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 "3.0.4">
15 <!entity p-status "beta">
16 <!entity % p-authors-formal "INCLUDE"> <!-- include additional text, etc -->
17 <!entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE">
18 <!entity % p-stable "IGNORE">
19 <!entity % p-text "IGNORE"> <!-- define we are not a text only doc -->
20 <!entity % p-doc "INCLUDE"> <!-- and we are a formal doc -->
21 <!entity % p-readme "IGNORE">
22 <!entity % user-man "IGNORE">
23 <!entity % config-file "IGNORE">
24 <!entity % p-supp-userman "IGNORE"> <!-- Omit some from supported.sgml -->
25 <!entity my-copy "©"> <!-- kludge for docbook2man -->
26 <!entity % draft "IGNORE"> <!-- WIP stuff -->
29 File : $Source: /cvsroot/ijbswa/current/doc/source/user-manual.sgml,v $
32 This file belongs into
33 ijbswa.sourceforge.net:/home/groups/i/ij/ijbswa/htdocs/
35 $Id: user-manual.sgml,v 2.15 2006/08/30 11:15:22 hal9 Exp $
37 Copyright (C) 2001- 2006 Privoxy Developers <developers@privoxy.org>
40 ========================================================================
41 NOTE: Please read developer-manual/documentation.html before touching
42 anything in this, or other Privoxy documentation.
43 ========================================================================
50 <title>Privoxy &p-version; User Manual</title>
54 <!-- Completely the wrong markup, but very little is allowed -->
55 <!-- in this part of an article. FIXME -->
56 <link linkend="copyright">Copyright</link> &my-copy; 2001 - 2004 by
57 <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/">Privoxy Developers</ulink>
61 <pubdate>$Id: user-manual.sgml,v 2.15 2006/08/30 11:15:22 hal9 Exp $</pubdate>
65 Note: the following should generate a separate page, and a live link to it,
66 all nicely done. But it doesn't for some mysterious reason. Please leave
67 commented unless it can be fixed proper. For the time being, the
68 copyright/license declarations will be in their own sgml.
81 This is here to keep vim syntax file from breaking :/
82 If I knew enough to fix it, I would.
83 PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE! HB: hal@foobox.net
89 The <citetitle>User Manual</citetitle> gives users information on how to
90 install, configure and use <ulink
91 url="http://www.privoxy.org/"><application>Privoxy</application></ulink>.
94 <!-- Include privoxy.sgml boilerplate: -->
96 <!-- end privoxy.sgml -->
99 You can find the latest version of the <citetitle>User Manual</citetitle> at <ulink
100 url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/">http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/</ulink>.
101 Please see the <link linkend="contact">Contact section</link> on how to
102 contact the developers.
106 <!-- Feel free to send a note to the developers at <email>ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net</email>. -->
112 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
113 <sect1 label="1" id="introduction"><title>Introduction</title>
115 This documentation is included with the current &p-status; version of
116 <application>Privoxy</application>, v.&p-version;<![%p-not-stable;[,
117 and is mostly complete at this point. The most up to date reference for the
118 time being is still the comments in the source files and in the individual
119 configuration files. Development of a new version is currently nearing
120 completion, and includes significant changes and enhancements over
121 earlier versions. ]]>.
124 <!-- include only in non-stable versions -->
127 Since this is a &p-status; version, not all new features are well tested. This
128 documentation may be slightly out of sync as a result (especially with
129 CVS sources). And there <emphasis>may be</emphasis> bugs, though hopefully
134 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
135 <sect2 id="features"><title>Features</title>
137 In addition to the core
138 features of ad blocking and cookie management,
139 <application>Privoxy</application> provides many supplemental
140 features<![%p-not-stable;[, some of them currently under development]]>,
141 that give the end-user more control, more privacy and more freedom:
143 <!-- Include newfeatures.sgml boilerplate here: -->
145 <!-- end boilerplate -->
150 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
153 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
154 <sect1 id="installation"><title>Installation</title>
157 <application>Privoxy</application> is available both in convenient pre-compiled
158 packages for a wide range of operating systems, and as raw source code.
159 For most users, we recommend using the packages, which can be downloaded from our
160 <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ijbswa/">Privoxy Project
165 Note: If you have a previous <application>Junkbuster</application> or
166 <application>Privoxy</application> installation on your system, you
167 will need to remove it. On some platforms, this may be done for you as part
168 of their installation procedure. (See below for your platform). In any case
169 <emphasis>be sure to backup your old configuration if it is valuable to
170 you.</emphasis> See the <link linkend="upgradersnote">note to
171 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 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
181 <sect3 id="installation-pack-rpm"><title>Red Hat, SuSE and Conectiva RPMs</title>
184 RPMs can be installed with <literal>rpm -Uvh privoxy-&p-version;-1.rpm</literal>,
185 and will use <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> for the location
186 of configuration files.
190 Note that on Red Hat, <application>Privoxy</application> will
191 <emphasis>not</emphasis> be automatically started on system boot. You will
192 need to enable that using <command>chkconfig</command>,
193 <command>ntsysv</command>, or similar methods. Note that SuSE will
194 automatically start Privoxy in the boot process.
198 If you have problems with failed dependencies, try rebuilding the SRC RPM:
199 <literal>rpm --rebuild privoxy-&p-version;-1.src.rpm</literal>. This
200 will use your locally installed libraries and RPM version.
204 Also note that if you have a <application>Junkbuster</application> RPM installed
205 on your system, you need to remove it first, because the packages conflict.
206 Otherwise, RPM will try to remove <application>Junkbuster</application>
207 automatically, before installing <application>Privoxy</application>.
211 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
212 <sect3 id="installation-deb"><title>Debian</title>
214 DEBs can be installed with <literal>apt-get install privoxy</literal>,
215 and will use <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> for the location of
220 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
221 <sect3 id="installation-pack-win"><title>Windows</title>
224 Just double-click the installer, which will guide you through
225 the installation process. You will find the configuration files
226 in the same directory as you installed Privoxy in.
230 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
231 <sect3 id="installation-pack-bintgz"><title>Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD, HP-UX</title>
234 Create a new directory, <literal>cd</literal> to it, then unzip and
235 untar the archive. For the most part, you'll have to figure out where
236 things go. <!-- FIXME, more info needed? -->
240 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
241 <sect3 id="installation-os2"><title>OS/2</title>
244 First, make sure that no previous installations of
245 <application>Junkbuster</application> and / or
246 <application>Privoxy</application> are left on your
247 system. Check that no <application>Junkbuster</application>
248 or <application>Privoxy</application> objects are in
254 Then, just double-click the WarpIN self-installing archive, which will
255 guide you through the installation process. A shadow of the
256 <application>Privoxy</application> executable will be placed in your
257 startup folder so it will start automatically whenever OS/2 starts.
261 The directory you choose to install <application>Privoxy</application>
262 into will contain all of the configuration files.
266 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
267 <sect3 id="installation-mac"><title>Mac OSX</title>
269 Unzip the downloaded file (you can either double-click on the file
270 from the finder, or from the desktop if you downloaded it there).
271 Then, double-click on the package installer icon named
272 <literal>Privoxy.pkg</literal>
273 and follow the installation process.
274 <application>Privoxy</application> will be installed in the folder
275 <literal>/Library/Privoxy</literal>.
276 It will start automatically whenever you start up. To prevent it from
277 starting automatically, remove or rename the folder
278 <literal>/Library/StartupItems/Privoxy</literal>.
281 To start Privoxy by hand, double-click on
282 <literal>StartPrivoxy.command</literal> in the
283 <literal>/Library/Privoxy</literal> folder.
284 Or, type this command in the Terminal:
288 /Library/Privoxy/StartPrivoxy.command
292 You will be prompted for the administrator password.
296 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
297 <sect3 id="installation-amiga"><title>AmigaOS</title>
299 Copy and then unpack the <filename>lha</filename> archive to a suitable location.
300 All necessary files will be installed into <application>Privoxy</application>
301 directory, including all configuration and log files. To uninstall, just
302 remove this directory.
306 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
307 <sect3 id="installattion-gentoo"><title>Gentoo</title>
309 Gentoo source packages (Ebuilds) for <application>Privoxy</application> are
310 contained in the Gentoo Portage Tree (they are not on the download page,
311 but there is a Gentoo section, where you can see when a new
312 <application>Privoxy</application> Version is added to the Portage Tree).
315 Before installing <application>Privoxy</application> under Gentoo just do
316 first <literal>emerge rsync</literal> to get the latest changes from the
317 Portage tree. With <literal>emerge privoxy</literal> you install the latest
321 Configuration files are in <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename>, the
322 documentation is in <filename>/usr/share/doc/privoxy-&p-version;</filename>
323 and the Log directory is in <filename>/var/log/privoxy</filename>.
329 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
330 <sect2 id="installation-source"><title>Building from Source</title>
333 The most convenient way to obtain the <application>Privoxy</application> sources
334 is to download the source tarball from our <ulink url="http://sf.net/projects/ijbswa/">project
339 If you like to live on the bleeding edge and are not afraid of using
340 possibly unstable development versions, you can check out the up-to-the-minute
341 version directly from <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/cvs/?group_id=11118">the
342 CVS repository</ulink>.
344 deprecated...out of business.
345 or simply download <ulink
346 url="http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cvstarballs/ijbswa-cvsroot.tar.bz2">the nightly CVS
351 <!-- include buildsource.sgml boilerplate: -->
353 <!-- end boilerplate -->
356 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
357 <sect2 id="installation-keepupdated"><title>Keeping your Installation Up-to-Date</title>
359 As user feedback comes in and development continues, we will make updated versions
360 of both the main <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link> (as a <ulink
361 url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118&release_id=103670">separate
362 package</ulink>) and the software itself (including the actions file) available for
367 If you wish to receive an email notification whenever we release updates of
368 <application>Privoxy</application> or the actions file, <ulink
369 url="http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ijbswa-announce/">subscribe
370 to our announce mailing list</ulink>, ijbswa-announce@lists.sourceforge.net.
374 In order not to lose your personal changes and adjustments when updating
375 to the latest <literal>default.action</literal> file we <emphasis>strongly
376 recommend</emphasis> that you use <literal>user.action</literal> and
377 <literal>user.filter</literal> for your local
378 customizations of <application>Privoxy</application>. See the <link
379 linkend="actions-file">Chapter on actions files</link> for details.
387 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
389 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
390 <sect1 id="whatsnew">
391 <title>What's New in this Release</title>
393 There are many improvements and new features in <application>Privoxy</application> &p-version;
401 Mulitiple <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link> can now be specifed in <filename>config</filename>. This allows for
402 locally defined filters that can be maintained separately from the filters as
403 supplied by the developers.
409 There are a number of new <link linkend="actions-file">actions</link>:
417 <literal><link linkend="content-type-overwrite">content-type-overwrite</link></literal>
422 <literal><link linkend="crunch-client-header">crunch-client-header</link></literal>
427 <literal><link linkend="crunch-if-none-match">crunch-if-none-match</link></literal>
432 <literal><link linkend="crunch-server-header">crunch-server-header</link></literal>
437 <literal><link linkend="filter-client-headers">filter-client-headers</link></literal>
442 <literal><link linkend="filter-server-headers">filter-server-headers</link></literal>
447 <literal><link linkend="force-text-mode">force-text-mode</link></literal>
452 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-empty-document">handle-as-empty-document</link></literal>
457 <literal><link linkend="hide-accept-language">hide-accept-language</link></literal>
462 <literal><link linkend="hide-content-disposition">hide-content-disposition</link></literal>
467 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hide-if-modified-since</link></literal>
472 <literal><link linkend="inspect-jpegs">inspect-jpegs</link></literal>
477 <literal><link linkend="overwrite-last-modified">overwrite-last-modified</link></literal>
482 <literal><link linkend="redirect">redirect</link></literal>
487 <literal><link linkend="treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks">treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks</link></literal>
494 In addition, <literal><link linkend="fast-redirects">fast-redirects</link></literal>
495 has been significantly improved with enhanced syntax.
498 And <literal><link linkend="hide-referrer">hide-referrer</link></literal>
499 has a new option, <literal>conditional block</literal>.
506 <application>MS-Windows</application> versions can now be installed and
507 started as a <emphasis>service</emphasis>.
513 In addition, there are various bug fixes and significant enhancements, including
514 error pages are no longer cached, better DNS error handling, and various logging
523 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
525 <sect2 id="upgradersnote">
526 <title>Note to Upgraders</title>
529 A quick list of things to be aware of before upgrading from earlier
530 versions of <application>Privoxy</application>:
538 Some installers may remove earlier versions completely, including
539 configuration files. Save any important configuration files!
544 See the full documentation on
545 <literal><link linkend="fast-redirects">fast-redirects</link></literal>
546 which has changed syntax, and may require adjustments to local configs.
551 The <filename>jarfile</filename>, cookie logger, is off by default now.
557 What constitutes a <quote>default</quote> configuration has changed,
558 and you may want to review which actions are <quote>on</quote> by
559 default. This is primarily a matter of emphasis, but some features
560 you may have been used to, may now be <quote>off</quote> by default.
566 <!-- I think it is best to keep this somewhat vague, in case -->
567 <!-- the situation changes under our feet. -->
568 Some installers may not automatically start
569 <application>Privoxy</application> after installation.
578 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
579 <sect1 id="quickstart"><title>Quickstart to Using <application>Privoxy</application></title>
585 Install <application>Privoxy</application>. See the <link
586 linkend="installation">Installation Section</link> below for platform specific
593 Advanced users and those who want to offer <application>Privoxy</application>
594 service to more than just their local machine should check the <link
595 linkend="config">main config file</link>, especially the <link
596 linkend="access-control">security-relevant</link> options. These are
603 Start <application>Privoxy</application>, if the installation program has
604 not done this already (may vary according to platform). See the section
605 <link linkend="startup">Starting <application>Privoxy</application></link>.
611 Set your browser to use <application>Privoxy</application> as HTTP and
612 HTTPS (SSL) proxy by setting the proxy configuration for address of
613 <literal>127.0.0.1</literal> and port <literal>8118</literal>.
614 (<application>Junkbuster</application> and earlier versions of
615 <application>Privoxy</application> used port 8000.) See the section <link
616 linkend="startup">Starting <application>Privoxy</application></link> below
617 for more details on this.
623 Flush your browser's disk and memory caches, to remove any cached ad images.
624 If using <application>Privoxy</application> to manage cookies, you should
625 remove any currently stored cookies too.
631 A default installation should provide a reasonable starting point for
632 most. There will undoubtedly be occasions where you will want to adjust the
633 configuration, but that can be dealt with as the need arises. Little
634 to no initial configuration is required in most cases.
637 See the <link linkend="configuration">Configuration section</link> for more
638 configuration options, and how to customize your installation.
639 <![%draft;[ You might also want to look at the <link
640 linkend="quickstart-ad-blocking">next section</link> for a quick
641 introduction to how <application>Privoxy</application> blocks ads and
648 If you experience ads that slipped through, innocent images that are
649 blocked, or otherwise feel the need to fine-tune
650 <application>Privoxy's</application> behaviour, take a look at the <link
651 linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>. As a quick start, you might
652 find the <link linkend="act-examples">richly commented examples</link>
653 helpful. You can also view and edit the actions files through the <ulink
654 url="http://config.privoxy.org">web-based user interface</ulink>. The
655 Appendix <quote><link linkend="actionsanat">Anatomy of an
656 Action</link></quote> has hints how to debug actions that
657 <quote>misbehave</quote>.
663 For easy access to Privoxy's most important controls, drag the provided
664 <link linkend="bookmarklets">Bookmarklets</link> into your browser's
671 Please see the section <link linkend="contact">Contacting the
672 Developers</link> on how to report bugs or problems with websites or to get
679 Now enjoy surfing with enhanced control, comfort and privacy!
687 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
689 <sect2 id="quickstart-ad-blocking">
690 <title>Quickstart to Ad Blocking</title>
692 NOTE: This section is deliberately redundant for those that don't
693 want to read the whole thing (which is getting lengthy).
696 Ad blocking is but one of <application>Privoxy's</application>
697 array of features. Many of these features are for the technically minded advanced
698 user. But, ad and banner blocking is surely common ground for everybody.
701 This section will provide a quick summary of ad blocking so
702 you can get up to speed quickly without having to read the more extensive
703 information provided below, though this is highly recommended.
706 First a bit of a warning ... blocking ads is much like blocking SPAM: the
707 more aggressive you are about it, the more likely you are to block
708 things that were not intended. So there is a trade off here. If you want
709 extreme ad free browsing, be prepared to deal with more
710 <quote>problem</quote> sites, and to spend more time adjusting the
711 configuration to solve these unintended consequences. In short, there is
712 not an easy way to eliminate <emphasis>all</emphasis> ads. Either take
713 the easy way and settle for <emphasis>most</emphasis> ads blocked with the
714 default configuration, or jump in and tweak it for your personal surfing
715 habits and preferences.
718 Secondly, a brief explanation of <application>Privoxy's </application>
719 <quote>actions</quote>. <quote>Actions</quote> in this context, are
720 the directives we use to tell <application>Privoxy</application> to perform
721 some task relating to HTTP transactions (i.e. web browsing). We tell
722 <application>Privoxy</application> to take some <quote>action</quote>. Each
723 action has a unique name and function. While there are many potential
724 <application>actions</application> in <application>Privoxy's</application>
725 arsenal, only a few are used for ad blocking. <link
726 linkend="actions">Actions</link>, and <link linkend="actions-file">action
727 configuration files</link>, are explained in depth below.
730 Actions are specified in <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration,
731 followed by one or more URLs to which the action should apply. URLs
732 can actually be URL type <link linkend="af-patterns">patterns</link> that use
733 wildcards so they can apply potentially to a range of similar URLs. The
734 actions, together with the URL patterns are called a section.
737 When you connect to a website, the full URL will either match one or more
738 of the sections as defined in <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration,
739 or not. If so, then <application>Privoxy</application> will perform the
740 respective actions. If not, then nothing special happens. Furthermore, web
741 pages may contain embedded, secondary URLs that your web browser will
742 use to load additional components of the page, as it parses the
743 original page's HTML content. An ad image for instance, is just an URL
744 embedded in the page somewhere. The image itself may be on the same server,
745 or a server somewhere else on the Internet. Complex web pages will have many
750 The actions we need to know about for ad blocking are: <literal><link
751 linkend="block">block</link></literal>, <literal><link
752 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>, and
753 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>:
761 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> - this action stops
762 any contact between your browser and any URL patterns that match this
763 action's configuration. It can be used for blocking ads, but also anything
764 that is determined to be unwanted. By itself, it simply stops any
765 communication with the remote server and sends <application>Privoxy</application>'s
766 own built-in BLOCKED page instead to let you now what has happened.
772 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> -
773 tells <application>Privoxy</application> to treat this URL as an image.
774 <application>Privoxy</application>'s default configuration already does this
775 for all common image types (e.g. GIF), but there are many situations where this
776 is not so easy to determine. So we'll force it in these cases. This is particularly
777 important for ad blocking, since only if we know that it's an image of
778 some kind, can we replace it with an image of our choosing, instead of the
779 <application>Privoxy</application> BLOCKED page (which would only result in
780 a <quote>broken image</quote> icon). There are some limitations to this
781 though. For instance, you can't just brute-force an image substitution for
782 an entire HTML page in most situations.
789 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal> - tells
790 <application>Privoxy</application> what to display in place of an ad image that
791 has hit a block rule. For this to come into play, the URL must match a
792 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action somewhere in the
793 configuration, <emphasis>and</emphasis>, it must also match an
794 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> action.
797 The configuration options on what to display instead of the ad are:
801 <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> - a checkerboard pattern, so that an ad
802 replacement is obvious. This is the default.
807 <emphasis>blank</emphasis> - A very small empty GIF image is displayed.
808 This is the so-called <quote>invisible</quote> configuration option.
813 <emphasis>http://<URL></emphasis> - A redirect to any image anywhere
814 of the user's choosing (advanced usage).
823 The quickest way to adjust any of these settings is with your browser through
824 the special <application>Privoxy</application> editor at <ulink
825 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
826 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/show-status</ulink>). This
827 is an internal page, and does not require Internet access. Select the
828 appropriate <quote>actions</quote> file, and click
829 <quote><guibutton>Edit</guibutton></quote>. It is best to put personal or
830 local preferences in <filename>user.action</filename> since this is not
831 meant to be overwritten during upgrades, and will over-ride the settings in
832 other files. Here you can insert new <quote>actions</quote>, and URLs for ad
833 blocking or other purposes, and make other adjustments to the configuration.
834 <application>Privoxy</application> will detect these changes automatically.
838 A quick and simple step by step example:
846 Right click on the ad image to be blocked, then select
847 <quote><guimenuitem>Copy Link Location</guimenuitem></quote> from the
855 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
860 Find <filename>user.action</filename> in the top section, and click
861 on <quote><guibutton>Edit</guibutton></quote>:
864 <!-- image of editor and actions files selections -->
866 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Actions Files in Use</title>
869 <imagedata fileref="../images/files-in-use.jpg" format="jpg">
872 <phrase>[ Screenshot of Actions Files in Use ]</phrase>
881 You should have a section with only
882 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> listed under
883 <quote>Actions:</quote>.
884 If not, click a <quote><guibutton>Insert new section below</guibutton></quote>
885 button, and in the new section that just appeared, click the
886 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> button right under the word <quote>Actions:</quote>.
887 This will bring up a list of all actions. Find
888 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> near the top, and click
889 in the <quote>Enabled</quote> column, then <quote><guibutton>Submit</guibutton></quote>
895 Now, in the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> actions section,
896 click the <quote><guibutton>Add</guibutton></quote> button, and paste the URL the
897 browser got from <quote><guimenuitem>Copy Link Location</guimenuitem></quote>.
898 Remove the <literal>http://</literal> at the beginning of the URL. Then, click
899 <quote><guibutton>Submit</guibutton></quote> (or
900 <quote><guibutton>OK</guibutton></quote> if in a pop-up window).
905 Now go back to the original page, and press <keycap>SHIFT-Reload</keycap>
906 (or flush all browser caches). The image should be gone now.
914 This is a very crude and simple example. There might be good reasons to use a
915 wildcard pattern match to include potentially similar images from the same
916 site. For a more extensive explanation of <quote>patterns</quote>, and
917 the entire actions concept, see <link linkend="actions-file">the Actions
922 For advanced users who want to hand edit their config files, you might want
923 to now go to the <link linkend="act-examples">Actions Files Tutorial</link>.
924 The ideas explained therein also apply to the web-based editor.
931 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
934 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
936 <title>Starting <application>Privoxy</application></title>
938 Before launching <application>Privoxy</application> for the first time, you
939 will want to configure your browser(s) to use
940 <application>Privoxy</application> as a HTTP and HTTPS proxy. The default is
941 127.0.0.1 (or localhost) for the proxy address, and port 8118 (earlier versions
942 used port 8000). This is the one configuration step that must be done!
945 Please note that <application>Privoxy</application> can only proxy HTTP and
946 HTTPS traffic. It will not work with FTP or other protocols.
949 <!-- image of Mozilla Proxy configuration -->
951 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Proxy Configuration (Mozilla)</title>
954 <imagedata fileref="../images/proxy_setup.jpg" format="jpg">
957 <phrase>[ Screenshot of Mozilla Proxy Configuration ]</phrase>
965 With <application>Firefox</application>, this can be set under:
969 <!-- Mix ascii and gui art, something for everybody -->
970 <!-- spacing on this is tricky -->
971 <guibutton>Tools</guibutton>
973 <guibutton>Options</guibutton>
975 <guibutton>General</guibutton>
977 <guibutton>Connection Settings</guibutton>
979 <guibutton>Manual Proxy Configuration</guibutton>
984 With <application>Netscape</application> (and
985 <application>Mozilla</application>), this can be set under:
990 <!-- Mix ascii and gui art, something for everybody -->
991 <!-- spacing on this is tricky -->
992 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton>
994 <guibutton>Preferences</guibutton>
996 <guibutton>Advanced</guibutton>
998 <guibutton>Proxies</guibutton>
1000 <guibutton>HTTP Proxy</guibutton>
1004 For <application>Internet Explorer</application>:
1008 <!-- Mix ascii and gui art, something for everybody -->
1009 <!-- spacing on this is tricky -->
1010 <guibutton>Tools</guibutton>
1012 <guibutton>Internet Properties</guibutton>
1014 <guibutton>Connections</guibutton>
1016 <guibutton>LAN Settings</guibutton>
1020 Then, check <quote>Use Proxy</quote> and fill in the appropriate info
1021 (Address: 127.0.0.1, Port: 8118). Include HTTPS (SSL), if you want HTTPS
1026 After doing this, flush your browser's disk and memory caches to force a
1027 re-reading of all pages and to get rid of any ads that may be cached. You
1028 are now ready to start enjoying the benefits of using
1029 <application>Privoxy</application>!
1033 <application>Privoxy</application> itself is typically started by specifying the
1034 main configuration file to be used on the command line. If no configuration
1035 file is specified on the command line, <application>Privoxy</application>
1036 will look for a file named <filename>config</filename> in the current
1037 directory. Except on Win32 where it will try <filename>config.txt</filename>.
1040 <sect2 id="start-redhat">
1041 <title>Red Hat and Conectiva</title>
1043 We use a script. Note that Red Hat does not start Privoxy upon booting per
1044 default. It will use the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename> as
1045 its main configuration file.
1049 # /etc/rc.d/init.d/privoxy start
1054 <sect2 id="start-debian">
1055 <title>Debian</title>
1057 We use a script. Note that Debian starts Privoxy upon booting per
1058 default. It will use the file
1059 <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename> as its main configuration
1064 # /etc/init.d/privoxy start
1069 <sect2 id="start-suse">
1072 We use a script. It will use the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename>
1073 as its main configuration file. Note that SuSE starts Privoxy upon booting
1083 <sect2 id="start-windows">
1084 <title>Windows</title>
1086 Click on the Privoxy Icon to start Privoxy. If no configuration file is
1087 specified on the command line, <application>Privoxy</application> will look
1088 for a file named <filename>config.txt</filename>. Note that Windows will
1089 automatically start Privoxy upon booting you PC.
1093 <sect2 id="start-unices">
1094 <title>Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD, HP-UX and others</title>
1096 Example Unix startup command:
1100 # /usr/sbin/privoxy /etc/privoxy/config
1105 <sect2 id="start-os2">
1108 During installation, <application>Privoxy</application> is configured to
1109 start automatically when the system restarts. You can start it manually by
1110 double-clicking on the <application>Privoxy</application> icon in the
1111 <application>Privoxy</application> folder.
1115 <sect2 id="start-macosx">
1116 <title>Mac OSX</title>
1118 During installation, <application>Privoxy</application> is configured to
1119 start automatically when the system restarts. To start Privoxy by hand,
1120 double-click on the <literal>StartPrivoxy.command</literal> icon in the
1121 <literal>/Library/Privoxy</literal> folder. Or, type this command
1126 /Library/Privoxy/StartPrivoxy.command
1130 You will be prompted for the administrator password.
1135 <sect2 id="start-amigaos">
1136 <title>AmigaOS</title>
1138 Start <application>Privoxy</application> (with RUN <>NIL:) in your
1139 <filename>startnet</filename> script (AmiTCP), in
1140 <filename>s:user-startup</filename> (RoadShow), as startup program in your
1141 startup script (Genesis), or as startup action (Miami and MiamiDx).
1142 <application>Privoxy</application> will automatically quit when you quit your
1143 TCP/IP stack (just ignore the harmless warning your TCP/IP stack may display that
1144 <application>Privoxy</application> is still running).
1148 <sect2 id="start-gentoo">
1149 <title>Gentoo</title>
1151 A script is again used. It will use the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config
1152 </filename> as its main configuration file.
1156 /etc/init.d/privoxy start
1160 Note that <application>Privoxy</application> is not automatically started at
1161 boot time by default. You can change this with the <literal>rc-update</literal>
1166 rc-update add privoxy default
1174 See the section <link linkend="cmdoptions">Command line options</link> for
1178 must find a better place for this paragraph
1181 The included default configuration files should give a reasonable starting
1182 point. Most of the per site configuration is done in the
1183 <ulink url="actions-file.html"><quote>actions</quote></ulink> files. These are
1184 where various cookie actions are defined, ad and banner blocking, and other
1185 aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. There are several
1186 such files included, with varying levels of aggressiveness.
1190 You will probably want to keep an eye out for sites for which you may prefer
1191 persistent cookies, and add these to your actions configuration as needed. By
1192 default, most of these will be accepted only during the current browser
1193 session (aka <quote>session cookies</quote>), unless you add them to the
1194 configuration. If you want the browser to handle this instead, you will need
1195 to edit <filename>user.action</filename> (or through the web based interface)
1196 and disable this feature. If you use more than one browser, it would make
1197 more sense to let <application>Privoxy</application> handle this. In which
1198 case, the browser(s) should be set to accept all cookies.
1202 Another feature where you will probably want to define exceptions for trusted
1203 sites is the popup-killing (through the <ulink
1204 url="actions-file.html#KILL-POPUPS"><quote>+kill-popups</quote></ulink> and
1206 url="actions-file.html#FILTER-POPUPS"><quote>+filter{popups}</quote></ulink>
1207 actions), because your favorite shopping, banking, or leisure site may need
1208 popups (explained below).
1212 <application>Privoxy</application> is HTTP/1.1 compliant, but not all of
1213 the optional 1.1 features are as yet supported. In the unlikely event that
1214 you experience inexplicable problems with browsers that use HTTP/1.1 per default
1215 (like <application>Mozilla</application> or recent versions of I.E.), you might
1216 try to force HTTP/1.0 compatibility. For Mozilla, look under <literal>Edit ->
1217 Preferences -> Debug -> Networking</literal>.
1218 Alternatively, set the <quote>+downgrade-http-version</quote> config option in
1219 <filename>default.action</filename> which will downgrade your browser's HTTP
1220 requests from HTTP/1.1 to HTTP/1.0 before processing them.
1224 After running <application>Privoxy</application> for a while, you can
1225 start to fine tune the configuration to suit your personal, or site,
1226 preferences and requirements. There are many, many aspects that can
1227 be customized. <quote>Actions</quote>
1228 can be adjusted by pointing your browser to
1229 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
1230 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
1231 and then follow the link to <quote>View & Change the Current Configuration</quote>.
1232 (This is an internal page and does not require Internet access.)
1236 In fact, various aspects of <application>Privoxy</application>
1237 configuration can be viewed from this page, including
1238 current configuration parameters, source code version numbers,
1239 the browser's request headers, and <quote>actions</quote> that apply
1240 to a given URL. In addition to the actions file
1241 editor mentioned above, <application>Privoxy</application> can also
1242 be turned <quote>on</quote> and <quote>off</quote> (toggled) from this page.
1246 If you encounter problems, try loading the page without
1247 <application>Privoxy</application>. If that helps, enter the URL where
1248 you have the problems into <ulink url="http://p.p/show-url-info">the browser
1249 based rule tracing utility</ulink>. See which rules apply and why, and
1250 then try turning them off for that site one after the other, until the problem
1251 is gone. When you have found the culprit, you might want to turn the rest on
1256 If the above paragraph sounds gibberish to you, you might want to <link
1257 linkend="actions-file">read more about the actions concept</link>
1258 or even dive deep into the <link linkend="actionsanat">Appendix
1263 If you can't get rid of the problem at all, think you've found a bug in
1264 Privoxy, want to propose a new feature or smarter rules, please see the
1265 section <link linkend="contact"><quote>Contacting the
1266 Developers</quote></link> below.
1271 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1272 <sect2 id="cmdoptions">
1273 <title>Command Line Options</title>
1275 <application>Privoxy</application> may be invoked with the following
1276 command-line options:
1284 <emphasis>--version</emphasis>
1287 Print version info and exit. Unix only.
1292 <emphasis>--help</emphasis>
1295 Print short usage info and exit. Unix only.
1300 <emphasis>--no-daemon</emphasis>
1303 Don't become a daemon, i.e. don't fork and become process group
1304 leader, and don't detach from controlling tty. Unix only.
1309 <emphasis>--pidfile FILE</emphasis>
1313 On startup, write the process ID to <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>. Delete the
1314 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> on exit. Failure to create or delete the
1315 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> is non-fatal. If no <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>
1316 option is given, no PID file will be used. Unix only.
1321 <emphasis>--user USER[.GROUP]</emphasis>
1325 After (optionally) writing the PID file, assume the user ID of
1326 <emphasis>USER</emphasis>, and if included the GID of GROUP. Exit if the
1327 privileges are not sufficient to do so. Unix only.
1332 <emphasis>--chroot</emphasis>
1336 Before changing to the user ID given in the <emphasis>--user</emphasis> option,
1337 chroot to that user's home directory, i.e. make the kernel pretend to the Privoxy
1338 process that the directory tree starts there. If set up carefully, this can limit
1339 the impact of possible vulnerabilities in Privoxy to the files contained in that hierarchy.
1345 <emphasis>configfile</emphasis>
1348 If no <emphasis>configfile</emphasis> is included on the command line,
1349 <application>Privoxy</application> will look for a file named
1350 <quote>config</quote> in the current directory (except on Win32
1351 where it will look for <quote>config.txt</quote> instead). Specify
1352 full path to avoid confusion. If no config file is found,
1353 <application>Privoxy</application> will fail to start.
1364 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1367 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1368 <sect1 id="configuration"><title><application>Privoxy</application> Configuration</title>
1370 All <application>Privoxy</application> configuration is stored
1371 in text files. These files can be edited with a text editor.
1372 Many important aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> can
1373 also be controlled easily with a web browser.
1377 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1380 <title>Controlling <application>Privoxy</application> with Your Web Browser</title>
1382 <application>Privoxy</application>'s user interface can be reached through the special
1383 URL <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
1384 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
1385 which is a built-in page and works without Internet access.
1386 You will see the following section:
1390 <!-- Needs to be put in a table and colorized -->
1393 <bridgehead renderas="sect2"> Privoxy Menu</bridgehead>
1397 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">View & change the current configuration</ulink>
1400 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-version">View the source code version numbers</ulink>
1403 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request">View the request headers.</ulink>
1406 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">Look up which actions apply to a URL and why</ulink>
1409 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">Toggle Privoxy on or off</ulink>
1412 ▪ <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/
1413 &p-version;/user-manual/">Documentation</ulink>
1421 This should be self-explanatory. Note the first item leads to an editor for the
1422 <link linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>, which is where the ad, banner,
1423 cookie, and URL blocking magic is configured as well as other advanced features of
1424 <application>Privoxy</application>. This is an easy way to adjust various
1425 aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. The actions
1426 file, and other configuration files, are explained in detail below.
1430 <quote>Toggle Privoxy On or Off</quote> is handy for sites that might
1431 have problems with your current actions and filters. You can in fact use
1432 it as a test to see whether it is <application>Privoxy</application>
1433 causing the problem or not. <application>Privoxy</application> continues
1434 to run as a proxy in this case, but all manipulation is disabled, i.e.
1435 <application>Privoxy</application> acts like a normal forwarding proxy. There
1436 is even a toggle <link linkend="bookmarklets">Bookmarklet</link> offered, so
1437 that you can toggle <application>Privoxy</application> with one click from
1443 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1448 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1450 <sect2 id="confoverview">
1451 <title>Configuration Files Overview</title>
1453 For Unix, *BSD and Linux, all configuration files are located in
1454 <filename>/etc/privoxy/</filename> by default. For MS Windows, OS/2, and
1455 AmigaOS these are all in the same directory as the
1456 <application>Privoxy</application> executable. <![%p-not-stable;[ The name
1457 and number of configuration files has changed from previous versions, and is
1458 subject to change as development progresses.]]>
1462 The installed defaults provide a reasonable starting point, though
1463 some settings may be aggressive by some standards. For the time being, the
1464 principle configuration files are:
1472 The <link linkend="config">main configuration file</link> is named <filename>config</filename>
1473 on Linux, Unix, BSD, OS/2, and AmigaOS and <filename>config.txt</filename>
1474 on Windows. This is a required file.
1480 <filename>default.action</filename> (the main <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link>)
1481 is used to define which <quote>actions</quote> relating to banner-blocking, images, pop-ups,
1482 content modification, cookie handling etc should be applied by default. It also defines many
1483 exceptions (both positive and negative) from this default set of actions that enable
1484 <application>Privoxy</application> to selectively eliminate the junk, and only the junk, on
1485 as many websites as possible.
1488 Multiple actions files may be defined in <filename>config</filename>. These
1489 are processed in the order they are defined. Local customizations and locally
1490 preferred exceptions to the default policies as defined in
1491 <filename>default.action</filename> (which you will most probably want
1492 to define sooner or later) are probably best applied in
1493 <filename>user.action</filename>, where you can preserve them across
1494 upgrades. <filename>standard.action</filename> is for
1495 <application>Privoxy's</application> internal use.
1498 There is also a web based editor that can be accessed from
1500 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
1502 url="http://p.p/show-status">http://p.p/show-status</ulink>) for the
1503 various actions files.
1509 <quote>Filter files</quote> (the <link linkend="filter-file">filter
1510 file</link>) can be used to re-write the raw page content, including
1511 viewable text as well as embedded HTML and JavaScript, and whatever else
1512 lurks on any given web page. The filtering jobs are only pre-defined here;
1513 whether to apply them or not is up to the actions files.
1514 <filename>default.filter</filename> includes various filters made
1515 available for use by the developers. Some are much more intrusive than
1516 others, and all should be used with caution. You may define additional
1517 filter files in <filename>config</filename> as you can with
1518 actions files. We suggest <filename>user.filter</filename> for any
1519 locally defined filters or customizations.
1527 All files use the <quote><literal>#</literal></quote> character to denote a
1528 comment (the rest of the line will be ignored) and understand line continuation
1529 through placing a backslash ("<literal>\</literal>") as the very last character
1530 in a line. If the <literal>#</literal> is preceded by a backslash, it looses
1531 its special function. Placing a <literal>#</literal> in front of an otherwise
1532 valid configuration line to prevent it from being interpreted is called "commenting
1537 The actions files and filter files
1538 can use Perl style <link linkend="regex">regular expressions</link> for
1539 maximum flexibility.
1543 After making any changes, there is no need to restart
1544 <application>Privoxy</application> in order for the changes to take
1545 effect. <application>Privoxy</application> detects such changes
1546 automatically. Note, however, that it may take one or two additional
1547 requests for the change to take effect. When changing the listening address
1548 of <application>Privoxy</application>, these <quote>wake up</quote> requests
1549 must obviously be sent to the <emphasis>old</emphasis> listening address.
1554 While under development, the configuration content is subject to change.
1555 The below documentation may not be accurate by the time you read this.
1556 Also, what constitutes a <quote>default</quote> setting, may change, so
1557 please check all your configuration files on important issues.
1563 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1566 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
1568 <!-- **************************************************** -->
1569 <!-- Include config.sgml here -->
1570 <!-- This is where the entire config file is detailed. -->
1572 <!-- end include -->
1575 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1579 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
1581 <sect1 id="actions-file"><title>Actions Files</title>
1584 The actions files are used to define what <emphasis>actions</emphasis>
1585 <application>Privoxy</application> takes for which URLs, and thus determines
1586 how ad images, cookies and various other aspects of HTTP content and
1587 transactions are handled, and on which sites (or even parts thereof).
1588 There are a number of such actions, with a wide range of functionality.
1589 Each action does something a little different.
1590 These actions give us a veritable arsenal of tools with which to exert
1591 our control, preferences and independence.
1595 are three action files included with <application>Privoxy</application> with
1603 <filename>default.action</filename> - is the primary action file
1604 that sets the initial values for all actions. It is intended to
1605 provide a base level of functionality for
1606 <application>Privoxy's</application> array of features. So it is
1607 a set of broad rules that should work reasonably well for users everywhere.
1608 This is the file that the developers are keeping updated, and <link
1609 linkend="installation-keepupdated">making available to users</link>.
1614 <filename>user.action</filename> - is intended to be for local site
1615 preferences and exceptions. As an example, if your ISP or your bank
1616 has specific requirements, and need special handling, this kind of
1617 thing should go here. This file will not be upgraded.
1622 <filename>standard.action</filename> - is used by the web based editor,
1623 to set various pre-defined sets of rules for the default actions section
1624 in <filename>default.action</filename>. These have increasing levels of
1625 aggressiveness <emphasis>and have no influence on your browsing unless
1626 you select them explicitly in the editor</emphasis>. It is not recommend
1630 The default profiles, and their associated actions, as pre-defined in
1631 <filename>standard.action</filename> are:
1634 <table frame=all><title>Default Configurations</title>
1635 <tgroup cols=4 align=left colsep=1 rowsep=1>
1636 <colspec colname=c1>
1637 <colspec colname=c2>
1638 <colspec colname=c3>
1639 <colspec colname=c4>
1642 <entry>Feature</entry>
1643 <entry>Cautious</entry>
1644 <entry>Medium</entry>
1645 <entry>Adventuresome</entry>
1650 <!-- <entry>f1</entry> -->
1651 <!-- <entry>f2</entry> -->
1652 <!-- <entry>f3</entry> -->
1653 <!-- <entry>f4</entry> -->
1659 <entry>Ad-blocking by URL</entry>
1666 <entry>Ad-filtering by size</entry>
1673 <entry>GIF de-animation</entry>
1680 <entry>Referer forging</entry>
1687 <entry>Cookie handling</entry>
1689 <entry>session-only</entry>
1694 <entry>Pop-up killing</entry>
1695 <entry>unsolicited</entry>
1696 <entry>unsolicited</entry>
1701 <entry>Fast redirects</entry>
1708 <entry>HTML taming</entry>
1715 <entry>JavaScript taming</entry>
1722 <entry>Web-bug killing</entry>
1729 <entry>Fun text replacements</entry>
1736 <entry>Image tag reordering</entry>
1743 <entry>Ad-filtering by link</entry>
1750 <entry>Demoronizer</entry>
1767 The list of actions files to be used are defined in the main configuration
1768 file, and are processed in the order they are defined (e.g.
1769 <filename>default.action</filename> is typically process before
1770 <filename>user.action</filename>). The content of these can all be viewed and
1772 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
1776 An actions file typically has multiple sections. If you want to use
1777 <quote>aliases</quote> in an actions file, you have to place the (optional)
1778 <link linkend="aliases">alias section</link> at the top of that file.
1779 Then comes the default set of rules which will apply universally to all
1780 sites and pages (be <emphasis>very careful</emphasis> with using such a
1781 universal set in <filename>user.action</filename> or any other actions file after
1782 <filename>default.action</filename>, because it will override the result
1783 from consulting any previous file). And then below that,
1784 exceptions to the defined universal policies. You can regard
1785 <filename>user.action</filename> as an appendix to <filename>default.action</filename>,
1786 with the advantage that is a separate file, which makes preserving your
1787 personal settings across <application>Privoxy</application> upgrades easier.
1791 Actions can be used to block anything you want, including ads, banners, or
1792 just some obnoxious URL that you would rather not see. Cookies can be accepted
1793 or rejected, or accepted only during the current browser session (i.e. not
1794 written to disk), content can be modified, JavaScripts tamed, user-tracking
1795 fooled, and much more. See below for a <link linkend="actions">complete list
1799 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1801 <title>Finding the Right Mix</title>
1803 Note that some <link linkend="actions">actions</link>, like cookie suppression
1804 or script disabling, may render some sites unusable that rely on these
1805 techniques to work properly. Finding the right mix of actions is not always easy and
1806 certainly a matter of personal taste. In general, it can be said that the more
1807 <quote>aggressive</quote> your default settings (in the top section of the
1808 actions file) are, the more exceptions for <quote>trusted</quote> sites you
1809 will have to make later. If, for example, you want to crunch all cookies per
1810 default, you'll have to make exceptions from that rule for sites that you
1811 regularly use and that require cookies for actually useful puposes, like maybe
1812 your bank, favorite shop, or newspaper.
1816 We have tried to provide you with reasonable rules to start from in the
1817 distribution actions files. But there is no general rule of thumb on these
1818 things. There just are too many variables, and sites are constantly changing.
1819 Sooner or later you will want to change the rules (and read this chapter again :).
1823 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1825 <title>How to Edit</title>
1827 The easiest way to edit the actions files is with a browser by
1828 using our browser-based editor, which can be reached from <ulink
1829 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
1830 The editor allows both fine-grained control over every single feature on a
1831 per-URL basis, and easy choosing from wholesale sets of defaults like
1832 <quote>Cautious</quote>, <quote>Medium</quote> or <quote>Adventuresome</quote>.
1833 Warning: the <quote>Adventuresome</quote> setting is not only more aggressive,
1834 but includes settings that are fun and subversive, and which some may find of
1839 If you prefer plain text editing to GUIs, you can of course also directly edit the
1840 the actions files. Look at <filename>default.action</filename> which is richly
1846 <sect2 id="actions-apply">
1847 <title>How Actions are Applied to URLs</title>
1849 Actions files are divided into sections. There are special sections,
1850 like the <quote><link linkend="aliases">alias</link></quote> sections which will
1851 be discussed later. For now let's concentrate on regular sections: They have a
1852 heading line (often split up to multiple lines for readability) which consist
1853 of a list of actions, separated by whitespace and enclosed in curly braces.
1854 Below that, there is a list of URL patterns, each on a separate line.
1858 To determine which actions apply to a request, the URL of the request is
1859 compared to all patterns in each <quote>action file</quote> file. Every time it matches, the list of
1860 applicable actions for the URL is incrementally updated, using the heading
1861 of the section in which the pattern is located. If multiple matches for
1862 the same URL set the same action differently, the last match wins. If not,
1863 the effects are aggregated. E.g. a URL might match a regular section with
1864 a heading line of <literal>{
1865 +<link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link> }</literal>,
1866 then later another one with just <literal>{
1867 +<link linkend="block">block</link> }</literal>, resulting
1868 in <emphasis>both</emphasis> actions to apply.
1872 You can trace this process for any given URL by visiting <ulink
1873 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>.
1877 More detail on this is provided in the Appendix, <link linkend="ACTIONSANAT">
1878 Anatomy of an Action</link>.
1882 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1883 <sect2 id="af-patterns">
1884 <title>Patterns</title>
1886 As mentioned, <application>Privoxy</application> uses <quote>patterns</quote>
1887 to determine what actions might apply to which sites and pages your browser
1888 attempts to access. These <quote>patterns</quote> use wild card type
1889 <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> matching to achieve a high degree of
1890 flexibility. This allows one expression to be expanded and potentially match
1891 against many similar patterns.
1895 Generally, a <application>Privoxy</application> pattern has the form
1896 <literal><domain>/<path></literal>, where both the
1897 <literal><domain></literal> and <literal><path></literal> are
1898 optional. (This is why the special <literal>/</literal> pattern matches all
1899 URLs). Note that the protocol portion of the URL pattern (e.g.
1900 <literal>http://</literal>) should <emphasis>not</emphasis> be included in
1901 the pattern. This is assumed already!
1906 <term><literal>www.example.com/</literal></term>
1909 is a domain-only pattern and will match any request to <literal>www.example.com</literal>,
1910 regardless of which document on that server is requested.
1915 <term><literal>www.example.com</literal></term>
1918 means exactly the same. For domain-only patterns, the trailing <literal>/</literal> may
1924 <term><literal>www.example.com/index.html</literal></term>
1927 matches only the single document <literal>/index.html</literal>
1928 on <literal>www.example.com</literal>.
1933 <term><literal>/index.html</literal></term>
1936 matches the document <literal>/index.html</literal>, regardless of the domain,
1937 i.e. on <emphasis>any</emphasis> web server.
1942 <term><literal>index.html</literal></term>
1945 matches nothing, since it would be interpreted as a domain name and
1946 there is no top-level domain called <literal>.html</literal>.
1953 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1954 <sect3><title>The Domain Pattern</title>
1957 The matching of the domain part offers some flexible options: if the
1958 domain starts or ends with a dot, it becomes unanchored at that end.
1964 <term><literal>.example.com</literal></term>
1967 matches any domain that <emphasis>ENDS</emphasis> in
1968 <literal>.example.com</literal>
1973 <term><literal>www.</literal></term>
1976 matches any domain that <emphasis>STARTS</emphasis> with
1977 <literal>www.</literal>
1982 <term><literal>.example.</literal></term>
1985 matches any domain that <emphasis>CONTAINS</emphasis> <literal>.example.</literal>
1986 (Correctly speaking: It matches any FQDN that contains <literal>example</literal> as a domain.)
1993 Additionally, there are wild-cards that you can use in the domain names
1994 themselves. They work pretty similar to shell wild-cards: <quote>*</quote>
1995 stands for zero or more arbitrary characters, <quote>?</quote> stands for
1996 any single character, you can define character classes in square
1997 brackets and all of that can be freely mixed:
2002 <term><literal>ad*.example.com</literal></term>
2005 matches <quote>adserver.example.com</quote>,
2006 <quote>ads.example.com</quote>, etc but not <quote>sfads.example.com</quote>
2011 <term><literal>*ad*.example.com</literal></term>
2014 matches all of the above, and then some.
2019 <term><literal>.?pix.com</literal></term>
2022 matches <literal>www.ipix.com</literal>,
2023 <literal>pictures.epix.com</literal>, <literal>a.b.c.d.e.upix.com</literal> etc.
2028 <term><literal>www[1-9a-ez].example.c*</literal></term>
2031 matches <literal>www1.example.com</literal>,
2032 <literal>www4.example.cc</literal>, <literal>wwwd.example.cy</literal>,
2033 <literal>wwwz.example.com</literal> etc., but <emphasis>not</emphasis>
2034 <literal>wwww.example.com</literal>.
2042 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2045 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2046 <sect3><title>The Path Pattern</title>
2049 <application>Privoxy</application> uses Perl compatible regular expressions
2050 (through the <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/">PCRE</ulink> library) for
2055 There is an <link linkend="regex">Appendix</link> with a brief quick-start into regular
2056 expressions, and full (very technical) documentation on PCRE regex syntax is available on-line
2057 at <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/man.txt">http://www.pcre.org/man.txt</ulink>.
2058 You might also find the Perl man page on regular expressions (<literal>man perlre</literal>)
2059 useful, which is available on-line at <ulink
2060 url="http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html">http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html</ulink>.
2064 Note that the path pattern is automatically left-anchored at the <quote>/</quote>,
2065 i.e. it matches as if it would start with a <quote>^</quote> (regular expression speak
2066 for the beginning of a line).
2070 Please also note that matching in the path is <emphasis>CASE INSENSITIVE</emphasis>
2071 by default, but you can switch to case sensitive at any point in the pattern by using the
2072 <quote>(?-i)</quote> switch: <literal>www.example.com/(?-i)PaTtErN.*</literal> will match
2073 only documents whose path starts with <literal>PaTtErN</literal> in
2074 <emphasis>exactly</emphasis> this capitalization.
2080 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2083 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2085 <sect2 id="actions">
2086 <title>Actions</title>
2088 All actions are disabled by default, until they are explicitly enabled
2089 somewhere in an actions file. Actions are turned on if preceded with a
2090 <quote>+</quote>, and turned off if preceded with a <quote>-</quote>. So a
2091 <literal>+action</literal> means <quote>do that action</quote>, e.g.
2092 <literal>+block</literal> means <quote>please block URLs that match the
2093 following patterns</quote>, and <literal>-block</literal> means <quote>don't
2094 block URLs that match the following patterns, even if <literal>+block</literal>
2095 previously applied.</quote>
2100 Again, actions are invoked by placing them on a line, enclosed in curly braces and
2101 separated by whitespace, like in
2102 <literal>{+some-action -some-other-action{some-parameter}}</literal>,
2103 followed by a list of URL patterns, one per line, to which they apply.
2104 Together, the actions line and the following pattern lines make up a section
2105 of the actions file.
2109 There are three classes of actions:
2116 Boolean, i.e the action can only be <quote>enabled</quote> or
2117 <quote>disabled</quote>. Syntax:
2121 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # enable action <replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable>
2122 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # disable action <replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable></screen>
2125 Example: <literal>+block</literal>
2132 Parameterized, where some value is required in order to enable this type of action.
2137 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # enable action and set parameter to <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>,
2138 # overwriting parameter from previous match if necessary
2139 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # disable action. The parameter can be omitted</screen>
2142 Note that if the URL matches multiple positive forms of a parameterized action,
2143 the last match wins, i.e. the params from earlier matches are simply ignored.
2146 Example: <literal>+hide-user-agent{ Mozilla 1.0 }</literal>
2152 Multi-value. These look exactly like parameterized actions,
2153 but they behave differently: If the action applies multiple times to the
2154 same URL, but with different parameters, <emphasis>all</emphasis> the parameters
2155 from <emphasis>all</emphasis> matches are remembered. This is used for actions
2156 that can be executed for the same request repeatedly, like adding multiple
2157 headers, or filtering through multiple filters. Syntax:
2161 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # enable action and add <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable> to the list of parameters
2162 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # remove the parameter <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable> from the list of parameters
2163 # If it was the last one left, disable the action.
2164 <replaceable class="parameter">-name</replaceable> # disable this action completely and remove all parameters from the list</screen>
2167 Examples: <literal>+add-header{X-Fun-Header: Some text}</literal> and
2168 <literal>+filter{html-annoyances}</literal>
2176 If nothing is specified in any actions file, no <quote>actions</quote> are
2177 taken. So in this case <application>Privoxy</application> would just be a
2178 normal, non-blocking, non-anonymizing proxy. You must specifically enable the
2179 privacy and blocking features you need (although the provided default actions
2180 files will give a good starting point).
2184 Later defined actions always over-ride earlier ones. So exceptions
2185 to any rules you make, should come in the latter part of the file (or
2186 in a file that is processed later when using multiple actions files). For
2187 multi-valued actions, the actions are applied in the order they are specified.
2188 Actions files are processed in the order they are defined in
2189 <filename>config</filename> (the default installation has three actions
2190 files). It also quite possible for any given URL pattern to match more than
2191 one pattern and thus more than one set of actions!
2194 <!-- start actions listing -->
2196 The list of valid <application>Privoxy</application> actions are:
2200 <!-- ********************************************************** -->
2201 <!-- Please note the below defined actions use id's that are -->
2202 <!-- probably linked from other places, so please don't change. -->
2204 <!-- ********************************************************** -->
2207 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2209 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="add-header">
2210 <title>add-header</title>
2214 <term>Typical use:</term>
2216 <para>Confuse log analysis, custom applications</para>
2221 <term>Effect:</term>
2224 Sends a user defined HTTP header to the web server.
2231 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2233 <para>Multi-value.</para>
2238 <term>Parameter:</term>
2241 Any string value is possible. Validity of the defined HTTP headers is not checked.
2242 It is recommended that you use the <quote><literal>X-</literal></quote> prefix
2252 This action may be specified multiple times, in order to define multiple
2253 headers. This is rarely needed for the typical user. If you don't know what
2254 <quote>HTTP headers</quote> are, you definitely don't need to worry about this
2261 <term>Example usage:</term>
2264 <screen>+add-header{X-User-Tracking: sucks}</screen>
2272 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2273 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="block">
2274 <title>block</title>
2278 <term>Typical use:</term>
2280 <para>Block ads or other obnoxious content</para>
2285 <term>Effect:</term>
2288 Requests for URLs to which this action applies are blocked, i.e. the requests are not
2289 forwarded to the remote server, but answered locally with a substitute page or image,
2290 as determined by the <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>
2291 and <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal> actions.
2298 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2300 <para>Boolean.</para>
2305 <term>Parameter:</term>
2315 <application>Privoxy</application> sends a special <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page
2316 for requests to blocked pages. This page contains links to find out why the request
2317 was blocked, and a click-through to the blocked content (the latter only if compiled with the
2318 force feature enabled). The <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page adapts to the available
2319 screen space -- it displays full-blown if space allows, or miniaturized and text-only
2320 if loaded into a small frame or window. If you are using <application>Privoxy</application>
2321 right now, you can take a look at the
2322 <ulink url="http://ads.bannerserver.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor.html"><quote>BLOCKED</quote>
2326 A very important exception occurs if <emphasis>both</emphasis>
2327 <literal>block</literal> and <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>,
2328 apply to the same request: it will then be replaced by an image. If
2329 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>
2330 (see below) also applies, the type of image will be determined by its parameter,
2331 if not, the standard checkerboard pattern is sent.
2334 It is important to understand this process, in order
2335 to understand how <application>Privoxy</application> deals with
2336 ads and other unwanted content.
2339 The <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>
2340 action can perform a very similar task, by <quote>blocking</quote>
2341 banner images and other content through rewriting the relevant URLs in the
2342 document's HTML source, so they don't get requested in the first place.
2343 Note that this is a totally different technique, and it's easy to confuse the two.
2349 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
2352 <screen>{+block} # Block and replace with "blocked" page
2353 .nasty-stuff.example.com
2355 {+block +handle-as-image} # Block and replace with image
2367 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2368 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="content-type-overwrite">
2372 <title>content-type-overwrite</title>
2376 <term>Typical use:</term>
2378 <para>Stop useless download menus from popping up, or change the browser's rendering mode</para>
2383 <term>Effect:</term>
2386 Replaces the <quote>Content-Type:</quote> HTTP server header.
2393 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
2395 <para>Parameterized.</para>
2400 <term>Parameter:</term>
2412 The <quote>Content-Type:</quote> HTTP server header is used by the
2413 browser to decide what to do with the document. The value of this
2414 header can cause the browser to open a download menu instead of
2415 displaying the document by itself, even if the document's format is
2416 supported by the browser.
2419 The declared content type can also affect which rendering mode
2420 the browser chooses. If XHTML is delivered as <quote>text/html</quote>,
2421 many browsers treat it as yet another broken HTML document.
2422 If it is send as <quote>application/xml</quote>, browsers with
2423 XHTML support will only display it, if the syntax is correct.
2426 If you see a web site that proudly uses XHTML buttons, but sets
2427 <quote>Content-Type: text/html</quote>, you can use Privoxy
2428 to overwrite it with <quote>application/xml</quote> and validate
2429 the web master's claim inside your XHTML-supporting browser.
2430 If the syntax is incorrect, the browser will complain loudly.
2433 You can also go the opposite direction: if your browser prints
2434 error messages instead of rendering a document falsely declared
2435 as XHTML, you can overwrite the content type with
2436 <quote>text/html</quote> and have it rendered as broken HTML document.
2439 By default <literal>content-type-overwrite</literal> only replaces
2440 <quote>Content-Type:</quote> headers that look like some kind of text.
2441 If you want to overwrite it unconditionally, you have to combine it with
2442 <literal><link linkend="force-text-mode">force-text-mode</link></literal>.
2443 This limitation exists for a reason, think twice before circumventing it.
2446 Most of the time it's easier to enable
2447 <literal><link linkend="filter-server-headers">filter-server-headers</link></literal>
2448 and replace this action with a custom regular expression. It allows you
2449 to activate it for every document of a certain site and it will still
2450 only replace the content types you aimed at.
2453 Of course you can apply <literal>content-type-overwrite</literal>
2454 to a whole site and then make URL based exceptions, but it's a lot
2455 more work to get the same precision.
2461 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
2464 <screen># Check if www.example.net/ really uses valid XHTML
2465 {+content-type-overwrite {application/xml}}
2467 # but leave the content type unmodified if the URL looks like a style sheet
2468 {-content-type-overwrite}
2469 www.example.net/*.\.css$
2470 www.example.net/*.style
2479 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2480 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-client-header">
2484 <title>crunch-client-header</title>
2488 <term>Typical use:</term>
2490 <para>Remove a client header <application>Privoxy</application> has no dedicated action for.</para>
2495 <term>Effect:</term>
2498 Deletes every header sent by the client that contains the string the user supplied as parameter.
2505 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
2507 <para>Parameterized.</para>
2512 <term>Parameter:</term>
2524 This action allows you to block client headers for which no dedicated
2525 <application>Privoxy</application> action exists.
2526 <application>Privoxy</application> will remove every client header that
2527 contains the string you supplied as parameter.
2530 Regular expressions are <emphasis>not supported</emphasis> and you can't
2531 use this action to block different headers in the same request, unless
2532 they contain the same string.
2535 <literal>crunch-client-header</literal> is only meant for quick tests.
2536 If you have to block several different headers, or only want to modify
2537 parts of them, you should enable
2538 <literal><link linkend="filter-client-headers">filter-client-headers</link></literal>
2539 and create your own filter.
2543 Don't block any header without understanding the consequences.
2550 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
2553 <screen># Block the non-existent "Privacy-Violation:" client header
2554 {+crunch-client-header {Privacy-Violation:}}
2564 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2565 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-if-none-match">
2566 <title>crunch-if-none-match</title>
2572 <term>Typical use:</term>
2574 <para>Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.</para>
2579 <term>Effect:</term>
2582 Deletes the <quote>If-None-Match:</quote> HTTP client header.
2589 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
2591 <para>Boolean.</para>
2596 <term>Parameter:</term>
2608 Removing the <quote>If-None-Match:</quote> HTTP client header
2609 is useful for filter testing, where you want to force a real
2610 reload instead of getting status code <quote>304</quote> which
2611 would cause the browser to use a cached copy of the page.
2614 It is also useful to make sure the header isn't used as a cookie
2618 Blocking the <quote>If-None-Match:</quote> header shouldn't cause any
2619 caching problems, as long as the <quote>If-Modified-Since:</quote> header
2620 isn't blocked as well.
2623 It is recommended to use this action together with
2624 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hide-if-modified-since</link></literal>
2626 <literal><link linkend="overwrite-last-modified">overwrite-last-modified</link></literal>.
2632 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
2635 <screen># Let the browser revalidate cached documents without being tracked across sessions
2636 {+hide-if-modified-since {-1} \
2637 +overwrite-last-modified {randomize} \
2638 +crunch-if-none-match}
2647 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2648 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-incoming-cookies">
2649 <title>crunch-incoming-cookies</title>
2653 <term>Typical use:</term>
2656 Prevent the web server from setting any cookies on your system
2662 <term>Effect:</term>
2665 Deletes any <quote>Set-Cookie:</quote> HTTP headers from server replies.
2672 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
2674 <para>Boolean.</para>
2679 <term>Parameter:</term>
2691 This action is only concerned with <emphasis>incoming</emphasis> cookies. For
2692 <emphasis>outgoing</emphasis> cookies, use
2693 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>.
2694 Use <emphasis>both</emphasis> to disable cookies completely.
2697 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use this action in conjunction
2698 with the <literal><link linkend="session-cookies-only">session-cookies-only</link></literal> action,
2699 since it would prevent the session cookies from being set. See also
2700 <literal><link linkend="filter-content-cookies">filter-content-cookies</link></literal>.
2706 <term>Example usage:</term>
2709 <screen>+crunch-incoming-cookies</screen>
2717 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2718 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-server-header">
2719 <title>crunch-server-header</title>
2725 <term>Typical use:</term>
2727 <para>Remove a server header <application>Privoxy</application> has no dedicated action for.</para>
2732 <term>Effect:</term>
2735 Deletes every header sent by the server that contains the string the user supplied as parameter.
2742 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
2744 <para>Parameterized.</para>
2749 <term>Parameter:</term>
2761 This action allows you to block server headers for which no dedicated
2762 <application>Privoxy</application> action exists. <application>Privoxy</application>
2763 will remove every server header that contains the string you supplied as parameter.
2766 Regular expressions are <emphasis>not supported</emphasis> and you can't
2767 use this action to block different headers in the same request, unless
2768 they contain the same string.
2771 <literal>crunch-server-header</literal> is only meant for quick tests.
2772 If you have to block several different headers, or only want to modify
2773 parts of them, you should enable
2774 <literal><link linkend="filter-server-headers">filter-server-headers</link></literal>
2775 and create your own filter.
2779 Don't block any header without understanding the consequences.
2786 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
2789 <screen># Crunch server headers that try to prevent caching
2790 {+crunch-server-header {no-cache}}
2799 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2800 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-outgoing-cookies">
2801 <title>crunch-outgoing-cookies</title>
2805 <term>Typical use:</term>
2808 Prevent the web server from reading any cookies from your system
2814 <term>Effect:</term>
2817 Deletes any <quote>Cookie:</quote> HTTP headers from client requests.
2824 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
2826 <para>Boolean.</para>
2831 <term>Parameter:</term>
2843 This action is only concerned with <emphasis>outgoing</emphasis> cookies. For
2844 <emphasis>incoming</emphasis> cookies, use
2845 <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal>.
2846 Use <emphasis>both</emphasis> to disable cookies completely.
2849 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use this action in conjunction
2850 with the <literal><link linkend="session-cookies-only">session-cookies-only</link></literal> action,
2851 since it would prevent the session cookies from being read.
2857 <term>Example usage:</term>
2860 <screen>+crunch-outgoing-cookies</screen>
2869 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2870 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="deanimate-gifs">
2871 <title>deanimate-gifs</title>
2875 <term>Typical use:</term>
2877 <para>Stop those annoying, distracting animated GIF images.</para>
2882 <term>Effect:</term>
2885 De-animate GIF animations, i.e. reduce them to their first or last image.
2892 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2894 <para>Parameterized.</para>
2899 <term>Parameter:</term>
2902 <quote>last</quote> or <quote>first</quote>
2911 This will also shrink the images considerably (in bytes, not pixels!). If
2912 the option <quote>first</quote> is given, the first frame of the animation
2913 is used as the replacement. If <quote>last</quote> is given, the last
2914 frame of the animation is used instead, which probably makes more sense for
2915 most banner animations, but also has the risk of not showing the entire
2916 last frame (if it is only a delta to an earlier frame).
2919 You can safely use this action with patterns that will also match non-GIF
2920 objects, because no attempt will be made at anything that doesn't look like
2927 <term>Example usage:</term>
2930 <screen>+deanimate-gifs{last}</screen>
2937 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2938 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="downgrade-http-version">
2939 <title>downgrade-http-version</title>
2943 <term>Typical use:</term>
2945 <para>Work around (very rare) problems with HTTP/1.1</para>
2950 <term>Effect:</term>
2953 Downgrades HTTP/1.1 client requests and server replies to HTTP/1.0.
2960 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2962 <para>Boolean.</para>
2967 <term>Parameter:</term>
2979 This is a left-over from the time when <application>Privoxy</application>
2980 didn't support important HTTP/1.1 features well. It is left here for the
2981 unlikely case that you experience HTTP/1.1 related problems with some server
2982 out there. Not all (optional) HTTP/1.1 features are supported yet, so there
2983 is a chance you might need this action.
2989 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
2992 <screen>{+downgrade-http-version}
2993 problem-host.example.com</screen>
3001 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3002 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="fast-redirects">
3003 <title>fast-redirects</title>
3007 <term>Typical use:</term>
3009 <para>Fool some click-tracking scripts and speed up indirect links.</para>
3014 <term>Effect:</term>
3017 Detects redirection URLs and redirects the browser without contacting
3018 the redirection server first.
3025 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3027 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3032 <term>Parameter:</term>
3037 <quote>simple-check</quote> to just search for the string <quote>http://</quote>
3038 to detect redirection URLs.
3043 <quote>check-decoded-url</quote> to decode URLs (if necessary) before searching
3044 for redirection URLs.
3055 Many sites, like yahoo.com, don't just link to other sites. Instead, they
3056 will link to some script on their own servers, giving the destination as a
3057 parameter, which will then redirect you to the final target. URLs
3058 resulting from this scheme typically look like:
3059 <quote>http://www.example.org/click-tracker.cgi?target=http%3a//www.example.net/</quote>.
3062 Sometimes, there are even multiple consecutive redirects encoded in the
3063 URL. These redirections via scripts make your web browsing more traceable,
3064 since the server from which you follow such a link can see where you go
3065 to. Apart from that, valuable bandwidth and time is wasted, while your
3066 browser asks the server for one redirect after the other. Plus, it feeds
3070 This feature is currently not very smart and is scheduled for improvement.
3071 If it is enabled by default, you will have to create some exceptions to
3072 this action. It can lead to failures in several ways:
3075 Not every URLs with other URLs as parameters is evil.
3076 Some sites offer a real service that requires this information to work.
3077 For example a validation service needs to know, which document to validate.
3078 <literal>fast-redirects</literal> assumes that every URL parameter that
3079 looks like another URL is a redirection target, and will always redirect to
3080 the last one. Most of the time the assumption is correct, but if it isn't,
3081 the user gets redirected anyway.
3084 Another failure occurs if the URL contains other parameters after the URL parameter.
3086 <quote>http://www.example.org/?redirect=http%3a//www.example.net/&foo=bar</quote>.
3087 contains the redirection URL <quote>http://www.example.net/</quote>,
3088 followed by another parameter. <literal>fast-redirects</literal> doesn't know that
3089 and will cause a redirect to <quote>http://www.example.net/&foo=bar</quote>.
3090 Depending on the target server configuration, the parameter will be silently ignored
3091 or lead to a <quote>page not found</quote> error. It is possible to fix these redirected
3092 requests with <literal><link linkend="filter-client-headers">filter-client-headers</link></literal>
3093 but it requires a little effort.
3096 To detect a redirection URL, <literal>fast-redirects</literal> only
3097 looks for the string <quote>http://</quote>, either in plain text
3098 (invalid but often used) or encoded as <quote>http%3a//</quote>.
3099 Some sites use their own URL encoding scheme, encrypt the address
3100 of the target server or replace it with a database id. In theses cases
3101 <literal>fast-redirects</literal> is fooled and the request reaches the
3102 redirection server where it probably gets logged.
3108 <term>Example usage:</term>
3111 <screen>+fast-redirects{simple-check}</screen>
3114 <screen>+fast-redirects{check-decoded-url}</screen>
3123 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3124 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="filter">
3125 <title>filter</title>
3129 <term>Typical use:</term>
3131 <para>Get rid of HTML and JavaScript annoyances, banner advertisements (by size), do fun text replacements, etc.</para>
3136 <term>Effect:</term>
3139 All files of text-based type, most notably HTML and JavaScript, to which this
3140 action applies, are filtered on-the-fly through the specified regular expression
3141 based substitutions. (Note: as of version 3.0.3 plain text documents
3142 are exempted from filtering, because web servers often use the
3143 <literal>text/plain</literal> MIME type for all files whose type they
3144 don't know.) By default, filtering works only on the document content
3145 itself, not the headers.
3152 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3154 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3159 <term>Parameter:</term>
3162 The name of a filter, as defined in the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file</link>.
3163 Filters can be defined in one or more files as defined by the
3164 <literal><link linkend="filterfile">filterfile</link></literal>
3165 option in the <link linkend="config">config file</link>.
3166 <filename>default.filter</filename> is the collection of filters
3167 supplied by the developers. Locally defined filters should go
3168 in their own file, such as <filename>user.filter</filename>.
3171 When used in its negative form,
3172 and without parameters, filtering is completely disabled.
3181 For your convenience, there are a number of pre-defined filters available
3182 in the distribution filter file that you can use. See the examples below for
3186 Filtering requires buffering the page content, which may appear to
3187 slow down page rendering since nothing is displayed until all content has
3188 passed the filters. (It does not really take longer, but seems that way
3189 since the page is not incrementally displayed.) This effect will be more
3190 noticeable on slower connections.
3193 This is very powerful feature, and <quote>rolling your own</quote>
3194 filters requires a knowledge of regular expressions and HTML.
3197 The amount of data that can be filtered is limited to the
3198 <literal><link linkend="buffer-limit">buffer-limit</link></literal>
3199 option in the main <link linkend="config">config file</link>. The
3200 default is 4096 KB (4 Megs). Once this limit is exceeded, the buffered
3201 data, and all pending data, is passed through unfiltered.
3204 Inadequate MIME types, such as zipped files, are not filtered at all.
3205 (Again, only text-based types except plain text). Encrypted SSL data
3206 (from HTTPS servers) cannot be filtered either, since this would violate
3207 the integrity of the secure transaction. In some situations it might
3208 be necessary to protect certain text, like source code, from filtering
3209 by defining appropriate <literal>-filter</literal> sections.
3212 At this time, <application>Privoxy</application> cannot (yet!) uncompress compressed
3213 documents. If you want filtering to work on all documents, even those that
3214 would normally be sent compressed, use the
3215 <literal><link linkend="prevent-compression">prevent-compression</link></literal>
3216 action in conjunction with <literal>filter</literal>.
3219 Filtering can achieve some of the same effects as the
3220 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>
3221 action, i.e. it can be used to block ads and banners. But the mechanism
3222 works quite differently. One effective use, is to block ad banners
3223 based on their size (see below), since many of these seem to be somewhat
3227 <link linkend="contact">Feedback</link> with suggestions for new or
3228 improved filters is particularly welcome!
3231 The below list has only the names and a one-line description of each
3232 predefined filter. There are <link linkend="predefined-filters">more
3233 verbose explanations</link> of what these filters do in the <link
3234 linkend="filter-file">filter file chapter</link>.
3240 <term>Example usage (with filters from the distribution <filename>default.filter</filename> file).
3241 See <link linkend="PREDEFINED-FILTERS">the Predefined Filters section</link> for
3242 more explanation on each:</term>
3245 <anchor id="filter-js-annoyances">
3246 <screen>+filter{js-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse</screen>
3249 <anchor id="filter-js-events">
3250 <screen>+filter{js-events} # Kill all JS event bindings (Radically destructive! Only for extra nasty sites)</screen>
3253 <anchor id="filter-html-annoyances">
3254 <screen>+filter{html-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying HTML abuse</screen>
3257 <anchor id="filter-content-cookies">
3258 <screen>+filter{content-cookies} # Kill cookies that come in the HTML or JS content</screen>
3261 <anchor id="filter-refresh-tags">
3262 <screen>+filter{refresh-tags} # Kill automatic refresh tags (for dial-on-demand setups)</screen>
3265 <anchor id="filter-unsolicited-popups">
3266 <screen>+filter{unsolicited-popups} # Disable only unsolicited pop-up windows</screen>
3269 <anchor id="filter-all-popups">
3270 <screen>+filter{all-popups} # Kill all popups in JavaScript and HTML</screen>
3273 <anchor id="filter-img-reorder">
3274 <screen>+filter{img-reorder} # Reorder attributes in <img> tags to make the banners-by-* filters more effective</screen>
3277 <anchor id="filter-banners-by-size">
3278 <screen>+filter{banners-by-size} # Kill banners by size</screen>
3281 <anchor id="filter-banners-by-link">
3282 <screen>+filter{banners-by-link} # Kill banners by their links to known clicktrackers</screen>
3285 <anchor id="filter-webbugs">
3286 <screen>+filter{webbugs} # Squish WebBugs (1x1 invisible GIFs used for user tracking)</screen>
3289 <anchor id="filter-tiny-textforms">
3290 <screen>+filter{tiny-textforms} # Extend those tiny textareas up to 40x80 and kill the hard wrap</screen>
3293 <anchor id="filter-jumping-windows">
3294 <screen>+filter{jumping-windows} # Prevent windows from resizing and moving themselves</screen>
3297 <anchor id="filter-frameset-borders">
3298 <screen>+filter{frameset-borders} # Give frames a border and make them resizable</screen>
3301 <anchor id="filter-demoronizer">
3302 <screen>+filter{demoronizer} # Fix MS's non-standard use of standard charsets</screen>
3305 <anchor id="filter-shockwave-flash">
3306 <screen>+filter{shockwave-flash} # Kill embedded Shockwave Flash objects</screen>
3309 <anchor id="filter-quicktime-kioskmode">
3310 <screen>+filter{quicktime-kioskmode} # Make Quicktime movies saveable</screen>
3313 <anchor id="filter-fun">
3314 <screen>+filter{fun} # Text replacements for subversive browsing fun!</screen>
3317 <anchor id="filter-crude-parental">
3318 <screen>+filter{crude-parental} # Crude parental filtering (demo only)</screen>
3321 <anchor id="filter-ie-exploits">
3322 <screen>+filter{ie-exploits} # Disable some known Internet Explorer bug exploits</screen>
3330 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3331 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="filter-client-headers">
3332 <title>filter-client-headers</title>
3336 <term>Typical use:</term>
3339 To apply filtering to the client's (browser's) headers
3345 <term>Effect:</term>
3348 By default, <application>Privoxy's</application> filters only apply
3349 to the document content itself. This will extend those filters to
3350 include the client's headers as well.
3357 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3359 <para>Boolean.</para>
3364 <term>Parameter:</term>
3376 Regular expressions can be used to filter headers as well. Check your
3377 filters closely before activating this action, as it can easily lead to broken
3381 These filters are applied to each header on its own, not to them
3382 all at once. This makes it easier to diagnose problems, but on the downside
3383 you can't write filters that only change header x if header y's value is
3387 The filters are used after the other header actions have finished and can
3388 use their output as input.
3392 Whenever possible one should specify <literal>^</literal>,
3393 <literal>$</literal>, the whole header name and the colon, to make sure
3394 the filter doesn't cause havoc to other headers or the
3395 page itself. For example if you want to transform
3396 <application>Galeon</application> User-Agents to
3397 <application>Firefox</application> User-Agents you
3402 s@Galeon/\d\.\d\.\d @@
3408 s@^(User-Agent:.*) Galeon/\d\.\d\.\d (Firefox/\d\.\d\.\d\.\d)$@$1 $2@
3415 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3419 {+filter-client-headers +filter{test_filter}}
3420 problem-host.example.com
3430 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3431 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="filter-server-headers">
3432 <title>filter-server-headers</title>
3436 <term>Typical use:</term>
3439 To apply filtering to the server's headers
3445 <term>Effect:</term>
3448 By default, <application>Privoxy's</application> filters only apply
3449 to the document content itself. This will extend those filters to
3450 include the server's headers as well.
3457 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3459 <para>Boolean.</para>
3464 <term>Parameter:</term>
3476 Similar to <literal>filter-client-headers</literal>, but works on
3477 the server instead. To filter both server and client, use both.
3480 As with <literal>filter-client-headers</literal>, check your
3481 filters before activating this action, as it can easily lead to broken
3485 These filters are applied to each header on its own, not to them
3486 all at once. This makes it easier to diagnose problems, but on the downside
3487 you can't write filters that only change header x if header y's value is
3491 The filters are used after the other header actions have finished and can
3492 use their output as input.
3495 Remember too, whenever possible one should specify <literal>^</literal>,
3496 <literal>$</literal>, the whole header name and the colon, to make sure
3497 the filter doesn't cause havoc to other headers or the
3498 page itself. See above for example.
3505 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3509 {+filter-server-headers +filter{test_filter}}
3510 problem-host.example.com
3520 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3521 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="force-text-mode">
3522 <title>force-text-mode</title>
3528 <term>Typical use:</term>
3530 <para>Force <application>Privoxy</application> to treat a document as if it was in some kind of <emphasis>text</emphasis> format. </para>
3535 <term>Effect:</term>
3538 Declares a document as text, even if the <quote>Content-Type:</quote> isn't detected as such.
3545 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3547 <para>Boolean.</para>
3552 <term>Parameter:</term>
3564 As explained <literal><link linkend="filter">above</link></literal>,
3565 <application>Privoxy</application> tries to only filter files that are
3566 in some kind of text format. The same restrictions apply to
3567 <literal><link linkend="content-type-overwrite">content-type-overwrite</link></literal>.
3568 <literal>force-text-mode</literal> declares a document as text,
3569 without looking at the <quote>Content-Type:</quote> first.
3573 Think twice before activating this action. Filtering binary data
3574 with regular expressions can cause file damage.
3581 <term>Example usage:</term>
3594 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3595 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="handle-as-empty-document">
3596 <title>handle-as-empty-document</title>
3602 <term>Typical use:</term>
3604 <para>Mark URLs that should be replaced by empty documents <emphasis>if they get blocked</emphasis></para>
3609 <term>Effect:</term>
3612 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. It just marks URLs.
3613 If the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action <emphasis>also applies</emphasis>,
3614 the presence or absence of this mark decides whether an HTML <quote>blocked</quote>
3615 page, or an empty document will be sent to the client as a substitute for the blocked content.
3616 The <emphasis>empty</emphasis> document isn't literally empty, but actually contains a single space.
3623 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3625 <para>Boolean.</para>
3630 <term>Parameter:</term>
3642 Some browsers complain about syntax errors if JavaScript documents
3643 are blocked with <application>Privoxy's</application>
3644 default HTML page; this option can be used to silence them.
3647 The content type for the empty document can be specified with
3648 <literal><link linkend="content-type-overwrite">content-type-overwrite{}</link></literal>,
3649 but usually this isn't necessary.
3655 <term>Example usage:</term>
3658 <screen># Block all documents on example.org that end with ".js",
3659 # but send an empty document instead of the usual HTML message.
3660 {+block +handle-as-empty-document}
3670 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3671 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="handle-as-image">
3672 <title>handle-as-image</title>
3676 <term>Typical use:</term>
3678 <para>Mark URLs as belonging to images (so they'll be replaced by imagee <emphasis>if they get blocked</emphasis>)</para>
3683 <term>Effect:</term>
3686 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. It just marks URLs as images.
3687 If the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action <emphasis>also applies</emphasis>,
3688 the presence or absence of this mark decides whether an HTML <quote>blocked</quote>
3689 page, or a replacement image (as determined by the <literal><link
3690 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal> action) will be sent to the
3691 client as a substitute for the blocked content.
3698 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3700 <para>Boolean.</para>
3705 <term>Parameter:</term>
3717 The below generic example section is actually part of <filename>default.action</filename>.
3718 It marks all URLs with well-known image file name extensions as images and should
3722 Users will probably only want to use the handle-as-image action in conjunction with
3723 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>, to block sources of banners, whose URLs don't
3724 reflect the file type, like in the second example section.
3727 Note that you cannot treat HTML pages as images in most cases. For instance, (in-line) ad
3728 frames require an HTML page to be sent, or they won't display properly.
3729 Forcing <literal>handle-as-image</literal> in this situation will not replace the
3730 ad frame with an image, but lead to error messages.
3736 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
3739 <screen># Generic image extensions:
3742 /.*\.(gif|jpg|jpeg|png|bmp|ico)$
3744 # These don't look like images, but they're banners and should be
3745 # blocked as images:
3747 {+block +handle-as-image}
3748 some.nasty-banner-server.com/junk.cgi?output=trash
3750 # Banner source! Who cares if they also have non-image content?
3760 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3761 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-accept-language">
3762 <title>hide-accept-language</title>
3768 <term>Typical use:</term>
3770 <para>Pretend to use different language settings.</para>
3775 <term>Effect:</term>
3778 Deletes or replaces the <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> HTTP header in client requests.
3785 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3787 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3792 <term>Parameter:</term>
3795 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
3804 Faking the browser's language settings can be useful to make a
3805 foreign User-Agent set with
3806 <literal><link linkend="hide-user-agent">hide-user-agent</link></literal>
3810 However some sites with content in different languages check the
3811 <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> to decide which one to take by default.
3812 Sometimes it isn't possible to later switch to another language without
3813 changing the <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> header first.
3816 Therefore it's a good idea to either only change the
3817 <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> header to languages you understand,
3818 or to languages that aren't wide spread.
3821 Before setting the <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> header
3822 to a rare language, you should consider that it helps to
3823 make your requests unique and thus easier to trace.
3824 If you don't plan to change this header frequently,
3825 you should stick to a common language.
3831 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3834 <screen># Pretend to use Canadian language settings.
3835 {+hide-accept-language{en-ca} \
3836 +hide-user-agent{Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; OpenBSD i386; en-CA; rv:1.8.0.4) Gecko/20060628 Firefox/1.5.0.4} \
3846 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3847 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-content-disposition">
3848 <title>hide-content-disposition</title>
3854 <term>Typical use:</term>
3856 <para>Prevent download menus for content you prefer to view inside the browser.</para>
3861 <term>Effect:</term>
3864 Deletes or replaces the <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> HTTP header set by some servers.
3871 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3873 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3878 <term>Parameter:</term>
3881 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
3890 Some servers set the <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> HTTP header for
3891 documents they assume you want to save locally before viewing them.
3892 The <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> header contains the file name
3893 the browser is supposed to use by default.
3896 In most browsers that understand this header, it makes it impossible to
3897 <emphasis>just view</emphasis> the document, without downloading it first,
3898 even if it's just a simple text file or an image.
3901 Removing the <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> header helps
3902 to prevent this annoyance, but some browsers additionally check the
3903 <quote>Content-Type:</quote> header, before they decide if they can
3904 display a document without saving it first. In these cases, you have
3905 to change this header as well, before the browser stops displaying
3909 It is also possible to change the server's file name suggestion
3910 to another one, but in most cases it isn't worth the time to set
3917 <term>Example usage:</term>
3920 <screen># Disarm the download link in Sourceforge's patch tracker
3922 +content-type-overwrite {text/plain}\
3923 +hide-content-disposition {block} }
3924 .sourceforge.net/tracker/download.php</screen>
3932 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3933 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-if-modified-since">
3934 <title>hide-if-modified-since</title>
3940 <term>Typical use:</term>
3942 <para>Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.</para>
3947 <term>Effect:</term>
3950 Deletes the <quote>If-Modified-Since:</quote> HTTP client header or modifies its value.
3957 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3959 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3964 <term>Parameter:</term>
3967 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or a user defined value that specifies a range of hours.
3976 Removing this header is useful for filter testing, where you want to force a real
3977 reload instead of getting status code <quote>304</quote>, which would cause the
3978 browser to use a cached copy of the page.
3981 Instead of removing the header, <literal>hide-if-modified-since</literal> can
3982 also add or substract a random amount of time to/from the headers value.
3983 You specify a range of hours were the random factor should be chosen from and
3984 <application>Privoxy</application> does the rest. A negative value means
3985 subtracting, a positive value adding.
3988 Randomizing the value of the <quote>If-Modified-Since:</quote> makes
3989 sure it isn't used as a cookie replacement, but you will run into
3990 caching problems if the random range is too high.
3993 It is a good idea to only use a small negative value and let
3994 <literal><link linkend="overwrite-last-modified">overwrite-last-modified</link></literal>
3995 handle the greater changes.
3998 It is also recommended to use this action together with
3999 <literal><link linkend="crunch-if-none-match">crunch-if-none-match</link></literal>.
4005 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
4008 <screen># Let the browser revalidate without being tracked across sessions
4009 {+hide-if-modified-since {-1}\
4010 +overwrite-last-modified {randomize}\
4011 +crunch-if-none-match}
4020 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4021 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-forwarded-for-headers">
4022 <title>hide-forwarded-for-headers</title>
4028 <term>Typical use:</term>
4030 <para>Improve privacy by hiding the true source of the request</para>
4035 <term>Effect:</term>
4038 Deletes any existing <quote>X-Forwarded-for:</quote> HTTP header from client requests,
4039 and prevents adding a new one.
4046 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4048 <para>Boolean.</para>
4053 <term>Parameter:</term>
4065 It is fairly safe to leave this on.
4068 This action is scheduled for improvement: It should be able to generate forged
4069 <quote>X-Forwarded-for:</quote> headers using random IP addresses from a specified network,
4070 to make successive requests from the same client look like requests from a pool of different
4071 users sharing the same proxy.
4077 <term>Example usage:</term>
4080 <screen>+hide-forwarded-for-headers</screen>
4088 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4089 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-from-header">
4090 <title>hide-from-header</title>
4094 <term>Typical use:</term>
4096 <para>Keep your (old and ill) browser from telling web servers your email address</para>
4101 <term>Effect:</term>
4104 Deletes any existing <quote>From:</quote> HTTP header, or replaces it with the
4112 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4114 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4119 <term>Parameter:</term>
4122 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
4131 The keyword <quote>block</quote> will completely remove the header
4132 (not to be confused with the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>
4136 Alternately, you can specify any value you prefer to be sent to the web
4137 server. If you do, it is a matter of fairness not to use any address that
4138 is actually used by a real person.
4141 This action is rarely needed, as modern web browsers don't send
4142 <quote>From:</quote> headers anymore.
4148 <term>Example usage:</term>
4151 <screen>+hide-from-header{block}</screen> or
4152 <screen>+hide-from-header{spam-me-senseless@sittingduck.example.com}</screen>
4160 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4161 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-referrer">
4162 <title>hide-referrer</title>
4163 <anchor id="hide-referer">
4166 <term>Typical use:</term>
4168 <para>Conceal which link you followed to get to a particular site</para>
4173 <term>Effect:</term>
4176 Deletes the <quote>Referer:</quote> (sic) HTTP header from the client request,
4177 or replaces it with a forged one.
4184 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4186 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4191 <term>Parameter:</term>
4195 <para><quote>conditional-block</quote> to delete the header completely if the host has changed.</para>
4198 <para><quote>block</quote> to delete the header unconditionally.</para>
4201 <para><quote>forge</quote> to pretend to be coming from the homepage of the server we are talking to.</para>
4204 <para>Any other string to set a user defined referrer.</para>
4214 <literal>conditional-block</literal> is the only parameter,
4215 that isn't easily detected in the server's log file. If it blocks the
4216 referrer, the request will look like the visitor used a bookmark or
4217 typed in the address directly.
4220 Leaving the referrer unmodified for requests on the same host
4221 allows the server owner to see the visitor's <quote>click path</quote>,
4222 but in most cases she could also get that information by comparing
4223 other parts of the log file: for example the User-Agent if it isn't
4224 a very common one, or the user's IP address if it doesn't change between
4228 Always blocking the referrer, or using a custom one, can lead to
4229 failures on servers that check the referrer before they answer any
4230 requests, in an attempt to prevent their valuable content from being
4231 embedded or linked to elsewhere.
4234 Both <literal>conditional-block</literal> and <literal>forge</literal>
4235 will work with referrer checks, as long as content and valid referring page
4236 are on the same host. Most of the time that's the case.
4239 <literal>hide-referer</literal> is an alternate spelling of
4240 <literal>hide-referrer</literal> and the two can be can be freely
4241 substituted with each other. (<quote>referrer</quote> is the
4242 correct English spelling, however the HTTP specification has a bug - it
4243 requires it to be spelled as <quote>referer</quote>.)
4249 <term>Example usage:</term>
4252 <screen>+hide-referrer{forge}</screen> or
4253 <screen>+hide-referrer{http://www.yahoo.com/}</screen>
4261 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4262 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-user-agent">
4263 <title>hide-user-agent</title>
4267 <term>Typical use:</term>
4269 <para>Conceal your type of browser and client operating system</para>
4274 <term>Effect:</term>
4277 Replaces the value of the <quote>User-Agent:</quote> HTTP header
4278 in client requests with the specified value.
4285 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4287 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4292 <term>Parameter:</term>
4295 Any user-defined string.
4305 This can lead to problems on web sites that depend on looking at this header in
4306 order to customize their content for different browsers (which, by the
4307 way, is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> the right thing to do: good web sites
4308 work browser-independently).
4310 <ulink url="http://www.javascriptkit.com/javaindex.shtml">smart way to do
4316 Using this action in multi-user setups or wherever different types of
4317 browsers will access the same <application>Privoxy</application> is
4318 <emphasis>not recommended</emphasis>. In single-user, single-browser
4319 setups, you might use it to delete your OS version information from
4320 the headers, because it is an invitation to exploit known bugs for your
4321 OS. It is also occasionally useful to forge this in order to access
4322 sites that won't let you in otherwise (though there may be a good
4323 reason in some cases). Example of this: some MSN sites will not
4324 let <application>Mozilla</application> enter, yet forging to a
4325 <application>Netscape 6.1</application> user-agent works just fine.
4326 (Must be just a silly MS goof, I'm sure :-).
4329 This action is scheduled for improvement.
4335 <term>Example usage:</term>
4338 <screen>+hide-user-agent{Netscape 6.1 (X11; I; Linux 2.4.18 i686)}</screen>
4346 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4347 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="inspect-jpegs">
4348 <title>inspect-jpegs</title>
4354 <term>Typical use:</term>
4356 <para>To protect against the MS buffer over-run in JPEG processing</para>
4361 <term>Effect:</term>
4364 Protect against a known exploit
4371 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4373 <para>Boolean.</para>
4378 <term>Parameter:</term>
4390 See Microsoft Security Bulletin MS04-028. JPEG images are one of the most
4391 common image types found across the Internet. The exploit as described can
4392 allow execution of code on the target system, giving an attacker access
4393 to the system in question by merely planting an altered JPEG image, which
4394 would have no obvious indications of what lurks inside. This action
4395 prevents unwanted intrusion.
4402 <term>Example usage:</term>
4404 <para><screen>+inspect-jpegs</screen></para>
4413 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4414 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="kill-popups">
4415 <title>kill-popups<anchor id="kill-popup"></title>
4419 <term>Typical use:</term>
4421 <para>Eliminate those annoying pop-up windows (deprecated)</para>
4426 <term>Effect:</term>
4429 While loading the document, replace JavaScript code that opens
4430 pop-up windows with (syntactically neutral) dummy code on the fly.
4437 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4439 <para>Boolean.</para>
4444 <term>Parameter:</term>
4456 This action is basically a built-in, hardwired special-purpose filter
4457 action, but there are important differences: For <literal>kill-popups</literal>,
4458 the document need not be buffered, so it can be incrementally rendered while
4459 downloading. But <literal>kill-popups</literal> doesn't catch as many pop-ups as
4461 linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{<replaceable>all-popups</replaceable>}</link></literal>
4462 does and is not as smart as <literal><link
4463 linkend="FILTER-UNSOLICITED-POPUPS">filter{<replaceable>unsolicited-popups</replaceable>}</link>
4467 Think of it as a fast and efficient replacement for a filter that you
4468 can use if you don't want any filtering at all. Note that it doesn't make
4469 sense to combine it with any <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> action,
4470 since as soon as one <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> applies,
4471 the whole document needs to be buffered anyway, which destroys the advantage of
4472 the <literal>kill-popups</literal> action over its filter equivalent.
4475 Killing all pop-ups unconditionally is problematic. Many shops and banks rely on
4476 pop-ups to display forms, shopping carts etc, and the <literal><link
4477 linkend="FILTER-UNSOLICITED-POPUPS">filter{<replaceable>unsolicited-popups</replaceable>}</link>
4478 </literal> does a fairly good job of catching only the unwanted ones.
4481 If the only kind of pop-ups that you want to kill are exit consoles (those
4482 <emphasis>really nasty</emphasis> windows that appear when you close an other
4483 one), you might want to use
4485 linkend="filter">filter</link>{<replaceable>js-annoyances</replaceable>}</literal>
4491 An alternate spelling is <literal>+kill-popup</literal>, which is
4499 <term>Example usage:</term>
4501 <para><screen>+kill-popups</screen></para>
4508 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4509 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="limit-connect">
4510 <title>limit-connect</title>
4514 <term>Typical use:</term>
4516 <para>Prevent abuse of <application>Privoxy</application> as a TCP proxy relay or disable SSL for untrusted sites</para>
4521 <term>Effect:</term>
4524 Specifies to which ports HTTP CONNECT requests are allowable.
4531 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4533 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4538 <term>Parameter:</term>
4541 A comma-separated list of ports or port ranges (the latter using dashes, with the minimum
4542 defaulting to 0 and the maximum to 65K).
4551 By default, i.e. if no <literal>limit-connect</literal> action applies,
4552 <application>Privoxy</application> only allows HTTP CONNECT
4553 requests to port 443 (the standard, secure HTTPS port). Use
4554 <literal>limit-connect</literal> if more fine-grained control is desired
4555 for some or all destinations.
4558 The CONNECT methods exists in HTTP to allow access to secure websites
4559 (<quote>https://</quote> URLs) through proxies. It works very simply:
4560 the proxy connects to the server on the specified port, and then
4561 short-circuits its connections to the client and to the remote server.
4562 This can be a big security hole, since CONNECT-enabled proxies can be
4563 abused as TCP relays very easily.
4566 <application>Privoxy</application> relays HTTPS traffic without seeing
4567 the decoded content. Websites can leverage this limitation to circumvent Privoxy's
4568 filters. By specifying an invalid port range you can disable HTTPS entirely.
4569 If you plan to disable SSL by default, consider enabling
4570 <literal><link linkend="treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks ">treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks</link></literal>
4571 as well, to be able to quickly create exceptions.
4577 <term>Example usages:</term>
4579 <!-- I had trouble getting the spacing to look right in my browser -->
4580 <!-- I probably have the wrong font setup, bollocks. -->
4581 <!-- Apparently the emphasis tag uses a proportional font no matter what -->
4583 <screen>+limit-connect{443} # This is the default and need not be specified.
4584 +limit-connect{80,443} # Ports 80 and 443 are OK.
4585 +limit-connect{-3, 7, 20-100, 500-} # Ports less than 3, 7, 20 to 100 and above 500 are OK.
4586 +limit-connect{-} # All ports are OK
4587 +limit-connect{,} # No HTTPS traffic is allowed</screen>
4594 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4595 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="prevent-compression">
4596 <title>prevent-compression</title>
4600 <term>Typical use:</term>
4603 Ensure that servers send the content uncompressed, so it can be
4604 passed through <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>s.
4610 <term>Effect:</term>
4613 Removes the Accept-Encoding header which can be used to ask for compressed transfer.
4620 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4622 <para>Boolean.</para>
4627 <term>Parameter:</term>
4639 More and more websites send their content compressed by default, which
4640 is generally a good idea and saves bandwidth. But for the <literal><link
4641 linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>, <literal><link linkend="deanimate-gifs">deanimate-gifs</link></literal>
4642 and <literal><link linkend="kill-popups">kill-popups</link></literal> actions to work,
4643 <application>Privoxy</application> needs access to the uncompressed data.
4644 Unfortunately, <application>Privoxy</application> can't yet(!) uncompress, filter, and
4645 re-compress the content on the fly. So if you want to ensure that all websites, including
4646 those that normally compress, can be filtered, you need to use this action.
4649 This will slow down transfers from those websites, though. If you use any of the above-mentioned
4650 actions, you will typically want to use <literal>prevent-compression</literal> in conjunction
4654 Note that some (rare) ill-configured sites don't handle requests for uncompressed
4655 documents correctly (they send an empty document body). If you use <literal>prevent-compression</literal>
4656 per default, you'll have to add exceptions for those sites. See the example for how to do that.
4662 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
4665 <screen># Set default:
4667 {+prevent-compression}
4670 # Make exceptions for ill sites:
4672 {-prevent-compression}
4674 www.pclinuxonline.com</screen>
4683 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4684 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="overwrite-last-modified">
4685 <title>overwrite-last-modified</title>
4691 <term>Typical use:</term>
4693 <para>Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.</para>
4698 <term>Effect:</term>
4701 Deletes the <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> HTTP server header or modifies its value.
4708 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4710 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4715 <term>Parameter:</term>
4718 One of the keywords: <quote>block</quote>, <quote>reset-to-request-time</quote>
4719 and <quote>randomize</quote>
4728 Removing the <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header is useful for filter
4729 testing, where you want to force a real reload instead of getting status
4730 code <quote>304</quote>, which would cause the browser to reuse the old
4731 version of the page.
4734 The <quote>randomize</quote> option overwrites the value of the
4735 <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header with a randomly chosen time
4736 between the original value and the current time. In theory the server
4737 could send each document with a different <quote>Last-Modified:</quote>
4738 header to track visits without using cookies. <quote>Randomize</quote>
4739 makes it impossible and the browser can still revalidate cached documents.
4742 <quote>reset-to-request-time</quote> overwrites the value of the
4743 <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header with the current time. You could use
4744 this option together with
4745 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hided-if-modified-since</link></literal>
4746 to further customize your random range.
4749 The preferred parameter here is <quote>randomize</quote>. It is safe
4750 to use, as long as the time settings are more or less correct.
4751 If the server sets the <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header to the time
4752 of the request, the random range becomes zero and the value stays the same.
4753 Therefore you should later randomize it a second time with
4754 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hided-if-modified-since</link></literal>,
4758 It is also recommended to use this action together with
4759 <literal><link linkend="crunch-if-none-match">crunch-if-none-match</link></literal>.
4765 <term>Example usage:</term>
4768 <screen># Let the browser revalidate without being tracked across sessions
4769 {+hide-if-modified-since {-1}\
4770 +overwrite-last-modified {randomize}\
4771 +crunch-if-none-match}
4780 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4781 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="redirect">
4782 <title>redirect</title>
4788 <term>Typical use:</term>
4791 Redirect requests to other sites.
4797 <term>Effect:</term>
4800 Convinces the browser that the requested document has been moved
4801 to another location and the browser should get it from there.
4808 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4810 <para>Parameterized</para>
4815 <term>Parameter:</term>
4827 This action is useful to replace whole documents with your own
4828 ones. For that to work, they have to be available on another server,
4829 and both should resolve.
4832 You can do the same by combining the actions
4833 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>,
4834 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> and
4835 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker{URL}</link></literal>.
4836 It doesn't sound right for non-image documents, and that's why this action
4840 This action will be ignored if you use it together with
4841 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>.
4847 <term>Example usage:</term>
4850 <screen># Replace example.com's style sheet with another one
4851 {+redirect{http://localhost/css-replacements/example.com.css}}
4852 example.com/stylesheet.css</screen>
4861 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4862 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="send-vanilla-wafer">
4863 <title>send-vanilla-wafer</title>
4867 <term>Typical use:</term>
4870 Feed log analysis scripts with useless data.
4876 <term>Effect:</term>
4879 Sends a cookie with each request stating that you do not accept any copyright
4880 on cookies sent to you, and asking the site operator not to track you.
4887 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4889 <para>Boolean.</para>
4894 <term>Parameter:</term>
4906 The vanilla wafer is a (relatively) unique header and could conceivably be used to track you.
4909 This action is rarely used and not enabled in the default configuration.
4915 <term>Example usage:</term>
4918 <screen>+send-vanilla-wafer</screen>
4927 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4928 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="send-wafer">
4929 <title>send-wafer</title>
4933 <term>Typical use:</term>
4936 Send custom cookies or feed log analysis scripts with even more useless data.
4942 <term>Effect:</term>
4945 Sends a custom, user-defined cookie with each request.
4952 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4954 <para>Multi-value.</para>
4959 <term>Parameter:</term>
4962 A string of the form <quote><replaceable class="option">name</replaceable>=<replaceable
4963 class="parameter">value</replaceable></quote>.
4972 Being multi-valued, multiple instances of this action can apply to the same request,
4973 resulting in multiple cookies being sent.
4976 This action is rarely used and not enabled in the default configuration.
4981 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
4984 <screen>{+send-wafer{UsingPrivoxy=true}}
4985 my-internal-testing-server.void</screen>
4993 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4994 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="session-cookies-only">
4995 <title>session-cookies-only</title>
4999 <term>Typical use:</term>
5002 Allow only temporary <quote>session</quote> cookies (for the current
5003 browser session <emphasis>only</emphasis>).
5009 <term>Effect:</term>
5012 Deletes the <quote>expires</quote> field from <quote>Set-Cookie:</quote>
5013 server headers. Most browsers will not store such cookies permanently and
5014 forget them in between sessions.
5021 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5023 <para>Boolean.</para>
5028 <term>Parameter:</term>
5040 This is less strict than <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal> /
5041 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal> and allows you to browse
5042 websites that insist or rely on setting cookies, without compromising your privacy too badly.
5045 Most browsers will not permanently store cookies that have been processed by
5046 <literal>session-cookies-only</literal> and will forget about them between sessions.
5047 This makes profiling cookies useless, but won't break sites which require cookies so
5048 that you can log in for transactions. This is generally turned on for all
5049 sites, and is the recommended setting.
5052 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use <literal>session-cookies-only</literal>
5053 together with <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal> or
5054 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>. If you do, cookies
5055 will be plainly killed.
5058 Note that it is up to the browser how it handles such cookies without an <quote>expires</quote>
5059 field. If you use an exotic browser, you might want to try it out to be sure.
5062 This setting also has no effect on cookies that may have been stored
5063 previously by the browser before starting <application>Privoxy</application>.
5064 These would have to be removed manually.
5067 <application>Privoxy</application> also uses
5068 the <link linkend="filter-content-cookies">content-cookies filter</link>
5069 to block some types of cookies. Content cookies are not effected by
5070 <literal>session-cookies-only</literal>.
5076 <term>Example usage:</term>
5079 <screen>+session-cookies-only</screen>
5087 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5088 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="set-image-blocker">
5089 <title>set-image-blocker</title>
5093 <term>Typical use:</term>
5095 <para>Choose the replacement for blocked images</para>
5100 <term>Effect:</term>
5103 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. If <emphasis>both</emphasis>
5104 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> <emphasis>and</emphasis> <literal><link
5105 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> <emphasis>also</emphasis>
5106 apply, i.e. if the request is to be blocked as an image,
5107 <emphasis>then</emphasis> the parameter of this action decides what will be
5108 sent as a replacement.
5115 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5117 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5122 <term>Parameter:</term>
5127 <quote>pattern</quote> to send a built-in checkerboard pattern image. The image is visually
5128 decent, scales very well, and makes it obvious where banners were busted.
5133 <quote>blank</quote> to send a built-in transparent image. This makes banners disappear
5134 completely, but makes it hard to detect where <application>Privoxy</application> has blocked
5135 images on a given page and complicates troubleshooting if <application>Privoxy</application>
5136 has blocked innocent images, like navigation icons.
5141 <quote><replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable></quote> to
5142 send a redirect to <replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable>. You can redirect
5143 to any image anywhere, even in your local filesystem via <quote>file:///</quote> URL.
5144 (But note that not all browsers support redirecting to a local file system).
5147 A good application of redirects is to use special <application>Privoxy</application>-built-in
5148 URLs, which send the built-in images, as <replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable>.
5149 This has the same visual effect as specifying <quote>blank</quote> or <quote>pattern</quote> in
5150 the first place, but enables your browser to cache the replacement image, instead of requesting
5151 it over and over again.
5162 The URLs for the built-in images are <quote>http://config.privoxy.org/send-banner?type=<replaceable
5163 class="parameter">type</replaceable></quote>, where <replaceable class="parameter">type</replaceable> is
5164 either <quote>blank</quote> or <quote>pattern</quote>.
5167 There is a third (advanced) type, called <quote>auto</quote>. It is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> to be
5168 used in <literal>set-image-blocker</literal>, but meant for use from <link linkend="filter-file">filters</link>.
5169 Auto will select the type of image that would have applied to the referring page, had it been an image.
5175 <term>Example usage:</term>
5181 <screen>+set-image-blocker{pattern}</screen>
5184 Redirect to the BSD devil:
5187 <screen>+set-image-blocker{http://www.freebsd.org/gifs/dae_up3.gif}</screen>
5190 Redirect to the built-in pattern for better caching:
5193 <screen>+set-image-blocker{http://config.privoxy.org/send-banner?type=pattern}</screen>
5201 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5202 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks">
5203 <title>treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks</title>
5209 <term>Typical use:</term>
5211 <para>Block forbidden connects with an easy to find error message.</para>
5216 <term>Effect:</term>
5219 If this action is enabled, <application>Privoxy</application> no longer
5220 makes a difference between forbidden connects and ordinary blocks.
5227 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5229 <para>Boolean</para>
5234 <term>Parameter:</term>
5244 By default <application>Privoxy</application> answers
5245 <link linkend="limit-connect">forbidden <quote>Connect</quote> requests</link>
5246 with a short error message inside the headers. If the browser doesn't display
5247 headers (most don't), you just see an empty page.
5250 With this action enabled, <application>Privoxy</application> displays
5251 the message that is used for ordinary blocks instead. If you decide
5252 to make an exception for the page in question, you can do so by
5253 following the <quote>See why</quote> link.
5256 For <quote>Connect</quote> requests the clients tell
5257 <application>Privoxy</application> which host they are interested
5258 in, but not which document they plan to get later. As a result, the
5259 <quote>Go there anyway</quote> link becomes rather useless:
5260 it lets the client request the home page of the forbidden host
5261 through unencrypted HTTP, still using the port of the last request.
5264 If you previously configured <application>Privoxy</application> to do the
5265 request through a SSL tunnel, everything will work. Most likely you haven't
5266 and the server will respond with an error message because it is expecting
5273 <term>Example usage:</term>
5276 <screen>+treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks</screen>
5284 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5286 <title>Summary</title>
5288 Note that many of these actions have the potential to cause a page to
5289 misbehave, possibly even not to display at all. There are many ways
5290 a site designer may choose to design his site, and what HTTP header
5291 content, and other criteria, he may depend on. There is no way to have hard
5292 and fast rules for all sites. See the <link
5293 linkend="ACTIONSANAT">Appendix</link> for a brief example on troubleshooting
5299 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5300 <sect2 id="aliases">
5301 <title>Aliases</title>
5303 Custom <quote>actions</quote>, known to <application>Privoxy</application>
5304 as <quote>aliases</quote>, can be defined by combining other actions.
5305 These can in turn be invoked just like the built-in actions.
5306 Currently, an alias name can contain any character except space, tab,
5308 <quote>{</quote> and <quote>}</quote>, but we <emphasis>strongly
5309 recommend</emphasis> that you only use <quote>a</quote> to <quote>z</quote>,
5310 <quote>0</quote> to <quote>9</quote>, <quote>+</quote>, and <quote>-</quote>.
5311 Alias names are not case sensitive, and are not required to start with a
5312 <quote>+</quote> or <quote>-</quote> sign, since they are merely textually
5316 Aliases can be used throughout the actions file, but they <emphasis>must be
5317 defined in a special section at the top of the file!</emphasis>
5318 And there can only be one such section per actions file. Each actions file may
5319 have its own alias section, and the aliases defined in it are only visible
5323 There are two main reasons to use aliases: One is to save typing for frequently
5324 used combinations of actions, the other one is a gain in flexibility: If you
5325 decide once how you want to handle shops by defining an alias called
5326 <quote>shop</quote>, you can later change your policy on shops in
5327 <emphasis>one</emphasis> place, and your changes will take effect everywhere
5328 in the actions file where the <quote>shop</quote> alias is used. Calling aliases
5329 by their purpose also makes your actions files more readable.
5332 Currently, there is one big drawback to using aliases, though:
5333 <application>Privoxy</application>'s built-in web-based action file
5334 editor honors aliases when reading the actions files, but it expands
5335 them before writing. So the effects of your aliases are of course preserved,
5336 but the aliases themselves are lost when you edit sections that use aliases
5338 This is likely to change in future versions of <application>Privoxy</application>.
5342 Now let's define some aliases...
5347 # Useful custom aliases we can use later.
5349 # Note the (required!) section header line and that this section
5350 # must be at the top of the actions file!
5354 # These aliases just save typing later:
5355 # (Note that some already use other aliases!)
5357 +crunch-all-cookies = +<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> +<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
5358 -crunch-all-cookies = -<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> -<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
5359 block-as-image = +block +handle-as-image
5360 mercy-for-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> -<link linkend="FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</link>
5362 # These aliases define combinations of actions
5363 # that are useful for certain types of sites:
5365 fragile = -<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link> -<link linkend="HIDE-REFERER">hide-referrer</link> -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link>
5366 shop = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{all-popups}</link> -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link>
5368 # Short names for other aliases, for really lazy people ;-)
5370 c0 = +crunch-all-cookies
5371 c1 = -crunch-all-cookies</screen>
5375 ...and put them to use. These sections would appear in the lower part of an
5376 actions file and define exceptions to the default actions (as specified further
5377 up for the <quote>/</quote> pattern):
5382 # These sites are either very complex or very keen on
5383 # user data and require minimal interference to work:
5386 .office.microsoft.com
5387 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com
5391 # Allow cookies (for setting and retrieving your customer data)
5395 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
5398 # These shops require pop-ups:
5400 {shop -kill-popups -filter{all-popups}}
5402 .overclockers.co.uk</screen>
5406 Aliases like <quote>shop</quote> and <quote>fragile</quote> are often used for
5407 <quote>problem</quote> sites that require some actions to be disabled
5408 in order to function properly.
5414 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5415 <sect2 id="act-examples">
5416 <title>Actions Files Tutorial</title>
5418 The above chapters have shown <link linkend="actions-file">which actions files
5419 there are and how they are organized</link>, how actions are <link
5420 linkend="actions">specified</link> and <link linkend="actions-apply">applied
5421 to URLs</link>, how <link linkend="af-patterns">patterns</link> work, and how to
5422 define and use <link linkend="aliases">aliases</link>. Now, let's look at an
5423 example <filename>default.action</filename> and <filename>user.action</filename>
5424 file and see how all these pieces come together:
5427 <sect3><title>default.action</title>
5430 Every config file should start with a short comment stating its purpose:
5434 <screen># Sample default.action file <ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net></screen>
5438 Then, since this is the <filename>default.action</filename> file, the
5439 first section is a special section for internal use that you needn't
5440 change or worry about:
5445 ##########################################################################
5446 # Settings -- Don't change! For internal Privoxy use ONLY.
5447 ##########################################################################
5450 for-privoxy-version=3.0</screen>
5454 After that comes the (optional) alias section. We'll use the example
5455 section from the above <link linkend="aliases">chapter on aliases</link>,
5456 that also explains why and how aliases are used:
5461 ##########################################################################
5463 ##########################################################################
5466 # These aliases just save typing later:
5467 # (Note that some already use other aliases!)
5469 +crunch-all-cookies = +<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> +<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
5470 -crunch-all-cookies = -<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> -<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
5471 block-as-image = +block +handle-as-image
5472 mercy-for-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> -<link linkend="FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</link>
5474 # These aliases define combinations of actions
5475 # that are useful for certain types of sites:
5477 fragile = -<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link> -<link linkend="HIDE-REFERER">hide-referrer</link> -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link>
5478 shop = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{all-popups}</link> -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link></screen>
5482 Now come the regular sections, i.e. sets of actions, accompanied
5483 by URL patterns to which they apply. Remember <emphasis>all actions
5484 are disabled when matching starts</emphasis>, so we have to explicitly
5485 enable the ones we want.
5489 The first regular section is probably the most important. It has only
5490 one pattern, <quote><literal>/</literal></quote>, but this pattern
5491 <link linkend="af-patterns">matches all URLs</link>. Therefore, the
5492 set of actions used in this <quote>default</quote> section <emphasis>will
5493 be applied to all requests as a start</emphasis>. It can be partly or
5494 wholly overridden by later matches further down this file, or in user.action,
5495 but it will still be largely responsible for your overall browsing
5500 Again, at the start of matching, all actions are disabled, so there is
5501 no real need to disable any actions here, but we will do that nonetheless,
5502 to have a complete listing for your reference. (Remember: a <quote>+</quote>
5503 preceding the action name enables the action, a <quote>-</quote> disables!).
5504 Also note how this long line has been made more readable by splitting it into
5505 multiple lines with line continuation.
5510 ##########################################################################
5511 # "Defaults" section:
5512 ##########################################################################
5514 -<link linkend="ADD-HEADER">add-header</link> \
5515 -<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> \
5516 -<link linkend="CONTENT-TYPE-OVERWRITE">content-type-overwrite</link> \
5517 -<link linkend="CRUNCH-CLIENT-HEADER">crunch-client-header</link> \
5518 -<link linkend="CRUNCH-IF-NONE-MATCH">crunch-if-none-match</link> \
5519 -<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> \
5520 -<link linkend="CRUNCH-SERVER-HEADER">crunch-server-header</link> \
5521 -<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link> \
5522 +<link linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS">deanimate-gifs</link> \
5523 -<link linkend="DOWNGRADE-HTTP-VERSION">downgrade-http-version</link> \
5524 +<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects{check-decoded-url}</link> \
5525 +<link linkend="FILTER-JS-ANNOYANCES">filter{js-annoyances}</link> \
5526 -<link linkend="FILTER-JS-EVENTS">filter{js-events}</link> \
5527 +<link linkend="FILTER-HTML-ANNOYANCES">filter{html-annoyances}</link> \
5528 -<link linkend="FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</link> \
5529 +<link linkend="FILTER-REFRESH-TAGS">filter{refresh-tags}</link> \
5530 +<link linkend="FILTER-UNSOLICITED-POPUPS">filter{unsolicited-popups}</link> \
5531 -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{all-popups}</link> \
5532 +<link linkend="FILTER-IMG-REORDER">filter{img-reorder}</link> \
5533 +<link linkend="FILTER-BANNERS-BY-SIZE">filter{banners-by-size}</link> \
5534 -<link linkend="FILTER-BANNERS-BY-LINK">filter{banners-by-link}</link> \
5535 +<link linkend="FILTER-WEBBUGS">filter{webbugs}</link> \
5536 -<link linkend="FILTER-TINY-TEXTFORMS">filter{tiny-textforms}</link> \
5537 +<link linkend="FILTER-JUMPING-WINDOWS">filter{jumping-windows}</link> \
5538 -<link linkend="FILTER-FRAMESET-BORDERS">filter{frameset-borders}</link> \
5539 -<link linkend="FILTER-DEMORONIZER">filter{demoronizer}</link> \
5540 -<link linkend="FILTER-SHOCKWAVE-FLASH">filter{shockwave-flash}</link> \
5541 -<link linkend="FILTER-QUICKTIME-KIOSKMODE">filter{quicktime-kioskmode}</link> \
5542 -<link linkend="FILTER-FUN">filter{fun}</link> \
5543 -<link linkend="FILTER-CRUDE-PARENTAL">filter{crude-parental}</link> \
5544 +<link linkend="FILTER-IE-EXPLOITS">filter{ie-exploits}</link> \
5545 -<link linkend="FILTER-CLIENT-HEADERS">filter-client-headers</link> \
5546 -<link linkend="FILTER-SERVER-HEADERS">filter-server-headers</link> \
5547 -<link linkend="FORCE-TEXT-MODE">force-text-mode</link> \
5548 -<link linkend="HANDLE-AS-EMPTY-DOCUMENT">handle-as-empty-document</link> \
5549 -<link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">handle-as-image</link> \
5550 -<link linkend="HIDE-ACCEPT-LANGUAGE">hide-accept-language</link> \
5551 -<link linkend="HIDE-CONTENT-DISPOSITION">hide-content-disposition</link> \
5552 -<link linkend="HIDE-IF-MODIFIED-SINCE">hide-if-modified-since</link> \
5553 +<link linkend="HIDE-FORWARDED-FOR-HEADERS">hide-forwarded-for-headers</link> \
5554 +<link linkend="HIDE-FROM-HEADER">hide-from-header{block}</link> \
5555 +<link linkend="HIDE-REFERER">hide-referrer{forge}</link> \
5556 -<link linkend="HIDE-USER-AGENT">hide-user-agent</link> \
5557 -<link linkend="INSPECT-JPEGS">inspect-jpegs</link> \
5558 -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link> \
5559 -<link linkend="LIMIT-CONNECT">limit-connect</link> \
5560 +<link linkend="PREVENT-COMPRESSION">prevent-compression</link> \
5561 -<link linkend="OVERWRITE-LAST-MODIFIED">overwrite-last-modified</link> \
5562 -<link linkend="REDIRECT">redirect</link> \
5563 -<link linkend="SEND-VANILLA-WAFER">send-vanilla-wafer</link> \
5564 -<link linkend="SEND-WAFER">send-wafer</link> \
5565 +<link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> \
5566 +<link linkend="SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER">set-image-blocker{pattern}</link> \
5567 -<link linkend="TREAT-FORBIDDEN-CONNECTS-LIKE-BLOCKS">treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks</link> \
5569 / # forward slash will match *all* potential URL patterns.</screen>
5573 The default behavior is now set. Note that some actions, like not hiding
5574 the user agent, are part of a <quote>general policy</quote> that applies
5575 universally and won't get any exceptions defined later. Other choices,
5576 like not blocking (which is <emphasis>understandably</emphasis> the
5577 default!) need exceptions, i.e. we need to specify explicitly what we
5578 want to block in later sections.
5582 The first of our specialized sections is concerned with <quote>fragile</quote>
5583 sites, i.e. sites that require minimum interference, because they are either
5584 very complex or very keen on tracking you (and have mechanisms in place that
5585 make them unusable for people who avoid being tracked). We will simply use
5586 our pre-defined <literal>fragile</literal> alias instead of stating the list
5587 of actions explicitly:
5592 ##########################################################################
5593 # Exceptions for sites that'll break under the default action set:
5594 ##########################################################################
5596 # "Fragile" Use a minimum set of actions for these sites (see alias above):
5599 .office.microsoft.com # surprise, surprise!
5600 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com</screen>
5604 Shopping sites are not as fragile, but they typically
5605 require cookies to log in, and pop-up windows for shopping
5606 carts or item details. Again, we'll use a pre-defined alias:
5615 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
5617 .scan.co.uk</screen>
5620 <!-- No longer needed BEGIN OF COMMENTED OUT BLOCK
5623 Then, there are sites which rely on pop-up windows (yuck!) to work.
5624 Since we made pop-up-killing our default above, we need to make exceptions
5625 now. <ulink url="http://www.mozilla.org/">Mozilla</ulink> users, who
5626 can turn on smart handling of unwanted pop-ups in their browsers, can
5628 -<literal><link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{popups}</link></literal> (and
5629 -<literal><link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link></literal>) above
5630 and hence don't need this section. Anyway, disabling an already disabled
5631 action doesn't hurt, so we'll define our exceptions regardless of what was
5632 chosen in the defaults section:
5637 # These sites require pop-ups too :(
5639 { -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link> -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{popups}</link> }
5642 .deutsche-bank-24.de</screen>
5645 END OF COMMENTED OUT BLOCK -->
5648 The <literal><link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link></literal>
5649 action, which we enabled per default above, breaks some sites. So disable
5650 it for popular sites where we know it misbehaves:
5655 { -<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link> }
5659 .altavista.com/.*(like|url|link):http
5660 .altavista.com/trans.*urltext=http
5661 .nytimes.com</screen>
5665 It is important that <application>Privoxy</application> knows which
5666 URLs belong to images, so that <emphasis>if</emphasis> they are to
5667 be blocked, a substitute image can be sent, rather than an HTML page.
5668 Contacting the remote site to find out is not an option, since it
5669 would destroy the loading time advantage of banner blocking, and it
5670 would feed the advertisers (in terms of money <emphasis>and</emphasis>
5671 information). We can mark any URL as an image with the <literal><link
5672 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> action,
5673 and marking all URLs that end in a known image file extension is a
5679 ##########################################################################
5681 ##########################################################################
5683 # Define which file types will be treated as images, in case they get
5684 # blocked further down this file:
5686 { +<link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">handle-as-image</link> }
5687 /.*\.(gif|jpe?g|png|bmp|ico)$</screen>
5691 And then there are known banner sources. They often use scripts to
5692 generate the banners, so it won't be visible from the URL that the
5693 request is for an image. Hence we block them <emphasis>and</emphasis>
5694 mark them as images in one go, with the help of our
5695 <literal>block-as-image</literal> alias defined above. (We could of
5696 course just as well use <literal>+<link linkend="block">block</link>
5697 +<link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> here.)
5698 Remember that the type of the replacement image is chosen by the
5699 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>
5700 action. Since all URLs have matched the default section with its
5701 <literal>+<link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link>{pattern}</literal>
5702 action before, it still applies and needn't be repeated:
5707 # Known ad generators:
5712 .ad.*.doubleclick.net
5713 .a.yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$
5714 .a[0-9].yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$
5721 One of the most important jobs of <application>Privoxy</application>
5722 is to block banners. A huge bunch of them can be <quote>blocked</quote>
5723 by the <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link>{banners-by-size}</literal>
5724 action, which we enabled above, and which deletes the references to banner
5725 images from the pages while they are loaded, so the browser doesn't request
5726 them anymore, and hence they don't need to be blocked here. But this naturally
5727 doesn't catch all banners, and some people choose not to use filters, so we
5728 need a comprehensive list of patterns for banner URLs here, and apply the
5729 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action to them.
5732 First comes a bunch of generic patterns, which do most of the work, by
5733 matching typical domain and path name components of banners. Then comes
5734 a list of individual patterns for specific sites, which is omitted here
5735 to keep the example short:
5740 ##########################################################################
5741 # Block these fine banners:
5742 ##########################################################################
5743 { <link linkend="BLOCK">+block</link> }
5751 /.*count(er)?\.(pl|cgi|exe|dll|asp|php[34]?)
5752 /(?:.*/)?(publicite|werbung|rekla(ma|me|am)|annonse|maino(kset|nta|s)?)/
5754 # Site-specific patterns (abbreviated):
5756 .hitbox.com</screen>
5760 You wouldn't believe how many advertisers actually call their banner
5761 servers ads.<replaceable>company</replaceable>.com, or call the directory
5762 in which the banners are stored simply <quote>banners</quote>. So the above
5763 generic patterns are surprisingly effective.
5766 But being very generic, they necessarily also catch URLs that we don't want
5767 to block. The pattern <literal>.*ads.</literal> e.g. catches
5768 <quote>nasty-<emphasis>ads</emphasis>.nasty-corp.com</quote> as intended,
5769 but also <quote>downlo<emphasis>ads</emphasis>.sourcefroge.net</quote> or
5770 <quote><emphasis>ads</emphasis>l.some-provider.net.</quote> So here come some
5771 well-known exceptions to the <literal>+<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal>
5775 Note that these are exceptions to exceptions from the default! Consider the URL
5776 <quote>downloads.sourcefroge.net</quote>: Initially, all actions are deactivated,
5777 so it wouldn't get blocked. Then comes the defaults section, which matches the
5778 URL, but just deactivates the <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal>
5779 action once again. Then it matches <literal>.*ads.</literal>, an exception to the
5780 general non-blocking policy, and suddenly
5781 <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">+block</link></literal> applies. And now, it'll match
5782 <literal>.*loads.</literal>, where <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">-block</link></literal>
5783 applies, so (unless it matches <emphasis>again</emphasis> further down) it ends up
5784 with no <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal> action applying.
5789 ##########################################################################
5790 # Save some innocent victims of the above generic block patterns:
5791 ##########################################################################
5795 { -<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> }
5796 adv[io]*. # (for advogato.org and advice.*)
5797 adsl. # (has nothing to do with ads)
5798 ad[ud]*. # (adult.* and add.*)
5799 .edu # (universities don't host banners (yet!))
5800 .*loads. # (downloads, uploads etc)
5808 www.globalintersec.com/adv # (adv = advanced)
5809 www.ugu.com/sui/ugu/adv</screen>
5813 Filtering source code can have nasty side effects,
5814 so make an exception for our friends at sourceforge.net,
5815 and all paths with <quote>cvs</quote> in them. Note that
5816 <literal>-<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link></literal>
5817 disables <emphasis>all</emphasis> filters in one fell swoop!
5822 # Don't filter code!
5824 { -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> }
5826 .sourceforge.net</screen>
5830 The actual <filename>default.action</filename> is of course much more
5831 comprehensive, but we hope this example made clear how it works.
5836 <sect3><title>user.action</title>
5839 So far we are painting with a broad brush by setting general policies,
5840 which would be a reasonable starting point for many people. Now,
5841 you might want to be more specific and have customized rules that
5842 are more suitable to your personal habits and preferences. These would
5843 be for narrowly defined situations like your ISP or your bank, and should
5844 be placed in <filename>user.action</filename>, which is parsed after all other
5845 actions files and hence has the last word, over-riding any previously
5846 defined actions. <filename>user.action</filename> is also a
5847 <emphasis>safe</emphasis> place for your personal settings, since
5848 <filename>default.action</filename> is actively maintained by the
5849 <application>Privoxy</application> developers and you'll probably want
5850 to install updated versions from time to time.
5854 So let's look at a few examples of things that one might typically do in
5855 <filename>user.action</filename>:
5859 <!-- brief sample user.action here -->
5863 # My user.action file. <fred@foobar.com></screen>
5867 As <link linkend="aliases">aliases</link> are local to the actions
5868 file that they are defined in, you can't use the ones from
5869 <filename>default.action</filename>, unless you repeat them here:
5874 # Aliases are local to the file they are defined in.
5875 # (Re-)define aliases for this file:
5879 # These aliases just save typing later, and the alias names should
5880 # be self explanatory.
5882 +crunch-all-cookies = +crunch-incoming-cookies +crunch-outgoing-cookies
5883 -crunch-all-cookies = -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-cookies
5884 allow-all-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -session-cookies-only
5885 allow-popups = -filter{all-popups} -kill-popups
5886 +block-as-image = +block +handle-as-image
5887 -block-as-image = -block
5889 # These aliases define combinations of actions that are useful for
5890 # certain types of sites:
5892 fragile = -block -crunch-all-cookies -filter -fast-redirects -hide-referrer -kill-popups
5893 shop = -crunch-all-cookies allow-popups
5895 # Allow ads for selected useful free sites:
5897 allow-ads = -block -filter{banners-by-size} -filter{banners-by-link}
5899 # Alias for specific file types that are text, but might have conflicting
5900 # MIME types. We want the browser to force these to be text documents.
5901 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>
5906 Say you have accounts on some sites that you visit regularly, and
5907 you don't want to have to log in manually each time. So you'd like
5908 to allow persistent cookies for these sites. The
5909 <literal>allow-all-cookies</literal> alias defined above does exactly
5910 that, i.e. it disables crunching of cookies in any direction, and the
5911 processing of cookies to make them only temporary.
5916 { allow-all-cookies }
5922 .redhat.com</screen>
5926 Your bank is allergic to some filter, but you don't know which, so you disable them all:
5931 { -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> }
5932 .your-home-banking-site.com</screen>
5936 Some file types you may not want to filter for various reasons:
5941 # Technical documentation is likely to contain strings that might
5942 # erroneously get altered by the JavaScript-oriented filters:
5947 # And this stupid host sends streaming video with a wrong MIME type,
5948 # so that Privoxy thinks it is getting HTML and starts filtering:
5950 stupid-server.example.com/</screen>
5954 Example of a simple <link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> action. Say you've
5955 seen an ad on your favourite page on example.com that you want to get rid of.
5956 You have right-clicked the image, selected <quote>copy image location</quote>
5957 and pasted the URL below while removing the leading http://, into a
5958 <literal>{ +block }</literal> section. Note that <literal>{ +handle-as-image
5959 }</literal> need not be specified, since all URLs ending in
5960 <literal>.gif</literal> will be tagged as images by the general rules as set
5961 in default.action anyway:
5966 { +<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> }
5967 www.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor.gif
5968 another.popular.site.net/more/junk/here/</screen>
5972 The URLs of dynamically generated banners, especially from large banner
5973 farms, often don't use the well-known image file name extensions, which
5974 makes it impossible for <application>Privoxy</application> to guess
5975 the file type just by looking at the URL.
5976 You can use the <literal>+block-as-image</literal> alias defined above for
5978 Note that objects which match this rule but then turn out NOT to be an
5979 image are typically rendered as a <quote>broken image</quote> icon by the
5980 browser. Use cautiously.
5988 ar.atwola.com/</screen>
5992 Now you noticed that the default configuration breaks Forbes Magazine,
5993 but you were too lazy to find out which action is the culprit, and you
5994 were again too lazy to give <link linkend="contact">feedback</link>, so
5995 you just used the <literal>fragile</literal> alias on the site, and
5996 -- <emphasis>whoa!</emphasis> -- it worked. The <literal>fragile</literal>
5997 aliases disables those actions that are most likely to break a site. Also,
5998 good for testing purposes to see if it is <application>Privoxy</application>
5999 that is causing the problem or not.
6005 .forbes.com</screen>
6009 You like the <quote>fun</quote> text replacements in <filename>default.filter</filename>,
6010 but it is disabled in the distributed actions file. (My colleagues on the team just
6011 don't have a sense of humour, that's why! ;-). So you'd like to turn it on in your private,
6012 update-safe config, once and for all:
6017 { +<link linkend="filter-fun">filter{fun}</link> }
6018 / # For ALL sites!</screen>
6022 Note that the above is not really a good idea: There are exceptions
6023 to the filters in <filename>default.action</filename> for things that
6024 really shouldn't be filtered, like code on CVS->Web interfaces. Since
6025 <filename>user.action</filename> has the last word, these exceptions
6026 won't be valid for the <quote>fun</quote> filtering specified here.
6030 You might also worry about how your favourite free websites are
6031 funded, and find that they rely on displaying banner advertisements
6032 to survive. So you might want to specifically allow banners for those
6033 sites that you feel provide value to you:
6045 Note that <literal>allow-ads</literal> has been aliased to
6046 <literal>-<link linkend="block">block</link></literal>,
6047 <literal>-<link linkend="filter-banners-by-size">filter{banners-by-size}</link></literal>, and
6048 <literal>-<link linkend="filter-banners-by-link">filter{banners-by-link}</link></literal> above.
6052 Invoke another alias here to force an over-ride of the MIME type <literal>
6053 application/x-sh</literal> which typically would open a download type
6054 dialog. In my case, I want to look at the shell script, and then I can save
6055 it should I choose to.
6065 <filename>user.action</filename> is generally the best place to define
6066 exceptions and additions to the default policies of
6067 <filename>default.action</filename>. Some actions are safe to have their
6068 default policies set here though. So let's set a default policy to have a
6069 <quote>blank</quote> image as opposed to the checkerboard pattern for
6070 <emphasis>ALL</emphasis> sites. <quote>/</quote> of course matches all URL
6076 { +<link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker{blank}</link> }
6077 / # ALL sites</screen>
6083 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
6087 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
6089 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
6091 <sect1 id="filter-file">
6092 <title>Filter Files</title>
6095 On-the-fly text substitutions that can be invoked through the
6096 <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> action need
6097 to be defined in a <quote>filter file</quote>. Once defined, they
6098 can then be invoked as an <quote>action</quote>. Mulitple filter files can be
6099 defined through the <literal> <link
6100 linkend="filterfile">filterfile</link></literal> config directive. The filters
6101 as supplied by the developers will be found in
6102 <filename>default.filter</filename>. It is recommended that any locally
6103 defined or modified filters go in a separately defined file such as
6104 <filename>user.filter</filename>.
6109 Typical reasons for doing these kinds of substitutions are to eliminate
6110 common annoyances in HTML and JavaScript, such as pop-up windows,
6111 exit consoles, crippled windows without navigation tools, the
6112 infamous <BLINK> tag etc, to suppress images with certain
6113 width and height attributes (standard banner sizes or web-bugs),
6114 or just to have fun. The possibilities are endless.
6118 Filtering works on any text-based document type, including
6119 HTML, JavaScript, CSS etc. (all <literal>text/*</literal>
6120 MIME types, <emphasis>except</emphasis> <literal>text/plain</literal>).
6121 Substitutions are made at the source level, so if you want to <quote>roll
6122 your own</quote> filters, you should first be familiar with HTML syntax,
6123 and, of course, regular expressions. By default, filters are only applied
6124 to the document content, but can be extended to the headers with
6125 the supplemental actions:
6126 <link linkend="filter-client-headers">filter-client-headers</link> and
6127 <link linkend="filter-server-headers">filter-server-headers</link>.
6131 Just like the <link linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>, the
6132 filter file is organized in sections, which are called <emphasis>filters</emphasis>
6133 here. Each filter consists of a heading line, that starts with the
6134 <emphasis>keyword</emphasis> <literal>FILTER:</literal>, followed by
6135 the filter's <emphasis>name</emphasis>, and a short (one line)
6136 <emphasis>description</emphasis> of what it does. Below that line
6137 come the <emphasis>jobs</emphasis>, i.e. lines that define the actual
6138 text substitutions. By convention, the name of a filter
6139 should describe what the filter <emphasis>eliminates</emphasis>. The
6140 comment is used in the <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">web-based
6141 user interface</ulink>.
6145 Once a filter called <replaceable>name</replaceable> has been defined
6146 in the filter file, it can be invoked by using an action of the form
6147 +<literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link>{<replaceable>name</replaceable>}</literal>
6148 in any <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link>.
6152 A filter header line for a filter called <quote>foo</quote> could look
6157 <screen>FILTER: foo Replace all "foo" with "bar"</screen>
6161 Below that line, and up to the next header line, come the jobs that
6162 define what text replacements the filter executes. They are specified
6163 in a syntax that imitates <ulink url="http://www.perl.org/">Perl</ulink>'s
6164 <literal>s///</literal> operator. If you are familiar with Perl, you
6165 will find this to be quite intuitive, and may want to look at the
6166 PCRS documentation for the subtle differences to Perl behaviour. Most
6167 notably, the non-standard option letter <literal>U</literal> is supported,
6168 which turns the default to ungreedy matching.
6172 If you are new to regular expressions, you might want to take a look at
6173 the <link linkend="regex">Appendix on regular expressions</link>, and
6174 see the <ulink url="http://perldoc.com/perl5.6.1/pod/perl.html">Perl
6176 <ulink url="http://perldoc.com/perl5.6.1/pod/perlop.html#s-PATTERN-REPLACEMENT-egimosx">the
6177 <literal>s///</literal> operator's syntax</ulink> and <ulink
6178 url="http://perldoc.com/perl5.6.1/pod/perlre.html">Perl-style regular
6179 expressions</ulink> in general.
6180 The below examples might also help to get you started.
6184 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
6186 <sect2><title>Filter File Tutorial</title>
6188 Now, let's complete our <quote>foo</quote> filter. We have already defined
6189 the heading, but the jobs are still missing. Since all it does is to replace
6190 <quote>foo</quote> with <quote>bar</quote>, there is only one (trivial) job
6195 <screen>s/foo/bar/</screen>
6199 But wait! Didn't the comment say that <emphasis>all</emphasis> occurrences
6200 of <quote>foo</quote> should be replaced? Our current job will only take
6201 care of the first <quote>foo</quote> on each page. For global substitution,
6202 we'll need to add the <literal>g</literal> option:
6206 <screen>s/foo/bar/g</screen>
6210 Our complete filter now looks like this:
6213 <screen>FILTER: foo Replace all "foo" with "bar"
6214 s/foo/bar/g</screen>
6218 Let's look at some real filters for more interesting examples. Here you see
6219 a filter that protects against some common annoyances that arise from JavaScript
6220 abuse. Let's look at its jobs one after the other:
6226 FILTER: js-annoyances Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse
6228 # Get rid of JavaScript referrer tracking. Test page: http://www.randomoddness.com/untitled.htm
6230 s|(<script.*)document\.referrer(.*</script>)|$1"Not Your Business!"$2|Usg</screen>
6234 Following the header line and a comment, you see the job. Note that it uses
6235 <literal>|</literal> as the delimiter instead of <literal>/</literal>, because
6236 the pattern contains a forward slash, which would otherwise have to be escaped
6237 by a backslash (<literal>\</literal>).
6241 Now, let's examine the pattern: it starts with the text <literal><script.*</literal>
6242 enclosed in parentheses. Since the dot matches any character, and <literal>*</literal>
6243 means: <quote>Match an arbitrary number of the element left of myself</quote>, this
6244 matches <quote><script</quote>, followed by <emphasis>any</emphasis> text, i.e.
6245 it matches the whole page, from the start of the first <script> tag.
6249 That's more than we want, but the pattern continues: <literal>document\.referrer</literal>
6250 matches only the exact string <quote>document.referrer</quote>. The dot needed to
6251 be <emphasis>escaped</emphasis>, i.e. preceded by a backslash, to take away its
6252 special meaning as a joker, and make it just a regular dot. So far, the meaning is:
6253 Match from the start of the first <script> tag in a the page, up to, and including,
6254 the text <quote>document.referrer</quote>, if <emphasis>both</emphasis> are present
6255 in the page (and appear in that order).
6259 But there's still more pattern to go. The next element, again enclosed in parentheses,
6260 is <literal>.*</script></literal>. You already know what <literal>.*</literal>
6261 means, so the whole pattern translates to: Match from the start of the first <script>
6262 tag in a page to the end of the last <script> tag, provided that the text
6263 <quote>document.referrer</quote> appears somewhere in between.
6267 This is still not the whole story, since we have ignored the options and the parentheses:
6268 The portions of the page matched by sub-patterns that are enclosed in parentheses, will be
6269 remembered and be available through the variables <literal>$1, $2, ...</literal> in
6270 the substitute. The <literal>U</literal> option switches to ungreedy matching, which means
6271 that the first <literal>.*</literal> in the pattern will only <quote>eat up</quote> all
6272 text in between <quote><script</quote> and the <emphasis>first</emphasis> occurrence
6273 of <quote>document.referrer</quote>, and that the second <literal>.*</literal> will
6274 only span the text up to the <emphasis>first</emphasis> <quote></script></quote>
6275 tag. Furthermore, the <literal>s</literal> option says that the match may span
6276 multiple lines in the page, and the <literal>g</literal> option again means that the
6277 substitution is global.
6281 So, to summarize, the pattern means: Match all scripts that contain the text
6282 <quote>document.referrer</quote>. Remember the parts of the script from
6283 (and including) the start tag up to (and excluding) the string
6284 <quote>document.referrer</quote> as <literal>$1</literal>, and the part following
6285 that string, up to and including the closing tag, as <literal>$2</literal>.
6289 Now the pattern is deciphered, but wasn't this about substituting things? So
6290 lets look at the substitute: <literal>$1"Not Your Business!"$2</literal> is
6291 easy to read: The text remembered as <literal>$1</literal>, followed by
6292 <literal>"Not Your Business!"</literal> (<emphasis>including</emphasis>
6293 the quotation marks!), followed by the text remembered as <literal>$2</literal>.
6294 This produces an exact copy of the original string, with the middle part
6295 (the <quote>document.referrer</quote>) replaced by <literal>"Not Your
6296 Business!"</literal>.
6300 The whole job now reads: Replace <quote>document.referrer</quote> by
6301 <literal>"Not Your Business!"</literal> wherever it appears inside a
6302 <script> tag. Note that this job won't break JavaScript syntax,
6303 since both the original and the replacement are syntactically valid
6304 string objects. The script just won't have access to the referrer
6305 information anymore.
6309 We'll show you two other jobs from the JavaScript taming department, but
6310 this time only point out the constructs of special interest:
6315 # The status bar is for displaying link targets, not pointless blahblah
6317 s/window\.status\s*=\s*(['"]).*?\1/dUmMy=1/ig</screen>
6321 <literal>\s</literal> stands for whitespace characters (space, tab, newline,
6322 carriage return, form feed), so that <literal>\s*</literal> means: <quote>zero
6323 or more whitespace</quote>. The <literal>?</literal> in <literal>.*?</literal>
6324 makes this matching of arbitrary text ungreedy. (Note that the <literal>U</literal>
6325 option is not set). The <literal>['"]</literal> construct means: <quote>a single
6326 <emphasis>or</emphasis> a double quote</quote>. Finally, <literal>\1</literal> is
6327 a backreference to the first parenthesis just like <literal>$1</literal> above,
6328 with the difference that in the <emphasis>pattern</emphasis>, a backslash indicates
6329 a backreference, whereas in the <emphasis>substitute</emphasis>, it's the dollar.
6333 So what does this job do? It replaces assignments of single- or double-quoted
6334 strings to the <quote>window.status</quote> object with a dummy assignment
6335 (using a variable name that is hopefully odd enough not to conflict with
6336 real variables in scripts). Thus, it catches many cases where e.g. pointless
6337 descriptions are displayed in the status bar instead of the link target when
6338 you move your mouse over links.
6343 # Kill OnUnload popups. Yummy. Test: http://www.zdnet.com/zdsubs/yahoo/tree/yfs.html
6345 s/(<body [^>]*)onunload(.*>)/$1never$2/iU</screen>
6350 <ulink url="http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-DOM-Level-2-Events-20001113/events.html#Events-eventgroupings-htmlevents">OnUnload
6351 event binding</ulink> in the HTML DOM was a <emphasis>CRIME</emphasis>.
6352 When I close a browser window, I want it to close and die. Basta.
6353 This job replaces the <quote>onunload</quote> attribute in
6354 <quote><body></quote> tags with the dummy word <literal>never</literal>.
6355 Note that the <literal>i</literal> option makes the pattern matching
6356 case-insensitive. Also note that ungreedy matching alone doesn't always guarantee
6357 a minimal match: In the first parenthesis, we had to use <literal>[^>]*</literal>
6358 instead of <literal>.*</literal> to prevent the match from exceeding the
6359 <body> tag if it doesn't contain <quote>OnUnload</quote>, but the page's
6364 The last example is from the fun department:
6369 FILTER: fun Fun text replacements
6371 # Spice the daily news:
6373 s/microsoft(?!\.com)/MicroSuck/ig</screen>
6377 Note the <literal>(?!\.com)</literal> part (a so-called negative lookahead)
6378 in the job's pattern, which means: Don't match, if the string
6379 <quote>.com</quote> appears directly following <quote>microsoft</quote>
6380 in the page. This prevents links to microsoft.com from being trashed, while
6381 still replacing the word everywhere else.
6386 # Buzzword Bingo (example for extended regex syntax)
6388 s* industry[ -]leading \
6390 | customer[ -]focused \
6391 | market[ -]driven \
6392 | award[ -]winning # Comments are OK, too! \
6393 | high[ -]performance \
6394 | solutions[ -]based \
6398 *<font color="red"><b>BINGO!</b></font> \
6403 The <literal>x</literal> option in this job turns on extended syntax, and allows for
6404 e.g. the liberal use of (non-interpreted!) whitespace for nicer formatting.
6412 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
6414 <sect2 id="predefined-filters"><title>The Pre-defined Filters</title>
6418 Note each filter is also listed in the +filter action section above. Please
6419 keep these listings in sync.
6424 The distribution <filename>default.filter</filename> file contains a selection of
6425 pre-defined filters for your convenience:
6430 <term><emphasis>js-annoyances</emphasis></term>
6433 The purpose of this filter is to get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse.
6438 replaces JavaScript references to the browser's referrer information
6439 with the string "Not Your Business!". This compliments the <literal><link
6440 linkend="hide-referrer">hide-referrer</link></literal> action on the content level.
6445 removes the bindings to the DOM's
6446 <ulink url="http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-DOM-Level-2-Events-20001113/events.html#Events-eventgroupings-htmlevents">unload
6447 event</ulink> which we feel has no right to exist and is responsible for most <quote>exit consoles</quote>, i.e.
6448 nasty windows that pop up when you close another one.
6453 removes code that causes new windows to be opened with undesired properties, such as being
6454 full-screen, non-resizable, without location, status or menu bar etc.
6463 <term><emphasis>js-events</emphasis></term>
6466 This is a very radical measure. It removes virtually all JavaScript event bindings, which
6467 means that scripts can not react to user actions such as mouse movements or clicks, window
6468 resizing etc, anymore.
6471 We <emphasis>strongly discourage</emphasis> using this filter as a default since it breaks
6472 many legitimate scripts. It is meant for use only on extra-nasty sites (should you really
6479 <term><emphasis>html-annoyances</emphasis></term>
6482 This filter will undo many common instances of HTML based abuse.
6485 The <literal>BLINK</literal> and <literal>MARQUEE</literal> tags
6486 are neutralized (yeah baby!), and browser windows will be created as
6487 resizable (as of course they should be!), and will have location,
6488 scroll and menu bars -- even if specified otherwise.
6494 <term><emphasis>content-cookies</emphasis></term>
6497 Most cookies are set in the HTTP dialogue, where they can be intercepted
6499 <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal>
6500 and <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>
6501 actions. But web sites increasingly make use of HTML meta tags and JavaScript
6502 to sneak cookies to the browser on the content level.
6505 This filter disables HTML and JavaScript code that reads or sets cookies. Use
6506 it wherever you would also use the cookie crunch actions.
6512 <term><emphasis>refresh tags</emphasis></term>
6515 Disable any refresh tags if the interval is greater than nine seconds (so
6516 that redirections done via refresh tags are not destroyed). This is useful
6517 for dial-on-demand setups, or for those who find this HTML feature
6524 <term><emphasis>unsolicited-popups</emphasis></term>
6527 This filter attempts to prevent only <quote>unsolicited</quote> pop-up
6528 windows from opening, yet still allow pop-up windows that the user
6529 has explicitly chosen to open. It was added in version 3.0.1,
6530 as an improvement over earlier such filters.
6533 Technical note: The filter works by redefining the window.open JavaScript
6534 function to a dummy function during the loading and rendering phase of each
6535 HTML page access, and restoring the function afterwards.
6541 <term><emphasis>all-popups</emphasis></term>
6544 Attempt to prevent <emphasis>all</emphasis> pop-up windows from opening.
6545 Note this should be used with more discretion than the above, since it is
6546 more likely to break some sites that require pop-ups for normal usage. Use
6553 <term><emphasis>img-reorder</emphasis></term>
6556 This is a helper filter that has no value if used alone. It makes the
6557 <literal>banners-by-size</literal> and <literal>banners-by-link</literal>
6558 (see below) filters more effective and should be enabled together with them.
6564 <term><emphasis>banners-by-size</emphasis></term>
6567 This filter removes image tags purely based on what size they are. Fortunately
6568 for us, many ads and banner images tend to conform to certain standardized
6569 sizes, which makes this filter quite effective for ad stripping purposes.
6572 Occasionally this filter will cause false positives on images that are not ads,
6573 but just happen to be of one of the standard banner sizes.
6579 <term><emphasis>banners-by-link</emphasis></term>
6582 This is an experimental filter that attempts to kill any banners if
6583 their URLs seem to point to known or suspected click trackers. It is currently
6584 not of much value and is not recommended for use by default.
6590 <term><emphasis>webbugs</emphasis></term>
6593 Webbugs are small, invisible images (technically 1X1 GIF images), that
6594 are used to track users across websites, and collect information on them.
6595 As an HTML page is loaded by the browser, an embedded image tag causes the
6596 browser to contact a third-party site, disclosing the tracking information
6597 through the requested URL and/or cookies for that third-party domain, without
6598 the use ever becoming aware of the interaction with the third-party site.
6599 HTML-ized spam also uses a similar technique to verify email addresses.
6602 This filter removes the HTML code that loads such <quote>webbugs</quote>.
6608 <term><emphasis>tiny-textforms</emphasis></term>
6611 A rather special-purpose filter that can be used to enlarge textareas (those
6612 multi-line text boxes in web forms) and turn off hard word wrap in them.
6613 It was written for the sourceforge.net tracker system where such boxes are
6614 a nuisance, but it can be handy on other sites, too.
6617 It is not recommended to use this filter as a default.
6623 <term><emphasis>jumping-windows</emphasis></term>
6626 Many consider windows that move, or resize themselves to be abusive. This filter
6627 neutralizes the related JavaScript code. Note that some sites might not display
6628 or behave as intended when using this filter.
6634 <term><emphasis>frameset-borders</emphasis></term>
6637 Some web designers seem to assume that everyone in the world will view their
6638 web sites using the same browser brand and version, screen resolution etc,
6639 because only that assumption could explain why they'd use static frame sizes,
6640 yet prevent their frames from being resized by the user, should they be too
6641 small to show their whole content.
6644 This filter removes the related HTML code. It should only be applied to sites
6651 <term><emphasis>demoronizer</emphasis></term>
6654 Many Microsoft products that generate HTML use non-standard extensions (read:
6655 violations) of the ISO 8859-1 aka Latin-1 character set. This can cause those
6656 HTML documents to display with errors on standard-compliant platforms.
6659 This filter translates the MS-only characters into Latin-1 equivalents.
6660 It is not necessary when using MS products, and will cause corruption of
6661 all documents that use 8-bit character sets other than Latin-1. It's mostly
6662 worthwhile for Europeans on non-MS platforms, if wierd garbage characters
6663 sometimes appear on some pages, or user agents that don't correct for this on
6666 My version of Mozilla (ancient) shows litte square boxes for quote
6667 characters, and apostrophes on moronized pages. So many pages have this, I
6668 can read them fine now. HB 08/27/06
6675 <term><emphasis>shockwave-flash</emphasis></term>
6678 A filter for shockwave haters. As the name suggests, this filter strips code
6679 out of web pages that is used to embed shockwave flash objects.
6687 <term><emphasis>quicktime-kioskmode</emphasis></term>
6690 Change HTML code that embeds Quicktime objects so that kioskmode, which
6691 prevents saving, is disabled.
6697 <term><emphasis>fun</emphasis></term>
6700 Text replacements for subversive browsing fun. Make fun of your favorite
6701 Monopolist or play buzzword bingo.
6707 <term><emphasis>crude-parental</emphasis></term>
6710 A demonstration-only filter that shows how <application>Privoxy</application>
6711 can be used to delete web content on a keyword basis.
6717 <term><emphasis>ie-exploits</emphasis></term>
6720 A collection of text replacements to disable malicious HTML and JavaScript
6721 code that exploits known security holes in Internet Explorer.
6724 Presently, it only protects against Nimda and a cross-site scripting bug, and
6725 would need active maintenance to provide more substantial protection.
6731 <term><emphasis>site-specifics</emphasis></term>
6734 Some web sites have very specific problems, the cure for which doesn't apply
6735 anywhere else, or could even cause damage on other sites.
6738 This is a collection of such site-specific cures which should only be applied
6739 to the sites they were intended for, which is what the supplied
6740 <filename>default.action</filename> file does. Users shouldn't need to change
6741 anything regarding this filter.
6748 <term><emphasis> </emphasis></term>
6762 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
6766 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6768 <sect1 id="templates">
6769 <title>Templates</title>
6771 All <application>Privoxy</application> built-in pages, i.e. error pages such as the
6772 <ulink url="http://show-the-404-error.page"><quote>404 - No Such Domain</quote>
6773 error page</ulink>, the <ulink
6774 url="http://ads.bannerserver.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor.html"><quote>BLOCKED</quote>
6776 and all pages of its <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">web-based
6777 user interface</ulink>, are generated from <emphasis>templates</emphasis>.
6778 (<application>Privoxy</application> must be running for the above links to work as
6783 These templates are stored in a subdirectory of the <link linkend="confdir">configuration
6784 directory</link> called <filename>templates</filename>. On Unixish platforms,
6786 <ulink url="file:///etc/privoxy/templates/"><filename>/etc/privoxy/templates/</filename></ulink>.
6790 The templates are basically normal HTML files, but with place-holders (called symbols
6791 or exports), which <application>Privoxy</application> fills at run time. You can
6792 edit the templates with a normal text editor, should you want to customize them.
6793 (<emphasis>Not recommended for the casual user</emphasis>). Note that
6794 just like in configuration files, lines starting with <literal>#</literal> are
6795 ignored when the templates are filled in.
6799 The place-holders are of the form <literal>@name@</literal>, and you will
6800 find a list of available symbols, which vary from template to template,
6801 in the comments at the start of each file. Note that these comments are not
6802 always accurate, and that it's probably best to look at the existing HTML
6803 code to find out which symbols are supported and what they are filled in with.
6807 A special application of this substitution mechanism is to make whole
6808 blocks of HTML code disappear when a specific symbol is set. We use this
6809 for many purposes, one of them being to include the beta warning in all
6810 our user interface (CGI) pages when <application>Privoxy</application>
6811 is in an alpha or beta development stage:
6816 <!-- @if-unstable-start -->
6818 ... beta warning HTML code goes here ...
6820 <!-- if-unstable-end@ --></screen>
6824 If the "unstable" symbol is set, everything in between and including
6825 <literal>@if-unstable-start</literal> and <literal>if-unstable-end@</literal>
6826 will disappear, leaving nothing but an empty comment:
6830 <screen><!-- --></screen>
6834 There's also an if-then-else construct and an <literal>#include</literal>
6835 mechanism, but you'll sure find out if you are inclined to edit the
6840 All templates refer to a style located at
6841 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/send-stylesheet"><literal>http://config.privoxy.org/send-stylesheet</literal></ulink>.
6842 This is, of course, locally served by <application>Privoxy</application>
6843 and the source for it can be found and edited in the
6844 <filename>cgi-style.css</filename> template.
6849 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
6853 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6855 <sect1 id="contact"><title>Contacting the Developers, Bug Reporting and Feature
6858 <!-- Include contacting.sgml boilerplate: -->
6860 <!-- end boilerplate -->
6864 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
6867 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6868 <sect1 id="copyright"><title><application>Privoxy</application> Copyright, License and History</title>
6870 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
6872 <!-- end copyright -->
6874 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6875 <sect2><title>License</title>
6876 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
6878 <!-- end copyright -->
6880 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
6883 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6885 <sect2 id="history"><title>History</title>
6886 <!-- Include history.sgml: -->
6888 <!-- end history -->
6891 <sect2 id="authors"><title>Authors</title>
6892 <!-- Include p-authors.sgml: -->
6894 <!-- end authors -->
6899 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
6902 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6903 <sect1 id="seealso"><title>See Also</title>
6904 <!-- Include seealso.sgml: -->
6906 <!-- end seealso -->
6911 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6912 <sect1 id="appendix"><title>Appendix</title>
6915 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6917 <title>Regular Expressions</title>
6919 <application>Privoxy</application> uses Perl-style <quote>regular
6920 expressions</quote> in its <link linkend="actions-file">actions
6921 files</link> and <link linkend="filter-file">filter file</link>,
6922 through the <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/">PCRE</ulink> and
6925 <ulink url="http://www.oesterhelt.org/pcrs/">PCRS</ulink> libraries.
6927 <application>PCRS</application> libraries.
6931 If you are reading this, you probably don't understand what <quote>regular
6932 expressions</quote> are, or what they can do. So this will be a very brief
6933 introduction only. A full explanation would require a <ulink
6934 url="http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/regex/">book</ulink> ;-)
6938 Regular expressions provide a language to describe patterns that can be
6939 run against strings of characters (letter, numbers, etc), to see if they
6940 match the string or not. The patterns are themselves (sometimes complex)
6941 strings of literal characters, combined with wild-cards, and other special
6942 characters, called meta-characters. The <quote>meta-characters</quote> have
6943 special meanings and are used to build complex patterns to be matched against.
6944 Perl Compatible Regular Expressions are an especially convenient
6945 <quote>dialect</quote> of the regular expression language.
6949 To make a simple analogy, we do something similar when we use wild-card
6950 characters when listing files with the <command>dir</command> command in DOS.
6951 <literal>*.*</literal> matches all filenames. The <quote>special</quote>
6952 character here is the asterisk which matches any and all characters. We can be
6953 more specific and use <literal>?</literal> to match just individual
6954 characters. So <quote>dir file?.text</quote> would match
6955 <quote>file1.txt</quote>, <quote>file2.txt</quote>, etc. We are pattern
6956 matching, using a similar technique to <quote>regular expressions</quote>!
6960 Regular expressions do essentially the same thing, but are much, much more
6961 powerful. There are many more <quote>special characters</quote> and ways of
6962 building complex patterns however. Let's look at a few of the common ones,
6963 and then some examples:
6968 <emphasis>.</emphasis> - Matches any single character, e.g. <quote>a</quote>,
6969 <quote>A</quote>, <quote>4</quote>, <quote>:</quote>, or <quote>@</quote>.
6971 </simplelist></para>
6975 <emphasis>?</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or ONE
6978 </simplelist></para>
6982 <emphasis>+</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ONE or MORE
6985 </simplelist></para>
6989 <emphasis>*</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or MORE
6992 </simplelist></para>
6996 <emphasis>\</emphasis> - The <quote>escape</quote> character denotes that
6997 the following character should be taken literally. This is used where one of the
6998 special characters (e.g. <quote>.</quote>) needs to be taken literally and
6999 not as a special meta-character. Example: <quote>example\.com</quote>, makes
7000 sure the period is recognized only as a period (and not expanded to its
7001 meta-character meaning of any single character).
7003 </simplelist></para>
7007 <emphasis>[]</emphasis> - Characters enclosed in brackets will be matched if
7008 any of the enclosed characters are encountered. For instance, <quote>[0-9]</quote>
7009 matches any numeric digit (zero through nine). As an example, we can combine
7010 this with <quote>+</quote> to match any digit one of more times: <quote>[0-9]+</quote>.
7012 </simplelist></para>
7016 <emphasis>()</emphasis> - parentheses are used to group a sub-expression,
7017 or multiple sub-expressions.
7019 </simplelist></para>
7023 <emphasis>|</emphasis> - The <quote>bar</quote> character works like an
7024 <quote>or</quote> conditional statement. A match is successful if the
7025 sub-expression on either side of <quote>|</quote> matches. As an example:
7026 <quote>/(this|that) example/</quote> uses grouping and the bar character
7027 and would match either <quote>this example</quote> or <quote>that
7028 example</quote>, and nothing else.
7030 </simplelist></para>
7033 These are just some of the ones you are likely to use when matching URLs with
7034 <application>Privoxy</application>, and is a long way from a definitive
7035 list. This is enough to get us started with a few simple examples which may
7036 be more illuminating:
7040 <emphasis><literal>/.*/banners/.*</literal></emphasis> - A simple example
7041 that uses the common combination of <quote>.</quote> and <quote>*</quote> to
7042 denote any character, zero or more times. In other words, any string at all.
7043 So we start with a literal forward slash, then our regular expression pattern
7044 (<quote>.*</quote>) another literal forward slash, the string
7045 <quote>banners</quote>, another forward slash, and lastly another
7046 <quote>.*</quote>. We are building
7047 a directory path here. This will match any file with the path that has a
7048 directory named <quote>banners</quote> in it. The <quote>.*</quote> matches
7049 any characters, and this could conceivably be more forward slashes, so it
7050 might expand into a much longer looking path. For example, this could match:
7051 <quote>/eye/hate/spammers/banners/annoy_me_please.gif</quote>, or just
7052 <quote>/banners/annoying.html</quote>, or almost an infinite number of other
7053 possible combinations, just so it has <quote>banners</quote> in the path
7058 A now something a little more complex:
7062 <emphasis><literal>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))?/</literal></emphasis> -
7063 We have several literal forward slashes again (<quote>/</quote>), so we are
7064 building another expression that is a file path statement. We have another
7065 <quote>.*</quote>, so we are matching against any conceivable sub-path, just so
7066 it matches our expression. The only true literal that <emphasis>must
7067 match</emphasis> our pattern is <application>adv</application>, together with
7068 the forward slashes. What comes after the <quote>adv</quote> string is the
7073 Remember the <quote>?</quote> means the preceding expression (either a
7074 literal character or anything grouped with <quote>(...)</quote> in this case)
7075 can exist or not, since this means either zero or one match. So
7076 <quote>((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))</quote> is optional, as are the
7077 individual sub-expressions: <quote>(er)</quote>,
7078 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, and the <quote>s</quote>. The <quote>|</quote>
7079 means <quote>or</quote>. We have two of those. For instance,
7080 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, can expand to match either <quote>ing</quote>
7081 <emphasis>OR</emphasis> <quote>ements?</quote>. What is being done here, is an
7082 attempt at matching as many variations of <quote>advertisement</quote>, and
7083 similar, as possible. So this would expand to match just <quote>adv</quote>,
7084 or <quote>advert</quote>, or <quote>adverts</quote>, or
7085 <quote>advertising</quote>, or <quote>advertisement</quote>, or
7086 <quote>advertisements</quote>. You get the idea. But it would not match
7087 <quote>advertizements</quote> (with a <quote>z</quote>). We could fix that by
7088 changing our regular expression to:
7089 <quote>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|erti(s|z)(ing|ements?))?/</quote>, which would then match
7094 <emphasis><literal>/.*/advert[0-9]+\.(gif|jpe?g)</literal></emphasis> - Again
7095 another path statement with forward slashes. Anything in the square brackets
7096 <quote>[]</quote> can be matched. This is using <quote>0-9</quote> as a
7097 shorthand expression to mean any digit one through nine. It is the same as
7098 saying <quote>0123456789</quote>. So any digit matches. The <quote>+</quote>
7099 means one or more of the preceding expression must be included. The preceding
7100 expression here is what is in the square brackets -- in this case, any digit
7101 one through nine. Then, at the end, we have a grouping: <quote>(gif|jpe?g)</quote>.
7102 This includes a <quote>|</quote>, so this needs to match the expression on
7103 either side of that bar character also. A simple <quote>gif</quote> on one side, and the other
7104 side will in turn match either <quote>jpeg</quote> or <quote>jpg</quote>,
7105 since the <quote>?</quote> means the letter <quote>e</quote> is optional and
7106 can be matched once or not at all. So we are building an expression here to
7107 match image GIF or JPEG type image file. It must include the literal
7108 string <quote>advert</quote>, then one or more digits, and a <quote>.</quote>
7109 (which is now a literal, and not a special character, since it is escaped
7110 with <quote>\</quote>), and lastly either <quote>gif</quote>, or
7111 <quote>jpeg</quote>, or <quote>jpg</quote>. Some possible matches would
7112 include: <quote>//advert1.jpg</quote>,
7113 <quote>/nasty/ads/advert1234.gif</quote>,
7114 <quote>/banners/from/hell/advert99.jpg</quote>. It would not match
7115 <quote>advert1.gif</quote> (no leading slash), or
7116 <quote>/adverts232.jpg</quote> (the expression does not include an
7117 <quote>s</quote>), or <quote>/advert1.jsp</quote> (<quote>jsp</quote> is not
7118 in the expression anywhere).
7122 We are barely scratching the surface of regular expressions here so that you
7123 can understand the default <application>Privoxy</application>
7124 configuration files, and maybe use this knowledge to customize your own
7125 installation. There is much, much more that can be done with regular
7126 expressions. Now that you know enough to get started, you can learn more on
7131 More reading on Perl Compatible Regular expressions:
7132 <ulink url="http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html">http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html</ulink>
7136 For information on regular expression based substitutions and their applications
7137 in filters, please see the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file tutorial</link>
7142 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7145 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7147 <title><application>Privoxy</application>'s Internal Pages</title>
7150 Since <application>Privoxy</application> proxies each requested
7151 web page, it is easy for <application>Privoxy</application> to
7152 trap certain special URLs. In this way, we can talk directly to
7153 <application>Privoxy</application>, and see how it is
7154 configured, see how our rules are being applied, change these
7155 rules and other configuration options, and even turn
7156 <application>Privoxy's</application> filtering off, all with
7162 The URLs listed below are the special ones that allow direct access
7163 to <application>Privoxy</application>. Of course,
7164 <application>Privoxy</application> must be running to access these. If
7165 not, you will get a friendly error message. Internet access is not
7178 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
7182 There is a shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink> (But it
7183 doesn't provide a fall-back to a real page, in case the request is not
7184 sent through <application>Privoxy</application>)
7190 Show information about the current configuration, including viewing and
7191 editing of actions files:
7195 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
7202 Show the source code version numbers:
7206 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-version">http://config.privoxy.org/show-version</ulink>
7213 Show the browser's request headers:
7217 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request">http://config.privoxy.org/show-request</ulink>
7224 Show which actions apply to a URL and why:
7228 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
7235 Toggle Privoxy on or off. In this case, <quote>Privoxy</quote> continues
7236 to run, but only as a pass-through proxy, with no actions taking place:
7240 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</ulink>
7244 Short cuts. Turn off, then on:
7248 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable</ulink>
7253 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable</ulink>
7262 These may be bookmarked for quick reference. See next.
7266 <sect3 id="bookmarklets">
7267 <title>Bookmarklets</title>
7269 Below are some <quote>bookmarklets</quote> to allow you to easily access a
7270 <quote>mini</quote> version of some of <application>Privoxy's</application>
7271 special pages. They are designed for MS Internet Explorer, but should work
7272 equally well in Netscape, Mozilla, and other browsers which support
7273 JavaScript. They are designed to run directly from your bookmarks - not by
7274 clicking the links below (although that should work for testing).
7277 To save them, right-click the link and choose <quote>Add to Favorites</quote>
7278 (IE) or <quote>Add Bookmark</quote> (Netscape). You will get a warning that
7279 the bookmark <quote>may not be safe</quote> - just click OK. Then you can run the
7280 Bookmarklet directly from your favorites/bookmarks. For even faster access,
7281 you can put them on the <quote>Links</quote> bar (IE) or the <quote>Personal
7282 Toolbar</quote> (Netscape), and run them with a single click.
7291 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>
7298 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>
7305 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)
7312 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>
7318 <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>
7324 <ulink url="javascript:void(window.open('http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info?url='+escape(location.href),'Why').focus());">Privoxy - Why?</ulink>
7331 Credit: The site which gave us the general idea for these bookmarklets is
7332 <ulink url="http://www.bookmarklets.com/">www.bookmarklets.com</ulink>. They
7333 have more information about bookmarklets.
7342 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7344 <title>Chain of Events</title>
7346 Let's take a quick look at the basic sequence of events when a web page is
7347 requested by your browser and <application>Privoxy</application> is on duty:
7354 First, your web browser requests a web page. The browser knows to send
7355 the request to <application>Privoxy</application>, which will in turn,
7356 relay the request to the remote web server after passing the following
7362 <application>Privoxy</application> traps any request for its own internal CGI
7363 pages (e.g http://p.p/) and sends the CGI page back to the browser.
7368 Next, <application>Privoxy</application> checks to see if the URL
7370 linkend="BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></link> patterns. If
7371 so, the URL is then blocked, and the remote web server will not be contacted.
7372 <link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></link>
7373 is then checked and if it does not match, an
7374 HTML <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page is sent back. Otherwise, if it does match,
7375 an image is returned. The type of image depends on the setting of <link
7376 linkend="SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"><quote>+set-image-blocker</quote></link>
7377 (blank, checkerboard pattern, or an HTTP redirect to an image elsewhere).
7382 Untrusted URLs are blocked. If URLs are being added to the
7383 <filename>trust</filename> file, then that is done.
7388 If the URL pattern matches the <link
7389 linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS"><quote>+fast-redirects</quote></link> action,
7390 it is then processed. Unwanted parts of the requested URL are stripped.
7395 Now the rest of the client browser's request headers are processed. If any
7396 of these match any of the relevant actions (e.g. <link
7397 linkend="HIDE-USER-AGENT"><quote>+hide-user-agent</quote></link>,
7398 etc.), headers are suppressed or forged as determined by these actions and
7404 Now the web server starts sending its response back (i.e. typically a web page and related
7410 First, the server headers are read and processed to determine, among other
7411 things, the MIME type (document type) and encoding. The headers are then
7412 filtered as determined by the
7413 <link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES"><quote>+crunch-incoming-cookies</quote></link>,
7414 <link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"><quote>+session-cookies-only</quote></link>,
7415 and <link linkend="DOWNGRADE-HTTP-VERSION"><quote>+downgrade-http-version</quote></link>
7421 If the <link linkend="KILL-POPUPS"><quote>+kill-popups</quote></link>
7422 action applies, and it is an HTML or JavaScript document, the popup-code in the
7423 response is filtered on-the-fly as it is received.
7428 If a <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link>
7430 linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS"><quote>+deanimate-gifs</quote></link>
7431 action applies (and the document type fits the action), the rest of the page is
7432 read into memory (up to a configurable limit). Then the filter rules (from
7433 <filename>default.filter</filename> and any other filter files) are
7434 processed against the buffered content. Filters are applied in the order
7435 they are specified in one of the filter files. Animated GIFs, if present,
7436 are reduced to either the first or last frame, depending on the action
7437 setting.The entire page, which is now filtered, is then sent by
7438 <application>Privoxy</application> back to your browser.
7441 If neither <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link>
7443 linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS"><quote>+deanimate-gifs</quote></link>
7444 matches, then <application>Privoxy</application> passes the raw data through
7445 to the client browser as it becomes available.
7450 As the browser receives the now (probably filtered) page content, it
7451 reads and then requests any URLs that may be embedded within the page
7452 source, e.g. ad images, stylesheets, JavaScript, other HTML documents (e.g.
7453 frames), sounds, etc. For each of these objects, the browser issues a new
7454 request. And each such request is in turn processed as above. Note that a
7455 complex web page may have many such embedded URLs.
7465 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7466 <sect2 id="actionsanat">
7467 <title>Anatomy of an Action</title>
7470 The way <application>Privoxy</application> applies
7471 <link linkend="ACTIONS">actions</link> and <link linkend="FILTER">filters</link>
7472 to any given URL can be complex, and not always so
7473 easy to understand what is happening. And sometimes we need to be able to
7474 <emphasis>see</emphasis> just what <application>Privoxy</application> is
7475 doing. Especially, if something <application>Privoxy</application> is doing
7476 is causing us a problem inadvertently. It can be a little daunting to look at
7477 the actions and filters files themselves, since they tend to be filled with
7478 <link linkend="regex">regular expressions</link> whose consequences are not
7483 One quick test to see if <application>Privoxy</application> is causing a problem
7484 or not, is to disable it temporarily. This should be the first troubleshooting
7485 step. See <link linkend="bookmarklets">the Bookmarklets</link> section on a quick
7486 and easy way to do this (be sure to flush caches afterward!). Looking at the
7487 logs is a good idea too.
7491 <application>Privoxy</application> also provides the
7492 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
7493 page that can show us very specifically how <application>actions</application>
7494 are being applied to any given URL. This is a big help for troubleshooting.
7498 First, enter one URL (or partial URL) at the prompt, and then
7499 <application>Privoxy</application> will tell us
7500 how the current configuration will handle it. This will not
7501 help with filtering effects (i.e. the <link
7502 linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> action) from
7503 one of the filter files since this is handled very
7504 differently and not so easy to trap! It also will not tell you about any other
7505 URLs that may be embedded within the URL you are testing. For instance, images
7506 such as ads are expressed as URLs within the raw page source of HTML pages. So
7507 you will only get info for the actual URL that is pasted into the prompt area
7508 -- not any sub-URLs. If you want to know about embedded URLs like ads, you
7509 will have to dig those out of the HTML source. Use your browser's <quote>View
7510 Page Source</quote> option for this. Or right click on the ad, and grab the
7515 Let's try an example, <ulink url="http://google.com">google.com</ulink>,
7516 and look at it one section at a time in a sample configuration (your real
7517 configuration may vary):
7522 Matches for http://google.com:
7524 In file: default.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
7528 -content-type-overwrite
7529 -crunch-client-header
7530 -crunch-if-none-match
7531 -crunch-incoming-cookies
7532 -crunch-outgoing-cookies
7533 -crunch-server-header
7534 +deanimate-gifs {last}
7535 -downgrade-http-version
7536 +fast-redirects {check-decoded-url}
7538 -filter {content-cookies}
7539 -filter {all-popups}
7540 -filter {banners-by-link}
7541 -filter {tiny-textforms}
7542 -filter {frameset-borders}
7543 -filter {demoronizer}
7544 -filter {shockwave-flash}
7545 -filter {quicktime-kioskmode}
7547 -filter {crude-parental}
7548 -filter {site-specifics}
7549 +filter {js-annoyances}
7550 +filter {html-annoyances}
7551 +filter {refresh-tags}
7552 +filter {unsolicited-popups}
7553 +filter {img-reorder}
7554 +filter {banners-by-size}
7556 +filter {jumping-windows}
7557 +filter {ie-exploits}
7558 -filter-client-headers
7559 -filter-server-headers
7561 -handle-as-empty-document
7563 -hide-accept-language
7564 -hide-content-disposition
7565 +hide-forwarded-for-headers
7566 +hide-from-header {block}
7567 -hide-if-modified-since
7568 +hide-referrer {forge}
7573 -overwrite-last-modified
7574 +prevent-compression
7578 +session-cookies-only
7579 +set-image-blocker {pattern}
7580 -treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks }
7583 { -session-cookies-only }
7589 In file: user.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
7590 (no matches in this file)
7595 This is telling us how we have defined our
7596 <link linkend="ACTIONS"><quote>actions</quote></link>, and
7597 which ones match for our test case, <quote>google.com</quote>.
7598 Displayed is all the actions that are available to us. Remember,
7599 the <literal>+</literal> sign denotes <quote>on</quote>. <literal>-</literal>
7600 denotes <quote>off</quote>. So some are <quote>on</quote> here, but many
7601 are <quote>off</quote>. Each example we try may provide a slightly different
7602 end result, depending on our configuration directives.
7606 is any matches for the <filename>standard.action</filename> file. No hits at
7607 all here on <quote>standard</quote>. Then next is <quote>default</quote>, or
7608 our <filename>default.action</filename> file. The large, multi-line listing,
7609 is how the actions are set to match for all URLs, i.e. our default settings.
7610 If you look at your <quote>actions</quote> file, this would be the section
7611 just below the <quote>aliases</quote> section near the top. This will apply to
7612 all URLs as signified by the single forward slash at the end of the listing
7613 -- <quote>/</quote>.
7617 But we can define additional actions that would be exceptions to these general
7618 rules, and then list specific URLs (or patterns) that these exceptions would
7619 apply to. Last match wins. Just below this then are two explicit matches for
7620 <quote>.google.com</quote>. The first is negating our previous cookie setting,
7622 linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"><quote>+session-cookies-only</quote></link>
7623 (i.e. not persistent). So we will allow persistent cookies for google, at
7624 least that is how it is in this example. The second turns
7625 <emphasis>off</emphasis> any
7627 linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS"><quote>+fast-redirects</quote></link>
7628 action, allowing this to take place unmolested. Note that there is a leading
7629 dot here -- <quote>.google.com</quote>. This will match any hosts and
7630 sub-domains, in the google.com domain also, such as
7631 <quote>www.google.com</quote>. So, apparently, we have these two actions
7632 defined somewhere in the lower part of our <filename>default.action</filename>
7633 file, and <quote>google.com</quote> is referenced somewhere in these latter
7638 Then, for our <filename>user.action</filename> file, we again have no hits.
7639 So there is nothing google-specific that we might have added to our own, local
7644 And finally we pull it all together in the bottom section and summarize how
7645 <application>Privoxy</application> is applying all its <quote>actions</quote>
7646 to <quote>google.com</quote>:
7657 -content-type-overwrite
7658 -crunch-client-header
7659 -crunch-if-none-match
7660 -crunch-incoming-cookies
7661 -crunch-outgoing-cookies
7662 -crunch-server-header
7663 +deanimate-gifs {last}
7664 -downgrade-http-version
7666 +filter {js-annoyances}
7667 +filter {html-annoyances}
7668 +filter {refresh-tags}
7669 +filter {unsolicited-popups}
7670 +filter {img-reorder}
7671 +filter {banners-by-size}
7673 +filter {jumping-windows}
7674 +filter {ie-exploits}
7675 -filter-client-headers
7676 -filter-server-headers
7678 -handle-as-empty-document
7680 -hide-accept-language
7681 -hide-content-disposition
7682 +hide-forwarded-for-headers
7683 +hide-from-header {block}
7684 -hide-if-modified-since
7685 +hide-referrer {forge}
7690 -overwrite-last-modified
7691 +prevent-compression
7695 -session-cookies-only
7696 +set-image-blocker {pattern}
7697 -treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks </screen>
7701 Notice the only difference here to the previous listing, is to
7702 <quote>fast-redirects</quote> and <quote>session-cookies-only</quote>,
7703 which are actived specifically for this site in our configuration,
7704 and thus show in the <quote>Final Results</quote>.
7708 Now another example, <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>:
7714 { +block +handle-as-image }
7717 { +block +handle-as-image }
7720 { +block +handle-as-image }
7726 We'll just show the interesting part here, the explicit matches. It is
7727 matched three different times. Each as an <quote>+block +handle-as-image</quote>,
7728 which is the expanded form of one of our aliases that had been defined as:
7729 <quote>+imageblock</quote>. (<link
7730 linkend="ALIASES"><quote>Aliases</quote></link> are defined in
7731 the first section of the actions file and typically used to combine more
7736 Any one of these would have done the trick and blocked this as an unwanted
7737 image. This is unnecessarily redundant since the last case effectively
7738 would also cover the first. No point in taking chances with these guys
7739 though ;-) Note that if you want an ad or obnoxious
7740 URL to be invisible, it should be defined as <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>
7741 is done here -- as both a <link
7742 linkend="BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></link>
7743 <emphasis>and</emphasis> an
7745 linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></link>.
7746 The custom alias <quote>+imageblock</quote> just simplifies the process and make
7751 One last example. Let's try <quote>http://www.rhapsodyk.net/adsl/HOWTO/</quote>.
7752 This one is giving us problems. We are getting a blank page. Hmmm ...
7758 Matches for http://www.rhapsodyk.net/adsl/HOWTO/:
7760 In file: default.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
7764 -content-type-overwrite
7765 -crunch-client-header
7766 -crunch-if-none-match
7767 -crunch-incoming-cookies
7768 -crunch-outgoing-cookies
7769 -crunch-server-header
7771 -downgrade-http-version
7772 +fast-redirects{check-decoded-url}
7773 +filter{html-annoyances}
7774 +filter{js-annoyances}
7775 +filter{kill-popups}
7778 +filter{banners-by-size}
7781 -filter-client-headers
7782 -filter-server-headers
7784 -handle-as-empty-document
7786 -hide-accept-language
7787 -hide-content-disposition
7788 +hide-forwarded-for-headers
7789 +hide-from-header{block}
7790 +hide-referer{forge}
7794 -overwrite-last-modified
7795 +prevent-compression
7799 +session-cookies-only
7800 +set-image-blocker{blank}
7801 -treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks }
7804 { +block +handle-as-image }
7810 Ooops, the <quote>/adsl/</quote> is matching <quote>/ads</quote> in our
7811 configuration! But we did not want this at all! Now we see why we get the
7812 blank page. We could now add a new action below this that explicitly
7813 <emphasis>un</emphasis> blocks (<quote>{-block}</quote>) paths with
7814 <quote>adsl</quote> in them (remember, last match in the configuration wins).
7815 There are various ways to handle such exceptions. Example:
7827 Now the page displays ;-) Be sure to flush your browser's caches when
7828 making such changes. Or, try using <literal>Shift+Reload</literal>.
7832 But now what about a situation where we get no explicit matches like
7839 { +block +handle-as-image }
7845 That actually was very telling and pointed us quickly to where the problem
7846 was. If you don't get this kind of match, then it means one of the default
7847 rules in the first section is causing the problem. This would require some
7848 guesswork, and maybe a little trial and error to isolate the offending rule.
7849 One likely cause would be one of the <quote>{+filter}</quote> actions. These
7850 tend to be harder to troubleshoot. Try adding the URL for the site to one of
7851 aliases that turn off <quote>+filter</quote>:
7859 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
7867 <quote>{shop}</quote> is an <quote>alias</quote> that expands to
7868 <quote>{ -filter -session-cookies-only }</quote>.
7869 Or you could do your own exception to negate filtering:
7882 This would turn off all filtering for that site. This would probably be most
7883 appropriately put in <filename>user.action</filename>, for local site
7888 Images that are inexplicably being blocked, may well be hitting the
7889 <quote>+filter{banners-by-size}</quote> rule, which assumes
7890 that images of certain sizes are ad banners (works well most of the time
7891 since these tend to be standardized).
7895 <quote>{fragile}</quote> is an alias that disables most actions. This can be
7896 used as a last resort for problem sites. Remember to flush caches! If this
7897 still does not work, you will have to go through the remaining actions one by
7898 one to find which one(s) is causing the problem.
7907 This program is free software; you can redistribute it
7908 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
7909 Public License as published by the Free Software
7910 Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at
7911 your option) any later version.
7913 This program is distributed in the hope that it will
7914 be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the
7915 implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
7916 PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public
7917 License for more details.
7919 The GNU General Public License should be included with
7920 this file. If not, you can view it at
7921 http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
7922 or write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59
7923 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
7925 $Log: user-manual.sgml,v $
7926 Revision 2.15 2006/08/30 11:15:22 hal9
7927 More work on the new actions, especially filter-*-headers, and What's New
7928 section. User Manual is close to final form for 3.0.4 release. Some tinkering
7929 and proof reading left to do.
7931 Revision 2.14 2006/08/29 10:59:36 hal9
7932 Add a "Whats New in this release" Section. Further work on multiple filter
7933 files, and assorted other minor changes.
7935 Revision 2.13 2006/08/22 11:04:59 hal9
7936 Silence warnings and errors. This should build now. New filters were only
7937 stubbed in. More to be done.
7939 Revision 2.12 2006/08/14 08:40:39 fabiankeil
7940 Documented new actions that were part of
7941 the "minor Privoxy improvements".
7943 Revision 2.11 2006/07/18 14:48:51 david__schmidt
7944 Reorganizing the repository: swapping out what was HEAD (the old 3.1 branch)
7945 with what was really the latest development (the v_3_0_branch branch)
7947 Revision 1.123.2.43 2005/05/23 09:59:10 hal9
7950 Revision 1.123.2.42 2004/12/04 14:39:57 hal9
7951 Fix two minor typos per bug SF report.
7953 Revision 1.123.2.41 2004/03/23 12:58:42 oes
7956 Revision 1.123.2.40 2004/02/27 12:48:49 hal9
7957 Add comment re: redirecting to local file system for set-image-blocker may
7958 is dependent on browser.
7960 Revision 1.123.2.39 2004/01/30 22:31:40 oes
7961 Added a hint re bookmarklets to Quickstart section
7963 Revision 1.123.2.38 2004/01/30 16:47:51 oes
7964 Some minor clarifications
7966 Revision 1.123.2.37 2004/01/29 22:36:11 hal9
7967 Updates for no longer filtering text/plain, and demoronizer default settings,
7968 and copyright notice dates.
7970 Revision 1.123.2.36 2003/12/10 02:26:26 hal9
7971 Changed the demoronizer filter description.
7973 Revision 1.123.2.35 2003/11/06 13:36:37 oes
7974 Updated link to nightly CVS tarball
7976 Revision 1.123.2.34 2003/06/26 23:50:16 hal9
7977 Add a small bit on filtering and problems re: source code being corrupted.
7979 Revision 1.123.2.33 2003/05/08 18:17:33 roro
7980 Use apt-get instead of dpkg to install Debian package, which is more
7981 solid, uses the correct and most recent Debian version automatically.
7983 Revision 1.123.2.32 2003/04/11 03:13:57 hal9
7984 Add small note about only one filterfile (as opposed to multiple actions
7987 Revision 1.123.2.31 2003/03/26 02:03:43 oes
7988 Updated hard-coded copyright dates
7990 Revision 1.123.2.30 2003/03/24 12:58:56 hal9
7991 Add new section on Predefined Filters.
7993 Revision 1.123.2.29 2003/03/20 02:45:29 hal9
7994 More problems with \-\-chroot causing markup problems :(
7996 Revision 1.123.2.28 2003/03/19 00:35:24 hal9
7997 Manual edit of revision log because 'chroot' (even inside a comment) was
7998 causing Docbook to hang here (due to double hyphen and the processor thinking
8001 Revision 1.123.2.27 2003/03/18 19:37:14 oes
8002 s/Advanced|Radical/Adventuresome/g to avoid complaints re fun filter
8004 Revision 1.123.2.26 2003/03/17 16:50:53 oes
8005 Added documentation for new chroot option
8007 Revision 1.123.2.25 2003/03/15 18:36:55 oes
8008 Adapted to the new filters
8010 Revision 1.123.2.24 2002/11/17 06:41:06 hal9
8011 Move default profiles table from FAQ to U-M, and other minor related changes.
8014 Revision 1.123.2.23 2002/10/21 02:32:01 hal9
8015 Updates to the user.action examples section. A few new ones.
8017 Revision 1.123.2.22 2002/10/12 00:51:53 hal9
8018 Add demoronizer to filter section.
8020 Revision 1.123.2.21 2002/10/10 04:09:35 hal9
8021 s/Advanced/Radical/ and added very brief note.
8023 Revision 1.123.2.20 2002/10/10 03:49:21 hal9
8024 Add notes to session-cookies-only and Quickstart about pre-existing
8025 cookies. Also, note content-cookies work differently.
8027 Revision 1.123.2.19 2002/09/26 01:25:36 hal9
8028 More explanation on Privoxy patterns, more on content-cookies and SSL.
8030 Revision 1.123.2.18 2002/08/22 23:47:58 hal9
8031 Add 'Documentation' to Privoxy Menu shot in Configuration section to match
8034 Revision 1.123.2.17 2002/08/18 01:13:05 hal9
8035 Spell checked (only one typo this time!).
8037 Revision 1.123.2.16 2002/08/09 19:20:54 david__schmidt
8038 Update to Mac OSX startup script name
8040 Revision 1.123.2.15 2002/08/07 17:32:11 oes
8041 Converted some internal links from ulink to link for PDF creation; no content changed
8043 Revision 1.123.2.14 2002/08/06 09:16:13 oes
8044 Nits re: actions file download
8046 Revision 1.123.2.13 2002/08/02 18:23:19 g_sauthoff
8047 Just 2 small corrections to the Gentoo sections
8049 Revision 1.123.2.12 2002/08/02 18:17:21 g_sauthoff
8050 Added 2 Gentoo sections
8052 Revision 1.123.2.11 2002/07/26 15:20:31 oes
8053 - Added version info to title
8054 - Added info on new filters
8055 - Revised parts of the filter file tutorial
8056 - Added info on where to get updated actions files
8058 Revision 1.123.2.10 2002/07/25 21:42:29 hal9
8059 Add brief notes on not proxying non-HTTP protocols.
8061 Revision 1.123.2.9 2002/07/11 03:40:28 david__schmidt
8063 Updated Mac OSX sections due to installation location change
8065 Revision 1.123.2.8 2002/06/09 16:36:32 hal9
8066 Clarifications on filtering and MIME. Hardcode 'latest release' in index.html.
8068 Revision 1.123.2.7 2002/06/09 00:29:34 hal9
8069 Touch ups on filtering, in actions section and Anatomy.
8071 Revision 1.123.2.6 2002/06/06 23:11:03 hal9
8072 Fix broken link. Linkchecked all docs.
8074 Revision 1.123.2.5 2002/05/29 02:01:02 hal9
8075 This is break out of the entire config section from u-m, so it can
8076 eventually be used to generate the comments, etc in the main config file
8077 so that these are in sync with each other.
8079 Revision 1.123.2.4 2002/05/27 03:28:45 hal9
8080 Ooops missed something from David.
8082 Revision 1.123.2.3 2002/05/27 03:23:17 hal9
8083 Fix FIXMEs for OS2 and OSX startup. Fix Redhat typos (should be Red Hat).
8084 That's a wrap, I think.
8086 Revision 1.123.2.2 2002/05/26 19:02:09 hal9
8087 Move Amiga stuff around to take of FIXME in start up section.
8089 Revision 1.123.2.1 2002/05/26 17:04:25 hal9
8090 -Spellcheck, very minor edits, and sync across branches
8092 Revision 1.123 2002/05/24 23:19:23 hal9
8093 Include new image (Proxy setup). More fun with guibutton.
8094 Minor corrections/clarifications here and there.
8096 Revision 1.122 2002/05/24 13:24:08 oes
8097 Added Bookmarklet for one-click pre-filled access to show-url-info
8099 Revision 1.121 2002/05/23 23:20:17 oes
8100 - Changed more (all?) references to actions to the
8101 <literal><link> style.
8102 - Small fixes in the actions chapter
8103 - Small clarifications in the quickstart to ad blocking
8104 - Removed <emphasis> from <title>s since the new doc CSS
8105 renders them red (bad in TOC).
8107 Revision 1.120 2002/05/23 19:16:43 roro
8108 Correct Debian specials (installation and startup).
8110 Revision 1.119 2002/05/22 17:17:05 oes
8113 Revision 1.118 2002/05/21 04:54:55 hal9
8114 -New Section: Quickstart to Ad Blocking
8115 -Reformat Actions Anatomy to match new CGI layout
8117 Revision 1.117 2002/05/17 13:56:16 oes
8118 - Reworked & extended Templates chapter
8119 - Small changes to Regex appendix
8120 - #included authors.sgml into (C) and hist chapter
8122 Revision 1.116 2002/05/17 03:23:46 hal9
8123 Fixing merge conflict in Quickstart section.
8125 Revision 1.115 2002/05/16 16:25:00 oes
8126 Extended the Filter File chapter & minor fixes
8128 Revision 1.114 2002/05/16 09:42:50 oes
8129 More ulink->link, added some hints to Quickstart section
8131 Revision 1.113 2002/05/15 21:07:25 oes
8132 Extended and further commented the example actions files
8134 Revision 1.112 2002/05/15 03:57:14 hal9
8135 Spell check. A few minor edits here and there for better syntax and
8138 Revision 1.111 2002/05/14 23:01:36 oes
8141 Revision 1.110 2002/05/14 19:10:45 oes
8142 Restored alphabetical order of actions
8144 Revision 1.109 2002/05/14 17:23:11 oes
8145 Renamed the prevent-*-cookies actions, extended aliases section and moved it before the example AFs
8147 Revision 1.108 2002/05/14 15:29:12 oes
8148 Completed proofreading the actions chapter
8150 Revision 1.107 2002/05/12 03:20:41 hal9
8151 Small clarifications for 127.0.0.1 vs localhost for listen-address since this
8152 apparently an important distinction for some OS's.
8154 Revision 1.106 2002/05/10 01:48:20 hal9
8155 This is mostly proposed copyright/licensing additions and changes. Docs
8156 are still GPL, but licensing and copyright are more visible. Also, copyright
8157 changed in doc header comments (eliminate references to JB except FAQ).
8159 Revision 1.105 2002/05/05 20:26:02 hal9
8160 Sorting out license vs copyright in these docs.
8162 Revision 1.104 2002/05/04 08:44:45 swa
8165 Revision 1.103 2002/05/04 00:40:53 hal9
8166 -Remove the TOC first page kludge. It's fixed proper now in ldp.dsl.in.
8167 -Some minor additions to Quickstart.
8169 Revision 1.102 2002/05/03 17:46:00 oes
8170 Further proofread & reactivated short build instructions
8172 Revision 1.101 2002/05/03 03:58:30 hal9
8173 Move the user-manual config directive to top of section. Add note about
8174 Privoxy needing read permissions for configs, and write for logs.
8176 Revision 1.100 2002/04/29 03:05:55 hal9
8177 Add clarification on differences of new actions files.
8179 Revision 1.99 2002/04/28 16:59:05 swa
8180 more structure in starting section
8182 Revision 1.98 2002/04/28 05:43:59 hal9
8183 This is the break up of configuration.html into multiple files. This
8184 will probably break links elsewhere :(
8186 Revision 1.97 2002/04/27 21:04:42 hal9
8187 -Rewrite of Actions File example.
8188 -Add section for user-manual directive in config.
8190 Revision 1.96 2002/04/27 05:32:00 hal9
8191 -Add short section to Filter Files to tie in with +filter action.
8192 -Start rewrite of examples in Actions Examples (not finished).
8194 Revision 1.95 2002/04/26 17:23:29 swa
8195 bookmarks cleaned, changed structure of user manual, screen and programlisting cleanups, and numerous other changes that I forgot
8197 Revision 1.94 2002/04/26 05:24:36 hal9
8198 -Add most of Andreas suggestions to Chain of Events section.
8199 -A few other minor corrections and touch up.
8201 Revision 1.92 2002/04/25 18:55:13 hal9
8202 More catchups on new actions files, and new actions names.
8203 Other assorted cleanups, and minor modifications.
8205 Revision 1.91 2002/04/24 02:39:31 hal9
8206 Add 'Chain of Events' section.
8208 Revision 1.90 2002/04/23 21:41:25 hal9
8209 Linuxconf is deprecated on RH, substitute chkconfig.
8211 Revision 1.89 2002/04/23 21:05:28 oes
8212 Added hint for startup on Red Hat
8214 Revision 1.88 2002/04/23 05:37:54 hal9
8215 Add AmigaOS install stuff.
8217 Revision 1.87 2002/04/23 02:53:15 david__schmidt
8218 Updated OSX installation section
8219 Added a few English tweaks here an there
8221 Revision 1.86 2002/04/21 01:46:32 hal9
8222 Re-write actions section.
8224 Revision 1.85 2002/04/18 21:23:23 hal9
8225 Fix ugly typo (mine).
8227 Revision 1.84 2002/04/18 21:17:13 hal9
8228 Spell Redhat correctly (ie Red Hat). A few minor grammar corrections.
8230 Revision 1.83 2002/04/18 18:21:12 oes
8231 Added RPM install detail
8233 Revision 1.82 2002/04/18 12:04:50 oes
8236 Revision 1.81 2002/04/18 11:50:24 oes
8237 Extended Install section - needs fixing by packagers
8239 Revision 1.80 2002/04/18 10:45:19 oes
8240 Moved text to buildsource.sgml, renamed some filters, details
8242 Revision 1.79 2002/04/18 03:18:06 hal9
8243 Spellcheck, and minor touchups.
8245 Revision 1.78 2002/04/17 18:04:16 oes
8248 Revision 1.77 2002/04/17 13:51:23 oes
8249 Proofreading, part one
8251 Revision 1.76 2002/04/16 04:25:51 hal9
8252 -Added 'Note to Upgraders' and re-ordered the 'Quickstart' section.
8253 -Note about proxy may need requests to re-read config files.
8255 Revision 1.75 2002/04/12 02:08:48 david__schmidt
8256 Remove OS/2 building info... it is already in the developer-manual
8258 Revision 1.74 2002/04/11 00:54:38 hal9
8259 Add small section on submitting actions.
8261 Revision 1.73 2002/04/10 18:45:15 swa
8264 Revision 1.72 2002/04/10 04:06:19 hal9
8265 Added actions feedback to Bookmarklets section
8267 Revision 1.71 2002/04/08 22:59:26 hal9
8268 Version update. Spell chkconfig correctly :)
8270 Revision 1.70 2002/04/08 20:53:56 swa
8273 Revision 1.69 2002/04/06 05:07:29 hal9
8274 -Add privoxy-man-page.sgml, for man page.
8275 -Add authors.sgml for AUTHORS (and p-authors.sgml)
8276 -Reworked various aspects of various docs.
8277 -Added additional comments to sub-docs.
8279 Revision 1.68 2002/04/04 18:46:47 swa
8280 consistent look. reuse of copyright, history et. al.
8282 Revision 1.67 2002/04/04 17:27:57 swa
8283 more single file to be included at multiple points. make maintaining easier
8285 Revision 1.66 2002/04/04 06:48:37 hal9
8286 Structural changes to allow for conditional inclusion/exclusion of content
8287 based on entity toggles, e.g. 'entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE"'. And
8288 definition of internal entities, e.g. 'entity p-version "2.9.13"' that will
8289 eventually be set by Makefile.
8290 More boilerplate text for use across multiple docs.
8292 Revision 1.65 2002/04/03 19:52:07 swa
8293 enhance squid section due to user suggestion
8295 Revision 1.64 2002/04/03 03:53:43 hal9
8296 A few minor bug fixes, and touch ups. Ready for review.
8298 Revision 1.63 2002/04/01 16:24:49 hal9
8299 Define entities to include boilerplate text. See doc/source/*.
8301 Revision 1.62 2002/03/30 04:15:53 hal9
8302 - Fix privoxy.org/config links.
8303 - Paste in Bookmarklets from Toggle page.
8304 - Move Quickstart nearer top, and minor rework.
8306 Revision 1.61 2002/03/29 01:31:08 hal9
8309 Revision 1.60 2002/03/27 01:57:34 hal9
8310 Added more to Anatomy section.
8312 Revision 1.59 2002/03/27 00:54:33 hal9
8313 Touch up intro for new name.
8315 Revision 1.58 2002/03/26 22:29:55 swa
8316 we have a new homepage!
8318 Revision 1.57 2002/03/24 20:33:30 hal9
8319 A few minor catch ups with name change.
8321 Revision 1.56 2002/03/24 16:17:06 swa
8322 configure needs to be generated.
8324 Revision 1.55 2002/03/24 16:08:08 swa
8325 we are too lazy to make a block-built
8326 privoxy logo. hence removed the option.
8328 Revision 1.54 2002/03/24 15:46:20 swa
8329 name change related issue.
8331 Revision 1.53 2002/03/24 11:51:00 swa
8332 name change. changed filenames.
8334 Revision 1.52 2002/03/24 11:01:06 swa
8337 Revision 1.51 2002/03/23 15:13:11 swa
8338 renamed every reference to the old name with foobar.
8339 fixed "application foobar application" tag, fixed
8340 "the foobar" with "foobar". left junkbustser in cvs
8341 comments and remarks to history untouched.
8343 Revision 1.50 2002/03/23 05:06:21 hal9
8346 Revision 1.49 2002/03/21 17:01:05 hal9
8347 New section in Appendix.
8349 Revision 1.48 2002/03/12 06:33:01 hal9
8350 Catching up to Andreas and re_filterfile changes.
8352 Revision 1.47 2002/03/11 13:13:27 swa
8353 correct feedback channels
8355 Revision 1.46 2002/03/10 00:51:08 hal9
8356 Added section on JB internal pages in Appendix.
8358 Revision 1.45 2002/03/09 17:43:53 swa
8361 Revision 1.44 2002/03/09 17:08:48 hal9
8362 New section on Jon's actions file editor, and move some stuff around.
8364 Revision 1.43 2002/03/08 00:47:32 hal9
8365 Added imageblock{pattern}.
8367 Revision 1.42 2002/03/07 18:16:55 swa
8370 Revision 1.41 2002/03/07 16:46:43 hal9
8371 Fix a few markup problems for jade.
8373 Revision 1.40 2002/03/07 16:28:39 swa
8374 provide correct feedback channels
8376 Revision 1.39 2002/03/06 16:19:28 hal9
8377 Note on perceived filtering slowdown per FR.
8379 Revision 1.38 2002/03/05 23:55:14 hal9
8380 Stupid I did it again. Double hyphen in comment breaks jade.
8382 Revision 1.37 2002/03/05 23:53:49 hal9
8383 jade barfs on '- -' embedded in comments. - -user option broke it.
8385 Revision 1.36 2002/03/05 22:53:28 hal9
8386 Add new - - user option.
8388 Revision 1.35 2002/03/05 00:17:27 hal9
8389 Added section on command line options.
8391 Revision 1.34 2002/03/04 19:32:07 oes
8392 Changed default port to 8118
8394 Revision 1.33 2002/03/03 19:46:13 hal9
8395 Emphasis on where/how to report bugs, etc
8397 Revision 1.32 2002/03/03 09:26:06 joergs
8398 AmigaOS changes, config is now loaded from PROGDIR: instead of
8399 AmiTCP:db/junkbuster/ if no configuration file is specified on the
8402 Revision 1.31 2002/03/02 22:45:52 david__schmidt
8405 Revision 1.30 2002/03/02 22:00:14 hal9
8406 Updated 'New Features' list. Ran through spell-checker.
8408 Revision 1.29 2002/03/02 20:34:07 david__schmidt
8409 Update OS/2 build section
8411 Revision 1.28 2002/02/24 14:34:24 jongfoster
8412 Formatting changes. Now changing the doctype to DocBook XML 4.1
8413 will work - no other changes are needed.
8415 Revision 1.27 2002/01/11 14:14:32 hal9
8416 Added a very short section on Templates
8418 Revision 1.26 2002/01/09 20:02:50 hal9
8419 Fix bug re: auto-detect config file changes.
8421 Revision 1.25 2002/01/09 18:20:30 hal9
8422 Touch ups for *.action files.
8424 Revision 1.24 2001/12/02 01:13:42 hal9
8427 Revision 1.23 2001/12/02 00:20:41 hal9
8428 Updates for recent changes.
8430 Revision 1.22 2001/11/05 23:57:51 hal9
8431 Minor update for startup now daemon mode.
8433 Revision 1.21 2001/10/31 21:11:03 hal9
8434 Correct 2 minor errors
8436 Revision 1.18 2001/10/24 18:45:26 hal9
8437 *** empty log message ***
8439 Revision 1.17 2001/10/24 17:10:55 hal9
8440 Catching up with Jon's recent work, and a few other things.
8442 Revision 1.16 2001/10/21 17:19:21 swa
8443 wrong url in documentation
8445 Revision 1.15 2001/10/14 23:46:24 hal9
8446 Various minor changes. Fleshed out SEE ALSO section.
8448 Revision 1.13 2001/10/10 17:28:33 hal9
8451 Revision 1.12 2001/09/28 02:57:04 hal9
8454 Revision 1.11 2001/09/28 02:25:20 hal9
8457 Revision 1.9 2001/09/27 23:50:29 hal9
8458 A few changes. A short section on regular expression in appendix.
8460 Revision 1.8 2001/09/25 00:34:59 hal9
8461 Some additions, and re-arranging.
8463 Revision 1.7 2001/09/24 14:31:36 hal9
8466 Revision 1.6 2001/09/24 14:10:32 hal9
8467 Including David's OS/2 installation instructions.
8469 Revision 1.2 2001/09/13 15:27:40 swa
8472 Revision 1.1 2001/09/12 15:36:41 swa
8473 source files for junkbuster documentation
8475 Revision 1.3 2001/09/10 17:43:59 swa
8476 first proposal of a structure.
8478 Revision 1.2 2001/06/13 14:28:31 swa
8479 docs should have an author.
8481 Revision 1.1 2001/06/13 14:20:37 swa
8482 first import of project's documentation for the webserver.