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">
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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 "2.9.16">
15 <!entity p-status "beta">
16 <!entity % p-authors-formal "INCLUDE"> <!-- include additional text, etc -->
17 <!entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE">
18 <!entity % p-stable "IGNORE">
19 <!entity % p-text "IGNORE"> <!-- define we are not a text only doc -->
20 <!entity % p-doc "INCLUDE"> <!-- and we are a formal doc -->
21 <!entity % p-readme "IGNORE">
22 <!entity % user-man "IGNORE">
23 <!entity % config-file "IGNORE">
24 <!entity % p-supp-userman "IGNORE"> <!-- Omit some from supported.sgml -->
25 <!entity my-copy "©"> <!-- kludge for docbook2man -->
26 <!entity % draft "IGNORE"> <!-- WIP stuff -->
29 File : $Source: /cvsroot/ijbswa/current/doc/source/user-manual.sgml,v $
32 This file belongs into
33 ijbswa.sourceforge.net:/home/groups/i/ij/ijbswa/htdocs/
35 $Id: user-manual.sgml,v 1.123.2.12 2002/08/02 18:17:21 g_sauthoff Exp $
37 Copyright (C) 2001, 2002 Privoxy Developers <developers@privoxy.org>
40 ========================================================================
41 NOTE: Please read developer-manual/documentation.html before touching
42 anything in this, or other Privoxy documentation.
43 ========================================================================
50 <title>Privoxy &p-version; User Manual</title>
54 <!-- Completely the wrong markup, but very little is allowed -->
55 <!-- in this part of an article. FIXME -->
56 <link linkend="copyright">Copyright</link> &my-copy; 2001, 2002 by
57 <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/">Privoxy Developers</ulink>
61 <pubdate>$Id: user-manual.sgml,v 1.123.2.12 2002/08/02 18:17:21 g_sauthoff Exp $</pubdate>
65 Note: the following should generate a separate page, and a live link to it,
66 all nicely done. But it doesn't for some mysterious reason. Please leave
67 commented unless it can be fixed proper. For the time being, the
68 copyright/license declarations will be in their own sgml.
75 <holder>Privoxy Developers</holder>
78 <legalnotice id="legalnotice">
80 text goes here ........
92 This is here to keep vim syntax file from breaking :/
93 If I knew enough to fix it, I would.
94 PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE! HB: hal@foobox.net
100 The <citetitle>User Manual</citetitle> gives users information on how to
101 install, configure and use <ulink
102 url="http://www.privoxy.org/"><application>Privoxy</application></ulink>.
105 <!-- Include privoxy.sgml boilerplate: -->
107 <!-- end privoxy.sgml -->
110 You can find the latest version of the <citetitle>User Manual</citetitle> at <ulink
111 url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/">http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/</ulink>.
112 Please see the <ulink url="contact.html">Contact section</ulink> on how to
113 contact the developers.
117 <!-- Feel free to send a note to the developers at <email>ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net</email>. -->
123 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
124 <sect1 label="1" id="introduction"><title>Introduction</title>
126 This documentation is included with the current &p-status; version of
127 <application>Privoxy</application>, v.&p-version;<![%p-not-stable;[,
128 and is mostly complete at this point. The most up to date reference for the
129 time being is still the comments in the source files and in the individual
130 configuration files. Development of version 3.0 is currently nearing
131 completion, and includes many significant changes and enhancements over
132 earlier versions. The target release date for
133 stable v3.0 is <quote>soon</quote> ;-)]]>.
136 <!-- include only in non-stable versions -->
139 Since this is a &p-status; version, not all new features are well tested. This
140 documentation may be slightly out of sync as a result (especially with
141 CVS sources). And there <emphasis>may be</emphasis> bugs, though hopefully
146 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
147 <sect2 id="features"><title>Features</title>
149 In addition to <application>Internet Junkbuster's</application> traditional
150 features of ad and banner blocking and cookie management,
151 <application>Privoxy</application> provides new features<![%p-not-stable;[,
152 some of them currently under development]]>:
154 <!-- Include newfeatures.sgml boilerplate here: -->
156 <!-- end boilerplate -->
161 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
164 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
165 <sect1 id="installation"><title>Installation</title>
168 <application>Privoxy</application> is available both in convenient pre-compiled
169 packages for a wide range of operating systems, and as raw source code.
170 For most users, we recommend using the packages, which can be downloaded from our
171 <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ijbswa/">Privoxy Project
176 Note: If you have a previous <application>Junkbuster</application> or
177 <application>Privoxy</application> installation on your system, you
178 will need to remove it. On some platforms, this may be done for you as part
179 of their installation procedure. (See below for your platform). In any case
180 <emphasis>be sure to backup your old configuration if it is valuable to
181 you.</emphasis> See the <link linkend="upgradersnote">note to
182 upgraders</link> section below.
185 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
186 <sect2 id="installation-packages"><title>Binary Packages</title>
188 How to install the binary packages depends on your operating system:
191 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
192 <sect3 id="installation-pack-rpm"><title>Red Hat, SuSE and Conectiva RPMs</title>
195 RPMs can be installed with <literal>rpm -Uvh privoxy-&p-version;-1.rpm</literal>,
196 and will use <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> for the location
197 of configuration files.
201 Note that on Red Hat, <application>Privoxy</application> will
202 <emphasis>not</emphasis> be automatically started on system boot. You will
203 need to enable that using <command>chkconfig</command>,
204 <command>ntsysv</command>, or similar methods. Note that SuSE will
205 automatically start Privoxy in the boot process.
209 If you have problems with failed dependencies, try rebuilding the SRC RPM:
210 <literal>rpm --rebuild privoxy-&p-version;-1.src.rpm</literal>. This
211 will use your locally installed libraries and RPM version.
215 Also note that if you have a <application>Junkbuster</application> RPM installed
216 on your system, you need to remove it first, because the packages conflict.
217 Otherwise, RPM will try to remove <application>Junkbuster</application>
218 automatically, before installing <application>Privoxy</application>.
222 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
223 <sect3 id="installation-deb"><title>Debian</title>
225 DEBs can be installed with <literal>dpkg -i
226 privoxy_&p-version;-1.deb</literal>, and will use
227 <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> for the location of configuration
232 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
233 <sect3 id="installation-pack-win"><title>Windows</title>
236 Just double-click the installer, which will guide you through
237 the installation process. You will find the configuration files
238 in the same directory as you installed Privoxy in. We do not
239 use the registry of Windows.
243 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
244 <sect3 id="installation-pack-bintgz"><title>Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD, HP-UX</title>
247 Create a new directory, <literal>cd</literal> to it, then unzip and
248 untar the archive. For the most part, you'll have to figure out where
249 things go. <!-- FIXME, more info needed? -->
253 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
254 <sect3 id="installation-os2"><title>OS/2</title>
257 First, make sure that no previous installations of
258 <application>Junkbuster</application> and / or
259 <application>Privoxy</application> are left on your
260 system. Check that no <application>Junkbuster</application>
261 or <application>Privoxy</application> objects are in
267 Then, just double-click the WarpIN self-installing archive, which will
268 guide you through the installation process. A shadow of the
269 <application>Privoxy</application> executable will be placed in your
270 startup folder so it will start automatically whenever OS/2 starts.
274 The directory you choose to install <application>Privoxy</application>
275 into will contain all of the configuration files.
279 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
280 <sect3 id="installation-mac"><title>Mac OSX</title>
282 Unzip the downloaded package (you can either double-click on the file
283 in the finder, or on the desktop if you downloaded it there). The
284 Privoxy.pkg package should appear after unzipping. Then,
285 double-click on that Privoxy.pkg package installer icon and follow
286 the installation process.
287 <application>Privoxy</application> will be installed in the folder
288 <literal>/Library/Privoxy</literal>.
289 It will run automatically whenever you start up. To prevent it from
290 running automatically, remove or rename the folder
291 <literal>/Library/StartupItems/Privoxy</literal>.
294 To run Privoxy by hand, double-click on
295 <literal>RunPrivoxy.command</literal>.
296 To run Privoxy from Terminal, execute
297 <literal>/Library/Privoxy/RunPrivoxy.command</literal>.
301 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
302 <sect3 id="installation-amiga"><title>AmigaOS</title>
304 Copy and then unpack the <filename>lha</filename> archive to a suitable location.
305 All necessary files will be installed into <application>Privoxy</application>
306 directory, including all configuration and log files. To uninstall, just
307 remove this directory.
311 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
312 <sect3 id="installattion-gentoo"><title>Gentoo</title>
314 Gentoo source packages (Ebuilds) for <application>Privoxy</application> are
315 contained in the Gentoo Portage Tree (they are not on the download page,
316 but there is a Gentoo section, where you can see when a new
317 <application>Privoxy</application> Version is added to the Portage Tree).
320 Before installing <application>Privoxy</application> under Gentoo just do
321 first <literal>emerge rsync</literal> to get the latest changes from the
322 Portage tree. With <literal>emerge privoxy</literal> you install the latest
326 Configuration files are in <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename>, the
327 documentation is in <filename>/usr/share/doc/privoxy-&p-version;</filename>
328 and the Log directory is in <filename>/var/log/privoxy</filename>.
334 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
335 <sect2 id="installation-source"><title>Building from Source</title>
338 The most convenient way to obtain the <application>Privoxy</application> sources
339 is to download the source tarball from our <ulink url="http://sf.net/projects/ijbswa/">project
344 If you like to live on the bleeding edge and are not afraid of using
345 possibly unstable development versions, you can check out the up-to-the-minute
346 version directly from <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/cvs/?group_id=11118">the
347 CVS repository</ulink> or simply download <ulink
348 url="http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cvstarballs/ijbswa-cvsroot.tar.gz">the nightly CVS
352 <!-- include buildsource.sgml boilerplate: -->
354 <!-- end boilerplate -->
357 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
358 <sect2 id="installation-keepupdated"><title>Keeping your Installation Up-to-Date</title>
360 As user feedback comes in and development continues, we will make updated versions
361 of both the software and the main <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link>
362 (<literal>default.action</literal>) available for download.
366 If you wish to receive an email notification whenever we release updates of
367 <application>Privoxy</application> or the actions file, <ulink
368 url="http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ijbswa-announce/">subscribe
369 to our announce mailing list</ulink>, ijbswa-announce@lists.sourceforge.net.
373 Both can be downloaded from the <ulink
374 url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118">files
375 section</ulink> on <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/">SourceForge</ulink>.
379 In order not to loose your personal changes and adjustments when updating
380 to the latest <literal>default.action</literal> file we <emphasis>strongly
381 recommend</emphasis> that you use <literal>user.action</literal> for your
382 customization of <application>Privoxy</application>. See the <link
383 linkend="actions-file">Chapter on actions files</link> for details.
391 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
393 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
394 <sect1 id="upgradersnote">
395 <title>Note to Upgraders</title>
397 There are very significant changes from earlier
398 <application>Junkbuster</application> versions to the current
399 <application>Privoxy</application>. The number, names, syntax, and
400 purposes of configuration files have substantially changed.
401 <application>Junkbuster 2.0.x</application> configuration
402 files will not migrate, <application>Junkbuster 2.9.x</application>
403 and <application>Privoxy</application> configurations will need to be
404 ported. The functionalities of the old <filename>blockfile</filename>,
405 <filename>cookiefile</filename> and <filename>imagelist</filename>
406 are now combined into the <link linkend="actions-file"><quote>actions
407 files</quote></link>.
408 <filename>default.action</filename>, is the main actions file. Local
409 exceptions should best be put into <filename>user.action</filename>.
412 A <link linkend="filter-file"><quote>filter file</quote></link> (typically
413 <filename>default.filter</filename>) is new as of <application>Privoxy
414 2.9.x</application>, and provides some of the new sophistication (explained
415 below). <filename>config</filename> is much the same as before.
418 If upgrading from a 2.0.x version, you will have to use the new config
419 files, and possibly adapt any personal rules from your older files.
420 When porting personal rules over from the old <filename>blockfile</filename>
421 to the new actions files, please note that even the pattern syntax has
422 changed. If upgrading from 2.9.x development versions, it is still
423 recommended to use the new configuration files.
426 A quick list of things to be aware of before upgrading:
434 The default listening port is now 8118 due to a conflict with another
440 Some installers may remove earlier versions completely. Save any
441 important configuration files!
446 <application>Privoxy</application> is controllable with a web browser
447 at the special URL: <ulink
448 url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
449 (Shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>). Many
450 aspects of configuration can be done here, including temporarily disabling
451 <application>Privoxy</application>.
456 The primary configuration files for cookie management, ad and banner
457 blocking, and many other aspects of <application>Privoxy</application>
458 configuration are the <link linkend="actions-file">actions
459 files</link>. It is strongly recommended to become familiar with the new
460 actions concept below, before modifying these files. Locally defined rules
461 should go into <filename>user.action</filename>.
466 <!-- I think it is best to keep this somewhat vague, in case -->
467 <!-- the situation changes under our feet. -->
468 Some installers may not automatically start
469 <application>Privoxy</application> after installation.
477 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
478 <sect1 id="quickstart"><title>Quickstart to Using <application>Privoxy</application></title>
484 If upgrading, from versions before 2.9.16, please back up any configuration
485 files. See the <link linkend="upgradersnote">Note to Upgraders</link> Section.
491 Install <application>Privoxy</application>. See the <link
492 linkend="installation">Installation Section</link> below for platform specific
499 Advanced users and those who want to offer <application>Privoxy</application>
500 service to more than just their local machine should check the <link
501 linkend="config">main config file</link>, especially the <link
502 linkend="access-control">security-relevant</link> options. These are
509 Start <application>Privoxy</application>, if the installation program has
510 not done this already (may vary according to platform). See the section
511 <link linkend="startup">Starting <application>Privoxy</application></link>.
517 Set your browser to use <application>Privoxy</application> as HTTP and
518 HTTPS proxy by setting the proxy configuration for address of
519 <literal>127.0.0.1</literal> and port <literal>8118</literal>.
520 (<application>Junkbuster</application> and earlier versions of
521 <application>Privoxy</application> used port 8000.) See the section <link
522 linkend="startup">Starting <application>Privoxy</application></link> below
523 for more details on this.
529 Flush your browser's disk and memory caches, to remove any cached ad images.
535 A default installation should provide a reasonable starting point for
536 most. There will undoubtedly be occasions where you will want to adjust the
537 configuration, but that can be dealt with as the need arises. Little
538 to no initial configuration is required in most cases.
541 See the <link linkend="configuration">Configuration section</link> for more
542 configuration options, and how to customize your installation.
543 <![%draft;[ You might also want to look at the <link
544 linkend="quickstart-ad-blocking">next section</link> for a quick
545 introduction to how <application>Privoxy</application> blocks ads and
552 If you experience ads that slipped through, innocent images that are
553 blocked, or otherwise feel the need to fine-tune
554 <application>Privoxy's</application> behaviour, take a look at the <link
555 linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>. As a quick start, you might
556 find the <link linkend="act-examples">richly commented examples</link>
557 helpful. You can also view and edit the actions files through the <ulink
558 url="http://config.privoxy.org">web-based user interface</ulink>. The
559 Appendix <quote><link linkend="actionsanat">Anatomy of an
560 Action</link></quote> has hints how to debug actions that
561 <quote>misbehave</quote>.
567 Please see the section <link linkend="contact">Contacting the
568 Developers</link> on how to report bugs or problems with websites or to get
575 Now enjoy surfing with enhanced comfort and privacy!
583 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
585 <sect2 id="quickstart-ad-blocking">
586 <title>Quickstart to Ad Blocking</title>
588 NOTE: This section is deliberately redundant for those that don't
589 want to read the whole thing (which is getting lengthy).
592 Ad blocking is but one of <application>Privoxy's</application>
593 array of features. Many of these features are for the technically minded advanced
594 user. But, ad and banner blocking is surely common ground for everybody.
597 This section will provide a quick summary of ad blocking so
598 you can get up to speed quickly without having to read the more extensive
599 information provided below, though this is highly recommended.
602 First a bit of a warning ... blocking ads is much like blocking SPAM: the
603 more aggressive you are about it, the more likely you are to block
604 things that were not intended. So there is a trade off here. If you want
605 extreme ad free browsing, be prepared to deal with more
606 <quote>problem</quote> sites, and to spend more time adjusting the
607 configuration to solve these unintended consequences. In short, there is
608 not an easy way to eliminate <emphasis>all</emphasis> ads. Either take
609 the easy way and settle for <emphasis>most</emphasis> ads blocked with the
610 default configuration, or jump in and tweak it for your personal surfing
611 habits and preferences.
614 Secondly, a brief explanation of <application>Privoxy's </application>
615 <quote>actions</quote>. <quote>Actions</quote> in this context, are
616 the directives we use to tell <application>Privoxy</application> to perform
617 some task relating to HTTP transactions (i.e. web browsing). We tell
618 <application>Privoxy</application> to take some <quote>action</quote>. Each
619 action has a unique name and function. While there are many potential
620 <application>actions</application> in <application>Privoxy's</application>
621 arsenal, only a few are used for ad blocking. <link
622 linkend="actions">Actions</link>, and <link linkend="actions-file">action
623 configuration files</link>, are explained in depth below.
626 Actions are specified in <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration,
627 followed by one or more URLs to which the action should apply. URLs
628 can actually be URL type <link linkend="af-patterns">patterns</link> that use
629 wildcards so they can apply potentially to a range of similar URLs. The
630 actions, together with the URL patterns are called a section.
633 When you connect to a website, the full URL will either match one or more
634 of the sections as defined in <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration,
635 or not. If so, then <application>Privoxy</application> will perform the
636 respective actions. If not, then nothing special happens. Furthermore, web
637 pages may contain embedded, secondary URLs that your web browser will
638 use to load additional components of the page, as it parses the
639 original page's HTML content. An ad image for instance, is just an URL
640 embedded in the page somewhere. The image itself may be on the same server,
641 or a server somewhere else on the Internet. Complex web pages will have many
646 The actions we need to know about for ad blocking are: <literal><link
647 linkend="block">block</link></literal>, <literal><link
648 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>, and
649 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>:
657 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> - this action stops
658 any contact between your browser and any URL patterns that match this
659 action's configuration. It can be used for blocking ads, but also anything
660 that is determined to be unwanted. By itself, it simply stops any
661 communication with the remote server and sends <application>Privoxy</application>'s
662 own built-in BLOCKED page instead to let you now what has happened.
668 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> -
669 tells <application>Privoxy</application> to treat this URL as an image.
670 <application>Privoxy</application>'s default configuration already does this
671 for all common image types (e.g. GIF), but there are many situations where this
672 is not so easy to determine. So we'll force it in these cases. This is particularly
673 important for ad blocking, since only if we know that it's an image of
674 some kind, can we replace it with an image of our choosing, instead of the
675 <application>Privoxy</application> BLOCKED page (which would only result in
676 a <quote>broken image</quote> icon). There are some limitations to this
677 though. For instance, you can't just brute-force an image substitution for
678 an entire HTML page in most situations.
685 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal> - tells
686 <application>Privoxy</application> what to display in place of an ad image that
687 has hit a block rule. For this to come into play, the URL must match a
688 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action somewhere in the
689 configuration, <emphasis>and</emphasis>, it must also match an
690 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> action.
693 The configuration options on what to display instead of the ad are:
697 <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> - a checkerboard pattern, so that an ad
698 replacement is obvious. This is the default.
703 <emphasis>blank</emphasis> - A very small empty GIF image is displayed.
704 This is the so-called <quote>invisible</quote> configuration option.
709 <emphasis>http://<URL></emphasis> - A redirect to any image anywhere
710 of the user's choosing (advanced usage).
719 The quickest way to adjust any of these settings is with your browser through
720 the special <application>Privoxy</application> editor at <ulink
721 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
722 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/show-status</ulink>). This
723 is an internal page, and does not require Internet access. Select the
724 appropriate <quote>actions</quote> file, and click
725 <quote><guibutton>Edit</guibutton></quote>. It is best to put personal or
726 local preferences in <filename>user.action</filename> since this is not
727 meant to be overwritten during upgrades, and will over-ride the settings in
728 other files. Here you can insert new <quote>actions</quote>, and URLs for ad
729 blocking or other purposes, and make other adjustments to the configuration.
730 <application>Privoxy</application> will detect these changes automatically.
734 A quick and simple step by step example:
742 Right click on the ad image to be blocked, then select
743 <quote><guimenuitem>Copy Link Location</guimenuitem></quote> from the
751 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
756 Find <filename>user.action</filename> in the top section, and click
757 on <quote><guibutton>Edit</guibutton></quote>:
760 <!-- image of editor and actions files selections -->
762 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Actions Files in Use</title>
765 <imagedata fileref="../images/files-in-use.jpg" format="jpg">
768 <phrase>[ Screenshot of Actions Files in Use ]</phrase>
777 You should have a section with only
778 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> listed under
779 <quote>Actions:</quote>.
780 If not, click a <quote><guibutton>Insert new section below</guibutton></quote>
781 button, and in the new section that just appeared, click the
782 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> button right under the word <quote>Actions:</quote>.
783 This will bring up a list of all actions. Find
784 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> near the top, and click
785 in the <quote>Enabled</quote> column, then <quote><guibutton>Submit</guibutton></quote>
791 Now, in the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> actions section,
792 click the <quote><guibutton>Add</guibutton></quote> button, and paste the URL the
793 browser got from <quote><guimenuitem>Copy Link Location</guimenuitem></quote>.
794 Remove the <literal>http://</literal> at the beginning of the URL. Then, click
795 <quote><guibutton>Submit</guibutton></quote> (or
796 <quote><guibutton>OK</guibutton></quote> if in a pop-up window).
801 Now go back to the original page, and press <keycap>SHIFT-Reload</keycap>
802 (or flush all browser caches). The image should be gone now.
810 This is a very crude and simple example. There might be good reasons to use a
811 wildcard pattern match to include potentially similar images from the same
812 site. For a more extensive explanation of <quote>patterns</quote>, and
813 the entire actions concept, see <link linkend="actions-file">the Actions
818 For advanced users who want to hand edit their config files, you might want
819 to now go to the <link linkend="act-examples">Actions Files Tutorial</link>.
820 The ideas explained therein also apply to the web-based editor.
827 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
830 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
832 <title>Starting <application>Privoxy</application></title>
834 Before launching <application>Privoxy</application> for the first time, you
835 will want to configure your browser(s) to use
836 <application>Privoxy</application> as a HTTP and HTTPS proxy. The default is
837 127.0.0.1 (or localhost) for the proxy address, and port 8118 (earlier versions
838 used port 8000). This is the one configuration step that must be done!
841 Please note that <application>Privoxy</application> can only proxy HTTP and
842 HTTPS traffic. It will not work with FTP or other protocols.
845 <!-- image of Mozilla Proxy configuration -->
847 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Proxy Configuration (Mozilla)</title>
850 <imagedata fileref="../images/proxy_setup.jpg" format="jpg">
853 <phrase>[ Screenshot of Mozilla Proxy Configuration ]</phrase>
860 With <application>Netscape</application> (and
861 <application>Mozilla</application>), this can be set under:
865 <!-- Mix ascii and gui art, something for everybody -->
866 <!-- spacing on this is tricky -->
867 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton>
869 <guibutton>Preferences</guibutton>
871 <guibutton>Advanced</guibutton>
873 <guibutton>Proxies</guibutton>
875 <guibutton>HTTP Proxy</guibutton>
879 For <application>Internet Explorer</application>:
883 <!-- Mix ascii and gui art, something for everybody -->
884 <!-- spacing on this is tricky -->
885 <guibutton>Tools</guibutton>
887 <guibutton>Internet Properties</guibutton>
889 <guibutton>Connections</guibutton>
891 <guibutton>LAN Settings</guibutton>
895 Then, check <quote>Use Proxy</quote> and fill in the appropriate info
896 (Address: 127.0.0.1, Port: 8118). Include HTTPS (SSL), if you want HTTPS
901 After doing this, flush your browser's disk and memory caches to force a
902 re-reading of all pages and to get rid of any ads that may be cached. You
903 are now ready to start enjoying the benefits of using
904 <application>Privoxy</application>!
908 <application>Privoxy</application> is typically started by specifying the
909 main configuration file to be used on the command line. If no configuration
910 file is specified on the command line, <application>Privoxy</application>
911 will look for a file named <filename>config</filename> in the current
912 directory. Except on Win32 where it will try <filename>config.txt</filename>.
915 <sect2 id="start-redhat">
916 <title>Red Hat and Conectiva</title>
918 We use a script. Note that Red Hat does not start Privoxy upon booting per
919 default. It will use the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename> as
920 its main configuration file.
924 # /etc/rc.d/init.d/privoxy start
929 <sect2 id="start-debian">
930 <title>Debian</title>
932 We use a script. Note that Debian starts Privoxy upon booting per
933 default. It will use the file
934 <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename> as its main configuration
939 # /etc/init.d/privoxy start
944 <sect2 id="start-suse">
947 We use a script. It will use the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename>
948 as its main configuration file. Note that SuSE starts Privoxy upon booting
958 <sect2 id="start-windows">
959 <title>Windows</title>
961 Click on the Privoxy Icon to start Privoxy. If no configuration file is
962 specified on the command line, <application>Privoxy</application> will look
963 for a file named <filename>config.txt</filename>. Note that Windows will
964 automatically start Privoxy upon booting you PC.
968 <sect2 id="start-unices">
969 <title>Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD, HP-UX and others</title>
971 Example Unix startup command:
975 # /usr/sbin/privoxy /etc/privoxy/config
980 <sect2 id="start-os2">
983 During installation, <application>Privoxy</application> is configured to
984 start automatically when the system restarts. You can start it manually by
985 double-clicking on the <application>Privoxy</application> icon in the
986 <application>Privoxy</application> folder.
990 <sect2 id="start-macosx">
991 <title>Mac OSX</title>
993 During installation, <application>Privoxy</application> is configured to
994 start automatically when the system restarts. To run Privoxy by hand,
995 double-click on the <literal>RunPrivoxy.command</literal> icon in the
996 <literal>/Library/Privoxy</literal> folder. Or, type this command
1001 /Library/Privoxy/RunPrivoxy.command
1005 If you are not logged in as an administrator, you will be asked for the
1006 administrator password when starting <application>Privoxy</application>
1012 <sect2 id="start-amigaos">
1013 <title>AmigaOS</title>
1015 Start <application>Privoxy</application> (with RUN <>NIL:) in your
1016 <filename>startnet</filename> script (AmiTCP), in
1017 <filename>s:user-startup</filename> (RoadShow), as startup program in your
1018 startup script (Genesis), or as startup action (Miami and MiamiDx).
1019 <application>Privoxy</application> will automatically quit when you quit your
1020 TCP/IP stack (just ignore the harmless warning your TCP/IP stack may display that
1021 <application>Privoxy</application> is still running).
1025 <sect2 id="start-gentoo">
1026 <title>Gentoo</title>
1028 A script is again used. It will use the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config
1029 </filename> as its main configuration file.
1033 /etc/init.d/privoxy start
1037 Note that <application>Privoxy</application> is not automatically started at
1038 boot time by default. You can change this with the <literal>rc-update</literal>
1043 rc-update add privoxy default
1051 See the section <link linkend="cmdoptions">Command line options</link> for
1055 must find a better place for this paragraph
1058 The included default configuration files should give a reasonable starting
1059 point. Most of the per site configuration is done in the
1060 <ulink url="actions-file.html"><quote>actions</quote></ulink> files. These are
1061 where various cookie actions are defined, ad and banner blocking, and other
1062 aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. There are several
1063 such files included, with varying levels of aggressiveness.
1067 You will probably want to keep an eye out for sites for which you may prefer
1068 persistent cookies, and add these to your actions configuration as needed. By
1069 default, most of these will be accepted only during the current browser
1070 session (aka <quote>session cookies</quote>), unless you add them to the
1071 configuration. If you want the browser to handle this instead, you will need
1072 to edit <filename>user.action</filename> (or through the web based interface)
1073 and disable this feature. If you use more than one browser, it would make
1074 more sense to let <application>Privoxy</application> handle this. In which
1075 case, the browser(s) should be set to accept all cookies.
1079 Another feature where you will probably want to define exceptions for trusted
1080 sites is the popup-killing (through the <ulink
1081 url="actions-file.html#KILL-POPUPS"><quote>+kill-popups</quote></ulink> and
1083 url="actions-file.html#FILTER-POPUPS"><quote>+filter{popups}</quote></ulink>
1084 actions), because your favorite shopping, banking, or leisure site may need
1085 popups (explained below).
1089 <application>Privoxy</application> is HTTP/1.1 compliant, but not all of
1090 the optional 1.1 features are as yet supported. In the unlikely event that
1091 you experience inexplicable problems with browsers that use HTTP/1.1 per default
1092 (like <application>Mozilla</application> or recent versions of I.E.), you might
1093 try to force HTTP/1.0 compatibility. For Mozilla, look under <literal>Edit ->
1094 Preferences -> Debug -> Networking</literal>.
1095 Alternatively, set the <quote>+downgrade-http-version</quote> config option in
1096 <filename>default.action</filename> which will downgrade your browser's HTTP
1097 requests from HTTP/1.1 to HTTP/1.0 before processing them.
1101 After running <application>Privoxy</application> for a while, you can
1102 start to fine tune the configuration to suit your personal, or site,
1103 preferences and requirements. There are many, many aspects that can
1104 be customized. <quote>Actions</quote>
1105 can be adjusted by pointing your browser to
1106 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
1107 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
1108 and then follow the link to <quote>View & Change the Current Configuration</quote>.
1109 (This is an internal page and does not require Internet access.)
1113 In fact, various aspects of <application>Privoxy</application>
1114 configuration can be viewed from this page, including
1115 current configuration parameters, source code version numbers,
1116 the browser's request headers, and <quote>actions</quote> that apply
1117 to a given URL. In addition to the actions file
1118 editor mentioned above, <application>Privoxy</application> can also
1119 be turned <quote>on</quote> and <quote>off</quote> (toggled) from this page.
1123 If you encounter problems, try loading the page without
1124 <application>Privoxy</application>. If that helps, enter the URL where
1125 you have the problems into <ulink url="http://p.p/show-url-info">the browser
1126 based rule tracing utility</ulink>. See which rules apply and why, and
1127 then try turning them off for that site one after the other, until the problem
1128 is gone. When you have found the culprit, you might want to turn the rest on
1133 If the above paragraph sounds gibberish to you, you might want to <ulink
1134 url="actions-file.html#ACTIONSFILE">read more about the actions concept</ulink>
1135 or even dive deep into the <ulink url="appendix.html#ACTIONSANAT">Appendix
1140 If you can't get rid of the problem at all, think you've found a bug in
1141 Privoxy, want to propose a new feature or smarter rules, please see the
1142 section <ulink url="contact.html"><quote>Contacting the
1143 Developers</quote></ulink> below.
1148 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1149 <sect2 id="cmdoptions">
1150 <title>Command Line Options</title>
1152 <application>Privoxy</application> may be invoked with the following
1153 command-line options:
1161 <emphasis>--version</emphasis>
1164 Print version info and exit. Unix only.
1169 <emphasis>--help</emphasis>
1172 Print short usage info and exit. Unix only.
1177 <emphasis>--no-daemon</emphasis>
1180 Don't become a daemon, i.e. don't fork and become process group
1181 leader, and don't detach from controlling tty. Unix only.
1186 <emphasis>--pidfile FILE</emphasis>
1190 On startup, write the process ID to <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>. Delete the
1191 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> on exit. Failure to create or delete the
1192 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> is non-fatal. If no <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>
1193 option is given, no PID file will be used. Unix only.
1198 <emphasis>--user USER[.GROUP]</emphasis>
1202 After (optionally) writing the PID file, assume the user ID of
1203 <emphasis>USER</emphasis>, and if included the GID of GROUP. Exit if the
1204 privileges are not sufficient to do so. Unix only.
1209 <emphasis>configfile</emphasis>
1212 If no <emphasis>configfile</emphasis> is included on the command line,
1213 <application>Privoxy</application> will look for a file named
1214 <quote>config</quote> in the current directory (except on Win32
1215 where it will look for <quote>config.txt</quote> instead). Specify
1216 full path to avoid confusion. If no config file is found,
1217 <application>Privoxy</application> will fail to start.
1228 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1231 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1232 <sect1 id="configuration"><title><application>Privoxy</application> Configuration</title>
1234 All <application>Privoxy</application> configuration is stored
1235 in text files. These files can be edited with a text editor.
1236 Many important aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> can
1237 also be controlled easily with a web browser.
1241 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1244 <title>Controlling <application>Privoxy</application> with Your Web Browser</title>
1246 <application>Privoxy</application>'s user interface can be reached through the special
1247 URL <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
1248 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
1249 which is a built-in page and works without Internet access.
1250 You will see the following section:
1254 <!-- Needs to be put in a table and colorized -->
1257 <bridgehead renderas="sect2"> Privoxy Menu</bridgehead>
1261 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">View & change the current configuration</ulink>
1264 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-version">View the source code version numbers</ulink>
1267 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request">View the request headers.</ulink>
1270 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">Look up which actions apply to a URL and why</ulink>
1273 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">Toggle Privoxy on or off</ulink>
1281 This should be self-explanatory. Note the first item leads to an editor for the
1282 <link linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>, which is where the ad, banner,
1283 cookie, and URL blocking magic is configured as well as other advanced features of
1284 <application>Privoxy</application>. This is an easy way to adjust various
1285 aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. The actions
1286 file, and other configuration files, are explained in detail below.
1290 <quote>Toggle Privoxy On or Off</quote> is handy for sites that might
1291 have problems with your current actions and filters. You can in fact use
1292 it as a test to see whether it is <application>Privoxy</application>
1293 causing the problem or not. <application>Privoxy</application> continues
1294 to run as a proxy in this case, but all manipulation is disabled, i.e.
1295 <application>Privoxy</application> acts like a normal forwarding proxy. There
1296 is even a toggle <link linkend="bookmarklets">Bookmarklet</link> offered, so
1297 that you can toggle <application>Privoxy</application> with one click from
1303 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1308 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1310 <sect2 id="confoverview">
1311 <title>Configuration Files Overview</title>
1313 For Unix, *BSD and Linux, all configuration files are located in
1314 <filename>/etc/privoxy/</filename> by default. For MS Windows, OS/2, and
1315 AmigaOS these are all in the same directory as the
1316 <application>Privoxy</application> executable. <![%p-not-stable;[ The name
1317 and number of configuration files has changed from previous versions, and is
1318 subject to change as development progresses.]]>
1322 The installed defaults provide a reasonable starting point, though
1323 some settings may be aggressive by some standards. For the time being, the
1324 principle configuration files are:
1332 The <link linkend="config">main configuration file</link> is named <filename>config</filename>
1333 on Linux, Unix, BSD, OS/2, and AmigaOS and <filename>config.txt</filename>
1334 on Windows. This is a required file.
1340 <filename>default.action</filename> (the main <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link>)
1341 is used to define which <quote>actions</quote> relating to banner-blocking, images, pop-ups,
1342 content modification, cookie handling etc should be applied by default. It also defines many
1343 exceptions (both positive and negative) from this default set of actions that enable
1344 <application>Privoxy</application> to selectively eliminate the junk, and only the junk, on
1345 as many websites as possible.
1348 Multiple actions files may be defined in <filename>config</filename>. These
1349 are processed in the order they are defined. Local customizations and locally
1350 preferred exceptions to the default policies as defined in
1351 <filename>default.action</filename> (which you will most probably want
1352 to define sooner or later) are probably best applied in
1353 <filename>user.action</filename>, where you can preserve them across
1354 upgrades. <filename>standard.action</filename> is for
1355 <application>Privoxy's</application> internal use.
1358 There is also a web based editor that can be accessed from
1360 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
1362 url="http://p.p/show-status">http://p.p/show-status</ulink>) for the
1363 various actions files.
1369 <filename>default.filter</filename> (the <link linkend="filter-file">filter
1370 file</link>) can be used to re-write the raw page content, including
1371 viewable text as well as embedded HTML and JavaScript, and whatever else
1372 lurks on any given web page. The filtering jobs are only pre-defined here;
1373 whether to apply them or not is up to the actions files.
1381 All files use the <quote><literal>#</literal></quote> character to denote a
1382 comment (the rest of the line will be ignored) and understand line continuation
1383 through placing a backslash ("<literal>\</literal>") as the very last character
1384 in a line. If the <literal>#</literal> is preceded by a backslash, it looses
1385 its special function. Placing a <literal>#</literal> in front of an otherwise
1386 valid configuration line to prevent it from being interpreted is called "commenting
1391 The actions files and <filename>default.filter</filename>
1392 can use Perl style <link linkend="regex">regular expressions</link> for
1393 maximum flexibility.
1397 After making any changes, there is no need to restart
1398 <application>Privoxy</application> in order for the changes to take
1399 effect. <application>Privoxy</application> detects such changes
1400 automatically. Note, however, that it may take one or two additional
1401 requests for the change to take effect. When changing the listening address
1402 of <application>Privoxy</application>, these <quote>wake up</quote> requests
1403 must obviously be sent to the <emphasis>old</emphasis> listening address.
1408 While under development, the configuration content is subject to change.
1409 The below documentation may not be accurate by the time you read this.
1410 Also, what constitutes a <quote>default</quote> setting, may change, so
1411 please check all your configuration files on important issues.
1417 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1420 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
1422 <!-- **************************************************** -->
1423 <!-- Include config.sgml here -->
1424 <!-- This is where the entire config file is detailed. -->
1426 <!-- end include -->
1429 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1433 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
1435 <sect1 id="actions-file"><title>Actions Files</title>
1438 The actions files are used to define what actions
1439 <application>Privoxy</application> takes for which URLs, and thus determine
1440 how ad images, cookies and various other aspects of HTTP content and
1441 transactions are handled, and on which sites (or even parts thereof). There
1442 are three such files included with <application>Privoxy</application> (as of
1443 version 2.9.15), with differing purposes:
1450 <filename>default.action</filename> - is the primary action file
1451 that sets the initial values for all actions. It is intended to
1452 provide a base level of functionality for
1453 <application>Privoxy's</application> array of features. So it is
1454 a set of broad rules that should work reasonably well for users everywhere.
1455 This is the file that the developers are keeping updated, and <link
1456 linkend="installation-keepupdated">making available to users</link>.
1461 <filename>user.action</filename> - is intended to be for local site
1462 preferences and exceptions. As an example, if your ISP or your bank
1463 has specific requirements, and need special handling, this kind of
1464 thing should go here. This file will not be upgraded.
1469 <filename>standard.action</filename> - is used by the web based editor,
1470 to set various pre-defined sets of rules for the default actions section
1471 in <filename>default.action</filename>. These have increasing levels of
1472 aggressiveness <emphasis>and have no influence on your browsing unless
1473 you select them explicitly in the editor</emphasis>. It is not recommend
1481 The list of actions files to be used are defined in the main configuration
1482 file, and are processed in the order they are defined. The content of these
1483 can all be viewed and edited from <ulink
1484 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
1488 An actions file typically has multiple sections. If you want to use
1489 <quote>aliases</quote> in an actions file, you have to place the (optional)
1490 <link linkend="aliases">alias section</link> at the top of that file.
1491 Then comes the default set of rules which will apply universally to all
1492 sites and pages (be <emphasis>very careful</emphasis> with using such a
1493 universal set in <filename>user.action</filename> or any other actions file after
1494 <filename>default.action</filename>, because it will override the result
1495 from consulting any previous file). And then below that,
1496 exceptions to the defined universal policies. You can regard
1497 <filename>user.action</filename> as an appendix to <filename>default.action</filename>,
1498 with the advantage that is a separate file, which makes preserving your
1499 personal settings across <application>Privoxy</application> upgrades easier.
1503 Actions can be used to block anything you want, including ads, banners, or
1504 just some obnoxious URL that you would rather not see. Cookies can be accepted
1505 or rejected, or accepted only during the current browser session (i.e. not
1506 written to disk), content can be modified, JavaScripts tamed, user-tracking
1507 fooled, and much more. See below for a <link linkend="actions">complete list
1511 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1513 <title>Finding the Right Mix</title>
1515 Note that some <link linkend="actions">actions</link>, like cookie suppression
1516 or script disabling, may render some sites unusable that rely on these
1517 techniques to work properly. Finding the right mix of actions is not always easy and
1518 certainly a matter of personal taste. In general, it can be said that the more
1519 <quote>aggressive</quote> your default settings (in the top section of the
1520 actions file) are, the more exceptions for <quote>trusted</quote> sites you
1521 will have to make later. If, for example, you want to kill popup windows per
1522 default, you'll have to make exceptions from that rule for sites that you
1523 regularly use and that require popups for actually useful content, like maybe
1524 your bank, favorite shop, or newspaper.
1528 We have tried to provide you with reasonable rules to start from in the
1529 distribution actions files. But there is no general rule of thumb on these
1530 things. There just are too many variables, and sites are constantly changing.
1531 Sooner or later you will want to change the rules (and read this chapter again :).
1535 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1537 <title>How to Edit</title>
1539 The easiest way to edit the actions files is with a browser by
1540 using our browser-based editor, which can be reached from <ulink
1541 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
1542 The editor allows both fine-grained control over every single feature on a
1543 per-URL basis, and easy choosing from wholesale sets of defaults like
1544 <quote>Cautious</quote>, <quote>Medium</quote> or <quote>Advanced</quote>.
1548 If you prefer plain text editing to GUIs, you can of course also directly edit the
1549 the actions files. Look at <filename>default.action</filename> which is richly
1555 <sect2 id="actions-apply">
1556 <title>How Actions are Applied to URLs</title>
1558 Actions files are divided into sections. There are special sections,
1559 like the <quote><link linkend="aliases">alias</link></quote> sections which will
1560 be discussed later. For now let's concentrate on regular sections: They have a
1561 heading line (often split up to multiple lines for readability) which consist
1562 of a list of actions, separated by whitespace and enclosed in curly braces.
1563 Below that, there is a list of URL patterns, each on a separate line.
1567 To determine which actions apply to a request, the URL of the request is
1568 compared to all patterns in each action file file. Every time it matches, the list of
1569 applicable actions for the URL is incrementally updated, using the heading
1570 of the section in which the pattern is located. If multiple matches for
1571 the same URL set the same action differently, the last match wins. If not,
1572 the effects are aggregated. E.g. a URL might match a regular section with
1573 a heading line of <literal>{
1574 +<ulink url="actions-file.html#HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">handle-as-image</ulink> }</literal>,
1575 then later another one with just <literal>{
1576 +<ulink url="actions-file.html#BLOCK">block</ulink> }</literal>, resulting
1577 in <emphasis>both</emphasis> actions to apply.
1581 You can trace this process for any given URL by visiting <ulink
1582 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>.
1586 More detail on this is provided in the Appendix, <link linkend="ACTIONSANAT">
1587 Anatomy of an Action</link>.
1591 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1592 <sect2 id="af-patterns">
1593 <title>Patterns</title>
1595 Generally, a pattern has the form <literal><domain>/<path></literal>,
1596 where both the <literal><domain></literal> and <literal><path></literal>
1597 are optional. (This is why the pattern <literal>/</literal> matches all URLs).
1602 <term><literal>www.example.com/</literal></term>
1605 is a domain-only pattern and will match any request to <literal>www.example.com</literal>,
1606 regardless of which document on that server is requested.
1611 <term><literal>www.example.com</literal></term>
1614 means exactly the same. For domain-only patterns, the trailing <literal>/</literal> may
1620 <term><literal>www.example.com/index.html</literal></term>
1623 matches only the single document <literal>/index.html</literal>
1624 on <literal>www.example.com</literal>.
1629 <term><literal>/index.html</literal></term>
1632 matches the document <literal>/index.html</literal>, regardless of the domain,
1633 i.e. on <emphasis>any</emphasis> web server.
1638 <term><literal>index.html</literal></term>
1641 matches nothing, since it would be interpreted as a domain name and
1642 there is no top-level domain called <literal>.html</literal>.
1649 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1650 <sect3><title>The Domain Pattern</title>
1653 The matching of the domain part offers some flexible options: if the
1654 domain starts or ends with a dot, it becomes unanchored at that end.
1660 <term><literal>.example.com</literal></term>
1663 matches any domain that <emphasis>ENDS</emphasis> in
1664 <literal>.example.com</literal>
1669 <term><literal>www.</literal></term>
1672 matches any domain that <emphasis>STARTS</emphasis> with
1673 <literal>www.</literal>
1678 <term><literal>.example.</literal></term>
1681 matches any domain that <emphasis>CONTAINS</emphasis> <literal>.example.</literal>
1682 (Correctly speaking: It matches any FQDN that contains <literal>example</literal> as a domain.)
1689 Additionally, there are wild-cards that you can use in the domain names
1690 themselves. They work pretty similar to shell wild-cards: <quote>*</quote>
1691 stands for zero or more arbitrary characters, <quote>?</quote> stands for
1692 any single character, you can define character classes in square
1693 brackets and all of that can be freely mixed:
1698 <term><literal>ad*.example.com</literal></term>
1701 matches <quote>adserver.example.com</quote>,
1702 <quote>ads.example.com</quote>, etc but not <quote>sfads.example.com</quote>
1707 <term><literal>*ad*.example.com</literal></term>
1710 matches all of the above, and then some.
1715 <term><literal>.?pix.com</literal></term>
1718 matches <literal>www.ipix.com</literal>,
1719 <literal>pictures.epix.com</literal>, <literal>a.b.c.d.e.upix.com</literal> etc.
1724 <term><literal>www[1-9a-ez].example.c*</literal></term>
1727 matches <literal>www1.example.com</literal>,
1728 <literal>www4.example.cc</literal>, <literal>wwwd.example.cy</literal>,
1729 <literal>wwwz.example.com</literal> etc., but <emphasis>not</emphasis>
1730 <literal>wwww.example.com</literal>.
1738 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1741 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1742 <sect3><title>The Path Pattern</title>
1745 <application>Privoxy</application> uses Perl compatible regular expressions
1746 (through the <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/">PCRE</ulink> library) for
1751 There is an <link linkend="regex">Appendix</link> with a brief quick-start into regular
1752 expressions, and full (very technical) documentation on PCRE regex syntax is available on-line
1753 at <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/man.txt">http://www.pcre.org/man.txt</ulink>.
1754 You might also find the Perl man page on regular expressions (<literal>man perlre</literal>)
1755 useful, which is available on-line at <ulink
1756 url="http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html">http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html</ulink>.
1760 Note that the path pattern is automatically left-anchored at the <quote>/</quote>,
1761 i.e. it matches as if it would start with a <quote>^</quote> (regular expression speak
1762 for the beginning of a line).
1766 Please also note that matching in the path is <emphasis>CASE INSENSITIVE</emphasis>
1767 by default, but you can switch to case sensitive at any point in the pattern by using the
1768 <quote>(?-i)</quote> switch: <literal>www.example.com/(?-i)PaTtErN.*</literal> will match
1769 only documents whose path starts with <literal>PaTtErN</literal> in
1770 <emphasis>exactly</emphasis> this capitalization.
1776 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1779 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1781 <sect2 id="actions">
1782 <title>Actions</title>
1784 All actions are disabled by default, until they are explicitly enabled
1785 somewhere in an actions file. Actions are turned on if preceded with a
1786 <quote>+</quote>, and turned off if preceded with a <quote>-</quote>. So a
1787 <literal>+action</literal> means <quote>do that action</quote>, e.g.
1788 <literal>+block</literal> means <quote>please block URLs that match the
1789 following patterns</quote>, and <literal>-block</literal> means <quote>don't
1790 block URLs that match the following patterns, even if <literal>+block</literal>
1791 previously applied.</quote>
1796 Again, actions are invoked by placing them on a line, enclosed in curly braces and
1797 separated by whitespace, like in
1798 <literal>{+some-action -some-other-action{some-parameter}}</literal>,
1799 followed by a list of URL patterns, one per line, to which they apply.
1800 Together, the actions line and the following pattern lines make up a section
1801 of the actions file.
1805 There are three classes of actions:
1812 Boolean, i.e the action can only be <quote>enabled</quote> or
1813 <quote>disabled</quote>. Syntax:
1817 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # enable action <replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable>
1818 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # disable action <replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable></screen>
1821 Example: <literal>+block</literal>
1828 Parameterized, where some value is required in order to enable this type of action.
1833 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # enable action and set parameter to <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>,
1834 # overwriting parameter from previous match if necessary
1835 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # disable action. The parameter can be omitted</screen>
1838 Note that if the URL matches multiple positive forms of a parameterized action,
1839 the last match wins, i.e. the params from earlier matches are simply ignored.
1842 Example: <literal>+hide-user-agent{ Mozilla 1.0 }</literal>
1848 Multi-value. These look exactly like parameterized actions,
1849 but they behave differently: If the action applies multiple times to the
1850 same URL, but with different parameters, <emphasis>all</emphasis> the parameters
1851 from <emphasis>all</emphasis> matches are remembered. This is used for actions
1852 that can be executed for the same request repeatedly, like adding multiple
1853 headers, or filtering through multiple filters. Syntax:
1857 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # enable action and add <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable> to the list of parameters
1858 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # remove the parameter <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable> from the list of parameters
1859 # If it was the last one left, disable the action.
1860 <replaceable class="parameter">-name</replaceable> # disable this action completely and remove all parameters from the list</screen>
1863 Examples: <literal>+add-header{X-Fun-Header: Some text}</literal> and
1864 <literal>+filter{html-annoyances}</literal>
1872 If nothing is specified in any actions file, no <quote>actions</quote> are
1873 taken. So in this case <application>Privoxy</application> would just be a
1874 normal, non-blocking, non-anonymizing proxy. You must specifically enable the
1875 privacy and blocking features you need (although the provided default actions
1876 files will give a good starting point).
1880 Later defined actions always over-ride earlier ones. So exceptions
1881 to any rules you make, should come in the latter part of the file (or
1882 in a file that is processed later when using multiple actions files). For
1883 multi-valued actions, the actions are applied in the order they are specified.
1884 Actions files are processed in the order they are defined in
1885 <filename>config</filename> (the default installation has three actions
1886 files). It also quite possible for any given URL pattern to match more than
1887 one pattern and thus more than one set of actions!
1890 <!-- start actions listing -->
1892 The list of valid <application>Privoxy</application> actions are:
1896 <!-- ********************************************************** -->
1897 <!-- Please note the below defined actions use id's that are -->
1898 <!-- probably linked from other places, so please don't change. -->
1900 <!-- ********************************************************** -->
1903 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1905 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="add-header">
1906 <title>add-header</title>
1910 <term>Typical use:</term>
1912 <para>Confuse log analysis, custom applications</para>
1917 <term>Effect:</term>
1920 Sends a user defined HTTP header to the web server.
1927 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
1929 <para>Multi-value.</para>
1934 <term>Parameter:</term>
1937 Any string value is possible. Validity of the defined HTTP headers is not checked.
1938 It is recommended that you use the <quote><literal>X-</literal></quote> prefix
1948 This action may be specified multiple times, in order to define multiple
1949 headers. This is rarely needed for the typical user. If you don't know what
1950 <quote>HTTP headers</quote> are, you definitely don't need to worry about this
1957 <term>Example usage:</term>
1960 <screen>+add-header{X-User-Tracking: sucks}</screen>
1968 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1969 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="block">
1970 <title>block</title>
1974 <term>Typical use:</term>
1976 <para>Block ads or other obnoxious content</para>
1981 <term>Effect:</term>
1984 Requests for URLs to which this action applies are blocked, i.e. the requests are not
1985 forwarded to the remote server, but answered locally with a substitute page or image,
1986 as determined by the <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>
1987 and <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal> actions.
1994 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
1996 <para>Boolean.</para>
2001 <term>Parameter:</term>
2011 <application>Privoxy</application> sends a special <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page
2012 for requests to blocked pages. This page contains links to find out why the request
2013 was blocked, and a click-through to the blocked content (the latter only if compiled with the
2014 force feature enabled). The <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page adapts to the available
2015 screen space -- it displays full-blown if space allows, or miniaturized and text-only
2016 if loaded into a small frame or window. If you are using <application>Privoxy</application>
2017 right now, you can take a look at the
2018 <ulink url="http://ads.bannerserver.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor.html"><quote>BLOCKED</quote>
2022 A very important exception occurs if <emphasis>both</emphasis>
2023 <literal>block</literal> and <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>,
2024 apply to the same request: it will then be replaced by an image. If
2025 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>
2026 (see below) also applies, the type of image will be determined by its parameter,
2027 if not, the standard checkerboard pattern is sent.
2030 It is important to understand this process, in order
2031 to understand how <application>Privoxy</application> deals with
2032 ads and other unwanted content.
2035 The <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>
2036 action can perform a very similar task, by <quote>blocking</quote>
2037 banner images and other content through rewriting the relevant URLs in the
2038 document's HTML source, so they don't get requested in the first place.
2039 Note that this is a totally different technique, and it's easy to confuse the two.
2045 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
2048 <screen>{+block} # Block and replace with "blocked" page
2049 .nasty-stuff.example.com
2051 {+block +handle-as-image} # Block and replace with image
2062 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2063 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-incoming-cookies">
2064 <title>crunch-incoming-cookies</title>
2068 <term>Typical use:</term>
2071 Prevent the web server from setting any cookies on your system
2077 <term>Effect:</term>
2080 Deletes any <quote>Set-Cookie:</quote> HTTP headers from server replies.
2087 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
2089 <para>Boolean.</para>
2094 <term>Parameter:</term>
2106 This action is only concerned with <emphasis>incoming</emphasis> cookies. For
2107 <emphasis>outgoing</emphasis> cookies, use
2108 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>.
2109 Use <emphasis>both</emphasis> to disable cookies completely.
2112 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use this action in conjunction
2113 with the <literal><link linkend="session-cookies-only">session-cookies-only</link></literal> action,
2114 since it would prevent the session cookies from being set.
2120 <term>Example usage:</term>
2123 <screen>+crunch-incoming-cookies</screen>
2131 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2132 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-outgoing-cookies">
2133 <title>crunch-outgoing-cookies</title>
2137 <term>Typical use:</term>
2140 Prevent the web server from reading any cookies from your system
2146 <term>Effect:</term>
2149 Deletes any <quote>Cookie:</quote> HTTP headers from client requests.
2156 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
2158 <para>Boolean.</para>
2163 <term>Parameter:</term>
2175 This action is only concerned with <emphasis>outgoing</emphasis> cookies. For
2176 <emphasis>incoming</emphasis> cookies, use
2177 <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal>.
2178 Use <emphasis>both</emphasis> to disable cookies completely.
2181 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use this action in conjunction
2182 with the <literal><link linkend="session-cookies-only">session-cookies-only</link></literal> action,
2183 since it would prevent the session cookies from being read.
2189 <term>Example usage:</term>
2192 <screen>+crunch-outgoing-cookies</screen>
2201 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2202 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="deanimate-gifs">
2203 <title>deanimate-gifs</title>
2207 <term>Typical use:</term>
2209 <para>Stop those annoying, distracting animated GIF images.</para>
2214 <term>Effect:</term>
2217 De-animate GIF animations, i.e. reduce them to their first or last image.
2224 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2226 <para>Parameterized.</para>
2231 <term>Parameter:</term>
2234 <quote>last</quote> or <quote>first</quote>
2243 This will also shrink the images considerably (in bytes, not pixels!). If
2244 the option <quote>first</quote> is given, the first frame of the animation
2245 is used as the replacement. If <quote>last</quote> is given, the last
2246 frame of the animation is used instead, which probably makes more sense for
2247 most banner animations, but also has the risk of not showing the entire
2248 last frame (if it is only a delta to an earlier frame).
2251 You can safely use this action with patterns that will also match non-GIF
2252 objects, because no attempt will be made at anything that doesn't look like
2259 <term>Example usage:</term>
2262 <screen>+deanimate-gifs{last}</screen>
2269 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2270 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="downgrade-http-version">
2271 <title>downgrade-http-version</title>
2275 <term>Typical use:</term>
2277 <para>Work around (very rare) problems with HTTP/1.1</para>
2282 <term>Effect:</term>
2285 Downgrades HTTP/1.1 client requests and server replies to HTTP/1.0.
2292 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2294 <para>Boolean.</para>
2299 <term>Parameter:</term>
2311 This is a left-over from the time when <application>Privoxy</application>
2312 didn't support important HTTP/1.1 features well. It is left here for the
2313 unlikely case that you experience HTTP/1.1 related problems with some server
2314 out there. Not all (optional) HTTP/1.1 features are supported yet, so there
2315 is a chance you might need this action.
2321 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
2324 <screen>{+downgrade-http-version}
2325 problem-host.example.com</screen>
2333 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2334 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="fast-redirects">
2335 <title>fast-redirects</title>
2339 <term>Typical use:</term>
2341 <para>Fool some click-tracking scripts and speed up indirect links</para>
2346 <term>Effect:</term>
2349 Cut off all but the last valid URL from requests.
2356 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2358 <para>Boolean.</para>
2363 <term>Parameter:</term>
2375 Many sites, like yahoo.com, don't just link to other sites. Instead, they
2376 will link to some script on their own servers, giving the destination as a
2377 parameter, which will then redirect you to the final target. URLs
2378 resulting from this scheme typically look like:
2379 <emphasis>http://some.place/click-tracker.cgi?target=http://some.where.else</emphasis>.
2382 Sometimes, there are even multiple consecutive redirects encoded in the
2383 URL. These redirections via scripts make your web browsing more traceable,
2384 since the server from which you follow such a link can see where you go
2385 to. Apart from that, valuable bandwidth and time is wasted, while your
2386 browser ask the server for one redirect after the other. Plus, it feeds
2390 This feature is currently not very smart and is scheduled for improvement.
2391 It is likely to break some sites. You should expect to need possibly
2392 many exceptions to this action, if it is enabled by default in
2393 <filename>default.action</filename>. Some sites just don't work without
2400 <term>Example usage:</term>
2403 <screen>{+fast-redirects}</screen>
2412 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2413 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="filter">
2414 <title>filter</title>
2418 <term>Typical use:</term>
2420 <para>Get rid of HTML and JavaScript annoyances, banner advertisements (by size), do fun text replacements, etc.</para>
2425 <term>Effect:</term>
2428 Text documents, including HTML and JavaScript, to which this action
2429 applies, are filtered on-the-fly through the specified regular expression
2430 based substitutions.
2437 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2439 <para>Parameterized.</para>
2444 <term>Parameter:</term>
2447 The name of a filter, as defined in the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file</link>
2448 (typically <filename>default.filter</filename>, set by the
2449 <literal><link linkend="filterfile">filterfile</link></literal>
2450 option in the <link linkend="config">config file</link>). Filtering
2451 can be completely disabled without the use of parameters.
2460 For your convenience, there are a number of pre-defined filters available
2461 in the distribution filter file that you can use. See the examples below for
2465 This is potentially a very powerful feature! But <quote>rolling your own</quote>
2466 filters requires a knowledge of regular expressions and HTML.
2469 Filtering requires buffering the page content, which may appear to
2470 slow down page rendering since nothing is displayed until all content has
2471 passed the filters. (It does not really take longer, but seems that way
2472 since the page is not incrementally displayed.) This effect will be more
2473 noticeable on slower connections.
2476 The amount of data that can be filtered is limited to the
2477 <literal><link linkend="buffer-limit">buffer-limit</link></literal>
2478 option in the main <link linkend="config">config file</link>. The
2479 default is 4096 KB (4 Megs). Once this limit is exceeded, the buffered
2480 data, and all pending data, is passed through unfiltered. Inappropriate
2481 MIME types are not filtered.
2484 At this time, <application>Privoxy</application> cannot (yet!) uncompress compressed
2485 documents. If you want filtering to work on all documents, even those that
2486 would normally be sent compressed, use the
2487 <literal><link linkend="prevent-compression">prevent-compression</link></literal>
2488 action in conjunction with <literal>filter</literal>.
2491 Filtering can achieve some of the same effects as the
2492 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>
2493 action, i.e. it can be used to block ads and banners. But the mechanism
2494 works quite differently. One effective use, is to block ad banners
2495 based on their size (see below), since many of these seem to be somewhat
2499 <link linkend="contact">Feedback</link> with suggestions for new or
2500 improved filters is particularly welcome!
2506 <term>Example usage (with filters from the distribution <filename>default.filter</filename> file):</term>
2509 <anchor id="filter-html-annoyances">
2510 <screen>+filter{html-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying HTML abuse.</screen>
2513 <anchor id="filter-js-annoyances">
2514 <screen>+filter{js-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse</screen>
2517 <anchor id="filter-banners-by-size">
2518 <screen>+filter{banners-by-size} # Kill banners based on their size for this page (<emphasis>very</emphasis> efficient!)</screen>
2521 <anchor id="filter-banners-by-link">
2522 <screen>+filter{banners-by-link} # Kill banners based on the link they are contained in (experimental)</screen>
2525 <anchor id="filter-img-reorder">
2526 <screen>+filter{img-reorder} # Reorder attributes in <img> tags to make the banners-by-* filters more effective</screen>
2529 <anchor id="filter-content-cookies">
2530 <screen>+filter{content-cookies} # Kill cookies that come sneaking in the HTML or JS content</screen>
2533 <anchor id="filter-popups">
2534 <screen>+filter{popups} # Kill all popups in JS and HTML</screen>
2537 <anchor id="filter-webbugs">
2538 <screen>+filter{webbugs} # Squish WebBugs (1x1 invisible GIFs used for user tracking)</screen>
2541 <anchor id="filter-fun">
2542 <screen>+filter{fun} # Text replacements for subversive browsing fun!</screen>
2545 <anchor id="filter-frameset-borders">
2546 <screen>+filter{frameset-borders} # Give frames a border and make them resizeable</screen>
2549 <anchor id="filter-refresh-tags">
2550 <screen>+filter{refresh-tags} # Kill automatic refresh tags (for dial-on-demand setups)</screen>
2553 <anchor id="filter-nimda">
2554 <screen>+filter{nimda} # Remove Nimda (virus) code.</screen>
2557 <anchor id="filter-shockwave-flash">
2558 <screen>+filter{shockwave-flash} # Kill embedded Shockwave Flash objects</screen>
2561 <anchor id="filter-crude-parental">
2562 <screen>+filter{crude-parental} # Kill all web pages that contain the words "sex" or "warez"</screen>
2565 <anchor id="filter-js-events">
2566 <screen>+filter{js-events} # Kill all JS event bindings (<emphasis>Radically destructive!</emphasis> Only for extra nasty sites) </screen>
2574 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2575 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="handle-as-image">
2576 <title>handle-as-image</title>
2580 <term>Typical use:</term>
2582 <para>Mark URLs as belonging to images (so they'll be replaced by images <emphasis>if they get blocked</emphasis>)</para>
2587 <term>Effect:</term>
2590 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. It just marks URLs as images.
2591 If the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action <emphasis>also applies</emphasis>,
2592 the presence or absence of this mark decides whether an HTML <quote>blocked</quote>
2593 page, or a replacement image (as determined by the <literal><link
2594 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal> action) will be sent to the
2595 client as a substitute for the blocked content.
2602 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
2604 <para>Boolean.</para>
2609 <term>Parameter:</term>
2621 The below generic example section is actually part of <filename>default.action</filename>.
2622 It marks all URLs with well-known image file name extensions as images and should
2626 Users will probably only want to use the handle-as-image action in conjunction with
2627 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>, to block sources of banners, whose URLs don't
2628 reflect the file type, like in the second example section.
2631 Note that you cannot treat HTML pages as images in most cases. For instance, (in-line) ad
2632 frames require an HTML page to be sent, or they won't display properly.
2633 Forcing <literal>handle-as-image</literal> in this situation will not replace the
2634 ad frame with an image, but lead to error messages.
2640 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
2643 <screen># Generic image extensions:
2646 /.*\.(gif|jpg|jpeg|png|bmp|ico)$
2648 # These don't look like images, but they're banners and should be
2649 # blocked as images:
2651 {+block +handle-as-image}
2652 some.nasty-banner-server.com/junk.cgi?output=trash
2654 # Banner source! Who cares if they also have non-image content?
2664 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2665 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-forwarded-for-headers">
2666 <title>hide-forwarded-for-headers</title>
2670 <term>Typical use:</term>
2672 <para>Improve privacy by hiding the true source of the request</para>
2677 <term>Effect:</term>
2680 Deletes any existing <quote>X-Forwarded-for:</quote> HTTP header from client requests,
2681 and prevents adding a new one.
2688 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
2690 <para>Boolean.</para>
2695 <term>Parameter:</term>
2707 It is fairly safe to leave this on.
2710 This action is scheduled for improvement: It should be able to generate forged
2711 <quote>X-Forwarded-for:</quote> headers using random IP addresses from a specified network,
2712 to make successive requests from the same client look like requests from a pool of different
2713 users sharing the same proxy.
2719 <term>Example usage:</term>
2722 <screen>+hide-forwarded-for-headers</screen>
2730 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2731 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-from-header">
2732 <title>hide-from-header</title>
2736 <term>Typical use:</term>
2738 <para>Keep your (old and ill) browser from telling web servers your email address</para>
2743 <term>Effect:</term>
2746 Deletes any existing <quote>From:</quote> HTTP header, or replaces it with the
2754 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
2756 <para>Parameterized.</para>
2761 <term>Parameter:</term>
2764 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
2773 The keyword <quote>block</quote> will completely remove the header
2774 (not to be confused with the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>
2778 Alternately, you can specify any value you prefer to be sent to the web
2779 server. If you do, it is a matter of fairness not to use any address that
2780 is actually used by a real person.
2783 This action is rarely needed, as modern web browsers don't send
2784 <quote>From:</quote> headers anymore.
2790 <term>Example usage:</term>
2793 <screen>+hide-from-header{block}</screen> or
2794 <screen>+hide-from-header{spam-me-senseless@sittingduck.example.com}</screen>
2802 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2803 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-referrer">
2804 <title>hide-referrer</title>
2805 <anchor id="hide-referer">
2808 <term>Typical use:</term>
2810 <para>Conceal which link you followed to get to a particular site</para>
2815 <term>Effect:</term>
2818 Deletes the <quote>Referer:</quote> (sic) HTTP header from the client request,
2819 or replaces it with a forged one.
2826 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
2828 <para>Parameterized.</para>
2833 <term>Parameter:</term>
2837 <para><quote>block</quote> to delete the header completely.</para>
2840 <para><quote>forge</quote> to pretend to be coming from the homepage of the server we are talking to.</para>
2843 <para>Any other string to set a user defined referrer.</para>
2853 <quote>forge</quote> is the preferred option here, since some servers will
2854 not send images back otherwise, in an attempt to prevent their valuable
2855 content from being embedded elsewhere (and hence, without being surrounded
2856 by <emphasis>their</emphasis> banners).
2859 <literal>hide-referer</literal> is an alternate spelling of
2860 <literal>hide-referrer</literal> and the two can be can be freely
2861 substituted with each other. (<quote>referrer</quote> is the
2862 correct English spelling, however the HTTP specification has a bug - it
2863 requires it to be spelled as <quote>referer</quote>.)
2869 <term>Example usage:</term>
2872 <screen>+hide-referrer{forge}</screen> or
2873 <screen>+hide-referrer{http://www.yahoo.com/}</screen>
2881 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2882 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-user-agent">
2883 <title>hide-user-agent</title>
2887 <term>Typical use:</term>
2889 <para>Conceal your type of browser and client operating system</para>
2894 <term>Effect:</term>
2897 Replaces the value of the <quote>User-Agent:</quote> HTTP header
2898 in client requests with the specified value.
2905 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
2907 <para>Parameterized.</para>
2912 <term>Parameter:</term>
2915 Any user-defined string.
2925 This breaks many web sites that depend on looking at this header in order
2926 to customize their content for different browsers (which, by the
2927 way, is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> a <ulink
2928 url="http://www.javascriptkit.com/javaindex.shtml">smart way to do
2933 Using this action in multi-user setups or wherever different types of
2934 browsers will access the same <application>Privoxy</application> is
2935 <emphasis>not recommended</emphasis>. In single-user, single-browser
2936 setups, you might use it to delete your OS version information from
2937 the headers, because it is an invitation to exploit known bugs for your
2938 OS. It is also occasionally useful to forge this in order to access
2939 sites that won't let you in otherwise (though there may be a good
2940 reason in some cases). Example of this: some MSN sites will not
2941 let <application>Mozilla</application> enter, yet forging to a
2942 <application>Netscape 6.1</application> user-agent works just fine.
2943 (Must be just a silly MS goof, I'm sure :-).
2946 This action is scheduled for improvement.
2952 <term>Example usage:</term>
2955 <screen>+hide-user-agent{Netscape 6.1 (X11; I; Linux 2.4.18 i686)}</screen>
2963 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2964 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="kill-popups">
2965 <title>kill-popups<anchor id="kill-popup"></title>
2969 <term>Typical use:</term>
2971 <para>Eliminate those annoying pop-up windows</para>
2976 <term>Effect:</term>
2979 While loading the document, replace JavaScript code that opens
2980 pop-up windows with (syntactically neutral) dummy code on the fly.
2987 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
2989 <para>Boolean.</para>
2994 <term>Parameter:</term>
3006 This action is easily confused with the built-in, hardwired <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>
3007 action, but there are important differences: For <literal>kill-popups</literal>,
3008 the document need not be buffered, so it can be incrementally rendered while
3009 downloading. But <literal>kill-popups</literal> doesn't catch as many pop-ups as
3011 linkend="filter">filter</link>{<replaceable>popups</replaceable>}</literal>
3015 Think of it as a fast and efficient replacement for a filter that you
3016 can use if you don't want any filtering at all. Note that it doesn't make
3017 sense to combine it with any <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> action,
3018 since as soon as one <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> applies,
3019 the whole document needs to be buffered anyway, which destroys the advantage of
3020 the <literal>kill-popups</literal> action over its filter equivalent.
3023 Killing all pop-ups is a dangerous business. Many shops and banks rely on
3024 pop-ups to display forms, shopping carts etc, and killing only the unwanted pop-ups
3025 would require artificial intelligence in <application>Privoxy</application>.
3026 If the only kind of pop-ups that you want to kill are exit consoles (those
3027 <emphasis>really nasty</emphasis> windows that appear when you close an other
3028 one), you might want to use
3030 linkend="filter">filter</link>{<replaceable>js-annoyances</replaceable>}</literal>
3036 An alternate spelling is <literal>+kill-popup</literal>, which is
3044 <term>Example usage:</term>
3046 <para><screen>+kill-popups</screen></para>
3053 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3054 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="limit-connect">
3055 <title>limit-connect</title>
3059 <term>Typical use:</term>
3061 <para>Prevent abuse of <application>Privoxy</application> as a TCP proxy relay</para>
3066 <term>Effect:</term>
3069 Specifies to which ports HTTP CONNECT requests are allowable.
3076 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3078 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3083 <term>Parameter:</term>
3086 A comma-separated list of ports or port ranges (the latter using dashes, with the minimum
3087 defaulting to 0 and the maximum to 65K).
3096 By default, i.e. if no <literal>limit-connect</literal> action applies,
3097 <application>Privoxy</application> only allows HTTP CONNECT
3098 requests to port 443 (the standard, secure HTTPS port). Use
3099 <literal>limit-connect</literal> if more fine-grained control is desired
3100 for some or all destinations.
3103 The CONNECT methods exists in HTTP to allow access to secure websites
3104 (<quote>https://</quote> URLs) through proxies. It works very simply:
3105 the proxy connects to the server on the specified port, and then
3106 short-circuits its connections to the client and to the remote server.
3107 This can be a big security hole, since CONNECT-enabled proxies can be
3108 abused as TCP relays very easily.
3111 If you don't know what any of this means, there probably is no reason to
3112 change this one, since the default is already very restrictive.
3118 <term>Example usages:</term>
3120 <!-- I had trouble getting the spacing to look right in my browser -->
3121 <!-- I probably have the wrong font setup, bollocks. -->
3122 <!-- Apparently the emphasis tag uses a proportional font no matter what -->
3124 <screen>+limit-connect{443} # This is the default and need not be specified.
3125 +limit-connect{80,443} # Ports 80 and 443 are OK.
3126 +limit-connect{-3, 7, 20-100, 500-} # Ports less than 3, 7, 20 to 100 and above 500 are OK.
3127 +limit-connect{-} # All ports are OK (gaping security hole!)</screen>
3134 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3135 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="prevent-compression">
3136 <title>prevent-compression</title>
3140 <term>Typical use:</term>
3143 Ensure that servers send the content uncompressed, so it can be
3144 passed through <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>s
3150 <term>Effect:</term>
3153 Adds a header to the request that asks for uncompressed transfer.
3160 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3162 <para>Boolean.</para>
3167 <term>Parameter:</term>
3179 More and more websites send their content compressed by default, which
3180 is generally a good idea and saves bandwidth. But for the <literal><link
3181 linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>, <literal><link linkend="deanimate-gifs">deanimate-gifs</link></literal>
3182 and <literal><link linkend="kill-popups">kill-popups</link></literal> actions to work,
3183 <application>Privoxy</application> needs access to the uncompressed data.
3184 Unfortunately, <application>Privoxy</application> can't yet(!) uncompress, filter, and
3185 re-compress the content on the fly. So if you want to ensure that all websites, including
3186 those that normally compress, can be filtered, you need to use this action.
3189 This will slow down transfers from those websites, though. If you use any of the above-mentioned
3190 actions, you will typically want to use <literal>prevent-compression</literal> in conjunction
3194 Note that some (rare) ill-configured sites don't handle requests for uncompressed
3195 documents correctly (they send an empty document body). If you use <literal>prevent-compression</literal>
3196 per default, you'll have to add exceptions for those sites. See the example for how to do that.
3202 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
3205 <screen># Set default:
3207 {+prevent-compression}
3210 # Make exceptions for ill sites:
3212 {-prevent-compression}
3214 www.pclinuxonline.com</screen>
3223 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3224 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="send-vanilla-wafer">
3225 <title>send-vanilla-wafer</title>
3229 <term>Typical use:</term>
3232 Feed log analysis scripts with useless data.
3238 <term>Effect:</term>
3241 Sends a cookie with each request stating that you do not accept any copyright
3242 on cookies sent to you, and asking the site operator not to track you.
3249 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3251 <para>Boolean.</para>
3256 <term>Parameter:</term>
3268 The vanilla wafer is a (relatively) unique header and could conceivably be used to track you.
3271 This action is rarely used and not enabled in the default configuration.
3277 <term>Example usage:</term>
3280 <screen>+send-vanilla-wafer</screen>
3289 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3290 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="send-wafer">
3291 <title>send-wafer</title>
3295 <term>Typical use:</term>
3298 Send custom cookies or feed log analysis scripts with even more useless data.
3304 <term>Effect:</term>
3307 Sends a custom, user-defined cookie with each request.
3314 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3316 <para>Multi-value.</para>
3321 <term>Parameter:</term>
3324 A string of the form <quote><replaceable class="option">name</replaceable>=<replaceable
3325 class="parameter">value</replaceable></quote>.
3334 Being multi-valued, multiple instances of this action can apply to the same request,
3335 resulting in multiple cookies being sent.
3338 This action is rarely used and not enabled in the default configuration.
3343 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3346 <screen>{+send-wafer{UsingPrivoxy=true}}
3347 my-internal-testing-server.void</screen>
3355 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3356 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="session-cookies-only">
3357 <title>session-cookies-only</title>
3361 <term>Typical use:</term>
3364 Allow only temporary <quote>session</quote> cookies (for the current browser session <emphasis>only</emphasis>).
3370 <term>Effect:</term>
3373 Deletes the <quote>expires</quote> field from <quote>Set-Cookie:</quote> server headers.
3374 Most browsers will not store such cookies permanently and forget them in between sessions.
3381 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3383 <para>Boolean.</para>
3388 <term>Parameter:</term>
3400 This is less strict than <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal> /
3401 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal> and allows you to browse
3402 websites that insist or rely on setting cookies, without compromising your privacy too badly.
3405 Most browsers will not permanently store cookies that have been processed by
3406 <literal>session-cookies-only</literal> and will forget about them between sessions.
3407 This makes profiling cookies useless, but won't break sites which require cookies so
3408 that you can log in for transactions. This is generally turned on for all
3409 sites, and is the recommended setting.
3412 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use <literal>session-cookies-only</literal>
3413 together with <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal> or
3414 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>. If you do, cookies
3415 will be plainly killed.
3418 Note that it is up to the browser how it handles such cookies without an <quote>expires</quote>
3419 field. If you use an exotic browser, you might want to try it out to be sure.
3425 <term>Example usage:</term>
3428 <screen>+session-cookies-only</screen>
3436 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3437 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="set-image-blocker">
3438 <title>set-image-blocker</title>
3442 <term>Typical use:</term>
3444 <para>Choose the replacement for blocked images</para>
3449 <term>Effect:</term>
3452 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. If <emphasis>both</emphasis>
3453 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> <emphasis>and</emphasis> <literal><link
3454 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> <emphasis>also</emphasis>
3455 apply, i.e. if the request is to be blocked as an image,
3456 <emphasis>then</emphasis> the parameter of this action decides what will be
3457 sent as a replacement.
3464 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3466 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3471 <term>Parameter:</term>
3476 <quote>pattern</quote> to send a built-in checkerboard pattern image. The image is visually
3477 decent, scales very well, and makes it obvious where banners were busted.
3482 <quote>blank</quote> to send a built-in transparent image. This makes banners disappear
3483 completely, but makes it hard to detect where <application>Privoxy</application> has blocked
3484 images on a given page and complicates troubleshooting if <application>Privoxy</application>
3485 has blocked innocent images, like navigation icons.
3490 <quote><replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable></quote> to
3491 send a redirect to <replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable>. You can redirect
3492 to any image anywhere, even in your local filesystem (via <quote>file:///</quote> URL).
3495 A good application of redirects is to use special <application>Privoxy</application>-built-in
3496 URLs, which send the built-in images, as <replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable>.
3497 This has the same visual effect as specifying <quote>blank</quote> or <quote>pattern</quote> in
3498 the first place, but enables your browser to cache the replacement image, instead of requesting
3499 it over and over again.
3510 The URLs for the built-in images are <quote>http://config.privoxy.org/send-banner?type=<replaceable
3511 class="parameter">type</replaceable></quote>, where <replaceable class="parameter">type</replaceable> is
3512 either <quote>blank</quote> or <quote>pattern</quote>.
3515 There is a third (advanced) type, called <quote>auto</quote>. It is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> to be
3516 used in <literal>set-image-blocker</literal>, but meant for use from <link linkend="filter-file">filters</link>.
3517 Auto will select the type of image that would have applied to the referring page, had it been an image.
3523 <term>Example usage:</term>
3529 <screen>+set-image-blocker{pattern}</screen>
3532 Redirect to the BSD devil:
3535 <screen>+set-image-blocker{http://www.freebsd.org/gifs/dae_up3.gif}</screen>
3538 Redirect to the built-in pattern for better caching:
3541 <screen>+set-image-blocker{http://config.privoxy.org/send-banner?type=pattern}</screen>
3549 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3551 <title>Summary</title>
3553 Note that many of these actions have the potential to cause a page to
3554 misbehave, possibly even not to display at all. There are many ways
3555 a site designer may choose to design his site, and what HTTP header
3556 content, and other criteria, he may depend on. There is no way to have hard
3557 and fast rules for all sites. See the <link
3558 linkend="ACTIONSANAT">Appendix</link> for a brief example on troubleshooting
3564 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3565 <sect2 id="aliases">
3566 <title>Aliases</title>
3568 Custom <quote>actions</quote>, known to <application>Privoxy</application>
3569 as <quote>aliases</quote>, can be defined by combining other actions.
3570 These can in turn be invoked just like the built-in actions.
3571 Currently, an alias name can contain any character except space, tab,
3573 <quote>{</quote> and <quote>}</quote>, but we <emphasis>strongly
3574 recommend</emphasis> that you only use <quote>a</quote> to <quote>z</quote>,
3575 <quote>0</quote> to <quote>9</quote>, <quote>+</quote>, and <quote>-</quote>.
3576 Alias names are not case sensitive, and are not required to start with a
3577 <quote>+</quote> or <quote>-</quote> sign, since they are merely textually
3581 Aliases can be used throughout the actions file, but they <emphasis>must be
3582 defined in a special section at the top of the file!</emphasis>
3583 And there can only be one such section per actions file. Each actions file may
3584 have its own alias section, and the aliases defined in it are only visible
3588 There are two main reasons to use aliases: One is to save typing for frequently
3589 used combinations of actions, the other one is a gain in flexibility: If you
3590 decide once how you want to handle shops by defining an alias called
3591 <quote>shop</quote>, you can later change your policy on shops in
3592 <emphasis>one</emphasis> place, and your changes will take effect everywhere
3593 in the actions file where the <quote>shop</quote> alias is used. Calling aliases
3594 by their purpose also makes your actions files more readable.
3597 Currently, there is one big drawback to using aliases, though:
3598 <application>Privoxy</application>'s built-in web-based action file
3599 editor honors aliases when reading the actions files, but it expands
3600 them before writing. So the effects of your aliases are of course preserved,
3601 but the aliases themselves are lost when you edit sections that use aliases
3603 This is likely to change in future versions of <application>Privoxy</application>.
3607 Now let's define some aliases...
3612 # Useful custom aliases we can use later.
3614 # Note the (required!) section header line and that this section
3615 # must be at the top of the actions file!
3619 # These aliases just save typing later:
3620 # (Note that some already use other aliases!)
3622 +crunch-all-cookies = +crunch-incoming-cookies +crunch-outgoing-cookies
3623 -crunch-all-cookies = -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-cookies
3624 block-as-image = +block +handle-as-image
3625 mercy-for-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -session-cookies-only
3627 # These aliases define combinations of actions
3628 # that are useful for certain types of sites:
3630 fragile = -block -crunch-all-cookies -filter -fast-redirects -hide-referer -kill-popups
3631 shop = -crunch-all-cookies -filter{popups} -kill-popups
3633 # Short names for other aliases, for really lazy people ;-)
3635 c0 = +crunch-all-cookies
3636 c1 = -crunch-all-cookies</screen>
3640 ...and put them to use. These sections would appear in the lower part of an
3641 actions file and define exceptions to the default actions (as specified further
3642 up for the <quote>/</quote> pattern):
3647 # These sites are either very complex or very keen on
3648 # user data and require minimal interference to work:
3651 .office.microsoft.com
3652 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com
3656 # Allow cookies (for setting and retrieving your customer data)
3660 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
3663 # These shops require pop-ups:
3665 {shop -kill-popups -filter{popups}}
3667 .overclockers.co.uk</screen>
3671 Aliases like <quote>shop</quote> and <quote>fragile</quote> are often used for
3672 <quote>problem</quote> sites that require some actions to be disabled
3673 in order to function properly.
3677 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3678 <sect2 id="act-examples">
3679 <title>Actions Files Tutorial</title>
3681 The above chapters have shown <link linkend="actions-file">which actions files
3682 there are and how they are organized</link>, how actions are <link
3683 linkend="actions">specified</link> and <link linkend="actions-apply">applied
3684 to URLs</link>, how <link linkend="af-patterns">patterns</link> work, and how to
3685 define and use <link linkend="aliases">aliases</link>. Now, let's look at an
3686 example <filename>default.action</filename> and <filename>user.action</filename>
3687 file and see how all these pieces come together:
3690 <sect3><title>default.action</title>
3693 Every config file should start with a short comment stating its purpose:
3697 <screen># Sample default.action file <developers@privoxy.org></screen>
3701 Then, since this is the <filename>default.action</filename> file, the
3702 first section is a special section for internal use that you needn't
3703 change or worry about:
3708 ##########################################################################
3709 # Settings -- Don't change! For internal Privoxy use ONLY.
3710 ##########################################################################
3713 for-privoxy-version=3.0</screen>
3717 After that comes the (optional) alias section. We'll use the example
3718 section from the above <link linkend="aliases">chapter on aliases</link>,
3719 that also explains why and how aliases are used:
3724 ##########################################################################
3726 ##########################################################################
3729 # These aliases just save typing later:
3730 # (Note that some already use other aliases!)
3732 +crunch-all-cookies = +crunch-incoming-cookies +crunch-outgoing-cookies
3733 -crunch-all-cookies = -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-cookies
3734 block-as-image = +block +handle-as-image
3735 mercy-for-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -session-cookies-only
3737 # These aliases define combinations of actions
3738 # that are useful for certain types of sites:
3740 fragile = -block -crunch-all-cookies -filter -fast-redirects -hide-referer -kill-popups
3741 shop = mercy-for-cookies -filter{popups} -kill-popups</screen>
3745 Now come the regular sections, i.e. sets of actions, accompanied
3746 by URL patterns to which they apply. Remember <emphasis>all actions
3747 are disabled when matching starts</emphasis>, so we have to explicitly
3748 enable the ones we want.
3752 The first regular section is probably the most important. It has only
3753 one pattern, <quote><literal>/</literal></quote>, but this pattern
3754 <link linkend="af-patterns">matches all URLs</link>. Therefore, the
3755 set of actions used in this <quote>default</quote> section <emphasis>will
3756 be applied to all requests as a start</emphasis>. It can be partly or
3757 wholly overridden by later matches further down this file, or in user.action,
3758 but it will still be largely responsible for your overall browsing
3763 Again, at the start of matching, all actions are disabled, so there is
3764 no real need to disable any actions here, but we will do that nonetheless,
3765 to have a complete listing for your reference. (Remember: a <quote>+</quote>
3766 preceding the action name enables the action, a <quote>-</quote> disables!).
3767 Also note how this long line has been made more readable by splitting it into
3768 multiple lines with line continuation.
3773 ##########################################################################
3774 # "Defaults" section:
3775 ##########################################################################
3777 -<link linkend="ADD-HEADER">add-header</link> \
3778 -<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> \
3779 -<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> \
3780 -<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link> \
3781 +<link linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS">deanimate-gifs</link> \
3782 -<link linkend="DOWNGRADE-HTTP-VERSION">downgrade-http-version</link> \
3783 +<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link> \
3784 +<link linkend="FILTER-HTML-ANNOYANCES">filter{html-annoyances}</link> \
3785 +<link linkend="FILTER-JS-ANNOYANCES">filter{js-annoyances}</link> \
3786 -<link linkend="FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</link> \
3787 +<link linkend="FILTER-POPUPS">filter{popups}</link> \
3788 +<link linkend="FILTER-WEBBUGS">filter{webbugs}</link> \
3789 -<link linkend="FILTER-REFRESH-TAGS">filter{refresh-tags}</link> \
3790 -<link linkend="FILTER-FUN">filter{fun}</link> \
3791 +<link linkend="FILTER-NIMDA">filter{nimda}</link> \
3792 +<link linkend="FILTER-BANNERS-BY-SIZE">filter{banners-by-size}</link> \
3793 -<link linkend="FILTER-BANNERS-BY-LINK">filter{banners-by-link}</link> \
3794 -<link linkend="FILTER-IMG-REORDER">filter{img-reorder}</link> \
3795 -<link linkend="FILTER-SHOCKWAVE-FLASH">filter{shockwave-flash}</link> \
3796 -<link linkend="FILTER-CRUDE-PARENTAL">filter{crude-parental}</link> \
3797 -<link linkend="FILTER-JS-EVENTS">filter{js-events}</link> \
3798 -<link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">handle-as-image</link> \
3799 +<link linkend="HIDE-FORWARDED-FOR-HEADERS">hide-forwarded-for-headers</link> \
3800 +<link linkend="HIDE-FROM-HEADER">hide-from-header{block}</link> \
3801 +<link linkend="HIDE-REFERER">hide-referrer{forge}</link> \
3802 -<link linkend="HIDE-USER-AGENT">hide-user-agent</link> \
3803 -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link> \
3804 -<link linkend="LIMIT-CONNECT">limit-connect</link> \
3805 +<link linkend="PREVENT-COMPRESSION">prevent-compression</link> \
3806 -<link linkend="SEND-VANILLA-WAFER">send-vanilla-wafer</link> \
3807 -<link linkend="SEND-WAFER">send-wafer</link> \
3808 +<link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> \
3809 +<link linkend="SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER">set-image-blocker{pattern}</link> \
3811 / # forward slash will match *all* potential URL patterns.</screen>
3815 The default behavior is now set. Note that some actions, like not hiding
3816 the user agent, are part of a <quote>general policy</quote> that applies
3817 universally and won't get any exceptions defined later. Other choices,
3818 like not blocking (which is <emphasis>understandably</emphasis> the
3819 default!) need exceptions, i.e. we need to specify explicitly what we
3820 want to block in later sections.
3821 We will also want to make exceptions from our general pop-up-killing,
3822 and use our defined aliases for that.
3826 The first of our specialized sections is concerned with <quote>fragile</quote>
3827 sites, i.e. sites that require minimum interference, because they are either
3828 very complex or very keen on tracking you (and have mechanisms in place that
3829 make them unusable for people who avoid being tracked). We will simply use
3830 our pre-defined <literal>fragile</literal> alias instead of stating the list
3831 of actions explicitly:
3836 ##########################################################################
3837 # Exceptions for sites that'll break under the default action set:
3838 ##########################################################################
3840 # "Fragile" Use a minimum set of actions for these sites (see alias above):
3843 .office.microsoft.com # surprise, surprise!
3844 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com</screen>
3848 Shopping sites are not as fragile, but they typically
3849 require cookies to log in, and pop-up windows for shopping
3850 carts or item details. Again, we'll use a pre-defined alias:
3859 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
3861 .scan.co.uk</screen>
3865 Then, there are sites which rely on pop-up windows (yuck!) to work.
3866 Since we made pop-up-killing our default above, we need to make exceptions
3867 now. <ulink url="http://www.mozilla.org/">Mozilla</ulink> users, who
3868 can turn on smart handling of unwanted pop-ups in their browsers, can
3870 -<literal><link linkend="FILTER-POPUPS">filter{popups}</link></literal> (and
3871 -<literal><link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link></literal>) above
3872 and hence don't need this section. Anyway, disabling an already disabled
3873 action doesn't hurt, so we'll define our exceptions regardless of what was
3874 chosen in the defaults section:
3879 # These sites require pop-ups too :(
3881 { -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link> -<link linkend="FILTER-POPUPS">filter{popups}</link> }
3884 .deutsche-bank-24.de</screen>
3888 The <literal><link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link></literal>
3889 action, which we enabled per default above, breaks some sites. So disable
3890 it for popular sites where we know it misbehaves:
3895 { -<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link> }
3899 .altavista.com/.*(like|url|link):http
3900 .altavista.com/trans.*urltext=http
3901 .nytimes.com</screen>
3905 It is important that <application>Privoxy</application> knows which
3906 URLs belong to images, so that <emphasis>if</emphasis> they are to
3907 be blocked, a substitute image can be sent, rather than an HTML page.
3908 Contacting the remote site to find out is not an option, since it
3909 would destroy the loading time advantage of banner blocking, and it
3910 would feed the advertisers (in terms of money <emphasis>and</emphasis>
3911 information). We can mark any URL as an image with the <literal><link
3912 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> action,
3913 and marking all URLs that end in a known image file extension is a
3919 ##########################################################################
3921 ##########################################################################
3923 # Define which file types will be treated as images, in case they get
3924 # blocked further down this file:
3926 { +<link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">handle-as-image</link> }
3927 /.*\.(gif|jpe?g|png|bmp|ico)$</screen>
3931 And then there are known banner sources. They often use scripts to
3932 generate the banners, so it won't be visible from the URL that the
3933 request is for an image. Hence we block them <emphasis>and</emphasis>
3934 mark them as images in one go, with the help of our
3935 <literal>block-as-image</literal> alias defined above. (We could of
3936 course just as well use <literal>+<link linkend="block">block</link>
3937 +<link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> here.)
3938 Remember that the type of the replacement image is chosen by the
3939 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>
3940 action. Since all URLs have matched the default section with its
3941 <literal>+<link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link>{pattern}</literal>
3942 action before, it still applies and needn't be repeated:
3947 # Known ad generators:
3952 .ad.*.doubleclick.net
3953 .a.yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$
3954 .a[0-9].yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$
3961 One of the most important jobs of <application>Privoxy</application>
3962 is to block banners. A huge bunch of them are already <quote>blocked</quote>
3963 by the <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link>{banners-by-size}</literal>
3964 action, which we enabled above, and which deletes the references to banner
3965 images from the pages while they are loaded, so the browser doesn't request
3966 them anymore, and hence they don't need to be blocked here. But this naturally
3967 doesn't catch all banners, and some people choose not to use filters, so we
3968 need a comprehensive list of patterns for banner URLs here, and apply the
3969 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action to them.
3972 First comes a bunch of generic patterns, which do most of the work, by
3973 matching typical domain and path name components of banners. Then comes
3974 a list of individual patterns for specific sites, which is omitted here
3975 to keep the example short:
3980 ##########################################################################
3981 # Block these fine banners:
3982 ##########################################################################
3983 { <link linkend="BLOCK">+block</link> }
3991 /.*count(er)?\.(pl|cgi|exe|dll|asp|php[34]?)
3992 /(?:.*/)?(publicite|werbung|rekla(ma|me|am)|annonse|maino(kset|nta|s)?)/
3994 # Site-specific patterns (abbreviated):
3996 .hitbox.com</screen>
4000 You wouldn't believe how many advertisers actually call their banner
4001 servers ads.<replaceable>company</replaceable>.com, or call the directory
4002 in which the banners are stored simply <quote>banners</quote>. So the above
4003 generic patterns are surprisingly effective.
4006 But being very generic, they necessarily also catch URLs that we don't want
4007 to block. The pattern <literal>.*ads.</literal> e.g. catches
4008 <quote>nasty-<emphasis>ads</emphasis>.nasty-corp.com</quote> as intended,
4009 but also <quote>downlo<emphasis>ads</emphasis>.sourcefroge.net</quote> or
4010 <quote><emphasis>ads</emphasis>l.some-provider.net.</quote> So here come some
4011 well-known exceptions to the <literal>+<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal>
4015 Note that these are exceptions to exceptions from the default! Consider the URL
4016 <quote>downloads.sourcefroge.net</quote>: Initially, all actions are deactivated,
4017 so it wouldn't get blocked. Then comes the defaults section, which matches the
4018 URL, but just deactivates the <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal>
4019 action once again. Then it matches <literal>.*ads.</literal>, an exception to the
4020 general non-blocking policy, and suddenly
4021 <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">+block</link></literal> applies. And now, it'll match
4022 <literal>.*loads.</literal>, where <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">-block</link></literal>
4023 applies, so (unless it matches <emphasis>again</emphasis> further down) it ends up
4024 with no <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal> action applying.
4029 ##########################################################################
4030 # Save some innocent victims of the above generic block patterns:
4031 ##########################################################################
4035 { -<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> }
4036 adv[io]*. # (for advogato.org and advice.*)
4037 adsl. # (has nothing to do with ads)
4038 ad[ud]*. # (adult.* and add.*)
4039 .edu # (universities don't host banners (yet!))
4040 .*loads. # (downloads, uploads etc)
4048 www.globalintersec.com/adv # (adv = advanced)
4049 www.ugu.com/sui/ugu/adv</screen>
4053 Filtering source code can have nasty side effects,
4054 so make an exception for our friends at sourceforge.net,
4055 and all paths with <quote>cvs</quote> in them. Note that
4056 <literal>-<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link></literal>
4057 disables <emphasis>all</emphasis> filters in one fell swoop!
4062 # Don't filter code!
4064 { -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> }
4066 .sourceforge.net</screen>
4070 The actual <filename>default.action</filename> is of course more
4071 comprehensive, but we hope this example made clear how it works.
4076 <sect3><title>user.action</title>
4079 So far we are painting with a broad brush by setting general policies,
4080 which would be a reasonable starting point for many people. Now,
4081 you might want to be more specific and have customized rules that
4082 are more suitable to your personal habits and preferences. These would
4083 be for narrowly defined situations like your ISP or your bank, and should
4084 be placed in <filename>user.action</filename>, which is parsed after all other
4085 actions files and hence has the last word, over-riding any previously
4086 defined actions. <filename>user.action</filename> is also a
4087 <emphasis>safe</emphasis> place for your personal settings, since
4088 <filename>default.action</filename> is actively maintained by the
4089 <application>Privoxy</application> developers and you'll probably want
4090 to install updated versions from time to time.
4094 So let's look at a few examples of things that one might typically do in
4095 <filename>user.action</filename>:
4099 <!-- brief sample user.action here -->
4103 # My user.action file. <fred@foobar.com></screen>
4107 As <link linkend="aliases">aliases</link> are local to the actions
4108 file that they are defined in, you can't use the ones from
4109 <filename>default.action</filename>, unless you repeat them here:
4114 # (Re-)define aliases for this file:
4117 -crunch-all-cookies = -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-cookies
4118 mercy-for-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -session-cookies-only
4119 fragile = -block -crunch-all-cookies -filter -fast-redirects -hide-referer -kill-popups
4120 shop = mercy-for-cookies -filter{popups} -kill-popups
4121 allow-ads = -block -filter{banners-by-size} # (see below)</screen>
4126 Say you have accounts on some sites that you visit regularly, and
4127 you don't want to have to log in manually each time. So you'd like
4128 to allow persistent cookies for these sites. The
4129 <literal>mercy-for-cookies</literal> alias defined above does exactly
4130 that, i.e. it disables crunching of cookies in any direction, and
4131 processing of cookies to make them temporary.
4136 { mercy-for-cookies }
4141 .redhat.com</screen>
4145 Your bank needs popups and is allergic to some filter, but you don't
4146 know which, so you disable them all:
4151 { -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link> }
4152 .your-home-banking-site.com</screen>
4156 While browsing the web with <application>Privoxy</application> you
4157 noticed some ads that sneaked through, but you were too lazy to
4158 report them through our fine and easy <link linkend="contact">feedback</link>
4159 system, so you have added them here:
4164 { +<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> }
4165 www.a-popular-site.com/some/unobvious/path
4166 another.popular.site.net/more/junk/here/</screen>
4170 Note that, assuming the banners in the above example have regular image
4171 extensions (most do),
4172 <literal>+<link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">handle-as-image</link></literal>
4173 need not be specified, since all URLs ending in these extensions will
4174 already have been tagged as images in the relevant section of
4175 <filename>default.action</filename> by now.
4179 Then you noticed that the default configuration breaks Forbes Magazine,
4180 but you were too lazy to find out which action is the culprit, and you
4181 were again too lazy to give <link linkend="contact">feedback</link>, so
4182 you just used the <literal>fragile</literal> alias on the site, and
4183 -- whoa! -- it worked:
4189 .forbes.com</screen>
4193 You like the <quote>fun</quote> text replacements in <filename>default.filter</filename>,
4194 but it is disabled in the distributed actions file. (My colleagues on the team just
4195 don't have a sense of humour, that's why! ;-). So you'd like to turn it on in your private,
4196 update-safe config, once and for all:
4201 { +<link linkend="filter-fun">filter{fun}</link> }
4202 / # For ALL sites!</screen>
4206 Note that the above is not really a good idea: There are exceptions
4207 to the filters in <filename>default.action</filename> for things that
4208 really shouldn't be filtered, like code on CVS->Web interfaces. Since
4209 <filename>user.action</filename> has the last word, these exceptions
4210 won't be valid for the <quote>fun</quote> filtering specified here.
4214 Finally, you might think about how your favourite free websites are
4215 funded, and find that they rely on displaying banner advertisements
4216 to survive. So you might want to specifically allow banners for those
4217 sites that you feel provide value to you:
4229 Note that <literal>allow-ads</literal> has been aliased to
4230 <literal>-<link linkend="block">block</link></literal>
4231 <literal>-<link linkend="filter-banners-by-size">filter{banners-by-size}</link></literal>
4237 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
4241 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
4243 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
4245 <sect1 id="filter-file">
4246 <title>The Filter File</title>
4249 All text substitutions that can be invoked through the
4250 <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> action
4251 must first be defined in the filter file, which is typically
4252 called <filename>default.filter</filename> and which can be
4253 selected through the <literal>
4254 <link linkend="filterfile">filterfile</link></literal> config
4259 Typical reasons for doing such substitutions are to eliminate
4260 common annoyances in HTML and JavaScript, such as pop-up windows,
4261 exit consoles, crippled windows without navigation tools, the
4262 infamous <BLINK> tag etc, to suppress images with certain
4263 width and height attributes (standard banner sizes or web-bugs),
4264 or just to have fun. The possibilities are endless.
4268 Filtering works on any text-based document type, including plain
4269 text, HTML, JavaScript, CSS etc. (all <literal>text/*</literal>
4270 MIME types). Substitutions are made at the source level, so if
4271 you want to <quote>roll your own</quote> filters, you should be
4272 familiar with HTML syntax.
4276 Just like the <link linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>, the
4277 filter file is organized in sections, which are called <emphasis>filters</emphasis>
4278 here. Each filter consists of a heading line, that starts with the
4279 <emphasis>keyword</emphasis> <literal>FILTER:</literal>, followed by
4280 the filter's <emphasis>name</emphasis>, and a short (one line)
4281 <emphasis>description</emphasis> of what it does. Below that line
4282 come the <emphasis>jobs</emphasis>, i.e. lines that define the actual
4283 text substitutions. By convention, the name of a filter
4284 should describe what the filter <emphasis>eliminates</emphasis>. The
4285 comment is used in the <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">web-based
4286 user interface</ulink>.
4290 Once a filter called <replaceable>name</replaceable> has been defined
4291 in the filter file, it can be invoked by using an action of the form
4292 +<literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link>{<replaceable>name</replaceable>}</literal>
4293 in any <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link>.
4297 A filter header line for a filter called <quote>foo</quote> could look
4302 <screen>FILTER: foo Replace all "foo" with "bar"</screen>
4306 Below that line, and up to the next header line, come the jobs that
4307 define what text replacements the filter executes. They are specified
4308 in a syntax that imitates <ulink url="http://www.perl.org/">Perl</ulink>'s
4309 <literal>s///</literal> operator. If you are familiar with Perl, you
4310 will find this to be quite intuitive, and may want to look at the
4311 <ulink url="http://www.oesterhelt.org/pcrs/pcrs.3.html">PCRS man page</ulink>
4312 for the subtle differences to Perl behaviour. Most notably, the non-standard
4313 option letter <literal>U</literal> is supported, which turns the default
4314 to ungreedy matching.
4318 If you are new to regular expressions, you might want to take a look at
4319 the <link linkend="regex">Appendix on regular expressions</link>, and
4320 see the <ulink url="http://perldoc.com/perl5.6.1/pod/perl.html">Perl
4322 <ulink url="http://perldoc.com/perl5.6.1/pod/perlop.html#s-PATTERN-REPLACEMENT-egimosx">the
4323 <literal>s///</literal> operator's syntax</ulink> and <ulink
4324 url="http://perldoc.com/perl5.6.1/pod/perlre.html">Perl-style regular
4325 expressions</ulink> in general.
4326 The below examples might also help to get you started.
4329 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
4331 <sect2><title>Filter File Tutorial</title>
4333 Now, let's complete our <quote>foo</quote> filter. We have already defined
4334 the heading, but the jobs are still missing. Since all it does is to replace
4335 <quote>foo</quote> with <quote>bar</quote>, there is only one (trivial) job
4340 <screen>s/foo/bar/</screen>
4344 But wait! Didn't the comment say that <emphasis>all</emphasis> occurrences
4345 of <quote>foo</quote> should be replaced? Our current job will only take
4346 care of the first <quote>foo</quote> on each page. For global substitution,
4347 we'll need to add the <literal>g</literal> option:
4351 <screen>s/foo/bar/g</screen>
4355 Our complete filter now looks like this:
4358 <screen>FILTER: foo Replace all "foo" with "bar"
4359 s/foo/bar/g</screen>
4363 Let's look at some real filters for more interesting examples. Here you see
4364 a filter that protects against some common annoyances that arise from JavaScript
4365 abuse. Let's look at its jobs one after the other:
4371 FILTER: js-annoyances Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse
4373 # Get rid of JavaScript referrer tracking. Test page: http://www.randomoddness.com/untitled.htm
4375 s|(<script.*)document\.referrer(.*</script>)|$1"Not Your Business!"$2|Usg</screen>
4379 Following the header line and a comment, you see the job. Note that it uses
4380 <literal>|</literal> as the delimiter instead of <literal>/</literal>, because
4381 the pattern contains a forward slash, which would otherwise have to be escaped
4382 by a backslash (<literal>\</literal>).
4386 Now, let's examine the pattern: it starts with the text <literal><script.*</literal>
4387 enclosed in parentheses. Since the dot matches any character, and <literal>*</literal>
4388 means: <quote>Match an arbitrary number of the element left of myself</quote>, this
4389 matches <quote><script</quote>, followed by <emphasis>any</emphasis> text, i.e.
4390 it matches the whole page, from the start of the first <script> tag.
4394 That's more than we want, but the pattern continues: <literal>document\.referrer</literal>
4395 matches only the exact string <quote>document.referrer</quote>. The dot needed to
4396 be <emphasis>escaped</emphasis>, i.e. preceded by a backslash, to take away its
4397 special meaning as a joker, and make it just a regular dot. So far, the meaning is:
4398 Match from the start of the first <script> tag in a the page, up to, and including,
4399 the text <quote>document.referrer</quote>, if <emphasis>both</emphasis> are present
4400 in the page (and appear in that order).
4404 But there's still more pattern to go. The next element, again enclosed in parentheses,
4405 is <literal>.*</script></literal>. You already know what <literal>.*</literal>
4406 means, so the whole pattern translates to: Match from the start of the first <script>
4407 tag in a page to the end of the last <script> tag, provided that the text
4408 <quote>document.referrer</quote> appears somewhere in between.
4412 This is still not the whole story, since we have ignored the options and the parentheses:
4413 The portions of the page matched by sub-patterns that are enclosed in parentheses, will be
4414 remembered and be available through the variables <literal>$1, $2, ...</literal> in
4415 the substitute. The <literal>U</literal> option switches to ungreedy matching, which means
4416 that the first <literal>.*</literal> in the pattern will only <quote>eat up</quote> all
4417 text in between <quote><script</quote> and the <emphasis>first</emphasis> occurrence
4418 of <quote>document.referrer</quote>, and that the second <literal>.*</literal> will
4419 only span the text up to the <emphasis>first</emphasis> <quote></script></quote>
4420 tag. Furthermore, the <literal>s</literal> option says that the match may span
4421 multiple lines in the page, and the <literal>g</literal> option again means that the
4422 substitution is global.
4426 So, to summarize, the pattern means: Match all scripts that contain the text
4427 <quote>document.referrer</quote>. Remember the parts of the script from
4428 (and including) the start tag up to (and excluding) the string
4429 <quote>document.referrer</quote> as <literal>$1</literal>, and the part following
4430 that string, up to and including the closing tag, as <literal>$2</literal>.
4434 Now the pattern is deciphered, but wasn't this about substituting things? So
4435 lets look at the substitute: <literal>$1"Not Your Business!"$2</literal> is
4436 easy to read: The text remembered as <literal>$1</literal>, followed by
4437 <literal>"Not Your Business!"</literal> (<emphasis>including</emphasis>
4438 the quotation marks!), followed by the text remembered as <literal>$2</literal>.
4439 This produces an exact copy of the original string, with the middle part
4440 (the <quote>document.referrer</quote>) replaced by <literal>"Not Your
4441 Business!"</literal>.
4445 The whole job now reads: Replace <quote>document.referrer</quote> by
4446 <literal>"Not Your Business!"</literal> wherever it appears inside a
4447 <script> tag. Note that this job won't break JavaScript syntax,
4448 since both the original and the replacement are syntactically valid
4449 string objects. The script just won't have access to the referrer
4450 information anymore.
4454 We'll show you two other jobs from the JavaScript taming department, but
4455 this time only point out the constructs of special interest:
4460 # The status bar is for displaying link targets, not pointless blahblah
4462 s/window\.status\s*=\s*(['"]).*?\1/dUmMy=1/ig</screen>
4466 <literal>\s</literal> stands for whitespace characters (space, tab, newline,
4467 carriage return, form feed), so that <literal>\s*</literal> means: <quote>zero
4468 or more whitespace</quote>. The <literal>?</literal> in <literal>.*?</literal>
4469 makes this matching of arbitrary text ungreedy. (Note that the <literal>U</literal>
4470 option is not set). The <literal>['"]</literal> construct means: <quote>a single
4471 <emphasis>or</emphasis> a double quote</quote>. Finally, <literal>\1</literal> is
4472 a backreference to the first parenthesis just like <literal>$1</literal> above,
4473 with the difference that in the <emphasis>pattern</emphasis>, a backslash indicates
4474 a backreference, whereas in the <emphasis>substitute</emphasis>, it's the dollar.
4478 So what does this job do? It replaces assignments of single- or double-quoted
4479 strings to the <quote>window.status</quote> object with a dummy assignment
4480 (using a variable name that is hopefully odd enough not to conflict with
4481 real variables in scripts). Thus, it catches many cases where e.g. pointless
4482 descriptions are displayed in the status bar instead of the link target when
4483 you move your mouse over links.
4488 # Kill OnUnload popups. Yummy. Test: http://www.zdnet.com/zdsubs/yahoo/tree/yfs.html
4490 s/(<body [^>]*)onunload(.*>)/$1never$2/iU</screen>
4495 <ulink url="http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-DOM-Level-2-Events-20001113/events.html#Events-eventgroupings-htmlevents">OnUnload
4496 event binding</ulink> in the HTML DOM was a <emphasis>CRIME</emphasis>.
4497 When I close a browser window, I want it to close and die. Basta.
4498 This job replaces the <quote>onunload</quote> attribute in
4499 <quote><body></quote> tags with the dummy word <literal>never</literal>.
4500 Note that the <literal>i</literal> option makes the pattern matching
4501 case-insensitive. Also note that ungreedy matching alone doesn't always guarantee
4502 a minimal match: In the first parenthesis, we had to use <literal>[^>]*</literal>
4503 instead of <literal>.*</literal> to prevent the match from exceeding the
4504 <body> tag if it doesn't contain <quote>OnUnload</quote>, but the page's
4509 The last example is from the fun department:
4514 FILTER: fun Fun text replacements
4516 # Spice the daily news:
4518 s/microsoft(?!\.com)/MicroSuck/ig</screen>
4522 Note the <literal>(?!\.com)</literal> part (a so-called negative lookahead)
4523 in the job's pattern, which means: Don't match, if the string
4524 <quote>.com</quote> appears directly following <quote>microsoft</quote>
4525 in the page. This prevents links to microsoft.com from being trashed, while
4526 still replacing the word everywhere else.
4531 # Buzzword Bingo (example for extended regex syntax)
4533 s* industry[ -]leading \
4535 | customer[ -]focused \
4536 | market[ -]driven \
4537 | award[ -]winning # Comments are OK, too! \
4538 | high[ -]performance \
4539 | solutions[ -]based \
4543 *<font color="red"><b>BINGO!</b></font> \
4548 The <literal>x</literal> option in this job turns on extended syntax, and allows for
4549 e.g. the liberal use of (non-interpreted!) whitespace for nicer formatting.
4558 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
4562 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4564 <sect1 id="templates">
4565 <title>Templates</title>
4567 All <application>Privoxy</application> built-in pages, i.e. error pages such as the
4568 <ulink url="http://show-the-404-error.page"><quote>404 - No Such Domain</quote>
4569 error page</ulink>, the <ulink
4570 url="http://ads.bannerserver.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor.html"><quote>BLOCKED</quote>
4572 and all pages of its <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">web-based
4573 user interface</ulink>, are generated from <emphasis>templates</emphasis>.
4574 (<application>Privoxy</application> must be running for the above links to work as
4579 These templates are stored in a subdirectory of the <link linkend="confdir">configuration
4580 directory</link> called <filename>templates</filename>. On Unixish platforms,
4582 <ulink url="file:///etc/privoxy/templates/"><filename>/etc/privoxy/templates/</filename></ulink>.
4586 The templates are basically normal HTML files, but with place-holders (called symbols
4587 or exports), which <application>Privoxy</application> fills at run time. You can
4588 edit the templates with a normal text editor, should you want to customize them.
4589 (<emphasis>Not recommended for the casual user</emphasis>). Note that
4590 just like in configuration files, lines starting with <literal>#</literal> are
4591 ignored when the templates are filled in.
4595 The place-holders are of the form <literal>@name@</literal>, and you will
4596 find a list of available symbols, which vary from template to template,
4597 in the comments at the start of each file. Note that these comments are not
4598 always accurate, and that it's probably best to look at the existing HTML
4599 code to find out which symbols are supported and what they are filled in with.
4603 A special application of this substitution mechanism is to make whole
4604 blocks of HTML code disappear when a specific symbol is set. We use this
4605 for many purposes, one of them being to include the beta warning in all
4606 our user interface (CGI) pages when <application>Privoxy</application>
4607 in in an alpha or beta development stage:
4612 <!-- @if-unstable-start -->
4614 ... beta warning HTML code goes here ...
4616 <!-- if-unstable-end@ --></screen>
4620 If the "unstable" symbol is set, everything in between and including
4621 <literal>@if-unstable-start</literal> and <literal>if-unstable-end@</literal>
4622 will disappear, leaving nothing but an empty comment:
4626 <screen><!-- --></screen>
4630 There's also an if-then-else construct and an <literal>#include</literal>
4631 mechanism, but you'll sure find out if you are inclined to edit the
4636 All templates refer to a style located at
4637 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/send-stylesheet"><literal>http://config.privoxy.org/send-stylesheet</literal></ulink>.
4638 This is, of course, locally served by <application>Privoxy</application>
4639 and the source for it can be found and edited in the
4640 <filename>cgi-style.css</filename> template.
4645 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
4649 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4651 <sect1 id="contact"><title>Contacting the Developers, Bug Reporting and Feature
4654 <!-- Include contacting.sgml boilerplate: -->
4656 <!-- end boilerplate -->
4660 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
4663 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4664 <sect1 id="copyright"><title><application>Privoxy</application> Copyright, License and History</title>
4666 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
4668 <!-- end copyright -->
4670 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4671 <sect2><title>License</title>
4672 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
4674 <!-- end copyright -->
4676 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
4679 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4681 <sect2 id="history"><title>History</title>
4682 <!-- Include history.sgml: -->
4684 <!-- end history -->
4687 <sect2 id="authors"><title>Authors</title>
4688 <!-- Include p-authors.sgml: -->
4690 <!-- end authors -->
4695 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
4698 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4699 <sect1 id="seealso"><title>See Also</title>
4700 <!-- Include seealso.sgml: -->
4702 <!-- end seealso -->
4707 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4708 <sect1 id="appendix"><title>Appendix</title>
4711 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4713 <title>Regular Expressions</title>
4715 <application>Privoxy</application> uses Perl-style <quote>regular
4716 expressions</quote> in its <link linkend="actions-file">actions
4717 files</link> and <link linkend="filter-file">filter file</link>,
4718 through the <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/">PCRE</ulink> and
4719 <ulink url="http://www.oesterhelt.org/pcrs/">PCRS</ulink> libraries.
4723 If you are reading this, you probably don't understand what <quote>regular
4724 expressions</quote> are, or what they can do. So this will be a very brief
4725 introduction only. A full explanation would require a <ulink
4726 url="http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/regex/">book</ulink> ;-)
4730 Regular expressions provide a language to describe patterns that can be
4731 run against strings of characters (letter, numbers, etc), to see if they
4732 match the string or not. The patterns are themselves (sometimes complex)
4733 strings of literal characters, combined with wild-cards, and other special
4734 characters, called meta-characters. The <quote>meta-characters</quote> have
4735 special meanings and are used to build complex patterns to be matched against.
4736 Perl Compatible Regular Expressions are an especially convenient
4737 <quote>dialect</quote> of the regular expression language.
4741 To make a simple analogy, we do something similar when we use wild-card
4742 characters when listing files with the <command>dir</command> command in DOS.
4743 <literal>*.*</literal> matches all filenames. The <quote>special</quote>
4744 character here is the asterisk which matches any and all characters. We can be
4745 more specific and use <literal>?</literal> to match just individual
4746 characters. So <quote>dir file?.text</quote> would match
4747 <quote>file1.txt</quote>, <quote>file2.txt</quote>, etc. We are pattern
4748 matching, using a similar technique to <quote>regular expressions</quote>!
4752 Regular expressions do essentially the same thing, but are much, much more
4753 powerful. There are many more <quote>special characters</quote> and ways of
4754 building complex patterns however. Let's look at a few of the common ones,
4755 and then some examples:
4760 <emphasis>.</emphasis> - Matches any single character, e.g. <quote>a</quote>,
4761 <quote>A</quote>, <quote>4</quote>, <quote>:</quote>, or <quote>@</quote>.
4763 </simplelist></para>
4767 <emphasis>?</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or ONE
4770 </simplelist></para>
4774 <emphasis>+</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ONE or MORE
4777 </simplelist></para>
4781 <emphasis>*</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or MORE
4784 </simplelist></para>
4788 <emphasis>\</emphasis> - The <quote>escape</quote> character denotes that
4789 the following character should be taken literally. This is used where one of the
4790 special characters (e.g. <quote>.</quote>) needs to be taken literally and
4791 not as a special meta-character. Example: <quote>example\.com</quote>, makes
4792 sure the period is recognized only as a period (and not expanded to its
4793 meta-character meaning of any single character).
4795 </simplelist></para>
4799 <emphasis>[]</emphasis> - Characters enclosed in brackets will be matched if
4800 any of the enclosed characters are encountered. For instance, <quote>[0-9]</quote>
4801 matches any numeric digit (zero through nine). As an example, we can combine
4802 this with <quote>+</quote> to match any digit one of more times: <quote>[0-9]+</quote>.
4804 </simplelist></para>
4808 <emphasis>()</emphasis> - parentheses are used to group a sub-expression,
4809 or multiple sub-expressions.
4811 </simplelist></para>
4815 <emphasis>|</emphasis> - The <quote>bar</quote> character works like an
4816 <quote>or</quote> conditional statement. A match is successful if the
4817 sub-expression on either side of <quote>|</quote> matches. As an example:
4818 <quote>/(this|that) example/</quote> uses grouping and the bar character
4819 and would match either <quote>this example</quote> or <quote>that
4820 example</quote>, and nothing else.
4822 </simplelist></para>
4825 These are just some of the ones you are likely to use when matching URLs with
4826 <application>Privoxy</application>, and is a long way from a definitive
4827 list. This is enough to get us started with a few simple examples which may
4828 be more illuminating:
4832 <emphasis><literal>/.*/banners/.*</literal></emphasis> - A simple example
4833 that uses the common combination of <quote>.</quote> and <quote>*</quote> to
4834 denote any character, zero or more times. In other words, any string at all.
4835 So we start with a literal forward slash, then our regular expression pattern
4836 (<quote>.*</quote>) another literal forward slash, the string
4837 <quote>banners</quote>, another forward slash, and lastly another
4838 <quote>.*</quote>. We are building
4839 a directory path here. This will match any file with the path that has a
4840 directory named <quote>banners</quote> in it. The <quote>.*</quote> matches
4841 any characters, and this could conceivably be more forward slashes, so it
4842 might expand into a much longer looking path. For example, this could match:
4843 <quote>/eye/hate/spammers/banners/annoy_me_please.gif</quote>, or just
4844 <quote>/banners/annoying.html</quote>, or almost an infinite number of other
4845 possible combinations, just so it has <quote>banners</quote> in the path
4850 A now something a little more complex:
4854 <emphasis><literal>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))?/</literal></emphasis> -
4855 We have several literal forward slashes again (<quote>/</quote>), so we are
4856 building another expression that is a file path statement. We have another
4857 <quote>.*</quote>, so we are matching against any conceivable sub-path, just so
4858 it matches our expression. The only true literal that <emphasis>must
4859 match</emphasis> our pattern is <application>adv</application>, together with
4860 the forward slashes. What comes after the <quote>adv</quote> string is the
4865 Remember the <quote>?</quote> means the preceding expression (either a
4866 literal character or anything grouped with <quote>(...)</quote> in this case)
4867 can exist or not, since this means either zero or one match. So
4868 <quote>((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))</quote> is optional, as are the
4869 individual sub-expressions: <quote>(er)</quote>,
4870 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, and the <quote>s</quote>. The <quote>|</quote>
4871 means <quote>or</quote>. We have two of those. For instance,
4872 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, can expand to match either <quote>ing</quote>
4873 <emphasis>OR</emphasis> <quote>ements?</quote>. What is being done here, is an
4874 attempt at matching as many variations of <quote>advertisement</quote>, and
4875 similar, as possible. So this would expand to match just <quote>adv</quote>,
4876 or <quote>advert</quote>, or <quote>adverts</quote>, or
4877 <quote>advertising</quote>, or <quote>advertisement</quote>, or
4878 <quote>advertisements</quote>. You get the idea. But it would not match
4879 <quote>advertizements</quote> (with a <quote>z</quote>). We could fix that by
4880 changing our regular expression to:
4881 <quote>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|erti(s|z)(ing|ements?))?/</quote>, which would then match
4886 <emphasis><literal>/.*/advert[0-9]+\.(gif|jpe?g)</literal></emphasis> - Again
4887 another path statement with forward slashes. Anything in the square brackets
4888 <quote>[]</quote> can be matched. This is using <quote>0-9</quote> as a
4889 shorthand expression to mean any digit one through nine. It is the same as
4890 saying <quote>0123456789</quote>. So any digit matches. The <quote>+</quote>
4891 means one or more of the preceding expression must be included. The preceding
4892 expression here is what is in the square brackets -- in this case, any digit
4893 one through nine. Then, at the end, we have a grouping: <quote>(gif|jpe?g)</quote>.
4894 This includes a <quote>|</quote>, so this needs to match the expression on
4895 either side of that bar character also. A simple <quote>gif</quote> on one side, and the other
4896 side will in turn match either <quote>jpeg</quote> or <quote>jpg</quote>,
4897 since the <quote>?</quote> means the letter <quote>e</quote> is optional and
4898 can be matched once or not at all. So we are building an expression here to
4899 match image GIF or JPEG type image file. It must include the literal
4900 string <quote>advert</quote>, then one or more digits, and a <quote>.</quote>
4901 (which is now a literal, and not a special character, since it is escaped
4902 with <quote>\</quote>), and lastly either <quote>gif</quote>, or
4903 <quote>jpeg</quote>, or <quote>jpg</quote>. Some possible matches would
4904 include: <quote>//advert1.jpg</quote>,
4905 <quote>/nasty/ads/advert1234.gif</quote>,
4906 <quote>/banners/from/hell/advert99.jpg</quote>. It would not match
4907 <quote>advert1.gif</quote> (no leading slash), or
4908 <quote>/adverts232.jpg</quote> (the expression does not include an
4909 <quote>s</quote>), or <quote>/advert1.jsp</quote> (<quote>jsp</quote> is not
4910 in the expression anywhere).
4914 We are barely scratching the surface of regular expressions here so that you
4915 can understand the default <application>Privoxy</application>
4916 configuration files, and maybe use this knowledge to customize your own
4917 installation. There is much, much more that can be done with regular
4918 expressions. Now that you know enough to get started, you can learn more on
4923 More reading on Perl Compatible Regular expressions:
4924 <ulink url="http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html">http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html</ulink>
4928 For information on regular expression based substitutions and their applications
4929 in filters, please see the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file tutorial</link>
4934 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
4937 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4939 <title><application>Privoxy</application>'s Internal Pages</title>
4942 Since <application>Privoxy</application> proxies each requested
4943 web page, it is easy for <application>Privoxy</application> to
4944 trap certain special URLs. In this way, we can talk directly to
4945 <application>Privoxy</application>, and see how it is
4946 configured, see how our rules are being applied, change these
4947 rules and other configuration options, and even turn
4948 <application>Privoxy's</application> filtering off, all with
4954 The URLs listed below are the special ones that allow direct access
4955 to <application>Privoxy</application>. Of course,
4956 <application>Privoxy</application> must be running to access these. If
4957 not, you will get a friendly error message. Internet access is not
4970 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
4974 There is a shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink> (But it
4975 doesn't provide a fall-back to a real page, in case the request is not
4976 sent through <application>Privoxy</application>)
4982 Show information about the current configuration, including viewing and
4983 editing of actions files:
4987 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
4994 Show the source code version numbers:
4998 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-version">http://config.privoxy.org/show-version</ulink>
5005 Show the browser's request headers:
5009 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request">http://config.privoxy.org/show-request</ulink>
5016 Show which actions apply to a URL and why:
5020 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
5027 Toggle Privoxy on or off. In this case, <quote>Privoxy</quote> continues
5028 to run, but only as a pass-through proxy, with no actions taking place:
5032 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</ulink>
5036 Short cuts. Turn off, then on:
5040 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable</ulink>
5045 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable</ulink>
5054 These may be bookmarked for quick reference. See next.
5058 <sect3 id="bookmarklets">
5059 <title>Bookmarklets</title>
5061 Below are some <quote>bookmarklets</quote> to allow you to easily access a
5062 <quote>mini</quote> version of some of <application>Privoxy's</application>
5063 special pages. They are designed for MS Internet Explorer, but should work
5064 equally well in Netscape, Mozilla, and other browsers which support
5065 JavaScript. They are designed to run directly from your bookmarks - not by
5066 clicking the links below (although that should work for testing).
5069 To save them, right-click the link and choose <quote>Add to Favorites</quote>
5070 (IE) or <quote>Add Bookmark</quote> (Netscape). You will get a warning that
5071 the bookmark <quote>may not be safe</quote> - just click OK. Then you can run the
5072 Bookmarklet directly from your favorites/bookmarks. For even faster access,
5073 you can put them on the <quote>Links</quote> bar (IE) or the <quote>Personal
5074 Toolbar</quote> (Netscape), and run them with a single click.
5083 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>
5090 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>
5097 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)
5104 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>
5110 <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>
5115 <ulink url="javascript:void(window.open('http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info?url='+escape(location.href),'Why').focus());">Privoxy - Why?</ulink>
5122 Credit: The site which gave us the general idea for these bookmarklets is
5123 <ulink url="http://www.bookmarklets.com">www.bookmarklets.com</ulink>. They
5124 have more information about bookmarklets.
5133 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5135 <title>Chain of Events</title>
5137 Let's take a quick look at the basic sequence of events when a web page is
5138 requested by your browser and <application>Privoxy</application> is on duty:
5145 First, your web browser requests a web page. The browser knows to send
5146 the request to <application>Privoxy</application>, which will in turn,
5147 relay the request to the remote web server after passing the following
5153 <application>Privoxy</application> traps any request for its own internal CGI
5154 pages (e.g http://p.p/) and sends the CGI page back to the browser.
5159 Next, <application>Privoxy</application> checks to see if the URL
5161 linkend="BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></link> patterns. If
5162 so, the URL is then blocked, and the remote web server will not be contacted.
5163 <link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></link>
5164 is then checked and if it does not match, an
5165 HTML <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page is sent back. Otherwise, if it does match,
5166 an image is returned. The type of image depends on the setting of <link
5167 linkend="SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"><quote>+set-image-blocker</quote></link>
5168 (blank, checkerboard pattern, or an HTTP redirect to an image elsewhere).
5173 Untrusted URLs are blocked. If URLs are being added to the
5174 <filename>trust</filename> file, then that is done.
5179 If the URL pattern matches the <link
5180 linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS"><quote>+fast-redirects</quote></link> action,
5181 it is then processed. Unwanted parts of the requested URL are stripped.
5186 Now the rest of the client browser's request headers are processed. If any
5187 of these match any of the relevant actions (e.g. <link
5188 linkend="HIDE-USER-AGENT"><quote>+hide-user-agent</quote></link>,
5189 etc.), headers are suppressed or forged as determined by these actions and
5195 Now the web server starts sending its response back (i.e. typically a web page and related
5201 First, the server headers are read and processed to determine, among other
5202 things, the MIME type (document type) and encoding. The headers are then
5203 filtered as deterimined by the
5204 <link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES"><quote>+crunch-incoming-cookies</quote></link>,
5205 <link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"><quote>+session-cookies-only</quote></link>,
5206 and <link linkend="DOWNGRADE-HTTP-VERSION"><quote>+downgrade-http-version</quote></link>
5212 If the <link linkend="KILL-POPUPS"><quote>+kill-popups</quote></link>
5213 action applies, and it is an HTML or JavaScript document, the popup-code in the
5214 response is filtered on-the-fly as it is received.
5219 If a <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link>
5221 linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS"><quote>+deanimate-gifs</quote></link>
5222 action applies (and the document type fits the action), the rest of the page is
5223 read into memory (up to a configurable limit). Then the filter rules (from
5224 <filename>default.filter</filename>) are processed against the buffered
5225 content. Filters are applied in the order they are specified in the
5226 <filename>default.filter</filename> file. Animated GIFs, if present, are
5227 reduced to either the first or last frame, depending on the action
5228 setting.The entire page, which is now filtered, is then sent by
5229 <application>Privoxy</application> back to your browser.
5232 If neither <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link>
5234 linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS"><quote>+deanimate-gifs</quote></link>
5235 matches, then <application>Privoxy</application> passes the raw data through
5236 to the client browser as it becomes available.
5241 As the browser receives the now (probably filtered) page content, it
5242 reads and then requests any URLs that may be embedded within the page
5243 source, e.g. ad images, stylesheets, JavaScript, other HTML documents (e.g.
5244 frames), sounds, etc. For each of these objects, the browser issues a new
5245 request. And each such request is in turn processed as above. Note that a
5246 complex web page may have many such embedded URLs.
5256 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5257 <sect2 id="actionsanat">
5258 <title>Anatomy of an Action</title>
5261 The way <application>Privoxy</application> applies
5262 <link linkend="ACTIONS">actions</link> and <link linkend="FILTER">filters</link>
5263 to any given URL can be complex, and not always so
5264 easy to understand what is happening. And sometimes we need to be able to
5265 <emphasis>see</emphasis> just what <application>Privoxy</application> is
5266 doing. Especially, if something <application>Privoxy</application> is doing
5267 is causing us a problem inadvertently. It can be a little daunting to look at
5268 the actions and filters files themselves, since they tend to be filled with
5269 <link linkend="regex">regular expressions</link> whose consequences are not
5274 One quick test to see if <application>Privoxy</application> is causing a problem
5275 or not, is to disable it temporarily. This should be the first troubleshooting
5276 step. See <link linkend="bookmarklets">the Bookmarklets</link> section on a quick
5277 and easy way to do this (be sure to flush caches afterward!). Looking at the
5278 logs is a good idea too.
5282 <application>Privoxy</application> also provides the
5283 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
5284 page that can show us very specifically how <application>actions</application>
5285 are being applied to any given URL. This is a big help for troubleshooting.
5289 First, enter one URL (or partial URL) at the prompt, and then
5290 <application>Privoxy</application> will tell us
5291 how the current configuration will handle it. This will not
5292 help with filtering effects (i.e. the <link
5293 linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> action) from
5294 the <filename>default.filter</filename> file since this is handled very
5295 differently and not so easy to trap! It also will not tell you about any other
5296 URLs that may be embedded within the URL you are testing. For instance, images
5297 such as ads are expressed as URLs within the raw page source of HTML pages. So
5298 you will only get info for the actual URL that is pasted into the prompt area
5299 -- not any sub-URLs. If you want to know about embedded URLs like ads, you
5300 will have to dig those out of the HTML source. Use your browser's <quote>View
5301 Page Source</quote> option for this. Or right click on the ad, and grab the
5306 Let's try an example, <ulink url="http://google.com">google.com</ulink>,
5307 and look at it one section at a time:
5312 Matches for http://google.com:
5314 In file: default.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
5318 -crunch-outgoing-cookies
5319 -crunch-incoming-cookies
5320 +deanimate-gifs{last}
5321 -downgrade-http-version
5325 -filter{shockwave-flash}
5326 -filter{crude-parental}
5327 +filter{html-annoyances}
5328 +filter{js-annoyances}
5329 +filter{content-cookies}
5331 +filter{refresh-tags}
5333 +filter{banners-by-size}
5334 +hide-forwarded-for-headers
5335 +hide-from-header{block}
5336 +hide-referer{forge}
5341 +prevent-compression
5344 +session-cookies-only
5345 +set-image-blocker{pattern} }
5348 { -session-cookies-only }
5354 In file: user.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
5355 (no matches in this file)
5360 This tells us how we have defined our
5361 <link linkend="ACTIONS"><quote>actions</quote></link>, and
5362 which ones match for our example, <quote>google.com</quote>. The first listing
5363 is any matches for the <filename>standard.action</filename> file. No hits at
5364 all here on <quote>standard</quote>. Then next is <quote>default</quote>, or
5365 our <filename>default.action</filename> file. The large, multi-line listing,
5366 is how the actions are set to match for all URLs, i.e. our default settings.
5367 If you look at your <quote>actions</quote> file, this would be the section
5368 just below the <quote>aliases</quote> section near the top. This will apply to
5369 all URLs as signified by the single forward slash at the end of the listing
5370 -- <quote>/</quote>.
5374 But we can define additional actions that would be exceptions to these general
5375 rules, and then list specific URLs (or patterns) that these exceptions would
5376 apply to. Last match wins. Just below this then are two explicit matches for
5377 <quote>.google.com</quote>. The first is negating our previous cookie setting,
5379 linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"><quote>+session-cookies-only</quote></link>
5380 (i.e. not persistent). So we will allow persistent cookies for google. The
5381 second turns <emphasis>off</emphasis> any
5383 linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS"><quote>+fast-redirects</quote></link>
5384 action, allowing this to take place unmolested. Note that there is a leading
5385 dot here -- <quote>.google.com</quote>. This will match any hosts and
5386 sub-domains, in the google.com domain also, such as
5387 <quote>www.google.com</quote>. So, apparently, we have these two actions
5388 defined somewhere in the lower part of our <filename>default.action</filename>
5389 file, and <quote>google.com</quote> is referenced somewhere in these latter
5394 Then, for our <filename>user.action</filename> file, we again have no hits.
5398 And finally we pull it all together in the bottom section and summarize how
5399 <application>Privoxy</application> is applying all its <quote>actions</quote>
5400 to <quote>google.com</quote>:
5411 -crunch-outgoing-cookies
5412 -crunch-incoming-cookies
5413 +deanimate-gifs{last}
5414 -downgrade-http-version
5418 -filter{shockwave-flash}
5419 -filter{crude-parental}
5420 +filter{html-annoyances}
5421 +filter{js-annoyances}
5422 +filter{content-cookies}
5424 +filter{refresh-tags}
5426 +filter{banners-by-size}
5427 +hide-forwarded-for-headers
5428 +hide-from-header{block}
5429 +hide-referer{forge}
5434 +prevent-compression
5437 -session-cookies-only
5438 +set-image-blocker{pattern}
5443 Notice the only difference here to the previous listing, is to
5444 <quote>fast-redirects</quote> and <quote>session-cookies-only</quote>.
5448 Now another example, <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>:
5454 { +block +handle-as-image }
5457 { +block +handle-as-image }
5460 { +block +handle-as-image }
5466 We'll just show the interesting part here, the explicit matches. It is
5467 matched three different times. Each as an <quote>+block +handle-as-image</quote>,
5468 which is the expanded form of one of our aliases that had been defined as:
5469 <quote>+imageblock</quote>. (<link
5470 linkend="ALIASES"><quote>Aliases</quote></link> are defined in
5471 the first section of the actions file and typically used to combine more
5476 Any one of these would have done the trick and blocked this as an unwanted
5477 image. This is unnecessarily redundant since the last case effectively
5478 would also cover the first. No point in taking chances with these guys
5479 though ;-) Note that if you want an ad or obnoxious
5480 URL to be invisible, it should be defined as <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>
5481 is done here -- as both a <link
5482 linkend="BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></link>
5483 <emphasis>and</emphasis> an
5485 linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></link>.
5486 The custom alias <quote>+imageblock</quote> just simplifies the process and make
5491 One last example. Let's try <quote>http://www.rhapsodyk.net/adsl/HOWTO/</quote>.
5492 This one is giving us problems. We are getting a blank page. Hmmm ...
5498 Matches for http://www.rhapsodyk.net/adsl/HOWTO/:
5500 In file: default.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
5504 -crunch-incoming-cookies
5505 -crunch-outgoing-cookies
5507 -downgrade-http-version
5509 +filter{html-annoyances}
5510 +filter{js-annoyances}
5511 +filter{kill-popups}
5514 +filter{banners-by-size}
5517 +hide-forwarded-for-headers
5518 +hide-from-header{block}
5519 +hide-referer{forge}
5523 +prevent-compression
5526 +session-cookies-only
5527 +set-image-blocker{blank} }
5530 { +block +handle-as-image }
5536 Ooops, the <quote>/adsl/</quote> is matching <quote>/ads</quote>! But
5537 we did not want this at all! Now we see why we get the blank page. We could
5538 now add a new action below this that explicitly does <emphasis>not</emphasis>
5539 block (<quote>{-block}</quote>) paths with <quote>adsl</quote>. There are
5540 various ways to handle such exceptions. Example:
5552 Now the page displays ;-) Be sure to flush your browser's caches when
5553 making such changes. Or, try using <literal>Shift+Reload</literal>.
5557 But now what about a situation where we get no explicit matches like
5564 { +block +handle-as-image }
5570 That actually was very telling and pointed us quickly to where the problem
5571 was. If you don't get this kind of match, then it means one of the default
5572 rules in the first section is causing the problem. This would require some
5573 guesswork, and maybe a little trial and error to isolate the offending rule.
5574 One likely cause would be one of the <quote>{+filter}</quote> actions. These
5575 tend to be harder to troubleshoot. Try adding the URL for the site to one of
5576 aliases that turn off <quote>+filter</quote>:
5584 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
5592 <quote>{shop}</quote> is an <quote>alias</quote> that expands to
5593 <quote>{ -filter -session-cookies-only }</quote>.
5594 Or you could do your own exception to negate filtering:
5607 This would turn off all filtering for that site. This would probably be most
5608 appropriately put in <filename>user.action</filename>, for local site
5613 Images that are inexplicably being blocked, may well be hitting the
5614 <quote>+filter{banners-by-size}</quote> rule, which assumes
5615 that images of certain sizes are ad banners (works well most of the time
5616 since these tend to be standardized).
5620 <quote>{fragile}</quote> is an alias that disables most actions. This can be
5621 used as a last resort for problem sites. Remember to flush caches! If this
5622 still does not work, you will have to go through the remaining actions one by
5623 one to find which one(s) is causing the problem.
5632 This program is free software; you can redistribute it
5633 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
5634 Public License as published by the Free Software
5635 Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at
5636 your option) any later version.
5638 This program is distributed in the hope that it will
5639 be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the
5640 implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
5641 PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public
5642 License for more details.
5644 The GNU General Public License should be included with
5645 this file. If not, you can view it at
5646 http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
5647 or write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59
5648 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
5650 $Log: user-manual.sgml,v $
5651 Revision 1.123.2.12 2002/08/02 18:17:21 g_sauthoff
5652 Added 2 Gentoo sections
5654 Revision 1.123.2.11 2002/07/26 15:20:31 oes
5655 - Added version info to title
5656 - Added info on new filters
5657 - Revised parts of the filter file tutorial
5658 - Added info on where to get updated actions files
5660 Revision 1.123.2.10 2002/07/25 21:42:29 hal9
5661 Add brief notes on not proxying non-HTTP protocols.
5663 Revision 1.123.2.9 2002/07/11 03:40:28 david__schmidt
5665 Updated Mac OSX sections due to installation location change
5667 Revision 1.123.2.8 2002/06/09 16:36:32 hal9
5668 Clarifications on filtering and MIME. Hardcode 'latest release' in index.html.
5670 Revision 1.123.2.7 2002/06/09 00:29:34 hal9
5671 Touch ups on filtering, in actions section and Anatomy.
5673 Revision 1.123.2.6 2002/06/06 23:11:03 hal9
5674 Fix broken link. Linkchecked all docs.
5676 Revision 1.123.2.5 2002/05/29 02:01:02 hal9
5677 This is break out of the entire config section from u-m, so it can
5678 eventually be used to generate the comments, etc in the main config file
5679 so that these are in sync with each other.
5681 Revision 1.123.2.4 2002/05/27 03:28:45 hal9
5682 Ooops missed something from David.
5684 Revision 1.123.2.3 2002/05/27 03:23:17 hal9
5685 Fix FIXMEs for OS2 and OSX startup. Fix Redhat typos (should be Red Hat).
5686 That's a wrap, I think.
5688 Revision 1.123.2.2 2002/05/26 19:02:09 hal9
5689 Move Amiga stuff around to take of FIXME in start up section.
5691 Revision 1.123.2.1 2002/05/26 17:04:25 hal9
5692 -Spellcheck, very minor edits, and sync across branches
5694 Revision 1.123 2002/05/24 23:19:23 hal9
5695 Include new image (Proxy setup). More fun with guibutton.
5696 Minor corrections/clarifications here and there.
5698 Revision 1.122 2002/05/24 13:24:08 oes
5699 Added Bookmarklet for one-click pre-filled access to show-url-info
5701 Revision 1.121 2002/05/23 23:20:17 oes
5702 - Changed more (all?) references to actions to the
5703 <literal><link> style.
5704 - Small fixes in the actions chapter
5705 - Small clarifications in the quickstart to ad blocking
5706 - Removed <emphasis> from <title>s since the new doc CSS
5707 renders them red (bad in TOC).
5709 Revision 1.120 2002/05/23 19:16:43 roro
5710 Correct Debian specials (installation and startup).
5712 Revision 1.119 2002/05/22 17:17:05 oes
5715 Revision 1.118 2002/05/21 04:54:55 hal9
5716 -New Section: Quickstart to Ad Blocking
5717 -Reformat Actions Anatomy to match new CGI layout
5719 Revision 1.117 2002/05/17 13:56:16 oes
5720 - Reworked & extended Templates chapter
5721 - Small changes to Regex appendix
5722 - #included authors.sgml into (C) and hist chapter
5724 Revision 1.116 2002/05/17 03:23:46 hal9
5725 Fixing merge conflict in Quickstart section.
5727 Revision 1.115 2002/05/16 16:25:00 oes
5728 Extended the Filter File chapter & minor fixes
5730 Revision 1.114 2002/05/16 09:42:50 oes
5731 More ulink->link, added some hints to Quickstart section
5733 Revision 1.113 2002/05/15 21:07:25 oes
5734 Extended and further commented the example actions files
5736 Revision 1.112 2002/05/15 03:57:14 hal9
5737 Spell check. A few minor edits here and there for better syntax and
5740 Revision 1.111 2002/05/14 23:01:36 oes
5743 Revision 1.110 2002/05/14 19:10:45 oes
5744 Restored alphabetical order of actions
5746 Revision 1.109 2002/05/14 17:23:11 oes
5747 Renamed the prevent-*-cookies actions, extended aliases section and moved it before the example AFs
5749 Revision 1.108 2002/05/14 15:29:12 oes
5750 Completed proofreading the actions chapter
5752 Revision 1.107 2002/05/12 03:20:41 hal9
5753 Small clarifications for 127.0.0.1 vs localhost for listen-address since this
5754 apparently an important distinction for some OS's.
5756 Revision 1.106 2002/05/10 01:48:20 hal9
5757 This is mostly proposed copyright/licensing additions and changes. Docs
5758 are still GPL, but licensing and copyright are more visible. Also, copyright
5759 changed in doc header comments (eliminate references to JB except FAQ).
5761 Revision 1.105 2002/05/05 20:26:02 hal9
5762 Sorting out license vs copyright in these docs.
5764 Revision 1.104 2002/05/04 08:44:45 swa
5767 Revision 1.103 2002/05/04 00:40:53 hal9
5768 -Remove the TOC first page kludge. It's fixed proper now in ldp.dsl.in.
5769 -Some minor additions to Quickstart.
5771 Revision 1.102 2002/05/03 17:46:00 oes
5772 Further proofread & reactivated short build instructions
5774 Revision 1.101 2002/05/03 03:58:30 hal9
5775 Move the user-manual config directive to top of section. Add note about
5776 Privoxy needing read permissions for configs, and write for logs.
5778 Revision 1.100 2002/04/29 03:05:55 hal9
5779 Add clarification on differences of new actions files.
5781 Revision 1.99 2002/04/28 16:59:05 swa
5782 more structure in starting section
5784 Revision 1.98 2002/04/28 05:43:59 hal9
5785 This is the break up of configuration.html into multiple files. This
5786 will probably break links elsewhere :(
5788 Revision 1.97 2002/04/27 21:04:42 hal9
5789 -Rewrite of Actions File example.
5790 -Add section for user-manual directive in config.
5792 Revision 1.96 2002/04/27 05:32:00 hal9
5793 -Add short section to Filter Files to tie in with +filter action.
5794 -Start rewrite of examples in Actions Examples (not finished).
5796 Revision 1.95 2002/04/26 17:23:29 swa
5797 bookmarks cleaned, changed structure of user manual, screen and programlisting cleanups, and numerous other changes that I forgot
5799 Revision 1.94 2002/04/26 05:24:36 hal9
5800 -Add most of Andreas suggestions to Chain of Events section.
5801 -A few other minor corrections and touch up.
5803 Revision 1.92 2002/04/25 18:55:13 hal9
5804 More catchups on new actions files, and new actions names.
5805 Other assorted cleanups, and minor modifications.
5807 Revision 1.91 2002/04/24 02:39:31 hal9
5808 Add 'Chain of Events' section.
5810 Revision 1.90 2002/04/23 21:41:25 hal9
5811 Linuxconf is deprecated on RH, substitute chkconfig.
5813 Revision 1.89 2002/04/23 21:05:28 oes
5814 Added hint for startup on Red Hat
5816 Revision 1.88 2002/04/23 05:37:54 hal9
5817 Add AmigaOS install stuff.
5819 Revision 1.87 2002/04/23 02:53:15 david__schmidt
5820 Updated OSX installation section
5821 Added a few English tweaks here an there
5823 Revision 1.86 2002/04/21 01:46:32 hal9
5824 Re-write actions section.
5826 Revision 1.85 2002/04/18 21:23:23 hal9
5827 Fix ugly typo (mine).
5829 Revision 1.84 2002/04/18 21:17:13 hal9
5830 Spell Redhat correctly (ie Red Hat). A few minor grammar corrections.
5832 Revision 1.83 2002/04/18 18:21:12 oes
5833 Added RPM install detail
5835 Revision 1.82 2002/04/18 12:04:50 oes
5838 Revision 1.81 2002/04/18 11:50:24 oes
5839 Extended Install section - needs fixing by packagers
5841 Revision 1.80 2002/04/18 10:45:19 oes
5842 Moved text to buildsource.sgml, renamed some filters, details
5844 Revision 1.79 2002/04/18 03:18:06 hal9
5845 Spellcheck, and minor touchups.
5847 Revision 1.78 2002/04/17 18:04:16 oes
5850 Revision 1.77 2002/04/17 13:51:23 oes
5851 Proofreading, part one
5853 Revision 1.76 2002/04/16 04:25:51 hal9
5854 -Added 'Note to Upgraders' and re-ordered the 'Quickstart' section.
5855 -Note about proxy may need requests to re-read config files.
5857 Revision 1.75 2002/04/12 02:08:48 david__schmidt
5858 Remove OS/2 building info... it is already in the developer-manual
5860 Revision 1.74 2002/04/11 00:54:38 hal9
5861 Add small section on submitting actions.
5863 Revision 1.73 2002/04/10 18:45:15 swa
5866 Revision 1.72 2002/04/10 04:06:19 hal9
5867 Added actions feedback to Bookmarklets section
5869 Revision 1.71 2002/04/08 22:59:26 hal9
5870 Version update. Spell chkconfig correctly :)
5872 Revision 1.70 2002/04/08 20:53:56 swa
5875 Revision 1.69 2002/04/06 05:07:29 hal9
5876 -Add privoxy-man-page.sgml, for man page.
5877 -Add authors.sgml for AUTHORS (and p-authors.sgml)
5878 -Reworked various aspects of various docs.
5879 -Added additional comments to sub-docs.
5881 Revision 1.68 2002/04/04 18:46:47 swa
5882 consistent look. reuse of copyright, history et. al.
5884 Revision 1.67 2002/04/04 17:27:57 swa
5885 more single file to be included at multiple points. make maintaining easier
5887 Revision 1.66 2002/04/04 06:48:37 hal9
5888 Structural changes to allow for conditional inclusion/exclusion of content
5889 based on entity toggles, e.g. 'entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE"'. And
5890 definition of internal entities, e.g. 'entity p-version "2.9.13"' that will
5891 eventually be set by Makefile.
5892 More boilerplate text for use across multiple docs.
5894 Revision 1.65 2002/04/03 19:52:07 swa
5895 enhance squid section due to user suggestion
5897 Revision 1.64 2002/04/03 03:53:43 hal9
5898 A few minor bug fixes, and touch ups. Ready for review.
5900 Revision 1.63 2002/04/01 16:24:49 hal9
5901 Define entities to include boilerplate text. See doc/source/*.
5903 Revision 1.62 2002/03/30 04:15:53 hal9
5904 - Fix privoxy.org/config links.
5905 - Paste in Bookmarklets from Toggle page.
5906 - Move Quickstart nearer top, and minor rework.
5908 Revision 1.61 2002/03/29 01:31:08 hal9
5911 Revision 1.60 2002/03/27 01:57:34 hal9
5912 Added more to Anatomy section.
5914 Revision 1.59 2002/03/27 00:54:33 hal9
5915 Touch up intro for new name.
5917 Revision 1.58 2002/03/26 22:29:55 swa
5918 we have a new homepage!
5920 Revision 1.57 2002/03/24 20:33:30 hal9
5921 A few minor catch ups with name change.
5923 Revision 1.56 2002/03/24 16:17:06 swa
5924 configure needs to be generated.
5926 Revision 1.55 2002/03/24 16:08:08 swa
5927 we are too lazy to make a block-built
5928 privoxy logo. hence removed the option.
5930 Revision 1.54 2002/03/24 15:46:20 swa
5931 name change related issue.
5933 Revision 1.53 2002/03/24 11:51:00 swa
5934 name change. changed filenames.
5936 Revision 1.52 2002/03/24 11:01:06 swa
5939 Revision 1.51 2002/03/23 15:13:11 swa
5940 renamed every reference to the old name with foobar.
5941 fixed "application foobar application" tag, fixed
5942 "the foobar" with "foobar". left junkbustser in cvs
5943 comments and remarks to history untouched.
5945 Revision 1.50 2002/03/23 05:06:21 hal9
5948 Revision 1.49 2002/03/21 17:01:05 hal9
5949 New section in Appendix.
5951 Revision 1.48 2002/03/12 06:33:01 hal9
5952 Catching up to Andreas and re_filterfile changes.
5954 Revision 1.47 2002/03/11 13:13:27 swa
5955 correct feedback channels
5957 Revision 1.46 2002/03/10 00:51:08 hal9
5958 Added section on JB internal pages in Appendix.
5960 Revision 1.45 2002/03/09 17:43:53 swa
5963 Revision 1.44 2002/03/09 17:08:48 hal9
5964 New section on Jon's actions file editor, and move some stuff around.
5966 Revision 1.43 2002/03/08 00:47:32 hal9
5967 Added imageblock{pattern}.
5969 Revision 1.42 2002/03/07 18:16:55 swa
5972 Revision 1.41 2002/03/07 16:46:43 hal9
5973 Fix a few markup problems for jade.
5975 Revision 1.40 2002/03/07 16:28:39 swa
5976 provide correct feedback channels
5978 Revision 1.39 2002/03/06 16:19:28 hal9
5979 Note on perceived filtering slowdown per FR.
5981 Revision 1.38 2002/03/05 23:55:14 hal9
5982 Stupid I did it again. Double hyphen in comment breaks jade.
5984 Revision 1.37 2002/03/05 23:53:49 hal9
5985 jade barfs on '- -' embedded in comments. - -user option broke it.
5987 Revision 1.36 2002/03/05 22:53:28 hal9
5988 Add new - - user option.
5990 Revision 1.35 2002/03/05 00:17:27 hal9
5991 Added section on command line options.
5993 Revision 1.34 2002/03/04 19:32:07 oes
5994 Changed default port to 8118
5996 Revision 1.33 2002/03/03 19:46:13 hal9
5997 Emphasis on where/how to report bugs, etc
5999 Revision 1.32 2002/03/03 09:26:06 joergs
6000 AmigaOS changes, config is now loaded from PROGDIR: instead of
6001 AmiTCP:db/junkbuster/ if no configuration file is specified on the
6004 Revision 1.31 2002/03/02 22:45:52 david__schmidt
6007 Revision 1.30 2002/03/02 22:00:14 hal9
6008 Updated 'New Features' list. Ran through spell-checker.
6010 Revision 1.29 2002/03/02 20:34:07 david__schmidt
6011 Update OS/2 build section
6013 Revision 1.28 2002/02/24 14:34:24 jongfoster
6014 Formatting changes. Now changing the doctype to DocBook XML 4.1
6015 will work - no other changes are needed.
6017 Revision 1.27 2002/01/11 14:14:32 hal9
6018 Added a very short section on Templates
6020 Revision 1.26 2002/01/09 20:02:50 hal9
6021 Fix bug re: auto-detect config file changes.
6023 Revision 1.25 2002/01/09 18:20:30 hal9
6024 Touch ups for *.action files.
6026 Revision 1.24 2001/12/02 01:13:42 hal9
6029 Revision 1.23 2001/12/02 00:20:41 hal9
6030 Updates for recent changes.
6032 Revision 1.22 2001/11/05 23:57:51 hal9
6033 Minor update for startup now daemon mode.
6035 Revision 1.21 2001/10/31 21:11:03 hal9
6036 Correct 2 minor errors
6038 Revision 1.18 2001/10/24 18:45:26 hal9
6039 *** empty log message ***
6041 Revision 1.17 2001/10/24 17:10:55 hal9
6042 Catching up with Jon's recent work, and a few other things.
6044 Revision 1.16 2001/10/21 17:19:21 swa
6045 wrong url in documentation
6047 Revision 1.15 2001/10/14 23:46:24 hal9
6048 Various minor changes. Fleshed out SEE ALSO section.
6050 Revision 1.13 2001/10/10 17:28:33 hal9
6053 Revision 1.12 2001/09/28 02:57:04 hal9
6056 Revision 1.11 2001/09/28 02:25:20 hal9
6059 Revision 1.9 2001/09/27 23:50:29 hal9
6060 A few changes. A short section on regular expression in appendix.
6062 Revision 1.8 2001/09/25 00:34:59 hal9
6063 Some additions, and re-arranging.
6065 Revision 1.7 2001/09/24 14:31:36 hal9
6068 Revision 1.6 2001/09/24 14:10:32 hal9
6069 Including David's OS/2 installation instructions.
6071 Revision 1.2 2001/09/13 15:27:40 swa
6074 Revision 1.1 2001/09/12 15:36:41 swa
6075 source files for junkbuster documentation
6077 Revision 1.3 2001/09/10 17:43:59 swa
6078 first proposal of a structure.
6080 Revision 1.2 2001/06/13 14:28:31 swa
6081 docs should have an author.
6083 Revision 1.1 2001/06/13 14:20:37 swa
6084 first import of project's documentation for the webserver.
projects / privoxy.git / blob