1 <!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook V3.1//EN" [
2 <!entity % dummy "IGNORE">
3 <!entity supported SYSTEM "supported.sgml">
4 <!entity newfeatures SYSTEM "newfeatures.sgml">
5 <!entity p-intro SYSTEM "privoxy.sgml">
6 <!entity seealso SYSTEM "seealso.sgml">
7 <!entity buildsource SYSTEM "buildsource.sgml">
8 <!entity contacting SYSTEM "contacting.sgml">
9 <!entity history SYSTEM "history.sgml">
10 <!entity copyright SYSTEM "copyright.sgml">
11 <!entity license SYSTEM "license.sgml">
12 <!entity p-authors SYSTEM "p-authors.sgml">
13 <!entity config SYSTEM "p-config.sgml">
14 <!entity p-version "3.0.11">
15 <!entity p-status "stable">
16 <!entity % p-authors-formal "INCLUDE"> <!-- include additional text, etc -->
17 <!entity % p-not-stable "IGNORE">
18 <!entity % p-stable "INCLUDE">
19 <!entity % p-text "IGNORE"> <!-- define we are not a text only doc -->
20 <!entity % p-doc "INCLUDE"> <!-- and we are a formal doc -->
21 <!entity % p-readme "IGNORE">
22 <!entity % user-man "IGNORE">
23 <!entity % config-file "IGNORE">
24 <!entity % p-supp-userman "IGNORE"> <!-- Omit some from supported.sgml -->
25 <!entity my-copy "©"> <!-- kludge for docbook2man -->
26 <!entity % draft "IGNORE"> <!-- WIP stuff -->
27 <!entity my-app "<application>Privoxy</application>">
30 File : $Source: /cvsroot/ijbswa/current/doc/source/user-manual.sgml,v $
33 This file belongs into
34 ijbswa.sourceforge.net:/home/groups/i/ij/ijbswa/htdocs/
36 $Id: user-manual.sgml,v 2.94 2009/02/14 11:50:31 fabiankeil Exp $
38 Copyright (C) 2001-2009 Privoxy Developers http://www.privoxy.org/
41 ========================================================================
42 NOTE: Please read developer-manual/documentation.html before touching
43 anything in this, or other Privoxy documentation.
44 ========================================================================
51 <title>Privoxy &p-version; User Manual</title>
55 <!-- Completely the wrong markup, but very little is allowed -->
56 <!-- in this part of an article. FIXME -->
57 <link linkend="copyright">Copyright</link> &my-copy; 2001-2009 by
58 <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/">Privoxy Developers</ulink>
62 <pubdate>$Id: user-manual.sgml,v 2.94 2009/02/14 11:50:31 fabiankeil Exp $</pubdate>
66 Note: the following should generate a separate page, and a live link to it,
67 all nicely done. But it doesn't for some mysterious reason. Please leave
68 commented unless it can be fixed proper. For the time being, the
69 copyright/license declarations will be in their own sgml.
82 This is here to keep vim syntax file from breaking :/
83 If I knew enough to fix it, I would.
84 PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE! HB: hal@foobox.net
90 The <citetitle>Privoxy User Manual</citetitle> gives users information on how to
91 install, configure and use <ulink
92 url="http://www.privoxy.org/">Privoxy</ulink>.
95 <!-- Include privoxy.sgml boilerplate: -->
97 <!-- end privoxy.sgml -->
100 You can find the latest version of the <citetitle>Privoxy User Manual</citetitle> at <ulink
101 url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/">http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/</ulink>.
102 Please see the <link linkend="contact">Contact section</link> on how to
103 contact the developers.
107 <!-- Feel free to send a note to the developers at <email>ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net</email>. -->
113 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
114 <sect1 label="1" id="introduction"><title>Introduction</title>
116 This documentation is included with the current &p-status; version of
117 <application>Privoxy</application>, v.&p-version;<![%p-not-stable;[,
118 and is mostly complete at this point. The most up to date reference for the
119 time being is still the comments in the source files and in the individual
120 configuration files. Development of a new version is currently nearing
121 completion, and includes significant changes and enhancements over
122 earlier versions. ]]>.
125 <!-- include only in non-stable versions -->
128 Since this is a &p-status; version, not all new features are well tested. This
129 documentation may be slightly out of sync as a result (especially with
130 CVS sources). And there <emphasis>may be</emphasis> bugs, though hopefully
135 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
136 <sect2 id="features"><title>Features</title>
138 In addition to the core
139 features of ad blocking and
140 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookie</ulink> management,
141 <application>Privoxy</application> provides many supplemental
142 features<![%p-not-stable;[, some of them currently under development]]>,
143 that give the end-user more control, more privacy and more freedom:
145 <!-- Include newfeatures.sgml boilerplate here: -->
147 <!-- end boilerplate -->
152 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
155 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
156 <sect1 id="installation"><title>Installation</title>
159 <application>Privoxy</application> is available both in convenient pre-compiled
160 packages for a wide range of operating systems, and as raw source code.
161 For most users, we recommend using the packages, which can be downloaded from our
162 <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ijbswa/">Privoxy Project
168 On some platforms, the installer may remove previously installed versions, if
169 found. (See below for your platform). In any case <emphasis>be sure to backup
170 your old configuration if it is valuable to you.</emphasis> See the <link
171 linkend="upgradersnote">note to upgraders</link> section below.
174 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
175 <sect2 id="installation-packages"><title>Binary Packages</title>
177 How to install the binary packages depends on your operating system:
180 <!-- XXX: The installation sections should be sorted -->
182 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
183 <sect3 id="installation-pack-rpm"><title>Red Hat and Fedora RPMs</title>
186 RPMs can be installed with <literal>rpm -Uvh privoxy-&p-version;-1.rpm</literal>,
187 and will use <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> for the location
188 of configuration files.
192 Note that on Red Hat, <application>Privoxy</application> will
193 <emphasis>not</emphasis> be automatically started on system boot. You will
194 need to enable that using <command>chkconfig</command>,
195 <command>ntsysv</command>, or similar methods.
199 If you have problems with failed dependencies, try rebuilding the SRC RPM:
200 <literal>rpm --rebuild privoxy-&p-version;-1.src.rpm</literal>. This
201 will use your locally installed libraries and RPM version.
205 Also note that if you have a <application>Junkbuster</application> RPM installed
206 on your system, you need to remove it first, because the packages conflict.
207 Otherwise, RPM will try to remove <application>Junkbuster</application>
208 automatically if found, before installing <application>Privoxy</application>.
212 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
213 <sect3 id="installation-deb"><title>Debian and Ubuntu</title>
215 DEBs can be installed with <literal>apt-get install privoxy</literal>,
216 and will use <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> for the location of
221 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
222 <sect3 id="installation-pack-win"><title>Windows</title>
225 Just double-click the installer, which will guide you through
226 the installation process. You will find the configuration files
227 in the same directory as you installed <application>Privoxy</application> in.
230 Version 3.0.5 beta introduced full <application>Windows</application> service
231 functionality. On Windows only, the <application>Privoxy</application>
232 program has two new command line arguments to install and uninstall
233 <application>Privoxy</application> as a <emphasis>service</emphasis>.
237 <term>Arguments:</term>
240 <replaceable class="parameter">--install</replaceable>[:<replaceable class="parameter">service_name</replaceable>]
243 <replaceable class="parameter">--uninstall</replaceable>[:<replaceable class="parameter">service_name</replaceable>]
249 After invoking <application>Privoxy</application> with
250 <command>--install</command>, you will need to bring up the
251 <application>Windows</application> service console to assign the user you
252 want <application>Privoxy</application> to run under, and whether or not you
253 want it to run whenever the system starts. You can start the
254 <application>Windows</application> services console with the following
255 command: <command>services.msc</command>. If you do not take the manual step
256 of modifying <application>Privoxy's</application> service settings, it will
257 not start. Note too that you will need to give Privoxy a user account that
258 actually exists, or it will not be permitted to
259 write to its log and configuration files.
264 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
265 <sect3 id="installation-pack-bintgz"><title>Solaris <!--, NetBSD, HP-UX--></title>
268 Create a new directory, <literal>cd</literal> to it, then unzip and
269 untar the archive. For the most part, you'll have to figure out where
270 things go. <!-- FIXME, more info needed? -->
274 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
275 <sect3 id="installation-os2"><title>OS/2</title>
278 First, make sure that no previous installations of
279 <application>Junkbuster</application> and / or
280 <application>Privoxy</application> are left on your
281 system. Check that no <application>Junkbuster</application>
282 or <application>Privoxy</application> objects are in
288 Then, just double-click the WarpIN self-installing archive, which will
289 guide you through the installation process. A shadow of the
290 <application>Privoxy</application> executable will be placed in your
291 startup folder so it will start automatically whenever OS/2 starts.
295 The directory you choose to install <application>Privoxy</application>
296 into will contain all of the configuration files.
300 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
301 <sect3 id="installation-mac"><title>Mac OS X</title>
303 Unzip the downloaded file (you can either double-click on the zip file
304 icon from the Finder, or from the desktop if you downloaded it there).
305 Then, double-click on the package installer icon and follow the
306 installation process.
309 The privoxy service will automatically start after a successful
310 installation (in addition to every time your computer starts up). To
311 prevent the privoxy service from automatically starting when your
312 computer starts up, remove or rename the folder named
313 <literal>/Library/StartupItems/Privoxy</literal>.
316 To manually start or stop the privoxy service, use the Privoxy Utility
317 for Mac OS X. This application controls the privoxy service (e.g.
318 starting and stopping the service as well as uninstalling the software).
322 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
323 <sect3 id="installation-amiga"><title>AmigaOS</title>
325 Copy and then unpack the <filename>lha</filename> archive to a suitable location.
326 All necessary files will be installed into <application>Privoxy</application>
327 directory, including all configuration and log files. To uninstall, just
328 remove this directory.
332 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
333 <sect3 id="installation-tbz"><title>FreeBSD</title>
336 Privoxy is part of FreeBSD's Ports Collection, you can build and install
337 it with <literal>cd /usr/ports/www/privoxy; make install clean</literal>.
340 If you don't use the ports, you can fetch and install
341 the package with <literal>pkg_add -r privoxy</literal>.
344 The port skeleton and the package can also be downloaded from the
345 <ulink url="https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118">File Release
346 Page</ulink>, but there's no reason to use them unless you're interested in the
347 beta releases which are only available there.
351 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
352 <sect3 id="installattion-gentoo"><title>Gentoo</title>
354 Gentoo source packages (Ebuilds) for <application>Privoxy</application> are
355 contained in the Gentoo Portage Tree (they are not on the download page,
356 but there is a Gentoo section, where you can see when a new
357 <application>Privoxy</application> Version is added to the Portage Tree).
360 Before installing <application>Privoxy</application> under Gentoo just do
361 first <literal>emerge --sync</literal> to get the latest changes from the
362 Portage tree. With <literal>emerge privoxy</literal> you install the latest
366 Configuration files are in <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename>, the
367 documentation is in <filename>/usr/share/doc/privoxy-&p-version;</filename>
368 and the Log directory is in <filename>/var/log/privoxy</filename>.
374 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
375 <sect2 id="installation-source"><title>Building from Source</title>
378 The most convenient way to obtain the <application>Privoxy</application> sources
379 is to download the source tarball from our
380 <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118&package_id=10571">project download
385 If you like to live on the bleeding edge and are not afraid of using
386 possibly unstable development versions, you can check out the up-to-the-minute
387 version directly from <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/cvs/?group_id=11118">the
388 CVS repository</ulink>.
390 deprecated...out of business.
391 or simply download <ulink
392 url="http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cvstarballs/ijbswa-cvsroot.tar.bz2">the nightly CVS
397 <!-- include buildsource.sgml boilerplate: -->
399 <!-- end boilerplate -->
402 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
403 <sect2 id="installation-keepupdated"><title>Keeping your Installation Up-to-Date</title>
405 As user feedback comes in and development continues, we will make updated versions
406 of both the main <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link> (as a <ulink
407 url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118&release_id=103670">separate
408 package</ulink>) and the software itself (including the actions file) available for
413 If you wish to receive an email notification whenever we release updates of
414 <application>Privoxy</application> or the actions file, <ulink
415 url="http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ijbswa-announce/">subscribe
416 to our announce mailing list</ulink>, ijbswa-announce@lists.sourceforge.net.
420 In order not to lose your personal changes and adjustments when updating
421 to the latest <literal>default.action</literal> file we <emphasis>strongly
422 recommend</emphasis> that you use <literal>user.action</literal> and
423 <literal>user.filter</literal> for your local
424 customizations of <application>Privoxy</application>. See the <link
425 linkend="actions-file">Chapter on actions files</link> for details.
433 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
435 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
436 <sect1 id="whatsnew">
437 <title>What's New in this Release</title>
439 There are only a few improvements and new features since
440 <application>Privoxy 3.0.10</application>, the last stable release:
447 The mingw32 version uses mutex locks now which prevents
448 log message corruption under load. As a side effect,
449 the "no thread-safe PRNG" warning could be removed as well.
454 Support for remote toggling is controlled by the configure
455 option --disable-toggle only. In previous versions it also
456 depended on the action editor and thus configuring with the
457 --disable-editor option would disable remote toggling support
463 The hide-forwarded-for-headers action has been replaced with
464 the change-x-forwarded-for{} action which can also be used to
465 add X-Forwarded-For headers. The latter functionality already
466 existed in Privoxy versions prior to 3.0.7 but has been removed
467 as it was often used unintentionally (by not using the
468 hide-forwarded-for-headers action).
475 For a more detailed list of changes please have a look at the ChangeLog.
478 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
480 <sect2 id="upgradersnote">
481 <title>Note to Upgraders</title>
484 A quick list of things to be aware of before upgrading from earlier
485 versions of <application>Privoxy</application>:
493 The recommended way to upgrade &my-app; is to backup your old
494 configuration files, install the new ones, verify that &my-app;
495 is working correctly and finally merge back your changes using
496 <application>diff</application> and maybe <application>patch</application>.
499 There are a number of new features in each &my-app; release and
500 most of them have to be explicitly enabled in the configuration
501 files. Old configuration files obviously don't do that and due
502 to syntax changes using old configuration files with a new
503 &my-app; isn't always possible anyway.
508 Note that some installers remove earlier versions completely,
509 including configuration files, therefore you should really save
510 any important configuration files!
515 On the other hand, other installers don't overwrite existing configuration
516 files, thinking you will want to do that yourself.
521 <filename>standard.action</filename> has been merged into
522 the <filename>default.action</filename> file.
527 In the default configuration only fatal errors are logged now.
528 You can change that in the <link linkend="DEBUG">debug section</link>
529 of the configuration file. You may also want to enable more verbose
530 logging until you verified that the new &my-app; version is working
537 Three other config file settings are now off by default:
538 <link linkend="enable-remote-toggle">enable-remote-toggle</link>,
539 <link linkend="enable-remote-http-toggle">enable-remote-http-toggle</link>,
540 and <link linkend="enable-edit-actions">enable-edit-actions</link>.
541 If you use or want these, you will need to explicitly enable them, and
542 be aware of the security issues involved.
548 The <quote>filter-client-headers</quote> and
549 <quote>filter-server-headers</quote> actions that were introduced with
550 <application>Privoxy 3.0.5</application> to apply content filters to
551 the headers have been removed and replaced with new actions.
553 linkend="whatsnew">What's New section</link> above.
561 What constitutes a <quote>default</quote> configuration has changed,
562 and you may want to review which actions are <quote>on</quote> by
563 default. This is primarily a matter of emphasis, but some features
564 you may have been used to, may now be <quote>off</quote> by default.
565 There are also a number of new actions and filters you may want to
566 consider, most of which are not fully incorporated into the default
567 settings as yet (see above).
574 The default actions setting is now <literal>Cautious</literal>. Previous
575 releases had a default setting of <literal>Medium</literal>. Experienced
576 users may want to adjust this, as it is fairly conservative by &my-app;
577 standards and past practices. See <ulink
578 url="http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions-list?f=default">
579 http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions-list?f=default</ulink>. New users
580 should try the default settings for a while before turning up the volume.
586 The default setting has filtering turned <emphasis>off</emphasis>, which
587 subsequently means that compression is <emphasis>on</emphasis>. Remember
588 that filtering does not work on compressed pages, so if you use, or want to
589 use, filtering, you will need to force compression off. Example:
593 { +<link linkend="filter">filter</link>{google} +<link linkend="prevent-compression">prevent-compression</link> }
597 Or if you use a number of filters, or filter many sites, you may just want
598 to turn off compression for all sites in
599 <filename>default.action</filename> (or
600 <filename>user.action</filename>).
607 Also, <link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> is
608 off by default now. If you've liked this feature in the past, you may want
609 to turn it back on in <filename>user.action</filename> now.
616 Some installers may not automatically start
617 <application>Privoxy</application> after installation.
628 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
629 <sect1 id="quickstart"><title>Quickstart to Using Privoxy</title>
635 Install <application>Privoxy</application>. See the <link
636 linkend="installation">Installation Section</link> below for platform specific
643 Advanced users and those who want to offer <application>Privoxy</application>
644 service to more than just their local machine should check the <link
645 linkend="config">main config file</link>, especially the <link
646 linkend="access-control">security-relevant</link> options. These are
653 Start <application>Privoxy</application>, if the installation program has
654 not done this already (may vary according to platform). See the section
655 <link linkend="startup">Starting <application>Privoxy</application></link>.
661 Set your browser to use <application>Privoxy</application> as HTTP and
662 HTTPS (SSL) <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_server">proxy</ulink>
663 by setting the proxy configuration for address of
664 <literal>127.0.0.1</literal> and port <literal>8118</literal>.
665 <emphasis>DO NOT</emphasis> activate proxying for <literal>FTP</literal> or
666 any protocols besides HTTP and HTTPS (SSL) unless you intend to prevent your
667 browser from using these protocols.
673 Flush your browser's disk and memory caches, to remove any cached ad images.
674 If using <application>Privoxy</application> to manage
675 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>,
676 you should remove any currently stored cookies too.
682 A default installation should provide a reasonable starting point for
683 most. There will undoubtedly be occasions where you will want to adjust the
684 configuration, but that can be dealt with as the need arises. Little
685 to no initial configuration is required in most cases, you may want
687 <ulink url="config.html#ENABLE-EDIT-ACTIONS">web-based action editor</ulink> though.
688 Be sure to read the warnings first.
691 See the <link linkend="configuration">Configuration section</link> for more
692 configuration options, and how to customize your installation.
693 You might also want to look at the <link
694 linkend="quickstart-ad-blocking">next section</link> for a quick
695 introduction to how <application>Privoxy</application> blocks ads and
702 If you experience ads that slip through, innocent images that are
703 blocked, or otherwise feel the need to fine-tune
704 <application>Privoxy's</application> behavior, take a look at the <link
705 linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>. As a quick start, you might
706 find the <link linkend="act-examples">richly commented examples</link>
707 helpful. You can also view and edit the actions files through the <ulink
708 url="http://config.privoxy.org">web-based user interface</ulink>. The
709 Appendix <quote><link linkend="actionsanat">Troubleshooting: Anatomy of an
710 Action</link></quote> has hints on how to understand and debug actions that
711 <quote>misbehave</quote>.
716 Did anyone test these lately?
720 For easy access to &my-app;'s most important controls, drag the provided
721 <link linkend="bookmarklets">Bookmarklets</link> into your browser's
729 Please see the section <link linkend="contact">Contacting the
730 Developers</link> on how to report bugs, problems with websites or to get
737 Now enjoy surfing with enhanced control, comfort and privacy!
745 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
747 <sect2 id="quickstart-ad-blocking">
748 <title>Quickstart to Ad Blocking</title>
750 NOTE: This section is deliberately redundant for those that don't
751 want to read the whole thing (which is getting lengthy).
754 Ad blocking is but one of <application>Privoxy's</application>
755 array of features. Many of these features are for the technically minded advanced
756 user. But, ad and banner blocking is surely common ground for everybody.
759 This section will provide a quick summary of ad blocking so
760 you can get up to speed quickly without having to read the more extensive
761 information provided below, though this is highly recommended.
764 First a bit of a warning ... blocking ads is much like blocking SPAM: the
765 more aggressive you are about it, the more likely you are to block
766 things that were not intended. And the more likely that some things
767 may not work as intended. So there is a trade off here. If you want
768 extreme ad free browsing, be prepared to deal with more
769 <quote>problem</quote> sites, and to spend more time adjusting the
770 configuration to solve these unintended consequences. In short, there is
771 not an easy way to eliminate <emphasis>all</emphasis> ads. Either take
772 the easy way and settle for <emphasis>most</emphasis> ads blocked with the
773 default configuration, or jump in and tweak it for your personal surfing
774 habits and preferences.
777 Secondly, a brief explanation of <application>Privoxy's </application>
778 <quote>actions</quote>. <quote>Actions</quote> in this context, are
779 the directives we use to tell <application>Privoxy</application> to perform
780 some task relating to HTTP transactions (i.e. web browsing). We tell
781 <application>Privoxy</application> to take some <quote>action</quote>. Each
782 action has a unique name and function. While there are many potential
783 <application>actions</application> in <application>Privoxy's</application>
784 arsenal, only a few are used for ad blocking. <link
785 linkend="actions">Actions</link>, and <link linkend="actions-file">action
786 configuration files</link>, are explained in depth below.
789 Actions are specified in <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration,
790 followed by one or more URLs to which the action should apply. URLs
791 can actually be URL type <link linkend="af-patterns">patterns</link> that use
792 wildcards so they can apply potentially to a range of similar URLs. The
793 actions, together with the URL patterns are called a section.
796 When you connect to a website, the full URL will either match one or more
797 of the sections as defined in <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration,
798 or not. If so, then <application>Privoxy</application> will perform the
799 respective actions. If not, then nothing special happens. Furthermore, web
800 pages may contain embedded, secondary URLs that your web browser will
801 use to load additional components of the page, as it parses the
802 original page's HTML content. An ad image for instance, is just an URL
803 embedded in the page somewhere. The image itself may be on the same server,
804 or a server somewhere else on the Internet. Complex web pages will have many
805 such embedded URLs. &my-app; can deal with each URL individually, so, for
806 instance, the main page text is not touched, but images from such-and-such
811 The most important actions for basic ad blocking are: <literal><link
812 linkend="block">block</link></literal>, <literal><link
813 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>,
815 linkend="handle-as-empty-document">handle-as-empty-document</link></literal>,and
816 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>:
824 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> - this is perhaps
825 the single most used action, and is particularly important for ad blocking.
826 This action stops any contact between your browser and any URL patterns
827 that match this action's configuration. It can be used for blocking ads,
828 but also anything that is determined to be unwanted. By itself, it simply
829 stops any communication with the remote server and sends
830 <application>Privoxy</application>'s own built-in BLOCKED page instead to
831 let you now what has happened (with some exceptions, see below).
837 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> -
838 tells <application>Privoxy</application> to treat this URL as an image.
839 <application>Privoxy</application>'s default configuration already does this
840 for all common image types (e.g. GIF), but there are many situations where this
841 is not so easy to determine. So we'll force it in these cases. This is particularly
842 important for ad blocking, since only if we know that it's an image of
843 some kind, can we replace it with an image of our choosing, instead of the
844 <application>Privoxy</application> BLOCKED page (which would only result in
845 a <quote>broken image</quote> icon). There are some limitations to this
846 though. For instance, you can't just brute-force an image substitution for
847 an entire HTML page in most situations.
853 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-empty-document">handle-as-empty-document</link></literal> -
854 sends an empty document instead of <application>Privoxy's</application>
855 normal BLOCKED HTML page. This is useful for file types that are neither
856 HTML nor images, such as blocking JavaScript files.
863 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal> - tells
864 <application>Privoxy</application> what to display in place of an ad image that
865 has hit a block rule. For this to come into play, the URL must match a
866 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action somewhere in the
867 configuration, <emphasis>and</emphasis>, it must also match an
868 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> action.
871 The configuration options on what to display instead of the ad are:
875 <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> - a checkerboard pattern, so that an ad
876 replacement is obvious. This is the default.
881 <emphasis>blank</emphasis> - A very small empty GIF image is displayed.
882 This is the so-called <quote>invisible</quote> configuration option.
887 <emphasis>http://<URL></emphasis> - A redirect to any image anywhere
888 of the user's choosing (advanced usage).
897 Advanced users will eventually want to explore &my-app;
898 <literal><link linkend="filter">filters</link></literal> as well. Filters
899 are very different from <literal><link
900 linkend="block">blocks</link></literal>.
901 A <quote>block</quote> blocks a site, page, or unwanted contented. Filters
902 are a way of filtering or modifying what is actually on the page. An example
903 filter usage: a text replacement of <quote>no-no</quote> for
904 <quote>nasty-word</quote>. That is a very simple example. This process can be
905 used for ad blocking, but it is more in the realm of advanced usage and has
906 some pitfalls to be wary off.
910 The quickest way to adjust any of these settings is with your browser through
911 the special <application>Privoxy</application> editor at <ulink
912 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
913 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/show-status</ulink>). This
914 is an internal page, and does not require Internet access.
918 Note that as of <application>Privoxy</application> 3.0.7 beta the
919 action editor is disabled by default. Check the
920 <ulink url="config.html#ENABLE-EDIT-ACTIONS">enable-edit-actions
921 section in the configuration file</ulink> to learn why and in which
922 cases it's safe to enable again.
926 If you decided to enable the action editor, select the appropriate
927 <quote>actions</quote> file, and click
928 <quote><guibutton>Edit</guibutton></quote>. It is best to put personal or
929 local preferences in <filename>user.action</filename> since this is not
930 meant to be overwritten during upgrades, and will over-ride the settings in
931 other files. Here you can insert new <quote>actions</quote>, and URLs for ad
932 blocking or other purposes, and make other adjustments to the configuration.
933 <application>Privoxy</application> will detect these changes automatically.
937 A quick and simple step by step example:
945 Right click on the ad image to be blocked, then select
946 <quote><guimenuitem>Copy Link Location</guimenuitem></quote> from the
954 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
959 Find <filename>user.action</filename> in the top section, and click
960 on <quote><guibutton>Edit</guibutton></quote>:
963 <!-- image of editor and actions files selections -->
965 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Actions Files in Use</title>
968 <imagedata fileref="files-in-use.jpg" format="jpg">
971 <phrase>[ Screenshot of Actions Files in Use ]</phrase>
980 You should have a section with only
981 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> listed under
982 <quote>Actions:</quote>.
983 If not, click a <quote><guibutton>Insert new section below</guibutton></quote>
984 button, and in the new section that just appeared, click the
985 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> button right under the word <quote>Actions:</quote>.
986 This will bring up a list of all actions. Find
987 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> near the top, and click
988 in the <quote>Enabled</quote> column, then <quote><guibutton>Submit</guibutton></quote>
994 Now, in the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> actions section,
995 click the <quote><guibutton>Add</guibutton></quote> button, and paste the URL the
996 browser got from <quote><guimenuitem>Copy Link Location</guimenuitem></quote>.
997 Remove the <literal>http://</literal> at the beginning of the URL. Then, click
998 <quote><guibutton>Submit</guibutton></quote> (or
999 <quote><guibutton>OK</guibutton></quote> if in a pop-up window).
1004 Now go back to the original page, and press <keycap>SHIFT-Reload</keycap>
1005 (or flush all browser caches). The image should be gone now.
1013 This is a very crude and simple example. There might be good reasons to use a
1014 wildcard pattern match to include potentially similar images from the same
1015 site. For a more extensive explanation of <quote>patterns</quote>, and
1016 the entire actions concept, see <link linkend="actions-file">the Actions
1021 For advanced users who want to hand edit their config files, you might want
1022 to now go to the <link linkend="act-examples">Actions Files Tutorial</link>.
1023 The ideas explained therein also apply to the web-based editor.
1026 There are also various
1027 <link linkend="filter">filters</link> that can be used for ad blocking
1028 (filters are a special subset of actions). These
1029 fall into the <quote>advanced</quote> usage category, and are explained in
1030 depth in later sections.
1037 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1040 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1041 <sect1 id="startup">
1042 <title>Starting Privoxy</title>
1044 Before launching <application>Privoxy</application> for the first time, you
1045 will want to configure your browser(s) to use
1046 <application>Privoxy</application> as a HTTP and HTTPS (SSL)
1047 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_server">proxy</ulink>. The default is
1048 127.0.0.1 (or localhost) for the proxy address, and port 8118 (earlier versions
1049 used port 8000). This is the one configuration step <emphasis>that must be done
1053 Please note that <application>Privoxy</application> can only proxy HTTP and
1054 HTTPS traffic. It will not work with FTP or other protocols.
1057 <!-- image of Mozilla Proxy configuration -->
1059 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Proxy Configuration Showing
1060 Mozilla/Netscape HTTP and HTTPS (SSL) Settings</title>
1063 <imagedata fileref="proxy_setup.jpg" format="jpg">
1066 <phrase>[ Screenshot of Mozilla Proxy Configuration ]</phrase>
1074 With <application>Firefox</application>, this is typically set under:
1078 <guibutton>Tools</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Options</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Advanced</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Network</guibutton> -><guibutton>Connection</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Settings</guibutton>
1083 Or optionally on some platforms:
1087 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Preferences</guibutton> -> <guibutton>General</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Connection Settings</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Manual Proxy Configuration</guibutton>
1093 With <application>Netscape</application> (and
1094 <application>Mozilla</application>), this can be set under:
1099 <!-- Mix ascii and gui art, something for everybody -->
1100 <!-- spacing on this is tricky -->
1101 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Preferences</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Advanced</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Proxies</guibutton> -> <guibutton>HTTP Proxy</guibutton>
1106 For <application>Internet Explorer v.5-7</application>:
1110 <guibutton>Tools</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Internet Options</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Connections</guibutton> -> <guibutton>LAN Settings</guibutton>
1114 Then, check <quote>Use Proxy</quote> and fill in the appropriate info
1115 (Address: 127.0.0.1, Port: 8118). Include HTTPS (SSL), if you want HTTPS
1116 proxy support too (sometimes labeled <quote>Secure</quote>). Make sure any
1117 checkboxes like <quote>Use the same proxy server for all protocols</quote> is
1118 <emphasis>UNCHECKED</emphasis>. You want only HTTP and HTTPS (SSL)!
1121 <!-- image of IE Proxy configuration -->
1123 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Proxy Configuration Showing
1124 Internet Explorer HTTP and HTTPS (Secure) Settings</title>
1127 <imagedata fileref="proxy2.jpg" format="jpg">
1130 <phrase>[ Screenshot of IE Proxy Configuration ]</phrase>
1138 After doing this, flush your browser's disk and memory caches to force a
1139 re-reading of all pages and to get rid of any ads that may be cached. Remove
1140 any <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>,
1141 if you want <application>Privoxy</application> to manage that. You are now
1142 ready to start enjoying the benefits of using
1143 <application>Privoxy</application>!
1147 <application>Privoxy</application> itself is typically started by specifying the
1148 main configuration file to be used on the command line. If no configuration
1149 file is specified on the command line, <application>Privoxy</application>
1150 will look for a file named <filename>config</filename> in the current
1151 directory. Except on Win32 where it will try <filename>config.txt</filename>.
1154 <sect2 id="start-redhat">
1155 <title>Red Hat and Fedora</title>
1157 A default Red Hat installation may not start &my-app; upon boot. It will use
1158 the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename> as its main configuration
1163 # /etc/rc.d/init.d/privoxy start
1171 # service privoxy start
1176 <sect2 id="start-debian">
1177 <title>Debian</title>
1179 We use a script. Note that Debian typically starts &my-app; upon booting per
1180 default. It will use the file
1181 <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename> as its main configuration
1186 # /etc/init.d/privoxy start
1191 <sect2 id="start-windows">
1192 <title>Windows</title>
1194 Click on the &my-app; Icon to start <application>Privoxy</application>. If no configuration file is
1195 specified on the command line, <application>Privoxy</application> will look
1196 for a file named <filename>config.txt</filename>. Note that Windows will
1197 automatically start &my-app; when the system starts if you chose that option
1201 <application>Privoxy</application> can run with full Windows service functionality.
1202 On Windows only, the &my-app; program has two new command line arguments
1203 to install and uninstall &my-app; as a service. See the
1204 <link linkend="installation-pack-win">Windows Installation
1205 instructions</link> for details.
1209 <sect2 id="start-unices">
1210 <title>Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD, HP-UX and others</title>
1212 Example Unix startup command:
1216 # /usr/sbin/privoxy /etc/privoxy/config
1221 <sect2 id="start-os2">
1224 During installation, <application>Privoxy</application> is configured to
1225 start automatically when the system restarts. You can start it manually by
1226 double-clicking on the <application>Privoxy</application> icon in the
1227 <application>Privoxy</application> folder.
1231 <sect2 id="start-macosx">
1232 <title>Mac OS X</title>
1234 After downloading the privoxy software, unzip the downloaded file by
1235 double-clicking on the zip file icon. Then, double-click on the
1236 installer package icon and follow the installation process.
1239 The privoxy service will automatically start after a successful
1240 installation. In addition, the privoxy service will automatically
1241 start every time your computer starts up.
1244 To prevent the privoxy service from automatically starting when your
1245 computer starts up, remove or rename the folder named
1246 /Library/StartupItems/Privoxy.
1249 A simple application named Privoxy Utility has been created which
1250 enables administrators to easily start and stop the privoxy service.
1253 In addition, the Privoxy Utility presents a simple way for
1254 administrators to edit the various privoxy config files. A method
1255 to uninstall the software is also available.
1258 An administrator username and password must be supplied in order for
1259 the Privoxy Utility to perform any of the tasks.
1264 <sect2 id="start-amigaos">
1265 <title>AmigaOS</title>
1267 Start <application>Privoxy</application> (with RUN <>NIL:) in your
1268 <filename>startnet</filename> script (AmiTCP), in
1269 <filename>s:user-startup</filename> (RoadShow), as startup program in your
1270 startup script (Genesis), or as startup action (Miami and MiamiDx).
1271 <application>Privoxy</application> will automatically quit when you quit your
1272 TCP/IP stack (just ignore the harmless warning your TCP/IP stack may display that
1273 <application>Privoxy</application> is still running).
1277 <sect2 id="start-gentoo">
1278 <title>Gentoo</title>
1280 A script is again used. It will use the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config
1281 </filename> as its main configuration file.
1285 /etc/init.d/privoxy start
1289 Note that <application>Privoxy</application> is not automatically started at
1290 boot time by default. You can change this with the <literal>rc-update</literal>
1295 rc-update add privoxy default
1303 See the section <link linkend="cmdoptions">Command line options</link> for
1307 must find a better place for this paragraph
1310 The included default configuration files should give a reasonable starting
1311 point. Most of the per site configuration is done in the
1312 <ulink url="actions-file.html"><quote>actions</quote></ulink> files. These are
1313 where various cookie actions are defined, ad and banner blocking, and other
1314 aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. There are several
1315 such files included, with varying levels of aggressiveness.
1319 You will probably want to keep an eye out for sites for which you may prefer
1320 persistent cookies, and add these to your actions configuration as needed. By
1321 default, most of these will be accepted only during the current browser
1322 session (aka <quote>session cookies</quote>), unless you add them to the
1323 configuration. If you want the browser to handle this instead, you will need
1324 to edit <filename>user.action</filename> (or through the web based interface)
1325 and disable this feature. If you use more than one browser, it would make
1326 more sense to let <application>Privoxy</application> handle this. In which
1327 case, the browser(s) should be set to accept all cookies.
1331 Another feature where you will probably want to define exceptions for trusted
1332 sites is the popup-killing (through <ulink
1333 url="actions-file.html#FILTER-POPUPS"><quote>+filter{popups}</quote></ulink>),
1334 because your favorite shopping, banking, or leisure site may need
1335 popups (explained below).
1339 <application>Privoxy</application> does not support all of the optional HTTP/1.1
1340 features yet. In the unlikely event that you experience inexplicable problems
1341 with browsers that use HTTP/1.1 per default
1342 (like <application>Mozilla</application> or recent versions of I.E.), you might
1343 try to force HTTP/1.0 compatibility. For Mozilla, look under <literal>Edit ->
1344 Preferences -> Debug -> Networking</literal>.
1345 Alternatively, set the <quote>+downgrade-http-version</quote> config option in
1346 <filename>default.action</filename> which will downgrade your browser's HTTP
1347 requests from HTTP/1.1 to HTTP/1.0 before processing them.
1351 After running <application>Privoxy</application> for a while, you can
1352 start to fine tune the configuration to suit your personal, or site,
1353 preferences and requirements. There are many, many aspects that can
1354 be customized. <quote>Actions</quote>
1355 can be adjusted by pointing your browser to
1356 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
1357 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
1358 and then follow the link to <quote>View & Change the Current Configuration</quote>.
1359 (This is an internal page and does not require Internet access.)
1363 In fact, various aspects of <application>Privoxy</application>
1364 configuration can be viewed from this page, including
1365 current configuration parameters, source code version numbers,
1366 the browser's request headers, and <quote>actions</quote> that apply
1367 to a given URL. In addition to the actions file
1368 editor mentioned above, <application>Privoxy</application> can also
1369 be turned <quote>on</quote> and <quote>off</quote> (toggled) from this page.
1373 If you encounter problems, try loading the page without
1374 <application>Privoxy</application>. If that helps, enter the URL where
1375 you have the problems into <ulink url="http://p.p/show-url-info">the browser
1376 based rule tracing utility</ulink>. See which rules apply and why, and
1377 then try turning them off for that site one after the other, until the problem
1378 is gone. When you have found the culprit, you might want to turn the rest on
1383 If the above paragraph sounds gibberish to you, you might want to <link
1384 linkend="actions-file">read more about the actions concept</link>
1385 or even dive deep into the <link linkend="actionsanat">Appendix
1390 If you can't get rid of the problem at all, think you've found a bug in
1391 Privoxy, want to propose a new feature or smarter rules, please see the
1392 section <link linkend="contact"><quote>Contacting the
1393 Developers</quote></link> below.
1398 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1399 <sect2 id="cmdoptions">
1400 <title>Command Line Options</title>
1402 <application>Privoxy</application> may be invoked with the following
1403 command-line options:
1411 <emphasis>--version</emphasis>
1414 Print version info and exit. Unix only.
1419 <emphasis>--help</emphasis>
1422 Print short usage info and exit. Unix only.
1427 <emphasis>--no-daemon</emphasis>
1430 Don't become a daemon, i.e. don't fork and become process group
1431 leader, and don't detach from controlling tty. Unix only.
1436 <emphasis>--pidfile FILE</emphasis>
1439 On startup, write the process ID to <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>. Delete the
1440 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> on exit. Failure to create or delete the
1441 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> is non-fatal. If no <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>
1442 option is given, no PID file will be used. Unix only.
1447 <emphasis>--user USER[.GROUP]</emphasis>
1450 After (optionally) writing the PID file, assume the user ID of
1451 <emphasis>USER</emphasis>, and if included the GID of GROUP. Exit if the
1452 privileges are not sufficient to do so. Unix only.
1457 <emphasis>--chroot</emphasis>
1460 Before changing to the user ID given in the <emphasis>--user</emphasis> option,
1461 chroot to that user's home directory, i.e. make the kernel pretend to the &my-app;
1462 process that the directory tree starts there. If set up carefully, this can limit
1463 the impact of possible vulnerabilities in &my-app; to the files contained in that hierarchy.
1469 <emphasis>--pre-chroot-nslookup hostname</emphasis>
1472 Specifies a hostname to look up before doing a chroot. On some systems, initializing the
1473 resolver library involves reading config files from /etc and/or loading additional shared
1474 libraries from /lib. On these systems, doing a hostname lookup before the chroot reduces
1475 the number of files that must be copied into the chroot tree.
1478 For fastest startup speed, a good value is a hostname that is not in /etc/hosts but that
1479 your local name server (listed in /etc/resolv.conf) can resolve without recursion
1480 (that is, without having to ask any other name servers). The hostname need not exist,
1481 but if it doesn't, an error message (which can be ignored) will be output.
1487 <emphasis>configfile</emphasis>
1490 If no <emphasis>configfile</emphasis> is included on the command line,
1491 <application>Privoxy</application> will look for a file named
1492 <quote>config</quote> in the current directory (except on Win32
1493 where it will look for <quote>config.txt</quote> instead). Specify
1494 full path to avoid confusion. If no config file is found,
1495 <application>Privoxy</application> will fail to start.
1503 On <application>MS Windows</application> only there are two additional
1504 command-line options to allow <application>Privoxy</application> to install and
1505 run as a <emphasis>service</emphasis>. See the
1506 <link linkend="installation-pack-win">Window Installation section</link>
1514 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1517 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1518 <sect1 id="configuration"><title>Privoxy Configuration</title>
1520 All <application>Privoxy</application> configuration is stored
1521 in text files. These files can be edited with a text editor.
1522 Many important aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> can
1523 also be controlled easily with a web browser.
1527 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1530 <title>Controlling Privoxy with Your Web Browser</title>
1532 <application>Privoxy</application>'s user interface can be reached through the special
1533 URL <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
1534 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
1535 which is a built-in page and works without Internet access.
1536 You will see the following section:
1540 <!-- Needs to be put in a table and colorized -->
1543 <bridgehead renderas="sect2"> Privoxy Menu</bridgehead>
1547 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">View & change the current configuration</ulink>
1550 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-version">View the source code version numbers</ulink>
1553 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request">View the request headers.</ulink>
1556 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">Look up which actions apply to a URL and why</ulink>
1559 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">Toggle Privoxy on or off</ulink>
1562 ▪ <ulink
1563 url="http://www.privoxy.org/&p-version;/user-manual/">Documentation</ulink>
1571 This should be self-explanatory. Note the first item leads to an editor for the
1572 <link linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>, which is where the ad, banner,
1573 cookie, and URL blocking magic is configured as well as other advanced features of
1574 <application>Privoxy</application>. This is an easy way to adjust various
1575 aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. The actions
1576 file, and other configuration files, are explained in detail below.
1580 <quote>Toggle Privoxy On or Off</quote> is handy for sites that might
1581 have problems with your current actions and filters. You can in fact use
1582 it as a test to see whether it is <application>Privoxy</application>
1583 causing the problem or not. <application>Privoxy</application> continues
1584 to run as a proxy in this case, but all manipulation is disabled, i.e.
1585 <application>Privoxy</application> acts like a normal forwarding proxy. There
1586 is even a toggle <link linkend="bookmarklets">Bookmarklet</link> offered, so
1587 that you can toggle <application>Privoxy</application> with one click from
1592 Note that several of the features described above are disabled by default
1593 in <application>Privoxy</application> 3.0.7 beta and later.
1595 <ulink url="config.html">configuration file</ulink> to learn why
1596 and in which cases it's safe to enable them again.
1601 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1606 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1608 <sect2 id="confoverview">
1609 <title>Configuration Files Overview</title>
1611 For Unix, *BSD and Linux, all configuration files are located in
1612 <filename>/etc/privoxy/</filename> by default. For MS Windows, OS/2, and
1613 AmigaOS these are all in the same directory as the
1614 <application>Privoxy</application> executable. <![%p-not-stable;[ The name
1615 and number of configuration files has changed from previous versions, and is
1616 subject to change as development progresses.]]>
1620 The installed defaults provide a reasonable starting point, though
1621 some settings may be aggressive by some standards. For the time being, the
1622 principle configuration files are:
1630 The <link linkend="config">main configuration file</link> is named <filename>config</filename>
1631 on Linux, Unix, BSD, OS/2, and AmigaOS and <filename>config.txt</filename>
1632 on Windows. This is a required file.
1638 <filename>match-all.action</filename> is used to define which <quote>actions</quote>
1639 relating to banner-blocking, images, pop-ups, content modification, cookie handling
1640 etc should be applied by default. It should be the first actions file loaded.
1643 <filename>default.action</filename> defines many exceptions (both positive and negative)
1644 from the default set of actions that's configured in <filename>match-all.action</filename>.
1645 It should be the second actions file loaded and shouldn't be edited by the user.
1648 Multiple actions files may be defined in <filename>config</filename>. These
1649 are processed in the order they are defined. Local customizations and locally
1650 preferred exceptions to the default policies as defined in
1651 <filename>match-all.action</filename> (which you will most probably want
1652 to define sooner or later) are best applied in <filename>user.action</filename>,
1653 where you can preserve them across upgrades. The file isn't installed by all
1654 installers, but you can easily create it yourself with a text editor.
1657 There is also a web based editor that can be accessed from
1659 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
1661 url="http://p.p/show-status">http://p.p/show-status</ulink>) for the
1662 various actions files.
1668 <quote>Filter files</quote> (the <link linkend="filter-file">filter
1669 file</link>) can be used to re-write the raw page content, including
1670 viewable text as well as embedded HTML and JavaScript, and whatever else
1671 lurks on any given web page. The filtering jobs are only pre-defined here;
1672 whether to apply them or not is up to the actions files.
1673 <filename>default.filter</filename> includes various filters made
1674 available for use by the developers. Some are much more intrusive than
1675 others, and all should be used with caution. You may define additional
1676 filter files in <filename>config</filename> as you can with
1677 actions files. We suggest <filename>user.filter</filename> for any
1678 locally defined filters or customizations.
1686 The syntax of the configuration and filter files may change between different
1687 Privoxy versions, unfortunately some enhancements cost backwards compatibility.
1688 <!-- Add link to documentation-->
1692 All files use the <quote><literal>#</literal></quote> character to denote a
1693 comment (the rest of the line will be ignored) and understand line continuation
1694 through placing a backslash ("<literal>\</literal>") as the very last character
1695 in a line. If the <literal>#</literal> is preceded by a backslash, it looses
1696 its special function. Placing a <literal>#</literal> in front of an otherwise
1697 valid configuration line to prevent it from being interpreted is called "commenting
1698 out" that line. Blank lines are ignored.
1702 The actions files and filter files
1703 can use Perl style <link linkend="regex">regular expressions</link> for
1704 maximum flexibility.
1708 After making any changes, there is no need to restart
1709 <application>Privoxy</application> in order for the changes to take
1710 effect. <application>Privoxy</application> detects such changes
1711 automatically. Note, however, that it may take one or two additional
1712 requests for the change to take effect. When changing the listening address
1713 of <application>Privoxy</application>, these <quote>wake up</quote> requests
1714 must obviously be sent to the <emphasis>old</emphasis> listening address.
1719 While under development, the configuration content is subject to change.
1720 The below documentation may not be accurate by the time you read this.
1721 Also, what constitutes a <quote>default</quote> setting, may change, so
1722 please check all your configuration files on important issues.
1728 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1731 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
1733 <!-- **************************************************** -->
1734 <!-- Include config.sgml here -->
1735 <!-- This is where the entire config file is detailed. -->
1737 <!-- end include -->
1740 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1744 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
1746 <sect1 id="actions-file"><title>Actions Files</title>
1750 XXX: similar descriptions are in the Configuration Files sections.
1751 We should only describe them at one place.
1754 The actions files are used to define what <emphasis>actions</emphasis>
1755 <application>Privoxy</application> takes for which URLs, and thus determines
1756 how ad images, cookies and various other aspects of HTTP content and
1757 transactions are handled, and on which sites (or even parts thereof).
1758 There are a number of such actions, with a wide range of functionality.
1759 Each action does something a little different.
1760 These actions give us a veritable arsenal of tools with which to exert
1761 our control, preferences and independence. Actions can be combined so that
1762 their effects are aggregated when applied against a given set of URLs.
1766 are three action files included with <application>Privoxy</application> with
1773 <filename>match-all.action</filename> - is used to define which
1774 <quote>actions</quote> relating to banner-blocking, images, pop-ups,
1775 content modification, cookie handling etc should be applied by default.
1776 It should be the first actions file loaded
1781 <filename>default.action</filename> - defines many exceptions (both
1782 positive and negative) from the default set of actions that's configured
1783 in <filename>match-all.action</filename>. It is a set of rules that should
1784 work reasonably well as-is for most users. This file is only supposed to
1785 be edited by the developers. It should be the second actions file loaded.
1790 <filename>user.action</filename> - is intended to be for local site
1791 preferences and exceptions. As an example, if your ISP or your bank
1792 has specific requirements, and need special handling, this kind of
1793 thing should go here. This file will not be upgraded.
1798 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> <guibutton>Set to Cautious</guibutton> <guibutton>Set to Medium</guibutton> <guibutton>Set to Advanced</guibutton>
1801 These have increasing levels of aggressiveness <emphasis>and have no
1802 influence on your browsing unless you select them explicitly in the
1803 editor</emphasis>. A default installation should be pre-set to
1804 <literal>Cautious</literal>. New users should try this for a while before
1805 adjusting the settings to more aggressive levels. The more aggressive
1806 the settings, then the more likelihood there is of problems such as sites
1807 not working as they should.
1810 The <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> button allows you to turn each
1811 action on/off individually for fine-tuning. The <guibutton>Cautious</guibutton>
1812 button changes the actions list to low/safe settings which will activate
1813 ad blocking and a minimal set of &my-app;'s features, and subsequently
1814 there will be less of a chance for accidental problems. The
1815 <guibutton>Medium</guibutton> button sets the list to a medium level of
1816 other features and a low level set of privacy features. The
1817 <guibutton>Advanced</guibutton> button sets the list to a high level of
1818 ad blocking and medium level of privacy. See the chart below. The latter
1819 three buttons over-ride any changes via with the
1820 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> button. More fine-tuning can be done in the
1821 lower sections of this internal page.
1824 While the actions file editor allows to enable these settings in all
1825 actions files, they are only supposed to be enabled in the first one
1826 to make sure you don't unintentionally overrule earlier rules.
1829 The default profiles, and their associated actions, as pre-defined in
1830 <filename>default.action</filename> are:
1833 <table frame=all><title>Default Configurations</title>
1834 <tgroup cols=4 align=left colsep=1 rowsep=1>
1835 <colspec colname=c1>
1836 <colspec colname=c2>
1837 <colspec colname=c3>
1838 <colspec colname=c4>
1841 <entry>Feature</entry>
1842 <entry>Cautious</entry>
1843 <entry>Medium</entry>
1844 <entry>Advanced</entry>
1849 <!-- <entry>f1</entry> -->
1850 <!-- <entry>f2</entry> -->
1851 <!-- <entry>f3</entry> -->
1852 <!-- <entry>f4</entry> -->
1858 <entry>Ad-blocking Aggressiveness</entry>
1859 <entry>medium</entry>
1865 <entry>Ad-filtering by size</entry>
1872 <entry>Ad-filtering by link</entry>
1878 <entry>Pop-up killing</entry>
1879 <entry>blocks only</entry>
1880 <entry>blocks only</entry>
1881 <entry>blocks only</entry>
1885 <entry>Privacy Features</entry>
1887 <entry>medium</entry>
1888 <entry>medium/high</entry>
1892 <entry>Cookie handling</entry>
1894 <entry>session-only</entry>
1899 <entry>Referer forging</entry>
1906 <entry>GIF de-animation</entry>
1913 <entry>Fast redirects</entry>
1920 <entry>HTML taming</entry>
1927 <entry>JavaScript taming</entry>
1934 <entry>Web-bug killing</entry>
1941 <entry>Image tag reordering</entry>
1957 The list of actions files to be used are defined in the main configuration
1958 file, and are processed in the order they are defined (e.g.
1959 <filename>default.action</filename> is typically processed before
1960 <filename>user.action</filename>). The content of these can all be viewed and
1962 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
1963 The over-riding principle when applying actions, is that the last action that
1964 matches a given URL wins. The broadest, most general rules go first
1965 (defined in <filename>default.action</filename>),
1966 followed by any exceptions (typically also in
1967 <filename>default.action</filename>), which are then followed lastly by any
1968 local preferences (typically in <emphasis>user</emphasis><filename>.action</filename>).
1969 Generally, <filename>user.action</filename> has the last word.
1973 An actions file typically has multiple sections. If you want to use
1974 <quote>aliases</quote> in an actions file, you have to place the (optional)
1975 <link linkend="aliases">alias section</link> at the top of that file.
1976 Then comes the default set of rules which will apply universally to all
1977 sites and pages (be <emphasis>very careful</emphasis> with using such a
1978 universal set in <filename>user.action</filename> or any other actions file after
1979 <filename>default.action</filename>, because it will override the result
1980 from consulting any previous file). And then below that,
1981 exceptions to the defined universal policies. You can regard
1982 <filename>user.action</filename> as an appendix to <filename>default.action</filename>,
1983 with the advantage that it is a separate file, which makes preserving your
1984 personal settings across <application>Privoxy</application> upgrades easier.
1988 Actions can be used to block anything you want, including ads, banners, or
1989 just some obnoxious URL whose content you would rather not see. Cookies can be accepted
1990 or rejected, or accepted only during the current browser session (i.e. not
1991 written to disk), content can be modified, some JavaScripts tamed, user-tracking
1992 fooled, and much more. See below for a <link linkend="actions">complete list
1996 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1998 <title>Finding the Right Mix</title>
2000 Note that some <link linkend="actions">actions</link>, like cookie suppression
2001 or script disabling, may render some sites unusable that rely on these
2002 techniques to work properly. Finding the right mix of actions is not always easy and
2003 certainly a matter of personal taste. And, things can always change, requiring
2004 refinements in the configuration. In general, it can be said that the more
2005 <quote>aggressive</quote> your default settings (in the top section of the
2006 actions file) are, the more exceptions for <quote>trusted</quote> sites you
2007 will have to make later. If, for example, you want to crunch all cookies per
2008 default, you'll have to make exceptions from that rule for sites that you
2009 regularly use and that require cookies for actually useful purposes, like maybe
2010 your bank, favorite shop, or newspaper.
2014 We have tried to provide you with reasonable rules to start from in the
2015 distribution actions files. But there is no general rule of thumb on these
2016 things. There just are too many variables, and sites are constantly changing.
2017 Sooner or later you will want to change the rules (and read this chapter again :).
2021 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2023 <title>How to Edit</title>
2025 The easiest way to edit the actions files is with a browser by
2026 using our browser-based editor, which can be reached from <ulink
2027 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
2028 Note: the config file option <link
2029 linkend="enable-edit-actions">enable-edit-actions</link> must be enabled for
2030 this to work. The editor allows both fine-grained control over every single
2031 feature on a per-URL basis, and easy choosing from wholesale sets of defaults
2032 like <quote>Cautious</quote>, <quote>Medium</quote> or
2033 <quote>Advanced</quote>. Warning: the <quote>Advanced</quote> setting is more
2034 aggressive, and will be more likely to cause problems for some sites.
2035 Experienced users only!
2039 If you prefer plain text editing to GUIs, you can of course also directly edit the
2040 the actions files with your favorite text editor. Look at
2041 <filename>default.action</filename> which is richly commented with many
2047 <sect2 id="actions-apply">
2048 <title>How Actions are Applied to Requests</title>
2050 Actions files are divided into sections. There are special sections,
2051 like the <quote><link linkend="aliases">alias</link></quote> sections which will
2052 be discussed later. For now let's concentrate on regular sections: They have a
2053 heading line (often split up to multiple lines for readability) which consist
2054 of a list of actions, separated by whitespace and enclosed in curly braces.
2055 Below that, there is a list of URL and tag patterns, each on a separate line.
2059 To determine which actions apply to a request, the URL of the request is
2060 compared to all URL patterns in each <quote>action file</quote>.
2061 Every time it matches, the list of applicable actions for the request is
2062 incrementally updated, using the heading of the section in which the
2063 pattern is located. The same is done again for tags and tag patterns later on.
2067 If multiple applying sections set the same action differently,
2068 the last match wins. If not, the effects are aggregated.
2069 E.g. a URL might match a regular section with a heading line of <literal>{
2070 +<link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link> }</literal>,
2071 then later another one with just <literal>{
2072 +<link linkend="block">block</link> }</literal>, resulting
2073 in <emphasis>both</emphasis> actions to apply. And there may well be
2074 cases where you will want to combine actions together. Such a section then
2080 { +<literal>handle-as-image</literal> +<literal>block{Banner ads.}</literal> }
2081 # Block these as if they were images. Send no block page.
2083 media.example.com/.*banners
2084 .example.com/images/ads/</screen>
2088 You can trace this process for URL patterns and any given URL by visiting <ulink
2089 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>.
2093 Examples and more detail on this is provided in the Appendix, <link linkend="ACTIONSANAT">
2094 Troubleshooting: Anatomy of an Action</link> section.
2098 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2099 <sect2 id="af-patterns">
2100 <title>Patterns</title>
2102 As mentioned, <application>Privoxy</application> uses <quote>patterns</quote>
2103 to determine what <emphasis>actions</emphasis> might apply to which sites and
2104 pages your browser attempts to access. These <quote>patterns</quote> use wild
2105 card type <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> matching to achieve a high degree of
2106 flexibility. This allows one expression to be expanded and potentially match
2107 against many similar patterns.
2111 Generally, an URL pattern has the form
2112 <literal><domain>/<path></literal>, where both the
2113 <literal><domain></literal> and <literal><path></literal> are
2114 optional. (This is why the special <literal>/</literal> pattern matches all
2115 URLs). Note that the protocol portion of the URL pattern (e.g.
2116 <literal>http://</literal>) should <emphasis>not</emphasis> be included in
2117 the pattern. This is assumed already!
2120 The pattern matching syntax is different for the domain and path parts of
2121 the URL. The domain part uses a simple globbing type matching technique,
2122 while the path part uses more flexible
2123 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
2124 Expressions</quote></ulink> (POSIX 1003.2).
2129 <term><literal>www.example.com/</literal></term>
2132 is a domain-only pattern and will match any request to <literal>www.example.com</literal>,
2133 regardless of which document on that server is requested. So ALL pages in
2134 this domain would be covered by the scope of this action. Note that a
2135 simple <literal>example.com</literal> is different and would NOT match.
2140 <term><literal>www.example.com</literal></term>
2143 means exactly the same. For domain-only patterns, the trailing <literal>/</literal> may
2149 <term><literal>www.example.com/index.html</literal></term>
2152 matches all the documents on <literal>www.example.com</literal>
2153 whose name starts with <literal>/index.html</literal>.
2158 <term><literal>www.example.com/index.html$</literal></term>
2161 matches only the single document <literal>/index.html</literal>
2162 on <literal>www.example.com</literal>.
2167 <term><literal>/index.html$</literal></term>
2170 matches the document <literal>/index.html</literal>, regardless of the domain,
2171 i.e. on <emphasis>any</emphasis> web server anywhere.
2176 <term><literal>index.html</literal></term>
2179 matches nothing, since it would be interpreted as a domain name and
2180 there is no top-level domain called <literal>.html</literal>. So its
2188 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2189 <sect3><title>The Domain Pattern</title>
2192 The matching of the domain part offers some flexible options: if the
2193 domain starts or ends with a dot, it becomes unanchored at that end.
2199 <term><literal>.example.com</literal></term>
2202 matches any domain with first-level domain <literal>com</literal>
2203 and second-level domain <literal>example</literal>.
2204 For example <literal>www.example.com</literal>,
2205 <literal>example.com</literal> and <literal>foo.bar.baz.example.com</literal>.
2206 Note that it wouldn't match if the second-level domain was <literal>another-example</literal>.
2211 <term><literal>www.</literal></term>
2214 matches any domain that <emphasis>STARTS</emphasis> with
2215 <literal>www.</literal> (It also matches the domain
2216 <literal>www</literal> but most of the time that doesn't matter.)
2221 <term><literal>.example.</literal></term>
2224 matches any domain that <emphasis>CONTAINS</emphasis> <literal>.example.</literal>.
2225 And, by the way, also included would be any files or documents that exist
2226 within that domain since no path limitations are specified. (Correctly
2227 speaking: It matches any FQDN that contains <literal>example</literal> as
2228 a domain.) This might be <literal>www.example.com</literal>,
2229 <literal>news.example.de</literal>, or
2230 <literal>www.example.net/cgi/testing.pl</literal> for instance. All these
2238 Additionally, there are wild-cards that you can use in the domain names
2239 themselves. These work similarly to shell globbing type wild-cards:
2240 <quote>*</quote> represents zero or more arbitrary characters (this is
2242 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
2243 Expression</quote></ulink> based syntax of <quote>.*</quote>),
2244 <quote>?</quote> represents any single character (this is equivalent to the
2245 regular expression syntax of a simple <quote>.</quote>), and you can define
2246 <quote>character classes</quote> in square brackets which is similar to
2247 the same regular expression technique. All of this can be freely mixed:
2252 <term><literal>ad*.example.com</literal></term>
2255 matches <quote>adserver.example.com</quote>,
2256 <quote>ads.example.com</quote>, etc but not <quote>sfads.example.com</quote>
2261 <term><literal>*ad*.example.com</literal></term>
2264 matches all of the above, and then some.
2269 <term><literal>.?pix.com</literal></term>
2272 matches <literal>www.ipix.com</literal>,
2273 <literal>pictures.epix.com</literal>, <literal>a.b.c.d.e.upix.com</literal> etc.
2278 <term><literal>www[1-9a-ez].example.c*</literal></term>
2281 matches <literal>www1.example.com</literal>,
2282 <literal>www4.example.cc</literal>, <literal>wwwd.example.cy</literal>,
2283 <literal>wwwz.example.com</literal> etc., but <emphasis>not</emphasis>
2284 <literal>wwww.example.com</literal>.
2291 While flexible, this is not the sophistication of full regular expression based syntax.
2296 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2299 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2300 <sect3><title>The Path Pattern</title>
2303 <application>Privoxy</application> uses <quote>modern</quote> POSIX 1003.2
2304 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
2305 Expressions</quote></ulink> for matching the path portion (after the slash),
2306 and is thus more flexible.
2310 There is an <link linkend="regex">Appendix</link> with a brief quick-start into regular
2311 expressions, you also might want to have a look at your operating system's documentation
2312 on regular expressions (try <literal>man re_format</literal>).
2316 Note that the path pattern is automatically left-anchored at the <quote>/</quote>,
2317 i.e. it matches as if it would start with a <quote>^</quote> (regular expression speak
2318 for the beginning of a line).
2322 Please also note that matching in the path is <emphasis>CASE INSENSITIVE</emphasis>
2323 by default, but you can switch to case sensitive at any point in the pattern by using the
2324 <quote>(?-i)</quote> switch: <literal>www.example.com/(?-i)PaTtErN.*</literal> will match
2325 only documents whose path starts with <literal>PaTtErN</literal> in
2326 <emphasis>exactly</emphasis> this capitalization.
2331 <term><literal>.example.com/.*</literal></term>
2334 Is equivalent to just <quote>.example.com</quote>, since any documents
2335 within that domain are matched with or without the <quote>.*</quote>
2336 regular expression. This is redundant
2341 <term><literal>.example.com/.*/index.html$</literal></term>
2344 Will match any page in the domain of <quote>example.com</quote> that is
2345 named <quote>index.html</quote>, and that is part of some path. For
2346 example, it matches <quote>www.example.com/testing/index.html</quote> but
2347 NOT <quote>www.example.com/index.html</quote> because the regular
2348 expression called for at least two <quote>/'s</quote>, thus the path
2349 requirement. It also would match
2350 <quote>www.example.com/testing/index_html</quote>, because of the
2351 special meta-character <quote>.</quote>.
2356 <term><literal>.example.com/(.*/)?index\.html$</literal></term>
2359 This regular expression is conditional so it will match any page
2360 named <quote>index.html</quote> regardless of path which in this case can
2361 have one or more <quote>/'s</quote>. And this one must contain exactly
2362 <quote>.html</quote> (but does not have to end with that!).
2367 <term><literal>.example.com/(.*/)(ads|banners?|junk)</literal></term>
2370 This regular expression will match any path of <quote>example.com</quote>
2371 that contains any of the words <quote>ads</quote>, <quote>banner</quote>,
2372 <quote>banners</quote> (because of the <quote>?</quote>) or <quote>junk</quote>.
2373 The path does not have to end in these words, just contain them.
2378 <term><literal>.example.com/(.*/)(ads|banners?|junk)/.*\.(jpe?g|gif|png)$</literal></term>
2381 This is very much the same as above, except now it must end in either
2382 <quote>.jpg</quote>, <quote>.jpeg</quote>, <quote>.gif</quote> or <quote>.png</quote>. So this
2383 one is limited to common image formats.
2390 There are many, many good examples to be found in <filename>default.action</filename>,
2391 and more tutorials below in <link linkend="regex">Appendix on regular expressions</link>.
2396 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2399 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2400 <sect3 id="tag-pattern"><title>The Tag Pattern</title>
2403 Tag patterns are used to change the applying actions based on the
2404 request's tags. Tags can be created with either the
2405 <link linkend="CLIENT-HEADER-TAGGER">client-header-tagger</link>
2406 or the <link linkend="SERVER-HEADER-TAGGER">server-header-tagger</link> action.
2410 Tag patterns have to start with <quote>TAG:</quote>, so &my-app;
2411 can tell them apart from URL patterns. Everything after the colon
2412 including white space, is interpreted as a regular expression with
2413 path pattern syntax, except that tag patterns aren't left-anchored
2414 automatically (&my-app; doesn't silently add a <quote>^</quote>,
2415 you have to do it yourself if you need it).
2419 To match all requests that are tagged with <quote>foo</quote>
2420 your pattern line should be <quote>TAG:^foo$</quote>,
2421 <quote>TAG:foo</quote> would work as well, but it would also
2422 match requests whose tags contain <quote>foo</quote> somewhere.
2423 <quote>TAG: foo</quote> wouldn't work as it requires white space.
2427 Sections can contain URL and tag patterns at the same time,
2428 but tag patterns are checked after the URL patterns and thus
2429 always overrule them, even if they are located before the URL patterns.
2433 Once a new tag is added, Privoxy checks right away if it's matched by one
2434 of the tag patterns and updates the action settings accordingly. As a result
2435 tags can be used to activate other tagger actions, as long as these other
2436 taggers look for headers that haven't already be parsed.
2440 For example you could tag client requests which use the
2441 <literal>POST</literal> method,
2442 then use this tag to activate another tagger that adds a tag if cookies
2443 are sent, and then use a block action based on the cookie tag. This allows
2444 the outcome of one action, to be input into a subsequent action. However if
2445 you'd reverse the position of the described taggers, and activated the
2446 method tagger based on the cookie tagger, no method tags would be created.
2447 The method tagger would look for the request line, but at the time
2448 the cookie tag is created, the request line has already been parsed.
2452 While this is a limitation you should be aware of, this kind of
2453 indirection is seldom needed anyway and even the example doesn't
2454 make too much sense.
2461 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2464 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2466 <sect2 id="actions">
2467 <title>Actions</title>
2469 All actions are disabled by default, until they are explicitly enabled
2470 somewhere in an actions file. Actions are turned on if preceded with a
2471 <quote>+</quote>, and turned off if preceded with a <quote>-</quote>. So a
2472 <literal>+action</literal> means <quote>do that action</quote>, e.g.
2473 <literal>+block</literal> means <quote>please block URLs that match the
2474 following patterns</quote>, and <literal>-block</literal> means <quote>don't
2475 block URLs that match the following patterns, even if <literal>+block</literal>
2476 previously applied.</quote>
2481 Again, actions are invoked by placing them on a line, enclosed in curly braces and
2482 separated by whitespace, like in
2483 <literal>{+some-action -some-other-action{some-parameter}}</literal>,
2484 followed by a list of URL patterns, one per line, to which they apply.
2485 Together, the actions line and the following pattern lines make up a section
2486 of the actions file.
2490 Actions fall into three categories:
2497 Boolean, i.e the action can only be <quote>enabled</quote> or
2498 <quote>disabled</quote>. Syntax:
2502 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # enable action <replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable>
2503 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # disable action <replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable></screen>
2506 Example: <literal>+handle-as-image</literal>
2513 Parameterized, where some value is required in order to enable this type of action.
2518 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # enable action and set parameter to <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>,
2519 # overwriting parameter from previous match if necessary
2520 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # disable action. The parameter can be omitted</screen>
2523 Note that if the URL matches multiple positive forms of a parameterized action,
2524 the last match wins, i.e. the params from earlier matches are simply ignored.
2527 Example: <literal>+hide-user-agent{Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; FreeBSD i386; en-US; rv:1.8.1.4) Gecko/20070602 Firefox/2.0.0.4}</literal>
2533 Multi-value. These look exactly like parameterized actions,
2534 but they behave differently: If the action applies multiple times to the
2535 same URL, but with different parameters, <emphasis>all</emphasis> the parameters
2536 from <emphasis>all</emphasis> matches are remembered. This is used for actions
2537 that can be executed for the same request repeatedly, like adding multiple
2538 headers, or filtering through multiple filters. Syntax:
2542 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # enable action and add <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable> to the list of parameters
2543 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # remove the parameter <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable> from the list of parameters
2544 # If it was the last one left, disable the action.
2545 <replaceable class="parameter">-name</replaceable> # disable this action completely and remove all parameters from the list</screen>
2548 Examples: <literal>+add-header{X-Fun-Header: Some text}</literal> and
2549 <literal>+filter{html-annoyances}</literal>
2557 If nothing is specified in any actions file, no <quote>actions</quote> are
2558 taken. So in this case <application>Privoxy</application> would just be a
2559 normal, non-blocking, non-filtering proxy. You must specifically enable the
2560 privacy and blocking features you need (although the provided default actions
2561 files will give a good starting point).
2565 Later defined action sections always over-ride earlier ones of the same type.
2566 So exceptions to any rules you make, should come in the latter part of the file (or
2567 in a file that is processed later when using multiple actions files such
2568 as <filename>user.action</filename>). For multi-valued actions, the actions
2569 are applied in the order they are specified. Actions files are processed in
2570 the order they are defined in <filename>config</filename> (the default
2571 installation has three actions files). It also quite possible for any given
2572 URL to match more than one <quote>pattern</quote> (because of wildcards and
2573 regular expressions), and thus to trigger more than one set of actions! Last
2577 <!-- start actions listing -->
2579 The list of valid <application>Privoxy</application> actions are:
2583 <!-- ********************************************************** -->
2584 <!-- Please note the below defined actions use id's that are -->
2585 <!-- probably linked from other places, so please don't change. -->
2587 <!-- ********************************************************** -->
2590 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2592 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="add-header">
2593 <title>add-header</title>
2597 <term>Typical use:</term>
2599 <para>Confuse log analysis, custom applications</para>
2604 <term>Effect:</term>
2607 Sends a user defined HTTP header to the web server.
2614 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2616 <para>Multi-value.</para>
2621 <term>Parameter:</term>
2624 Any string value is possible. Validity of the defined HTTP headers is not checked.
2625 It is recommended that you use the <quote><literal>X-</literal></quote> prefix
2635 This action may be specified multiple times, in order to define multiple
2636 headers. This is rarely needed for the typical user. If you don't know what
2637 <quote>HTTP headers</quote> are, you definitely don't need to worry about this
2644 <term>Example usage:</term>
2647 <screen>+add-header{X-User-Tracking: sucks}</screen>
2655 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2656 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="block">
2657 <title>block</title>
2661 <term>Typical use:</term>
2663 <para>Block ads or other unwanted content</para>
2668 <term>Effect:</term>
2671 Requests for URLs to which this action applies are blocked, i.e. the
2672 requests are trapped by &my-app; and the requested URL is never retrieved,
2673 but is answered locally with a substitute page or image, as determined by
2675 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>,
2677 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>, and
2679 linkend="handle-as-empty-document">handle-as-empty-document</link></literal> actions.
2687 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2689 <para>Parameterized.</para>
2694 <term>Parameter:</term>
2696 <para>A block reason that should be given to the user.</para>
2704 <application>Privoxy</application> sends a special <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page
2705 for requests to blocked pages. This page contains the block reason given as
2706 parameter, a link to find out why the block action applies, and a click-through
2707 to the blocked content (the latter only if the force feature is available and
2711 A very important exception occurs if <emphasis>both</emphasis>
2712 <literal>block</literal> and <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>,
2713 apply to the same request: it will then be replaced by an image. If
2714 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>
2715 (see below) also applies, the type of image will be determined by its parameter,
2716 if not, the standard checkerboard pattern is sent.
2719 It is important to understand this process, in order
2720 to understand how <application>Privoxy</application> deals with
2721 ads and other unwanted content. Blocking is a core feature, and one
2722 upon which various other features depend.
2725 The <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>
2726 action can perform a very similar task, by <quote>blocking</quote>
2727 banner images and other content through rewriting the relevant URLs in the
2728 document's HTML source, so they don't get requested in the first place.
2729 Note that this is a totally different technique, and it's easy to confuse the two.
2735 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
2738 <screen>{+block{No nasty stuff for you.}}
2739 # Block and replace with "blocked" page
2740 .nasty-stuff.example.com
2742 {+block{Doubleclick banners.} +handle-as-image}
2743 # Block and replace with image
2747 {+block{Layered ads.} +handle-as-empty-document}
2748 # Block and then ignore
2749 adserver.example.net/.*\.js$</screen>
2759 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2760 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="change-x-forwarded-for">
2761 <title>change-x-forwarded-for</title>
2765 <term>Typical use:</term>
2767 <para>Improve privacy by not forwarding the source of the request in the HTTP headers.</para>
2772 <term>Effect:</term>
2775 Deletes the <quote>X-Forwarded-For:</quote> HTTP header from the client request,
2783 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
2785 <para>Parameterized.</para>
2790 <term>Parameter:</term>
2794 <para><quote>block</quote> to delete the header.</para>
2798 <quote>add</quote> to create the header (or append
2799 the client's IP address to an already existing one).
2810 It is safe and recommended to use <literal>block</literal>.
2813 Forwarding the source address of the request may make
2814 sense in some multi-user setups but is also a privacy risk.
2819 <term>Example usage:</term>
2822 <screen>+change-x-forwarded-for{block}</screen>
2829 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2830 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="client-header-filter">
2831 <title>client-header-filter</title>
2835 <term>Typical use:</term>
2838 Rewrite or remove single client headers.
2844 <term>Effect:</term>
2847 All client headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly through
2848 the specified regular expression based substitutions.
2855 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2857 <para>Parameterized.</para>
2862 <term>Parameter:</term>
2865 The name of a client-header filter, as defined in one of the
2866 <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link>.
2875 Client-header filters are applied to each header on its own, not to
2876 all at once. This makes it easier to diagnose problems, but on the downside
2877 you can't write filters that only change header x if header y's value is z.
2878 You can do that by using tags though.
2881 Client-header filters are executed after the other header actions have finished
2882 and use their output as input.
2885 If the request URL gets changed, &my-app; will detect that and use the new
2886 one. This can be used to rewrite the request destination behind the client's
2887 back, for example to specify a Tor exit relay for certain requests.
2890 Please refer to the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file chapter</link>
2891 to learn which client-header filters are available by default, and how to
2899 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
2903 # Hide Tor exit notation in Host and Referer Headers
2904 {+client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation}}
2915 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2916 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="client-header-tagger">
2917 <title>client-header-tagger</title>
2921 <term>Typical use:</term>
2924 Block requests based on their headers.
2930 <term>Effect:</term>
2933 Client headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly through
2934 the specified regular expression based substitutions, the result is used as
2942 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2944 <para>Parameterized.</para>
2949 <term>Parameter:</term>
2952 The name of a client-header tagger, as defined in one of the
2953 <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link>.
2962 Client-header taggers are applied to each header on its own,
2963 and as the header isn't modified, each tagger <quote>sees</quote>
2967 Client-header taggers are the first actions that are executed
2968 and their tags can be used to control every other action.
2974 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
2978 # Tag every request with the User-Agent header
2979 {+client-header-tagger{user-agent}}
2982 # Tagging itself doesn't change the action
2983 # settings, sections with TAG patterns do:
2985 # If it's a download agent, use a different forwarding proxy,
2986 # show the real User-Agent and make sure resume works.
2987 {+forward-override{forward-socks5 10.0.0.2:2222 .} \
2988 -hide-if-modified-since \
2989 -overwrite-last-modified \
2994 TAG:^User-Agent: NetBSD-ftp/
2995 TAG:^User-Agent: Novell ZYPP Installer
2996 TAG:^User-Agent: RPM APT-HTTP/
2997 TAG:^User-Agent: fetch libfetch/
2998 TAG:^User-Agent: Ubuntu APT-HTTP/
2999 TAG:^User-Agent: MPlayer/
3009 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3010 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="content-type-overwrite">
3011 <title>content-type-overwrite</title>
3015 <term>Typical use:</term>
3017 <para>Stop useless download menus from popping up, or change the browser's rendering mode</para>
3022 <term>Effect:</term>
3025 Replaces the <quote>Content-Type:</quote> HTTP server header.
3032 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3034 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3039 <term>Parameter:</term>
3051 The <quote>Content-Type:</quote> HTTP server header is used by the
3052 browser to decide what to do with the document. The value of this
3053 header can cause the browser to open a download menu instead of
3054 displaying the document by itself, even if the document's format is
3055 supported by the browser.
3058 The declared content type can also affect which rendering mode
3059 the browser chooses. If XHTML is delivered as <quote>text/html</quote>,
3060 many browsers treat it as yet another broken HTML document.
3061 If it is send as <quote>application/xml</quote>, browsers with
3062 XHTML support will only display it, if the syntax is correct.
3065 If you see a web site that proudly uses XHTML buttons, but sets
3066 <quote>Content-Type: text/html</quote>, you can use &my-app;
3067 to overwrite it with <quote>application/xml</quote> and validate
3068 the web master's claim inside your XHTML-supporting browser.
3069 If the syntax is incorrect, the browser will complain loudly.
3072 You can also go the opposite direction: if your browser prints
3073 error messages instead of rendering a document falsely declared
3074 as XHTML, you can overwrite the content type with
3075 <quote>text/html</quote> and have it rendered as broken HTML document.
3078 By default <literal>content-type-overwrite</literal> only replaces
3079 <quote>Content-Type:</quote> headers that look like some kind of text.
3080 If you want to overwrite it unconditionally, you have to combine it with
3081 <literal><link linkend="force-text-mode">force-text-mode</link></literal>.
3082 This limitation exists for a reason, think twice before circumventing it.
3085 Most of the time it's easier to replace this action with a custom
3086 <literal><link linkend="server-header-filter">server-header filter</link></literal>.
3087 It allows you to activate it for every document of a certain site and it will still
3088 only replace the content types you aimed at.
3091 Of course you can apply <literal>content-type-overwrite</literal>
3092 to a whole site and then make URL based exceptions, but it's a lot
3093 more work to get the same precision.
3099 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
3102 <screen># Check if www.example.net/ really uses valid XHTML
3103 { +content-type-overwrite{application/xml} }
3106 # but leave the content type unmodified if the URL looks like a style sheet
3107 {-content-type-overwrite}
3108 www.example.net/.*\.css$
3109 www.example.net/.*style
3118 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3119 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-client-header">
3123 <title>crunch-client-header</title>
3127 <term>Typical use:</term>
3129 <para>Remove a client header <application>Privoxy</application> has no dedicated action for.</para>
3134 <term>Effect:</term>
3137 Deletes every header sent by the client that contains the string the user supplied as parameter.
3144 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3146 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3151 <term>Parameter:</term>
3163 This action allows you to block client headers for which no dedicated
3164 <application>Privoxy</application> action exists.
3165 <application>Privoxy</application> will remove every client header that
3166 contains the string you supplied as parameter.
3169 Regular expressions are <emphasis>not supported</emphasis> and you can't
3170 use this action to block different headers in the same request, unless
3171 they contain the same string.
3174 <literal>crunch-client-header</literal> is only meant for quick tests.
3175 If you have to block several different headers, or only want to modify
3176 parts of them, you should use a
3177 <literal><link linkend="client-header-filter">client-header filter</link></literal>.
3181 Don't block any header without understanding the consequences.
3188 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3191 <screen># Block the non-existent "Privacy-Violation:" client header
3192 { +crunch-client-header{Privacy-Violation:} }
3202 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3203 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-if-none-match">
3204 <title>crunch-if-none-match</title>
3210 <term>Typical use:</term>
3212 <para>Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.</para>
3217 <term>Effect:</term>
3220 Deletes the <quote>If-None-Match:</quote> HTTP client header.
3227 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3229 <para>Boolean.</para>
3234 <term>Parameter:</term>
3246 Removing the <quote>If-None-Match:</quote> HTTP client header
3247 is useful for filter testing, where you want to force a real
3248 reload instead of getting status code <quote>304</quote> which
3249 would cause the browser to use a cached copy of the page.
3252 It is also useful to make sure the header isn't used as a cookie
3253 replacement (unlikely but possible).
3256 Blocking the <quote>If-None-Match:</quote> header shouldn't cause any
3257 caching problems, as long as the <quote>If-Modified-Since:</quote> header
3258 isn't blocked or missing as well.
3261 It is recommended to use this action together with
3262 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hide-if-modified-since</link></literal>
3264 <literal><link linkend="overwrite-last-modified">overwrite-last-modified</link></literal>.
3270 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3273 <screen># Let the browser revalidate cached documents but don't
3274 # allow the server to use the revalidation headers for user tracking.
3275 {+hide-if-modified-since{-60} \
3276 +overwrite-last-modified{randomize} \
3277 +crunch-if-none-match}
3286 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3287 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-incoming-cookies">
3288 <title>crunch-incoming-cookies</title>
3292 <term>Typical use:</term>
3295 Prevent the web server from setting HTTP cookies on your system
3301 <term>Effect:</term>
3304 Deletes any <quote>Set-Cookie:</quote> HTTP headers from server replies.
3311 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3313 <para>Boolean.</para>
3318 <term>Parameter:</term>
3330 This action is only concerned with <emphasis>incoming</emphasis> HTTP cookies. For
3331 <emphasis>outgoing</emphasis> HTTP cookies, use
3332 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>.
3333 Use <emphasis>both</emphasis> to disable HTTP cookies completely.
3336 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use this action in conjunction
3337 with the <literal><link linkend="session-cookies-only">session-cookies-only</link></literal> action,
3338 since it would prevent the session cookies from being set. See also
3339 <literal><link linkend="filter-content-cookies">filter-content-cookies</link></literal>.
3345 <term>Example usage:</term>
3348 <screen>+crunch-incoming-cookies</screen>
3356 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3357 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-server-header">
3358 <title>crunch-server-header</title>
3364 <term>Typical use:</term>
3366 <para>Remove a server header <application>Privoxy</application> has no dedicated action for.</para>
3371 <term>Effect:</term>
3374 Deletes every header sent by the server that contains the string the user supplied as parameter.
3381 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3383 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3388 <term>Parameter:</term>
3400 This action allows you to block server headers for which no dedicated
3401 <application>Privoxy</application> action exists. <application>Privoxy</application>
3402 will remove every server header that contains the string you supplied as parameter.
3405 Regular expressions are <emphasis>not supported</emphasis> and you can't
3406 use this action to block different headers in the same request, unless
3407 they contain the same string.
3410 <literal>crunch-server-header</literal> is only meant for quick tests.
3411 If you have to block several different headers, or only want to modify
3412 parts of them, you should use a custom
3413 <literal><link linkend="server-header-filter">server-header filter</link></literal>.
3417 Don't block any header without understanding the consequences.
3424 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3427 <screen># Crunch server headers that try to prevent caching
3428 { +crunch-server-header{no-cache} }
3437 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3438 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-outgoing-cookies">
3439 <title>crunch-outgoing-cookies</title>
3443 <term>Typical use:</term>
3446 Prevent the web server from reading any HTTP cookies from your system
3452 <term>Effect:</term>
3455 Deletes any <quote>Cookie:</quote> HTTP headers from client requests.
3462 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3464 <para>Boolean.</para>
3469 <term>Parameter:</term>
3481 This action is only concerned with <emphasis>outgoing</emphasis> HTTP cookies. For
3482 <emphasis>incoming</emphasis> HTTP cookies, use
3483 <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal>.
3484 Use <emphasis>both</emphasis> to disable HTTP cookies completely.
3487 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use this action in conjunction
3488 with the <literal><link linkend="session-cookies-only">session-cookies-only</link></literal> action,
3489 since it would prevent the session cookies from being read.
3495 <term>Example usage:</term>
3498 <screen>+crunch-outgoing-cookies</screen>
3507 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3508 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="deanimate-gifs">
3509 <title>deanimate-gifs</title>
3513 <term>Typical use:</term>
3515 <para>Stop those annoying, distracting animated GIF images.</para>
3520 <term>Effect:</term>
3523 De-animate GIF animations, i.e. reduce them to their first or last image.
3530 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3532 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3537 <term>Parameter:</term>
3540 <quote>last</quote> or <quote>first</quote>
3549 This will also shrink the images considerably (in bytes, not pixels!). If
3550 the option <quote>first</quote> is given, the first frame of the animation
3551 is used as the replacement. If <quote>last</quote> is given, the last
3552 frame of the animation is used instead, which probably makes more sense for
3553 most banner animations, but also has the risk of not showing the entire
3554 last frame (if it is only a delta to an earlier frame).
3557 You can safely use this action with patterns that will also match non-GIF
3558 objects, because no attempt will be made at anything that doesn't look like
3565 <term>Example usage:</term>
3568 <screen>+deanimate-gifs{last}</screen>
3575 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3576 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="downgrade-http-version">
3577 <title>downgrade-http-version</title>
3581 <term>Typical use:</term>
3583 <para>Work around (very rare) problems with HTTP/1.1</para>
3588 <term>Effect:</term>
3591 Downgrades HTTP/1.1 client requests and server replies to HTTP/1.0.
3598 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3600 <para>Boolean.</para>
3605 <term>Parameter:</term>
3617 This is a left-over from the time when <application>Privoxy</application>
3618 didn't support important HTTP/1.1 features well. It is left here for the
3619 unlikely case that you experience HTTP/1.1 related problems with some server
3620 out there. Not all HTTP/1.1 features and requirements are supported yet,
3621 so there is a chance you might need this action.
3627 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3630 <screen>{+downgrade-http-version}
3631 problem-host.example.com</screen>
3639 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3640 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="fast-redirects">
3641 <title>fast-redirects</title>
3645 <term>Typical use:</term>
3647 <para>Fool some click-tracking scripts and speed up indirect links.</para>
3652 <term>Effect:</term>
3655 Detects redirection URLs and redirects the browser without contacting
3656 the redirection server first.
3663 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3665 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3670 <term>Parameter:</term>
3675 <quote>simple-check</quote> to just search for the string <quote>http://</quote>
3676 to detect redirection URLs.
3681 <quote>check-decoded-url</quote> to decode URLs (if necessary) before searching
3682 for redirection URLs.
3693 Many sites, like yahoo.com, don't just link to other sites. Instead, they
3694 will link to some script on their own servers, giving the destination as a
3695 parameter, which will then redirect you to the final target. URLs
3696 resulting from this scheme typically look like:
3697 <quote>http://www.example.org/click-tracker.cgi?target=http%3a//www.example.net/</quote>.
3700 Sometimes, there are even multiple consecutive redirects encoded in the
3701 URL. These redirections via scripts make your web browsing more traceable,
3702 since the server from which you follow such a link can see where you go
3703 to. Apart from that, valuable bandwidth and time is wasted, while your
3704 browser asks the server for one redirect after the other. Plus, it feeds
3708 This feature is currently not very smart and is scheduled for improvement.
3709 If it is enabled by default, you will have to create some exceptions to
3710 this action. It can lead to failures in several ways:
3713 Not every URLs with other URLs as parameters is evil.
3714 Some sites offer a real service that requires this information to work.
3715 For example a validation service needs to know, which document to validate.
3716 <literal>fast-redirects</literal> assumes that every URL parameter that
3717 looks like another URL is a redirection target, and will always redirect to
3718 the last one. Most of the time the assumption is correct, but if it isn't,
3719 the user gets redirected anyway.
3722 Another failure occurs if the URL contains other parameters after the URL parameter.
3724 <quote>http://www.example.org/?redirect=http%3a//www.example.net/&foo=bar</quote>.
3725 contains the redirection URL <quote>http://www.example.net/</quote>,
3726 followed by another parameter. <literal>fast-redirects</literal> doesn't know that
3727 and will cause a redirect to <quote>http://www.example.net/&foo=bar</quote>.
3728 Depending on the target server configuration, the parameter will be silently ignored
3729 or lead to a <quote>page not found</quote> error. You can prevent this problem by
3730 first using the <literal><link linkend="redirect">redirect</link></literal> action
3731 to remove the last part of the URL, but it requires a little effort.
3734 To detect a redirection URL, <literal>fast-redirects</literal> only
3735 looks for the string <quote>http://</quote>, either in plain text
3736 (invalid but often used) or encoded as <quote>http%3a//</quote>.
3737 Some sites use their own URL encoding scheme, encrypt the address
3738 of the target server or replace it with a database id. In theses cases
3739 <literal>fast-redirects</literal> is fooled and the request reaches the
3740 redirection server where it probably gets logged.
3746 <term>Example usage:</term>
3750 { +fast-redirects{simple-check} }
3753 { +fast-redirects{check-decoded-url} }
3754 another.example.com/testing</screen>
3763 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3764 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="filter">
3765 <title>filter</title>
3769 <term>Typical use:</term>
3771 <para>Get rid of HTML and JavaScript annoyances, banner advertisements (by size),
3772 do fun text replacements, add personalized effects, etc.</para>
3777 <term>Effect:</term>
3780 All instances of text-based type, most notably HTML and JavaScript, to which
3781 this action applies, can be filtered on-the-fly through the specified regular
3782 expression based substitutions. (Note: as of version 3.0.3 plain text documents
3783 are exempted from filtering, because web servers often use the
3784 <literal>text/plain</literal> MIME type for all files whose type they don't know.)
3791 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3793 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3798 <term>Parameter:</term>
3801 The name of a content filter, as defined in the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file</link>.
3802 Filters can be defined in one or more files as defined by the
3803 <literal><link linkend="filterfile">filterfile</link></literal>
3804 option in the <link linkend="config">config file</link>.
3805 <filename>default.filter</filename> is the collection of filters
3806 supplied by the developers. Locally defined filters should go
3807 in their own file, such as <filename>user.filter</filename>.
3810 When used in its negative form,
3811 and without parameters, <emphasis>all</emphasis> filtering is completely disabled.
3820 For your convenience, there are a number of pre-defined filters available
3821 in the distribution filter file that you can use. See the examples below for
3825 Filtering requires buffering the page content, which may appear to
3826 slow down page rendering since nothing is displayed until all content has
3827 passed the filters. (It does not really take longer, but seems that way
3828 since the page is not incrementally displayed.) This effect will be more
3829 noticeable on slower connections.
3832 <quote>Rolling your own</quote>
3833 filters requires a knowledge of
3834 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
3835 Expressions</quote></ulink> and
3836 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Html"><quote>HTML</quote></ulink>.
3837 This is very powerful feature, and potentially very intrusive.
3838 Filters should be used with caution, and where an equivalent
3839 <quote>action</quote> is not available.
3842 The amount of data that can be filtered is limited to the
3843 <literal><link linkend="buffer-limit">buffer-limit</link></literal>
3844 option in the main <link linkend="config">config file</link>. The
3845 default is 4096 KB (4 Megs). Once this limit is exceeded, the buffered
3846 data, and all pending data, is passed through unfiltered.
3849 Inappropriate MIME types, such as zipped files, are not filtered at all.
3850 (Again, only text-based types except plain text). Encrypted SSL data
3851 (from HTTPS servers) cannot be filtered either, since this would violate
3852 the integrity of the secure transaction. In some situations it might
3853 be necessary to protect certain text, like source code, from filtering
3854 by defining appropriate <literal>-filter</literal> exceptions.
3857 Compressed content can't be filtered either, unless &my-app;
3858 is compiled with zlib support (requires at least &my-app; 3.0.7),
3859 in which case &my-app; will decompress the content before filtering
3863 If you use a &my-app; version without zlib support, but want filtering to work on
3864 as much documents as possible, even those that would normally be sent compressed,
3865 you must use the <literal><link linkend="prevent-compression">prevent-compression</link></literal>
3866 action in conjunction with <literal>filter</literal>.
3869 Content filtering can achieve some of the same effects as the
3870 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>
3871 action, i.e. it can be used to block ads and banners. But the mechanism
3872 works quite differently. One effective use, is to block ad banners
3873 based on their size (see below), since many of these seem to be somewhat
3877 <link linkend="contact">Feedback</link> with suggestions for new or
3878 improved filters is particularly welcome!
3881 The below list has only the names and a one-line description of each
3882 predefined filter. There are <link linkend="predefined-filters">more
3883 verbose explanations</link> of what these filters do in the <link
3884 linkend="filter-file">filter file chapter</link>.
3890 <term>Example usage (with filters from the distribution <filename>default.filter</filename> file).
3891 See <link linkend="PREDEFINED-FILTERS">the Predefined Filters section</link> for
3892 more explanation on each:</term>
3895 <anchor id="filter-js-annoyances">
3896 <screen>+filter{js-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse.</screen>
3899 <anchor id="filter-js-events">
3900 <screen>+filter{js-events} # Kill all JS event bindings and timers (Radically destructive! Only for extra nasty sites).</screen>
3903 <anchor id="filter-html-annoyances">
3904 <screen>+filter{html-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying HTML abuse.</screen>
3907 <anchor id="filter-content-cookies">
3908 <screen>+filter{content-cookies} # Kill cookies that come in the HTML or JS content.</screen>
3911 <anchor id="filter-refresh-tags">
3912 <screen>+filter{refresh-tags} # Kill automatic refresh tags (for dial-on-demand setups).</screen>
3915 <anchor id="filter-unsolicited-popups">
3916 <screen>+filter{unsolicited-popups} # Disable only unsolicited pop-up windows. Useful if your browser lacks this ability.</screen>
3919 <anchor id="filter-all-popups">
3920 <screen>+filter{all-popups} # Kill all popups in JavaScript and HTML. Useful if your browser lacks this ability.</screen>
3923 <anchor id="filter-img-reorder">
3924 <screen>+filter{img-reorder} # Reorder attributes in <img> tags to make the banners-by-* filters more effective.</screen>
3927 <anchor id="filter-banners-by-size">
3928 <screen>+filter{banners-by-size} # Kill banners by size.</screen>
3931 <anchor id="filter-banners-by-link">
3932 <screen>+filter{banners-by-link} # Kill banners by their links to known clicktrackers.</screen>
3935 <anchor id="filter-webbugs">
3936 <screen>+filter{webbugs} # Squish WebBugs (1x1 invisible GIFs used for user tracking).</screen>
3939 <anchor id="filter-tiny-textforms">
3940 <screen>+filter{tiny-textforms} # Extend those tiny textareas up to 40x80 and kill the hard wrap.</screen>
3943 <anchor id="filter-jumping-windows">
3944 <screen>+filter{jumping-windows} # Prevent windows from resizing and moving themselves.</screen>
3947 <anchor id="filter-frameset-borders">
3948 <screen>+filter{frameset-borders} # Give frames a border and make them resizable.</screen>
3951 <anchor id="filter-demoronizer">
3952 <screen>+filter{demoronizer} # Fix MS's non-standard use of standard charsets.</screen>
3955 <anchor id="filter-shockwave-flash">
3956 <screen>+filter{shockwave-flash} # Kill embedded Shockwave Flash objects.</screen>
3959 <anchor id="filter-quicktime-kioskmode">
3960 <screen>+filter{quicktime-kioskmode} # Make Quicktime movies saveable.</screen>
3963 <anchor id="filter-fun">
3964 <screen>+filter{fun} # Text replacements for subversive browsing fun!</screen>
3967 <anchor id="filter-crude-parental">
3968 <screen>+filter{crude-parental} # Crude parental filtering. Note that this filter doesn't work reliably.</screen>
3971 <anchor id="filter-ie-exploits">
3972 <screen>+filter{ie-exploits} # Disable some known Internet Explorer bug exploits.</screen>
3975 <anchor id="filter-site-specifics">
3976 <screen>+filter{site-specifics} # Cure for site-specific problems. Don't apply generally!</screen>
3979 <anchor id="filter-no-ping">
3980 <screen>+filter{no-ping} # Removes non-standard ping attributes in <a> and <area> tags.</screen>
3983 <anchor id="filter-google">
3984 <screen>+filter{google} # CSS-based block for Google text ads. Also removes a width limitation and the toolbar advertisement.</screen>
3987 <anchor id="filter-yahoo">
3988 <screen>+filter{yahoo} # CSS-based block for Yahoo text ads. Also removes a width limitation.</screen>
3991 <anchor id="filter-msn">
3992 <screen>+filter{msn} # CSS-based block for MSN text ads. Also removes tracking URLs and a width limitation.</screen>
3995 <anchor id="filter-blogspot">
3996 <screen>+filter{blogspot} # Cleans up some Blogspot blogs. Read the fine print before using this.</screen>
4004 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4005 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="force-text-mode">
4006 <title>force-text-mode</title>
4012 <term>Typical use:</term>
4014 <para>Force <application>Privoxy</application> to treat a document as if it was in some kind of <emphasis>text</emphasis> format. </para>
4019 <term>Effect:</term>
4022 Declares a document as text, even if the <quote>Content-Type:</quote> isn't detected as such.
4029 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4031 <para>Boolean.</para>
4036 <term>Parameter:</term>
4048 As explained <literal><link linkend="filter">above</link></literal>,
4049 <application>Privoxy</application> tries to only filter files that are
4050 in some kind of text format. The same restrictions apply to
4051 <literal><link linkend="content-type-overwrite">content-type-overwrite</link></literal>.
4052 <literal>force-text-mode</literal> declares a document as text,
4053 without looking at the <quote>Content-Type:</quote> first.
4057 Think twice before activating this action. Filtering binary data
4058 with regular expressions can cause file damage.
4065 <term>Example usage:</term>
4078 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4079 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="forward-override">
4080 <title>forward-override</title>
4086 <term>Typical use:</term>
4088 <para>Change the forwarding settings based on User-Agent or request origin</para>
4093 <term>Effect:</term>
4096 Overrules the forward directives in the configuration file.
4103 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4105 <para>Multi-value.</para>
4110 <term>Parameter:</term>
4114 <para><quote>forward .</quote> to use a direct connection without any additional proxies.</para>
4118 <quote>forward 127.0.0.1:8123</quote> to use the HTTP proxy listening at 127.0.0.1 port 8123.
4123 <quote>forward-socks4a 127.0.0.1:9050 .</quote> to use the socks4a proxy listening at
4124 127.0.0.1 port 9050. Replace <quote>forward-socks4a</quote> with <quote>forward-socks4</quote>
4125 to use a socks4 connection (with local DNS resolution) instead, use <quote>forward-socks5</quote>
4126 for socks5 connections (with remote DNS resolution).
4131 <quote>forward-socks4a 127.0.0.1:9050 proxy.example.org:8000</quote> to use the socks4a proxy
4132 listening at 127.0.0.1 port 9050 to reach the HTTP proxy listening at proxy.example.org port 8000.
4133 Replace <quote>forward-socks4a</quote> with <quote>forward-socks4</quote> to use a socks4 connection
4134 (with local DNS resolution) instead, use <quote>forward-socks5</quote>
4135 for socks5 connections (with remote DNS resolution).
4146 This action takes parameters similar to the
4147 <link linkend="forwarding">forward</link> directives in the configuration
4148 file, but without the URL pattern. It can be used as replacement, but normally it's only
4149 used in cases where matching based on the request URL isn't sufficient.
4153 Please read the description for the <link linkend="forwarding">forward</link> directives before
4154 using this action. Forwarding to the wrong people will reduce your privacy and increase the
4155 chances of man-in-the-middle attacks.
4158 If the ports are missing or invalid, default values will be used. This might change
4159 in the future and you shouldn't rely on it. Otherwise incorrect syntax causes Privoxy
4163 Use the <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">show-url-info CGI page</ulink>
4164 to verify that your forward settings do what you thought the do.
4171 <term>Example usage:</term>
4175 # Always use direct connections for requests previously tagged as
4176 # <quote>User-Agent: fetch libfetch/2.0</quote> and make sure
4177 # resuming downloads continues to work.
4178 # This way you can continue to use Tor for your normal browsing,
4179 # without overloading the Tor network with your FreeBSD ports updates
4180 # or downloads of bigger files like ISOs.
4181 # Note that HTTP headers are easy to fake and therefore their
4182 # values are as (un)trustworthy as your clients and users.
4183 {+forward-override{forward .} \
4184 -hide-if-modified-since \
4185 -overwrite-last-modified \
4187 TAG:^User-Agent: fetch libfetch/2\.0$
4196 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4197 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="handle-as-empty-document">
4198 <title>handle-as-empty-document</title>
4204 <term>Typical use:</term>
4206 <para>Mark URLs that should be replaced by empty documents <emphasis>if they get blocked</emphasis></para>
4211 <term>Effect:</term>
4214 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. It just marks URLs.
4215 If the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action <emphasis>also applies</emphasis>,
4216 the presence or absence of this mark decides whether an HTML <quote>BLOCKED</quote>
4217 page, or an empty document will be sent to the client as a substitute for the blocked content.
4218 The <emphasis>empty</emphasis> document isn't literally empty, but actually contains a single space.
4225 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4227 <para>Boolean.</para>
4232 <term>Parameter:</term>
4244 Some browsers complain about syntax errors if JavaScript documents
4245 are blocked with <application>Privoxy's</application>
4246 default HTML page; this option can be used to silence them.
4247 And of course this action can also be used to eliminate the &my-app;
4248 BLOCKED message in frames.
4251 The content type for the empty document can be specified with
4252 <literal><link linkend="content-type-overwrite">content-type-overwrite{}</link></literal>,
4253 but usually this isn't necessary.
4259 <term>Example usage:</term>
4262 <screen># Block all documents on example.org that end with ".js",
4263 # but send an empty document instead of the usual HTML message.
4264 {+block{Blocked JavaScript} +handle-as-empty-document}
4274 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4275 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="handle-as-image">
4276 <title>handle-as-image</title>
4280 <term>Typical use:</term>
4282 <para>Mark URLs as belonging to images (so they'll be replaced by images <emphasis>if they do get blocked</emphasis>, rather than HTML pages)</para>
4287 <term>Effect:</term>
4290 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. It just marks URLs as images.
4291 If the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action <emphasis>also applies</emphasis>,
4292 the presence or absence of this mark decides whether an HTML <quote>blocked</quote>
4293 page, or a replacement image (as determined by the <literal><link
4294 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal> action) will be sent to the
4295 client as a substitute for the blocked content.
4302 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4304 <para>Boolean.</para>
4309 <term>Parameter:</term>
4321 The below generic example section is actually part of <filename>default.action</filename>.
4322 It marks all URLs with well-known image file name extensions as images and should
4326 Users will probably only want to use the handle-as-image action in conjunction with
4327 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>, to block sources of banners, whose URLs don't
4328 reflect the file type, like in the second example section.
4331 Note that you cannot treat HTML pages as images in most cases. For instance, (in-line) ad
4332 frames require an HTML page to be sent, or they won't display properly.
4333 Forcing <literal>handle-as-image</literal> in this situation will not replace the
4334 ad frame with an image, but lead to error messages.
4340 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
4343 <screen># Generic image extensions:
4346 /.*\.(gif|jpg|jpeg|png|bmp|ico)$
4348 # These don't look like images, but they're banners and should be
4349 # blocked as images:
4351 {+block{Nasty banners.} +handle-as-image}
4352 nasty-banner-server.example.com/junk.cgi\?output=trash
4361 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4362 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-accept-language">
4363 <title>hide-accept-language</title>
4369 <term>Typical use:</term>
4371 <para>Pretend to use different language settings.</para>
4376 <term>Effect:</term>
4379 Deletes or replaces the <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> HTTP header in client requests.
4386 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4388 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4393 <term>Parameter:</term>
4396 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
4405 Faking the browser's language settings can be useful to make a
4406 foreign User-Agent set with
4407 <literal><link linkend="hide-user-agent">hide-user-agent</link></literal>
4411 However some sites with content in different languages check the
4412 <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> to decide which one to take by default.
4413 Sometimes it isn't possible to later switch to another language without
4414 changing the <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> header first.
4417 Therefore it's a good idea to either only change the
4418 <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> header to languages you understand,
4419 or to languages that aren't wide spread.
4422 Before setting the <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> header
4423 to a rare language, you should consider that it helps to
4424 make your requests unique and thus easier to trace.
4425 If you don't plan to change this header frequently,
4426 you should stick to a common language.
4432 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
4435 <screen># Pretend to use Canadian language settings.
4436 {+hide-accept-language{en-ca} \
4437 +hide-user-agent{Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; OpenBSD i386; en-CA; rv:1.8.0.4) Gecko/20060628 Firefox/1.5.0.4} \
4447 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4448 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-content-disposition">
4449 <title>hide-content-disposition</title>
4455 <term>Typical use:</term>
4457 <para>Prevent download menus for content you prefer to view inside the browser.</para>
4462 <term>Effect:</term>
4465 Deletes or replaces the <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> HTTP header set by some servers.
4472 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4474 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4479 <term>Parameter:</term>
4482 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
4491 Some servers set the <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> HTTP header for
4492 documents they assume you want to save locally before viewing them.
4493 The <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> header contains the file name
4494 the browser is supposed to use by default.
4497 In most browsers that understand this header, it makes it impossible to
4498 <emphasis>just view</emphasis> the document, without downloading it first,
4499 even if it's just a simple text file or an image.
4502 Removing the <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> header helps
4503 to prevent this annoyance, but some browsers additionally check the
4504 <quote>Content-Type:</quote> header, before they decide if they can
4505 display a document without saving it first. In these cases, you have
4506 to change this header as well, before the browser stops displaying
4510 It is also possible to change the server's file name suggestion
4511 to another one, but in most cases it isn't worth the time to set
4515 This action will probably be removed in the future,
4516 use server-header filters instead.
4522 <term>Example usage:</term>
4525 <screen># Disarm the download link in Sourceforge's patch tracker
4527 +content-type-overwrite{text/plain}\
4528 +hide-content-disposition{block} }
4529 .sourceforge.net/tracker/download\.php</screen>
4537 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4538 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-if-modified-since">
4539 <title>hide-if-modified-since</title>
4545 <term>Typical use:</term>
4547 <para>Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.</para>
4552 <term>Effect:</term>
4555 Deletes the <quote>If-Modified-Since:</quote> HTTP client header or modifies its value.
4562 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4564 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4569 <term>Parameter:</term>
4572 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or a user defined value that specifies a range of hours.
4581 Removing this header is useful for filter testing, where you want to force a real
4582 reload instead of getting status code <quote>304</quote>, which would cause the
4583 browser to use a cached copy of the page.
4586 Instead of removing the header, <literal>hide-if-modified-since</literal> can
4587 also add or subtract a random amount of time to/from the header's value.
4588 You specify a range of minutes where the random factor should be chosen from and
4589 <application>Privoxy</application> does the rest. A negative value means
4590 subtracting, a positive value adding.
4593 Randomizing the value of the <quote>If-Modified-Since:</quote> makes
4594 it less likely that the server can use the time as a cookie replacement,
4595 but you will run into caching problems if the random range is too high.
4598 It is a good idea to only use a small negative value and let
4599 <literal><link linkend="overwrite-last-modified">overwrite-last-modified</link></literal>
4600 handle the greater changes.
4603 It is also recommended to use this action together with
4604 <literal><link linkend="crunch-if-none-match">crunch-if-none-match</link></literal>,
4605 otherwise it's more or less pointless.
4611 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
4614 <screen># Let the browser revalidate but make tracking based on the time less likely.
4615 {+hide-if-modified-since{-60} \
4616 +overwrite-last-modified{randomize} \
4617 +crunch-if-none-match}
4626 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4627 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-from-header">
4628 <title>hide-from-header</title>
4632 <term>Typical use:</term>
4634 <para>Keep your (old and ill) browser from telling web servers your email address</para>
4639 <term>Effect:</term>
4642 Deletes any existing <quote>From:</quote> HTTP header, or replaces it with the
4650 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4652 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4657 <term>Parameter:</term>
4660 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
4669 The keyword <quote>block</quote> will completely remove the header
4670 (not to be confused with the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>
4674 Alternately, you can specify any value you prefer to be sent to the web
4675 server. If you do, it is a matter of fairness not to use any address that
4676 is actually used by a real person.
4679 This action is rarely needed, as modern web browsers don't send
4680 <quote>From:</quote> headers anymore.
4686 <term>Example usage:</term>
4689 <screen>+hide-from-header{block}</screen> or
4690 <screen>+hide-from-header{spam-me-senseless@sittingduck.example.com}</screen>
4698 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4699 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-referrer">
4700 <title>hide-referrer</title>
4701 <anchor id="hide-referer">
4704 <term>Typical use:</term>
4706 <para>Conceal which link you followed to get to a particular site</para>
4711 <term>Effect:</term>
4714 Deletes the <quote>Referer:</quote> (sic) HTTP header from the client request,
4715 or replaces it with a forged one.
4722 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4724 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4729 <term>Parameter:</term>
4733 <para><quote>conditional-block</quote> to delete the header completely if the host has changed.</para>
4736 <para><quote>conditional-forge</quote> to forge the header if the host has changed.</para>
4739 <para><quote>block</quote> to delete the header unconditionally.</para>
4742 <para><quote>forge</quote> to pretend to be coming from the homepage of the server we are talking to.</para>
4745 <para>Any other string to set a user defined referrer.</para>
4755 <literal>conditional-block</literal> is the only parameter,
4756 that isn't easily detected in the server's log file. If it blocks the
4757 referrer, the request will look like the visitor used a bookmark or
4758 typed in the address directly.
4761 Leaving the referrer unmodified for requests on the same host
4762 allows the server owner to see the visitor's <quote>click path</quote>,
4763 but in most cases she could also get that information by comparing
4764 other parts of the log file: for example the User-Agent if it isn't
4765 a very common one, or the user's IP address if it doesn't change between
4769 Always blocking the referrer, or using a custom one, can lead to
4770 failures on servers that check the referrer before they answer any
4771 requests, in an attempt to prevent their content from being
4772 embedded or linked to elsewhere.
4775 Both <literal>conditional-block</literal> and <literal>forge</literal>
4776 will work with referrer checks, as long as content and valid referring page
4777 are on the same host. Most of the time that's the case.
4780 <literal>hide-referer</literal> is an alternate spelling of
4781 <literal>hide-referrer</literal> and the two can be can be freely
4782 substituted with each other. (<quote>referrer</quote> is the
4783 correct English spelling, however the HTTP specification has a bug - it
4784 requires it to be spelled as <quote>referer</quote>.)
4790 <term>Example usage:</term>
4793 <screen>+hide-referrer{forge}</screen> or
4794 <screen>+hide-referrer{http://www.yahoo.com/}</screen>
4802 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4803 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-user-agent">
4804 <title>hide-user-agent</title>
4808 <term>Typical use:</term>
4810 <para>Try to conceal your type of browser and client operating system</para>
4815 <term>Effect:</term>
4818 Replaces the value of the <quote>User-Agent:</quote> HTTP header
4819 in client requests with the specified value.
4826 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4828 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4833 <term>Parameter:</term>
4836 Any user-defined string.
4846 This can lead to problems on web sites that depend on looking at this header in
4847 order to customize their content for different browsers (which, by the
4848 way, is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> the right thing to do: good web sites
4849 work browser-independently).
4853 Using this action in multi-user setups or wherever different types of
4854 browsers will access the same <application>Privoxy</application> is
4855 <emphasis>not recommended</emphasis>. In single-user, single-browser
4856 setups, you might use it to delete your OS version information from
4857 the headers, because it is an invitation to exploit known bugs for your
4858 OS. It is also occasionally useful to forge this in order to access
4859 sites that won't let you in otherwise (though there may be a good
4860 reason in some cases). Example of this: some MSN sites will not
4861 let <application>Mozilla</application> enter, yet forging to a
4862 <application>Netscape 6.1</application> user-agent works just fine.
4863 (Must be just a silly MS goof, I'm sure :-).
4866 More information on known user-agent strings can be found at
4867 <ulink url="http://www.user-agents.org/">http://www.user-agents.org/</ulink>
4869 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_agent">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_agent</ulink>.
4875 <term>Example usage:</term>
4878 <screen>+hide-user-agent{Netscape 6.1 (X11; I; Linux 2.4.18 i686)}</screen>
4886 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4887 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="limit-connect">
4888 <title>limit-connect</title>
4892 <term>Typical use:</term>
4894 <para>Prevent abuse of <application>Privoxy</application> as a TCP proxy relay or disable SSL for untrusted sites</para>
4899 <term>Effect:</term>
4902 Specifies to which ports HTTP CONNECT requests are allowable.
4909 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4911 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4916 <term>Parameter:</term>
4919 A comma-separated list of ports or port ranges (the latter using dashes, with the minimum
4920 defaulting to 0 and the maximum to 65K).
4929 By default, i.e. if no <literal>limit-connect</literal> action applies,
4930 <application>Privoxy</application> allows HTTP CONNECT requests to all
4931 ports. Use <literal>limit-connect</literal> if fine-grained control
4932 is desired for some or all destinations.
4935 The CONNECT methods exists in HTTP to allow access to secure websites
4936 (<quote>https://</quote> URLs) through proxies. It works very simply:
4937 the proxy connects to the server on the specified port, and then
4938 short-circuits its connections to the client and to the remote server.
4939 This means CONNECT-enabled proxies can be used as TCP relays very easily.
4942 <application>Privoxy</application> relays HTTPS traffic without seeing
4943 the decoded content. Websites can leverage this limitation to circumvent &my-app;'s
4944 filters. By specifying an invalid port range you can disable HTTPS entirely.
4950 <term>Example usages:</term>
4952 <!-- I had trouble getting the spacing to look right in my browser -->
4953 <!-- I probably have the wrong font setup, bollocks. -->
4954 <!-- Apparently the emphasis tag uses a proportional font no matter what -->
4956 <screen>+limit-connect{443} # Port 443 is OK.
4957 +limit-connect{80,443} # Ports 80 and 443 are OK.
4958 +limit-connect{-3, 7, 20-100, 500-} # Ports less than 3, 7, 20 to 100 and above 500 are OK.
4959 +limit-connect{-} # All ports are OK
4960 +limit-connect{,} # No HTTPS/SSL traffic is allowed</screen>
4967 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4968 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="prevent-compression">
4969 <title>prevent-compression</title>
4973 <term>Typical use:</term>
4976 Ensure that servers send the content uncompressed, so it can be
4977 passed through <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>s.
4983 <term>Effect:</term>
4986 Removes the Accept-Encoding header which can be used to ask for compressed transfer.
4993 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4995 <para>Boolean.</para>
5000 <term>Parameter:</term>
5012 More and more websites send their content compressed by default, which
5013 is generally a good idea and saves bandwidth. But the <literal><link
5014 linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> and
5015 <literal><link linkend="deanimate-gifs">deanimate-gifs</link></literal>
5016 actions need access to the uncompressed data.
5019 When compiled with zlib support (available since &my-app; 3.0.7), content that should be
5020 filtered is decompressed on-the-fly and you don't have to worry about this action.
5021 If you are using an older &my-app; version, or one that hasn't been compiled with zlib
5022 support, this action can be used to convince the server to send the content uncompressed.
5025 Most text-based instances compress very well, the size is seldom decreased by less than 50%,
5026 for markup-heavy instances like news feeds saving more than 90% of the original size isn't
5030 Not using compression will therefore slow down the transfer, and you should only
5031 enable this action if you really need it. As of &my-app; 3.0.7 it's disabled in all
5032 predefined action settings.
5035 Note that some (rare) ill-configured sites don't handle requests for uncompressed
5036 documents correctly. Broken PHP applications tend to send an empty document body,
5037 some IIS versions only send the beginning of the content. If you enable
5038 <literal>prevent-compression</literal> per default, you might want to add
5039 exceptions for those sites. See the example for how to do that.
5045 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
5049 # Selectively turn off compression, and enable a filter
5051 { +filter{tiny-textforms} +prevent-compression }
5052 # Match only these sites
5057 # Or instead, we could set a universal default:
5059 { +prevent-compression }
5062 # Then maybe make exceptions for broken sites:
5064 { -prevent-compression }
5065 .compusa.com/</screen>
5074 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5075 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="overwrite-last-modified">
5076 <title>overwrite-last-modified</title>
5082 <term>Typical use:</term>
5084 <para>Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.</para>
5089 <term>Effect:</term>
5092 Deletes the <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> HTTP server header or modifies its value.
5099 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5101 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5106 <term>Parameter:</term>
5109 One of the keywords: <quote>block</quote>, <quote>reset-to-request-time</quote>
5110 and <quote>randomize</quote>
5119 Removing the <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header is useful for filter
5120 testing, where you want to force a real reload instead of getting status
5121 code <quote>304</quote>, which would cause the browser to reuse the old
5122 version of the page.
5125 The <quote>randomize</quote> option overwrites the value of the
5126 <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header with a randomly chosen time
5127 between the original value and the current time. In theory the server
5128 could send each document with a different <quote>Last-Modified:</quote>
5129 header to track visits without using cookies. <quote>Randomize</quote>
5130 makes it impossible and the browser can still revalidate cached documents.
5133 <quote>reset-to-request-time</quote> overwrites the value of the
5134 <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header with the current time. You could use
5135 this option together with
5136 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hided-if-modified-since</link></literal>
5137 to further customize your random range.
5140 The preferred parameter here is <quote>randomize</quote>. It is safe
5141 to use, as long as the time settings are more or less correct.
5142 If the server sets the <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header to the time
5143 of the request, the random range becomes zero and the value stays the same.
5144 Therefore you should later randomize it a second time with
5145 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hided-if-modified-since</link></literal>,
5149 It is also recommended to use this action together with
5150 <literal><link linkend="crunch-if-none-match">crunch-if-none-match</link></literal>.
5156 <term>Example usage:</term>
5159 <screen># Let the browser revalidate without being tracked across sessions
5160 { +hide-if-modified-since{-60} \
5161 +overwrite-last-modified{randomize} \
5162 +crunch-if-none-match}
5171 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5172 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="redirect">
5173 <title>redirect</title>
5179 <term>Typical use:</term>
5182 Redirect requests to other sites.
5188 <term>Effect:</term>
5191 Convinces the browser that the requested document has been moved
5192 to another location and the browser should get it from there.
5199 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5201 <para>Parameterized</para>
5206 <term>Parameter:</term>
5209 An absolute URL or a single pcrs command.
5218 Requests to which this action applies are answered with a
5219 HTTP redirect to URLs of your choosing. The new URL is
5220 either provided as parameter, or derived by applying a
5221 single pcrs command to the original URL.
5224 This action will be ignored if you use it together with
5225 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>.
5226 It can be combined with
5227 <literal><link linkend="fast-redirects">fast-redirects{check-decoded-url}</link></literal>
5228 to redirect to a decoded version of a rewritten URL.
5231 Use this action carefully, make sure not to create redirection loops
5232 and be aware that using your own redirects might make it
5233 possible to fingerprint your requests.
5236 In case of problems with your redirects, or simply to watch
5237 them working, enable <link linkend="DEBUG">debug 128</link>.
5243 <term>Example usages:</term>
5246 <screen># Replace example.com's style sheet with another one
5247 { +redirect{http://localhost/css-replacements/example.com.css} }
5248 example.com/stylesheet\.css
5250 # Create a short, easy to remember nickname for a favorite site
5251 # (relies on the browser accept and forward invalid URLs to &my-app;)
5252 { +redirect{http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/actions-file.html} }
5255 # Always use the expanded view for Undeadly.org articles
5256 # (Note the $ at the end of the URL pattern to make sure
5257 # the request for the rewritten URL isn't redirected as well)
5258 {+redirect{s@$@&mode=expanded@}}
5259 undeadly.org/cgi\?action=article&sid=\d*$
5261 # Redirect Google search requests to MSN
5262 {+redirect{s@^http://[^/]*/search\?q=([^&]*).*@http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=$1@}}
5265 # Redirect MSN search requests to Yahoo
5266 {+redirect{s@^http://[^/]*/results\.aspx\?q=([^&]*).*@http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=$1@}}
5267 search.msn.com//results\.aspx\?q=
5269 # Redirect remote requests for this manual
5270 # to the local version delivered by Privoxy
5271 {+redirect{s@^http://www@http://config@}}
5272 www.privoxy.org/user-manual/</screen>
5281 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5282 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="server-header-filter">
5283 <title>server-header-filter</title>
5287 <term>Typical use:</term>
5290 Rewrite or remove single server headers.
5296 <term>Effect:</term>
5299 All server headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly
5300 through the specified regular expression based substitutions.
5307 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
5309 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5314 <term>Parameter:</term>
5317 The name of a server-header filter, as defined in one of the
5318 <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link>.
5327 Server-header filters are applied to each header on its own, not to
5328 all at once. This makes it easier to diagnose problems, but on the downside
5329 you can't write filters that only change header x if header y's value is z.
5330 You can do that by using tags though.
5333 Server-header filters are executed after the other header actions have finished
5334 and use their output as input.
5337 Please refer to the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file chapter</link>
5338 to learn which server-header filters are available by default, and how to
5345 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
5349 {+server-header-filter{html-to-xml}}
5350 example.org/xml-instance-that-is-delivered-as-html
5352 {+server-header-filter{xml-to-html}}
5353 example.org/instance-that-is-delivered-as-xml-but-is-not
5363 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5364 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="server-header-tagger">
5365 <title>server-header-tagger</title>
5369 <term>Typical use:</term>
5372 Enable or disable filters based on the Content-Type header.
5378 <term>Effect:</term>
5381 Server headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly through
5382 the specified regular expression based substitutions, the result is used as
5390 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
5392 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5397 <term>Parameter:</term>
5400 The name of a server-header tagger, as defined in one of the
5401 <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link>.
5410 Server-header taggers are applied to each header on its own,
5411 and as the header isn't modified, each tagger <quote>sees</quote>
5415 Server-header taggers are executed before all other header actions
5416 that modify server headers. Their tags can be used to control
5417 all of the other server-header actions, the content filters
5418 and the crunch actions (<link linkend="redirect">redirect</link>
5419 and <link linkend="block">block</link>).
5422 Obviously crunching based on tags created by server-header taggers
5423 doesn't prevent the request from showing up in the server's log file.
5430 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
5434 # Tag every request with the content type declared by the server
5435 {+server-header-tagger{content-type}}
5446 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5447 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="session-cookies-only">
5448 <title>session-cookies-only</title>
5452 <term>Typical use:</term>
5455 Allow only temporary <quote>session</quote> cookies (for the current
5456 browser session <emphasis>only</emphasis>).
5462 <term>Effect:</term>
5465 Deletes the <quote>expires</quote> field from <quote>Set-Cookie:</quote>
5466 server headers. Most browsers will not store such cookies permanently and
5467 forget them in between sessions.
5474 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5476 <para>Boolean.</para>
5481 <term>Parameter:</term>
5493 This is less strict than <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal> /
5494 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal> and allows you to browse
5495 websites that insist or rely on setting cookies, without compromising your privacy too badly.
5498 Most browsers will not permanently store cookies that have been processed by
5499 <literal>session-cookies-only</literal> and will forget about them between sessions.
5500 This makes profiling cookies useless, but won't break sites which require cookies so
5501 that you can log in for transactions. This is generally turned on for all
5502 sites, and is the recommended setting.
5505 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use <literal>session-cookies-only</literal>
5506 together with <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal> or
5507 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>. If you do, cookies
5508 will be plainly killed.
5511 Note that it is up to the browser how it handles such cookies without an <quote>expires</quote>
5512 field. If you use an exotic browser, you might want to try it out to be sure.
5515 This setting also has no effect on cookies that may have been stored
5516 previously by the browser before starting <application>Privoxy</application>.
5517 These would have to be removed manually.
5520 <application>Privoxy</application> also uses
5521 the <link linkend="filter-content-cookies">content-cookies filter</link>
5522 to block some types of cookies. Content cookies are not effected by
5523 <literal>session-cookies-only</literal>.
5529 <term>Example usage:</term>
5532 <screen>+session-cookies-only</screen>
5540 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5541 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="set-image-blocker">
5542 <title>set-image-blocker</title>
5546 <term>Typical use:</term>
5548 <para>Choose the replacement for blocked images</para>
5553 <term>Effect:</term>
5556 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. If <emphasis>both</emphasis>
5557 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> <emphasis>and</emphasis> <literal><link
5558 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> <emphasis>also</emphasis>
5559 apply, i.e. if the request is to be blocked as an image,
5560 <emphasis>then</emphasis> the parameter of this action decides what will be
5561 sent as a replacement.
5568 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5570 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5575 <term>Parameter:</term>
5580 <quote>pattern</quote> to send a built-in checkerboard pattern image. The image is visually
5581 decent, scales very well, and makes it obvious where banners were busted.
5586 <quote>blank</quote> to send a built-in transparent image. This makes banners disappear
5587 completely, but makes it hard to detect where <application>Privoxy</application> has blocked
5588 images on a given page and complicates troubleshooting if <application>Privoxy</application>
5589 has blocked innocent images, like navigation icons.
5594 <quote><replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable></quote> to
5595 send a redirect to <replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable>. You can redirect
5596 to any image anywhere, even in your local filesystem via <quote>file:///</quote> URL.
5597 (But note that not all browsers support redirecting to a local file system).
5600 A good application of redirects is to use special <application>Privoxy</application>-built-in
5601 URLs, which send the built-in images, as <replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable>.
5602 This has the same visual effect as specifying <quote>blank</quote> or <quote>pattern</quote> in
5603 the first place, but enables your browser to cache the replacement image, instead of requesting
5604 it over and over again.
5615 The URLs for the built-in images are <quote>http://config.privoxy.org/send-banner?type=<replaceable
5616 class="parameter">type</replaceable></quote>, where <replaceable class="parameter">type</replaceable> is
5617 either <quote>blank</quote> or <quote>pattern</quote>.
5620 There is a third (advanced) type, called <quote>auto</quote>. It is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> to be
5621 used in <literal>set-image-blocker</literal>, but meant for use from <link linkend="filter-file">filters</link>.
5622 Auto will select the type of image that would have applied to the referring page, had it been an image.
5628 <term>Example usage:</term>
5634 <screen>+set-image-blocker{pattern}</screen>
5637 Redirect to the BSD daemon:
5640 <screen>+set-image-blocker{http://www.freebsd.org/gifs/dae_up3.gif}</screen>
5643 Redirect to the built-in pattern for better caching:
5646 <screen>+set-image-blocker{http://config.privoxy.org/send-banner?type=pattern}</screen>
5654 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5656 <title>Summary</title>
5658 Note that many of these actions have the potential to cause a page to
5659 misbehave, possibly even not to display at all. There are many ways
5660 a site designer may choose to design his site, and what HTTP header
5661 content, and other criteria, he may depend on. There is no way to have hard
5662 and fast rules for all sites. See the <link
5663 linkend="ACTIONSANAT">Appendix</link> for a brief example on troubleshooting
5669 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5670 <sect2 id="aliases">
5671 <title>Aliases</title>
5673 Custom <quote>actions</quote>, known to <application>Privoxy</application>
5674 as <quote>aliases</quote>, can be defined by combining other actions.
5675 These can in turn be invoked just like the built-in actions.
5676 Currently, an alias name can contain any character except space, tab,
5678 <quote>{</quote> and <quote>}</quote>, but we <emphasis>strongly
5679 recommend</emphasis> that you only use <quote>a</quote> to <quote>z</quote>,
5680 <quote>0</quote> to <quote>9</quote>, <quote>+</quote>, and <quote>-</quote>.
5681 Alias names are not case sensitive, and are not required to start with a
5682 <quote>+</quote> or <quote>-</quote> sign, since they are merely textually
5686 Aliases can be used throughout the actions file, but they <emphasis>must be
5687 defined in a special section at the top of the file!</emphasis>
5688 And there can only be one such section per actions file. Each actions file may
5689 have its own alias section, and the aliases defined in it are only visible
5693 There are two main reasons to use aliases: One is to save typing for frequently
5694 used combinations of actions, the other one is a gain in flexibility: If you
5695 decide once how you want to handle shops by defining an alias called
5696 <quote>shop</quote>, you can later change your policy on shops in
5697 <emphasis>one</emphasis> place, and your changes will take effect everywhere
5698 in the actions file where the <quote>shop</quote> alias is used. Calling aliases
5699 by their purpose also makes your actions files more readable.
5702 Currently, there is one big drawback to using aliases, though:
5703 <application>Privoxy</application>'s built-in web-based action file
5704 editor honors aliases when reading the actions files, but it expands
5705 them before writing. So the effects of your aliases are of course preserved,
5706 but the aliases themselves are lost when you edit sections that use aliases
5711 Now let's define some aliases...
5716 # Useful custom aliases we can use later.
5718 # Note the (required!) section header line and that this section
5719 # must be at the top of the actions file!
5723 # These aliases just save typing later:
5724 # (Note that some already use other aliases!)
5726 +crunch-all-cookies = +<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> +<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
5727 -crunch-all-cookies = -<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> -<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
5728 +block-as-image = +block{Blocked image.} +handle-as-image
5729 allow-all-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> -<link linkend="FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</link>
5731 # These aliases define combinations of actions
5732 # that are useful for certain types of sites:
5734 fragile = -<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link> -<link linkend="HIDE-REFERER">hide-referrer</link> -<link linkend="PREVENT-COMPRESSION">prevent-compression</link>
5736 shop = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{all-popups}</link>
5738 # Short names for other aliases, for really lazy people ;-)
5740 c0 = +crunch-all-cookies
5741 c1 = -crunch-all-cookies</screen>
5745 ...and put them to use. These sections would appear in the lower part of an
5746 actions file and define exceptions to the default actions (as specified further
5747 up for the <quote>/</quote> pattern):
5752 # These sites are either very complex or very keen on
5753 # user data and require minimal interference to work:
5756 .office.microsoft.com
5757 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com
5758 # Gmail is really mail.google.com, not gmail.com
5762 # Allow cookies (for setting and retrieving your customer data)
5766 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
5769 # These shops require pop-ups:
5771 {-filter{all-popups} -filter{unsolicited-popups}}
5773 .overclockers.co.uk</screen>
5777 Aliases like <quote>shop</quote> and <quote>fragile</quote> are typically used for
5778 <quote>problem</quote> sites that require more than one action to be disabled
5779 in order to function properly.
5785 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5786 <sect2 id="act-examples">
5787 <title>Actions Files Tutorial</title>
5789 The above chapters have shown <link linkend="actions-file">which actions files
5790 there are and how they are organized</link>, how actions are <link
5791 linkend="actions">specified</link> and <link linkend="actions-apply">applied
5792 to URLs</link>, how <link linkend="af-patterns">patterns</link> work, and how to
5793 define and use <link linkend="aliases">aliases</link>. Now, let's look at an
5794 example <filename>match-all.action</filename>, <filename>default.action</filename>
5795 and <filename>user.action</filename> file and see how all these pieces come together:
5799 <title>match-all.action</title>
5801 Remember <emphasis>all actions are disabled when matching starts</emphasis>,
5802 so we have to explicitly enable the ones we want.
5806 While the <filename>match-all.action</filename> file only contains a
5807 single section, it is probably the most important one. It has only one
5808 pattern, <quote><literal>/</literal></quote>, but this pattern
5809 <link linkend="af-patterns">matches all URLs</link>. Therefore, the set of
5810 actions used in this <quote>default</quote> section <emphasis>will
5811 be applied to all requests as a start</emphasis>. It can be partly or
5812 wholly overridden by other actions files like <filename>default.action</filename>
5813 and <filename>user.action</filename>, but it will still be largely responsible
5814 for your overall browsing experience.
5818 Again, at the start of matching, all actions are disabled, so there is
5819 no need to disable any actions here. (Remember: a <quote>+</quote>
5820 preceding the action name enables the action, a <quote>-</quote> disables!).
5821 Also note how this long line has been made more readable by splitting it into
5822 multiple lines with line continuation.
5828 +<link linkend="CHANGE-X-FORWARDED-FOR">change-x-forwarded-for{block}</link> \
5829 +<link linkend="HIDE-FROM-HEADER">hide-from-header{block}</link> \
5830 +<link linkend="SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER">set-image-blocker{pattern}</link> \
5836 The default behavior is now set.
5839 <title>default.action</title>
5842 If you aren't a developer, there's no need for you to edit the
5843 <filename>default.action</filename> file. It is maintained by
5844 the &my-app; developers and if you disagree with some of the
5845 sections, you should overrule them in your <filename>user.action</filename>.
5849 Understanding the <filename>default.action</filename> file can
5850 help you with your <filename>user.action</filename>, though.
5854 The first section in this file is a special section for internal use
5855 that prevents older &my-app; versions from reading the file:
5860 ##########################################################################
5861 # Settings -- Don't change! For internal Privoxy use ONLY.
5862 ##########################################################################
5864 for-privoxy-version=3.0.11</screen>
5868 After that comes the (optional) alias section. We'll use the example
5869 section from the above <link linkend="aliases">chapter on aliases</link>,
5870 that also explains why and how aliases are used:
5875 ##########################################################################
5877 ##########################################################################
5880 # These aliases just save typing later:
5881 # (Note that some already use other aliases!)
5883 +crunch-all-cookies = +<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> +<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
5884 -crunch-all-cookies = -<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> -<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
5885 +block-as-image = +block{Blocked image.} +handle-as-image
5886 mercy-for-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> -<link linkend="FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</link>
5888 # These aliases define combinations of actions
5889 # that are useful for certain types of sites:
5891 fragile = -<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link> -<link linkend="HIDE-REFERER">hide-referrer</link>
5892 shop = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{all-popups}</link></screen>
5896 The first of our specialized sections is concerned with <quote>fragile</quote>
5897 sites, i.e. sites that require minimum interference, because they are either
5898 very complex or very keen on tracking you (and have mechanisms in place that
5899 make them unusable for people who avoid being tracked). We will simply use
5900 our pre-defined <literal>fragile</literal> alias instead of stating the list
5901 of actions explicitly:
5906 ##########################################################################
5907 # Exceptions for sites that'll break under the default action set:
5908 ##########################################################################
5910 # "Fragile" Use a minimum set of actions for these sites (see alias above):
5913 .office.microsoft.com # surprise, surprise!
5914 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com
5915 mail.google.com</screen>
5919 Shopping sites are not as fragile, but they typically
5920 require cookies to log in, and pop-up windows for shopping
5921 carts or item details. Again, we'll use a pre-defined alias:
5930 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
5932 .scan.co.uk</screen>
5936 The <literal><link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link></literal>
5937 action, which may have been enabled in <filename>match-all.action</filename>,
5938 breaks some sites. So disable it for popular sites where we know it misbehaves:
5943 { -<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link> }
5947 .altavista.com/.*(like|url|link):http
5948 .altavista.com/trans.*urltext=http
5949 .nytimes.com</screen>
5953 It is important that <application>Privoxy</application> knows which
5954 URLs belong to images, so that <emphasis>if</emphasis> they are to
5955 be blocked, a substitute image can be sent, rather than an HTML page.
5956 Contacting the remote site to find out is not an option, since it
5957 would destroy the loading time advantage of banner blocking, and it
5958 would feed the advertisers information about you. We can mark any
5959 URL as an image with the <literal><link
5960 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> action,
5961 and marking all URLs that end in a known image file extension is a
5967 ##########################################################################
5969 ##########################################################################
5971 # Define which file types will be treated as images, in case they get
5972 # blocked further down this file:
5974 { +<link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">handle-as-image</link> }
5975 /.*\.(gif|jpe?g|png|bmp|ico)$</screen>
5979 And then there are known banner sources. They often use scripts to
5980 generate the banners, so it won't be visible from the URL that the
5981 request is for an image. Hence we block them <emphasis>and</emphasis>
5982 mark them as images in one go, with the help of our
5983 <literal>+block-as-image</literal> alias defined above. (We could of
5984 course just as well use <literal>+<link linkend="block">block</link>
5985 +<link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> here.)
5986 Remember that the type of the replacement image is chosen by the
5987 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>
5988 action. Since all URLs have matched the default section with its
5989 <literal>+<link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link>{pattern}</literal>
5990 action before, it still applies and needn't be repeated:
5995 # Known ad generators:
6000 .ad.*.doubleclick.net
6001 .a.yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$
6002 .a[0-9].yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$
6008 One of the most important jobs of <application>Privoxy</application>
6009 is to block banners. Many of these can be <quote>blocked</quote>
6010 by the <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link>{banners-by-size}</literal>
6011 action, which we enabled above, and which deletes the references to banner
6012 images from the pages while they are loaded, so the browser doesn't request
6013 them anymore, and hence they don't need to be blocked here. But this naturally
6014 doesn't catch all banners, and some people choose not to use filters, so we
6015 need a comprehensive list of patterns for banner URLs here, and apply the
6016 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action to them.
6019 First comes many generic patterns, which do most of the work, by
6020 matching typical domain and path name components of banners. Then comes
6021 a list of individual patterns for specific sites, which is omitted here
6022 to keep the example short:
6027 ##########################################################################
6028 # Block these fine banners:
6029 ##########################################################################
6030 { <link linkend="BLOCK">+block{Banner ads.}</link> }
6038 /.*count(er)?\.(pl|cgi|exe|dll|asp|php[34]?)
6039 /(?:.*/)?(publicite|werbung|rekla(ma|me|am)|annonse|maino(kset|nta|s)?)/
6041 # Site-specific patterns (abbreviated):
6043 .hitbox.com</screen>
6047 It's quite remarkable how many advertisers actually call their banner
6048 servers ads.<replaceable>company</replaceable>.com, or call the directory
6049 in which the banners are stored simply <quote>banners</quote>. So the above
6050 generic patterns are surprisingly effective.
6053 But being very generic, they necessarily also catch URLs that we don't want
6054 to block. The pattern <literal>.*ads.</literal> e.g. catches
6055 <quote>nasty-<emphasis>ads</emphasis>.nasty-corp.com</quote> as intended,
6056 but also <quote>downlo<emphasis>ads</emphasis>.sourcefroge.net</quote> or
6057 <quote><emphasis>ads</emphasis>l.some-provider.net.</quote> So here come some
6058 well-known exceptions to the <literal>+<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal>
6062 Note that these are exceptions to exceptions from the default! Consider the URL
6063 <quote>downloads.sourcefroge.net</quote>: Initially, all actions are deactivated,
6064 so it wouldn't get blocked. Then comes the defaults section, which matches the
6065 URL, but just deactivates the <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal>
6066 action once again. Then it matches <literal>.*ads.</literal>, an exception to the
6067 general non-blocking policy, and suddenly
6068 <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">+block</link></literal> applies. And now, it'll match
6069 <literal>.*loads.</literal>, where <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">-block</link></literal>
6070 applies, so (unless it matches <emphasis>again</emphasis> further down) it ends up
6071 with no <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal> action applying.
6076 ##########################################################################
6077 # Save some innocent victims of the above generic block patterns:
6078 ##########################################################################
6082 { -<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> }
6083 adv[io]*. # (for advogato.org and advice.*)
6084 adsl. # (has nothing to do with ads)
6085 adobe. # (has nothing to do with ads either)
6086 ad[ud]*. # (adult.* and add.*)
6087 .edu # (universities don't host banners (yet!))
6088 .*loads. # (downloads, uploads etc)
6096 www.globalintersec.com/adv # (adv = advanced)
6097 www.ugu.com/sui/ugu/adv</screen>
6101 Filtering source code can have nasty side effects,
6102 so make an exception for our friends at sourceforge.net,
6103 and all paths with <quote>cvs</quote> in them. Note that
6104 <literal>-<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link></literal>
6105 disables <emphasis>all</emphasis> filters in one fell swoop!
6110 # Don't filter code!
6112 { -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> }
6117 .sourceforge.net</screen>
6121 The actual <filename>default.action</filename> is of course much more
6122 comprehensive, but we hope this example made clear how it works.
6127 <sect3><title>user.action</title>
6130 So far we are painting with a broad brush by setting general policies,
6131 which would be a reasonable starting point for many people. Now,
6132 you might want to be more specific and have customized rules that
6133 are more suitable to your personal habits and preferences. These would
6134 be for narrowly defined situations like your ISP or your bank, and should
6135 be placed in <filename>user.action</filename>, which is parsed after all other
6136 actions files and hence has the last word, over-riding any previously
6137 defined actions. <filename>user.action</filename> is also a
6138 <emphasis>safe</emphasis> place for your personal settings, since
6139 <filename>default.action</filename> is actively maintained by the
6140 <application>Privoxy</application> developers and you'll probably want
6141 to install updated versions from time to time.
6145 So let's look at a few examples of things that one might typically do in
6146 <filename>user.action</filename>:
6150 <!-- brief sample user.action here -->
6154 # My user.action file. <fred@example.com></screen>
6158 As <link linkend="aliases">aliases</link> are local to the actions
6159 file that they are defined in, you can't use the ones from
6160 <filename>default.action</filename>, unless you repeat them here:
6165 # Aliases are local to the file they are defined in.
6166 # (Re-)define aliases for this file:
6170 # These aliases just save typing later, and the alias names should
6171 # be self explanatory.
6173 +crunch-all-cookies = +crunch-incoming-cookies +crunch-outgoing-cookies
6174 -crunch-all-cookies = -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-cookies
6175 allow-all-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -session-cookies-only
6176 allow-popups = -filter{all-popups}
6177 +block-as-image = +block{Blocked as image.} +handle-as-image
6178 -block-as-image = -block
6180 # These aliases define combinations of actions that are useful for
6181 # certain types of sites:
6183 fragile = -block -crunch-all-cookies -filter -fast-redirects -hide-referrer
6184 shop = -crunch-all-cookies allow-popups
6186 # Allow ads for selected useful free sites:
6188 allow-ads = -block -filter{banners-by-size} -filter{banners-by-link}
6190 # Alias for specific file types that are text, but might have conflicting
6191 # MIME types. We want the browser to force these to be text documents.
6192 handle-as-text = -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> +-<link linkend="content-type-overwrite">content-type-overwrite{text/plain}</link> +-<link linkend="FORCE-TEXT-MODE">force-text-mode</link> -<link linkend="HIDE-CONTENT-DISPOSITION">hide-content-disposition</link></screen>
6197 Say you have accounts on some sites that you visit regularly, and
6198 you don't want to have to log in manually each time. So you'd like
6199 to allow persistent cookies for these sites. The
6200 <literal>allow-all-cookies</literal> alias defined above does exactly
6201 that, i.e. it disables crunching of cookies in any direction, and the
6202 processing of cookies to make them only temporary.
6207 { allow-all-cookies }
6211 .redhat.com</screen>
6215 Your bank is allergic to some filter, but you don't know which, so you disable them all:
6220 { -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> }
6221 .your-home-banking-site.com</screen>
6225 Some file types you may not want to filter for various reasons:
6230 # Technical documentation is likely to contain strings that might
6231 # erroneously get altered by the JavaScript-oriented filters:
6236 # And this stupid host sends streaming video with a wrong MIME type,
6237 # so that Privoxy thinks it is getting HTML and starts filtering:
6239 stupid-server.example.com/</screen>
6243 Example of a simple <link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> action. Say you've
6244 seen an ad on your favourite page on example.com that you want to get rid of.
6245 You have right-clicked the image, selected <quote>copy image location</quote>
6246 and pasted the URL below while removing the leading http://, into a
6247 <literal>{ +block{} }</literal> section. Note that <literal>{ +handle-as-image
6248 }</literal> need not be specified, since all URLs ending in
6249 <literal>.gif</literal> will be tagged as images by the general rules as set
6250 in default.action anyway:
6255 { +<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link>{Nasty ads.} }
6256 www.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor\.gif
6257 another.example.net/more/junk/here/</screen>
6261 The URLs of dynamically generated banners, especially from large banner
6262 farms, often don't use the well-known image file name extensions, which
6263 makes it impossible for <application>Privoxy</application> to guess
6264 the file type just by looking at the URL.
6265 You can use the <literal>+block-as-image</literal> alias defined above for
6267 Note that objects which match this rule but then turn out NOT to be an
6268 image are typically rendered as a <quote>broken image</quote> icon by the
6269 browser. Use cautiously.
6278 ar.atwola.com/</screen>
6282 Now you noticed that the default configuration breaks Forbes Magazine,
6283 but you were too lazy to find out which action is the culprit, and you
6284 were again too lazy to give <link linkend="contact">feedback</link>, so
6285 you just used the <literal>fragile</literal> alias on the site, and
6286 -- <emphasis>whoa!</emphasis> -- it worked. The <literal>fragile</literal>
6287 aliases disables those actions that are most likely to break a site. Also,
6288 good for testing purposes to see if it is <application>Privoxy</application>
6289 that is causing the problem or not. We later find other regular sites
6290 that misbehave, and add those to our personalized list of troublemakers:
6298 .mybank.com</screen>
6302 You like the <quote>fun</quote> text replacements in <filename>default.filter</filename>,
6303 but it is disabled in the distributed actions file.
6304 So you'd like to turn it on in your private,
6305 update-safe config, once and for all:
6310 { +<link linkend="filter-fun">filter{fun}</link> }
6311 / # For ALL sites!</screen>
6315 Note that the above is not really a good idea: There are exceptions
6316 to the filters in <filename>default.action</filename> for things that
6317 really shouldn't be filtered, like code on CVS->Web interfaces. Since
6318 <filename>user.action</filename> has the last word, these exceptions
6319 won't be valid for the <quote>fun</quote> filtering specified here.
6323 You might also worry about how your favourite free websites are
6324 funded, and find that they rely on displaying banner advertisements
6325 to survive. So you might want to specifically allow banners for those
6326 sites that you feel provide value to you:
6338 Note that <literal>allow-ads</literal> has been aliased to
6339 <literal>-<link linkend="block">block</link></literal>,
6340 <literal>-<link linkend="filter-banners-by-size">filter{banners-by-size}</link></literal>, and
6341 <literal>-<link linkend="filter-banners-by-link">filter{banners-by-link}</link></literal> above.
6345 Invoke another alias here to force an over-ride of the MIME type <literal>
6346 application/x-sh</literal> which typically would open a download type
6347 dialog. In my case, I want to look at the shell script, and then I can save
6348 it should I choose to.
6358 <filename>user.action</filename> is generally the best place to define
6359 exceptions and additions to the default policies of
6360 <filename>default.action</filename>. Some actions are safe to have their
6361 default policies set here though. So let's set a default policy to have a
6362 <quote>blank</quote> image as opposed to the checkerboard pattern for
6363 <emphasis>ALL</emphasis> sites. <quote>/</quote> of course matches all URL
6369 { +<link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker{blank}</link> }
6370 / # ALL sites</screen>
6376 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
6380 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
6382 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
6384 <sect1 id="filter-file">
6385 <title>Filter Files</title>
6388 On-the-fly text substitutions need
6389 to be defined in a <quote>filter file</quote>. Once defined, they
6390 can then be invoked as an <quote>action</quote>.
6394 &my-app; supports three different filter actions:
6395 <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> to
6396 rewrite the content that is send to the client,
6397 <literal><link linkend="client-header-filter">client-header-filter</link></literal>
6398 to rewrite headers that are send by the client, and
6399 <literal><link linkend="server-header-filter">server-header-filter</link></literal>
6400 to rewrite headers that are send by the server.
6404 &my-app; also supports two tagger actions:
6405 <literal><link linkend="client-header-tagger">client-header-tagger</link></literal>
6407 <literal><link linkend="server-header-tagger">server-header-tagger</link></literal>.
6408 Taggers and filters use the same syntax in the filter files, the difference
6409 is that taggers don't modify the text they are filtering, but use a rewritten
6410 version of the filtered text as tag. The tags can then be used to change the
6411 applying actions through sections with <link linkend="tag-pattern">tag-patterns</link>.
6416 Multiple filter files can be defined through the <literal> <link
6417 linkend="filterfile">filterfile</link></literal> config directive. The filters
6418 as supplied by the developers are located in
6419 <filename>default.filter</filename>. It is recommended that any locally
6420 defined or modified filters go in a separately defined file such as
6421 <filename>user.filter</filename>.
6425 Common tasks for content filters are to eliminate common annoyances in
6426 HTML and JavaScript, such as pop-up windows,
6427 exit consoles, crippled windows without navigation tools, the
6428 infamous <BLINK> tag etc, to suppress images with certain
6429 width and height attributes (standard banner sizes or web-bugs),
6430 or just to have fun.
6434 Enabled content filters are applied to any content whose
6435 <quote>Content Type</quote> header is recognised as a sign
6436 of text-based content, with the exception of <literal>text/plain</literal>.
6437 Use the <link linkend="FORCE-TEXT-MODE">force-text-mode</link> action
6438 to also filter other content.
6442 Substitutions are made at the source level, so if you want to <quote>roll
6443 your own</quote> filters, you should first be familiar with HTML syntax,
6444 and, of course, regular expressions.
6448 Just like the <link linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>, the
6449 filter file is organized in sections, which are called <emphasis>filters</emphasis>
6450 here. Each filter consists of a heading line, that starts with one of the
6451 <emphasis>keywords</emphasis> <literal>FILTER:</literal>,
6452 <literal>CLIENT-HEADER-FILTER:</literal> or <literal>SERVER-HEADER-FILTER:</literal>
6453 followed by the filter's <emphasis>name</emphasis>, and a short (one line)
6454 <emphasis>description</emphasis> of what it does. Below that line
6455 come the <emphasis>jobs</emphasis>, i.e. lines that define the actual
6456 text substitutions. By convention, the name of a filter
6457 should describe what the filter <emphasis>eliminates</emphasis>. The
6458 comment is used in the <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">web-based
6459 user interface</ulink>.
6463 Once a filter called <replaceable>name</replaceable> has been defined
6464 in the filter file, it can be invoked by using an action of the form
6465 +<literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link>{<replaceable>name</replaceable>}</literal>
6466 in any <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link>.
6470 Filter definitions start with a header line that contains the filter
6471 type, the filter name and the filter description.
6472 A content filter header line for a filter called <quote>foo</quote> could look
6477 <screen>FILTER: foo Replace all "foo" with "bar"</screen>
6481 Below that line, and up to the next header line, come the jobs that
6482 define what text replacements the filter executes. They are specified
6483 in a syntax that imitates <ulink url="http://www.perl.org/">Perl</ulink>'s
6484 <literal>s///</literal> operator. If you are familiar with Perl, you
6485 will find this to be quite intuitive, and may want to look at the
6486 PCRS documentation for the subtle differences to Perl behaviour. Most
6487 notably, the non-standard option letter <literal>U</literal> is supported,
6488 which turns the default to ungreedy matching.
6493 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
6494 Expressions</quote></ulink>, you might want to take a look at
6495 the <link linkend="regex">Appendix on regular expressions</link>, and
6496 see the <ulink url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html">Perl
6498 <ulink url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlop.html">the
6499 <literal>s///</literal> operator's syntax</ulink> and <ulink
6500 url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html">Perl-style regular
6501 expressions</ulink> in general.
6502 The below examples might also help to get you started.
6506 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
6508 <sect2><title>Filter File Tutorial</title>
6510 Now, let's complete our <quote>foo</quote> content filter. We have already defined
6511 the heading, but the jobs are still missing. Since all it does is to replace
6512 <quote>foo</quote> with <quote>bar</quote>, there is only one (trivial) job
6517 <screen>s/foo/bar/</screen>
6521 But wait! Didn't the comment say that <emphasis>all</emphasis> occurrences
6522 of <quote>foo</quote> should be replaced? Our current job will only take
6523 care of the first <quote>foo</quote> on each page. For global substitution,
6524 we'll need to add the <literal>g</literal> option:
6528 <screen>s/foo/bar/g</screen>
6532 Our complete filter now looks like this:
6535 <screen>FILTER: foo Replace all "foo" with "bar"
6536 s/foo/bar/g</screen>
6540 Let's look at some real filters for more interesting examples. Here you see
6541 a filter that protects against some common annoyances that arise from JavaScript
6542 abuse. Let's look at its jobs one after the other:
6548 FILTER: js-annoyances Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse
6550 # Get rid of JavaScript referrer tracking. Test page: http://www.randomoddness.com/untitled.htm
6552 s|(<script.*)document\.referrer(.*</script>)|$1"Not Your Business!"$2|Usg</screen>
6556 Following the header line and a comment, you see the job. Note that it uses
6557 <literal>|</literal> as the delimiter instead of <literal>/</literal>, because
6558 the pattern contains a forward slash, which would otherwise have to be escaped
6559 by a backslash (<literal>\</literal>).
6563 Now, let's examine the pattern: it starts with the text <literal><script.*</literal>
6564 enclosed in parentheses. Since the dot matches any character, and <literal>*</literal>
6565 means: <quote>Match an arbitrary number of the element left of myself</quote>, this
6566 matches <quote><script</quote>, followed by <emphasis>any</emphasis> text, i.e.
6567 it matches the whole page, from the start of the first <script> tag.
6571 That's more than we want, but the pattern continues: <literal>document\.referrer</literal>
6572 matches only the exact string <quote>document.referrer</quote>. The dot needed to
6573 be <emphasis>escaped</emphasis>, i.e. preceded by a backslash, to take away its
6574 special meaning as a joker, and make it just a regular dot. So far, the meaning is:
6575 Match from the start of the first <script> tag in a the page, up to, and including,
6576 the text <quote>document.referrer</quote>, if <emphasis>both</emphasis> are present
6577 in the page (and appear in that order).
6581 But there's still more pattern to go. The next element, again enclosed in parentheses,
6582 is <literal>.*</script></literal>. You already know what <literal>.*</literal>
6583 means, so the whole pattern translates to: Match from the start of the first <script>
6584 tag in a page to the end of the last <script> tag, provided that the text
6585 <quote>document.referrer</quote> appears somewhere in between.
6589 This is still not the whole story, since we have ignored the options and the parentheses:
6590 The portions of the page matched by sub-patterns that are enclosed in parentheses, will be
6591 remembered and be available through the variables <literal>$1, $2, ...</literal> in
6592 the substitute. The <literal>U</literal> option switches to ungreedy matching, which means
6593 that the first <literal>.*</literal> in the pattern will only <quote>eat up</quote> all
6594 text in between <quote><script</quote> and the <emphasis>first</emphasis> occurrence
6595 of <quote>document.referrer</quote>, and that the second <literal>.*</literal> will
6596 only span the text up to the <emphasis>first</emphasis> <quote></script></quote>
6597 tag. Furthermore, the <literal>s</literal> option says that the match may span
6598 multiple lines in the page, and the <literal>g</literal> option again means that the
6599 substitution is global.
6603 So, to summarize, the pattern means: Match all scripts that contain the text
6604 <quote>document.referrer</quote>. Remember the parts of the script from
6605 (and including) the start tag up to (and excluding) the string
6606 <quote>document.referrer</quote> as <literal>$1</literal>, and the part following
6607 that string, up to and including the closing tag, as <literal>$2</literal>.
6611 Now the pattern is deciphered, but wasn't this about substituting things? So
6612 lets look at the substitute: <literal>$1"Not Your Business!"$2</literal> is
6613 easy to read: The text remembered as <literal>$1</literal>, followed by
6614 <literal>"Not Your Business!"</literal> (<emphasis>including</emphasis>
6615 the quotation marks!), followed by the text remembered as <literal>$2</literal>.
6616 This produces an exact copy of the original string, with the middle part
6617 (the <quote>document.referrer</quote>) replaced by <literal>"Not Your
6618 Business!"</literal>.
6622 The whole job now reads: Replace <quote>document.referrer</quote> by
6623 <literal>"Not Your Business!"</literal> wherever it appears inside a
6624 <script> tag. Note that this job won't break JavaScript syntax,
6625 since both the original and the replacement are syntactically valid
6626 string objects. The script just won't have access to the referrer
6627 information anymore.
6631 We'll show you two other jobs from the JavaScript taming department, but
6632 this time only point out the constructs of special interest:
6637 # The status bar is for displaying link targets, not pointless blahblah
6639 s/window\.status\s*=\s*(['"]).*?\1/dUmMy=1/ig</screen>
6643 <literal>\s</literal> stands for whitespace characters (space, tab, newline,
6644 carriage return, form feed), so that <literal>\s*</literal> means: <quote>zero
6645 or more whitespace</quote>. The <literal>?</literal> in <literal>.*?</literal>
6646 makes this matching of arbitrary text ungreedy. (Note that the <literal>U</literal>
6647 option is not set). The <literal>['"]</literal> construct means: <quote>a single
6648 <emphasis>or</emphasis> a double quote</quote>. Finally, <literal>\1</literal> is
6649 a back-reference to the first parenthesis just like <literal>$1</literal> above,
6650 with the difference that in the <emphasis>pattern</emphasis>, a backslash indicates
6651 a back-reference, whereas in the <emphasis>substitute</emphasis>, it's the dollar.
6655 So what does this job do? It replaces assignments of single- or double-quoted
6656 strings to the <quote>window.status</quote> object with a dummy assignment
6657 (using a variable name that is hopefully odd enough not to conflict with
6658 real variables in scripts). Thus, it catches many cases where e.g. pointless
6659 descriptions are displayed in the status bar instead of the link target when
6660 you move your mouse over links.
6665 # Kill OnUnload popups. Yummy. Test: http://www.zdnet.com/zdsubs/yahoo/tree/yfs.html
6667 s/(<body [^>]*)onunload(.*>)/$1never$2/iU</screen>
6672 <ulink url="http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-DOM-Level-2-Events-20001113/events.html#Events-eventgroupings-htmlevents">OnUnload
6673 event binding</ulink> in the HTML DOM was a <emphasis>CRIME</emphasis>.
6674 When I close a browser window, I want it to close and die. Basta.
6675 This job replaces the <quote>onunload</quote> attribute in
6676 <quote><body></quote> tags with the dummy word <literal>never</literal>.
6677 Note that the <literal>i</literal> option makes the pattern matching
6678 case-insensitive. Also note that ungreedy matching alone doesn't always guarantee
6679 a minimal match: In the first parenthesis, we had to use <literal>[^>]*</literal>
6680 instead of <literal>.*</literal> to prevent the match from exceeding the
6681 <body> tag if it doesn't contain <quote>OnUnload</quote>, but the page's
6686 The last example is from the fun department:
6691 FILTER: fun Fun text replacements
6693 # Spice the daily news:
6695 s/microsoft(?!\.com)/MicroSuck/ig</screen>
6699 Note the <literal>(?!\.com)</literal> part (a so-called negative lookahead)
6700 in the job's pattern, which means: Don't match, if the string
6701 <quote>.com</quote> appears directly following <quote>microsoft</quote>
6702 in the page. This prevents links to microsoft.com from being trashed, while
6703 still replacing the word everywhere else.
6708 # Buzzword Bingo (example for extended regex syntax)
6710 s* industry[ -]leading \
6712 | customer[ -]focused \
6713 | market[ -]driven \
6714 | award[ -]winning # Comments are OK, too! \
6715 | high[ -]performance \
6716 | solutions[ -]based \
6720 *<font color="red"><b>BINGO!</b></font> \
6725 The <literal>x</literal> option in this job turns on extended syntax, and allows for
6726 e.g. the liberal use of (non-interpreted!) whitespace for nicer formatting.
6734 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
6736 <sect2 id="predefined-filters"><title>The Pre-defined Filters</title>
6740 Note each filter is also listed in the +filter action section above. Please
6741 keep these listings in sync.
6746 The distribution <filename>default.filter</filename> file contains a selection of
6747 pre-defined filters for your convenience:
6752 <term><emphasis>js-annoyances</emphasis></term>
6755 The purpose of this filter is to get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse.
6760 replaces JavaScript references to the browser's referrer information
6761 with the string "Not Your Business!". This compliments the <literal><link
6762 linkend="hide-referrer">hide-referrer</link></literal> action on the content level.
6767 removes the bindings to the DOM's
6768 <ulink url="http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-DOM-Level-2-Events-20001113/events.html#Events-eventgroupings-htmlevents">unload
6769 event</ulink> which we feel has no right to exist and is responsible for most <quote>exit consoles</quote>, i.e.
6770 nasty windows that pop up when you close another one.
6775 removes code that causes new windows to be opened with undesired properties, such as being
6776 full-screen, non-resizeable, without location, status or menu bar etc.
6782 Use with caution. This is an aggressive filter, and can break sites that
6783 rely heavily on JavaScript.
6789 <term><emphasis>js-events</emphasis></term>
6792 This is a very radical measure. It removes virtually all JavaScript event bindings, which
6793 means that scripts can not react to user actions such as mouse movements or clicks, window
6794 resizing etc, anymore. Use with caution!
6797 We <emphasis>strongly discourage</emphasis> using this filter as a default since it breaks
6798 many legitimate scripts. It is meant for use only on extra-nasty sites (should you really
6805 <term><emphasis>html-annoyances</emphasis></term>
6808 This filter will undo many common instances of HTML based abuse.
6811 The <literal>BLINK</literal> and <literal>MARQUEE</literal> tags
6812 are neutralized (yeah baby!), and browser windows will be created as
6813 resizeable (as of course they should be!), and will have location,
6814 scroll and menu bars -- even if specified otherwise.
6820 <term><emphasis>content-cookies</emphasis></term>
6823 Most cookies are set in the HTTP dialog, where they can be intercepted
6825 <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal>
6826 and <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>
6827 actions. But web sites increasingly make use of HTML meta tags and JavaScript
6828 to sneak cookies to the browser on the content level.
6831 This filter disables most HTML and JavaScript code that reads or sets
6832 cookies. It cannot detect all clever uses of these types of code, so it
6833 should not be relied on as an absolute fix. Use it wherever you would also
6834 use the cookie crunch actions.
6840 <term><emphasis>refresh tags</emphasis></term>
6843 Disable any refresh tags if the interval is greater than nine seconds (so
6844 that redirections done via refresh tags are not destroyed). This is useful
6845 for dial-on-demand setups, or for those who find this HTML feature
6852 <term><emphasis>unsolicited-popups</emphasis></term>
6855 This filter attempts to prevent only <quote>unsolicited</quote> pop-up
6856 windows from opening, yet still allow pop-up windows that the user
6857 has explicitly chosen to open. It was added in version 3.0.1,
6858 as an improvement over earlier such filters.
6861 Technical note: The filter works by redefining the window.open JavaScript
6862 function to a dummy function, <literal>PrivoxyWindowOpen()</literal>,
6863 during the loading and rendering phase of each HTML page access, and
6864 restoring the function afterward.
6867 This is recommended only for browsers that cannot perform this function
6868 reliably themselves. And be aware that some sites require such windows
6869 in order to function normally. Use with caution.
6875 <term><emphasis>all-popups</emphasis></term>
6878 Attempt to prevent <emphasis>all</emphasis> pop-up windows from opening.
6879 Note this should be used with even more discretion than the above, since
6880 it is more likely to break some sites that require pop-ups for normal
6881 usage. Use with caution.
6887 <term><emphasis>img-reorder</emphasis></term>
6890 This is a helper filter that has no value if used alone. It makes the
6891 <literal>banners-by-size</literal> and <literal>banners-by-link</literal>
6892 (see below) filters more effective and should be enabled together with them.
6898 <term><emphasis>banners-by-size</emphasis></term>
6901 This filter removes image tags purely based on what size they are. Fortunately
6902 for us, many ads and banner images tend to conform to certain standardized
6903 sizes, which makes this filter quite effective for ad stripping purposes.
6906 Occasionally this filter will cause false positives on images that are not ads,
6907 but just happen to be of one of the standard banner sizes.
6910 Recommended only for those who require extreme ad blocking. The default
6911 block rules should catch 95+% of all ads <emphasis>without</emphasis> this filter enabled.
6917 <term><emphasis>banners-by-link</emphasis></term>
6920 This is an experimental filter that attempts to kill any banners if
6921 their URLs seem to point to known or suspected click trackers. It is currently
6922 not of much value and is not recommended for use by default.
6928 <term><emphasis>webbugs</emphasis></term>
6931 Webbugs are small, invisible images (technically 1X1 GIF images), that
6932 are used to track users across websites, and collect information on them.
6933 As an HTML page is loaded by the browser, an embedded image tag causes the
6934 browser to contact a third-party site, disclosing the tracking information
6935 through the requested URL and/or cookies for that third-party domain, without
6936 the user ever becoming aware of the interaction with the third-party site.
6937 HTML-ized spam also uses a similar technique to verify email addresses.
6940 This filter removes the HTML code that loads such <quote>webbugs</quote>.
6946 <term><emphasis>tiny-textforms</emphasis></term>
6949 A rather special-purpose filter that can be used to enlarge textareas (those
6950 multi-line text boxes in web forms) and turn off hard word wrap in them.
6951 It was written for the sourceforge.net tracker system where such boxes are
6952 a nuisance, but it can be handy on other sites, too.
6955 It is not recommended to use this filter as a default.
6961 <term><emphasis>jumping-windows</emphasis></term>
6964 Many consider windows that move, or resize themselves to be abusive. This filter
6965 neutralizes the related JavaScript code. Note that some sites might not display
6966 or behave as intended when using this filter. Use with caution.
6972 <term><emphasis>frameset-borders</emphasis></term>
6975 Some web designers seem to assume that everyone in the world will view their
6976 web sites using the same browser brand and version, screen resolution etc,
6977 because only that assumption could explain why they'd use static frame sizes,
6978 yet prevent their frames from being resized by the user, should they be too
6979 small to show their whole content.
6982 This filter removes the related HTML code. It should only be applied to sites
6989 <term><emphasis>demoronizer</emphasis></term>
6992 Many Microsoft products that generate HTML use non-standard extensions (read:
6993 violations) of the ISO 8859-1 aka Latin-1 character set. This can cause those
6994 HTML documents to display with errors on standard-compliant platforms.
6997 This filter translates the MS-only characters into Latin-1 equivalents.
6998 It is not necessary when using MS products, and will cause corruption of
6999 all documents that use 8-bit character sets other than Latin-1. It's mostly
7000 worthwhile for Europeans on non-MS platforms, if weird garbage characters
7001 sometimes appear on some pages, or user agents that don't correct for this on
7004 My version of Mozilla (ancient) shows litte square boxes for quote
7005 characters, and apostrophes on moronized pages. So many pages have this, I
7006 can read them fine now. HB 08/27/06
7013 <term><emphasis>shockwave-flash</emphasis></term>
7016 A filter for shockwave haters. As the name suggests, this filter strips code
7017 out of web pages that is used to embed shockwave flash objects.
7025 <term><emphasis>quicktime-kioskmode</emphasis></term>
7028 Change HTML code that embeds Quicktime objects so that kioskmode, which
7029 prevents saving, is disabled.
7035 <term><emphasis>fun</emphasis></term>
7038 Text replacements for subversive browsing fun. Make fun of your favorite
7039 Monopolist or play buzzword bingo.
7045 <term><emphasis>crude-parental</emphasis></term>
7048 A demonstration-only filter that shows how <application>Privoxy</application>
7049 can be used to delete web content on a keyword basis.
7055 <term><emphasis>ie-exploits</emphasis></term>
7058 An experimental collection of text replacements to disable malicious HTML and JavaScript
7059 code that exploits known security holes in Internet Explorer.
7062 Presently, it only protects against Nimda and a cross-site scripting bug, and
7063 would need active maintenance to provide more substantial protection.
7069 <term><emphasis>site-specifics</emphasis></term>
7072 Some web sites have very specific problems, the cure for which doesn't apply
7073 anywhere else, or could even cause damage on other sites.
7076 This is a collection of such site-specific cures which should only be applied
7077 to the sites they were intended for, which is what the supplied
7078 <filename>default.action</filename> file does. Users shouldn't need to change
7079 anything regarding this filter.
7085 <term><emphasis>google</emphasis></term>
7088 A CSS based block for Google text ads. Also removes a width limitation
7089 and the toolbar advertisement.
7095 <term><emphasis>yahoo</emphasis></term>
7098 Another CSS based block, this time for Yahoo text ads. And removes
7099 a width limitation as well.
7105 <term><emphasis>msn</emphasis></term>
7108 Another CSS based block, this time for MSN text ads. And removes
7109 tracking URLs, as well as a width limitation.
7115 <term><emphasis>blogspot</emphasis></term>
7118 Cleans up some Blogspot blogs. Read the fine print before using this one!
7121 This filter also intentionally removes some navigation stuff and sets the
7122 page width to 100%. As a result, some rounded <quote>corners</quote> would
7123 appear to early or not at all and as fixing this would require a browser
7124 that understands background-size (CSS3), they are removed instead.
7130 <term><emphasis>xml-to-html</emphasis></term>
7133 Server-header filter to change the Content-Type from xml to html.
7139 <term><emphasis>html-to-xml</emphasis></term>
7142 Server-header filter to change the Content-Type from html to xml.
7148 <term><emphasis>no-ping</emphasis></term>
7151 Removes the non-standard <literal>ping</literal> attribute from
7152 anchor and area HTML tags.
7158 <term><emphasis>hide-tor-exit-notation</emphasis></term>
7161 Client-header filter to remove the <command>Tor</command> exit node notation
7162 found in Host and Referer headers.
7165 If &my-app; and <command>Tor</command> are chained and &my-app;
7166 is configured to use socks4a, one can use <quote>http://www.example.org.foobar.exit/</quote>
7167 to access the host <quote>www.example.org</quote> through the
7168 <command>Tor</command> exit node <quote>foobar</quote>.
7171 As the HTTP client isn't aware of this notation, it treats the
7172 whole string <quote>www.example.org.foobar.exit</quote> as host and uses it
7173 for the <quote>Host</quote> and <quote>Referer</quote> headers. From the
7174 server's point of view the resulting headers are invalid and can cause problems.
7177 An invalid <quote>Referer</quote> header can trigger <quote>hot-linking</quote>
7178 protections, an invalid <quote>Host</quote> header will make it impossible for
7179 the server to find the right vhost (several domains hosted on the same IP address).
7182 This client-header filter removes the <quote>foo.exit</quote> part in those headers
7183 to prevent the mentioned problems. Note that it only modifies
7184 the HTTP headers, it doesn't make it impossible for the server
7185 to detect your <command>Tor</command> exit node based on the IP address
7186 the request is coming from.
7193 <term><emphasis> </emphasis></term>
7207 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7211 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7213 <sect1 id="templates">
7214 <title>Privoxy's Template Files</title>
7216 All <application>Privoxy</application> built-in pages, i.e. error pages such as the
7217 <ulink url="http://show-the-404-error.page"><quote>404 - No Such Domain</quote>
7218 error page</ulink>, the <ulink
7219 url="http://ads.bannerserver.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor.html"><quote>BLOCKED</quote>
7221 and all pages of its <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">web-based
7222 user interface</ulink>, are generated from <emphasis>templates</emphasis>.
7223 (<application>Privoxy</application> must be running for the above links to work as
7228 These templates are stored in a subdirectory of the <link linkend="confdir">configuration
7229 directory</link> called <filename>templates</filename>. On Unixish platforms,
7231 <ulink url="file:///etc/privoxy/templates/"><filename>/etc/privoxy/templates/</filename></ulink>.
7235 The templates are basically normal HTML files, but with place-holders (called symbols
7236 or exports), which <application>Privoxy</application> fills at run time. It
7237 is possible to edit the templates with a normal text editor, should you want
7238 to customize them. (<emphasis>Not recommended for the casual
7239 user</emphasis>). Should you create your own custom templates, you should use
7240 the <filename>config</filename> setting <link linkend="templdir">templdir</link>
7241 to specify an alternate location, so your templates do not get overwritten
7245 Note that just like in configuration files, lines starting
7246 with <literal>#</literal> are ignored when the templates are filled in.
7250 The place-holders are of the form <literal>@name@</literal>, and you will
7251 find a list of available symbols, which vary from template to template,
7252 in the comments at the start of each file. Note that these comments are not
7253 always accurate, and that it's probably best to look at the existing HTML
7254 code to find out which symbols are supported and what they are filled in with.
7258 A special application of this substitution mechanism is to make whole
7259 blocks of HTML code disappear when a specific symbol is set. We use this
7260 for many purposes, one of them being to include the beta warning in all
7261 our user interface (CGI) pages when <application>Privoxy</application>
7262 is in an alpha or beta development stage:
7267 <!-- @if-unstable-start -->
7269 ... beta warning HTML code goes here ...
7271 <!-- if-unstable-end@ --></screen>
7275 If the "unstable" symbol is set, everything in between and including
7276 <literal>@if-unstable-start</literal> and <literal>if-unstable-end@</literal>
7277 will disappear, leaving nothing but an empty comment:
7281 <screen><!-- --></screen>
7285 There's also an if-then-else construct and an <literal>#include</literal>
7286 mechanism, but you'll sure find out if you are inclined to edit the
7291 All templates refer to a style located at
7292 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/send-stylesheet"><literal>http://config.privoxy.org/send-stylesheet</literal></ulink>.
7293 This is, of course, locally served by <application>Privoxy</application>
7294 and the source for it can be found and edited in the
7295 <filename>cgi-style.css</filename> template.
7300 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7304 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7306 <sect1 id="contact"><title>Contacting the Developers, Bug Reporting and Feature
7309 <!-- Include contacting.sgml boilerplate: -->
7311 <!-- end boilerplate -->
7315 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7318 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7319 <sect1 id="copyright"><title>Privoxy Copyright, License and History</title>
7321 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
7323 <!-- end copyright -->
7325 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7326 <sect2><title>License</title>
7327 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
7329 <!-- end copyright -->
7331 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7334 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7336 <sect2 id="history"><title>History</title>
7337 <!-- Include history.sgml: -->
7339 <!-- end history -->
7342 <sect2 id="authors"><title>Authors</title>
7343 <!-- Include p-authors.sgml: -->
7345 <!-- end authors -->
7350 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7353 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7354 <sect1 id="seealso"><title>See Also</title>
7355 <!-- Include seealso.sgml: -->
7357 <!-- end seealso -->
7362 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7363 <sect1 id="appendix"><title>Appendix</title>
7366 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7368 <title>Regular Expressions</title>
7370 <application>Privoxy</application> uses Perl-style <quote>regular
7371 expressions</quote> in its <link linkend="actions-file">actions
7372 files</link> and <link linkend="filter-file">filter file</link>,
7373 through the <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/">PCRE</ulink> and
7376 <ulink url="http://www.oesterhelt.org/pcrs/">PCRS</ulink> libraries.
7378 <application>PCRS</application> libraries.
7382 If you are reading this, you probably don't understand what <quote>regular
7383 expressions</quote> are, or what they can do. So this will be a very brief
7384 introduction only. A full explanation would require a <ulink
7385 url="http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/regex/">book</ulink> ;-)
7389 Regular expressions provide a language to describe patterns that can be
7390 run against strings of characters (letter, numbers, etc), to see if they
7391 match the string or not. The patterns are themselves (sometimes complex)
7392 strings of literal characters, combined with wild-cards, and other special
7393 characters, called meta-characters. The <quote>meta-characters</quote> have
7394 special meanings and are used to build complex patterns to be matched against.
7395 Perl Compatible Regular Expressions are an especially convenient
7396 <quote>dialect</quote> of the regular expression language.
7400 To make a simple analogy, we do something similar when we use wild-card
7401 characters when listing files with the <command>dir</command> command in DOS.
7402 <literal>*.*</literal> matches all filenames. The <quote>special</quote>
7403 character here is the asterisk which matches any and all characters. We can be
7404 more specific and use <literal>?</literal> to match just individual
7405 characters. So <quote>dir file?.text</quote> would match
7406 <quote>file1.txt</quote>, <quote>file2.txt</quote>, etc. We are pattern
7407 matching, using a similar technique to <quote>regular expressions</quote>!
7411 Regular expressions do essentially the same thing, but are much, much more
7412 powerful. There are many more <quote>special characters</quote> and ways of
7413 building complex patterns however. Let's look at a few of the common ones,
7414 and then some examples:
7419 <emphasis>.</emphasis> - Matches any single character, e.g. <quote>a</quote>,
7420 <quote>A</quote>, <quote>4</quote>, <quote>:</quote>, or <quote>@</quote>.
7422 </simplelist></para>
7426 <emphasis>?</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or ONE
7429 </simplelist></para>
7433 <emphasis>+</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ONE or MORE
7436 </simplelist></para>
7440 <emphasis>*</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or MORE
7443 </simplelist></para>
7447 <emphasis>\</emphasis> - The <quote>escape</quote> character denotes that
7448 the following character should be taken literally. This is used where one of the
7449 special characters (e.g. <quote>.</quote>) needs to be taken literally and
7450 not as a special meta-character. Example: <quote>example\.com</quote>, makes
7451 sure the period is recognized only as a period (and not expanded to its
7452 meta-character meaning of any single character).
7454 </simplelist></para>
7458 <emphasis>[ ]</emphasis> - Characters enclosed in brackets will be matched if
7459 any of the enclosed characters are encountered. For instance, <quote>[0-9]</quote>
7460 matches any numeric digit (zero through nine). As an example, we can combine
7461 this with <quote>+</quote> to match any digit one of more times: <quote>[0-9]+</quote>.
7463 </simplelist></para>
7467 <emphasis>( )</emphasis> - parentheses are used to group a sub-expression,
7468 or multiple sub-expressions.
7470 </simplelist></para>
7474 <emphasis>|</emphasis> - The <quote>bar</quote> character works like an
7475 <quote>or</quote> conditional statement. A match is successful if the
7476 sub-expression on either side of <quote>|</quote> matches. As an example:
7477 <quote>/(this|that) example/</quote> uses grouping and the bar character
7478 and would match either <quote>this example</quote> or <quote>that
7479 example</quote>, and nothing else.
7481 </simplelist></para>
7484 These are just some of the ones you are likely to use when matching URLs with
7485 <application>Privoxy</application>, and is a long way from a definitive
7486 list. This is enough to get us started with a few simple examples which may
7487 be more illuminating:
7491 <emphasis><literal>/.*/banners/.*</literal></emphasis> - A simple example
7492 that uses the common combination of <quote>.</quote> and <quote>*</quote> to
7493 denote any character, zero or more times. In other words, any string at all.
7494 So we start with a literal forward slash, then our regular expression pattern
7495 (<quote>.*</quote>) another literal forward slash, the string
7496 <quote>banners</quote>, another forward slash, and lastly another
7497 <quote>.*</quote>. We are building
7498 a directory path here. This will match any file with the path that has a
7499 directory named <quote>banners</quote> in it. The <quote>.*</quote> matches
7500 any characters, and this could conceivably be more forward slashes, so it
7501 might expand into a much longer looking path. For example, this could match:
7502 <quote>/eye/hate/spammers/banners/annoy_me_please.gif</quote>, or just
7503 <quote>/banners/annoying.html</quote>, or almost an infinite number of other
7504 possible combinations, just so it has <quote>banners</quote> in the path
7509 And now something a little more complex:
7513 <emphasis><literal>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))?/</literal></emphasis> -
7514 We have several literal forward slashes again (<quote>/</quote>), so we are
7515 building another expression that is a file path statement. We have another
7516 <quote>.*</quote>, so we are matching against any conceivable sub-path, just so
7517 it matches our expression. The only true literal that <emphasis>must
7518 match</emphasis> our pattern is <application>adv</application>, together with
7519 the forward slashes. What comes after the <quote>adv</quote> string is the
7524 Remember the <quote>?</quote> means the preceding expression (either a
7525 literal character or anything grouped with <quote>(...)</quote> in this case)
7526 can exist or not, since this means either zero or one match. So
7527 <quote>((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))</quote> is optional, as are the
7528 individual sub-expressions: <quote>(er)</quote>,
7529 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, and the <quote>s</quote>. The <quote>|</quote>
7530 means <quote>or</quote>. We have two of those. For instance,
7531 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, can expand to match either <quote>ing</quote>
7532 <emphasis>OR</emphasis> <quote>ements?</quote>. What is being done here, is an
7533 attempt at matching as many variations of <quote>advertisement</quote>, and
7534 similar, as possible. So this would expand to match just <quote>adv</quote>,
7535 or <quote>advert</quote>, or <quote>adverts</quote>, or
7536 <quote>advertising</quote>, or <quote>advertisement</quote>, or
7537 <quote>advertisements</quote>. You get the idea. But it would not match
7538 <quote>advertizements</quote> (with a <quote>z</quote>). We could fix that by
7539 changing our regular expression to:
7540 <quote>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|erti(s|z)(ing|ements?))?/</quote>, which would then match
7545 <emphasis><literal>/.*/advert[0-9]+\.(gif|jpe?g)</literal></emphasis> - Again
7546 another path statement with forward slashes. Anything in the square brackets
7547 <quote>[ ]</quote> can be matched. This is using <quote>0-9</quote> as a
7548 shorthand expression to mean any digit one through nine. It is the same as
7549 saying <quote>0123456789</quote>. So any digit matches. The <quote>+</quote>
7550 means one or more of the preceding expression must be included. The preceding
7551 expression here is what is in the square brackets -- in this case, any digit
7552 one through nine. Then, at the end, we have a grouping: <quote>(gif|jpe?g)</quote>.
7553 This includes a <quote>|</quote>, so this needs to match the expression on
7554 either side of that bar character also. A simple <quote>gif</quote> on one side, and the other
7555 side will in turn match either <quote>jpeg</quote> or <quote>jpg</quote>,
7556 since the <quote>?</quote> means the letter <quote>e</quote> is optional and
7557 can be matched once or not at all. So we are building an expression here to
7558 match image GIF or JPEG type image file. It must include the literal
7559 string <quote>advert</quote>, then one or more digits, and a <quote>.</quote>
7560 (which is now a literal, and not a special character, since it is escaped
7561 with <quote>\</quote>), and lastly either <quote>gif</quote>, or
7562 <quote>jpeg</quote>, or <quote>jpg</quote>. Some possible matches would
7563 include: <quote>//advert1.jpg</quote>,
7564 <quote>/nasty/ads/advert1234.gif</quote>,
7565 <quote>/banners/from/hell/advert99.jpg</quote>. It would not match
7566 <quote>advert1.gif</quote> (no leading slash), or
7567 <quote>/adverts232.jpg</quote> (the expression does not include an
7568 <quote>s</quote>), or <quote>/advert1.jsp</quote> (<quote>jsp</quote> is not
7569 in the expression anywhere).
7573 We are barely scratching the surface of regular expressions here so that you
7574 can understand the default <application>Privoxy</application>
7575 configuration files, and maybe use this knowledge to customize your own
7576 installation. There is much, much more that can be done with regular
7577 expressions. Now that you know enough to get started, you can learn more on
7582 More reading on Perl Compatible Regular expressions:
7583 <ulink url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html">http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html</ulink>
7587 For information on regular expression based substitutions and their applications
7588 in filters, please see the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file tutorial</link>
7593 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7596 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7598 <title>Privoxy's Internal Pages</title>
7601 Since <application>Privoxy</application> proxies each requested
7602 web page, it is easy for <application>Privoxy</application> to
7603 trap certain special URLs. In this way, we can talk directly to
7604 <application>Privoxy</application>, and see how it is
7605 configured, see how our rules are being applied, change these
7606 rules and other configuration options, and even turn
7607 <application>Privoxy's</application> filtering off, all with
7613 The URLs listed below are the special ones that allow direct access
7614 to <application>Privoxy</application>. Of course,
7615 <application>Privoxy</application> must be running to access these. If
7616 not, you will get a friendly error message. Internet access is not
7629 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
7633 There is a shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink> (But it
7634 doesn't provide a fall-back to a real page, in case the request is not
7635 sent through <application>Privoxy</application>)
7641 Show information about the current configuration, including viewing and
7642 editing of actions files:
7646 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
7653 Show the source code version numbers:
7657 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-version">http://config.privoxy.org/show-version</ulink>
7664 Show the browser's request headers:
7668 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request">http://config.privoxy.org/show-request</ulink>
7675 Show which actions apply to a URL and why:
7679 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
7686 Toggle Privoxy on or off. This feature can be turned off/on in the main
7687 <filename>config</filename> file. When toggled <quote>off</quote>, <quote>Privoxy</quote>
7688 continues to run, but only as a pass-through proxy, with no actions taking
7693 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</ulink>
7697 Short cuts. Turn off, then on:
7701 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable</ulink>
7706 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable</ulink>
7715 These may be bookmarked for quick reference. See next.
7719 <sect3 id="bookmarklets">
7720 <title>Bookmarklets</title>
7722 Below are some <quote>bookmarklets</quote> to allow you to easily access a
7723 <quote>mini</quote> version of some of <application>Privoxy's</application>
7724 special pages. They are designed for MS Internet Explorer, but should work
7725 equally well in Netscape, Mozilla, and other browsers which support
7726 JavaScript. They are designed to run directly from your bookmarks - not by
7727 clicking the links below (although that should work for testing).
7730 To save them, right-click the link and choose <quote>Add to Favorites</quote>
7731 (IE) or <quote>Add Bookmark</quote> (Netscape). You will get a warning that
7732 the bookmark <quote>may not be safe</quote> - just click OK. Then you can run the
7733 Bookmarklet directly from your favorites/bookmarks. For even faster access,
7734 you can put them on the <quote>Links</quote> bar (IE) or the <quote>Personal
7735 Toolbar</quote> (Netscape), and run them with a single click.
7744 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>
7751 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>
7758 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)
7765 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>
7771 <ulink url="javascript:w=Math.floor(screen.width/2);h=Math.floor(screen.height*0.9);void(window.open('http://www.privoxy.org/actions/index.php?url='+escape(location.href),'Feedback','screenx='+w+',width='+w+',height='+h+',scrollbars=yes,toolbar=no,location=no,directories=no,status=no,menubar=no,copyhistory=no').focus());">Privoxy - Submit Actions File Feedback</ulink>
7777 <ulink url="javascript:void(window.open('http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info?url='+escape(location.href),'Why').focus());">Privoxy - Why?</ulink>
7784 Credit: The site which gave us the general idea for these bookmarklets is
7785 <ulink url="http://www.bookmarklets.com/">www.bookmarklets.com</ulink>. They
7786 have more information about bookmarklets.
7795 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7797 <title>Chain of Events</title>
7799 Let's take a quick look at how some of <application>Privoxy's</application>
7800 core features are triggered, and the ensuing sequence of events when a web
7801 page is requested by your browser:
7808 First, your web browser requests a web page. The browser knows to send
7809 the request to <application>Privoxy</application>, which will in turn,
7810 relay the request to the remote web server after passing the following
7816 <application>Privoxy</application> traps any request for its own internal CGI
7817 pages (e.g <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>) and sends the CGI page back to the browser.
7822 Next, <application>Privoxy</application> checks to see if the URL
7824 linkend="BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></link> patterns. If
7825 so, the URL is then blocked, and the remote web server will not be contacted.
7826 <link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></link>
7828 <link linkend="HANDLE-AS-EMPTY-DOCUMENT"><quote>+handle-as-empty-document</quote></link>
7829 are then checked, and if there is no match, an
7830 HTML <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page is sent back to the browser. Otherwise, if
7831 it does match, an image is returned for the former, and an empty text
7832 document for the latter. The type of image would depend on the setting of
7833 <link linkend="SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"><quote>+set-image-blocker</quote></link>
7834 (blank, checkerboard pattern, or an HTTP redirect to an image elsewhere).
7839 Untrusted URLs are blocked. If URLs are being added to the
7840 <filename>trust</filename> file, then that is done.
7845 If the URL pattern matches the <link
7846 linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS"><quote>+fast-redirects</quote></link> action,
7847 it is then processed. Unwanted parts of the requested URL are stripped.
7852 Now the rest of the client browser's request headers are processed. If any
7853 of these match any of the relevant actions (e.g. <link
7854 linkend="HIDE-USER-AGENT"><quote>+hide-user-agent</quote></link>,
7855 etc.), headers are suppressed or forged as determined by these actions and
7861 Now the web server starts sending its response back (i.e. typically a web
7867 First, the server headers are read and processed to determine, among other
7868 things, the MIME type (document type) and encoding. The headers are then
7869 filtered as determined by the
7870 <link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES"><quote>+crunch-incoming-cookies</quote></link>,
7871 <link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"><quote>+session-cookies-only</quote></link>,
7872 and <link linkend="DOWNGRADE-HTTP-VERSION"><quote>+downgrade-http-version</quote></link>
7878 If any <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> action
7880 linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS"><quote>+deanimate-gifs</quote></link>
7881 action applies (and the document type fits the action), the rest of the page is
7882 read into memory (up to a configurable limit). Then the filter rules (from
7883 <filename>default.filter</filename> and any other filter files) are
7884 processed against the buffered content. Filters are applied in the order
7885 they are specified in one of the filter files. Animated GIFs, if present,
7886 are reduced to either the first or last frame, depending on the action
7887 setting.The entire page, which is now filtered, is then sent by
7888 <application>Privoxy</application> back to your browser.
7891 If neither a <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> action
7893 linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS"><quote>+deanimate-gifs</quote></link>
7894 matches, then <application>Privoxy</application> passes the raw data through
7895 to the client browser as it becomes available.
7900 As the browser receives the now (possibly filtered) page content, it
7901 reads and then requests any URLs that may be embedded within the page
7902 source, e.g. ad images, stylesheets, JavaScript, other HTML documents (e.g.
7903 frames), sounds, etc. For each of these objects, the browser issues a
7904 separate request (this is easily viewable in <application>Privoxy's</application>
7905 logs). And each such request is in turn processed just as above. Note that a
7906 complex web page will have many, many such embedded URLs. If these
7907 secondary requests are to a different server, then quite possibly a very
7908 differing set of actions is triggered.
7915 NOTE: This is somewhat of a simplistic overview of what happens with each URL
7916 request. For the sake of brevity and simplicity, we have focused on
7917 <application>Privoxy's</application> core features only.
7923 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7924 <sect2 id="actionsanat">
7925 <title>Troubleshooting: Anatomy of an Action</title>
7928 The way <application>Privoxy</application> applies
7929 <link linkend="ACTIONS">actions</link> and <link linkend="FILTER">filters</link>
7930 to any given URL can be complex, and not always so
7931 easy to understand what is happening. And sometimes we need to be able to
7932 <emphasis>see</emphasis> just what <application>Privoxy</application> is
7933 doing. Especially, if something <application>Privoxy</application> is doing
7934 is causing us a problem inadvertently. It can be a little daunting to look at
7935 the actions and filters files themselves, since they tend to be filled with
7936 <link linkend="regex">regular expressions</link> whose consequences are not
7941 One quick test to see if <application>Privoxy</application> is causing a problem
7942 or not, is to disable it temporarily. This should be the first troubleshooting
7943 step. See <link linkend="bookmarklets">the Bookmarklets</link> section on a quick
7944 and easy way to do this (be sure to flush caches afterward!). Looking at the
7945 logs is a good idea too. (Note that both the toggle feature and logging are
7946 enabled via <filename>config</filename> file settings, and may need to be
7947 turned <quote>on</quote>.)
7950 Another easy troubleshooting step to try is if you have done any
7951 customization of your installation, revert back to the installed
7952 defaults and see if that helps. There are times the developers get complaints
7953 about one thing or another, and the problem is more related to a customized
7954 configuration issue.
7958 <application>Privoxy</application> also provides the
7959 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
7960 page that can show us very specifically how <application>actions</application>
7961 are being applied to any given URL. This is a big help for troubleshooting.
7965 First, enter one URL (or partial URL) at the prompt, and then
7966 <application>Privoxy</application> will tell us
7967 how the current configuration will handle it. This will not
7968 help with filtering effects (i.e. the <link
7969 linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> action) from
7970 one of the filter files since this is handled very
7971 differently and not so easy to trap! It also will not tell you about any other
7972 URLs that may be embedded within the URL you are testing. For instance, images
7973 such as ads are expressed as URLs within the raw page source of HTML pages. So
7974 you will only get info for the actual URL that is pasted into the prompt area
7975 -- not any sub-URLs. If you want to know about embedded URLs like ads, you
7976 will have to dig those out of the HTML source. Use your browser's <quote>View
7977 Page Source</quote> option for this. Or right click on the ad, and grab the
7982 Let's try an example, <ulink url="http://google.com">google.com</ulink>,
7983 and look at it one section at a time in a sample configuration (your real
7984 configuration may vary):
7989 Matches for http://www.google.com:
7991 In file: default.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
7993 {+change-x-forwarded-for{block}
7994 +deanimate-gifs {last}
7995 +fast-redirects {check-decoded-url}
7996 +filter {refresh-tags}
7997 +filter {img-reorder}
7998 +filter {banners-by-size}
8000 +filter {jumping-windows}
8001 +filter {ie-exploits}
8002 +hide-from-header {block}
8003 +hide-referrer {forge}
8004 +session-cookies-only
8005 +set-image-blocker {pattern}
8008 { -session-cookies-only }
8014 In file: user.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
8015 (no matches in this file)
8020 This is telling us how we have defined our
8021 <link linkend="ACTIONS"><quote>actions</quote></link>, and
8022 which ones match for our test case, <quote>google.com</quote>.
8023 Displayed is all the actions that are available to us. Remember,
8024 the <literal>+</literal> sign denotes <quote>on</quote>. <literal>-</literal>
8025 denotes <quote>off</quote>. So some are <quote>on</quote> here, but many
8026 are <quote>off</quote>. Each example we try may provide a slightly different
8027 end result, depending on our configuration directives.
8031 is for our <filename>default.action</filename> file. The large, multi-line
8032 listing, is how the actions are set to match for all URLs, i.e. our default
8033 settings. If you look at your <quote>actions</quote> file, this would be the
8034 section just below the <quote>aliases</quote> section near the top. This
8035 will apply to all URLs as signified by the single forward slash at the end
8036 of the listing -- <quote> / </quote>.
8040 But we have defined additional actions that would be exceptions to these general
8041 rules, and then we list specific URLs (or patterns) that these exceptions
8042 would apply to. Last match wins. Just below this then are two explicit
8043 matches for <quote>.google.com</quote>. The first is negating our previous
8044 cookie setting, which was for <link
8045 linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"><quote>+session-cookies-only</quote></link>
8046 (i.e. not persistent). So we will allow persistent cookies for google, at
8047 least that is how it is in this example. The second turns
8048 <emphasis>off</emphasis> any <link
8049 linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS"><quote>+fast-redirects</quote></link>
8050 action, allowing this to take place unmolested. Note that there is a leading
8051 dot here -- <quote>.google.com</quote>. This will match any hosts and
8052 sub-domains, in the google.com domain also, such as
8053 <quote>www.google.com</quote> or <quote>mail.google.com</quote>. But it would not
8054 match <quote>www.google.de</quote>! So, apparently, we have these two actions
8055 defined as exceptions to the general rules at the top somewhere in the lower
8056 part of our <filename>default.action</filename> file, and
8057 <quote>google.com</quote> is referenced somewhere in these latter sections.
8061 Then, for our <filename>user.action</filename> file, we again have no hits.
8062 So there is nothing google-specific that we might have added to our own, local
8063 configuration. If there was, those actions would over-rule any actions from
8064 previously processed files, such as <filename>default.action</filename>.
8065 <filename>user.action</filename> typically has the last word. This is the
8066 best place to put hard and fast exceptions,
8070 And finally we pull it all together in the bottom section and summarize how
8071 <application>Privoxy</application> is applying all its <quote>actions</quote>
8072 to <quote>google.com</quote>:
8083 +change-x-forwarded-for{block}
8084 -client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation}
8085 -content-type-overwrite
8086 -crunch-client-header
8087 -crunch-if-none-match
8088 -crunch-incoming-cookies
8089 -crunch-outgoing-cookies
8090 -crunch-server-header
8091 +deanimate-gifs {last}
8092 -downgrade-http-version
8095 -filter {content-cookies}
8096 -filter {all-popups}
8097 -filter {banners-by-link}
8098 -filter {tiny-textforms}
8099 -filter {frameset-borders}
8100 -filter {demoronizer}
8101 -filter {shockwave-flash}
8102 -filter {quicktime-kioskmode}
8104 -filter {crude-parental}
8105 -filter {site-specifics}
8106 -filter {js-annoyances}
8107 -filter {html-annoyances}
8108 +filter {refresh-tags}
8109 -filter {unsolicited-popups}
8110 +filter {img-reorder}
8111 +filter {banners-by-size}
8113 +filter {jumping-windows}
8114 +filter {ie-exploits}
8121 -handle-as-empty-document
8123 -hide-accept-language
8124 -hide-content-disposition
8125 +hide-from-header {block}
8126 -hide-if-modified-since
8127 +hide-referrer {forge}
8130 -overwrite-last-modified
8131 -prevent-compression
8133 -server-header-filter{xml-to-html}
8134 -server-header-filter{html-to-xml}
8135 -session-cookies-only
8136 +set-image-blocker {pattern} </screen>
8140 Notice the only difference here to the previous listing, is to
8141 <quote>fast-redirects</quote> and <quote>session-cookies-only</quote>,
8142 which are activated specifically for this site in our configuration,
8143 and thus show in the <quote>Final Results</quote>.
8147 Now another example, <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>:
8153 { +block{Domains starts with "ad"} }
8156 { +block{Domain contains "ad"} }
8159 { +block{Doubleclick banner server} +handle-as-image }
8160 .[a-vx-z]*.doubleclick.net
8165 We'll just show the interesting part here - the explicit matches. It is
8166 matched three different times. Two <quote>+block{}</quote> sections,
8167 and a <quote>+block{} +handle-as-image</quote>,
8168 which is the expanded form of one of our aliases that had been defined as:
8169 <quote>+block-as-image</quote>. (<link
8170 linkend="ALIASES"><quote>Aliases</quote></link> are defined in
8171 the first section of the actions file and typically used to combine more
8176 Any one of these would have done the trick and blocked this as an unwanted
8177 image. This is unnecessarily redundant since the last case effectively
8178 would also cover the first. No point in taking chances with these guys
8179 though ;-) Note that if you want an ad or obnoxious
8180 URL to be invisible, it should be defined as <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>
8181 is done here -- as both a <link
8182 linkend="BLOCK"><quote>+block{}</quote></link>
8183 <emphasis>and</emphasis> an
8184 <link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></link>.
8185 The custom alias <quote><literal>+block-as-image</literal></quote> just
8186 simplifies the process and make it more readable.
8190 One last example. Let's try <quote>http://www.example.net/adsl/HOWTO/</quote>.
8191 This one is giving us problems. We are getting a blank page. Hmmm ...
8197 Matches for http://www.example.net/adsl/HOWTO/:
8199 In file: default.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
8203 +change-x-forwarded-for{block}
8204 -client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation}
8205 -content-type-overwrite
8206 -crunch-client-header
8207 -crunch-if-none-match
8208 -crunch-incoming-cookies
8209 -crunch-outgoing-cookies
8210 -crunch-server-header
8212 -downgrade-http-version
8213 +fast-redirects {check-decoded-url}
8215 -filter {content-cookies}
8216 -filter {all-popups}
8217 -filter {banners-by-link}
8218 -filter {tiny-textforms}
8219 -filter {frameset-borders}
8220 -filter {demoronizer}
8221 -filter {shockwave-flash}
8222 -filter {quicktime-kioskmode}
8224 -filter {crude-parental}
8225 -filter {site-specifics}
8226 -filter {js-annoyances}
8227 -filter {html-annoyances}
8228 +filter {refresh-tags}
8229 -filter {unsolicited-popups}
8230 +filter {img-reorder}
8231 +filter {banners-by-size}
8233 +filter {jumping-windows}
8234 +filter {ie-exploits}
8241 -handle-as-empty-document
8243 -hide-accept-language
8244 -hide-content-disposition
8245 +hide-from-header{block}
8246 +hide-referer{forge}
8248 -overwrite-last-modified
8249 +prevent-compression
8251 -server-header-filter{xml-to-html}
8252 -server-header-filter{html-to-xml}
8253 +session-cookies-only
8254 +set-image-blocker{blank} }
8257 { +block{Path contains "ads".} +handle-as-image }
8263 Ooops, the <quote>/adsl/</quote> is matching <quote>/ads</quote> in our
8264 configuration! But we did not want this at all! Now we see why we get the
8265 blank page. It is actually triggering two different actions here, and
8266 the effects are aggregated so that the URL is blocked, and &my-app; is told
8267 to treat the block as if it were an image. But this is, of course, all wrong.
8268 We could now add a new action below this (or better in our own
8269 <filename>user.action</filename> file) that explicitly
8270 <emphasis>un</emphasis> blocks (
8271 <link linkend="BLOCK"><quote>{-block}</quote></link>) paths with
8272 <quote>adsl</quote> in them (remember, last match in the configuration
8273 wins). There are various ways to handle such exceptions. Example:
8285 Now the page displays ;-)
8286 Remember to flush your browser's caches when making these kinds of changes to
8287 your configuration to insure that you get a freshly delivered page! Or, try
8288 using <literal>Shift+Reload</literal>.
8292 But now what about a situation where we get no explicit matches like
8299 { +block{Path starts with "ads".} +handle-as-image }
8305 That actually was very helpful and pointed us quickly to where the problem
8306 was. If you don't get this kind of match, then it means one of the default
8307 rules in the first section of <filename>default.action</filename> is causing
8308 the problem. This would require some guesswork, and maybe a little trial and
8309 error to isolate the offending rule. One likely cause would be one of the
8310 <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> actions.
8311 These tend to be harder to troubleshoot.
8312 Try adding the URL for the site to one of aliases that turn off
8313 <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link>:
8321 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
8329 <quote><literal>{ shop }</literal></quote> is an <quote>alias</quote> that expands to
8330 <quote><literal>{ -filter -session-cookies-only }</literal></quote>.
8331 Or you could do your own exception to negate filtering:
8339 # Disable ALL filter actions for sites in this section
8347 This would turn off all filtering for these sites. This is best
8348 put in <filename>user.action</filename>, for local site
8349 exceptions. Note that when a simple domain pattern is used by itself (without
8350 the subsequent path portion), all sub-pages within that domain are included
8351 automatically in the scope of the action.
8355 Images that are inexplicably being blocked, may well be hitting the
8356 <link linkend="FILTER-BANNERS-BY-SIZE"><quote>+filter{banners-by-size}</quote></link>
8358 that images of certain sizes are ad banners (works well
8359 <emphasis>most of the time</emphasis> since these tend to be standardized).
8363 <quote><literal>{ fragile }</literal></quote> is an alias that disables most
8364 actions that are the most likely to cause trouble. This can be used as a
8365 last resort for problem sites.
8371 # Handle with care: easy to break
8373 mybank.example.com</screen>
8378 <emphasis>Remember to flush caches!</emphasis> Note that the
8379 <literal>mail.google</literal> reference lacks the TLD portion (e.g.
8380 <quote>.com</quote>). This will effectively match any TLD with
8381 <literal>google</literal> in it, such as <literal>mail.google.de.</literal>,
8385 If this still does not work, you will have to go through the remaining
8386 actions one by one to find which one(s) is causing the problem.
8395 This program is free software; you can redistribute it
8396 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
8397 Public License as published by the Free Software
8398 Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at
8399 your option) any later version.
8401 This program is distributed in the hope that it will
8402 be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the
8403 implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
8404 PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public
8405 License for more details.
8407 The GNU General Public License should be included with
8408 this file. If not, you can view it at
8409 http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
8410 or write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
8411 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301,
8414 $Log: user-manual.sgml,v $
8415 Revision 2.94 2009/02/14 11:50:31 fabiankeil
8416 Some indentation fixes.
8418 Revision 2.93 2009/02/14 10:14:42 fabiankeil
8419 Mention match-all.action in the action file descriptions.
8421 Revision 2.92 2009/02/12 16:08:26 fabiankeil
8422 Declare the code stable.
8424 Revision 2.91 2009/01/13 16:50:35 fabiankeil
8425 The standard.action file is gone.
8427 Revision 2.90 2008/09/26 16:53:09 fabiankeil
8428 Update "What's new" section.
8430 Revision 2.89 2008/09/21 15:38:56 fabiankeil
8431 Fix Portage tree sync instructions in Gentoo section.
8432 Anonymously reported at ijbswa-developers@.
8434 Revision 2.88 2008/09/21 14:42:52 fabiankeil
8435 Add documentation for change-x-forwarded-for{},
8436 remove documentation for hide-forwarded-for-headers.
8438 Revision 2.87 2008/08/30 15:37:35 fabiankeil
8441 Revision 2.86 2008/08/16 10:12:23 fabiankeil
8442 Merge two sentences and move the URL to the end of the item.
8444 Revision 2.85 2008/08/16 10:04:59 fabiankeil
8445 Some more syntax fixes. This version actually builds.
8447 Revision 2.84 2008/08/16 09:42:45 fabiankeil
8448 Turns out building docs works better if the syntax is valid.
8450 Revision 2.83 2008/08/16 09:32:02 fabiankeil
8451 Mention changes since 3.0.9 beta.
8453 Revision 2.82 2008/08/16 09:00:52 fabiankeil
8454 Fix example URL pattern (once more with feeling).
8456 Revision 2.81 2008/08/16 08:51:28 fabiankeil
8457 Update version-related entities.
8459 Revision 2.80 2008/07/18 16:54:30 fabiankeil
8460 Remove erroneous whitespace in documentation link.
8461 Reported by John Chronister in #2021611.
8463 Revision 2.79 2008/06/27 18:00:53 markm68k
8464 remove outdated startup information for mac os x
8466 Revision 2.78 2008/06/21 17:03:03 fabiankeil
8469 Revision 2.77 2008/06/14 13:45:22 fabiankeil
8470 Re-add a colon I unintentionally removed a few revisions ago.
8472 Revision 2.76 2008/06/14 13:21:28 fabiankeil
8473 Prepare for the upcoming 3.0.9 beta release.
8475 Revision 2.75 2008/06/13 16:06:48 fabiankeil
8476 Update the "What's New in this Release" section with
8477 the ChangeLog entries changelog2doc.pl could handle.
8479 Revision 2.74 2008/05/26 15:55:46 fabiankeil
8480 - Update "default profiles" table.
8481 - Add some more pcrs redirect examples and note that
8482 enabling debug 128 helps to get redirects working.
8484 Revision 2.73 2008/05/23 14:43:18 fabiankeil
8485 Remove previously out-commented block that caused syntax problems.
8487 Revision 2.72 2008/05/12 10:26:14 fabiankeil
8488 Synchronize content filter descriptions with the ones in default.filter.
8490 Revision 2.71 2008/04/10 17:37:16 fabiankeil
8491 Actually we use "modern" POSIX 1003.2 regular
8492 expressions in path patterns, not PCRE.
8494 Revision 2.70 2008/04/10 15:59:12 fabiankeil
8495 Add another section to the client-header-tagger example that shows
8496 how to actually change the action settings once the tag is created.
8498 Revision 2.69 2008/03/29 12:14:25 fabiankeil
8499 Remove send-wafer and send-vanilla-wafer actions.
8501 Revision 2.68 2008/03/28 15:13:43 fabiankeil
8502 Remove inspect-jpegs action.
8504 Revision 2.67 2008/03/27 18:31:21 fabiankeil
8505 Remove kill-popups action.
8507 Revision 2.66 2008/03/06 16:33:47 fabiankeil
8508 If limit-connect isn't used, don't limit CONNECT requests to port 443.
8510 Revision 2.65 2008/03/04 18:30:40 fabiankeil
8511 Remove the treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks action. We now
8512 use the "blocked" page for forbidden CONNECT requests by default.
8514 Revision 2.64 2008/03/01 14:10:28 fabiankeil
8515 Use new block syntax. Still needs some polishing.
8517 Revision 2.63 2008/02/22 05:50:37 markm68k
8520 Revision 2.62 2008/02/11 11:52:23 hal9
8521 Fix entity ... s/&/&
8523 Revision 2.61 2008/02/11 03:41:47 markm68k
8524 more updates for mac os x
8526 Revision 2.60 2008/02/11 03:40:25 markm68k
8527 more updates for mac os x
8529 Revision 2.59 2008/02/11 00:52:34 markm68k
8530 reflect new changes for mac os x
8532 Revision 2.58 2008/02/03 21:37:40 hal9
8533 Apply patch from Mark: s/OSX/OS X/
8535 Revision 2.57 2008/02/03 19:10:14 fabiankeil
8536 Mention forward-socks5.
8538 Revision 2.56 2008/01/31 19:11:35 fabiankeil
8539 Let the +client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation} example apply
8540 to all requests as "tainted" Referers aren't limited to exit TLDs.
8542 Revision 2.55 2008/01/19 21:26:37 hal9
8543 Add IE7 to configuration section per Gerry.
8545 Revision 2.54 2008/01/19 17:52:39 hal9
8546 Re-commit to fix various minor issues for new release.
8548 Revision 2.53 2008/01/19 15:03:05 hal9
8549 Doc sources tagged for 3.0.8 release.
8551 Revision 2.52 2008/01/17 01:49:51 hal9
8552 Change copyright notice for docs s/2007/2008/. All these will be rebuilt soon
8555 Revision 2.51 2007/12/23 16:48:24 fabiankeil
8556 Use more precise example descriptions for the mysterious domain patterns.
8558 Revision 2.50 2007/12/08 12:44:36 fabiankeil
8559 - Remove already commented out pre-3.0.7 changes.
8560 - Update the "new log defaults" paragraph.
8562 Revision 2.49 2007/12/06 18:21:55 fabiankeil
8563 Update hide-forwarded-for-headers description.
8565 Revision 2.48 2007/11/24 19:07:17 fabiankeil
8566 - Mention request rewriting.
8567 - Enable the conditional-forge paragraph.
8570 Revision 2.47 2007/11/18 14:59:47 fabiankeil
8571 A few "Note to Upgraders" updates.
8573 Revision 2.46 2007/11/17 17:24:44 fabiankeil
8574 - Use new action defaults.
8575 - Minor fixes and rewordings.
8577 Revision 2.45 2007/11/16 11:48:46 hal9
8578 Fix one typo, and add a couple of small refinements.
8580 Revision 2.44 2007/11/15 03:30:20 hal9
8581 Results of spell check.
8583 Revision 2.43 2007/11/14 18:45:39 fabiankeil
8584 - Mention some more contributors in the "New in this Release" list.
8587 Revision 2.42 2007/11/12 03:32:40 hal9
8588 Updates for "What's New" and "Notes to Upgraders". Various other changes in
8589 preparation for new release. User Manual is almost ready.
8591 Revision 2.41 2007/11/11 16:32:11 hal9
8592 This is primarily syncing What's New and Note to Upgraders sections with the many
8593 new features and changes (gleaned from memory but mostly from ChangeLog).
8595 Revision 2.40 2007/11/10 17:10:59 fabiankeil
8596 In the first third of the file, mention several times that
8597 the action editor is disabled by default in 3.0.7 beta and later.
8599 Revision 2.39 2007/11/05 02:34:49 hal9
8600 Various changes in preparation for the upcoming release. Much yet to be done.
8602 Revision 2.38 2007/09/22 16:01:42 fabiankeil
8603 Update embedded show-url-info output.
8605 Revision 2.37 2007/08/27 16:09:55 fabiankeil
8606 Fix pre-chroot-nslookup description which I failed to
8607 copy and paste properly. Reported by Stephen Gildea.
8609 Revision 2.36 2007/08/26 16:47:14 fabiankeil
8610 Add Stephen Gildea's pre-chroot-nslookup patch [#1276666],
8611 extensive comments moved to user manual.
8613 Revision 2.35 2007/08/26 14:59:49 fabiankeil
8614 Minor rewordings and fixes.
8616 Revision 2.34 2007/08/05 15:19:50 fabiankeil
8617 - Don't claim HTTP/1.1 compliance.
8618 - Use $ in some of the path pattern examples.
8619 - Use a hide-user-agent example argument without
8620 leading and trailing space.
8621 - Make it clear that the cookie actions work with
8623 - Rephrase the inspect-jpegs text to underline
8624 that it's only meant to protect against a single
8627 Revision 2.33 2007/07/27 10:57:35 hal9
8628 Add references for user-agent strings for hide-user-agenet
8630 Revision 2.32 2007/06/07 12:36:22 fabiankeil
8631 Apply Roland's 29_usermanual.dpatch to fix a bunch
8632 of syntax errors I collected over the last months.
8634 Revision 2.31 2007/06/02 14:01:37 fabiankeil
8635 Start to document forward-override{}.
8637 Revision 2.30 2007/04/25 15:10:36 fabiankeil
8638 - Describe installation for FreeBSD.
8639 - Start to document taggers and tag patterns.
8640 - Don't confuse devils and daemons.
8642 Revision 2.29 2007/04/05 11:47:51 fabiankeil
8643 Some updates regarding header filtering,
8644 handling of compressed content and redirect's
8645 support for pcrs commands.
8647 Revision 2.28 2006/12/10 23:42:48 hal9
8648 Fix various typos reported by Adam P. Thanks.
8650 Revision 2.27 2006/11/14 01:57:47 hal9
8651 Dump all docs prior to 3.0.6 release. Various minor changes to faq and user
8654 Revision 2.26 2006/10/24 11:16:44 hal9
8657 Revision 2.25 2006/10/18 10:50:33 hal9
8658 Add note that since filters are off in Cautious, compression is ON. Turn off
8659 compression to make filters work on all sites.
8661 Revision 2.24 2006/10/03 11:13:54 hal9
8662 More references to the new filters. Include html this time around.
8664 Revision 2.23 2006/10/02 22:43:53 hal9
8665 Contains new filter definitions from Fabian, and few other miscellaneous
8668 Revision 2.22 2006/09/22 01:27:55 hal9
8669 Final commit of probably various minor changes here and there. Unless
8670 something changes this should be ready for pending release.
8672 Revision 2.21 2006/09/20 03:21:36 david__schmidt
8673 Just the tiniest tweak. Wafer thin!
8675 Revision 2.20 2006/09/10 14:53:54 hal9
8676 Results of spell check. User manual has some updates to standard.actions file
8679 Revision 2.19 2006/09/08 12:19:02 fabiankeil
8680 Adjust hide-if-modified-since example values
8681 to reflect the recent changes.
8683 Revision 2.18 2006/09/08 02:38:57 hal9
8685 -Fix a number of broken links.
8686 -Migrate the new Windows service command line options, and reference as
8688 -Rebuild so that can be used with the new "user-manual" config capabilities.
8691 Revision 2.17 2006/09/05 13:25:12 david__schmidt
8692 Add Windows service invocation stuff (duplicated) in FAQ and in user manual under Windows startup. One probably ought to reference the other.
8694 Revision 2.16 2006/09/02 12:49:37 hal9
8695 Various small updates for new actions, filterfiles, etc.
8697 Revision 2.15 2006/08/30 11:15:22 hal9
8698 More work on the new actions, especially filter-*-headers, and What's New
8699 section. User Manual is close to final form for 3.0.4 release. Some tinkering
8700 and proof reading left to do.
8702 Revision 2.14 2006/08/29 10:59:36 hal9
8703 Add a "Whats New in this release" Section. Further work on multiple filter
8704 files, and assorted other minor changes.
8706 Revision 2.13 2006/08/22 11:04:59 hal9
8707 Silence warnings and errors. This should build now. New filters were only
8708 stubbed in. More to be done.
8710 Revision 2.12 2006/08/14 08:40:39 fabiankeil
8711 Documented new actions that were part of
8712 the "minor Privoxy improvements".
8714 Revision 2.11 2006/07/18 14:48:51 david__schmidt
8715 Reorganizing the repository: swapping out what was HEAD (the old 3.1 branch)
8716 with what was really the latest development (the v_3_0_branch branch)
8718 Revision 1.123.2.43 2005/05/23 09:59:10 hal9
8721 Revision 1.123.2.42 2004/12/04 14:39:57 hal9
8722 Fix two minor typos per bug SF report.
8724 Revision 1.123.2.41 2004/03/23 12:58:42 oes
8727 Revision 1.123.2.40 2004/02/27 12:48:49 hal9
8728 Add comment re: redirecting to local file system for set-image-blocker may
8729 is dependent on browser.
8731 Revision 1.123.2.39 2004/01/30 22:31:40 oes
8732 Added a hint re bookmarklets to Quickstart section
8734 Revision 1.123.2.38 2004/01/30 16:47:51 oes
8735 Some minor clarifications
8737 Revision 1.123.2.37 2004/01/29 22:36:11 hal9
8738 Updates for no longer filtering text/plain, and demoronizer default settings,
8739 and copyright notice dates.
8741 Revision 1.123.2.36 2003/12/10 02:26:26 hal9
8742 Changed the demoronizer filter description.
8744 Revision 1.123.2.35 2003/11/06 13:36:37 oes
8745 Updated link to nightly CVS tarball
8747 Revision 1.123.2.34 2003/06/26 23:50:16 hal9
8748 Add a small bit on filtering and problems re: source code being corrupted.
8750 Revision 1.123.2.33 2003/05/08 18:17:33 roro
8751 Use apt-get instead of dpkg to install Debian package, which is more
8752 solid, uses the correct and most recent Debian version automatically.
8754 Revision 1.123.2.32 2003/04/11 03:13:57 hal9
8755 Add small note about only one filterfile (as opposed to multiple actions
8758 Revision 1.123.2.31 2003/03/26 02:03:43 oes
8759 Updated hard-coded copyright dates
8761 Revision 1.123.2.30 2003/03/24 12:58:56 hal9
8762 Add new section on Predefined Filters.
8764 Revision 1.123.2.29 2003/03/20 02:45:29 hal9
8765 More problems with \-\-chroot causing markup problems :(
8767 Revision 1.123.2.28 2003/03/19 00:35:24 hal9
8768 Manual edit of revision log because 'chroot' (even inside a comment) was
8769 causing Docbook to hang here (due to double hyphen and the processor thinking
8772 Revision 1.123.2.27 2003/03/18 19:37:14 oes
8773 s/Advanced|Radical/Adventuresome/g to avoid complaints re fun filter
8775 Revision 1.123.2.26 2003/03/17 16:50:53 oes
8776 Added documentation for new chroot option
8778 Revision 1.123.2.25 2003/03/15 18:36:55 oes
8779 Adapted to the new filters
8781 Revision 1.123.2.24 2002/11/17 06:41:06 hal9
8782 Move default profiles table from FAQ to U-M, and other minor related changes.
8785 Revision 1.123.2.23 2002/10/21 02:32:01 hal9
8786 Updates to the user.action examples section. A few new ones.
8788 Revision 1.123.2.22 2002/10/12 00:51:53 hal9
8789 Add demoronizer to filter section.
8791 Revision 1.123.2.21 2002/10/10 04:09:35 hal9
8792 s/Advanced/Radical/ and added very brief note.
8794 Revision 1.123.2.20 2002/10/10 03:49:21 hal9
8795 Add notes to session-cookies-only and Quickstart about pre-existing
8796 cookies. Also, note content-cookies work differently.
8798 Revision 1.123.2.19 2002/09/26 01:25:36 hal9
8799 More explanation on Privoxy patterns, more on content-cookies and SSL.
8801 Revision 1.123.2.18 2002/08/22 23:47:58 hal9
8802 Add 'Documentation' to Privoxy Menu shot in Configuration section to match
8805 Revision 1.123.2.17 2002/08/18 01:13:05 hal9
8806 Spell checked (only one typo this time!).
8808 Revision 1.123.2.16 2002/08/09 19:20:54 david__schmidt
8809 Update to Mac OS X startup script name
8811 Revision 1.123.2.15 2002/08/07 17:32:11 oes
8812 Converted some internal links from ulink to link for PDF creation; no content changed
8814 Revision 1.123.2.14 2002/08/06 09:16:13 oes
8815 Nits re: actions file download
8817 Revision 1.123.2.13 2002/08/02 18:23:19 g_sauthoff
8818 Just 2 small corrections to the Gentoo sections
8820 Revision 1.123.2.12 2002/08/02 18:17:21 g_sauthoff
8821 Added 2 Gentoo sections
8823 Revision 1.123.2.11 2002/07/26 15:20:31 oes
8824 - Added version info to title
8825 - Added info on new filters
8826 - Revised parts of the filter file tutorial
8827 - Added info on where to get updated actions files
8829 Revision 1.123.2.10 2002/07/25 21:42:29 hal9
8830 Add brief notes on not proxying non-HTTP protocols.
8832 Revision 1.123.2.9 2002/07/11 03:40:28 david__schmidt
8834 Updated Mac OS X sections due to installation location change
8836 Revision 1.123.2.8 2002/06/09 16:36:32 hal9
8837 Clarifications on filtering and MIME. Hardcode 'latest release' in index.html.
8839 Revision 1.123.2.7 2002/06/09 00:29:34 hal9
8840 Touch ups on filtering, in actions section and Anatomy.
8842 Revision 1.123.2.6 2002/06/06 23:11:03 hal9
8843 Fix broken link. Linkchecked all docs.
8845 Revision 1.123.2.5 2002/05/29 02:01:02 hal9
8846 This is break out of the entire config section from u-m, so it can
8847 eventually be used to generate the comments, etc in the main config file
8848 so that these are in sync with each other.
8850 Revision 1.123.2.4 2002/05/27 03:28:45 hal9
8851 Ooops missed something from David.
8853 Revision 1.123.2.3 2002/05/27 03:23:17 hal9
8854 Fix FIXMEs for OS2 and Mac OS X startup. Fix Redhat typos (should be Red Hat).
8855 That's a wrap, I think.
8857 Revision 1.123.2.2 2002/05/26 19:02:09 hal9
8858 Move Amiga stuff around to take of FIXME in start up section.
8860 Revision 1.123.2.1 2002/05/26 17:04:25 hal9
8861 -Spellcheck, very minor edits, and sync across branches
8863 Revision 1.123 2002/05/24 23:19:23 hal9
8864 Include new image (Proxy setup). More fun with guibutton.
8865 Minor corrections/clarifications here and there.
8867 Revision 1.122 2002/05/24 13:24:08 oes
8868 Added Bookmarklet for one-click pre-filled access to show-url-info
8870 Revision 1.121 2002/05/23 23:20:17 oes
8871 - Changed more (all?) references to actions to the
8872 <literal><link> style.
8873 - Small fixes in the actions chapter
8874 - Small clarifications in the quickstart to ad blocking
8875 - Removed <emphasis> from <title>s since the new doc CSS
8876 renders them red (bad in TOC).
8878 Revision 1.120 2002/05/23 19:16:43 roro
8879 Correct Debian specials (installation and startup).
8881 Revision 1.119 2002/05/22 17:17:05 oes
8884 Revision 1.118 2002/05/21 04:54:55 hal9
8885 -New Section: Quickstart to Ad Blocking
8886 -Reformat Actions Anatomy to match new CGI layout
8888 Revision 1.117 2002/05/17 13:56:16 oes
8889 - Reworked & extended Templates chapter
8890 - Small changes to Regex appendix
8891 - #included authors.sgml into (C) and hist chapter
8893 Revision 1.116 2002/05/17 03:23:46 hal9
8894 Fixing merge conflict in Quickstart section.
8896 Revision 1.115 2002/05/16 16:25:00 oes
8897 Extended the Filter File chapter & minor fixes
8899 Revision 1.114 2002/05/16 09:42:50 oes
8900 More ulink->link, added some hints to Quickstart section
8902 Revision 1.113 2002/05/15 21:07:25 oes
8903 Extended and further commented the example actions files
8905 Revision 1.112 2002/05/15 03:57:14 hal9
8906 Spell check. A few minor edits here and there for better syntax and
8909 Revision 1.111 2002/05/14 23:01:36 oes
8912 Revision 1.110 2002/05/14 19:10:45 oes
8913 Restored alphabetical order of actions
8915 Revision 1.109 2002/05/14 17:23:11 oes
8916 Renamed the prevent-*-cookies actions, extended aliases section and moved it before the example AFs
8918 Revision 1.108 2002/05/14 15:29:12 oes
8919 Completed proofreading the actions chapter
8921 Revision 1.107 2002/05/12 03:20:41 hal9
8922 Small clarifications for 127.0.0.1 vs localhost for listen-address since this
8923 apparently an important distinction for some OS's.
8925 Revision 1.106 2002/05/10 01:48:20 hal9
8926 This is mostly proposed copyright/licensing additions and changes. Docs
8927 are still GPL, but licensing and copyright are more visible. Also, copyright
8928 changed in doc header comments (eliminate references to JB except FAQ).
8930 Revision 1.105 2002/05/05 20:26:02 hal9
8931 Sorting out license vs copyright in these docs.
8933 Revision 1.104 2002/05/04 08:44:45 swa
8936 Revision 1.103 2002/05/04 00:40:53 hal9
8937 -Remove the TOC first page kludge. It's fixed proper now in ldp.dsl.in.
8938 -Some minor additions to Quickstart.
8940 Revision 1.102 2002/05/03 17:46:00 oes
8941 Further proofread & reactivated short build instructions
8943 Revision 1.101 2002/05/03 03:58:30 hal9
8944 Move the user-manual config directive to top of section. Add note about
8945 Privoxy needing read permissions for configs, and write for logs.
8947 Revision 1.100 2002/04/29 03:05:55 hal9
8948 Add clarification on differences of new actions files.
8950 Revision 1.99 2002/04/28 16:59:05 swa
8951 more structure in starting section
8953 Revision 1.98 2002/04/28 05:43:59 hal9
8954 This is the break up of configuration.html into multiple files. This
8955 will probably break links elsewhere :(
8957 Revision 1.97 2002/04/27 21:04:42 hal9
8958 -Rewrite of Actions File example.
8959 -Add section for user-manual directive in config.
8961 Revision 1.96 2002/04/27 05:32:00 hal9
8962 -Add short section to Filter Files to tie in with +filter action.
8963 -Start rewrite of examples in Actions Examples (not finished).
8965 Revision 1.95 2002/04/26 17:23:29 swa
8966 bookmarks cleaned, changed structure of user manual, screen and programlisting cleanups, and numerous other changes that I forgot
8968 Revision 1.94 2002/04/26 05:24:36 hal9
8969 -Add most of Andreas suggestions to Chain of Events section.
8970 -A few other minor corrections and touch up.
8972 Revision 1.92 2002/04/25 18:55:13 hal9
8973 More catchups on new actions files, and new actions names.
8974 Other assorted cleanups, and minor modifications.
8976 Revision 1.91 2002/04/24 02:39:31 hal9
8977 Add 'Chain of Events' section.
8979 Revision 1.90 2002/04/23 21:41:25 hal9
8980 Linuxconf is deprecated on RH, substitute chkconfig.
8982 Revision 1.89 2002/04/23 21:05:28 oes
8983 Added hint for startup on Red Hat
8985 Revision 1.88 2002/04/23 05:37:54 hal9
8986 Add AmigaOS install stuff.
8988 Revision 1.87 2002/04/23 02:53:15 david__schmidt
8989 Updated Mac OS X installation section
8990 Added a few English tweaks here an there
8992 Revision 1.86 2002/04/21 01:46:32 hal9
8993 Re-write actions section.
8995 Revision 1.85 2002/04/18 21:23:23 hal9
8996 Fix ugly typo (mine).
8998 Revision 1.84 2002/04/18 21:17:13 hal9
8999 Spell Redhat correctly (ie Red Hat). A few minor grammar corrections.
9001 Revision 1.83 2002/04/18 18:21:12 oes
9002 Added RPM install detail
9004 Revision 1.82 2002/04/18 12:04:50 oes
9007 Revision 1.81 2002/04/18 11:50:24 oes
9008 Extended Install section - needs fixing by packagers
9010 Revision 1.80 2002/04/18 10:45:19 oes
9011 Moved text to buildsource.sgml, renamed some filters, details
9013 Revision 1.79 2002/04/18 03:18:06 hal9
9014 Spellcheck, and minor touchups.
9016 Revision 1.78 2002/04/17 18:04:16 oes
9019 Revision 1.77 2002/04/17 13:51:23 oes
9020 Proofreading, part one
9022 Revision 1.76 2002/04/16 04:25:51 hal9
9023 -Added 'Note to Upgraders' and re-ordered the 'Quickstart' section.
9024 -Note about proxy may need requests to re-read config files.
9026 Revision 1.75 2002/04/12 02:08:48 david__schmidt
9027 Remove OS/2 building info... it is already in the developer-manual
9029 Revision 1.74 2002/04/11 00:54:38 hal9
9030 Add small section on submitting actions.
9032 Revision 1.73 2002/04/10 18:45:15 swa
9035 Revision 1.72 2002/04/10 04:06:19 hal9
9036 Added actions feedback to Bookmarklets section
9038 Revision 1.71 2002/04/08 22:59:26 hal9
9039 Version update. Spell chkconfig correctly :)
9041 Revision 1.70 2002/04/08 20:53:56 swa
9044 Revision 1.69 2002/04/06 05:07:29 hal9
9045 -Add privoxy-man-page.sgml, for man page.
9046 -Add authors.sgml for AUTHORS (and p-authors.sgml)
9047 -Reworked various aspects of various docs.
9048 -Added additional comments to sub-docs.
9050 Revision 1.68 2002/04/04 18:46:47 swa
9051 consistent look. reuse of copyright, history et. al.
9053 Revision 1.67 2002/04/04 17:27:57 swa
9054 more single file to be included at multiple points. make maintaining easier
9056 Revision 1.66 2002/04/04 06:48:37 hal9
9057 Structural changes to allow for conditional inclusion/exclusion of content
9058 based on entity toggles, e.g. 'entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE"'. And
9059 definition of internal entities, e.g. 'entity p-version "2.9.13"' that will
9060 eventually be set by Makefile.
9061 More boilerplate text for use across multiple docs.
9063 Revision 1.65 2002/04/03 19:52:07 swa
9064 enhance squid section due to user suggestion
9066 Revision 1.64 2002/04/03 03:53:43 hal9
9067 A few minor bug fixes, and touch ups. Ready for review.
9069 Revision 1.63 2002/04/01 16:24:49 hal9
9070 Define entities to include boilerplate text. See doc/source/*.
9072 Revision 1.62 2002/03/30 04:15:53 hal9
9073 - Fix privoxy.org/config links.
9074 - Paste in Bookmarklets from Toggle page.
9075 - Move Quickstart nearer top, and minor rework.
9077 Revision 1.61 2002/03/29 01:31:08 hal9
9080 Revision 1.60 2002/03/27 01:57:34 hal9
9081 Added more to Anatomy section.
9083 Revision 1.59 2002/03/27 00:54:33 hal9
9084 Touch up intro for new name.
9086 Revision 1.58 2002/03/26 22:29:55 swa
9087 we have a new homepage!
9089 Revision 1.57 2002/03/24 20:33:30 hal9
9090 A few minor catch ups with name change.
9092 Revision 1.56 2002/03/24 16:17:06 swa
9093 configure needs to be generated.
9095 Revision 1.55 2002/03/24 16:08:08 swa
9096 we are too lazy to make a block-built
9097 privoxy logo. hence removed the option.
9099 Revision 1.54 2002/03/24 15:46:20 swa
9100 name change related issue.
9102 Revision 1.53 2002/03/24 11:51:00 swa
9103 name change. changed filenames.
9105 Revision 1.52 2002/03/24 11:01:06 swa
9108 Revision 1.51 2002/03/23 15:13:11 swa
9109 renamed every reference to the old name with foobar.
9110 fixed "application foobar application" tag, fixed
9111 "the foobar" with "foobar". left junkbustser in cvs
9112 comments and remarks to history untouched.
9114 Revision 1.50 2002/03/23 05:06:21 hal9
9117 Revision 1.49 2002/03/21 17:01:05 hal9
9118 New section in Appendix.
9120 Revision 1.48 2002/03/12 06:33:01 hal9
9121 Catching up to Andreas and re_filterfile changes.
9123 Revision 1.47 2002/03/11 13:13:27 swa
9124 correct feedback channels
9126 Revision 1.46 2002/03/10 00:51:08 hal9
9127 Added section on JB internal pages in Appendix.
9129 Revision 1.45 2002/03/09 17:43:53 swa
9132 Revision 1.44 2002/03/09 17:08:48 hal9
9133 New section on Jon's actions file editor, and move some stuff around.
9135 Revision 1.43 2002/03/08 00:47:32 hal9
9136 Added imageblock{pattern}.
9138 Revision 1.42 2002/03/07 18:16:55 swa
9141 Revision 1.41 2002/03/07 16:46:43 hal9
9142 Fix a few markup problems for jade.
9144 Revision 1.40 2002/03/07 16:28:39 swa
9145 provide correct feedback channels
9147 Revision 1.39 2002/03/06 16:19:28 hal9
9148 Note on perceived filtering slowdown per FR.
9150 Revision 1.38 2002/03/05 23:55:14 hal9
9151 Stupid I did it again. Double hyphen in comment breaks jade.
9153 Revision 1.37 2002/03/05 23:53:49 hal9
9154 jade barfs on '- -' embedded in comments. - -user option broke it.
9156 Revision 1.36 2002/03/05 22:53:28 hal9
9157 Add new - - user option.
9159 Revision 1.35 2002/03/05 00:17:27 hal9
9160 Added section on command line options.
9162 Revision 1.34 2002/03/04 19:32:07 oes
9163 Changed default port to 8118
9165 Revision 1.33 2002/03/03 19:46:13 hal9
9166 Emphasis on where/how to report bugs, etc
9168 Revision 1.32 2002/03/03 09:26:06 joergs
9169 AmigaOS changes, config is now loaded from PROGDIR: instead of
9170 AmiTCP:db/junkbuster/ if no configuration file is specified on the
9173 Revision 1.31 2002/03/02 22:45:52 david__schmidt
9176 Revision 1.30 2002/03/02 22:00:14 hal9
9177 Updated 'New Features' list. Ran through spell-checker.
9179 Revision 1.29 2002/03/02 20:34:07 david__schmidt
9180 Update OS/2 build section
9182 Revision 1.28 2002/02/24 14:34:24 jongfoster
9183 Formatting changes. Now changing the doctype to DocBook XML 4.1
9184 will work - no other changes are needed.
9186 Revision 1.27 2002/01/11 14:14:32 hal9
9187 Added a very short section on Templates
9189 Revision 1.26 2002/01/09 20:02:50 hal9
9190 Fix bug re: auto-detect config file changes.
9192 Revision 1.25 2002/01/09 18:20:30 hal9
9193 Touch ups for *.action files.
9195 Revision 1.24 2001/12/02 01:13:42 hal9
9198 Revision 1.23 2001/12/02 00:20:41 hal9
9199 Updates for recent changes.
9201 Revision 1.22 2001/11/05 23:57:51 hal9
9202 Minor update for startup now daemon mode.
9204 Revision 1.21 2001/10/31 21:11:03 hal9
9205 Correct 2 minor errors
9207 Revision 1.18 2001/10/24 18:45:26 hal9
9208 *** empty log message ***
9210 Revision 1.17 2001/10/24 17:10:55 hal9
9211 Catching up with Jon's recent work, and a few other things.
9213 Revision 1.16 2001/10/21 17:19:21 swa
9214 wrong url in documentation
9216 Revision 1.15 2001/10/14 23:46:24 hal9
9217 Various minor changes. Fleshed out SEE ALSO section.
9219 Revision 1.13 2001/10/10 17:28:33 hal9
9222 Revision 1.12 2001/09/28 02:57:04 hal9
9225 Revision 1.11 2001/09/28 02:25:20 hal9
9228 Revision 1.9 2001/09/27 23:50:29 hal9
9229 A few changes. A short section on regular expression in appendix.
9231 Revision 1.8 2001/09/25 00:34:59 hal9
9232 Some additions, and re-arranging.
9234 Revision 1.7 2001/09/24 14:31:36 hal9
9237 Revision 1.6 2001/09/24 14:10:32 hal9
9238 Including David's OS/2 installation instructions.
9240 Revision 1.2 2001/09/13 15:27:40 swa
9243 Revision 1.1 2001/09/12 15:36:41 swa
9244 source files for junkbuster documentation
9246 Revision 1.3 2001/09/10 17:43:59 swa
9247 first proposal of a structure.
9249 Revision 1.2 2001/06/13 14:28:31 swa
9250 docs should have an author.
9252 Revision 1.1 2001/06/13 14:20:37 swa
9253 first import of project's documentation for the webserver.