit the various privoxy config files. A method
1638 to uninstall the software is also available.
1641 An administrator username and password must be supplied in order for
1642 the Privoxy Utility to perform any of the tasks.
1647 <sect2 id="start-amigaos">
1648 <title>AmigaOS</title>
1650 Start <application>Privoxy</application> (with RUN <>NIL:) in your
1651 <filename>startnet</filename> script (AmiTCP), in
1652 <filename>s:user-startup</filename> (RoadShow), as startup program in your
1653 startup script (Genesis), or as startup action (Miami and MiamiDx).
1654 <application>Privoxy</application> will automatically quit when you quit your
1655 TCP/IP stack (just ignore the harmless warning your TCP/IP stack may display that
1656 <application>Privoxy</application> is still running).
1660 <sect2 id="start-gentoo">
1661 <title>Gentoo</title>
1663 A script is again used. It will use the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config
1664 </filename> as its main configuration file.
1668 /etc/init.d/privoxy start
1672 Note that <application>Privoxy</application> is not automatically started at
1673 boot time by default. You can change this with the <literal>rc-update</literal>
1678 rc-update add privoxy default
1686 See the section <link linkend="cmdoptions">Command line options</link> for
1690 must find a better place for this paragraph
1693 The included default configuration files should give a reasonable starting
1694 point. Most of the per site configuration is done in the
1695 <ulink url="actions-file.html"><quote>actions</quote></ulink> files. These are
1696 where various cookie actions are defined, ad and banner blocking, and other
1697 aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. There are several
1698 such files included, with varying levels of aggressiveness.
1702 You will probably want to keep an eye out for sites for which you may prefer
1703 persistent cookies, and add these to your actions configuration as needed. By
1704 default, most of these will be accepted only during the current browser
1705 session (aka <quote>session cookies</quote>), unless you add them to the
1706 configuration. If you want the browser to handle this instead, you will need
1707 to edit <filename>user.action</filename> (or through the web based interface)
1708 and disable this feature. If you use more than one browser, it would make
1709 more sense to let <application>Privoxy</application> handle this. In which
1710 case, the browser(s) should be set to accept all cookies.
1714 Another feature where you will probably want to define exceptions for trusted
1715 sites is the popup-killing (through <ulink
1716 url="actions-file.html#FILTER-POPUPS"><quote>+filter{popups}</quote></ulink>),
1717 because your favorite shopping, banking, or leisure site may need
1718 popups (explained below).
1722 <application>Privoxy</application> does not support all of the optional HTTP/1.1
1723 features yet. In the unlikely event that you experience inexplicable problems
1724 with browsers that use HTTP/1.1 per default
1725 (like <application>Mozilla</application> or recent versions of I.E.), you might
1726 try to force HTTP/1.0 compatibility. For Mozilla, look under <literal>Edit ->
1727 Preferences -> Debug -> Networking</literal>.
1728 Alternatively, set the <quote>+downgrade-http-version</quote> config option in
1729 <filename>default.action</filename> which will downgrade your browser's HTTP
1730 requests from HTTP/1.1 to HTTP/1.0 before processing them.
1734 After running <application>Privoxy</application> for a while, you can
1735 start to fine tune the configuration to suit your personal, or site,
1736 preferences and requirements. There are many, many aspects that can
1737 be customized. <quote>Actions</quote>
1738 can be adjusted by pointing your browser to
1739 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
1740 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
1741 and then follow the link to <quote>View & Change the Current Configuration</quote>.
1742 (This is an internal page and does not require Internet access.)
1746 In fact, various aspects of <application>Privoxy</application>
1747 configuration can be viewed from this page, including
1748 current configuration parameters, source code version numbers,
1749 the browser's request headers, and <quote>actions</quote> that apply
1750 to a given URL. In addition to the actions file
1751 editor mentioned above, <application>Privoxy</application> can also
1752 be turned <quote>on</quote> and <quote>off</quote> (toggled) from this page.
1756 If you encounter problems, try loading the page without
1757 <application>Privoxy</application>. If that helps, enter the URL where
1758 you have the problems into <ulink url="http://p.p/show-url-info">the browser
1759 based rule tracing utility</ulink>. See which rules apply and why, and
1760 then try turning them off for that site one after the other, until the problem
1761 is gone. When you have found the culprit, you might want to turn the rest on
1766 If the above paragraph sounds gibberish to you, you might want to <link
1767 linkend="actions-file">read more about the actions concept</link>
1768 or even dive deep into the <link linkend="actionsanat">Appendix
1773 If you can't get rid of the problem at all, think you've found a bug in
1774 Privoxy, want to propose a new feature or smarter rules, please see the
1775 section <link linkend="contact"><quote>Contacting the
1776 Developers</quote></link> below.
1781 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1782 <sect2 id="cmdoptions">
1783 <title>Command Line Options</title>
1785 <application>Privoxy</application> may be invoked with the following
1786 command-line options:
1794 <emphasis>--version</emphasis>
1797 Print version info and exit. Unix only.
1802 <emphasis>--help</emphasis>
1805 Print short usage info and exit. Unix only.
1810 <emphasis>--no-daemon</emphasis>
1813 Don't become a daemon, i.e. don't fork and become process group
1814 leader, and don't detach from controlling tty. Unix only.
1819 <emphasis>--pidfile FILE</emphasis>
1822 On startup, write the process ID to <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>. Delete the
1823 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> on exit. Failure to create or delete the
1824 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> is non-fatal. If no <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>
1825 option is given, no PID file will be used. Unix only.
1830 <emphasis>--user USER[.GROUP]</emphasis>
1833 After (optionally) writing the PID file, assume the user ID of
1834 <emphasis>USER</emphasis>, and if included the GID of GROUP. Exit if the
1835 privileges are not sufficient to do so. Unix only.
1840 <emphasis>--chroot</emphasis>
1843 Before changing to the user ID given in the <emphasis>--user</emphasis> option,
1844 chroot to that user's home directory, i.e. make the kernel pretend to the &my-app;
1845 process that the directory tree starts there. If set up carefully, this can limit
1846 the impact of possible vulnerabilities in &my-app; to the files contained in that hierarchy.
1852 <emphasis>--pre-chroot-nslookup hostname</emphasis>
1855 Specifies a hostname to look up before doing a chroot. On some systems, initializing the
1856 resolver library involves reading config files from /etc and/or loading additional shared
1857 libraries from /lib. On these systems, doing a hostname lookup before the chroot reduces
1858 the number of files that must be copied into the chroot tree.
1861 For fastest startup speed, a good value is a hostname that is not in /etc/hosts but that
1862 your local name server (listed in /etc/resolv.conf) can resolve without recursion
1863 (that is, without having to ask any other name servers). The hostname need not exist,
1864 but if it doesn't, an error message (which can be ignored) will be output.
1870 <emphasis>configfile</emphasis>
1873 If no <emphasis>configfile</emphasis> is included on the command line,
1874 <application>Privoxy</application> will look for a file named
1875 <quote>config</quote> in the current directory (except on Win32
1876 where it will look for <quote>config.txt</quote> instead). Specify
1877 full path to avoid confusion. If no config file is found,
1878 <application>Privoxy</application> will fail to start.
1886 On <application>MS Windows</application> only there are two additional
1887 command-line options to allow <application>Privoxy</application> to install and
1888 run as a <emphasis>service</emphasis>. See the
1889 <link linkend="installation-pack-win">Window Installation section</link>
1897 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1900 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1901 <sect1 id="configuration"><title>Privoxy Configuration</title>
1903 All <application>Privoxy</application> configuration is stored
1904 in text files. These files can be edited with a text editor.
1905 Many important aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> can
1906 also be controlled easily with a web browser.
1910 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1913 <title>Controlling Privoxy with Your Web Browser</title>
1915 <application>Privoxy</application>'s user interface can be reached through the special
1916 URL <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
1917 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
1918 which is a built-in page and works without Internet access.
1919 You will see the following section:
1923 <!-- Needs to be put in a table and colorized -->
1926 <bridgehead renderas="sect2"> Privoxy Menu</bridgehead>
1930 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">View & change the current configuration</ulink>
1933 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-version">View the source code version numbers</ulink>
1936 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request">View the request headers.</ulink>
1939 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">Look up which actions apply to a URL and why</ulink>
1942 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">Toggle Privoxy on or off</ulink>
1945 ▪ <ulink
1946 url="http://www.privoxy.org/&p-version;/user-manual/">Documentation</ulink>
1954 This should be self-explanatory. Note the first item leads to an editor for the
1955 <link linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>, which is where the ad, banner,
1956 cookie, and URL blocking magic is configured as well as other advanced features of
1957 <application>Privoxy</application>. This is an easy way to adjust various
1958 aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. The actions
1959 file, and other configuration files, are explained in detail below.
1963 <quote>Toggle Privoxy On or Off</quote> is handy for sites that might
1964 have problems with your current actions and filters. You can in fact use
1965 it as a test to see whether it is <application>Privoxy</application>
1966 causing the problem or not. <application>Privoxy</application> continues
1967 to run as a proxy in this case, but all manipulation is disabled, i.e.
1968 <application>Privoxy</application> acts like a normal forwarding proxy. There
1969 is even a toggle <link linkend="bookmarklets">Bookmarklet</link> offered, so
1970 that you can toggle <application>Privoxy</application> with one click from
1975 Note that several of the features described above are disabled by default
1976 in <application>Privoxy</application> 3.0.7 beta and later.
1978 <ulink url="config.html">configuration file</ulink> to learn why
1979 and in which cases it's safe to enable them again.
1984 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1989 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1991 <sect2 id="confoverview">
1992 <title>Configuration Files Overview</title>
1994 For Unix, *BSD and Linux, all configuration files are located in
1995 <filename>/etc/privoxy/</filename> by default. For MS Windows, OS/2, and
1996 AmigaOS these are all in the same directory as the
1997 <application>Privoxy</application> executable. <![%p-not-stable;[ The name
1998 and number of configuration files has changed from previous versions, and is
1999 subject to change as development progresses.]]>
2003 The installed defaults provide a reasonable starting point, though
2004 some settings may be aggressive by some standards. For the time being, the
2005 principle configuration files are:
2013 The <link linkend="config">main configuration file</link> is named <filename>config</filename>
2014 on Linux, Unix, BSD, OS/2, and AmigaOS and <filename>config.txt</filename>
2015 on Windows. This is a required file.
2021 <filename>match-all.action</filename> is used to define which <quote>actions</quote>
2022 relating to banner-blocking, images, pop-ups, content modification, cookie handling
2023 etc should be applied by default. It should be the first actions file loaded.
2026 <filename>default.action</filename> defines many exceptions (both positive and negative)
2027 from the default set of actions that's configured in <filename>match-all.action</filename>.
2028 It should be the second actions file loaded and shouldn't be edited by the user.
2031 Multiple actions files may be defined in <filename>config</filename>. These
2032 are processed in the order they are defined. Local customizations and locally
2033 preferred exceptions to the default policies as defined in
2034 <filename>match-all.action</filename> (which you will most probably want
2035 to define sooner or later) are best applied in <filename>user.action</filename>,
2036 where you can preserve them across upgrades. The file isn't installed by all
2037 installers, but you can easily create it yourself with a text editor.
2040 There is also a web based editor that can be accessed from
2042 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
2044 url="http://p.p/show-status">http://p.p/show-status</ulink>) for the
2045 various actions files.
2051 <quote>Filter files</quote> (the <link linkend="filter-file">filter
2052 file</link>) can be used to re-write the raw page content, including
2053 viewable text as well as embedded HTML and JavaScript, and whatever else
2054 lurks on any given web page. The filtering jobs are only pre-defined here;
2055 whether to apply them or not is up to the actions files.
2056 <filename>default.filter</filename> includes various filters made
2057 available for use by the developers. Some are much more intrusive than
2058 others, and all should be used with caution. You may define additional
2059 filter files in <filename>config</filename> as you can with
2060 actions files. We suggest <filename>user.filter</filename> for any
2061 locally defined filters or customizations.
2069 The syntax of the configuration and filter files may change between different
2070 Privoxy versions, unfortunately some enhancements cost backwards compatibility.
2071 <!-- Add link to documentation-->
2075 All files use the <quote><literal>#</literal></quote> character to denote a
2076 comment (the rest of the line will be ignored) and understand line continuation
2077 through placing a backslash ("<literal>\</literal>") as the very last character
2078 in a line. If the <literal>#</literal> is preceded by a backslash, it looses
2079 its special function. Placing a <literal>#</literal> in front of an otherwise
2080 valid configuration line to prevent it from being interpreted is called "commenting
2081 out" that line. Blank lines are ignored.
2085 The actions files and filter files
2086 can use Perl style <link linkend="regex">regular expressions</link> for
2087 maximum flexibility.
2091 After making any changes, there is no need to restart
2092 <application>Privoxy</application> in order for the changes to take
2093 effect. <application>Privoxy</application> detects such changes
2094 automatically. Note, however, that it may take one or two additional
2095 requests for the change to take effect. When changing the listening address
2096 of <application>Privoxy</application>, these <quote>wake up</quote> requests
2097 must obviously be sent to the <emphasis>old</emphasis> listening address.
2102 While under development, the configuration content is subject to change.
2103 The below documentation may not be accurate by the time you read this.
2104 Also, what constitutes a <quote>default</quote> setting, may change, so
2105 please check all your configuration files on important issues.
2111 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2114 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
2116 <!-- **************************************************** -->
2117 <!-- Include config.sgml here -->
2118 <!-- This is where the entire config file is detailed. -->
2120 <!-- end include -->
2123 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2127 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
2129 <sect1 id="actions-file"><title>Actions Files</title>
2133 XXX: similar descriptions are in the Configuration Files sections.
2134 We should only describe them at one place.
2137 The actions files are used to define what <emphasis>actions</emphasis>
2138 <application>Privoxy</application> takes for which URLs, and thus determines
2139 how ad images, cookies and various other aspects of HTTP content and
2140 transactions are handled, and on which sites (or even parts thereof).
2141 There are a number of such actions, with a wide range of functionality.
2142 Each action does something a little different.
2143 These actions give us a veritable arsenal of tools with which to exert
2144 our control, preferences and independence. Actions can be combined so that
2145 their effects are aggregated when applied against a given set of URLs.
2149 are three action files included with <application>Privoxy</application> with
2156 <filename>match-all.action</filename> - is used to define which
2157 <quote>actions</quote> relating to banner-blocking, images, pop-ups,
2158 content modification, cookie handling etc should be applied by default.
2159 It should be the first actions file loaded
2164 <filename>default.action</filename> - defines many exceptions (both
2165 positive and negative) from the default set of actions that's configured
2166 in <filename>match-all.action</filename>. It is a set of rules that should
2167 work reasonably well as-is for most users. This file is only supposed to
2168 be edited by the developers. It should be the second actions file loaded.
2173 <filename>user.action</filename> - is intended to be for local site
2174 preferences and exceptions. As an example, if your ISP or your bank
2175 has specific requirements, and need special handling, this kind of
2176 thing should go here. This file will not be upgraded.
2181 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> <guibutton>Set to Cautious</guibutton> <guibutton>Set to Medium</guibutton> <guibutton>Set to Advanced</guibutton>
2184 These have increasing levels of aggressiveness <emphasis>and have no
2185 influence on your browsing unless you select them explicitly in the
2186 editor</emphasis>. A default installation should be pre-set to
2187 <literal>Cautious</literal>. New users should try this for a while before
2188 adjusting the settings to more aggressive levels. The more aggressive
2189 the settings, then the more likelihood there is of problems such as sites
2190 not working as they should.
2193 The <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> button allows you to turn each
2194 action on/off individually for fine-tuning. The <guibutton>Cautious</guibutton>
2195 button changes the actions list to low/safe settings which will activate
2196 ad blocking and a minimal set of &my-app;'s features, and subsequently
2197 there will be less of a chance for accidental problems. The
2198 <guibutton>Medium</guibutton> button sets the list to a medium level of
2199 other features and a low level set of privacy features. The
2200 <guibutton>Advanced</guibutton> button sets the list to a high level of
2201 ad blocking and medium level of privacy. See the chart below. The latter
2202 three buttons over-ride any changes via with the
2203 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> button. More fine-tuning can be done in the
2204 lower sections of this internal page.
2207 While the actions file editor allows to enable these settings in all
2208 actions files, they are only supposed to be enabled in the first one
2209 to make sure you don't unintentionally overrule earlier rules.
2212 The default profiles, and their associated actions, as pre-defined in
2213 <filename>default.action</filename> are:
2216 <table frame=all><title>Default Configurations</title>
2217 <tgroup cols=4 align=left colsep=1 rowsep=1>
2218 <colspec colname=c1>
2219 <colspec colname=c2>
2220 <colspec colname=c3>
2221 <colspec colname=c4>
2224 <entry>Feature</entry>
2225 <entry>Cautious</entry>
2226 <entry>Medium</entry>
2227 <entry>Advanced</entry>
2232 <!-- <entry>f1</entry> -->
2233 <!-- <entry>f2</entry> -->
2234 <!-- <entry>f3</entry> -->
2235 <!-- <entry>f4</entry> -->
2241 <entry>Ad-blocking Aggressiveness</entry>
2242 <entry>medium</entry>
2248 <entry>Ad-filtering by size</entry>
2255 <entry>Ad-filtering by link</entry>
2261 <entry>Pop-up killing</entry>
2262 <entry>blocks only</entry>
2263 <entry>blocks only</entry>
2264 <entry>blocks only</entry>
2268 <entry>Privacy Features</entry>
2270 <entry>medium</entry>
2271 <entry>medium/high</entry>
2275 <entry>Cookie handling</entry>
2277 <entry>session-only</entry>
2282 <entry>Referer forging</entry>
2289 <entry>GIF de-animation</entry>
2296 <entry>Fast redirects</entry>
2303 <entry>HTML taming</entry>
2310 <entry>JavaScript taming</entry>
2317 <entry>Web-bug killing</entry>
2324 <entry>Image tag reordering</entry>
2340 The list of actions files to be used are defined in the main configuration
2341 file, and are processed in the order they are defined (e.g.
2342 <filename>default.action</filename> is typically processed before
2343 <filename>user.action</filename>). The content of these can all be viewed and
2345 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
2346 The over-riding principle when applying actions, is that the last action that
2347 matches a given URL wins. The broadest, most general rules go first
2348 (defined in <filename>default.action</filename>),
2349 followed by any exceptions (typically also in
2350 <filename>default.action</filename>), which are then followed lastly by any
2351 local preferences (typically in <emphasis>user</emphasis><filename>.action</filename>).
2352 Generally, <filename>user.action</filename> has the last word.
2356 An actions file typically has multiple sections. If you want to use
2357 <quote>aliases</quote> in an actions file, you have to place the (optional)
2358 <link linkend="aliases">alias section</link> at the top of that file.
2359 Then comes the default set of rules which will apply universally to all
2360 sites and pages (be <emphasis>very careful</emphasis> with using such a
2361 universal set in <filename>user.action</filename> or any other actions file after
2362 <filename>default.action</filename>, because it will override the result
2363 from consulting any previous file). And then below that,
2364 exceptions to the defined universal policies. You can regard
2365 <filename>user.action</filename> as an appendix to <filename>default.action</filename>,
2366 with the advantage that it is a separate file, which makes preserving your
2367 personal settings across <application>Privoxy</application> upgrades easier.
2371 Actions can be used to block anything you want, including ads, banners, or
2372 just some obnoxious URL whose content you would rather not see. Cookies can be accepted
2373 or rejected, or accepted only during the current browser session (i.e. not
2374 written to disk), content can be modified, some JavaScripts tamed, user-tracking
2375 fooled, and much more. See below for a <link linkend="actions">complete list
2379 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2381 <title>Finding the Right Mix</title>
2383 Note that some <link linkend="actions">actions</link>, like cookie suppression
2384 or script disabling, may render some sites unusable that rely on these
2385 techniques to work properly. Finding the right mix of actions is not always easy and
2386 certainly a matter of personal taste. And, things can always change, requiring
2387 refinements in the configuration. In general, it can be said that the more
2388 <quote>aggressive</quote> your default settings (in the top section of the
2389 actions file) are, the more exceptions for <quote>trusted</quote> sites you
2390 will have to make later. If, for example, you want to crunch all cookies per
2391 default, you'll have to make exceptions from that rule for sites that you
2392 regularly use and that require cookies for actually useful purposes, like maybe
2393 your bank, favorite shop, or newspaper.
2397 We have tried to provide you with reasonable rules to start from in the
2398 distribution actions files. But there is no general rule of thumb on these
2399 things. There just are too many variables, and sites are constantly changing.
2400 Sooner or later you will want to change the rules (and read this chapter again :).
2404 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2406 <title>How to Edit</title>
2408 The easiest way to edit the actions files is with a browser by
2409 using our browser-based editor, which can be reached from <ulink
2410 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
2411 Note: the config file option <link
2412 linkend="enable-edit-actions">enable-edit-actions</link> must be enabled for
2413 this to work. The editor allows both fine-grained control over every single
2414 feature on a per-URL basis, and easy choosing from wholesale sets of defaults
2415 like <quote>Cautious</quote>, <quote>Medium</quote> or
2416 <quote>Advanced</quote>. Warning: the <quote>Advanced</quote> setting is more
2417 aggressive, and will be more likely to cause problems for some sites.
2418 Experienced users only!
2422 If you prefer plain text editing to GUIs, you can of course also directly edit the
2423 the actions files with your favorite text editor. Look at
2424 <filename>default.action</filename> which is richly commented with many
2430 <sect2 id="actions-apply">
2431 <title>How Actions are Applied to Requests</title>
2433 Actions files are divided into sections. There are special sections,
2434 like the <quote><link linkend="aliases">alias</link></quote> sections which will
2435 be discussed later. For now let's concentrate on regular sections: They have a
2436 heading line (often split up to multiple lines for readability) which consist
2437 of a list of actions, separated by whitespace and enclosed in curly braces.
2438 Below that, there is a list of URL and tag patterns, each on a separate line.
2442 To determine which actions apply to a request, the URL of the request is
2443 compared to all URL patterns in each <quote>action file</quote>.
2444 Every time it matches, the list of applicable actions for the request is
2445 incrementally updated, using the heading of the section in which the
2446 pattern is located. The same is done again for tags and tag patterns later on.
2450 If multiple applying sections set the same action differently,
2451 the last match wins. If not, the effects are aggregated.
2452 E.g. a URL might match a regular section with a heading line of <literal>{
2453 +<link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link> }</literal>,
2454 then later another one with just <literal>{
2455 +<link linkend="block">block</link> }</literal>, resulting
2456 in <emphasis>both</emphasis> actions to apply. And there may well be
2457 cases where you will want to combine actions together. Such a section then
2463 { +<literal>handle-as-image</literal> +<literal>block{Banner ads.}</literal> }
2464 # Block these as if they were images. Send no block page.
2466 media.example.com/.*banners
2467 .example.com/images/ads/</screen>
2471 You can trace this process for URL patterns and any given URL by visiting <ulink
2472 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>.
2476 Examples and more detail on this is provided in the Appendix, <link linkend="ACTIONSANAT">
2477 Troubleshooting: Anatomy of an Action</link> section.
2481 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2482 <sect2 id="af-patterns">
2483 <title>Patterns</title>
2485 As mentioned, <application>Privoxy</application> uses <quote>patterns</quote>
2486 to determine what <emphasis>actions</emphasis> might apply to which sites and
2487 pages your browser attempts to access. These <quote>patterns</quote> use wild
2488 card type <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> matching to achieve a high degree of
2489 flexibility. This allows one expression to be expanded and potentially match
2490 against many similar patterns.
2494 Generally, an URL pattern has the form
2495 <literal><domain><port>/<path></literal>, where the
2496 <literal><domain></literal>, the <literal><port></literal>
2497 and the <literal><path></literal> are optional. (This is why the special
2498 <literal>/</literal> pattern matches all URLs). Note that the protocol
2499 portion of the URL pattern (e.g. <literal>http://</literal>) should
2500 <emphasis>not</emphasis> be included in the pattern. This is assumed already!
2503 The pattern matching syntax is different for the domain and path parts of
2504 the URL. The domain part uses a simple globbing type matching technique,
2505 while the path part uses more flexible
2506 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
2507 Expressions</quote></ulink> (POSIX 1003.2).
2510 The port part of a pattern is a decimal port number preceded by a colon
2511 (<literal>:</literal>). If the domain part contains a numerical IPv6 address,
2512 it has to be put into angle brackets
2513 (<literal><</literal>, <literal>></literal>).
2518 <term><literal>www.example.com/</literal></term>
2521 is a domain-only pattern and will match any request to <literal>www.example.com</literal>,
2522 regardless of which document on that server is requested. So ALL pages in
2523 this domain would be covered by the scope of this action. Note that a
2524 simple <literal>example.com</literal> is different and would NOT match.
2529 <term><literal>www.example.com</literal></term>
2532 means exactly the same. For domain-only patterns, the trailing <literal>/</literal> may
2538 <term><literal>www.example.com/index.html</literal></term>
2541 matches all the documents on <literal>www.example.com</literal>
2542 whose name starts with <literal>/index.html</literal>.
2547 <term><literal>www.example.com/index.html$</literal></term>
2550 matches only the single document <literal>/index.html</literal>
2551 on <literal>www.example.com</literal>.
2556 <term><literal>/index.html$</literal></term>
2559 matches the document <literal>/index.html</literal>, regardless of the domain,
2560 i.e. on <emphasis>any</emphasis> web server anywhere.
2565 <term><literal>:8000/</literal></term>
2568 Matches any URL pointing to TCP port 8000.
2573 <term><literal><2001:db8::1>/</literal></term>
2576 Matches any URL with the host address <literal>2001:db8::1</literal>.
2577 (Note that the real URL uses plain brackets, not angle brackets.)
2582 <term><literal>index.html</literal></term>
2585 matches nothing, since it would be interpreted as a domain name and
2586 there is no top-level domain called <literal>.html</literal>. So its
2594 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2595 <sect3><title>The Domain Pattern</title>
2598 The matching of the domain part offers some flexible options: if the
2599 domain starts or ends with a dot, it becomes unanchored at that end.
2605 <term><literal>.example.com</literal></term>
2608 matches any domain with first-level domain <literal>com</literal>
2609 and second-level domain <literal>example</literal>.
2610 For example <literal>www.example.com</literal>,
2611 <literal>example.com</literal> and <literal>foo.bar.baz.example.com</literal>.
2612 Note that it wouldn't match if the second-level domain was <literal>another-example</literal>.
2617 <term><literal>www.</literal></term>
2620 matches any domain that <emphasis>STARTS</emphasis> with
2621 <literal>www.</literal> (It also matches the domain
2622 <literal>www</literal> but most of the time that doesn't matter.)
2627 <term><literal>.example.</literal></term>
2630 matches any domain that <emphasis>CONTAINS</emphasis> <literal>.example.</literal>.
2631 And, by the way, also included would be any files or documents that exist
2632 within that domain since no path limitations are specified. (Correctly
2633 speaking: It matches any FQDN that contains <literal>example</literal> as
2634 a domain.) This might be <literal>www.example.com</literal>,
2635 <literal>news.example.de</literal>, or
2636 <literal>www.example.net/cgi/testing.pl</literal> for instance. All these
2644 Additionally, there are wild-cards that you can use in the domain names
2645 themselves. These work similarly to shell globbing type wild-cards:
2646 <quote>*</quote> represents zero or more arbitrary characters (this is
2648 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
2649 Expression</quote></ulink> based syntax of <quote>.*</quote>),
2650 <quote>?</quote> represents any single character (this is equivalent to the
2651 regular expression syntax of a simple <quote>.</quote>), and you can define
2652 <quote>character classes</quote> in square brackets which is similar to
2653 the same regular expression technique. All of this can be freely mixed:
2658 <term><literal>ad*.example.com</literal></term>
2661 matches <quote>adserver.example.com</quote>,
2662 <quote>ads.example.com</quote>, etc but not <quote>sfads.example.com</quote>
2667 <term><literal>*ad*.example.com</literal></term>
2670 matches all of the above, and then some.
2675 <term><literal>.?pix.com</literal></term>
2678 matches <literal>www.ipix.com</literal>,
2679 <literal>pictures.epix.com</literal>, <literal>a.b.c.d.e.upix.com</literal> etc.
2684 <term><literal>www[1-9a-ez].example.c*</literal></term>
2687 matches <literal>www1.example.com</literal>,
2688 <literal>www4.example.cc</literal>, <literal>wwwd.example.cy</literal>,
2689 <literal>wwwz.example.com</literal> etc., but <emphasis>not</emphasis>
2690 <literal>wwww.example.com</literal>.
2697 While flexible, this is not the sophistication of full regular expression based syntax.
2702 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2705 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2706 <sect3><title>The Path Pattern</title>
2709 <application>Privoxy</application> uses <quote>modern</quote> POSIX 1003.2
2710 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
2711 Expressions</quote></ulink> for matching the path portion (after the slash),
2712 and is thus more flexible.
2716 There is an <link linkend="regex">Appendix</link> with a brief quick-start into regular
2717 expressions, you also might want to have a look at your operating system's documentation
2718 on regular expressions (try <literal>man re_format</literal>).
2722 Note that the path pattern is automatically left-anchored at the <quote>/</quote>,
2723 i.e. it matches as if it would start with a <quote>^</quote> (regular expression speak
2724 for the beginning of a line).
2728 Please also note that matching in the path is <emphasis>CASE INSENSITIVE</emphasis>
2729 by default, but you can switch to case sensitive at any point in the pattern by using the
2730 <quote>(?-i)</quote> switch: <literal>www.example.com/(?-i)PaTtErN.*</literal> will match
2731 only documents whose path starts with <literal>PaTtErN</literal> in
2732 <emphasis>exactly</emphasis> this capitalization.
2737 <term><literal>.example.com/.*</literal></term>
2740 Is equivalent to just <quote>.example.com</quote>, since any documents
2741 within that domain are matched with or without the <quote>.*</quote>
2742 regular expression. This is redundant
2747 <term><literal>.example.com/.*/index.html$</literal></term>
2750 Will match any page in the domain of <quote>example.com</quote> that is
2751 named <quote>index.html</quote>, and that is part of some path. For
2752 example, it matches <quote>www.example.com/testing/index.html</quote> but
2753 NOT <quote>www.example.com/index.html</quote> because the regular
2754 expression called for at least two <quote>/'s</quote>, thus the path
2755 requirement. It also would match
2756 <quote>www.example.com/testing/index_html</quote>, because of the
2757 special meta-character <quote>.</quote>.
2762 <term><literal>.example.com/(.*/)?index\.html$</literal></term>
2765 This regular expression is conditional so it will match any page
2766 named <quote>index.html</quote> regardless of path which in this case can
2767 have one or more <quote>/'s</quote>. And this one must contain exactly
2768 <quote>.html</quote> (but does not have to end with that!).
2773 <term><literal>.example.com/(.*/)(ads|banners?|junk)</literal></term>
2776 This regular expression will match any path of <quote>example.com</quote>
2777 that contains any of the words <quote>ads</quote>, <quote>banner</quote>,
2778 <quote>banners</quote> (because of the <quote>?</quote>) or <quote>junk</quote>.
2779 The path does not have to end in these words, just contain them.
2784 <term><literal>.example.com/(.*/)(ads|banners?|junk)/.*\.(jpe?g|gif|png)$</literal></term>
2787 This is very much the same as above, except now it must end in either
2788 <quote>.jpg</quote>, <quote>.jpeg</quote>, <quote>.gif</quote> or <quote>.png</quote>. So this
2789 one is limited to common image formats.
2796 There are many, many good examples to be found in <filename>default.action</filename>,
2797 and more tutorials below in <link linkend="regex">Appendix on regular expressions</link>.
2802 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2805 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2806 <sect3 id="tag-pattern"><title>The Tag Pattern</title>
2809 Tag patterns are used to change the applying actions based on the
2810 request's tags. Tags can be created with either the
2811 <link linkend="CLIENT-HEADER-TAGGER">client-header-tagger</link>
2812 or the <link linkend="SERVER-HEADER-TAGGER">server-header-tagger</link> action.
2816 Tag patterns have to start with <quote>TAG:</quote>, so &my-app;
2817 can tell them apart from URL patterns. Everything after the colon
2818 including white space, is interpreted as a regular expression with
2819 path pattern syntax, except that tag patterns aren't left-anchored
2820 automatically (&my-app; doesn't silently add a <quote>^</quote>,
2821 you have to do it yourself if you need it).
2825 To match all requests that are tagged with <quote>foo</quote>
2826 your pattern line should be <quote>TAG:^foo$</quote>,
2827 <quote>TAG:foo</quote> would work as well, but it would also
2828 match requests whose tags contain <quote>foo</quote> somewhere.
2829 <quote>TAG: foo</quote> wouldn't work as it requires white space.
2833 Sections can contain URL and tag patterns at the same time,
2834 but tag patterns are checked after the URL patterns and thus
2835 always overrule them, even if they are located before the URL patterns.
2839 Once a new tag is added, Privoxy checks right away if it's matched by one
2840 of the tag patterns and updates the action settings accordingly. As a result
2841 tags can be used to activate other tagger actions, as long as these other
2842 taggers look for headers that haven't already be parsed.
2846 For example you could tag client requests which use the
2847 <literal>POST</literal> method,
2848 then use this tag to activate another tagger that adds a tag if cookies
2849 are sent, and then use a block action based on the cookie tag. This allows
2850 the outcome of one action, to be input into a subsequent action. However if
2851 you'd reverse the position of the described taggers, and activated the
2852 method tagger based on the cookie tagger, no method tags would be created.
2853 The method tagger would look for the request line, but at the time
2854 the cookie tag is created, the request line has already been parsed.
2858 While this is a limitation you should be aware of, this kind of
2859 indirection is seldom needed anyway and even the example doesn't
2860 make too much sense.
2867 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2870 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2872 <sect2 id="actions">
2873 <title>Actions</title>
2875 All actions are disabled by default, until they are explicitly enabled
2876 somewhere in an actions file. Actions are turned on if preceded with a
2877 <quote>+</quote>, and turned off if preceded with a <quote>-</quote>. So a
2878 <literal>+action</literal> means <quote>do that action</quote>, e.g.
2879 <literal>+block</literal> means <quote>please block URLs that match the
2880 following patterns</quote>, and <literal>-block</literal> means <quote>don't
2881 block URLs that match the following patterns, even if <literal>+block</literal>
2882 previously applied.</quote>
2887 Again, actions are invoked by placing them on a line, enclosed in curly braces and
2888 separated by whitespace, like in
2889 <literal>{+some-action -some-other-action{some-parameter}}</literal>,
2890 followed by a list of URL patterns, one per line, to which they apply.
2891 Together, the actions line and the following pattern lines make up a section
2892 of the actions file.
2896 Actions fall into three categories:
2903 Boolean, i.e the action can only be <quote>enabled</quote> or
2904 <quote>disabled</quote>. Syntax:
2908 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # enable action <replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable>
2909 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # disable action <replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable></screen>
2912 Example: <literal>+handle-as-image</literal>
2919 Parameterized, where some value is required in order to enable this type of action.
2924 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # enable action and set parameter to <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>,
2925 # overwriting parameter from previous match if necessary
2926 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # disable action. The parameter can be omitted</screen>
2929 Note that if the URL matches multiple positive forms of a parameterized action,
2930 the last match wins, i.e. the params from earlier matches are simply ignored.
2933 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>
2939 Multi-value. These look exactly like parameterized actions,
2940 but they behave differently: If the action applies multiple times to the
2941 same URL, but with different parameters, <emphasis>all</emphasis> the parameters
2942 from <emphasis>all</emphasis> matches are remembered. This is used for actions
2943 that can be executed for the same request repeatedly, like adding multiple
2944 headers, or filtering through multiple filters. Syntax:
2948 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # enable action and add <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable> to the list of parameters
2949 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # remove the parameter <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable> from the list of parameters
2950 # If it was the last one left, disable the action.
2951 <replaceable class="parameter">-name</replaceable> # disable this action completely and remove all parameters from the list</screen>
2954 Examples: <literal>+add-header{X-Fun-Header: Some text}</literal> and
2955 <literal>+filter{html-annoyances}</literal>
2963 If nothing is specified in any actions file, no <quote>actions</quote> are
2964 taken. So in this case <application>Privoxy</application> would just be a
2965 normal, non-blocking, non-filtering proxy. You must specifically enable the
2966 privacy and blocking features you need (although the provided default actions
2967 files will give a good starting point).
2971 Later defined action sections always over-ride earlier ones of the same type.
2972 So exceptions to any rules you make, should come in the latter part of the file (or
2973 in a file that is processed later when using multiple actions files such
2974 as <filename>user.action</filename>). For multi-valued actions, the actions
2975 are applied in the order they are specified. Actions files are processed in
2976 the order they are defined in <filename>config</filename> (the default
2977 installation has three actions files). It also quite possible for any given
2978 URL to match more than one <quote>pattern</quote> (because of wildcards and
2979 regular expressions), and thus to trigger more than one set of actions! Last
2983 <!-- start actions listing -->
2985 The list of valid <application>Privoxy</application> actions are:
2989 <!-- ********************************************************** -->
2990 <!-- Please note the below defined actions use id's that are -->
2991 <!-- probably linked from other places, so please don't change. -->
2993 <!-- ********************************************************** -->
2996 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2998 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="add-header">
2999 <title>add-header</title>
3003 <term>Typical use:</term>
3005 <para>Confuse log analysis, custom applications</para>
3010 <term>Effect:</term>
3013 Sends a user defined HTTP header to the web server.
3020 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3022 <para>Multi-value.</para>
3027 <term>Parameter:</term>
3030 Any string value is possible. Validity of the defined HTTP headers is not checked.
3031 It is recommended that you use the <quote><literal>X-</literal></quote> prefix
3041 This action may be specified multiple times, in order to define multiple
3042 headers. This is rarely needed for the typical user. If you don't know what
3043 <quote>HTTP headers</quote> are, you definitely don't need to worry about this
3047 Headers added by this action are not modified by other actions.
3053 <term>Example usage:</term>
3056 <screen>+add-header{X-User-Tracking: sucks}</screen>
3064 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3065 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="block">
3066 <title>block</title>
3070 <term>Typical use:</term>
3072 <para>Block ads or other unwanted content</para>
3077 <term>Effect:</term>
3080 Requests for URLs to which this action applies are blocked, i.e. the
3081 requests are trapped by &my-app; and the requested URL is never retrieved,
3082 but is answered locally with a substitute page or image, as determined by
3084 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>,
3086 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>, and
3088 linkend="handle-as-empty-document">handle-as-empty-document</link></literal> actions.
3096 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3098 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3103 <term>Parameter:</term>
3105 <para>A block reason that should be given to the user.</para>
3113 <application>Privoxy</application> sends a special <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page
3114 for requests to blocked pages. This page contains the block reason given as
3115 parameter, a link to find out why the block action applies, and a click-through
3116 to the blocked content (the latter only if the force feature is available and
3120 A very important exception occurs if <emphasis>both</emphasis>
3121 <literal>block</literal> and <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>,
3122 apply to the same request: it will then be replaced by an image. If
3123 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>
3124 (see below) also applies, the type of image will be determined by its parameter,
3125 if not, the standard checkerboard pattern is sent.
3128 It is important to understand this process, in order
3129 to understand how <application>Privoxy</application> deals with
3130 ads and other unwanted content. Blocking is a core feature, and one
3131 upon which various other features depend.
3134 The <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>
3135 action can perform a very similar task, by <quote>blocking</quote>
3136 banner images and other content through rewriting the relevant URLs in the
3137 document's HTML source, so they don't get requested in the first place.
3138 Note that this is a totally different technique, and it's easy to confuse the two.
3144 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3147 <screen>{+block{No nasty stuff for you.}}
3148 # Block and replace with "blocked" page
3149 .nasty-stuff.example.com
3151 {+block{Doubleclick banners.} +handle-as-image}
3152 # Block and replace with image
3156 {+block{Layered ads.} +handle-as-empty-document}
3157 # Block and then ignore
3158 adserver.example.net/.*\.js$</screen>
3168 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3169 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="change-x-forwarded-for">
3170 <title>change-x-forwarded-for</title>
3174 <term>Typical use:</term>
3176 <para>Improve privacy by not forwarding the source of the request in the HTTP headers.</para>
3181 <term>Effect:</term>
3184 Deletes the <quote>X-Forwarded-For:</quote> HTTP header from the client request,
3192 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3194 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3199 <term>Parameter:</term>
3203 <para><quote>block</quote> to delete the header.</para>
3207 <quote>add</quote> to create the header (or append
3208 the client's IP address to an already existing one).
3219 It is safe and recommended to use <literal>block</literal>.
3222 Forwarding the source address of the request may make
3223 sense in some multi-user setups but is also a privacy risk.
3228 <term>Example usage:</term>
3231 <screen>+change-x-forwarded-for{block}</screen>
3238 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3239 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="client-header-filter">
3240 <title>client-header-filter</title>
3244 <term>Typical use:</term>
3247 Rewrite or remove single client headers.
3253 <term>Effect:</term>
3256 All client headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly through
3257 the specified regular expression based substitutions.
3264 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3266 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3271 <term>Parameter:</term>
3274 The name of a client-header filter, as defined in one of the
3275 <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link>.
3284 Client-header filters are applied to each header on its own, not to
3285 all at once. This makes it easier to diagnose problems, but on the downside
3286 you can't write filters that only change header x if header y's value is z.
3287 You can do that by using tags though.
3290 Client-header filters are executed after the other header actions have finished
3291 and use their output as input.
3294 If the request URL gets changed, &my-app; will detect that and use the new
3295 one. This can be used to rewrite the request destination behind the client's
3296 back, for example to specify a Tor exit relay for certain requests.
3299 Please refer to the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file chapter</link>
3300 to learn which client-header filters are available by default, and how to
3308 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3312 # Hide Tor exit notation in Host and Referer Headers
3313 {+client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation}}
3324 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3325 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="client-header-tagger">
3326 <title>client-header-tagger</title>
3330 <term>Typical use:</term>
3333 Block requests based on their headers.
3339 <term>Effect:</term>
3342 Client headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly through
3343 the specified regular expression based substitutions, the result is used as
3351 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3353 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3358 <term>Parameter:</term>
3361 The name of a client-header tagger, as defined in one of the
3362 <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link>.
3371 Client-header taggers are applied to each header on its own,
3372 and as the header isn't modified, each tagger <quote>sees</quote>
3376 Client-header taggers are the first actions that are executed
3377 and their tags can be used to control every other action.
3383 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3387 # Tag every request with the User-Agent header
3388 {+client-header-tagger{user-agent}}
3391 # Tagging itself doesn't change the action
3392 # settings, sections with TAG patterns do:
3394 # If it's a download agent, use a different forwarding proxy,
3395 # show the real User-Agent and make sure resume works.
3396 {+forward-override{forward-socks5 10.0.0.2:2222 .} \
3397 -hide-if-modified-since \
3398 -overwrite-last-modified \
3403 TAG:^User-Agent: NetBSD-ftp/
3404 TAG:^User-Agent: Novell ZYPP Installer
3405 TAG:^User-Agent: RPM APT-HTTP/
3406 TAG:^User-Agent: fetch libfetch/
3407 TAG:^User-Agent: Ubuntu APT-HTTP/
3408 TAG:^User-Agent: MPlayer/
3418 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3419 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="content-type-overwrite">
3420 <title>content-type-overwrite</title>
3424 <term>Typical use:</term>
3426 <para>Stop useless download menus from popping up, or change the browser's rendering mode</para>
3431 <term>Effect:</term>
3434 Replaces the <quote>Content-Type:</quote> HTTP server header.
3441 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3443 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3448 <term>Parameter:</term>
3460 The <quote>Content-Type:</quote> HTTP server header is used by the
3461 browser to decide what to do with the document. The value of this
3462 header can cause the browser to open a download menu instead of
3463 displaying the document by itself, even if the document's format is
3464 supported by the browser.
3467 The declared content type can also affect which rendering mode
3468 the browser chooses. If XHTML is delivered as <quote>text/html</quote>,
3469 many browsers treat it as yet another broken HTML document.
3470 If it is send as <quote>application/xml</quote>, browsers with
3471 XHTML support will only display it, if the syntax is correct.
3474 If you see a web site that proudly uses XHTML buttons, but sets
3475 <quote>Content-Type: text/html</quote>, you can use &my-app;
3476 to overwrite it with <quote>application/xml</quote> and validate
3477 the web master's claim inside your XHTML-supporting browser.
3478 If the syntax is incorrect, the browser will complain loudly.
3481 You can also go the opposite direction: if your browser prints
3482 error messages instead of rendering a document falsely declared
3483 as XHTML, you can overwrite the content type with
3484 <quote>text/html</quote> and have it rendered as broken HTML document.
3487 By default <literal>content-type-overwrite</literal> only replaces
3488 <quote>Content-Type:</quote> headers that look like some kind of text.
3489 If you want to overwrite it unconditionally, you have to combine it with
3490 <literal><link linkend="force-text-mode">force-text-mode</link></literal>.
3491 This limitation exists for a reason, think twice before circumventing it.
3494 Most of the time it's easier to replace this action with a custom
3495 <literal><link linkend="server-header-filter">server-header filter</link></literal>.
3496 It allows you to activate it for every document of a certain site and it will still
3497 only replace the content types you aimed at.
3500 Of course you can apply <literal>content-type-overwrite</literal>
3501 to a whole site and then make URL based exceptions, but it's a lot
3502 more work to get the same precision.
3508 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
3511 <screen># Check if www.example.net/ really uses valid XHTML
3512 { +content-type-overwrite{application/xml} }
3515 # but leave the content type unmodified if the URL looks like a style sheet
3516 {-content-type-overwrite}
3517 www.example.net/.*\.css$
3518 www.example.net/.*style
3527 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3528 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-client-header">
3532 <title>crunch-client-header</title>
3536 <term>Typical use:</term>
3538 <para>Remove a client header <application>Privoxy</application> has no dedicated action for.</para>
3543 <term>Effect:</term>
3546 Deletes every header sent by the client that contains the string the user supplied as parameter.
3553 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3555 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3560 <term>Parameter:</term>
3572 This action allows you to block client headers for which no dedicated
3573 <application>Privoxy</application> action exists.
3574 <application>Privoxy</application> will remove every client header that
3575 contains the string you supplied as parameter.
3578 Regular expressions are <emphasis>not supported</emphasis> and you can't
3579 use this action to block different headers in the same request, unless
3580 they contain the same string.
3583 <literal>crunch-client-header</literal> is only meant for quick tests.
3584 If you have to block several different headers, or only want to modify
3585 parts of them, you should use a
3586 <literal><link linkend="client-header-filter">client-header filter</link></literal>.
3590 Don't block any header without understanding the consequences.
3597 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3600 <screen># Block the non-existent "Privacy-Violation:" client header
3601 { +crunch-client-header{Privacy-Violation:} }
3611 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3612 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-if-none-match">
3613 <title>crunch-if-none-match</title>
3619 <term>Typical use:</term>
3621 <para>Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.</para>
3626 <term>Effect:</term>
3629 Deletes the <quote>If-None-Match:</quote> HTTP client header.
3636 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3638 <para>Boolean.</para>
3643 <term>Parameter:</term>
3655 Removing the <quote>If-None-Match:</quote> HTTP client header
3656 is useful for filter testing, where you want to force a real
3657 reload instead of getting status code <quote>304</quote> which
3658 would cause the browser to use a cached copy of the page.
3661 It is also useful to make sure the header isn't used as a cookie
3662 replacement (unlikely but possible).
3665 Blocking the <quote>If-None-Match:</quote> header shouldn't cause any
3666 caching problems, as long as the <quote>If-Modified-Since:</quote> header
3667 isn't blocked or missing as well.
3670 It is recommended to use this action together with
3671 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hide-if-modified-since</link></literal>
3673 <literal><link linkend="overwrite-last-modified">overwrite-last-modified</link></literal>.
3679 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3682 <screen># Let the browser revalidate cached documents but don't
3683 # allow the server to use the revalidation headers for user tracking.
3684 {+hide-if-modified-since{-60} \
3685 +overwrite-last-modified{randomize} \
3686 +crunch-if-none-match}
3695 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3696 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-incoming-cookies">
3697 <title>crunch-incoming-cookies</title>
3701 <term>Typical use:</term>
3704 Prevent the web server from setting HTTP cookies on your system
3710 <term>Effect:</term>
3713 Deletes any <quote>Set-Cookie:</quote> HTTP headers from server replies.
3720 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3722 <para>Boolean.</para>
3727 <term>Parameter:</term>
3739 This action is only concerned with <emphasis>incoming</emphasis> HTTP cookies. For
3740 <emphasis>outgoing</emphasis> HTTP cookies, use
3741 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>.
3742 Use <emphasis>both</emphasis> to disable HTTP cookies completely.
3745 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use this action in conjunction
3746 with the <literal><link linkend="session-cookies-only">session-cookies-only</link></literal> action,
3747 since it would prevent the session cookies from being set. See also
3748 <literal><link linkend="filter-content-cookies">filter-content-cookies</link></literal>.
3754 <term>Example usage:</term>
3757 <screen>+crunch-incoming-cookies</screen>
3765 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3766 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-server-header">
3767 <title>crunch-server-header</title>
3773 <term>Typical use:</term>
3775 <para>Remove a server header <application>Privoxy</application> has no dedicated action for.</para>
3780 <term>Effect:</term>
3783 Deletes every header sent by the server that contains the string the user supplied as parameter.
3790 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3792 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3797 <term>Parameter:</term>
3809 This action allows you to block server headers for which no dedicated
3810 <application>Privoxy</application> action exists. <application>Privoxy</application>
3811 will remove every server header that contains the string you supplied as parameter.
3814 Regular expressions are <emphasis>not supported</emphasis> and you can't
3815 use this action to block different headers in the same request, unless
3816 they contain the same string.
3819 <literal>crunch-server-header</literal> is only meant for quick tests.
3820 If you have to block several different headers, or only want to modify
3821 parts of them, you should use a custom
3822 <literal><link linkend="server-header-filter">server-header filter</link></literal>.
3826 Don't block any header without understanding the consequences.
3833 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3836 <screen># Crunch server headers that try to prevent caching
3837 { +crunch-server-header{no-cache} }
3846 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3847 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-outgoing-cookies">
3848 <title>crunch-outgoing-cookies</title>
3852 <term>Typical use:</term>
3855 Prevent the web server from reading any HTTP cookies from your system
3861 <term>Effect:</term>
3864 Deletes any <quote>Cookie:</quote> HTTP headers from client requests.
3871 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3873 <para>Boolean.</para>
3878 <term>Parameter:</term>
3890 This action is only concerned with <emphasis>outgoing</emphasis> HTTP cookies. For
3891 <emphasis>incoming</emphasis> HTTP cookies, use
3892 <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal>.
3893 Use <emphasis>both</emphasis> to disable HTTP cookies completely.
3896 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use this action in conjunction
3897 with the <literal><link linkend="session-cookies-only">session-cookies-only</link></literal> action,
3898 since it would prevent the session cookies from being read.
3904 <term>Example usage:</term>
3907 <screen>+crunch-outgoing-cookies</screen>
3916 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3917 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="deanimate-gifs">
3918 <title>deanimate-gifs</title>
3922 <term>Typical use:</term>
3924 <para>Stop those annoying, distracting animated GIF images.</para>
3929 <term>Effect:</term>
3932 De-animate GIF animations, i.e. reduce them to their first or last image.
3939 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3941 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3946 <term>Parameter:</term>
3949 <quote>last</quote> or <quote>first</quote>
3958 This will also shrink the images considerably (in bytes, not pixels!). If
3959 the option <quote>first</quote> is given, the first frame of the animation
3960 is used as the replacement. If <quote>last</quote> is given, the last
3961 frame of the animation is used instead, which probably makes more sense for
3962 most banner animations, but also has the risk of not showing the entire
3963 last frame (if it is only a delta to an earlier frame).
3966 You can safely use this action with patterns that will also match non-GIF
3967 objects, because no attempt will be made at anything that doesn't look like
3974 <term>Example usage:</term>
3977 <screen>+deanimate-gifs{last}</screen>
3984 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3985 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="downgrade-http-version">
3986 <title>downgrade-http-version</title>
3990 <term>Typical use:</term>
3992 <para>Work around (very rare) problems with HTTP/1.1</para>
3997 <term>Effect:</term>
4000 Downgrades HTTP/1.1 client requests and server replies to HTTP/1.0.
4007 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
4009 <para>Boolean.</para>
4014 <term>Parameter:</term>
4026 This is a left-over from the time when <application>Privoxy</application>
4027 didn't support important HTTP/1.1 features well. It is left here for the
4028 unlikely case that you experience HTTP/1.1 related problems with some server
4029 out there. Not all HTTP/1.1 features and requirements are supported yet,
4030 so there is a chance you might need this action.
4036 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
4039 <screen>{+downgrade-http-version}
4040 problem-host.example.com</screen>
4048 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4049 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="fast-redirects">
4050 <title>fast-redirects</title>
4054 <term>Typical use:</term>
4056 <para>Fool some click-tracking scripts and speed up indirect links.</para>
4061 <term>Effect:</term>
4064 Detects redirection URLs and redirects the browser without contacting
4065 the redirection server first.
4072 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
4074 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4079 <term>Parameter:</term>
4084 <quote>simple-check</quote> to just search for the string <quote>http://</quote>
4085 to detect redirection URLs.
4090 <quote>check-decoded-url</quote> to decode URLs (if necessary) before searching
4091 for redirection URLs.
4102 Many sites, like yahoo.com, don't just link to other sites. Instead, they
4103 will link to some script on their own servers, giving the destination as a
4104 parameter, which will then redirect you to the final target. URLs
4105 resulting from this scheme typically look like:
4106 <quote>http://www.example.org/click-tracker.cgi?target=http%3a//www.example.net/</quote>.
4109 Sometimes, there are even multiple consecutive redirects encoded in the
4110 URL. These redirections via scripts make your web browsing more traceable,
4111 since the server from which you follow such a link can see where you go
4112 to. Apart from that, valuable bandwidth and time is wasted, while your
4113 browser asks the server for one redirect after the other. Plus, it feeds
4117 This feature is currently not very smart and is scheduled for improvement.
4118 If it is enabled by default, you will have to create some exceptions to
4119 this action. It can lead to failures in several ways:
4122 Not every URLs with other URLs as parameters is evil.
4123 Some sites offer a real service that requires this information to work.
4124 For example a validation service needs to know, which document to validate.
4125 <literal>fast-redirects</literal> assumes that every URL parameter that
4126 looks like another URL is a redirection target, and will always redirect to
4127 the last one. Most of the time the assumption is correct, but if it isn't,
4128 the user gets redirected anyway.
4131 Another failure occurs if the URL contains other parameters after the URL parameter.
4133 <quote>http://www.example.org/?redirect=http%3a//www.example.net/&foo=bar</quote>.
4134 contains the redirection URL <quote>http://www.example.net/</quote>,
4135 followed by another parameter. <literal>fast-redirects</literal> doesn't know that
4136 and will cause a redirect to <quote>http://www.example.net/&foo=bar</quote>.
4137 Depending on the target server configuration, the parameter will be silently ignored
4138 or lead to a <quote>page not found</quote> error. You can prevent this problem by
4139 first using the <literal><link linkend="redirect">redirect</link></literal> action
4140 to remove the last part of the URL, but it requires a little effort.
4143 To detect a redirection URL, <literal>fast-redirects</literal> only
4144 looks for the string <quote>http://</quote>, either in plain text
4145 (invalid but often used) or encoded as <quote>http%3a//</quote>.
4146 Some sites use their own URL encoding scheme, encrypt the address
4147 of the target server or replace it with a database id. In theses cases
4148 <literal>fast-redirects</literal> is fooled and the request reaches the
4149 redirection server where it probably gets logged.
4155 <term>Example usage:</term>
4159 { +fast-redirects{simple-check} }
4162 { +fast-redirects{check-decoded-url} }
4163 another.example.com/testing</screen>
4172 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4173 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="filter">
4174 <title>filter</title>
4178 <term>Typical use:</term>
4180 <para>Get rid of HTML and JavaScript annoyances, banner advertisements (by size),
4181 do fun text replacements, add personalized effects, etc.</para>
4186 <term>Effect:</term>
4189 All instances of text-based type, most notably HTML and JavaScript, to which
4190 this action applies, can be filtered on-the-fly through the specified regular
4191 expression based substitutions. (Note: as of version 3.0.3 plain text documents
4192 are exempted from filtering, because web servers often use the
4193 <literal>text/plain</literal> MIME type for all files whose type they don't know.)
4200 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
4202 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4207 <term>Parameter:</term>
4210 The name of a content filter, as defined in the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file</link>.
4211 Filters can be defined in one or more files as defined by the
4212 <literal><link linkend="filterfile">filterfile</link></literal>
4213 option in the <link linkend="config">config file</link>.
4214 <filename>default.filter</filename> is the collection of filters
4215 supplied by the developers. Locally defined filters should go
4216 in their own file, such as <filename>user.filter</filename>.
4219 When used in its negative form,
4220 and without parameters, <emphasis>all</emphasis> filtering is completely disabled.
4229 For your convenience, there are a number of pre-defined filters available
4230 in the distribution filter file that you can use. See the examples below for
4234 Filtering requires buffering the page content, which may appear to
4235 slow down page rendering since nothing is displayed until all content has
4236 passed the filters. (It does not really take longer, but seems that way
4237 since the page is not incrementally displayed.) This effect will be more
4238 noticeable on slower connections.
4241 <quote>Rolling your own</quote>
4242 filters requires a knowledge of
4243 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
4244 Expressions</quote></ulink> and
4245 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Html"><quote>HTML</quote></ulink>.
4246 This is very powerful feature, and potentially very intrusive.
4247 Filters should be used with caution, and where an equivalent
4248 <quote>action</quote> is not available.
4251 The amount of data that can be filtered is limited to the
4252 <literal><link linkend="buffer-limit">buffer-limit</link></literal>
4253 option in the main <link linkend="config">config file</link>. The
4254 default is 4096 KB (4 Megs). Once this limit is exceeded, the buffered
4255 data, and all pending data, is passed through unfiltered.
4258 Inappropriate MIME types, such as zipped files, are not filtered at all.
4259 (Again, only text-based types except plain text). Encrypted SSL data
4260 (from HTTPS servers) cannot be filtered either, since this would violate
4261 the integrity of the secure transaction. In some situations it might
4262 be necessary to protect certain text, like source code, from filtering
4263 by defining appropriate <literal>-filter</literal> exceptions.
4266 Compressed content can't be filtered either, unless &my-app;
4267 is compiled with zlib support (requires at least &my-app; 3.0.7),
4268 in which case &my-app; will decompress the content before filtering
4272 If you use a &my-app; version without zlib support, but want filtering to work on
4273 as much documents as possible, even those that would normally be sent compressed,
4274 you must use the <literal><link linkend="prevent-compression">prevent-compression</link></literal>
4275 action in conjunction with <literal>filter</literal>.
4278 Content filtering can achieve some of the same effects as the
4279 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>
4280 action, i.e. it can be used to block ads and banners. But the mechanism
4281 works quite differently. One effective use, is to block ad banners
4282 based on their size (see below), since many of these seem to be somewhat
4286 <link linkend="contact">Feedback</link> with suggestions for new or
4287 improved filters is particularly welcome!
4290 The below list has only the names and a one-line description of each
4291 predefined filter. There are <link linkend="predefined-filters">more
4292 verbose explanations</link> of what these filters do in the <link
4293 linkend="filter-file">filter file chapter</link>.
4299 <term>Example usage (with filters from the distribution <filename>default.filter</filename> file).
4300 See <link linkend="PREDEFINED-FILTERS">the Predefined Filters section</link> for
4301 more explanation on each:</term>
4304 <anchor id="filter-js-annoyances">
4305 <screen>+filter{js-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse.</screen>
4308 <anchor id="filter-js-events">
4309 <screen>+filter{js-events} # Kill all JS event bindings and timers (Radically destructive! Only for extra nasty sites).</screen>
4312 <anchor id="filter-html-annoyances">
4313 <screen>+filter{html-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying HTML abuse.</screen>
4316 <anchor id="filter-content-cookies">
4317 <screen>+filter{content-cookies} # Kill cookies that come in the HTML or JS content.</screen>
4320 <anchor id="filter-refresh-tags">
4321 <screen>+filter{refresh-tags} # Kill automatic refresh tags (for dial-on-demand setups).</screen>
4324 <anchor id="filter-unsolicited-popups">
4325 <screen>+filter{unsolicited-popups} # Disable only unsolicited pop-up windows. Useful if your browser lacks this ability.</screen>
4328 <anchor id="filter-all-popups">
4329 <screen>+filter{all-popups} # Kill all popups in JavaScript and HTML. Useful if your browser lacks this ability.</screen>
4332 <anchor id="filter-img-reorder">
4333 <screen>+filter{img-reorder} # Reorder attributes in <img> tags to make the banners-by-* filters more effective.</screen>
4336 <anchor id="filter-banners-by-size">
4337 <screen>+filter{banners-by-size} # Kill banners by size.</screen>
4340 <anchor id="filter-banners-by-link">
4341 <screen>+filter{banners-by-link} # Kill banners by their links to known clicktrackers.</screen>
4344 <anchor id="filter-webbugs">
4345 <screen>+filter{webbugs} # Squish WebBugs (1x1 invisible GIFs used for user tracking).</screen>
4348 <anchor id="filter-tiny-textforms">
4349 <screen>+filter{tiny-textforms} # Extend those tiny textareas up to 40x80 and kill the hard wrap.</screen>
4352 <anchor id="filter-jumping-windows">
4353 <screen>+filter{jumping-windows} # Prevent windows from resizing and moving themselves.</screen>
4356 <anchor id="filter-frameset-borders">
4357 <screen>+filter{frameset-borders} # Give frames a border and make them resizable.</screen>
4360 <anchor id="filter-demoronizer">
4361 <screen>+filter{demoronizer} # Fix MS's non-standard use of standard charsets.</screen>
4364 <anchor id="filter-shockwave-flash">
4365 <screen>+filter{shockwave-flash} # Kill embedded Shockwave Flash objects.</screen>
4368 <anchor id="filter-quicktime-kioskmode">
4369 <screen>+filter{quicktime-kioskmode} # Make Quicktime movies saveable.</screen>
4372 <anchor id="filter-fun">
4373 <screen>+filter{fun} # Text replacements for subversive browsing fun!</screen>
4376 <anchor id="filter-crude-parental">
4377 <screen>+filter{crude-parental} # Crude parental filtering. Note that this filter doesn't work reliably.</screen>
4380 <anchor id="filter-ie-exploits">
4381 <screen>+filter{ie-exploits} # Disable some known Internet Explorer bug exploits.</screen>
4384 <anchor id="filter-site-specifics">
4385 <screen>+filter{site-specifics} # Cure for site-specific problems. Don't apply generally!</screen>
4388 <anchor id="filter-no-ping">
4389 <screen>+filter{no-ping} # Removes non-standard ping attributes in <a> and <area> tags.</screen>
4392 <anchor id="filter-google">
4393 <screen>+filter{google} # CSS-based block for Google text ads. Also removes a width limitation and the toolbar advertisement.</screen>
4396 <anchor id="filter-yahoo">
4397 <screen>+filter{yahoo} # CSS-based block for Yahoo text ads. Also removes a width limitation.</screen>
4400 <anchor id="filter-msn">
4401 <screen>+filter{msn} # CSS-based block for MSN text ads. Also removes tracking URLs and a width limitation.</screen>
4404 <anchor id="filter-blogspot">
4405 <screen>+filter{blogspot} # Cleans up some Blogspot blogs. Read the fine print before using this.</screen>
4413 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4414 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="force-text-mode">
4415 <title>force-text-mode</title>
4421 <term>Typical use:</term>
4423 <para>Force <application>Privoxy</application> to treat a document as if it was in some kind of <emphasis>text</emphasis> format. </para>
4428 <term>Effect:</term>
4431 Declares a document as text, even if the <quote>Content-Type:</quote> isn't detected as such.
4438 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4440 <para>Boolean.</para>
4445 <term>Parameter:</term>
4457 As explained <literal><link linkend="filter">above</link></literal>,
4458 <application>Privoxy</application> tries to only filter files that are
4459 in some kind of text format. The same restrictions apply to
4460 <literal><link linkend="content-type-overwrite">content-type-overwrite</link></literal>.
4461 <literal>force-text-mode</literal> declares a document as text,
4462 without looking at the <quote>Content-Type:</quote> first.
4466 Think twice before activating this action. Filtering binary data
4467 with regular expressions can cause file damage.
4474 <term>Example usage:</term>
4487 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4488 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="forward-override">
4489 <title>forward-override</title>
4495 <term>Typical use:</term>
4497 <para>Change the forwarding settings based on User-Agent or request origin</para>
4502 <term>Effect:</term>
4505 Overrules the forward directives in the configuration file.
4512 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4514 <para>Multi-value.</para>
4519 <term>Parameter:</term>
4523 <para><quote>forward .</quote> to use a direct connection without any additional proxies.</para>
4527 <quote>forward 127.0.0.1:8123</quote> to use the HTTP proxy listening at 127.0.0.1 port 8123.
4532 <quote>forward-socks4a 127.0.0.1:9050 .</quote> to use the socks4a proxy listening at
4533 127.0.0.1 port 9050. Replace <quote>forward-socks4a</quote> with <quote>forward-socks4</quote>
4534 to use a socks4 connection (with local DNS resolution) instead, use <quote>forward-socks5</quote>
4535 for socks5 connections (with remote DNS resolution).
4540 <quote>forward-socks4a 127.0.0.1:9050 proxy.example.org:8000</quote> to use the socks4a proxy
4541 listening at 127.0.0.1 port 9050 to reach the HTTP proxy listening at proxy.example.org port 8000.
4542 Replace <quote>forward-socks4a</quote> with <quote>forward-socks4</quote> to use a socks4 connection
4543 (with local DNS resolution) instead, use <quote>forward-socks5</quote>
4544 for socks5 connections (with remote DNS resolution).
4555 This action takes parameters similar to the
4556 <link linkend="forwarding">forward</link> directives in the configuration
4557 file, but without the URL pattern. It can be used as replacement, but normally it's only
4558 used in cases where matching based on the request URL isn't sufficient.
4562 Please read the description for the <link linkend="forwarding">forward</link> directives before
4563 using this action. Forwarding to the wrong people will reduce your privacy and increase the
4564 chances of man-in-the-middle attacks.
4567 If the ports are missing or invalid, default values will be used. This might change
4568 in the future and you shouldn't rely on it. Otherwise incorrect syntax causes Privoxy
4572 Use the <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">show-url-info CGI page</ulink>
4573 to verify that your forward settings do what you thought the do.
4580 <term>Example usage:</term>
4584 # Always use direct connections for requests previously tagged as
4585 # <quote>User-Agent: fetch libfetch/2.0</quote> and make sure
4586 # resuming downloads continues to work.
4587 # This way you can continue to use Tor for your normal browsing,
4588 # without overloading the Tor network with your FreeBSD ports updates
4589 # or downloads of bigger files like ISOs.
4590 # Note that HTTP headers are easy to fake and therefore their
4591 # values are as (un)trustworthy as your clients and users.
4592 {+forward-override{forward .} \
4593 -hide-if-modified-since \
4594 -overwrite-last-modified \
4596 TAG:^User-Agent: fetch libfetch/2\.0$
4605 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4606 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="handle-as-empty-document">
4607 <title>handle-as-empty-document</title>
4613 <term>Typical use:</term>
4615 <para>Mark URLs that should be replaced by empty documents <emphasis>if they get blocked</emphasis></para>
4620 <term>Effect:</term>
4623 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. It just marks URLs.
4624 If the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action <emphasis>also applies</emphasis>,
4625 the presence or absence of this mark decides whether an HTML <quote>BLOCKED</quote>
4626 page, or an empty document will be sent to the client as a substitute for the blocked content.
4627 The <emphasis>empty</emphasis> document isn't literally empty, but actually contains a single space.
4634 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4636 <para>Boolean.</para>
4641 <term>Parameter:</term>
4653 Some browsers complain about syntax errors if JavaScript documents
4654 are blocked with <application>Privoxy's</application>
4655 default HTML page; this option can be used to silence them.
4656 And of course this action can also be used to eliminate the &my-app;
4657 BLOCKED message in frames.
4660 The content type for the empty document can be specified with
4661 <literal><link linkend="content-type-overwrite">content-type-overwrite{}</link></literal>,
4662 but usually this isn't necessary.
4668 <term>Example usage:</term>
4671 <screen># Block all documents on example.org that end with ".js",
4672 # but send an empty document instead of the usual HTML message.
4673 {+block{Blocked JavaScript} +handle-as-empty-document}
4683 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4684 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="handle-as-image">
4685 <title>handle-as-image</title>
4689 <term>Typical use:</term>
4691 <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>
4696 <term>Effect:</term>
4699 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. It just marks URLs as images.
4700 If the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action <emphasis>also applies</emphasis>,
4701 the presence or absence of this mark decides whether an HTML <quote>blocked</quote>
4702 page, or a replacement image (as determined by the <literal><link
4703 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal> action) will be sent to the
4704 client as a substitute for the blocked content.
4711 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4713 <para>Boolean.</para>
4718 <term>Parameter:</term>
4730 The below generic example section is actually part of <filename>default.action</filename>.
4731 It marks all URLs with well-known image file name extensions as images and should
4735 Users will probably only want to use the handle-as-image action in conjunction with
4736 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>, to block sources of banners, whose URLs don't
4737 reflect the file type, like in the second example section.
4740 Note that you cannot treat HTML pages as images in most cases. For instance, (in-line) ad
4741 frames require an HTML page to be sent, or they won't display properly.
4742 Forcing <literal>handle-as-image</literal> in this situation will not replace the
4743 ad frame with an image, but lead to error messages.
4749 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
4752 <screen># Generic image extensions:
4755 /.*\.(gif|jpg|jpeg|png|bmp|ico)$
4757 # These don't look like images, but they're banners and should be
4758 # blocked as images:
4760 {+block{Nasty banners.} +handle-as-image}
4761 nasty-banner-server.example.com/junk.cgi\?output=trash
4770 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4771 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-accept-language">
4772 <title>hide-accept-language</title>
4778 <term>Typical use:</term>
4780 <para>Pretend to use different language settings.</para>
4785 <term>Effect:</term>
4788 Deletes or replaces the <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> HTTP header in client requests.
4795 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4797 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4802 <term>Parameter:</term>
4805 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
4814 Faking the browser's language settings can be useful to make a
4815 foreign User-Agent set with
4816 <literal><link linkend="hide-user-agent">hide-user-agent</link></literal>
4820 However some sites with content in different languages check the
4821 <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> to decide which one to take by default.
4822 Sometimes it isn't possible to later switch to another language without
4823 changing the <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> header first.
4826 Therefore it's a good idea to either only change the
4827 <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> header to languages you understand,
4828 or to languages that aren't wide spread.
4831 Before setting the <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> header
4832 to a rare language, you should consider that it helps to
4833 make your requests unique and thus easier to trace.
4834 If you don't plan to change this header frequently,
4835 you should stick to a common language.
4841 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
4844 <screen># Pretend to use Canadian language settings.
4845 {+hide-accept-language{en-ca} \
4846 +hide-user-agent{Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; OpenBSD i386; en-CA; rv:1.8.0.4) Gecko/20060628 Firefox/1.5.0.4} \
4856 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4857 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-content-disposition">
4858 <title>hide-content-disposition</title>
4864 <term>Typical use:</term>
4866 <para>Prevent download menus for content you prefer to view inside the browser.</para>
4871 <term>Effect:</term>
4874 Deletes or replaces the <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> HTTP header set by some servers.
4881 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4883 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4888 <term>Parameter:</term>
4891 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
4900 Some servers set the <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> HTTP header for
4901 documents they assume you want to save locally before viewing them.
4902 The <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> header contains the file name
4903 the browser is supposed to use by default.
4906 In most browsers that understand this header, it makes it impossible to
4907 <emphasis>just view</emphasis> the document, without downloading it first,
4908 even if it's just a simple text file or an image.
4911 Removing the <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> header helps
4912 to prevent this annoyance, but some browsers additionally check the
4913 <quote>Content-Type:</quote> header, before they decide if they can
4914 display a document without saving it first. In these cases, you have
4915 to change this header as well, before the browser stops displaying
4919 It is also possible to change the server's file name suggestion
4920 to another one, but in most cases it isn't worth the time to set
4924 This action will probably be removed in the future,
4925 use server-header filters instead.
4931 <term>Example usage:</term>
4934 <screen># Disarm the download link in Sourceforge's patch tracker
4936 +content-type-overwrite{text/plain}\
4937 +hide-content-disposition{block} }
4938 .sourceforge.net/tracker/download\.php</screen>
4946 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4947 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-if-modified-since">
4948 <title>hide-if-modified-since</title>
4954 <term>Typical use:</term>
4956 <para>Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.</para>
4961 <term>Effect:</term>
4964 Deletes the <quote>If-Modified-Since:</quote> HTTP client header or modifies its value.
4971 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4973 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4978 <term>Parameter:</term>
4981 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or a user defined value that specifies a range of hours.
4990 Removing this header is useful for filter testing, where you want to force a real
4991 reload instead of getting status code <quote>304</quote>, which would cause the
4992 browser to use a cached copy of the page.
4995 Instead of removing the header, <literal>hide-if-modified-since</literal> can
4996 also add or subtract a random amount of time to/from the header's value.
4997 You specify a range of minutes where the random factor should be chosen from and
4998 <application>Privoxy</application> does the rest. A negative value means
4999 subtracting, a positive value adding.
5002 Randomizing the value of the <quote>If-Modified-Since:</quote> makes
5003 it less likely that the server can use the time as a cookie replacement,
5004 but you will run into caching problems if the random range is too high.
5007 It is a good idea to only use a small negative value and let
5008 <literal><link linkend="overwrite-last-modified">overwrite-last-modified</link></literal>
5009 handle the greater changes.
5012 It is also recommended to use this action together with
5013 <literal><link linkend="crunch-if-none-match">crunch-if-none-match</link></literal>,
5014 otherwise it's more or less pointless.
5020 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
5023 <screen># Let the browser revalidate but make tracking based on the time less likely.
5024 {+hide-if-modified-since{-60} \
5025 +overwrite-last-modified{randomize} \
5026 +crunch-if-none-match}
5035 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5036 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-from-header">
5037 <title>hide-from-header</title>
5041 <term>Typical use:</term>
5043 <para>Keep your (old and ill) browser from telling web servers your email address</para>
5048 <term>Effect:</term>
5051 Deletes any existing <quote>From:</quote> HTTP header, or replaces it with the
5059 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5061 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5066 <term>Parameter:</term>
5069 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
5078 The keyword <quote>block</quote> will completely remove the header
5079 (not to be confused with the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>
5083 Alternately, you can specify any value you prefer to be sent to the web
5084 server. If you do, it is a matter of fairness not to use any address that
5085 is actually used by a real person.
5088 This action is rarely needed, as modern web browsers don't send
5089 <quote>From:</quote> headers anymore.
5095 <term>Example usage:</term>
5098 <screen>+hide-from-header{block}</screen> or
5099 <screen>+hide-from-header{spam-me-senseless@sittingduck.example.com}</screen>
5107 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5108 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-referrer">
5109 <title>hide-referrer</title>
5110 <anchor id="hide-referer">
5113 <term>Typical use:</term>
5115 <para>Conceal which link you followed to get to a particular site</para>
5120 <term>Effect:</term>
5123 Deletes the <quote>Referer:</quote> (sic) HTTP header from the client request,
5124 or replaces it with a forged one.
5131 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5133 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5138 <term>Parameter:</term>
5142 <para><quote>conditional-block</quote> to delete the header completely if the host has changed.</para>
5145 <para><quote>conditional-forge</quote> to forge the header if the host has changed.</para>
5148 <para><quote>block</quote> to delete the header unconditionally.</para>
5151 <para><quote>forge</quote> to pretend to be coming from the homepage of the server we are talking to.</para>
5154 <para>Any other string to set a user defined referrer.</para>
5164 <literal>conditional-block</literal> is the only parameter,
5165 that isn't easily detected in the server's log file. If it blocks the
5166 referrer, the request will look like the visitor used a bookmark or
5167 typed in the address directly.
5170 Leaving the referrer unmodified for requests on the same host
5171 allows the server owner to see the visitor's <quote>click path</quote>,
5172 but in most cases she could also get that information by comparing
5173 other parts of the log file: for example the User-Agent if it isn't
5174 a very common one, or the user's IP address if it doesn't change between
5178 Always blocking the referrer, or using a custom one, can lead to
5179 failures on servers that check the referrer before they answer any
5180 requests, in an attempt to prevent their content from being
5181 embedded or linked to elsewhere.
5184 Both <literal>conditional-block</literal> and <literal>forge</literal>
5185 will work with referrer checks, as long as content and valid referring page
5186 are on the same host. Most of the time that's the case.
5189 <literal>hide-referer</literal> is an alternate spelling of
5190 <literal>hide-referrer</literal> and the two can be can be freely
5191 substituted with each other. (<quote>referrer</quote> is the
5192 correct English spelling, however the HTTP specification has a bug - it
5193 requires it to be spelled as <quote>referer</quote>.)
5199 <term>Example usage:</term>
5202 <screen>+hide-referrer{forge}</screen> or
5203 <screen>+hide-referrer{http://www.yahoo.com/}</screen>
5211 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5212 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-user-agent">
5213 <title>hide-user-agent</title>
5217 <term>Typical use:</term>
5219 <para>Try to conceal your type of browser and client operating system</para>
5224 <term>Effect:</term>
5227 Replaces the value of the <quote>User-Agent:</quote> HTTP header
5228 in client requests with the specified value.
5235 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5237 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5242 <term>Parameter:</term>
5245 Any user-defined string.
5255 This can lead to problems on web sites that depend on looking at this header in
5256 order to customize their content for different browsers (which, by the
5257 way, is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> the right thing to do: good web sites
5258 work browser-independently).
5262 Using this action in multi-user setups or wherever different types of
5263 browsers will access the same <application>Privoxy</application> is
5264 <emphasis>not recommended</emphasis>. In single-user, single-browser
5265 setups, you might use it to delete your OS version information from
5266 the headers, because it is an invitation to exploit known bugs for your
5267 OS. It is also occasionally useful to forge this in order to access
5268 sites that won't let you in otherwise (though there may be a good
5269 reason in some cases). Example of this: some MSN sites will not
5270 let <application>Mozilla</application> enter, yet forging to a
5271 <application>Netscape 6.1</application> user-agent works just fine.
5272 (Must be just a silly MS goof, I'm sure :-).
5275 More information on known user-agent strings can be found at
5276 <ulink url="http://www.user-agents.org/">http://www.user-agents.org/</ulink>
5278 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_agent">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_agent</ulink>.
5284 <term>Example usage:</term>
5287 <screen>+hide-user-agent{Netscape 6.1 (X11; I; Linux 2.4.18 i686)}</screen>
5295 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5296 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="limit-connect">
5297 <title>limit-connect</title>
5301 <term>Typical use:</term>
5303 <para>Prevent abuse of <application>Privoxy</application> as a TCP proxy relay or disable SSL for untrusted sites</para>
5308 <term>Effect:</term>
5311 Specifies to which ports HTTP CONNECT requests are allowable.
5318 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5320 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5325 <term>Parameter:</term>
5328 A comma-separated list of ports or port ranges (the latter using dashes, with the minimum
5329 defaulting to 0 and the maximum to 65K).
5338 By default, i.e. if no <literal>limit-connect</literal> action applies,
5339 <application>Privoxy</application> allows HTTP CONNECT requests to all
5340 ports. Use <literal>limit-connect</literal> if fine-grained control
5341 is desired for some or all destinations.
5344 The CONNECT methods exists in HTTP to allow access to secure websites
5345 (<quote>https://</quote> URLs) through proxies. It works very simply:
5346 the proxy connects to the server on the specified port, and then
5347 short-circuits its connections to the client and to the remote server.
5348 This means CONNECT-enabled proxies can be used as TCP relays very easily.
5351 <application>Privoxy</application> relays HTTPS traffic without seeing
5352 the decoded content. Websites can leverage this limitation to circumvent &my-app;'s
5353 filters. By specifying an invalid port range you can disable HTTPS entirely.
5359 <term>Example usages:</term>
5361 <!-- I had trouble getting the spacing to look right in my browser -->
5362 <!-- I probably have the wrong font setup, bollocks. -->
5363 <!-- Apparently the emphasis tag uses a proportional font no matter what -->
5365 <screen>+limit-connect{443} # Port 443 is OK.
5366 +limit-connect{80,443} # Ports 80 and 443 are OK.
5367 +limit-connect{-3, 7, 20-100, 500-} # Ports less than 3, 7, 20 to 100 and above 500 are OK.
5368 +limit-connect{-} # All ports are OK
5369 +limit-connect{,} # No HTTPS/SSL traffic is allowed</screen>
5376 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5377 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="prevent-compression">
5378 <title>prevent-compression</title>
5382 <term>Typical use:</term>
5385 Ensure that servers send the content uncompressed, so it can be
5386 passed through <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>s.
5392 <term>Effect:</term>
5395 Removes the Accept-Encoding header which can be used to ask for compressed transfer.
5402 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5404 <para>Boolean.</para>
5409 <term>Parameter:</term>
5421 More and more websites send their content compressed by default, which
5422 is generally a good idea and saves bandwidth. But the <literal><link
5423 linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> and
5424 <literal><link linkend="deanimate-gifs">deanimate-gifs</link></literal>
5425 actions need access to the uncompressed data.
5428 When compiled with zlib support (available since &my-app; 3.0.7), content that should be
5429 filtered is decompressed on-the-fly and you don't have to worry about this action.
5430 If you are using an older &my-app; version, or one that hasn't been compiled with zlib
5431 support, this action can be used to convince the server to send the content uncompressed.
5434 Most text-based instances compress very well, the size is seldom decreased by less than 50%,
5435 for markup-heavy instances like news feeds saving more than 90% of the original size isn't
5439 Not using compression will therefore slow down the transfer, and you should only
5440 enable this action if you really need it. As of &my-app; 3.0.7 it's disabled in all
5441 predefined action settings.
5444 Note that some (rare) ill-configured sites don't handle requests for uncompressed
5445 documents correctly. Broken PHP applications tend to send an empty document body,
5446 some IIS versions only send the beginning of the content. If you enable
5447 <literal>prevent-compression</literal> per default, you might want to add
5448 exceptions for those sites. See the example for how to do that.
5454 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
5458 # Selectively turn off compression, and enable a filter
5460 { +filter{tiny-textforms} +prevent-compression }
5461 # Match only these sites
5466 # Or instead, we could set a universal default:
5468 { +prevent-compression }
5471 # Then maybe make exceptions for broken sites:
5473 { -prevent-compression }
5474 .compusa.com/</screen>
5483 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5484 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="overwrite-last-modified">
5485 <title>overwrite-last-modified</title>
5491 <term>Typical use:</term>
5493 <para>Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.</para>
5498 <term>Effect:</term>
5501 Deletes the <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> HTTP server header or modifies its value.
5508 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5510 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5515 <term>Parameter:</term>
5518 One of the keywords: <quote>block</quote>, <quote>reset-to-request-time</quote>
5519 and <quote>randomize</quote>
5528 Removing the <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header is useful for filter
5529 testing, where you want to force a real reload instead of getting status
5530 code <quote>304</quote>, which would cause the browser to reuse the old
5531 version of the page.
5534 The <quote>randomize</quote> option overwrites the value of the
5535 <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header with a randomly chosen time
5536 between the original value and the current time. In theory the server
5537 could send each document with a different <quote>Last-Modified:</quote>
5538 header to track visits without using cookies. <quote>Randomize</quote>
5539 makes it impossible and the browser can still revalidate cached documents.
5542 <quote>reset-to-request-time</quote> overwrites the value of the
5543 <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header with the current time. You could use
5544 this option together with
5545 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hide-if-modified-since</link></literal>
5546 to further customize your random range.
5549 The preferred parameter here is <quote>randomize</quote>. It is safe
5550 to use, as long as the time settings are more or less correct.
5551 If the server sets the <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header to the time
5552 of the request, the random range becomes zero and the value stays the same.
5553 Therefore you should later randomize it a second time with
5554 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hided-if-modified-since</link></literal>,
5558 It is also recommended to use this action together with
5559 <literal><link linkend="crunch-if-none-match">crunch-if-none-match</link></literal>.
5565 <term>Example usage:</term>
5568 <screen># Let the browser revalidate without being tracked across sessions
5569 { +hide-if-modified-since{-60} \
5570 +overwrite-last-modified{randomize} \
5571 +crunch-if-none-match}
5580 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5581 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="redirect">
5582 <title>redirect</title>
5588 <term>Typical use:</term>
5591 Redirect requests to other sites.
5597 <term>Effect:</term>
5600 Convinces the browser that the requested document has been moved
5601 to another location and the browser should get it from there.
5608 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5610 <para>Parameterized</para>
5615 <term>Parameter:</term>
5618 An absolute URL or a single pcrs command.
5627 Requests to which this action applies are answered with a
5628 HTTP redirect to URLs of your choosing. The new URL is
5629 either provided as parameter, or derived by applying a
5630 single pcrs command to the original URL.
5633 This action will be ignored if you use it together with
5634 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>.
5635 It can be combined with
5636 <literal><link linkend="fast-redirects">fast-redirects{check-decoded-url}</link></literal>
5637 to redirect to a decoded version of a rewritten URL.
5640 Use this action carefully, make sure not to create redirection loops
5641 and be aware that using your own redirects might make it
5642 possible to fingerprint your requests.
5645 In case of problems with your redirects, or simply to watch
5646 them working, enable <link linkend="DEBUG">debug 128</link>.
5652 <term>Example usages:</term>
5655 <screen># Replace example.com's style sheet with another one
5656 { +redirect{http://localhost/css-replacements/example.com.css} }
5657 example.com/stylesheet\.css
5659 # Create a short, easy to remember nickname for a favorite site
5660 # (relies on the browser accept and forward invalid URLs to &my-app;)
5661 { +redirect{http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/actions-file.html} }
5664 # Always use the expanded view for Undeadly.org articles
5665 # (Note the $ at the end of the URL pattern to make sure
5666 # the request for the rewritten URL isn't redirected as well)
5667 {+redirect{s@$@&mode=expanded@}}
5668 undeadly.org/cgi\?action=article&sid=\d*$
5670 # Redirect Google search requests to MSN
5671 {+redirect{s@^http://[^/]*/search\?q=([^&]*).*@http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=$1@}}
5674 # Redirect MSN search requests to Yahoo
5675 {+redirect{s@^http://[^/]*/results\.aspx\?q=([^&]*).*@http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=$1@}}
5676 search.msn.com//results\.aspx\?q=
5678 # Redirect remote requests for this manual
5679 # to the local version delivered by Privoxy
5680 {+redirect{s@^http://www@http://config@}}
5681 www.privoxy.org/user-manual/</screen>
5690 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5691 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="server-header-filter">
5692 <title>server-header-filter</title>
5696 <term>Typical use:</term>
5699 Rewrite or remove single server headers.
5705 <term>Effect:</term>
5708 All server headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly
5709 through the specified regular expression based substitutions.
5716 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
5718 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5723 <term>Parameter:</term>
5726 The name of a server-header filter, as defined in one of the
5727 <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link>.
5736 Server-header filters are applied to each header on its own, not to
5737 all at once. This makes it easier to diagnose problems, but on the downside
5738 you can't write filters that only change header x if header y's value is z.
5739 You can do that by using tags though.
5742 Server-header filters are executed after the other header actions have finished
5743 and use their output as input.
5746 Please refer to the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file chapter</link>
5747 to learn which server-header filters are available by default, and how to
5754 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
5758 {+server-header-filter{html-to-xml}}
5759 example.org/xml-instance-that-is-delivered-as-html
5761 {+server-header-filter{xml-to-html}}
5762 example.org/instance-that-is-delivered-as-xml-but-is-not
5772 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5773 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="server-header-tagger">
5774 <title>server-header-tagger</title>
5778 <term>Typical use:</term>
5781 Enable or disable filters based on the Content-Type header.
5787 <term>Effect:</term>
5790 Server headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly through
5791 the specified regular expression based substitutions, the result is used as
5799 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
5801 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5806 <term>Parameter:</term>
5809 The name of a server-header tagger, as defined in one of the
5810 <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link>.
5819 Server-header taggers are applied to each header on its own,
5820 and as the header isn't modified, each tagger <quote>sees</quote>
5824 Server-header taggers are executed before all other header actions
5825 that modify server headers. Their tags can be used to control
5826 all of the other server-header actions, the content filters
5827 and the crunch actions (<link linkend="redirect">redirect</link>
5828 and <link linkend="block">block</link>).
5831 Obviously crunching based on tags created by server-header taggers
5832 doesn't prevent the request from showing up in the server's log file.
5839 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
5843 # Tag every request with the content type declared by the server
5844 {+server-header-tagger{content-type}}
5855 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5856 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="session-cookies-only">
5857 <title>session-cookies-only</title>
5861 <term>Typical use:</term>
5864 Allow only temporary <quote>session</quote> cookies (for the current
5865 browser session <emphasis>only</emphasis>).
5871 <term>Effect:</term>
5874 Deletes the <quote>expires</quote> field from <quote>Set-Cookie:</quote>
5875 server headers. Most browsers will not store such cookies permanently and
5876 forget them in between sessions.
5883 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5885 <para>Boolean.</para>
5890 <term>Parameter:</term>
5902 This is less strict than <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal> /
5903 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal> and allows you to browse
5904 websites that insist or rely on setting cookies, without compromising your privacy too badly.
5907 Most browsers will not permanently store cookies that have been processed by
5908 <literal>session-cookies-only</literal> and will forget about them between sessions.
5909 This makes profiling cookies useless, but won't break sites which require cookies so
5910 that you can log in for transactions. This is generally turned on for all
5911 sites, and is the recommended setting.
5914 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use <literal>session-cookies-only</literal>
5915 together with <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal> or
5916 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>. If you do, cookies
5917 will be plainly killed.
5920 Note that it is up to the browser how it handles such cookies without an <quote>expires</quote>
5921 field. If you use an exotic browser, you might want to try it out to be sure.
5924 This setting also has no effect on cookies that may have been stored
5925 previously by the browser before starting <application>Privoxy</application>.
5926 These would have to be removed manually.
5929 <application>Privoxy</application> also uses
5930 the <link linkend="filter-content-cookies">content-cookies filter</link>
5931 to block some types of cookies. Content cookies are not effected by
5932 <literal>session-cookies-only</literal>.
5938 <term>Example usage:</term>
5941 <screen>+session-cookies-only</screen>
5949 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5950 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="set-image-blocker">
5951 <title>set-image-blocker</title>
5955 <term>Typical use:</term>
5957 <para>Choose the replacement for blocked images</para>
5962 <term>Effect:</term>
5965 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. If <emphasis>both</emphasis>
5966 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> <emphasis>and</emphasis> <literal><link
5967 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> <emphasis>also</emphasis>
5968 apply, i.e. if the request is to be blocked as an image,
5969 <emphasis>then</emphasis> the parameter of this action decides what will be
5970 sent as a replacement.
5977 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5979 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5984 <term>Parameter:</term>
5989 <quote>pattern</quote> to send a built-in checkerboard pattern image. The image is visually
5990 decent, scales very well, and makes it obvious where banners were busted.
5995 <quote>blank</quote> to send a built-in transparent image. This makes banners disappear
5996 completely, but makes it hard to detect where <application>Privoxy</application> has blocked
5997 images on a given page and complicates troubleshooting if <application>Privoxy</application>
5998 has blocked innocent images, like navigation icons.
6003 <quote><replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable></quote> to
6004 send a redirect to <replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable>. You can redirect
6005 to any image anywhere, even in your local filesystem via <quote>file:///</quote> URL.
6006 (But note that not all browsers support redirecting to a local file system).
6009 A good application of redirects is to use special <application>Privoxy</application>-built-in
6010 URLs, which send the built-in images, as <replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable>.
6011 This has the same visual effect as specifying <quote>blank</quote> or <quote>pattern</quote> in
6012 the first place, but enables your browser to cache the replacement image, instead of requesting
6013 it over and over again.
6024 The URLs for the built-in images are <quote>http://config.privoxy.org/send-banner?type=<replaceable
6025 class="parameter">type</replaceable></quote>, where <replaceable class="parameter">type</replaceable> is
6026 either <quote>blank</quote> or <quote>pattern</quote>.
6029 There is a third (advanced) type, called <quote>auto</quote>. It is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> to be
6030 used in <literal>set-image-blocker</literal>, but meant for use from <link linkend="filter-file">filters</link>.
6031 Auto will select the type of image that would have applied to the referring page, had it been an image.
6037 <term>Example usage:</term>
6043 <screen>+set-image-blocker{pattern}</screen>
6046 Redirect to the BSD daemon:
6049 <screen>+set-image-blocker{http://www.freebsd.org/gifs/dae_up3.gif}</screen>
6052 Redirect to the built-in pattern for better caching:
6055 <screen>+set-image-blocker{http://config.privoxy.org/send-banner?type=pattern}</screen>
6063 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6065 <title>Summary</title>
6067 Note that many of these actions have the potential to cause a page to
6068 misbehave, possibly even not to display at all. There are many ways
6069 a site designer may choose to design his site, and what HTTP header
6070 content, and other criteria, he may depend on. There is no way to have hard
6071 and fast rules for all sites. See the <link
6072 linkend="ACTIONSANAT">Appendix</link> for a brief example on troubleshooting
6078 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6079 <sect2 id="aliases">
6080 <title>Aliases</title>
6082 Custom <quote>actions</quote>, known to <application>Privoxy</application>
6083 as <quote>aliases</quote>, can be defined by combining other actions.
6084 These can in turn be invoked just like the built-in actions.
6085 Currently, an alias name can contain any character except space, tab,
6087 <quote>{</quote> and <quote>}</quote>, but we <emphasis>strongly
6088 recommend</emphasis> that you only use <quote>a</quote> to <quote>z</quote>,
6089 <quote>0</quote> to <quote>9</quote>, <quote>+</quote>, and <quote>-</quote>.
6090 Alias names are not case sensitive, and are not required to start with a
6091 <quote>+</quote> or <quote>-</quote> sign, since they are merely textually
6095 Aliases can be used throughout the actions file, but they <emphasis>must be
6096 defined in a special section at the top of the file!</emphasis>
6097 And there can only be one such section per actions file. Each actions file may
6098 have its own alias section, and the aliases defined in it are only visible
6102 There are two main reasons to use aliases: One is to save typing for frequently
6103 used combinations of actions, the other one is a gain in flexibility: If you
6104 decide once how you want to handle shops by defining an alias called
6105 <quote>shop</quote>, you can later change your policy on shops in
6106 <emphasis>one</emphasis> place, and your changes will take effect everywhere
6107 in the actions file where the <quote>shop</quote> alias is used. Calling aliases
6108 by their purpose also makes your actions files more readable.
6111 Currently, there is one big drawback to using aliases, though:
6112 <application>Privoxy</application>'s built-in web-based action file
6113 editor honors aliases when reading the actions files, but it expands
6114 them before writing. So the effects of your aliases are of course preserved,
6115 but the aliases themselves are lost when you edit sections that use aliases
6120 Now let's define some aliases...
6125 # Useful custom aliases we can use later.
6127 # Note the (required!) section header line and that this section
6128 # must be at the top of the actions file!
6132 # These aliases just save typing later:
6133 # (Note that some already use other aliases!)
6135 +crunch-all-cookies = +<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> +<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
6136 -crunch-all-cookies = -<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> -<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
6137 +block-as-image = +block{Blocked image.} +handle-as-image
6138 allow-all-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> -<link linkend="FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</link>
6140 # These aliases define combinations of actions
6141 # that are useful for certain types of sites:
6143 fragile = -<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link> -<link linkend="HIDE-REFERER">hide-referrer</link> -<link linkend="PREVENT-COMPRESSION">prevent-compression</link>
6145 shop = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{all-popups}</link>
6147 # Short names for other aliases, for really lazy people ;-)
6149 c0 = +crunch-all-cookies
6150 c1 = -crunch-all-cookies</screen>
6154 ...and put them to use. These sections would appear in the lower part of an
6155 actions file and define exceptions to the default actions (as specified further
6156 up for the <quote>/</quote> pattern):
6161 # These sites are either very complex or very keen on
6162 # user data and require minimal interference to work:
6165 .office.microsoft.com
6166 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com
6167 # Gmail is really mail.google.com, not gmail.com
6171 # Allow cookies (for setting and retrieving your customer data)
6175 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
6178 # These shops require pop-ups:
6180 {-filter{all-popups} -filter{unsolicited-popups}}
6182 .overclockers.co.uk</screen>
6186 Aliases like <quote>shop</quote> and <quote>fragile</quote> are typically used for
6187 <quote>problem</quote> sites that require more than one action to be disabled
6188 in order to function properly.
6194 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6195 <sect2 id="act-examples">
6196 <title>Actions Files Tutorial</title>
6198 The above chapters have shown <link linkend="actions-file">which actions files
6199 there are and how they are organized</link>, how actions are <link
6200 linkend="actions">specified</link> and <link linkend="actions-apply">applied
6201 to URLs</link>, how <link linkend="af-patterns">patterns</link> work, and how to
6202 define and use <link linkend="aliases">aliases</link>. Now, let's look at an
6203 example <filename>match-all.action</filename>, <filename>default.action</filename>
6204 and <filename>user.action</filename> file and see how all these pieces come together:
6208 <title>match-all.action</title>
6210 Remember <emphasis>all actions are disabled when matching starts</emphasis>,
6211 so we have to explicitly enable the ones we want.
6215 While the <filename>match-all.action</filename> file only contains a
6216 single section, it is probably the most important one. It has only one
6217 pattern, <quote><literal>/</literal></quote>, but this pattern
6218 <link linkend="af-patterns">matches all URLs</link>. Therefore, the set of
6219 actions used in this <quote>default</quote> section <emphasis>will
6220 be applied to all requests as a start</emphasis>. It can be partly or
6221 wholly overridden by other actions files like <filename>default.action</filename>
6222 and <filename>user.action</filename>, but it will still be largely responsible
6223 for your overall browsing experience.
6227 Again, at the start of matching, all actions are disabled, so there is
6228 no need to disable any actions here. (Remember: a <quote>+</quote>
6229 preceding the action name enables the action, a <quote>-</quote> disables!).
6230 Also note how this long line has been made more readable by splitting it into
6231 multiple lines with line continuation.
6237 +<link linkend="CHANGE-X-FORWARDED-FOR">change-x-forwarded-for{block}</link> \
6238 +<link linkend="HIDE-FROM-HEADER">hide-from-header{block}</link> \
6239 +<link linkend="SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER">set-image-blocker{pattern}</link> \
6246 The default behavior is now set.
6251 <title>default.action</title>
6254 If you aren't a developer, there's no need for you to edit the
6255 <filename>default.action</filename> file. It is maintained by
6256 the &my-app; developers and if you disagree with some of the
6257 sections, you should overrule them in your <filename>user.action</filename>.
6261 Understanding the <filename>default.action</filename> file can
6262 help you with your <filename>user.action</filename>, though.
6266 The first section in this file is a special section for internal use
6267 that prevents older &my-app; versions from reading the file:
6272 ##########################################################################
6273 # Settings -- Don't change! For internal Privoxy use ONLY.
6274 ##########################################################################
6276 for-privoxy-version=3.0.11</screen>
6280 After that comes the (optional) alias section. We'll use the example
6281 section from the above <link linkend="aliases">chapter on aliases</link>,
6282 that also explains why and how aliases are used:
6287 ##########################################################################
6289 ##########################################################################
6292 # These aliases just save typing later:
6293 # (Note that some already use other aliases!)
6295 +crunch-all-cookies = +<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> +<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
6296 -crunch-all-cookies = -<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> -<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
6297 +block-as-image = +block{Blocked image.} +handle-as-image
6298 mercy-for-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> -<link linkend="FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</link>
6300 # These aliases define combinations of actions
6301 # that are useful for certain types of sites:
6303 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>
6304 shop = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{all-popups}</link></screen>
6308 The first of our specialized sections is concerned with <quote>fragile</quote>
6309 sites, i.e. sites that require minimum interference, because they are either
6310 very complex or very keen on tracking you (and have mechanisms in place that
6311 make them unusable for people who avoid being tracked). We will simply use
6312 our pre-defined <literal>fragile</literal> alias instead of stating the list
6313 of actions explicitly:
6318 ##########################################################################
6319 # Exceptions for sites that'll break under the default action set:
6320 ##########################################################################
6322 # "Fragile" Use a minimum set of actions for these sites (see alias above):
6325 .office.microsoft.com # surprise, surprise!
6326 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com
6327 mail.google.com</screen>
6331 Shopping sites are not as fragile, but they typically
6332 require cookies to log in, and pop-up windows for shopping
6333 carts or item details. Again, we'll use a pre-defined alias:
6342 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
6344 .scan.co.uk</screen>
6348 The <literal><link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link></literal>
6349 action, which may have been enabled in <filename>match-all.action</filename>,
6350 breaks some sites. So disable it for popular sites where we know it misbehaves:
6355 { -<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link> }
6359 .altavista.com/.*(like|url|link):http
6360 .altavista.com/trans.*urltext=http
6361 .nytimes.com</screen>
6365 It is important that <application>Privoxy</application> knows which
6366 URLs belong to images, so that <emphasis>if</emphasis> they are to
6367 be blocked, a substitute image can be sent, rather than an HTML page.
6368 Contacting the remote site to find out is not an option, since it
6369 would destroy the loading time advantage of banner blocking, and it
6370 would feed the advertisers information about you. We can mark any
6371 URL as an image with the <literal><link
6372 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> action,
6373 and marking all URLs that end in a known image file extension is a
6379 ##########################################################################
6381 ##########################################################################
6383 # Define which file types will be treated as images, in case they get
6384 # blocked further down this file:
6386 { +<link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">handle-as-image</link> }
6387 /.*\.(gif|jpe?g|png|bmp|ico)$</screen>
6391 And then there are known banner sources. They often use scripts to
6392 generate the banners, so it won't be visible from the URL that the
6393 request is for an image. Hence we block them <emphasis>and</emphasis>
6394 mark them as images in one go, with the help of our
6395 <literal>+block-as-image</literal> alias defined above. (We could of
6396 course just as well use <literal>+<link linkend="block">block</link>
6397 +<link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> here.)
6398 Remember that the type of the replacement image is chosen by the
6399 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>
6400 action. Since all URLs have matched the default section with its
6401 <literal>+<link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link>{pattern}</literal>
6402 action before, it still applies and needn't be repeated:
6407 # Known ad generators:
6412 .ad.*.doubleclick.net
6413 .a.yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$
6414 .a[0-9].yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$
6420 One of the most important jobs of <application>Privoxy</application>
6421 is to block banners. Many of these can be <quote>blocked</quote>
6422 by the <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link>{banners-by-size}</literal>
6423 action, which we enabled above, and which deletes the references to banner
6424 images from the pages while they are loaded, so the browser doesn't request
6425 them anymore, and hence they don't need to be blocked here. But this naturally
6426 doesn't catch all banners, and some people choose not to use filters, so we
6427 need a comprehensive list of patterns for banner URLs here, and apply the
6428 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action to them.
6431 First comes many generic patterns, which do most of the work, by
6432 matching typical domain and path name components of banners. Then comes
6433 a list of individual patterns for specific sites, which is omitted here
6434 to keep the example short:
6439 ##########################################################################
6440 # Block these fine banners:
6441 ##########################################################################
6442 { <link linkend="BLOCK">+block{Banner ads.}</link> }
6450 /.*count(er)?\.(pl|cgi|exe|dll|asp|php[34]?)
6451 /(?:.*/)?(publicite|werbung|rekla(ma|me|am)|annonse|maino(kset|nta|s)?)/
6453 # Site-specific patterns (abbreviated):
6455 .hitbox.com</screen>
6459 It's quite remarkable how many advertisers actually call their banner
6460 servers ads.<replaceable>company</replaceable>.com, or call the directory
6461 in which the banners are stored simply <quote>banners</quote>. So the above
6462 generic patterns are surprisingly effective.
6465 But being very generic, they necessarily also catch URLs that we don't want
6466 to block. The pattern <literal>.*ads.</literal> e.g. catches
6467 <quote>nasty-<emphasis>ads</emphasis>.nasty-corp.com</quote> as intended,
6468 but also <quote>downlo<emphasis>ads</emphasis>.sourcefroge.net</quote> or
6469 <quote><emphasis>ads</emphasis>l.some-provider.net.</quote> So here come some
6470 well-known exceptions to the <literal>+<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal>
6474 Note that these are exceptions to exceptions from the default! Consider the URL
6475 <quote>downloads.sourcefroge.net</quote>: Initially, all actions are deactivated,
6476 so it wouldn't get blocked. Then comes the defaults section, which matches the
6477 URL, but just deactivates the <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal>
6478 action once again. Then it matches <literal>.*ads.</literal>, an exception to the
6479 general non-blocking policy, and suddenly
6480 <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">+block</link></literal> applies. And now, it'll match
6481 <literal>.*loads.</literal>, where <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">-block</link></literal>
6482 applies, so (unless it matches <emphasis>again</emphasis> further down) it ends up
6483 with no <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal> action applying.
6488 ##########################################################################
6489 # Save some innocent victims of the above generic block patterns:
6490 ##########################################################################
6494 { -<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> }
6495 adv[io]*. # (for advogato.org and advice.*)
6496 adsl. # (has nothing to do with ads)
6497 adobe. # (has nothing to do with ads either)
6498 ad[ud]*. # (adult.* and add.*)
6499 .edu # (universities don't host banners (yet!))
6500 .*loads. # (downloads, uploads etc)
6508 www.globalintersec.com/adv # (adv = advanced)
6509 www.ugu.com/sui/ugu/adv</screen>
6513 Filtering source code can have nasty side effects,
6514 so make an exception for our friends at sourceforge.net,
6515 and all paths with <quote>cvs</quote> in them. Note that
6516 <literal>-<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link></literal>
6517 disables <emphasis>all</emphasis> filters in one fell swoop!
6522 # Don't filter code!
6524 { -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> }
6529 .sourceforge.net</screen>
6533 The actual <filename>default.action</filename> is of course much more
6534 comprehensive, but we hope this example made clear how it works.
6539 <sect3><title>user.action</title>
6542 So far we are painting with a broad brush by setting general policies,
6543 which would be a reasonable starting point for many people. Now,
6544 you might want to be more specific and have customized rules that
6545 are more suitable to your personal habits and preferences. These would
6546 be for narrowly defined situations like your ISP or your bank, and should
6547 be placed in <filename>user.action</filename>, which is parsed after all other
6548 actions files and hence has the last word, over-riding any previously
6549 defined actions. <filename>user.action</filename> is also a
6550 <emphasis>safe</emphasis> place for your personal settings, since
6551 <filename>default.action</filename> is actively maintained by the
6552 <application>Privoxy</application> developers and you'll probably want
6553 to install updated versions from time to time.
6557 So let's look at a few examples of things that one might typically do in
6558 <filename>user.action</filename>:
6562 <!-- brief sample user.action here -->
6566 # My user.action file. <fred@example.com></screen>
6570 As <link linkend="aliases">aliases</link> are local to the actions
6571 file that they are defined in, you can't use the ones from
6572 <filename>default.action</filename>, unless you repeat them here:
6577 # Aliases are local to the file they are defined in.
6578 # (Re-)define aliases for this file:
6582 # These aliases just save typing later, and the alias names should
6583 # be self explanatory.
6585 +crunch-all-cookies = +crunch-incoming-cookies +crunch-outgoing-cookies
6586 -crunch-all-cookies = -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-cookies
6587 allow-all-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -session-cookies-only
6588 allow-popups = -filter{all-popups}
6589 +block-as-image = +block{Blocked as image.} +handle-as-image
6590 -block-as-image = -block
6592 # These aliases define combinations of actions that are useful for
6593 # certain types of sites:
6595 fragile = -block -crunch-all-cookies -filter -fast-redirects -hide-referrer
6596 shop = -crunch-all-cookies allow-popups
6598 # Allow ads for selected useful free sites:
6600 allow-ads = -block -filter{banners-by-size} -filter{banners-by-link}
6602 # Alias for specific file types that are text, but might have conflicting
6603 # MIME types. We want the browser to force these to be text documents.
6604 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>
6609 Say you have accounts on some sites that you visit regularly, and
6610 you don't want to have to log in manually each time. So you'd like
6611 to allow persistent cookies for these sites. The
6612 <literal>allow-all-cookies</literal> alias defined above does exactly
6613 that, i.e. it disables crunching of cookies in any direction, and the
6614 processing of cookies to make them only temporary.
6619 { allow-all-cookies }
6623 .redhat.com</screen>
6627 Your bank is allergic to some filter, but you don't know which, so you disable them all:
6632 { -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> }
6633 .your-home-banking-site.com</screen>
6637 Some file types you may not want to filter for various reasons:
6642 # Technical documentation is likely to contain strings that might
6643 # erroneously get altered by the JavaScript-oriented filters:
6648 # And this stupid host sends streaming video with a wrong MIME type,
6649 # so that Privoxy thinks it is getting HTML and starts filtering:
6651 stupid-server.example.com/</screen>
6655 Example of a simple <link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> action. Say you've
6656 seen an ad on your favourite page on example.com that you want to get rid of.
6657 You have right-clicked the image, selected <quote>copy image location</quote>
6658 and pasted the URL below while removing the leading http://, into a
6659 <literal>{ +block{} }</literal> section. Note that <literal>{ +handle-as-image
6660 }</literal> need not be specified, since all URLs ending in
6661 <literal>.gif</literal> will be tagged as images by the general rules as set
6662 in default.action anyway:
6667 { +<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link>{Nasty ads.} }
6668 www.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor\.gif
6669 another.example.net/more/junk/here/</screen>
6673 The URLs of dynamically generated banners, especially from large banner
6674 farms, often don't use the well-known image file name extensions, which
6675 makes it impossible for <application>Privoxy</application> to guess
6676 the file type just by looking at the URL.
6677 You can use the <literal>+block-as-image</literal> alias defined above for
6679 Note that objects which match this rule but then turn out NOT to be an
6680 image are typically rendered as a <quote>broken image</quote> icon by the
6681 browser. Use cautiously.
6690 ar.atwola.com/</screen>
6694 Now you noticed that the default configuration breaks Forbes Magazine,
6695 but you were too lazy to find out which action is the culprit, and you
6696 were again too lazy to give <link linkend="contact">feedback</link>, so
6697 you just used the <literal>fragile</literal> alias on the site, and
6698 -- <emphasis>whoa!</emphasis> -- it worked. The <literal>fragile</literal>
6699 aliases disables those actions that are most likely to break a site. Also,
6700 good for testing purposes to see if it is <application>Privoxy</application>
6701 that is causing the problem or not. We later find other regular sites
6702 that misbehave, and add those to our personalized list of troublemakers:
6710 .mybank.com</screen>
6714 You like the <quote>fun</quote> text replacements in <filename>default.filter</filename>,
6715 but it is disabled in the distributed actions file.
6716 So you'd like to turn it on in your private,
6717 update-safe config, once and for all:
6722 { +<link linkend="filter-fun">filter{fun}</link> }
6723 / # For ALL sites!</screen>
6727 Note that the above is not really a good idea: There are exceptions
6728 to the filters in <filename>default.action</filename> for things that
6729 really shouldn't be filtered, like code on CVS->Web interfaces. Since
6730 <filename>user.action</filename> has the last word, these exceptions
6731 won't be valid for the <quote>fun</quote> filtering specified here.
6735 You might also worry about how your favourite free websites are
6736 funded, and find that they rely on displaying banner advertisements
6737 to survive. So you might want to specifically allow banners for those
6738 sites that you feel provide value to you:
6750 Note that <literal>allow-ads</literal> has been aliased to
6751 <literal>-<link linkend="block">block</link></literal>,
6752 <literal>-<link linkend="filter-banners-by-size">filter{banners-by-size}</link></literal>, and
6753 <literal>-<link linkend="filter-banners-by-link">filter{banners-by-link}</link></literal> above.
6757 Invoke another alias here to force an over-ride of the MIME type <literal>
6758 application/x-sh</literal> which typically would open a download type
6759 dialog. In my case, I want to look at the shell script, and then I can save
6760 it should I choose to.
6770 <filename>user.action</filename> is generally the best place to define
6771 exceptions and additions to the default policies of
6772 <filename>default.action</filename>. Some actions are safe to have their
6773 default policies set here though. So let's set a default policy to have a
6774 <quote>blank</quote> image as opposed to the checkerboard pattern for
6775 <emphasis>ALL</emphasis> sites. <quote>/</quote> of course matches all URL
6781 { +<link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker{blank}</link> }
6782 / # ALL sites</screen>
6788 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
6792 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
6794 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
6796 <sect1 id="filter-file">
6797 <title>Filter Files</title>
6800 On-the-fly text substitutions need
6801 to be defined in a <quote>filter file</quote>. Once defined, they
6802 can then be invoked as an <quote>action</quote>.
6806 &my-app; supports three different filter actions:
6807 <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> to
6808 rewrite the content that is send to the client,
6809 <literal><link linkend="client-header-filter">client-header-filter</link></literal>
6810 to rewrite headers that are send by the client, and
6811 <literal><link linkend="server-header-filter">server-header-filter</link></literal>
6812 to rewrite headers that are send by the server.
6816 &my-app; also supports two tagger actions:
6817 <literal><link linkend="client-header-tagger">client-header-tagger</link></literal>
6819 <literal><link linkend="server-header-tagger">server-header-tagger</link></literal>.
6820 Taggers and filters use the same syntax in the filter files, the difference
6821 is that taggers don't modify the text they are filtering, but use a rewritten
6822 version of the filtered text as tag. The tags can then be used to change the
6823 applying actions through sections with <link linkend="tag-pattern">tag-patterns</link>.
6828 Multiple filter files can be defined through the <literal> <link
6829 linkend="filterfile">filterfile</link></literal> config directive. The filters
6830 as supplied by the developers are located in
6831 <filename>default.filter</filename>. It is recommended that any locally
6832 defined or modified filters go in a separately defined file such as
6833 <filename>user.filter</filename>.
6837 Common tasks for content filters are to eliminate common annoyances in
6838 HTML and JavaScript, such as pop-up windows,
6839 exit consoles, crippled windows without navigation tools, the
6840 infamous <BLINK> tag etc, to suppress images with certain
6841 width and height attributes (standard banner sizes or web-bugs),
6842 or just to have fun.
6846 Enabled content filters are applied to any content whose
6847 <quote>Content Type</quote> header is recognised as a sign
6848 of text-based content, with the exception of <literal>text/plain</literal>.
6849 Use the <link linkend="FORCE-TEXT-MODE">force-text-mode</link> action
6850 to also filter other content.
6854 Substitutions are made at the source level, so if you want to <quote>roll
6855 your own</quote> filters, you should first be familiar with HTML syntax,
6856 and, of course, regular expressions.
6860 Just like the <link linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>, the
6861 filter file is organized in sections, which are called <emphasis>filters</emphasis>
6862 here. Each filter consists of a heading line, that starts with one of the
6863 <emphasis>keywords</emphasis> <literal>FILTER:</literal>,
6864 <literal>CLIENT-HEADER-FILTER:</literal> or <literal>SERVER-HEADER-FILTER:</literal>
6865 followed by the filter's <emphasis>name</emphasis>, and a short (one line)
6866 <emphasis>description</emphasis> of what it does. Below that line
6867 come the <emphasis>jobs</emphasis>, i.e. lines that define the actual
6868 text substitutions. By convention, the name of a filter
6869 should describe what the filter <emphasis>eliminates</emphasis>. The
6870 comment is used in the <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">web-based
6871 user interface</ulink>.
6875 Once a filter called <replaceable>name</replaceable> has been defined
6876 in the filter file, it can be invoked by using an action of the form
6877 +<literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link>{<replaceable>name</replaceable>}</literal>
6878 in any <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link>.
6882 Filter definitions start with a header line that contains the filter
6883 type, the filter name and the filter description.
6884 A content filter header line for a filter called <quote>foo</quote> could look
6889 <screen>FILTER: foo Replace all "foo" with "bar"</screen>
6893 Below that line, and up to the next header line, come the jobs that
6894 define what text replacements the filter executes. They are specified
6895 in a syntax that imitates <ulink url="http://www.perl.org/">Perl</ulink>'s
6896 <literal>s///</literal> operator. If you are familiar with Perl, you
6897 will find this to be quite intuitive, and may want to look at the
6898 PCRS documentation for the subtle differences to Perl behaviour. Most
6899 notably, the non-standard option letter <literal>U</literal> is supported,
6900 which turns the default to ungreedy matching.
6905 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
6906 Expressions</quote></ulink>, you might want to take a look at
6907 the <link linkend="regex">Appendix on regular expressions</link>, and
6908 see the <ulink url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html">Perl
6910 <ulink url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlop.html">the
6911 <literal>s///</literal> operator's syntax</ulink> and <ulink
6912 url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html">Perl-style regular
6913 expressions</ulink> in general.
6914 The below examples might also help to get you started.
6918 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
6920 <sect2><title>Filter File Tutorial</title>
6922 Now, let's complete our <quote>foo</quote> content filter. We have already defined
6923 the heading, but the jobs are still missing. Since all it does is to replace
6924 <quote>foo</quote> with <quote>bar</quote>, there is only one (trivial) job
6929 <screen>s/foo/bar/</screen>
6933 But wait! Didn't the comment say that <emphasis>all</emphasis> occurrences
6934 of <quote>foo</quote> should be replaced? Our current job will only take
6935 care of the first <quote>foo</quote> on each page. For global substitution,
6936 we'll need to add the <literal>g</literal> option:
6940 <screen>s/foo/bar/g</screen>
6944 Our complete filter now looks like this:
6947 <screen>FILTER: foo Replace all "foo" with "bar"
6948 s/foo/bar/g</screen>
6952 Let's look at some real filters for more interesting examples. Here you see
6953 a filter that protects against some common annoyances that arise from JavaScript
6954 abuse. Let's look at its jobs one after the other:
6960 FILTER: js-annoyances Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse
6962 # Get rid of JavaScript referrer tracking. Test page: http://www.randomoddness.com/untitled.htm
6964 s|(<script.*)document\.referrer(.*</script>)|$1"Not Your Business!"$2|Usg</screen>
6968 Following the header line and a comment, you see the job. Note that it uses
6969 <literal>|</literal> as the delimiter instead of <literal>/</literal>, because
6970 the pattern contains a forward slash, which would otherwise have to be escaped
6971 by a backslash (<literal>\</literal>).
6975 Now, let's examine the pattern: it starts with the text <literal><script.*</literal>
6976 enclosed in parentheses. Since the dot matches any character, and <literal>*</literal>
6977 means: <quote>Match an arbitrary number of the element left of myself</quote>, this
6978 matches <quote><script</quote>, followed by <emphasis>any</emphasis> text, i.e.
6979 it matches the whole page, from the start of the first <script> tag.
6983 That's more than we want, but the pattern continues: <literal>document\.referrer</literal>
6984 matches only the exact string <quote>document.referrer</quote>. The dot needed to
6985 be <emphasis>escaped</emphasis>, i.e. preceded by a backslash, to take away its
6986 special meaning as a joker, and make it just a regular dot. So far, the meaning is:
6987 Match from the start of the first <script> tag in a the page, up to, and including,
6988 the text <quote>document.referrer</quote>, if <emphasis>both</emphasis> are present
6989 in the page (and appear in that order).
6993 But there's still more pattern to go. The next element, again enclosed in parentheses,
6994 is <literal>.*</script></literal>. You already know what <literal>.*</literal>
6995 means, so the whole pattern translates to: Match from the start of the first <script>
6996 tag in a page to the end of the last <script> tag, provided that the text
6997 <quote>document.referrer</quote> appears somewhere in between.
7001 This is still not the whole story, since we have ignored the options and the parentheses:
7002 The portions of the page matched by sub-patterns that are enclosed in parentheses, will be
7003 remembered and be available through the variables <literal>$1, $2, ...</literal> in
7004 the substitute. The <literal>U</literal> option switches to ungreedy matching, which means
7005 that the first <literal>.*</literal> in the pattern will only <quote>eat up</quote> all
7006 text in between <quote><script</quote> and the <emphasis>first</emphasis> occurrence
7007 of <quote>document.referrer</quote>, and that the second <literal>.*</literal> will
7008 only span the text up to the <emphasis>first</emphasis> <quote></script></quote>
7009 tag. Furthermore, the <literal>s</literal> option says that the match may span
7010 multiple lines in the page, and the <literal>g</literal> option again means that the
7011 substitution is global.
7015 So, to summarize, the pattern means: Match all scripts that contain the text
7016 <quote>document.referrer</quote>. Remember the parts of the script from
7017 (and including) the start tag up to (and excluding) the string
7018 <quote>document.referrer</quote> as <literal>$1</literal>, and the part following
7019 that string, up to and including the closing tag, as <literal>$2</literal>.
7023 Now the pattern is deciphered, but wasn't this about substituting things? So
7024 lets look at the substitute: <literal>$1"Not Your Business!"$2</literal> is
7025 easy to read: The text remembered as <literal>$1</literal>, followed by
7026 <literal>"Not Your Business!"</literal> (<emphasis>including</emphasis>
7027 the quotation marks!), followed by the text remembered as <literal>$2</literal>.
7028 This produces an exact copy of the original string, with the middle part
7029 (the <quote>document.referrer</quote>) replaced by <literal>"Not Your
7030 Business!"</literal>.
7034 The whole job now reads: Replace <quote>document.referrer</quote> by
7035 <literal>"Not Your Business!"</literal> wherever it appears inside a
7036 <script> tag. Note that this job won't break JavaScript syntax,
7037 since both the original and the replacement are syntactically valid
7038 string objects. The script just won't have access to the referrer
7039 information anymore.
7043 We'll show you two other jobs from the JavaScript taming department, but
7044 this time only point out the constructs of special interest:
7049 # The status bar is for displaying link targets, not pointless blahblah
7051 s/window\.status\s*=\s*(['"]).*?\1/dUmMy=1/ig</screen>
7055 <literal>\s</literal> stands for whitespace characters (space, tab, newline,
7056 carriage return, form feed), so that <literal>\s*</literal> means: <quote>zero
7057 or more whitespace</quote>. The <literal>?</literal> in <literal>.*?</literal>
7058 makes this matching of arbitrary text ungreedy. (Note that the <literal>U</literal>
7059 option is not set). The <literal>['"]</literal> construct means: <quote>a single
7060 <emphasis>or</emphasis> a double quote</quote>. Finally, <literal>\1</literal> is
7061 a back-reference to the first parenthesis just like <literal>$1</literal> above,
7062 with the difference that in the <emphasis>pattern</emphasis>, a backslash indicates
7063 a back-reference, whereas in the <emphasis>substitute</emphasis>, it's the dollar.
7067 So what does this job do? It replaces assignments of single- or double-quoted
7068 strings to the <quote>window.status</quote> object with a dummy assignment
7069 (using a variable name that is hopefully odd enough not to conflict with
7070 real variables in scripts). Thus, it catches many cases where e.g. pointless
7071 descriptions are displayed in the status bar instead of the link target when
7072 you move your mouse over links.
7077 # Kill OnUnload popups. Yummy. Test: http://www.zdnet.com/zdsubs/yahoo/tree/yfs.html
7079 s/(<body [^>]*)onunload(.*>)/$1never$2/iU</screen>
7084 <ulink url="http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-DOM-Level-2-Events-20001113/events.html#Events-eventgroupings-htmlevents">OnUnload
7085 event binding</ulink> in the HTML DOM was a <emphasis>CRIME</emphasis>.
7086 When I close a browser window, I want it to close and die. Basta.
7087 This job replaces the <quote>onunload</quote> attribute in
7088 <quote><body></quote> tags with the dummy word <literal>never</literal>.
7089 Note that the <literal>i</literal> option makes the pattern matching
7090 case-insensitive. Also note that ungreedy matching alone doesn't always guarantee
7091 a minimal match: In the first parenthesis, we had to use <literal>[^>]*</literal>
7092 instead of <literal>.*</literal> to prevent the match from exceeding the
7093 <body> tag if it doesn't contain <quote>OnUnload</quote>, but the page's
7098 The last example is from the fun department:
7103 FILTER: fun Fun text replacements
7105 # Spice the daily news:
7107 s/microsoft(?!\.com)/MicroSuck/ig</screen>
7111 Note the <literal>(?!\.com)</literal> part (a so-called negative lookahead)
7112 in the job's pattern, which means: Don't match, if the string
7113 <quote>.com</quote> appears directly following <quote>microsoft</quote>
7114 in the page. This prevents links to microsoft.com from being trashed, while
7115 still replacing the word everywhere else.
7120 # Buzzword Bingo (example for extended regex syntax)
7122 s* industry[ -]leading \
7124 | customer[ -]focused \
7125 | market[ -]driven \
7126 | award[ -]winning # Comments are OK, too! \
7127 | high[ -]performance \
7128 | solutions[ -]based \
7132 *<font color="red"><b>BINGO!</b></font> \
7137 The <literal>x</literal> option in this job turns on extended syntax, and allows for
7138 e.g. the liberal use of (non-interpreted!) whitespace for nicer formatting.
7146 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
7148 <sect2 id="predefined-filters"><title>The Pre-defined Filters</title>
7152 Note each filter is also listed in the +filter action section above. Please
7153 keep these listings in sync.
7158 The distribution <filename>default.filter</filename> file contains a selection of
7159 pre-defined filters for your convenience:
7164 <term><emphasis>js-annoyances</emphasis></term>
7167 The purpose of this filter is to get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse.
7172 replaces JavaScript references to the browser's referrer information
7173 with the string "Not Your Business!". This compliments the <literal><link
7174 linkend="hide-referrer">hide-referrer</link></literal> action on the content level.
7179 removes the bindings to the DOM's
7180 <ulink url="http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-DOM-Level-2-Events-20001113/events.html#Events-eventgroupings-htmlevents">unload
7181 event</ulink> which we feel has no right to exist and is responsible for most <quote>exit consoles</quote>, i.e.
7182 nasty windows that pop up when you close another one.
7187 removes code that causes new windows to be opened with undesired properties, such as being
7188 full-screen, non-resizeable, without location, status or menu bar etc.
7194 Use with caution. This is an aggressive filter, and can break sites that
7195 rely heavily on JavaScript.
7201 <term><emphasis>js-events</emphasis></term>
7204 This is a very radical measure. It removes virtually all JavaScript event bindings, which
7205 means that scripts can not react to user actions such as mouse movements or clicks, window
7206 resizing etc, anymore. Use with caution!
7209 We <emphasis>strongly discourage</emphasis> using this filter as a default since it breaks
7210 many legitimate scripts. It is meant for use only on extra-nasty sites (should you really
7217 <term><emphasis>html-annoyances</emphasis></term>
7220 This filter will undo many common instances of HTML based abuse.
7223 The <literal>BLINK</literal> and <literal>MARQUEE</literal> tags
7224 are neutralized (yeah baby!), and browser windows will be created as
7225 resizeable (as of course they should be!), and will have location,
7226 scroll and menu bars -- even if specified otherwise.
7232 <term><emphasis>content-cookies</emphasis></term>
7235 Most cookies are set in the HTTP dialog, where they can be intercepted
7237 <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal>
7238 and <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>
7239 actions. But web sites increasingly make use of HTML meta tags and JavaScript
7240 to sneak cookies to the browser on the content level.
7243 This filter disables most HTML and JavaScript code that reads or sets
7244 cookies. It cannot detect all clever uses of these types of code, so it
7245 should not be relied on as an absolute fix. Use it wherever you would also
7246 use the cookie crunch actions.
7252 <term><emphasis>refresh tags</emphasis></term>
7255 Disable any refresh tags if the interval is greater than nine seconds (so
7256 that redirections done via refresh tags are not destroyed). This is useful
7257 for dial-on-demand setups, or for those who find this HTML feature
7264 <term><emphasis>unsolicited-popups</emphasis></term>
7267 This filter attempts to prevent only <quote>unsolicited</quote> pop-up
7268 windows from opening, yet still allow pop-up windows that the user
7269 has explicitly chosen to open. It was added in version 3.0.1,
7270 as an improvement over earlier such filters.
7273 Technical note: The filter works by redefining the window.open JavaScript
7274 function to a dummy function, <literal>PrivoxyWindowOpen()</literal>,
7275 during the loading and rendering phase of each HTML page access, and
7276 restoring the function afterward.
7279 This is recommended only for browsers that cannot perform this function
7280 reliably themselves. And be aware that some sites require such windows
7281 in order to function normally. Use with caution.
7287 <term><emphasis>all-popups</emphasis></term>
7290 Attempt to prevent <emphasis>all</emphasis> pop-up windows from opening.
7291 Note this should be used with even more discretion than the above, since
7292 it is more likely to break some sites that require pop-ups for normal
7293 usage. Use with caution.
7299 <term><emphasis>img-reorder</emphasis></term>
7302 This is a helper filter that has no value if used alone. It makes the
7303 <literal>banners-by-size</literal> and <literal>banners-by-link</literal>
7304 (see below) filters more effective and should be enabled together with them.
7310 <term><emphasis>banners-by-size</emphasis></term>
7313 This filter removes image tags purely based on what size they are. Fortunately
7314 for us, many ads and banner images tend to conform to certain standardized
7315 sizes, which makes this filter quite effective for ad stripping purposes.
7318 Occasionally this filter will cause false positives on images that are not ads,
7319 but just happen to be of one of the standard banner sizes.
7322 Recommended only for those who require extreme ad blocking. The default
7323 block rules should catch 95+% of all ads <emphasis>without</emphasis> this filter enabled.
7329 <term><emphasis>banners-by-link</emphasis></term>
7332 This is an experimental filter that attempts to kill any banners if
7333 their URLs seem to point to known or suspected click trackers. It is currently
7334 not of much value and is not recommended for use by default.
7340 <term><emphasis>webbugs</emphasis></term>
7343 Webbugs are small, invisible images (technically 1X1 GIF images), that
7344 are used to track users across websites, and collect information on them.
7345 As an HTML page is loaded by the browser, an embedded image tag causes the
7346 browser to contact a third-party site, disclosing the tracking information
7347 through the requested URL and/or cookies for that third-party domain, without
7348 the user ever becoming aware of the interaction with the third-party site.
7349 HTML-ized spam also uses a similar technique to verify email addresses.
7352 This filter removes the HTML code that loads such <quote>webbugs</quote>.
7358 <term><emphasis>tiny-textforms</emphasis></term>
7361 A rather special-purpose filter that can be used to enlarge textareas (those
7362 multi-line text boxes in web forms) and turn off hard word wrap in them.
7363 It was written for the sourceforge.net tracker system where such boxes are
7364 a nuisance, but it can be handy on other sites, too.
7367 It is not recommended to use this filter as a default.
7373 <term><emphasis>jumping-windows</emphasis></term>
7376 Many consider windows that move, or resize themselves to be abusive. This filter
7377 neutralizes the related JavaScript code. Note that some sites might not display
7378 or behave as intended when using this filter. Use with caution.
7384 <term><emphasis>frameset-borders</emphasis></term>
7387 Some web designers seem to assume that everyone in the world will view their
7388 web sites using the same browser brand and version, screen resolution etc,
7389 because only that assumption could explain why they'd use static frame sizes,
7390 yet prevent their frames from being resized by the user, should they be too
7391 small to show their whole content.
7394 This filter removes the related HTML code. It should only be applied to sites
7401 <term><emphasis>demoronizer</emphasis></term>
7404 Many Microsoft products that generate HTML use non-standard extensions (read:
7405 violations) of the ISO 8859-1 aka Latin-1 character set. This can cause those
7406 HTML documents to display with errors on standard-compliant platforms.
7409 This filter translates the MS-only characters into Latin-1 equivalents.
7410 It is not necessary when using MS products, and will cause corruption of
7411 all documents that use 8-bit character sets other than Latin-1. It's mostly
7412 worthwhile for Europeans on non-MS platforms, if weird garbage characters
7413 sometimes appear on some pages, or user agents that don't correct for this on
7416 My version of Mozilla (ancient) shows litte square boxes for quote
7417 characters, and apostrophes on moronized pages. So many pages have this, I
7418 can read them fine now. HB 08/27/06
7425 <term><emphasis>shockwave-flash</emphasis></term>
7428 A filter for shockwave haters. As the name suggests, this filter strips code
7429 out of web pages that is used to embed shockwave flash objects.
7437 <term><emphasis>quicktime-kioskmode</emphasis></term>
7440 Change HTML code that embeds Quicktime objects so that kioskmode, which
7441 prevents saving, is disabled.
7447 <term><emphasis>fun</emphasis></term>
7450 Text replacements for subversive browsing fun. Make fun of your favorite
7451 Monopolist or play buzzword bingo.
7457 <term><emphasis>crude-parental</emphasis></term>
7460 A demonstration-only filter that shows how <application>Privoxy</application>
7461 can be used to delete web content on a keyword basis.
7467 <term><emphasis>ie-exploits</emphasis></term>
7470 An experimental collection of text replacements to disable malicious HTML and JavaScript
7471 code that exploits known security holes in Internet Explorer.
7474 Presently, it only protects against Nimda and a cross-site scripting bug, and
7475 would need active maintenance to provide more substantial protection.
7481 <term><emphasis>site-specifics</emphasis></term>
7484 Some web sites have very specific problems, the cure for which doesn't apply
7485 anywhere else, or could even cause damage on other sites.
7488 This is a collection of such site-specific cures which should only be applied
7489 to the sites they were intended for, which is what the supplied
7490 <filename>default.action</filename> file does. Users shouldn't need to change
7491 anything regarding this filter.
7497 <term><emphasis>google</emphasis></term>
7500 A CSS based block for Google text ads. Also removes a width limitation
7501 and the toolbar advertisement.
7507 <term><emphasis>yahoo</emphasis></term>
7510 Another CSS based block, this time for Yahoo text ads. And removes
7511 a width limitation as well.
7517 <term><emphasis>msn</emphasis></term>
7520 Another CSS based block, this time for MSN text ads. And removes
7521 tracking URLs, as well as a width limitation.
7527 <term><emphasis>blogspot</emphasis></term>
7530 Cleans up some Blogspot blogs. Read the fine print before using this one!
7533 This filter also intentionally removes some navigation stuff and sets the
7534 page width to 100%. As a result, some rounded <quote>corners</quote> would
7535 appear to early or not at all and as fixing this would require a browser
7536 that understands background-size (CSS3), they are removed instead.
7542 <term><emphasis>xml-to-html</emphasis></term>
7545 Server-header filter to change the Content-Type from xml to html.
7551 <term><emphasis>html-to-xml</emphasis></term>
7554 Server-header filter to change the Content-Type from html to xml.
7560 <term><emphasis>no-ping</emphasis></term>
7563 Removes the non-standard <literal>ping</literal> attribute from
7564 anchor and area HTML tags.
7570 <term><emphasis>hide-tor-exit-notation</emphasis></term>
7573 Client-header filter to remove the <command>Tor</command> exit node notation
7574 found in Host and Referer headers.
7577 If &my-app; and <command>Tor</command> are chained and &my-app;
7578 is configured to use socks4a, one can use <quote>http://www.example.org.foobar.exit/</quote>
7579 to access the host <quote>www.example.org</quote> through the
7580 <command>Tor</command> exit node <quote>foobar</quote>.
7583 As the HTTP client isn't aware of this notation, it treats the
7584 whole string <quote>www.example.org.foobar.exit</quote> as host and uses it
7585 for the <quote>Host</quote> and <quote>Referer</quote> headers. From the
7586 server's point of view the resulting headers are invalid and can cause problems.
7589 An invalid <quote>Referer</quote> header can trigger <quote>hot-linking</quote>
7590 protections, an invalid <quote>Host</quote> header will make it impossible for
7591 the server to find the right vhost (several domains hosted on the same IP address).
7594 This client-header filter removes the <quote>foo.exit</quote> part in those headers
7595 to prevent the mentioned problems. Note that it only modifies
7596 the HTTP headers, it doesn't make it impossible for the server
7597 to detect your <command>Tor</command> exit node based on the IP address
7598 the request is coming from.
7605 <term><emphasis> </emphasis></term>
7619 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7623 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7625 <sect1 id="templates">
7626 <title>Privoxy's Template Files</title>
7628 All <application>Privoxy</application> built-in pages, i.e. error pages such as the
7629 <ulink url="http://show-the-404-error.page"><quote>404 - No Such Domain</quote>
7630 error page</ulink>, the <ulink
7631 url="http://ads.bannerserver.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor.html"><quote>BLOCKED</quote>
7633 and all pages of its <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">web-based
7634 user interface</ulink>, are generated from <emphasis>templates</emphasis>.
7635 (<application>Privoxy</application> must be running for the above links to work as
7640 These templates are stored in a subdirectory of the <link linkend="confdir">configuration
7641 directory</link> called <filename>templates</filename>. On Unixish platforms,
7643 <ulink url="file:///etc/privoxy/templates/"><filename>/etc/privoxy/templates/</filename></ulink>.
7647 The templates are basically normal HTML files, but with place-holders (called symbols
7648 or exports), which <application>Privoxy</application> fills at run time. It
7649 is possible to edit the templates with a normal text editor, should you want
7650 to customize them. (<emphasis>Not recommended for the casual
7651 user</emphasis>). Should you create your own custom templates, you should use
7652 the <filename>config</filename> setting <link linkend="templdir">templdir</link>
7653 to specify an alternate location, so your templates do not get overwritten
7657 Note that just like in configuration files, lines starting
7658 with <literal>#</literal> are ignored when the templates are filled in.
7662 The place-holders are of the form <literal>@name@</literal>, and you will
7663 find a list of available symbols, which vary from template to template,
7664 in the comments at the start of each file. Note that these comments are not
7665 always accurate, and that it's probably best to look at the existing HTML
7666 code to find out which symbols are supported and what they are filled in with.
7670 A special application of this substitution mechanism is to make whole
7671 blocks of HTML code disappear when a specific symbol is set. We use this
7672 for many purposes, one of them being to include the beta warning in all
7673 our user interface (CGI) pages when <application>Privoxy</application>
7674 is in an alpha or beta development stage:
7679 <!-- @if-unstable-start -->
7681 ... beta warning HTML code goes here ...
7683 <!-- if-unstable-end@ --></screen>
7687 If the "unstable" symbol is set, everything in between and including
7688 <literal>@if-unstable-start</literal> and <literal>if-unstable-end@</literal>
7689 will disappear, leaving nothing but an empty comment:
7693 <screen><!-- --></screen>
7697 There's also an if-then-else construct and an <literal>#include</literal>
7698 mechanism, but you'll sure find out if you are inclined to edit the
7703 All templates refer to a style located at
7704 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/send-stylesheet"><literal>http://config.privoxy.org/send-stylesheet</literal></ulink>.
7705 This is, of course, locally served by <application>Privoxy</application>
7706 and the source for it can be found and edited in the
7707 <filename>cgi-style.css</filename> template.
7712 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7716 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7718 <sect1 id="contact"><title>Contacting the Developers, Bug Reporting and Feature
7721 <!-- Include contacting.sgml boilerplate: -->
7723 <!-- end boilerplate -->
7727 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7730 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7731 <sect1 id="copyright"><title>Privoxy Copyright, License and History</title>
7733 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
7735 <!-- end copyright -->
7737 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7738 <sect2><title>License</title>
7739 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
7741 <!-- end copyright -->
7743 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7746 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7748 <sect2 id="history"><title>History</title>
7749 <!-- Include history.sgml: -->
7751 <!-- end history -->
7754 <sect2 id="authors"><title>Authors</title>
7755 <!-- Include p-authors.sgml: -->
7757 <!-- end authors -->
7762 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7765 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7766 <sect1 id="seealso"><title>See Also</title>
7767 <!-- Include seealso.sgml: -->
7769 <!-- end seealso -->
7774 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7775 <sect1 id="appendix"><title>Appendix</title>
7778 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7780 <title>Regular Expressions</title>
7782 <application>Privoxy</application> uses Perl-style <quote>regular
7783 expressions</quote> in its <link linkend="actions-file">actions
7784 files</link> and <link linkend="filter-file">filter file</link>,
7785 through the <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/">PCRE</ulink> and
7788 <ulink url="http://www.oesterhelt.org/pcrs/">PCRS</ulink> libraries.
7790 <application>PCRS</application> libraries.
7794 If you are reading this, you probably don't understand what <quote>regular
7795 expressions</quote> are, or what they can do. So this will be a very brief
7796 introduction only. A full explanation would require a <ulink
7797 url="http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/regex/">book</ulink> ;-)
7801 Regular expressions provide a language to describe patterns that can be
7802 run against strings of characters (letter, numbers, etc), to see if they
7803 match the string or not. The patterns are themselves (sometimes complex)
7804 strings of literal characters, combined with wild-cards, and other special
7805 characters, called meta-characters. The <quote>meta-characters</quote> have
7806 special meanings and are used to build complex patterns to be matched against.
7807 Perl Compatible Regular Expressions are an especially convenient
7808 <quote>dialect</quote> of the regular expression language.
7812 To make a simple analogy, we do something similar when we use wild-card
7813 characters when listing files with the <command>dir</command> command in DOS.
7814 <literal>*.*</literal> matches all filenames. The <quote>special</quote>
7815 character here is the asterisk which matches any and all characters. We can be
7816 more specific and use <literal>?</literal> to match just individual
7817 characters. So <quote>dir file?.text</quote> would match
7818 <quote>file1.txt</quote>, <quote>file2.txt</quote>, etc. We are pattern
7819 matching, using a similar technique to <quote>regular expressions</quote>!
7823 Regular expressions do essentially the same thing, but are much, much more
7824 powerful. There are many more <quote>special characters</quote> and ways of
7825 building complex patterns however. Let's look at a few of the common ones,
7826 and then some examples:
7831 <emphasis>.</emphasis> - Matches any single character, e.g. <quote>a</quote>,
7832 <quote>A</quote>, <quote>4</quote>, <quote>:</quote>, or <quote>@</quote>.
7834 </simplelist></para>
7838 <emphasis>?</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or ONE
7841 </simplelist></para>
7845 <emphasis>+</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ONE or MORE
7848 </simplelist></para>
7852 <emphasis>*</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or MORE
7855 </simplelist></para>
7859 <emphasis>\</emphasis> - The <quote>escape</quote> character denotes that
7860 the following character should be taken literally. This is used where one of the
7861 special characters (e.g. <quote>.</quote>) needs to be taken literally and
7862 not as a special meta-character. Example: <quote>example\.com</quote>, makes
7863 sure the period is recognized only as a period (and not expanded to its
7864 meta-character meaning of any single character).
7866 </simplelist></para>
7870 <emphasis>[ ]</emphasis> - Characters enclosed in brackets will be matched if
7871 any of the enclosed characters are encountered. For instance, <quote>[0-9]</quote>
7872 matches any numeric digit (zero through nine). As an example, we can combine
7873 this with <quote>+</quote> to match any digit one of more times: <quote>[0-9]+</quote>.
7875 </simplelist></para>
7879 <emphasis>( )</emphasis> - parentheses are used to group a sub-expression,
7880 or multiple sub-expressions.
7882 </simplelist></para>
7886 <emphasis>|</emphasis> - The <quote>bar</quote> character works like an
7887 <quote>or</quote> conditional statement. A match is successful if the
7888 sub-expression on either side of <quote>|</quote> matches. As an example:
7889 <quote>/(this|that) example/</quote> uses grouping and the bar character
7890 and would match either <quote>this example</quote> or <quote>that
7891 example</quote>, and nothing else.
7893 </simplelist></para>
7896 These are just some of the ones you are likely to use when matching URLs with
7897 <application>Privoxy</application>, and is a long way from a definitive
7898 list. This is enough to get us started with a few simple examples which may
7899 be more illuminating:
7903 <emphasis><literal>/.*/banners/.*</literal></emphasis> - A simple example
7904 that uses the common combination of <quote>.</quote> and <quote>*</quote> to
7905 denote any character, zero or more times. In other words, any string at all.
7906 So we start with a literal forward slash, then our regular expression pattern
7907 (<quote>.*</quote>) another literal forward slash, the string
7908 <quote>banners</quote>, another forward slash, and lastly another
7909 <quote>.*</quote>. We are building
7910 a directory path here. This will match any file with the path that has a
7911 directory named <quote>banners</quote> in it. The <quote>.*</quote> matches
7912 any characters, and this could conceivably be more forward slashes, so it
7913 might expand into a much longer looking path. For example, this could match:
7914 <quote>/eye/hate/spammers/banners/annoy_me_please.gif</quote>, or just
7915 <quote>/banners/annoying.html</quote>, or almost an infinite number of other
7916 possible combinations, just so it has <quote>banners</quote> in the path
7921 And now something a little more complex:
7925 <emphasis><literal>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))?/</literal></emphasis> -
7926 We have several literal forward slashes again (<quote>/</quote>), so we are
7927 building another expression that is a file path statement. We have another
7928 <quote>.*</quote>, so we are matching against any conceivable sub-path, just so
7929 it matches our expression. The only true literal that <emphasis>must
7930 match</emphasis> our pattern is <application>adv</application>, together with
7931 the forward slashes. What comes after the <quote>adv</quote> string is the
7936 Remember the <quote>?</quote> means the preceding expression (either a
7937 literal character or anything grouped with <quote>(...)</quote> in this case)
7938 can exist or not, since this means either zero or one match. So
7939 <quote>((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))</quote> is optional, as are the
7940 individual sub-expressions: <quote>(er)</quote>,
7941 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, and the <quote>s</quote>. The <quote>|</quote>
7942 means <quote>or</quote>. We have two of those. For instance,
7943 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, can expand to match either <quote>ing</quote>
7944 <emphasis>OR</emphasis> <quote>ements?</quote>. What is being done here, is an
7945 attempt at matching as many variations of <quote>advertisement</quote>, and
7946 similar, as possible. So this would expand to match just <quote>adv</quote>,
7947 or <quote>advert</quote>, or <quote>adverts</quote>, or
7948 <quote>advertising</quote>, or <quote>advertisement</quote>, or
7949 <quote>advertisements</quote>. You get the idea. But it would not match
7950 <quote>advertizements</quote> (with a <quote>z</quote>). We could fix that by
7951 changing our regular expression to:
7952 <quote>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|erti(s|z)(ing|ements?))?/</quote>, which would then match
7957 <emphasis><literal>/.*/advert[0-9]+\.(gif|jpe?g)</literal></emphasis> - Again
7958 another path statement with forward slashes. Anything in the square brackets
7959 <quote>[ ]</quote> can be matched. This is using <quote>0-9</quote> as a
7960 shorthand expression to mean any digit one through nine. It is the same as
7961 saying <quote>0123456789</quote>. So any digit matches. The <quote>+</quote>
7962 means one or more of the preceding expression must be included. The preceding
7963 expression here is what is in the square brackets -- in this case, any digit
7964 one through nine. Then, at the end, we have a grouping: <quote>(gif|jpe?g)</quote>.
7965 This includes a <quote>|</quote>, so this needs to match the expression on
7966 either side of that bar character also. A simple <quote>gif</quote> on one side, and the other
7967 side will in turn match either <quote>jpeg</quote> or <quote>jpg</quote>,
7968 since the <quote>?</quote> means the letter <quote>e</quote> is optional and
7969 can be matched once or not at all. So we are building an expression here to
7970 match image GIF or JPEG type image file. It must include the literal
7971 string <quote>advert</quote>, then one or more digits, and a <quote>.</quote>
7972 (which is now a literal, and not a special character, since it is escaped
7973 with <quote>\</quote>), and lastly either <quote>gif</quote>, or
7974 <quote>jpeg</quote>, or <quote>jpg</quote>. Some possible matches would
7975 include: <quote>//advert1.jpg</quote>,
7976 <quote>/nasty/ads/advert1234.gif</quote>,
7977 <quote>/banners/from/hell/advert99.jpg</quote>. It would not match
7978 <quote>advert1.gif</quote> (no leading slash), or
7979 <quote>/adverts232.jpg</quote> (the expression does not include an
7980 <quote>s</quote>), or <quote>/advert1.jsp</quote> (<quote>jsp</quote> is not
7981 in the expression anywhere).
7985 We are barely scratching the surface of regular expressions here so that you
7986 can understand the default <application>Privoxy</application>
7987 configuration files, and maybe use this knowledge to customize your own
7988 installation. There is much, much more that can be done with regular
7989 expressions. Now that you know enough to get started, you can learn more on
7994 More reading on Perl Compatible Regular expressions:
7995 <ulink url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html">http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html</ulink>
7999 For information on regular expression based substitutions and their applications
8000 in filters, please see the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file tutorial</link>
8005 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
8008 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
8010 <title>Privoxy's Internal Pages</title>
8013 Since <application>Privoxy</application> proxies each requested
8014 web page, it is easy for <application>Privoxy</application> to
8015 trap certain special URLs. In this way, we can talk directly to
8016 <application>Privoxy</application>, and see how it is
8017 configured, see how our rules are being applied, change these
8018 rules and other configuration options, and even turn
8019 <application>Privoxy's</application> filtering off, all with
8025 The URLs listed below are the special ones that allow direct access
8026 to <application>Privoxy</application>. Of course,
8027 <application>Privoxy</application> must be running to access these. If
8028 not, you will get a friendly error message. Internet access is not
8041 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
8045 There is a shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink> (But it
8046 doesn't provide a fall-back to a real page, in case the request is not
8047 sent through <application>Privoxy</application>)
8053 Show information about the current configuration, including viewing and
8054 editing of actions files:
8058 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
8065 Show the source code version numbers:
8069 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-version">http://config.privoxy.org/show-version</ulink>
8076 Show the browser's request headers:
8080 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request">http://config.privoxy.org/show-request</ulink>
8087 Show which actions apply to a URL and why:
8091 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
8098 Toggle Privoxy on or off. This feature can be turned off/on in the main
8099 <filename>config</filename> file. When toggled <quote>off</quote>, <quote>Privoxy</quote>
8100 continues to run, but only as a pass-through proxy, with no actions taking
8105 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</ulink>
8109 Short cuts. Turn off, then on:
8113 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable</ulink>
8118 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable</ulink>
8127 These may be bookmarked for quick reference. See next.
8131 <sect3 id="bookmarklets">
8132 <title>Bookmarklets</title>
8134 Below are some <quote>bookmarklets</quote> to allow you to easily access a
8135 <quote>mini</quote> version of some of <application>Privoxy's</application>
8136 special pages. They are designed for MS Internet Explorer, but should work
8137 equally well in Netscape, Mozilla, and other browsers which support
8138 JavaScript. They are designed to run directly from your bookmarks - not by
8139 clicking the links below (although that should work for testing).
8142 To save them, right-click the link and choose <quote>Add to Favorites</quote>
8143 (IE) or <quote>Add Bookmark</quote> (Netscape). You will get a warning that
8144 the bookmark <quote>may not be safe</quote> - just click OK. Then you can run the
8145 Bookmarklet directly from your favorites/bookmarks. For even faster access,
8146 you can put them on the <quote>Links</quote> bar (IE) or the <quote>Personal
8147 Toolbar</quote> (Netscape), and run them with a single click.
8156 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>
8163 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>
8170 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)
8177 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>
8183 <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>
8189 <ulink url="javascript:void(window.open('http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info?url='+escape(location.href),'Why').focus());">Privoxy - Why?</ulink>
8196 Credit: The site which gave us the general idea for these bookmarklets is
8197 <ulink url="http://www.bookmarklets.com/">www.bookmarklets.com</ulink>. They
8198 have more information about bookmarklets.
8207 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
8209 <title>Chain of Events</title>
8211 Let's take a quick look at how some of <application>Privoxy's</application>
8212 core features are triggered, and the ensuing sequence of events when a web
8213 page is requested by your browser:
8220 First, your web browser requests a web page. The browser knows to send
8221 the request to <application>Privoxy</application>, which will in turn,
8222 relay the request to the remote web server after passing the following
8228 <application>Privoxy</application> traps any request for its own internal CGI
8229 pages (e.g <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>) and sends the CGI page back to the browser.
8234 Next, <application>Privoxy</application> checks to see if the URL
8236 linkend="BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></link> patterns. If
8237 so, the URL is then blocked, and the remote web server will not be contacted.
8238 <link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></link>
8240 <link linkend="HANDLE-AS-EMPTY-DOCUMENT"><quote>+handle-as-empty-document</quote></link>
8241 are then checked, and if there is no match, an
8242 HTML <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page is sent back to the browser. Otherwise, if
8243 it does match, an image is returned for the former, and an empty text
8244 document for the latter. The type of image would depend on the setting of
8245 <link linkend="SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"><quote>+set-image-blocker</quote></link>
8246 (blank, checkerboard pattern, or an HTTP redirect to an image elsewhere).
8251 Untrusted URLs are blocked. If URLs are being added to the
8252 <filename>trust</filename> file, then that is done.
8257 If the URL pattern matches the <link
8258 linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS"><quote>+fast-redirects</quote></link> action,
8259 it is then processed. Unwanted parts of the requested URL are stripped.
8264 Now the rest of the client browser's request headers are processed. If any
8265 of these match any of the relevant actions (e.g. <link
8266 linkend="HIDE-USER-AGENT"><quote>+hide-user-agent</quote></link>,
8267 etc.), headers are suppressed or forged as determined by these actions and
8273 Now the web server starts sending its response back (i.e. typically a web
8279 First, the server headers are read and processed to determine, among other
8280 things, the MIME type (document type) and encoding. The headers are then
8281 filtered as determined by the
8282 <link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES"><quote>+crunch-incoming-cookies</quote></link>,
8283 <link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"><quote>+session-cookies-only</quote></link>,
8284 and <link linkend="DOWNGRADE-HTTP-VERSION"><quote>+downgrade-http-version</quote></link>
8290 If any <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> action
8292 linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS"><quote>+deanimate-gifs</quote></link>
8293 action applies (and the document type fits the action), the rest of the page is
8294 read into memory (up to a configurable limit). Then the filter rules (from
8295 <filename>default.filter</filename> and any other filter files) are
8296 processed against the buffered content. Filters are applied in the order
8297 they are specified in one of the filter files. Animated GIFs, if present,
8298 are reduced to either the first or last frame, depending on the action
8299 setting.The entire page, which is now filtered, is then sent by
8300 <application>Privoxy</application> back to your browser.
8303 If neither a <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> action
8305 linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS"><quote>+deanimate-gifs</quote></link>
8306 matches, then <application>Privoxy</application> passes the raw data through
8307 to the client browser as it becomes available.
8312 As the browser receives the now (possibly filtered) page content, it
8313 reads and then requests any URLs that may be embedded within the page
8314 source, e.g. ad images, stylesheets, JavaScript, other HTML documents (e.g.
8315 frames), sounds, etc. For each of these objects, the browser issues a
8316 separate request (this is easily viewable in <application>Privoxy's</application>
8317 logs). And each such request is in turn processed just as above. Note that a
8318 complex web page will have many, many such embedded URLs. If these
8319 secondary requests are to a different server, then quite possibly a very
8320 differing set of actions is triggered.
8327 NOTE: This is somewhat of a simplistic overview of what happens with each URL
8328 request. For the sake of brevity and simplicity, we have focused on
8329 <application>Privoxy's</application> core features only.
8335 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
8336 <sect2 id="actionsanat">
8337 <title>Troubleshooting: Anatomy of an Action</title>
8340 The way <application>Privoxy</application> applies
8341 <link linkend="ACTIONS">actions</link> and <link linkend="FILTER">filters</link>
8342 to any given URL can be complex, and not always so
8343 easy to understand what is happening. And sometimes we need to be able to
8344 <emphasis>see</emphasis> just what <application>Privoxy</application> is
8345 doing. Especially, if something <application>Privoxy</application> is doing
8346 is causing us a problem inadvertently. It can be a little daunting to look at
8347 the actions and filters files themselves, since they tend to be filled with
8348 <link linkend="regex">regular expressions</link> whose consequences are not
8353 One quick test to see if <application>Privoxy</application> is causing a problem
8354 or not, is to disable it temporarily. This should be the first troubleshooting
8355 step. See <link linkend="bookmarklets">the Bookmarklets</link> section on a quick
8356 and easy way to do this (be sure to flush caches afterward!). Looking at the
8357 logs is a good idea too. (Note that both the toggle feature and logging are
8358 enabled via <filename>config</filename> file settings, and may need to be
8359 turned <quote>on</quote>.)
8362 Another easy troubleshooting step to try is if you have done any
8363 customization of your installation, revert back to the installed
8364 defaults and see if that helps. There are times the developers get complaints
8365 about one thing or another, and the problem is more related to a customized
8366 configuration issue.
8370 <application>Privoxy</application> also provides the
8371 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
8372 page that can show us very specifically how <application>actions</application>
8373 are being applied to any given URL. This is a big help for troubleshooting.
8377 First, enter one URL (or partial URL) at the prompt, and then
8378 <application>Privoxy</application> will tell us
8379 how the current configuration will handle it. This will not
8380 help with filtering effects (i.e. the <link
8381 linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> action) from
8382 one of the filter files since this is handled very
8383 differently and not so easy to trap! It also will not tell you about any other
8384 URLs that may be embedded within the URL you are testing. For instance, images
8385 such as ads are expressed as URLs within the raw page source of HTML pages. So
8386 you will only get info for the actual URL that is pasted into the prompt area
8387 -- not any sub-URLs. If you want to know about embedded URLs like ads, you
8388 will have to dig those out of the HTML source. Use your browser's <quote>View
8389 Page Source</quote> option for this. Or right click on the ad, and grab the
8394 Let's try an example, <ulink url="http://google.com">google.com</ulink>,
8395 and look at it one section at a time in a sample configuration (your real
8396 configuration may vary):
8401 Matches for http://www.google.com:
8403 In file: default.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
8405 {+change-x-forwarded-for{block}
8406 +deanimate-gifs {last}
8407 +fast-redirects {check-decoded-url}
8408 +filter {refresh-tags}
8409 +filter {img-reorder}
8410 +filter {banners-by-size}
8412 +filter {jumping-windows}
8413 +filter {ie-exploits}
8414 +hide-from-header {block}
8415 +hide-referrer {forge}
8416 +session-cookies-only
8417 +set-image-blocker {pattern}
8420 { -session-cookies-only }
8426 In file: user.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
8427 (no matches in this file)
8432 This is telling us how we have defined our
8433 <link linkend="ACTIONS"><quote>actions</quote></link>, and
8434 which ones match for our test case, <quote>google.com</quote>.
8435 Displayed is all the actions that are available to us. Remember,
8436 the <literal>+</literal> sign denotes <quote>on</quote>. <literal>-</literal>
8437 denotes <quote>off</quote>. So some are <quote>on</quote> here, but many
8438 are <quote>off</quote>. Each example we try may provide a slightly different
8439 end result, depending on our configuration directives.
8443 is for our <filename>default.action</filename> file. The large, multi-line
8444 listing, is how the actions are set to match for all URLs, i.e. our default
8445 settings. If you look at your <quote>actions</quote> file, this would be the
8446 section just below the <quote>aliases</quote> section near the top. This
8447 will apply to all URLs as signified by the single forward slash at the end
8448 of the listing -- <quote> / </quote>.
8452 But we have defined additional actions that would be exceptions to these general
8453 rules, and then we list specific URLs (or patterns) that these exceptions
8454 would apply to. Last match wins. Just below this then are two explicit
8455 matches for <quote>.google.com</quote>. The first is negating our previous
8456 cookie setting, which was for <link
8457 linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"><quote>+session-cookies-only</quote></link>
8458 (i.e. not persistent). So we will allow persistent cookies for google, at
8459 least that is how it is in this example. The second turns
8460 <emphasis>off</emphasis> any <link
8461 linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS"><quote>+fast-redirects</quote></link>
8462 action, allowing this to take place unmolested. Note that there is a leading
8463 dot here -- <quote>.google.com</quote>. This will match any hosts and
8464 sub-domains, in the google.com domain also, such as
8465 <quote>www.google.com</quote> or <quote>mail.google.com</quote>. But it would not
8466 match <quote>www.google.de</quote>! So, apparently, we have these two actions
8467 defined as exceptions to the general rules at the top somewhere in the lower
8468 part of our <filename>default.action</filename> file, and
8469 <quote>google.com</quote> is referenced somewhere in these latter sections.
8473 Then, for our <filename>user.action</filename> file, we again have no hits.
8474 So there is nothing google-specific that we might have added to our own, local
8475 configuration. If there was, those actions would over-rule any actions from
8476 previously processed files, such as <filename>default.action</filename>.
8477 <filename>user.action</filename> typically has the last word. This is the
8478 best place to put hard and fast exceptions,
8482 And finally we pull it all together in the bottom section and summarize how
8483 <application>Privoxy</application> is applying all its <quote>actions</quote>
8484 to <quote>google.com</quote>:
8495 +change-x-forwarded-for{block}
8496 -client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation}
8497 -content-type-overwrite
8498 -crunch-client-header
8499 -crunch-if-none-match
8500 -crunch-incoming-cookies
8501 -crunch-outgoing-cookies
8502 -crunch-server-header
8503 +deanimate-gifs {last}
8504 -downgrade-http-version
8507 -filter {content-cookies}
8508 -filter {all-popups}
8509 -filter {banners-by-link}
8510 -filter {tiny-textforms}
8511 -filter {frameset-borders}
8512 -filter {demoronizer}
8513 -filter {shockwave-flash}
8514 -filter {quicktime-kioskmode}
8516 -filter {crude-parental}
8517 -filter {site-specifics}
8518 -filter {js-annoyances}
8519 -filter {html-annoyances}
8520 +filter {refresh-tags}
8521 -filter {unsolicited-popups}
8522 +filter {img-reorder}
8523 +filter {banners-by-size}
8525 +filter {jumping-windows}
8526 +filter {ie-exploits}
8533 -handle-as-empty-document
8535 -hide-accept-language
8536 -hide-content-disposition
8537 +hide-from-header {block}
8538 -hide-if-modified-since
8539 +hide-referrer {forge}
8542 -overwrite-last-modified
8543 -prevent-compression
8545 -server-header-filter{xml-to-html}
8546 -server-header-filter{html-to-xml}
8547 -session-cookies-only
8548 +set-image-blocker {pattern} </screen>
8552 Notice the only difference here to the previous listing, is to
8553 <quote>fast-redirects</quote> and <quote>session-cookies-only</quote>,
8554 which are activated specifically for this site in our configuration,
8555 and thus show in the <quote>Final Results</quote>.
8559 Now another example, <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>:
8565 { +block{Domains starts with "ad"} }
8568 { +block{Domain contains "ad"} }
8571 { +block{Doubleclick banner server} +handle-as-image }
8572 .[a-vx-z]*.doubleclick.net
8577 We'll just show the interesting part here - the explicit matches. It is
8578 matched three different times. Two <quote>+block{}</quote> sections,
8579 and a <quote>+block{} +handle-as-image</quote>,
8580 which is the expanded form of one of our aliases that had been defined as:
8581 <quote>+block-as-image</quote>. (<link
8582 linkend="ALIASES"><quote>Aliases</quote></link> are defined in
8583 the first section of the actions file and typically used to combine more
8588 Any one of these would have done the trick and blocked this as an unwanted
8589 image. This is unnecessarily redundant since the last case effectively
8590 would also cover the first. No point in taking chances with these guys
8591 though ;-) Note that if you want an ad or obnoxious
8592 URL to be invisible, it should be defined as <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>
8593 is done here -- as both a <link
8594 linkend="BLOCK"><quote>+block{}</quote></link>
8595 <emphasis>and</emphasis> an
8596 <link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></link>.
8597 The custom alias <quote><literal>+block-as-image</literal></quote> just
8598 simplifies the process and make it more readable.
8602 One last example. Let's try <quote>http://www.example.net/adsl/HOWTO/</quote>.
8603 This one is giving us problems. We are getting a blank page. Hmmm ...
8609 Matches for http://www.example.net/adsl/HOWTO/:
8611 In file: default.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
8615 +change-x-forwarded-for{block}
8616 -client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation}
8617 -content-type-overwrite
8618 -crunch-client-header
8619 -crunch-if-none-match
8620 -crunch-incoming-cookies
8621 -crunch-outgoing-cookies
8622 -crunch-server-header
8624 -downgrade-http-version
8625 +fast-redirects {check-decoded-url}
8627 -filter {content-cookies}
8628 -filter {all-popups}
8629 -filter {banners-by-link}
8630 -filter {tiny-textforms}
8631 -filter {frameset-borders}
8632 -filter {demoronizer}
8633 -filter {shockwave-flash}
8634 -filter {quicktime-kioskmode}
8636 -filter {crude-parental}
8637 -filter {site-specifics}
8638 -filter {js-annoyances}
8639 -filter {html-annoyances}
8640 +filter {refresh-tags}
8641 -filter {unsolicited-popups}
8642 +filter {img-reorder}
8643 +filter {banners-by-size}
8645 +filter {jumping-windows}
8646 +filter {ie-exploits}
8653 -handle-as-empty-document
8655 -hide-accept-language
8656 -hide-content-disposition
8657 +hide-from-header{block}
8658 +hide-referer{forge}
8660 -overwrite-last-modified
8661 +prevent-compression
8663 -server-header-filter{xml-to-html}
8664 -server-header-filter{html-to-xml}
8665 +session-cookies-only
8666 +set-image-blocker{blank} }
8669 { +block{Path contains "ads".} +handle-as-image }
8675 Ooops, the <quote>/adsl/</quote> is matching <quote>/ads</quote> in our
8676 configuration! But we did not want this at all! Now we see why we get the
8677 blank page. It is actually triggering two different actions here, and
8678 the effects are aggregated so that the URL is blocked, and &my-app; is told
8679 to treat the block as if it were an image. But this is, of course, all wrong.
8680 We could now add a new action below this (or better in our own
8681 <filename>user.action</filename> file) that explicitly
8682 <emphasis>un</emphasis> blocks (
8683 <link linkend="BLOCK"><quote>{-block}</quote></link>) paths with
8684 <quote>adsl</quote> in them (remember, last match in the configuration
8685 wins). There are various ways to handle such exceptions. Example:
8697 Now the page displays ;-)
8698 Remember to flush your browser's caches when making these kinds of changes to
8699 your configuration to insure that you get a freshly delivered page! Or, try
8700 using <literal>Shift+Reload</literal>.
8704 But now what about a situation where we get no explicit matches like
8711 { +block{Path starts with "ads".} +handle-as-image }
8717 That actually was very helpful and pointed us quickly to where the problem
8718 was. If you don't get this kind of match, then it means one of the default
8719 rules in the first section of <filename>default.action</filename> is causing
8720 the problem. This would require some guesswork, and maybe a little trial and
8721 error to isolate the offending rule. One likely cause would be one of the
8722 <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> actions.
8723 These tend to be harder to troubleshoot.
8724 Try adding the URL for the site to one of aliases that turn off
8725 <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link>:
8733 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
8741 <quote><literal>{ shop }</literal></quote> is an <quote>alias</quote> that expands to
8742 <quote><literal>{ -filter -session-cookies-only }</literal></quote>.
8743 Or you could do your own exception to negate filtering:
8751 # Disable ALL filter actions for sites in this section
8759 This would turn off all filtering for these sites. This is best
8760 put in <filename>user.action</filename>, for local site
8761 exceptions. Note that when a simple domain pattern is used by itself (without
8762 the subsequent path portion), all sub-pages within that domain are included
8763 automatically in the scope of the action.
8767 Images that are inexplicably being blocked, may well be hitting the
8768 <link linkend="FILTER-BANNERS-BY-SIZE"><quote>+filter{banners-by-size}</quote></link>
8770 that images of certain sizes are ad banners (works well
8771 <emphasis>most of the time</emphasis> since these tend to be standardized).
8775 <quote><literal>{ fragile }</literal></quote> is an alias that disables most
8776 actions that are the most likely to cause trouble. This can be used as a
8777 last resort for problem sites.
8783 # Handle with care: easy to break
8785 mybank.example.com</screen>
8790 <emphasis>Remember to flush caches!</emphasis> Note that the
8791 <literal>mail.google</literal> reference lacks the TLD portion (e.g.
8792 <quote>.com</quote>). This will effectively match any TLD with
8793 <literal>google</literal> in it, such as <literal>mail.google.de.</literal>,
8797 If this still does not work, you will have to go through the remaining
8798 actions one by one to find which one(s) is causing the problem.
8807 This program is free software; you can redistribute it
8808 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
8809 Public License as published by the Free Software
8810 Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at
8811 your option) any later version.
8813 This program is distributed in the hope that it will
8814 be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the
8815 implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
8816 PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public
8817 License for more details.
8819 The GNU General Public License should be included with
8820 this file. If not, you can view it at
8821 http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
8822 or write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
8823 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301,
8826 $Log: user-manual.sgml,v $
8827 Revision 2.120 2010/02/13 17:38:39 fabiankeil
8828 Update entities for 3.0.16 stable.
8830 Revision 2.119 2010/02/13 16:37:37 fabiankeil
8831 Update 'What's new?' section.
8833 Revision 2.118 2010/02/11 13:59:48 fabiankeil
8834 Mention that the headers added by the add-header action aren't modified by other actions.
8836 Revision 2.117 2010/01/11 12:56:04 fabiankeil
8837 Bump copyright range as p-config.sgml's copyright line is only used in the config file.
8839 Revision 2.116 2009/11/15 14:24:12 fabiankeil
8840 Prepare to generate docs for 3.0.16 UNRELEASED.
8842 Revision 2.115 2009/10/10 06:19:34 fabiankeil
8843 Ditch a duplicated 'since'.
8845 Revision 2.114 2009/10/10 05:51:48 fabiankeil
8846 Update "What's new" section.
8848 Revision 2.113 2009/10/10 05:48:55 fabiankeil
8849 Prepare for 3.0.15 beta.
8851 Revision 2.112 2009/07/24 12:20:30 fabiankeil
8852 Remove duplicated period.
8854 Revision 2.111 2009/07/18 18:11:11 fabiankeil
8855 Don't claim that NTLM should work when there are multiple reports that it doesn't.
8857 Revision 2.110 2009/07/18 16:25:17 fabiankeil
8858 Fix trailing whitespace.
8860 Revision 2.109 2009/07/18 16:24:39 fabiankeil
8861 Bump entities for 3.0.14 beta.
8863 Revision 2.108 2009/07/18 15:49:23 fabiankeil
8864 Add most of the changes in 3.0.14 to the "What's New" section.
8866 Revision 2.107 2009/06/12 14:30:58 fabiankeil
8867 Update entities for 3.0.13 beta.
8869 Revision 2.106 2009/06/12 11:04:13 fabiankeil
8870 Import ChangeLog for 3.0.13 beta.
8872 Revision 2.105 2009/04/17 11:32:57 fabiankeil
8873 Grammar and spelling fixes.
8875 Revision 2.104 2009/04/17 11:27:49 fabiankeil
8876 Petr Pisar's privoxy-3.0.12-ipv6-3.diff.
8878 Revision 2.103 2009/03/21 10:49:05 fabiankeil
8879 Merge updated ChangeLog.
8881 Revision 2.102 2009/03/15 19:31:36 fabiankeil
8882 Update "What's New in this Release" section.
8884 Revision 2.101 2009/02/25 19:01:56 fabiankeil
8887 Revision 2.100 2009/02/19 17:14:11 fabiankeil
8888 - Copy the release cycle description from announce.txt into
8889 the "What's New" section.
8890 - Stop referring to the ChangeLog for a "complete list of changes".
8891 The "What's New" section already contains the complete list.
8893 Revision 2.99 2009/02/19 02:20:22 hal9
8894 Make some links in seealso conditional. Man page is now privoxy only links.
8896 Revision 2.98 2009/02/16 17:10:33 fabiankeil
8897 Fix entry about shortened log messages. Noticed by Lee.
8899 Revision 2.97 2009/02/14 18:01:00 fabiankeil
8902 Revision 2.96 2009/02/14 13:14:03 fabiankeil
8905 Revision 2.95 2009/02/14 12:51:26 fabiankeil
8906 Mention match-all.action in the "Actions Files Tutorial" section.
8908 Revision 2.94 2009/02/14 11:50:31 fabiankeil
8909 Some indentation fixes.
8911 Revision 2.93 2009/02/14 10:14:42 fabiankeil
8912 Mention match-all.action in the action file descriptions.
8914 Revision 2.92 2009/02/12 16:08:26 fabiankeil
8915 Declare the code stable.
8917 Revision 2.91 2009/01/13 16:50:35 fabiankeil
8918 The standard.action file is gone.
8920 Revision 2.90 2008/09/26 16:53:09 fabiankeil
8921 Update "What's new" section.
8923 Revision 2.89 2008/09/21 15:38:56 fabiankeil
8924 Fix Portage tree sync instructions in Gentoo section.
8925 Anonymously reported at ijbswa-developers@.
8927 Revision 2.88 2008/09/21 14:42:52 fabiankeil
8928 Add documentation for change-x-forwarded-for{},
8929 remove documentation for hide-forwarded-for-headers.
8931 Revision 2.87 2008/08/30 15:37:35 fabiankeil
8934 Revision 2.86 2008/08/16 10:12:23 fabiankeil
8935 Merge two sentences and move the URL to the end of the item.
8937 Revision 2.85 2008/08/16 10:04:59 fabiankeil
8938 Some more syntax fixes. This version actually builds.
8940 Revision 2.84 2008/08/16 09:42:45 fabiankeil
8941 Turns out building docs works better if the syntax is valid.
8943 Revision 2.83 2008/08/16 09:32:02 fabiankeil
8944 Mention changes since 3.0.9 beta.
8946 Revision 2.82 2008/08/16 09:00:52 fabiankeil
8947 Fix example URL pattern (once more with feeling).
8949 Revision 2.81 2008/08/16 08:51:28 fabiankeil
8950 Update version-related entities.
8952 Revision 2.80 2008/07/18 16:54:30 fabiankeil
8953 Remove erroneous whitespace in documentation link.
8954 Reported by John Chronister in #2021611.
8956 Revision 2.79 2008/06/27 18:00:53 markm68k
8957 remove outdated startup information for mac os x
8959 Revision 2.78 2008/06/21 17:03:03 fabiankeil
8962 Revision 2.77 2008/06/14 13:45:22 fabiankeil
8963 Re-add a colon I unintentionally removed a few revisions ago.
8965 Revision 2.76 2008/06/14 13:21:28 fabiankeil
8966 Prepare for the upcoming 3.0.9 beta release.
8968 Revision 2.75 2008/06/13 16:06:48 fabiankeil
8969 Update the "What's New in this Release" section with
8970 the ChangeLog entries changelog2doc.pl could handle.
8972 Revision 2.74 2008/05/26 15:55:46 fabiankeil
8973 - Update "default profiles" table.
8974 - Add some more pcrs redirect examples and note that
8975 enabling debug 128 helps to get redirects working.
8977 Revision 2.73 2008/05/23 14:43:18 fabiankeil
8978 Remove previously out-commented block that caused syntax problems.
8980 Revision 2.72 2008/05/12 10:26:14 fabiankeil
8981 Synchronize content filter descriptions with the ones in default.filter.
8983 Revision 2.71 2008/04/10 17:37:16 fabiankeil
8984 Actually we use "modern" POSIX 1003.2 regular
8985 expressions in path patterns, not PCRE.
8987 Revision 2.70 2008/04/10 15:59:12 fabiankeil
8988 Add another section to the client-header-tagger example that shows
8989 how to actually change the action settings once the tag is created.
8991 Revision 2.69 2008/03/29 12:14:25 fabiankeil
8992 Remove send-wafer and send-vanilla-wafer actions.
8994 Revision 2.68 2008/03/28 15:13:43 fabiankeil
8995 Remove inspect-jpegs action.
8997 Revision 2.67 2008/03/27 18:31:21 fabiankeil
8998 Remove kill-popups action.
9000 Revision 2.66 2008/03/06 16:33:47 fabiankeil
9001 If limit-connect isn't used, don't limit CONNECT requests to port 443.
9003 Revision 2.65 2008/03/04 18:30:40 fabiankeil
9004 Remove the treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks action. We now
9005 use the "blocked" page for forbidden CONNECT requests by default.
9007 Revision 2.64 2008/03/01 14:10:28 fabiankeil
9008 Use new block syntax. Still needs some polishing.
9010 Revision 2.63 2008/02/22 05:50:37 markm68k
9013 Revision 2.62 2008/02/11 11:52:23 hal9
9014 Fix entity ... s/&/&
9016 Revision 2.61 2008/02/11 03:41:47 markm68k
9017 more updates for mac os x
9019 Revision 2.60 2008/02/11 03:40:25 markm68k
9020 more updates for mac os x
9022 Revision 2.59 2008/02/11 00:52:34 markm68k
9023 reflect new changes for mac os x
9025 Revision 2.58 2008/02/03 21:37:40 hal9
9026 Apply patch from Mark: s/OSX/OS X/
9028 Revision 2.57 2008/02/03 19:10:14 fabiankeil
9029 Mention forward-socks5.
9031 Revision 2.56 2008/01/31 19:11:35 fabiankeil
9032 Let the +client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation} example apply
9033 to all requests as "tainted" Referers aren't limited to exit TLDs.
9035 Revision 2.55 2008/01/19 21:26:37 hal9
9036 Add IE7 to configuration section per Gerry.
9038 Revision 2.54 2008/01/19 17:52:39 hal9
9039 Re-commit to fix various minor issues for new release.
9041 Revision 2.53 2008/01/19 15:03:05 hal9
9042 Doc sources tagged for 3.0.8 release.
9044 Revision 2.52 2008/01/17 01:49:51 hal9
9045 Change copyright notice for docs s/2007/2008/. All these will be rebuilt soon
9048 Revision 2.51 2007/12/23 16:48:24 fabiankeil
9049 Use more precise example descriptions for the mysterious domain patterns.
9051 Revision 2.50 2007/12/08 12:44:36 fabiankeil
9052 - Remove already commented out pre-3.0.7 changes.
9053 - Update the "new log defaults" paragraph.
9055 Revision 2.49 2007/12/06 18:21:55 fabiankeil
9056 Update hide-forwarded-for-headers description.
9058 Revision 2.48 2007/11/24 19:07:17 fabiankeil
9059 - Mention request rewriting.
9060 - Enable the conditional-forge paragraph.
9063 Revision 2.47 2007/11/18 14:59:47 fabiankeil
9064 A few "Note to Upgraders" updates.
9066 Revision 2.46 2007/11/17 17:24:44 fabiankeil
9067 - Use new action defaults.
9068 - Minor fixes and rewordings.
9070 Revision 2.45 2007/11/16 11:48:46 hal9
9071 Fix one typo, and add a couple of small refinements.
9073 Revision 2.44 2007/11/15 03:30:20 hal9
9074 Results of spell check.
9076 Revision 2.43 2007/11/14 18:45:39 fabiankeil
9077 - Mention some more contributors in the "New in this Release" list.
9080 Revision 2.42 2007/11/12 03:32:40 hal9
9081 Updates for "What's New" and "Notes to Upgraders". Various other changes in
9082 preparation for new release. User Manual is almost ready.
9084 Revision 2.41 2007/11/11 16:32:11 hal9
9085 This is primarily syncing What's New and Note to Upgraders sections with the many
9086 new features and changes (gleaned from memory but mostly from ChangeLog).
9088 Revision 2.40 2007/11/10 17:10:59 fabiankeil
9089 In the first third of the file, mention several times that
9090 the action editor is disabled by default in 3.0.7 beta and later.
9092 Revision 2.39 2007/11/05 02:34:49 hal9
9093 Various changes in preparation for the upcoming release. Much yet to be done.
9095 Revision 2.38 2007/09/22 16:01:42 fabiankeil
9096 Update embedded show-url-info output.
9098 Revision 2.37 2007/08/27 16:09:55 fabiankeil
9099 Fix pre-chroot-nslookup description which I failed to
9100 copy and paste properly. Reported by Stephen Gildea.
9102 Revision 2.36 2007/08/26 16:47:14 fabiankeil
9103 Add Stephen Gildea's pre-chroot-nslookup patch [#1276666],
9104 extensive comments moved to user manual.
9106 Revision 2.35 2007/08/26 14:59:49 fabiankeil
9107 Minor rewordings and fixes.
9109 Revision 2.34 2007/08/05 15:19:50 fabiankeil
9110 - Don't claim HTTP/1.1 compliance.
9111 - Use $ in some of the path pattern examples.
9112 - Use a hide-user-agent example argument without
9113 leading and trailing space.
9114 - Make it clear that the cookie actions work with
9116 - Rephrase the inspect-jpegs text to underline
9117 that it's only meant to protect against a single
9120 Revision 2.33 2007/07/27 10:57:35 hal9
9121 Add references for user-agent strings for hide-user-agenet
9123 Revision 2.32 2007/06/07 12:36:22 fabiankeil
9124 Apply Roland's 29_usermanual.dpatch to fix a bunch
9125 of syntax errors I collected over the last months.
9127 Revision 2.31 2007/06/02 14:01:37 fabiankeil
9128 Start to document forward-override{}.
9130 Revision 2.30 2007/04/25 15:10:36 fabiankeil
9131 - Describe installation for FreeBSD.
9132 - Start to document taggers and tag patterns.
9133 - Don't confuse devils and daemons.
9135 Revision 2.29 2007/04/05 11:47:51 fabiankeil
9136 Some updates regarding header filtering,
9137 handling of compressed content and redirect's
9138 support for pcrs commands.
9140 Revision 2.28 2006/12/10 23:42:48 hal9
9141 Fix various typos reported by Adam P. Thanks.
9143 Revision 2.27 2006/11/14 01:57:47 hal9
9144 Dump all docs prior to 3.0.6 release. Various minor changes to faq and user
9147 Revision 2.26 2006/10/24 11:16:44 hal9
9150 Revision 2.25 2006/10/18 10:50:33 hal9
9151 Add note that since filters are off in Cautious, compression is ON. Turn off
9152 compression to make filters work on all sites.
9154 Revision 2.24 2006/10/03 11:13:54 hal9
9155 More references to the new filters. Include html this time around.
9157 Revision 2.23 2006/10/02 22:43:53 hal9
9158 Contains new filter definitions from Fabian, and few other miscellaneous
9161 Revision 2.22 2006/09/22 01:27:55 hal9
9162 Final commit of probably various minor changes here and there. Unless
9163 something changes this should be ready for pending release.
9165 Revision 2.21 2006/09/20 03:21:36 david__schmidt
9166 Just the tiniest tweak. Wafer thin!
9168 Revision 2.20 2006/09/10 14:53:54 hal9
9169 Results of spell check. User manual has some updates to standard.actions file
9172 Revision 2.19 2006/09/08 12:19:02 fabiankeil
9173 Adjust hide-if-modified-since example values
9174 to reflect the recent changes.
9176 Revision 2.18 2006/09/08 02:38:57 hal9
9178 -Fix a number of broken links.
9179 -Migrate the new Windows service command line options, and reference as
9181 -Rebuild so that can be used with the new "user-manual" config capabilities.
9184 Revision 2.17 2006/09/05 13:25:12 david__schmidt
9185 Add Windows service invocation stuff (duplicated) in FAQ and in user manual under Windows startup. One probably ought to reference the other.
9187 Revision 2.16 2006/09/02 12:49:37 hal9
9188 Various small updates for new actions, filterfiles, etc.
9190 Revision 2.15 2006/08/30 11:15:22 hal9
9191 More work on the new actions, especially filter-*-headers, and What's New
9192 section. User Manual is close to final form for 3.0.4 release. Some tinkering
9193 and proof reading left to do.
9195 Revision 2.14 2006/08/29 10:59:36 hal9
9196 Add a "Whats New in this release" Section. Further work on multiple filter
9197 files, and assorted other minor changes.
9199 Revision 2.13 2006/08/22 11:04:59 hal9
9200 Silence warnings and errors. This should build now. New filters were only
9201 stubbed in. More to be done.
9203 Revision 2.12 2006/08/14 08:40:39 fabiankeil
9204 Documented new actions that were part of
9205 the "minor Privoxy improvements".
9207 Revision 2.11 2006/07/18 14:48:51 david__schmidt
9208 Reorganizing the repository: swapping out what was HEAD (the old 3.1 branch)
9209 with what was really the latest development (the v_3_0_branch branch)
9211 Revision 1.123.2.43 2005/05/23 09:59:10 hal9
9214 Revision 1.123.2.42 2004/12/04 14:39:57 hal9
9215 Fix two minor typos per bug SF report.
9217 Revision 1.123.2.41 2004/03/23 12:58:42 oes
9220 Revision 1.123.2.40 2004/02/27 12:48:49 hal9
9221 Add comment re: redirecting to local file system for set-image-blocker may
9222 is dependent on browser.
9224 Revision 1.123.2.39 2004/01/30 22:31:40 oes
9225 Added a hint re bookmarklets to Quickstart section
9227 Revision 1.123.2.38 2004/01/30 16:47:51 oes
9228 Some minor clarifications
9230 Revision 1.123.2.37 2004/01/29 22:36:11 hal9
9231 Updates for no longer filtering text/plain, and demoronizer default settings,
9232 and copyright notice dates.
9234 Revision 1.123.2.36 2003/12/10 02:26:26 hal9
9235 Changed the demoronizer filter description.
9237 Revision 1.123.2.35 2003/11/06 13:36:37 oes
9238 Updated link to nightly CVS tarball
9240 Revision 1.123.2.34 2003/06/26 23:50:16 hal9
9241 Add a small bit on filtering and problems re: source code being corrupted.
9243 Revision 1.123.2.33 2003/05/08 18:17:33 roro
9244 Use apt-get instead of dpkg to install Debian package, which is more
9245 solid, uses the correct and most recent Debian version automatically.
9247 Revision 1.123.2.32 2003/04/11 03:13:57 hal9
9248 Add small note about only one filterfile (as opposed to multiple actions
9251 Revision 1.123.2.31 2003/03/26 02:03:43 oes
9252 Updated hard-coded copyright dates
9254 Revision 1.123.2.30 2003/03/24 12:58:56 hal9
9255 Add new section on Predefined Filters.
9257 Revision 1.123.2.29 2003/03/20 02:45:29 hal9
9258 More problems with \-\-chroot causing markup problems :(
9260 Revision 1.123.2.28 2003/03/19 00:35:24 hal9
9261 Manual edit of revision log because 'chroot' (even inside a comment) was
9262 causing Docbook to hang here (due to double hyphen and the processor thinking
9265 Revision 1.123.2.27 2003/03/18 19:37:14 oes
9266 s/Advanced|Radical/Adventuresome/g to avoid complaints re fun filter
9268 Revision 1.123.2.26 2003/03/17 16:50:53 oes
9269 Added documentation for new chroot option
9271 Revision 1.123.2.25 2003/03/15 18:36:55 oes
9272 Adapted to the new filters
9274 Revision 1.123.2.24 2002/11/17 06:41:06 hal9
9275 Move default profiles table from FAQ to U-M, and other minor related changes.
9278 Revision 1.123.2.23 2002/10/21 02:32:01 hal9
9279 Updates to the user.action examples section. A few new ones.
9281 Revision 1.123.2.22 2002/10/12 00:51:53 hal9
9282 Add demoronizer to filter section.
9284 Revision 1.123.2.21 2002/10/10 04:09:35 hal9
9285 s/Advanced/Radical/ and added very brief note.
9287 Revision 1.123.2.20 2002/10/10 03:49:21 hal9
9288 Add notes to session-cookies-only and Quickstart about pre-existing
9289 cookies. Also, note content-cookies work differently.
9291 Revision 1.123.2.19 2002/09/26 01:25:36 hal9
9292 More explanation on Privoxy patterns, more on content-cookies and SSL.
9294 Revision 1.123.2.18 2002/08/22 23:47:58 hal9
9295 Add 'Documentation' to Privoxy Menu shot in Configuration section to match
9298 Revision 1.123.2.17 2002/08/18 01:13:05 hal9
9299 Spell checked (only one typo this time!).
9301 Revision 1.123.2.16 2002/08/09 19:20:54 david__schmidt
9302 Update to Mac OS X startup script name
9304 Revision 1.123.2.15 2002/08/07 17:32:11 oes
9305 Converted some internal links from ulink to link for PDF creation; no content changed
9307 Revision 1.123.2.14 2002/08/06 09:16:13 oes
9308 Nits re: actions file download
9310 Revision 1.123.2.13 2002/08/02 18:23:19 g_sauthoff
9311 Just 2 small corrections to the Gentoo sections
9313 Revision 1.123.2.12 2002/08/02 18:17:21 g_sauthoff
9314 Added 2 Gentoo sections
9316 Revision 1.123.2.11 2002/07/26 15:20:31 oes
9317 - Added version info to title
9318 - Added info on new filters
9319 - Revised parts of the filter file tutorial
9320 - Added info on where to get updated actions files
9322 Revision 1.123.2.10 2002/07/25 21:42:29 hal9
9323 Add brief notes on not proxying non-HTTP protocols.
9325 Revision 1.123.2.9 2002/07/11 03:40:28 david__schmidt
9327 Updated Mac OS X sections due to installation location change
9329 Revision 1.123.2.8 2002/06/09 16:36:32 hal9
9330 Clarifications on filtering and MIME. Hardcode 'latest release' in index.html.
9332 Revision 1.123.2.7 2002/06/09 00:29:34 hal9
9333 Touch ups on filtering, in actions section and Anatomy.
9335 Revision 1.123.2.6 2002/06/06 23:11:03 hal9
9336 Fix broken link. Linkchecked all docs.
9338 Revision 1.123.2.5 2002/05/29 02:01:02 hal9
9339 This is break out of the entire config section from u-m, so it can
9340 eventually be used to generate the comments, etc in the main config file
9341 so that these are in sync with each other.
9343 Revision 1.123.2.4 2002/05/27 03:28:45 hal9
9344 Ooops missed something from David.
9346 Revision 1.123.2.3 2002/05/27 03:23:17 hal9
9347 Fix FIXMEs for OS2 and Mac OS X startup. Fix Redhat typos (should be Red Hat).
9348 That's a wrap, I think.
9350 Revision 1.123.2.2 2002/05/26 19:02:09 hal9
9351 Move Amiga stuff around to take of FIXME in start up section.
9353 Revision 1.123.2.1 2002/05/26 17:04:25 hal9
9354 -Spellcheck, very minor edits, and sync across branches
9356 Revision 1.123 2002/05/24 23:19:23 hal9
9357 Include new image (Proxy setup). More fun with guibutton.
9358 Minor corrections/clarifications here and there.
9360 Revision 1.122 2002/05/24 13:24:08 oes
9361 Added Bookmarklet for one-click pre-filled access to show-url-info
9363 Revision 1.121 2002/05/23 23:20:17 oes
9364 - Changed more (all?) references to actions to the
9365 <literal><link> style.
9366 - Small fixes in the actions chapter
9367 - Small clarifications in the quickstart to ad blocking
9368 - Removed <emphasis> from <title>s since the new doc CSS
9369 renders them red (bad in TOC).
9371 Revision 1.120 2002/05/23 19:16:43 roro
9372 Correct Debian specials (installation and startup).
9374 Revision 1.119 2002/05/22 17:17:05 oes
9377 Revision 1.118 2002/05/21 04:54:55 hal9
9378 -New Section: Quickstart to Ad Blocking
9379 -Reformat Actions Anatomy to match new CGI layout
9381 Revision 1.117 2002/05/17 13:56:16 oes
9382 - Reworked & extended Templates chapter
9383 - Small changes to Regex appendix
9384 - #included authors.sgml into (C) and hist chapter
9386 Revision 1.116 2002/05/17 03:23:46 hal9
9387 Fixing merge conflict in Quickstart section.
9389 Revision 1.115 2002/05/16 16:25:00 oes
9390 Extended the Filter File chapter & minor fixes
9392 Revision 1.114 2002/05/16 09:42:50 oes
9393 More ulink->link, added some hints to Quickstart section
9395 Revision 1.113 2002/05/15 21:07:25 oes
9396 Extended and further commented the example actions files
9398 Revision 1.112 2002/05/15 03:57:14 hal9
9399 Spell check. A few minor edits here and there for better syntax and
9402 Revision 1.111 2002/05/14 23:01:36 oes
9405 Revision 1.110 2002/05/14 19:10:45 oes
9406 Restored alphabetical order of actions
9408 Revision 1.109 2002/05/14 17:23:11 oes
9409 Renamed the prevent-*-cookies actions, extended aliases section and moved it before the example AFs
9411 Revision 1.108 2002/05/14 15:29:12 oes
9412 Completed proofreading the actions chapter
9414 Revision 1.107 2002/05/12 03:20:41 hal9
9415 Small clarifications for 127.0.0.1 vs localhost for listen-address since this
9416 apparently an important distinction for some OS's.
9418 Revision 1.106 2002/05/10 01:48:20 hal9
9419 This is mostly proposed copyright/licensing additions and changes. Docs
9420 are still GPL, but licensing and copyright are more visible. Also, copyright
9421 changed in doc header comments (eliminate references to JB except FAQ).
9423 Revision 1.105 2002/05/05 20:26:02 hal9
9424 Sorting out license vs copyright in these docs.
9426 Revision 1.104 2002/05/04 08:44:45 swa
9429 Revision 1.103 2002/05/04 00:40:53 hal9
9430 -Remove the TOC first page kludge. It's fixed proper now in ldp.dsl.in.
9431 -Some minor additions to Quickstart.
9433 Revision 1.102 2002/05/03 17:46:00 oes
9434 Further proofread & reactivated short build instructions
9436 Revision 1.101 2002/05/03 03:58:30 hal9
9437 Move the user-manual config directive to top of section. Add note about
9438 Privoxy needing read permissions for configs, and write for logs.
9440 Revision 1.100 2002/04/29 03:05:55 hal9
9441 Add clarification on differences of new actions files.
9443 Revision 1.99 2002/04/28 16:59:05 swa
9444 more structure in starting section
9446 Revision 1.98 2002/04/28 05:43:59 hal9
9447 This is the break up of configuration.html into multiple files. This
9448 will probably break links elsewhere :(
9450 Revision 1.97 2002/04/27 21:04:42 hal9
9451 -Rewrite of Actions File example.
9452 -Add section for user-manual directive in config.
9454 Revision 1.96 2002/04/27 05:32:00 hal9
9455 -Add short section to Filter Files to tie in with +filter action.
9456 -Start rewrite of examples in Actions Examples (not finished).
9458 Revision 1.95 2002/04/26 17:23:29 swa
9459 bookmarks cleaned, changed structure of user manual, screen and programlisting cleanups, and numerous other changes that I forgot
9461 Revision 1.94 2002/04/26 05:24:36 hal9
9462 -Add most of Andreas suggestions to Chain of Events section.
9463 -A few other minor corrections and touch up.
9465 Revision 1.92 2002/04/25 18:55:13 hal9
9466 More catchups on new actions files, and new actions names.
9467 Other assorted cleanups, and minor modifications.
9469 Revision 1.91 2002/04/24 02:39:31 hal9
9470 Add 'Chain of Events' section.
9472 Revision 1.90 2002/04/23 21:41:25 hal9
9473 Linuxconf is deprecated on RH, substitute chkconfig.
9475 Revision 1.89 2002/04/23 21:05:28 oes
9476 Added hint for startup on Red Hat
9478 Revision 1.88 2002/04/23 05:37:54 hal9
9479 Add AmigaOS install stuff.
9481 Revision 1.87 2002/04/23 02:53:15 david__schmidt
9482 Updated Mac OS X installation section
9483 Added a few English tweaks here an there
9485 Revision 1.86 2002/04/21 01:46:32 hal9
9486 Re-write actions section.
9488 Revision 1.85 2002/04/18 21:23:23 hal9
9489 Fix ugly typo (mine).
9491 Revision 1.84 2002/04/18 21:17:13 hal9
9492 Spell Redhat correctly (ie Red Hat). A few minor grammar corrections.
9494 Revision 1.83 2002/04/18 18:21:12 oes
9495 Added RPM install detail
9497 Revision 1.82 2002/04/18 12:04:50 oes
9500 Revision 1.81 2002/04/18 11:50:24 oes
9501 Extended Install section - needs fixing by packagers
9503 Revision 1.80 2002/04/18 10:45:19 oes
9504 Moved text to buildsource.sgml, renamed some filters, details
9506 Revision 1.79 2002/04/18 03:18:06 hal9
9507 Spellcheck, and minor touchups.
9509 Revision 1.78 2002/04/17 18:04:16 oes
9512 Revision 1.77 2002/04/17 13:51:23 oes
9513 Proofreading, part one
9515 Revision 1.76 2002/04/16 04:25:51 hal9
9516 -Added 'Note to Upgraders' and re-ordered the 'Quickstart' section.
9517 -Note about proxy may need requests to re-read config files.
9519 Revision 1.75 2002/04/12 02:08:48 david__schmidt
9520 Remove OS/2 building info... it is already in the developer-manual
9522 Revision 1.74 2002/04/11 00:54:38 hal9
9523 Add small section on submitting actions.
9525 Revision 1.73 2002/04/10 18:45:15 swa
9528 Revision 1.72 2002/04/10 04:06:19 hal9
9529 Added actions feedback to Bookmarklets section
9531 Revision 1.71 2002/04/08 22:59:26 hal9
9532 Version update. Spell chkconfig correctly :)
9534 Revision 1.70 2002/04/08 20:53:56 swa
9537 Revision 1.69 2002/04/06 05:07:29 hal9
9538 -Add privoxy-man-page.sgml, for man page.
9539 -Add authors.sgml for AUTHORS (and p-authors.sgml)
9540 -Reworked various aspects of various docs.
9541 -Added additional comments to sub-docs.
9543 Revision 1.68 2002/04/04 18:46:47 swa
9544 consistent look. reuse of copyright, history et. al.
9546 Revision 1.67 2002/04/04 17:27:57 swa
9547 more single file to be included at multiple points. make maintaining easier
9549 Revision 1.66 2002/04/04 06:48:37 hal9
9550 Structural changes to allow for conditional inclusion/exclusion of content
9551 based on entity toggles, e.g. 'entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE"'. And
9552 definition of internal entities, e.g. 'entity p-version "2.9.13"' that will
9553 eventually be set by Makefile.
9554 More boilerplate text for use across multiple docs.
9556 Revision 1.65 2002/04/03 19:52:07 swa
9557 enhance squid section due to user suggestion
9559 Revision 1.64 2002/04/03 03:53:43 hal9
9560 A few minor bug fixes, and touch ups. Ready for review.
9562 Revision 1.63 2002/04/01 16:24:49 hal9
9563 Define entities to include boilerplate text. See doc/source/*.
9565 Revision 1.62 2002/03/30 04:15:53 hal9
9566 - Fix privoxy.org/config links.
9567 - Paste in Bookmarklets from Toggle page.
9568 - Move Quickstart nearer top, and minor rework.
9570 Revision 1.61 2002/03/29 01:31:08 hal9
9573 Revision 1.60 2002/03/27 01:57:34 hal9
9574 Added more to Anatomy section.
9576 Revision 1.59 2002/03/27 00:54:33 hal9
9577 Touch up intro for new name.
9579 Revision 1.58 2002/03/26 22:29:55 swa
9580 we have a new homepage!
9582 Revision 1.57 2002/03/24 20:33:30 hal9
9583 A few minor catch ups with name change.
9585 Revision 1.56 2002/03/24 16:17:06 swa
9586 configure needs to be generated.
9588 Revision 1.55 2002/03/24 16:08:08 swa
9589 we are too lazy to make a block-built
9590 privoxy logo. hence removed the option.
9592 Revision 1.54 2002/03/24 15:46:20 swa
9593 name change related issue.
9595 Revision 1.53 2002/03/24 11:51:00 swa
9596 name change. changed filenames.
9598 Revision 1.52 2002/03/24 11:01:06 swa
9601 Revision 1.51 2002/03/23 15:13:11 swa
9602 renamed every reference to the old name with foobar.
9603 fixed "application foobar application" tag, fixed
9604 "the foobar" with "foobar". left junkbustser in cvs
9605 comments and remarks to history untouched.
9607 Revision 1.50 2002/03/23 05:06:21 hal9
9610 Revision 1.49 2002/03/21 17:01:05 hal9
9611 New section in Appendix.
9613 Revision 1.48 2002/03/12 06:33:01 hal9
9614 Catching up to Andreas and re_filterfile changes.
9616 Revision 1.47 2002/03/11 13:13:27 swa
9617 correct feedback channels
9619 Revision 1.46 2002/03/10 00:51:08 hal9
9620 Added section on JB internal pages in Appendix.
9622 Revision 1.45 2002/03/09 17:43:53 swa
9625 Revision 1.44 2002/03/09 17:08:48 hal9
9626 New section on Jon's actions file editor, and move some stuff around.
9628 Revision 1.43 2002/03/08 00:47:32 hal9
9629 Added imageblock{pattern}.
9631 Revision 1.42 2002/03/07 18:16:55 swa
9634 Revision 1.41 2002/03/07 16:46:43 hal9
9635 Fix a few markup problems for jade.
9637 Revision 1.40 2002/03/07 16:28:39 swa
9638 provide correct feedback channels
9640 Revision 1.39 2002/03/06 16:19:28 hal9
9641 Note on perceived filtering slowdown per FR.
9643 Revision 1.38 2002/03/05 23:55:14 hal9
9644 Stupid I did it again. Double hyphen in comment breaks jade.
9646 Revision 1.37 2002/03/05 23:53:49 hal9
9647 jade barfs on '- -' embedded in comments. - -user option broke it.
9649 Revision 1.36 2002/03/05 22:53:28 hal9
9650 Add new - - user option.
9652 Revision 1.35 2002/03/05 00:17:27 hal9
9653 Added section on command line options.
9655 Revision 1.34 2002/03/04 19:32:07 oes
9656 Changed default port to 8118
9658 Revision 1.33 2002/03/03 19:46:13 hal9
9659 Emphasis on where/how to report bugs, etc
9661 Revision 1.32 2002/03/03 09:26:06 joergs
9662 AmigaOS changes, config is now loaded from PROGDIR: instead of
9663 AmiTCP:db/junkbuster/ if no configuration file is specified on the
9666 Revision 1.31 2002/03/02 22:45:52 david__schmidt
9669 Revision 1.30 2002/03/02 22:00:14 hal9
9670 Updated 'New Features' list. Ran through spell-checker.
9672 Revision 1.29 2002/03/02 20:34:07 david__schmidt
9673 Update OS/2 build section
9675 Revision 1.28 2002/02/24 14:34:24 jongfoster
9676 Formatting changes. Now changing the doctype to DocBook XML 4.1
9677 will work - no other changes are needed.
9679 Revision 1.27 2002/01/11 14:14:32 hal9
9680 Added a very short section on Templates
9682 Revision 1.26 2002/01/09 20:02:50 hal9
9683 Fix bug re: auto-detect config file changes.
9685 Revision 1.25 2002/01/09 18:20:30 hal9
9686 Touch ups for *.action files.
9688 Revision 1.24 2001/12/02 01:13:42 hal9
9691 Revision 1.23 2001/12/02 00:20:41 hal9
9692 Updates for recent changes.
9694 Revision 1.22 2001/11/05 23:57:51 hal9
9695 Minor update for startup now daemon mode.
9697 Revision 1.21 2001/10/31 21:11:03 hal9
9698 Correct 2 minor errors
9700 Revision 1.18 2001/10/24 18:45:26 hal9
9701 *** empty log message ***
9703 Revision 1.17 2001/10/24 17:10:55 hal9
9704 Catching up with Jon's recent work, and a few other things.
9706 Revision 1.16 2001/10/21 17:19:21 swa
9707 wrong url in documentation
9709 Revision 1.15 2001/10/14 23:46:24 hal9
9710 Various minor changes. Fleshed out SEE ALSO section.
9712 Revision 1.13 2001/10/10 17:28:33 hal9
9715 Revision 1.12 2001/09/28 02:57:04 hal9
9718 Revision 1.11 2001/09/28 02:25:20 hal9
9721 Revision 1.9 2001/09/27 23:50:29 hal9
9722 A few changes. A short section on regular expression in appendix.
9724 Revision 1.8 2001/09/25 00:34:59 hal9
9725 Some additions, and re-arranging.
9727 Revision 1.7 2001/09/24 14:31:36 hal9
9730 Revision 1.6 2001/09/24 14:10:32 hal9
9731 Including David's OS/2 installation instructions.
9733 Revision 1.2 2001/09/13 15:27:40 swa
9736 Revision 1.1 2001/09/12 15:36:41 swa
9737 source files for junkbuster documentation
9739 Revision 1.3 2001/09/10 17:43:59 swa
9740 first proposal of a structure.
9742 Revision 1.2 2001/06/13 14:28:31 swa
9743 docs should have an author.
9745 Revision 1.1 2001/06/13 14:20:37 swa
9746 first import of project's documentation for the webserver.