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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 p-version "2.9.14">
12 <!entity p-status "beta">
13 <!entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE">
14 <!entity % p-stable "IGNORE">
15 <!entity % p-text "IGNORE"> <!-- define we are not a text only doc -->
16 <!entity % p-doc "INCLUDE"> <!-- and we are a formal doc -->
17 <!entity % p-readme "IGNORE">
18 <!entity % p-config "IGNORE">
19 <!entity % p-supp-userman "IGNORE"> <!-- Omit some from supported.sgml -->
22 File : $Source: /cvsroot/ijbswa/current/doc/source/user-manual.sgml,v $
25 This file belongs into
26 ijbswa.sourceforge.net:/home/groups/i/ij/ijbswa/htdocs/
28 $Id: user-manual.sgml,v 1.100 2002/04/29 03:05:55 hal9 Exp $
30 Written by and Copyright (C) 2001 the SourceForge
31 Privoxy team. http://www.privoxy.org/
33 Based on the Internet Junkbuster originally written
34 by and Copyright (C) 1997 Anonymous Coders and
35 Junkbusters Corporation. http://www.junkbusters.com
38 ========================================================================
39 NOTE: Please read developer-manual/documentation.html before touching
40 anything in this, or other Privoxy documentation.
41 ========================================================================
47 <title>Privoxy User Manual</title>
49 <pubdate>$Id: user-manual.sgml,v 1.100 2002/04/29 03:05:55 hal9 Exp $</pubdate>
54 <orgname>By: Privoxy Developers</orgname>
63 This is here to keep vim syntax file from breaking :/
64 If I knew enough to fix it, I would.
65 PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE! HB: hal@foobox.net
71 The user manual gives users information on how to install, configure and use
73 url="http://www.privoxy.org/"><application>Privoxy</application></ulink>.
76 <!-- Include privoxy.sgml boilerplate: -->
78 <!-- end privoxy.sgml -->
81 You can find the latest version of the user manual at <ulink
82 url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/">http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/</ulink>.
83 Please see the <ulink url="contact.html">Contact section</ulink> on how to
84 contact the developers.
88 <!-- Feel free to send a note to the developers at <email>ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net</email>. -->
94 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
95 <sect1 id="intro" label=""><title></title>
96 <!-- dummy section to force TOC on page by itself -->
97 <!-- DO NOT REMOVE! please ;) -->
101 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
102 <sect1 label="1" id="introduction"><title>Introduction</title>
104 This documentation is included with the current &p-status; version of
105 <application>Privoxy</application>, v.&p-version;<![%p-not-stable;[,
106 and is mostly complete at this point. The most up to date reference for the
107 time being is still the comments in the source files and in the individual
108 configuration files. Development of version 3.0 is currently nearing
109 completion, and includes many significant changes and enhancements over
110 earlier versions. The target release date for
111 stable v3.0 is <quote>soon</quote> ;-)]]>.
114 <!-- include only in non-stable versions -->
117 Since this is a &p-status; version, not all new features are well tested. This
118 documentation may be slightly out of sync as a result (especially with
119 CVS sources). And there <emphasis>may be</emphasis> bugs, though hopefully
124 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
125 <sect2 id="features"><title>Features</title>
127 In addition to <application>Internet Junkbuster's</application> traditional
128 features of ad and banner blocking and cookie management,
129 <application>Privoxy</application> provides new features<![%p-not-stable;[,
130 some of them currently under development]]>:
132 <!-- Include newfeatures.sgml boilerplate here: -->
134 <!-- end boilerplate -->
139 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
142 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
143 <sect1 id="installation"><title>Installation</title>
146 <application>Privoxy</application> is available both in convenient pre-compiled
147 packages for a wide range of operating systems, and as raw source code.
148 For most users, we recommend using the packages, which can be downloaded from our
149 <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ijbswa/">Privoxy Project
150 Page</ulink>. For installing and compiling the source code, please look
151 into our Developer Manual.
155 If you like to live on the bleeding edge and are not afraid of using
156 possibly unstable development versions, you can check out the up-to-the-minute
157 version directly from <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/cvs/?group_id=11118">the
158 CVS repository</ulink> or simply download <ulink
159 url="http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cvstarballs/ijbswa-cvsroot.tar.gz">the nightly CVS
160 tarball.</ulink> Again, we refer you to the Developer Manual.
163 <!-- Include supported.sgml boilerplate -->
165 <!-- end boilerplate -->
168 Note: If you have a previous <application>Junkbuster</application> or
169 <application>Privoxy</application> installation on your system, you
170 will need to remove it. Some platforms do this for you as part
171 of their installation procedure. (See below for your platform).
175 In any case <emphasis>be sure to backup your old configuration
176 if it is valuable to you.</emphasis> See the
177 <link linkend="upgradersnote">note to upgraders</link> section
181 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
182 <sect2 id="installation-pack-rpm"><title>Red Hat and SuSE RPMs</title>
185 RPMs can be installed with <literal>rpm -Uvh privoxy-&p-version;-1.rpm</literal>,
186 and will use <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> for the location
187 of configuration files.
191 Note that on Red Hat, <application>Privoxy</application> will
192 <emphasis>not</emphasis> be automatically started on system boot. You will
193 need to enable that using <command>chkconfig</command>,
194 <command>ntsysv</command>, or similar methods. Note that SuSE will
195 automatically start Privoxy in the boot process.
199 If you have problems with failed dependencies, try rebuilding the SRC RPM:
200 <literal>rpm --rebuild privoxy-&p-version;-1.src.rpm;</literal>. This
201 will use your locally installed libraries and RPM version.
205 Also note that if you have a <application>Junkbuster</application> RPM installed
206 on your system, you need to remove it first, because the packages conflict.
207 Otherwise, RPM will try to remove <application>Junkbuster</application>
208 automatically, before installing <application>Privoxy</application>.
212 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
213 <sect2 id="installation-deb"><title>Debian</title>
219 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
220 <sect2 id="installation-pack-win"><title>Windows</title>
223 Just double-click the installer, which will guide you through
224 the installation process. You will find the configuration files
225 in the same directory as you installed Privoxy in. We do not
226 use the registry of Windows.
230 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
231 <sect2 id="installation-pack-bintgz"><title>Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD, HP-UX</title>
234 Create a new directory, <literal>cd</literal> to it, then unzip and
235 untar the archive. For the most part, you'll have to figure out where
240 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
241 <sect2 id="installation-os2"><title>OS/2</title>
244 First, make sure that no previous installations of
245 <application>Junkbuster</application> and / or
246 <application>Privoxy</application> are left on your
247 system. You can do this by
251 Then, just double-click the WarpIN self-installing archive, which will
252 guide you through the installation process. A shadow of the
253 <application>Privoxy</application> executable will be placed in your
254 startup folder so it will start automatically whenever OS/2 starts.
258 The directory you choose to install <application>Privoxy</application>
259 into will contain all of the configuration files.
263 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
264 <sect2 id="installation-mac"><title>Max OSX</title>
266 Unzip the downloaded package (you can either double-click on the file
267 in the finder, or on the desktop if you downloaded it there). Then,
268 double-click on the package installer icon and follow the installation
270 <application>Privoxy</application> will be installed in the subdirectory
271 <literal>/Applications/Privoxy.app</literal>.
272 <application>Privoxy</application> will set itself up to start
273 automatically on system bring-up via
274 <literal>/System/Library/StartupItems/Privoxy</literal>.
278 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
279 <sect2 id="installation-amiga"><title>AmigaOS</title>
281 Copy and then unpack the <filename>lha</filename> archive to a suitable location.
282 All necessary files will be installed into <application>Privoxy</application>
283 directory, including all configuration and log files. To uninstall, just
284 remove this directory.
287 Start <application>Privoxy</application> (with RUN <>NIL:) in your
288 <filename>startnet</filename> script (AmiTCP), in
289 <filename>s:user-startup</filename> (RoadShow), as startup program in your
290 startup script (Genesis), or as startup action (Miami and MiamiDx).
291 <application>Privoxy</application> will automatically quit when you quit your
292 TCP/IP stack (just ignore the harmless warning your TCP/IP stack may display that
293 <application>Privoxy</application> is still running).
298 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
300 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
301 <sect1 id="upgradersnote">
302 <title>Note to Upgraders</title>
304 There are very significant changes from older versions of
305 <application>Junkbuster</application> to the current
306 <application>Privoxy</application>. Configuration is substantially
307 changed. <application>Junkbuster 2.0.x</application> and earlier
308 configuration files will not migrate. The functionality of the old
309 <filename>blockfile</filename>, <filename>cookiefile</filename> and
310 <filename>imagelist</filename>, are now combined into the
311 <ulink url="actions-file.html"><quote>actions files</quote></ulink>.
312 <filename>default.action</filename>, is the main actions file. Local
313 exceptions should best be put into <filename>user.action</filename>.
316 A <ulink url="filter-file.html"><quote>filter file</quote></ulink> (typically
317 <filename>default.filter</filename>) is new as of <application>Privoxy
318 2.9.x</application>, and provides some of the new sophistication (explained
319 below). <filename>config</filename> is much the same as before.
322 If upgrading from a 2.0.x version, you will have to use the new config
323 files, and possibly adapt any personal rules from your older files.
324 When porting personal rules over from the old <filename>blockfile</filename>
325 to the new actions files, please note that even the pattern syntax has
326 changed. If upgrading from 2.9.x development versions, it is still
327 recommended to use the new configuration files.
330 A quick list of things to be aware of before upgrading:
338 The default listening port is now 8118 due to a conflict with another
344 Some installers may remove earlier versions completely. Save any
345 important configuration files!
350 <application>Privoxy</application> is controllable with a web browser
351 at the special URL: <ulink
352 url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
353 (Shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>). Many
354 aspects of configuration can be done here, including temporarily disabling
355 <application>Privoxy</application>.
360 The primary configuration file for cookie management, ad and banner
361 blocking, and many other aspects of <application>Privoxy</application>
362 configuration is in the <ulink url="actions-file.html">actions
363 files</ulink>. It is strongly recommended to become familiar with the new
364 actions concept below, before modifying these files. Locally defined rules
365 should go into <filename>user.action</filename>.
370 <!-- I think it is best to keep this somewhat vague, in case -->
371 <!-- the situation changes under our feet. -->
372 Some installers may not automatically start
373 <application>Privoxy</application> after installation.
381 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
382 <sect1 id="quickstart"><title>Quickstart to Using <application>Privoxy</application></title>
388 Install <application>Privoxy</application>. See the section <link linkend="installation">Installing</link>.
394 Start <application>Privoxy</application>. See the section <link linkend="startup">Starting <application>Privoxy</application></link>.
400 Change your browser's configuration to use the proxy <literal>localhost</literal> on port
401 <literal>8118</literal>. See the section <link linkend="startup">Starting <application>Privoxy</application></link>.
407 Enjoy surfing with enhanced comfort and privacy. Please see the section
408 <link linkend="contact">Contacting the Developers</link> on how to report
409 bugs or problems with websites or to get help. You may want to change the
410 file <filename>user.action</filename> to further tweak your new browsing
420 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
422 <title>Starting <application>Privoxy</application></title>
424 Before launching <application>Privoxy</application> for the first time, you
425 will want to configure your browser(s) to use
426 <application>Privoxy</application> as a HTTP and HTTPS proxy. The default is
427 localhost for the proxy address, and port 8118 (earlier versions used port
428 8000). This is the one configuration step that must be done!
432 With <application>Netscape</application> (and
433 <application>Mozilla</application>), this can be set under <literal>Edit
434 -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Proxies -> HTTP Proxy</literal>.
435 For <application>Internet Explorer</application>: <literal>Tools ->
436 Internet Properties -> Connections -> LAN Setting</literal>. Then,
437 check <quote>Use Proxy</quote> and fill in the appropriate info (Address:
438 localhost, Port: 8118). Include if HTTPS proxy support too.
442 After doing this, flush your browser's disk and memory caches to force a
443 re-reading of all pages and to get rid of any ads that may be cached. You
444 are now ready to start enjoying the benefits of using
445 <application>Privoxy</application>!
449 <application>Privoxy</application> is typically started by specifying the
450 main configuration file to be used on the command line. If no configuration
451 file is specified on the command line, <application>Privoxy</application>
452 will look for a file named <filename>config</filename> in the current
453 directory. Except on Win32 where it will try <filename>config.txt</filename>.
456 <sect2 id="start-redhatdebian">
457 <title>RedHat and Debian</title>
459 We use a script. Note that RedHat does not start Privoxy upon booting per
460 default. It will use the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename> as its
461 main configuration file. FIXME: Debian??
465 # /etc/rc.d/init.d/privoxy start
470 <sect2 id="start-suse">
473 We use a script. It will use the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename>
474 as its main configuration file. Note that SuSE starts Privoxy upon booting
484 <sect2 id="start-windows">
485 <title>Windows</title>
487 Click on the Privoxy Icon to start Privoxy. If no configuration file is
488 specified on the command line, <application>Privoxy</application> will look
489 for a file named <filename>config.txt</filename>. Note that Windows will
490 automatically start Privoxy upon booting you PC.
494 <sect2 id="start-unices">
495 <title>Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD, HP-UX and others</title>
497 Example Unix startup command:
501 # /usr/sbin/privoxy /etc/privoxy/config
506 <sect2 id="start-os2">
513 <sect2 id="start-macosx">
514 <title>MAX OSX</title>
521 <sect2 id="start-amigaos">
522 <title>AmigaOS</title>
531 See the section <link linkend="cmdoptions">Command line options</link> for
535 must find a better place for this paragraph
538 The included default configuration files should give a reasonable starting
539 point. Most of the per site configuration is done in the
540 <ulink url="actions-file.html"><quote>actions</quote></ulink> files. These are
541 where various cookie actions are defined, ad and banner blocking, and other
542 aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. There are several
543 such files included, with varying levels of aggressiveness.
547 You will probably want to keep an eye out for sites for which you may prefer
548 persistent cookies, and add these to your actions configuration as needed. By
549 default, most of these will be accepted only during the current browser
550 session (aka <quote>session cookies</quote>), unless you add them to the
551 configuration. If you want the browser to handle this instead, you will need
552 to edit <filename>user.action</filename> (or through the web based interface)
553 and disable this feature. If you use more than one browser, it would make
554 more sense to let <application>Privoxy</application> handle this. In which
555 case, the browser(s) should be set to accept all cookies.
559 Another feature where you will probably want to define exceptions for trusted
560 sites is the popup-killing (through the <ulink
561 url="actions-file.html#KILL-POPUPS"><quote>+kill-popups</quote></ulink> and
563 url="actions-file.html#FILTER-POPUPS"><quote>+filter{popups}</quote></ulink>
564 actions), because your favorite shopping, banking, or leisure site may need
565 popups (explained below).
569 <application>Privoxy</application> is HTTP/1.1 compliant, but not all of
570 the optional 1.1 features are as yet supported. In the unlikely event that
571 you experience inexplicable problems with browsers that use HTTP/1.1 per default
572 (like <application>Mozilla</application> or recent versions of I.E.), you might
573 try to force HTTP/1.0 compatibility. For Mozilla, look under <literal>Edit ->
574 Preferences -> Debug -> Networking</literal>.
575 Alternatively, set the <quote>+downgrade-http-version</quote> config option in
576 <filename>default.action</filename> which will downgrade your browser's HTTP
577 requests from HTTP/1.1 to HTTP/1.0 before processing them.
581 After running <application>Privoxy</application> for a while, you can
582 start to fine tune the configuration to suit your personal, or site,
583 preferences and requirements. There are many, many aspects that can
584 be customized. <quote>Actions</quote>
585 can be adjusted by pointing your browser to
586 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
587 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
588 and then follow the link to <quote>View & Change the Current Configuration</quote>.
589 (This is an internal page and does not require Internet access.)
593 In fact, various aspects of <application>Privoxy</application>
594 configuration can be viewed from this page, including
595 current configuration parameters, source code version numbers,
596 the browser's request headers, and <quote>actions</quote> that apply
597 to a given URL. In addition to the actions file
598 editor mentioned above, <application>Privoxy</application> can also
599 be turned <quote>on</quote> and <quote>off</quote> (toggled) from this page.
603 If you encounter problems, try loading the page without
604 <application>Privoxy</application>. If that helps, enter the URL where
605 you have the problems into <ulink url="http://p.p/show-url-info">the browser
606 based rule tracing utility</ulink>. See which rules apply and why, and
607 then try turning them off for that site one after the other, until the problem
608 is gone. When you have found the culprit, you might want to turn the rest on
613 If the above paragraph sounds gibberish to you, you might want to <ulink
614 url="actions-file.html#ACTIONSFILE">read more about the actions concept</ulink>
615 or even dive deep into the <ulink url="appendix.html#ACTIONSANAT">Appendix
620 If you can't get rid of the problem at all, think you've found a bug in
621 Privoxy, want to propose a new feature or smarter rules, please see the
622 section <ulink url="contact.html"><quote>Contacting the
623 Developers</quote></ulink> below.
628 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
629 <sect2 id="cmdoptions">
630 <title>Command Line Options</title>
632 <application>Privoxy</application> may be invoked with the following
633 command-line options:
641 <emphasis>--version</emphasis>
644 Print version info and exit. Unix only.
649 <emphasis>--help</emphasis>
652 Print short usage info and exit. Unix only.
657 <emphasis>--no-daemon</emphasis>
660 Don't become a daemon, i.e. don't fork and become process group
661 leader, and don't detach from controlling tty. Unix only.
666 <emphasis>--pidfile FILE</emphasis>
670 On startup, write the process ID to <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>. Delete the
671 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> on exit. Failure to create or delete the
672 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> is non-fatal. If no <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>
673 option is given, no PID file will be used. Unix only.
678 <emphasis>--user USER[.GROUP]</emphasis>
682 After (optionally) writing the PID file, assume the user ID of
683 <emphasis>USER</emphasis>, and if included the GID of GROUP. Exit if the
684 privileges are not sufficient to do so. Unix only.
689 <emphasis>configfile</emphasis>
692 If no <emphasis>configfile</emphasis> is included on the command line,
693 <application>Privoxy</application> will look for a file named
694 <quote>config</quote> in the current directory (except on Win32
695 where it will look for <quote>config.txt</quote> instead). Specify
696 full path to avoid confusion. If no config file is found,
697 <application>Privoxy</application> will fail to start.
708 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
711 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
712 <sect1 id="configuration"><title><application>Privoxy</application> Configuration</title>
714 All <application>Privoxy</application> configuration is stored
715 in text files. These files can be edited with a text editor.
716 Many important aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> can
717 also be controlled easily with a web browser.
721 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
724 <title>Controlling <application>Privoxy</application> with Your Web Browser</title>
726 <application>Privoxy</application>'s user interface can be reached through the special
727 URL <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
728 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
729 which is a built-in page and works without Internet access.
730 You will see the following section:
734 <!-- Needs to be put in a table and colorized -->
737 <bridgehead renderas="sect2">Privoxy Menu</bridgehead>
741 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">View & change the current configuration</ulink>
744 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-version">View the source code version numbers</ulink>
747 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request">View the request headers.</ulink>
750 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">Look up which actions apply to a URL and why</ulink>
753 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">Toggle Privoxy on or off</ulink>
761 This should be self-explanatory. Note the first item leads to an editor for the
762 <quote>actions list</quote>, which is where the ad, banner, cookie,
763 and URL blocking magic is configured as well as other advanced features of
764 <application>Privoxy</application>. This is an easy way to adjust various
765 aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. The actions
766 file, and other configuration files, are explained in detail below.
770 <quote>Toggle Privoxy On or Off</quote> is handy for sites that might
771 have problems with your current actions and filters. You can in fact use
772 it as a test to see whether it is <application>Privoxy</application>
773 causing the problem or not. <application>Privoxy</application> continues
774 to run as a proxy in this case, but all filtering is disabled. There
775 is even a toggle <link linkend="bookmarklets">Bookmarklet</link> offered, so
776 that you can toggle <application>Privoxy</application> with one click from
782 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
787 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
789 <sect2 id="confoverview">
790 <title>Configuration Files Overview</title>
792 For Unix, *BSD and Linux, all configuration files are located in
793 <filename>/etc/privoxy/</filename> by default. For MS Windows, OS/2, and
794 AmigaOS these are all in the same directory as the
795 <application>Privoxy</application> executable. <![%p-not-stable;[ The name
796 and number of configuration files has changed from previous versions, and is
797 subject to change as development progresses.]]>
801 The installed defaults provide a reasonable starting point, though
802 some settings may be aggressive by some standards. For the time being, the
803 principle configuration files are:
811 The main configuration file is named <link linkend="config">config</link>
812 on Linux, Unix, BSD, OS/2, and AmigaOS and <filename>config.txt</filename>
813 on Windows. This is a required file.
819 <filename>default.action</filename> (the main <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link>) is used to define
820 the default settings for various <quote>actions</quote> relating to images, banners,
821 pop-ups, access restrictions, banners and cookies.
824 Multiple actions files may be defined in <filename>config</filename>. These
825 are processed in the order they are defined. Local customizations and locally
826 preferred exceptions to the default policies as defined in
827 <filename>default.action</filename> are probably best applied in
828 <filename>user.action</filename>, which should be preserved across
829 upgrades. <filename>standard.action</filename> is also included. This is mostly
830 for <application>Privoxy's</application> internal use.
833 There is also a web based editor that can be accessed from
835 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status/">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status/</ulink>
837 url="http://p.p/show-status/">http://p.p/show-status/</ulink>) for the
838 various actions files.
844 <filename>default.filter</filename> (the <link linkend="filter-file">filter
845 file</link>) can be used to re-write the raw page content, including
846 viewable text as well as embedded HTML and JavaScript, and whatever else
847 lurks on any given web page. The filtering jobs are only pre-defined here;
848 whether to apply them or not is up to the actions files.
856 All files use the <quote><literal>#</literal></quote> character to denote a
857 comment (the rest of the line will be ignored) angd understand line continuation
858 through placing a backslash ("<literal>\</literal>") as the very last character
859 in a line. If the <literal>#</literal> is preceded by a backslash, it looses
860 its special function. Placing a <literal>#</literal> in front of an otherwise
861 valid configuration line to prevent it from being interpreted is called "commenting
866 The actions files and <filename>default.filter</filename>
867 can use Perl style <link linkend="regex">regular expressions</link> for
872 After making any changes, there is no need to restart
873 <application>Privoxy</application> in order for the changes to take
874 effect. <application>Privoxy</application> detects such changes
875 automatically. Note, however, that it may take one or two additional
876 requests for the change to take effect. When changing the listening address
877 of <application>Privoxy</application>, these <quote>wake up</quote> requests
878 must obviously be sent to the <emphasis>old</emphasis> listening address.
883 While under development, the configuration content is subject to change.
884 The below documentation may not be accurate by the time you read this.
885 Also, what constitutes a <quote>default</quote> setting, may change, so
886 please check all your configuration files on important issues.
892 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
895 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
898 <title>The Main Configuration File</title>
901 Again, the main configuration file is named <filename>config</filename> on
902 Linux/Unix/BSD and OS/2, and <filename>config.txt</filename> on Windows.
903 Configuration lines consist of an initial keyword followed by a list of
904 values, all separated by whitespace (any number of spaces or tabs). For
912 <emphasis>confdir /etc/privoxy</emphasis>
919 Assigns the value <literal>/etc/privoxy</literal> to the option
920 <literal>confdir</literal> and thus indicates that the configuration
921 directory is named <quote>/etc/privoxy/</quote>.
925 All options in the config file except for <literal>confdir</literal> and
926 <literal>logdir</literal> are optional. Watch out in the below description
927 for what happens if you leave them unset.
931 The main config file controls all aspects of <application>Privoxy</application>'s
932 operation that are not location dependent (i.e. they apply universally, no matter
933 where you may be surfing).
937 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
939 <sect2 id="conf-log-loc">
940 <title>Configuration and Log File Locations</title>
943 <application>Privoxy</application> can (and normally does) use a number of
944 other files for additional configuration, help and logging.
945 This section of the configuration file tells <application>Privoxy</application>
946 where to find those other files.
950 The user running Privoxy, must have read permission for all
951 configuration files, and write permission to any files that would
952 be modified, such as log files.
955 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="user-manual"><title>user-manual</title>
958 <term>Specifies:</term>
961 Location of the <application>Privoxy</application> User Manual.
966 <term>Type of value:</term>
968 <para>A fully qualified URI</para>
972 <term>Default value:</term>
974 <para><ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/">http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/</ulink></para>
978 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
981 The default will be used.
989 The User Manual is used for help hints from some of the internal CGI pages.
990 It is normally packaged with the binary distributions, and would make more
991 sense to have this pointed at a locally installed copy.
994 A more useful example (Unix):
997 <emphasis>user-manual file:///usr/share/doc/privoxy-&p-version;/user-manual/</emphasis>
1001 If this option is defined, it must come first! It is needed before the rest of
1002 <filename>config</filename> is read.
1010 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="confdir"><title>confdir</title>
1014 <term>Specifies:</term>
1016 <para>The directory where the other configuration files are located</para>
1020 <term>Type of value:</term>
1022 <para>Path name</para>
1026 <term>Default value:</term>
1028 <para>/etc/privoxy (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> <application>Privoxy</application> installation dir (Windows) </para>
1032 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1034 <para><emphasis>Mandatory</emphasis></para>
1041 No trailing <quote><literal>/</literal></quote>, please
1044 When development goes modular and multi-user, the blocker, filter, and
1045 per-user config will be stored in subdirectories of <quote>confdir</quote>.
1046 For now, the configuration directory structure is flat, except for
1047 <filename>confdir/templates</filename>, where the HTML templates for CGI
1048 output reside (e.g. <application>Privoxy's</application> 404 error page).
1056 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="logdir"><title>logdir</title>
1060 <term>Specifies:</term>
1063 The directory where all logging takes place (i.e. where <filename>logfile</filename> and
1064 <filename>jarfile</filename> are located)
1069 <term>Type of value:</term>
1071 <para>Path name</para>
1075 <term>Default value:</term>
1077 <para>/var/log/privoxy (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> <application>Privoxy</application> installation dir (Windows) </para>
1081 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1083 <para><emphasis>Mandatory</emphasis></para>
1090 No trailing <quote><literal>/</literal></quote>, please
1097 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="actionsfile"><title>
1100 <anchor id="default.action">
1101 <anchor id="standard.action">
1102 <anchor id="user.action">
1103 <!-- Note: slightly modified this section 04/28/02, hal. See NOTE. -->
1106 <term>Specifies:</term>
1109 The <link linkend="actions">actions</link> file(s) to use
1114 <term>Type of value:</term>
1116 <para>File name, relative to <literal>confdir</literal></para>
1120 <term>Default value:</term>
1124 <msgtext><literallayout> standard # Internal purposes, recommended not editing</literallayout></msgtext>
1127 <msgtext><literallayout> default # Main actions file</literallayout></msgtext>
1130 <msgtext><literallayout> user # User customizations</literallayout></msgtext>
1136 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1139 No actions are taken at all. Simple neutral proxying.
1147 Multiple <literal>actionsfile</literal> lines are permitted, and are in fact recommended!
1150 The default values include standard.action, which is used for internal
1151 purposes and should be loaded, default.action, which is the
1152 <quote>main</quote> actions file maintained by the developers, and
1153 <filename>user.action</filename>, where you can make your personal additions.
1156 Actions files are where all the per site and per URL configuration is done for
1157 ad blocking, cookie management, privacy considerations, etc.
1158 There is no point in using <application>Privoxy</application> without at
1159 least one actions file.
1166 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="filterfile"><title>filterfile</title>
1167 <anchor id="default.filter">
1170 <term>Specifies:</term>
1173 The <link linkend="filter">filter</link> file to use
1178 <term>Type of value:</term>
1180 <para>File name, relative to <literal>confdir</literal></para>
1184 <term>Default value:</term>
1186 <para>default.filter (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> default.filter.txt (Windows)</para>
1190 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1193 No textual content filtering takes place, i.e. all
1194 <literal>+filter{<replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable>}</literal>
1195 actions in the actions files are turned off
1203 The <quote>default.filter</quote> file contains content modification rules
1204 that use <quote>regular expressions</quote>. These rules permit powerful
1205 changes on the content of Web pages, e.g., you could disable your favorite
1206 JavaScript annoyances, re-write the actual displayed text, or just have some
1207 fun replacing <quote>Microsoft</quote> with <quote>MicroSuck</quote> wherever
1208 it appears on a Web page.
1215 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="logfile"><title>logfile</title>
1219 <term>Specifies:</term>
1227 <term>Type of value:</term>
1229 <para>File name, relative to <literal>logdir</literal></para>
1233 <term>Default value:</term>
1235 <para>logfile (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> privoxy.log (Windows)</para>
1239 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1242 No log file is used, all log messages go to the console (<literal>stderr</literal>).
1250 The windows version will additionally log to the console.
1253 The logfile is where all logging and error messages are written. The level
1254 of detail and number of messages are set with the <literal>debug</literal>
1255 option (see below). The logfile can be useful for tracking down a problem with
1256 <application>Privoxy</application> (e.g., it's not blocking an ad you
1257 think it should block) but in most cases you probably will never look at it.
1260 Your logfile will grow indefinitely, and you will probably want to
1261 periodically remove it. On Unix systems, you can do this with a cron job
1262 (see <quote>man cron</quote>). For Red Hat, a <command>logrotate</command>
1263 script has been included.
1266 On SuSE Linux systems, you can place a line like <quote>/var/log/privoxy.*
1267 +1024k 644 nobody.nogroup</quote> in <filename>/etc/logfiles</filename>, with
1268 the effect that cron.daily will automatically archive, gzip, and empty the
1269 log, when it exceeds 1M size.
1272 Any log files must be writable by whatever user <application>Privoxy</application>
1273 is being run as (default on UNIX, user id is <quote>privoxy</quote>).
1280 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="jarfile"><title>jarfile</title>
1284 <term>Specifies:</term>
1287 The file to store intercepted cookies in
1292 <term>Type of value:</term>
1294 <para>File name, relative to <literal>logdir</literal></para>
1298 <term>Default value:</term>
1300 <para>jarfile (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> privoxy.jar (Windows)</para>
1304 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1307 Intercepted cookies are not stored at all.
1315 The jarfile may grow to ridiculous sizes over time.
1322 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="trustfile"><title>trustfile</title>
1325 <term>Specifies:</term>
1328 The trust file to use
1333 <term>Type of value:</term>
1335 <para>File name, relative to <literal>confdir</literal></para>
1339 <term>Default value:</term>
1341 <para><emphasis>Unset (commented out)</emphasis>. When activated: trust (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> trust.txt (Windows)</para>
1345 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1348 The whole trust mechanism is turned off.
1356 The trust mechanism is an experimental feature for building white-lists and should
1357 be used with care. It is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> recommended for the casual user.
1360 If you specify a trust file, <application>Privoxy</application> will only allow
1361 access to sites that are named in the trustfile.
1362 You can also mark sites as trusted referrers (with <literal>+</literal>), with
1363 the effect that access to untrusted sites will be granted, if a link from a
1364 trusted referrer was used.
1365 The link target will then be added to the <quote>trustfile</quote>.
1366 Possible applications include limiting Internet access for children.
1369 If you use <literal>+</literal> operator in the trust file, it may grow considerably over time.
1378 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1382 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1384 <sect2 id="local-set-up">
1385 <title>Local Set-up Documentation</title>
1388 If you intend to operate <application>Privoxy</application> for more users
1389 that just yourself, it might be a good idea to let them know how to reach
1390 you, what you block and why you do that, your policies etc.
1393 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="trust-info-url"><title>trust-info-url</title>
1397 <term>Specifies:</term>
1400 A URL to be displayed in the error page that users will see if access to an untrusted page is denied.
1405 <term>Type of value:</term>
1411 <term>Default value:</term>
1413 <para>Two example URL are provided</para>
1417 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1420 No links are displayed on the "untrusted" error page.
1428 The value of this option only matters if the experimental trust mechanism has been
1429 activated. (See <literal>trustfile</literal> above.)
1432 If you use the trust mechanism, it is a good idea to write up some on-line
1433 documentation about your trust policy and to specify the URL(s) here.
1434 Use multiple times for multiple URLs.
1437 The URL(s) should be added to the trustfile as well, so users don't end up
1438 locked out from the information on why they were locked out in the first place!
1445 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="admin-address"><title>admin-address</title>
1449 <term>Specifies:</term>
1452 An email address to reach the proxy administrator.
1457 <term>Type of value:</term>
1459 <para>Email address</para>
1463 <term>Default value:</term>
1465 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
1469 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1472 No email address is displayed on error pages and the CGI user interface.
1480 If both <literal>admin-address</literal> and <literal>proxy-info-url</literal>
1481 are unset, the whole "Local Privoxy Support" box on all generated pages will
1489 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="proxy-info-url"><title>proxy-info-url</title>
1493 <term>Specifies:</term>
1496 A URL to documentation about the local <application>Privoxy</application> setup,
1497 configuration or policies.
1502 <term>Type of value:</term>
1508 <term>Default value:</term>
1510 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
1514 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1517 No link to local documentation is displayed on error pages and the CGI user interface.
1525 If both <literal>admin-address</literal> and <literal>proxy-info-url</literal>
1526 are unset, the whole "Local Privoxy Support" box on all generated pages will
1530 This URL shouldn't be blocked ;-)
1538 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1540 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1542 <sect2 id="debugging">
1543 <title>Debugging</title>
1546 These options are mainly useful when tracing a problem.
1547 Note that you might also want to invoke
1548 <application>Privoxy</application> with the <literal>--no-daemon</literal>
1549 command line option when debugging.
1552 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="debug"><title>debug</title>
1556 <term>Specifies:</term>
1559 Key values that determine what information gets logged.
1564 <term>Type of value:</term>
1566 <para>Integer values</para>
1570 <term>Default value:</term>
1572 <para>12289 (i.e.: URLs plus informational and warning messages)</para>
1576 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1579 Nothing gets logged.
1587 The available debug levels are:
1591 debug 1 # show each GET/POST/CONNECT request
1592 debug 2 # show each connection status
1593 debug 4 # show I/O status
1594 debug 8 # show header parsing
1595 debug 16 # log all data into the logfile
1596 debug 32 # debug force feature
1597 debug 64 # debug regular expression filter
1598 debug 128 # debug fast redirects
1599 debug 256 # debug GIF de-animation
1600 debug 512 # Common Log Format
1601 debug 1024 # debug kill pop-ups
1602 debug 4096 # Startup banner and warnings.
1603 debug 8192 # Non-fatal errors
1607 To select multiple debug levels, you can either add them or use
1608 multiple <literal>debug</literal> lines.
1611 A debug level of 1 is informative because it will show you each request
1612 as it happens. <emphasis>1, 4096 and 8192 are highly recommended</emphasis>
1613 so that you will notice when things go wrong. The other levels are probably
1614 only of interest if you are hunting down a specific problem. They can produce
1615 a hell of an output (especially 16).
1619 The reporting of <emphasis>fatal</emphasis> errors (i.e. ones which crash
1620 <application>Privoxy</application>) is always on and cannot be disabled.
1623 If you want to use CLF (Common Log Format), you should set <quote>debug
1624 512</quote> <emphasis>ONLY</emphasis> and not enable anything else.
1631 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="single-threaded"><title>single-threaded</title>
1635 <term>Specifies:</term>
1638 Whether to run only one server thread
1643 <term>Type of value:</term>
1645 <para><emphasis>None</emphasis></para>
1649 <term>Default value:</term>
1651 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
1655 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1658 Multi-threaded (or, where unavailable: forked) operation, i.e. the ability to
1659 serve multiple requests simultaneously.
1667 This option is only there for debug purposes and you should never
1668 need to use it. <emphasis>It will drastically reduce performance.</emphasis>
1677 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1679 <sect2 id="access-control">
1680 <title>Access Control and Security</title>
1683 This section of the config file controls the security-relevant aspects
1684 of <application>Privoxy</application>'s configuration.
1687 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="listen-address"><title>listen-address</title>
1691 <term>Specifies:</term>
1694 The IP address and TCP port on which <application>Privoxy</application> will
1695 listen for client requests.
1700 <term>Type of value:</term>
1702 <para>[<replaceable class="parameter">IP-Address</replaceable>]:<replaceable class="parameter">Port</replaceable></para>
1707 <term>Default value:</term>
1709 <para>localhost:8118</para>
1713 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1716 Bind to localhost (127.0.0.1), port 8118. This is suitable and recommended for
1717 home users who run <application>Privoxy</application> on the same machine as
1726 You will need to configure your browser(s) to this proxy address and port.
1729 If you already have another service running on port 8118, or if you want to
1730 serve requests from other machines (e.g. on your local network) as well, you
1731 will need to override the default.
1734 If you leave out the IP address, <application>Privoxy</application> will
1735 bind to all interfaces (addresses) on your machine and may become reachable
1736 from the Internet. In that case, consider using access control lists (ACL's)
1737 (see <quote>ACLs</quote> below), or a firewall.
1742 <term>Example:</term>
1745 Suppose you are running <application>Privoxy</application> on
1746 a machine which has the address 192.168.0.1 on your local private network
1747 (192.168.0.0) and has another outside connection with a different address.
1748 You want it to serve requests from inside only:
1752 listen-address 192.168.0.1:8118
1760 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="toggle"><title>toggle</title>
1764 <term>Specifies:</term>
1767 Initial state of "toggle" status
1772 <term>Type of value:</term>
1778 <term>Default value:</term>
1784 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1787 Act as if toggled on
1795 If set to 0, <application>Privoxy</application> will start in
1796 <quote>toggled off</quote> mode, i.e. behave like a normal, content-neutral
1797 proxy. See <literal>enable-remote-toggle</literal>
1798 below. This is not really useful anymore, since toggling is much easier
1799 via <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">the web
1800 interface</ulink> than via editing the <filename>conf</filename> file.
1803 The windows version will only display the toggle icon in the system tray
1804 if this option is present.
1812 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="enable-remote-toggle"><title>enable-remote-toggle</title>
1815 <term>Specifies:</term>
1818 Whether or not the <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">web-based toggle
1819 feature</ulink> may be used
1824 <term>Type of value:</term>
1830 <term>Default value:</term>
1836 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1839 The web-based toggle feature is disabled.
1847 When toggled off, <application>Privoxy</application> acts like a normal,
1848 content-neutral proxy, i.e. it acts as if none of the actions applied to
1852 For the time being, access to the toggle feature can <emphasis>not</emphasis> be
1853 controlled separately by <quote>ACLs</quote> or HTTP authentication,
1854 so that everybody who can access <application>Privoxy</application> (see
1855 <quote>ACLs</quote> and <literal>listen-address</literal> above) can
1856 toggle it for all users. So this option is <emphasis>not recommended</emphasis>
1857 for multi-user environments with untrusted users.
1860 Note that you must have compiled <application>Privoxy</application> with
1861 support for this feature, otherwise this option has no effect.
1869 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="enable-edit-actions"><title>enable-edit-actions</title>
1872 <term>Specifies:</term>
1875 Whether or not the <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">web-based actions
1876 file editor</ulink> may be used
1881 <term>Type of value:</term>
1887 <term>Default value:</term>
1893 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1896 The web-based actions file editor is disabled.
1904 For the time being, access to the editor can <emphasis>not</emphasis> be
1905 controlled separately by <quote>ACLs</quote> or HTTP authentication,
1906 so that everybody who can access <application>Privoxy</application> (see
1907 <quote>ACLs</quote> and <literal>listen-address</literal> above) can
1908 modify its configuration for all users. So this option is <emphasis>not
1909 recommended</emphasis> for multi-user environments with untrusted users.
1912 Note that you must have compiled <application>Privoxy</application> with
1913 support for this feature, otherwise this option has no effect.
1920 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="acls"><title>
1921 ACLs: permit-access and deny-access</title>
1922 <anchor id="permit-acces">
1923 <anchor id="deny-acces">
1927 <term>Specifies:</term>
1930 Who can access what.
1935 <term>Type of value:</term>
1938 <replaceable class="parameter">src_addr</replaceable>[/<replaceable class="parameter">src_masklen</replaceable>]
1939 [<replaceable class="parameter">dst_addr</replaceable>[/<replaceable class="parameter">dst_masklen</replaceable>]]
1942 Where <replaceable class="parameter">src_addr</replaceable> and
1943 <replaceable class="parameter">dst_addr</replaceable> are IP addresses in dotted decimal notation or valid
1944 DNS names, and <replaceable class="parameter">src_masklen</replaceable> and
1945 <replaceable class="parameter">dst_masklen</replaceable> are subnet masks in CIDR notation, i.e. integer
1946 values from 2 to 30 representing the length (in bits) of the network address. The masks and the whole
1947 destination part are optional.
1952 <term>Default value:</term>
1954 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
1958 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1961 Don't restrict access further than implied by <literal>listen-address</literal>
1969 Access controls are included at the request of ISPs and systems
1970 administrators, and <emphasis>are not usually needed by individual users</emphasis>.
1971 For a typical home user, it will normally suffice to ensure that
1972 <application>Privoxy</application> only listens on the localhost or internal (home)
1973 network address by means of the <literal>listen-address</literal> option.
1976 Please see the warnings in the FAQ that this proxy is not intended to be a substitute
1977 for a firewall or to encourage anyone to defer addressing basic security
1981 Multiple ACL lines are OK.
1982 If any ACLs are specified, then the <application>Privoxy</application>
1983 talks only to IP addresses that match at least one <literal>permit-access</literal> line
1984 and don't match any subsequent <literal>deny-access</literal> line. In other words, the
1985 last match wins, with the default being <literal>deny-access</literal>.
1988 If <application>Privoxy</application> is using a forwarder (see <literal>forward</literal> below)
1989 for a particular destination URL, the <replaceable class="parameter">dst_addr</replaceable>
1990 that is examined is the address of the forwarder and <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> the address
1991 of the ultimate target. This is necessary because it may be impossible for the local
1992 <application>Privoxy</application> to determine the IP address of the
1993 ultimate target (that's often what gateways are used for).
1996 You should prefer using IP addresses over DNS names, because the address lookups take
1997 time. All DNS names must resolve! You can <emphasis>not</emphasis> use domain patterns
1998 like <quote>*.org</quote> or partial domain names. If a DNS name resolves to multiple
1999 IP addresses, only the first one is used.
2002 Denying access to particular sites by ACL may have undesired side effects
2003 if the site in question is hosted on a machine which also hosts other sites.
2008 <term>Examples:</term>
2011 Explicitly define the default behavior if no ACL and
2012 <literal>listen-address</literal> are set: <quote>localhost</quote>
2013 is OK. The absence of a <replaceable class="parameter">dst_addr</replaceable> implies that
2014 <emphasis>all</emphasis> destination addresses are OK:
2018 permit-access localhost
2022 Allow any host on the same class C subnet as www.privoxy.org access to
2023 nothing but www.example.com:
2027 permit-access www.privoxy.org/24 www.example.com/32
2031 Allow access from any host on the 26-bit subnet 192.168.45.64 to anywhere,
2032 with the exception that 192.168.45.73 may not access www.dirty-stuff.example.com:
2036 permit-access 192.168.45.64/26
2037 deny-access 192.168.45.73 www.dirty-stuff.example.com
2045 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="buffer-limit"><title>buffer-limit</title>
2049 <term>Specifies:</term>
2052 Maximum size of the buffer for content filtering.
2057 <term>Type of value:</term>
2059 <para>Size in Kbytes</para>
2063 <term>Default value:</term>
2069 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
2072 Use a 4MB (4096 KB) limit.
2080 For content filtering, i.e. the <literal>+filter</literal> and
2081 <literal>+deanimate-gif</literal> actions, it is necessary that
2082 <application>Privoxy</application> buffers the entire document body.
2083 This can be potentially dangerous, since a server could just keep sending
2084 data indefinitely and wait for your RAM to exhaust -- with nasty consequences.
2088 When a document buffer size reaches the <literal>buffer-limit</literal>, it is
2089 flushed to the client unfiltered and no further attempt to
2090 filter the rest of the document is made. Remember that there may be multiple threads
2091 running, which might require up to <literal>buffer-limit</literal> Kbytes
2092 <emphasis>each</emphasis>, unless you have enabled <quote>single-threaded</quote>
2102 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2105 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2107 <sect2 id="forwarding">
2108 <title>Forwarding</title>
2111 This feature allows routing of HTTP requests through a chain of
2113 It can be used to better protect privacy and confidentiality when
2114 accessing specific domains by routing requests to those domains
2115 through an anonymous public proxy (see e.g. <ulink
2116 url="http://www.multiproxy.org/anon_list.htm">http://www.multiproxy.org/anon_list.htm</ulink>)
2117 Or to use a caching proxy to speed up browsing. Or chaining to a parent
2118 proxy may be necessary because the machine that <application>Privoxy</application>
2119 runs on has no direct Internet access.
2123 Also specified here are SOCKS proxies. <application>Privoxy</application>
2124 supports the SOCKS 4 and SOCKS 4A protocols.
2127 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="forward"><title>forward</title>
2130 <term>Specifies:</term>
2133 To which parent HTTP proxy specific requests should be routed.
2138 <term>Type of value:</term>
2141 <replaceable class="parameter">target_domain</replaceable>[:<replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable>]
2142 <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable>[/<replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable>]
2145 Where <replaceable class="parameter">target_domain</replaceable> is a domain name pattern (see the
2146 chapter on domain matching in the <filename>default.action</filename> file),
2147 <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable> is the address of the parent HTTP proxy
2148 as an IP addresses in dotted decimal notation or as a valid DNS name (or <quote>.</quote> to denote
2149 <quote>no forwarding</quote>, and the optional
2150 <replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable> parameters are TCP ports, i.e. integer
2151 values from 1 to 64535
2156 <term>Default value:</term>
2158 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
2162 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
2165 Don't use parent HTTP proxies.
2173 If <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable> is <quote>.</quote>, then requests are not
2174 forwarded to another HTTP proxy but are made directly to the web servers.
2177 Multiple lines are OK, they are checked in sequence, and the last match wins.
2182 <term>Examples:</term>
2185 Everything goes to an example anonymizing proxy, except SSL on port 443 (which it doesn't handle):
2189 forward .* anon-proxy.example.org:8080
2194 Everything goes to our example ISP's caching proxy, except for requests
2195 to that ISP's sites:
2199 forward .*. caching-proxy.example-isp.net:8000
2200 forward .example-isp.net .
2208 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="socks"><title>
2209 forward-socks4 and forward-socks4a</title>
2210 <anchor id="forward-socks4">
2211 <anchor id="forward-socks4a">
2215 <term>Specifies:</term>
2218 Through which SOCKS proxy (and to which parent HTTP proxy) specific requests should be routed.
2223 <term>Type of value:</term>
2226 <replaceable class="parameter">target_domain</replaceable>[:<replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable>]
2227 <replaceable class="parameter">socks_proxy</replaceable>[/<replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable>]
2228 <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable>[/<replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable>]
2231 Where <replaceable class="parameter">target_domain</replaceable> is a domain name pattern (see the
2232 chapter on domain matching in the <filename>default.action</filename> file),
2233 <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable> and <replaceable class="parameter">socks_proxy</replaceable>
2234 are IP addresses in dotted decimal notation or valid DNS names (<replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable>
2235 may be <quote>.</quote> to denote <quote>no HTTP forwarding</quote>), and the optional
2236 <replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable> parameters are TCP ports, i.e. integer values from 1 to 64535
2241 <term>Default value:</term>
2243 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
2247 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
2250 Don't use SOCKS proxies.
2258 Multiple lines are OK, they are checked in sequence, and the last match wins.
2261 The difference between <literal>forward-socks4</literal> and <literal>forward-socks4a</literal>
2262 is that in the SOCKS 4A protocol, the DNS resolution of the target hostname happens on the SOCKS
2263 server, while in SOCKS 4 it happens locally.
2266 If <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable> is <quote>.</quote>, then requests are not
2267 forwarded to another HTTP proxy but are made (HTTP-wise) directly to the web servers, albeit through
2273 <term>Examples:</term>
2276 From the company example.com, direct connections are made to all
2277 <quote>internal</quote> domains, but everything outbound goes through
2278 their ISP's proxy by way of example.com's corporate SOCKS 4A gateway to
2283 forward-socks4a .*. socks-gw.example.com:1080 www-cache.example-isp.net:8080
2284 forward .example.com .
2288 A rule that uses a SOCKS 4 gateway for all destinations but no HTTP parent looks like this:
2292 forward-socks4 .*. socks-gw.example.com:1080 .
2300 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="advanced-forwarding-examples"><title>Advanced Forwarding Examples</title>
2303 If you have links to multiple ISPs that provide various special content
2304 only to their subscribers, you can configure multiple <application>Privoxies</application>
2305 which have connections to the respective ISPs to act as forwarders to each other, so that
2306 <emphasis>your</emphasis> users can see the internal content of all ISPs.
2310 Assume that host-a has a PPP connection to isp-a.net. And host-b has a PPP connection to
2311 isp-b.net. Both run <application>Privoxy</application>. Their forwarding
2312 configuration can look like this:
2322 forward .isp-b.net host-b:8118
2333 forward .isp-a.net host-a:8118
2338 Now, your users can set their browser's proxy to use either
2339 host-a or host-b and be able to browse the internal content
2340 of both isp-a and isp-b.
2344 If you intend to chain <application>Privoxy</application> and
2345 <application>squid</application> locally, then chain as
2346 <literal>browser -> squid -> privoxy</literal> is the recommended way.
2350 Assuming that <application>Privoxy</application> and <application>squid</application>
2351 run on the same box, your squid configuration could then look like this:
2356 # Define Privoxy as parent proxy (without ICP)
2357 cache_peer 127.0.0.1 parent 8118 7 no-query
2359 # Define ACL for protocol FTP
2362 # Do not forward FTP requests to Privoxy
2363 always_direct allow ftp
2365 # Forward all the rest to Privoxy
2366 never_direct allow all</screen>
2370 You would then need to change your browser's proxy settings to <application>squid</application>'s address and port.
2371 Squid normally uses port 3128. If unsure consult <literal>http_port</literal> in <filename>squid.conf</filename>.
2378 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2381 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2383 <sect2 id="windows-gui">
2384 <title>Windows GUI Options</title>
2386 <application>Privoxy</application> has a number of options specific to the
2387 Windows GUI interface:
2390 <anchor id="activity-animation">
2392 If <quote>activity-animation</quote> is set to 1, the
2393 <application>Privoxy</application> icon will animate when
2394 <quote>Privoxy</quote> is active. To turn off, set to 0.
2401 <emphasis>activity-animation 1</emphasis>
2407 <anchor id="log-messages">
2409 If <quote>log-messages</quote> is set to 1,
2410 <application>Privoxy</application> will log messages to the console
2418 <emphasis>log-messages 1</emphasis>
2424 <anchor id="log-buffer-size">
2426 If <quote>log-buffer-size</quote> is set to 1, the size of the log buffer,
2427 i.e. the amount of memory used for the log messages displayed in the
2428 console window, will be limited to <quote>log-max-lines</quote> (see below).
2432 Warning: Setting this to 0 will result in the buffer to grow infinitely and
2433 eat up all your memory!
2440 <emphasis>log-buffer-size 1</emphasis>
2446 <anchor id="log-max-lines">
2448 <application>log-max-lines</application> is the maximum number of lines held
2449 in the log buffer. See above.
2456 <emphasis>log-max-lines 200</emphasis>
2462 <anchor id="log-highlight-messages">
2464 If <quote>log-highlight-messages</quote> is set to 1,
2465 <application>Privoxy</application> will highlight portions of the log
2466 messages with a bold-faced font:
2473 <emphasis>log-highlight-messages 1</emphasis>
2479 <anchor id="log-font-name">
2481 The font used in the console window:
2488 <emphasis>log-font-name Comic Sans MS</emphasis>
2494 <anchor id="log-font-size">
2496 Font size used in the console window:
2503 <emphasis>log-font-size 8</emphasis>
2509 <anchor id="show-on-task-bar">
2511 <quote>show-on-task-bar</quote> controls whether or not
2512 <application>Privoxy</application> will appear as a button on the Task bar
2520 <emphasis>show-on-task-bar 0</emphasis>
2526 <anchor id="close-button-minimizes">
2528 If <quote>close-button-minimizes</quote> is set to 1, the Windows close
2529 button will minimize <application>Privoxy</application> instead of closing
2530 the program (close with the exit option on the File menu).
2537 <emphasis>close-button-minimizes 1</emphasis>
2543 <anchor id="hide-console">
2545 The <quote>hide-console</quote> option is specific to the MS-Win console
2546 version of <application>Privoxy</application>. If this option is used,
2547 <application>Privoxy</application> will disconnect from and hide the
2555 #<emphasis>hide-console</emphasis>
2564 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2568 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
2570 <sect1 id="actions-file"><title>Actions Files</title>
2573 The actions files are used to define what actions
2574 <application>Privoxy</application> takes for which URLs, and thus determines
2575 how ad images, cookies and various other aspects of HTTP content and
2576 transactions are handled, and on which sites (or even parts thereof). There
2577 are three such files included with <application>Privoxy</application> (as of
2578 version 2.9.15), with differing purposes:
2585 <filename>standard.action</filename> - is used by the web based editor,
2586 to set various pre-defined sets of rules for the default actions section
2587 in <filename>default.action</filename>. These have increasing levels of
2588 aggressiveness. It is not recommend to edit this file.
2593 <filename>default.action</filename> - is the primary action file
2594 that sets the initial values for all actions. It is intended to
2595 provide a base level of functionality for
2596 <application>Privoxy's</application> array of features. So it is
2597 a set of broad rules that should work reasonably well for users everywhere.
2598 This is the file that the developers are keeping updated, and making
2604 <filename>user.action</filename> - is intended to be for local site
2605 preferences and exceptions. As an example, if your ISP or your bank
2606 has specific requirements, and need special handling, this kind of
2607 thing should go here. This file will not be upgraded.
2614 The list of actions files to be used are defined in the main configuration
2615 file, and are processed in the order they are defined. The content of these
2616 can all be viewed and edited from <ulink
2617 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
2621 An actions file typically has sections. Near the top, <quote>aliases</quote> are
2622 optionally defined (discussed <ulink
2623 url="actions-file.html#ALIASES">below</ulink>), then the default set of rules
2624 which will apply universally to all sites and pages. And then below that,
2625 exceptions to the defined universal policies.
2629 Actions can be used to block anything you want, including ads, banners, or
2630 just some obnoxious URL that you would rather not see. Cookies can be accepted
2631 or rejected, or accepted only during the current browser session (i.e. not
2632 written to disk), content can be modified, JavaScripts tamed, user-tracking
2633 fooled, and much more. See below for a complete list of actions.
2636 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2638 <title>Finding the Right Mix</title>
2640 Note that some <link linkend="actions">actions</link>, like cookie suppression
2641 or script disabling, may render some sites unusable that rely on these
2642 techniques to work properly. Finding the right mix of actions is not always easy and
2643 certainly a matter of personal taste. In general, it can be said that the more
2644 <quote>aggressive</quote> your default settings (in the top section of the
2645 actions file) are, the more exceptions for <quote>trusted</quote> sites you
2646 will have to make later. If, for example, you want to kill popup windows per
2647 default, you'll have to make exceptions from that rule for sites that you
2648 regularly use and that require popups for actually useful content, like maybe
2649 your bank, favorite shop, or newspaper.
2653 We have tried to provide you with reasonable rules to start from in the
2654 distribution actions files. But there is no general rule of thumb on these
2655 things. There just are too many variables, and sites are constantly changing.
2656 Sooner or later you will want to change the rules (and read this chapter again :).
2660 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2662 <title>How to Edit</title>
2664 The easiest way to edit the <quote>actions</quote> files is with a browser by
2665 using our browser-based editor, which can be reached from <ulink
2666 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
2670 If you prefer plain text editing to GUIs, you can of course also directly edit the
2677 <title>How Actions are Applied to URLs</title>
2679 Actions files are divided into sections. There are special sections,
2680 like the <quote><link linkend="aliases">alias</link></quote> sections which will be discussed later. For now
2681 let's concentrate on regular sections: They have a heading line (often split
2682 up to multiple lines for readability) which consist of a list of actions,
2683 separated by whitespace and enclosed in curly braces. Below that, there
2684 is a list of URL patterns, each on a separate line.
2688 To determine which actions apply to a request, the URL of the request is
2689 compared to all patterns in this file. Every time it matches, the list of
2690 applicable actions for the URL is incrementally updated, using the heading
2691 of the section in which the pattern is located. If multiple matches for
2692 the same URL set the same action differently, the last match wins. If not,
2693 the effects are aggregated (e.g. a URL might match both the
2694 <ulink url="actions-file.html#HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></ulink>
2695 and <ulink url="actions-file.html#BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></ulink> actions).
2700 You can trace this process by visiting <ulink
2701 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>.
2705 More detail on this is provided in the Appendix, <link linkend="ACTIONSANAT">
2706 Anatomy of an Action</link>.
2710 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2712 <title>Patterns</title>
2714 Generally, a pattern has the form <literal><domain>/<path></literal>,
2715 where both the <literal><domain></literal> and <literal><path></literal>
2716 are optional. (This is why the pattern <literal>/</literal> matches all URLs).
2721 <term><literal>www.example.com/</literal></term>
2724 is a domain-only pattern and will match any request to <literal>www.example.com</literal>,
2725 regardless of which document on that server is requested.
2730 <term><literal>www.example.com</literal></term>
2733 means exactly the same. For domain-only patterns, the trailing <literal>/</literal> may
2739 <term><literal>www.example.com/index.html</literal></term>
2742 matches only the single document <literal>/index.html</literal>
2743 on <literal>www.example.com</literal>.
2748 <term><literal>/index.html</literal></term>
2751 matches the document <literal>/index.html</literal>, regardless of the domain,
2752 i.e. on <emphasis>any</emphasis> web server.
2757 <term><literal>index.html</literal></term>
2760 matches nothing, since it would be interpreted as a domain name and
2761 there is no top-level domain called <literal>.html</literal>.
2768 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2769 <sect3><title>The Domain Pattern</title>
2772 The matching of the domain part offers some flexible options: if the
2773 domain starts or ends with a dot, it becomes unanchored at that end.
2779 <term><literal>.example.com</literal></term>
2782 matches any domain that <emphasis>ENDS</emphasis> in
2783 <literal>.example.com</literal>
2788 <term><literal>www.</literal></term>
2791 matches any domain that <emphasis>STARTS</emphasis> with
2792 <literal>www.</literal>
2797 <term><literal>.example.</literal></term>
2800 matches any domain that <emphasis>CONTAINS</emphasis> <literal>.example.</literal>
2801 (Correctly speaking: It matches any FQDN that contains <literal>example</literal> as a domain.)
2808 Additionally, there are wild-cards that you can use in the domain names
2809 themselves. They work pretty similar to shell wild-cards: <quote>*</quote>
2810 stands for zero or more arbitrary characters, <quote>?</quote> stands for
2811 any single character, you can define character classes in square
2812 brackets and all of that can be freely mixed:
2817 <term><literal>ad*.example.com</literal></term>
2820 matches <quote>adserver.example.com</quote>,
2821 <quote>ads.example.com</quote>, etc but not <quote>sfads.example.com</quote>
2826 <term><literal>*ad*.example.com</literal></term>
2829 matches all of the above, and then some.
2834 <term><literal>.?pix.com</literal></term>
2837 matches <literal>www.ipix.com</literal>,
2838 <literal>pictures.epix.com</literal>, <literal>a.b.c.d.e.upix.com</literal> etc.
2843 <term><literal>www[1-9a-ez].example.c*</literal></term>
2846 matches <literal>www1.example.com</literal>,
2847 <literal>www4.example.cc</literal>, <literal>wwwd.example.cy</literal>,
2848 <literal>wwwz.example.com</literal> etc., but <emphasis>not</emphasis>
2849 <literal>wwww.example.com</literal>.
2857 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2860 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2861 <sect3><title>The Path Pattern</title>
2864 <application>Privoxy</application> uses Perl compatible regular expressions
2865 (through the <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/">PCRE</ulink> library) for
2870 There is an <link linkend="regex">Appendix</link> with a brief quick-start into regular
2871 expressions, and full (very technical) documentation on PCRE regex syntax is available on-line
2872 at <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/man.txt">http://www.pcre.org/man.txt</ulink>.
2873 You might also find the Perl man page on regular expressions (<literal>man perlre</literal>)
2874 useful, which is available on-line at <ulink
2875 url="http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html">http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html</ulink>.
2879 Note that the path pattern is automatically left-anchored at the <quote>/</quote>,
2880 i.e. it matches as if it would start with a <quote>^</quote> (regular expression speak
2881 for the beginning of a line).
2885 Please also note that matching in the path is case
2886 <emphasis>INSENSITIVE</emphasis> by default, but you can switch to case
2887 sensitive at any point in the pattern by using the
2888 <quote>(?-i)</quote> switch:
2889 <literal>www.example.com/(?-i)PaTtErN.*</literal> will match only
2890 documents whose path starts with <literal>PaTtErN</literal> in
2891 <emphasis>exactly</emphasis> this capitalization.
2897 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2900 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2902 <sect2 id="actions">
2903 <title>Actions</title>
2905 All actions are disabled by default, until they are explicitly enabled
2906 somewhere in an actions file. Actions are turned on if preceded with a
2907 <quote>+</quote>, and turned off if preceded with a <quote>-</quote>. So a
2908 <quote>+action</quote> means <quote>do that action</quote>, e.g.
2909 <quote>+block</quote> means please <quote>block the following URL
2914 Actions are invoked by enclosing the action name in curly braces (e.g.
2915 {+some_action}), followed by a list of URLs (or patterns that match URLs) to
2916 which the action applies. There are three classes of actions:
2924 Boolean, i.e the action can only be <quote>on</quote> or
2925 <quote>off</quote>. Examples:
2931 <emphasis>{+name}</emphasis> # enable this action
2932 <emphasis>{-name}</emphasis> # disable this action
2942 Parameterized, e.g. <quote>+/-hide-user-agent{ Mozilla 1.0 }</quote>,
2943 where some value is required in order to enable this type of action.
2950 <emphasis>{+name{param}}</emphasis> # enable action and set parameter to <quote>param</quote>
2951 <emphasis>{-name}</emphasis> # disable action (<quote>parameter</quote>) can be omitted
2960 <!-- oes, or someone, check this. Re-worded 04/20/02 HB. -->
2961 Multi-value, e.g. <quote>{+/-add-header{Name: value}}</quote> or
2962 <quote>{+/-send-wafer{name=value}}</quote>), where some value needs to be defined
2963 in addition to simply enabling the action. Examples:
2969 <emphasis>{+name{param=value}}</emphasis> # enable action and set <quote>param</quote> to <quote>value</quote>
2970 <emphasis>{-name{param=value}}</emphasis> # remove the parameter <quote>param</quote> completely
2971 <emphasis>{-name}</emphasis> # disable this action totally and remove <application>param</application> too
2982 If nothing is specified in any actions file, no <quote>actions</quote> are
2983 taken. So in this case <application>Privoxy</application> would just be a
2984 normal, non-blocking, non-anonymizing proxy. You must specifically enable the
2985 privacy and blocking features you need (although the provided default actions
2986 files will give a good starting point).
2990 Later defined actions always over-ride earlier ones. So exceptions
2991 to any rules you make, should come in the latter part of the file (or
2992 in a file that is processed later when using multiple actions files). For
2993 multi-valued actions, the actions are applied in the order they are specified.
2994 Actions files are processed in the order they are defined in
2995 <filename>config</filename> (the default installation has three actions
2996 files). It also quite possible for any given URL pattern to match more than
3000 <!-- start actions listing -->
3002 The list of valid <application>Privoxy</application> <quote>actions</quote> are:
3006 <!-- ********************************************************** -->
3007 <!-- Please note the below defined actions use id's that are -->
3008 <!-- probably linked from other places, so please don't change. -->
3010 <!-- ********************************************************** -->
3013 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3015 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="add-header">
3016 <title><emphasis>+add-header</emphasis></title>
3021 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3023 <para>Multi-value.</para>
3028 <term>Typical uses:</term>
3031 Send a user defined HTTP header to the web server.
3037 <term>Possible values:</term>
3040 Any value is possible. Validity of the defined HTTP headers is not checked.
3046 <term>Example usage:</term>
3049 <emphasis>{+add-header{X-User-Tracking: sucks}}</emphasis>
3050 <emphasis>.example.com</emphasis>
3059 This action may be specified multiple times, in order to define multiple
3060 headers. This is rarely needed for the typical user. If you don't know what
3061 <quote>HTTP headers</quote> are, you definitely don't need to worry about this
3070 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3071 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="block">
3072 <title><emphasis>+block</emphasis></title>
3077 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3079 <para>Boolean.</para>
3084 <term>Typical uses:</term>
3087 Used to block a URL from reaching your browser. The URL may be
3088 anything, but is typically used to block ads or other obnoxious
3095 <term>Possible values:</term>
3102 <term>Example usage:</term>
3105 <emphasis>{+block}</emphasis>
3106 <emphasis>.banners.example.com</emphasis>
3107 <emphasis>.ads.r.us</emphasis>
3116 If a URL matches one of the blocked patterns, <application>Privoxy</application>
3117 will intercept the URL and display its special <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page
3118 instead. If there is sufficient space, a large red banner will appear with
3119 a friendly message about why the page was blocked, and a way to go there
3120 anyway. If there is insufficient space a smaller <quote>BLOCKED</quote>
3121 page will appear without the red banner.
3122 <ulink url="http://ads.bannerserver.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor.html">Click here</ulink>
3123 to view the default blocked HTML page (<application>Privoxy</application> must be running
3124 for this to work as intended!).
3128 A very important exception is if the URL <emphasis>matches both</emphasis>
3129 <quote>+block</quote> and <ulink
3130 url="actions-file.html#HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></ulink>,
3131 then it will be handled by
3132 <ulink url="actions-file.html#SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"><quote>+set-image-blocker</quote></ulink>
3133 (see below). It is important to understand this process, in order
3134 to understand how <application>Privoxy</application> is able to deal with
3135 ads and other objectionable content.
3138 The <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></ulink>
3139 action can also perform some of the
3140 same functionality as <quote>+block</quote>, but by virtue of very
3141 different programming techniques, and is most often used for different
3151 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3152 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="deanimate-gifs">
3153 <title><emphasis>+deanimate-gifs</emphasis></title>
3158 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3160 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3165 <term>Typical uses:</term>
3168 To stop those annoying, distracting animated GIF images.
3174 <term>Possible values:</term>
3177 <quote>last</quote> or <quote>first</quote>
3183 <term>Example usage:</term>
3186 <emphasis>{+deanimate-gifs{last}}</emphasis>
3187 <emphasis>.example.com</emphasis>
3196 De-animate all animated GIF images, i.e. reduce them to their last frame.
3197 This will also shrink the images considerably (in bytes, not pixels!). If
3198 the option <quote>first</quote> is given, the first frame of the animation
3199 is used as the replacement. If <quote>last</quote> is given, the last
3200 frame of the animation is used instead, which probably makes more sense for
3201 most banner animations, but also has the risk of not showing the entire
3202 last frame (if it is only a delta to an earlier frame).
3210 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3211 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="downgrade-http-version">
3212 <title><emphasis>+downgrade-http-version</emphasis></title>
3217 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3219 <para>Boolean.</para>
3224 <term>Typical uses:</term>
3227 <quote>+downgrade-http-version</quote> will downgrade HTTP/1.1 client requests to
3228 HTTP/1.0 and downgrade the responses as well.
3234 <term>Possible values:</term>
3243 <term>Example usage:</term>
3246 <emphasis>{+downgrade-http-version}</emphasis>
3247 <emphasis>.example.com</emphasis>
3256 Use this action for servers that use HTTP/1.1 protocol features that
3257 <application>Privoxy</application> doesn't handle well yet. HTTP/1.1 is
3258 only partially implemented. Default is not to downgrade requests. This is
3259 an infrequently needed action, and is used to help with rare problem sites only.
3267 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3268 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="fast-redirects">
3269 <title><emphasis>+fast-redirects</emphasis></title>
3274 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3276 <para>Boolean.</para>
3281 <term>Typical uses:</term>
3284 The <quote>+fast-redirects</quote> action enables interception of
3285 <quote>redirect</quote> requests from one server to another, which
3286 are used to track users.<application>Privoxy</application> can cut off
3287 all but the last valid URL in a redirect request and send a local redirect
3288 back to your browser without contacting the intermediate site(s).
3294 <term>Possible values:</term>
3303 <term>Example usage:</term>
3306 <emphasis>{+fast-redirects}</emphasis>
3307 <emphasis>.example.com</emphasis>
3316 Many sites, like yahoo.com, don't just link to other sites. Instead, they
3317 will link to some script on their own server, giving the destination as a
3318 parameter, which will then redirect you to the final target. URLs
3319 resulting from this scheme typically look like:
3320 <emphasis>http://some.place/some_script?http://some.where-else</emphasis>.
3323 Sometimes, there are even multiple consecutive redirects encoded in the
3324 URL. These redirections via scripts make your web browsing more traceable,
3325 since the server from which you follow such a link can see where you go
3326 to. Apart from that, valuable bandwidth and time is wasted, while your
3327 browser ask the server for one redirect after the other. Plus, it feeds
3331 This is a normally <quote>on</quote> feature, and often requires exceptions
3332 for sites that are sensitive to defeating this mechanism.
3341 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3342 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="filter">
3343 <title><emphasis>+filter</emphasis></title>
3348 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3350 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3355 <term>Typical uses:</term>
3358 Apply page filtering as defined by named sections of the
3359 <filename>default.filter</filename> file to the specified site(s).
3360 <quote>Filtering</quote> can be any modification of the raw
3361 page content, including re-writing or deletion of content.
3367 <term>Possible values:</term>
3370 <quote>+filter</quote> must include the name of one of the section identifiers
3371 from <filename>default.filter</filename> (or whatever
3372 <emphasis>filterfile</emphasis> is specified in <filename>config</filename>).
3378 <term>Example usage (from the current <filename>default.filter</filename>):</term>
3382 <anchor id="filter-html-annoyances">
3383 <emphasis>+filter{html-annoyances}</emphasis>: Get rid of particularly annoying HTML abuse.
3388 <anchor id="filter-js-annoyances">
3389 <emphasis>+filter{js-annoyances}</emphasis>: Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse
3394 <anchor id="filter-content-cookies">
3395 <emphasis>+filter{content-cookies}</emphasis>: Kill cookies that come in the HTML or JS content
3400 <anchor id="filter-popups">
3401 <emphasis>+filter{popups}</emphasis>: Kill all popups in JS and HTML
3406 <anchor id="filter-frameset-borders">
3407 <emphasis>+filter{frameset-borders}</emphasis>: Give frames a border and make them resizable
3412 <anchor id="filter-webbugs">
3413 <emphasis>+filter{webbugs}</emphasis>: Squish WebBugs (1x1 invisible GIFs used for user tracking)
3418 <anchor id="filter-refresh-tags">
3419 <emphasis>+filter{refresh-tags}</emphasis>: Kill automatic refresh tags (for dial-on-demand setups)
3424 <anchor id="filter-fun">
3425 <emphasis>+filter{fun}</emphasis>: Text replacements for subversive browsing fun!
3430 <anchor id="filter-nimda">
3431 <emphasis>+filter{nimda}</emphasis>: Remove Nimda (virus) code.
3436 <anchor id="filter-banners-by-size">
3437 <emphasis>+filter{banners-by-size}</emphasis>: Kill banners by size (<emphasis>very</emphasis> efficient!)
3442 <anchor id="filter-shockwave-flash">
3443 <emphasis>+filter{shockwave-flash}</emphasis>: Kill embedded Shockwave Flash objects
3448 <anchor id="filter-crude-parental">
3449 <emphasis>+filter{crude-parental}</emphasis>: Kill all web pages that contain the words "sex" or "warez"
3459 This is potentially a very powerful feature! And requires a knowledge
3460 of regular expressions if you want to <quote>roll your own</quote>.
3461 Filtering operates on a line by line basis throughout the entire page.
3464 Filtering requires buffering the page content, which may appear to
3465 slow down page rendering since nothing is displayed until all content has
3466 passed the filters. (It does not really take longer, but seems that way
3467 since the page is not incrementally displayed.) This effect will be more
3468 noticeable on slower connections.
3471 Filtering can achieve some of the effects as the
3472 <ulink url="actions-file#BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></ulink>
3473 action, i.e. it can be used to block ads and banners. In the overall
3474 scheme of things, filtering is one of the first things <quote>Privoxy</quote>
3475 does with a web page. So other most other actions are applied to the
3476 already <quote>filtered</quote> page.
3485 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3486 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-forwarded-for-headers">
3487 <title><emphasis>+hide-forwarded-for-headers</emphasis></title>
3492 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3494 <para>Boolean.</para>
3499 <term>Typical uses:</term>
3502 Block any existing X-Forwarded-for HTTP header, and do not add a new one.
3508 <term>Possible values:</term>
3517 <term>Example usage:</term>
3520 <emphasis>{+hide-forwarded-for-headers}</emphasis>
3521 <emphasis>.example.com</emphasis>
3530 It is fairly safe to leave this on. It does not seem to break many sites.
3539 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3540 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-from-header">
3541 <title><emphasis>+hide-from-header</emphasis></title>
3546 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3548 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3553 <term>Typical uses:</term>
3556 To block the browser from sending your email address in a <quote>From:</quote>
3563 <term>Possible values:</term>
3566 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
3572 <term>Example usage:</term>
3575 <emphasis>{+hide-from-header{block}}</emphasis>
3576 <emphasis>.example.com</emphasis>
3585 The keyword <quote>block</quote> will completely remove the header
3586 (not to be confused with the <ulink
3587 url="actions-file.html#BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></ulink> action).
3588 Alternately, you can specify any value you prefer to send to the web
3598 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3599 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-referer">
3600 <title><emphasis>+hide-referer</emphasis></title>
3601 <anchor id="hide-referrer">
3605 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3607 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3612 <term>Typical uses:</term>
3615 Don't send the <quote>Referer:</quote> (sic) HTTP header to the web site.
3616 Or, alternately send a forged header instead.
3622 <term>Possible values:</term>
3625 Prevent the header from being sent with the keyword, <quote>block</quote>.
3626 Or, <quote>forge</quote> a URL to one from the same server as the request.
3627 Or, set to user defined value of your choice.
3633 <term>Example usage:</term>
3636 <emphasis>{+hide-referer{forge}}</emphasis>
3637 <emphasis>.example.com</emphasis>
3646 <quote>forge</quote> is the preferred option here, since some servers will
3647 not send images back otherwise.
3650 <quote>+hide-referrer</quote> is an alternate spelling of
3651 <quote>+hide-referer</quote>. It has the exact same parameters, and can be freely
3652 mixed with, <quote>+hide-referer</quote>. (<quote>referrer</quote> is the
3653 correct English spelling, however the HTTP specification has a bug - it
3654 requires it to be spelled as <quote>referer</quote>.)
3663 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3664 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-user-agent">
3665 <title><emphasis>+hide-user-agent</emphasis></title>
3670 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3672 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3677 <term>Typical uses:</term>
3680 To change the <quote>User-Agent:</quote> header so web servers can't tell
3681 your browser type. Who's business is it anyway?
3687 <term>Possible values:</term>
3690 Any user defined string.
3696 <term>Example usage:</term>
3699 <emphasis>{+hide-user-agent{Netscape 6.1 (X11; I; Linux 2.4.18 i686)}}</emphasis>
3700 <emphasis>.msn.com</emphasis>
3709 Warning! This breaks many web sites that depend on this in order
3710 to determine how the target browser will respond to various
3711 requests. Use with caution.
3719 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3720 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="handle-as-image">
3721 <title><emphasis>+handle-as-image</emphasis></title>
3726 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3728 <para>Boolean.</para>
3733 <term>Typical uses:</term>
3736 To define what <application>Privoxy</application> should treat
3737 automatically as an image, and is an important ingredient of how
3744 <term>Possible values:</term>
3753 <term>Example usage:</term>
3756 <emphasis>{+handle-as-image}</emphasis>
3757 <emphasis>/.*\.(gif|jpg|jpeg|png|bmp|ico)</emphasis>
3766 This only has meaning if the URL (or pattern) also is
3767 <quote>+block</quote>ed, in which case a user definable image can
3768 be sent rather than a HTML page. This is integral to the whole concept of
3769 ad blocking: the URL must match <emphasis>both</emphasis> a <ulink
3770 url="actions-file.html#BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></ulink> rule,
3771 <emphasis>and</emphasis> <quote>+handle-as-image</quote>.
3773 url="actions-file.html#SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"><quote>+set-image-blocker</quote></ulink>
3774 below for control over what will actually be displayed by the browser.)
3777 There is little reason to change the default definition for this action.
3786 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3787 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="set-image-blocker">
3788 <title><emphasis>+set-image-blocker</emphasis></title>
3793 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3795 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3800 <term>Typical uses:</term>
3803 Decide what to do with URLs that end up tagged with <emphasis>both</emphasis>
3804 <ulink url="actions-file.html#BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></ulink>
3806 url="actions-file.html#HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></ulink>,
3807 e.g an advertisement.
3813 <term>Possible values:</term>
3816 There are four available options: <quote>-set-image-blocker</quote> will send a HTML
3817 <quote>blocked</quote> page, usually resulting in a <quote>broken
3819 <quote>+set-image-blocker{<emphasis>blank</emphasis>}</quote> will send a
3820 1x1 transparent GIF image.
3821 <quote>+set-image-blocker{<emphasis>pattern</emphasis>}</quote> will send a
3822 checkerboard type pattern (the default). And finally,
3823 <quote>+set-image-blocker{<emphasis>http://xyz.com</emphasis>}</quote> will
3824 send a HTTP temporary redirect to the specified image. This has the
3825 advantage of the icon being being cached by the browser, which will speed
3832 <term>Example usage:</term>
3835 <emphasis>{+set-image-blocker{blank}}</emphasis>
3836 <emphasis>.example.com</emphasis>
3845 If you want <emphasis>invisible</emphasis> ads, they need to meet
3846 criteria as matching both <emphasis>images</emphasis> and <emphasis>blocked</emphasis>
3847 actions. And then, <quote>image-blocker</quote> should be set to
3848 <quote>blank</quote> for invisibility. Note you cannot treat HTML pages as
3849 images in most cases. For instance, frames require an HTML page to
3850 display. So a frame that is an ad, typically cannot be treated as an image.
3851 Forcing an <quote>image</quote> in this situation just will not work
3860 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3861 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="limit-connect">
3862 <title><emphasis>+limit-connect</emphasis></title>
3867 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3869 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3874 <term>Typical uses:</term>
3877 By default, <application>Privoxy</application> only allows HTTP CONNECT
3878 requests to port 443 (the standard, secure HTTPS port). Use
3879 <quote>+limit-connect</quote> to disable this altogether, or to allow
3886 <term>Possible values:</term>
3889 Any valid port number, or port number range.
3895 <term>Example usages:</term>
3897 <!-- I had trouble getting the spacing to look right in my browser -->
3898 <!-- I probably have the wrong font setup, bollocks. -->
3899 <!-- Apparently the emphasis tag uses a proportional font no matter what -->
3901 <emphasis>+limit-connect{443}</emphasis> # This is the default and need not be specified.
3902 <emphasis>+limit-connect{80,443}</emphasis> # Ports 80 and 443 are OK.
3903 <emphasis>+limit-connect{-3, 7, 20-100, 500-}</emphasis> # Port less than 3, 7, 20 to 100 and above 500 are OK.
3912 The CONNECT methods exists in HTTP to allow access to secure websites
3913 (https:// URLs) through proxies. It works very simply: the proxy connects
3914 to the server on the specified port, and then short-circuits its
3915 connections to the client <emphasis>and</emphasis> to the remote proxy.
3916 This can be a big security hole, since CONNECT-enabled proxies can be
3917 abused as TCP relays very easily.
3920 If you want to allow CONNECT for more ports than this, or want to forbid
3921 CONNECT altogether, you can specify a comma separated list of ports and
3922 port ranges (the latter using dashes, with the minimum defaulting to 0 and
3926 If you don't know what any of this means, there probably is no reason to
3935 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3936 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="prevent-compression">
3937 <title><emphasis>+prevent-compression</emphasis></title>
3942 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3944 <para>Boolean.</para>
3949 <term>Typical uses:</term>
3952 Prevent the specified websites from compressing HTTP data.
3958 <term>Possible values:</term>
3967 <term>Example usage:</term>
3970 <emphasis>{+prevent-compression}</emphasis>
3971 <emphasis>.example.com</emphasis>
3980 Some websites do this, which can be a problem for
3981 <application>Privoxy</application>, since
3982 <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></ulink>,
3983 <ulink url="actions-file.html#KILL-POPUPS"><quote>+kill-popups</quote></ulink>
3985 url="actions-file.html#GIF-DEANIMATE"><quote>+gif-deanimate</quote></ulink>
3986 will not work on compressed data. This will slow down connections to those
3987 websites, though. Default typically is to turn
3988 <quote>prevent-compression</quote> on.
3996 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3997 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="session-cookies-only">
3998 <title><emphasis>+session-cookies-only</emphasis></title>
4003 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4005 <para>Boolean.</para>
4010 <term>Typical uses:</term>
4013 Allow cookies for the current browser session <emphasis>only</emphasis>.
4019 <term>Possible values:</term>
4028 <term>Example usage (disabling):</term>
4031 <emphasis>{-session-cookies-only}</emphasis>
4032 <emphasis>.example.com</emphasis>
4041 If websites set cookies, <quote>+session-cookies-only</quote> will make sure
4042 they are erased when you exit and restart your web browser. This makes
4043 profiling cookies useless, but won't break sites which require cookies so
4044 that you can log in for transactions. This is generally turned on for all
4045 sites, and is the recommended setting.
4048 <quote>+prevent-*-cookies</quote> actions should be turned off as well (see
4049 below), for <quote>+session-cookies-only</quote> to work. Or, else no cookies
4050 will get through at all. For, <quote>persistent</quote> cookies that survive
4051 across browser sessions, see below as well.
4060 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4061 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="prevent-reading-cookies">
4062 <title><emphasis>+prevent-reading-cookies</emphasis></title>
4067 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4069 <para>Boolean.</para>
4074 <term>Typical uses:</term>
4077 Explicitly prevent the web server from reading any cookies on your
4084 <term>Possible values:</term>
4093 <term>Example usage:</term>
4096 <emphasis>{+prevent-reading-cookies}</emphasis>
4097 <emphasis>.example.com</emphasis>
4106 Often used in conjunction with <quote>+prevent-setting-cookies</quote> to
4107 disable cookies completely. Note that
4108 <ulink url="actions-file.html#SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"><quote>+session-cookies-only</quote></ulink>
4109 requires these to both be disabled (or else it never gets any cookies to cache).
4112 For <quote>persistent</quote> cookies to work (i.e. they survive across browser
4113 sessions and reboots), all three cookie settings should be <quote>off</quote>
4114 for the specified sites.
4123 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4124 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="prevent-setting-cookies">
4125 <title><emphasis>+prevent-setting-cookies</emphasis></title>
4130 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4132 <para>Boolean.</para>
4137 <term>Typical uses:</term>
4140 Explicitly block the web server from storing cookies on your
4147 <term>Possible values:</term>
4156 <term>Example usage:</term>
4159 <emphasis>{+prevent-setting-cookies}</emphasis>
4160 <emphasis>.example.com</emphasis>
4169 Often used in conjunction with <quote>+prevent-reading-cookies</quote> to
4170 disable cookies completely (see above).
4179 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4180 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="kill-popup">
4181 <title><emphasis>+kill-popups<anchor id="kill-popups"></emphasis></title>
4185 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4187 <para>Boolean.</para>
4192 <term>Typical uses:</term>
4195 Stop those annoying JavaScript pop-up windows!
4201 <term>Possible values:</term>
4210 <term>Example usage:</term>
4213 <emphasis>{+kill-popups}</emphasis>
4214 <emphasis>.example.com</emphasis>
4223 <quote>+kill-popups</quote> uses a built in filter to disable pop-ups
4224 that use the <literal>window.open()</literal> function, etc. This is
4225 one of the first actions processed by <application>Privoxy</application>
4226 as it contacts the remote web server. This action is not always 100% reliable,
4227 and is supplemented by <quote>+filter{<emphasis>popups</emphasis>}</quote>.
4231 An alternate spelling is <quote>+kill-popup</quote>, which is
4242 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4243 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="send-vanilla-wafer">
4244 <title><emphasis>+send-vanilla-wafer</emphasis></title>
4249 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4251 <para>Boolean.</para>
4256 <term>Typical uses:</term>
4259 Sends a cookie for every site stating that you do not accept any copyright
4260 on cookies sent to you, and asking them not to track you.
4266 <term>Possible values:</term>
4275 <term>Example usage:</term>
4278 <emphasis>{+send-vanilla-wafer}</emphasis>
4279 <emphasis>.example.com</emphasis>
4288 This action only applies if you are using a <filename>jarfile</filename>
4289 for saving cookies. Of course, this is a (relatively) unique header and
4290 could conceivably be used to track you.
4299 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4300 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="send-wafer">
4301 <title><emphasis>+send-wafer</emphasis></title>
4306 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4308 <para>Multi-value.</para>
4313 <term>Typical uses:</term>
4316 This allows you to send an arbitrary, user definable cookie.
4322 <term>Possible values:</term>
4325 User specified cookie name and corresponding value.
4331 <term>Example usage:</term>
4334 <emphasis>{+send-wafer{name=value}}</emphasis>
4335 <emphasis>.example.com</emphasis>
4344 This can be specified multiple times in order to add as many cookies as you
4354 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4356 <title>Summary</title>
4358 Note that many of these actions have the potential to cause a page to
4359 misbehave, possibly even not to display at all. There are many ways
4360 a site designer may choose to design his site, and what HTTP header
4361 content, and other criteria, he may depend on. There is no way to have hard
4362 and fast rules for all sites. See the <link
4363 linkend="ACTIONSANAT">Appendix</link> for a brief example on troubleshooting
4369 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4370 <sect3 renderas="sect2" id="act-examples">
4371 <title>Sample Actions Files</title>
4373 Remember that the meaning of any of the above references is reversed by preceding
4374 the action with a <quote>-</quote>, in place of the <quote>+</quote>. Also,
4375 that some actions are turned on in the default section of the actions file,
4376 and require little to no additional configuration. These are just <quote>on</quote>.
4380 But, other actions that are turned on in the default section <emphasis>do
4381 typically require</emphasis> exceptions to be listed in the latter sections of
4382 one of our actions file. For instance, by default no URLs are
4383 <quote>blocked</quote> (i.e. in the default definitions of
4384 <filename>default.action</filename>). We need exceptions to this in order to
4385 <emphasis>enable</emphasis> ad blocking in the lower sections. But we need to
4386 be very selective about what we do block. Thus, the default is <quote>off</quote>
4391 Below is a liberally commented sample <filename>default.action</filename> file
4392 to demonstrate how all the pieces come together. And to show how exceptions
4393 to the default policies can be handled. This is followed by a brief
4394 <filename>user.action</filename> with similar examples.
4401 # Sample default.action file <developers@privoxy.org>
4403 # Settings -- Don't change! For internal Privoxy use ONLY.
4405 for-privoxy-version=3.0
4408 ##########################################################################
4409 # <ulink url="actions-file.html#ALIASES">Aliases</ulink> must be defined *before* they are used. These are
4410 # easier to remember, and can combine several actions into one. Once
4411 # defined they can be used just like any built-in action -- but within
4412 # this file only! Aliases do not require a + or - sign.
4413 ##########################################################################
4415 # Some useful aliases.
4416 # Alias to turn off cookie handling, ie allow all cookies unmolested.
4417 -prevent-cookies = -prevent-setting-cookies -prevent-reading-cookies \
4418 -session-cookies-only
4420 # Alias to both block and treat as if an image for ad blocking
4422 +imageblock = +block +handle-as-image
4424 # Fragile sites should have the minimum changes:
4425 fragile = -block -deanimate-gifs -fast-redirects -filter -hide-referer \
4426 -prevent-cookies -kill-popups
4428 # Shops should be allowed to set persistent cookies
4429 shop = -filter -prevent-cookies -session-cookies-only
4432 ##########################################################################
4433 # Begin default action settings. Anything in this section will match
4434 # all URLs -- UNLESS we have exceptions that also match, defined below this
4435 # section. We will show all potential actions here whether they are on
4436 # or off. We could omit any disabled action if we wanted, since all
4437 # actions are 'off' by default anyway. Shown for completeness only.
4438 # Actions are enabled if preceded by a '+', otherwise they are disabled
4439 # (unless an alias has been defined without this).
4440 ##########################################################################
4442 <ulink url="actions-file.html#ADD-HEADER">-add-header</ulink> \
4443 <ulink url="actions-file.html#BLOCK">-block</ulink> \
4444 <ulink url="actions-file.html#DEANIMATE-GIFS">-deanimate-gifs</ulink> \
4445 <ulink url="actions-file.html#DOWNGRADE-HTTP-VERSION">-downgrade-http-version</ulink> \
4446 <ulink url="actions-file.html#FAST-REDIRECTS">+fast-redirects</ulink> \
4447 <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER-HTML-ANNOYANCES">+filter{html-annoyances}</ulink> \
4448 <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER-JS-ANNOYANCES">+filter{js-annoyances}</ulink> \
4449 <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">-filter{content-cookies}</ulink> \
4450 <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER-POPUPS">-filter{popups}</ulink> \
4451 <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER-WEBBUGS">+filter{webbugs}</ulink> \
4452 <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER-REFRESH-TAGS">-filter{refresh-tags}</ulink> \
4453 <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER-FUN">-filter{fun}</ulink> \
4454 <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER-NIMDA">+filter{nimda}</ulink> \
4455 <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER-BANNERS-BY-SIZE">+filter{banners-by-size}</ulink> \
4456 <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER-SHOCKWAVE-FLASH">-filter{shockwave-flash}</ulink> \
4457 <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER-CRUDE-PARENTAL">-filter{crude-prental}</ulink> \
4458 <ulink url="actions-file.html#HIDE-FORWARDED-FOR-HEADERS">+hide-forwarded-for-headers</ulink> \
4459 <ulink url="actions-file.html#HIDE-FROM-HEADER">+hide-from-header{block}</ulink> \
4460 <ulink url="actions-file.html#HIDE-REFERER">-hide-referrer</ulink> \
4461 <ulink url="actions-file.html#HIDE-USER-AGENT">-hide-user-agent</ulink> \
4462 <ulink url="actions-file.html#HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">-handle-as-image</ulink> \
4463 <ulink url="actions-file.html#SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER">+set-image-blocker{pattern}</ulink> \
4464 <ulink url="actions-file.html#LIMIT-CONNECT">-limit-connect</ulink> \
4465 <ulink url="actions-file.html#PREVENT-COMPRESSION">+prevent-compression</ulink> \
4466 <ulink url="actions-file.html#SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">-session-cookies-only</ulink> \
4467 <ulink url="actions-file.html#PREVENT-READING-COOKIES">-prevent-reading-cookies</ulink> \
4468 <ulink url="actions-file.html#PREVENT-SETTING-COOKIES">-prevent-setting-cookies</ulink> \
4469 <ulink url="actions-file.html#KILL-POPUPS">-kill-popups</ulink> \
4470 <ulink url="actions-file.html#SEND-VANILLA-WAFER">-send-vanilla-wafer</ulink> \
4471 <ulink url="actions-file.html#SEND-WAFER">-send-wafer</ulink> \
4473 / # forward slash will match *all* potential URL patterns.
4475 ##########################################################################
4476 # Default behavior is now set. Now we will define some exceptions to our
4477 # default action policies.
4478 ##########################################################################
4480 # These sites are very complex and require very minimal interference.
4481 # We'll disable most actions with our 'fragile' alias:
4483 .office.microsoft.com # surprise, surprise!
4484 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com
4487 # Shopping sites - not as fragile but require some special
4488 # handling. We still want to block ads, and we will allow
4489 # persistant cookies via the 'shop' alias:
4492 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
4497 # These sites require pop-ups too :( We'll combine our 'shop'
4498 # alias with two other actions into one rule to allow all popups.
4499 { shop <ulink url="actions-file.html#KILL-POPUPS">-kill-popups</ulink> <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER-POPUPS">-filter{popups}</ulink> }
4504 # The 'Fast-redirects' action breaks some sites. Disable this action
4505 # for these known sensitive sites:
4506 { <ulink url="actions-file.html#FAST-REDIRECTS">-fast-redirects</ulink> }
4508 edit.europe.yahoo.com
4510 .altavista.com/.*(like|url|link):http
4511 .altavista.com/trans.*urltext=http
4515 # Define which file types will be treated as images. Important
4517 { <ulink url="actions-file.html#HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">+handle-as-image</ulink> }
4518 /.*\.(gif|jpe?g|png|bmp|ico)
4521 # Now lets list some domains that are known ad generators. And
4522 # our alias that we use here will block these as well as force
4523 # them to be treated as images. This combination of actions is
4524 # important for ad blocking. What the browser will show instead is
4525 # determined by the setting of <ulink url="actions-file.html#SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"><quote>+set-image-blocker</quote></ulink>
4529 .a.yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$
4530 .a[0-9].yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$
4534 ad.*.doubleclick.net
4537 # These will just simply be blocked. They will generate the BLOCKED
4538 # banner page, if matched. Heavy use of wildcards and regular
4539 # expressions in this example. Enable block action:
4540 { <ulink url="actions-file.html#BLOCK">+block</ulink> }
4545 /.*count(er)?\.(pl|cgi|exe|dll|asp|php[34]?)
4546 /(?:.*/)?(publicite|werbung|rekla(ma|me|am)|annonse|maino(kset|nta|s)?)/
4550 # The above block section will probably inadvertantly catch some
4551 # sites we DO NOT want blocked via the wildcards and regular expressions.
4552 # Now let's set exceptions to the exceptions so the good guys get better
4553 # treatment. Disable block action:
4554 { <ulink url="actions-file.html#BLOCK">-block</ulink> }
4559 # Let's just trust all .edu top level domains.
4561 www.ugu.com/sui/ugu/adv
4562 # We'll need to access to path names containing 'download'
4565 # 'adv' is for globalintersec and means advanced, not advertisement
4566 www.globalintersec.com/adv
4569 # Don't filter *anything* from our friends at sourceforge.
4570 # Notice we don't have to name the individual filter
4571 # identifiers -- we just turn them all off in one fell swoop.
4572 # Disable all filters for this one site:
4573 { <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER">-filter</ulink> }
4581 So far we are painting with a broad brush by setting general policies.
4582 The above would be a reasonable starting point for many situations. Now,
4583 we want to be more specific and have customized rules that are more suitable
4584 to our personal habits and preferences. These would be for narrowly defined
4585 situations like your ISP or your bank, and should be placed in
4586 <filename>user.action</filename>, which is parsed after all other
4587 actions files and should not be clobbered by upgrades. So any settings here,
4588 will have the last word and over-ride any previously defined actions.
4592 Now a few examples of some things that one might do with a
4593 <filename>user.action</filename> file.
4596 <!-- brief sample user.action here -->
4602 # Sample user.action file.
4604 # Any aliases you want to use need to be re-defined here.
4605 # Alias to turn off cookie handling, ie allow all cookies unmolested.
4606 -prevent-cookies = -prevent-setting-cookies -prevent-reading-cookies \
4607 -session-cookies-only
4609 # Fragile sites should have the minimum changes:
4610 fragile = -block -deanimate-gifs -fast-redirects -filter -hide-referer \
4611 -prevent-cookies -kill-popups
4613 # Allow persistent cookies for a few regular sites that we
4614 # trust via our above alias. These will be saved from one browser session
4615 # to the next. We are explicity turning off any and all cookie handling,
4616 # even though the prevent-*-cookie settings were disabled in our above
4617 # default.action anyway. So cookies from these domains will come through
4619 { -prevent-cookies }
4626 # My ISP uses obnoxious self promoting images on many pages.
4627 # Nuke them :) Note that <ulink url="actions-file.html#HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></ulink> need not be specified,
4628 # since all URLs ending in .gif will be tagged as images by the
4629 # general rules in default.action anyway.
4630 { <ulink url="actions-file.html#BLOCK">+block</ulink> }
4631 www.my-isp-example.com/logo[0-9].gif
4634 # Say the site where you do your homebanking needs to open
4635 # popup windows, but you have chosen to kill popups by
4636 # default. This will allow it for your-example-bank.com:
4638 { <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER-POPUPS">-filter{popups}</ulink> <ulink url="actions-file.html#KILL-POPUPS">-kill-popups</ulink> }
4639 .my-example-bank.com
4642 # This site is delicate, and requires kid-glove
4654 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
4657 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4658 <sect2 id="aliases">
4659 <title>Aliases</title>
4661 Custom <quote>actions</quote>, known to <application>Privoxy</application>
4662 as <quote>aliases</quote>, can be defined by combining other <quote>actions</quote>.
4663 These can in turn be invoked just like the built-in <quote>actions</quote>.
4664 Currently, an alias can contain any character except space, tab, <quote>=</quote>,
4665 <quote>{</quote> or <quote>}</quote>. But please use only <quote>a</quote>-
4666 <quote>z</quote>, <quote>0</quote>-<quote>9</quote>, <quote>+</quote>, and
4667 <quote>-</quote>. Alias names are not case sensitive, and
4668 <emphasis>must be defined before other actions</emphasis> in the
4669 actions file! And there can only be one set of <quote>aliases</quote>
4670 defined per file. Each actions file may have its own aliases, but they are
4671 only visible within that file. Aliases do not requir a <quote>+</quote> or
4672 <quote>-</quote> sign in front, since they are merely expanded.
4676 Now let's define a few aliases:
4683 # Useful custom aliases we can use later. These must come first!
4685 +prevent-cookies = +prevent-setting-cookies +prevent-reading-cookies
4686 -prevent-cookies = -prevent-setting-cookies -prevent-reading-cookies
4687 fragile = -block -prevent-cookies -filter -fast-redirects -hide-referer -kill-popups
4688 shop = -prevent-cookies -filter -fast-redirects
4689 +imageblock = +block +handle-as-image
4691 # Aliases defined from other aliases, for people who don't like to type
4693 c0 = +prevent-cookies
4694 c1 = -prevent-cookies
4695 #... etc. Customize to your heart's content.
4702 Some examples using our <quote>shop</quote> and <quote>fragile</quote>
4703 aliases from above. These would appear in the lower sections of an
4704 actions file as exceptions to the default actions (as defined in the
4712 # These sites are very complex and require
4713 # minimal interference.
4715 .office.microsoft.com
4716 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com
4719 # Shopping sites - but we still want to block ads.
4722 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
4725 # These shops require pop-ups also
4735 The <quote>shop</quote> and <quote>fragile</quote> aliases are often used for
4736 <quote>problem</quote> sites that require most actions to be disabled
4737 in order to function properly.
4744 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
4748 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
4750 <sect1 id="filter-file">
4751 <title>The Filter File</title>
4753 Any web page can be dynamically modified with the filter file. This
4754 modification can be removal, or re-writing, of any web page content,
4755 including tags and non-visible content. The default filter file is
4756 oddly enough <filename>default.filter</filename>, located in the config
4761 This is potentially a very powerful feature, and requires knowledge of both
4762 <quote>regular expression</quote> and HTML in order create custom
4763 filters. But, there are a number of useful filters included with
4764 <application>Privoxy</application> for many common situations.
4768 The included example file is divided into sections. Each section begins
4769 with the <literal>FILTER</literal> keyword, followed by the identifier
4770 for that section, e.g. <quote>FILTER: webbugs</quote>. Each section performs
4771 a similar type of filtering, such as <quote>html-annoyances</quote>.
4775 This file uses regular expressions to alter or remove any string in the
4776 target page. The expressions can only operate on one line at a time. Some
4777 examples from the included default <filename>default.filter</filename>:
4781 Stop web pages from displaying annoying messages in the status bar by
4782 deleting such references:
4789 FILTER: html-annoyances
4791 # New browser windows should be resizeable and have a location and status
4794 s/resizable="?(no|0)"?/resizable=1/ig s/noresize/yesresize/ig
4795 s/location="?(no|0)"?/location=1/ig s/status="?(no|0)"?/status=1/ig
4796 s/scrolling="?(no|0|Auto)"?/scrolling=1/ig
4797 s/menubar="?(no|0)"?/menubar=1/ig
4799 # The <BLINK> tag was a crime!
4801 s*<blink>|</blink>**ig
4805 #s/framespacing="?(no|0)"?//ig
4806 #s/margin(height|width)=[0-9]*//gi
4813 Just for kicks, replace any occurrence of <quote>Microsoft</quote> with
4814 <quote>MicroSuck</quote>, and have a little fun with topical buzzwords:
4823 s/microsoft(?!.com)/MicroSuck/ig
4827 s/industry-leading|cutting-edge|award-winning/<font color=red><b>BINGO!</b></font>/ig
4834 Kill those pesky little web-bugs:
4841 # webbugs: Squish WebBugs (1x1 invisible GIFs used for user tracking)
4844 s/<img\s+[^>]*?(width|height)\s*=\s*['"]?1\D[^>]*?(width|height)\s*=\s*['"]?1(\D[^>]*?)?>/<!-- Squished WebBug -->/sig
4851 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4853 <title>The <emphasis>+filter</emphasis> Action</title>
4855 Filters are enabled with the <ulink
4856 url="actions-file.html#FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></ulink> action from within
4857 one of the actions files. <quote>+filter</quote> requires one parameter, which
4858 should match one of the section identifiers in the filter file itself. Example:
4862 +filter{html-annoyances}
4866 This would activate that particular filter. Similarly, <quote>+filter</quote>
4867 can be turned off for selected sites as:
4868 <quote>-filter{html-annoyances}</quote>. Remember too, all actions are off by
4869 default, unless they are explicity enabled in one of the actions files.
4876 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
4880 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4882 <sect1 id="templates">
4883 <title>Templates</title>
4885 When <application>Privoxy</application> displays one of its internal
4886 pages, such as a <ulink url="http://bogus_404_page.com">404 Not Found error page</ulink>
4887 (<application>Privoxy</application> must be running for link to work as
4888 intended), it uses the appropriate template. On Linux, BSD, and Unix, these
4889 are located in <filename>/etc/privoxy/templates</filename> by default. These
4890 may be customized, if desired. <filename>cgi-style.css</filename> is used to
4891 control the HTML attributes (fonts, etc).
4895 <ulink url="http://ads.bannerserver.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor.html">Blocked
4896 (<application>Privoxy</application> needs to be running for page to display)</ulink>
4897 banner page with the bright red top
4898 banner, is called just <quote><filename>blocked</filename></quote>. This
4899 may be customized or replaced with something else if desired.
4904 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
4908 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4910 <sect1 id="contact"><title>Contacting the Developers, Bug Reporting and Feature
4913 <!-- Include contacting.sgml boilerplate: -->
4915 <!-- end boilerplate -->
4920 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4921 <sect1 id="copyright"><title>Copyright and History</title>
4923 <sect2><title>Copyright</title>
4924 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
4926 <!-- end copyright -->
4929 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
4932 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4934 <sect2 id="history"><title>History</title>
4935 <!-- Include history.sgml: -->
4937 <!-- end history -->
4941 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4942 <sect1 id="seealso"><title>See Also</title>
4943 <!-- Include seealso.sgml: -->
4945 <!-- end seealso -->
4950 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4951 <sect1 id="appendix"><title>Appendix</title>
4954 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4956 <title>Regular Expressions</title>
4958 <application>Privoxy</application> can use <quote>regular expressions</quote>
4959 in various config files. Assuming support for <quote>pcre</quote> (Perl
4960 Compatible Regular Expressions) is compiled in, which is the default. Such
4961 configuration directives do not require regular expressions, but they can be
4962 used to increase flexibility by matching a pattern with wild-cards against
4967 If you are reading this, you probably don't understand what <quote>regular
4968 expressions</quote> are, or what they can do. So this will be a very brief
4969 introduction only. A full explanation would require a book ;-)
4973 <quote>Regular expressions</quote> is a way of matching one character
4974 expression against another to see if it matches or not. One of the
4975 <quote>expressions</quote> is a literal string of readable characters
4976 (letter, numbers, etc), and the other is a complex string of literal
4977 characters combined with wild-cards, and other special characters, called
4978 meta-characters. The <quote>meta-characters</quote> have special meanings and
4979 are used to build the complex pattern to be matched against. Perl Compatible
4980 Regular Expressions is an enhanced form of the regular expression language
4981 with backward compatibility.
4985 To make a simple analogy, we do something similar when we use wild-card
4986 characters when listing files with the <command>dir</command> command in DOS.
4987 <literal>*.*</literal> matches all filenames. The <quote>special</quote>
4988 character here is the asterisk which matches any and all characters. We can be
4989 more specific and use <literal>?</literal> to match just individual
4990 characters. So <quote>dir file?.text</quote> would match
4991 <quote>file1.txt</quote>, <quote>file2.txt</quote>, etc. We are pattern
4992 matching, using a similar technique to <quote>regular expressions</quote>!
4996 Regular expressions do essentially the same thing, but are much, much more
4997 powerful. There are many more <quote>special characters</quote> and ways of
4998 building complex patterns however. Let's look at a few of the common ones,
4999 and then some examples:
5004 <emphasis>.</emphasis> - Matches any single character, e.g. <quote>a</quote>,
5005 <quote>A</quote>, <quote>4</quote>, <quote>:</quote>, or <quote>@</quote>.
5007 </simplelist></para>
5011 <emphasis>?</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or ONE
5014 </simplelist></para>
5018 <emphasis>+</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ONE or MORE
5021 </simplelist></para>
5025 <emphasis>*</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or MORE
5028 </simplelist></para>
5032 <emphasis>\</emphasis> - The <quote>escape</quote> character denotes that
5033 the following character should be taken literally. This is used where one of the
5034 special characters (e.g. <quote>.</quote>) needs to be taken literally and
5035 not as a special meta-character. Example: <quote>example\.com</quote>, makes
5036 sure the period is recognized only as a period (and not expanded to its
5037 meta-character meaning of any single character).
5039 </simplelist></para>
5043 <emphasis>[]</emphasis> - Characters enclosed in brackets will be matched if
5044 any of the enclosed characters are encountered. For instance, <quote>[0-9]</quote>
5045 matches any numeric digit (zero through nine). As an example, we can combine
5046 this with <quote>+</quote> to match any digit one of more times: <quote>[0-9]+</quote>.
5048 </simplelist></para>
5052 <emphasis>()</emphasis> - parentheses are used to group a sub-expression,
5053 or multiple sub-expressions.
5055 </simplelist></para>
5059 <emphasis>|</emphasis> - The <quote>bar</quote> character works like an
5060 <quote>or</quote> conditional statement. A match is successful if the
5061 sub-expression on either side of <quote>|</quote> matches. As an example:
5062 <quote>/(this|that) example/</quote> uses grouping and the bar character
5063 and would match either <quote>this example</quote> or <quote>that
5064 example</quote>, and nothing else.
5066 </simplelist></para>
5070 <emphasis>s/string1/string2/g</emphasis> - This is used to rewrite strings of text.
5071 <quote>string1</quote> is replaced by <quote>string2</quote> in this
5072 example. There must of course be a match on <quote>string1</quote> first.
5074 </simplelist></para>
5077 These are just some of the ones you are likely to use when matching URLs with
5078 <application>Privoxy</application>, and is a long way from a definitive
5079 list. This is enough to get us started with a few simple examples which may
5080 be more illuminating:
5084 <emphasis><literal>/.*/banners/.*</literal></emphasis> - A simple example
5085 that uses the common combination of <quote>.</quote> and <quote>*</quote> to
5086 denote any character, zero or more times. In other words, any string at all.
5087 So we start with a literal forward slash, then our regular expression pattern
5088 (<quote>.*</quote>) another literal forward slash, the string
5089 <quote>banners</quote>, another forward slash, and lastly another
5090 <quote>.*</quote>. We are building
5091 a directory path here. This will match any file with the path that has a
5092 directory named <quote>banners</quote> in it. The <quote>.*</quote> matches
5093 any characters, and this could conceivably be more forward slashes, so it
5094 might expand into a much longer looking path. For example, this could match:
5095 <quote>/eye/hate/spammers/banners/annoy_me_please.gif</quote>, or just
5096 <quote>/banners/annoying.html</quote>, or almost an infinite number of other
5097 possible combinations, just so it has <quote>banners</quote> in the path
5102 A now something a little more complex:
5106 <emphasis><literal>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))?/</literal></emphasis> -
5107 We have several literal forward slashes again (<quote>/</quote>), so we are
5108 building another expression that is a file path statement. We have another
5109 <quote>.*</quote>, so we are matching against any conceivable sub-path, just so
5110 it matches our expression. The only true literal that <emphasis>must
5111 match</emphasis> our pattern is <application>adv</application>, together with
5112 the forward slashes. What comes after the <quote>adv</quote> string is the
5117 Remember the <quote>?</quote> means the preceding expression (either a
5118 literal character or anything grouped with <quote>(...)</quote> in this case)
5119 can exist or not, since this means either zero or one match. So
5120 <quote>((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))</quote> is optional, as are the
5121 individual sub-expressions: <quote>(er)</quote>,
5122 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, and the <quote>s</quote>. The <quote>|</quote>
5123 means <quote>or</quote>. We have two of those. For instance,
5124 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, can expand to match either <quote>ing</quote>
5125 <emphasis>OR</emphasis> <quote>ements?</quote>. What is being done here, is an
5126 attempt at matching as many variations of <quote>advertisement</quote>, and
5127 similar, as possible. So this would expand to match just <quote>adv</quote>,
5128 or <quote>advert</quote>, or <quote>adverts</quote>, or
5129 <quote>advertising</quote>, or <quote>advertisement</quote>, or
5130 <quote>advertisements</quote>. You get the idea. But it would not match
5131 <quote>advertizements</quote> (with a <quote>z</quote>). We could fix that by
5132 changing our regular expression to:
5133 <quote>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|erti(s|z)(ing|ements?))?/</quote>, which would then match
5138 <emphasis><literal>/.*/advert[0-9]+\.(gif|jpe?g)</literal></emphasis> - Again
5139 another path statement with forward slashes. Anything in the square brackets
5140 <quote>[]</quote> can be matched. This is using <quote>0-9</quote> as a
5141 shorthand expression to mean any digit one through nine. It is the same as
5142 saying <quote>0123456789</quote>. So any digit matches. The <quote>+</quote>
5143 means one or more of the preceding expression must be included. The preceding
5144 expression here is what is in the square brackets -- in this case, any digit
5145 one through nine. Then, at the end, we have a grouping: <quote>(gif|jpe?g)</quote>.
5146 This includes a <quote>|</quote>, so this needs to match the expression on
5147 either side of that bar character also. A simple <quote>gif</quote> on one side, and the other
5148 side will in turn match either <quote>jpeg</quote> or <quote>jpg</quote>,
5149 since the <quote>?</quote> means the letter <quote>e</quote> is optional and
5150 can be matched once or not at all. So we are building an expression here to
5151 match image GIF or JPEG type image file. It must include the literal
5152 string <quote>advert</quote>, then one or more digits, and a <quote>.</quote>
5153 (which is now a literal, and not a special character, since it is escaped
5154 with <quote>\</quote>), and lastly either <quote>gif</quote>, or
5155 <quote>jpeg</quote>, or <quote>jpg</quote>. Some possible matches would
5156 include: <quote>//advert1.jpg</quote>,
5157 <quote>/nasty/ads/advert1234.gif</quote>,
5158 <quote>/banners/from/hell/advert99.jpg</quote>. It would not match
5159 <quote>advert1.gif</quote> (no leading slash), or
5160 <quote>/adverts232.jpg</quote> (the expression does not include an
5161 <quote>s</quote>), or <quote>/advert1.jsp</quote> (<quote>jsp</quote> is not
5162 in the expression anywhere).
5166 <emphasis><literal>s/microsoft(?!.com)/MicroSuck/i</literal></emphasis> - This is
5167 a substitution. <quote>MicroSuck</quote> will replace any occurrence of
5168 <quote>microsoft</quote>. The <quote>i</quote> at the end of the expression
5169 means ignore case. The <quote>(?!.com)</quote> means
5170 the match should fail if <quote>microsoft</quote> is followed by
5171 <quote>.com</quote>. In other words, this acts like a <quote>NOT</quote>
5172 modifier. In case this is a hyperlink, we don't want to break it ;-).
5176 We are barely scratching the surface of regular expressions here so that you
5177 can understand the default <application>Privoxy</application>
5178 configuration files, and maybe use this knowledge to customize your own
5179 installation. There is much, much more that can be done with regular
5180 expressions. Now that you know enough to get started, you can learn more on
5185 More reading on Perl Compatible Regular expressions:
5186 <ulink url="http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html">http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html</ulink>
5191 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
5194 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5196 <title><application>Privoxy</application>'s Internal Pages</title>
5199 Since <application>Privoxy</application> proxies each requested
5200 web page, it is easy for <application>Privoxy</application> to
5201 trap certain special URLs. In this way, we can talk directly to
5202 <application>Privoxy</application>, and see how it is
5203 configured, see how our rules are being applied, change these
5204 rules and other configuration options, and even turn
5205 <application>Privoxy's</application> filtering off, all with
5211 The URLs listed below are the special ones that allow direct access
5212 to <application>Privoxy</application>. Of course,
5213 <application>Privoxy</application> must be running to access these. If
5214 not, you will get a friendly error message. Internet access is not
5227 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
5231 Alternately, this may be reached at <ulink
5232 url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>, but this
5233 variation may not work as reliably as the above in some configurations.
5239 Show information about the current configuration, including viewing and
5240 editing of actions files:
5244 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
5251 Show the source code version numbers:
5255 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-version">http://config.privoxy.org/show-version</ulink>
5262 Show the browser's request headers:
5266 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request">http://config.privoxy.org/show-request</ulink>
5273 Show which actions apply to a URL and why:
5277 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
5284 Toggle Privoxy on or off. In this case, <quote>Privoxy</quote> continues
5285 to run, but only as a pass-through proxy, with no actions taking place:
5289 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</ulink>
5293 Short cuts. Turn off, then on:
5297 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable</ulink>
5302 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable</ulink>
5311 These may be bookmarked for quick reference. See next.
5315 <sect3 id="bookmarklets">
5316 <title>Bookmarklets</title>
5318 Below are some <quote>bookmarklets</quote> to allow you to easily access a
5319 <quote>mini</quote> version of some of <application>Privoxy's</application>
5320 special pages. They are designed for MS Internet Explorer, but should work
5321 equally well in Netscape, Mozilla, and other browsers which support
5322 JavaScript. They are designed to run directly from your bookmarks - not by
5323 clicking the links below (although that should work for testing).
5326 To save them, right-click the link and choose <quote>Add to Favorites</quote>
5327 (IE) or <quote>Add Bookmark</quote> (Netscape). You will get a warning that
5328 the bookmark <quote>may not be safe</quote> - just click OK. Then you can run the
5329 Bookmarklet directly from your favorites/bookmarks. For even faster access,
5330 you can put them on the <quote>Links</quote> bar (IE) or the <quote>Personal
5331 Toolbar</quote> (Netscape), and run them with a single click.
5340 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>
5347 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>
5354 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)
5361 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>
5367 <ulink url="javascript:w=Math.floor(screen.width/2);h=Math.floor(screen.height*0.9);void(window.open('http://www.privoxy.org/actions','Feedback','screenx='+w+',width='+w+',height='+h+',scrollbars=yes,toolbar=no,location=no,directories=no,status=no,menubar=no,copyhistory=no').focus());">Privoxy - Submit Filter Feedback</ulink>
5377 Credit: The site which gave me the general idea for these bookmarklets is
5378 <ulink url="http://www.bookmarklets.com">www.bookmarklets.com</ulink>. They
5379 have more information about bookmarklets.
5388 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5390 <title>Chain of Events</title>
5392 Let's take a quick look at the basic sequence of events when a web page is
5393 requested by your browser and <application>Privoxy</application> is on duty:
5400 First, your web browser requests a web page. The browser knows to send
5401 the request to <application>Privoxy</application>, which will in turn,
5402 relay the request to the remote web server after passing the following
5408 <application>Privoxy</application> traps any request for its own internal CGI
5409 pages (e.g http://p.p/) and sends the CGI page back to the browser.
5414 Next, <application>Privoxy</application> checks to see if the URL
5416 url="actions-file.html#BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></ulink> patterns. If
5417 so, the URL is then blocked, and the remote web server will not be contacted.
5418 <ulink url="actions-file.html#HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></ulink>
5419 is then checked and if it does not match, an
5420 HTML <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page is sent back. Otherwise, if it does match,
5421 an image is returned. The type of image depends on the setting of <ulink
5422 url="actions-file.html#SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"><quote>+set-image-blocker</quote></ulink>
5423 (blank, checkerboard pattern, or an HTTP redirect to an image elsewhere).
5428 Untrusted URLs are blocked. If URLs are being added to the
5429 <filename>trust</filename> file, then that is done.
5434 If the URL pattern matches the <ulink
5435 url="actions-file.html#FAST-REDIRECTS"><quote>+fast-redirects</quote></ulink> action,
5436 it is then processed. Unwanted parts of the requested URL are stripped.
5441 Now the rest of the client browser's request headers are processed. If any
5442 of these match any of the relevant actions (e.g. <ulink
5443 url="actions-file.html#HIDE-USER-AGENT"><quote>+hide-user-agent</quote></ulink>,
5444 etc.), headers are suppressed or forged as determined by these actions and
5450 Now the web server starts sending its response back (i.e. typically a web page and related
5456 First, the server headers are read and processed to determine, among other
5457 things, the MIME type (document type) and encoding. The headers are then
5458 filtered as deterimed by the
5459 <ulink url="actions-file.html#PREVENT-SETTING-COOKIES"><quote>+prevent-setting-cookies</quote></ulink>,
5460 <ulink url="actions-file.html#SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"><quote>+session-cookies-only</quote></ulink>,
5461 and <ulink url="actions-file.html#DOWNGRADE-HTTP-VERSION"><quote>+downgrade-http-version</quote></ulink>
5467 If the <ulink url="actions-file.html#KILL-POPUPS"><quote>+kill-popups</quote></ulink>
5468 action applies, and it is an HTML or JavaScript document, the popup-code in the
5469 response is filtered on-the-fly as it is received.
5474 If a <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></ulink>
5476 url="actions-file.html#DEANIMATE-GIFS"><quote>+deanimate-gifs</quote></ulink>
5477 action applies (and the document type fits the action), the rest of the page is
5478 read into memory (up to a configurable limit). Then the filter rules (from
5479 <filename>default.filter</filename>) are processed against the buffered
5480 content. Filters are applied in the order they are specified in the
5481 <filename>default.filter</filename> file. Animated GIFs, if present, are
5482 reduced to either the first or last frame, depending on the action
5483 setting.The entire page, which is now filtered, is then sent by
5484 <application>Privoxy</application> back to your browser.
5487 If neither <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></ulink>
5489 url="actions-file.html#DEANIMATE-GIFS"><quote>+deanimate-gifs</quote></ulink>
5490 matches, then <application>Privoxy</application> passes the raw data through
5491 to the client browser as it becomes available.
5496 As the browser receives the now (probably filtered) page content, it
5497 reads and then requests any URLs that may be embedded within the page
5498 source, e.g. ad images, stylesheets, JavaScript, other HTML documents (e.g.
5499 frames), sounds, etc. For each of these objects, the browser issues a new
5500 request. And each such request is in turn processed as above. Note that a
5501 complex web page may have many such embedded URLs.
5511 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5512 <sect2 id="actionsanat">
5513 <title>Anatomy of an Action</title>
5516 The way <application>Privoxy</application> applies
5517 <ulink url="actions-file.html#ACTIONS"><quote>actions</quote></ulink>
5518 and <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER"><quote>filters</quote></ulink>
5519 to any given URL can be complex, and not always so
5520 easy to understand what is happening. And sometimes we need to be able to
5521 <emphasis>see</emphasis> just what <application>Privoxy</application> is
5522 doing. Especially, if something <application>Privoxy</application> is doing
5523 is causing us a problem inadvertently. It can be a little daunting to look at
5524 the actions and filters files themselves, since they tend to be filled with
5525 <quote>regular expressions</quote> whose consequences are not always
5530 One quick test to see if <application>Privoxy</application> is causing a problem
5531 or not, is to disable it temporarily. This should be the first troubleshooting
5532 step. See <link linkend="bookmarklets">the Bookmarklets</link> section on a quick
5533 and easy way to do this (be sure to flush caches afterward!).
5537 <application>Privoxy</application> also provides the
5538 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
5539 page that can show us very specifically how <application>actions</application>
5540 are being applied to any given URL. This is a big help for troubleshooting.
5544 First, enter one URL (or partial URL) at the prompt, and then
5545 <application>Privoxy</application> will tell us
5546 how the current configuration will handle it. This will not
5547 help with filtering effects (i.e. the <ulink
5548 url="actions-file.html#FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></ulink> action) from
5549 the <filename>default.filter</filename> file since this is handled very
5550 differently and not so easy to trap! It also will not tell you about any other
5551 URLs that may be embedded within the URL you are testing. For instance, images
5552 such as ads are expressed as URLs within the raw page source of HTML pages. So
5553 you will only get info for the actual URL that is pasted into the prompt area
5554 -- not any sub-URLs. If you want to know about embedded URLs like ads, you
5555 will have to dig those out of the HTML source. Use your browser's <quote>View
5556 Page Source</quote> option for this. Or right click on the ad, and grab the
5561 Let's try an example, <ulink url="http://google.com">google.com</ulink>,
5562 and look at it one section at a time:
5567 Matches for http://google.com:
5569 --- File standard ---
5570 (no matches in this file)
5572 --- File default ---
5574 { -add-header -block +deanimate-gifs{last} -downgrade-http-version +fast-redirects
5575 -filter{popups} -filter{fun} -filter{shockwave-flash} -filter{crude-parental}
5576 +filter{html-annoyances} +filter{js-annoyances} +filter{content-cookies}
5577 +filter{webbugs} +filter{refresh-tags} +filter{nimda} +filter{banners-by-size}
5578 +hide-forwarded-for-headers +hide-from-header{block} +hide-referer{forge}
5579 -hide-user-agent -handle-as-image +set-image-blocker{pattern} -limit-connect
5580 +prevent-compression +session-cookies-only -prevent-reading-cookies
5581 -prevent-setting-cookies -kill-popups -send-vanilla-wafer -send-wafer }
5584 { -session-cookies-only }
5591 (no matches in this file)
5596 This tells us how we have defined our
5597 <ulink url="actions-file.html#ACTIONS"><quote>actions</quote></ulink>, and
5598 which ones match for our example, <quote>google.com</quote>. The first listing
5599 is any matches for the <filename>standard.action</filename> file. No hits at
5600 all here on <quote>standard</quote>. Then next is <quote>default</quote>, or
5601 our <filename>default.action</filename> file. The large, multi-line listing,
5602 is how the actions are set to match for all URLs, i.e. our default settings.
5603 If you look at your <quote>actions</quote> file, this would be the section
5604 just below the <quote>aliases</quote> section near the top. This will apply to
5605 all URLs as signified by the single forward slash at the end of the listing
5606 -- <quote>/</quote>.
5610 But we can define additional actions that would be exceptions to these general
5611 rules, and then list specific URLs (or patterns) that these exceptions would
5612 apply to. Last match wins. Just below this then are two explicit matches for
5613 <quote>.google.com</quote>. The first is negating our previous cookie setting,
5614 which was for <ulink
5615 url="actions-file.html#SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"><quote>+session-cookies-only</quote></ulink>
5616 (i.e. not persistent). So we will allow persistent cookies for google. The
5617 second turns <emphasis>off</emphasis> any
5619 url="actions-file.html#FAST-REDIRECTS"><quote>+fast-redirects</quote></ulink>
5620 action, allowing this to take place unmolested. Note that there is a leading
5621 dot here -- <quote>.google.com</quote>. This will match any hosts and
5622 sub-domains, in the google.com domain also, such as
5623 <quote>www.google.com</quote>. So, apparently, we have these two actions
5624 defined somewhere in the lower part of our <filename>default.action</filename>
5625 file, and <quote>google.com</quote> is referenced somewhere in these latter
5630 Then, for our <filename>user.action</filename> file, we again have no hits.
5634 And finally we pull it all together in the bottom section and summarize how
5635 <application>Privoxy</application> is applying all its <quote>actions</quote>
5636 to <quote>google.com</quote>:
5644 -add-header -block +deanimate-gifs{last} -downgrade-http-version -fast-redirects
5645 -filter{popups} -filter{fun} -filter{shockwave-flash} -filter{crude-parental}
5646 +filter{html-annoyances} +filter{js-annoyances} +filter{content-cookies}
5647 +filter{webbugs} +filter{refresh-tags} +filter{nimda} +filter{banners-by-size}
5648 +hide-forwarded-for-headers +hide-from-header{block} +hide-referer{forge}
5649 -hide-user-agent -handle-as-image +set-image-blocker{pattern} -limit-connect
5650 +prevent-compression -session-cookies-only -prevent-reading-cookies
5651 -prevent-setting-cookies -kill-popups -send-vanilla-wafer -send-wafer
5656 Notice the only difference here to the previous listing, is to
5657 <quote>fast-redirects</quote> and <quote>session-cookies-only</quote>.
5661 Now another example, <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>:
5667 { +block +handle-as-image }
5670 { +block +handle-as-image }
5673 { +block +handle-as-image }
5679 We'll just show the interesting part here, the explicit matches. It is
5680 matched three different times. Each as an <quote>+block +handle-as-image</quote>,
5681 which is the expanded form of one of our aliases that had been defined as:
5682 <quote>+imageblock</quote>. (<ulink
5683 url="actions-file.html#ALIASES"><quote>Aliases</quote></ulink> are defined in
5684 the first section of the actions file and typically used to combine more
5689 Any one of these would have done the trick and blocked this as an unwanted
5690 image. This is unnecessarily redundant since the last case effectively
5691 would also cover the first. No point in taking chances with these guys
5692 though ;-) Note that if you want an ad or obnoxious
5693 URL to be invisible, it should be defined as <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>
5694 is done here -- as both a <ulink
5695 url="actions-file.html#BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></ulink>
5696 <emphasis>and</emphasis> an
5698 url="actions-file.html#HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></ulink>.
5699 The custom alias <quote>+imageblock</quote> just simplifies the process and make
5704 One last example. Let's try <quote>http://www.rhapsodyk.net/adsl/HOWTO/</quote>.
5705 This one is giving us problems. We are getting a blank page. Hmmm...
5711 Matches for http://www.rhapsodyk.net/adsl/HOWTO/:
5713 { -add-header -block +deanimate-gifs -downgrade-http-version +fast-redirects
5714 +filter{html-annoyances} +filter{js-annoyances} +filter{kill-popups}
5715 +filter{webbugs} +filter{nimda} +filter{banners-by-size} +filter{hal}
5716 +filter{fun} +hide-forwarded-for-headers +hide-from-header{block}
5717 +hide-referer{forge} -hide-user-agent -handle-as-image +set-image-blocker{blank}
5718 +prevent-compression +session-cookies-only -prevent-setting-cookies
5719 -prevent-reading-cookies +kill-popups -send-vanilla-wafer -send-wafer }
5722 { +block +handle-as-image }
5728 Ooops, the <quote>/adsl/</quote> is matching <quote>/ads</quote>! But
5729 we did not want this at all! Now we see why we get the blank page. We could
5730 now add a new action below this that explicitly does <emphasis>not</emphasis>
5731 block (<quote>{-block}</quote>) paths with <quote>adsl</quote>. There are
5732 various ways to handle such exceptions. Example:
5744 Now the page displays ;-) Be sure to flush your browser's caches when
5745 making such changes. Or, try using <literal>Shift+Reload</literal>.
5749 But now what about a situation where we get no explicit matches like
5756 { +block +handle-as-image }
5762 That actually was very telling and pointed us quickly to where the problem
5763 was. If you don't get this kind of match, then it means one of the default
5764 rules in the first section is causing the problem. This would require some
5765 guesswork, and maybe a little trial and error to isolate the offending rule.
5766 One likely cause would be one of the <quote>{+filter}</quote> actions. Try
5767 adding the URL for the site to one of aliases that turn off <quote>+filter</quote>:
5775 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
5783 <quote>{shop}</quote> is an <quote>alias</quote> that expands to
5784 <quote>{ -filter -session-cookies-only }</quote>.
5785 Or you could do your own exception to negate filtering:
5798 This would probably be most appropriately put in <filename>user.action</filename>,
5799 for local site exceptions.
5803 <quote>{fragile}</quote> is an alias that disables most actions. This can be
5804 used as a last resort for problem sites. Remember to flush caches! If this
5805 still does not work, you will have to go through the remaining actions one by
5806 one to find which one(s) is causing the problem.
5815 This program is free software; you can redistribute it
5816 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
5817 Public License as published by the Free Software
5818 Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at
5819 your option) any later version.
5821 This program is distributed in the hope that it will
5822 be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the
5823 implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
5824 PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public
5825 License for more details.
5827 The GNU General Public License should be included with
5828 this file. If not, you can view it at
5829 http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
5830 or write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59
5831 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
5833 $Log: user-manual.sgml,v $
5834 Revision 1.100 2002/04/29 03:05:55 hal9
5835 Add clarification on differences of new actions files.
5837 Revision 1.99 2002/04/28 16:59:05 swa
5838 more structure in starting section
5840 Revision 1.98 2002/04/28 05:43:59 hal9
5841 This is the break up of configuration.html into multiple files. This
5842 will probably break links elsewhere :(
5844 Revision 1.97 2002/04/27 21:04:42 hal9
5845 -Rewrite of Actions File example.
5846 -Add section for user-manual directive in config.
5848 Revision 1.96 2002/04/27 05:32:00 hal9
5849 -Add short section to Filter Files to tie in with +filter action.
5850 -Start rewrite of examples in Actions Examples (not finished).
5852 Revision 1.95 2002/04/26 17:23:29 swa
5853 bookmarks cleaned, changed structure of user manual, screen and programlisting cleanups, and numerous other changes that I forgot
5855 Revision 1.94 2002/04/26 05:24:36 hal9
5856 -Add most of Andreas suggestions to Chain of Events section.
5857 -A few other minor corrections and touch up.
5859 Revision 1.92 2002/04/25 18:55:13 hal9
5860 More catchups on new actions files, and new actions names.
5861 Other assorted cleanups, and minor modifications.
5863 Revision 1.91 2002/04/24 02:39:31 hal9
5864 Add 'Chain of Events' section.
5866 Revision 1.90 2002/04/23 21:41:25 hal9
5867 Linuxconf is deprecated on RH, substitute chkconfig.
5869 Revision 1.89 2002/04/23 21:05:28 oes
5870 Added hint for startup on Red Hat
5872 Revision 1.88 2002/04/23 05:37:54 hal9
5873 Add AmigaOS install stuff.
5875 Revision 1.87 2002/04/23 02:53:15 david__schmidt
5876 Updated OSX installation section
5877 Added a few English tweaks here an there
5879 Revision 1.86 2002/04/21 01:46:32 hal9
5880 Re-write actions section.
5882 Revision 1.85 2002/04/18 21:23:23 hal9
5883 Fix ugly typo (mine).
5885 Revision 1.84 2002/04/18 21:17:13 hal9
5886 Spell Redhat correctly (ie Red Hat). A few minor grammar corrections.
5888 Revision 1.83 2002/04/18 18:21:12 oes
5889 Added RPM install detail
5891 Revision 1.82 2002/04/18 12:04:50 oes
5894 Revision 1.81 2002/04/18 11:50:24 oes
5895 Extended Install section - needs fixing by packagers
5897 Revision 1.80 2002/04/18 10:45:19 oes
5898 Moved text to buildsource.sgml, renamed some filters, details
5900 Revision 1.79 2002/04/18 03:18:06 hal9
5901 Spellcheck, and minor touchups.
5903 Revision 1.78 2002/04/17 18:04:16 oes
5906 Revision 1.77 2002/04/17 13:51:23 oes
5907 Proofreading, part one
5909 Revision 1.76 2002/04/16 04:25:51 hal9
5910 -Added 'Note to Upgraders' and re-ordered the 'Quickstart' section.
5911 -Note about proxy may need requests to re-read config files.
5913 Revision 1.75 2002/04/12 02:08:48 david__schmidt
5914 Remove OS/2 building info... it is already in the developer-manual
5916 Revision 1.74 2002/04/11 00:54:38 hal9
5917 Add small section on submitting actions.
5919 Revision 1.73 2002/04/10 18:45:15 swa
5922 Revision 1.72 2002/04/10 04:06:19 hal9
5923 Added actions feedback to Bookmarklets section
5925 Revision 1.71 2002/04/08 22:59:26 hal9
5926 Version update. Spell chkconfig correctly :)
5928 Revision 1.70 2002/04/08 20:53:56 swa
5931 Revision 1.69 2002/04/06 05:07:29 hal9
5932 -Add privoxy-man-page.sgml, for man page.
5933 -Add authors.sgml for AUTHORS (and p-authors.sgml)
5934 -Reworked various aspects of various docs.
5935 -Added additional comments to sub-docs.
5937 Revision 1.68 2002/04/04 18:46:47 swa
5938 consistent look. reuse of copyright, history et. al.
5940 Revision 1.67 2002/04/04 17:27:57 swa
5941 more single file to be included at multiple points. make maintaining easier
5943 Revision 1.66 2002/04/04 06:48:37 hal9
5944 Structural changes to allow for conditional inclusion/exclusion of content
5945 based on entity toggles, e.g. 'entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE"'. And
5946 definition of internal entities, e.g. 'entity p-version "2.9.13"' that will
5947 eventually be set by Makefile.
5948 More boilerplate text for use across multiple docs.
5950 Revision 1.65 2002/04/03 19:52:07 swa
5951 enhance squid section due to user suggestion
5953 Revision 1.64 2002/04/03 03:53:43 hal9
5954 A few minor bug fixes, and touch ups. Ready for review.
5956 Revision 1.63 2002/04/01 16:24:49 hal9
5957 Define entities to include boilerplate text. See doc/source/*.
5959 Revision 1.62 2002/03/30 04:15:53 hal9
5960 - Fix privoxy.org/config links.
5961 - Paste in Bookmarklets from Toggle page.
5962 - Move Quickstart nearer top, and minor rework.
5964 Revision 1.61 2002/03/29 01:31:08 hal9
5967 Revision 1.60 2002/03/27 01:57:34 hal9
5968 Added more to Anatomy section.
5970 Revision 1.59 2002/03/27 00:54:33 hal9
5971 Touch up intro for new name.
5973 Revision 1.58 2002/03/26 22:29:55 swa
5974 we have a new homepage!
5976 Revision 1.57 2002/03/24 20:33:30 hal9
5977 A few minor catch ups with name change.
5979 Revision 1.56 2002/03/24 16:17:06 swa
5980 configure needs to be generated.
5982 Revision 1.55 2002/03/24 16:08:08 swa
5983 we are too lazy to make a block-built
5984 privoxy logo. hence removed the option.
5986 Revision 1.54 2002/03/24 15:46:20 swa
5987 name change related issue.
5989 Revision 1.53 2002/03/24 11:51:00 swa
5990 name change. changed filenames.
5992 Revision 1.52 2002/03/24 11:01:06 swa
5995 Revision 1.51 2002/03/23 15:13:11 swa
5996 renamed every reference to the old name with foobar.
5997 fixed "application foobar application" tag, fixed
5998 "the foobar" with "foobar". left junkbustser in cvs
5999 comments and remarks to history untouched.
6001 Revision 1.50 2002/03/23 05:06:21 hal9
6004 Revision 1.49 2002/03/21 17:01:05 hal9
6005 New section in Appendix.
6007 Revision 1.48 2002/03/12 06:33:01 hal9
6008 Catching up to Andreas and re_filterfile changes.
6010 Revision 1.47 2002/03/11 13:13:27 swa
6011 correct feedback channels
6013 Revision 1.46 2002/03/10 00:51:08 hal9
6014 Added section on JB internal pages in Appendix.
6016 Revision 1.45 2002/03/09 17:43:53 swa
6019 Revision 1.44 2002/03/09 17:08:48 hal9
6020 New section on Jon's actions file editor, and move some stuff around.
6022 Revision 1.43 2002/03/08 00:47:32 hal9
6023 Added imageblock{pattern}.
6025 Revision 1.42 2002/03/07 18:16:55 swa
6028 Revision 1.41 2002/03/07 16:46:43 hal9
6029 Fix a few markup problems for jade.
6031 Revision 1.40 2002/03/07 16:28:39 swa
6032 provide correct feedback channels
6034 Revision 1.39 2002/03/06 16:19:28 hal9
6035 Note on perceived filtering slowdown per FR.
6037 Revision 1.38 2002/03/05 23:55:14 hal9
6038 Stupid I did it again. Double hyphen in comment breaks jade.
6040 Revision 1.37 2002/03/05 23:53:49 hal9
6041 jade barfs on '- -' embedded in comments. - -user option broke it.
6043 Revision 1.36 2002/03/05 22:53:28 hal9
6044 Add new - - user option.
6046 Revision 1.35 2002/03/05 00:17:27 hal9
6047 Added section on command line options.
6049 Revision 1.34 2002/03/04 19:32:07 oes
6050 Changed default port to 8118
6052 Revision 1.33 2002/03/03 19:46:13 hal9
6053 Emphasis on where/how to report bugs, etc
6055 Revision 1.32 2002/03/03 09:26:06 joergs
6056 AmigaOS changes, config is now loaded from PROGDIR: instead of
6057 AmiTCP:db/junkbuster/ if no configuration file is specified on the
6060 Revision 1.31 2002/03/02 22:45:52 david__schmidt
6063 Revision 1.30 2002/03/02 22:00:14 hal9
6064 Updated 'New Features' list. Ran through spell-checker.
6066 Revision 1.29 2002/03/02 20:34:07 david__schmidt
6067 Update OS/2 build section
6069 Revision 1.28 2002/02/24 14:34:24 jongfoster
6070 Formatting changes. Now changing the doctype to DocBook XML 4.1
6071 will work - no other changes are needed.
6073 Revision 1.27 2002/01/11 14:14:32 hal9
6074 Added a very short section on Templates
6076 Revision 1.26 2002/01/09 20:02:50 hal9
6077 Fix bug re: auto-detect config file changes.
6079 Revision 1.25 2002/01/09 18:20:30 hal9
6080 Touch ups for *.action files.
6082 Revision 1.24 2001/12/02 01:13:42 hal9
6085 Revision 1.23 2001/12/02 00:20:41 hal9
6086 Updates for recent changes.
6088 Revision 1.22 2001/11/05 23:57:51 hal9
6089 Minor update for startup now daemon mode.
6091 Revision 1.21 2001/10/31 21:11:03 hal9
6092 Correct 2 minor errors
6094 Revision 1.18 2001/10/24 18:45:26 hal9
6095 *** empty log message ***
6097 Revision 1.17 2001/10/24 17:10:55 hal9
6098 Catching up with Jon's recent work, and a few other things.
6100 Revision 1.16 2001/10/21 17:19:21 swa
6101 wrong url in documentation
6103 Revision 1.15 2001/10/14 23:46:24 hal9
6104 Various minor changes. Fleshed out SEE ALSO section.
6106 Revision 1.13 2001/10/10 17:28:33 hal9
6109 Revision 1.12 2001/09/28 02:57:04 hal9
6112 Revision 1.11 2001/09/28 02:25:20 hal9
6115 Revision 1.9 2001/09/27 23:50:29 hal9
6116 A few changes. A short section on regular expression in appendix.
6118 Revision 1.8 2001/09/25 00:34:59 hal9
6119 Some additions, and re-arranging.
6121 Revision 1.7 2001/09/24 14:31:36 hal9
6124 Revision 1.6 2001/09/24 14:10:32 hal9
6125 Including David's OS/2 installation instructions.
6127 Revision 1.2 2001/09/13 15:27:40 swa
6130 Revision 1.1 2001/09/12 15:36:41 swa
6131 source files for junkbuster documentation
6133 Revision 1.3 2001/09/10 17:43:59 swa
6134 first proposal of a structure.
6136 Revision 1.2 2001/06/13 14:28:31 swa
6137 docs should have an author.
6139 Revision 1.1 2001/06/13 14:20:37 swa
6140 first import of project's documentation for the webserver.