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 "3.0.6">
15 <!entity p-status "UNRELEASED">
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 -->
27 <!entity my-app "<application>Privoxy</application>">
30 File : $Source: /cvsroot/ijbswa/current/doc/source/user-manual.sgml,v $
33 This file belongs into
34 ijbswa.sourceforge.net:/home/groups/i/ij/ijbswa/htdocs/
36 $Id: user-manual.sgml,v 2.25 2006/10/18 10:50:33 hal9 Exp $
38 Copyright (C) 2001- 2006 Privoxy Developers http://www.privoxy.org
41 ========================================================================
42 NOTE: Please read developer-manual/documentation.html before touching
43 anything in this, or other Privoxy documentation.
44 ========================================================================
51 <title>Privoxy &p-version; User Manual</title>
55 <!-- Completely the wrong markup, but very little is allowed -->
56 <!-- in this part of an article. FIXME -->
57 <link linkend="copyright">Copyright</link> &my-copy; 2001 - 2006 by
58 <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/">Privoxy Developers</ulink>
62 <pubdate>$Id: user-manual.sgml,v 2.25 2006/10/18 10:50:33 hal9 Exp $</pubdate>
66 Note: the following should generate a separate page, and a live link to it,
67 all nicely done. But it doesn't for some mysterious reason. Please leave
68 commented unless it can be fixed proper. For the time being, the
69 copyright/license declarations will be in their own sgml.
82 This is here to keep vim syntax file from breaking :/
83 If I knew enough to fix it, I would.
84 PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE! HB: hal@foobox.net
90 The <citetitle>Privoxy User Manual</citetitle> gives users information on how to
91 install, configure and use <ulink
92 url="http://www.privoxy.org/">Privoxy</ulink>.
95 <!-- Include privoxy.sgml boilerplate: -->
97 <!-- end privoxy.sgml -->
100 You can find the latest version of the <citetitle>Privoxy User Manual</citetitle> at <ulink
101 url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/">http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/</ulink>.
102 Please see the <link linkend="contact">Contact section</link> on how to
103 contact the developers.
107 <!-- Feel free to send a note to the developers at <email>ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net</email>. -->
113 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
114 <sect1 label="1" id="introduction"><title>Introduction</title>
116 This documentation is included with the current &p-status; version of
117 <application>Privoxy</application>, v.&p-version;<![%p-not-stable;[,
118 and is mostly complete at this point. The most up to date reference for the
119 time being is still the comments in the source files and in the individual
120 configuration files. Development of a new version is currently nearing
121 completion, and includes significant changes and enhancements over
122 earlier versions. ]]>.
125 <!-- include only in non-stable versions -->
128 Since this is a &p-status; version, not all new features are well tested. This
129 documentation may be slightly out of sync as a result (especially with
130 CVS sources). And there <emphasis>may be</emphasis> bugs, though hopefully
135 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
136 <sect2 id="features"><title>Features</title>
138 In addition to the core
139 features of ad blocking and
140 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookie</ulink> management,
141 <application>Privoxy</application> provides many supplemental
142 features<![%p-not-stable;[, some of them currently under development]]>,
143 that give the end-user more control, more privacy and more freedom:
145 <!-- Include newfeatures.sgml boilerplate here: -->
147 <!-- end boilerplate -->
152 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
155 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
156 <sect1 id="installation"><title>Installation</title>
159 <application>Privoxy</application> is available both in convenient pre-compiled
160 packages for a wide range of operating systems, and as raw source code.
161 For most users, we recommend using the packages, which can be downloaded from our
162 <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ijbswa/">Privoxy Project
168 On some platforms, the installer may remove previously installed versions, if
169 found. (See below for your platform). In any case <emphasis>be sure to backup
170 your old configuration if it is valuable to you.</emphasis> See the <link
171 linkend="upgradersnote">note to upgraders</link> section below.
174 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
175 <sect2 id="installation-packages"><title>Binary Packages</title>
177 How to install the binary packages depends on your operating system:
180 <!-- ~~~~~ 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.
197 If you have problems with failed dependencies, try rebuilding the SRC RPM:
198 <literal>rpm --rebuild privoxy-&p-version;-1.src.rpm</literal>. This
199 will use your locally installed libraries and RPM version.
203 Also note that if you have a <application>Junkbuster</application> RPM installed
204 on your system, you need to remove it first, because the packages conflict.
205 Otherwise, RPM will try to remove <application>Junkbuster</application>
206 automatically if found, before installing <application>Privoxy</application>.
210 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
211 <sect3 id="installation-deb"><title>Debian</title>
213 DEBs can be installed with <literal>apt-get install privoxy</literal>,
214 and will use <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> for the location of
219 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
220 <sect3 id="installation-pack-win"><title>Windows</title>
223 Just double-click the installer, which will guide you through
224 the installation process. You will find the configuration files
225 in the same directory as you installed <application>Privoxy</application> in.
228 Version 3.0.4 introduced full <application>Windows</application> service
229 functionality. On Windows only, the <application>Privoxy</application>
230 program has two new command line arguments to install and uninstall
231 <application>Privoxy</application> as a <emphasis>service</emphasis>.
235 <term>Arguments:</term>
238 <replaceable class="parameter">--install</replaceable>[:<replaceable class="parameter">service_name</replaceable>]
241 <replaceable class="parameter">--uninstall</replaceable>[:<replaceable class="parameter">service_name</replaceable>]
247 After invoking <application>Privoxy</application> with
248 <command>--install</command>, you will need to bring up the
249 <application>Windows</application> service console to assign the user you
250 want <application>Privoxy</application> to run under, and whether or not you
251 want it to run whenever the system starts. You can start the
252 <application>Windows</application> services console with the following
253 command: <command>services.msc</command>. If you do not take the manual step
254 of modifying <application>Privoxy's</application> service settings, it will
255 not start. Note too that you will need to give Privoxy a user account that
256 actually exists, or it will not be permitted to
257 write to its log and configuration files.
262 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
263 <sect3 id="installation-pack-bintgz"><title>Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD, HP-UX</title>
266 Create a new directory, <literal>cd</literal> to it, then unzip and
267 untar the archive. For the most part, you'll have to figure out where
268 things go. <!-- FIXME, more info needed? -->
272 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
273 <sect3 id="installation-os2"><title>OS/2</title>
276 First, make sure that no previous installations of
277 <application>Junkbuster</application> and / or
278 <application>Privoxy</application> are left on your
279 system. Check that no <application>Junkbuster</application>
280 or <application>Privoxy</application> objects are in
286 Then, just double-click the WarpIN self-installing archive, which will
287 guide you through the installation process. A shadow of the
288 <application>Privoxy</application> executable will be placed in your
289 startup folder so it will start automatically whenever OS/2 starts.
293 The directory you choose to install <application>Privoxy</application>
294 into will contain all of the configuration files.
298 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
299 <sect3 id="installation-mac"><title>Mac OSX</title>
301 Unzip the downloaded file (you can either double-click on the file
302 from the finder, or from the desktop if you downloaded it there).
303 Then, double-click on the package installer icon named
304 <literal>Privoxy.pkg</literal>
305 and follow the installation process.
306 <application>Privoxy</application> will be installed in the folder
307 <literal>/Library/Privoxy</literal>.
308 It will start automatically whenever you start up. To prevent it from
309 starting automatically, remove or rename the folder
310 <literal>/Library/StartupItems/Privoxy</literal>.
313 To start Privoxy by hand, double-click on
314 <literal>StartPrivoxy.command</literal> in the
315 <literal>/Library/Privoxy</literal> folder.
316 Or, type this command in the Terminal:
320 /Library/Privoxy/StartPrivoxy.command
324 You will be prompted for the administrator password.
328 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
329 <sect3 id="installation-amiga"><title>AmigaOS</title>
331 Copy and then unpack the <filename>lha</filename> archive to a suitable location.
332 All necessary files will be installed into <application>Privoxy</application>
333 directory, including all configuration and log files. To uninstall, just
334 remove this directory.
338 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
339 <sect3 id="installattion-gentoo"><title>Gentoo</title>
341 Gentoo source packages (Ebuilds) for <application>Privoxy</application> are
342 contained in the Gentoo Portage Tree (they are not on the download page,
343 but there is a Gentoo section, where you can see when a new
344 <application>Privoxy</application> Version is added to the Portage Tree).
347 Before installing <application>Privoxy</application> under Gentoo just do
348 first <literal>emerge rsync</literal> to get the latest changes from the
349 Portage tree. With <literal>emerge privoxy</literal> you install the latest
353 Configuration files are in <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename>, the
354 documentation is in <filename>/usr/share/doc/privoxy-&p-version;</filename>
355 and the Log directory is in <filename>/var/log/privoxy</filename>.
361 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
362 <sect2 id="installation-source"><title>Building from Source</title>
365 The most convenient way to obtain the <application>Privoxy</application> sources
366 is to download the source tarball from our <ulink url="http://sf.net/projects/ijbswa/">project
371 If you like to live on the bleeding edge and are not afraid of using
372 possibly unstable development versions, you can check out the up-to-the-minute
373 version directly from <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/cvs/?group_id=11118">the
374 CVS repository</ulink>.
376 deprecated...out of business.
377 or simply download <ulink
378 url="http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cvstarballs/ijbswa-cvsroot.tar.bz2">the nightly CVS
383 <!-- include buildsource.sgml boilerplate: -->
385 <!-- end boilerplate -->
388 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
389 <sect2 id="installation-keepupdated"><title>Keeping your Installation Up-to-Date</title>
391 As user feedback comes in and development continues, we will make updated versions
392 of both the main <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link> (as a <ulink
393 url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118&release_id=103670">separate
394 package</ulink>) and the software itself (including the actions file) available for
399 If you wish to receive an email notification whenever we release updates of
400 <application>Privoxy</application> or the actions file, <ulink
401 url="http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ijbswa-announce/">subscribe
402 to our announce mailing list</ulink>, ijbswa-announce@lists.sourceforge.net.
406 In order not to lose your personal changes and adjustments when updating
407 to the latest <literal>default.action</literal> file we <emphasis>strongly
408 recommend</emphasis> that you use <literal>user.action</literal> and
409 <literal>user.filter</literal> for your local
410 customizations of <application>Privoxy</application>. See the <link
411 linkend="actions-file">Chapter on actions files</link> for details.
419 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
421 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
422 <sect1 id="whatsnew">
423 <title>What's New in this Release</title>
425 There are many improvements and new features since the last <application>Privoxy</application> stable release:
432 Multiple <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link> can now be specified in <filename>config</filename>. This allows for
433 locally defined filters that can be maintained separately from the filters as
434 supplied by the developers, i.e. <filename>default.filter</filename>.
440 There are a number of new <link linkend="actions-file">actions</link>:
448 <literal><link linkend="content-type-overwrite">content-type-overwrite</link></literal>
453 <literal><link linkend="crunch-client-header">crunch-client-header</link></literal>
458 <literal><link linkend="crunch-if-none-match">crunch-if-none-match</link></literal>
463 <literal><link linkend="crunch-server-header">crunch-server-header</link></literal>
468 <literal><link linkend="filter-client-headers">filter-client-headers</link></literal>
473 <literal><link linkend="filter-server-headers">filter-server-headers</link></literal>
478 <literal><link linkend="force-text-mode">force-text-mode</link></literal>
483 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-empty-document">handle-as-empty-document</link></literal>
488 <literal><link linkend="hide-accept-language">hide-accept-language</link></literal>
493 <literal><link linkend="hide-content-disposition">hide-content-disposition</link></literal>
498 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hide-if-modified-since</link></literal>
503 <literal><link linkend="inspect-jpegs">inspect-jpegs</link></literal>
508 <literal><link linkend="overwrite-last-modified">overwrite-last-modified</link></literal>
513 <literal><link linkend="redirect">redirect</link></literal>
518 <literal><link linkend="treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks">treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks</link></literal>
525 In addition, <literal><link linkend="fast-redirects">fast-redirects</link></literal>
526 has been significantly improved with enhanced syntax.
529 And <literal><link linkend="hide-referrer">hide-referrer</link></literal>
530 has a new option, <literal>conditional block</literal>.
537 <application>MS-Windows</application> versions can now be
539 linkend="installation-pack-win">installed and
540 started as a <emphasis>Windows service</emphasis></link>.
546 <filename>config</filename> has two new options:
548 linkend="enable-remote-http-toggle">enable-remote-http-toggle</link>,
550 linkend="forwarded-connect-retries">forwarded-connect-retries</link>.
553 And there is improved handling of the <link
554 linkend="user-manual">user-manual</link>
555 option, for placing documentation and help files on the local system.
561 There are six new <link linkend="FILTER">filters</link>.
567 Actions files problems and suggestions are now being directed to:
568 <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=11118&atid=460288">http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=11118&atid=460288</ulink>.
569 Please use this to report such configuration related problems as missed
570 ads, sites that don't function properly due to one action or another,
571 innocent images being blocked, etc.
577 In addition, there are numerous bug fixes and significant enhancements,
578 including error pages should no longer be cached if the problem is fixed,
579 much better DNS error handling, and various logging improvements.
585 The default actions setting is now <literal>Cautious</literal>. Previous
586 releases had a default setting of <literal>Medium</literal>. Experienced
587 users may want to adjust this, as it is fairly conservative by &my-app;
588 standards and past practices. See <ulink
589 url="http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions-list?f=default">
590 http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions-list?f=default</ulink>. New users
591 should try the default settings for a while before turning up the volume.
594 The default setting has filtering turned <emphasis>off</emphasis>, which
595 subsequently means that compression is <emphasis>on</emphasis>. Remember
596 that filtering does not work on compressed pages, so if you use, or want to
597 use, filtering, you will need to force compression off. Example:
601 { +<link linkend="filter">filter</link>{google} +<link linkend="prevent-compression">prevent-compression</link> }
605 Or if you use a number of filters, or filter many sites, you may just want
606 to turn off compression for all sites in
607 <filename>default.action</filename> (or
608 <filename>user.action</filename>).
616 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
618 <sect2 id="upgradersnote">
619 <title>Note to Upgraders</title>
622 A quick list of things to be aware of before upgrading from earlier
623 versions of <application>Privoxy</application>:
631 Some installers may remove earlier versions completely, including
632 configuration files. Save any important configuration files!
637 On the other hand, other installers may not overwrite any existing configuration
638 files, thinking you will want to do that. You may want to manually check
639 your saved files against the newer versions to see if the improvements have
640 merit, or whether there are new options that you may want to consider.
641 There are a number of new features, but most won't be available unless
642 these features are incorporated into your configuration somehow.
647 See the full documentation on
648 <literal><link linkend="fast-redirects">fast-redirects</link></literal>
649 which has changed syntax, and will require adjustments to local configs,
650 such as <filename>user.action</filename>. You must reference the new
655 { +fast-redirects{check-decoded-url} }
664 The <filename>jarfile</filename>,
665 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookie</ulink> logger, is off by default now.
671 What constitutes a <quote>default</quote> configuration has changed,
672 and you may want to review which actions are <quote>on</quote> by
673 default. This is primarily a matter of emphasis, but some features
674 you may have been used to, may now be <quote>off</quote> by default.
675 There are also a number of new actions and filters you may want to
676 consider, most of which are not incorporated into the default settings as
683 <!-- I think it is best to keep this somewhat vague, in case -->
684 <!-- the situation changes under our feet. -->
685 Some installers may not automatically start
686 <application>Privoxy</application> after installation.
695 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
696 <sect1 id="quickstart"><title>Quickstart to Using Privoxy</title>
702 Install <application>Privoxy</application>. See the <link
703 linkend="installation">Installation Section</link> below for platform specific
710 Advanced users and those who want to offer <application>Privoxy</application>
711 service to more than just their local machine should check the <link
712 linkend="config">main config file</link>, especially the <link
713 linkend="access-control">security-relevant</link> options. These are
720 Start <application>Privoxy</application>, if the installation program has
721 not done this already (may vary according to platform). See the section
722 <link linkend="startup">Starting <application>Privoxy</application></link>.
728 Set your browser to use <application>Privoxy</application> as HTTP and
729 HTTPS (SSL) <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_server">proxy</ulink>
730 by setting the proxy configuration for address of
731 <literal>127.0.0.1</literal> and port <literal>8118</literal>.
732 <emphasis>DO NOT</emphasis> activate proxying for <literal>FTP</literal> or
733 any protocols besides HTTP and HTTPS (SSL)! It won't work!
739 Flush your browser's disk and memory caches, to remove any cached ad images.
740 If using <application>Privoxy</application> to manage
741 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>,
742 you should remove any currently stored cookies too.
748 A default installation should provide a reasonable starting point for
749 most. There will undoubtedly be occasions where you will want to adjust the
750 configuration, but that can be dealt with as the need arises. Little
751 to no initial configuration is required in most cases.
754 See the <link linkend="configuration">Configuration section</link> for more
755 configuration options, and how to customize your installation.
756 You might also want to look at the <link
757 linkend="quickstart-ad-blocking">next section</link> for a quick
758 introduction to how <application>Privoxy</application> blocks ads and
765 If you experience ads that slip through, innocent images that are
766 blocked, or otherwise feel the need to fine-tune
767 <application>Privoxy's</application> behavior, take a look at the <link
768 linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>. As a quick start, you might
769 find the <link linkend="act-examples">richly commented examples</link>
770 helpful. You can also view and edit the actions files through the <ulink
771 url="http://config.privoxy.org">web-based user interface</ulink>. The
772 Appendix <quote><link linkend="actionsanat">Troubleshooting: Anatomy of an
773 Action</link></quote> has hints on how to understand and debug actions that
774 <quote>misbehave</quote>.
780 For easy access to &my-app;'s most important controls, drag the provided
781 <link linkend="bookmarklets">Bookmarklets</link> into your browser's
788 Please see the section <link linkend="contact">Contacting the
789 Developers</link> on how to report bugs, problems with websites or to get
796 Now enjoy surfing with enhanced control, comfort and privacy!
804 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
806 <sect2 id="quickstart-ad-blocking">
807 <title>Quickstart to Ad Blocking</title>
809 NOTE: This section is deliberately redundant for those that don't
810 want to read the whole thing (which is getting lengthy).
813 Ad blocking is but one of <application>Privoxy's</application>
814 array of features. Many of these features are for the technically minded advanced
815 user. But, ad and banner blocking is surely common ground for everybody.
818 This section will provide a quick summary of ad blocking so
819 you can get up to speed quickly without having to read the more extensive
820 information provided below, though this is highly recommended.
823 First a bit of a warning ... blocking ads is much like blocking SPAM: the
824 more aggressive you are about it, the more likely you are to block
825 things that were not intended. So there is a trade off here. If you want
826 extreme ad free browsing, be prepared to deal with more
827 <quote>problem</quote> sites, and to spend more time adjusting the
828 configuration to solve these unintended consequences. In short, there is
829 not an easy way to eliminate <emphasis>all</emphasis> ads. Either take
830 the easy way and settle for <emphasis>most</emphasis> ads blocked with the
831 default configuration, or jump in and tweak it for your personal surfing
832 habits and preferences.
835 Secondly, a brief explanation of <application>Privoxy's </application>
836 <quote>actions</quote>. <quote>Actions</quote> in this context, are
837 the directives we use to tell <application>Privoxy</application> to perform
838 some task relating to HTTP transactions (i.e. web browsing). We tell
839 <application>Privoxy</application> to take some <quote>action</quote>. Each
840 action has a unique name and function. While there are many potential
841 <application>actions</application> in <application>Privoxy's</application>
842 arsenal, only a few are used for ad blocking. <link
843 linkend="actions">Actions</link>, and <link linkend="actions-file">action
844 configuration files</link>, are explained in depth below.
847 Actions are specified in <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration,
848 followed by one or more URLs to which the action should apply. URLs
849 can actually be URL type <link linkend="af-patterns">patterns</link> that use
850 wildcards so they can apply potentially to a range of similar URLs. The
851 actions, together with the URL patterns are called a section.
854 When you connect to a website, the full URL will either match one or more
855 of the sections as defined in <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration,
856 or not. If so, then <application>Privoxy</application> will perform the
857 respective actions. If not, then nothing special happens. Furthermore, web
858 pages may contain embedded, secondary URLs that your web browser will
859 use to load additional components of the page, as it parses the
860 original page's HTML content. An ad image for instance, is just an URL
861 embedded in the page somewhere. The image itself may be on the same server,
862 or a server somewhere else on the Internet. Complex web pages will have many
867 The actions we need to know about for ad blocking are: <literal><link
868 linkend="block">block</link></literal>, <literal><link
869 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>, and
870 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>:
878 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> - this action stops
879 any contact between your browser and any URL patterns that match this
880 action's configuration. It can be used for blocking ads, but also anything
881 that is determined to be unwanted. By itself, it simply stops any
882 communication with the remote server and sends <application>Privoxy</application>'s
883 own built-in BLOCKED page instead to let you now what has happened.
889 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> -
890 tells <application>Privoxy</application> to treat this URL as an image.
891 <application>Privoxy</application>'s default configuration already does this
892 for all common image types (e.g. GIF), but there are many situations where this
893 is not so easy to determine. So we'll force it in these cases. This is particularly
894 important for ad blocking, since only if we know that it's an image of
895 some kind, can we replace it with an image of our choosing, instead of the
896 <application>Privoxy</application> BLOCKED page (which would only result in
897 a <quote>broken image</quote> icon). There are some limitations to this
898 though. For instance, you can't just brute-force an image substitution for
899 an entire HTML page in most situations.
906 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal> - tells
907 <application>Privoxy</application> what to display in place of an ad image that
908 has hit a block rule. For this to come into play, the URL must match a
909 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action somewhere in the
910 configuration, <emphasis>and</emphasis>, it must also match an
911 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> action.
914 The configuration options on what to display instead of the ad are:
918 <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> - a checkerboard pattern, so that an ad
919 replacement is obvious. This is the default.
924 <emphasis>blank</emphasis> - A very small empty GIF image is displayed.
925 This is the so-called <quote>invisible</quote> configuration option.
930 <emphasis>http://<URL></emphasis> - A redirect to any image anywhere
931 of the user's choosing (advanced usage).
940 The quickest way to adjust any of these settings is with your browser through
941 the special <application>Privoxy</application> editor at <ulink
942 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
943 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/show-status</ulink>). This
944 is an internal page, and does not require Internet access. Select the
945 appropriate <quote>actions</quote> file, and click
946 <quote><guibutton>Edit</guibutton></quote>. It is best to put personal or
947 local preferences in <filename>user.action</filename> since this is not
948 meant to be overwritten during upgrades, and will over-ride the settings in
949 other files. Here you can insert new <quote>actions</quote>, and URLs for ad
950 blocking or other purposes, and make other adjustments to the configuration.
951 <application>Privoxy</application> will detect these changes automatically.
955 A quick and simple step by step example:
963 Right click on the ad image to be blocked, then select
964 <quote><guimenuitem>Copy Link Location</guimenuitem></quote> from the
972 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
977 Find <filename>user.action</filename> in the top section, and click
978 on <quote><guibutton>Edit</guibutton></quote>:
981 <!-- image of editor and actions files selections -->
983 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Actions Files in Use</title>
986 <imagedata fileref="files-in-use.jpg" format="jpg">
989 <phrase>[ Screenshot of Actions Files in Use ]</phrase>
998 You should have a section with only
999 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> listed under
1000 <quote>Actions:</quote>.
1001 If not, click a <quote><guibutton>Insert new section below</guibutton></quote>
1002 button, and in the new section that just appeared, click the
1003 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> button right under the word <quote>Actions:</quote>.
1004 This will bring up a list of all actions. Find
1005 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> near the top, and click
1006 in the <quote>Enabled</quote> column, then <quote><guibutton>Submit</guibutton></quote>
1007 just below the list.
1012 Now, in the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> actions section,
1013 click the <quote><guibutton>Add</guibutton></quote> button, and paste the URL the
1014 browser got from <quote><guimenuitem>Copy Link Location</guimenuitem></quote>.
1015 Remove the <literal>http://</literal> at the beginning of the URL. Then, click
1016 <quote><guibutton>Submit</guibutton></quote> (or
1017 <quote><guibutton>OK</guibutton></quote> if in a pop-up window).
1022 Now go back to the original page, and press <keycap>SHIFT-Reload</keycap>
1023 (or flush all browser caches). The image should be gone now.
1031 This is a very crude and simple example. There might be good reasons to use a
1032 wildcard pattern match to include potentially similar images from the same
1033 site. For a more extensive explanation of <quote>patterns</quote>, and
1034 the entire actions concept, see <link linkend="actions-file">the Actions
1039 For advanced users who want to hand edit their config files, you might want
1040 to now go to the <link linkend="act-examples">Actions Files Tutorial</link>.
1041 The ideas explained therein also apply to the web-based editor.
1048 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1051 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1052 <sect1 id="startup">
1053 <title>Starting Privoxy</title>
1055 Before launching <application>Privoxy</application> for the first time, you
1056 will want to configure your browser(s) to use
1057 <application>Privoxy</application> as a HTTP and HTTPS (SSL)
1058 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_server">proxy</ulink>. The default is
1059 127.0.0.1 (or localhost) for the proxy address, and port 8118 (earlier versions
1060 used port 8000). This is the one configuration step <emphasis>that must be done
1064 Please note that <application>Privoxy</application> can only proxy HTTP and
1065 HTTPS traffic. It will not work with FTP or other protocols.
1068 <!-- image of Mozilla Proxy configuration -->
1070 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Proxy Configuration Showing
1071 Mozilla/Netscape HTTP and HTTPS (SSL) Settings</title>
1074 <imagedata fileref="proxy_setup.jpg" format="jpg">
1077 <phrase>[ Screenshot of Mozilla Proxy Configuration ]</phrase>
1085 With <application>Firefox</application>, this can be set under:
1089 <guibutton>Tools</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Options</guibutton> -> <guibutton>General</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Connection Settings</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Manual Proxy Configuration</guibutton>
1095 With <application>Netscape</application> (and
1096 <application>Mozilla</application>), this can be set under:
1101 <!-- Mix ascii and gui art, something for everybody -->
1102 <!-- spacing on this is tricky -->
1103 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Preferences</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Advanced</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Proxies</guibutton> -> <guibutton>HTTP Proxy</guibutton>
1108 For <application>Internet Explorer v.5-6</application>:
1112 <guibutton>Tools</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Internet Options</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Connections</guibutton> -> <guibutton>LAN Settings</guibutton>
1116 Then, check <quote>Use Proxy</quote> and fill in the appropriate info
1117 (Address: 127.0.0.1, Port: 8118). Include HTTPS (SSL), if you want HTTPS
1118 proxy support too (sometimes labeled <quote>Secure</quote>). Make sure any
1119 checkboxes like <quote>Use the same proxy server for all protocols</quote> is
1120 <emphasis>UNCHECKED</emphasis>. You want only HTTP and HTTPS (SSL)!
1123 <!-- image of IE Proxy configuration -->
1125 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Proxy Configuration Showing
1126 Internet Explorer HTTP and HTTPS (Secure) Settings</title>
1129 <imagedata fileref="proxy2.jpg" format="jpg">
1132 <phrase>[ Screenshot of IE Proxy Configuration ]</phrase>
1140 After doing this, flush your browser's disk and memory caches to force a
1141 re-reading of all pages and to get rid of any ads that may be cached. Remove
1142 any <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>,
1143 if you want <application>Privoxy</application> to manage that. You are now
1144 ready to start enjoying the benefits of using
1145 <application>Privoxy</application>!
1149 <application>Privoxy</application> itself is typically started by specifying the
1150 main configuration file to be used on the command line. If no configuration
1151 file is specified on the command line, <application>Privoxy</application>
1152 will look for a file named <filename>config</filename> in the current
1153 directory. Except on Win32 where it will try <filename>config.txt</filename>.
1156 <sect2 id="start-redhat">
1157 <title>Red Hat, Fedora and Conectiva</title>
1159 A default Red Hat installation may not start &my-app; upon boot. It will use
1160 the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename> as its main configuration
1165 # /etc/rc.d/init.d/privoxy start
1173 # service privoxy start
1178 <sect2 id="start-debian">
1179 <title>Debian</title>
1181 We use a script. Note that Debian typically starts &my-app; upon booting per
1182 default. It will use the file
1183 <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename> as its main configuration
1188 # /etc/init.d/privoxy start
1193 <sect2 id="start-suse">
1196 We use a script. It will use the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename>
1197 as its main configuration file. Note that SuSE starts Privoxy upon booting
1207 <sect2 id="start-windows">
1208 <title>Windows</title>
1210 Click on the &my-app; Icon to start <application>Privoxy</application>. If no configuration file is
1211 specified on the command line, <application>Privoxy</application> will look
1212 for a file named <filename>config.txt</filename>. Note that Windows will
1213 automatically start &my-app; when the system starts if you chose that option
1217 <application>Privoxy</application> can run with full Windows service functionality.
1218 On Windows only, the &my-app; program has two new command line arguments
1219 to install and uninstall &my-app; as a service. See the
1220 <link linkend="installation-pack-win">Windows Installation
1221 instructions</link> for details.
1225 <sect2 id="start-unices">
1226 <title>Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD, HP-UX and others</title>
1228 Example Unix startup command:
1232 # /usr/sbin/privoxy /etc/privoxy/config
1237 <sect2 id="start-os2">
1240 During installation, <application>Privoxy</application> is configured to
1241 start automatically when the system restarts. You can start it manually by
1242 double-clicking on the <application>Privoxy</application> icon in the
1243 <application>Privoxy</application> folder.
1247 <sect2 id="start-macosx">
1248 <title>Mac OSX</title>
1250 During installation, <application>Privoxy</application> is configured to
1251 start automatically when the system restarts. To start &my-app; manually,
1252 double-click on the <literal>StartPrivoxy.command</literal> icon in the
1253 <literal>/Library/Privoxy</literal> folder. Or, type this command
1258 /Library/Privoxy/StartPrivoxy.command
1262 You will be prompted for the administrator password.
1267 <sect2 id="start-amigaos">
1268 <title>AmigaOS</title>
1270 Start <application>Privoxy</application> (with RUN <>NIL:) in your
1271 <filename>startnet</filename> script (AmiTCP), in
1272 <filename>s:user-startup</filename> (RoadShow), as startup program in your
1273 startup script (Genesis), or as startup action (Miami and MiamiDx).
1274 <application>Privoxy</application> will automatically quit when you quit your
1275 TCP/IP stack (just ignore the harmless warning your TCP/IP stack may display that
1276 <application>Privoxy</application> is still running).
1280 <sect2 id="start-gentoo">
1281 <title>Gentoo</title>
1283 A script is again used. It will use the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config
1284 </filename> as its main configuration file.
1288 /etc/init.d/privoxy start
1292 Note that <application>Privoxy</application> is not automatically started at
1293 boot time by default. You can change this with the <literal>rc-update</literal>
1298 rc-update add privoxy default
1306 See the section <link linkend="cmdoptions">Command line options</link> for
1310 must find a better place for this paragraph
1313 The included default configuration files should give a reasonable starting
1314 point. Most of the per site configuration is done in the
1315 <ulink url="actions-file.html"><quote>actions</quote></ulink> files. These are
1316 where various cookie actions are defined, ad and banner blocking, and other
1317 aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. There are several
1318 such files included, with varying levels of aggressiveness.
1322 You will probably want to keep an eye out for sites for which you may prefer
1323 persistent cookies, and add these to your actions configuration as needed. By
1324 default, most of these will be accepted only during the current browser
1325 session (aka <quote>session cookies</quote>), unless you add them to the
1326 configuration. If you want the browser to handle this instead, you will need
1327 to edit <filename>user.action</filename> (or through the web based interface)
1328 and disable this feature. If you use more than one browser, it would make
1329 more sense to let <application>Privoxy</application> handle this. In which
1330 case, the browser(s) should be set to accept all cookies.
1334 Another feature where you will probably want to define exceptions for trusted
1335 sites is the popup-killing (through the <ulink
1336 url="actions-file.html#KILL-POPUPS"><quote>+kill-popups</quote></ulink> and
1338 url="actions-file.html#FILTER-POPUPS"><quote>+filter{popups}</quote></ulink>
1339 actions), because your favorite shopping, banking, or leisure site may need
1340 popups (explained below).
1344 <application>Privoxy</application> is HTTP/1.1 compliant, but not all of
1345 the optional 1.1 features are as yet supported. In the unlikely event that
1346 you experience inexplicable problems with browsers that use HTTP/1.1 per default
1347 (like <application>Mozilla</application> or recent versions of I.E.), you might
1348 try to force HTTP/1.0 compatibility. For Mozilla, look under <literal>Edit ->
1349 Preferences -> Debug -> Networking</literal>.
1350 Alternatively, set the <quote>+downgrade-http-version</quote> config option in
1351 <filename>default.action</filename> which will downgrade your browser's HTTP
1352 requests from HTTP/1.1 to HTTP/1.0 before processing them.
1356 After running <application>Privoxy</application> for a while, you can
1357 start to fine tune the configuration to suit your personal, or site,
1358 preferences and requirements. There are many, many aspects that can
1359 be customized. <quote>Actions</quote>
1360 can be adjusted by pointing your browser to
1361 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
1362 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
1363 and then follow the link to <quote>View & Change the Current Configuration</quote>.
1364 (This is an internal page and does not require Internet access.)
1368 In fact, various aspects of <application>Privoxy</application>
1369 configuration can be viewed from this page, including
1370 current configuration parameters, source code version numbers,
1371 the browser's request headers, and <quote>actions</quote> that apply
1372 to a given URL. In addition to the actions file
1373 editor mentioned above, <application>Privoxy</application> can also
1374 be turned <quote>on</quote> and <quote>off</quote> (toggled) from this page.
1378 If you encounter problems, try loading the page without
1379 <application>Privoxy</application>. If that helps, enter the URL where
1380 you have the problems into <ulink url="http://p.p/show-url-info">the browser
1381 based rule tracing utility</ulink>. See which rules apply and why, and
1382 then try turning them off for that site one after the other, until the problem
1383 is gone. When you have found the culprit, you might want to turn the rest on
1388 If the above paragraph sounds gibberish to you, you might want to <link
1389 linkend="actions-file">read more about the actions concept</link>
1390 or even dive deep into the <link linkend="actionsanat">Appendix
1395 If you can't get rid of the problem at all, think you've found a bug in
1396 Privoxy, want to propose a new feature or smarter rules, please see the
1397 section <link linkend="contact"><quote>Contacting the
1398 Developers</quote></link> below.
1403 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1404 <sect2 id="cmdoptions">
1405 <title>Command Line Options</title>
1407 <application>Privoxy</application> may be invoked with the following
1408 command-line options:
1416 <emphasis>--version</emphasis>
1419 Print version info and exit. Unix only.
1424 <emphasis>--help</emphasis>
1427 Print short usage info and exit. Unix only.
1432 <emphasis>--no-daemon</emphasis>
1435 Don't become a daemon, i.e. don't fork and become process group
1436 leader, and don't detach from controlling tty. Unix only.
1441 <emphasis>--pidfile FILE</emphasis>
1445 On startup, write the process ID to <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>. Delete the
1446 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> on exit. Failure to create or delete the
1447 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> is non-fatal. If no <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>
1448 option is given, no PID file will be used. Unix only.
1453 <emphasis>--user USER[.GROUP]</emphasis>
1457 After (optionally) writing the PID file, assume the user ID of
1458 <emphasis>USER</emphasis>, and if included the GID of GROUP. Exit if the
1459 privileges are not sufficient to do so. Unix only.
1464 <emphasis>--chroot</emphasis>
1468 Before changing to the user ID given in the <emphasis>--user</emphasis> option,
1469 chroot to that user's home directory, i.e. make the kernel pretend to the &my-app;
1470 process that the directory tree starts there. If set up carefully, this can limit
1471 the impact of possible vulnerabilities in &my-app; to the files contained in that hierarchy.
1477 <emphasis>configfile</emphasis>
1480 If no <emphasis>configfile</emphasis> is included on the command line,
1481 <application>Privoxy</application> will look for a file named
1482 <quote>config</quote> in the current directory (except on Win32
1483 where it will look for <quote>config.txt</quote> instead). Specify
1484 full path to avoid confusion. If no config file is found,
1485 <application>Privoxy</application> will fail to start.
1493 On <application>MS Windows</application> only there are two additional
1494 command-line options to allow <application>Privoxy</application> to install and
1495 run as a <emphasis>service</emphasis>. See the
1496 <link linkend="installation-pack-win">Window Installation section</link>
1504 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1507 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1508 <sect1 id="configuration"><title>Privoxy Configuration</title>
1510 All <application>Privoxy</application> configuration is stored
1511 in text files. These files can be edited with a text editor.
1512 Many important aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> can
1513 also be controlled easily with a web browser.
1517 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1520 <title>Controlling Privoxy with Your Web Browser</title>
1522 <application>Privoxy</application>'s user interface can be reached through the special
1523 URL <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
1524 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
1525 which is a built-in page and works without Internet access.
1526 You will see the following section:
1530 <!-- Needs to be put in a table and colorized -->
1533 <bridgehead renderas="sect2"> Privoxy Menu</bridgehead>
1537 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">View & change the current configuration</ulink>
1540 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-version">View the source code version numbers</ulink>
1543 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request">View the request headers.</ulink>
1546 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">Look up which actions apply to a URL and why</ulink>
1549 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">Toggle Privoxy on or off</ulink>
1552 ▪ <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/
1553 &p-version;/user-manual/">Documentation</ulink>
1561 This should be self-explanatory. Note the first item leads to an editor for the
1562 <link linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>, which is where the ad, banner,
1563 cookie, and URL blocking magic is configured as well as other advanced features of
1564 <application>Privoxy</application>. This is an easy way to adjust various
1565 aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. The actions
1566 file, and other configuration files, are explained in detail below.
1570 <quote>Toggle Privoxy On or Off</quote> is handy for sites that might
1571 have problems with your current actions and filters. You can in fact use
1572 it as a test to see whether it is <application>Privoxy</application>
1573 causing the problem or not. <application>Privoxy</application> continues
1574 to run as a proxy in this case, but all manipulation is disabled, i.e.
1575 <application>Privoxy</application> acts like a normal forwarding proxy. There
1576 is even a toggle <link linkend="bookmarklets">Bookmarklet</link> offered, so
1577 that you can toggle <application>Privoxy</application> with one click from
1583 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1588 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1590 <sect2 id="confoverview">
1591 <title>Configuration Files Overview</title>
1593 For Unix, *BSD and Linux, all configuration files are located in
1594 <filename>/etc/privoxy/</filename> by default. For MS Windows, OS/2, and
1595 AmigaOS these are all in the same directory as the
1596 <application>Privoxy</application> executable. <![%p-not-stable;[ The name
1597 and number of configuration files has changed from previous versions, and is
1598 subject to change as development progresses.]]>
1602 The installed defaults provide a reasonable starting point, though
1603 some settings may be aggressive by some standards. For the time being, the
1604 principle configuration files are:
1612 The <link linkend="config">main configuration file</link> is named <filename>config</filename>
1613 on Linux, Unix, BSD, OS/2, and AmigaOS and <filename>config.txt</filename>
1614 on Windows. This is a required file.
1620 <filename>default.action</filename> (the main <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link>)
1621 is used to define which <quote>actions</quote> relating to banner-blocking, images, pop-ups,
1622 content modification, cookie handling etc should be applied by default. It also defines many
1623 exceptions (both positive and negative) from this default set of actions that enable
1624 <application>Privoxy</application> to selectively eliminate the junk, and only the junk, on
1625 as many websites as possible.
1628 Multiple actions files may be defined in <filename>config</filename>. These
1629 are processed in the order they are defined. Local customizations and locally
1630 preferred exceptions to the default policies as defined in
1631 <filename>default.action</filename> (which you will most probably want
1632 to define sooner or later) are probably best applied in
1633 <filename>user.action</filename>, where you can preserve them across
1634 upgrades. <filename>standard.action</filename> is for
1635 <application>Privoxy's</application> internal use.
1638 There is also a web based editor that can be accessed from
1640 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
1642 url="http://p.p/show-status">http://p.p/show-status</ulink>) for the
1643 various actions files.
1649 <quote>Filter files</quote> (the <link linkend="filter-file">filter
1650 file</link>) can be used to re-write the raw page content, including
1651 viewable text as well as embedded HTML and JavaScript, and whatever else
1652 lurks on any given web page. The filtering jobs are only pre-defined here;
1653 whether to apply them or not is up to the actions files.
1654 <filename>default.filter</filename> includes various filters made
1655 available for use by the developers. Some are much more intrusive than
1656 others, and all should be used with caution. You may define additional
1657 filter files in <filename>config</filename> as you can with
1658 actions files. We suggest <filename>user.filter</filename> for any
1659 locally defined filters or customizations.
1667 The syntax of all configuration files has remained the same throughout the
1668 3.x series. There have been enhancements, but no changes that would preclude
1669 the use of any configuration file from one version to the next. (There is
1670 one exception: <link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">+fast-redirects</link> which
1671 has enhanced syntax and will require updating any local configs from earlier
1676 All files use the <quote><literal>#</literal></quote> character to denote a
1677 comment (the rest of the line will be ignored) and understand line continuation
1678 through placing a backslash ("<literal>\</literal>") as the very last character
1679 in a line. If the <literal>#</literal> is preceded by a backslash, it looses
1680 its special function. Placing a <literal>#</literal> in front of an otherwise
1681 valid configuration line to prevent it from being interpreted is called "commenting
1682 out" that line. Blank lines are ignored.
1686 The actions files and filter files
1687 can use Perl style <link linkend="regex">regular expressions</link> for
1688 maximum flexibility.
1692 After making any changes, there is no need to restart
1693 <application>Privoxy</application> in order for the changes to take
1694 effect. <application>Privoxy</application> detects such changes
1695 automatically. Note, however, that it may take one or two additional
1696 requests for the change to take effect. When changing the listening address
1697 of <application>Privoxy</application>, these <quote>wake up</quote> requests
1698 must obviously be sent to the <emphasis>old</emphasis> listening address.
1703 While under development, the configuration content is subject to change.
1704 The below documentation may not be accurate by the time you read this.
1705 Also, what constitutes a <quote>default</quote> setting, may change, so
1706 please check all your configuration files on important issues.
1712 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1715 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
1717 <!-- **************************************************** -->
1718 <!-- Include config.sgml here -->
1719 <!-- This is where the entire config file is detailed. -->
1721 <!-- end include -->
1724 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1728 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
1730 <sect1 id="actions-file"><title>Actions Files</title>
1733 The actions files are used to define what <emphasis>actions</emphasis>
1734 <application>Privoxy</application> takes for which URLs, and thus determines
1735 how ad images, cookies and various other aspects of HTTP content and
1736 transactions are handled, and on which sites (or even parts thereof).
1737 There are a number of such actions, with a wide range of functionality.
1738 Each action does something a little different.
1739 These actions give us a veritable arsenal of tools with which to exert
1740 our control, preferences and independence. Actions can be combined so that
1741 their effects are aggregated when applied against a given set of URLs.
1745 are three action files included with <application>Privoxy</application> with
1753 <filename>default.action</filename> - is the primary action file
1754 that sets the initial values for all actions. It is intended to
1755 provide a base level of functionality for
1756 <application>Privoxy's</application> array of features. So it is
1757 a set of broad rules that should work reasonably well as-is for most users.
1758 This is the file that the developers are keeping updated, and <link
1759 linkend="installation-keepupdated">making available to users</link>.
1760 The user's preferences as set in <filename>standard.action</filename>,
1761 e.g. either <literal>Cautious</literal> (the default),
1762 <literal>Medium</literal>, or <literal>Advanced</literal> (see
1768 <filename>user.action</filename> - is intended to be for local site
1769 preferences and exceptions. As an example, if your ISP or your bank
1770 has specific requirements, and need special handling, this kind of
1771 thing should go here. This file will not be upgraded.
1776 <filename>standard.action</filename> - is used by the web based editor
1777 at <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions-list?f=default">
1778 http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions-list?f=default</ulink>,
1779 to set various pre-defined sets of rules for the default actions section
1780 in <filename>default.action</filename>.
1783 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> <guibutton>Set to Cautious</guibutton> <guibutton>Set to Medium</guibutton> <guibutton>Set to Advanced</guibutton>
1786 These have increasing levels of aggressiveness <emphasis>and have no
1787 influence on your browsing unless you select them explicitly in the
1788 editor</emphasis>. A default installation should be pre-set to
1789 <literal>Cautious</literal> (versions prior to 3.0.5 were set to
1790 <literal>Medium</literal>). New users should try this for a while before
1791 adjusting the settings to more aggressive levels. The more aggressive
1792 the settings, then the more likelihood there is of problems such as sites
1793 not working as they should.
1796 The <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> button allows you to turn each
1797 action on/off individually for fine-tuning. The <guibutton>Cautious</guibutton>
1798 button changes the actions list to low/safe settings which will activate
1799 ad blocking and a minimal set of &my-app;'s features, and subsequently
1800 there will be less of a chance for accidental problems. The
1801 <guibutton>Medium</guibutton> button sets the list to a medium level of
1802 other features and a low level set of privacy features. The
1803 <guibutton>Advanced</guibutton> button sets the list to a high level of
1804 ad blocking and medium level of privacy. See the chart below. The latter
1805 three buttons over-ride any changes via with the
1806 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> button. More fine-tuning can be done in the
1807 lower sections of this internal page.
1810 It is not recommend to edit the <filename>standard.action</filename> file
1814 The default profiles, and their associated actions, as pre-defined in
1815 <filename>standard.action</filename> are:
1818 <table frame=all><title>Default Configurations</title>
1819 <tgroup cols=4 align=left colsep=1 rowsep=1>
1820 <colspec colname=c1>
1821 <colspec colname=c2>
1822 <colspec colname=c3>
1823 <colspec colname=c4>
1826 <entry>Feature</entry>
1827 <entry>Cautious</entry>
1828 <entry>Medium</entry>
1829 <entry>Advanced</entry>
1834 <!-- <entry>f1</entry> -->
1835 <!-- <entry>f2</entry> -->
1836 <!-- <entry>f3</entry> -->
1837 <!-- <entry>f4</entry> -->
1843 <entry>Ad-blocking Aggressiveness</entry>
1844 <entry>medium</entry>
1850 <entry>Ad-filtering by size</entry>
1857 <entry>Ad-filtering by link</entry>
1863 <entry>Pop-up killing</entry>
1864 <entry>blocks only</entry>
1865 <entry>blocks only</entry>
1866 <entry>blocks only</entry>
1870 <entry>Privacy Features</entry>
1872 <entry>medium</entry>
1873 <entry>medium/high</entry>
1877 <entry>Cookie handling</entry>
1879 <entry>session-only</entry>
1884 <entry>Referer forging</entry>
1892 <entry>GIF de-animation</entry>
1900 <entry>Fast redirects</entry>
1907 <entry>HTML taming</entry>
1914 <entry>JavaScript taming</entry>
1921 <entry>Web-bug killing</entry>
1928 <entry>Image tag reordering</entry>
1944 The list of actions files to be used are defined in the main configuration
1945 file, and are processed in the order they are defined (e.g.
1946 <filename>default.action</filename> is typically process before
1947 <filename>user.action</filename>). The content of these can all be viewed and
1949 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
1950 The over-riding principle when applying actions, is that the last action that
1951 matches a given URL, wins. The broadest, most general rules go first
1952 (defined in <filename>default.action</filename>),
1953 followed by any exceptions (typically also in
1954 <filename>default.action</filename>), which are then followed lastly by any
1955 local preferences (typically in <emphasis>user</emphasis><filename>.action</filename>).
1956 Generally, <filename>user.action</filename> has the last word.
1960 An actions file typically has multiple sections. If you want to use
1961 <quote>aliases</quote> in an actions file, you have to place the (optional)
1962 <link linkend="aliases">alias section</link> at the top of that file.
1963 Then comes the default set of rules which will apply universally to all
1964 sites and pages (be <emphasis>very careful</emphasis> with using such a
1965 universal set in <filename>user.action</filename> or any other actions file after
1966 <filename>default.action</filename>, because it will override the result
1967 from consulting any previous file). And then below that,
1968 exceptions to the defined universal policies. You can regard
1969 <filename>user.action</filename> as an appendix to <filename>default.action</filename>,
1970 with the advantage that is a separate file, which makes preserving your
1971 personal settings across <application>Privoxy</application> upgrades easier.
1975 Actions can be used to block anything you want, including ads, banners, or
1976 just some obnoxious URL that you would rather not see. Cookies can be accepted
1977 or rejected, or accepted only during the current browser session (i.e. not
1978 written to disk), content can be modified, JavaScripts tamed, user-tracking
1979 fooled, and much more. See below for a <link linkend="actions">complete list
1983 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1985 <title>Finding the Right Mix</title>
1987 Note that some <link linkend="actions">actions</link>, like cookie suppression
1988 or script disabling, may render some sites unusable that rely on these
1989 techniques to work properly. Finding the right mix of actions is not always easy and
1990 certainly a matter of personal taste. And, things can always change, requiring
1991 refinements in the configuration. In general, it can be said that the more
1992 <quote>aggressive</quote> your default settings (in the top section of the
1993 actions file) are, the more exceptions for <quote>trusted</quote> sites you
1994 will have to make later. If, for example, you want to crunch all cookies per
1995 default, you'll have to make exceptions from that rule for sites that you
1996 regularly use and that require cookies for actually useful purposes, like maybe
1997 your bank, favorite shop, or newspaper.
2001 We have tried to provide you with reasonable rules to start from in the
2002 distribution actions files. But there is no general rule of thumb on these
2003 things. There just are too many variables, and sites are constantly changing.
2004 Sooner or later you will want to change the rules (and read this chapter again :).
2008 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2010 <title>How to Edit</title>
2012 The easiest way to edit the actions files is with a browser by
2013 using our browser-based editor, which can be reached from <ulink
2014 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
2015 The editor allows both fine-grained control over every single feature on a
2016 per-URL basis, and easy choosing from wholesale sets of defaults like
2017 <quote>Cautious</quote>, <quote>Medium</quote> or <quote>Advanced</quote>.
2018 Warning: the <quote>Advanced</quote> setting is more aggressive, and
2019 will be more likely to cause problems for some sites. Experienced users only!
2023 If you prefer plain text editing to GUIs, you can of course also directly edit the
2024 the actions files with your favorite text editor. Look at
2025 <filename>default.action</filename> which is richly commented with many
2031 <sect2 id="actions-apply">
2032 <title>How Actions are Applied to URLs</title>
2034 Actions files are divided into sections. There are special sections,
2035 like the <quote><link linkend="aliases">alias</link></quote> sections which will
2036 be discussed later. For now let's concentrate on regular sections: They have a
2037 heading line (often split up to multiple lines for readability) which consist
2038 of a list of actions, separated by whitespace and enclosed in curly braces.
2039 Below that, there is a list of URL patterns, each on a separate line.
2043 To determine which actions apply to a request, the URL of the request is
2044 compared to all patterns in each <quote>action file</quote> file. Every time it matches, the list of
2045 applicable actions for the URL is incrementally updated, using the heading
2046 of the section in which the pattern is located. If multiple matches for
2047 the same URL set the same action differently, the last match wins. If not,
2048 the effects are aggregated. E.g. a URL might match a regular section with
2049 a heading line of <literal>{
2050 +<link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link> }</literal>,
2051 then later another one with just <literal>{
2052 +<link linkend="block">block</link> }</literal>, resulting
2053 in <emphasis>both</emphasis> actions to apply. And there may well be
2054 cases where you will want to combine actions together. Such a section then
2060 { +<literal>handle-as-image</literal> +<literal>block</literal> }
2061 # Block these as if they were images. Send no block page.
2063 media.example.com/.*banners
2064 .example.com/images/ads/</screen>
2068 You can trace this process for any given URL by visiting <ulink
2069 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>.
2073 Examples and more detail on this is provided in the Appendix, <link linkend="ACTIONSANAT">
2074 Troubleshooting: Anatomy of an Action</link> section.
2078 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2079 <sect2 id="af-patterns">
2080 <title>Patterns</title>
2082 As mentioned, <application>Privoxy</application> uses <quote>patterns</quote>
2083 to determine what <emphasis>actions</emphasis> might apply to which sites and
2084 pages your browser attempts to access. These <quote>patterns</quote> use wild
2085 card type <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> matching to achieve a high degree of
2086 flexibility. This allows one expression to be expanded and potentially match
2087 against many similar patterns.
2091 Generally, a <application>Privoxy</application> pattern has the form
2092 <literal><domain>/<path></literal>, where both the
2093 <literal><domain></literal> and <literal><path></literal> are
2094 optional. (This is why the special <literal>/</literal> pattern matches all
2095 URLs). Note that the protocol portion of the URL pattern (e.g.
2096 <literal>http://</literal>) should <emphasis>not</emphasis> be included in
2097 the pattern. This is assumed already!
2100 The pattern matching syntax is different for the domain and path parts of
2101 the URL. The domain part uses a simple globbing type matching technique,
2102 while the path part uses a more flexible
2103 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
2104 Expressions (PCRE)</quote></ulink> based syntax.
2109 <term><literal>www.example.com/</literal></term>
2112 is a domain-only pattern and will match any request to <literal>www.example.com</literal>,
2113 regardless of which document on that server is requested. So ALL pages in
2114 this domain would be covered by the scope of this action. Note that a
2115 simple <literal>example.com</literal> is different and would NOT match.
2120 <term><literal>www.example.com</literal></term>
2123 means exactly the same. For domain-only patterns, the trailing <literal>/</literal> may
2129 <term><literal>www.example.com/index.html</literal></term>
2132 matches only the single document <literal>/index.html</literal>
2133 on <literal>www.example.com</literal>.
2138 <term><literal>/index.html</literal></term>
2141 matches the document <literal>/index.html</literal>, regardless of the domain,
2142 i.e. on <emphasis>any</emphasis> web server anywhere.
2147 <term><literal>index.html</literal></term>
2150 matches nothing, since it would be interpreted as a domain name and
2151 there is no top-level domain called <literal>.html</literal>. So its
2159 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2160 <sect3><title>The Domain Pattern</title>
2163 The matching of the domain part offers some flexible options: if the
2164 domain starts or ends with a dot, it becomes unanchored at that end.
2170 <term><literal>.example.com</literal></term>
2173 matches any domain that <emphasis>ENDS</emphasis> in
2174 <literal>.example.com</literal>
2179 <term><literal>www.</literal></term>
2182 matches any domain that <emphasis>STARTS</emphasis> with
2183 <literal>www.</literal>
2188 <term><literal>.example.</literal></term>
2191 matches any domain that <emphasis>CONTAINS</emphasis> <literal>.example.</literal>.
2192 And, by the way, also included would be any files or documents that exist
2193 within that domain since no path limitations are specified. (Correctly
2194 speaking: It matches any FQDN that contains <literal>example</literal> as
2195 a domain.) This might be <literal>www.example.com</literal>,
2196 <literal>news.example.de</literal>, or
2197 <literal>www.example.net/cgi/testing.pl</literal> for instance. All these
2205 Additionally, there are wild-cards that you can use in the domain names
2206 themselves. These work similarly to shell globbing type wild-cards:
2207 <quote>*</quote> represents zero or more arbitrary characters (this is
2209 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
2210 Expression</quote></ulink> based syntax of <quote>.*</quote>),
2211 <quote>?</quote> represents any single character (this is equivalent to the
2212 regular expression syntax of a simple <quote>.</quote>), and you can define
2213 <quote>character classes</quote> in square brackets which is similar to
2214 the same regular expression technique. All of this can be freely mixed:
2219 <term><literal>ad*.example.com</literal></term>
2222 matches <quote>adserver.example.com</quote>,
2223 <quote>ads.example.com</quote>, etc but not <quote>sfads.example.com</quote>
2228 <term><literal>*ad*.example.com</literal></term>
2231 matches all of the above, and then some.
2236 <term><literal>.?pix.com</literal></term>
2239 matches <literal>www.ipix.com</literal>,
2240 <literal>pictures.epix.com</literal>, <literal>a.b.c.d.e.upix.com</literal> etc.
2245 <term><literal>www[1-9a-ez].example.c*</literal></term>
2248 matches <literal>www1.example.com</literal>,
2249 <literal>www4.example.cc</literal>, <literal>wwwd.example.cy</literal>,
2250 <literal>wwwz.example.com</literal> etc., but <emphasis>not</emphasis>
2251 <literal>wwww.example.com</literal>.
2258 While flexibile, this is not the sophistication of full regular expression based syntax.
2263 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2266 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2267 <sect3><title>The Path Pattern</title>
2270 <application>Privoxy</application> uses Perl compatible (PCRE)
2271 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
2272 Expression</quote></ulink> based syntax
2273 (through the <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/">PCRE</ulink> library) for
2274 matching the path portion (after the slash), and is thus more flexible.
2278 There is an <link linkend="regex">Appendix</link> with a brief quick-start into regular
2279 expressions, and full (very technical) documentation on PCRE regex syntax is available on-line
2280 at <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/man.txt">http://www.pcre.org/man.txt</ulink>.
2281 You might also find the Perl man page on regular expressions (<literal>man perlre</literal>)
2282 useful, which is available on-line at <ulink
2283 url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html">http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html</ulink>.
2287 Note that the path pattern is automatically left-anchored at the <quote>/</quote>,
2288 i.e. it matches as if it would start with a <quote>^</quote> (regular expression speak
2289 for the beginning of a line).
2293 Please also note that matching in the path is <emphasis>CASE INSENSITIVE</emphasis>
2294 by default, but you can switch to case sensitive at any point in the pattern by using the
2295 <quote>(?-i)</quote> switch: <literal>www.example.com/(?-i)PaTtErN.*</literal> will match
2296 only documents whose path starts with <literal>PaTtErN</literal> in
2297 <emphasis>exactly</emphasis> this capitalization.
2302 <term><literal>.example.com/.*</literal></term>
2305 Is equivalent to just <quote>.example.com</quote>, since any documents
2306 within that domain are matched with or without the <quote>.*</quote>
2307 regular expression. This is redundant
2312 <term><literal>.example.com/.*/index.html</literal></term>
2315 Will match any page in the domain of <quote>example.com</quote> that is
2316 named <quote>index.html</quote>, and that is part of some path. For
2317 example, it matches <quote>www.example.com/testing/index.html</quote> but
2318 NOT <quote>www.example.com/index.html</quote> because the regular
2319 expression called for at least two <quote>/'s</quote>, thus the path
2320 requirement. It also would match
2321 <quote>www.example.com/testing/index_html</quote>, because of the
2322 special meta-character <quote>.</quote>.
2327 <term><literal>.example.com/(.*/)?index\.html</literal></term>
2330 This regular expression is conditional so it will match any page
2331 named <quote>index.html</quote> regardless of path which in this case can
2332 have one or more <quote>/'s</quote>. And this one must contain exactly
2333 <quote>.html</quote> (but does not have to end with that!).
2338 <term><literal>.example.com/(.*/)(ads|banners?|junk)</literal></term>
2341 This regular expression will match any path of <quote>example.com</quote>
2342 that contains any of the words <quote>ads</quote>, <quote>banner</quote>,
2343 <quote>banners</quote> (because of the <quote>?</quote>) or <quote>junk</quote>.
2344 The path does not have to end in these words, just contain them.
2349 <term><literal>.example.com/(.*/)(ads|banners?|junk)/.*\.(jpe?g|gif|png)$</literal></term>
2352 This is very much the same as above, except now it must end in either
2353 <quote>.jpg</quote>, <quote>.jpeg</quote>, <quote>.gif</quote> or <quote>.png</quote>. So this
2354 one is limited to common image formats.
2361 There are many, many good examples to be found in <filename>default.action</filename>,
2362 and more tutorials below in <link linkend="regex">Appendix on regular expressions</link>.
2369 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2372 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2374 <sect2 id="actions">
2375 <title>Actions</title>
2377 All actions are disabled by default, until they are explicitly enabled
2378 somewhere in an actions file. Actions are turned on if preceded with a
2379 <quote>+</quote>, and turned off if preceded with a <quote>-</quote>. So a
2380 <literal>+action</literal> means <quote>do that action</quote>, e.g.
2381 <literal>+block</literal> means <quote>please block URLs that match the
2382 following patterns</quote>, and <literal>-block</literal> means <quote>don't
2383 block URLs that match the following patterns, even if <literal>+block</literal>
2384 previously applied.</quote>
2389 Again, actions are invoked by placing them on a line, enclosed in curly braces and
2390 separated by whitespace, like in
2391 <literal>{+some-action -some-other-action{some-parameter}}</literal>,
2392 followed by a list of URL patterns, one per line, to which they apply.
2393 Together, the actions line and the following pattern lines make up a section
2394 of the actions file.
2398 Actions fall into three categories:
2405 Boolean, i.e the action can only be <quote>enabled</quote> or
2406 <quote>disabled</quote>. Syntax:
2410 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # enable action <replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable>
2411 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # disable action <replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable></screen>
2414 Example: <literal>+block</literal>
2421 Parameterized, where some value is required in order to enable this type of action.
2426 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # enable action and set parameter to <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>,
2427 # overwriting parameter from previous match if necessary
2428 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # disable action. The parameter can be omitted</screen>
2431 Note that if the URL matches multiple positive forms of a parameterized action,
2432 the last match wins, i.e. the params from earlier matches are simply ignored.
2435 Example: <literal>+hide-user-agent{ Mozilla 1.0 }</literal>
2441 Multi-value. These look exactly like parameterized actions,
2442 but they behave differently: If the action applies multiple times to the
2443 same URL, but with different parameters, <emphasis>all</emphasis> the parameters
2444 from <emphasis>all</emphasis> matches are remembered. This is used for actions
2445 that can be executed for the same request repeatedly, like adding multiple
2446 headers, or filtering through multiple filters. Syntax:
2450 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # enable action and add <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable> to the list of parameters
2451 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # remove the parameter <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable> from the list of parameters
2452 # If it was the last one left, disable the action.
2453 <replaceable class="parameter">-name</replaceable> # disable this action completely and remove all parameters from the list</screen>
2456 Examples: <literal>+add-header{X-Fun-Header: Some text}</literal> and
2457 <literal>+filter{html-annoyances}</literal>
2465 If nothing is specified in any actions file, no <quote>actions</quote> are
2466 taken. So in this case <application>Privoxy</application> would just be a
2467 normal, non-blocking, non-anonymizing proxy. You must specifically enable the
2468 privacy and blocking features you need (although the provided default actions
2469 files will give a good starting point).
2473 Later defined actions always over-ride earlier ones. So exceptions
2474 to any rules you make, should come in the latter part of the file (or
2475 in a file that is processed later when using multiple actions files such
2476 as <filename>user.action</filename>). For multi-valued actions, the actions
2477 are applied in the order they are specified. Actions files are processed in
2478 the order they are defined in <filename>config</filename> (the default
2479 installation has three actions files). It also quite possible for any given
2480 URL to match more than one <quote>pattern</quote> (because of wildcards and
2481 regular expressions), and thus to trigger more than one set of actions! Last
2485 <!-- start actions listing -->
2487 The list of valid <application>Privoxy</application> actions are:
2491 <!-- ********************************************************** -->
2492 <!-- Please note the below defined actions use id's that are -->
2493 <!-- probably linked from other places, so please don't change. -->
2495 <!-- ********************************************************** -->
2498 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2500 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="add-header">
2501 <title>add-header</title>
2505 <term>Typical use:</term>
2507 <para>Confuse log analysis, custom applications</para>
2512 <term>Effect:</term>
2515 Sends a user defined HTTP header to the web server.
2522 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2524 <para>Multi-value.</para>
2529 <term>Parameter:</term>
2532 Any string value is possible. Validity of the defined HTTP headers is not checked.
2533 It is recommended that you use the <quote><literal>X-</literal></quote> prefix
2543 This action may be specified multiple times, in order to define multiple
2544 headers. This is rarely needed for the typical user. If you don't know what
2545 <quote>HTTP headers</quote> are, you definitely don't need to worry about this
2552 <term>Example usage:</term>
2555 <screen>+add-header{X-User-Tracking: sucks}</screen>
2563 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2564 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="block">
2565 <title>block</title>
2569 <term>Typical use:</term>
2571 <para>Block ads or other unwanted content</para>
2576 <term>Effect:</term>
2579 Requests for URLs to which this action applies are blocked, i.e. the
2580 requests are trapped by &my-app; and the requested URL is never retrieved,
2581 but is answered locally with a substitute page or image, as determined by
2583 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>,
2585 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>, and
2587 linkend="handle-as-empty-document">handle-as-empty-document</link></literal> actions.
2595 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2597 <para>Boolean.</para>
2602 <term>Parameter:</term>
2612 <application>Privoxy</application> sends a special <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page
2613 for requests to blocked pages. This page contains links to find out why the request
2614 was blocked, and a click-through to the blocked content (the latter only if compiled with the
2615 force feature enabled). The <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page adapts to the available
2616 screen space -- it displays full-blown if space allows, or miniaturized and text-only
2617 if loaded into a small frame or window. If you are using <application>Privoxy</application>
2618 right now, you can take a look at the
2619 <ulink url="http://ads.bannerserver.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor.html"><quote>BLOCKED</quote>
2623 A very important exception occurs if <emphasis>both</emphasis>
2624 <literal>block</literal> and <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>,
2625 apply to the same request: it will then be replaced by an image. If
2626 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>
2627 (see below) also applies, the type of image will be determined by its parameter,
2628 if not, the standard checkerboard pattern is sent.
2631 It is important to understand this process, in order
2632 to understand how <application>Privoxy</application> deals with
2633 ads and other unwanted content. Blocking is a core feature, and one
2634 upon which various other features depend.
2637 The <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>
2638 action can perform a very similar task, by <quote>blocking</quote>
2639 banner images and other content through rewriting the relevant URLs in the
2640 document's HTML source, so they don't get requested in the first place.
2641 Note that this is a totally different technique, and it's easy to confuse the two.
2647 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
2651 # Block and replace with "blocked" page
2652 .nasty-stuff.example.com
2654 {+block +handle-as-image}
2655 # Block and replace with image
2659 {+block +handle-as-empty-document}
2660 # Block and then ignore
2661 adserver.exampleclick.net/.*\.js$</screen>
2671 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2672 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="content-type-overwrite">
2676 <title>content-type-overwrite</title>
2680 <term>Typical use:</term>
2682 <para>Stop useless download menus from popping up, or change the browser's rendering mode</para>
2687 <term>Effect:</term>
2690 Replaces the <quote>Content-Type:</quote> HTTP server header.
2697 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
2699 <para>Parameterized.</para>
2704 <term>Parameter:</term>
2716 The <quote>Content-Type:</quote> HTTP server header is used by the
2717 browser to decide what to do with the document. The value of this
2718 header can cause the browser to open a download menu instead of
2719 displaying the document by itself, even if the document's format is
2720 supported by the browser.
2723 The declared content type can also affect which rendering mode
2724 the browser chooses. If XHTML is delivered as <quote>text/html</quote>,
2725 many browsers treat it as yet another broken HTML document.
2726 If it is send as <quote>application/xml</quote>, browsers with
2727 XHTML support will only display it, if the syntax is correct.
2730 If you see a web site that proudly uses XHTML buttons, but sets
2731 <quote>Content-Type: text/html</quote>, you can use &my-app;
2732 to overwrite it with <quote>application/xml</quote> and validate
2733 the web master's claim inside your XHTML-supporting browser.
2734 If the syntax is incorrect, the browser will complain loudly.
2737 You can also go the opposite direction: if your browser prints
2738 error messages instead of rendering a document falsely declared
2739 as XHTML, you can overwrite the content type with
2740 <quote>text/html</quote> and have it rendered as broken HTML document.
2743 By default <literal>content-type-overwrite</literal> only replaces
2744 <quote>Content-Type:</quote> headers that look like some kind of text.
2745 If you want to overwrite it unconditionally, you have to combine it with
2746 <literal><link linkend="force-text-mode">force-text-mode</link></literal>.
2747 This limitation exists for a reason, think twice before circumventing it.
2750 Most of the time it's easier to enable
2751 <literal><link linkend="filter-server-headers">filter-server-headers</link></literal>
2752 and replace this action with a custom regular expression. It allows you
2753 to activate it for every document of a certain site and it will still
2754 only replace the content types you aimed at.
2757 Of course you can apply <literal>content-type-overwrite</literal>
2758 to a whole site and then make URL based exceptions, but it's a lot
2759 more work to get the same precision.
2765 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
2768 <screen># Check if www.example.net/ really uses valid XHTML
2769 {+content-type-overwrite {application/xml}}
2772 # but leave the content type unmodified if the URL looks like a style sheet
2773 {-content-type-overwrite}
2774 www.example.net/*.\.css$
2775 www.example.net/*.style
2784 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2785 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-client-header">
2789 <title>crunch-client-header</title>
2793 <term>Typical use:</term>
2795 <para>Remove a client header <application>Privoxy</application> has no dedicated action for.</para>
2800 <term>Effect:</term>
2803 Deletes every header sent by the client that contains the string the user supplied as parameter.
2810 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
2812 <para>Parameterized.</para>
2817 <term>Parameter:</term>
2829 This action allows you to block client headers for which no dedicated
2830 <application>Privoxy</application> action exists.
2831 <application>Privoxy</application> will remove every client header that
2832 contains the string you supplied as parameter.
2835 Regular expressions are <emphasis>not supported</emphasis> and you can't
2836 use this action to block different headers in the same request, unless
2837 they contain the same string.
2840 <literal>crunch-client-header</literal> is only meant for quick tests.
2841 If you have to block several different headers, or only want to modify
2842 parts of them, you should enable
2843 <literal><link linkend="filter-client-headers">filter-client-headers</link></literal>
2844 and create your own filter.
2848 Don't block any header without understanding the consequences.
2855 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
2858 <screen># Block the non-existent "Privacy-Violation:" client header
2859 {+crunch-client-header {Privacy-Violation:}}
2869 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2870 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-if-none-match">
2871 <title>crunch-if-none-match</title>
2877 <term>Typical use:</term>
2879 <para>Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.</para>
2884 <term>Effect:</term>
2887 Deletes the <quote>If-None-Match:</quote> HTTP client header.
2894 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
2896 <para>Boolean.</para>
2901 <term>Parameter:</term>
2913 Removing the <quote>If-None-Match:</quote> HTTP client header
2914 is useful for filter testing, where you want to force a real
2915 reload instead of getting status code <quote>304</quote> which
2916 would cause the browser to use a cached copy of the page.
2919 It is also useful to make sure the header isn't used as a cookie
2923 Blocking the <quote>If-None-Match:</quote> header shouldn't cause any
2924 caching problems, as long as the <quote>If-Modified-Since:</quote> header
2925 isn't blocked as well.
2928 It is recommended to use this action together with
2929 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hide-if-modified-since</link></literal>
2931 <literal><link linkend="overwrite-last-modified">overwrite-last-modified</link></literal>.
2937 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
2940 <screen># Let the browser revalidate cached documents without being tracked across sessions
2941 {+hide-if-modified-since {-60} \
2942 +overwrite-last-modified {randomize} \
2943 +crunch-if-none-match}
2952 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2953 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-incoming-cookies">
2954 <title>crunch-incoming-cookies</title>
2958 <term>Typical use:</term>
2961 Prevent the web server from setting any cookies on your system
2967 <term>Effect:</term>
2970 Deletes any <quote>Set-Cookie:</quote> HTTP headers from server replies.
2977 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
2979 <para>Boolean.</para>
2984 <term>Parameter:</term>
2996 This action is only concerned with <emphasis>incoming</emphasis> cookies. For
2997 <emphasis>outgoing</emphasis> cookies, use
2998 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>.
2999 Use <emphasis>both</emphasis> to disable cookies completely.
3002 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use this action in conjunction
3003 with the <literal><link linkend="session-cookies-only">session-cookies-only</link></literal> action,
3004 since it would prevent the session cookies from being set. See also
3005 <literal><link linkend="filter-content-cookies">filter-content-cookies</link></literal>.
3011 <term>Example usage:</term>
3014 <screen>+crunch-incoming-cookies</screen>
3022 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3023 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-server-header">
3024 <title>crunch-server-header</title>
3030 <term>Typical use:</term>
3032 <para>Remove a server header <application>Privoxy</application> has no dedicated action for.</para>
3037 <term>Effect:</term>
3040 Deletes every header sent by the server that contains the string the user supplied as parameter.
3047 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3049 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3054 <term>Parameter:</term>
3066 This action allows you to block server headers for which no dedicated
3067 <application>Privoxy</application> action exists. <application>Privoxy</application>
3068 will remove every server header that contains the string you supplied as parameter.
3071 Regular expressions are <emphasis>not supported</emphasis> and you can't
3072 use this action to block different headers in the same request, unless
3073 they contain the same string.
3076 <literal>crunch-server-header</literal> is only meant for quick tests.
3077 If you have to block several different headers, or only want to modify
3078 parts of them, you should enable
3079 <literal><link linkend="filter-server-headers">filter-server-headers</link></literal>
3080 and create your own filter.
3084 Don't block any header without understanding the consequences.
3091 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3094 <screen># Crunch server headers that try to prevent caching
3095 {+crunch-server-header {no-cache}}
3104 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3105 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-outgoing-cookies">
3106 <title>crunch-outgoing-cookies</title>
3110 <term>Typical use:</term>
3113 Prevent the web server from reading any cookies from your system
3119 <term>Effect:</term>
3122 Deletes any <quote>Cookie:</quote> HTTP headers from client requests.
3129 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3131 <para>Boolean.</para>
3136 <term>Parameter:</term>
3148 This action is only concerned with <emphasis>outgoing</emphasis> cookies. For
3149 <emphasis>incoming</emphasis> cookies, use
3150 <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal>.
3151 Use <emphasis>both</emphasis> to disable cookies completely.
3154 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use this action in conjunction
3155 with the <literal><link linkend="session-cookies-only">session-cookies-only</link></literal> action,
3156 since it would prevent the session cookies from being read.
3162 <term>Example usage:</term>
3165 <screen>+crunch-outgoing-cookies</screen>
3174 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3175 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="deanimate-gifs">
3176 <title>deanimate-gifs</title>
3180 <term>Typical use:</term>
3182 <para>Stop those annoying, distracting animated GIF images.</para>
3187 <term>Effect:</term>
3190 De-animate GIF animations, i.e. reduce them to their first or last image.
3197 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3199 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3204 <term>Parameter:</term>
3207 <quote>last</quote> or <quote>first</quote>
3216 This will also shrink the images considerably (in bytes, not pixels!). If
3217 the option <quote>first</quote> is given, the first frame of the animation
3218 is used as the replacement. If <quote>last</quote> is given, the last
3219 frame of the animation is used instead, which probably makes more sense for
3220 most banner animations, but also has the risk of not showing the entire
3221 last frame (if it is only a delta to an earlier frame).
3224 You can safely use this action with patterns that will also match non-GIF
3225 objects, because no attempt will be made at anything that doesn't look like
3232 <term>Example usage:</term>
3235 <screen>+deanimate-gifs{last}</screen>
3242 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3243 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="downgrade-http-version">
3244 <title>downgrade-http-version</title>
3248 <term>Typical use:</term>
3250 <para>Work around (very rare) problems with HTTP/1.1</para>
3255 <term>Effect:</term>
3258 Downgrades HTTP/1.1 client requests and server replies to HTTP/1.0.
3265 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3267 <para>Boolean.</para>
3272 <term>Parameter:</term>
3284 This is a left-over from the time when <application>Privoxy</application>
3285 didn't support important HTTP/1.1 features well. It is left here for the
3286 unlikely case that you experience HTTP/1.1 related problems with some server
3287 out there. Not all (optional) HTTP/1.1 features are supported yet, so there
3288 is a chance you might need this action.
3294 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3297 <screen>{+downgrade-http-version}
3298 problem-host.example.com</screen>
3306 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3307 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="fast-redirects">
3308 <title>fast-redirects</title>
3312 <term>Typical use:</term>
3314 <para>Fool some click-tracking scripts and speed up indirect links.</para>
3319 <term>Effect:</term>
3322 Detects redirection URLs and redirects the browser without contacting
3323 the redirection server first.
3330 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3332 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3337 <term>Parameter:</term>
3342 <quote>simple-check</quote> to just search for the string <quote>http://</quote>
3343 to detect redirection URLs.
3348 <quote>check-decoded-url</quote> to decode URLs (if necessary) before searching
3349 for redirection URLs.
3360 Many sites, like yahoo.com, don't just link to other sites. Instead, they
3361 will link to some script on their own servers, giving the destination as a
3362 parameter, which will then redirect you to the final target. URLs
3363 resulting from this scheme typically look like:
3364 <quote>http://www.example.org/click-tracker.cgi?target=http%3a//www.example.net/</quote>.
3367 Sometimes, there are even multiple consecutive redirects encoded in the
3368 URL. These redirections via scripts make your web browsing more traceable,
3369 since the server from which you follow such a link can see where you go
3370 to. Apart from that, valuable bandwidth and time is wasted, while your
3371 browser asks the server for one redirect after the other. Plus, it feeds
3375 This feature is currently not very smart and is scheduled for improvement.
3376 If it is enabled by default, you will have to create some exceptions to
3377 this action. It can lead to failures in several ways:
3380 Not every URLs with other URLs as parameters is evil.
3381 Some sites offer a real service that requires this information to work.
3382 For example a validation service needs to know, which document to validate.
3383 <literal>fast-redirects</literal> assumes that every URL parameter that
3384 looks like another URL is a redirection target, and will always redirect to
3385 the last one. Most of the time the assumption is correct, but if it isn't,
3386 the user gets redirected anyway.
3389 Another failure occurs if the URL contains other parameters after the URL parameter.
3391 <quote>http://www.example.org/?redirect=http%3a//www.example.net/&foo=bar</quote>.
3392 contains the redirection URL <quote>http://www.example.net/</quote>,
3393 followed by another parameter. <literal>fast-redirects</literal> doesn't know that
3394 and will cause a redirect to <quote>http://www.example.net/&foo=bar</quote>.
3395 Depending on the target server configuration, the parameter will be silently ignored
3396 or lead to a <quote>page not found</quote> error. It is possible to fix these redirected
3397 requests with <literal><link linkend="filter-client-headers">filter-client-headers</link></literal>
3398 but it requires a little effort.
3401 To detect a redirection URL, <literal>fast-redirects</literal> only
3402 looks for the string <quote>http://</quote>, either in plain text
3403 (invalid but often used) or encoded as <quote>http%3a//</quote>.
3404 Some sites use their own URL encoding scheme, encrypt the address
3405 of the target server or replace it with a database id. In theses cases
3406 <literal>fast-redirects</literal> is fooled and the request reaches the
3407 redirection server where it probably gets logged.
3413 <term>Example usage:</term>
3417 { +fast-redirects{simple-check} }
3420 { +fast-redirects{check-decoded-url} }
3421 another.example.com/testing</screen>
3430 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3431 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="filter">
3432 <title>filter</title>
3436 <term>Typical use:</term>
3438 <para>Get rid of HTML and JavaScript annoyances, banner advertisements (by size),
3439 do fun text replacements, add personalized effects, etc.</para>
3444 <term>Effect:</term>
3447 All files of text-based type, most notably HTML and
3448 JavaScript, to which this action applies, can be filtered on-the-fly
3449 through the specified regular expression based substitutions. (Note: as of
3450 version 3.0.3 plain text documents are exempted from filtering, because
3451 web servers often use the <literal>text/plain</literal> MIME type for all
3452 files whose type they don't know.) By default, filtering works only on the
3453 raw document content itself (that which can be seen with <literal>View
3462 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3464 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3469 <term>Parameter:</term>
3472 The name of a filter, as defined in the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file</link>.
3473 Filters can be defined in one or more files as defined by the
3474 <literal><link linkend="filterfile">filterfile</link></literal>
3475 option in the <link linkend="config">config file</link>.
3476 <filename>default.filter</filename> is the collection of filters
3477 supplied by the developers. Locally defined filters should go
3478 in their own file, such as <filename>user.filter</filename>.
3481 When used in its negative form,
3482 and without parameters, <emphasis>all</emphasis> filtering is completely disabled.
3491 For your convenience, there are a number of pre-defined filters available
3492 in the distribution filter file that you can use. See the examples below for
3496 Filtering requires buffering the page content, which may appear to
3497 slow down page rendering since nothing is displayed until all content has
3498 passed the filters. (It does not really take longer, but seems that way
3499 since the page is not incrementally displayed.) This effect will be more
3500 noticeable on slower connections.
3503 <quote>Rolling your own</quote>
3504 filters requires a knowledge of
3505 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
3506 Expressions</quote></ulink> and
3507 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Html"><quote>HTML</quote></ulink>.
3508 This is very powerful feature, and potentially very intrusive.
3509 Filters should be used with caution, and where an equivalent
3510 <quote>action</quote> is not available.
3513 The amount of data that can be filtered is limited to the
3514 <literal><link linkend="buffer-limit">buffer-limit</link></literal>
3515 option in the main <link linkend="config">config file</link>. The
3516 default is 4096 KB (4 Megs). Once this limit is exceeded, the buffered
3517 data, and all pending data, is passed through unfiltered.
3520 Inappropriate MIME types, such as zipped files, are not filtered at all.
3521 (Again, only text-based types except plain text). Encrypted SSL data
3522 (from HTTPS servers) cannot be filtered either, since this would violate
3523 the integrity of the secure transaction. In some situations it might
3524 be necessary to protect certain text, like source code, from filtering
3525 by defining appropriate <literal>-filter</literal> exceptions.
3528 At this time, <application>Privoxy</application> cannot uncompress compressed
3529 documents. If you want filtering to work on all documents, even those that
3530 would normally be sent compressed, you must use the
3531 <literal><link linkend="prevent-compression">prevent-compression</link></literal>
3532 action in conjunction with <literal>filter</literal>.
3535 Filtering can achieve some of the same effects as the
3536 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>
3537 action, i.e. it can be used to block ads and banners. But the mechanism
3538 works quite differently. One effective use, is to block ad banners
3539 based on their size (see below), since many of these seem to be somewhat
3543 <link linkend="contact">Feedback</link> with suggestions for new or
3544 improved filters is particularly welcome!
3547 The below list has only the names and a one-line description of each
3548 predefined filter. There are <link linkend="predefined-filters">more
3549 verbose explanations</link> of what these filters do in the <link
3550 linkend="filter-file">filter file chapter</link>.
3556 <term>Example usage (with filters from the distribution <filename>default.filter</filename> file).
3557 See <link linkend="PREDEFINED-FILTERS">the Predefined Filters section</link> for
3558 more explanation on each:</term>
3561 <anchor id="filter-js-annoyances">
3562 <screen>+filter{js-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse</screen>
3565 <anchor id="filter-js-events">
3566 <screen>+filter{js-events} # Kill all JS event bindings (Radically destructive! Only for extra nasty sites)</screen>
3569 <anchor id="filter-html-annoyances">
3570 <screen>+filter{html-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying HTML abuse</screen>
3573 <anchor id="filter-content-cookies">
3574 <screen>+filter{content-cookies} # Kill cookies that come in the HTML or JS content</screen>
3577 <anchor id="filter-refresh-tags">
3578 <screen>+filter{refresh-tags} # Kill automatic refresh tags (for dial-on-demand setups)</screen>
3581 <anchor id="filter-unsolicited-popups">
3582 <screen>+filter{unsolicited-popups} # Disable only unsolicited pop-up windows. Useful if your browser lacks this ability.</screen>
3585 <anchor id="filter-all-popups">
3586 <screen>+filter{all-popups} # Kill all popups in JavaScript and HTML. Useful if your browser lacks this ability.</screen>
3589 <anchor id="filter-img-reorder">
3590 <screen>+filter{img-reorder} # Reorder attributes in <img> tags to make the banners-by-* filters more effective</screen>
3593 <anchor id="filter-banners-by-size">
3594 <screen>+filter{banners-by-size} # Kill banners by size</screen>
3597 <anchor id="filter-banners-by-link">
3598 <screen>+filter{banners-by-link} # Kill banners by their links to known clicktrackers</screen>
3601 <anchor id="filter-webbugs">
3602 <screen>+filter{webbugs} # Squish WebBugs (1x1 invisible GIFs used for user tracking)</screen>
3605 <anchor id="filter-tiny-textforms">
3606 <screen>+filter{tiny-textforms} # Extend those tiny textareas up to 40x80 and kill the hard wrap</screen>
3609 <anchor id="filter-jumping-windows">
3610 <screen>+filter{jumping-windows} # Prevent windows from resizing and moving themselves</screen>
3613 <anchor id="filter-frameset-borders">
3614 <screen>+filter{frameset-borders} # Give frames a border and make them resizeable</screen>
3617 <anchor id="filter-demoronizer">
3618 <screen>+filter{demoronizer} # Fix MS's non-standard use of standard charsets</screen>
3621 <anchor id="filter-shockwave-flash">
3622 <screen>+filter{shockwave-flash} # Kill embedded Shockwave Flash objects</screen>
3625 <anchor id="filter-quicktime-kioskmode">
3626 <screen>+filter{quicktime-kioskmode} # Make Quicktime movies savable</screen>
3629 <anchor id="filter-fun">
3630 <screen>+filter{fun} # Text replacements for subversive browsing fun!</screen>
3633 <anchor id="filter-crude-parental">
3634 <screen>+filter{crude-parental} # Crude parental filtering (demo only)</screen>
3637 <anchor id="filter-ie-exploits">
3638 <screen>+filter{ie-exploits} # Disable some known Internet Explorer bug exploits</screen>
3641 <anchor id="filter-site-specifics">
3642 <screen>+filter{site-specifics} # Custom filters for specific site related problems</screen>
3645 <anchor id="filter-google">
3646 <screen>+filter{google} # Removes text ads and other Google specific improvements</screen>
3649 <anchor id="filter-yahoo">
3650 <screen>+filter{yahoo} # Removes text ads and other Yahoo specific improvements</screen>
3653 <anchor id="filter-msn">
3654 <screen>+filter{msn} # Removes text ads and other MSN specific improvements</screen>
3657 <anchor id="filter-blogspot">
3658 <screen>+filter{blogspot} # Cleans up Blogspot blogs</screen>
3661 <anchor id="filter-html-to-xml">
3662 <screen>+filter{html-to-xml} # Header filter to change the Content-Type from html to xml</screen>
3665 <anchor id="filter-xml-to-html">
3666 <screen>+filter{xml-to-html} # Header filter to change the Content-Type from xml to html</screen>
3669 <anchor id="filter-no-ping">
3670 <screen>+filter{no-ping} # Removes non-standard ping attributes from anchor and area tags</screen>
3673 <anchor id="filter-hide-tor-exit-notation">
3674 <screen>+filter{hide-tor-exit-notation} # Header filter to remove the Tor exit node notation in Host and Referer headers</screen>
3682 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3683 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="filter-client-headers">
3684 <title>filter-client-headers</title>
3688 <term>Typical use:</term>
3691 To apply filtering to the client's (browser's) headers
3697 <term>Effect:</term>
3700 By default, <application>Privoxy's</application> filters only apply
3701 to the document content itself. This will extend those filters to
3702 include the client's headers as well.
3709 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3711 <para>Boolean.</para>
3716 <term>Parameter:</term>
3728 Regular expressions can be used to filter headers as well. Check your
3729 filters closely before activating this action, as it can easily lead to broken
3733 These filters are applied to each header on its own, not to them
3734 all at once. This makes it easier to diagnose problems, but on the downside
3735 you can't write filters that only change header x if header y's value is
3739 The filters are used after the other header actions have finished and can
3740 use their output as input.
3744 Whenever possible one should specify <literal>^</literal>,
3745 <literal>$</literal>, the whole header name and the colon, to make sure
3746 the filter doesn't cause havoc to other headers or the
3747 page itself. For example if you want to transform
3748 <application>Galeon</application> User-Agents to
3749 <application>Firefox</application> User-Agents you
3754 s@Galeon/\d\.\d\.\d @@
3760 s@^(User-Agent:.*) Galeon/\d\.\d\.\d (Firefox/\d\.\d\.\d\.\d)$@$1 $2@
3767 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3771 {+filter-client-headers +filter{test_filter}}
3772 problem-host.example.com
3782 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3783 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="filter-server-headers">
3784 <title>filter-server-headers</title>
3788 <term>Typical use:</term>
3791 To apply filtering to the server's headers
3797 <term>Effect:</term>
3800 By default, <application>Privoxy's</application> filters only apply
3801 to the document content itself. This will extend those filters to
3802 include the server's headers as well.
3809 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3811 <para>Boolean.</para>
3816 <term>Parameter:</term>
3828 Similar to <literal>filter-client-headers</literal>, but works on
3829 the server instead. To filter both server and client, use both.
3832 As with <literal>filter-client-headers</literal>, check your
3833 filters before activating this action, as it can easily lead to broken
3837 These filters are applied to each header on its own, not to them
3838 all at once. This makes it easier to diagnose problems, but on the downside
3839 you can't write filters that only change header x if header y's value is
3843 The filters are used after the other header actions have finished and can
3844 use their output as input.
3847 Remember too, whenever possible one should specify <literal>^</literal>,
3848 <literal>$</literal>, the whole header name and the colon, to make sure
3849 the filter doesn't cause havoc to other headers or the
3850 page itself. See above for example.
3857 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3861 {+filter-server-headers +filter{test_filter}}
3862 problem-host.example.com
3872 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3873 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="force-text-mode">
3874 <title>force-text-mode</title>
3880 <term>Typical use:</term>
3882 <para>Force <application>Privoxy</application> to treat a document as if it was in some kind of <emphasis>text</emphasis> format. </para>
3887 <term>Effect:</term>
3890 Declares a document as text, even if the <quote>Content-Type:</quote> isn't detected as such.
3897 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3899 <para>Boolean.</para>
3904 <term>Parameter:</term>
3916 As explained <literal><link linkend="filter">above</link></literal>,
3917 <application>Privoxy</application> tries to only filter files that are
3918 in some kind of text format. The same restrictions apply to
3919 <literal><link linkend="content-type-overwrite">content-type-overwrite</link></literal>.
3920 <literal>force-text-mode</literal> declares a document as text,
3921 without looking at the <quote>Content-Type:</quote> first.
3925 Think twice before activating this action. Filtering binary data
3926 with regular expressions can cause file damage.
3933 <term>Example usage:</term>
3946 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3947 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="handle-as-empty-document">
3948 <title>handle-as-empty-document</title>
3954 <term>Typical use:</term>
3956 <para>Mark URLs that should be replaced by empty documents <emphasis>if they get blocked</emphasis></para>
3961 <term>Effect:</term>
3964 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. It just marks URLs.
3965 If the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action <emphasis>also applies</emphasis>,
3966 the presence or absence of this mark decides whether an HTML <quote>blocked</quote>
3967 page, or an empty document will be sent to the client as a substitute for the blocked content.
3968 The <emphasis>empty</emphasis> document isn't literally empty, but actually contains a single space.
3975 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3977 <para>Boolean.</para>
3982 <term>Parameter:</term>
3994 Some browsers complain about syntax errors if JavaScript documents
3995 are blocked with <application>Privoxy's</application>
3996 default HTML page; this option can be used to silence them.
3999 The content type for the empty document can be specified with
4000 <literal><link linkend="content-type-overwrite">content-type-overwrite{}</link></literal>,
4001 but usually this isn't necessary.
4007 <term>Example usage:</term>
4010 <screen># Block all documents on example.org that end with ".js",
4011 # but send an empty document instead of the usual HTML message.
4012 {+block +handle-as-empty-document}
4022 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4023 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="handle-as-image">
4024 <title>handle-as-image</title>
4028 <term>Typical use:</term>
4030 <para>Mark URLs as belonging to images (so they'll be replaced by images <emphasis>if they do get blocked</emphasis>, rather than HTML pages)</para>
4035 <term>Effect:</term>
4038 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. It just marks URLs as images.
4039 If the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action <emphasis>also applies</emphasis>,
4040 the presence or absence of this mark decides whether an HTML <quote>blocked</quote>
4041 page, or a replacement image (as determined by the <literal><link
4042 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal> action) will be sent to the
4043 client as a substitute for the blocked content.
4050 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4052 <para>Boolean.</para>
4057 <term>Parameter:</term>
4069 The below generic example section is actually part of <filename>default.action</filename>.
4070 It marks all URLs with well-known image file name extensions as images and should
4074 Users will probably only want to use the handle-as-image action in conjunction with
4075 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>, to block sources of banners, whose URLs don't
4076 reflect the file type, like in the second example section.
4079 Note that you cannot treat HTML pages as images in most cases. For instance, (in-line) ad
4080 frames require an HTML page to be sent, or they won't display properly.
4081 Forcing <literal>handle-as-image</literal> in this situation will not replace the
4082 ad frame with an image, but lead to error messages.
4088 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
4091 <screen># Generic image extensions:
4094 /.*\.(gif|jpg|jpeg|png|bmp|ico)$
4096 # These don't look like images, but they're banners and should be
4097 # blocked as images:
4099 {+block +handle-as-image}
4100 some.nasty-banner-server.com/junk.cgi?output=trash
4102 # Banner source! Who cares if they also have non-image content?
4112 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4113 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-accept-language">
4114 <title>hide-accept-language</title>
4120 <term>Typical use:</term>
4122 <para>Pretend to use different language settings.</para>
4127 <term>Effect:</term>
4130 Deletes or replaces the <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> HTTP header in client requests.
4137 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4139 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4144 <term>Parameter:</term>
4147 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
4156 Faking the browser's language settings can be useful to make a
4157 foreign User-Agent set with
4158 <literal><link linkend="hide-user-agent">hide-user-agent</link></literal>
4162 However some sites with content in different languages check the
4163 <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> to decide which one to take by default.
4164 Sometimes it isn't possible to later switch to another language without
4165 changing the <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> header first.
4168 Therefore it's a good idea to either only change the
4169 <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> header to languages you understand,
4170 or to languages that aren't wide spread.
4173 Before setting the <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> header
4174 to a rare language, you should consider that it helps to
4175 make your requests unique and thus easier to trace.
4176 If you don't plan to change this header frequently,
4177 you should stick to a common language.
4183 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
4186 <screen># Pretend to use Canadian language settings.
4187 {+hide-accept-language{en-ca} \
4188 +hide-user-agent{Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; OpenBSD i386; en-CA; rv:1.8.0.4) Gecko/20060628 Firefox/1.5.0.4} \
4198 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4199 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-content-disposition">
4200 <title>hide-content-disposition</title>
4206 <term>Typical use:</term>
4208 <para>Prevent download menus for content you prefer to view inside the browser.</para>
4213 <term>Effect:</term>
4216 Deletes or replaces the <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> HTTP header set by some servers.
4223 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4225 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4230 <term>Parameter:</term>
4233 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
4242 Some servers set the <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> HTTP header for
4243 documents they assume you want to save locally before viewing them.
4244 The <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> header contains the file name
4245 the browser is supposed to use by default.
4248 In most browsers that understand this header, it makes it impossible to
4249 <emphasis>just view</emphasis> the document, without downloading it first,
4250 even if it's just a simple text file or an image.
4253 Removing the <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> header helps
4254 to prevent this annoyance, but some browsers additionally check the
4255 <quote>Content-Type:</quote> header, before they decide if they can
4256 display a document without saving it first. In these cases, you have
4257 to change this header as well, before the browser stops displaying
4261 It is also possible to change the server's file name suggestion
4262 to another one, but in most cases it isn't worth the time to set
4269 <term>Example usage:</term>
4272 <screen># Disarm the download link in Sourceforge's patch tracker
4274 +content-type-overwrite {text/plain}\
4275 +hide-content-disposition {block} }
4276 .sourceforge.net/tracker/download.php</screen>
4284 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4285 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-if-modified-since">
4286 <title>hide-if-modified-since</title>
4292 <term>Typical use:</term>
4294 <para>Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.</para>
4299 <term>Effect:</term>
4302 Deletes the <quote>If-Modified-Since:</quote> HTTP client header or modifies its value.
4309 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4311 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4316 <term>Parameter:</term>
4319 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or a user defined value that specifies a range of hours.
4328 Removing this header is useful for filter testing, where you want to force a real
4329 reload instead of getting status code <quote>304</quote>, which would cause the
4330 browser to use a cached copy of the page.
4333 Instead of removing the header, <literal>hide-if-modified-since</literal> can
4334 also add or subtract a random amount of time to/from the header's value.
4335 You specify a range of minutes where the random factor should be chosen from and
4336 <application>Privoxy</application> does the rest. A negative value means
4337 subtracting, a positive value adding.
4340 Randomizing the value of the <quote>If-Modified-Since:</quote> makes
4341 sure it isn't used as a cookie replacement, but you will run into
4342 caching problems if the random range is too high.
4345 It is a good idea to only use a small negative value and let
4346 <literal><link linkend="overwrite-last-modified">overwrite-last-modified</link></literal>
4347 handle the greater changes.
4350 It is also recommended to use this action together with
4351 <literal><link linkend="crunch-if-none-match">crunch-if-none-match</link></literal>.
4357 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
4360 <screen># Let the browser revalidate without being tracked across sessions
4361 {+hide-if-modified-since {-60}\
4362 +overwrite-last-modified {randomize}\
4363 +crunch-if-none-match}
4372 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4373 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-forwarded-for-headers">
4374 <title>hide-forwarded-for-headers</title>
4380 <term>Typical use:</term>
4382 <para>Improve privacy by hiding the true source of the request</para>
4387 <term>Effect:</term>
4390 Deletes any existing <quote>X-Forwarded-for:</quote> HTTP header from client requests,
4391 and prevents adding a new one.
4398 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4400 <para>Boolean.</para>
4405 <term>Parameter:</term>
4417 It is fairly safe to leave this on.
4420 This action is scheduled for improvement: It should be able to generate forged
4421 <quote>X-Forwarded-for:</quote> headers using random IP addresses from a specified network,
4422 to make successive requests from the same client look like requests from a pool of different
4423 users sharing the same proxy.
4429 <term>Example usage:</term>
4432 <screen>+hide-forwarded-for-headers</screen>
4440 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4441 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-from-header">
4442 <title>hide-from-header</title>
4446 <term>Typical use:</term>
4448 <para>Keep your (old and ill) browser from telling web servers your email address</para>
4453 <term>Effect:</term>
4456 Deletes any existing <quote>From:</quote> HTTP header, or replaces it with the
4464 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4466 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4471 <term>Parameter:</term>
4474 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
4483 The keyword <quote>block</quote> will completely remove the header
4484 (not to be confused with the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>
4488 Alternately, you can specify any value you prefer to be sent to the web
4489 server. If you do, it is a matter of fairness not to use any address that
4490 is actually used by a real person.
4493 This action is rarely needed, as modern web browsers don't send
4494 <quote>From:</quote> headers anymore.
4500 <term>Example usage:</term>
4503 <screen>+hide-from-header{block}</screen> or
4504 <screen>+hide-from-header{spam-me-senseless@sittingduck.example.com}</screen>
4512 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4513 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-referrer">
4514 <title>hide-referrer</title>
4515 <anchor id="hide-referer">
4518 <term>Typical use:</term>
4520 <para>Conceal which link you followed to get to a particular site</para>
4525 <term>Effect:</term>
4528 Deletes the <quote>Referer:</quote> (sic) HTTP header from the client request,
4529 or replaces it with a forged one.
4536 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4538 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4543 <term>Parameter:</term>
4547 <para><quote>conditional-block</quote> to delete the header completely if the host has changed.</para>
4550 <para><quote>block</quote> to delete the header unconditionally.</para>
4553 <para><quote>forge</quote> to pretend to be coming from the homepage of the server we are talking to.</para>
4556 <para>Any other string to set a user defined referrer.</para>
4566 <literal>conditional-block</literal> is the only parameter,
4567 that isn't easily detected in the server's log file. If it blocks the
4568 referrer, the request will look like the visitor used a bookmark or
4569 typed in the address directly.
4572 Leaving the referrer unmodified for requests on the same host
4573 allows the server owner to see the visitor's <quote>click path</quote>,
4574 but in most cases she could also get that information by comparing
4575 other parts of the log file: for example the User-Agent if it isn't
4576 a very common one, or the user's IP address if it doesn't change between
4580 Always blocking the referrer, or using a custom one, can lead to
4581 failures on servers that check the referrer before they answer any
4582 requests, in an attempt to prevent their valuable content from being
4583 embedded or linked to elsewhere.
4586 Both <literal>conditional-block</literal> and <literal>forge</literal>
4587 will work with referrer checks, as long as content and valid referring page
4588 are on the same host. Most of the time that's the case.
4591 <literal>hide-referer</literal> is an alternate spelling of
4592 <literal>hide-referrer</literal> and the two can be can be freely
4593 substituted with each other. (<quote>referrer</quote> is the
4594 correct English spelling, however the HTTP specification has a bug - it
4595 requires it to be spelled as <quote>referer</quote>.)
4601 <term>Example usage:</term>
4604 <screen>+hide-referrer{forge}</screen> or
4605 <screen>+hide-referrer{http://www.yahoo.com/}</screen>
4613 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4614 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-user-agent">
4615 <title>hide-user-agent</title>
4619 <term>Typical use:</term>
4621 <para>Conceal your type of browser and client operating system</para>
4626 <term>Effect:</term>
4629 Replaces the value of the <quote>User-Agent:</quote> HTTP header
4630 in client requests with the specified value.
4637 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4639 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4644 <term>Parameter:</term>
4647 Any user-defined string.
4657 This can lead to problems on web sites that depend on looking at this header in
4658 order to customize their content for different browsers (which, by the
4659 way, is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> the right thing to do: good web sites
4660 work browser-independently).
4662 <ulink url="http://www.javascriptkit.com/javaindex.shtml">smart way to do
4668 Using this action in multi-user setups or wherever different types of
4669 browsers will access the same <application>Privoxy</application> is
4670 <emphasis>not recommended</emphasis>. In single-user, single-browser
4671 setups, you might use it to delete your OS version information from
4672 the headers, because it is an invitation to exploit known bugs for your
4673 OS. It is also occasionally useful to forge this in order to access
4674 sites that won't let you in otherwise (though there may be a good
4675 reason in some cases). Example of this: some MSN sites will not
4676 let <application>Mozilla</application> enter, yet forging to a
4677 <application>Netscape 6.1</application> user-agent works just fine.
4678 (Must be just a silly MS goof, I'm sure :-).
4681 This action is scheduled for improvement.
4687 <term>Example usage:</term>
4690 <screen>+hide-user-agent{Netscape 6.1 (X11; I; Linux 2.4.18 i686)}</screen>
4698 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4699 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="inspect-jpegs">
4700 <title>inspect-jpegs</title>
4706 <term>Typical use:</term>
4708 <para>To protect against the MS buffer over-run in JPEG processing</para>
4713 <term>Effect:</term>
4716 Protect against a known exploit
4723 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4725 <para>Boolean.</para>
4730 <term>Parameter:</term>
4742 See Microsoft Security Bulletin MS04-028. JPEG images are one of the most
4743 common image types found across the Internet. The exploit as described can
4744 allow execution of code on the target system, giving an attacker access
4745 to the system in question by merely planting an altered JPEG image, which
4746 would have no obvious indications of what lurks inside. This action
4747 prevents unwanted intrusion.
4754 <term>Example usage:</term>
4756 <para><screen>+inspect-jpegs</screen></para>
4765 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4766 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="kill-popups">
4767 <title>kill-popups<anchor id="kill-popup"></title>
4771 <term>Typical use:</term>
4773 <para>Eliminate those annoying pop-up windows (deprecated)</para>
4778 <term>Effect:</term>
4781 While loading the document, replace JavaScript code that opens
4782 pop-up windows with (syntactically neutral) dummy code on the fly.
4789 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4791 <para>Boolean.</para>
4796 <term>Parameter:</term>
4808 This action is basically a built-in, hardwired special-purpose filter
4809 action, but there are important differences: For <literal>kill-popups</literal>,
4810 the document need not be buffered, so it can be incrementally rendered while
4811 downloading. But <literal>kill-popups</literal> doesn't catch as many pop-ups as
4813 linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{<replaceable>all-popups</replaceable>}</link></literal>
4814 does and is not as smart as <literal><link
4815 linkend="FILTER-UNSOLICITED-POPUPS">filter{<replaceable>unsolicited-popups</replaceable>}</link>
4819 Think of it as a fast and efficient replacement for a filter that you
4820 can use if you don't want any filtering at all. Note that it doesn't make
4821 sense to combine it with any <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> action,
4822 since as soon as one <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> applies,
4823 the whole document needs to be buffered anyway, which destroys the advantage of
4824 the <literal>kill-popups</literal> action over its filter equivalent.
4827 Killing all pop-ups unconditionally is problematic. Many shops and banks rely on
4828 pop-ups to display forms, shopping carts etc, and the <literal><link
4829 linkend="FILTER-UNSOLICITED-POPUPS">filter{<replaceable>unsolicited-popups</replaceable>}</link>
4830 </literal> does a better job of catching only the unwanted ones.
4833 If the only kind of pop-ups that you want to kill are exit consoles (those
4834 <emphasis>really nasty</emphasis> windows that appear when you close an other
4835 one), you might want to use
4837 linkend="filter">filter</link>{<replaceable>js-annoyances</replaceable>}</literal>
4841 This action is most appropriate for browsers that don't have any controls
4842 for unwanted pop-ups. Not recommended for general usage.
4847 An alternate spelling is <literal>+kill-popup</literal>, which is
4855 <term>Example usage:</term>
4857 <para><screen>+kill-popups</screen></para>
4864 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4865 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="limit-connect">
4866 <title>limit-connect</title>
4870 <term>Typical use:</term>
4872 <para>Prevent abuse of <application>Privoxy</application> as a TCP proxy relay or disable SSL for untrusted sites</para>
4877 <term>Effect:</term>
4880 Specifies to which ports HTTP CONNECT requests are allowable.
4887 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4889 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4894 <term>Parameter:</term>
4897 A comma-separated list of ports or port ranges (the latter using dashes, with the minimum
4898 defaulting to 0 and the maximum to 65K).
4907 By default, i.e. if no <literal>limit-connect</literal> action applies,
4908 <application>Privoxy</application> only allows HTTP CONNECT
4909 requests to port 443 (the standard, secure HTTPS port). Use
4910 <literal>limit-connect</literal> if more fine-grained control is desired
4911 for some or all destinations.
4914 The CONNECT methods exists in HTTP to allow access to secure websites
4915 (<quote>https://</quote> URLs) through proxies. It works very simply:
4916 the proxy connects to the server on the specified port, and then
4917 short-circuits its connections to the client and to the remote server.
4918 This can be a big security hole, since CONNECT-enabled proxies can be
4919 abused as TCP relays very easily.
4922 <application>Privoxy</application> relays HTTPS traffic without seeing
4923 the decoded content. Websites can leverage this limitation to circumvent &my-app;'s
4924 filters. By specifying an invalid port range you can disable HTTPS entirely.
4925 If you plan to disable SSL by default, consider enabling
4926 <literal><link linkend="treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks ">treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks</link></literal>
4927 as well, to be able to quickly create exceptions.
4933 <term>Example usages:</term>
4935 <!-- I had trouble getting the spacing to look right in my browser -->
4936 <!-- I probably have the wrong font setup, bollocks. -->
4937 <!-- Apparently the emphasis tag uses a proportional font no matter what -->
4939 <screen>+limit-connect{443} # This is the default and need not be specified.
4940 +limit-connect{80,443} # Ports 80 and 443 are OK.
4941 +limit-connect{-3, 7, 20-100, 500-} # Ports less than 3, 7, 20 to 100 and above 500 are OK.
4942 +limit-connect{-} # All ports are OK
4943 +limit-connect{,} # No HTTPS/SSL traffic is allowed</screen>
4950 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4951 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="prevent-compression">
4952 <title>prevent-compression</title>
4956 <term>Typical use:</term>
4959 Ensure that servers send the content uncompressed, so it can be
4960 passed through <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>s.
4966 <term>Effect:</term>
4969 Removes the Accept-Encoding header which can be used to ask for compressed transfer.
4976 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4978 <para>Boolean.</para>
4983 <term>Parameter:</term>
4995 More and more websites send their content compressed by default, which
4996 is generally a good idea and saves bandwidth. But for the <literal><link
4997 linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>, <literal><link linkend="deanimate-gifs">deanimate-gifs</link></literal>
4998 and <literal><link linkend="kill-popups">kill-popups</link></literal> actions to work,
4999 <application>Privoxy</application> needs access to the uncompressed data.
5000 Unfortunately, <application>Privoxy</application> can't yet(!) uncompress, filter, and
5001 re-compress the content on the fly. So if you want to ensure that all websites, including
5002 those that normally compress, can be filtered, you need to use this action.
5005 This will slow down transfers from those websites, though. If you use any of the above-mentioned
5006 actions, you will typically want to use <literal>prevent-compression</literal> in conjunction
5010 Note that some (rare) ill-configured sites don't handle requests for uncompressed
5011 documents correctly (they send an empty document body). If you use <literal>prevent-compression</literal>
5012 per default, you'll have to add exceptions for those sites. See the example for how to do that.
5018 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
5022 # Selectively turn off compression, and enable a filter
5024 { +filter{tiny-textforms} +prevent-compression }
5025 # Match only these sites
5030 # Or instead, we could set a universal default:
5032 { +prevent-compression }
5035 # Then maybe make exceptions for ill-behaved sites:
5037 { -prevent-compression }
5039 www.pclinuxonline.com</screen>
5048 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5049 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="overwrite-last-modified">
5050 <title>overwrite-last-modified</title>
5056 <term>Typical use:</term>
5058 <para>Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.</para>
5063 <term>Effect:</term>
5066 Deletes the <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> HTTP server header or modifies its value.
5073 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5075 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5080 <term>Parameter:</term>
5083 One of the keywords: <quote>block</quote>, <quote>reset-to-request-time</quote>
5084 and <quote>randomize</quote>
5093 Removing the <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header is useful for filter
5094 testing, where you want to force a real reload instead of getting status
5095 code <quote>304</quote>, which would cause the browser to reuse the old
5096 version of the page.
5099 The <quote>randomize</quote> option overwrites the value of the
5100 <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header with a randomly chosen time
5101 between the original value and the current time. In theory the server
5102 could send each document with a different <quote>Last-Modified:</quote>
5103 header to track visits without using cookies. <quote>Randomize</quote>
5104 makes it impossible and the browser can still revalidate cached documents.
5107 <quote>reset-to-request-time</quote> overwrites the value of the
5108 <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header with the current time. You could use
5109 this option together with
5110 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hided-if-modified-since</link></literal>
5111 to further customize your random range.
5114 The preferred parameter here is <quote>randomize</quote>. It is safe
5115 to use, as long as the time settings are more or less correct.
5116 If the server sets the <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header to the time
5117 of the request, the random range becomes zero and the value stays the same.
5118 Therefore you should later randomize it a second time with
5119 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hided-if-modified-since</link></literal>,
5123 It is also recommended to use this action together with
5124 <literal><link linkend="crunch-if-none-match">crunch-if-none-match</link></literal>.
5130 <term>Example usage:</term>
5133 <screen># Let the browser revalidate without being tracked across sessions
5134 {+hide-if-modified-since {-60}\
5135 +overwrite-last-modified {randomize}\
5136 +crunch-if-none-match}
5145 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5146 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="redirect">
5147 <title>redirect</title>
5153 <term>Typical use:</term>
5156 Redirect requests to other sites.
5162 <term>Effect:</term>
5165 Convinces the browser that the requested document has been moved
5166 to another location and the browser should get it from there.
5173 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5175 <para>Parameterized</para>
5180 <term>Parameter:</term>
5192 This action is useful to replace whole documents with ones of your
5193 choosing. This can be used to enforce safe surfing, or just as a simple
5197 You can do the same by combining the actions
5198 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>,
5199 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> and
5200 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker{URL}</link></literal>.
5201 It doesn't sound right for non-image documents, and that's why this action
5205 This action will be ignored if you use it together with
5206 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>.
5212 <term>Example usages:</term>
5215 <screen># Replace example.com's style sheet with another one
5216 { +redirect{http://localhost/css-replacements/example.com.css} }
5217 example.com/stylesheet.css
5219 # Create a short, easy to remember nickname for a favorite site
5220 { +redirect{http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/actions-file.html} }
5230 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5231 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="send-vanilla-wafer">
5232 <title>send-vanilla-wafer</title>
5236 <term>Typical use:</term>
5239 Feed log analysis scripts with useless data.
5245 <term>Effect:</term>
5248 Sends a cookie with each request stating that you do not accept any copyright
5249 on cookies sent to you, and asking the site operator not to track you.
5256 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5258 <para>Boolean.</para>
5263 <term>Parameter:</term>
5275 The vanilla wafer is a (relatively) unique header and could conceivably be used to track you.
5278 This action is rarely used and not enabled in the default configuration.
5284 <term>Example usage:</term>
5287 <screen>+send-vanilla-wafer</screen>
5296 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5297 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="send-wafer">
5298 <title>send-wafer</title>
5302 <term>Typical use:</term>
5305 Send custom cookies or feed log analysis scripts with even more useless data.
5311 <term>Effect:</term>
5314 Sends a custom, user-defined cookie with each request.
5321 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5323 <para>Multi-value.</para>
5328 <term>Parameter:</term>
5331 A string of the form <quote><replaceable class="option">name</replaceable>=<replaceable
5332 class="parameter">value</replaceable></quote>.
5341 Being multi-valued, multiple instances of this action can apply to the same request,
5342 resulting in multiple cookies being sent.
5345 This action is rarely used and not enabled in the default configuration.
5350 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
5353 <screen>{+send-wafer{UsingPrivoxy=true}}
5354 my-internal-testing-server.void</screen>
5362 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5363 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="session-cookies-only">
5364 <title>session-cookies-only</title>
5368 <term>Typical use:</term>
5371 Allow only temporary <quote>session</quote> cookies (for the current
5372 browser session <emphasis>only</emphasis>).
5378 <term>Effect:</term>
5381 Deletes the <quote>expires</quote> field from <quote>Set-Cookie:</quote>
5382 server headers. Most browsers will not store such cookies permanently and
5383 forget them in between sessions.
5390 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5392 <para>Boolean.</para>
5397 <term>Parameter:</term>
5409 This is less strict than <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal> /
5410 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal> and allows you to browse
5411 websites that insist or rely on setting cookies, without compromising your privacy too badly.
5414 Most browsers will not permanently store cookies that have been processed by
5415 <literal>session-cookies-only</literal> and will forget about them between sessions.
5416 This makes profiling cookies useless, but won't break sites which require cookies so
5417 that you can log in for transactions. This is generally turned on for all
5418 sites, and is the recommended setting.
5421 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use <literal>session-cookies-only</literal>
5422 together with <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal> or
5423 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>. If you do, cookies
5424 will be plainly killed.
5427 Note that it is up to the browser how it handles such cookies without an <quote>expires</quote>
5428 field. If you use an exotic browser, you might want to try it out to be sure.
5431 This setting also has no effect on cookies that may have been stored
5432 previously by the browser before starting <application>Privoxy</application>.
5433 These would have to be removed manually.
5436 <application>Privoxy</application> also uses
5437 the <link linkend="filter-content-cookies">content-cookies filter</link>
5438 to block some types of cookies. Content cookies are not effected by
5439 <literal>session-cookies-only</literal>.
5445 <term>Example usage:</term>
5448 <screen>+session-cookies-only</screen>
5456 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5457 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="set-image-blocker">
5458 <title>set-image-blocker</title>
5462 <term>Typical use:</term>
5464 <para>Choose the replacement for blocked images</para>
5469 <term>Effect:</term>
5472 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. If <emphasis>both</emphasis>
5473 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> <emphasis>and</emphasis> <literal><link
5474 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> <emphasis>also</emphasis>
5475 apply, i.e. if the request is to be blocked as an image,
5476 <emphasis>then</emphasis> the parameter of this action decides what will be
5477 sent as a replacement.
5484 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5486 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5491 <term>Parameter:</term>
5496 <quote>pattern</quote> to send a built-in checkerboard pattern image. The image is visually
5497 decent, scales very well, and makes it obvious where banners were busted.
5502 <quote>blank</quote> to send a built-in transparent image. This makes banners disappear
5503 completely, but makes it hard to detect where <application>Privoxy</application> has blocked
5504 images on a given page and complicates troubleshooting if <application>Privoxy</application>
5505 has blocked innocent images, like navigation icons.
5510 <quote><replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable></quote> to
5511 send a redirect to <replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable>. You can redirect
5512 to any image anywhere, even in your local filesystem via <quote>file:///</quote> URL.
5513 (But note that not all browsers support redirecting to a local file system).
5516 A good application of redirects is to use special <application>Privoxy</application>-built-in
5517 URLs, which send the built-in images, as <replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable>.
5518 This has the same visual effect as specifying <quote>blank</quote> or <quote>pattern</quote> in
5519 the first place, but enables your browser to cache the replacement image, instead of requesting
5520 it over and over again.
5531 The URLs for the built-in images are <quote>http://config.privoxy.org/send-banner?type=<replaceable
5532 class="parameter">type</replaceable></quote>, where <replaceable class="parameter">type</replaceable> is
5533 either <quote>blank</quote> or <quote>pattern</quote>.
5536 There is a third (advanced) type, called <quote>auto</quote>. It is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> to be
5537 used in <literal>set-image-blocker</literal>, but meant for use from <link linkend="filter-file">filters</link>.
5538 Auto will select the type of image that would have applied to the referring page, had it been an image.
5544 <term>Example usage:</term>
5550 <screen>+set-image-blocker{pattern}</screen>
5553 Redirect to the BSD devil:
5556 <screen>+set-image-blocker{http://www.freebsd.org/gifs/dae_up3.gif}</screen>
5559 Redirect to the built-in pattern for better caching:
5562 <screen>+set-image-blocker{http://config.privoxy.org/send-banner?type=pattern}</screen>
5570 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5571 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks">
5572 <title>treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks</title>
5578 <term>Typical use:</term>
5580 <para>Block forbidden connects with an easy to find error message.</para>
5585 <term>Effect:</term>
5588 If this action is enabled, <application>Privoxy</application> no longer
5589 makes a difference between forbidden connects and ordinary blocks.
5596 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5598 <para>Boolean</para>
5603 <term>Parameter:</term>
5613 By default <application>Privoxy</application> answers
5614 <link linkend="limit-connect">forbidden <quote>Connect</quote> requests</link>
5615 with a short error message inside the headers. If the browser doesn't display
5616 headers (most don't), you just see an empty page.
5619 With this action enabled, <application>Privoxy</application> displays
5620 the message that is used for ordinary blocks instead. If you decide
5621 to make an exception for the page in question, you can do so by
5622 following the <quote>See why</quote> link.
5625 For <quote>Connect</quote> requests the clients tell
5626 <application>Privoxy</application> which host they are interested
5627 in, but not which document they plan to get later. As a result, the
5628 <quote>Go there anyway</quote> link becomes rather useless:
5629 it lets the client request the home page of the forbidden host
5630 through unencrypted HTTP, still using the port of the last request.
5633 If you previously configured <application>Privoxy</application> to do the
5634 request through a SSL tunnel, everything will work. Most likely you haven't
5635 and the server will respond with an error message because it is expecting
5642 <term>Example usage:</term>
5645 <screen>+treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks</screen>
5653 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5655 <title>Summary</title>
5657 Note that many of these actions have the potential to cause a page to
5658 misbehave, possibly even not to display at all. There are many ways
5659 a site designer may choose to design his site, and what HTTP header
5660 content, and other criteria, he may depend on. There is no way to have hard
5661 and fast rules for all sites. See the <link
5662 linkend="ACTIONSANAT">Appendix</link> for a brief example on troubleshooting
5668 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5669 <sect2 id="aliases">
5670 <title>Aliases</title>
5672 Custom <quote>actions</quote>, known to <application>Privoxy</application>
5673 as <quote>aliases</quote>, can be defined by combining other actions.
5674 These can in turn be invoked just like the built-in actions.
5675 Currently, an alias name can contain any character except space, tab,
5677 <quote>{</quote> and <quote>}</quote>, but we <emphasis>strongly
5678 recommend</emphasis> that you only use <quote>a</quote> to <quote>z</quote>,
5679 <quote>0</quote> to <quote>9</quote>, <quote>+</quote>, and <quote>-</quote>.
5680 Alias names are not case sensitive, and are not required to start with a
5681 <quote>+</quote> or <quote>-</quote> sign, since they are merely textually
5685 Aliases can be used throughout the actions file, but they <emphasis>must be
5686 defined in a special section at the top of the file!</emphasis>
5687 And there can only be one such section per actions file. Each actions file may
5688 have its own alias section, and the aliases defined in it are only visible
5692 There are two main reasons to use aliases: One is to save typing for frequently
5693 used combinations of actions, the other one is a gain in flexibility: If you
5694 decide once how you want to handle shops by defining an alias called
5695 <quote>shop</quote>, you can later change your policy on shops in
5696 <emphasis>one</emphasis> place, and your changes will take effect everywhere
5697 in the actions file where the <quote>shop</quote> alias is used. Calling aliases
5698 by their purpose also makes your actions files more readable.
5701 Currently, there is one big drawback to using aliases, though:
5702 <application>Privoxy</application>'s built-in web-based action file
5703 editor honors aliases when reading the actions files, but it expands
5704 them before writing. So the effects of your aliases are of course preserved,
5705 but the aliases themselves are lost when you edit sections that use aliases
5710 Now let's define some aliases...
5715 # Useful custom aliases we can use later.
5717 # Note the (required!) section header line and that this section
5718 # must be at the top of the actions file!
5722 # These aliases just save typing later:
5723 # (Note that some already use other aliases!)
5725 +crunch-all-cookies = +<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> +<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
5726 -crunch-all-cookies = -<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> -<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
5727 +block-as-image = +block +handle-as-image
5728 allow-all-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> -<link linkend="FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</link>
5730 # These aliases define combinations of actions
5731 # that are useful for certain types of sites:
5733 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> -<link linkend="PREVENT-COMPRESSION">prevent-compression</link>
5735 shop = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{all-popups}</link> -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link>
5737 # Short names for other aliases, for really lazy people ;-)
5739 c0 = +crunch-all-cookies
5740 c1 = -crunch-all-cookies</screen>
5744 ...and put them to use. These sections would appear in the lower part of an
5745 actions file and define exceptions to the default actions (as specified further
5746 up for the <quote>/</quote> pattern):
5751 # These sites are either very complex or very keen on
5752 # user data and require minimal interference to work:
5755 .office.microsoft.com
5756 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com
5757 # Gmail is really mail.google.com, not gmail.com
5761 # Allow cookies (for setting and retrieving your customer data)
5765 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
5768 # These shops require pop-ups:
5770 {-kill-popups -filter{all-popups} -filter{unsolicted-popups}}
5772 .overclockers.co.uk</screen>
5776 Aliases like <quote>shop</quote> and <quote>fragile</quote> are typically used for
5777 <quote>problem</quote> sites that require more than one action to be disabled
5778 in order to function properly.
5784 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5785 <sect2 id="act-examples">
5786 <title>Actions Files Tutorial</title>
5788 The above chapters have shown <link linkend="actions-file">which actions files
5789 there are and how they are organized</link>, how actions are <link
5790 linkend="actions">specified</link> and <link linkend="actions-apply">applied
5791 to URLs</link>, how <link linkend="af-patterns">patterns</link> work, and how to
5792 define and use <link linkend="aliases">aliases</link>. Now, let's look at an
5793 example <filename>default.action</filename> and <filename>user.action</filename>
5794 file and see how all these pieces come together:
5797 <sect3><title>default.action</title>
5800 Every config file should start with a short comment stating its purpose:
5804 <screen># Sample default.action file <ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net></screen>
5808 Then, since this is the <filename>default.action</filename> file, the
5809 first section is a special section for internal use that you needn't
5810 change or worry about:
5815 ##########################################################################
5816 # Settings -- Don't change! For internal Privoxy use ONLY.
5817 ##########################################################################
5820 for-privoxy-version=3.0</screen>
5824 After that comes the (optional) alias section. We'll use the example
5825 section from the above <link linkend="aliases">chapter on aliases</link>,
5826 that also explains why and how aliases are used:
5831 ##########################################################################
5833 ##########################################################################
5836 # These aliases just save typing later:
5837 # (Note that some already use other aliases!)
5839 +crunch-all-cookies = +<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> +<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
5840 -crunch-all-cookies = -<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> -<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
5841 +block-as-image = +block +handle-as-image
5842 mercy-for-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> -<link linkend="FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</link>
5844 # These aliases define combinations of actions
5845 # that are useful for certain types of sites:
5847 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>
5848 shop = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{all-popups}</link> -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link></screen>
5852 Now come the regular sections, i.e. sets of actions, accompanied
5853 by URL patterns to which they apply. Remember <emphasis>all actions
5854 are disabled when matching starts</emphasis>, so we have to explicitly
5855 enable the ones we want.
5859 The first regular section is probably the most important. It has only
5860 one pattern, <quote><literal>/</literal></quote>, but this pattern
5861 <link linkend="af-patterns">matches all URLs</link>. Therefore, the
5862 set of actions used in this <quote>default</quote> section <emphasis>will
5863 be applied to all requests as a start</emphasis>. It can be partly or
5864 wholly overridden by later matches further down this file, or in user.action,
5865 but it will still be largely responsible for your overall browsing
5870 Again, at the start of matching, all actions are disabled, so there is
5871 no real need to disable any actions here, but we will do that nonetheless,
5872 to have a complete listing for your reference. (Remember: a <quote>+</quote>
5873 preceding the action name enables the action, a <quote>-</quote> disables!).
5874 Also note how this long line has been made more readable by splitting it into
5875 multiple lines with line continuation.
5880 ##########################################################################
5881 # "Defaults" section:
5882 ##########################################################################
5884 -<link linkend="ADD-HEADER">add-header</link> \
5885 -<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> \
5886 -<link linkend="CONTENT-TYPE-OVERWRITE">content-type-overwrite</link> \
5887 -<link linkend="CRUNCH-CLIENT-HEADER">crunch-client-header</link> \
5888 -<link linkend="CRUNCH-IF-NONE-MATCH">crunch-if-none-match</link> \
5889 -<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> \
5890 -<link linkend="CRUNCH-SERVER-HEADER">crunch-server-header</link> \
5891 -<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link> \
5892 +<link linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS">deanimate-gifs</link> \
5893 -<link linkend="DOWNGRADE-HTTP-VERSION">downgrade-http-version</link> \
5894 -<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects{check-decoded-url}</link> \
5895 -<link linkend="FILTER-JS-ANNOYANCES">filter{js-annoyances}</link> \
5896 -<link linkend="FILTER-JS-EVENTS">filter{js-events}</link> \
5897 +<link linkend="FILTER-HTML-ANNOYANCES">filter{html-annoyances}</link> \
5898 -<link linkend="FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</link> \
5899 +<link linkend="FILTER-REFRESH-TAGS">filter{refresh-tags}</link> \
5900 -<link linkend="FILTER-UNSOLICITED-POPUPS">filter{unsolicited-popups}</link> \
5901 -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{all-popups}</link> \
5902 -<link linkend="FILTER-IMG-REORDER">filter{img-reorder}</link> \
5903 -<link linkend="FILTER-BANNERS-BY-SIZE">filter{banners-by-size}</link> \
5904 -<link linkend="FILTER-BANNERS-BY-LINK">filter{banners-by-link}</link> \
5905 +<link linkend="FILTER-WEBBUGS">filter{webbugs}</link> \
5906 -<link linkend="FILTER-TINY-TEXTFORMS">filter{tiny-textforms}</link> \
5907 -<link linkend="FILTER-JUMPING-WINDOWS">filter{jumping-windows}</link> \
5908 -<link linkend="FILTER-FRAMESET-BORDERS">filter{frameset-borders}</link> \
5909 -<link linkend="FILTER-DEMORONIZER">filter{demoronizer}</link> \
5910 -<link linkend="FILTER-SHOCKWAVE-FLASH">filter{shockwave-flash}</link> \
5911 -<link linkend="FILTER-QUICKTIME-KIOSKMODE">filter{quicktime-kioskmode}</link> \
5912 -<link linkend="FILTER-FUN">filter{fun}</link> \
5913 -<link linkend="FILTER-CRUDE-PARENTAL">filter{crude-parental}</link> \
5914 +<link linkend="FILTER-IE-EXPLOITS">filter{ie-exploits}</link> \
5915 -<link linkend="FILTER-CLIENT-HEADERS">filter-client-headers</link> \
5916 -<link linkend="FILTER-SERVER-HEADERS">filter-server-headers</link> \
5917 -<link linkend="FILTER-GOOGLE">filter-google</link> \
5918 -<link linkend="FILTER-YAHOO">filter-yahoo</link> \
5919 -<link linkend="FILTER-MSN">filter-msn</link> \
5920 -<link linkend="FILTER-BLOGSPOT">filter-blogspot</link> \
5921 -<link linkend="FILTER-XML-TO-HTML">filter-xml-to-html</link> \
5922 -<link linkend="FILTER-HTML-TO-XML">filter-html-to-xml</link> \
5923 -<link linkend="FILTER-NO-PING">filter-no-ping</link> \
5924 -<link linkend="FILTER-HIDE-TOR-EXIT-NOTATION">filter-hide-tor-exit-notation</link> \
5925 -<link linkend="FORCE-TEXT-MODE">force-text-mode</link> \
5926 -<link linkend="HANDLE-AS-EMPTY-DOCUMENT">handle-as-empty-document</link> \
5927 -<link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">handle-as-image</link> \
5928 -<link linkend="HIDE-ACCEPT-LANGUAGE">hide-accept-language</link> \
5929 -<link linkend="HIDE-CONTENT-DISPOSITION">hide-content-disposition</link> \
5930 -<link linkend="HIDE-IF-MODIFIED-SINCE">hide-if-modified-since</link> \
5931 +<link linkend="HIDE-FORWARDED-FOR-HEADERS">hide-forwarded-for-headers</link> \
5932 +<link linkend="HIDE-FROM-HEADER">hide-from-header{block}</link> \
5933 +<link linkend="HIDE-REFERER">hide-referrer{forge}</link> \
5934 -<link linkend="HIDE-USER-AGENT">hide-user-agent</link> \
5935 -<link linkend="INSPECT-JPEGS">inspect-jpegs</link> \
5936 -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link> \
5937 -<link linkend="LIMIT-CONNECT">limit-connect</link> \
5938 +<link linkend="PREVENT-COMPRESSION">prevent-compression</link> \
5939 -<link linkend="OVERWRITE-LAST-MODIFIED">overwrite-last-modified</link> \
5940 -<link linkend="REDIRECT">redirect</link> \
5941 -<link linkend="SEND-VANILLA-WAFER">send-vanilla-wafer</link> \
5942 -<link linkend="SEND-WAFER">send-wafer</link> \
5943 +<link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> \
5944 +<link linkend="SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER">set-image-blocker{pattern}</link> \
5945 -<link linkend="TREAT-FORBIDDEN-CONNECTS-LIKE-BLOCKS">treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks</link> \
5947 / # forward slash will match *all* potential URL patterns.</screen>
5951 The default behavior is now set. Note that some actions, like not hiding
5952 the user agent, are part of a <quote>general policy</quote> that applies
5953 universally and won't get any exceptions defined later. Other choices,
5954 like not blocking (which is <emphasis>understandably</emphasis> the
5955 default!) need exceptions, i.e. we need to specify explicitly what we
5956 want to block in later sections.
5960 The first of our specialized sections is concerned with <quote>fragile</quote>
5961 sites, i.e. sites that require minimum interference, because they are either
5962 very complex or very keen on tracking you (and have mechanisms in place that
5963 make them unusable for people who avoid being tracked). We will simply use
5964 our pre-defined <literal>fragile</literal> alias instead of stating the list
5965 of actions explicitly:
5970 ##########################################################################
5971 # Exceptions for sites that'll break under the default action set:
5972 ##########################################################################
5974 # "Fragile" Use a minimum set of actions for these sites (see alias above):
5977 .office.microsoft.com # surprise, surprise!
5978 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com
5979 mail.google.com</screen>
5983 Shopping sites are not as fragile, but they typically
5984 require cookies to log in, and pop-up windows for shopping
5985 carts or item details. Again, we'll use a pre-defined alias:
5994 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
5996 .scan.co.uk</screen>
5999 <!-- No longer needed BEGIN OF COMMENTED OUT BLOCK
6002 Then, there are sites which rely on pop-up windows (yuck!) to work.
6003 Since we made pop-up-killing our default above, we need to make exceptions
6004 now. <ulink url="http://www.mozilla.org/">Mozilla</ulink> users, who
6005 can turn on smart handling of unwanted pop-ups in their browsers, can
6007 -<literal><link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{popups}</link></literal> (and
6008 -<literal><link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link></literal>) above
6009 and hence don't need this section. Anyway, disabling an already disabled
6010 action doesn't hurt, so we'll define our exceptions regardless of what was
6011 chosen in the defaults section:
6016 # These sites require pop-ups too :(
6018 { -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link> -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{popups}</link> }
6021 .deutsche-bank-24.de</screen>
6024 END OF COMMENTED OUT BLOCK -->
6027 The <literal><link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link></literal>
6028 action, which we enabled per default above, breaks some sites. So disable
6029 it for popular sites where we know it misbehaves:
6034 { -<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link> }
6038 .altavista.com/.*(like|url|link):http
6039 .altavista.com/trans.*urltext=http
6040 .nytimes.com</screen>
6044 It is important that <application>Privoxy</application> knows which
6045 URLs belong to images, so that <emphasis>if</emphasis> they are to
6046 be blocked, a substitute image can be sent, rather than an HTML page.
6047 Contacting the remote site to find out is not an option, since it
6048 would destroy the loading time advantage of banner blocking, and it
6049 would feed the advertisers (in terms of money <emphasis>and</emphasis>
6050 information). We can mark any URL as an image with the <literal><link
6051 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> action,
6052 and marking all URLs that end in a known image file extension is a
6058 ##########################################################################
6060 ##########################################################################
6062 # Define which file types will be treated as images, in case they get
6063 # blocked further down this file:
6065 { +<link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">handle-as-image</link> }
6066 /.*\.(gif|jpe?g|png|bmp|ico)$</screen>
6070 And then there are known banner sources. They often use scripts to
6071 generate the banners, so it won't be visible from the URL that the
6072 request is for an image. Hence we block them <emphasis>and</emphasis>
6073 mark them as images in one go, with the help of our
6074 <literal>+block-as-image</literal> alias defined above. (We could of
6075 course just as well use <literal>+<link linkend="block">block</link>
6076 +<link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> here.)
6077 Remember that the type of the replacement image is chosen by the
6078 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>
6079 action. Since all URLs have matched the default section with its
6080 <literal>+<link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link>{pattern}</literal>
6081 action before, it still applies and needn't be repeated:
6086 # Known ad generators:
6091 .ad.*.doubleclick.net
6092 .a.yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$
6093 .a[0-9].yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$
6099 One of the most important jobs of <application>Privoxy</application>
6100 is to block banners. Many of these can be <quote>blocked</quote>
6101 by the <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link>{banners-by-size}</literal>
6102 action, which we enabled above, and which deletes the references to banner
6103 images from the pages while they are loaded, so the browser doesn't request
6104 them anymore, and hence they don't need to be blocked here. But this naturally
6105 doesn't catch all banners, and some people choose not to use filters, so we
6106 need a comprehensive list of patterns for banner URLs here, and apply the
6107 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action to them.
6110 First comes many generic patterns, which do most of the work, by
6111 matching typical domain and path name components of banners. Then comes
6112 a list of individual patterns for specific sites, which is omitted here
6113 to keep the example short:
6118 ##########################################################################
6119 # Block these fine banners:
6120 ##########################################################################
6121 { <link linkend="BLOCK">+block</link> }
6129 /.*count(er)?\.(pl|cgi|exe|dll|asp|php[34]?)
6130 /(?:.*/)?(publicite|werbung|rekla(ma|me|am)|annonse|maino(kset|nta|s)?)/
6132 # Site-specific patterns (abbreviated):
6134 .hitbox.com</screen>
6138 It's quite remarkable how many advertisers actually call their banner
6139 servers ads.<replaceable>company</replaceable>.com, or call the directory
6140 in which the banners are stored simply <quote>banners</quote>. So the above
6141 generic patterns are surprisingly effective.
6144 But being very generic, they necessarily also catch URLs that we don't want
6145 to block. The pattern <literal>.*ads.</literal> e.g. catches
6146 <quote>nasty-<emphasis>ads</emphasis>.nasty-corp.com</quote> as intended,
6147 but also <quote>downlo<emphasis>ads</emphasis>.sourcefroge.net</quote> or
6148 <quote><emphasis>ads</emphasis>l.some-provider.net.</quote> So here come some
6149 well-known exceptions to the <literal>+<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal>
6153 Note that these are exceptions to exceptions from the default! Consider the URL
6154 <quote>downloads.sourcefroge.net</quote>: Initially, all actions are deactivated,
6155 so it wouldn't get blocked. Then comes the defaults section, which matches the
6156 URL, but just deactivates the <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal>
6157 action once again. Then it matches <literal>.*ads.</literal>, an exception to the
6158 general non-blocking policy, and suddenly
6159 <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">+block</link></literal> applies. And now, it'll match
6160 <literal>.*loads.</literal>, where <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">-block</link></literal>
6161 applies, so (unless it matches <emphasis>again</emphasis> further down) it ends up
6162 with no <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal> action applying.
6167 ##########################################################################
6168 # Save some innocent victims of the above generic block patterns:
6169 ##########################################################################
6173 { -<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> }
6174 adv[io]*. # (for advogato.org and advice.*)
6175 adsl. # (has nothing to do with ads)
6176 adobe. # (has nothing to do with ads either)
6177 ad[ud]*. # (adult.* and add.*)
6178 .edu # (universities don't host banners (yet!))
6179 .*loads. # (downloads, uploads etc)
6187 www.globalintersec.com/adv # (adv = advanced)
6188 www.ugu.com/sui/ugu/adv</screen>
6192 Filtering source code can have nasty side effects,
6193 so make an exception for our friends at sourceforge.net,
6194 and all paths with <quote>cvs</quote> in them. Note that
6195 <literal>-<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link></literal>
6196 disables <emphasis>all</emphasis> filters in one fell swoop!
6201 # Don't filter code!
6203 { -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> }
6208 .sourceforge.net</screen>
6212 The actual <filename>default.action</filename> is of course much more
6213 comprehensive, but we hope this example made clear how it works.
6218 <sect3><title>user.action</title>
6221 So far we are painting with a broad brush by setting general policies,
6222 which would be a reasonable starting point for many people. Now,
6223 you might want to be more specific and have customized rules that
6224 are more suitable to your personal habits and preferences. These would
6225 be for narrowly defined situations like your ISP or your bank, and should
6226 be placed in <filename>user.action</filename>, which is parsed after all other
6227 actions files and hence has the last word, over-riding any previously
6228 defined actions. <filename>user.action</filename> is also a
6229 <emphasis>safe</emphasis> place for your personal settings, since
6230 <filename>default.action</filename> is actively maintained by the
6231 <application>Privoxy</application> developers and you'll probably want
6232 to install updated versions from time to time.
6236 So let's look at a few examples of things that one might typically do in
6237 <filename>user.action</filename>:
6241 <!-- brief sample user.action here -->
6245 # My user.action file. <fred@foobar.com></screen>
6249 As <link linkend="aliases">aliases</link> are local to the actions
6250 file that they are defined in, you can't use the ones from
6251 <filename>default.action</filename>, unless you repeat them here:
6256 # Aliases are local to the file they are defined in.
6257 # (Re-)define aliases for this file:
6261 # These aliases just save typing later, and the alias names should
6262 # be self explanatory.
6264 +crunch-all-cookies = +crunch-incoming-cookies +crunch-outgoing-cookies
6265 -crunch-all-cookies = -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-cookies
6266 allow-all-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -session-cookies-only
6267 allow-popups = -filter{all-popups} -kill-popups
6268 +block-as-image = +block +handle-as-image
6269 -block-as-image = -block
6271 # These aliases define combinations of actions that are useful for
6272 # certain types of sites:
6274 fragile = -block -crunch-all-cookies -filter -fast-redirects -hide-referrer -kill-popups
6275 shop = -crunch-all-cookies allow-popups
6277 # Allow ads for selected useful free sites:
6279 allow-ads = -block -filter{banners-by-size} -filter{banners-by-link}
6281 # Alias for specific file types that are text, but might have conflicting
6282 # MIME types. We want the browser to force these to be text documents.
6283 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>
6288 Say you have accounts on some sites that you visit regularly, and
6289 you don't want to have to log in manually each time. So you'd like
6290 to allow persistent cookies for these sites. The
6291 <literal>allow-all-cookies</literal> alias defined above does exactly
6292 that, i.e. it disables crunching of cookies in any direction, and the
6293 processing of cookies to make them only temporary.
6298 { allow-all-cookies }
6302 .redhat.com</screen>
6306 Your bank is allergic to some filter, but you don't know which, so you disable them all:
6311 { -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> }
6312 .your-home-banking-site.com</screen>
6316 Some file types you may not want to filter for various reasons:
6321 # Technical documentation is likely to contain strings that might
6322 # erroneously get altered by the JavaScript-oriented filters:
6327 # And this stupid host sends streaming video with a wrong MIME type,
6328 # so that Privoxy thinks it is getting HTML and starts filtering:
6330 stupid-server.example.com/</screen>
6334 Example of a simple <link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> action. Say you've
6335 seen an ad on your favourite page on example.com that you want to get rid of.
6336 You have right-clicked the image, selected <quote>copy image location</quote>
6337 and pasted the URL below while removing the leading http://, into a
6338 <literal>{ +block }</literal> section. Note that <literal>{ +handle-as-image
6339 }</literal> need not be specified, since all URLs ending in
6340 <literal>.gif</literal> will be tagged as images by the general rules as set
6341 in default.action anyway:
6346 { +<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> }
6347 www.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor.gif
6348 another.popular.site.net/more/junk/here/</screen>
6352 The URLs of dynamically generated banners, especially from large banner
6353 farms, often don't use the well-known image file name extensions, which
6354 makes it impossible for <application>Privoxy</application> to guess
6355 the file type just by looking at the URL.
6356 You can use the <literal>+block-as-image</literal> alias defined above for
6358 Note that objects which match this rule but then turn out NOT to be an
6359 image are typically rendered as a <quote>broken image</quote> icon by the
6360 browser. Use cautiously.
6369 ar.atwola.com/</screen>
6373 Now you noticed that the default configuration breaks Forbes Magazine,
6374 but you were too lazy to find out which action is the culprit, and you
6375 were again too lazy to give <link linkend="contact">feedback</link>, so
6376 you just used the <literal>fragile</literal> alias on the site, and
6377 -- <emphasis>whoa!</emphasis> -- it worked. The <literal>fragile</literal>
6378 aliases disables those actions that are most likely to break a site. Also,
6379 good for testing purposes to see if it is <application>Privoxy</application>
6380 that is causing the problem or not. We later find other regular sites
6381 that misbehave, and add those to our personalized list of troublemakers:
6389 .mybank.com</screen>
6393 You like the <quote>fun</quote> text replacements in <filename>default.filter</filename>,
6394 but it is disabled in the distributed actions file. (My colleagues on the team just
6395 don't have a sense of humour, that's why! ;-). So you'd like to turn it on in your private,
6396 update-safe config, once and for all:
6401 { +<link linkend="filter-fun">filter{fun}</link> }
6402 / # For ALL sites!</screen>
6406 Note that the above is not really a good idea: There are exceptions
6407 to the filters in <filename>default.action</filename> for things that
6408 really shouldn't be filtered, like code on CVS->Web interfaces. Since
6409 <filename>user.action</filename> has the last word, these exceptions
6410 won't be valid for the <quote>fun</quote> filtering specified here.
6414 You might also worry about how your favourite free websites are
6415 funded, and find that they rely on displaying banner advertisements
6416 to survive. So you might want to specifically allow banners for those
6417 sites that you feel provide value to you:
6429 Note that <literal>allow-ads</literal> has been aliased to
6430 <literal>-<link linkend="block">block</link></literal>,
6431 <literal>-<link linkend="filter-banners-by-size">filter{banners-by-size}</link></literal>, and
6432 <literal>-<link linkend="filter-banners-by-link">filter{banners-by-link}</link></literal> above.
6436 Invoke another alias here to force an over-ride of the MIME type <literal>
6437 application/x-sh</literal> which typically would open a download type
6438 dialog. In my case, I want to look at the shell script, and then I can save
6439 it should I choose to.
6449 <filename>user.action</filename> is generally the best place to define
6450 exceptions and additions to the default policies of
6451 <filename>default.action</filename>. Some actions are safe to have their
6452 default policies set here though. So let's set a default policy to have a
6453 <quote>blank</quote> image as opposed to the checkerboard pattern for
6454 <emphasis>ALL</emphasis> sites. <quote>/</quote> of course matches all URL
6460 { +<link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker{blank}</link> }
6461 / # ALL sites</screen>
6467 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
6471 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
6473 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
6475 <sect1 id="filter-file">
6476 <title>Filter Files</title>
6479 On-the-fly text substitutions that can be invoked through the
6480 <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> action need
6481 to be defined in a <quote>filter file</quote>. Once defined, they
6482 can then be invoked as an <quote>action</quote>. Multiple filter files can be
6483 defined through the <literal> <link
6484 linkend="filterfile">filterfile</link></literal> config directive. The filters
6485 as supplied by the developers will be found in
6486 <filename>default.filter</filename>. It is recommended that any locally
6487 defined or modified filters go in a separately defined file such as
6488 <filename>user.filter</filename>.
6493 Typical reasons for doing these kinds of substitutions are to eliminate
6494 common annoyances in HTML and JavaScript, such as pop-up windows,
6495 exit consoles, crippled windows without navigation tools, the
6496 infamous <BLINK> tag etc, to suppress images with certain
6497 width and height attributes (standard banner sizes or web-bugs),
6498 or just to have fun. The possibilities are endless.
6502 Filtering works on any text-based document type, including
6503 HTML, JavaScript, CSS etc. (all <literal>text/*</literal>
6504 MIME types, <emphasis>except</emphasis> <literal>text/plain</literal>).
6505 Substitutions are made at the source level, so if you want to <quote>roll
6506 your own</quote> filters, you should first be familiar with HTML syntax,
6507 and, of course, regular expressions. By default, filters are only applied
6508 to the raw document content, but can be extended to the HTTP headers with
6509 the supplemental actions:
6510 <link linkend="filter-client-headers">filter-client-headers</link> and
6511 <link linkend="filter-server-headers">filter-server-headers</link>.
6515 Just like the <link linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>, the
6516 filter file is organized in sections, which are called <emphasis>filters</emphasis>
6517 here. Each filter consists of a heading line, that starts with the
6518 <emphasis>keyword</emphasis> <literal>FILTER:</literal>, followed by
6519 the filter's <emphasis>name</emphasis>, and a short (one line)
6520 <emphasis>description</emphasis> of what it does. Below that line
6521 come the <emphasis>jobs</emphasis>, i.e. lines that define the actual
6522 text substitutions. By convention, the name of a filter
6523 should describe what the filter <emphasis>eliminates</emphasis>. The
6524 comment is used in the <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">web-based
6525 user interface</ulink>.
6529 Once a filter called <replaceable>name</replaceable> has been defined
6530 in the filter file, it can be invoked by using an action of the form
6531 +<literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link>{<replaceable>name</replaceable>}</literal>
6532 in any <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link>.
6536 A filter header line for a filter called <quote>foo</quote> could look
6541 <screen>FILTER: foo Replace all "foo" with "bar"</screen>
6545 Below that line, and up to the next header line, come the jobs that
6546 define what text replacements the filter executes. They are specified
6547 in a syntax that imitates <ulink url="http://www.perl.org/">Perl</ulink>'s
6548 <literal>s///</literal> operator. If you are familiar with Perl, you
6549 will find this to be quite intuitive, and may want to look at the
6550 PCRS documentation for the subtle differences to Perl behaviour. Most
6551 notably, the non-standard option letter <literal>U</literal> is supported,
6552 which turns the default to ungreedy matching.
6557 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
6558 Expressions</quote></ulink>, you might want to take a look at
6559 the <link linkend="regex">Appendix on regular expressions</link>, and
6560 see the <ulink url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html">Perl
6562 <ulink url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlop.html">the
6563 <literal>s///</literal> operator's syntax</ulink> and <ulink
6564 url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html">Perl-style regular
6565 expressions</ulink> in general.
6566 The below examples might also help to get you started.
6570 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
6572 <sect2><title>Filter File Tutorial</title>
6574 Now, let's complete our <quote>foo</quote> filter. We have already defined
6575 the heading, but the jobs are still missing. Since all it does is to replace
6576 <quote>foo</quote> with <quote>bar</quote>, there is only one (trivial) job
6581 <screen>s/foo/bar/</screen>
6585 But wait! Didn't the comment say that <emphasis>all</emphasis> occurrences
6586 of <quote>foo</quote> should be replaced? Our current job will only take
6587 care of the first <quote>foo</quote> on each page. For global substitution,
6588 we'll need to add the <literal>g</literal> option:
6592 <screen>s/foo/bar/g</screen>
6596 Our complete filter now looks like this:
6599 <screen>FILTER: foo Replace all "foo" with "bar"
6600 s/foo/bar/g</screen>
6604 Let's look at some real filters for more interesting examples. Here you see
6605 a filter that protects against some common annoyances that arise from JavaScript
6606 abuse. Let's look at its jobs one after the other:
6612 FILTER: js-annoyances Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse
6614 # Get rid of JavaScript referrer tracking. Test page: http://www.randomoddness.com/untitled.htm
6616 s|(<script.*)document\.referrer(.*</script>)|$1"Not Your Business!"$2|Usg</screen>
6620 Following the header line and a comment, you see the job. Note that it uses
6621 <literal>|</literal> as the delimiter instead of <literal>/</literal>, because
6622 the pattern contains a forward slash, which would otherwise have to be escaped
6623 by a backslash (<literal>\</literal>).
6627 Now, let's examine the pattern: it starts with the text <literal><script.*</literal>
6628 enclosed in parentheses. Since the dot matches any character, and <literal>*</literal>
6629 means: <quote>Match an arbitrary number of the element left of myself</quote>, this
6630 matches <quote><script</quote>, followed by <emphasis>any</emphasis> text, i.e.
6631 it matches the whole page, from the start of the first <script> tag.
6635 That's more than we want, but the pattern continues: <literal>document\.referrer</literal>
6636 matches only the exact string <quote>document.referrer</quote>. The dot needed to
6637 be <emphasis>escaped</emphasis>, i.e. preceded by a backslash, to take away its
6638 special meaning as a joker, and make it just a regular dot. So far, the meaning is:
6639 Match from the start of the first <script> tag in a the page, up to, and including,
6640 the text <quote>document.referrer</quote>, if <emphasis>both</emphasis> are present
6641 in the page (and appear in that order).
6645 But there's still more pattern to go. The next element, again enclosed in parentheses,
6646 is <literal>.*</script></literal>. You already know what <literal>.*</literal>
6647 means, so the whole pattern translates to: Match from the start of the first <script>
6648 tag in a page to the end of the last <script> tag, provided that the text
6649 <quote>document.referrer</quote> appears somewhere in between.
6653 This is still not the whole story, since we have ignored the options and the parentheses:
6654 The portions of the page matched by sub-patterns that are enclosed in parentheses, will be
6655 remembered and be available through the variables <literal>$1, $2, ...</literal> in
6656 the substitute. The <literal>U</literal> option switches to ungreedy matching, which means
6657 that the first <literal>.*</literal> in the pattern will only <quote>eat up</quote> all
6658 text in between <quote><script</quote> and the <emphasis>first</emphasis> occurrence
6659 of <quote>document.referrer</quote>, and that the second <literal>.*</literal> will
6660 only span the text up to the <emphasis>first</emphasis> <quote></script></quote>
6661 tag. Furthermore, the <literal>s</literal> option says that the match may span
6662 multiple lines in the page, and the <literal>g</literal> option again means that the
6663 substitution is global.
6667 So, to summarize, the pattern means: Match all scripts that contain the text
6668 <quote>document.referrer</quote>. Remember the parts of the script from
6669 (and including) the start tag up to (and excluding) the string
6670 <quote>document.referrer</quote> as <literal>$1</literal>, and the part following
6671 that string, up to and including the closing tag, as <literal>$2</literal>.
6675 Now the pattern is deciphered, but wasn't this about substituting things? So
6676 lets look at the substitute: <literal>$1"Not Your Business!"$2</literal> is
6677 easy to read: The text remembered as <literal>$1</literal>, followed by
6678 <literal>"Not Your Business!"</literal> (<emphasis>including</emphasis>
6679 the quotation marks!), followed by the text remembered as <literal>$2</literal>.
6680 This produces an exact copy of the original string, with the middle part
6681 (the <quote>document.referrer</quote>) replaced by <literal>"Not Your
6682 Business!"</literal>.
6686 The whole job now reads: Replace <quote>document.referrer</quote> by
6687 <literal>"Not Your Business!"</literal> wherever it appears inside a
6688 <script> tag. Note that this job won't break JavaScript syntax,
6689 since both the original and the replacement are syntactically valid
6690 string objects. The script just won't have access to the referrer
6691 information anymore.
6695 We'll show you two other jobs from the JavaScript taming department, but
6696 this time only point out the constructs of special interest:
6701 # The status bar is for displaying link targets, not pointless blahblah
6703 s/window\.status\s*=\s*(['"]).*?\1/dUmMy=1/ig</screen>
6707 <literal>\s</literal> stands for whitespace characters (space, tab, newline,
6708 carriage return, form feed), so that <literal>\s*</literal> means: <quote>zero
6709 or more whitespace</quote>. The <literal>?</literal> in <literal>.*?</literal>
6710 makes this matching of arbitrary text ungreedy. (Note that the <literal>U</literal>
6711 option is not set). The <literal>['"]</literal> construct means: <quote>a single
6712 <emphasis>or</emphasis> a double quote</quote>. Finally, <literal>\1</literal> is
6713 a back-reference to the first parenthesis just like <literal>$1</literal> above,
6714 with the difference that in the <emphasis>pattern</emphasis>, a backslash indicates
6715 a back-reference, whereas in the <emphasis>substitute</emphasis>, it's the dollar.
6719 So what does this job do? It replaces assignments of single- or double-quoted
6720 strings to the <quote>window.status</quote> object with a dummy assignment
6721 (using a variable name that is hopefully odd enough not to conflict with
6722 real variables in scripts). Thus, it catches many cases where e.g. pointless
6723 descriptions are displayed in the status bar instead of the link target when
6724 you move your mouse over links.
6729 # Kill OnUnload popups. Yummy. Test: http://www.zdnet.com/zdsubs/yahoo/tree/yfs.html
6731 s/(<body [^>]*)onunload(.*>)/$1never$2/iU</screen>
6736 <ulink url="http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-DOM-Level-2-Events-20001113/events.html#Events-eventgroupings-htmlevents">OnUnload
6737 event binding</ulink> in the HTML DOM was a <emphasis>CRIME</emphasis>.
6738 When I close a browser window, I want it to close and die. Basta.
6739 This job replaces the <quote>onunload</quote> attribute in
6740 <quote><body></quote> tags with the dummy word <literal>never</literal>.
6741 Note that the <literal>i</literal> option makes the pattern matching
6742 case-insensitive. Also note that ungreedy matching alone doesn't always guarantee
6743 a minimal match: In the first parenthesis, we had to use <literal>[^>]*</literal>
6744 instead of <literal>.*</literal> to prevent the match from exceeding the
6745 <body> tag if it doesn't contain <quote>OnUnload</quote>, but the page's
6750 The last example is from the fun department:
6755 FILTER: fun Fun text replacements
6757 # Spice the daily news:
6759 s/microsoft(?!\.com)/MicroSuck/ig</screen>
6763 Note the <literal>(?!\.com)</literal> part (a so-called negative lookahead)
6764 in the job's pattern, which means: Don't match, if the string
6765 <quote>.com</quote> appears directly following <quote>microsoft</quote>
6766 in the page. This prevents links to microsoft.com from being trashed, while
6767 still replacing the word everywhere else.
6772 # Buzzword Bingo (example for extended regex syntax)
6774 s* industry[ -]leading \
6776 | customer[ -]focused \
6777 | market[ -]driven \
6778 | award[ -]winning # Comments are OK, too! \
6779 | high[ -]performance \
6780 | solutions[ -]based \
6784 *<font color="red"><b>BINGO!</b></font> \
6789 The <literal>x</literal> option in this job turns on extended syntax, and allows for
6790 e.g. the liberal use of (non-interpreted!) whitespace for nicer formatting.
6798 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
6800 <sect2 id="predefined-filters"><title>The Pre-defined Filters</title>
6804 Note each filter is also listed in the +filter action section above. Please
6805 keep these listings in sync.
6810 The distribution <filename>default.filter</filename> file contains a selection of
6811 pre-defined filters for your convenience:
6816 <term><emphasis>js-annoyances</emphasis></term>
6819 The purpose of this filter is to get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse.
6824 replaces JavaScript references to the browser's referrer information
6825 with the string "Not Your Business!". This compliments the <literal><link
6826 linkend="hide-referrer">hide-referrer</link></literal> action on the content level.
6831 removes the bindings to the DOM's
6832 <ulink url="http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-DOM-Level-2-Events-20001113/events.html#Events-eventgroupings-htmlevents">unload
6833 event</ulink> which we feel has no right to exist and is responsible for most <quote>exit consoles</quote>, i.e.
6834 nasty windows that pop up when you close another one.
6839 removes code that causes new windows to be opened with undesired properties, such as being
6840 full-screen, non-resizeable, without location, status or menu bar etc.
6846 Use with caution. This is an aggressive filter, and can break sites that
6847 rely heavily on JavaScript.
6853 <term><emphasis>js-events</emphasis></term>
6856 This is a very radical measure. It removes virtually all JavaScript event bindings, which
6857 means that scripts can not react to user actions such as mouse movements or clicks, window
6858 resizing etc, anymore. Use with caution!
6861 We <emphasis>strongly discourage</emphasis> using this filter as a default since it breaks
6862 many legitimate scripts. It is meant for use only on extra-nasty sites (should you really
6869 <term><emphasis>html-annoyances</emphasis></term>
6872 This filter will undo many common instances of HTML based abuse.
6875 The <literal>BLINK</literal> and <literal>MARQUEE</literal> tags
6876 are neutralized (yeah baby!), and browser windows will be created as
6877 resizeable (as of course they should be!), and will have location,
6878 scroll and menu bars -- even if specified otherwise.
6884 <term><emphasis>content-cookies</emphasis></term>
6887 Most cookies are set in the HTTP dialog, where they can be intercepted
6889 <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal>
6890 and <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>
6891 actions. But web sites increasingly make use of HTML meta tags and JavaScript
6892 to sneak cookies to the browser on the content level.
6895 This filter disables most HTML and JavaScript code that reads or sets
6896 cookies. It cannot detect all clever uses of these types of code, so it
6897 should not be relied on as an absolute fix. Use it wherever you would also
6898 use the cookie crunch actions.
6904 <term><emphasis>refresh tags</emphasis></term>
6907 Disable any refresh tags if the interval is greater than nine seconds (so
6908 that redirections done via refresh tags are not destroyed). This is useful
6909 for dial-on-demand setups, or for those who find this HTML feature
6916 <term><emphasis>unsolicited-popups</emphasis></term>
6919 This filter attempts to prevent only <quote>unsolicited</quote> pop-up
6920 windows from opening, yet still allow pop-up windows that the user
6921 has explicitly chosen to open. It was added in version 3.0.1,
6922 as an improvement over earlier such filters.
6925 Technical note: The filter works by redefining the window.open JavaScript
6926 function to a dummy function, <literal>PrivoxyWindowOpen()</literal>,
6927 during the loading and rendering phase of each HTML page access, and
6928 restoring the function afterward.
6931 This is recommended only for browsers that cannot perform this function
6932 reliably themselves. And be aware that some sites require such windows
6933 in order to function normally. Use with caution.
6939 <term><emphasis>all-popups</emphasis></term>
6942 Attempt to prevent <emphasis>all</emphasis> pop-up windows from opening.
6943 Note this should be used with even more discretion than the above, since
6944 it is more likely to break some sites that require pop-ups for normal
6945 usage. Use with caution.
6951 <term><emphasis>img-reorder</emphasis></term>
6954 This is a helper filter that has no value if used alone. It makes the
6955 <literal>banners-by-size</literal> and <literal>banners-by-link</literal>
6956 (see below) filters more effective and should be enabled together with them.
6962 <term><emphasis>banners-by-size</emphasis></term>
6965 This filter removes image tags purely based on what size they are. Fortunately
6966 for us, many ads and banner images tend to conform to certain standardized
6967 sizes, which makes this filter quite effective for ad stripping purposes.
6970 Occasionally this filter will cause false positives on images that are not ads,
6971 but just happen to be of one of the standard banner sizes.
6974 Recommended only for those who require extreme ad blocking. The default
6975 block rules should catch 95+% of all ads <emphasis>without</emphasis> this filter enabled.
6981 <term><emphasis>banners-by-link</emphasis></term>
6984 This is an experimental filter that attempts to kill any banners if
6985 their URLs seem to point to known or suspected click trackers. It is currently
6986 not of much value and is not recommended for use by default.
6992 <term><emphasis>webbugs</emphasis></term>
6995 Webbugs are small, invisible images (technically 1X1 GIF images), that
6996 are used to track users across websites, and collect information on them.
6997 As an HTML page is loaded by the browser, an embedded image tag causes the
6998 browser to contact a third-party site, disclosing the tracking information
6999 through the requested URL and/or cookies for that third-party domain, without
7000 the user ever becoming aware of the interaction with the third-party site.
7001 HTML-ized spam also uses a similar technique to verify email addresses.
7004 This filter removes the HTML code that loads such <quote>webbugs</quote>.
7010 <term><emphasis>tiny-textforms</emphasis></term>
7013 A rather special-purpose filter that can be used to enlarge textareas (those
7014 multi-line text boxes in web forms) and turn off hard word wrap in them.
7015 It was written for the sourceforge.net tracker system where such boxes are
7016 a nuisance, but it can be handy on other sites, too.
7019 It is not recommended to use this filter as a default.
7025 <term><emphasis>jumping-windows</emphasis></term>
7028 Many consider windows that move, or resize themselves to be abusive. This filter
7029 neutralizes the related JavaScript code. Note that some sites might not display
7030 or behave as intended when using this filter. Use with caution.
7036 <term><emphasis>frameset-borders</emphasis></term>
7039 Some web designers seem to assume that everyone in the world will view their
7040 web sites using the same browser brand and version, screen resolution etc,
7041 because only that assumption could explain why they'd use static frame sizes,
7042 yet prevent their frames from being resized by the user, should they be too
7043 small to show their whole content.
7046 This filter removes the related HTML code. It should only be applied to sites
7053 <term><emphasis>demoronizer</emphasis></term>
7056 Many Microsoft products that generate HTML use non-standard extensions (read:
7057 violations) of the ISO 8859-1 aka Latin-1 character set. This can cause those
7058 HTML documents to display with errors on standard-compliant platforms.
7061 This filter translates the MS-only characters into Latin-1 equivalents.
7062 It is not necessary when using MS products, and will cause corruption of
7063 all documents that use 8-bit character sets other than Latin-1. It's mostly
7064 worthwhile for Europeans on non-MS platforms, if weird garbage characters
7065 sometimes appear on some pages, or user agents that don't correct for this on
7068 My version of Mozilla (ancient) shows litte square boxes for quote
7069 characters, and apostrophes on moronized pages. So many pages have this, I
7070 can read them fine now. HB 08/27/06
7077 <term><emphasis>shockwave-flash</emphasis></term>
7080 A filter for shockwave haters. As the name suggests, this filter strips code
7081 out of web pages that is used to embed shockwave flash objects.
7089 <term><emphasis>quicktime-kioskmode</emphasis></term>
7092 Change HTML code that embeds Quicktime objects so that kioskmode, which
7093 prevents saving, is disabled.
7099 <term><emphasis>fun</emphasis></term>
7102 Text replacements for subversive browsing fun. Make fun of your favorite
7103 Monopolist or play buzzword bingo.
7109 <term><emphasis>crude-parental</emphasis></term>
7112 A demonstration-only filter that shows how <application>Privoxy</application>
7113 can be used to delete web content on a keyword basis.
7119 <term><emphasis>ie-exploits</emphasis></term>
7122 An experimental collection of text replacements to disable malicious HTML and JavaScript
7123 code that exploits known security holes in Internet Explorer.
7126 Presently, it only protects against Nimda and a cross-site scripting bug, and
7127 would need active maintenance to provide more substantial protection.
7133 <term><emphasis>site-specifics</emphasis></term>
7136 Some web sites have very specific problems, the cure for which doesn't apply
7137 anywhere else, or could even cause damage on other sites.
7140 This is a collection of such site-specific cures which should only be applied
7141 to the sites they were intended for, which is what the supplied
7142 <filename>default.action</filename> file does. Users shouldn't need to change
7143 anything regarding this filter.
7149 <term><emphasis>google</emphasis></term>
7152 A CSS based block for Google text ads. Also removes a width limitation
7153 and the toolbar advertisement.
7159 <term><emphasis>yahoo</emphasis></term>
7162 Another CSS based block, this time for Yahoo text ads. And removes
7163 a width limitation as well.
7169 <term><emphasis>msn</emphasis></term>
7172 Another CSS based block, this time for MSN text ads. And removes
7173 tracking URLs, as well as a width limitation.
7179 <term><emphasis>blogspot</emphasis></term>
7182 Cleans up some Blogspot blogs. Read the fine print before using this one!
7185 This filter also intentionally removes some navigation stuff and sets the
7186 page width to 100%. As a result, some rounded <quote>corners</quote> would
7187 appear to early or not at all and as fixing this would require a browser
7188 that understands background-size (CSS3), they are removed instead.
7194 <term><emphasis>xml-to-html</emphasis></term>
7197 Header filter to change the Content-Type from xml to html.
7203 <term><emphasis>html-to-xml</emphasis></term>
7206 Header filter to change the Content-Type from html to xml.
7212 <term><emphasis>no-ping</emphasis></term>
7215 Removes the non-standard <literal>ping</literal> attribute from
7216 anchor and area HTML tags.
7222 <term><emphasis>hide-tor-exit-notation</emphasis></term>
7225 Header filter to remove the <command>Tor</command> exit node notation
7226 found in Host and Referer headers.
7233 <term><emphasis> </emphasis></term>
7247 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7251 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7253 <sect1 id="templates">
7254 <title>Privoxy's Template Files</title>
7256 All <application>Privoxy</application> built-in pages, i.e. error pages such as the
7257 <ulink url="http://show-the-404-error.page"><quote>404 - No Such Domain</quote>
7258 error page</ulink>, the <ulink
7259 url="http://ads.bannerserver.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor.html"><quote>BLOCKED</quote>
7261 and all pages of its <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">web-based
7262 user interface</ulink>, are generated from <emphasis>templates</emphasis>.
7263 (<application>Privoxy</application> must be running for the above links to work as
7268 These templates are stored in a subdirectory of the <link linkend="confdir">configuration
7269 directory</link> called <filename>templates</filename>. On Unixish platforms,
7271 <ulink url="file:///etc/privoxy/templates/"><filename>/etc/privoxy/templates/</filename></ulink>.
7275 The templates are basically normal HTML files, but with place-holders (called symbols
7276 or exports), which <application>Privoxy</application> fills at run time. You can
7277 edit the templates with a normal text editor, should you want to customize them.
7278 (<emphasis>Not recommended for the casual user</emphasis>). Note that
7279 just like in configuration files, lines starting with <literal>#</literal> are
7280 ignored when the templates are filled in.
7284 The place-holders are of the form <literal>@name@</literal>, and you will
7285 find a list of available symbols, which vary from template to template,
7286 in the comments at the start of each file. Note that these comments are not
7287 always accurate, and that it's probably best to look at the existing HTML
7288 code to find out which symbols are supported and what they are filled in with.
7292 A special application of this substitution mechanism is to make whole
7293 blocks of HTML code disappear when a specific symbol is set. We use this
7294 for many purposes, one of them being to include the beta warning in all
7295 our user interface (CGI) pages when <application>Privoxy</application>
7296 is in an alpha or beta development stage:
7301 <!-- @if-unstable-start -->
7303 ... beta warning HTML code goes here ...
7305 <!-- if-unstable-end@ --></screen>
7309 If the "unstable" symbol is set, everything in between and including
7310 <literal>@if-unstable-start</literal> and <literal>if-unstable-end@</literal>
7311 will disappear, leaving nothing but an empty comment:
7315 <screen><!-- --></screen>
7319 There's also an if-then-else construct and an <literal>#include</literal>
7320 mechanism, but you'll sure find out if you are inclined to edit the
7325 All templates refer to a style located at
7326 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/send-stylesheet"><literal>http://config.privoxy.org/send-stylesheet</literal></ulink>.
7327 This is, of course, locally served by <application>Privoxy</application>
7328 and the source for it can be found and edited in the
7329 <filename>cgi-style.css</filename> template.
7334 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7338 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7340 <sect1 id="contact"><title>Contacting the Developers, Bug Reporting and Feature
7343 <!-- Include contacting.sgml boilerplate: -->
7345 <!-- end boilerplate -->
7349 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7352 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7353 <sect1 id="copyright"><title>Privoxy Copyright, License and History</title>
7355 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
7357 <!-- end copyright -->
7359 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7360 <sect2><title>License</title>
7361 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
7363 <!-- end copyright -->
7365 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7368 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7370 <sect2 id="history"><title>History</title>
7371 <!-- Include history.sgml: -->
7373 <!-- end history -->
7376 <sect2 id="authors"><title>Authors</title>
7377 <!-- Include p-authors.sgml: -->
7379 <!-- end authors -->
7384 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7387 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7388 <sect1 id="seealso"><title>See Also</title>
7389 <!-- Include seealso.sgml: -->
7391 <!-- end seealso -->
7396 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7397 <sect1 id="appendix"><title>Appendix</title>
7400 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7402 <title>Regular Expressions</title>
7404 <application>Privoxy</application> uses Perl-style <quote>regular
7405 expressions</quote> in its <link linkend="actions-file">actions
7406 files</link> and <link linkend="filter-file">filter file</link>,
7407 through the <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/">PCRE</ulink> and
7410 <ulink url="http://www.oesterhelt.org/pcrs/">PCRS</ulink> libraries.
7412 <application>PCRS</application> libraries.
7416 If you are reading this, you probably don't understand what <quote>regular
7417 expressions</quote> are, or what they can do. So this will be a very brief
7418 introduction only. A full explanation would require a <ulink
7419 url="http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/regex/">book</ulink> ;-)
7423 Regular expressions provide a language to describe patterns that can be
7424 run against strings of characters (letter, numbers, etc), to see if they
7425 match the string or not. The patterns are themselves (sometimes complex)
7426 strings of literal characters, combined with wild-cards, and other special
7427 characters, called meta-characters. The <quote>meta-characters</quote> have
7428 special meanings and are used to build complex patterns to be matched against.
7429 Perl Compatible Regular Expressions are an especially convenient
7430 <quote>dialect</quote> of the regular expression language.
7434 To make a simple analogy, we do something similar when we use wild-card
7435 characters when listing files with the <command>dir</command> command in DOS.
7436 <literal>*.*</literal> matches all filenames. The <quote>special</quote>
7437 character here is the asterisk which matches any and all characters. We can be
7438 more specific and use <literal>?</literal> to match just individual
7439 characters. So <quote>dir file?.text</quote> would match
7440 <quote>file1.txt</quote>, <quote>file2.txt</quote>, etc. We are pattern
7441 matching, using a similar technique to <quote>regular expressions</quote>!
7445 Regular expressions do essentially the same thing, but are much, much more
7446 powerful. There are many more <quote>special characters</quote> and ways of
7447 building complex patterns however. Let's look at a few of the common ones,
7448 and then some examples:
7453 <emphasis>.</emphasis> - Matches any single character, e.g. <quote>a</quote>,
7454 <quote>A</quote>, <quote>4</quote>, <quote>:</quote>, or <quote>@</quote>.
7456 </simplelist></para>
7460 <emphasis>?</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or ONE
7463 </simplelist></para>
7467 <emphasis>+</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ONE or MORE
7470 </simplelist></para>
7474 <emphasis>*</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or MORE
7477 </simplelist></para>
7481 <emphasis>\</emphasis> - The <quote>escape</quote> character denotes that
7482 the following character should be taken literally. This is used where one of the
7483 special characters (e.g. <quote>.</quote>) needs to be taken literally and
7484 not as a special meta-character. Example: <quote>example\.com</quote>, makes
7485 sure the period is recognized only as a period (and not expanded to its
7486 meta-character meaning of any single character).
7488 </simplelist></para>
7492 <emphasis>[ ]</emphasis> - Characters enclosed in brackets will be matched if
7493 any of the enclosed characters are encountered. For instance, <quote>[0-9]</quote>
7494 matches any numeric digit (zero through nine). As an example, we can combine
7495 this with <quote>+</quote> to match any digit one of more times: <quote>[0-9]+</quote>.
7497 </simplelist></para>
7501 <emphasis>( )</emphasis> - parentheses are used to group a sub-expression,
7502 or multiple sub-expressions.
7504 </simplelist></para>
7508 <emphasis>|</emphasis> - The <quote>bar</quote> character works like an
7509 <quote>or</quote> conditional statement. A match is successful if the
7510 sub-expression on either side of <quote>|</quote> matches. As an example:
7511 <quote>/(this|that) example/</quote> uses grouping and the bar character
7512 and would match either <quote>this example</quote> or <quote>that
7513 example</quote>, and nothing else.
7515 </simplelist></para>
7518 These are just some of the ones you are likely to use when matching URLs with
7519 <application>Privoxy</application>, and is a long way from a definitive
7520 list. This is enough to get us started with a few simple examples which may
7521 be more illuminating:
7525 <emphasis><literal>/.*/banners/.*</literal></emphasis> - A simple example
7526 that uses the common combination of <quote>.</quote> and <quote>*</quote> to
7527 denote any character, zero or more times. In other words, any string at all.
7528 So we start with a literal forward slash, then our regular expression pattern
7529 (<quote>.*</quote>) another literal forward slash, the string
7530 <quote>banners</quote>, another forward slash, and lastly another
7531 <quote>.*</quote>. We are building
7532 a directory path here. This will match any file with the path that has a
7533 directory named <quote>banners</quote> in it. The <quote>.*</quote> matches
7534 any characters, and this could conceivably be more forward slashes, so it
7535 might expand into a much longer looking path. For example, this could match:
7536 <quote>/eye/hate/spammers/banners/annoy_me_please.gif</quote>, or just
7537 <quote>/banners/annoying.html</quote>, or almost an infinite number of other
7538 possible combinations, just so it has <quote>banners</quote> in the path
7543 And now something a little more complex:
7547 <emphasis><literal>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))?/</literal></emphasis> -
7548 We have several literal forward slashes again (<quote>/</quote>), so we are
7549 building another expression that is a file path statement. We have another
7550 <quote>.*</quote>, so we are matching against any conceivable sub-path, just so
7551 it matches our expression. The only true literal that <emphasis>must
7552 match</emphasis> our pattern is <application>adv</application>, together with
7553 the forward slashes. What comes after the <quote>adv</quote> string is the
7558 Remember the <quote>?</quote> means the preceding expression (either a
7559 literal character or anything grouped with <quote>(...)</quote> in this case)
7560 can exist or not, since this means either zero or one match. So
7561 <quote>((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))</quote> is optional, as are the
7562 individual sub-expressions: <quote>(er)</quote>,
7563 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, and the <quote>s</quote>. The <quote>|</quote>
7564 means <quote>or</quote>. We have two of those. For instance,
7565 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, can expand to match either <quote>ing</quote>
7566 <emphasis>OR</emphasis> <quote>ements?</quote>. What is being done here, is an
7567 attempt at matching as many variations of <quote>advertisement</quote>, and
7568 similar, as possible. So this would expand to match just <quote>adv</quote>,
7569 or <quote>advert</quote>, or <quote>adverts</quote>, or
7570 <quote>advertising</quote>, or <quote>advertisement</quote>, or
7571 <quote>advertisements</quote>. You get the idea. But it would not match
7572 <quote>advertizements</quote> (with a <quote>z</quote>). We could fix that by
7573 changing our regular expression to:
7574 <quote>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|erti(s|z)(ing|ements?))?/</quote>, which would then match
7579 <emphasis><literal>/.*/advert[0-9]+\.(gif|jpe?g)</literal></emphasis> - Again
7580 another path statement with forward slashes. Anything in the square brackets
7581 <quote>[ ]</quote> can be matched. This is using <quote>0-9</quote> as a
7582 shorthand expression to mean any digit one through nine. It is the same as
7583 saying <quote>0123456789</quote>. So any digit matches. The <quote>+</quote>
7584 means one or more of the preceding expression must be included. The preceding
7585 expression here is what is in the square brackets -- in this case, any digit
7586 one through nine. Then, at the end, we have a grouping: <quote>(gif|jpe?g)</quote>.
7587 This includes a <quote>|</quote>, so this needs to match the expression on
7588 either side of that bar character also. A simple <quote>gif</quote> on one side, and the other
7589 side will in turn match either <quote>jpeg</quote> or <quote>jpg</quote>,
7590 since the <quote>?</quote> means the letter <quote>e</quote> is optional and
7591 can be matched once or not at all. So we are building an expression here to
7592 match image GIF or JPEG type image file. It must include the literal
7593 string <quote>advert</quote>, then one or more digits, and a <quote>.</quote>
7594 (which is now a literal, and not a special character, since it is escaped
7595 with <quote>\</quote>), and lastly either <quote>gif</quote>, or
7596 <quote>jpeg</quote>, or <quote>jpg</quote>. Some possible matches would
7597 include: <quote>//advert1.jpg</quote>,
7598 <quote>/nasty/ads/advert1234.gif</quote>,
7599 <quote>/banners/from/hell/advert99.jpg</quote>. It would not match
7600 <quote>advert1.gif</quote> (no leading slash), or
7601 <quote>/adverts232.jpg</quote> (the expression does not include an
7602 <quote>s</quote>), or <quote>/advert1.jsp</quote> (<quote>jsp</quote> is not
7603 in the expression anywhere).
7607 We are barely scratching the surface of regular expressions here so that you
7608 can understand the default <application>Privoxy</application>
7609 configuration files, and maybe use this knowledge to customize your own
7610 installation. There is much, much more that can be done with regular
7611 expressions. Now that you know enough to get started, you can learn more on
7616 More reading on Perl Compatible Regular expressions:
7617 <ulink url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html">http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html</ulink>
7621 For information on regular expression based substitutions and their applications
7622 in filters, please see the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file tutorial</link>
7627 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7630 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7632 <title>Privoxy's Internal Pages</title>
7635 Since <application>Privoxy</application> proxies each requested
7636 web page, it is easy for <application>Privoxy</application> to
7637 trap certain special URLs. In this way, we can talk directly to
7638 <application>Privoxy</application>, and see how it is
7639 configured, see how our rules are being applied, change these
7640 rules and other configuration options, and even turn
7641 <application>Privoxy's</application> filtering off, all with
7647 The URLs listed below are the special ones that allow direct access
7648 to <application>Privoxy</application>. Of course,
7649 <application>Privoxy</application> must be running to access these. If
7650 not, you will get a friendly error message. Internet access is not
7663 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
7667 There is a shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink> (But it
7668 doesn't provide a fall-back to a real page, in case the request is not
7669 sent through <application>Privoxy</application>)
7675 Show information about the current configuration, including viewing and
7676 editing of actions files:
7680 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
7687 Show the source code version numbers:
7691 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-version">http://config.privoxy.org/show-version</ulink>
7698 Show the browser's request headers:
7702 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request">http://config.privoxy.org/show-request</ulink>
7709 Show which actions apply to a URL and why:
7713 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
7720 Toggle Privoxy on or off. In this case, <quote>Privoxy</quote> continues
7721 to run, but only as a pass-through proxy, with no actions taking place:
7725 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</ulink>
7729 Short cuts. Turn off, then on:
7733 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable</ulink>
7738 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable</ulink>
7747 These may be bookmarked for quick reference. See next.
7751 <sect3 id="bookmarklets">
7752 <title>Bookmarklets</title>
7754 Below are some <quote>bookmarklets</quote> to allow you to easily access a
7755 <quote>mini</quote> version of some of <application>Privoxy's</application>
7756 special pages. They are designed for MS Internet Explorer, but should work
7757 equally well in Netscape, Mozilla, and other browsers which support
7758 JavaScript. They are designed to run directly from your bookmarks - not by
7759 clicking the links below (although that should work for testing).
7762 To save them, right-click the link and choose <quote>Add to Favorites</quote>
7763 (IE) or <quote>Add Bookmark</quote> (Netscape). You will get a warning that
7764 the bookmark <quote>may not be safe</quote> - just click OK. Then you can run the
7765 Bookmarklet directly from your favorites/bookmarks. For even faster access,
7766 you can put them on the <quote>Links</quote> bar (IE) or the <quote>Personal
7767 Toolbar</quote> (Netscape), and run them with a single click.
7776 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>
7783 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>
7790 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)
7797 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>
7803 <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>
7809 <ulink url="javascript:void(window.open('http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info?url='+escape(location.href),'Why').focus());">Privoxy - Why?</ulink>
7816 Credit: The site which gave us the general idea for these bookmarklets is
7817 <ulink url="http://www.bookmarklets.com/">www.bookmarklets.com</ulink>. They
7818 have more information about bookmarklets.
7827 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7829 <title>Chain of Events</title>
7831 Let's take a quick look at the basic sequence of events when a web page is
7832 requested by your browser and <application>Privoxy</application> is on duty:
7839 First, your web browser requests a web page. The browser knows to send
7840 the request to <application>Privoxy</application>, which will in turn,
7841 relay the request to the remote web server after passing the following
7847 <application>Privoxy</application> traps any request for its own internal CGI
7848 pages (e.g <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>) and sends the CGI page back to the browser.
7853 Next, <application>Privoxy</application> checks to see if the URL
7855 linkend="BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></link> patterns. If
7856 so, the URL is then blocked, and the remote web server will not be contacted.
7857 <link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></link>
7858 is then checked and if it does not match, an
7859 HTML <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page is sent back. Otherwise, if it does match,
7860 an image is returned. The type of image depends on the setting of <link
7861 linkend="SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"><quote>+set-image-blocker</quote></link>
7862 (blank, checkerboard pattern, or an HTTP redirect to an image elsewhere).
7867 Untrusted URLs are blocked. If URLs are being added to the
7868 <filename>trust</filename> file, then that is done.
7873 If the URL pattern matches the <link
7874 linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS"><quote>+fast-redirects</quote></link> action,
7875 it is then processed. Unwanted parts of the requested URL are stripped.
7880 Now the rest of the client browser's request headers are processed. If any
7881 of these match any of the relevant actions (e.g. <link
7882 linkend="HIDE-USER-AGENT"><quote>+hide-user-agent</quote></link>,
7883 etc.), headers are suppressed or forged as determined by these actions and
7889 Now the web server starts sending its response back (i.e. typically a web page and related
7895 First, the server headers are read and processed to determine, among other
7896 things, the MIME type (document type) and encoding. The headers are then
7897 filtered as determined by the
7898 <link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES"><quote>+crunch-incoming-cookies</quote></link>,
7899 <link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"><quote>+session-cookies-only</quote></link>,
7900 and <link linkend="DOWNGRADE-HTTP-VERSION"><quote>+downgrade-http-version</quote></link>
7906 If the <link linkend="KILL-POPUPS"><quote>+kill-popups</quote></link>
7907 action applies, and it is an HTML or JavaScript document, the popup-code in the
7908 response is filtered on-the-fly as it is received.
7913 If a <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link>
7915 linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS"><quote>+deanimate-gifs</quote></link>
7916 action applies (and the document type fits the action), the rest of the page is
7917 read into memory (up to a configurable limit). Then the filter rules (from
7918 <filename>default.filter</filename> and any other filter files) are
7919 processed against the buffered content. Filters are applied in the order
7920 they are specified in one of the filter files. Animated GIFs, if present,
7921 are reduced to either the first or last frame, depending on the action
7922 setting.The entire page, which is now filtered, is then sent by
7923 <application>Privoxy</application> back to your browser.
7926 If neither <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link>
7928 linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS"><quote>+deanimate-gifs</quote></link>
7929 matches, then <application>Privoxy</application> passes the raw data through
7930 to the client browser as it becomes available.
7935 As the browser receives the now (possibly filtered) page content, it
7936 reads and then requests any URLs that may be embedded within the page
7937 source, e.g. ad images, stylesheets, JavaScript, other HTML documents (e.g.
7938 frames), sounds, etc. For each of these objects, the browser issues a new
7939 request. And each such request is in turn processed as above. Note that a
7940 complex web page may have many such embedded URLs.
7950 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7951 <sect2 id="actionsanat">
7952 <title>Troubleshooting: Anatomy of an Action</title>
7955 The way <application>Privoxy</application> applies
7956 <link linkend="ACTIONS">actions</link> and <link linkend="FILTER">filters</link>
7957 to any given URL can be complex, and not always so
7958 easy to understand what is happening. And sometimes we need to be able to
7959 <emphasis>see</emphasis> just what <application>Privoxy</application> is
7960 doing. Especially, if something <application>Privoxy</application> is doing
7961 is causing us a problem inadvertently. It can be a little daunting to look at
7962 the actions and filters files themselves, since they tend to be filled with
7963 <link linkend="regex">regular expressions</link> whose consequences are not
7968 One quick test to see if <application>Privoxy</application> is causing a problem
7969 or not, is to disable it temporarily. This should be the first troubleshooting
7970 step. See <link linkend="bookmarklets">the Bookmarklets</link> section on a quick
7971 and easy way to do this (be sure to flush caches afterward!). Looking at the
7972 logs is a good idea too.
7975 Another easy troubleshooting step to try is if you have done any
7976 customization of your installation, revert back to the installed
7977 defaults and see if that helps. There are times the developers get complaints
7978 about one thing or another, and the problem is more related to a customized
7979 configuration issue.
7983 <application>Privoxy</application> also provides the
7984 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
7985 page that can show us very specifically how <application>actions</application>
7986 are being applied to any given URL. This is a big help for troubleshooting.
7990 First, enter one URL (or partial URL) at the prompt, and then
7991 <application>Privoxy</application> will tell us
7992 how the current configuration will handle it. This will not
7993 help with filtering effects (i.e. the <link
7994 linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> action) from
7995 one of the filter files since this is handled very
7996 differently and not so easy to trap! It also will not tell you about any other
7997 URLs that may be embedded within the URL you are testing. For instance, images
7998 such as ads are expressed as URLs within the raw page source of HTML pages. So
7999 you will only get info for the actual URL that is pasted into the prompt area
8000 -- not any sub-URLs. If you want to know about embedded URLs like ads, you
8001 will have to dig those out of the HTML source. Use your browser's <quote>View
8002 Page Source</quote> option for this. Or right click on the ad, and grab the
8007 Let's try an example, <ulink url="http://google.com">google.com</ulink>,
8008 and look at it one section at a time in a sample configuration (your real
8009 configuration may vary):
8014 Matches for http://google.com:
8016 In file: default.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
8020 -content-type-overwrite
8021 -crunch-client-header
8022 -crunch-if-none-match
8023 -crunch-incoming-cookies
8024 -crunch-outgoing-cookies
8025 -crunch-server-header
8026 +deanimate-gifs {last}
8027 -downgrade-http-version
8028 +fast-redirects {check-decoded-url}
8030 -filter {content-cookies}
8031 -filter {all-popups}
8032 -filter {banners-by-link}
8033 -filter {tiny-textforms}
8034 -filter {frameset-borders}
8035 -filter {demoronizer}
8036 -filter {shockwave-flash}
8037 -filter {quicktime-kioskmode}
8039 -filter {crude-parental}
8040 -filter {site-specifics}
8041 -filter {js-annoyances}
8042 -filter {html-annoyances}
8043 +filter {refresh-tags}
8044 -filter {unsolicited-popups}
8045 +filter {img-reorder}
8046 +filter {banners-by-size}
8048 +filter {jumping-windows}
8049 +filter {ie-exploits}
8054 -filter {xml-to-html}
8055 -filter {html-to-xml}
8057 -filter{hide-tor-exit-notation}
8058 -filter-client-headers
8059 -filter-server-headers
8061 -handle-as-empty-document
8063 -hide-accept-language
8064 -hide-content-disposition
8065 +hide-forwarded-for-headers
8066 +hide-from-header {block}
8067 -hide-if-modified-since
8068 +hide-referrer {forge}
8073 -overwrite-last-modified
8074 +prevent-compression
8078 +session-cookies-only
8079 +set-image-blocker {pattern}
8080 -treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks }
8083 { -session-cookies-only }
8089 In file: user.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
8090 (no matches in this file)
8095 This is telling us how we have defined our
8096 <link linkend="ACTIONS"><quote>actions</quote></link>, and
8097 which ones match for our test case, <quote>google.com</quote>.
8098 Displayed is all the actions that are available to us. Remember,
8099 the <literal>+</literal> sign denotes <quote>on</quote>. <literal>-</literal>
8100 denotes <quote>off</quote>. So some are <quote>on</quote> here, but many
8101 are <quote>off</quote>. Each example we try may provide a slightly different
8102 end result, depending on our configuration directives.
8106 is for our <filename>default.action</filename> file. The large, multi-line
8107 listing, is how the actions are set to match for all URLs, i.e. our default
8108 settings. If you look at your <quote>actions</quote> file, this would be the
8109 section just below the <quote>aliases</quote> section near the top. This
8110 will apply to all URLs as signified by the single forward slash at the end
8111 of the listing -- <quote> / </quote>.
8115 But we have defined additional actions that would be exceptions to these general
8116 rules, and then we list specific URLs (or patterns) that these exceptions
8117 would apply to. Last match wins. Just below this then are two explicit
8118 matches for <quote>.google.com</quote>. The first is negating our previous
8119 cookie setting, which was for <link
8120 linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"><quote>+session-cookies-only</quote></link>
8121 (i.e. not persistent). So we will allow persistent cookies for google, at
8122 least that is how it is in this example. The second turns
8123 <emphasis>off</emphasis> any <link
8124 linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS"><quote>+fast-redirects</quote></link>
8125 action, allowing this to take place unmolested. Note that there is a leading
8126 dot here -- <quote>.google.com</quote>. This will match any hosts and
8127 sub-domains, in the google.com domain also, such as
8128 <quote>www.google.com</quote> or <quote>mail.google.com</quote>. But it would not
8129 match <quote>www.google.de</quote>! So, apparently, we have these two actions
8130 defined as exceptions to the general rules at the top somewhere in the lower
8131 part of our <filename>default.action</filename> file, and
8132 <quote>google.com</quote> is referenced somewhere in these latter sections.
8136 Then, for our <filename>user.action</filename> file, we again have no hits.
8137 So there is nothing google-specific that we might have added to our own, local
8138 configuration. If there was, those actions would over-rule any actions from
8139 previously processed files, such as <filename>default.action</filename>.
8140 <filename>user.action</filename> typically has the last word. This is the
8141 best place to put hard and fast exceptions,
8145 And finally we pull it all together in the bottom section and summarize how
8146 <application>Privoxy</application> is applying all its <quote>actions</quote>
8147 to <quote>google.com</quote>:
8158 -content-type-overwrite
8159 -crunch-client-header
8160 -crunch-if-none-match
8161 -crunch-incoming-cookies
8162 -crunch-outgoing-cookies
8163 -crunch-server-header
8164 +deanimate-gifs {last}
8165 -downgrade-http-version
8166 +fast-redirects {check-decoded-url}
8168 -filter {content-cookies}
8169 -filter {all-popups}
8170 -filter {banners-by-link}
8171 -filter {tiny-textforms}
8172 -filter {frameset-borders}
8173 -filter {demoronizer}
8174 -filter {shockwave-flash}
8175 -filter {quicktime-kioskmode}
8177 -filter {crude-parental}
8178 -filter {site-specifics}
8179 -filter {js-annoyances}
8180 -filter {html-annoyances}
8181 +filter {refresh-tags}
8182 -filter {unsolicited-popups}
8183 +filter {img-reorder}
8184 +filter {banners-by-size}
8186 +filter {jumping-windows}
8187 +filter {ie-exploits}
8192 -filter {xml-to-html}
8193 -filter {html-to-xml}
8195 -filter{hide-tor-exit-notation}
8196 -filter-client-headers
8197 -filter-server-headers
8199 -handle-as-empty-document
8201 -hide-accept-language
8202 -hide-content-disposition
8203 +hide-forwarded-for-headers
8204 +hide-from-header {block}
8205 -hide-if-modified-since
8206 +hide-referrer {forge}
8211 -overwrite-last-modified
8212 +prevent-compression
8216 -session-cookies-only
8217 +set-image-blocker {pattern}
8218 -treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks </screen>
8222 Notice the only difference here to the previous listing, is to
8223 <quote>fast-redirects</quote> and <quote>session-cookies-only</quote>,
8224 which are activated specifically for this site in our configuration,
8225 and thus show in the <quote>Final Results</quote>.
8229 Now another example, <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>:
8241 { +block +handle-as-image }
8242 .[a-vx-z]*.doubleclick.net
8247 We'll just show the interesting part here - the explicit matches. It is
8248 matched three different times. Two <quote>+block</quote> sections,
8249 and a <quote>+block +handle-as-image</quote>,
8250 which is the expanded form of one of our aliases that had been defined as:
8251 <quote>+block-as-image</quote>. (<link
8252 linkend="ALIASES"><quote>Aliases</quote></link> are defined in
8253 the first section of the actions file and typically used to combine more
8258 Any one of these would have done the trick and blocked this as an unwanted
8259 image. This is unnecessarily redundant since the last case effectively
8260 would also cover the first. No point in taking chances with these guys
8261 though ;-) Note that if you want an ad or obnoxious
8262 URL to be invisible, it should be defined as <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>
8263 is done here -- as both a <link
8264 linkend="BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></link>
8265 <emphasis>and</emphasis> an
8266 <link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></link>.
8267 The custom alias <quote><literal>+block-as-image</literal></quote> just
8268 simplifies the process and make it more readable.
8272 One last example. Let's try <quote>http://www.example.net/adsl/HOWTO/</quote>.
8273 This one is giving us problems. We are getting a blank page. Hmmm ...
8279 Matches for http://www.example.net/adsl/HOWTO/:
8281 In file: default.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
8285 -content-type-overwrite
8286 -crunch-client-header
8287 -crunch-if-none-match
8288 -crunch-incoming-cookies
8289 -crunch-outgoing-cookies
8290 -crunch-server-header
8292 -downgrade-http-version
8293 +fast-redirects {check-decoded-url}
8295 -filter {content-cookies}
8296 -filter {all-popups}
8297 -filter {banners-by-link}
8298 -filter {tiny-textforms}
8299 -filter {frameset-borders}
8300 -filter {demoronizer}
8301 -filter {shockwave-flash}
8302 -filter {quicktime-kioskmode}
8304 -filter {crude-parental}
8305 -filter {site-specifics}
8306 -filter {js-annoyances}
8307 -filter {html-annoyances}
8308 +filter {refresh-tags}
8309 -filter {unsolicited-popups}
8310 +filter {img-reorder}
8311 +filter {banners-by-size}
8313 +filter {jumping-windows}
8314 +filter {ie-exploits}
8319 -filter {xml-to-html}
8320 -filter {html-to-xml}
8322 -filter{hide-tor-exit-notation}
8323 -filter-client-headers
8324 -filter-server-headers
8326 -handle-as-empty-document
8328 -hide-accept-language
8329 -hide-content-disposition
8330 +hide-forwarded-for-headers
8331 +hide-from-header{block}
8332 +hide-referer{forge}
8336 -overwrite-last-modified
8337 +prevent-compression
8341 +session-cookies-only
8342 +set-image-blocker{blank}
8343 -treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks }
8346 { +block +handle-as-image }
8352 Ooops, the <quote>/adsl/</quote> is matching <quote>/ads</quote> in our
8353 configuration! But we did not want this at all! Now we see why we get the
8354 blank page. It is actually triggering two different actions here, and
8355 the effects are aggregated so that the URL is blocked, and &my-app; is told
8356 to treat the block as if it were an image. But this is, of course, all wrong.
8357 We could now add a new action below this (or better in our own
8358 <filename>user.action</filename> file) that explicitly
8359 <emphasis>un</emphasis> blocks (
8360 <link linkend="BLOCK"><quote>{-block}</quote></link>) paths with
8361 <quote>adsl</quote> in them (remember, last match in the configuration
8362 wins). There are various ways to handle such exceptions. Example:
8374 Now the page displays ;-)
8375 Remember to flush your browser's caches when making these kinds of changes to
8376 your configuration to insure that you get a freshly delivered page! Or, try
8377 using <literal>Shift+Reload</literal>.
8381 But now what about a situation where we get no explicit matches like
8388 { +block +handle-as-image }
8394 That actually was very helpful and pointed us quickly to where the problem
8395 was. If you don't get this kind of match, then it means one of the default
8396 rules in the first section of <filename>default.action</filename> is causing
8397 the problem. This would require some guesswork, and maybe a little trial and
8398 error to isolate the offending rule. One likely cause would be one of the
8399 <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> actions.
8400 These tend to be harder to troubleshoot.
8401 Try adding the URL for the site to one of aliases that turn off
8402 <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link>:
8410 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
8418 <quote><literal>{ shop }</literal></quote> is an <quote>alias</quote> that expands to
8419 <quote><literal>{ -filter -session-cookies-only }</literal></quote>.
8420 Or you could do your own exception to negate filtering:
8428 # Disable ALL filter actions for sites in this section
8436 This would turn off all filtering for these sites. This is best
8437 put in <filename>user.action</filename>, for local site
8438 exceptions. Note that when a simple domain pattern is used by itself (without
8439 the subsequent path portion), all sub-pages within that domain are included
8440 automatcially in the scope of the action.
8444 Images that are inexplicably being blocked, may well be hitting the
8445 <link linkend="FILTER-BANNERS-BY-SIZE"><quote>+filter{banners-by-size}</quote></link>
8447 that images of certain sizes are ad banners (works well
8448 <emphasis>most of the time</emphasis> since these tend to be standardized).
8452 <quote><literal>{ fragile }</literal></quote> is an alias that disables most
8453 actions that are the most likely to cause trouble. This can be used as a
8454 last resort for problem sites.
8460 # Handle with care: easy to break
8462 mybank.example.com</screen>
8467 <emphasis>Remember to flush caches!</emphasis> Note that the
8468 <literal>mail.google</literal> reference lacks the TLD portion (e.g.
8469 <quote>.com</quote>. This will effectively match any TLD with
8470 <literal>google</literal> in it, such as <literal>mail.google.de</literal>,
8474 If this still does not work, you will have to go through the remaining
8475 actions one by one to find which one(s) is causing the problem.
8484 This program is free software; you can redistribute it
8485 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
8486 Public License as published by the Free Software
8487 Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at
8488 your option) any later version.
8490 This program is distributed in the hope that it will
8491 be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the
8492 implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
8493 PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public
8494 License for more details.
8496 The GNU General Public License should be included with
8497 this file. If not, you can view it at
8498 http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
8499 or write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
8500 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301,
8503 $Log: user-manual.sgml,v $
8504 Revision 2.25 2006/10/18 10:50:33 hal9
8505 Add note that since filters are off in Cautious, compression is ON. Turn off
8506 compression to make filters work on all sites.
8508 Revision 2.24 2006/10/03 11:13:54 hal9
8509 More references to the new filters. Include html this time around.
8511 Revision 2.23 2006/10/02 22:43:53 hal9
8512 Contains new filter definitions from Fabian, and few other miscellaneous
8515 Revision 2.22 2006/09/22 01:27:55 hal9
8516 Final commit of probably various minor changes here and there. Unless
8517 something changes this should be ready for pending release.
8519 Revision 2.21 2006/09/20 03:21:36 david__schmidt
8520 Just the tiniest tweak. Wafer thin!
8522 Revision 2.20 2006/09/10 14:53:54 hal9
8523 Results of spell check. User manual has some updates to standard.actions file
8526 Revision 2.19 2006/09/08 12:19:02 fabiankeil
8527 Adjust hide-if-modified-since example values
8528 to reflect the recent changes.
8530 Revision 2.18 2006/09/08 02:38:57 hal9
8532 -Fix a number of broken links.
8533 -Migrate the new Windows service command line options, and reference as
8535 -Rebuild so that can be used with the new "user-manual" config capabilities.
8538 Revision 2.17 2006/09/05 13:25:12 david__schmidt
8539 Add Windows service invocation stuff (duplicated) in FAQ and in user manual under Windows startup. One probably ought to reference the other.
8541 Revision 2.16 2006/09/02 12:49:37 hal9
8542 Various small updates for new actions, filterfiles, etc.
8544 Revision 2.15 2006/08/30 11:15:22 hal9
8545 More work on the new actions, especially filter-*-headers, and What's New
8546 section. User Manual is close to final form for 3.0.4 release. Some tinkering
8547 and proof reading left to do.
8549 Revision 2.14 2006/08/29 10:59:36 hal9
8550 Add a "Whats New in this release" Section. Further work on multiple filter
8551 files, and assorted other minor changes.
8553 Revision 2.13 2006/08/22 11:04:59 hal9
8554 Silence warnings and errors. This should build now. New filters were only
8555 stubbed in. More to be done.
8557 Revision 2.12 2006/08/14 08:40:39 fabiankeil
8558 Documented new actions that were part of
8559 the "minor Privoxy improvements".
8561 Revision 2.11 2006/07/18 14:48:51 david__schmidt
8562 Reorganizing the repository: swapping out what was HEAD (the old 3.1 branch)
8563 with what was really the latest development (the v_3_0_branch branch)
8565 Revision 1.123.2.43 2005/05/23 09:59:10 hal9
8568 Revision 1.123.2.42 2004/12/04 14:39:57 hal9
8569 Fix two minor typos per bug SF report.
8571 Revision 1.123.2.41 2004/03/23 12:58:42 oes
8574 Revision 1.123.2.40 2004/02/27 12:48:49 hal9
8575 Add comment re: redirecting to local file system for set-image-blocker may
8576 is dependent on browser.
8578 Revision 1.123.2.39 2004/01/30 22:31:40 oes
8579 Added a hint re bookmarklets to Quickstart section
8581 Revision 1.123.2.38 2004/01/30 16:47:51 oes
8582 Some minor clarifications
8584 Revision 1.123.2.37 2004/01/29 22:36:11 hal9
8585 Updates for no longer filtering text/plain, and demoronizer default settings,
8586 and copyright notice dates.
8588 Revision 1.123.2.36 2003/12/10 02:26:26 hal9
8589 Changed the demoronizer filter description.
8591 Revision 1.123.2.35 2003/11/06 13:36:37 oes
8592 Updated link to nightly CVS tarball
8594 Revision 1.123.2.34 2003/06/26 23:50:16 hal9
8595 Add a small bit on filtering and problems re: source code being corrupted.
8597 Revision 1.123.2.33 2003/05/08 18:17:33 roro
8598 Use apt-get instead of dpkg to install Debian package, which is more
8599 solid, uses the correct and most recent Debian version automatically.
8601 Revision 1.123.2.32 2003/04/11 03:13:57 hal9
8602 Add small note about only one filterfile (as opposed to multiple actions
8605 Revision 1.123.2.31 2003/03/26 02:03:43 oes
8606 Updated hard-coded copyright dates
8608 Revision 1.123.2.30 2003/03/24 12:58:56 hal9
8609 Add new section on Predefined Filters.
8611 Revision 1.123.2.29 2003/03/20 02:45:29 hal9
8612 More problems with \-\-chroot causing markup problems :(
8614 Revision 1.123.2.28 2003/03/19 00:35:24 hal9
8615 Manual edit of revision log because 'chroot' (even inside a comment) was
8616 causing Docbook to hang here (due to double hyphen and the processor thinking
8619 Revision 1.123.2.27 2003/03/18 19:37:14 oes
8620 s/Advanced|Radical/Adventuresome/g to avoid complaints re fun filter
8622 Revision 1.123.2.26 2003/03/17 16:50:53 oes
8623 Added documentation for new chroot option
8625 Revision 1.123.2.25 2003/03/15 18:36:55 oes
8626 Adapted to the new filters
8628 Revision 1.123.2.24 2002/11/17 06:41:06 hal9
8629 Move default profiles table from FAQ to U-M, and other minor related changes.
8632 Revision 1.123.2.23 2002/10/21 02:32:01 hal9
8633 Updates to the user.action examples section. A few new ones.
8635 Revision 1.123.2.22 2002/10/12 00:51:53 hal9
8636 Add demoronizer to filter section.
8638 Revision 1.123.2.21 2002/10/10 04:09:35 hal9
8639 s/Advanced/Radical/ and added very brief note.
8641 Revision 1.123.2.20 2002/10/10 03:49:21 hal9
8642 Add notes to session-cookies-only and Quickstart about pre-existing
8643 cookies. Also, note content-cookies work differently.
8645 Revision 1.123.2.19 2002/09/26 01:25:36 hal9
8646 More explanation on Privoxy patterns, more on content-cookies and SSL.
8648 Revision 1.123.2.18 2002/08/22 23:47:58 hal9
8649 Add 'Documentation' to Privoxy Menu shot in Configuration section to match
8652 Revision 1.123.2.17 2002/08/18 01:13:05 hal9
8653 Spell checked (only one typo this time!).
8655 Revision 1.123.2.16 2002/08/09 19:20:54 david__schmidt
8656 Update to Mac OSX startup script name
8658 Revision 1.123.2.15 2002/08/07 17:32:11 oes
8659 Converted some internal links from ulink to link for PDF creation; no content changed
8661 Revision 1.123.2.14 2002/08/06 09:16:13 oes
8662 Nits re: actions file download
8664 Revision 1.123.2.13 2002/08/02 18:23:19 g_sauthoff
8665 Just 2 small corrections to the Gentoo sections
8667 Revision 1.123.2.12 2002/08/02 18:17:21 g_sauthoff
8668 Added 2 Gentoo sections
8670 Revision 1.123.2.11 2002/07/26 15:20:31 oes
8671 - Added version info to title
8672 - Added info on new filters
8673 - Revised parts of the filter file tutorial
8674 - Added info on where to get updated actions files
8676 Revision 1.123.2.10 2002/07/25 21:42:29 hal9
8677 Add brief notes on not proxying non-HTTP protocols.
8679 Revision 1.123.2.9 2002/07/11 03:40:28 david__schmidt
8681 Updated Mac OSX sections due to installation location change
8683 Revision 1.123.2.8 2002/06/09 16:36:32 hal9
8684 Clarifications on filtering and MIME. Hardcode 'latest release' in index.html.
8686 Revision 1.123.2.7 2002/06/09 00:29:34 hal9
8687 Touch ups on filtering, in actions section and Anatomy.
8689 Revision 1.123.2.6 2002/06/06 23:11:03 hal9
8690 Fix broken link. Linkchecked all docs.
8692 Revision 1.123.2.5 2002/05/29 02:01:02 hal9
8693 This is break out of the entire config section from u-m, so it can
8694 eventually be used to generate the comments, etc in the main config file
8695 so that these are in sync with each other.
8697 Revision 1.123.2.4 2002/05/27 03:28:45 hal9
8698 Ooops missed something from David.
8700 Revision 1.123.2.3 2002/05/27 03:23:17 hal9
8701 Fix FIXMEs for OS2 and OSX startup. Fix Redhat typos (should be Red Hat).
8702 That's a wrap, I think.
8704 Revision 1.123.2.2 2002/05/26 19:02:09 hal9
8705 Move Amiga stuff around to take of FIXME in start up section.
8707 Revision 1.123.2.1 2002/05/26 17:04:25 hal9
8708 -Spellcheck, very minor edits, and sync across branches
8710 Revision 1.123 2002/05/24 23:19:23 hal9
8711 Include new image (Proxy setup). More fun with guibutton.
8712 Minor corrections/clarifications here and there.
8714 Revision 1.122 2002/05/24 13:24:08 oes
8715 Added Bookmarklet for one-click pre-filled access to show-url-info
8717 Revision 1.121 2002/05/23 23:20:17 oes
8718 - Changed more (all?) references to actions to the
8719 <literal><link> style.
8720 - Small fixes in the actions chapter
8721 - Small clarifications in the quickstart to ad blocking
8722 - Removed <emphasis> from <title>s since the new doc CSS
8723 renders them red (bad in TOC).
8725 Revision 1.120 2002/05/23 19:16:43 roro
8726 Correct Debian specials (installation and startup).
8728 Revision 1.119 2002/05/22 17:17:05 oes
8731 Revision 1.118 2002/05/21 04:54:55 hal9
8732 -New Section: Quickstart to Ad Blocking
8733 -Reformat Actions Anatomy to match new CGI layout
8735 Revision 1.117 2002/05/17 13:56:16 oes
8736 - Reworked & extended Templates chapter
8737 - Small changes to Regex appendix
8738 - #included authors.sgml into (C) and hist chapter
8740 Revision 1.116 2002/05/17 03:23:46 hal9
8741 Fixing merge conflict in Quickstart section.
8743 Revision 1.115 2002/05/16 16:25:00 oes
8744 Extended the Filter File chapter & minor fixes
8746 Revision 1.114 2002/05/16 09:42:50 oes
8747 More ulink->link, added some hints to Quickstart section
8749 Revision 1.113 2002/05/15 21:07:25 oes
8750 Extended and further commented the example actions files
8752 Revision 1.112 2002/05/15 03:57:14 hal9
8753 Spell check. A few minor edits here and there for better syntax and
8756 Revision 1.111 2002/05/14 23:01:36 oes
8759 Revision 1.110 2002/05/14 19:10:45 oes
8760 Restored alphabetical order of actions
8762 Revision 1.109 2002/05/14 17:23:11 oes
8763 Renamed the prevent-*-cookies actions, extended aliases section and moved it before the example AFs
8765 Revision 1.108 2002/05/14 15:29:12 oes
8766 Completed proofreading the actions chapter
8768 Revision 1.107 2002/05/12 03:20:41 hal9
8769 Small clarifications for 127.0.0.1 vs localhost for listen-address since this
8770 apparently an important distinction for some OS's.
8772 Revision 1.106 2002/05/10 01:48:20 hal9
8773 This is mostly proposed copyright/licensing additions and changes. Docs
8774 are still GPL, but licensing and copyright are more visible. Also, copyright
8775 changed in doc header comments (eliminate references to JB except FAQ).
8777 Revision 1.105 2002/05/05 20:26:02 hal9
8778 Sorting out license vs copyright in these docs.
8780 Revision 1.104 2002/05/04 08:44:45 swa
8783 Revision 1.103 2002/05/04 00:40:53 hal9
8784 -Remove the TOC first page kludge. It's fixed proper now in ldp.dsl.in.
8785 -Some minor additions to Quickstart.
8787 Revision 1.102 2002/05/03 17:46:00 oes
8788 Further proofread & reactivated short build instructions
8790 Revision 1.101 2002/05/03 03:58:30 hal9
8791 Move the user-manual config directive to top of section. Add note about
8792 Privoxy needing read permissions for configs, and write for logs.
8794 Revision 1.100 2002/04/29 03:05:55 hal9
8795 Add clarification on differences of new actions files.
8797 Revision 1.99 2002/04/28 16:59:05 swa
8798 more structure in starting section
8800 Revision 1.98 2002/04/28 05:43:59 hal9
8801 This is the break up of configuration.html into multiple files. This
8802 will probably break links elsewhere :(
8804 Revision 1.97 2002/04/27 21:04:42 hal9
8805 -Rewrite of Actions File example.
8806 -Add section for user-manual directive in config.
8808 Revision 1.96 2002/04/27 05:32:00 hal9
8809 -Add short section to Filter Files to tie in with +filter action.
8810 -Start rewrite of examples in Actions Examples (not finished).
8812 Revision 1.95 2002/04/26 17:23:29 swa
8813 bookmarks cleaned, changed structure of user manual, screen and programlisting cleanups, and numerous other changes that I forgot
8815 Revision 1.94 2002/04/26 05:24:36 hal9
8816 -Add most of Andreas suggestions to Chain of Events section.
8817 -A few other minor corrections and touch up.
8819 Revision 1.92 2002/04/25 18:55:13 hal9
8820 More catchups on new actions files, and new actions names.
8821 Other assorted cleanups, and minor modifications.
8823 Revision 1.91 2002/04/24 02:39:31 hal9
8824 Add 'Chain of Events' section.
8826 Revision 1.90 2002/04/23 21:41:25 hal9
8827 Linuxconf is deprecated on RH, substitute chkconfig.
8829 Revision 1.89 2002/04/23 21:05:28 oes
8830 Added hint for startup on Red Hat
8832 Revision 1.88 2002/04/23 05:37:54 hal9
8833 Add AmigaOS install stuff.
8835 Revision 1.87 2002/04/23 02:53:15 david__schmidt
8836 Updated OSX installation section
8837 Added a few English tweaks here an there
8839 Revision 1.86 2002/04/21 01:46:32 hal9
8840 Re-write actions section.
8842 Revision 1.85 2002/04/18 21:23:23 hal9
8843 Fix ugly typo (mine).
8845 Revision 1.84 2002/04/18 21:17:13 hal9
8846 Spell Redhat correctly (ie Red Hat). A few minor grammar corrections.
8848 Revision 1.83 2002/04/18 18:21:12 oes
8849 Added RPM install detail
8851 Revision 1.82 2002/04/18 12:04:50 oes
8854 Revision 1.81 2002/04/18 11:50:24 oes
8855 Extended Install section - needs fixing by packagers
8857 Revision 1.80 2002/04/18 10:45:19 oes
8858 Moved text to buildsource.sgml, renamed some filters, details
8860 Revision 1.79 2002/04/18 03:18:06 hal9
8861 Spellcheck, and minor touchups.
8863 Revision 1.78 2002/04/17 18:04:16 oes
8866 Revision 1.77 2002/04/17 13:51:23 oes
8867 Proofreading, part one
8869 Revision 1.76 2002/04/16 04:25:51 hal9
8870 -Added 'Note to Upgraders' and re-ordered the 'Quickstart' section.
8871 -Note about proxy may need requests to re-read config files.
8873 Revision 1.75 2002/04/12 02:08:48 david__schmidt
8874 Remove OS/2 building info... it is already in the developer-manual
8876 Revision 1.74 2002/04/11 00:54:38 hal9
8877 Add small section on submitting actions.
8879 Revision 1.73 2002/04/10 18:45:15 swa
8882 Revision 1.72 2002/04/10 04:06:19 hal9
8883 Added actions feedback to Bookmarklets section
8885 Revision 1.71 2002/04/08 22:59:26 hal9
8886 Version update. Spell chkconfig correctly :)
8888 Revision 1.70 2002/04/08 20:53:56 swa
8891 Revision 1.69 2002/04/06 05:07:29 hal9
8892 -Add privoxy-man-page.sgml, for man page.
8893 -Add authors.sgml for AUTHORS (and p-authors.sgml)
8894 -Reworked various aspects of various docs.
8895 -Added additional comments to sub-docs.
8897 Revision 1.68 2002/04/04 18:46:47 swa
8898 consistent look. reuse of copyright, history et. al.
8900 Revision 1.67 2002/04/04 17:27:57 swa
8901 more single file to be included at multiple points. make maintaining easier
8903 Revision 1.66 2002/04/04 06:48:37 hal9
8904 Structural changes to allow for conditional inclusion/exclusion of content
8905 based on entity toggles, e.g. 'entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE"'. And
8906 definition of internal entities, e.g. 'entity p-version "2.9.13"' that will
8907 eventually be set by Makefile.
8908 More boilerplate text for use across multiple docs.
8910 Revision 1.65 2002/04/03 19:52:07 swa
8911 enhance squid section due to user suggestion
8913 Revision 1.64 2002/04/03 03:53:43 hal9
8914 A few minor bug fixes, and touch ups. Ready for review.
8916 Revision 1.63 2002/04/01 16:24:49 hal9
8917 Define entities to include boilerplate text. See doc/source/*.
8919 Revision 1.62 2002/03/30 04:15:53 hal9
8920 - Fix privoxy.org/config links.
8921 - Paste in Bookmarklets from Toggle page.
8922 - Move Quickstart nearer top, and minor rework.
8924 Revision 1.61 2002/03/29 01:31:08 hal9
8927 Revision 1.60 2002/03/27 01:57:34 hal9
8928 Added more to Anatomy section.
8930 Revision 1.59 2002/03/27 00:54:33 hal9
8931 Touch up intro for new name.
8933 Revision 1.58 2002/03/26 22:29:55 swa
8934 we have a new homepage!
8936 Revision 1.57 2002/03/24 20:33:30 hal9
8937 A few minor catch ups with name change.
8939 Revision 1.56 2002/03/24 16:17:06 swa
8940 configure needs to be generated.
8942 Revision 1.55 2002/03/24 16:08:08 swa
8943 we are too lazy to make a block-built
8944 privoxy logo. hence removed the option.
8946 Revision 1.54 2002/03/24 15:46:20 swa
8947 name change related issue.
8949 Revision 1.53 2002/03/24 11:51:00 swa
8950 name change. changed filenames.
8952 Revision 1.52 2002/03/24 11:01:06 swa
8955 Revision 1.51 2002/03/23 15:13:11 swa
8956 renamed every reference to the old name with foobar.
8957 fixed "application foobar application" tag, fixed
8958 "the foobar" with "foobar". left junkbustser in cvs
8959 comments and remarks to history untouched.
8961 Revision 1.50 2002/03/23 05:06:21 hal9
8964 Revision 1.49 2002/03/21 17:01:05 hal9
8965 New section in Appendix.
8967 Revision 1.48 2002/03/12 06:33:01 hal9
8968 Catching up to Andreas and re_filterfile changes.
8970 Revision 1.47 2002/03/11 13:13:27 swa
8971 correct feedback channels
8973 Revision 1.46 2002/03/10 00:51:08 hal9
8974 Added section on JB internal pages in Appendix.
8976 Revision 1.45 2002/03/09 17:43:53 swa
8979 Revision 1.44 2002/03/09 17:08:48 hal9
8980 New section on Jon's actions file editor, and move some stuff around.
8982 Revision 1.43 2002/03/08 00:47:32 hal9
8983 Added imageblock{pattern}.
8985 Revision 1.42 2002/03/07 18:16:55 swa
8988 Revision 1.41 2002/03/07 16:46:43 hal9
8989 Fix a few markup problems for jade.
8991 Revision 1.40 2002/03/07 16:28:39 swa
8992 provide correct feedback channels
8994 Revision 1.39 2002/03/06 16:19:28 hal9
8995 Note on perceived filtering slowdown per FR.
8997 Revision 1.38 2002/03/05 23:55:14 hal9
8998 Stupid I did it again. Double hyphen in comment breaks jade.
9000 Revision 1.37 2002/03/05 23:53:49 hal9
9001 jade barfs on '- -' embedded in comments. - -user option broke it.
9003 Revision 1.36 2002/03/05 22:53:28 hal9
9004 Add new - - user option.
9006 Revision 1.35 2002/03/05 00:17:27 hal9
9007 Added section on command line options.
9009 Revision 1.34 2002/03/04 19:32:07 oes
9010 Changed default port to 8118
9012 Revision 1.33 2002/03/03 19:46:13 hal9
9013 Emphasis on where/how to report bugs, etc
9015 Revision 1.32 2002/03/03 09:26:06 joergs
9016 AmigaOS changes, config is now loaded from PROGDIR: instead of
9017 AmiTCP:db/junkbuster/ if no configuration file is specified on the
9020 Revision 1.31 2002/03/02 22:45:52 david__schmidt
9023 Revision 1.30 2002/03/02 22:00:14 hal9
9024 Updated 'New Features' list. Ran through spell-checker.
9026 Revision 1.29 2002/03/02 20:34:07 david__schmidt
9027 Update OS/2 build section
9029 Revision 1.28 2002/02/24 14:34:24 jongfoster
9030 Formatting changes. Now changing the doctype to DocBook XML 4.1
9031 will work - no other changes are needed.
9033 Revision 1.27 2002/01/11 14:14:32 hal9
9034 Added a very short section on Templates
9036 Revision 1.26 2002/01/09 20:02:50 hal9
9037 Fix bug re: auto-detect config file changes.
9039 Revision 1.25 2002/01/09 18:20:30 hal9
9040 Touch ups for *.action files.
9042 Revision 1.24 2001/12/02 01:13:42 hal9
9045 Revision 1.23 2001/12/02 00:20:41 hal9
9046 Updates for recent changes.
9048 Revision 1.22 2001/11/05 23:57:51 hal9
9049 Minor update for startup now daemon mode.
9051 Revision 1.21 2001/10/31 21:11:03 hal9
9052 Correct 2 minor errors
9054 Revision 1.18 2001/10/24 18:45:26 hal9
9055 *** empty log message ***
9057 Revision 1.17 2001/10/24 17:10:55 hal9
9058 Catching up with Jon's recent work, and a few other things.
9060 Revision 1.16 2001/10/21 17:19:21 swa
9061 wrong url in documentation
9063 Revision 1.15 2001/10/14 23:46:24 hal9
9064 Various minor changes. Fleshed out SEE ALSO section.
9066 Revision 1.13 2001/10/10 17:28:33 hal9
9069 Revision 1.12 2001/09/28 02:57:04 hal9
9072 Revision 1.11 2001/09/28 02:25:20 hal9
9075 Revision 1.9 2001/09/27 23:50:29 hal9
9076 A few changes. A short section on regular expression in appendix.
9078 Revision 1.8 2001/09/25 00:34:59 hal9
9079 Some additions, and re-arranging.
9081 Revision 1.7 2001/09/24 14:31:36 hal9
9084 Revision 1.6 2001/09/24 14:10:32 hal9
9085 Including David's OS/2 installation instructions.
9087 Revision 1.2 2001/09/13 15:27:40 swa
9090 Revision 1.1 2001/09/12 15:36:41 swa
9091 source files for junkbuster documentation
9093 Revision 1.3 2001/09/10 17:43:59 swa
9094 first proposal of a structure.
9096 Revision 1.2 2001/06/13 14:28:31 swa
9097 docs should have an author.
9099 Revision 1.1 2001/06/13 14:20:37 swa
9100 first import of project's documentation for the webserver.